God vs Planned Parenthood.

In the Biblical account of creation, after HaShem creates man and woman, the first thing He tells them is be fruitful and multiply.  Really? Aren’t we facing a problem with overpopulation and “global warming” and all the problems that come with too many people on our planet?  Actually the birth rates have been declining.  In Japan there is such a decline in population that couples are receiving government money to have more children.   However we are facing an even more threatening situation…..abortion on demand!

A look at history tells us that in pagan societies, parents had the right to kill/abandon children.   The ancient world believed in both abortion and infanticide.  One Roman soldier wrote to his wife…..”If it is a boy child, raise it…….if it is a female, abandon it.” The Romans in fact advocated killing any deformed child.  Ritual child sacrifice was also widely practiced. 

Even though the early Jews knew the sanctity of human life, they emulated the practices of the other nations and began sacrificing their own children to please pagan deities.  The sin of child sacrifice is understood in the Bible as being one of the major reasons why the northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians in 750 A.D. and the people taken into exile.  “They mutilated their sons and daughters by fire…..till the Lord in his great anger against Israel, put them away out of his sight.” (2 Kgs. 17:17-18)

In Ezekiel 16:21 “You slaughtered my children by causing them to pass through the fire. And in the book of Jeremiah: “They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I have not commanded them ………this is an abomination to cause Judah to sin.” (32:35)

The more things change, the more they remain the same.  At the root of today’s so-called culture wars, there lies a fundamental disagreement about these same issues.  Is natural, procreative, heterosexual sex a good thing as  depicted in the Hebrew Bible or something from which men and women need to be “”reoriented”?  Are children a blessing to be cherished or are they a burden to be avoided and are they disposable?   Do women have a right to “control their own bodies”…thereby dispensing with the inconvenience of being a care giver? 

Planned Parenthood’s dark beginnings.

In the beginning of the early 20^th century, anti-family crusaders, such as Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, began to target Christian churches and Jewish organizations in an effort to “convert” them to the anti-child point of view. 

While at times Sanger appealed to women’s health issues, her most powerful arguments were largely social in nature. She wrote quite frankly about the eugenic agenda behind the planned parenthood movement.  Eugenics concerns controlling the balance in the birth rate of the “unfit “and the “fit”. That is, how use sterilization and abortion to discourage “fertility of the mentally and physically defective and the racially “impure”. For Sanger the most unfit of all were minority populations, particularly African Americans. 

The new abortion movement now dismisses the eugenics idea but focuses on “the woman’s right to chose.”  However, the majority of abortions are among the minority populations and especially the African American community. Abortions therefore encourage promiscuity among the young and vulnerable. Thus the problem of having a child becomes just a minor inconvenience that can easily be done away with.  This tiny speck of cells really isn’t a human but simply an unwanted obstacle that limits one’s pleasure.  There need not be a commitment of either parent and society can be rid of millions of humans which add to overpopulation.  This idea also extends to the “global warming” agenda. The fewer humans the less pollution! Society can erase several problems at the same time.  Docters can now take the life of a tiny human up to and slightly before the actual birthing process.  They don’t call this murder of course.  It’s simply part of the new moral code in our country. 

The whole idea of humans being expendable stems from “social Darwinism” of the 19^th century.  If HaShem isn’t involved in the special creation of man, then man himself is expendable and thereby society feels free to rid itself of the unwanted.  This idea of course is what led to the anti-humanitarian degradation of the Nazis.

Humans are made in the image of our Creator and the reservation of life is precious. It is HaShem who gave us life and formed mankind.  If Jeshua said, “even the hairs on your head are numbered” (Lk. 12:7) then how much more does He value human life?

Human Rights and God

 God is dead.  God remains dead and we have killed him.”  So wrote the German philosopher, Nietzsche.

If the Western world no longer takes the God of the Bible seriously then why should they take the morality that He imposed upon them seriously as well?  Although Nietzsche died in 1900 his basic philosophy is the meat that is chewed and digested by agnostics.  Unfortunately this very concept is also pervasive in our society today.  For Nietzsche, any bond that mankind had to an eternal being was nothing but an illusion.  The only truth was that there was no truth.  There were no boundaries that would prevent mankind from interpreting truth as he perceived it to be. 

However (supposedly) liberating this freedom was to be, it does leave humans, who are essentially moral beings, in a bit of a pickle, especially when it comes to the question of universal human rights.  In this progressive society of ours, in a world in which God is dead, where does one get the idea of human rights, much less universal human rights?

Once we deny the idea of God, what happens to the morality traditionally associated with Him?   Then morality must vanish well as this God who created it. 

All of which leads, then, to a new question. If this old morality is discarded, where do we get a new one?  The answer is obvious.  We have to create it ourselves!! Morality this way becomes something physical, not spiritual.  It depends on man’s own thinking and not from a Supreme Being we call God (since He died!). We can get our values from among ourselves. Our “truths” therefore come from human passion, flesh, and needs at the moment and not by some omnipresence in the sky. 

But if human rights are now what we as humans alone create…….then how do we do it? And if someone gives us these rights, what can stop them from taking these same rights away?  And whose definition of truth is the correct one?

When Thomas Jefferson penned the opening lines of the American Declaration of Independence in his preamble to our Constitution, he wrote that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”……etc. This man was a Deist in his religious beliefs; nevertheless he understood that only with a Creator could these rights be secure.  The mere fact that these are “rights” as opposed to “privileges” is misunderstood today.

These rights have to come from a “Source” higher than we humans. This alone makes them inalienable….otherwise our rights are derived from humanity, from human needs, from human desire alone.   They would be fluctuating and depending on the situation at the moment and are not permanent.

 Maybe that’s good.  Perhaps human rights should change along with desires and needs.  If so then, nothing is absolute, nothing is certain, including universal human rights.  The history of humanity is filled with duly enacted laws that have trampled upon the most basic human rights. 

However, lofty the intellectual appeal of post modernism, no one lives it, neither in the personal realm nor in the public one.  No matter how liberal, open minded, secular, tolerant and progressive, people and societies sooner or later run into situations that reflect moral absolutes….absolutes that demand a God who imposed both moral absolutes and basic human rights for His creation.

            That’s us folks!!! 

                            Into The Furnace…….or Southern Comfort

Almost every little kid knows the story of the three Hebrew boys that were thrown into the furnace.   The wicked old King, Nebuchadnezzar, wanted them to bow down to his statue and they refused, so he sent them straight to the hot hot oven.  They survived because of their faith.

So how does that story relate to this blog?  Because of our stance as Christians we just might be facing our own hot hot oven.

 We as believers are given various derisive titles because of our faith.  We are labeled hate mongers, sexist and racist…….to name a few.  One of the biggest lies being spread to the public is presented by the mainstream media.  They claim that conservative Christians hate people who are different from them, because Christians disagree with their liberal beliefs or behaviors.  Therefore, we are labeled as “hate groups.” Many cite the Southern Poverty Law Center as the authority they depend on to tell them which Christian conservative groups are hateful!!

The SPLC is a far-left outfit headquartered in Montgomery Alabama.  Using distortion and quotes out of context they have a liberal base of believers coming from Hollywood and the eastern progressive establishment.  They promote the idea that Christians are KKK, gun toting, Nazi types who demonized blacks, homosexuals, and liberals. Evidentially fear mongering works.  The SPLC as a nonprofit (501c3) organization has raised over $500 million, much of which is invested in offshore bank accounts.  Check these figures for yourself.  Too bad that many of their own have been forced out due to sexual harassment and racism within their own ranks!!  (Can you hear me laughing?)

The SPLC is the wellspring from which the left draws on to “prove” that groups or people with whom they disagree with politically are hateful.  They call their contributors Progressives and now control most of the institutions of cultural influence: academia, social media, Hollywood, and the Democratic Party. 

When Christians are labeled as hate mongers they know it is a sure fire way to gain attention.  It was a shrewd move on their part.  They know that the last thing Christians want to be known for is hate! The SPLC claim that because you believe in what the Bible teaches about homosexuality you hate homosexuals.  If you oppose illegal immigration you hate Latinos.  If you oppose football players for not rising for the National Anthem, you hate blacks and love police brutality.  If you see the dangers in Islamic law, then you hate Muslims.  And on and on…..

