ellauri094.html on line 318: God has a funny way of treating his “chosen people.” Apparently, the Jews were misbehaving and being ungodly. After several years of some other shenanigans in Babylon, god decided it was time to put his foot down and end the free will of the king by having him take the Jewish people captive. This was in ca. 597 BCE. First I’d like to ask the following questions: Shouldn’t god have known that his “chosen people” were going to act like brats? Couldn’t he have chosen a better, more well-behaved group of people to whom to deliver his word? Anyway, moving on.
ellauri164.html on line 935: When God said Moses “failed to sanctify me in the eyes of the people,” He did not specify exactly what this failure was. God had told Moses to “speak to the rock,” but the account stated that “Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice.” Clearly, in that act, Moses went beyond what God had commanded him to do. God had told Moses to take the staff, but not use it. He was directly commanded only to speak to the rock. He went beyond what was written when struck that rock. It was similar to Nadab and Abihu who offered “strange fire which He had not commanded them.” At that time Moses saw that such behavior did not “treat God as holy or glorify him among the people” (Lev. 10:1-3). Yet Moses, in anger, failed to hallow God when he struck that rock instead of speaking to it. He had failed to learn “not to go beyond what is written,” (1Cor. 4:6). He was told to speak to the rock (and he did not do that), but struck the rock (which he had no authority to do). God later charged Moses with this sin: “you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah” (Num 20:24; 27:13).
xxx/ellauri027.html on line 1010: Esa’s examples of flourishing in the life of some leading people, demonstrating presence and being by the side of others as well as of astonishing uplift, were truly elevating. At the same time there were examples from the life of ”ordinary people” leading to the conclusion that we are all the same on some basic level.
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