62) Bringing Many Sons Unto Glory Through Suffering

Since its release in 1949, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell’s presentation of the universal motif of quests and transformation through conflicts that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. 

There’s a good reason a recognizable image of Jesus Christ’s face is on the cover of the book. Melchizedek is the prototype hero battling adversity.

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent…I will put enmity between…thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15)

There is lyric quality, a poetry even in English to “bruise a head / bruise a heel” which the King James translators did a great job in transliterating from the Hebrew.

~4000 BC: The Adams’ transformation to mortality begins humanity’s calendar.

The Bible documents that Adam provided eye-witness testimony of YHVH / Creator / Singularity source of life to all generations up to Noah’s sons Ham, Shem and Japheth crossing over the flood, providing unimpeachable evidence of the truth of God’s power over the earth and warning of judgment.

Despite his personal departure from society, Ha-Adam’s / The Human’s covenanted, ergo perpetual, grant of dominion over the earth is perpetuated through his genes – that miniscule packet of selfhood  transferred first to the Woman by cloning, then passed to all their human offspring in the gametes.

This continuity is expressed in the proclamation “The king is dead. Long live the king!” 

Genesis 5 and the apocryphal book of Jasher.record the preflood lineage of YHVH’s Human Representative Priest-King / Melchizedek succeeding Adam.

adam-noah-ages-deaths_chart

  1. Adam begat / declared his heir / son in his own likeness Seth…
  2. And Seth begat Enos…
  3. And Enos begat Cainan:
    • “And Cainan reigned over all the sons of men, and he led the sons of men to wisdom and knowledge…And in those days Cainan wrote upon tablets of stone [capable of surviving flooding], what was to take place in time to come, and he put them in his treasures.”
    • This account is far more credible than assuming that Moses had to start from a blank page regarding the pre-flood history with God dictating to him word for word the preceding history.
  4. And Cainan begat Mahalaleel:
  5. And Mahalaleel begat Jared:
  6. And Jared begat Enoch:
  7. And Enoch begat Methuselah
    • And when Enoch had ascended into heaven all the kings of the earth rose and took Methuselah his son and anointed him, and they caused him to reign over them in the place of his father. But in the latter days of Methuselah, the sons of men rebelled against God and they transgressed, and they corrupted their ways, and would not hearken to the voice of Methuselah, In those days Seth the son of Adam died.”(Jasher 4:1-9)
  8. And Methuselah begat Lamech.
  9. And Lamech begat Noah saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed…
  10. And Noah [lived a total of 950 years] begat – still means “made his heirs” Shem, Ham, and Japheth whose descendants spread across the earth and he went in the ways of his father Methuselah, perfect and upright with God. Noah never met Adam or Seth but he lived concurrently with surely the experience of personalized training under
    • Cainan for 170 years 
    • Mahlallel for 234 years
    • Jared for 336 years 
    • None from Enoch who was taken before Noah was born.
    • Methuselah for 369 yrs up to the year of the Flood
    • Lamech for 595 years years until 5 years before the Flood
  11. And after the Flood Noah said Blessed be the LORD God of Shem;
    • While Christians, like pagans, pray “Please God bless…” in vain repetitions at every prayer, the Hebrews pray “Baruch Ata Adoni” – “Blessed are you Oh Lord”. By this formula at least we understand that Noah has conferred his unique relationship as the LORD God’s representative to Shem.
  12. And Melchizedek king of [Jeru]Salem…the priest of the most high God…said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth…the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my [Melchizedekian] covenant between me and thee…I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee [as my priest-king Melchizedek representatives on earth].” (Genesis 14:18-19, 17:1-7)
  13. I will establish my covenant with him / Isaac for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” (Genesis 17:19)
  14. God said unto Jacob…”
    • “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Isra–el / Prince of El for as a prince / heir to the high king hast thou power with God and with men” (Genesis 32:28) because he “strives with God” not in defiance, but as a partner, i.e. “he will rule as God”
    • By this point we should recognize YHVH’s human representative / priest-king / Melchizedek by his actions alone. “And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh” (Genesis 47:7), not the other way around. Royal protocol should not have to be explained – all ancient societies believed in multiple gods with greater or lesser power. Jacob’s action demonstrates that the priest-king Pharoah was not allowing a curtesy but acknowledging his counterpart’s greater spiritual authority as the priest-king / Melchizedek of the God of Joseph’s Hebrew people over any of Egypt’s gods. 
  15. “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said…The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” (Genesis 49:1-10)
    • Why Judah? “Judah and his brethren came to Joseph’s house…and they fell before him on the ground. And [none of the other brothers, only] Judah said…how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord’s servants…
      • Press pause. Don’t read this “God” casually as a generic name for Higher Power. In this pagan society the gods were very specifically acknowledged as specific higher powers to specific cultures and individuals. When Judah references his Hebrew God, he is specifying the Creator YHVH instead of Ra or Baal in opposition to the Egyptian gods like Ra or the Canaanite gods / baals. 
    • And [Joseph] said, Far be it Far be it from me [literal translation from Hebrew as a ephumism for not taking the name of the LORD in vain “God forbid(s as a moral law)” [as translated in the KJV} that I should do so:
      • I go into depth on this point because in this way Joseph references the Hebrew God of these Hebrews, regardless of the Egyptian god(s) that they likely think he serves a the second-highest Priest-king in Egypt.  
    • but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. Then Judah came near unto him [risking his life at the hands of his bodyguards] I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren.” Redemption! Forgiveness of / bearing the cost of sins of his brothers! (Genesis 43)
  16. And Judas begat Phares; Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
  17. And Jesse begat David the king (Matthew 1)

