2
Chronicles 29:25, King Hezekiah's Reform
Many modern theologians think that God commanded the use of musical instruments while burning the goats as their authority to use musical instruments in the church which is defined even in the wilderness as a "school of the Biblbe." They fail to understand the context and interpret one verse to conflict with what really happened and what is said in all parallels: David commanded the "musical" instruments under the king and commanders of the army. Therefore, I have taken that troublesome which leads people into error in a separate paper:
Hezekiah's Plague Stopping animal sacrifice in 2 Chronicles 29:25The sacrificial system had been quarantined behind high walls in Jerusalem only. The common people removed outside the gates by the sound of the loud instrumental noise.
In Second Chronicles 28 when Ahaz began to reign at the age of twenty he practiced more vile paganism, made sacrifices outside of the walls, polluted the temple with paganism and enslaved many of Judah.Coffman Notes: WICKED ISRAEL'S PREFERENCE FOR PAGAN SHRINES
"Despite the fact of God's having set up his holy altar at a specific location and having given the most solemn prohibitions against worshipping or sacrificing elsewhere, and in spite of God's having forbidden the Jews to honor or retain any of the pagan shrines and altars in Palestine, they nevertheless spared all the pagan shrines, and installed others.
"Note the fourfold repetition of the word "there" in Ezek. 20:28. It was especially an affront to the God of Israel that his people would patronize and even prefer to worship at such high places, rather than at God's true altar. Of course, it was the licentious worship of the pagans which they at once adopted and included along with God's worship that was the great attraction for Israel. Blasphemy against God? Of course; it was blasphemy of the worst kind, because it connected the holy name of the Lord Jehovah with all the immorality and debaucheries of paganism.
Bama
(Ezekiel 20:29). This is a Hebrew word meaning `High-Place.' The tops of high hills were used by the pagans for their idolatrous worship; and in response to that, Moses prohibited the use of them even for the worship of God.
2Chr. 28:10 And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?The Temple was disabled so that by the time of Hezekiah there was no one to protect Jerusalem.
2Chr. 28:11 Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.
SUMMARY
2Chr. 29:10 Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel,
that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
2Chr. 29:11 My sons, be not now negligent:
for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him,
and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.
Notice that this was not a worship service.
2Chr. 29:15 And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves,
and came, according to the commandment of the king,
by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.
None of the Levites who made warfare music under the king could enter into the holy places. Because this was a type of the body or Church of Christ, no musician can perform in the church.
2Chr. 29:16 And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD,
to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found
in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD.
And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron.
They made animal sacrifices for Judah for the kingdom, temple and Judah. Then for Israel which had fallen back into the "musical idolatry" or Play from Mount Sinai and who were not present:See the Nadab and Abihu event
To offer incense Nadab and Abihu had to go into the Holy Place: the incense altar was approaching the presence of God in the Most Holy place. As we noted, no Levite could come near or into any holy place.
Because God had turned the Levi tribe over to worship the starry host, Plutarch and others agree that the "gods" they worshipped were the Starry Host. One of thos starry host was the scapegoat or Azazel imposed after the Nadab and Abihu fall.Matthew Henry notes that: "Some think that goats were chosen for the sin-offering because, by the disagreeableness of their smell, the offensiveness of sin is represented: others think, because it was said that the demons which the heathens then worshipped often appeared to their worshippers in the form of goats, God therefore obliged his people to sacrifice goats, that they might never be tempted to sacrifice TO goats. (cappella in Greek: a goat and a starry constellation)
Matthew Henry notes:
I. The date of this law concerning the day of atonement: it was after the death of the two sons of Aaron (v. 1), which we read, ch. 10:1.
1. Lest Aaron should fear that any remaining guilt of that sin should cleave to his family, or (seeing the priests were so apt to offend) that some after-sin of his other sons should be the ruin of his family, he is directed how to make atonement for his house, that it might keep in with God; for the atonement for it would be the establishment of it, and preserve the entail of the blessing upon it.
2. The priests being warned by the death of Nadab and Abihu to approach to God with reverence and godly fear (without which they came at their peril), directions are here given how the nearest approach might be made, not only without peril, but to unspeakable advantage and comfort, if the directions were observed. When they were cut off for an undue approach, the rest must not say, "Then we will not draw near at all,'' but, "Then we will do it by rule.'' They died for their sin, therefore God graciously provides for the rest, that they die not.
Thus God's judgments on some should be instructions to others.
Paul warned about SHAKING which speaks of loud instruments:
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: Hebrews 12:28
For our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12:29
The scapegoat is Azazel. He is specifically the fallen angel who taught the youth how to steal the worship due to God. The Israelites brought the old Babylon Harlot worship with them from Egypt. Therefore, the sons of Aaron substituted STRANGE or foreign offering of Incense. God HAD NOT SAID: "Thou shalt not" so they used the LAW OF SILENCE just as modern people--playing with fire--are restoring the same Babylonian rituals because they assume the right to innovate and improvise.
Book of Enoch 8:1 And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all
8: 2 colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they
8: 3 were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .
In John's view from Patmos he could see the island on which CIRCE or KIRKE or "church" was burried. Circe used root cuttings and administered them along with her enchanting songs with instruments. This is defined as Sorcery or "phramacy." Here drug is believed to be a form of our Mayapple root and its fruit. Her legend about trapping men and turning them into "beasts" is quite parallel to John's definition of the Holy Whore whose musicians and instruments will again be destroyed along with her (Rev. 18)
This is repeated in the Babylonian Tablets where Inanna (the holy prostitute) steals the perverted "worship" knowledge from Ea the father or grandfather god:
"In the name of my power! In the name of my holy shrine!
- To my daughter Inanna I shall give Truth!
- Descent into the underworld!
- Ascent from the underworld!
- The art of lovemaking!
- The art of kissing the phallus!"
- He gave me the holy shrine.
- He gave me the holy priestess of heaven.
- He gave me the resounding musical instrument.
- He gave me the art of song.
- He gave me the art of the elder.
- He gave me the kurgurra.
The kurgarru, the assinu, and the kulu'u performed plays, music, dances, and games (rising up to play) during rituals. These were musical worship teams in addition to the eldership stolen from the "god."
NOTICE THAT THE GOAT REPRESENTED THE DEVIL AND THE INSTRUMENTAL
SOUNDS WERE USED ONLY IN THIS APPEASEMENT OR EXORCISM RITUAL FOR ISRAEL
NOT REPRESENTED.
2Chr. 29:23 And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation;The Levites stood in RANKS by the order of the King and Commanders of the Army.
and they laid their hands upon them:
2Chr. 29:24 And the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar,
to make an atonement for all Israel:
for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
This was a CIVIL and RELIGIOUS ceremony. 2Chr. 29:25 And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps,
according to the commandment of David,
and of Gad the king’s seer,
2Chr. 29:27 And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar.
and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets.
And when the burnt offering began, 2Chr. 29:26 And the
Levites stood with the instruments of David,the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets and the priests with the trumpets. and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.
HOWEVER, making instrumental noise while offering the NOT-commanded burnt offering was only by the command of David the King.
Christ speaks through the Prophets and Apostles: In Isaiah and Jeremiah He denied that this was commanded by God:
In agreement with several other dedication or purification sacrifices, the instruments we call MUSIC were by the direct command of David and under the KING and commanders of the army. This is not an approved example of Christian worship but universal proof of the connection between psalms and warfare:Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. Jeremiah 7:21
For I spake NOT unto your fathers, nor commanded them
But this thing commanded I them, saying,
in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jeremiah 7:22
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people:
and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you,
that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23But they HEARKENED NOT, nor inclined their ear,
but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart,
and went backward, and not forward. Jeremiah 7:24
1 Chr 25:1 David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals. Here is the list of the men who performed this service:HISTORICAL AND CONTEXTUAL RESOURCES
Payne insists that the Hebrew of 1 Chronicles 25:1 unambiguously identifies these leaders as military commanders, an interpretation favoured by several Bible translations. (Payne, p 423-4; NASB, NIV, NKJV, NRSV, Jerusalem Bible) If military commanders had a particular interest in the appointment of musicians, it suggests a strong link between music and warfare.
Service is: H5656 ăbôdâh From H5647 ; work of any kind: bondage, + bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use, work, X wrought.
H5647 ‛âbad aw-bad' A primitive root; to work (in any sense); by implication to serve, till, (causatively) enslave, be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel
1 Chron 25:2 Of the sons of Asaph; Zaccur, and Joseph, and Nethaniah, and Asarelah, the sons of Asaph under the hands of Asaph, which prophesied according to the order of the king.
H623 ’âsâph aw-sawf' From H622 ; collector; Asaph, the name of three Israelites, and of the family of the first:---Asaph.
H622 ’âsaph aw-saf' A primitive root; to gather for any purpose; hence to receive, take away, that is, remove (destroy, leave behind, put up, restore, etc.):--assemble, bring, consume, destroy, fetch, gather (in, together, up again), surely, take (away, into, up), X utterly, withdraw.
"The Hithpa'el of nb', in the ancient texts, refers to ecstasy and delirium rather than to the emission of a 'prophecy'." (de Vaux, Roland, The Bible and the Ancient Near East, p. 243 Doubleday
"Maniac inspirations, the violent possession which threw sibyls and priestesses into contortions--the foaming lip and streaming hair and glazed or glaring eyes-- have no place in the self-controlling dignity of Christian inspiration. Even Jewish prophets, in the paroxysm of emotion, might lie naked on the ground and rave (1 Sam. xix. 24); but the genuine inspiration in Christian ages never obliterates the self-consciousness or overpowers the reason. It abhors the hysteria and stimulation and frenzy which have sometimes disgraced revivalism and filled lunatic asylums." (Pulpit Commentary, 1 Cor., p. 460).
David's Praise word in the instrumental Psalms is Halal from which we get the word for LUCIFER which speaks of a light and sound show to steal people's prophecy. Hillel, Judges 12:13. -Sophocles, Antigone
Chorus
[791] You seize the minds of just men and drag them to injustice, to their ruin. You it is who have incited this conflict of men whose flesh and blood are one. [795] But victory [Nike] belongs to radiant Desire swelling from the eyes of the sweet-bedded bride. Desire sits enthroned in power beside the mighty laws. [800] For in all this divine Aphrodite plays her irresistible game.-Commentary [800] in that contest which nikai implies. We find empaizô with a dat. (1) of the object, as Her. 4.134 empaizontas hêmin, 'mocking us': (2) of the sphere, as Ar. Th. 975 choroisin empaizei, 'sports in dances.' The en of empaizei here might also be explained as (a) in the imeros, or the blephara, i.e. by their agency: or (b) 'on her victim.' But the interpretation first given appears simpler. (Cp. Vergil's absol. use of illudere, G. 1. 181, Tum variae illudant pestes.)
