Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem(7/23/22)[Prayer]

The Holy Scriptures | 7/23/22 | left that other site

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Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Genesis 43

The Second Journey to Egypt

43 Now the famine was still severe in the land. 2 So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”

3 But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”

6 Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”

7 They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”

8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. 10 As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”

11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. 12 Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. 13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Almighty[a] grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

15 So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare a meal; they are to eat with me at noon.”

17 The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph’s house. 18 Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”

19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. 20 “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. 21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. 22 We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”

23 “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

24 The steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys. 25 They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there.

26 When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. 27 He asked them how they were, and then he said, “How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?”

28 They replied, “Your servant our father is still alive and well.” And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him.

29 As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” 30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.

31 After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, “Serve the food.”

32 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. 33 The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. 34 When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.

Footnotes

a Genesis 43:14 Hebrew El-Shaddai

_______________________________________________________

God Bless America.

ML/LTOS

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Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Oh LORD,
Our God,
How Excellent,
How Wonderful,
How Perfect is Your Holy Name!
We Rejoice In Your Creation, Dear Father,
But we do not worship it!
Teach us to be Wise Stewards of Your Gifts.
Teach us to Rejoice in Your Creation,
And Always Give the Glory To You!
In Quietness and Confidence is Our Strength,
Because We Know That You Are Lord Over All Creation!
You Are On the Throne,
And You Are In Control!
Father, We Pray That You Will Bring Renewal to Our Beloved Nation.
We Pray That You Will Open The Eyes of People To Your Will For Our Land.

Let all that has been Concealed
Be Revealed.

Father, We Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem,
According To Your Will and Promise.
We Pray That You Will Forgive The Sins
of Our Own Nation,
and Lead us all to Godly Repentance.
Create in Us Clean Hearts, Oh LORD,
and Renew a Right Spirit Within Us.

This we Pray Together,
As We Await Your Messiah,
Blessed Be He,
To Set Up His Kingdom,
And Make All Things Right.

God Bless America.

ML/LTOS

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Genesis 43

The Second Journey to Egypt

43 Now the famine was still severe in the land. 2 So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”

3 But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’”

6 Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”

7 They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”

8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. 10 As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”

11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. 12 Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. 13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Almighty[a] grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

15 So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare a meal; they are to eat with me at noon.”

17 The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph’s house. 18 Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”

19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. 20 “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. 21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. 22 We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”

23 “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

24 The steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys. 25 They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there.

26 When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. 27 He asked them how they were, and then he said, “How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?”

28 They replied, “Your servant our father is still alive and well.” And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him.

29 As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” 30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.

31 After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, “Serve the food.”

32 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. 33 The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. 34 When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.

Footnotes

a Genesis 43:14 Hebrew El-Shaddai

_______________________________________________________

One the corner of Washington St. and Boylston, across from The Boston Common, there was an intriguing sign on a second story window:

MADAME KUZATZKAH
GIFTED PSYCHIC
TEA LEAF READINGS

Well, of course, I and my two hippie girlfriends, Ruta and Barbara, had to check this out. So we went into the door that was a possible entrance and into a dark 19th-Century Office Building with worn marble floors and no elevator. Climbing up the cast iron staircase, I had a bad feeling, but didn't want to be "uncool". The door was well marked with all kinds of crazy symbols, and we went in through a beaded curtain. It was $10.00 for a reading, which seemed cheap enough, and between the three of us, we came up with the money for ONE cup of tea. All of us drank from the cup, and then Madame Kuzatzhah began the usual fake mumbo-jumbo about a "tall handsome stranger" etc. Then she said she needed more money to continue. The three of us rolled our eyes and said "No" and left. As we descended the cast-iron stairway, I silently said the Lord's Prayer in my head. I had no Idea where that come from, as I had not prayed in a long, long, time.. I guess the Lord Himself may have put that into my head, but anyway, outwardly we girls had a good laugh about how "fake" Madame Kuzatzkah was. But, if she was so fake, why did the Lord prompt me, a marxist, hippy, atheist at the time, to say a prayer from my childhood? There are more things in the Universe than we can ever imagine.

For a long time I wondered why Joseph, a godly man, was playing this cat-and-mouse game with his brothers. The story of the Silver Divination Cup is one of those puzzling stories of deceit, occult dabbling, and cruelty that has puzzled scholars for centuries. Some Rabbis have said that The Patriarch Joseph would NEVER practice divination. But that would mean that he was lying, both to his servants and to his brothers. And godly men don't lie either!

Other Scholars say that Joseph did indeed practice divination, using a silver cup (probably reading the dregs of the beverage, like tea leaves). This was over 400 years before Moses and the Giving of The Law, so there was no prohibition against divination. We know that Joseph always attributed his Dream-Interpretation ability to God, and there is no reason to think that he didn't also rely upon the One True God when he looked into his divination cup. He stated on more than one occasion that he himself did not possess psychic powers, but relied totally upon the Lord.

It is possible that growing up sitting at his mother's knee, that he heard stories about a similar incident with his mother and grandfather. Remember when Rachel stole Laban's idols, and then lied about them? Those idols probably ended up buried under the Oak of Forgetfulness, but the story may have given Joseph the idea about the Silver Cup.

In our Walk with the Lord, we are to eschew and abandon any occult practices (even the fake ones). The reason for this is that it shows a relience on something other than Faith in God. It also opens the door to things that can really cause spiritual harm.

So why did Joseph go through all this nonsense and mumbo-jumbo with his brothers? Why didn't he just reveal himself right away and be straight about it?

I think that the brothers needed this in order for them to repent. They had to actually feel the fear of imprisonment, slavery, death, and bereavement in order to experience the true consequences of their horrible behavior towards Joseph and Jacob. Just telling them would not be enough. They could easily have faked repentance and not have been changed inwardly. God knew what these men needed, and influenced Joseph to string them along until just the right moment. My humble opinion, anyway.

If Madame Kuzatzkah were for real, she would have predected that I would someday shed my hippy garb, become Conservative in my politics, and be robed in the Righteousness of my Savior.

But it wasn't in the Tea Leaves. Madame Kuzatzhah was:

FAKE, FAKE, FAKE.

Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[etabeta]

My prayers always. God bless.

[DarthVader]

Amen !!! <><

Psalm 16

A Miktam of David.

1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.’*

3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble,
in whom is all my delight.

4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows;*
their drink-offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names upon my lips.

5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.

7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
10 For you do not give me up to Sheol,
or let your faithful one see the Pit.

11 You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.

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Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, Etabeta, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, DarthVader, For Your Prayers and Righteous Psalm For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[TianaHighrider]

Many thanks and blessings 🙏
Prayers up ❤

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, TianaHighrider, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[Hebrews 11:6]

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, Hebrews 11:6, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[redryder_90]

Amen

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, redryder_90, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[NEWwoman]

The Divining Cup seems puzzling.

But before the canon of Scripture, prophets had dreams, visions. And under the Law of Moses, priests used the urim and thummim to divine the will of God. The Wise Men looked in the sky to see the Star of Bethlehem.

Anyway, Joseph put the fear of God in them.

Joining in prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem and for our beloved America.

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, NEWwoman For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[Hiskid]

Amen.

I came out of the occult as well—astrology, tea leaves, numerology, ouija boards and i ching. God is God of it all. I had the coins of i ching tell me I was right to pursue salvation through Jesus! “with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible”

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, Hiskid For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[Jeanbl]

Amen, thank you. Joining together in prayer.

[left that other site]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, Jeanbl, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS