Law and Lord
IIa.
So what's the law?
We've seen specks of it throughout.
Start with the Top Ten, like it's some sort of music hits list.
Ex 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. {bondage: Heb. servants}
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. {build...: Heb. build them with hewing}
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
(KJV)
The commandments were given by voice first, an oral command to a people of oral history, and they proceed to ask Moses to speak to God for them. The thunder of God's voice overpowers them. Notice it doesn't overpower Moses. Purity stings the ears of the impure, of those who have chosen not to be Chosen.
So God puts it in stone. Once in His hand, then in Moses' hand.
Now we can talk about the rest of the Law and extrapolate on a couple subjects, but keep these two thing always in mind: 1) the Law was a description of what God expected AND of the One who would fulfill it; 2) the rest of the Law merely fills out these Ten, sketching our behaviors and punishments for the failure to obey. If we don't do a lot of detailing other than to stress some points, it is because Jesus, who fulfilled the Law, reduced it to the two Love statements of loving God and your neighbor.
A) The Law took caring for your brother and your neighbor to great detail.
De 15:1 At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt.
2 This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his right to whatever he has let his neighbour have; he is not to make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back; because a general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord.
3 A man of another nation may be forced to make payment of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it go;
4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage;
5 If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today.
6 For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he has said: you will let other nations have the use of your money, but you will not make use of theirs; you will be rulers over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers.
7 If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut to him;
8 But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever he is in need of.
9 And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you.
10 But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all your work and on everything to which you put your hand.
11 For there will never be a time when there are no poor in the land; and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in your land.
12 If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free.
13 And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands:
14 But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him.
15 And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today.
16 But if he says to you, I have no desire to go away from you; because you and your family are dear to him and he is happy with you;
17 Then take a sharp-pointed instrument, driving it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for ever. And you may do the same for your servant-girl.
18 Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him away free; for he has been working for you for six years, which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
(BBE)
De 26:1 Now when you have come into the land which the Lord is giving you for your heritage, and you have made it yours and are living in it;
2 You are to take a part of the first-fruits of the earth, which you get from the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket, and go to the place marked out by the Lord your God, as the resting-place of his name.
3 And you are to come to him who is priest at that time, and say to him, I give witness today before the Lord your God, that I have come into the land which the Lord made an oath to our fathers to give us.
4 Then the priest will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.
5 And these are the words which you will say before the Lord your God: My father was a wandering Aramaean, and he went down with a small number of people into Egypt; there he became a great and strong nation:
6 And the Egyptians were cruel to us, crushing us under a hard yoke:
7 And our cry went up to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord's ear was open to the voice of our cry, and his eyes took note of our grief and the crushing weight of our work:
8 And the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with works of power and signs and wonders:
9 And he has been our guide to this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 So now, I have come here with the first of the fruits of the earth which you, O Lord, have given me. Then you will put it down before the Lord your God and give him worship:
11 And you will have joy in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and to your family; and the Levite, and the man from a strange land who is with you, will take part in your joy.
12 When you have taken out a tenth from the tenth of all your produce in the third year, which is the year when this has to be done, give it to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and the child without a father, and the widow, so that they may have food in your towns and be full;
13 And say before the Lord your God, I have taken all the holy things out of my house and have given them to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and him who has no father, and the widow, as you have given me orders: I have kept in mind all your orders, in nothing have I gone against them:
14 No part of these things has been used for food in a time of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all you have given me orders to do.
15 So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
16 Today the Lord your God gives you orders to keep all these laws and decisions: so then keep and do them with all your heart and all your soul.
17 Today you have given witness that the Lord is your God, and that you will go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions and give ear to his voice:
18 And the Lord has made it clear this day that you are a special people to him, as he gave you his word; and that you are to keep all his orders;
19 And that he will make you high over all the nations he has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God as he has said.
(BBE)
Okay, we can name this section: "Note To The USA."