Both Zamar and Psallo are a WARFARE word and never a WORSHIP word.
Psallô (psao)
1. to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch, Aesch.; toxou neuran ps. to twang the bow-string, Eur.; belos ek keraos ps. to send a shaft twanging from the bow,
schoinos miltophurês psallomenêI phurôI. metaph. to mingle together so as to soil or defile, confuse, to be doomed to have one's hair defiled with earth, thêriôdous from a confused and savageTox-euma , atos, to, A. arrow, metaphor, of songs and words S.Ant.1085Sophocles, Antigone Teiresias There, now, are arrows for your heart, since you provoke me, [1085] launched at you, archer-like, in my anger. They fly true--you cannot run from their burning sting. Boy, lead me home, so that he may launch his rage against younger men, and learn to keep a quieter tongue [1090] and a better mind within his breast than he now bears
2 Samuel 6.[14] David danced before Yahweh with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.[15] So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Yahweh with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
2 Samuel 6.[14] et David saltabat totis viribus anteDominum porro David erat accinctus ephod lineo[15] etDavid et omnis domus Israhel ducebant arcam testamentiDomini in iubilo et in clangore bucinae
Sal·ta·to·ry (s
l
t
-tôr
, sôl
1. Of, relating to, or adapted for leaping or dancing.2. Proceeding by leaps rather than by smooth, gradual transitions.I.v. freq. n. and a. [2. salio], to dance (in the widest signif. of the word, including pantomime and gesticulation;
Salto Salii a salitando), āvi, ātum, 1,
Saltō āvī, ātus, āre, freq.[salio] , to dance: in convivio saltare nudus coeperat: dancing a girl's part, tibicina a female flute player.Tertullian: certainly you will not regard with approval those efforts after an artificial body which aim at surpassing the Creator's work;
Salax I. Fond of leaping, esp. of male animals, lustful, lecherous, salacious: galli, .--Vulgarly applied to Priapus: deus, Auct. Priap. 14, 1; 34, 1; and sarcastically: salacissimus Jupiter, II. Poet. transf., that provokes lust, provocative
"The ritual dance was probably widespread in the ancient East. David's performance has Egyptian parallels. Seti I, the father of Rameses II, and three other Pharaohs are said to have danced before a deity, and Asiatic monuments attest the custom elsewhere... The description of David's dance: he 'danced before Jehovah with all his might... leaping and dancing before Jeh' (2 S 6: 14-16) suggests three features that particular display and the mode of dancing which it represented: violent exertion, leaping (Mephassez) and whirling round (mekharker) . Perhaps the whirling dance of Islam is a modern parallel to the last." (Int Std Bible Ency., Games, p. 1170).E.
Cĭn cĭnaedus = kinaidos.I. He who practises unnatural lust, a sodomite, catamite, carmen, i. e. an incantation, burdensome. Kinaid-os A. catamite, generally, lewd fellow, public dancer kuôn 2. at Athens a nickname of the Cynics, Arist., Anth. III. the Trag. apply the term to the ministers of the gods; the eagle is Dios ptênos kuôn Aesch.; the griffins Zênos akrageis kunes id=Aesch.; the Bacchantes Lussês
Malacus soft, pliant Malus male tibi esse malo quam molliter, I would rather you should be unfortunate than effeminate,
Mollis 2. In a bad sense, soft, effeminate, unmanly, weak (syn. effeminatus): philosophus tam mollis, tam languidus, tam enervatus, : Sabaei, Verg. G. 1, 57 : viri molles, i. e. pathici, Liv. 33, 28 ; Sen. Ep. 87: disciplina, effeminate, Cic. Fin. 1, 11, 37 : delicatior
Sabaeus adj., Sabaios, Sabaean, Iamblichus III. Of the Greek Eleusinian: Thus "Bacchus was directly called upon," he says. The Sabazian worship was Sabbatic; the names Evius, or Hevius, and Luaios are identical with Hivite and Levite. The French name Louis is the Hebrew Levi; Iacchus again is Iao or Jehovah; and Baal or Adon, like Bacchus, was a phallic god.
The Hebrew Kadeshim or galli lived "by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove," or bust of Venus-Astarte, says verse the seventh in the twenty-third chapter of 2 Kings.
The dance performed by David round the ark was the "circle-dance" said to have been prescribed by the Amazons for the Mysteries. Such was the dance of the daughters of Shiloh (Judges xxi. 21, 23 et passim), and the leaping of the prophets of Baal (I Kings xviii. 26). It was simply a characteristic of the Sabean worship, for it denoted the motion of the planets round the sun.
Lynn Anderson etal: Psalms - more quoted in the NT than any other OT book. In Luke 24:44 and John 10:34, Jesus confirms the prophecy of Psalms, saying, “the scripture cannot be broken.”
