Some Have Entertained Angels

RSV Hebrews 13:2

  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Why is this ponderable?

Various Christian sects have a variety of opinions about the possibility of God's angels walking the earth in human form. Those who are unschooled in the Bible would likely consider this a heretical belief, a fairy tale for children, or wishful thinking.

Yet here it is in Paul's own words. You can't get any more scriptural than that.

So what are we to make of it? We know a couple of things about angels that come directly from the Word of God:

Christians believe that angels are created beings, based on (Psalms 148:2–5; Colossians 1:16): "praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts ... for He spoke and they were made. He commanded and they were created ...".

Angels have been and will forever be involved and interested in what is happening in the lives of human beings. 

•  "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10, NKJV)

 In heaven, men and women will be like the angels, who do not marry or reproduce.

• At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. (Matthew 22:30, NIV)

 Angels shout for joy, feel longing, and show many emotions in the Bible

•  while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy (Job 38:7, NIV) 

 We also know other details from folklore, myths, and legends.

•  According to Irish folklore, Saint Patrick had a personal guardian angel named Victor.  This angel convinced Patrick that God was calling him to serve the people of Ireland. 

Some angels are "fallen angels"

The fallen angel stories come from a wide variety of sources. The legends include information about the angels called “Beelzebub”, the "Watchers" and a whole list of other fallen archangel

• Many interpreters of ancient texts believe that Greek mythology involving powerful superhuman beings such as Zeus and Apollo are actually references to the same fallen angels mentioned throughout the Old Testament and the Book of Enoch.

•  In Genesis, the fallen are referred to as the Nephilim or "sons of God" who came to earth and reproduced with humans.

• In the Jewish Book of Enoch, these angels are mentioned as children of heaven who went among the "children of men" to have children of their own. These events, according to the legend, were the cause of God casting those angels from heaven.

So when a total stranger shows up and helps us, we need to show hospitality. We may never see that person again because he or she was an angel of God. On the other hand, we need to be cautious that we are not entertaining fallen angels. They too may appear as strangers. We can discern their intentions by asking ourselves if what they suggest leads us closer to God or further away.

In the Beis Avi there are many me’onot

OJB John 14:2-3

In the Beis Avi there are many me’onot (dwelling places cf 14:23); if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a makom (place) for you?

Why is this ponderable?

Every human body is animated by a spirit that, although invisible, connects with the human brain to actuate the human mind. This connection makes us conscious of language, writing, math, and all physical objects. In turn, our memory records our life experiences which are retained by our spirit when it passes back to its Beis Avi.
"No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit."(1 Corinthians 2:11). So at death, one’s spirit returns to God, while the body on earth decays or is destroyed.

When one's spirit returns to the Beis Avi (house of God) it will find a suitable makom (abode)--one that aligns with its life experience. So we can infer that this abode is shared spiritually with kindred spirits.

• If your life experience tagged you as poor in spirit, meek, merciful, a peacemaker, righteous or kind; you will feel at home with the kindred spirits in this abode.

• If your life experience was one of pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, or wrath; you will feel right at home with the kindred spirits in this abode. 

Jesus tells us in John 14:2-3 that his followers will find a special abode in Beis Avi that aligns with their life experience as his disciples. There He will dwell with them forever. He underscores this promise by assuring us that if this were not the case He would have no need to go to the Beis Avi to prepare such an abode.

The Wedding Garment

ASV Matthew 22:11-14

But when the king came in to behold the guests, he saw a man who had not on a wedding garment. 

 

Photo by Gez Xavier Mansfield on Unsplash

Why is this ponderable?

Many prominent Theologians have pondered what the wedding garment symbolizes.  To this day there is no consensus on its purpose in this parable.

• Augustine of Hippo interpreted the garment as symbolizing charity,
• Martin Luther suggested that the garment represented Christ himself.
•  John Calvin felt these controversies in interpreting the meaning of the "wedding garment" was a useless controversy; faith cannot be separated from good works, nor do good works proceed from any other source than from faith.
• James L. Resseguie suggests that the missing wedding garment is an object that supports the plot and the motivation of the characters. It merely reveals the guest's lack of desire to be at this feast.
• Bernard Brandon Scott notes that the parable immediately follows the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen in Matthew, and that the man without a wedding garment represents servants hired by the king (God) who do not perform their duties,i.e. wear proper garments to the feast.

 So we are left to ponder whether Jesus intended it to symbolize anything or merely used it to support the lesson he was teaching. Perhaps the answer lies in how the man responded when he was confronted by the king: he was speechless. In our day he might be compared to a wedding crasher who is caught in the act by the Wedding Host. Depending on the man's reason for crashing the wedding, the Host might throw him out onto the street or invite him to stay for the celebration.

Some of the most common reasons given for crashing weddings include:

• To see a relative or friend get married, even if they are not invited.
• To accompany another person who is invited and wants a companion
• To mooch free catered food or alcoholic beverages.
• To steal money or gifts from the bride, groom, or guests.
• To get revenge, when the bride or groom is an enemy of the person doing the crashing.

The first two reasons are benign and not likely to provoke the harsh reaction by the king in this parable. 

 Then the king said to the ^[f]servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. ¹⁴ For many are called, but few chosen.

So the lack of a  wedding garment was likely used by Jesus to convey the motivation of this mythical wedding crasher. His intentions were evil and had no place in a feast meant to celebrate love and joy. So he was cast out into the darkness to join kindred spirits. He and many like him may have been called into the feast, but only those with pure intentions were selected by the king.

This Stone Will Be A Witness

NKJV Joshua 24:27

And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.” 

 

Why is this ponderable?

Although most Biblical Scholars believe that Joshua referred to this stone as a symbol of their covenant, recent scientific research indicates that it may have been much more than that...