Our banks which are connected with our insurance companies and the stock market and various funds and investment systems, buy and sell debt. They encourage debt because the managers and board members get bonuses based on the sales of debt. They don't encourage savings. Their congressional representatives a few years back raised the amount of interest you can charge on credit cards to 25%. Make it clear in your mind: God demands 10% plus various tithes in the Law. God allows the Israelites to charge 10% interest to "strangers and aliens". Paul tells us to give what we are able, not even placing that pressure on Gentiles. Tells us to give willingly, first to our Christian family and then to others. Our banks and credit managers want you to "tithe" up to 25% to their institutions. And the idea of forgiveness is not an option. Those same legislators even made bankruptcy much harder.
If we are Christians who claim to have inherited the blessings of Israel (Which I am not) and we claim our prosperity from that, demanding God bless us, we need to realize we are ordered to give freely to the poor and widows and orphans. If we are so into claiming blessings given to Israel as our own, we can only claim that blessing if we obey.
First, I do believe He blesses His people, each individual as he or she gives and with the heart they choose to give. But if the heart is intent on receiving the blessing and not on the giving, then the blessing seems unlikely.
De 26:14 No part of these things has been used for food in a time of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all you have given me orders to do.
15 So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
16 Today the Lord your God gives you orders to keep all these laws and decisions: so then keep and do them with all your heart and all your soul.
17 Today you have given witness that the Lord is your God, and that you will go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions and give ear to his voice:
18 And the Lord has made it clear this day that you are a special people to him, as he gave you his word; and that you are to keep all his orders;
19 And that he will make you high over all the nations he has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God as he has said.
(BBE)
I do, however, firmly believe God will bless a nation that obeys Him in helping the poor. I believe the USA had God's blessing for the last part of the Twentieth Century of two main reasons, aside from the fact it served God's Plan as such. First, and every conservative Christian will likely agree here, because Harry Truman led the US and led the newly formed UN in the creation of Israel which had not existed for generations until Hitler's attempt to exterminate the race created a moment's opportunity. And second, and this would raise a conservative huff, because of FDR's passage of Social Security in 1935 to provide an income for the elderly and Lyndon Johnson in the midst of Sixties prosperity and the mourning over the JFK assassination got his Great Society bill passed, which expanded the Social Security Act and included feeding the orphans and providing for the poor.
Whereas conservatives have allowed a President to borrow extensively from a foreign nation, expressly forbidden above, and have openly supported President Reagan who had ties with Iran an enemy of Israel and President Bush and VP Cheney with extensive oil involvement and friendship in the Arab world and Mr. Trump whose admiration of Putin aligns him much more with the Muslim world than with Israel despite his words. Enmity with China also means enmity with one of Israel's allies.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/ChinaIsraelRelations.html
IIa.
So what's the law?
We've seen specks of it throughout.
Start with the Top Ten, like it's some sort of music hits list.
Ex 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. {bondage: Heb. servants}
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. {build...: Heb. build them with hewing}
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
(KJV)
The commandments were given by voice first, an oral command to a people of oral history, and they proceed to ask Moses to speak to God for them. The thunder of God's voice overpowers them. Notice it doesn't overpower Moses. Purity stings the ears of the impure, of those who have chosen not to be Chosen.
So God puts it in stone. Once in His hand, then in Moses' hand.
Now we can talk about the rest of the Law and extrapolate on a couple subjects, but keep these two thing always in mind: 1) the Law was a description of what God expected AND of the One who would fulfill it; 2) the rest of the Law merely fills out these Ten, sketching our behaviors and punishments for the failure to obey. If we don't do a lot of detailing other than to stress some points, it is because Jesus, who fulfilled the Law, reduced it to the two Love statements of loving God and your neighbor.
A) The Law took caring for your brother and your neighbor to great detail.
De 15:1 At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt.
2 This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his right to whatever he has let his neighbour have; he is not to make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back; because a general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord.
3 A man of another nation may be forced to make payment of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it go;
4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage;
5 If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today.
6 For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he has said: you will let other nations have the use of your money, but you will not make use of theirs; you will be rulers over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers.
7 If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut to him;
8 But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever he is in need of.
9 And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you.
10 But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all your work and on everything to which you put your hand.
11 For there will never be a time when there are no poor in the land; and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in your land.
12 If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free.
13 And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands:
14 But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him.
15 And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today.
16 But if he says to you, I have no desire to go away from you; because you and your family are dear to him and he is happy with you;
17 Then take a sharp-pointed instrument, driving it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for ever. And you may do the same for your servant-girl.
18 Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him away free; for he has been working for you for six years, which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
(BBE)
De 26:1 Now when you have come into the land which the Lord is giving you for your heritage, and you have made it yours and are living in it;
2 You are to take a part of the first-fruits of the earth, which you get from the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket, and go to the place marked out by the Lord your God, as the resting-place of his name.
3 And you are to come to him who is priest at that time, and say to him, I give witness today before the Lord your God, that I have come into the land which the Lord made an oath to our fathers to give us.
4 Then the priest will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.
5 And these are the words which you will say before the Lord your God: My father was a wandering Aramaean, and he went down with a small number of people into Egypt; there he became a great and strong nation:
6 And the Egyptians were cruel to us, crushing us under a hard yoke:
7 And our cry went up to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord's ear was open to the voice of our cry, and his eyes took note of our grief and the crushing weight of our work:
8 And the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with works of power and signs and wonders:
9 And he has been our guide to this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 So now, I have come here with the first of the fruits of the earth which you, O Lord, have given me. Then you will put it down before the Lord your God and give him worship:
11 And you will have joy in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and to your family; and the Levite, and the man from a strange land who is with you, will take part in your joy.
12 When you have taken out a tenth from the tenth of all your produce in the third year, which is the year when this has to be done, give it to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and the child without a father, and the widow, so that they may have food in your towns and be full;
13 And say before the Lord your God, I have taken all the holy things out of my house and have given them to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and him who has no father, and the widow, as you have given me orders: I have kept in mind all your orders, in nothing have I gone against them:
14 No part of these things has been used for food in a time of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all you have given me orders to do.
15 So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
16 Today the Lord your God gives you orders to keep all these laws and decisions: so then keep and do them with all your heart and all your soul.
17 Today you have given witness that the Lord is your God, and that you will go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions and give ear to his voice:
18 And the Lord has made it clear this day that you are a special people to him, as he gave you his word; and that you are to keep all his orders;
19 And that he will make you high over all the nations he has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God as he has said.
(BBE)
Okay, we can name this section: "Note To The USA."
Our banks which are connected with our insurance companies and the stock market and various funds and investment systems, buy and sell debt. They encourage debt because the managers and board members get bonuses based on the sales of debt. They don't encourage savings. Their congressional representatives a few years back raised the amount of interest you can charge on credit cards to 25%. Make it clear in your mind: God demands 10% plus various tithes in the Law. God allows the Israelites to charge 10% interest to "strangers and aliens". Paul tells us to give what we are able, not even placing that pressure on Gentiles. Tells us to give willingly, first to our Christian family and then to others. Our banks and credit managers want you to "tithe" up to 25% to their institutions. And the idea of forgiveness is not an option. Those same legislators even made bankruptcy much harder.
If we are Christians who claim to have inherited the blessings of Israel (Which I am not) and we claim our prosperity from that, demanding God bless us, we need to realize we are ordered to give freely to the poor and widows and orphans. If we are so into claiming blessings given to Israel as our own, we can only claim that blessing if we obey.
First, I do believe He blesses His people, each individual as he or she gives and with the heart they choose to give. But if the heart is intent on receiving the blessing and not on the giving, then the blessing seems unlikely.
De 26:14 No part of these things has been used for food in a time of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all you have given me orders to do.
15 So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
16 Today the Lord your God gives you orders to keep all these laws and decisions: so then keep and do them with all your heart and all your soul.
17 Today you have given witness that the Lord is your God, and that you will go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions and give ear to his voice:
18 And the Lord has made it clear this day that you are a special people to him, as he gave you his word; and that you are to keep all his orders;
19 And that he will make you high over all the nations he has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God as he has said.
