Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- 2 Samuel

 

This is a chapter we studied at least once before, in my look at the mistakes made by David.  And even then, I believe I noted the discrepancies between the telling here and the retelling in 1 Chronicles 24.  I have always said that you know the Bible is true because a God who made the universe can keep his Word the way He wants it over time.  But there are seven spots of contradiction here that seem to put that in doubt.  Or do they?  Now you can study them contradiction against contradiction, and try to find a common truth the hard way.  But as I set myself to do that, I was moved to say, look at these contradictions versus the seven things that stay the same.  And here we get a perspective on what's important to man vs what's important to God.

First, a thumbnail of the events:

 Because of some way that Israel had angered God, David gets the idea to take a census- something only done previously when God requested it. Joab tries to fight him on it, but has to submit.  As soon as it was done, David knew he messed up, and repented.  So God, through the seer Gad, gave him three choices of punishment.  David nebulously asked to be put at the mercy of God and not man.  God took that as the choosing of a plague to strike Israel.  As the plague- symbolized as the Angel of the Lord striking the nation- reached to Jerusalem, David realized his second mistake and pleaded for mercy.  But God had already put things on pause, and had David buy the threshing floor on the top of Mount Moriah to build an altar on.  That would go on to be the spot David pickled for Solomon to build the Temple.

The contradictions:

1- Did God incite David (Samuel), or did Satan (Chronicles)?  'Who's to blame' is the question man asks.  But God already showed us in the Book of Job that He can use Satan's wrath to reach His ultimate goal,

2- Joab went through all the land (S) versus he skipped Levi and Benjamin (C).  This isn't even a contradiction- Levi did not have land of its own, and Benjamin was part of Judah.  This is a semantic difference, important to man but not to God.

3- The numbers don't match- was it 1.3 million (S) or 1.57 million (C)?  The number was, at the time, important to David- but not to God.  God doesn't rule by statistics.

4- Is his name Araunah (S) or Ornan (C)? Considering it was a foreign name (He was, after all, a Jebusite) and there was at the least 300 years between the writings, this is more or less an "is his name Bill or William" question.

5- Did David see the Angel in Jerusalem, or "Standing between Heaven and Earth" approaching it- and were the elders with him or not? If you remember Paul's conversion, what was seen by Paul was only perceived as a bright light to those who were with him.  In either event, this is picking nits.

6- Did Araunah see just David (S), or did Ornan see the Angel as well (C)?  A/O is important to this story for one reason, and this ain't it.

7- The biggie to men:  Did David pay 50 sheckels of silver (S) or 600 of gold (C)?  I want you to keep this in mind: There is only one time an amount of money was important in the Biblical narrative- the 30 pieces of silver that Judas received for his betrayal, because it was the amount paid for a slave in Exodus, and prophesied by Zechariah.

Now, the things important to God, which stayed the same:

1- Joab even tried to convince David against it, but David had closed his mind to everything but his sin at this point.  I feel this closed-ness when I sin, too.

2- David repented as soon as the deed was done- he recognized as soon as the deed was finished it was wrong- because that's when Satan lets you go and starts accusing you.

3- God gave David the choices of punishment.  And those choices were, basically, YOU will suffer, SOME will suffer, or ALL will suffer.  Whatever his motivations, David chose the "some" option. To men, misery loves company.

4- Here is the one census number important to God- 70,000 died from David's sin and David's choice.  This is called the consequence of the choice, children.

5- Before David even fell on his face to beg God to relent, God had already called a halt to the deaths- though not to the danger. It was all under God's control- right down to David's actions.

6- But yet, David repented of his choice- his second error in the mess, perhaps- and pled with God to spare the people.  At last, he had been brought to a point of thinking of others instead of himself.

7- God commanded the altar be built, which was the finish of the three things God intended to accomplish.  And those three were:

- to punish Israel for angering Him;

-to bring David out of selfishness to truly care about those he led;

- and establish the Temple where He wanted it- on the top of Mount Moriah, current home of the threshing floor of A/O the Jebusite.

So see, when you read a passage from what GOD thinks is important, and not by what man does, it all makes sense.  Did God let this passage get messed up because of this lesson?  Who can truly say? What we can say, though, it is in there because God willed it.

News from the little world

 

I thought it's been a while since I made a news tour of the world's smallest nations.  So why not today?

VATICAN CITY: The lead story is actually a good point, on how crime prevention needs to focus not just on punishment, but changing the conditions.  And while the spokesman correctly said, "crime draws its vitality from economic and social inequalities, as well as from corruption, claiming victims especially among those in vulnerable situations," I'm rather surprised that the seat of the largest Christian church said nothing about the fallen nature of man and the saving of souls.

MONACO: Monaco sits right next to a French province that just went back into COVID lockdown, but is only going as far as a curfew.  But as for their large neighbor, "During a conference in which the Minister of State, Pierre Dartout, asked France to stop spreading fake news, he also reassured the Monégasque public there would be no additional safety measures enforced.".  Fake news:  Not just for breakfast anymore.

NAURU: So the latest tempest in Oceania involves the University of the South Pacific, which is owned and spans several of the flyspeck island nations and dependencies in the area.  Apparently, the Vice Chancellor of the U, Pal Ahluwalia, leaked a report he wrote about financial mismanagement at the Fiji-based school, and in February the Fijian government crammed him and his wife on a plane to Australia and said don't come back.  Where Nauru comes in is that its President,  Lionel Aingimea, is also Chancellor of the school, and had to be told about it the next day.  He has offered to put the couple up in his country, and Samoa has offered to let the U relocate there, so this seems to be turning into a whole thing between Fiji and the rest of the Flyspeck Island family.

TUVALU: This is another member of the flyspeck guild, and outside of expired websites and glorified tourism pages, the only news is from a Facebook page, and the last thing from it was a February 10th economic meeting with New Zealand who was trying to get it to join the Flyspeck Guild's version of NAFTA, called PACER PLUS.  To these non-econ, non-diplomatic eyes, this seems like an attempt by Australia and New Zealand to herd the flyspecks together and deal with them all in one shot, which hasn't worked out mainly because the biggest flyspecks, Papua-New Guinea and (you guessed it) Fiji have refused to join.

SAN MARINO: This enclave in Italy's big news was that at the end of February, kindergarten through 2nd graders got to go back to school, if in a hybrid form.  Breaking news:  The students were happy to be back, and reported that their favorite thing in school was still recess.

LIECHTENSTEIN: A visit to Liechtenstein is always like a visit to a bank that's too rich for you.  This little valley tucked in between Switzerland and Austria is a country of rich people ruled by a rich family, and any effort of the Parliament to limit the power of that family in the years since WWII have been voted down overwhelmingly.  So not surprisingly, their lead news story was about the amazing profits made by some company on their annual report.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: Outside of a conference promoting women to take the lead in tourism development, the Marshall Islands news would like you to know you can join its 543 subscribers for a mere $52 American!

ST KITTS and NEVIS: This member of the Flyspeck Guild, Caribbean division, is running a contest on the island of Nevis for a social media jingle to promote vaccinations for COVID.  Sorry, you have to be a resident.

MALDIVES: Our last contestant, from Flyspeck Guild- Indian Ocean, gives perspective on "front line workers": They have announced some 8,800 front line workers of the tourism industry have received their vaccinations.  We get ours April 10th, just sayin'...

The Better Part, week 10

 

This week's Facebook posts, with another Friday missed...

The Better Part, Day #63:

 

Today I'm going to start with a passage from a comic book, which came to mind when this idea struck me... A passage spoken by a cowboy who had come to the present day, and then returned to his time, our past, only to narrowly escape death in an avalanche that struck the train he was on:

 

"Nancy died from a ruptured cervix. She only got to see her baby once before passing away. Our daughter, Eve, became afflicted with Rubella and died at the age of 4. Last year, my friend Boom-Boom Brown had his jaw busted in a boxing match... the dentist working on Boom's mouth used dirty equipment- he died six months later from gangrene. Every single one of those deaths could have been prevented in the future that I saw coming. And every single person who died in that train wreck had been dust for a very long time in that future I had seen."- Fabian Nicieza, The Sunset Riders, book 2

 

What does this have to do with anything? David Jeremiah made the point today in a sermon about not fearing natural disasters that if someone isn't among the thousands killed in the next earthquake or the hundreds in the next hurricane, they are STILL going to die someday- just not in a 'package deal'. Which got me remembering this and considering- Large numbers of dead in natural disasters are just Satan's way of making us forget the tragedy is not in the amount of dead- but the even one life lost without Christ. Or, to steal another line, from a comic by Walt Simonson:

 

"I don't grieve his death, just the waste of his life."