Some have sought to discredit instrumental music in the Old Testament as merely a Davidic invention. Instruments were used both before and after David, however. David clearly had the Lord’s blessing. He is referred to 59 times in the N.T.
But, one should understand that the instrumental psalms and warrior chants intended to drive the enemy into panic with taunt singing: that is what is happening with the singing and clapping to show defeat of the old "grey hairs." Because these taunt songs carried sexual warnings to anyone the captured, it comes as no surprise says Delitsch on the Psalms:
Moreover, we must take into consideration the facts that the compass of the tenor extends even into the soprano, that the singers were of different ages down to twenty years of age, and that Oriental, and more particularly even Jewish, song is fond of falsetto singing.
The civilian population was exiled from the presence of the Tabernacle and then Temple. Therefore, none of this can be used as authority for Christian practices without imposing the curse of the worship of the starry host (Acts 7).
Hezekiah looks back many years to find a precedent and then David did not use musical instruments because the Temple and its sacrifices were not practiced in David's lifetime.
Because the false teachers REST on the curse of the Law and the Monarchy, the elders, preachers and artistic performers would be executed.
- Isreal fell fatally from Grace because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai.
- God turned them over to worship the starry host (Acts 7 and a dozen more passages)
- God burdened them with The Book of The Law and the Levites to "bear the burdens of sin."
- The Abrahamic Covenant was lost and the First Born sons replaced.
- No one not of that tribe not specificially ordained could COME NEAR the Tabernacle without sinning.
No Levite, used as Warrior Noise makers and later under the king and commanders of the army could come near the holy places of the sactury or they would be executed. The patternism is that if a musician enter into the body of Christ as fulfilment of the Holy Place is worthy of death.
Num 18:2 And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister BEFORE the tabernacle of witness. [never IN]
H8334 sharath shaw-rath' A primitive root; to attend as a menial or worshipper; figuratively to contribute to:--minister (unto), (do) serve (-ant, -ice, -itor), wait on.Num 18:3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle:
only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar,
that neither they, nor ye also, die.All of the non-Levites were called STRANGERS: therefore, if you were not of the tribe of Levi and had the assignment to serve. Therefore, no member of the "church" could come near the Tabernacle.
"A stranger," that is, one, neither a priest nor a Levite, who should intrude into any departments of the sacred office, should incur the penalty of death. ROBERT JAMIESON
Num 18:4 And they shall be joined unto thee,
and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation,
for all the service of the tabernacle:
and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.Num 18:5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar:
that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.Contrary to being a spiritual worship service, the sacrificial system had been imposed and if it were not performed it would bring down God wrath as punishment due for NOT performing what they had been abandoned to.
Num 18:6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel:
to you they are given as a gift for the LORD,
to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.Num 18:7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar,
and within the veil; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift:
and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
"And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Numbers 18:21
H5656‛abodah ‛abodoh ab-o-daw', ab-o-daw' From H5647 ; work of any kind:--act, bondage, + bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try),"Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bearsin, and die. Numbers 18:22
H5647‛abad aw-bad' keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute
The sacrificial system was imposed on the Levites as a curse or burden.
Num 18:23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation,That this was a curse is shown in many places:
and they shall bear their iniquity:
it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations,
that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. Jeremiah 7:20
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. Jeremiah 7:21
For I spake NOT unto your fathers, nor commanded them
But this thing commanded I them, saying,
in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jeremiah 7:22
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people:
and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you,
that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23But they HEARKENED NOT, nor inclined their ear,
but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart,
and went backward, and not forward. Jeremiah 7:24Furthermore, all of the performing arts are identified as the Hypocritic arts and because they produced nothing good and caused lots of destruction of morals they were called PARASITES.
Why are people so anxious to impose the CURSE of hypocrites and parasites.
In NONE of the examples used as proof does the "congregation" involve the righteous "civilian" population: the kings called the priests, warrior musicians, trumpet blowers, civil leaders and "representatives" from the tribes called stationary men.
c. 1048 B.C. The precedent: David made a deal with God to stop the plagues which he (David) had caused. God gave David a Jebusite High Place to construct an alternative altar because he never lost the fear of God and could not go to Gibeon again. When he built the temple, Solomon did not consult God at Jerusalem but returned to Gibeon.
c. 728 B.C. Hezekiah's use: The Jerusalem temple was so polluted that not even animal sacrifices could be made there. The priests had set up alternative altars outside of the city. A plague was on the nation, the city and the temple. To collect the people inside of the walls, Hezekiah made a deal with God to purify the temple so that the priests and therefore the people would be more collected inside of Jerusalem and able to withstand a certain attack. The "congregation" was never the common people but the king, commanders of the army, city officials and clergy participated in these rituals.
This does not establish PATTERNISM for Christian worship which is wholly in the new PLACE of the human spirit.
While David did not use instrumental music at the dedication of his alternative altar to STOP THE PLAGUE, Hezekiah looked back for authority for a PLAGUE STOPPING animal sacrifice. God never commanded David to WORSHIP Him with either singer or instruments.
c. 445 B.C We have to wait hundreds of years before Nehemiah used this same precedent to restore the temple and animal sacrifices. Nehemiah makes it clear that it was David who commanded instrument after the Jebusite center was intended to be the site of a better "house" for God. Of course, God promised David a family through Jesus Christ and not a "worship center."
