Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Abba, Father,
 How Wonderful You Are!
 And LORD, Our God,
 How Excellent is Your Name Over All the Earth!
 You Alone Are Worthy To be Praised,
 For You Alone Are The One True God of The Universe.
 We Thank You for Revealing Your Secrets Through Your Word,
 To those who have will have eyes to see,
 and ears to hear.

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.

”The Greatest Of these Is Love.”

If you would like to be on or off the Daily Ping List, please let me know.

ML/LTOS

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

A New Study For A New Year: Personalities

Exodus 7:1-15

7 And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

2 Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.

3 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

6 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they.

7 And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.

8 And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

10 And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

13 And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.

14 And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.

15 Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.

16 And thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

17 Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

18 And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.

19 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said.

23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.

24 And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

25 And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river.

The King James Version

________________________

Many Christians, who have never attended a Passover Seder, reenact the Seder every time they receive Communion. This is because The Last Supper was a Passover Meal. Many only know the Story of the Passover from the wonderful movie "The Ten Commandments". When I saw the movie for the first time, in the ratty old Rialto Theater in Roslindale Square in Boston, it answered a lot of questions I had about my Jewish classmates and the strange crumbly matzoh sandwiches they brought to school during Passover.

The costumes in the movie, designed by Edith Head, were magnificent, and closely resembled the ones depicted in the Museum of Fine Arts Egyptian Collection. She did a great job! Her accuracy, especially involving Pharaoh's regalia, inspired this essay I wrote some time ago about CROWNS.

Just as the Queen of England has a number of ceremonial crowns for different occasions of State, so did the Ancient Kings and Queens of Egypt have a number of different crowns for different ceremonies. The White Crown (Hedjet) looked like the SNL Conehead character. It represented Upper Egypt, which was "Upper" only because it was where the Nile flowed from. That would have made it South, as the Nile flows from South to North.

The Red Crown (Deshret) looked like a scooped-out bucket seat, and represented Lower Egypt, where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean to the North. At one time these were two different kingdoms.

One of the most important events in the political history of Ancient Egypt was the Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one king. It is commemorated in stone.

The Unification necessitated the design of a new crown, which is the Red and White Crown pictured above (Pschent). The Conehead fits perfectly into the Bucket Seat.

There was also a War Crown (Khepresh), which was a closely fitted helmet, a Religious Ceremony Crown (Atef), and the Familiar "King Tut" Crown (Nemes), which, in my opinion, resembles a farmer's sweat-rag made of striped cloth. Since the Pharaoh was worshipped as a god, and was responsible for the fertility of the Land, the idea of a farmer's sweat-rag is not too far-fetched. (Thanks to Wikipedia for this information and picture).

There is one thing common to all the crowns. Each one has a Cobra coiled up on the forehead, ready to strike. The symbol was included on the Political Crowns, the Battle Crown, the Religious Crown, and the Fertility Crown. One could infer that the Snake was the most powerful figure in Egyptian Mythology. One of the "science" narratives was that the Sun traveled through the body of a giant cobra at night, only to emerge victorious every morning. It was Pharaoh's job to keep even THIS astronomic cycle on schedule. He certainly had his hands full.

Big snakes are certainly a frightening thing. My beloved Everglades have, in the last few decades, been invaded by Giant Burmese Pythons. The did not swim here from Burma. They were "pets" that got too big to handle and were released into the wild. They are now eating the native species, including the Alligators. I'm not making this up. More than once, a snake has been opened up to find an alligator inside.

Because of the different Hebrew words used for the "snake" from Moses's Staff and the "serpent" from Aaron's staff, some scholars speculate that Aaron's staff turned into a crocodile that devoured the magicians' snakes. While this would be yet another judgment upon the gods of Egypt (they also worshiped the crocodile), it doesn't make sense to me. I believe that the reptiles were all snakes, albeit One being more powerful than all the others. This is consistent with the rest of Scripture, from the Serpent in the Garden, to Aaron's Staff, to Nehushtan (the snake on the pole that provided healing), to finally, Jesus's statement that He himself would be raised up just like Nehushtan was. This is the verse directly before the famous John 3:16:

John 3:14–15
English Standard Version

14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Jesus was using a metaphor that He KNEW Nicodemus, a Bible Scholar, would recognize. The incident in the Book of Numbers with the Snake on the Staff was a picture of Jesus being lifted up on a Cross, reviled, despised, and rejected of men, to bring Eternal Life and Healing to us all... and, one day, he shall be crowned with Many Crowns, the Lamb Upon The Throne.

In today's reading, we see The One True God say to Moses that he (Moses) would become a "god to Pharaoh". What's with that? There's only ONE God. Why would the One True God promote the worship of a false god?

First of all, let's look at the Egyptian religion at the time. Every new Pharaoh was deified, and was believed to be an incarnation of Osiris. Osiris was the god of Rebirth, Springtime, Fertility, Harvest, and whatever. It was Pharaoh's JOB to insure a nice inundation every Spring, coating the farmlands with rich, fertile mud at the beginning of the growing season. Osiris's own history was one of death and rebirth, (assisted by his wife Isis), and he was often pictured with green skin to symbolize the plants that fed Egypt. Pharaoh had a big JOB, and his life depended on it.

Everything in Egypt had a god or goddess associated with it. Frogs, Snakes, Flies, Lice, Dung Beetles, The Sun, the Moon, Light, Darkness, Love, Death, Fertility, and even Crocodiles and Hippos were deified. They were represented in Art with the head of the creature on top of a human body. It made for intriguing Art, but a horrible religious system. With everything and everything deified, life was full of appeasing each and every one of them.

The Ten Plagues were not only a Judgment upon Pharaoh and Egypt, but were a Judgment against their thousands of gods and goddesses.

When God said that Moses would become a "god unto Pharaoh, he was saying that Pharaoh would see that Moses was defeating ALL the other gods and goddesses that had controlled his life up until then. Pharaoh's heart would be hardened and his gods would be vanquished one by one with the Ten Plagues.

The One True God gives us His reason:

"And then they will know that I AM GOD."

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

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

!עם ישראל חי
(The Spirit of Israel Lives!)

☔️🌸”Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:3 NIV)🌸☔️

ML/LTOS

Dallas Christian Sound~This Is My Father's World

Glad~Before the Throne Of God Above

Cathedrals~He Cared That Much For Me

Casting Crowns~Praise You In The Storm

Bill Gaither/Velstal Goodman~The Lighthouse

The Trevecca Madrigalians~It Is Well With My Soul

Statler Brothers~Sweet Beulah Land

Have a Blessed Sunday

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

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

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

!עם ישראל חי
(The Spirit of Israel Lives!)

☔️🌸”Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:3 NIV)🌸☔️

ML/LTOS

Amen t.o your prayer and lesson, very good and interesting

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

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

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

!עם ישראל חי
(The Spirit of Israel Lives!)

☔️🌸”Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:3 NIV)🌸☔️

ML/LTOS

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(3/29/26)[Prayer]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem