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 Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 11:04 am
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I can't help but bring this up: ISIS destroyed another temple recently; guess whose? the temple of Baal Shamin, dedicated to the Phoenician god of storms and sky, lol.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/25/islamic-state-images-destruction-palmyra-temple-baal-shamin-isis
I see both Baal and Phoenicia mentioned in the article you linked to. It seems like our Heavenly Father has been driving people out of Syria for a while now just to get this done. Essentially, "get the kids out of the sandbox because there's something in the sandbox that I want to destroy—namely", in keeping with the analogy, "their idolatrous sandcastles and sand sculptures" razz . Their idolatrous places of worship and their idols. Using his handy-dandy shovel, ISIS.
If you listen to how the news reports on it, the worldly-minded are saying things like, "how sad," "what a loss," "ISIS has a war on antiquities, culture, and art," but I'm laughing, praising God. That should of been done a long time ago!
Deuteronomy 12:2 (NIV)
2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.
Technically, "the nations you are dispossessing" did not include Damascus/Syria at the time the command in Deut 12:2 was given. Syria is the region that Rebekah—Jacob's (Israel's) mother—was from; she was a Syrian (or an Aramean according to some translations; same place). Ergo Jacob is a Syrian. So the chosen people were already in possession of Damascus/Syria. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it wasn't an idolatrous land; Rebekah's brother, Laban, had household idols.
Genesis 25:20 (KJV)
20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
Genesis 24:29 (NIV)
29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he hurried out to the man at the spring.
Genesis 31:19 (NIV)
19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods.
Deuteronomy 26:5 (NIV)
5 Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous.
Genesis 46:6 (NIV)
6 So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan.
2 Samuel 8:5-6 (NIV)
5 When the Arameans of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck down twenty-two thousand of them. 6 He put garrisons in the Aramean kingdom of Damascus, and the Arameans became subject to him and brought tribute. The Lord gave David victory wherever he went.
But I know YHWH would want to annihilate their idolatries too, come time. SIGH. It has taken this long. Perhaps this whole thing with ISIS is the means by which that will happen—and the means by which Zech14:9-10 will be fulfilled:
Zechariah 14:9-10 (NIV)
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.
10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place.
Only the name of one God shall remain. And though all the areas around it become desert, Jerusalem will be left standing. Arabah (Arava) is nothing but dry desert and valleys; ergo, destruction will come upon those cities, from Geba to Rimmon—"Rimmon" (which is in Damascus, a city in Syria) is also where Naaman is from; Naaman who had to serve the King of Syria and help this king bow down to his gods, more evidence that idolatry was afoot in Damascus/Syria.
Quote: A Syrian cult image and temple, mentioned only in 2 Kings 5:18. In Syria this deity was known as “Baal” (“the Lord” par excellence), in Assyria as “Ramanu” (“the Thunderer”). The Syrian commander, Naaman, having been healed of his leprosy by the Israelite prophet Elisha, requested pardon from God for continuing to minister to the King of Syria who would continue to worship in the Temple of Rimmon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimmon
One day, Baal won't even get a mention in Rimmon/Damascus/Syria. No trace of their gods left. Step #1: destroy all remnants of idol worship, which includes destroying the temples/places where said idols were worshiped.
I think YHWH was all the more offended because, according to the article I linked to, his people had then turned around and used it as a church for some time. Big mistake.
Deuteronomy 12:30-31 (NIV)
30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” 31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
1 Kings 3:3 (NIV)
3 Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
Our Heavenly Father does not consider that—using pagan temples of worship to worship the Living God instead—as an act of love towards him at all. Solomon showed his love in this, that, and the other, by walking in accord...EXCEPT that he offered sacrifices on the high places (where the pagans had their temples, which originated to worship their idols). He doesn't want their pagan spiritual practices Christianized/Israelite-tized, incorporated into our worship of Him, but destroyed completely. Sigh. May the body wake up to this truth. Because the Chistians in Palmyra certainly didn't.
Quote: Palmyra's paganism was replaced with Christianity as the religion spread across the Roman Empire, and a bishop was reported in the city by 325.[127] Although most temples became churches, the temple of Al-lāt was destroyed in 385 at the order of Maternus Cynegius (the eastern praetorian prefect).[127] After the Arab conquest in 634 Islam gradually replaced Christianity, and the last known bishop of Palmyra was consecrated in 818.[325] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra#Religion
I'm noticing a trend: wherever remnants of paganism are left standing, even if it has been "Christianized" and rendered "impotent', YHWH still sends persecution to get rid of it. But not everyone repents of the paganism—to their own demise.
If ISIS catches whiff of this "large public building" with idols in it, that Itzhaq Shai described, then they'll probably come to destroy that too. I won't be sad if it happens. Good riddance Baal. We may tend to think it sad if any archaeological evidence was destroyed that could be used to show that the bible speaks the truth, but we must realize that our Heavenly Father knows best: he knows what kind of archaeological evidence needs to be left behind to prove his words true, without preserving idolatry in the process. So if he wants it destroyed, then so be it and amen.
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