Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

One evening during our prayer and Bible study, Mrs Weidema came running from the hospital. "Njonja, please come and pray for my baby," she pleaded. She had been going regularly to nurse the baby, but her milk had dried up and the baby was not responding to the rice water they were using as a substitute. I went back with her my heart torn by that limp and lifeless bit of humanity. We bowed our heads together, and I prayed that the Lord would spare her baby.

Returning to the barracks I was met by another young mother from our barracks, Lennie Ripassa. She had an infant and was nursing. "Meurouw Deibler, I have more milk than I need," she volenteered. "I would be willing to breast-feed the other baby too." Which is exactly what she did, feeding the sick starving baby until he regained strength and both babies were weaned. This was God's answer to prayer. Both of the newborns from our barracks survived.

Never mind that any half-breed monkey with the brain of a flea that has ever programmed an office suite since Microsoft captured the marketplace has bent over backwards to ensure the highest level of compatibility with MS Office they could offer.

Before:
==27907== D   refs:       98,069,403  (73,455,788 rd + 24,613,615 wr)
==27907== D1  misses:      3,963,722  ( 3,943,112 rd +     20,610 wr)
==27907== L2d misses:        179,710  (   178,441 rd +      1,269 wr)
==27907== D1  miss rate:         4.0% (       5.3%   +        0.0%  )
==27907== L2d miss rate:         0.1% (       0.2%   +        0.0%  )
After:
==27871== D   refs:       98,067,932  (73,454,588 rd + 24,613,344 wr)
==27871== D1  misses:      1,916,141  ( 1,911,775 rd +      4,366 wr)
==27871== L2d misses:        175,893  (   174,620 rd +      1,273 wr)
==27871== D1  miss rate:         1.9% (       2.6%   +        0.0%  )
==27871== L2d miss rate:         0.1% (       0.2%   +        0.0%  )

/opt/gnome/lib/gaim/docklet.so /opt/gnome/lib/tomboy/libtomboy.so /opt/gnome/lib/evolution/2.4/libeutil.so.0.0.0 implement:
    egg_tray_icon_new_for_screen egg_tray_icon_cancel_message egg_tray_icon_send_message egg_tray_icon_get_orientation egg_tray_icon_get_type egg_tray_icon_new

echo "foo" >> /share/NLD-10-DVD-i386-Alpha2a.iso
File size limit exceeded

L2 read misses are the most costly issue there and 83% of these misses 
are in the dynamic linker. 77% are caused by symbol lookup for 
relocation and runtime resolving.
         12% L2read misses for elf_hash buckets
         14% L2read misses for walking the elf_hash chain
         24% L2read misses for looking up the symbol entry
     strcmp:
         23% L2read misses for comparing symbol name
...
Solving the L2 cache thrashing would also benefit the cold performance 
considerably because a lot of the page faults there would not happen.

• Brief re-cap why John is in the canon, wrt. recent Da-Vinci generated pop-controversy. The 4 criteria for authenticating the books of the canon:
  • Ancient - has to have been written at the time when there were many others still alive who knew Jesus. eg. John passes the test, eg. Philipp does not - from 3rd/4th C - virtual scholarly unanimity - quoted by no church Father in 2nd/3rd C; vs. John's numerous quotes; it is ancient. Partial physical copy extant - John Rylands: ~130AD - could well have been a copy of the original gospel.
  • Apostolic - by an apostle or an immediate associate. eg. John - plenty of evidance it was him: unbroken attestation to 1stC, internal evidence - the diciple whom Jesus loved - not particularly that he was a special favorite, but this eye-witness, this disciple who Jesus loved wrote this - never mentioned by name etc.
  • Accord - in accord with the rest of scripture, God is not the author of confusion; the fulfillment of scripture etc. eg. 'Thomas' - written early 3rdC - pretends to be a record some things Jesus said - some are plagerised from the other Gospels & are true; others eg. saying 114 - Simon Peter said to Jesus, let Mary leave us - for women are not worth of life ... That's the kind of junk you get in the 'gospels' written 300 years after Jesus. In the originals you find Jesus breaking conventions to minister to the woman of Samaria, or her caught in adultrey - Jesus of Nazareth doesn't think salvation is just for Men.
  • Accepted - the gospel of Philipp - unknown before 3rdC - and only known after that in a small back-water area of Egypt - a fringe cult of gnostics. The Gospel of John is quoted everywhere, numerous timees. Iranaes: John the disciple of the Lord, who leaned back on his breast, that John - published the gospel while he was a resident in Asian. Iranaeus knew as a personal friend Polycarp, Polycarp knew as a personal friend John who wrote the Gospel.
• Ever heard 'get a life' ? - these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.; John 20; here's where it is.
• The parallels between John 1 & Genesis. Amazing depth to 'word' / 'spirit', Jesus' words creating reality, not just a suggestion, but life-changing command.
• Logos - word, or message, or subject - hence bio-'logy' - the subject. Also a 2nd meaning - related to reason, or explanation; comes into English via. 'Logic'. For stoic philosophers 3rdC BC, took idea of logos/logic & ran with it, what gives order to the universe etc. ie. John is speaking their language - but in a completely opposite way. All the order you see in your life & the universe around you - is the work of a personal, divine word who is Jesus Christ; not an impersonal logic.
• Lots of other rather interesting bits; too tired to take notes.

<Oooluver> <Oooluver> Hi9 Michael
<Oooluver> Do you know anything about OpenOffice.org's performance?
<Oooluver> Why do you blame glibc, gcc, the kernel, the phase of the moon,
ad nauseum -- when there are plenty of examples of fast apps under Linux?
<Oooluver> Why keep pointing the blame like a mardy infant?
<Oooluver> OpenOffice.org is a vast, kludgy, overgrown, dilapidated codebase,
and no amount of finger-pointing will correct that
<Oooluver> When MS Office under WINE on Linux is faster than OO.o, you know
you have a problem
<Oooluver> I have some benchmarks here: http://benchmarks.on.nimp.org/ooo/
<Oooluver> They show MS Office load times in Windows, WINE on Linux, WINE
on FreeBSD, and OOo native respectively

Why readahead is not a good idea

There are a number of patches floating around that are intended to accelerate cold time startup of eg. the GNOME desktop, that seem attractive but are rather unhelpful for real world use

The premise of them is that if (as you mmap a shared library) you force the kernel to load it all, then you will get vastly better I/O behavior as it is linked & as the app starts up, since the mapped files (DSOs) are accessed fairly randomly. The premise is correct.

Where this all breaks down of course is that - what is optimal on a 1st / cold start (with lots of memory) is often extremely sub-optimal on a 2nd start

eg. after 2 hours of evolution use, lots of the code which is never touched will be paged out - to make space for other more live data. If we insist on paging that code back in - we have an evil situation - where now we have lots of scattered missing fragments. ie. by forcing 'everything' into memory we necessarily have to seek the missing [seldom used] pieces, seek, read them at great cost.

This phenomenon also bites OO.o where we do a similar trick, and causes pain on loaded / small memory machines on 2nd start. However - since this is in our app we can fix this.

Of course - again, only the kernel can know that this library has already been mmapped & that we don't now want to force page it all in. Only the kernel knows (during cold boot) that we have shed-loads of pristine, unused pages sitting around - and thus we should be aggressively pre-loading mmapped files. Only the kernel (ideally) knows what happened wrt. I/O last time during the execve of this app, what it mapped, and what it used. So - basically we're back to the old axiom for anyone comparing Linux with Win32 I/O performance: Linux I/O scheduling sucks - try to work around it.

Unfortunately this can't be worked around efficiently outside the kernel.

Furthermore, it is acutely unfortunate that the kernel hackers are just amazingly reluctant to provide sharp tools to examine how bad the I/O situation is. It being ~impossible to reliably simulate a cold-start without a hard re-boot. There being no quick way to drop all caches, file backed pages etc.

• There is a published plan for OO.o up until 2.0.2. Better than that - (as long as features are of a suitable quality) - features can be added in these minor releases.
• Why is that important ? accelerating the release schedule of OO.o has been a major personal goal for years now; this is a move towards getting features to users quickly: good for users, good for building momentum & encouraging community developers; also good for quality - there is a great temptation to abandon & not fix bugs in 18month-old branches.
• It should make things easier for Novell & others who invest in OO.o to do so with more certainty, and stop us having to waste time maintaining work in vs a separate branch (ooo-build) due to lack of up-stream predictability.
• Why no features on the roadmap ?! - this is a good thing, that's about timing predictability - if we can slip for 1 feature, we can slip for 2, and we have no sane process to manage that in a fair and reasonable way. Releasing in a time-based way removes feature considerations from the decision process - but - of course, ensures that if a feature misses a release; it will be out soon: in the next release, which will go out on time.
• This change happened without anyone really noticing which is a great shame; we need to communicate the thinking here more clearly. The great news - OO.o 2.0.1 will be here in 4 weeks, and 2.0.2 3 months after that; and so on.

