The Bible tells us in Exodus that his pharoah dealt treachorously with them, forcing them to throw their newborn sons nto the Nile.  How cruel!! These verses imply most did just that, fearing for their very lives if they disobeyed, so why did these parents react any differently?  Weren't they too afraid? I am sure they were, but their trust in God outweighed any fear of the pharoah.  What did this family see in this child that stood him out frm all others?  I am almost sure that every parent looks upon their child seeing something special yet, the Bible singles this child out among all others. Have you ever thought why?

Though the Bible doesnt tell us, I am sure there are many theories.  Regardless of what theory, this child was destined for greatness and protected by the Hands of God.  My theory is if Moses' parents were Levites, they were most likely walking closely with their Creator.  There's no way they walked with Him without Him confiding in His plan to use their child.  I think Moses' parents knew Moses' purpose in life.  Their faith in God kept this child alive.  I also believe God's hand guided this mother in her plan to save her son's life.  If God spoke to their forefathers, dont you think He would have found a way to communicate His desires and plans with this faithful couple?  He had promised to Abraham 400 years earlier to send a deliverer, there would be no chance that a demented Egyptian king would thwart His very plan.  Believe me, Moses was protected more than you realize through the faith and obedience of these parents.

After three months of hiding, the day arrives when steps had to be taken to ensure Moses' protection.  Preparing his basket carefully, this mother carefully places the child in it and knowingly sets him afloat at the very time and place the Pharoah's daughter is bathing.  Coincidence? I dont think so.  Just as a thief cases a joint for the very opportunity to steal, this mother probably did the same.  It wouldnt surprise me if she knew the very routine of this Egyptian princess and having dwelled among them for so long, knew their religious belief with regards to the Nile.  Can you imagine?

In her mind, she carefully executes her plan, "Operation Save Moses".  After placing the child in the basket, she sets the basket afloat on the very waters of the Nile.  It was believed that the Nile was worshipped, so whatever it produced, had to come from their god.  Childless, the river brings themt he very thing the royal family lacked - an heir.  Taking custody of the child, the princess proceeds to provide for his needs.  In all her joy, this mother becomes what the princess believes is a means to fulfill her sons needs.  As I think about it, its ironic that htis young princess didnt immediately take the child and mother home to the palace, as opposed to allowing the mother to rear him as a Hebrew during the first few years of his life.  I even find myself wondering what the princess's role was during that time.  Surrogate or not, do you think I would, as a mother, completely step out of the picture this early in the game, leaving matters as they were until the child is brought back?  Yet, the Bible doesnt say.  In fact, it implies that that's exactly what happened.

Princess fades into the background while "Operation Nurturing" launches off.  What do you think happened?  I have heard it said, that the first few years are the most important as many of our core values are implanted.  God's Hand was at work as this mother planted the very seed of faithfulness to God in this young child.  Yes, even at this age, important values can be instilled, but the day would rapidly arrive when life as Moses knew it would change forever.  Oh, I can only imagine that very moment.

What was running through that mother's mind?  Better yet, what was taking place inside Moses' mind?  Can you see it???  "Hey ma, whatcha doin?  Where ya goin? Hey, dont leave me, this isnt where I live!"  The changes taking place werent subtle ones, they were like moving to another planet.  Can you put yourself in Moses' shoes?  Wrested from the only life and mother he'd ever known to be left in a place where nothing was familiar.  New language, new culture, new parents, new home.  NEW! NEW! NEW!  What a rush.  What an overwhelming experience.

The Bible doesnt say much about these years, but we know Moses transitioned well as he was groomed for the very throne of Pharoah.  He had the best of what life had to offer and became a man well respected and capable.  Then something happened.  Moses with all his education, decides to take matters into his own hands, to expedite God's will for his life.  That's right! "Operation Bad Timing" was underway.

In his own strength, Moses devises a plan to move God's timetable forward at lightning speed.  How many of you know that disaster was right around the corner?  We can assume Moses had some idea of God's will, though the Bible never clearly states it.  Think about it.  Moses is grown and decides one day to visit the Hebrew people.  Come on! He's been around them a while, so why now? Sounds like Moses got tired of waiting on God to fulfill His promise and saw this as an opportunity of helping God's plan along.  Do you see what I see?

The Bible tells us that one day Moses saw his brethren being mistreated.  Do you not believe he saw this many times before?  Moses had a plan, his plan.  Can you play this moment in time in your mind?  "Ok, no one's looking.  Perfect time to show them I am their life saving deliverer. I'll just save them from this bad Egyptian taskmaster and this will be the beginning of a new career" Oh how wrong Moses was.  Taking matters into his own hands, he murders the Egyptian an buries his dead carcass in the sand.  Who would be the wiser?