(BBE)
I do, however, firmly believe God will bless a nation that obeys Him in helping the poor. I believe the USA had God's blessing for the last part of the Twentieth Century of two main reasons, aside from the fact it served God's Plan as such. First, and every conservative Christian will likely agree here, because Harry Truman led the US and led the newly formed UN in the creation of Israel which had not existed for generations until Hitler's attempt to exterminate the race created a moment's opportunity. And second, and this would raise a conservative huff, because of FDR's passage of Social Security in 1935 to provide an income for the elderly and Lyndon Johnson in the midst of Sixties prosperity and the mourning over the JFK assassination got his Great Society bill passed, which expanded the Social Security Act and included feeding the orphans and providing for the poor.
Whereas conservatives have allowed a President to borrow extensively from a foreign nation, expressly forbidden above, and have openly supported President Reagan who had ties with Iran an enemy of Israel and President Bush and VP Cheney with extensive oil involvement and friendship in the Arab world and Mr. Trump whose admiration of Putin aligns him much more with the Muslim world than with Israel despite his words. Enmity with China also means enmity with one of Israel's allies.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/ChinaIsraelRelations.html
Israel and China first established diplomatic relations in January 1992. They have since developed their relations steadily, culminating in the historic visit of Chinese President Jiang Zeming to Israel in 2000. Four Israeli presidents and three prime ministers, including most recently Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu in May 2013, have made diplomatic and trade visits to Beijing. The basis for expanded Israel-Chinese relations lies in simple economics: Israel is a world leader in technology that can achieve scale with China as a global economic power with a population exceeding one billion.
Two-way trade volume between Israel and China increased almost 200 times since relations were officially established, from only a little more than $50 million in 1992 to $9.91 billion in 2012. In essence, the bilateral trade of two days in 2013 equals that of the whole year of 1992. Cooperation has expanded from primarly agricultural to almost all areas, such as science and technology, education, culture, arts, tourism and academia.
In 2008, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) was awarded the contract for digging the Carmel Tunnel in Haifa as well as for the civil engineering aspect of the Red Line of Tel Aviv’s light-rail project, which will connect Petah Tikvah with Bat Yam.
Also in 2008, ZPMC, a Chinese manufacturer of cranes and metal equipment, won the tender to supply seven bridge cranes to the Haifa port.
Zhou Hui, China's former economic and commercial attache to Israel, confirmed in 2008 that his government encourages Chinese firms to come to Israel. Zhou also noted that there were many more Chinese-Israeli joint projects in the pipeline. One of them, for example, is a future tender for renovating existing rail lines. In addition, a huge Chinese home-appliance manufacturer is considering opening a research and development center in Israel, and representatives of the Chinese car manufacturer BYD visited Israel to examine the possibility of cooperating in the field of electric vehicles and hybrids.
In May 2013, during his second-ever diplomatic visit to Beijing, Israeli PM Netanyahu oversaw the signing of a $400 million trade agreement that was officially penned by signed by Israeli Finance Ministry Accountant-General Michal Abadi-Boiangiu and officials from China’s Finance Ministry.
As H.E. Gao Yanping, China's Ambassador to Israel, wrote following Netanyahu's visit in China in 2013: "With the interdependence between countries deepening in the globalized world, China and Israel have a shared destiny. The closer our cooperation is, the more benefits will accrue for both our peoples, and the more contributions we will be able to make to regional stability, world peace and global prosperity."
In September 2013, Tel Aviv University President, Professor Joseph Klafter, and Professor Zhang Zhi, President of the Jiao-Tong University in Shanghai, China, signed an agreement to establish a special research center for Israel Studies at the Chinese college. The research center, which will address contemporary issues in the Middle East and Israel, is the first of its kind in China. The agreement was signed in the presence of the Israeli Ambassador to China, Matan Vilnai, Israeli consular officials and representatives from the business community, as well as the Jewish community.