Old glibc:       3968, 3978, 3983 Avg: 3980
Just new glibc:  4224, 4238, 4250 Avg: 4240 [260ms slower - hmm]
all -Bdirected:  2148, 2168, 2215 Avg: 2180 [1800ms faster - 45%]

before: 2.693, 2.721, 2.714 Avg: 2.709
after:  0.675, 0.679, 0.682 Avg: 0.679 [75% faster]

Old glibc:       3968, 3978, 3983 Avg: 3980
Just new glibc:  4224, 4238, 4250 Avg: 4240 [260ms slower - hmm]
many -Bdirected: 2378, 2387, 2389 Avg: 2385 [1600ms faster - 40%]

before: 2.693, 2.721, 2.714 Avg: 2.709
after:  0.970, 0.968, 0.956 Avg: 0.965 [65% faster]

• Kirkegaard's parable: a wealthy & powerful King fell in love with a common woman - and wanted to declare his love & for her to love him - several strategies:
  • The direct approach - turning up at her humble cottage with impressive retinue, dazzling crown, stunning wealth; announce his love & surely utterly overwhelm her. If by some miracle she should respond with affection, in the aftermath - neither could ever be sure whether it was the King whom she loved, or the wealth & promise of great privilege.
  • A 2nd strategy - approach in pretence/disguise, arrive as a beggar - woe her - hope she responded in love. In the end, no better - she in love with a begger - a disguise would have to throw off; a deception, he was the King.
  • A 3rd alternative - elevate her to himself: arrange (by some secret benefaction) to bestow on her fabulous wealth - raise her to true nobility; then he would approach her & hope she would respond in kind. The danger of this: imply that as a humble maiden, she was not good enough - when the opposite was true: it was as a humble maiden that he loved her.
  • A 4th & final strategy - the only way that would succeed; do that which for any King would be unthinkable, he would descend from his throne, empty himself of all his wealth & privilege. In this way identify with her - not by pretending to be poor - but by actually becoming poor. Would share her lot, her suffering, her poverty - he would take the initiative and become truly equal to her - if in that way he would be able to secure her heartfelt love.
• Kirkegaard writes "for this is the unfathomable nature of incarnate love; that it desires equality with the beloved, not merely in jest, but in earnest & in truth." In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us ... we have seen his glory, the glory of the One & Only who came from the Father - full of Grace & truth
• Some of the context to John: of 4, this gospel inspired by far the most hymns, very familiar indeed, many read it as their first book of scripture. John has a very selective approach eg. reports only 7 signs/miracles that Jesus performed.
• Very easy Greek, total vocabulary - 1014 words (including the various forms of 'and') the whole palette to paint his entire gospel; 878 verses.
• John often portrayed with an eagle - the 10k feet overview of the gospel. Concious that the facts had been laid out by the previous gospels - was inspired to write a spiritual gospel, packed into simple sentences. No-where mentions Jesus' birth, sermon on the mount, ethical teachings, no parables, etc.
• He assumes you already know all kinds of facts; John fills in the holes. tells the earlier period of the overlap with John the Baptist. Explains loose ends from the Gospel of Mark eg. the destruction/re-building of the temple in 3 days.
• Lengthy & amusing expose of the broken research behind Dan-Brown, both at the level of art-history: eg. clearly ignoring Da-Vinchi's own treatise on painting, and the inherent 'types' therein; why John in the 'faithful student/disciple' type appears with no beard & long hair etc. by type of 13 figures, all 12 apostles there, including Judas; etc.
• Also - at the level of ecclesiastical history - John's gospel there from the begginning - written by an apostle, tons of allusions to John from Didache, Ignatious (110AD), Mid C2 - Justin Martyr quites John 3 eg. Indeed the oldest copy of any part of the NT: John Ryland papyrus - ~130AD - is a copy of the Gospel of John: Ch 18; other early copies for Egypt - attesting to it's prevelance etc. Cf. Dan's favorites - from much later, from isolated gnostic sects etc. Dan Brown - a gripping work of fiction - based on fiction.

NSP_Sleep(5);
    // try to connect to background SO, thus judge if it is ready
    while(0 > connect(my_sock, (struct sockaddr *)&dst_addr, sizeof(dst_addr)))
...
    NSP_CloseSocket(my_sock);
    NSP_Sleep(5);

fprintf (stderr, "Is '%s' %c%c%c vague (%d)\n",
	   symbol, symbol[0], symbol[1], symbol[2], ret);

Is 'typeinfo for BaseClass' _ZT vague (1)

The bad old world (& C++ vague-linkage bits)

      8375:     dynamic symbol index 602 from 'libbasegfx680li.so' for _ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE
      8375:     dynamic symbol offset 65534
      8375:     vague symbol
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./soffice.bin
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libvcl680li.so
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libsvl680li.so
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libsvt680li.so
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libutl680li.so
      ... omit 10 other OO.o libs ...
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/opt/gcc/lib/libdl.so.2
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/opt/gcc/lib/libpthread.so.0
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libstlport_gcc.so
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/opt/gcc/lib/libm.so.6
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/opt/gcc/lib/libc.so.6
      ... omit 5 other OO.o / system libs ...
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/lib/libz.so.1
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=/usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libjvmfwk.so.3
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libuno_salhelpergcc3.so.3
      8375:     symbol=_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE;  lookup in file=./libbasegfx680li.so
      8375:     binding file ./libbasegfx680li.so to ./libbasegfx680li.so: normal symbol `_ZTIN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterE'

Direct linkage in action:

      8375:     dynamic symbol index 525 from './libbasegfx680li.so' for _ZN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterD1Ev
      8375:     dynamic symbol offset 0
      8375:     symbol=_ZN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterD1Ev;  lookup in file=./libbasegfx680li.so
      8375:     direct lookup ...
      8375:     binding file ./libbasegfx680li.so to ./libbasegfx680li.so: normal symbol `_ZN7basegfx29B2DPolyPolygonRasterConverterD1Ev'

$ readelf -y libfixup.so
Direct relocations for image:
   Num:  Index     Binding                    Symbol
    14: [0x0000]   <self>                     _DYNAMIC
    17: [0x0000]   <self>                     _Z12simpleMethodP9BaseCla
    18: [0x0000]   <self>                     _init
    19: [0xfffe]   <vague>                     _ZTS11MyException
    20: [0x0005]   libc.so.6                  stderr
    23: [0x0002]   libstdc++.so.6             __cxa_allocate_exception
    42: [0xffff]   <unknown>                  __gmon_start__

$ readelf -y libfixup.so
Direct relocations for image:
   Num:  Index Binding           Symbol
    12: [0x00] <unknown>         _DYNAMIC
    13: [0x01] libdl.so.2        dlsym
    14: [0x02] libc.so.6         fprintf
    15: [0x00] <unknown>         __vt_fixup
    16: [0x00] <unknown>         _init
    17: [0x02] libc.so.6         malloc
    18: [0x02] libc.so.6         stderr

• ABA pattern - banquets from wisdom & folly at either end + a section on correction in the middle. Why use women as embodying both wisdom & folly; the need for a passionate love & persuit of wisdom; also that folly has it's own attraction.
• Whomever corrects a mocker invites insult ... Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.
• Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. - Lev 19.
• Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Prov 27. Can't live the christian life alone; the necessity of loving correction & encouragement.
• Many an experienced climber testify to having his life saved by a novice - tied to the same rope; no such thing as a lone-ranger Christian.
• A genuine hallmark of loving correction - is that it is rare. David McCane - never register disapproval if you can find something to approve; (a little rhetorical excess - but the right ball-park).

X Error of failed request:  BadAtom (invalid Atom parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  20 (X_GetProperty)
_MOTIF_CLIP_FORMAT_ACROBAT_SELECTION  Atom id in failed request:  0x25c
  Serial number of failed request:  11
  Current serial number in output stream:  11

(gdb) p *pStg
virtual baseclass botch
(gdb) 

