The Star

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

We know it as the Star of David, and  recognize it as a symbol of the Nation of Israel and of its Jewish citizens.  After all, It’s right there in their middle of their flag, and on synagogues across the world.   

The Star also became the sad symbol of the Holocaust when the Nazis forced Jews to wear an identifying yellow star on their clothing.  JUDE it said, the German word meaning this one is a Jew.  

 

But what, exactly, does the Star represent? What does it really mean?

Before we delve into it, would it surprise you to learn that the Star of David is actually not the symbol for the Nation of Israel?  That would be an escutcheon which contains a menorah (lampstand) in its center, two olive branches on the sides of the menorah, and at the bottom, the label "Israel" in Hebrew. 

But back to the Star of David.  Megen David = Shile of David and is translated Shield of David.  Some speculate that King David’s shield was adorned with the six-pointed star.  But no such reference is found in the Bible or Talmud.   In fact, the Star of David is not referred to at all in either the Bible or the Talmud.  What then does the Star represent?

I dove into the subject expecting to find a universal agreement that the Star represents… well, that’s what I was trying to learn.  Instead, I found that there is not much agreement as to what it does represent.  Take a look at a few possibilities I found, after which I will tell you what “I” think it means (but note that I could not find anybody on the internet that agreed with me).

 

INTERPRETATIONS REGARDING JUDIASM (certainly not an exhaustive list)

• The six points represent the six days of creation spoken of in Genesis.
• The six points represent the six attributes of God – Power, Wisdom, Majesty; Love, Mercy, Justice
• The six points have twelve sides, representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
• The six sides represent the six traditional items on the Seder Plate (although some say there are only five).
• Two triangles – one points up to God, one points down to Earth or man.  Make of it what you will.
• One Rabbi admonished the Jew to “Be the Star of David” … Put a mezuzah on your door, study some Torah, eat kosher food, welcome the Shabbat with candles lighting and a festive meal, and you've become a living Star of David.

 

OTHER RELIGIONS (again, not an exhaustive list)

• The symbol is popular in pagan traditions.
• The symbol was used as a decorative device in first-century churches and even in Muslim culture.
• In Buddhism it is seen as the divine union of male and female.
• Six-Pointed Star of Christianity - The six-pointed star is one of the oldest Christian Symbols for God. For Christians, it is called the creator’s star.
• The six-pointed star is also used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in their temples and architecture. In this context, it symbolizes the union of heaven and earth, with God reaching down to man and man reaching up to God.

 

MY THOUGHTS

Let me start by saying that, to my knowledge, I am alone in this viewpoint.  That said, I believe it may well be accurate, and may come to be revealed by future events as quite prophetic. And while I will not frame this with “Thus Sayeth the Lord,” I do believe in my heart that what I see was God Inspired.  Time will tell.

 The Downward Pointing Triangle = the Trinity of the Godhead

This point acknowledges that while not all Christians ascribe to the trinity of the Godhead, most do, and I am in that camp.  Matthew 28:19 instructs us to, “… teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

 To me, the three sides of the downward pointing triangle represent the Trinity of the Godhead.

The Upward Pointing Triangle – the Triune Nature of Man

Genesis 1:27 tells us that mankind was made in the image of God.  Many teach that because God is a Spirit, we also are spirits.  And I agree with that observation.  But I believe there is more to the picture than just that we are spirits.  Actually, we are spirits that possess a soul and reside in a body.  Like God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, we too are triune beings; spirit, soul and body.

The basis for the triune nature of man can be found in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where it says, "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The upward pointing triangle, to me, represents mankind, who was created triune in nature.

 

ONLY ONE REAL STAR

But the Star of David has both triangles – upward pointing and downward pointing.  Without either triangle, it would not be a complete Magen David, a whole picture.   

Now, you tell me, who is the ONLY ONE who is both deity and humanity, both a member of the Trinity of the Godhead as well as a member of the race of humanity?  There is is ONLY ONE, and his name is JESUS CHRIST.

It excites me to know that when the time is right, JESUS CHRIST Himself will lead the armies of Israel against her enemies.  And I believe our Jewish friends will then see the six-pointed star on that flag sewn onto their sleeve and realize it represents He who is their MESSIAH!

• Israeli flag graphic by Clker-Free-Vector-Images via  Pixabay
• JUIF.JPG (yellow Jude patch) courtesy of Kitkatcrazy at en.wikipedia
• The "Emblem of Israel" Graphic courtesy of The State of Israel, who was the first owner of copyrights on this work, which is now in the Public Domain in both Israel and The United States.

Ordinance Oughta-Be’s

You may call it Holy Communion. It my be The Lord’s Supper to you, or maybe the Eucharist. You know, that part of church where we partake of the wine and the bread.  Whatever your congregation calls it, pretty much the entire New Testament church considers it an Ordinance of the Church. 

Another ordinance is water baptism.  In fact, while some churches have many ordinances, these two are pretty much universal. 

I think the reason they are considered ordinances is because Jesus ordered us to do them; ordained them if you will. 

But Jesus told us to do many other things too. So in following the logic that Jesus ordained it, I am hereby suggesting… yea, declaring some additional ordinances for the church.  

Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven. 

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,  and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. 

Well, I just realized it is going to take quite a while to get all these new ordinances listed. Maybe we should just add this one I found in Matthew 5, where Jesus was giving the Sermon on the Mount:

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.

Whaddaya think?

Corrupt Communication

 You know the word. It starts with an F. In fact, hundreds of words start with an F, perhaps millions more contain one. And yet if someone refers to “the F word”, you immediately know the reference, and you know what it means.   F-ing this and F-ing that!  But, as if we have not sufficiently perverted such a special gift from God, we now have a new acronym to be disgusted by, or to admire if that’s who you choose to be.  

A true student of the Bible understands that sex is indeed a gift from God; an amazing bond between a man and woman that may even transcend the physical, playing a part in creating that “one-flesh” union outlined in chapter 10 of the Gospel of Mark, where it says, “What GOD has joined together…”  

OK, you already know what the F stands for.  In case you don’t already know, the “A” stands for the word “as”. Just throw this combination of letters into your statement and you’ve expressed the full depth of your feeling on the situation. Easy AF, angry AF, happy AF.   

One of my favorite programs is an old black & white western that plays on Saturday mornings.  I look forward to it all week long.  But to enjoy my show I have to endure a local car lot telling me it's how easy it is to buy a car from them.  It's right there in their slogan, it's in their jingle, it's even on their website - Easy AF.  Auto Financing, they say.  I can only speculate as to whether they intend the double entendre they so proudly employ. 

One may think cursing is relegated to the lower class of society, gutter trash if you will.  But I have a friend who is a motivational speaker by trade.  He travels great distances to address groups of people who have come together to be inspired, to be motivated toward accomplishing greater things in their lives.  This man is highly intelligent and successful in his craft, and yet his writings are laced with this new catchphrase, AF.  

It has been said that to resort to cursing shows ignorance. Yet ignorance is just a lack of knowledge, which can be remedied with education. I have always considered it more a lack of class.  But in fact, you may be surprised to learn that some psychologists now say that swearing is a sign of honesty and intelligence; that it contributes to society in a positive way.  It may not surprise you that those psychologists did not reference the Holy Bible in their research.  The whole thing reminds me of that verse about calling evil good and good evil.  (Isaiah 5:20). 

 I hate this world!

The Great Puzzle

Picture if you will a giant jigsaw puzzle - several groups of people on all sides and every corner working on different sections.  A group on one side is working on the Faith section. A group in one corner is working on Prosperity.   Another group labors intently on Humility, while yet another focuses on Grace.  

There’s a big Pentecostal bunch putting together the Gifts of the Spirit section, while a group of Baptists across the table are getting the Fruits of the Spirit together nicely.  The Pentecostals run across a Fruits piece and toss it over to the Baptists.

One who works the puzzle alone may move from one section to another, and back again, until the picture in front of him starts to look like the picture on the front of the box.  

Sadly, Several groups are at the wrong table putting together the wrong puzzle headed toward the wrong result.  God help them.

 

But folks, even when we get the puzzle completed, we’ll still be able to see the lines. They’ll still be there because we will still be merely mortal men.  If we chose to focus on the lines that divide, the picture, though complete, will still appear blurred - fragmented if you will.   The pieces could still come apart leaving a gap in the picture.  

Let's focus on the beautiful picture, not on the lines that divide - until that glorious day comes and we no longer need the image, but are walking side by side with Him, on streets of gold. 

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

Slingshots and Nuclear Options

 

Summer, circa 1963 - I was just a wee lad visiting my grandparents for a week or so, when I accompanied my grandmother to the market one day.  As she selected the ingredients for the evening meal I stood frozen in place, mesmerized by a spinning toy rack.   I had a quarter in my pocket, and they had a slingshot for sale at only 25 cents.  “Nanny, I want to buy this slingshot.  I have the money,” I declared.

 “Why don’t you wait until we go to the five and dime store tomorrow, and I’ll give you some more money to get a better toy, maybe a model airplane,” was her sage advice.   But NO.  I wanted something NOW.  It wasn’t like I was even in the market for a slingshot.  But there it was, catching my eye.  And there I was with a windfall of pocket change.  Wait one day for a much better toy?  No way!  I bought the slingshot.  Regret showed its ugly face the very next day, as I was tired of shooting pebbles and wished I had an airplane to play with.

 I don’t know how long that slingshot lasted.  I don’t have it now.  But then, I probably wouldn’t still have the model airplane either.  What I do still have from that memorable day with my Nanny is the lesson I learned; that haste is foolish, but patience is a virtue that will produce a good result (and a better toy)!

 November 2013 – Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada was Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, and he was a man determined to confirm judges and other appointments made by President Obama.  The Republican minority had enough voices to throw a kink in the plan, using the senate filibuster rules.  See, the minority party could filibuster (talk on and on… and on) to stop a vote, and it took a 2/3rds majority to cease that and call the vote.  Reid didn’t have that 2/3rds, so he and his colleagues changed the rule so that a simple majority was all that was needed to close the debate and vote on the judges.  This action came to be known as the “nuclear option”.

 October 2020 – The Republicans are now the majority, and Reid’s decision came back to haunt his party, as the slim majority the Republicans now held was sufficient to use that nuclear option to confirm President Trump’s appointment of a new Justice to the U. S. Supreme Court.

 I know how Harry Reid felt.  I had the quarter, and wanted the slingshot.  He had the nuclear option and wanted the judges.  Of course, I was a small boy.  I’m not sure what his excuse is.  I do know what it cost him!

Photo: The Little Hunter, by by Karl Witkowski (in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Did God Whisper "Willie"?

We remember the years past for various reasons; some good, some bad.  For example, in the year 2000 I went through a divorce, lost a job and buried my father.   But in the year 2017 I met and married the love of my life!  2019 provided me one of the most radical changes of all my days on this Earth.  Now, it may not seem like much to you, but to me it is life changing.  I bought a guitar.

All my life I have envied the guy who could pick up a guitar and play.  Not so much the rock stars with their fame and fortune;  I was more in awe of the guy at the campfire that strummed little tunes while folks talked and laughed.  I remember youth camp in the snow-covered Rockies, where we sat in a circle while one of the locals played the Beetles song, Rocky Raccoon.  I was so jealous.

When I was in my 20s, I came into possession of a guitar.  A friend at church tried to teach me how to play, but with one 30-minute session once a week, frustration led to despair as I determined I just “didn’t have it”.  And 40 years passed.

So how did this life-changing event come to be?  Here’s the funny part of the story.  My company holds a costume contest every Halloween, and I join in the competition.  Around mid-September I started thinking about what to “be” and Willie Nelson came to mind.  I don’t know why, but I have my suspicions.  The costume was easy.  Just buy a red bandana and make a couple of braids out of a wig I had around from previous years.  The whole thing cost a buck.  But as you probably realize, the props make the costume.  A Roman soldier needs his sword, a gangster must tote a plastic tommy-gun, and I needed a guitar. 

I came across what turned out to be a really sweet classical in a nice hard case for 30 bucks and won 2^nd place in the contest.  But the guitar was missing a string, so I got it restrung and that’s when I learned my first chord, and my first song.  That’s also when I learned enough to know my left-handedness would be an issue.   So, I gave that guitar to a friend and bought a “lefty”!

Six weeks later I had 8 chords mastered (well, learned anyway), and a couple dozen songs I could strum out.  This may be as good as I get.  If so, that’s great.  I’ll forgive myself for those 40 wasted years and strum out the rest of my days in bliss. 

But frankly, I’m a pretty quick study.  Who knows, this time next year I might be touring with Waylon and Willie!

Kindness in the Countryside

Exerpt from Address book for
the Royal Prussian Principality of
Ansbach and Bayreuth

Suppose for a moment you are wandering through Bavaria in the early 1600s, poor, tired and hungry.  Then by happenstance, you stumble across a book lying in the trail as if placed there by providence, or the good Lord in Heaven.  Just as you reach for this leather-bound treasure, the wind whips the pages and presents you with page 348.

Of course, 348 has always been your lucky number anyway, so imagine your excitement as you realize the town just a few kilometers up the trail is Wettelsheim, listed right there on 348. 

Being a smarter than average Bavarian, you know how to read, so you know that the header on page 348 - Geiftlichfeit auf  dem Lande - reads Kindness in the Countryside.   Now, if you can just find the home or place of business of this Pfr. Hr. Georg Ulbecht Kepner, you know you shall have bread, wine and shelter this evening.

I hope you enjoyed this little foray into fantasy-land.  I certainly did.  See, Georg Ulbecht Kepner is my 10^th great grandfather.  But, as an enthusiast of my heritage, today I learned something new.  Grandfather Georg from the old country, Herr. Georg Ulbecht Kepner, was actually Pfr. Hr. Kepler; Reverend Herr Kepler!

My father was a man who loved God and eschewed evil, as was his father and his father… and most assuredly his father also!  I have always known I came from a long line of Godly men, pillars of the community and servants of the church.  But little did I know how deep that heritage runs.  My 10^th great grandfather was known throughout Bavaria as the man to seek out for a kindness.  Of course, you probably wouldn’t find him at his house.  He was more likely out doing his Father’s business.

So must I.