In October 2013, Chinese magnate Li Ka-Shing, among Asia’s richest businessmen, donated $130 million to Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology as part of a joint venture with Shantou University that will establish the Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology (TGIT). The gift, one of the largest ever to an Israeli university, is indicative of a deepening in the connection between Israel and China and also marks the first time a school from any other country has been invited to establish an entirely new academic college based in China.
In December 2013, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Israel on a commerce trip to "pursue stronger cooperation between our two countries," he told Netanyahu. The Chinese and Israeli economies "are highly complementary, and the mutually beneficial cooperation between us enjoys a very bright future." Yi also discussed the Iranian nuclear threat with Israeli President Shimon Peres during his visit, and characterized the November 2013 Interim Iran Nuclear Deal as a "an important, also preliminary, agreement marking the first step towards the settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue."
In April 2014, Ambassador Yanping expressed the blossoming China-Israel relationship in an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post. He applauded that tens of thousands of people travel between the two countries annually, numbers that have the potential to rise. In the cultural realm, Chinese performance groups visit Israel to share Chinese culture with Israelis. For instance, Chinese artist Yao Yuan presented his "Sculpture for World Peace" in Haifa and Chinese tourists post photos of their Israel trips on social media that encourage more Chinese people to visit. Yanping celebrated the wide range and high volume of cooperation between Israel and China that has expanded from "agricultural cooperation in the early days to almost all areas today, such as science and technology, education, culture, arts, tourism and academia." He expressed China's desire to strengthen the bilateral ties: "China would like as always to make joint and persistent efforts with Israel to enhance our mutual respect and trust, expore the great potential of cooperation and streer the relations into an even greater and brighter future," he wrote.
In May 2014, 400 Chinese business and government officials visited Israel for a week of conferences, summits and business deals. Tel Aviv University announced a partnership with Beijing's Tsinghua University to invest $300 million to establish the XIN Research Center that will focus on researching early-stage and developed technologies in biotech, solar energy, water and the environment. The week-long visit also included the first-ever Israel-China Economic Summit that the Israel China Interflow Association and Knesset Hi-Tech Caucus host. Israelis and Chinese visitors participated in the largest tech event in Israel in 2014 called Tell Aviv's MIXiii 2014 conference. According to Shangyan Fen, who leads strategic investment and development at China Everbright Ldt and manages a joint Israel-china investment fun helping israeli companies develop technology for the Chinese market: "we need to upgrade China's industrial base and deploy structural changes, move to a high-tech economy and improve manufacturing systems to reduce pollution." She added that "Israel has the technology that China needs to move ahead, so it's no wonder that we come to do business with Israel."
Spearheaded by Israeli Minister of the Economy Naftali Bennett, the "water city" project aims to take Israeli water solutions and apply them to China's increasing water problems. The project was announced in late November 2014 during an Israeli diplomatic visit to China featuring 15 Israeli companies looking to expand their business into the booming Chinese economy. This project is being supported by the joint Israel-China Mission, in hopes to increase economic and political cooperation in the future. Rapid population and industry growth has left much of China's water polluted and contaminated, and the Israeli companies have come to the table with solutions for desalination, sewage management and conversion, irrigation, and recycling of water for agricultural use. The "water city" project will first be unvelied in Shougang, and the Israelis hope that seeing the real world applications of their water solutions will convince the Chinese government to adopt their solutions throughout China. Shougang was chosen as the flagship city for this program through a selection process involving both Chinese and Israeli officials.
Chinese tech giants such as Baidu and Alibaba visited Israel frequently in 2014, looking for startups to purchase to bring new innovations back to China. These Chinese companies are interested in the Israelis advanced technology and the Israeli companies are interested in expanding their markets. Manager of one of Intel corporation's internal venture capital firms Richard Hsu stated that "the alliance between Israeli startups and Chinese tech giants is a kind of ideal combination. Many Chinese companies consider investing in Israel." Israeli venture capital firms that have investments in multiple startup companies have become extremely attractive to Chinese businessmen looking to get started in the Israeli market. Israel's desire to export it's technology and startups comes from the fact that they have very little natural resources to export besides newly discovered oil fields. Venture capital investment in Israel is double the amount of venture capital investment in the United States. Alibaba has invested millions of dollars in Israel companies, most notably QR code company Visuallead, and investment firm Jerusalem Venture Partners.