• Mini-series from Proverbs; pertaining to interesting topics, not systematic. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Applies to anyone - not geographical power, wealth - but honoured by God.
• Preachers addressing political topics - preachers perhaps some degree of expertise in exegesis; but few ministers background in political science. Some diffidence in this area; at best intimate some possible applications: minute step outside region of competance: even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent - eg. Pat Robertson - who has blessed millions with his teaching about Christ, stepped out of his subject.
• The danger of mis-quoting, or worse - quoting correctly when we don't know what we're talking about. However: Prov 31 speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of those who are destitute
• Media - assume all religions are the same; if a Mullah speaks - he represents his followers; if the Pope speaks - he speaks with authority wrt. the Roman Catholic church. Protestants in general are convinced of the priesthood of all believers - hence a pastor speaks for himself, if that.
• Very diverse backgrounds at Park Street, seems: the voter's passion is inversely proportional to our ability to influence the outcome. The academic maxim: the fights are so bitter because the stakes are so low. Can't avoid making comments that demean and distort each other's opinion. Oponents 'wing-nuts' or 'moon-bats', 'homophobes' 'right wing extremists', 'tree huggers', 'bleeding heart liberals' - Jesus: sermon on the mount - anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement.
• A real problem when politics is brought in - should not have a code of silence; society desparately needs example of considerate, civil loving dialog - as a model that might be more helpful for others; welcome the opportunity to talk over the issues - to show the mutual respect, civility & love - the hallmark of God's people.
• Dangers of excessive alignment with any political party. Democrats - backed off issue of abortion, Jesse Jackson - 1970's - most don't think of him as a right-wing extremist - wrote passionately on the sanctity of life. Same for Republicans of course, same pressures: not to ruffle the feathers of others - to retain access to power - in present climate - to silence / mute discussion of the environmetn, the ethics of preemtive war, respect for international law. As Christians - cannot be squeezed into any 1 of these moulds.
• Love your neighbour as yourself; why Christians do & should speak up politically - if not motivated by love: don't speak up. Joseph Goebbles: let the churches serve God, we'll serve the people, terrible danger in not saying anything. Better to say something with humility and caution, than to say nothing: Martin Luther - if I profess with the loudest voice & the clearest exposition, every portion of the word of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, to be steady on all other fronts, is mere flight & disgrace if he flinches at that point.
• If no-one is questioning the morality of theft - for you to be loudly proclaiming the importance of honesty is almost meaningless. Daniel - advising the pagan king Nebucadnezzer - Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed - not enough just to defeat his enemies: not a popular message. Not popular when John the Baptist condemned Herod's illicit marriage to his brother's wife Herodias, his head ended up on plate. The worst side is the neutral side.
• Our responsibilities - obviously paying taxes, respecting leaders, etc. but more - taking part in politics; most politics is local politics. In a participatory democracy, we're all the King - better be living out our morality in the discharge of that responsibility. The church though history - transformation of the culture.
• eg. the removal of infanticide in the Roman culture, Christians would visit the public buildings & cess-pools where the babies were thrown - wash them off & adopt them. The 1st Christian Roman Emperor - outlawed infanticide. A popular stance in the early years ? of course not.
• Christian's response wrt. the glorification of violence - the gladiatorial games, again eventually won the culture over - by refusing to attend games where people were maimed & killed for the crowd.
• Or the end of slavery in Roman society: not a popular topic when 1/3rd of the population is enslaved supporting the lifestyle of the rest. Chrysostome eg. preached on 1 Cor. There is no slave, so buy them, after you've taught them some skill by which they can maintain themselves: set them free - until we can change the law: lets subvert it - by the power of our own example. St Malonia - emancipated 8000 slaves; bought & set them free, St Ovidius of Gaul - 5000 slaves, Chromatius - 1400 slaves, on & on until at last the empire repudiated slavery altogether. Then tragically revived by the British empire in 17C. Again Christians rushed in to address it 18thC methodists - Wesely, condemning this practice - a difficult message to a society so advantaged by slavery. Wilberforce, relentlessly speaking against it for 20 years etc.
• Of course we do this - recognising, unlike our puritan forebears, that the state is not a theocracy. Amazing theoological wisdom, and example of lives, but - when founded massachusets - didn't do justice to the special status of the nation of Israel - and their calling.
• The result: a society - not safe for atheism; but we need a society where it is safe. Puritans didn't recognise the difference between sin & crime. ie. condemns Coveteousness, but doesn't prosecute it. Puritans - outlawed gossip, drunkenness, idleness etc. failing to note the good example of the OT - that does not criminalize all sinful behavior.
• 3rd problem, regulative law - even when the civil law addressed a matter - it didn't necessarily approve it; ie. it's law was much more liberal than it's moral law. Jesus said - wrt. divorce: Moses permitted you to divorce your wives Deut 24 - because your hearts were hard, but it was not this way from the beginning. Jesus then shows that morally divorce was condemned everywhere - except for infidelity/abandonment. Even in Israel's theocracy - the law was more liberal than the moral law.
• Modern Tax law - similar; if stolen / embezzled anything - whatever you steal, you must report as taxable income: regulative law - to mitigate some of it's harmful consequences - without necessarily approving the practice.
• Laws regulating the practice of prostitution - your income must not come into the temple - Solomon's - maternity suit: 2 prostitutes stood before the King. Neither do I condemn you - go and sin no more.
• This then allows politics (the art of compromise) to happen. Allows conversation rather than shouting matches, around this goal: Righteousness exalts a nation. A nations political health depends on the morality of it's people.
• Applies as believers living in a pagan society; do our best to act as light & salt, do the best loving our neighbour, trying to persuade them.
• Interesting web-site wrt. Christian social action: Sojourners - cf. interesting excerpt in the review of God's politics: Why the right gets it wrong, and the left doesn't get it.

• Amazing that Paul gained a hearing at all ? - wasn't a member of the synagogue staff, elders, etc. 1st time ever in these Synagogues. Paul's message offensive - method was not; similarly in the marketplace - many other philosophers & thinkers there. At the time - travelling Rabbi's would be there - Paul a trained Rabbi at the feet of Gameliel.
• Acts 13: Pisidian Antioch, after the reading - synagogue rulers: brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the brothers - please speak. Marvelous sermon - servey of redemptive history - as they were leaving - invited him to speak at the next sabbath. Not the medium, but the message.
• The appeal yes to the heart, but also the mind - Jesus wants it all. on 3 sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that Christ had to rise from the dead.
• The reasoning - dialog derived from this, dialog, questioning, rather than a monologue: the original Alpha course ? not just in terms of abstract philosophy - but in terms of the scriptures too.
• He explained, opened up the scriptures - showing what is there. As on the road to Emmeaus - where Jesus opened the scriptures to his disciples. This Jesus I am proclaiming to you, is the Christ. The result - infuriated 1/2 the crowd, and persuaded some others.
• Doesn't have to prove there would be a Christ, but instead that he had to suffer & rise from the dead. Paul didn't even have to prove that he had come - the standard view was that he would come during the Roman empire.
• Although the idea of the Messiah prevalant in the OT, only in 2 verses is the name Christ/Messiah unambiguously of the coming deliverer - both in the book of Daniel. Peter said - you are the Christ. A faith based on facts, faith that cost them, as the whole city was mobilised to persecute them.

• Install the OpenOffice_org-mono package via Yast.
• Download my .exe & run it [you know you want to]:

  $ cd /usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program
  $ MONO_PATH=. mono SpreadsheetSample.exe

• Watch the frenzied spreadsheet construction

• Though shall not covet - the most suprising & troubling commandment ? not in terms of it's relevance. There are some sins it seems you have to learn as you get older: like racism, but others like coveting - seem pre-burned in.
• Some of the difficulties with the 10th: compared to all other near-eastern law-codes - remarkable & illuminating parallels to many or all of the other commandments. But nothing in any of the ancient codes that corresponds to the commandment: not to covet. Some dissonance with others addressing a thought / feeling not an action.
• The 10 commandments - not the criminal law, no punishments for a law court, they are the moral law; and hence they condemn things no court can be aware of. Lots of commands - Honour your parents: give weight to their counsel - an attitude, similarly commandments 1 & 10.
• How can God command an attitude ? a feeling ? - God does not hesitate to do so; Lev 19 do not seek revenge or bear a grudge ... but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
• Social equality - 10 commandments, apply to everyone regardless. vs. eg. Hammurabi - whom you murder makes all the difference in punishment.
• to covet - almost unused today, some homework: not entirely a negative word: to desire intensely, set your heart upon. Perfectly right & good to set your heart upon the things of God. Coveting is not intrinsically sinful. What is - is setting your heart upon something of another.
• You shall not covet your neighbours house, or his wife ... or anything that belongs to your neighbour. There are cases where something appears not to belong to anyone else, but God hasn't given it to you.
• Why single out this sin ? why not worry, gluttony ... like those before it; directed against my neighbour. cf. Rom 13. Coveting hurts our neighbours - and relationships - in both directions; inherited money ? may be reluctant to share your joy with others, mindful of this temptation.
• Coveting can lead to false testimony: cf. Naboth's vineyard, can lead to theft, or adultery (David & Bathsheba), murder (Cain & Abel) etc.
• An envelope for the 10 commandments - you shall have no other God's before me - a parallel to the 1st commandment - same but for our neighbour.
• God has set eternity in the heart of men - the unbeliever tries to fill his soul with spiritual junk-food; but when Jesus comes in - then we discover what true contentment is. The average high school graduate has seen 350k TV commercials - $60bn/year spent to convince us that Jesus Christ was wrong: be on your guard against coveteousness, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions
• Most of us recoil from such a sin: I don't envy him - I just can't stand him. Talking to a friend: a Catholic priest on the brink of retirement: "Has anyone ever come into your confessional and confessed to breaking the 10th commandment ?" - never heard it confessed to; amazing - do we have a blind spot here ?
• "Don't steal": simple, doesn't elaborate everything we might steal: "Do not covet" - spelled out don't covet your neighbours house - 'house' == everything he has in this culture: the big picture - now drill down to the details: - wife etc.
• don't covet your neighbours wife. Or his servants: few of us have home-help: but their substitutes - coffee-grinders, washing machines etc. Ox or donkey - just examples - modes of transportation: his racing bike, brand-new SUV ? don't covet anything that belongs to your neighbour.
• The remedy - all condemned that we would recognise we're in a hopeless situation, cf. Rom 7. Not a call for self-improvement, or a DIY manual for self-improvement, but a plea to cleave to Christ. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1John1), but God is faithful & just in Christ.

        movl <vtable-offset>(%eax), %edx
        call *%edx
           ->  lazy_link_vtable_method(this, ...);
                 int offset = %edx - this->vtable;
		 *(this->vtable + offset) = lookup_plt_style_sym(
			this->plt_style_syms[offset]);
		call %edx
	   <-

• You shall not steal. Interesting - the theft of the person of Joseph, when he meets his brothers again - they repeat 5 times in 20 verses Gen 42 that they are 'honest men', having let his Father think that wild animals tore him apart etc.
• Most of us like to think of ourselves as honest; admit to being lazy, struggle with self discipline, perfectionism, low self esteem - the 1 thing we cannot bring ourselves to say: I'm un-trustworthy, I'm dishonest; I'm a thief.
• U. Washington - 1 aspect of this self serving bias; told college students they would be tested for their intelligence - a timed test - a crossword. Everyone required when the bell rings - please put down your pencil immediately & stop working. To the social scientists lack of suprise 71% of students cheated & worked beyond the bell.
• This time - eye-level mirrors around the hall - so they could see themselves; this time only 7% cheated - apparently no-one likes to see a thief. Just that little gave enough self conciousness to allow them to hold onto their integrity. Why pharmacies & dept. stores - have eye-level mirrors; on columns - no-one sitting inside there; you looking at yourself.
• Not a guilt-trip; but allow us to see ourselves as scripture does; the Bible as a permanant eye-level mirror, in which you can see yourself measured against the standard of God's word - for conviction of sin of course; but particularly that we would cling to Christ - the only savior of thieves.
• The most serious - the stealing of persons; a primary application of the 8th Commandment & the most serious. Exodus 21:16 anyone who steals another person, and either sells him, or still has him when he is caught must be put to death. some render 'kidnap', no distinction in Hebrew.
• Most instances of property theft treated more leniently than in the ANE society - Hammurabi eg. in some circumstances 30times restitution, or mutiliation, or even the death peanalty (for stealing property); Assyrian laws: Wife steals from Husband: mandatory death penalty; if she steals from somone else: mutilation cut off the ears (and perhaps the nose).
• Biblical law stands out; in the OT. stealing property is never penalised by anything but restuitution - maximal contribution, is 5 times - if still have it and it's in good condition: 2 times; if you tell on yourself (Lev 6) you add only 20% - sort of amnesty programme.
• Don't think long to realise why the theft of persons has the most severe penalty possible. Think of Al-Queda's theft of people; or 1/5th of modern Kurdistan: ~1/5th of marriages initiated with bride abduction, a story of terror & rape.
• Kidnapping for slavery - important historically; but also for our day. The OT describes slavery, but most slavery then was debt slavery, or volentary slavery; also temporary. (Deut 15) someone in debt has the ability to sell the contract of his labour for 6 years; the owner doesn't own the person - but the labour. At the end - must be released & fill their arms with goods. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress.
• In 16th-19th C - the Western world: chattel slavery; the individual's person owned by the owner, not the labour. Not temporary, but life-long. The 8th commandment prohibits this. African slaves were kidnapped - Ex.21 by definition. Not suprising early church fathers: Crystostome, St. Augustine, etc. spoke against this. Crystostome (4C) encouraged Christians of means to buy whatever slaves they could: In Christ Jesus there is no slave, so buy them, and after you have taught them some skill by which they can maintain themselves - then set them free
• 17C - Dutch Theologian - by definition 8th commandment condemns the slave trade that had begun. Wesleyan Methodists opposed slavery because of the 8th commandment. In our own day - the UN tell us 27million for all intents and purposes are enslaved: de-facto slavery. Sex trafficing, sale of children, children abducted into the military, ... International Justice mission - in part dealing with this problem. Recently rescued 37 young girls trapped in brothels in Cambodia - de-facto servitude.
• Less severe - burglary, armed coercion: Lev 19, Ex 22, breaking & entering. More acceptable offenses like larceny - sensitise our concience to more common cases. The appropriation of Lev 6 property entrusted to us: embezzlement; a servant/employee - an expense account eg. just by mis-reporting an hour or two - padding the expense account or time sheet.
• Titus 2slaves/servants (employees) - be subject to your bosses in everything, to try to please them ... and not to steal from them: our honesty part of the adverisment for the transformed life. Theft - just as prevelant if not more so, among those who have more. Having more doesn't mean you steal less. Cato: Thieves who steal private property - spend their lives in prison. Thieves who steal public property strut around in gold & purple.
• Cynicism ? or warrented ? The big dig - the most expensive road project in American history. Federal audit - The most flagrent breach of integrity in the history of the 85 year old federal aid highway programme - perhaps politically motivated, from $2.2bn to $14.6bn & growing ? Having more does not make us want to take less.
• King Ahab - acquiring the field of Naboth - didn't want to sell the field of... eminent domain: accusing him falsely of blasphemy. Sent Elijah to denounce this sin: taking from the poor to enrich the wealthy.
• Look lightly on pilfering - interviewing hotel managers; 1/3 guests steal something. 1 New York hotel - 18,000 towels walked out the door 355 metal coffee makers, soaps/shampoos - unused, an uncountable number. + 100 bibles; (apparently stolen by those who hadn't read them yet). 61% of hotel users - admitted to having nabbed toiletries; 18% they had taken towels, 14% had swiped ash-trays, 2% stole bath-robes & bath-mats.
• Fraud - insurance research council - 1/4 Americans say it's ok to defraud insurers. 1/3 defrauding to make up for the deductable; 1/10 medics admitted to reporting signs/symptoms a patient didn't have in order to secure coverage for treatment.
• Stealing of intellectual property Jer:23, prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me eg. software / music industry.
• Cheating - giving value for money; Deut 25, condemning different weights / measures. Do we exagerate in our advertisments ? junk heap car: 'as good as new'. God is into truth in advertising, wrt. churches eg. Some adverts: 'the greatest church since the book of acts', 'our pastor rocks' 'services nothing but fun' - honestly !? - church is hard work. Christ came to take our sins, not our minds - engagement of the mind is tough.
• Over-pricing/profiteering: Lev 25. A fair-price law: not the rehabilitation of the gold-standard, but the application of the golden-rule: Luke 6:31. Every deal both for the seller & the buyer. Don't defraud those in your employ - the wage earner, under-paying your employees: do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight. Don't take advantage.
• Prov 20 condems those engaging in bartering It's no good, he says, then off he goes & boasts about his purchase.
• Discussion at party of theft: some with stolen art books; book from public library on the shelf, due date: 1955 still 'borrowing'. Someone stole a little floral nick-nack, from her own grandmother: all in the family; why not ok ? you can tell you stole it - not by how much you took from them, but how much you're keeping from them.
• Why is stealing so bad ? in a store, see a clearly mis-marked item: that's the one we want to buy. Could all still remember every one of these instances back to tenderist days; did damage. Gordon can't remember any of his high-school papers, only the one he plagerised completely. God's law is written on our hearts. Why do we sell our integrity for almost nothing ?
• Not how much we are taking; but, taking what God has given to another. Everything we take is something that God in his providence has given to another; we have sinned against God himself; not being content with what we have. True paternity The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy - but I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.
• Good news: Jesus loves repentant thieves: eg. Zacheus - half of my goods I'll give to the poor, and anyone I've defrauded I'll pay back 4 fold. What does God want you to do ? if you were once a thief he wants to change your identity from a burglar to a benefactor. To repay that, to admit your fault.
• Jesus died in the midst of thieves. The scripture tells us - he was crucified between two robbers, he was numbered among thieves; and one of them - said to the other we are getting what we deserve - but this man is innocent ... Jesus - remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus said because of what he was doing on the cross - dying for us Today, you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23).

• You shall not commit adultery. God interested not just in actions, but thoughts too cf. 10th commandment - coveting. Thankfully most people don't need convincing it's a good idea, or detail as to why scripture think's it's such a grevious wrong. Playboy magazine - investigating attitudes - discovered (to their suprise), the overwhelming majority of their readers considered extra-marital sex to be morally wrong. 79% of Americans believe adultery to be always wrong.
• U. of Chicago's national opinion research - 79% of married individuals, in an anonymous survey - insisted faithful to their spouse through their entire marriage. A remarkable concord.
• Applied to everyone married; also everyone not married (of course), applies in a variety of ways: what marriage is. Let marriage be held in honour among all, and the marriage bed undefiled Heb 13
• The command - very broad, language applies to 1 and all, male and female, from King to the servant girl: God held David accountable to this standard - not above the law. Very different to the contemporary culture. Other cultures invariably had different rules for men and women. Ceaser Augustus - the so called Julian laws: criminalised Adultery; enshrined a double standard: for woman: prohibited under all circumstances, men OTOH were explicitely allowed to have other relationships - female slaves, prostitutes, women running businesses & shops etc. - as long as they didn't violate someone else's marriage.
• Christians - viewed as repressed - as honouring the exclusivity of marriage, and sex only within this boundary. 2 passages - where the word adultery - used in reference to that with a married woman: Lev 20:10 (also Jer 29:23) - 2 cases where adultery with 'the wife of another man' - a double standard ? no. typical in legislation to use androcentric language & categories eg. 10th commandment: wives cannot covet others husbands.
• God condemns this idea of a double standard explicitely eg. Hos 4. Unheard of in the societies around. Jesus: Anyone who divorces his wife (except for marital unfaithfullness) and marries another woman [ even a virgin bride ], that man commits adultery. - ie. the man commits adultery against his 1st wife.
• Job 31 - as a married man makes a covenant: I made a covenant with my eyes, not to look lustfully at a girl.
• John 8: woman caught in adultery ... what do you say ? Jews imbibed very deeply of Greek thinking: they only brought the woman in for stoning ! situation mostly a trap - he'd agree that the woman should be stoned - and get in trouble with the Romans who prohibited them from capital punishment. But the OT law both the man, _and_ the woman must die - no double standard.
• Chastity: arguably - the only completely new virtue that Christianity brought into the world. None of the traditional religions imposed ethical demands on the followers pwrt. their sexual behavior; no-where: "husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church & gave himself up for her". Unparalleled in pagan literature.
• Often our problems are somewhat indirect; not the problem itself, but it's precursor: looking at a woman lustfully - committing adultery in the heart. Deal with the root problem. What's wrong with just looking - perfectually natural ? - it's not normal/right.
• C.S.Lewis - suppose you came to a country that could fill a theatre with a covered plate where the cover is lifted slowly as the lights dim: with a mutton chop / piece of bacon on the plate. You would conclude the country had something deeply wrong with their appetite - surely. In a nation that is sex-obsessed, a twist / distortion in our nature - a perversion. So many of us would like to give our spouse a lovely gift; so much is outside our control - money, healty, but you can give your fidelity.
• The remedy for thoughts - assume responsibility for them; Luther: you can't keep birds from flying overhead; but you can stop them making a nest in your hair. When regrettable thoughts come through your head - do you invite them in & entertain them, or shoe them out.
• Not launching a program of censorship; perhaps others are stronger, but we can't take it. Men & women that work together in office - have a divorce rate increase of 70%; vs. single sex. Danger: can a man scoop fire into his lap and remain unburned ?
• Lies get in the way; may of them. Those who pretend that they married the wrong person - as if that were possible. God wants you to fall deep in love with your spouse. You don't know her the way I know her ? - I need to have another marriage ? - God wouldn't want to condem me to this forever would he ? - of course not! God doesn't only want a 2nd marriage for you; he wants a new marriage - every single day: to the same woman (of course).
• Don't buy into the myth of the greener grass - it's fresh and green by the power of God on this side of the fence. Some think another marriage would be better: [in the US] 1st marriages 41% end in divorce (a tragedy), but 2nd marriages worse: 60% are ending in divorce, 73% of 3rd marriages; 4th marriages - would do worse - but people are dead by then. Make it work with the wife in your arms.
• 1992 Health & social life survey - be all & end all survey - taking place of long discredited Kinsey survey; pops a lot of myths & balloons. Men who have the most liberal attitudes about sex are actually 75% more likely to fail to satisfy their partners, than those who have the most conservative attitudes. You want to have a happy sexy life ? - adopt God's attitudes & you'll be roaring: ready to go. Men: those who think they're living sexually liberated, adventerous lives, turns out - it's married couples who are by far the happiest with their sexual life.
• Interestingly the most sexually fulfilled demographic group of all categories - couples who in their 50s (50-59) - are having all kinds of electicity & fireworks. It even gets better than that, dear friend in the 60s, double dates every now & then - at the end turn to his wife and say 'well - Vi - time to go home' - wait Richard, your wife's name isn't Vi ... turns out it's his pet-name for her: 'Viagra'. In a healthy marriage - it gets better & better.
• The best remedy ? the fellowship of believers a great help to live the life you were made for: the theif comes to kill steal & destroy; but Christ said I've come that you might have life & have it abundantly. Some say - but the church isn't doing so well: the Barner group claims divorce rates blievers/unbelievers at parity: but study published Handbook of Religion OUP 2001 - if instead of asking what they believe - if all you do is ask: do you attend church: radically different results.
• After 15 years of marriage 37% of infrequent church goers are no longer married, compared to 14% of frequent (once/month) goers. The fellowship of believers; the redemption Christ brings. Do yourself a favour: fall in love with your own wife. He who loves his wife loves himself, see her through the eyes of forgiveness, of Christ. Prov 5.