So if you stand up for your beliefs and are willing to hold fast to your faith despite being “thrown in the furnace”………then you might feel the heat!!                                             Turn up the burners!!

Socialism has become the latest fad of the day.  It has always been with us but is becoming more popular, especially among the younger set who may be just entering into their earning years.   You probably already know the politicians who are espousing this form of government.  According to a recent Gallup Poll Democrats have a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism.  That’s not to say that perhaps some Republicans also might also favor this type of system……despite the historical fact that every socialist country in the last few centuries has turned into a cultural and  economic sinkhole.  

A brief explanation  might be in order.  Basically as I understand it, the base of socialism is the involuntary, redistribution of wealth by a strong central government.  And since government has the power to punish, in reality, it is the involuntary redistribution of wealth or confiscation of your property or earnings! Just try not paying your taxes one  year!!  

As economist Walter Williams says “no matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and given to another to whom it does not belong.

So how does the Bible come into this situation?  God says exactly the same thing in the Eighth Commandment.  “Thou shall not steal.”  (Ex 20:15) He enshrines here the sacred right of private property.  Our Founding Fathers recognized this as a great gift from the Creator as one of the inalienable rights of our country.  It’s simply wrong to forcibly take a man’s property to give it to someone else.   

As Williams goes on to say,  “The so-called right to health care, food, or housing, whether a person can afford it not, does impose an obligation on another.  There is no Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus in order for government to give away one American dollar.  The government through intimation, threats, and or coercion confiscates that dollar from some other American. ” 

We as Christians do not believe in the redistribution of wealth.  We do believe in the voluntary redistribution of wealth, where, out of compassion and generosity, we dig into our own wallets to help someone with a genuine need.  If the government is demanding and distributing the  charity, there is nothing voluntary,  biblical or even constitutional about any part of it.  

Not only is this “stealing” but Socialism violates the Tenth Commandment as well:  “Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s house…..or anything that is  your neighbor’s.”  (Ex 20:17)

Some of our lawmakers have itchy fingers and just waiting  and trembling with anticipation of coming up with another way of confiscating more of the wealth of productive Americans.  There is nothing moral about that!

Good old Benjamin Franklin said……” I am for doing good to the poor, but……I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading them of out it. ……….the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves and became richer” . 

Of course we know there are many people  living  below the poverty level.  These people need help.  There are in fact many cases where the city/ or county governments need to step in with financial aid/housing and health care.  Notice I didn’t say central government.  How much of the money would actually go to helping the poor rather than getting bogged down in the bureaucracy of the system?

The early believers had it figured out…..”There was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them brought the proceeds of what was sold and it was laid at the apostles’ feet and it was distributed to each as any had need.”  Acts 4:34-35)

As in all cases, the Bible is not the problem but the solution.  Our Founding Founders knew how to implement the solution.  Is that possible for  us today?    

Several years ago I remember a book that took the world by storm. It was called “Left Behind” by Tim LeHay. There were a series of these books plus a movie. I didn’t’ read any of them or saw the movie. However, many people believe that the good guys in this world will be taken away before the Apocalypse and those who refused to become believers were left behind for destruction.

If you are afraid of being “left behind” when the “rapture” comes then study the story of Noah and find out why you might prefer to be left behind after all!

Our Lord, Jeshua (Jesus) compared the generation of Noah to the generation that will witness the day of the Lord and the coming of the Son of Man. When the Messiah returns He will usher in a Day of Judgment. In that day, some will be taken away in judgment and others will be “left behind.”

40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. (Matthew 24:40-41)

34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.(Luke 17:34-35)

Christians today often interpret these words to mean that when Jesus comes, the one taken will be whisked away to meet Him in the sky. Since the spouse left lying in bed is not a believer (he/she) will be left behind. Likewise, the one left working in the field is not a Christian, so he is left behind. You get the idea.

Contrary to popular teaching, however, the one “taken” is not raptured to join Jesus in the air. Just as the flood came and took people away in the days of Noah and fire and brimstone came to Sodom in the days of Lot, “taken away” refers to people taken in judgment!

