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Genesis 19, Acts 19, Judges 19

Genesis 19, Acts 19, & Judges 19 repeat the same general narrative . There at least 9 identifiable parallels between them.   Speaking for myself, those who seek to minimize or otherwise diminish that fact do so because they know full well that Acts 19 makes it absolutely clear that angry religiously motivated bigotry plays a major role in each narrative. It’s best not embrace that truth, insofar as it calls attention to the guilt of those who seek to ignore, minimize, diminish, &tc this fact, & they dare not admit the truth openly.   The fact that the Bible’s chaptering system did not arrive until the Reformation Age, it does therefore follow that the number 19 is irrelevant to our understanding of the text.  First, God’s providence is absolute, all encompassing, & meticulous. Nothing happens without a reason.  Second, here’s a sample of the significance of the number 19 in biblical gematria:  Craving, need, woe, greatly injured, hated, confidenc...
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Slouching Toward Gomorrah (Part 2)

People read an awful lot into the threat the men of Sodom issued.  For them, it’s all about homosexuality.  In reality, Genesis 19 itself says that they were there because they felt judged.    Lot seeks to remonstrate with them & they accuse him of hypocrisy.  Genesis 19 doesn’t state anything you wrote.  It does, however, that the angels were there in response to the great outcry. The same story repeats in Judges 19.   There, the lynch mob issues the same threat & rape - murders a female.    If Genesis 19 is the proverb against homosexuality you obviously think it is, then how much more Judges is a proverb against heterosexuality.  What happened in Sodom? The proximate reason was the failure to find ten righteous people, and the men who rejected them were a mob of Angry Religious Bigots who very likely planned to either rape them or intoxicate the messengers and involve them in a pagan rite. They were doing the same thing the pe...
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Halloween/Reformation Day/Purim

  7  So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.  2  And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”  3  Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request.  4  For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” 5  Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared[a] to do this?”  6  And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. H...
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For Leonard: A Dog’s Joy

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Joy Is Who You Share It With This is the Way!  Oh LORD, Hear our prayer(s)! O LORD, Hear our prayers! 
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Halloween/Reformation Day/Purim Reading: Esther 6

  The King Honors Mordecai 6  On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.  2  And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana[a] and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.  3  And the king said, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king's young men who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”  4  And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows[b] that he had prepared for him. 5  And the king's young men told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”  6  So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done to the man whom the...
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For Leonard: A Dog’s Joy

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Joy Is Who You Share It With This is the Way!  Oh LORD, Hear our prayer(s)! O LORD, Hear our prayers! 
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Halloween/Reformation Day/Purim Reading :Esther 6

  The King Honors Mordecai 6  On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.  2  And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.  3  And the king said, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king's young men who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”  4  And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. 5  And the king's young men told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”  6  So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done to the man whom the king ...
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Psalm 67

67  To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song. 1  May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah 2  that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. 3  Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 4  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah 5  Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 6  The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. 7  God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!  ( Psalm 67:title–7 , ESV)
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Halloween/Refornation Day/Purim Reading: Esther 4 - 5

Esther 4-5   Esther Agrees to Help the Jews 4  When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry.  2  He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth.  3  And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4  When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.  5  Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.  6 ...
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