• Notes to follow.

• Very interesting talk on the Sabbath; notes to follow (DV).

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• The regrettable distinction of being the most neglected of the commandments; not though because it's the most frequently broken. A recent study 1 in 30 words, from the typical American's mouth is either a profanity or an obscenity.
• A general sense that many have, that the use of language, profanity in particular is a matter of taste or manners; not serious. We wonder - what is it doing listed next to murder, adultery, theft etc. that seem so grevious in comparison. Such a common offense, mostly inexplicable by those that commit it, even by people that don't know his name.
• Why make a mountain of a mole-hill, actions speak louder than words - surely; but if words are so unimportant, why are we so resistant to changing our habits of vocabulary. Matthew 12 ... a tree is recognized by its fruit ... For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
• Words are such an accurate litmus test of the heart from which they come. The vomit from the mouth, a definitive view of the sickness within. C.S.Lewis - Surely what a man does when he is taken off-guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is ... If there are rats in the cellar - you're more likely to see them if you go in very suddenly, but the suddenness does not create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way, the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man, it only shows me what an ill tempered man I am. Apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in the cellar of my soul.
• A reciprocal relationship - not just very revealing evidence from the mouth of what is in, but words have a corrosive effect on ones heart. James 3 We all stumble in many ways ... likewise the tongue is a fire, it corrupts the whole person.. Tacitus - It is human nature to hate those we have injured [ counter intuitive perhaps ]. If you want people to go to war, get them to injur the enemy first with words - cf. ramping polemic & propaganda before a war.
• "It means nothing - it's just an expletive" - it's offensive to God to speak his name without worship, adoration, etc. "But everyone does it" - not even culturally true, the American Indians had no vocabulary to curse; similarly Japanese no curse words, though plenty of obscenities - many other cultures similarly.
• Not simply profanity, cf. Deuteronomy, also false prophets. Scriptures enjoin us - similarly applied to false swearing - in a legal context: purjury, but also covenant making & oaths: ordination or marriage vows. Tends not to even register as a problem in the dissolution of marriage. Or worship - Isaiah 29: These people come near to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Is your behavior causing blasphemy - is our behavior a disgrace to the God whose name you wear.
• How can we respond appropriately; clever put downs for when other blaspheme ? No; the great danger in times like this - is that others think they're offending us. They are not; they're offending the God of the universe - which is infinitely more serious.
• How to fix the problem ? a change of heart - from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. What we need: Ezekiel 36 - I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean ... I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you ... and will move you to follow all my decrees & keep my laws.
• What to do: put off old behaviors and replace with new; ( Eph 4) perhaps a thief - he who has been stealing - must steal no longer - if all you do is stop stealing, you may still be a thief between jobs so: - but, must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. If you're giving yourself to philanthropy & hard work, you can't be a thief. How about - wrt. words each of you should put-off falsehood - a liar between lies ? - and speak truthfully to his neighbour, a replacement behavior; abnormal loving, honesty. In your anger, do not sin.

• You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth below.
• This is the commandment over which there has been most debate. Other translations - make no graven image Seems to prohibit something harmless, or irrelevant. Has been mis-interpreted (to his view) by over a billion or so people as prohibiting any image, or likeness of any animal, thing etc. ie. no representational art.
• eg. enjoying an exquisite Oriental carpets - no depictions of recognisable animals, even plants: highly stylized, geometric designs; to avoid any kind of figural art. Likewise Mosques - elaborate geometric designs & words, exquisite calligraphy - never a human figure, animal, or other object.
• Respect for that view - but a misuderstanding based on the context. If God intended to prohibit representational art - (only alowing 'modern' art ?) - it would make nonsense of the rational. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God - certianly no need to be jealous of our creative merit - some artists make a deliberate mistake - to not compete (idiotic) cf. creation.
• Likewise, in the rest of the scriptures - God commands representational art: Num 21 the bronze serpant on a pole. or pomegranites on the high-priest's robe, likewise the capitals of the pillars on the temple should look like lillies. Numerous texts in Exodus - artisans required to represent in the fabric of the tabernacle - the likeness of the cherubim, or sculpturally on the Ark: 2 cherubim. It's not representational art of any kind: but idolatory.
• vs. 5 You shall not bow down to them, or worship them - Idolatory. The commandment seems to warn against the false worship of the true God - the traditional protestant view. Not re-using the pagan traditions - God insists we worship him without the help of idols.
• The archetypal idol - the golden calf, while God was writing - at the foot of the mount, they beg Aaron to make an idol - This is your God, oh Israel, who brought you out of Egypt ... Aaron - built an alter in front of the calf ... and said tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD. Ex 32. When Israel made the golden calf - they were not attempting to worship another God - 'LORD' - the name of God: but just using an Egyptian model of worship.
• Jereboam - to keep the loyalty of his people - comes up with some man-made religion; using the same language. An appalling depature, but not from believe in God - just worshiping him in a false way. Later on, read of 2 Kings 10: Jehu - destroyed Baal worship in Israel - but still kept the golden calves: went about the worship of the Lord, but in a false way.
• What was so attractive about idolatory that Israel could lapse in this way ? why exchange the tangible manifestation of God for a golden calf ? a temptation we surely don't suffer from ? looking at archaeologists' multi-breasted fertility figures or whatever ?
• Despite their sin, the Israelites were not stupid - they didn't think that the golden-calf was literally responsible for bringing them out of Egypt - it wasn't around; they only just made it; it was the representation of an invisible deity. They thought that after a dedication ceremony - the god(s) would come and inhabit it, and would be a channel of blessing.
• What about God makes us think of a bull calf ? the Chicago Bears ? to highlight just a selection of the characteristics of the animal - not all; Miami Doplhins - not as useless on the ground as Dolphins are: instead, 'we play smart', or 'we are agile'. The Egyptians - notorious for animal figure representations. Bovine imagary - the most prevelant.
• In Egyptian texts, the phrase 'golden calf' is applied only to Pharoe; a complicated system of images: the Heavens (sky) were imagined to be a cow goddess - the source of all life (comes from the heavens). The cow goddess as a special object of her love, is a calf. In many depictions, a cow suckling the Pharoe, or licking it in a gesture of affection.
• When the real God humbled the Gods of Egyptians, Israel sort of got it, they realised Pharoe was impotent, but transfered the symbols (the Bull) to the new winner. Unfortunately, God was not flattered. All idolatory, tends to deny attributes of God - other aspects are diminished. God revealed himself in a consuming fire, to highlight his holiness - to recognise the pre-eminent problem in our relationship; not that he is clever & we ar dumb, but that we are sinful, & he is Holy.
• When Isaiah has his eyes opened the angels are saying not Clever, wealthy, brilliant - but Holy, Holy, Holy.
• What is the attraction of idolatory - to make of God less than he is, sometimes by emphasising one aspect & minimising others. Phillip Liken: An idol makes the infinite God finite, the invisible God visible, the omnipotent God impotent, the all-present God local, the living God dead, and the spiritual God material - in short it makes him the exact opposite of what he actually is
• In our own day - not particularly given to making plastic images of God. Ezekiel warns about setting up idols in our hearts. It can be done with mental conception just as easily as with artistic endeavour. Making God less than he is - compromising what he has revealed himself to be.
• Richard Niever described liberalism as a God without wrath, who brings men without sin, into a kingdom without judgement, through the ministrations of Christ without the cross. - a mental idolatory that eviscerates the Gospel.
• The cultural despisers - "I can never believe in God" : "describe the God you don't believe in". Carl Sagan eg. "he couldn't believe in a God who wants to keep everyone ignorant" - amazing - of course not, in reality the God of scripture is one of all truth; far from keeping us in the dark, He wants to bring us into the light.
• make a God that will go before us - people want to go a different, and easier way to that which God wants them to go. The Golden calf is lifeless, makes no inconvenient demands: the beauty is it only wants to do what you do, leaving you to do what you want. If your image of God is leading you to success, health, victory after victory - you're following an idol; not the Christ who says come follow me, take up your cross and follow me. The cross of self denial: not my will but yours be done.
• What do you do with idols - destroy them before they destroy you. Egyptians like many Hindus - the animals that represented their gods were sacred to them, and they would never kill them. Appalled that anyone would sacrifice an animal. God was calling his people to put to death the very things the neighbours were worshiping.
• At Alcoholics Anonymous - many expensive bottles of Gin & Brandy get poured down the toilet, a sacrifice with which God is pleased: getting rid of what held a grip on your life. This is what Israel was called to do - in the aftermath of the calf fiasco - the sin-offering for priests (who led Israel into the worship of the Golden Calf), would have to sacrifice a calf - for their sin-offering.