The disciples ask Him, “Where will they be taken Master?” He answered, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered. (Luke: 37) In other words, the corpses of those taken away will be food for the birds. With these words, our Lord invoked the dire apocalyptic predictions of the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah. This would fulfill the prediction of a time in Israel’s future; the Jewish uprisings and the destruction of the temple at the end of the 1st c.

The horrific massacres of the war with Rome that engulfed the Jewish people of Yeshua’s generation fulfilled His prophecies. They would leave the dead bodies to rot under the sun, and they bestowed the same punishment to anyone who buried the body!! The people of the generation became food for the vultures. The Roman’s used the eagle (type of vulture) as the symbol of their empire. The Lord saw it all.

Those “left behind” in Matthew 24 and Luke 17 are the righteous not the wicked. Those left behind can be compared to Noah and his seven family members who survived the flood.

The thrust of the passage calls upon us as disciples to remain vigilant as we await the coming of the day of the Son of Man. Yeshua’s disciples must not be like the complacent generations of Noah and Lot that were caught unawares. The Messiah will come suddenly, like a flash of lightning, like a thief in the night.

“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:42)

Have You Got a Double Mind?

The Scriptures warn us that we must not be “double minded.”   James 1:8……” a “double minded person is unstable in all his/her ways.”  James here is stressing a spiritual condition of having or wanting two things at the same time.  It is a state of inner contradiction….. of having two separate minds holding contradictory thoughts..

“You shall be whole hearted with the Lord your God.” (Deut. 18:13) In Hebrew the word “whole hearted” might translate to be perfect or blameless…….but actually a better translation would be made “complete”.  God doesn’t expect us to be perfect or never to make a mistake but rather to be “fully engaged.”  Our minds wander during the sermon; in our prayer time; or failing to be “fully engaged” in our devotion.   Could this be part of being double minded as well?

Likewise when Jesus (Yeshua) said “Be therefore perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48), He meant that we should be complete, finished, and made whole by knowing and receiving the overflowing love and light of God.  He knew that being perfect could never be a quality of mankind….because all of us are sinners!!  So how can we even come close to being “perfect”?  I suggest that Lord wanted us to be fully aware of who God is and what He can do to and for us.  Having our lives centered on Him.  Not easy to do of course when we are all “doubled minded.”

Turning to our Father in times of doubt and failure will keep us focused on Him.  We are made whole or “perfect” by putting our complete faith in Him.  We can’t do this by ourselves. However by submitting to His will for our lives, repenting of our neglect of Him or others, we will be rewarded despite our double minds!

“Now may you know the love of the Messiah that surpasses knowledge so that you may be made whole and filled with all the fullness of God”  (Eph 3:19)

Praying the Psalms.

Living in a retirement community as we do, there is always a list of those needing prayer.  Most of those are for healing.  Whoever coined the phrase “The Golden Years” never got there.  They really aren’t so golden after all!

So often we don’t have the words of comfort that are needed during our prayer time.  That’s when we should turn to the Book of Psalms.  Though most were penned by King David hundreds of years ago, they each take on a new meaning when reading them today.

Scriptures in our Bibles aren’t just for reference purposes.  As the sacred words of God they deserved to be read and studied.  But have you tried reading them aloud?  According to the Jewish rabbis, both reading and the study of Scripture is an expression of worship in and of itself.  It pleases God to hear His words when read aloud to Him in an audible, human voice.  The rabbis in any synagogue sing their praises as well as the scriptures.  Lately in our congregation we have been reciting Biblical verses together.  It somehow seems as if all of us are praising God with one voice.

The Psalms are special in this regard, because even though they are undoubtedly God’s Word, they are prayers.  They are expressed in the voice of humanity.  How much more so, then is it appropriate for humans to utter them in prayer!  The Psalms, then, are a powerful source of guidance.  They make it possible to pray in alignment with God’s will even when words fail us.

In the days of the apostles, the book of Psalms constituted the hymnal of the Levites, who recited these passages in the Temple as a musical accompaniment to the sacrifices.  Undoubtedly Jesus and his followers would sing these songs also, perhaps under their prayer shawls which formed their “wings”.  They were under God’s wings.

