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CR18Day_12 @ nkjv@Genesis:25 @ RandyP comments: Women often have twins. Not many ever have two nations in their womb though. As we move forward into the story of Jacob and Esau we have to remember that while the rivalry between the twin brothers is interesting, the story we need to focus on is the story of two rival nations that will continue long after. Esau becomes what will be known as the nation of Edom. Remember that it was Edom that prohibited Israel safe passage from the wilderness into Canaan. Remember that it was Edom that Israel was at constant war with in the days of Saul and David and Jehosaphat. Remember that is was Edom that joined forces with the Babylonian armies to capture Israel. It was the Edomites pressed under the thumb of the Maccabees, forced into Judaism. When we come to Isaac's deathbed blessing, Rebekah's insistence upon Jacob stealing the rights from Esau, this is of major importance to the lineage of Jacob/Israel.

CR18Day_23 @ nkjv@Mark:16 @ RandyP comments: Let us be clear as to why we believe in the death/resurrection/ascension of Jesus Christ the Son of God. It is not just because of these few testimonies from people that had seen Him in the flesh resurrected at the time (central and key as this evidence is). No we believe because of all that God has established prior to these testimonies even before Jesus Himself was born incarnate. We believe because of what was promised Adam and Eve of a seed to crush Satan, we believe because of what was promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, we believe because of what was promised to Moses and David and several verifiable prophets speaking to all Israel. We further believe because of the way God conducted HIMSELF even in man's utter disobedience, we believe because of the grace and mercy and longsuffering HE has shown successively to each generation, what HE has brought HIS people through, how HE has gathered HIS people, how lovingly HE has at times corrected them, how HE has stayed true to HIS word and not forsaken us even when we have not fully reciprocated. Much more do we believe because of the manner in which Jesus was born, the attention and resistance and tension from men His presence received even early on as an infant, later because of His teachings, because of His works (their size and scope and form). We believe because of the way He became despised and rejected for little or no tangible reason, sought after to kill, illegally tried and sentenced, brought before the Roman magistrate to execute because the Jews could not themselves do it. We believe because of the way people responded after His death, during the reports of His resurrection, the wild fire that immediately started throughout the region because of His gospel. We believe because of the effect this essential truth has proven to be in the everyday lives of everyday people throughout the ages ever since. In other words we believe because of all that God has established before and after to make this known, to confirm it as happening, to bless and favor those that this gospel has touched. In essence we have collected the best individual books relating to this evidence and establishment into one larger book of books. Each has it's own place in the chain of evidence. This Bible is why we believe what we do about that Jesus of Nazareth, His death/resurrection/ascension, that is why we believe even further in the revelation of His soon second coming and the day of final judgment. It is because of all that God has done throughout man's time on earth that brings us to these very same conclusions. Many will argue the resurrection and ascension singularly as if that were all it took to dispel all this other. I would say rather that it is all this other that proves the case for this one tremendously joyous thing: Christ indeed has Risen!

CR18Day_24 @ nkjv@Psalms:24 @ RandyP comments: LORD of hosts is a common phrase in the OT filter:OT LORD+of+hosts . King of glory only appears in this one psalm filter:OT King+of+glory and here it appears five times. It is made obvious that the LORD and the King are one in the same. Rarely is the LORD of hosts ever equated to king filter:OT LORD+of+hosts+AND+king , the king being referred to elsewhere is a human king. The point is that this king is none other than the Jehovah of hosts, the strong and mighty, mighty in battle. Agreed? It is not David. It is not Israel herself. It is not some future human ruler. It is Messiah; Messiah is Jehovah of hosts. So why would King of glory/LORD of hosts be entering through gates of eternity when He should already be there? Why does He have to be identified and equated to as one in the same? Why need there be such a joyous celebration at this occurrence? Could it be that took upon Himself flesh being born of a woman, was despised and rejected, stood silent like a lamb before it's shearers, bore the iniquity of us all, was cut off from the land of the living, was raised into the pleasure of the remaining Jehovah and lives evermore to make intercession for transgressors? That certainly would something worth celebrating. That certainly would require our re-familiarization to as to His true identity. So I ask you: Who is this King of glory?

CR18Day_25 @ nkjv@Psalms:108 @ RandyP comments: A psalm anticipating triumph by David covering a vast swath of the region. Shechem = Palestine land (central Samaria). Succoth = valley east of Jordan held by tribe of Gad. Gilead = Land held by tribes Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh (east of Jordan). Ephraim = Land allotted tribe of Ephraim (later day Samaria central 1/3 west of Jordan). Judah = Land allotted Judah and Benjamin and later Simeon (southern 1/3 west of Jordan). Moab = Descendents of Lot (east of Jordan). Edom = Descendents of Esau (mountainous region near Red Sea). Philistia = Coast lands west of lands held by Dan and Simeon. God's help is key. God had not always gone with Israel's armies. David cries out: Give us help from trouble. The help of man is useless. Through God we will do valiantly!

CR18Day_26 @ nkjv@Genesis:48 @ RandyP comments: "...truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations." Of each of Jacobs sons, each became a single tribe of Israel except for Joseph who became two. The twelve tribes are really thirteen by count but twelve by vote, the two are often counted as half tribes else other times the priestly tribe of Levi is excluded. Manasseh settles east of the Jordan. Ephraim settles west of Jordan in a somewhat central parcel that one day becomes Samaria. For four hundred years it hosted the Ark and the Tabernacle until the time of David (of Judah). Joshua, Gideon and Saul were all leaders over Israel from this tribe. Early on Ephraim was pre-eminent among all the tribes under until the second Jewish period when that importance was given to Judah. It split with Judah along with nine other tribes during Solomon's son King Rehoboam's oppresive reign. Assyria latter took it over and the tribe was forced to intermingle marriages. The whole became the so called "bastard" nations of Samaria.