Israeli tech firm Radware and Chinese company China Railways began a mutually beneficial journey in mid-2015 aimed at improving the public transport systems in both countries. Radware helped facilitate the development of China Railways new online ticketing system by providing vizualization and analytics services to help the railway determine seat availability and price options. China Railways Tunnel Group was awarded a $750 million project by Israel's NTA Mass Transit System to build the“red line.” This proposed subway will be 24 kilometers long, run underground, and when completed will be the first metro system in Israel to criss-cross the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The idea to build the red line had been circulating around the Israeli government since at least 2000, but had been continually pushed aside due to other circumstances.
For the first time, in 2014 Israel imported more goods from China than it did from the United States ($8.1 billion and $7.4 billion, respectively). Israel and China signed an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) agreement in early 2015, which promised to facilitate an increase in economic cooperation between the nations. Under the AEO agreement, Israel and China will enjoy a fast-track customs program, making trade between the nations less complicated and more streamlined. Until the signing of this agreement, the United States was the only country that Israel had signed an AEO with.
Ground was broken on December 17, 2015, in Shantou, China on the new Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT), a joint venture by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Chinese government. The Institute will foster creativity and collaboration between the two nations, and is expected to ring in a new era of cooperation in agricultural and consumer technology. The ground-breaking ceremony was attended by Israeli President Shimon Peres, Israel's Minister of Science, Technology and Space Ofir Akunis, and Chinese business leaders.
Israeli and Chinese officials signed an agreement in January 2016, with the goal of expanding cooperation in the fields of energy technology research and development and renewable energy resources. Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz held meetings with Chinese energy leaders at events organized by the Chinese Ministry of the Economy and the Israeli embassy in Beijing during late 2015 and early 2016, leading up to the agreement.
The first ever China Israel Technology Innovation and Investment Summit took place in Beijing, China on January 5 and 6, 2016. Israeli businessmen eagerly exchanged business cards with their Chinese counterparts, looking for potential business partners and investors in their technology innovations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the Arab League in Cairo on January 21, 2016, and called for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as it's capital. Jinping stated through an interpreter, “China supports the peaceful process in the Middle East [and] the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital being eastern Jerusalem.” During the address the Chinese President announced a 50 million Yuan aid package for the Palestinian people. President Jinping signed 21 cooperative agreements with the Egyptian government while visiting, and presented a $1 billion grant to Egypt's central bank.
Israeli Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and China's biggest university, Jilin University, signed a cooperative agreement to establish a joint R&D center for entrepreneurship and innovation in Jerusalem on March 31, 2016. The first event of this new R&D center will be a global entrepreneurship conference to be held on May 16, 2016, at Ben-Gurion University.
The world's tallest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened to visitors 1,000 feet above a ravine in Zhangjiajie National Park, in China's Hunan province, during late August 2016. The bridge project, which cost $3.4 million and consists of ninety-nine 3-layer glass panes, was designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan. Chinese officials publicly staged repeated tests of the bridges safety in the weeks leading up to the grand opening, including driving a van full of passengers over the bridge, and striking the glass panels.
Extensive history suggests that the King of the East, when he gets involved in End Times, will be there for his interests in Israel and may even be on their side.
If we wonder why our prosperity as a nation and our world position are fading, we don't have to look much passed those acts.
B) The Law took loving God to the true level of not having idols at all as they split our allegiance.
Le 20:1 And the Lord said to Moses,
2 Again, say to the children of Israel, If any man of the children of Israel, or any other man living in Israel, gives his offspring to Molech, he is certainly to be put to death: he is to be stoned by the people of the land;
3 And my face will be turned against that man, and he will be cut off from his people; because he has given his offspring to Molech, making my holy place unclean, and making my holy name common.
4 And if the people of the land do not take note of that man when he gives his offspring to Molech, and do not put him to death,
5 Then my face will be turned against him and his family, and he and all those who do evil with him will be cut off from among their people.