God permitted David a tent
But, Solomon built God a house
But, God cannot be worshipped in houses built by human hands or by the works of human hands.
Conclusions: Therefore, to return to these purification rituals for authority for Christian worship is to repudiate the sacrifice of Christ and the purification of the human spirit as the new place where we "worship" in darkness and silenc: inside of our own spirit or closet.
Furthermore,
David's instruments were used only for the burnt and peace offerings for Israel to encourage a restored Passover. Israel, too, was scattered but most of Israel mocked Hezekiah's peace overture.
The trumpets were ordained by God to be blown for the animal sacrifices.
Therefore, animal sacrifices combined both CIVIL or POLITICAL ritual and animal sacrifices which had been added as a curse and not for "approved worship." Hezekiah's reform intended to centralize the religious cult in Jerusalem. That is because God limited the Gentile-like sacrifices with loud noise (not music) only in or around Jerusalem. That is why the non-cursed civilians never attended the temple for worship using "singing and loud noise."
However, if you understand this passage to AUTHORIZE instrumental music to accompany singing, you must grasp that NOT in Jerusalem nor in the VILEST PAGAN TEMPLE did the singers OR musicians ever enter into the holy places. In the temple as a CARNAL type, the Holy Place was typical of the church of Christ. This Holy Place has no musical role to play but represents the synagogue as SCHOOL OF THE BIBLE. The Most Holy Place represents the human SPIRIT which is the ONLY place where we worship God. The new spiritual place is the human spirit or mind.
Any singer or musician who entered into the TYPE of the church of Christ would be worthy of death.
The Temple Was Not for People's Worship
Animal Sacrifices at the Temple were Identical to All National Capitol Buildings
The Jerusalem was "Capitol Hill" and Not "Church."
"Each of the important deities had, in one or more of the Babylonian cities, a large temple in which he or she was worshiped. Temple services were generally conducted in open courts containing fountains for ablution and altars for sacrifices.
Only the high priest and other privileged members of the clergy and court were permitted
to enter the cella, or inner part of the temple, which held the special statue of the deity.
The needs of the deity were provided for in accordance with impressive ceremonies carried out by a vast institutionalized clergy that included priests, musicians, magicians, soothsayers, dream interpreters, astrologers, and hierodules (temple slaves or prostitutes). Sacrifices of food, drink, or incense were offered daily. Numerous festivals were held, the most important of which was the celebration of the new year at the spring equinox. [Encarta Encyclopedia]
"An Egyptian temple was not a place of public worship. It was the shrine for the neter (wrongly translated as god), who represented some specific aspect of the One God.
Only the priesthood had access to the inner sanctuaries, where the sacred rites and ceremonies were performed. In some instances, only the King himself or his authorized substitute had permission to enter.
"The ancient Egyptian temple was built to facilitate the meeting
between a specific supernatural/metaphysical force (neter/netert),
and the physical/human, for the benefit of the people, land, and the universe.
"It was not
intended to be an
art gallery for academicians and tourists. Only a small
part of it was
open to the ancient Egyptian public, on
annual festivities. Therefore, every ancient Egyptian temple had/has
a specific function.
By
analogy, Washington Cathedral is used for "National Religious Rituals."
Their authorities will tell you that these are not for your worship:
you are just a spectator to the national events. So was all national
temples of all nations. In fact, any time the loud noise
marked
the burning of animal sacrifices you as a civilian were forced to leave
by the instruments used as signals.
If you, not a member of the Civil-Priestly-Sacrificial system even got close to these rituals you would be executed.
Paul
uses this to warn that when we meet Jesus we must go OUTSIDE THE CAMP
or city or the massed multitute. There, we will find Jesus and suffer
reproaches being performed in the pagan-like musical rituals.
However, that is the only place Jesus invites us to come "Rest and
learn of Me." The church or ekklesia replaces the synagogue and not the
temple. Therefore, the Spirit of Christ ordained the
synagogue to
exclude both vocal and instrumental rejoicing; common sense when you
attend to REST and lear.
Even
if you see God commanding something for these plague stopping animal
burnings, it is proof that God has turned you over to worship the
starry hosts (Acts 7). The Jews understood Stephen and
therefore
murdered him.
At Mount Sinai, Israel repudiated The Book of The Covenant and returned to the musical idolatry they had practiced for over 400 years in Egypt. God gave The Book of the Law because of this transgression and assigned the Levites to stand between the common people, now called "strangers," and the Tabernacle as His symbolic presence. Any common Israelite would be executed if he attempted to go past the gate.
Stephen in Acts 7 says that God TURNED THEM OVER to worship the Starry Host. This was ultimately fulfilled when the elders rejected God. The "goyiim" or nations means that the sacrifices of the new temple state followed the pattern of the worship of the astrial deities such as Saturn whose number is 666.
God spared them in the wilderness to protect His own name...
Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers idols. Eze 20:24
Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; Eze 20:25
Sirach. 48 or Ecclesiasticus:
1. Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, and his word burned like a torch.
2. He brought a famine upon them, and by his zeal he made them few in number.
3. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens, and also three times brought down fire.