The Psalms make up the bulk of the traditional prayers in the Siddur, which is the Jewish daily prayer book.  Most of them were probably memorized which makes them more personal in the heart. The Psalms are expressions of praise, mourning, supplication, thanksgiving, hope and devotion.

Today there are many Christians who pray through the Psalms and often from memory as well.  The Puritans believed in repeating these songs to their children and they were expected to memorize most of them.  I’m afraid most of us today don’t take the time to learn them “by heart.”

Since many of the Psalms are messianic in nature, we can come closer to our Lord knowing that He also recited these songs.  As such, praying the Psalms affords us an effectual and transformative opportunity for an intimate connection with our Lord.

Whenever you or a loved is in distress, in need of healing or comfort, or if one is overflowing with thanks, the Psalms are there to put eloquent words to our thoughts.

When you are too distressed to pray…………pray the Psalms.

Poor in Spirit or Just Plain Poor

Jesus was always preaching and teaching others.  That was His mission.  He spoke in the context of 1^st century Jewish thought.  His theology today is still the same as it was during His lifetime.  We quote many of His teachings and with our modern mindset try to figure them out.

When we quote the saying of the Lord about being “poor in spirit”(Matt. 19:23) or Luke (6:20) we only think of being meek in our attitude and of having a humble nature. True enough.  Jesus tells his disciples that the poor will inherit the Kingdom of God.  That is, in the world to come they can count on being there.

In this new kingdom, the first will be last and the last will be first.  The kingdom reverses the value system of this present age.  The kingdom will satisfy those who once suffered in want.  That’s good news for the poor but not such good news for the wealthy.  “Woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort now in full” (Luke 6:24) “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 10:23).  The rich have failed to store their treasure in heaven; they have stored up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy.

We don’t see ourselves as rich but compared to third world countries we are wealthy.  That’s why people are crowding our borders to get in!

If having wealth is a blessing for most of us, then what should we do about the words of Jesus and being poor?

So then it’s not the money that can destroy us but it’s the desire for money.
1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

So the poor in spirit might mean people of wealth, but they conduct themselves with the lowly attitude of the poor.  They do not rely upon their riches or live according to the extravagances of the wealthy.  A rich person who is also poor in spirit does not conduct himself/herself with the haughtiness and pride that their wealth affords.  They live modestly, humbly, and below their means.  They use wealth for the benefit of others.   We are thankful for the wealthy who support our churches, our museums, our musical activities, our mission work, children’s homes……the list goes on.

By the same measure, a poor person who lives extravagantly and at the expense of others is not poor in spirit. Paul writes…..”He who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat.”  Well said.  Of course this excludes those who are unable to earn or beset with problems that prevent them from working.

James, the brother of the Master, explains the “poor in spirit“as those who refuse to glory in their wealth but adopt the attitude of the humble, remembering that their lives are fragile and quickly fleeting (James 1:10-11) Paul warns those who are rich not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.  He urges the rich to be generous in good deeds and sharing in order to “lay up” that treasure for the future.

In the Jewish mindset, doing acts of charity (tesdaka) provides us with an outlet to use our riches in a meaningful way.  That beggar in the street might be richer than you are but God judges him.  Just put a five in his bucket, give him a smile and a “God bless.”  I think that counts.

Grace from the Ark

Bob and I just returned from a wonderful  trip visiting our daughter and husband in Dallas.   Not only fun visiting our kids but the Creation Science Research people will be opening a grand new exhibit center, based on creation science……and not the evolutionary ideology that pervades our society.  It promises to be a wonderful exposition, refuting the false claims of “suppositional” science that our earth is billions of years in the making and that you and I have descended from lower life forms.  Really??  Now that thinking requires faith.

One of the exhibits will feature Noah’s Ark.  I’m sure there will be all sorts of wonderful and creative animals, birds, and other species but all within the concept of a Divine Creator.

