Pharaoh’s annoyance increased when his magicians, one after the other, and then his wise men could not come up with a satisfying interpretation of his dream where seven thin cattle ate seven fat cattle. After the chief butler remembered how Joseph, a foreigner and prisoner, once calmed his own anxieties with dream interpretations that later came true Pharaoh ordered that Joseph be brought to him.
Joseph told Pharaoh that his dream meant he should set a discerning man over Egypt to reserve a fifth of the produce from seven years of plenty, represented by the fat cattle, so the people would have food to eat during the later seven years of famine, represented by the thin cattle. The interpretation pleased Pharaoh as well as many of Pharaoh’s top courtiers who saw themselves being chosen to lead the project.
Joseph’s humility in crediting his own God rather than himself for any dream interpretation he gave impressed Pharaoh. Not trusting his own courtiers he set Joseph in charge.
Denise offers the prompt word “reserve” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. This is a partial retelling of Genesis 40-41.
Dale offers the prompt “art for art’s sake” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. I’m unsure what art for art’s sake means, so I selected recent photos of fall foliage and thought of them in a picture frame.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Given that the universe is only a few thousand years old, which you may not accept but at least assume for the sake of argument, there is not enough time for an extraterrestrial civilization to build a space ship and brave the dangers of interstellar space to reach Earth. Before we might have been worried about nearby inhabitants of Mars or Venus, but I doubt anyone today thinks there is life of any sort on those planets.
Indeed, the only reason we thought in the past that such civilizations might exist at all was due to a belief in the myth of evolution over deep time. However, there is no mechanism for evolution. Genetic entropy put an end to the speculation that mutations filtered by natural selection over a lot of time and with a lot of luck could pop out life without God’s creative power. Mutations lead to extinction not evolution.
So, assuming the age of the universe is only a few thousand years and recognizing that evolution has no known way to occur, we do not have to worry about these material aliens from other planets nor any star wars scenarios with them.
That leaves spiritual aliens such as angels or demons. Indeed, there is evidence from the Bible (see Ephesians 6 quoted above) that we do “wrestle” with these “spiritual forces of evil”.
Ian Juby fills in some of the details in his four-part series on UFOs and aliens.
We should not forget that from a different perspective we ourselves are aliens, that is, foreigners, exiles, sojourners, strangers, or pilgrims in this world (1 Peter 2:11). From that perspective we should be storing treasures in heaven, our true home, not here (Matthew 6:20).
Weekly Bible Reading:Habakkuk and Zephaniah Commentaries: David Pawson, Habakkuk, Part 54, and Zephaniah, Part 55, Unlocking the Bible Bible Project, Habakkuk and Zephaniah Weekly Torah Readings 23 Kislev, 5782, Vayeishev: ParashatGenesis 37:1-40:23; HaftaratAmos 2:6-3:8
Compassion is forgiving stuff. It’s powerful if one is meek and raises up the burdened weak. Not one of us can get enough.
Though waves are high when storms are rough, though skies show off their grays, the Lord’s aware of all our ways so may we stay compassionate and offer worship. Think of it: We have the privilege now to praise.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “stuff” to be used in an A-rhyme of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s challenge. Eugenia offers the word “compassion” for this week’s prompt.
When George saw his simple-minded companion, Bart, go through the narrow entrance way showing George how to squeeze in if he bowed down a bit (actually quite a bit) George realized he wouldn’t fit, at least not with all the baggage he had. After yelling at Bart to come back, calling him an idiot for going through that hole in the wall, and seeing its door close George gave up on his companion as lost.
Later in the evening George saw Bart through a bright window at the very wedding feast they were both originally planning to attend. He went back and found the door banging on it after he, George, of all good and worthy people, was refused admission by the doorkeeper.
His complaints turned into weepy indignation which George alternated with teeth gnashing, a futile rebellion at this point. The fire burning inside him synchronized with the growing darkness as he uttered ineffective curses against those at the wedding feast, a feast he declared he wouldn’t attend now if they paid him.
Denise offers the prompt word “lost” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. I was thinking of Luke 13.
