November 1st.

The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and ridiculed them.

There is a particular sense and feeling amongst the humans that they can just decide whatever they want about God and themselves and that it will all just be okay, because there is a universal sense of goodness that the humans feel about themselves and they can just decide whatever they want about God and it will be okay because they're so inherently good. That inherent feeling of goodness that each of them feel about themselves in particular, and those who are like them (sharing DNA makes the humans pretty much alike), is the animal nature's mechanism of survival in action. Because they feel so inherently self-justified just because of who they are (which is a totally irrational and irrelevant phenomenon) creates a haughtiness that God hates.

I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.

This self-satisfied and ever-justified arrogance exists in the minds and hearts of those who don't want the truth about God. They may not be intended to have it, which is beside the point because they nevertheless just want to have and do whatever's before them, what comes naturally, whatever is in their heart to do, and never search for the hidden God. They want to smugly scorn and ridicule those who do want to find the secret Father, who want something more than the plate of dogshit everyone else is eating from, agreeing with each other that it's good. But those who want more know it's bad because it's lifeless and worthless, and they can see it.

Those who scorn and ridicule do the right thing for them to do, because they live in a world run by humans for the humans' benefit, to lift up and worship their own lives and selves, and just do and be whatever they want. Anything that doesn't agree with that is disdainful, because it's a threat to the wall they're hiding behind with the others whom they agree with that behind the wall it's better than out in the open. That's why the scorning and ridiculing must take on intellectual type of proportions, so that it can be validated and the spot behind the wall where they choose to hide can have even more agreement.

Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.

Can anyone admit their haughtiness, their misguided arrogance and blindness? Not if they've found a safe place to hide with the others who validate it for them. Considering the fact that the humans are hiding behind their haughty, scornful defense walls, is it too much for the Father to ask that His true sons desire to become pure and blameless, set apart from the world of humans who hate and despise God, who make up their own gods to serve them according to their whims? There's no ability to be right with God as the humans assume they can be by just being who they are. There is nothing about them according to God, which equates with their own lop-sided feelings of exceptionality and superiority towards themselves and/or their own flesh and blood.

You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.

In these days it was assumed that people who were not Jews were unclean, as was food that was eaten. Although in a way it was true as God intended the commands, the animals took those commands and skewed them for their own good. They played the game of legality, that of obeying the rule even though the spirit of the rule was totally disregarded because they assumed to owned the rules and control them, as long as they continued to sway the status quo in their favor, for their good.

What Peter was learning, even as outlined in this chapter, was that he must abandon the prejudices that lived in him because of what he learned when he was becoming a full grown animal—all the agreement he took in from those who claimed to be experts, but were just phonies looking out for themselves, animals who learned how to fool others and themselves. What was unclean wasn't on the outside, or things he took into his body. It was already living in him; it was him and everything he was under the curse that made him unclean according to the Father. The thinking that one is inherently clean (good) is exactly what makes him unclean, and the thought that one can be clean by avoiding external things and people (the bad ones who are not like we think we are—good), is exactly what keeps him separated from the Father.

"Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."

"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him `unclean.' "

Jesus is explaining here in very clear terms that those who weren't being called because they weren't chosen by the Father—Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted—are unclean. It wasn't because they were the bad guys, the evil pharisees antagonizing the good guy Jesus, but because they weren't being given eyes to see, as the disciples were assumed to have been being given by Jesus. He even chides them a little for not opening their new eyes and taking in the teaching he was giving them, which ran completely contrary to what they had ever heard from the "experts." These words are read continuously in churches all over the world but are never understood because the eyes to see have not been given.

The Son is teaching them the truth about sin and uncleanness, that it isn't something that comes from the outside, or from some bad god satan or the so-called demons. It is something that is born into everyone and it lives in the human heart to keep them separated from God as per His purpose. It is so ubiquitous and powerful that it isn't a thing that can even be noticed, not to mention walked away from, because it is the definition of what the humans are in their native form, and what they don't want to be rid of because they're familiar with their nature and it suits them, so all they can do is grow closer to it, and further away from God, cemented into their fate of being bound to the earth by becoming one with it, which they finally will in the most perfect way as they physically melt into the soil and become one with it in form and purpose. Those "experts" who claimed to know something actually had no idea, and Jesus is telling the disciples that they should just walk away from them because they'll never know the truth, because they don't want to know the truth—they are too content with the way things are in their here and now, as the rulers of the animals. They don't want to search for the Father because that would mean they would have to give everything up to do so, because that's what it costs to do it.

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Searching for the Father is not a joke or a picnic. The path that leads to Him is very narrow, and the commands which must be followed to continue to walk on that path are stern and strict, because the Father expects and demands that His own sons aren't like the human animals under the curse. They may not like the discipline that they must conform to, but it is for their own good, so they can learn to undo all the years of the doing, following, conforming and loving what the animal taught us to love—whatever aided us in our own personal quest to survive the best ways we could, like a squirrel with its nuts getting as many as he can and hanging onto them at any cost, because it's driven to do one thing, look out for itself.

This is what the sons must repent from, their instinctual drive to always be concerned about their selves on such a subliminal level that they have no choice. That's why we continue to say they are driven by instinct like the wild animals are also driven to do what they do by an uncontrollable force, so it also goes with the humans in every way they fundamentally are. They think they make their own decisions, but they don't because they are driven by instinct to be the same way across the spectrum of fundamental human behavior. The reason it's the same in all of them is because they're all under the same curse as per Genesis 3. The sons of God are right there with everyone else. The difference is that the sons receive a revelation from their true Father that allows them to see and hear, then begin to conform to the Father's image, to walk along that path which leads to Him.

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

"A voice of one calling in the desert, `Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "

John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

The humans are all unclean according to God, yet they all think just the opposite about themselves. That is the thinking that the sons are also prone to, and what they must repent from as they begin their transformation from common animal to son of God. The humans (what the sons come from, so are naturally predisposed to also) critically despise things about other humans that they don't mind at all about themselves. That's just an instinctual thing that's built into the humans, according to the way they feel about themselves versus everyone else, and it holds fairly steadily across the spectrum. They hold in higher regard the humans that are more like them, especially those which come from their own body, who carry a little piece of themselves in them. Those just a little further out from their own brood are the ones who agree with their purpose, who uphold their aim to survive, who join in their conspiracy of goodness with each other.

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,  "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

The irony is of course they didn't know why the tradition even existed, as it had devolved from the commands of Moses through the interpretations of so many unclean animals to the point it existed as when they confronted the One who actually knew what Moses said and the secret reason he said it. So many of these instinctual prejudices is just the way the humans naturally are, what they can't just divorce themselves from because that power is on such a fundamental level, so much so that it actually defines them as what they are—unclean, unable to please God because they're just so given over to being this creature that is so involved in doing, being, becoming, maintaining that identity which is so foreign to God, because God is the last being they look to, to desire to want to please or be loyal to.

Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the LORD. Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written.

But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary."

And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

Hezekiah's desire to please God by being a shepherd and leader who wanted to guide the people back to God, for His sake, was stronger than obeying the commands, just for the sake of obeying. The desire to search for the Father follows no rules except that one rule that trumps all the others:

If from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

God's law could be broken for something better, which is what it pointed to (the secret mystery that was hidden within the words and intention of God, as indicated in the words). Love and devotion to God was more important than adhering to every detail of the law, which didn't make the law bad, just that the outward details weren't as important as the message within. If they could have obeyed the law and be cleaned, and also set their heart with Hezekiah toward God, that is the better thing. What the leaders of Israel did over and over again, was set the law aside for their own gain, and substitute what was good with their own traditions, which they created according to the evil in them to make the law, and therefore God, serve them. They didn't want to search for God, but just do whatever they wanted and also feel like they were justified because they followed some sort of semblance of what they turned the law into.

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

"In those days, at that time," declares the LORD, "the people of Israel and the people of Judah together
will go in tears to seek the LORD their God.

They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

The problem with the humans is that they assume they don't have to look past themselves of the experts who are telling them lies. They can just assume that the lies are true because it's easier to believe the convenient lies since they agree with what's naturally in them since the lies were made by humans according to what felt/sounded/agreed best with their own nature. They love the rules made up by men because they're easier and sit better in their animal selves.

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.

The commands and law of God was good, not bad. It was ineffectual, or powerless, because the nature that is naturally and automatically in all of the humans as per the curse is stronger than the humans' ability to deny it. They refer to the sinful nature they know what Paul's referring to when he wrote about it. Although their intentions may be good, they think and teach that the sinful nature is just some thing they can detach themselves from by their own will power, or by doing some rituals. They think it's what the "bad people" have, and not them since they are all good and naturally pleasing to, because they're right with God (because they adhere to lies which are easier to conform to than searching for the hidden God, even though that is the clear command).

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

Some say that Jesus died for their sins, so that's all they need to "believe" to be right with God. Then as some okay looking female walks by, he looks her all the way through the doorway of the store, like an animal in heat, totally oblivious to anything else except the instinct he is driven by. In his mind, as long as he doesn't have sex with her, he can just do whatever he wants, and everything is fine all the way around. He has this idea of sin, and as per the christian leaders' teachings, has no idea about what sin actually is—not things that the humans do when they're being bad, according to God. That's the whole point about the sinful nature not just being some thing that one can divorce himself from all of a sudden. The sinful nature is merely being an unclean animal like all the human animals, led by the instincts that are naturally in the humans because they are all mere animals, sons of the serpent.

If you return to the LORD, then your brothers and your children will be shown compassion by their captors and will come back to this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him...and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.

When God decides to make an ordinary human into a son, there is a process that one goes through, which is long and complicated. It is a transformational process which is meant to undermine what that humans is, fundamentally through and through, even having to change his thoughts, behaviors, prejudices, likes and dislikes. It's a process of changing his philosophy and psychology so that what took 20, 30, 40 years to develop in him, what is firmly rooted and established in him as the very person he is from the most fundamental levels upward, all get changed.

Also in Judah the hand of God was on the people to give them unity of mind to carry out what the king and his officials had ordered, following the word of the LORD.

It isn't done by the will of a man or any group of men who think, claim and erroneously teach that they know the way to God. They are the same ones who teach each one of the animals that he's eternally pleasing to God because he says things like praise the lord and jesus is my savior. They're also the ones who claim they're right with God because they know better doctrine and so are righter than the others, therefore must be more pleasing to God than them.

We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.

He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

Everyone's stabbing in the dark, assuming because other groups do it, so should they. So they stake their claim to their possession of what's true, and they think they can own and control it.

...their teachings are but rules taught by men.

Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.

God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.

God is gracious and compassionate; He turns His face toward His sons when they seek Him. He rewards those who diligently seek Him. He gives grace and favor to those whose hearts are set on truly finding Him and knowing Him, not conforming to lies which are easier than searching. He knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, so He knows whether we are worthy or not, according to His standards. There is a promise of reward for seeking, for that little bit of knowledge about Him which was planted in the heart to be nurtured with an attention to that which we are told leads to life, and a neglect for that which leads to death.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

...anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

He rewards those who know that the things that the world runs after, considers valuable, and loves; are things that stand in the way of knowing Him, and are willing to abandon them in an effort to seek Him more diligently. It obviously isn't something that just comes easy, though, and we'd do ourselves a service to ponder the word "earnestly" in the verse above.

We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.