• And God spoke all these words, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods beside me" - 3 verses only.
• Gallup poll a while ago - good news, 84% Adult Americans agree that they should order their lives by the 10 commandments; the bad news: only 42% could recall even 5 of them. A more recent survey reveals that fewer than 1% can list all 10 in any order. Of Anglican clurgy in the UK - only 17% can list all 10. Recitation no garentee of obedience, but a helpful aid, Deut 6 These commandments ... are to be on your heart.
• A lack of legalism, the order is important, first brought out of Egypt, then gives them his commandments; salvation by grace alone. Not saved by works, but for them. 1 John 4we love because He first loved us ... This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. Not onerous, the very opposite - what we're made for, to know the moral fabric of the universe. Life is too short to learn by trial & error.
• Laws that you cannot really break, all our efforts to find another source of meaning, morality prove the folly of such sources. Anyone who would seek otherwise is on a path of self destruction.
• The 10 commandments - a pescription for staying free; if you don't want to exchange 1 tyrant for another, keep them. I tell you the truth - everyone who sins is a slave to sin ... so if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. If you've been set free, Gal 1: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
• Acknowledge some difficulties in understanding this. The awkward implication that there are 'other gods' - seems to credit them with too much existance; why not say: There are no other gods.
• The OT. and the immediate context of this passage leaves no doubt that there are no other gods, great difficulty in God getting Egypt out of Israel, 10 plagues - why so many ? to disuade Israel of Egypts 'gods' and to ridicule them:
• The Egyptians worshiped various aspects of creation - they deified the Nile ( Hapi) eg. so God in is 1st plague turns it into blood, humiliating him. The 2nd plague - the Frog deity, assigned the job of assisting in birth ('Heket') - God covers the land with frogs: "you want to worship them ? - here have a few." - and the plagues go on, the 9th plague: worshiped the Sun ( Re), so there God caused darkness at mid-day; in the 10th plague: you worship Pharoe - the incarnation of the falcon god, source of life, protection of families - every first-born from the house of Pharoe on down is lost before the judgement of God (cf. what Moses escaped). Ex 12:12 I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt - I am the Lord
• Good to remember God's painful judgements by which he rescued them from Egypt, so they should not be frightened of them. Not even any competiton out there.
• Why then credit the gods ? - Pharoe is not the incarnation of Horus, nor will he become the incarnation of Osiris when he dies, it's not so. But he is the King of Egypt - a force to be reckoned with. Same with the other gods. If there is anything, it is demonic. They sacrificed to daemons (which are not God) (Deut 32).
• Secondly - why add before me ? the translation makes it sounds like just the 1st in the list. The Hebrew has a couple of meanings; probably both true. Main text 'before me' - a spatial sense - in my presence;
• The footnote - No other God besides me - ie. no-one apart from him: no rival. Isn't it wonderful that he loves you with a jealous love. Realised that she was bothered if he was too interested in her roommate. An exclusive, special love - a great premium on sharing, toys, snacks, books on the reference shelf, all through life we have to share.
• Some things that must never be shared; bank account & PIN, answers to exams, confidential information - but especially marital love, they must never share the exclusive intimacy that belongs to marriage.
• The amazing thing, God loves us enough that he wants us to be the sole object of our worship, no other guidance for our lives - than the guidance of his loving direction. Israel didn't get it, their problem was never with atheism, like ours: 'and-theism', "God ... and".
• How does it apply to me ? the Sun God 'Re' means nothing to me, don't like Thor, Baal a cricket thing. But these are the tip of the iceburg. Habakkuk - whose own strength is their God. We can worship our education, health, strength. There are those whose God is their stomach, the God of the self ?
• A great example - the God of greed; the love of money. Job 31 If I had rejoiced over my great wealth ... I would have been unfaithful to God on high. Jesus said no servant can serve two masters ... you cannot serve God and Mammon - 'Mammon' lit. 'the thing you trust in'.
• The Bible doesn't condem wealth - nor does it glorify poverty. You can have nothing, and still think about money all the time. You can gauge your self-by the amount of money you (or others) have, or instead by how much God loves you/them. God will have nothing of it, if money becomes your God, it's an affront to him who demands your exclusive love & loyalty.
• The story of A Window to Heaven - Dr Diane M. Komp - the on-time chief of paediatric oncology at Yale's school of paediatric medicine - she came to faith by ministering to the children in her care, dying of cancer. And the radical call of "I am the Lord your God", not to re-order priorities from work to family, but to put your whole trust in God.

uno finds my bridge if I link it into ooo/program. And I have here a backtrace from one of the odk sample programs running on mono, calling my native cli_ure glue, which calls my native bridge, which calls my managed bridge, which complains about bridge glue I haven't written yet.

The goal is to enleverage active, XML-based, Java community enhanced, meta-ldap specifications to provide mega-enhanced, goal-congruent, volenteer-driven, apache-powered, 'Open Source', WordPerfect file import.

• A new series on the 10 Commandments. A portion that is so precious, decisive & foundational. Struck by titles in Borders incorporating the word 'Bible' Ed Smith's: The vegtable gardeners Bible - cover jacket & blurb on the book: this is a book that is comprehensive: all you need to know when it comes to vegetable gardening - practical, accessible for the beginner as well as the expert. Why trust it ? the authoritative author Ed Smith - faculty of college in Vermont, teaches courses on it, a renowned, prize-winning gardener: speaks with authority etc. Typical of all the 'Bibles' that are there, the Excel 2003 Bible, the Official E-Bay Bible, the Backyard Bird Feeders Bible - same thing, etc. New Shellers' Men's Health Home Workout Bible etc. etc.
• All a back-handed complement to the Bible itself, it's all these things: comprehensive, practical, authoritative, the must-read with regard to life. We know why the Macingtosh Bible is called 'the Bible' - an attempt to approximate in a narrow field the Bible - but where did the Israelites get the idea of a Bible ?
• None of the ancient civilisations of the ANE, Egypt, Cannan etc. had a Bible in this sense. Some had religious poetry - similar to the Sutras of Buddhism, none were purporting to be a direct revelation from God, in the way the Bible purports to be.
• Where did they get the idea for a Bible ? the notion that all future generations should treasure and take careful note of it. Two answers: one for the beginner and a more advanced one. Something for everyone.
• At the beginners level - the obvious answer: what was the very first part of the Bible to be written ? Not Genesis' account of creation, and we know this from the internal testimony & implication of the text itself. The very 1st part was this text. The beginning of written revalation that would be normative for his people - these words spoken by God himself, and then afterwards written by him in stone.
• God provided a pattern, followed since even by vegetable gardeners. Comprehensive - if you just live this text - get very far in your relationship with God.
• Jesus' comment on the greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with your whole heart & mind & soul & strength, & the 2nd is like it - to love your neighbour as yourself.
• This is the underlying structure of the 10 commandments. Why go into so much detail ? we're not bright enough to tease out all the implications & meanings.
• Secondly - practical - Mark Twain - It's not what I don't understand about the bible that bothers me - it's what I do understand. You read it it's accessible, no need to be an academic - reminds us of our failings, and our debt of gratitude to Christ for forgiving us for such repulsive sin.
• Finally - authoritative - could not be more so - the definative authority of the author to take account of; God wrote them himself & spoke them in the hearing of all the people.
• The 10 commandments - not the '10 suggestions' - that remain normative & mandatory for believers, not meritorious, but mandatory If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
• Contrast Barnes and Noble eg. Harry Dent's The next great bubble boom - how to profit from the greatest boom in history 2005-2009: the Publishers page says: This book is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, tax, investment, insurance, financial, accounting or other professional advice or service [ why buy a book on investment when they guy isn't trying to advise you about investment ] no warrenty is made with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein, and both the author and the publisher specifically disclaim any responsibility or any liability for any loss or risk personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly from the use and application of any of the contents of this book - in other words: we're just kidding: only USD 26. The same applies to Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" - sub-titled 'a novel' - in case you didn't get it - etc. many other examples.
• As practical as you get, the most practical book of all is the Bible; open the publishers page - is there any disclaimer whatsoever ? the title page doesn't even have an address for improvements & corrections. Jesus said: sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth. No garentee in the Bible of a trouble-free life of health and wealth - no need for fine print: all in bold print, eg. Jesus crucified for meticulously following the law of God. But if you keep the precepts here, you will live the life that God created your for, for which when it ends, you will feel no regret.
• Israel couldn't bear to hear God speak directly to them - instead they asked to have Moses speak to them in his stead, and committed to obey it. Hence the authority of scripture - God's very word written, by a less terrifying process.
• You can tell God wrote these words - by the content just not what we would write. Were we to start our own modern committee to write some 10 comandments, perhaps instead:

  Scripture	(post-)modern man
  And God spoke all these words:	"listen to your inner voice - discover the truth that's in you."
  You shall have no other Gods before me	one religion is as good as another - it's just sincerity that counts
  you shall not kill	the only thing they'll understand is force - don't be a wuss, don't let anyone push you around.
  you shall not commit adultry	how can it be wrong when it feels so right ?
  you shall not steal	get serious, we're talking Business ethics, not ethics

• The more advanced idea: how did Israel get the idea of a bible not from the religions - but from the Kingdoms of the ancient world; that had not bibles but covenant documents. God confronting not just the false Gods of the age, but particularly the blasphemous pretention of Pharoe; opposing his claim to the undivided loyalty of his people let my people go, that they might serve me Ex 19: although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a Kingdom. The 10 commandments - all about making his people a Kingdom.
• If Kingdoms use covenant documents - the new management also has a document: written by God himself. We know from many examples, ~57 extant covenant documents, the structure of these Bibles - most intriguing, from 1 millenium BC - in the later period: rules / regulations & a big stick.
• At the time of Moses 2nd millenium BC, the covenant documents didn't just have a big stick, also a juicy carrot. Not just threats, but wonderful promises. Typically start with a 2 part structure: cf. Mercilli (King of Hittites (modern day Turkey), Tubitesha (King of part of Israel).
• Self identification; 'the LORD' - all the ancient Gods had a name focusing on their area of domain - Re, or Amon - the great Sun God, the deified Nile river, forces of nature etc. The true God: JHYH - The one who is - vs. the one who isn't ? he will visit plagues on Israel. The God who actually does something, instead of being just a figment.
• 2nd part - reminds the vassel King - of what he owes him, "you are sick little runt - you'd never be King unless I'd put you on the throne." - reminded to instill gratitude. Similarly - why put down that who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ie. he saved them out of Egypt though they were no better than their neighbours. The only thing that protected them: the blood of the lamb painted on the doors of their homes. The OT. starts with grace, written into the 10 commandments, so they would not forget - before they obeyed any of his commandments he set them free.
• Having set them free - the 10 commandments: God's perscription for staying free. In obediance to the life that he has called you to. The parallels with the ANE help make this point. God had up until now related to his people with personal revelation.
• Now he wants a Kingdom where not only do I know what God wants me to do, but I know what God wants you to do & vv. to be accountable & helpful to one another.

sudo rug sa http://red-carpet.go-oo.org/
sudo rug sub ooo-680
sudo rug in OpenOffice_org2-gnome

• Cover articles News-Week / Time Magazine - engaging, surveys into the birth narratives of Matthew & Luke - nothing new here, two accounts differ in details and emphasis. Are congruent in ways that enrich & affirm our faith. The articles don't tell us that there are amazingly well qualified scholars, who have written massive weighty scolarly commentaries - in the last decade, defending the historicity / reliability of scripture: Greg Keener's 1040 page commentary on Matthew, or Darrol Box's 2148 page monumental commentary of gospel of Luke, or Carson's on Matthew, etc. Engage the scholarship - the unexpirgated truth.
• At the same time - the Discovery Channel - on the Exodus, Do you dare ? - Ramses: the wrath of God or Man ? their advertising: "do you dare question - what is written in the bible?" accompanied by a fake quote: "by these ten plagues you will know that I am the Lord" - no-where in the Old-Testament. "So it is written, is it right ?". It rehearses evidence that discovered an additional cluster of tombs connected with Ramases - found one skull of perhaps his 1st born Son suggesting he was murdered by an enemy - not by God. Intriguing evidence - but 1st born is not a biological term in NT times - too many people lost their children in infancy: a legal term - designating your heir - the legal inheritor of your estate; perhaps a child born young early in his reighn - he had ~100 children; frankly '1st borns' were dropping like flies - he out-lived most of them - into his 90s. Of course - many scholars don't believe Ramses is the Pharoe of Exodus, many believe it's 150 years earlier perhaps Tutmos the 3rd, put my vote on Armenhoteth 2nd [ how many others do that ? - so perhaps just 1 more argument for this position ].
• A series of these suppoesed new revelations - Boston Sunday Globe - The Rapture; apparently there are some that believe of the 70 weeks prophecy in Daniel 9, not a 2000 year gap between the 69th & 70th weeks - apparently a bold new insight - you heard it here 1st.
• Anticipating what you might be seeing on CNN news next week: we're looking at the hard part of Daniel 11 & 12; a continuing narrative from Ch. 10 - an Angel (we assume Gabriel), discloses a panoramic survey of history, from the current time - to the resurrection of the dead - a highly selective view; as said in Ch. 10; even more limited - focuses just on the bad news; skips big chunks of relatively unoppressed time etc.
• The reason this text devotes so much time to Antiochus, is because of his diabolical malevolance; crafting a state policy of erradicating the Jewish faith: the first time in recorded history a foreign power made it a policy of the state, not just to kill Jews: but to erradicate their faith.
• Good news: Scholars are virtually unanimous in their interpretation of the first 39 verses of Ch. 11 - everyone agrees. Starting in vs. 40 though - gets it completely wrong (it seems) from a number of ancient sources; what do you do with that ?
• 3 explanations that are proposed; convinced of the 3rd.
  • The critical view - critical not to mean scholarly, just means rejecting the traditional authorship of the book. They say, Daniel gets it perfectly right up to vs. 39, and wrong after - they say, the reason is: the book of Daniel was written right then: 164 BC, predictions in earlier verses - just history pretending to be prophecies. Then starting in vs. 40 he tries his hand at real prophecy - why he doesn't get it right. Seemingly very persuasive - also explains why you get a lot about Antiochus who was around at the time. Ch 12. ends coming back to Antiochus. All this favours the critical view. What to be said against it:
    • It's true that there are some books written about the time of Jesus that pretend to be prophecies; by Abraham, Elijah, etc. in those fake prophecies - the authors never, never achieve any kind of versimiltude for the period - ie. they are filled with anachronisms: they don't have good historical data about the period; and they don't use the right language: so clearly fake, no-one is fooled by the language or content.
    • Technically, we now know the Aramaic & Hebrew of Daniel is exactly like the Hebrew of the C6 BC - not like that of 164BC; nothing like that elsewhere. Also, no detailed historical data to create it. Also - at that period when there was so much hatred of the Greeks - why invent a spoof person that is a faithful servant of a pagan king. [ Instead surely he would be a freedom fighter ].
    • Finally & most interestingly, how could it be that if vs 40 further on, is made up & blatantly wrong - how could it be accepted at the time as scripture as people lived through that period ?
  • The 2nd view - starting vs. 40 - we're not talking about Antiochus: we've jumped ahead to the end of time: talking about the Anti-Christ, of whom Antiochus is a disgusting tasting fore-taste; sounds convincing.
    • Against it - explaining the coherence between 39&40 - no indication of a 2000+ year jump, the Kings of South & North eg. why would Edom, Moab and Ammon be exempt from the Anti-Christ's ravages ? if that is so, we should all move to Jordan now.
    • vs. 44: how could the Anti-Christ be mislead by a rumour.
  • The 3rd view - the Roman view - articulated by John Calvin, recent scholars better argument.
    • vs. 40 At the time of the end - a time shift: the end of time ? - not how Daniel has been using this phrase up to now (Ch. 8:17) The vision concerns the time of the end - the vision concerns the appointed time of the end - in Ch. 8 everyone agrees this is the time of the end of Antiochus.
    • The Roman age - is the time of the end - we are those upon whom the end of the ages has come - this last work of God in response to the kingdoms of the world.
    • A gap of 100 years; Rome's claim on Israel - Pompeii the Great, conquered Israel - (cf. vs. 2-3 from Persian to Greek period) - and why jump ? they were independant then: free from foreign oppression.
    • Pompeii knocked down the walls, ploughed into the temple descrating it as Antiochus did. 3 people now involved: 'King of South/North' and a 'him' - Ptolemy 12th engages 'him', Antiochus 13th vs. the King of the North: (who rules in Syria - Pompeii).
    • Daniel 11 - vs. 18; Scipio appears - everyone agrees this is Rome; vs. 30 - the ships of the western coast-lands, also a reference to Rome. Daniel 11:40 - Rome had a powerful navy, Pompeii commanded it - authorised for 3 years, to invade all the coastal territories / cleaned up all of the mediterranean; sole commander of all these forces: attacks Asia Minor, Armenia, then the Cauccus Mountains, in 65BC - takes over Syria: the King of the North, 63BC southward Edom, Moab & Ammon - while he was engaged in that campaign - he gets a rumour from Jerusalem - that the potential heirs of the high-preisthood are squabbling: that they've asked him to come and settle their dispute, accepting the invitation he conquers Israel, takes over Jerusalem, knocks down it's walls; having broken off his attack against the Nabbateans which he never resumes.
    • He will extend his power over many countries, Egypt will not escape - some Scholars have rejected the Roman view because of this verse. Pompeii never invaded Egypt - but it doesn't say he will invade it; the text: not invade or fall as in previous few verses - text very modest in what it claims, Pompeii's power will be extended over many countries - Egypt not excluded.
    • Lots of support from 2C Greek historian: Appion of Alexander - primary historian of the time. Pompeii extended the Roman sway as far as Egypt - did not advance into Egypt, although the King of that country [Ptolemy] invited him into that country to supress a sedition, and he sent gifts to him, and money and clothing for his whole army - tremendous wealth - etc. etc. eg. Pompeii declared the legal guardian of Ptolemy's children - Egypt etc. a client kingdom. To the East Crassus - lost 20k men & died in battle vs. the Parthians, to the North Julias Ceaser just crossed the Rubicon. Drawn away, alarmed by Julias Ceaser, eventually defeated & killed with no allies to help him.
    • Meanwhile Herod is 25 years old; leading Israel into strategic alliances - first supporting Pompeii, then switching alliance to Julias Ceaser, then with Mark Anthony, then Ceaser Augustus - so Herod was made King;
    • It fits like a glove - and it follows the same pattern of the previous visions Ch. 2 & 7, following the course of history up to the coming of the Messiah. And this is where Daniel ends - right on the threshold of the coming of Christ. No wonder there was an excited expetancy from the Jews of 0BC - armed with Daniel.
  • How do you respond to such accuracy in the predictions of the coming Kingdom ? A couple of options:
    • Say it was written after Herod, after the time of the Romans - that's why you get it right. If you do that - you join a great constelation of outstanding Biblical scholars. Ernst Have - argued that Herod was the time in which the 2nd part of Daniel was written; or Paul de-Legarde German scholar argued it was written in 69AD right before the destruction of the temple - that's why the predictions of the Messiah are so great, that's why Daniel 9 predicts the Messiah will come before the destruction of the temple, or Herdlein at Leipsig - argued that these chapters came from the Roman period. All written after the fact ? after the Romans, after Pompeii, after Jesus - no-wonder it gets it right. If you go along with them - maybe you'll be on CNN news next week.
    • The one inconvenient fact - that wrecks what seems like a good theory: we now have actual copies of the book of Daniel from the 2nd Century BC: from the library at Quamran, physical copies - 4QDanielC - 120BC, before the Roman period, Daniel4QA - another copy; 8 copies - remaining 6 from ~1Ad - 1st 2 copies - pre-date it - they include Chapter 11. What do you conclude ?
  • I conclude - God is in charge - he has in fact predicted this: Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please ... What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. Isaiah 46 : God organises the flow of history.
• Get to Ch. 12 - at that time Michael - the great prince who stands guard over Hebrew will take his stand - Rev 12. helps us to see this from God's perspective as Christ dies on the cross Now is the ruler of this world cast out - after Michael arising a time of great distress: we're living in a time of acute distress. But then at that time, everyone whose name is written in the book, will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the earth will awake ....
• Time magazine - an article: How to live to 100 and not regret it Daniel - How to live forever and not regret it: the ressurection is for everyone; some for everlasting life, others for shame and everlasting contempt. Eternity determined by those whose name is written in the book of the life. Challenging stuff.