The EM Spectrum exists naturally, occurring as a part of our natural environment. It should come as no surprise that ancient civilizations and cultures possessed some knowledge of this naturally occurring “tool”, especially acknowledging the ancients’ intimacy and inter-dependency with nature.

Advanced ancient civilizations used the resonant frequencies of sound as the source of energy. Tesla proved that specific sound frequencies broadcast from a tower created pure electro-magnetic energy. Measurements of the circumference of Stonehenge indicate that it was constructed to resonate at the frequency of10 hertz which is the Alpha Wave frequency of the human brain.

Cymatics is the study of visible sound and vibrations. "It is important to understand that although sound is invisible it actually carries structure, both in air as well as water."
https://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/biology.html

"When we study the geometry of sounds visually, using the CymaScope, we see that they include many of the mathematical constants of the cosmos, including phi, sometimes known as the 'golden mean'. This ratio is approximately 1 to 1.618 and it is found in all living things. Cymatic geometry is based on definite angles that form on a membrane 'imprinted' with the sound vibrations, thus allowing us to observe them cymatically.

Pure sounds are devoid of harmonics and do not feature the rich complexity of a musical sound. An example of a fairly pure high-pitched sound is an organ pipe, which causes air to spin into a vortex. Such pure sounds contain the all important phi ratio and they create sonic scaffolding that, we believe, organised, structured and triggered life."
http://www.cymascope.com/iphoneweb/cymaphone/cyma_research/biology.html

One of the most fascinating discoveries of cymatics is that the vowels of Hebrew and Sanskrit, when toned formed the actual patterns of the letters themselves! Modern languages did not have this effect. All of which leads to the speculation that there may be some truth in the concept of a ''sacred language'' — an actual, physical reason why the recitation of sacred mantras and texts may have real healing properties. This research was done by Hans Jenny in 1967.
Tesla said that the core of the earth rings like a bell. Perhaps Biblical Scholars need to ask for whom that bell tolls...

My Hair Has Never Been Cut

NLT Judges 16: 17

Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”

Why is this ponderable?

The story of Sampson and Delilah holds an encoded truth.  Delilah learns that Sampson could be constrained and defeated simply by cutting his hair. Many Bible scholars took this as spiritual allegory but recent scientific research has revealed otherwise.

During the Vietnam War, special forces in the war department sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts. They sought out young men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities.  Recruiters reasoned that these  young men could be trained to move stealthily through the  rough terrain of Vietnam.

Once identified, the Indian trackers were enlisted and processed according to military protocol. They were given uniforms and a proper military haircut. But for some unknown reason, the talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.

Serious causalities and failures of performance led the government to conduct a review of these recruits to ensure no skill certification mistakes had been made in the recruiting process.

When debriefed about their failure to perform as expected, the recruits consistently blamed their military haircuts. Once the long locks were sheered,  they claimed,  they could no longer ‘sense’ the enemy, they could no longer access a ‘sixth sense’, their ‘intuition’ no longer was reliable, they couldn’t ‘read’ subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information. This seemed far-fetched but, with no other explanation for the unexpected skill loss, the government opted to perform more testing.

More Indian trackers were recruited. This time the military haircut rule was waived. Half of the recruits were allowed to keep their long hair; the other half would get the standard military cut. They would pair two men together who had received the same scores on the preliminary tests; one was allowed to keep his long hair, the other was given a military haircut. Then they repeated the tests.
Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores; the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high.

Based on these results all Indian trackers were exempt from military haircuts. In fact, they were required to keep their hair long for the duration of their service.

Not only does hair in people, including facial hair in men, provide an information highway reaching the brain, hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment. When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered. This results in numbing-out.

So the story of Samson's bad hair day may have been much more than spiritual allegory. It may have been God's way of teaching us that every part of the human body is embedded in the fabric of the Universe.


 

Strengthen My Spirit

NABRE Psalm 138:3

 On the day I cried out, you answered; you strengthened my spirit.

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash 

Why is this ponderable?

We think of our spirit as being immune to the physical forces that attack our body. Our body can be killed but our spirit will live on. If that is the case, then there are no degrees of strength by which the spirit can be measured. The spirit cannot be diminished or enhanced. So what is David saying here?

Sometimes when our physical powers are diminished and our enemy is winning, God unleashes the spiritual strength in our souls instead of giving the physical help we desire. Yet this answer to our prayers is both Just and Merciful. It is what enabled the martyrs to endure death without fear.  It is the Spirit of God, enabling us to take up our cross without fainting or backsliding. And it cannot be broken by Satan or any evil force.

Paul explains this well in his second letter to the Corintians 12:8-9 He asks God to remove a physical problem but God replies, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That power is the source of all our spiritual strength and it cannot be diminished by any physical problem.

Sing Before the Gods

NLT Psalm 138

I will sing your praises before the gods.

 

Why is this ponderable?

Today we ponder what David means when he sings praises before the gods. To whom or what is he referring when he makes this exclamation? We know he is singing this Psalm to the Lord on high. We may not have known that this praise of the Lord is not only an expression of  deep devotion but also bears witness to the impotence of idols.

David stands face to face with the Princes of the heathen world. Each believed they had  the patronage and protection of powerful gods that stood above the gods of their neighbors including the Hebrew god. This view does not shake David's unswerving fidelity to Jehovah. He uses this position to symbolically state, "in your face you misguided Princes serving idols; Jehovah is above all other gods and He protects us."

David is not suggesting that these gods really existed; he speaks of them only as figments in the minds of their worshipers.  By exclaiming his thankfulness to Jehovah in the presence of these idol worshipers he affirms his trust in the one true God. In this way he assures his people that they have nothing to fear from hostile nations. At the same time he chides those Princes that place trust in gods having no real power to protect or sustain their kingdoms.