The geologist Michael J. Oard is writing a multivolume account of the Earth under a biblical creationist perspective. The chapters of his first volumes are freely available on Flood/Ice Age Research for download. The one I have been reading is Earth’s Surface Shaped By Genesis Flood Runoff. This volume gave me an introduction to geology and the philosophical presuppositions surrounding the science.
In the 18th century the narrative of the catastrophic global flood in Genesis 6-9 was replaced by a narrative presuming that uniformitarian processes visible today along with local catastrophes operating over deep time shaped the Earth into what we now see. The problems are these uniformitarian processes are low-energy while the permitted, non-global-flood-like catastrophes are not large enough. All they are able to do is erode away how the Earth is currently shaped.
Does it look like a catastrophic, global flood formed the present geological structures?
Yes, it does. For example, given wide and high plains (planation surfaces) all over the globe with hard, rounded gravels like quartzite transported hundreds of miles on top, the global flood would provide the high energy water force over a large area needed to accomplish that. See Chapter 27. Rivers or local floods do not have the power or width to deposit these gravels or smooth that surface.
Could this have happened only a few thousand years ago?
Yes, it could have. For example, given current measured erosion rates, the formations we now see can not be very old. See “erosional remnants” in Chapter 9. These are structures like Devils Tower in Wyoming or Ayers Rock in Australia. They were once buried in sediment. How long ago could that have been? Given current erosion rates, in 10 to at most 50 million years the entire continent would be flattened to sea-level from typical erosion one sees today. So these structures could not be older than that. But one can reduce that age further. Based on the debris at the base of Devils Tower, the events exposing the formation should have completed less than 10,000 years ago. If someone should claim it is older, where is the debris that would have fallen over that period of time? Why is Devils Tower still standing?
Should one find a fossil allegedly hundreds of millions of years old all that means, given present erosion rates, is that there is something wrong with whatever dating method was used. Those deep time dates are not consistent with present erosion rates. See Chapter 35.
Once we reject the uniformitarian detour taken in the 18th century we can start asking the right questions about why the Earth is shaped the way it is.
Weekly Bible Reading:Micah and Nahum Commentaries: David Pawson, Micah, Part 52, and Nahum, Part 53, Unlocking the Bible Bible Project, Micah and Nahum Weekly Torah Readings 16 Kislev, 5782, Vayishlach: ParashatGenesis 32:4-36:43; HaftaratHosea 11:7-12:12
Through cold gray clouds the sun still beams on soundless white and frequent fear. That was a wintry time of year when what was bad went to extremes.
Till Judgment comes demonic schemes of wickedness rehearse their coup, but there’s still time. May hearts renew, return, repent, refrain and learn to let the Spirit help discern the flaws in stuff we thought was true.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “learn” to be used in a D-line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s challenge.
Greg told his three friends sitting with him in a booth for lunch that he had peeked out from under a cultural blanket of deception, a demonic snow job, that had covered him for decades. They listened politely amused by the stuff he came up with knowing he’d be over with his revelations shortly.
It’s not that he had been right often before. Generally he got things wrong especially when he offered health tips for losing weight. But he seemed pretty sure about what he had seen.
That they thought he was nuts only confirmed Greg’s suspicions, which he tactically kept to himself for the moment, that the cultural deception he experienced had disarmed them as well.
Denise offers the prompt word “blanket” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
These are old photos. I wonder why I keep using them. In the photo above, the detailed textures of the footprints remind me that, being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), we are a distinct and separate creation from anything else that God created. For example, we are very proficient at speaking and understanding words. We are not silent and our words express moral power through blessings or curses.
In the photo below the textures of the white stone, red gravel, dark cavities, green vegetation and fallen leaves presented together seem to have enchanted me. I’m glad Eugenia offered the word “enchanted” for her Thursday Prompt which gives me an excuse to describe them in that way.
Being enchanted, however, suggests to me on the negative side being “manipulated”, “deluded”, or “under a spell of words”. Having been under many I am wary of enchantments. I wonder: Why am I so fond of these photos? To avert any harm, if they seem enchanting to you, may they also be blessings.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 