“David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.” (Acts 13:22)

How is that? David who committed adultery and arranged the assassination of her husband to cover it up? Isn’t this on the order of Trump and the Epstein scandal?

The difference – and this is how all humans, being sinful, are saved from eternal death to eternal life.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:8-9)

And the cleansing process absolutely includes suffering.

“because thou hast despised me…I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house.” (II Samuel 12:10-11)

1) First the inevitable blowback from the relationships we damaged with our self-centered behaviors.

2) Then the chastising of a loving Father bringing us to repentance,

3) And possibly most of all – the agony of our self-awareness of the harm we’ve caused once we’re in a righteous state of mind.

David lost prized sons because they modeled their own self-serving behaviors after their father’s, Amnon was assassinated by his younger half-brother Absalom for raping then discarding Absalom’s sister Tamar. Adonijah was executed by Solomon for failing to live up to the terms of his probation when he plotted a coup. Absalom was executed by David’s top general Joab for inciting civil war to usurp David’s throne, and yet David screamed, ” O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (II Samuel 18:33)

Can we not understand that as Jesus, son / likeness of David and son / likeness of God, writhed in agony under the whip and on the cross, that the Creator of every law of the universe also writhed in agony “O my son, my son!” wishing he could have changed that awful experience? 

“the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David…was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth…And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died.” (II Samuel 12:15-18)

David spent the rest of his reign in gut-wrenching suicidal grief over the loss of relationships and lives of four cherished sons.

And watches as each son upholds the most basic law of reality – transfer of life energy – and transforms into the image and likeness of his Father.

“in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; (Hebrews 5:7-8)

Wait – is that Jesus or David?

Both, as they submit to death in accepting God’s righteous judgment and regeneration to eternal life.

David – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

Unfortunately, most people refuse to even consider taking personal responsibility for their sins of action and attitude.

You may have heard the term “shadow self” before. The idea therein is that good and evil reside in us all was introduced into our vernacular by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung who described it as our immoral impulses, desires, and personal qualities that that we refuse to acknowledge.

We need a Seed of the Woman, someone human like us, to redeem us from our sin nature.

“They sung a new song, saying, Thou…wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10)

“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren / family,” (Hebrews 2:10-11)

 

 

 

 

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Published by kingdomcome777

A grandmother who loves to study the Bible and bases life on "know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

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