When teaching children about Noah’s Ark and the great Flood, we paint cute animals on  church walls, and perhaps an oversized boat with Noah looking out the window!  However, the real Flood event was horrific. “And all flash died that moved on the earth” Peter wrote, “The world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.” Scenes of such carnage would terrify children.

The Flood was God’s judgment on a wicked world.  It might seem a drastic action for a loving God, but much good came from it.  It’s like having surgery.  Nobody enjoys their body getting sliced and stitched but a skillful operation can restore health and extend life.  Let’s count some of the many graces that Earth’s ancient watery surgery extends to us.

What fuels trains, planes, buses, and cars?  Petroleum products, of course.  And all that oil and gas came from Noah’s Flood.  It buried massive amounts of algae beneath and within sediment layers.  It doesn’t take millions of years to make oil!  That has already been proved.

The same goes for coal.  Pure coal deposits don’t form today.  It took the Flood to dismember and bury whole forests across thousands of miles where heat and pressure caused decayed matter to become useable for us.  Coal burning power plants help make our electric gizmos go.  So, we should thank God for His wisdom whenever we turn on the lights.

How about rainbows?  Don’t we all thrill to see one?  Dorothy even sang a song about “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. However, God promised that He would never again destroy the world by water.

How about the Grand Canyon and the many of our National Parks? The pressure from huge amounts of water caused layer after layer of sediments, deep gorges and striking valleys. All from Noah’s Flood.

Dogs and cats and pets were all saved because our Creator knew what joy they give to us.  (soft purring here). Have you ever savored an apple or bread from grains?  God was thinking of us when He commanded Noah “and you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself and it shall be food for you and for them.”

Finally, the Ark points to our Savior, Jesus.  Just as the eight people escaped judgment by entering the Ark we can escape from future judgments by trusting through our faith and obedience that the Lord will be our Ark of salvation.  Jesus descended from Shem who God preserved on Noah’s Ark.

The Ark of Salvation comes through our Messiah and Savior.

Joseph and Jesus

This is not the Joseph of the New Testament.  This Joseph however, is part of the story of the Messiah. Where does he fit in?

Most of us know the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors; his dreams of being given primacy over his siblings as well as his parents. Plus, his rather brazen attitude of being his father’s favorite son.  His brothers decided to teach that kid a lesson, selling him to some passing traders and telling his poor father Jacob, he was killed by an animal.  They pulled out that hated coat, now covered with an animal’s blood, and showed Jacob proof of his death.  Of course we know the real story…..and how God was working to assure the survival not only of Joseph but his whole family.

Although Joseph is highly regarded both by Jews and Christians Joseph is not without his own “dark” side.  Wouldn’t it have been  much better for Joseph, after revealing his true identity to his brothers, just to send the supply of food back to Judah instead of requiring the whole family immigrating to Egypt?  He also enslaved the Egyptians themselves to Pharaoh by giving them food in exchange for their bondage.  And after 400 years the people required a Moses to lead them back home!

However, God in His wisdom used this man to bring about a new nation of people, bound together by His commandments and laws.  They were a special people, and they were to be dependent upon God.  In His own knowledge and foresight the Messiah would come through these people.   God himself was to take the form of a perfect sinless Adam and that His coming was to remove the curse that had fallen on all mankind so many years before…..the sin nature that prevails in the all human beings.

God chose the new Adam to be a replica of man himself.  He would not come full blown in a man’s body but would come as a human baby!  Really? Seems that this new man/God would better come upon the scene as an earthly prince, ready to combat the evils of society and show the world how God wanted them to behave.  A new super hero!

No, God had other plans.  He brought the Messiah to the world’s stage, through a young, virgin Jewish girl.  She was given the role of mother which was not of her choosing…. but she was God’s chosen.

So, as much as I am not a fan of Joseph, he indeed played his role in God’s plan. All the pieces of the puzzle fall in place.  The twelve tribes, the enslavement, the exodus, the kings, the prophets, the young virgin mother……..all leading up to the birth of God’s “design” and revealing of His plans for mankind. A Savior that would be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and ushering in the kingdom where there would be no more death.

Yes, the Angels did sing to those shepherds in the fields.  “Glory to God in the Highest and peace on earth to all mankind.” Joseph played his part.