4. How glorious you were, O Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! And who has the right to boast which you have?
5. You who raised a corpse from death and from Hades, by the word of the Most High;
6. who brought kings down to destruction, and famous men from their beds;
7. who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb;
8. who anointed kings to inflict retribution,
........... and prophets to succeed you.O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. Hosea 13:9
I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10
I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Hosea 13:11
When Israel's elders demanded a human king "like the nations" it was so that they could worship like the nations. God then began to carry out the captivity and death sentence imposed because of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai because the never repented:
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 1 Samuel 8:7
According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 1 Samuel 8:8
This was repeated when David repudiated God by the census. He was so fearful and estranged that he could never return to Gibeon which, to him, was like the Tabernacle or the garden of Eden guarded by sword-bearing angels.
Therefore, as a concession, God permitted an alternate altar at the Jebusite stronghold to stop a plague which David brought on the people. But, Jerusalem was a NATIONS area of the Jebusites and God would permit David to plan a NATIONAL temple in which God would not dwell. There is testimony that the human kings would lead the nation into captivity and death. After all, God had "turned them over to worship the starry host" because of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai.
Gad was not a "prophet of God" but the king's seer. What is a seer? Seers are often grouped with prophets but Gad was to advise the king.
Chozeh (h2374) kho-zeh'; act. part. of 2372; a beholder in vision; also a compact (as looked upon with approval): - agreement, prophet, see that, seer, stargazer.
COME down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Isa 47:1
Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Is.47:2
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. Isa 47:3
As for our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. Isa 47:4
Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness (ignorance) , O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms. Isa 47:5
I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. Isa 47:6
The Hebrew word for POLLUTE shows HOW God will take their inheritance:
Chalal (h2490) khaw-lal'; a prim. root [comp. 2470]; prop. to bore, i. e. (by impl.) to wound, fig. to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"); denom. (from 2485) to play (the flute): ... gather the grape thereof, take inheritance, pipe, player on instruments, pollute, (cast as) profane (self), prostitute,
The word HALAL has much the same meaning to include "making people vile." The word LUCIFER has the meaning of HALAL.
But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. Isa 47:9
For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. Isa 47:10
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Isa 47:12
Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Isa 47:13
Gad who conveyed the way to STOP THE PLAGUE To David was not a true prophet but a STARGAZER.
Therefore, what did God command through Gad?
And the Lord spake unto Gad, Davids seer, saying, 1 Chronicles 21:9 [David was not God's religious leader]
Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. 1 Chronicles 21:10So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee 1 Chronicles 21: 11
Either three years famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel.
Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. 1 Chronicles 21: 12
Whatever Gad gave David as God's message has no relationship to "spiritual worship" which never has value unless it is free will: one does not go to the electric chair as a spiritual act of worship.
Whatever value this has as a proof-text, I don't want to go through the plague just to get to burn animals and make a loud noise with instruments.
David didn't want to lose power so he choose a plague. In time, God put up his sword and the destroying angel:
Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that
David should go up, and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 1 Chronicles 21: 18
........... > And David went up at the saying of Gad,
........... > which he spake in the name of the Lord. 1 Chronicles 21: 19
And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. 1 Chron 21:20And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. 1 Chronicles 21: 26
And the Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof. 1 Chronicles 21: 27
At that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. 1 Chron 21:28
For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon. 1 Chron 21:29
But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord. 1 Chron 21:30
"The process by which David achieved this status for himself, his house, and his city may be traced in II Samuel 5--8. When David took Jerusalem, he assumed the rule over its inhabitants and their religious institutions with the cult centred on Mt. Zion. The previous (Jebusite) ruler had been both king and high priest, and played the role of mediator between the city and its deity.
There was no precedent for such a mediative and priestly role of kings in Israelite religion, nor of walled cities as the seat of government and worship.Apparently, David simply took over the Jebusite cult on Zion and adapted it to his own (and Israelite) use. Beginning with David and throughout the entire period of the monarchy, for about four centuries, Israel's worship on Zion gave a central place to the king, not simply as officiant but substantively, as the figure who in his office and person embodied the relationship between God and the nation.
In contrast, the premonarchic worship of Israel, at Shechem and elsewhere, had featured a Covenant between God and the people, through their tribal heads, as the bond in the relationship.
"By taking over and adapting Jerusalem's ancient cult, David provided Israel with a new worship, one that featured his own status and its sacral significance. Britannica
Having adopted the ancient cult of Jerusalem as a means of giving sacral significance to his royal status and having renamed it the cult of Yahweh, by whose power he had conquered, David also made an important move to make the new shrine and its worship relate to the premonarchic experience of Israel.
He brought the ark to Jerusalem and established it as the central object of the cult. According to tradition, it had travelled with Israel in the wilderness and led the way into the land. It was a rectangular wooden box, originally without a cover, that established and located the presence of Yahweh with the people of Israel. So close was the connection that the ark could be addressed as Yahweh. The ark was carried into battle to demonstrate that Yahweh fought for Israel; and it was carried in the wilderness, to show that he travelled with his people. In worship, it was apparently carried in procession in the pilgrimages that were features of the annual feasts. It was a sign and even the embodiment of Yahweh's presence. David could have chosen no better way of making premonarchic Israelites accept the royal cult on Zion than by incorporating the ark, with all its ancient associations, into the new ceremonial.