 

 

The Better Part, Day #64:

 

Luk 23:42 And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Luk 23:43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." 

 

In a day full of asking for that more power and being told, "More purity", and asking how to learn purity, and the answer coming back as situations that required more power, God gave me one wonderful gift of an insight: That what Jesus said in Luke 23:43 applies to YOU AND ME as well. Remember Paul saying that Jesus has already taken us into the heavenlies? "This day" was Jesus's promise to all who believe- and while our day on earth might not be over, our day in heaven has been going on for a long time!

 

 

The Better Part, Day #65:

 

When my machine, my fabric, my job had me frustrated and ready to give up, I read this quote from AW Tozer:

 

"I am perfectly happy to have God do things I cannot understand. I am joyfully willing that God should fly the plane for me, that He should run the machine for me, that He should portion out my life for me, that He should make my plans for me. I am perfectly willing that He should do all this, because He knows how, and I do not. He has the power, and I do not."

 

 

The Better Part, day #67:

 

Leaving off the passage I'm going to reference, since I don't want to let the cat out of the bag on next week's Wednesday Bible Study, but... this particular passage has a story told in two different spots, and there are some significant- or so it would seem- differences between the two. But as I have been studying, I felt myself being drawn to the point: What GOD found important in the story, that is dead on the same. Things that MAN finds important, to his detriment, are what has the differences- subjects like money, who's to blame, and getting the credit to the "right" place. Strip it down to the stuff that agrees, and you see God got His point across just fine.

 

 

The Better Part, day #68:

 

From CNN: "The Pope visited Ur on Saturday, the second day of the first ever papal visit to Iraq. Addressing a meeting of inter-faith leaders, Francis condemned the violence that has plagued Iraq in recent years and called for friendship and cooperation between religions. "

 

First thought: Mat 10:34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 

 

Second thought: 2Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

2Co 6:15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

 

 

The Better Part, day #69:

 

Earlier this week, I saw a picture posted, supposedly in worship of Christ- but it had an American flag coating the Cross. I feel once again I need to remind my Christian brothers and sisters that there were only TWO things that were put on that Cross. One was the God-Man who saved us by His death and resurrection; the other was (intended to be) an insult in three languages. And both ended up bringing glory to God- not to any man, not to any nation.

Time Machine co-ordinates VICLXXII6663563

 

Plane crashes and Time Machine visitations, sadly, seem to go hand in hand. And it happens again as we go to March 5th, 1963, the night Patsy Cline's plane went down.  She lost her life along with Randy Hughes, the pilot, and two other performers.  One was Cowboy Copas, who had racked up 10 top ten country hits, including the 1960 #1 Alabam; the other was Hawkshaw Hawkins, who claimed 6 country top tens including a song released 3 days before the crash that went to #1- Lonesome 7-7203.  The plane, flying in heavy weather that they were advised not to fly in, crashed 90 miles short of Nashville; it was Roger Miller who found the wreckage the next morning.

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So last week, Elvis made a suggestion that I found a little unworkable, so I tweaked it a bit, and we're going to have something never done before on TM- a Supernatural (no, not THAT supernatural!) guessing game, here in a bit!  Also this week, the four biggest Canadian act hits in history, and why; and something that hasn't occurred on the M10 in 85 weeks!  Let's get things started with the first of two new debuts (both of which that will hopefully play correctly this time)!  At #10, for the third time on the M10, here's Pale Waves...

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Okay, Gene, we have a big show this week, are you ready?

I do believe so, Mr Martin!  What's first?

Well here's the thing.  Since this is the 666th post under the Time Machine aegis, Elvis had suggested a devil-themed post this week, but it seemed a bit thin.  So I went through and found all the Martin Era 2.0 year-end listers that had some sort of supernatural character in the title.  

I bet there were quite a few...

40, to be precise, but I found a way to have some fun with it.  How about you introduce the three games I came up with?

Thank you, sir!  So, game number one goes like this.  We divided the songs into 8 supernatural character categories:  Aliens, Angels, the Devil, fairy tales/comic books, God, magic, monsters, and classical mythology.  Your task:  Which category had the most songs?

Game number two, out of the years of the Martin Era 2.0, 1956-1977, ONE year did not have a song on the list. Guess the year.  Clue, it is a very significant year in pop music.

Game number three, seven songs made the end of year top tens in their years- but only one was the #1 song of its year.  Was it:

David Seville's Witch Doctor (magic)

Frankie Avalon's Venus (Myth)

Sam The Sham's Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy tale)

Norman Greenbaum's Spirit In The Sky (God)

Shocking Blue's Venus (myth)

John Denver's Thank God I'm A Country Boy (God)

or Rick Dees's Disco Duck (I gave it a narrow inclusion into magic- he did transform like a were-duck...)

Now that's three tough games- and we're not even to the Panel yet!  Speaking of which...

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I am never quite sure why it is our employer sees fit to include me in these, er, shenanigans, but he has asked me to tell this six degrees tale, which went rather awry of its supposed purpose.  The victim, as it were, this week is Johnny Mathis with It's Not For Me To Say, which had the unfortunate position of being the highest charting song this week on Cashbox- at #10, which is a good deal lower than it's been recently.   At any rate, the first step led us from Mr Mathis to the song's arranger Don Costa, who was noted as being the man who "discovered" the singing talents of Paul Anka.  This apparently was a good choice, as his song Diana is the 4th-biggest hit by any Canadian act.  And here, our boss got sidetracked and decided just to let you know which three songs were ahead of Mr Anka.  And they would be:

3- Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks

2- (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Bryan Adams

And 1- My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion.

I hope you have enjoyed this dissertation, and have a good evening!

Thanks, Horace, and now, let's hit the debut at #9 on the M10.  This is a 3-man band from Scotland that had all adopted the fictional last name of the fictional Mafia family, the Fratellis.  Their song is....

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All right, Gene, give 'em the compressed version of the Panel picks!

Yes, sir!  You have five finalists this week from a list that had 17 songs from fifty-one stations!  Choose from:

The End Of The World, Skeeter Davis, #15 this week;

The Four Seasons and Walk Like A Man, #2 this week;

Rhythm Of The Rain, the Cascades, at #4;

He's So Fine, the Chiffons at 51 and rocketing upwards- in fact, they are the big mover, up 38 spots from #89;

And Hey Paula by Paul and Paula, the week's number one!

And your helper this week:  Here's where the Panelists fared on the year's hot 100:

Roy Orbison, In Dreams was #73

Ned Miller, From A Jack To A King, 47

The Rebels, Wild Weekend, 40

Eydie Gorme, Blame It On The Bossa Nova, 32

Bobby Darin, You're The Reason I'm Living, 28

Dion, Ruby Baby, 25

Finalist, Walk Like a Man, 18

The Rooftop Singers, Walk Right In, 17

Finalist, Hey Paula, 14

Finalist, He's So Fine, 13

Finalist, Rhythm Of The Rain, 7, and

Finalist, End Of The World, 3!

Gene, one last thing needs taken care of before the games and the Panel- other than the M10 and the surprise awaiting there- and that's on you...

I have it right here, the Overseas If You Please!  The UK did NOT have an Elvis song at the top this week; rather, it was Frank Ifield bringing his yodeling tones to the song The Wayward Wind.  The rest of the cast selected Panelists at their #1s- New Zealand had Walk Right In, Australia was spinnin' From A Jack To A King, and Canada chose Rhythm Of The Rain.

Good job!  Now, how about you let the fans know the winners of the Supernatural Games!

Okay!  So the first winner- which category had the most- it was a tie, so if you took angels or magic, you did fine with nine!

Second game- which year decided not to play along?  Well, it's the year y'all be going to next week- 1964!

And Game Three, the only one that was a #1 for its year was- Spirit In The Sky!  Hope you all aced the quiz!

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The remaining M10:

8- Eighth week on for Lilly Hiatt's Brightest Star, slipping one to #8...

7- Neil Young's Pocahontas slips 2 this week.

6- The Explorer's Club jumps from 10 with Don't Waste Her Time...

5- Up one spot for Royal Blood and Typhoons...

4- Crack The Sky falls one with Blowing Up Detroit...

3- Tommy James and the Shondells up one with Hold On To Him...

2- They may be stuck here for a while- Weezer and Grapes Of Wrath...

And for the first time since July 17th of 2019, we have a song make four consecutive weeks at the top, and that goes to....

Home Free and Don McLean and American Pie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ironically, this song takes over as the longest song to hit #1 on the M10, beating out that song that spent 4 weeks on top in July 2019, ELO's Mama...

And at long last, the Panel picks...

The Chiffons and the Four Seasons got you 9.8%...

The Cascades were a little better at 11.7%...

Paul and Paula got you 13.7%...

But your winner, with 21.5%.....

....Skeeter Davis and The End Of The World!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next week, less games, more Skeeter- and more BEATLES!  1964!

Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- I Samuel

 

This week in 1 Samuel 31, we have the miserable suicide death of King Saul, who had been abaondoned by his God:

1Sa 31:4  Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me." But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.

The Chronicler adds an explanation to the end of the story:

1Ch 10:13  So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the LORD in that he did not keep the command of the LORD, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance.
1Ch 10:14  He did not seek guidance from the LORD. Therefore the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse. 

 

And the amazing thing is how well Saul started- how the Spirit would fill him to great acts of prophecy and courage- but he never really made Him HIS God, and it became a downward spiral.  But this chapter also shows you can go UP with God, too.  Let me take you back in time to a SEEMINGLY unrelated story:

Jdg 21:6  And the people of Israel had compassion for Benjamin their brother and said, "One tribe is cut off from Israel this day.
Jdg 21:7  What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives?"
Jdg 21:8  And they said, "What one is there of the tribes of Israel that did not come up to the LORD to Mizpah?" And behold, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh-gilead, to the assembly.
Jdg 21:9  For when the people were mustered, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there.
Jdg 21:10  So the congregation sent 12,000 of their bravest men there and commanded them, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword; also the women and the little ones.
Jdg 21:11  This is what you shall do: every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction."
Jdg 21:12  And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

What's going on here?  Short story:  The tribe of Benjamin had committed a heinous sin, like the sin of the men of Sodom long before.  A prophet cut up the body of his murdered maid and used it as a call to revenge.  When tempers cooled, it was found there were 600 men of Benjamin left of the entire tribe- and if they didn't want the tribe to go extinct, they had to get them women- and they had foolishly vowed not to give up any of their own.  So they figured up Jabesh-Gilead had cowardly stayed at home- and wiped them out to get virgins to rebuild Benjamin.  But the story of Jabesh-Gilead doesn't stop there:

1Sa 11:1  Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you."
1Sa 11:2  But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel."
1Sa 11:3  The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Give us seven days' respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you."

Some years later, the rebuilt J-G finds itself on the verge of either a great dishonoring or another extinction.  But this time, they knew there was a King in Israel:

1Sa 11:5  Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, "What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?" So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh.
1Sa 11:6  And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.
1Sa 11:7  He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, "Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!" Then the dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man.

God often works in symmetry, and here an ascendant Saul uses the same method of messaging that was used to ignite Jabesh's earlier fate to call them to the defense. Saul, full of the Spirit, easily defeats them, and Jabesh-Gilead is now a loyal support base for Saul.  Now, go back to our story:

1Sa 31:9  So they cut off (Saul's) head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people.
1Sa 31:10  They put his armor in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
1Sa 31:11  But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
1Sa 31:12  all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.
1Sa 31:13  And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days. 

 

From Cowards to heroes, the men of Jabesh not only stayed in their city when all about them fled for fear of the Philistines (v7), they crossed the Jordan back into the heart of Philistia to recover the bodies of the House of Saul and give them an honor Saul didn't deserve in life.  And now, let's go one step into the future to see how this act of honor blessed them:

 

2Sa 2:4  And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David, "It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,"
2Sa 2:5  David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, "May you be blessed by the LORD, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him.
2Sa 2:6  Now may the LORD show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing.
2Sa 2:7  Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them."
 

 

And thus, where a lesser king might have eliminated or at least ignored followers of the old regime, these men were blessed by David- and a city that might have died in infamy turned their path around and found themselves blessed.  And we might never had noticed, had it not been set against the contrast of a soul lost without God.  When we feel it's time to give up on this world, let's be men of Jabesh-Gilead, and receive God's blessing for it!

Don't go away, this is funny

 

What you see there is a dude by the name of Denis Donskoy scoring what has to be the most unusual winning goal in the history of hockey- a goal which left the winners losers, the losers confused, the winning/losing coach resigning, and me having to study Google Belarusian to figure it all out.  But let me set the stage.

In the international world, most regular season hockey is winding down.  Hungary and Russia's KHL both open playoffs tomorrow, Poland is already going at it.  But, as I said, Belarus is our story, and they were already the oddest bird of the lot before we get to Sunday.  Unlike everybody else in the world, they cast COVID concerns to the wind and played what was, for them a usual season.  You see, like many European sports, they have a multi-tiered league where if you don't perform, you get kicked to the lower league- in this case, the A League and the B League.  The A is supposed to be a notch above the B- the site Elite Prospects even treats it as 2 separate leagues- but, when it comes to the playoffs...

Well, what happens is the top 8 of the A League earn playoff spots, but teams 5-8 have to play teams 1 through 4 of the B League to make the 'main' playoffs.  And so it was that Brest (the team in the white in the pic), who finished second in the B League at 30-12 faced the A side's Lokomotiv Orsha, 7th in the A League at 14-35.  Despite the disparity, Orsha was the favorites because, well, they were from the A group.

When the series started, this round was going to be like Champions League (standard European) play- two games, team that gets the most goals wins no matter wins or loss.  Brest managed a 4-2 win in game one, so Orsha needed to win by 3 in game two to advance.

They won by FIVE.  And lost.  How, you ask?

Having got on the league website and getting translated by Google Translate, I learned that sometime- possibly in between games 1 and 2- the league changed the rules.  Instead of being two games, best aggregate, it would now be like the regular season: 2 points for a win, one for a tie, most points wins.

Orsha was up 5-0 late, which old rules would have won the series.  But with the new rules, if Orsha held on to that lead after regulation, they would do an overtime winner-take-all, going to a shootout if no one scored.  This is where it REALLY gets stupid.  Brest got a penalty with a about a minute and a half left, and Orsha decided to try NOT to score on the power play in regulation (where it would have been meaningless), but let a half-minute of penalty time go INTO the overtime period, which makes no sense in that this was a game going into a winner take all OT with the score 5-0, and not only didn't the points matter, but the penalty was allowed to overlap!  At the end- and I swear this is true, I watched on video moments ago- Brest tried to score in their OWN net to give Orsha the meaningless goal, but an Orsha player played goalie in front of Brest's goalie to PREVENT it!

Still, they managed to play a scoreless overtime followed by a shootout, where players selected by their coach take turns going in alone against the enemy goalie until one team has an advantage.  In this case, they were even at 1-1 after the standard 5 players for each side tried- and that led to Donskoy's goal above, on the sixth attempt, giving Brest the win despite the official score being 5-1 against them.

So Brest moves on; they'll likely get bounced out next round by top seed Yunost Minsk, the top seed in the tournament. (Although their coach 'loudly' predicted a six-game series victory.)

A typical comment from the players:

- Let me start, - Andrey Filichkin takes the floor for Loko cap. - I would like to apologize to our fans for the match in Brest, which we lost in 10 minutes in the end. He was defining. But today we completely concentrated on the game, won confidently, and really wanted to score in overtime. And shootouts ... yes, such a regulation. Something unfair. On the other hand, both we and the opponent knew about him.

 

And Loko's coach:

 

Igor Zhilinsky with sincere misunderstanding went through not only the format of transitional matches, but the rules of the game in general: “I have been working in Belarus for the third year, but I don’t know what will happen in the championship next year. The regulations change every year: this and that. In my opinion, this is just nonsense . "

 Zhilinsky would leave the presser to go talk to team management after this; he returned soon after, announcing teary-eyed he was no longer the coach.

Igor Valentinovich caught a very sad emotion. It looked like the specialist's eyes were about to fill with tears. He admitted that he would gladly continue to work at Loko, but certain circumstances currently prevent him from doing this: “The last word was one of my interviews, after which I was summoned to the administration” . One thing is clear: if the sides do not find common ground now, then Lokomotiv and the extraliga will lose very seriously.

 

 

 

The Better part, week #9

 

This week's FB posts, for your edification and my preservation:

The Better part, day #56:

 

Pro 22:20 Have I not written to you yesterday and the day before with counsels and knowledge,

Pro 22:21 to cause you to know the certainty of the words of truth, to return the words of truth to those who send to you? 

 

Last night I read an article in The Times Of Israel by a man whose main point was how much better Judaism and Islam was because they don't accept the doctrine of Original sin. Among his points were that it's never mentioned in the Old Testament (If you throw out enough of the Pentateuch that it becomes the 'five paragraphs'); That Jesus was a "moralizing perfectionist" who just wanted us to do better (turning the Gospels into the 'four paragraphs'); That Paul, "the true founder of the Christian faith" (If you toss out all of the miraculous power of God in Christ) pulled the doctrine of Original sin out of his left cheek; and that the Christian faith 'forces you to become a Christian to avoid hell', while neither the Jews nor the Muslims (which he 'proved' with yet more cherry-picked Koran verses that bear no resemblance to the actions of the historic- or current- Muslim faith) force anyone to do anything.

Although I could have gotten onto the comments section and put holes in his argument big enough for a Carnival cruise ship to pass through, I was a good boy for once and refrained. I knew he would never listen to someone who serves a Holy God who isn't going to dismiss what I want to do with a nod and a wink, who isn't just sitting back watching the dreidel spin, and who doesn't see man as sinless except through the lens of His Son's sacrifice. Wisdom has to be sought, and Jesus will teach it to you. If you're not too satisfied with your own intellect and with a do-nothing God.

 

The Better part, Day #57:

 

Joh 8:7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

I had something else planned for today, but real life struck: By now I know you all heard about Tiger Woods's horrible accident. And, not surprisingly, I heard on WOWO'S Pat Miller show that social media was having a lot of fun saying that Tiger's Karma for cheating on his wife finally came due. Before we start saying that, let me point out in that verse above, Jesus didn't say, "You who have LESSER sins". Jesus calls us to have mercy on ALL men, not just the ones whose sins are lesser, or hidden.

 

 

The Better Part, Day #58:

 

Rom 9:20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"

Rom 9:21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 

 

To make the point I want here (not the one you might think), I'm going to add a secular quote of a scientific sort:

 

"...One is perhaps we are alone in the universe. The argument here is that we are finding more and more Goldilocks zones, meaning that it becomes increasingly difficult to find planets that can fit within all these new Goldilocks zones. For example, there is a Goldilocks zone (now) for the Milky Way Galaxy. If a planet is too close to the center of the galaxy, there is too much radiation for life to exist. If it is too far from the center, then there are not enough heavy elements to create the molecules of life...Each time there is another Goldilocks zone, it vastly decreases the possibility of life..." -Michio Kaku, The Future of Humanity, note # 245

 

Now we put the two together. How does this not convince these scientists that it all HAD to be put together by a Supreme Being? Because there are three kinds of things we don't know. There are the things we never bother to look for; the things, like in the Bible passage, God doesn't choose to share with us yet- or with each of us until we're ready; and things we REFUSE to see because it would dethrone man as supreme being.

 

 

The Better part, day #59:

 

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with God. 

 

Today, just a note that I took comfort that, if Jesus is The Word, and The Word is in the Bible, then every page I read, I am getting to know Him!

 

The Better part day #60:

 

Joh 14:1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Joh 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 

 

This is another just brief thought, stolen from Jack Hibbs. Jesus's first job- a carpenter. Imagine a carpenter with the Power of God having spent the last 2,000+ years building your future home?

 

 

The Better part, Day # 61:

 

(This is the tail-end of my Wednesday Bible Study post on the blog this coming week...)

 

2Sa 2:4 And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David, "It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,"

2Sa 2:5 David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, "May you be blessed by the LORD, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him.

2Sa 2:6 Now may the LORD show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing.

2Sa 2:7 Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them."

 

And thus, where a lesser king might have eliminated or at least ignored followers of the old regime, these men were blessed by David- and a city that might have died in infamy turned their path around and found themselves blessed. And we might never had noticed, had it not been set against the contrast of a soul lost without God. When we feel it's time to give up on this world, let's be men of Jabesh-Gilead, and receive God's blessing for it!

 

 

The Better part, Day #62:

 

"There is a connection between purity and power in our lives..." Charles Stanley

 

2Sa 24:2 So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, "Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people."

2Sa 24:3 But Joab said to the king, "May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?"

2Sa 24:4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. 

 

Rom 14:21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

Rom 14:22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.

Rom 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. 

These three things came together for me this morning, telling me that a) if I want to feel God in a more powerful way, I've got to accept him bringing me to points of greater purity; b) that I go backwards in that battle every time I shut Him out as I gravitate towards sin; and c) that things that might not be sin to anyone else in the world can be sin FOR ME.