• Daniel 11: covers at least a span of 300+ years, in great detail; is it wise of God to give so much detail ? much of it would perhaps have had little commercial use at the time, but a good deal of spiritual use.
• This chapter talks about the future to Ch 12. the resurrection, thus a very restricted summary - not all of time, and locations - Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future - not restricted to just Israel, but also: just the bad news.
• Daniel believed at the end of the 70 years, they would be allowed to return to the land, to serve God & enjoy him forever. However, the message is that back in the land, there would be a captivity in their own land - ruled by foreign lands; not all adversity is punishment, this time of trial to prepare his people.
• This is why it's so necessary to have the resounding comfort, that Israel was not in this alone - the Archangels to help; Michael reads selectively from the 'Book of Truth' - nothing is catching God by suprise. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life,...
• Useful to understand Daniel 11: not a helpful chapter division, added in C13th to help people refer to / discuss scripture, can be terribly misleading. I [ Gabriel ] took my stand to support and protect him - in the spiritual realm, everything is black and white - but on earth, it's ~all grey. Here Gabriel was supporting and protecting a Pagan King - Darius the Mede, in that 1st year - he was inspired to issue a decree to allow Israel to return to the promised land. In 1879 archaeologists made an amazing discovery in Babylon that confirmed this decree - part of a comprehensive plan of Cyrus, to allow all of the formerly exiled people to return to their ancestral homes & every one of them to re-build the temples of their traditional faith. Dubbed, the charter of human rights - giving the freedom of religion. Tragic that the modern Iran has withdrawn that freedom from it's own people.
• From Jerome, the 3 Kings have been identified as Cambisies, Smyrdus, Darius the Great, then the 4th King - Xerxes, (husband of Esther the Queen), Herodotus etc. he was fabulously wealthy - launched the 1st attack against the Greeks. Vs, 3: we jump over 130years & 8 Persian kings who arn't mentioned: inconsequential, no great suffering for the people of Israel. vs. 3 clearly describes Alexander the Great, pwrt. reference to previous chapters. Oliver Stone's 173 minute film: 'Alexander' - scripture gives him just 1 verse. [ simply not that much impact on Israel ].
• Vs. 5-20 - 160 years, given a lot of attention - Israel experienced life as it were in a vice grip; situated between 2 of the 4 empires split from Alexander's conquest; constantly warring in the nomans land over the dog-bone (Israel). 'South' - Egypt - ruled by the Ptolemys, in the 'North' - Syria - the Seleucids. Two periods - to vs 14, the South was dominant, then afterwards the North. Why no names ? they all have the same name: 'Ptolemy', in the North, all 'Seleucus' or 'Antiochus'.
• vs. 6 - apparently they were all poisoned; vs. 7, Seleucus the 2nd, vs. 10 'his sons' - Seleucus the 3rd, etc. remarkable how much modern scholarship is in agreement with this. vs. 11: Ptolemy 4th etc.
• Vs. 14 - Antiochus, establishes himself in the beautiful land - vs. 17 gave her Cleopatra in marriage (the 1st of 7 - we think of the 7th usually). vs. 18 - who is this commander: Scipio - who defeats Antiochus the great - and takes his son as a hostage to Rome; not yet ready to gobble up Israel etc. but takes the Son hostage for 15years - we'd later know as Antiochus Epiphanes.
• vs. 21-49 Antiochus' fortunes: He will be succeeded by a contemptible person who has not been given the honour of royalty - the arch villain marches on. vs. 30 Ships of the western coastland - 'Kittim' - Dead Sea Scrolls - a reference to Rome; the Roman Legate coming with his armies who stopped Antiochus Epiphanes, in his expansionist dreams in Egypt, came out of his boat & drew a circle in the sand around Antiochus Epiphanes, told him he could not step out of that circle under penalty of his life, if he did not give in to the demands of Rome: the ultimatum was that he would stop any further expansion & return home. He did that - but not a graceful looser - he takes it out on Israel, back there, news-casts a bit mixed up - delighted to hear that Antiochus had lost (thought he had lost his life) - a rebellion surfaced in Jerusalem; Antiochus decides he's had it - bound and determined to erradicate, not the people but their faith. No wonder so many verses about him - such malevolence.
• The practical application - what do you do when you have an Antiochus breathing down ones neck; an object of such malevolance etc. are we to fight fire with fire ? get a bigger army (the past verses suggest that doesn't work): no you fight at a different level - with wisdom.
• With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him. - if you know God - your religion is not just a religion but a relationship with the living God: you're not going to be fooled by Antiochus' claims to be God on Earth. Striking coins at the time with the name 'Epiphanies' - the image of Zeus on earth. The coins have the traditional idol of Zeus, with Antiocus' face superimposed.
• By giving enormous bribes, flattery etc. The outcome of a wise life: Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. - most people think that if you're wise you avoid that sort of thing, cut the right deal etc. But not the wisdom of Daniel. God's wisdom often ends with martyrdom, but it is the outcome of it that proves it's wisdom. Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.
• He knows the way I will take, when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold - as Job says
• What is the wise response ? E-mails from Pastors in the Ukraine, serving & praying with people in Kiev, in the center of the masses; 'Christians for Truth' etc. He writes: "On a very separate not - pray: the churches are too often silent in their quest for justice - the 1st people protesting in down-town Kiev should have been the Christians - whatever side we're on we should have been demanding fairness, the worst side to be on is the neutral side". There is no Golden Middle - by not taking sides, you are taking a side.
• Dr Henry Beecher - an Army doctor, 1944, 100k allied troops at the beach-head at Anzio - 4,400 troops lost their lives, 18k wounded. Writing about his experiences later - troops with deep lacerations, broken bones, entire missing limbs - waving off (with the other limb) the invitation of a shot of morphine to control the pain. Beecher - a pain specialist, when he got back to Boston, setup a study of similar problems here, to measure their needs for pain relief - their pain could not be controled - while at Anzio they had no pain.
  • Conditioning - Soldiers trained to expect pain - the power of negative thinking - you're not taken by suprise. Daniel is blessing the reader by telling them they're going into a war zone, as we do Be self controlled and alert - your enemy the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour, resist him standing firm in the faith - are we suprised that we have cancer ? are we suprised that we have temptations to infidelity in our marriages ? - or whatever problem that is testing your faith.
  • Congruence - you're not alone - the tragic victim of a car accident in Boston - the only one who has just lost his leg, on the beach of Ansio - all taking fire. No temptation has siezed you, except what is common to man, and God is faithful, he won't let you be tested beyond what you can bear 1 Cor 10
  • Confidence - the circumstances of these terrible afflictions, in some way soldiers percieve that the loss of their sight, leg, blood etc. in some way advanced the cause of liberation in Europe - and so it is for us; I want to Christ and the power of his ressurection, the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, and becoming like him in his death, Don't be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. - Rev 2.
• This is where Daniel 12 ends, the promise of the future. Nothing that is happening, is outside the plan of God. God is working through the sufferings of this life - if we bear the cross, we will wear the crown.