David's adaptation of the Zion cult, with its understanding of kingship as the substance and means of the presence of God on earth, was to have momentous consequences for the religious history of mankind, notably for the experience of the entire Western world. Because of it Jerusalem became the Holy City and David became the prototype of an awaited messiah. As symbol of the Messiah, the return of David, or the coming of David's "son" stood for the reassertion of the divine rule and presence in history: to judge it, to redeem it, to renew it. David thus became the symbol of a fulfillment in the future, final peace. Britannica Online
"In the kingdom of Judah... there developed a conception of the covenant that was fundamentally at odds with the northerm Mosaic tradition. David, the architect of the United Kingdom, had tried to unify the twelve tribes under his rule by taking over the religious traditions and symbols of the old Tribal Confederacy.
But in the circle of the Davidic court a new theology developed, one that in the long run all but eclipsed the covenant faith that had been inherited from the Mosaic period.
According to this view, Yahweh bound himself by a covenant oath to David, promising to preserve the Davidic line and to spare the Davidic kingdom 'for the sake of my servant David,' as Isaiah is reported to have said (Isa. 37:35; see II Sam. 7). In short,
Yahweh's sovereignty was limited by the covenant, for he was no longer free to choose or reject Israel, as Amos maintained, but was obligated to preserve her." (Anderson, Theol O.T. p. 333).
This "plague stopping" animal sacrifice does not include musical instruments. However, David planned instruments from the NATIONAL temple because all of the nations used musical noise makers. However, this was always OUTSIDE the holy precincts. Therefore, only the Abomination of Desolation in the Jerusalem temple allowed singers, musicians, prostitutes and Sodomites into the holy places.
The evidence and scholarly opinion is that David radically changed the Mosaic system to a nationals system because that is what the elders "prayed" for and that is what God turned them over to but warning that the kings, given in anger, would destroy the nation conditionally sentenced to destruction at Sinai.
We should understand that God does not cause people to be lost without hope of redemption. However, when they make that choice on their own God sends strong delusions that they believe a lie and accept the damnation they have chosen for themselves.
"David succeeded in transferring the traditions of the Confederacy to Jerusalem: the Ark, the Tabernacle, the priesthod.
"But in this change something happened to the character of 'Israel,' to the structure of the community.
"No longer was Israel, the people of God, bound together on the basis of covenant allegiance to Yahweh at the central sanctuary; "Israel was now bound together politically, on the basis of a contract between king and people (II Sam. 5:3)."As citizens of the state, the people of Israel owed allegiance to a king who could take a census, exact forced labor, and require submission to his power... As Israel became a state modeled after other oriental monarchies, more and more she lost her distinctive character and faced the danger of being swallowed up in the power struggle and cultural stream of the Near East." (Bernard Anderson, p. 188).
"The king thereby produced two main centers of worship--Jerusalem, the city of God (Ps. 46:5; 48:3), with reference especially to Mount Zion, which was Yahweh's 'holy hill' (9:11; 3:5), and Gibeon, the significance of which was centrated in its high place, where the old Tabernacle was by this time located (I Chron. 16:39) (Theology of the OT, p. 365)
After the processional with music in which the ark was brought to Jerusalem it is said:
"The ancient Tabernacle was now divided; the ark was brought into Zion, whereas the brazen altar at least, and probably the vessels of the holy place (ex. 25:23-40; 37:10-28; 40:22-27), were established in the high place at Gibeon.
Asaph and the singers (1 Chron. 6:31-47; 15:16-19; 16:5; 25:6) were left before the ark,
while the priests ministered in Gibeon before the Tabernacle (16:39)." (Schofield Bible, p. 478-479).
When the Ark was brought to Jerusalem, the dedicatory and purification animal sacrifices were two-fold: the civil under the kings and commanders of the army and the religious under the priests.
Of course, under Saul the people believed and proclaimed that they had God in a BOX. The Phillistines refused to be bluffed. When David did his naked dance while "rising up to play" he BELIEVED that he was dancing before the "lord." However, he confessed that he would be honored by the SLAVE GIRLS who normally did the playing and dancing until David. He confessed also that he made himself VILE which is the meaning of his PRAISE word which is the source of the word for lucifer.
David was given a concession according to Stephen to set up the new capital in Jerusalem. However, God does not dwell in temples but, according to Jesus, is worshiped in spirit and in truth. Therefore, the "congregation" of Israel worshiped God out in their own homes with prayer and learning the Word of God and right living. Religion consisted of "personal righteousness and the practice of social justice."
"The original altar of Burnt-offering continued at Gibeon with the Tabernacle (2 Chr. 1:3, 5). David must have erected a new altar for sacrifice at Jerusalem.
> The sacrifices commanded by the Law were, it appears, offered at the former place (Gibeon);
> at the latter were offered voluntary additional sacrifices." (Albert Barnes, 1 Chron, p. 347)."The book of Psalms contain new doctrine after the Law of Moses. And after the writing of Moses, it is the second book of doctrine... (David) first gave to the Hebrews a new style of psalmody, by which he abrogates the ordinances established by Moses with respect to sacrifices, and introduces the new hymn and a new style of jubilant praise in the worship of God; and throughout his whole ministry he teaches very many other things that went beyond the law of Moses." (Fragment of Commentary by Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, Ante-Nicene, V, p. 170)
The truly greak kings always sought to restore the worship commanded by God through Moses. This musical worship would have been private devotion and:
"The absence of instrumental music from the services of the tabernacle continued not only during the wandering of the Israelites in the desert, but after their entrance into the promised land, throughout the protracted period of the Judges, the reign of Saul, and a part of David's. This is a noteworthy fact. Although David was a lover of instrumental music, and himself a performer upon the harp, it was not until some time after his reign had begun that this order of things was changed." (Girardeau, George, Instrumental Music, p. 29).
God's View of the Kings whom He chose
Of Elijah, Sirach notes of Israel:
"who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb; Ecclesiasticus 48: 7.
........... who anointed kings to inflict retribution, and prophets to succeed you. Ecclesiasticus 48: 8.O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. Hosea 13:9
I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10
........... I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Hosea 13:11
God's view of Jerusalem among the nations
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not Luke 13:34
Jerusalem, which was taken over by the Amorites in Abraham's time, later became a citadel of control by the aristocracy of rulers and court priests. These are the ones who killed the true prophets as Jesus mentioned in Matthew 23. The prophet Jeremiah refers to Jerusalem as the harlot in Jeremiah 3:1. Ezekiel refers to Jerusalem as the harlot in Ezekiel 16:15 and 16:35. When Jesus pronounced God's judgement upon Jerusalem, he said there are days of vengeance and great wrath upon it (Luke 21:22.)
For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 2 Kings 17:7
And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 2 Kings 17:8
And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. 2 Kings 17:9
And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 2 Kings 17:10
At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger. 2 Kings 17:11
Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. Ezekiel 5:4
See how God uses musical instruments to establish the beat as He destroys (allows to be destroyed) in the same way the Israelites burned babies in the arms of Red Hot Molech.
Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. Ezekiel 5:5
And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. Ezekiel 5:6
Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws.
........... You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. Ezekiel 5:7You say, "We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone." But what you have in mind will never happen. Ezekiel 20:32 (It would happen but they would not get away with it)
"You Israelites are just like the Ethiopians in my sight," says the Lord. "Certainly I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt, but I also brought the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir. Amos 9:7
Look, the sovereign Lord is watching the sinful nation, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not completely destroy the family of Jacob," says the Lord. Amos 9:8
"For look, I am giving a command and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations. It will resemble a sieve being shaken, when not even a pebble falls to the ground. Amos 9:9
All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, the ones who say, 'Disaster will not come near, it will not confront us.' Amos 9:10
Sodom is not the word translated in the KJV as sodomite but is a word which identifies a city on the Dead Sea:
Cedom (h5467) sed-ome'; from an unused root mean, to scorch; burnt (i. e. volcanic or bituminous) district; Sedom, a place near the Dead Sea: - Sodom.
It is a fact that Sodom was more evil than others and may represent the "land of the slime pits" out of which Babylonian and Canaanite homosexuality dominated, God uses Sodom AS an example. In Amos 4 he equates Israel to Sodom and in chapters 5 and 6 implicates MUSICAL FESTIVALS as the cause of their lostness:
I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Am.4:11
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Je.23:14
Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. Zep.2:9
Toward the end:
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Isaiah 1:12
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Isaiah 1:13
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. Isaiah 1:14
But this was NOT from the beginning:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. Jer 7:21
For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jer 7:22
But this thing commanded I them, saying,
> Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people:
> and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Jer 7:23But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Jer 7:24
Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: Jer 7:25
Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Jer 7:26
THUS saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? Isa 66:1
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isa 66: 2
He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dogs neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swines blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.
Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. Isa 66: 3
I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. Isai 66:4
Modern Religionists Eyes are Still Blinded About "Music" which is NEVER used as a WORSHIP word in the Bible
The Israelites had turned from the Words of God and had their eyes veiled and ears deafened. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 notes that the Jews continued for their entire history blinded and deaf and this would not change until they turned to Christ.
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 2 Cor 3:14
Jesus knew that they were self-blinded and He refused to speak to the multitudes without the symbolic language of parables. This, He said, was to prevent them from hearing after they had witnessed their expected Messiah and turned away and decided to murder Him. The prediction in Psalm 41 was that they would try to "triumph over" Jesus with the music of the warrior Levites. Judas would be the agent of Satan and his "bag" was for "carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments." It was a part of a flute case.
Jesus turned the Jews over to the Romans and the Abomination of Desolation again stood in the holy place claiming to be God.
It is still possible to be a baptized person but never have turned away from self reliance and turned to the Word and asked God for a "clear conscience" at baptism. This word often means a "clear consciousness." It has the meaning of "co-perception" and is a gift of the Spirit of open eyes and ears. Without that "bowing" to Christ's Word this is not going to make much sense. It is commentary and not a novel.
After the conditionally-terminal musical idolatry at Sinai, God promised that He would still listen although He would not go with them in a "personal" way into Canaan lest He destroy them. In the second law "in addition to the covenant" the command is:
And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets; and they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations. Numbers 10:8
And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm (shouting, clapping, rejoicing to panic the enemy) with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Numbers 10:9
Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God. Numbers 10:10
