Total regions destroyed by Sons of Israel are around 35. It includes around 31 kings defeated by Joshua and rest of the kings by Moses. Its not just 35 kings who were defeated....it means families living there were killed, 35 cultures, 35 civilizations, 35 ways of life.
Certainly globalization is much older than we think...
The only city made peace with the Israel was the Hivites living in Gibeon.
Kings defeated by Moses:
1. Sihon king of the Amorites,
2. Og king of Bashan
Kings Defeated by Joshua:
1. the king of Jericho
2. king of Ai,
3. the king of Jerusalem
4. the king of Hebron
5. the king of Jarmuth
6. the king of Lachish
7. the king of Eglon
8. the king of Gezer
9. the king of Debir
10. the king of Geder
11. the king of Hormah
12. the king of Arad
13. the king of Libnah
14. the king of Adullam
15. the king of Makkedah
16. the king of Bethel
17. the king of Tappuah
18. the king of Hepher
19. the king of Aphek
20. the king of Lasharon
21. the king of Madon
22. the king of Hazor
23. the king of Shimron-meron
24. the king of Achshaph
25. the king of Taanach
26. the king of Megiddo
27. the king of Kedesh
28. the king of Jokneam in Carmel
29. the king of Dor in the heights of Dor
30. the king of Goiim in Gilgal
31. the king of Tirzah
Besides these region, there were many other regions which are refered in Joshua 13 which were ordered by the God to be triumphed.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Monologue 9 : Am I the Chosen One?
- Jewish heritage (Was Jesus a Jew?) Deuteronomy 17:15
- A member of the tribe of Judah tribe (Was Jesus a member?) Genesis 49:10
- A direct male descendant of King David and King Solomon (was Jesus a direct male descendent?) 2Samuel 7:12-13
- He must rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem (Did Jesus rebuild the temple?) Ezekiel 37:26-27
- He must bring all of the Jews in the world to Israel (Did Jesus bring all the Jews to Israel?)
Siege if Jericho
Siege of Jericho in Joshua 6 is believed tohad been taken place around 1500 century BC. Archeologist have found out that the city have been inhabited up to now by around 20 settlements. The oldest dates back to around 9000 BC.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Torah & Tanakh
The first 5 books of the Bible are called Torah in Judaism. It is the premiere scrpture of the Judaism as it was revealed to Moses by God. Some believe that Torah was given to Moses at onece, some believe that it was revealed to Moses intermittently and some believe that other people like Joshua might have written some part of it after Moses' death.
And the complete old Testament is called Tanakh in Judaism.
And the complete old Testament is called Tanakh in Judaism.
Monologue 8
As a child I used to feel that I should have been at the place of Joshua…listening to the word of God, leading all the sons of Israel… crossing the Jordan and entering into the new Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey. But I used to shudder when I used to think of war. It used to send shivers to my bones when I used to imagine the destruction of Jericho...the masccare of Ai. It used to distress me to think about the 12000 people who were killed. The people of Jerusalem, the people of Hebron, the people of Jarmuth, the people of Arad……so many of them…… I think as a child this destruction just used to depress me but when I entered in my youth…I think I started thinking about it explicitly that what exactly was lost in this destruction…..after all there was not just 31 kings whom Joshua and Moses defeated….there were many and manifold families who were just slewed….no one was spared … there were 31 WAYS OF LIFE that were exterminated….. It used to exhaust me to imagine the land flowing with blood and cries instead of milk and honey...
Monologue 7
As a child I used to think I should have been a Moses…taking care of thousands of people in the wilderness, guiding them, directing them but I used to get shuddered when I used to think of war…
Monologue 6
Since, I always had been very much inquisitive about everything. As a child when I came to know that God himself had buried Moses, I used to feel passionately that I should go to the top of Pisgah, to plains of Moab, to mount Nebo and search the place where God might have had buried the Moses, and come down again to my people and tell them that “See! I have found the secret of God!”
Death of Moses
Deuteronomy 34: Moses dies (should I use the word kill?) himself upon the word of the God, and God buries Moses.
If the person is recognized as ‘prophet’ i.e. God’s man, the tendency is to blur his pre-birth and post-death connections.
The tendency in Indian context can also be figured out as the concept of being 'swayambhu'.
If the person is recognized as ‘prophet’ i.e. God’s man, the tendency is to blur his pre-birth and post-death connections.
The tendency in Indian context can also be figured out as the concept of being 'swayambhu'.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Deuteronomy 30: Restoration Promised
Read somewhere that the restoration promised here was fulfilled somewhere in Ezra. The restoration which it is said that it should take place in 20th Century is predicted somewhere ahead after the Deuteronomy.
The restoration promised here denotes one more fact that the organism of this faith viz. “Judaism” is very unique and community specific. Independently at ideological level it does not have a strong universal appeal. The question is how this community specific faith is being interpreted and was interpreted by Marathi Protestant Christians.
The restoration promised here denotes one more fact that the organism of this faith viz. “Judaism” is very unique and community specific. Independently at ideological level it does not have a strong universal appeal. The question is how this community specific faith is being interpreted and was interpreted by Marathi Protestant Christians.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Monologue 5
Many years after … many thousand years after I know there will be some prophet like…like Moses whom people would love …whom people would look upon as an inspiration…whom people would consider as the essence of finest human elements ….that prophet will be like a…like a conscience of all the people who would guide them through all the adversities of their life…but that would be many many years after. Right now there is no one …there is only a Lord with me. He only talks to me and guides me. Sometimes I feel that He stops talking to me then I feel very helpless. I just brood over that why he has suddenly stopped talking to me? Is He not there? Is there no more anything which I can understand about Him? He seems almost finished for me and then all of a sudden I understand that its not He who is finished its me who has finished! Its me who has finished and that’s why I am not able to understand him. Its because of my inefficiency that I am not able to understand his sufficiency. He is infinite I am finite! He is the perfect and I am imperfect! He is the absolute and I am impotent!
At the time when I used to realize this I used to feel completely exhausted and tired! Then I used to feel too much tired. I used to feel tired of knowing that I am potent. I really tell you I used to feel very much tired. And I used to feel more tired as I used to realize that this journey of understanding Him can not be stopped. I have to walk. I used to just realize that the quest of understanding Him is not yet quenched. It has to go on…and I used to start again to walk…
At the time when I used to realize this I used to feel completely exhausted and tired! Then I used to feel too much tired. I used to feel tired of knowing that I am potent. I really tell you I used to feel very much tired. And I used to feel more tired as I used to realize that this journey of understanding Him can not be stopped. I have to walk. I used to just realize that the quest of understanding Him is not yet quenched. It has to go on…and I used to start again to walk…
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
and here enter the Messiah
After the 4 books, in the 5th book, in Deuteronomy 18 a prophet...a Messiah is guranteed by God through Moses. Messiah who later changed the course of human history. Undoubtedly from the time when the Messiah was promised i.e. since 1500 BC i.e. in thses 3500 years there had not existed a personality with purest essence of human being other than Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah.......undoubtedly! But lets try to see the paragraph Deuteronomy more closely.
As I surfed the net I came across one interpretation which tried to connect the paragraph where the prophet is promised with its preceding paragraph. In the preceding paragraph God just warns sons of Israel not to get deceived by the people who might say that they have the power to interprete omens or dreams, or they can caste the spell or call up the deads i.e. they are the people with divine powers. Emergence of such kind of people was very much possible at that time. To restrain people from such kind of things a prophet was promised by God. God knew that come what may people would fall victim to such kind of things so its better to promise the one prophet who would be Moses says "a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen"
Another thing is that, that the prophet was promised to the people of Israel. That means the prophet was the need of the people of the Israel. Such kind of need need not to be necessarily true for all the people of the world.
In case of Marathi Protestant Christians, who are mostly converted from the lower castes of India....there was never such a immidiate need of a person who is a prophet. My point is come what may Marathi Protestant Christians would never understand in real sense that what was exactly the need of such kind of "promise of prophet". The reason is quite simple that the socio-political-economical-cultural structure of "sons of Israel" and "Indian lower castes i.e. Marathi Protestant Christains" was never similar. So the "need of the prophet" was a very unique need limited to only the people of Israel of that time.
Another important thing here is that I am talking only abou the "need of the prophet" amd not the need of the values which Christ brought with him.
I know for sure that lot of Marathi Protestant Christians spend their precious time in understanding and explaining to others that how the work of Jesus Christ was the design of the God. Marathi Protestant Christians explain this concept to others about which they thenselves are not convinced. I think by doing this they do nothing bbut just harm the core of the Christ which are his values.
Christ is not Christ just because his years on this earth was the pre-thought design of the God, he is hrist because of his values. Thats why the universal appeal of Christ lies in his values and not the peripheral thing.
A common history is always needed to carry the faiths, beliefs ahead. With common history ot becomes easier for community to carry their faiths and beliefs ahead. In case of Marathi Protestant Christians or lets say the Indian Castes who got converted in Christianity this option of "common hostory" doesnt exist as the history of "people of Israel" is literally pretty far from them. Excluding history waht remains are the values. I think Christ is better understood in converted communities of recent years rather than in the communities who are following it for centuries.
As I surfed the net I came across one interpretation which tried to connect the paragraph where the prophet is promised with its preceding paragraph. In the preceding paragraph God just warns sons of Israel not to get deceived by the people who might say that they have the power to interprete omens or dreams, or they can caste the spell or call up the deads i.e. they are the people with divine powers. Emergence of such kind of people was very much possible at that time. To restrain people from such kind of things a prophet was promised by God. God knew that come what may people would fall victim to such kind of things so its better to promise the one prophet who would be Moses says "a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen"
Another thing is that, that the prophet was promised to the people of Israel. That means the prophet was the need of the people of the Israel. Such kind of need need not to be necessarily true for all the people of the world.
In case of Marathi Protestant Christians, who are mostly converted from the lower castes of India....there was never such a immidiate need of a person who is a prophet. My point is come what may Marathi Protestant Christians would never understand in real sense that what was exactly the need of such kind of "promise of prophet". The reason is quite simple that the socio-political-economical-cultural structure of "sons of Israel" and "Indian lower castes i.e. Marathi Protestant Christains" was never similar. So the "need of the prophet" was a very unique need limited to only the people of Israel of that time.
Another important thing here is that I am talking only abou the "need of the prophet" amd not the need of the values which Christ brought with him.
I know for sure that lot of Marathi Protestant Christians spend their precious time in understanding and explaining to others that how the work of Jesus Christ was the design of the God. Marathi Protestant Christians explain this concept to others about which they thenselves are not convinced. I think by doing this they do nothing bbut just harm the core of the Christ which are his values.
Christ is not Christ just because his years on this earth was the pre-thought design of the God, he is hrist because of his values. Thats why the universal appeal of Christ lies in his values and not the peripheral thing.
A common history is always needed to carry the faiths, beliefs ahead. With common history ot becomes easier for community to carry their faiths and beliefs ahead. In case of Marathi Protestant Christians or lets say the Indian Castes who got converted in Christianity this option of "common hostory" doesnt exist as the history of "people of Israel" is literally pretty far from them. Excluding history waht remains are the values. I think Christ is better understood in converted communities of recent years rather than in the communities who are following it for centuries.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Old Testament allows monarchy
Deuteronomy 17 allows the monarchy and puts complete hold on the system called "king"
Friday, June 8, 2007
Watertight Constitution
Moses tries to structure this constitution as watertight as possible. For example in Deteuronomy 13 God says through Moses that if any prophet prophecies something which comes true and he insists the people to follow some other God, God tells not to follow such a man because through this man He is testing the people.
Christs existence in such a risky community was awful!
Christs existence in such a risky community was awful!
Annihilation of 7 nations
The brutality of annihilation of 7 nations is subdued in Deteuronomy 9, as God says "Do not say in your heart when the LORD your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you. “It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Well now the question remains of judging the brutality of these 7 types of people!!! With what parameters they were judged? Who is to decide those parameters?
They were not even given the choice to think upon the ideology of sons of Israel. They were just annihilated not even given a chance to convert. Its brutal than colonization!!
Well now the question remains of judging the brutality of these 7 types of people!!! With what parameters they were judged? Who is to decide those parameters?
They were not even given the choice to think upon the ideology of sons of Israel. They were just annihilated not even given a chance to convert. Its brutal than colonization!!
Deuteronomy 8
In Deuteronomy 8 God says through Moses that the 40 years of difficulties which were brought upon the sons of Israel were brought with an intention of disciplining the people, like father disciplines his son.
Here the exat moral stand of Moses are very much clear. The moral stand is pretty simple. He wanted his people to live happily forever. And by happiness he didn't mean just exploiting pleasures out of life. He meant happiness in real sense or lets say he tried to meant and define the happiness for his people. He definitely tried to connect the state of being happiness with a sturdy conscience.
Just as Plato made the mistake while defining his Republic to put aside the poets from ideal society, so also Moses has his own mistakes.
The ideology he tried to state is definitely not the ideal human existence but in human history it surely could be considered as one of the well tried steps towards towards achieving the ideal human existence.
I think Christ was well aware of this well-tried step, thats why he didnt say a criticizing word against it.
Here the exat moral stand of Moses are very much clear. The moral stand is pretty simple. He wanted his people to live happily forever. And by happiness he didn't mean just exploiting pleasures out of life. He meant happiness in real sense or lets say he tried to meant and define the happiness for his people. He definitely tried to connect the state of being happiness with a sturdy conscience.
Just as Plato made the mistake while defining his Republic to put aside the poets from ideal society, so also Moses has his own mistakes.
The ideology he tried to state is definitely not the ideal human existence but in human history it surely could be considered as one of the well tried steps towards towards achieving the ideal human existence.
I think Christ was well aware of this well-tried step, thats why he didnt say a criticizing word against it.
7 nations for one
So once upon a time there existed people the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
God said that they are not fit to live there where they were living and he ordered that his people whom he called sons of Israel should live there for ever.
Here are thethings God ordered sons of Israel to do to these 7 nations:
"You shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire"
God said that they are not fit to live there where they were living and he ordered that his people whom he called sons of Israel should live there for ever.
Here are thethings God ordered sons of Israel to do to these 7 nations:
"You shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire"
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
No visual representation of God
General indian tendency can confer divinity to any object or person or creture. Snake, elephant, Cow, Sun... all have been conferred with some kind of divinity. 4th chapter of Detueronomy completely denies the representation of God in any visual format.
This visual representation was denied until the Christ's Time. From Christ that is after his cricifixion this ideology started having a visual representation in form of 'cross' and 'christ'. Though the community started having new visual aspirations but the former ones were and are not yet completely deleted. Still Yaweh is faceless.
For Indian mentality the former ordinance of not representing God in any visual format is and has always been quite difficult to accept. 'Christ' and 'cross' was more convinient and inevitable choice for Indian mentality. I wonder if Yaweh really exists for Indian christians!
This visual representation was denied until the Christ's Time. From Christ that is after his cricifixion this ideology started having a visual representation in form of 'cross' and 'christ'. Though the community started having new visual aspirations but the former ones were and are not yet completely deleted. Still Yaweh is faceless.
For Indian mentality the former ordinance of not representing God in any visual format is and has always been quite difficult to accept. 'Christ' and 'cross' was more convinient and inevitable choice for Indian mentality. I wonder if Yaweh really exists for Indian christians!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Religious movement or political movement
The movement of 40 years in wilderness begins in Exodus. For any sane reader it seems a religious movement when it begins but near the end of book of Numbers it becomes very much clear that it is more a political movement than religious movement. It seems here very much true that societies are formed on the basis of common enemy.
God's contant allusion that he intends to create nation out of this community also signifies that it was more a political movement rather than religious movement.
Christ's work could be termed as religious movement because he challenged values rather than person/persons or any ruler. Moses felt the need to free jews from the bondages of Egyptians but Christ never felt the need to leberate jews from Romans.
God's contant allusion that he intends to create nation out of this community also signifies that it was more a political movement rather than religious movement.
Christ's work could be termed as religious movement because he challenged values rather than person/persons or any ruler. Moses felt the need to free jews from the bondages of Egyptians but Christ never felt the need to leberate jews from Romans.
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