Compassed About Me

A Good Start...

Jimmy has this open letter on his blog. 

Things must be getting serious if Democrats and Republicans can come together in recommending what I feel is a very constructive energy plan.

The only question that remains is: Is it enough?

Well, in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, it is not, and let me tell you why:

This is the land where We the People are the ones who ostensibly run things and if there ever was a time for all the summer soldiers out there to wake up then it is now. 

When the Declaration of Independence says that:

 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...

I think we need to remember that there's a really big word that starts with an "R" that lurks just beneath the surface of that fine language, and that word is RESPONSIBILITY.  The signers of the Declaration didn't just sign a piece of paper and then shut it down.  The did what it took, and in the end there was a real USA, and they set the precedent of ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things...all without someone "in charge" having to tell them to do it. 

We may not be trying to build a new country here [although this one needs some serious repair work!] but nevertheless we face a serious challenge regarding energy.  I think that while it is perfectly proper to ask:

What are WE going to do?

It is even more important to ask:

What am I going to do?
 
Am I going to continue to use energy like there is an infinite supply [there isn't!]...

Or am I going to start, RIGHT NOW, doing what I can do?

I am not going to tell you what to do.  There are literally thousands of websites that can tell you how to save energy.  Google it.  What I am going to encourage you to do is ACT.  The same God who gave you those rights I quoted earlier also gave you the brains to use the resources He has supplied you with responsibly.  Get with the program.

Start a new revolution today.  Maybe once we get this energy mess straightened out we can move on to all the other things that need attention.

Chris

Random Thought...

I'm sure you've heard the phrase:

"No Pain, No Gain!"

Here's a twist:

"There's no pain like no gain."

Chris

Cleaned Hands...

Hag 2:10  On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet,
Hag 2:11  "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law:
Hag 2:12  'If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?'" The priests answered and said, "No."
Hag 2:13  Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it [bread, stew, wine, oil, etc.] become unclean?" The priests answered and said, "It does become unclean."
Hag 2:14  Then Haggai answered and said, "So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.

This is not a pretty picture, is it?  The people cannot be made holy by the sacrifices they make.  Indeed, the sacrifice itself is rendered unholy because it has been touched by those who are dead [spiritually, that is], so making the sacrifices unholy.

Hag 2:15  Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD,
Hag 2:16  how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.
Hag 2:17  I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD.
Hag 2:18  Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider:
Hag 2:19  Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you."

The LORD then declares that this situation will change.  All of the things that have been cursed by the unholy hands of the people will be redeemed.  But how?

Hag 2:20  The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month,
Hag 2:21  "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth,
Hag 2:22  and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother.
Hag 2:23  On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts."

Not by any work through Zerubbabel, but by the One he foreshadows:  Jesus Christ.  Christ will come and kill our unholiness on the Cross and give us the right to the blessings of the LORD!  Because His hands are clean, so shall ours be clean.  And we will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

Chris

I Can't Drive 55...Part Deux...

An update on the mileage front...

With gasoline now hovering around $4 a gallon, [although with the wholesale price dropping 40 cents a gallon this past week that might soon change for the better!] I am coming dangerously close to becoming a hypermiler. 

Well, not really.  One thing I did do, though, was buy a little device called a Scanguage.  It plugs into your OBDII connector and gives you all kinds of useful information, the most important of which are engine rpm, gallons [of gasoline] per hour, instantaneous mpg, and mph.  If you really want to know, you can see your coolant temperature, intake air temperature, and even how many pounds of pressure you are putting on your gas pedal!  It also can display mpg per tank, per day, per trip, etc.

Now, a lot of cars have a lot of these functions displayed on the dash or elsewhere but I don't think any car has ALL of these functions.

I have had this little device installed for 2 weeks now and here is what I have found:

1.  Driving 55 REALLY does save gas!  Seriously, call and write your Congressmen, Senators, and the President and tell them we need to IMMEDIATELY change the nationwide speed limit to 55mph.  I did.
Their email addresses are easy to find. 

2.  Driving without the air conditioner on saves quit a bit as well.  I can tell because when I am driving along the interstate on a level surface and the instantaneous mpg is 40mpg it drops to 33mpg when I turn on the air.  I'm glad this summer is relatively mild!

Here's another interesting thing I have found:  driving has become relaxing again.  I just get in the car, ease [!] it out of the driveway, get it up to 55 as smoothly as I can, and put it in cruise.  Believe me, I NEVER run up on someone's rear bumper any more.  My tailgating days are over.  The windows are down, the radio's on, and I'm totally relaxed.  I'll get there when I get there.  As for the other drivers out there, the good thing about me going 55 is that it won't take them too long to get by me.  I just shake my head as I think about all that money they are wasting as they blow by me.  To each his own, I guess.

By the way, I got 36.3 mpg on my last tank.  That is 15% better than what I used to get in the "old" days.  Saved $13 on gas last week. 

It just gets better and better.

Chris

The Latter House

Hag 2:1  In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,
Hag 2:2  "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,
Hag 2:3  'Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
Hag 2:4  Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts,
Hag 2:5  according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
Hag 2:6  For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.
Hag 2:7  And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:8  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:9  The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.'"

This Temple was no Solomon's Temple!

Ezr 3:11  And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
Ezr 3:12  But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid...

And yet the LORD promises a new temple to the people.  What they don't know yet is that this new temple will be made out of living stones and its High Priest, who will be called Emmanuel,  will rule from heaven and the kind of peace He brings will be the one between God and man.

Chris

Dave

We went to church this this past Sunday at the Carpenter's Shop  to play some music and to hear Dr. David Black talk for a little bit about the reliability of the biblical text. 

I don't have any pictures here, but you can find them here and here.

Dr. Black, or Dave, as he insists people call him, was both very informative and very entertaining, in the way that only people who have a sound grasp of what they are talking about can be.

His main illustration of the ramifications of sound textual transmission was Matthew 5:22.  In the KJV it reads:

Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire

In the ESV, which I read, it says:

Mat 5:22  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.

If you'll notice, the phrase "without a cause" is absent from the ESV version.  Why is this?  The highly simplified answer is that the Greek texts that underlie these two versions of the Bible are different.  The Greek text that the KVJ  was translated from has the phrase [actually in Greek it is just one word] and the Greek text that the ESV was translated from doesn't.  You may ask yourself, "Why is this?"

Well, it turns out, according to Dave, that there are many reasons why this could be so.  It could have been a copyists error.  Try copying a page from a book, by hand, sometime and see how it turns out.  On the other hand, a copyist may have been trying to "improve" the text.  Say the original copy had "without a cause".  Some copyist looks at that and then considers the ease with which we justify our anger and decides it would be better to just drop that phrase.  Or it could have been the other way around.  Some copyist looked at the ESV type version and thought that it made Jesus look way too harsh and legalistic and so added the phrase to make Him sound more like the loving and forgiving man who died for us. 

In any case, we are left with a bunch of Greek [over 5400 of them!] texts and they all differ from each other.  There are, if some sources are to be believed, tens of thousands of copying "errors" between the various Greek texts.  Fortunately, people who devote their time to the study of these texts, even those who of the theologically liberal persuasion,  tell us that the VAST majority of these "errors" are just misspelled words, doubled words, words used in the wrong context, etc.  In other words, they have nothing to do with the integrity of the text.  These can easily be seen for what they are and accounted for.  They do nothing at all to shake anyone's confidence that we can have as close to the original autographs as can be had. 

There are, David said, approximately 2,000 "errors" that are a bit more serious in that there are real differences in the text that change the meaning of the verses or passages they are in.  The good news is none of these variations touch or affect at all the core doctrines of Christianity. 

I'll be honest with you:  I wish those "errors" weren't there.  It would sure make everything neat and tidy.  But as I faced these issues shortly after Jesus saw fit to save me I realized that our understanding of the Bible is much like our understanding of life.  It is rarely cut and dried and it is rarely black and white. We each have choices to make.

The fact of the matter, as David pointed out, is that we do in all likelihood, have ALL the words of the original autographs.  In fact, we are in a situation where we have MORE than the original words.  We just aren't absolutely certain which of those words belong and which ones don't. 

Does that mean we cannot trust the Bible?  Of course not.  It simply means we have to rely all the more on God as we seek to understand it. 

And, most importantly, as we look at a passage like 2 Timothy3:16:

2Ti 3:16  All Scripture is breathed out by God...

Don't forget the rest:

and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17  that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Believing the Word is the Word is one thing.  Living it is quite another.  Don't neglect the latter.

Chris

Trick of the light...

The straw was spread on the road's shoulder

Protecting and nurturing the life beneath

It shimmered and shone in the evening sun

Like strands of gold against black velvet

Finish What You Started...

Hag 1:14  And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
Hag 1:15  on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

They may have set about working on a physical building, but there is no doubt that the real work was SPIRIT-ual. Notice the repetition of that in verse 14: "...the spirit of..." 3 times. 

It had been 24 days from the Lord's call to the time the people acted. 

If you remember the Israelites had been working on the Temple for about 14 years until:

Ezr 4:23  Then, when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease.
Ezr 4:24  Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

So the Temple had stood for about 3 years in an unfinished state.  

But now it was time to finish.  It was an act of courage for the people to do so.

Chris

I AM WITH YOU...

Hag 1:12  Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.
Hag 1:13  Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, "I am with you, declares the LORD."

This passage, 1-13, is a classic example of the Old Testament illustrating the New. 

In the Age to Come, which paradoxically we are in, we are a spiritual people who make up a spiritual body.  We do not build temples to satisfy God, as the Israelites did, but the principle is the same.  In building the Temple, Israel put God first.  They illustrated perfectly putting aside one's own desires to obey God.  We, who are building a Temple not made of hands, should take heed of their example.

Especially important is the Lord's statement: I am with you.  Yes, He is with us, but notice that this only happens when we are obedient to Him.  God is for Himself.  God is for whatever direction He is going in.  You can either get with Him and go on for the ride, and go His way, or you can be left behind.

Chris

Second Best?

Hag 1:8  Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.
Hag 1:9  You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
Hag 1:10  Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.

Mat 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

God, quite simply, will not stand idly by and allow Himself to be put in second place. 

Chris

"Preying" Mantis...

I found this praying mantis out on my new deck this morning.  I'm sure it was there to double-check the soundness of my deck design!  He [or she] seemed satisfied so I gave him a lift to the bush at the corner of our house. 

He then consented to pose for some photographs before heading out to find some lunch!

All I can say is:  Happy hunting!

Chris 

Consider Your Ways...

Hag 1:7  "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.

If there was one thing that I had to pick that is the greatest weakness in our society today it is a lack of self reflection.  As in the days of Haggai, we run around, working at jobs, buying stuff, going on vacations, etc.  And it seems like the only time we pay attention to the value of these things are times like these when gas has gone to $4 a gallon [or more] and we begin to worry that we might have to give up something. 

Notice that even this kind of thinking is incredibly superficial because we never seem to get down to the real question, which is:

Does what I am doing have any real value and is it therefore proper to spend ANY of my resources doing it? 

And that question leads us to the heart of the matter, which is:

Is this what GOD wants me to do with the resources God has given me?  Is what I am doing acceptable to God? 

Consider your ways.

Chris

The More Things Change...

Hag 1:1  In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
Hag 1:2  "Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD."
Hag 1:3  Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,
Hag 1:4  "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
Hag 1:5  Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
Hag 1:6  You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

In the seventh year of Bush the President, in the seventh month, on the fifth day of the month the word of the Lord came to me:

"Not much has changed in the past 2,500 years, has it..."

Chris

Happy Birthday America!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

With these words America began the improbable, and at times I'm sure it seemed to the men who signed this document nearly impossible, journey towards independence.  I love reading about the beginning of our nation and thought that always hits me the hardest is this:

How in the world did it ever happen? At every turn it seems that one wrong decision, one wrong move would have forever doomed the effort.  Thirteen colonies, which in reality were Thirteen countries, could barely agree on anything.  An army, led by a general who lost many more battles than he won and staffed by men who, until the spring of 1778 couldn't even properly be called soldiers.  A populace which was more or less evenly divided:  Tories and Patriots. 

And yet the raod was traveled and the dreams were realized, I think, because the words of the Declaration meant something to these men.  They represented a reality that had been born in the Magna Carta and had been nourished in the British culture, ironically the one they found themselves struggling against.  I wonder sometimes if the real reason the British gave up after Yorktown was because, despite the fact that losing America was a blow to their pride, they couldn't help but see that they had in a very real sense BIRTHED America, and in that fact they could take some satisfaction.

Two Hundred and Thirty Two years later not a whole lot has changed.  We are divided in many ways and the cultural landscape is ever changing.  I look back over our history and remain amazed that our country has made it this far.  But when I ook at the words of this amazing document I find they still resonate in my heart, just as they resonated in the hearts of Jefferson, Adams [both of them!], Washington, and all the others who pledged live and property for their dream.  

...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

May it ever be so and may we ever be ready to assert these rights.

Chris

 

Finis___

Mar 16:1  When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
Mar 16:2  And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
Mar 16:3  And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"
Mar 16:4  And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back--it was very large.
Mar 16:5  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.
Mar 16:6  And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.
Mar 16:7  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you."
Mar 16:8  And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Marks emphasis on the women of the Gospel story continues. 

My personal opinion is that Mark does indeed end his story at verse 8 and that the remaining verses are not original. 

So what does that leave us with?

At first glance, it seems like the ending comes entirely too abruptly, and we are left to wonder:

Will the women tell Peter and the rest of the disciples of the angels message? 

Of course we know the answer:  They DO!  But I think the awkwardness of the ending is its strength.  We are put into the women's shoes and we have to ask ourselves:  Will WE repeat the angels message?

I think that

Hidden No More...

Mar 15:42  And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
Mar 15:43  Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Mar 15:44  Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead.
Mar 15:45  And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph.
Mar 15:46  And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
Mar 15:47  Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

There are a couple of points here:

1.  Jesus was dead.  There is no doubt.  There was no "swooning".  There was no "coma".  The Romans were very efficient of everything they did, and they particularly excelled at killing people.

2.  Even in death, Jesus fulfilled the Law.  He was buried by someone who knew the rules and regulations concerning burials and was buried appropriately.

Interesting that those who claimed to be bold, the Apostles, should be hiding in fear yet one who had previously hidden in fear, Joseph, now takes courage and acts decisively.

Chris

Mar 15:40  There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.
Mar 15:41  When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

In the Gospel of Mark, women are certainly given a prominent place.  Consider this:

Mar 1:23  And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit...
Mar 2:3  And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Mar 3:1  Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.
Mar 5:2  And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.
Mar 7:32  And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
Mar 8:22  And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.
Mar 10:46  And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.
Mar 10:47  And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Torn...and yet Mended

Mar 15:37  And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.
Mar 15:38  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
Mar 15:39  And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

I can't say whether or not the curtain in the Temple was exactly like the one in the Tabernacle, but here is the description of that one:

Exo 26:31  "And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it.
Exo 26:32  And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver.
Exo 26:33  And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.
Exo 26:34  You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place.

The centurion looked and saw the way Jesus breathed His last and knew there was something different about Him.  But that's not how he knew that Jesus was the Son of God.

He knew because the curtain was torn in two, the separation between God and man was abolished.

In other words, he knew Jesus was the Son of God because God revealed it to him.

Interesting that the first person who knew the truth was a Gentile...

Chris

Wrong Again...

Mar 15:35  And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah."
Mar 15:36  And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down."

The people misunderstood what Jesus was saying.  Robertson's Word Pictures explains it well enough. 

Until the end, the people were blind.  They still expected a King to free Israel and rule over them. 

Well, they did get that, didn't they? 

It just wasn't that kind of kingdom nor that kind of rule.

Chris

Foresaken by God...

Mar 15:33  And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
Mar 15:34  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Do a word search on "darkness" in the OT and it will shed a lot of light on what is going on here.  There is a particular passage that fits:

Deu 4:11  And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.
Deu 4:12  Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.
Deu 4:13  And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

God once again withdrew from His people, up onto the mountain [figuratively speaking], separate and apart from everyone, including Jesus.  Jesus, as He hung there dying on the Cross, became fully identified with US.  In sacrificing Himself, He instituted a NEW covenant to replace the one at Sanai. 

Jesus endured separation from His Father.  He also endured the wrath of His Father.  He took it in our place so that we will never be forgotten and never forsaken. 

Chris