6 And whoever goes after those who make use of spirits and wonder-workers, doing evil with them, against him will my face be turned, and he will be cut off from among his people.
7 So make and keep yourselves holy, for I am the Lord your God.
8 And keep my rules and do them: I am the Lord, who make you holy.
9 Every man cursing his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death; because of his curse on his father or his mother, his blood will be on him.
10 And if a man has sex relations with another man's wife, even the wife of his neighbour, he and she are certainly to be put to death.
11 And the man who has sex relations with his father's wife has put shame on his father: the two of them are to be put to death; their blood will be on them.
12 And if a man has sex relations with his son's wife, the two of them are to be put to death: it is unnatural; their blood will be on them.
13 And if a man has sex relations with a man, the two of them have done a disgusting thing: let them be put to death; their blood will be on them.
14 And if a man takes as wife a woman and her mother, it is an act of shame; let them be burned with fire, all three of them, so that there may be no shame among you.
15 And if a man has sex relations with a beast, let him be put to death, and let the beast be put to destruction.
16 And if a woman goes near a beast and has sex relations with it, you will put an end to the woman and the beast: their blood will be on them.
17 And if a man takes his sister, daughter of his father or his mother, and has sex relations with her and she with him, it is an act of shame: they are to be cut off before the children of their people; he has had sex relations with his sister, and his sin will be on him.
18 And if a man has sex relations with a woman at the time when she is unwell, he has seen her fountain and she has let the fountain of her blood be uncovered, and the two of them are to be cut off from among their people.
19 And you may not have sex connection with your mother's sister or your father's sister, for they are his near relations: their sin will be on them.
20 And if a man has sex relations with the wife of his father's brother, he has put shame on his father's brother: their sin will be on them; till the day of their death they will have no children.
21 And if a man takes his brother's wife, it is an unclean act; he has put shame on his brother; they will have no children.
22 So then, keep my rules and my decisions and do them, so that the land which I am giving you as your resting-place may not violently send you out again.
23 And do not keep the rules of the nations which I am driving out before you; for they did all these things, and for that reason my soul was turned against them.
24 But I have said to you, You will take their land and I will give it to you for your heritage, a land flowing with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God who have made you separate from all other peoples.
25 So then, make division between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the clean bird and the unclean: do not make yourselves disgusting by any beast or bird or anything which goes flat on the earth, which has been marked by me as unclean for you.
26 And you are to be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy and have made you separate from the nations, so that you may be my people.
27 Any man or woman who makes use of spirits, or who is a wonder-worker, is to be put to death: they are to be stoned with stones: their blood will be on them.
(BBE
While this is merely one example, I include all of that because we need to realize God is the center of the Law and is to be the center of our lives as He was to be the center of their lives. The law against beastiality and the harsh punishment has particular meaning as some research suggests aids became a threat to humanity because of that practice, even as the spread of any STD is linked with sexual activity outside of marriage which shows a disrespect for your mate and for God by disobedience. The spread of any STD would have been fatal to a contained community with no treatment for ANY of them in that time. Disrespect is not love. Let me emphasize that: disrespect is NOT love. And, since we are created in the image of God, actions against us are also actions against the creator. Christ's point by equating the two commands is emphasized by their link years before in Leviticus. (See http://www.yourtruelifenow.com/)
The details of the Law matter nt so much to us as the nature of the Law and it's underlying intent that we should focus our whole life on God.
https://twitter.com/efirlc
(Note: I commented earlier that our fracking practice in the US helped us build a large oil reserve. Fracking is used in the production of natural gas and not directly responsible for the large OIL reserves, but the use of natural gas has enabled the reduced use of oil and the build up of the reserve. I apologize for not explaining that in greater detail.)
https://twitter.com/efirlc
(Note: I commented earlier that our fracking practice in the US helped us build a large oil reserve. Fracking is used in the production of natural gas and not directly responsible for the large OIL reserves, but the use of natural gas has enabled the reduced use of oil and the build up of the reserve. I apologize for not explaining that in greater detail.)
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