Next day comes, Moses returns to the scene of the crime and finds his brethren fighting.  Thinking they would understand his motives, he addresses them only to find they dont understand at all.  In fact, their attitudes view him as an enemy.  How could that be? Didnt they see he had risked it all to save them?  So what in the world was happening?  Confusion began to set in quick, fast and in a hurry!  Fearing for his very life, Moses flees for safety.  Can you play that scene in your mind?

The mighty deliverer became the cowardly fugitive overnight.  Reality was now beginning to sink in.  Confidence turned into fear and doubt.  Pride turned to humility as Moses finally realized he wasnt who he thought he was.  Mr. Somebody now learned he was Mr. Nobody.  What an unnerving feeling.  Fromt he pits to the palace and back to the pits.  We can only speculate what Moses was thinking, but believe me, had I just walked in his shoes, I dont think I would be doing so well either.

How many of you know that God's plan cant be thwarted?  Moses' screw up didnt prevent the plan from happening, it just affected the method of arriving there.  Had Moses only waited on God, the ease to which he would have been able to free his people would have turned out much different.  God had already told Abraham hundreds of years earlier what would happen, so do you believe Moses' actions were a surprise to God?  God already knew the path Moses would take and had prepared the way already.  In so doing, Moses would enter into God's Basic Training Program. Now the training would begin.

The Israelite's life changed from the prosperous days of Joseph. Life ended as they knew it and over four hundred years, the bottom dropped out.  Riches turned to poverty, ease turned to hardship, freedom turned to bondage, happiness turned to sadness and the list goes on.  A small family turned into a great nation during this time and whether the Israelites believed it or not, God's hand was at work fulfiling the very promises given to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14.  The same promises God gave to the people in the Bible, are the very promises we should faithfully stand upon, as well.  Yet in the troubled times in which these people lived, did they seriously think about or remember those promises?  I seriously doubt it.  How do I know?

Human nature hasnt changed much over time.  When extreme situations hit, those situations become our focus.  They consume our time, our efforts, our every thought. Who has time to think about promises that seem to never manifest? This stance hasnt changed much.  Today, we still experience hardships and we still react to them in much the same way.

Most people when they read the story of Moses, miss so much.  They read the words, they hear the story, but they fail to connect to the hearts and minds of the people spoken of.  We dont think about what the people are feeling.  We dont connect or experience the pain of the moment.  We dont feel the backlash of the enemies blow to the different facets of their life.  In doing so, we miss the greatest lessons taught in the stories.

Think about it.  Have you ever asked yourself what Moses' mother felt at the very moment of Moses' birth?  How about during the times he was hidden?  Better yet, at the two moments she had to give him up?  How do you think the people felt after Joseph died, seeing the times of prosperity change to 400 years of pain and hardship?  Often we, as readers, fail to look at these stories from this perspective.  We read, but we miss some key things along the way.

Moses was born during a dangerous and horrible time in history.  His very life was in jeopardy and times were of extreme hardship and yet, his birth brought joy in the midst of dark moments.  His parents, full of faith and trust in God, look upon these times as they were intended - as a blessing of God.  Do we do the same in our times of trouble and darkness?  Do we exercise our faith and trust in our Creator or do we focus on the situation before us?

Moses was destined for greatness, but oh, the cost he would pay for that higher calling.  He was wrested from the only family he'd ever known, taken to a place he wasnt used to, to learn to become a person he knew nothing about.  This was like moving to another planet for Moses.  Moses had much to learn and many changes would take place within him before his ministry would begin.  The process he underwent to become a honed instrument for God, is one we all experience while serving God.  It is his life we will begin to learn about.  It is his life that will inspire us to walk on.  So prepare your mind for the journey.

I ordered it at Sounds, a music store.

It was still available to get it, for 20 Euros.

YAAAY I'm so happy. I'm supposed to get it next week thursday.

I'll let you know more by then ;D

Exodus 24 is chock full of all kinds of scrumptious morsels for us to chew on but we must limit ourselves to the question at hand. However I exhort you to take a look at verses 4 and 16 especially in depth at another time. This chapter begins with Moses, along with Aaron and his sons Nadab and Abihu (who are to feature prominently in the book of Leviticus) being called to go up to the LORD and then Moses is to worship and then go back and recount these things to the people. This he does. In verse 3 Moses goes to the people and in verses 3 and 7, "Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!'", "Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, 'All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!'." This sounds like the Covenant of Works we all know and love. God presents to Moses the Law and the "ordinances" and the people say with one voice "I Will". The people have promised to obey and live by God's Law. Now what is their motivation for doing so? What shall they gain by following the words of God? Well here in Exodus 24 the people, moving off Moses promise that they shall receive the promised land, believe that by following the Law to its completeness they will be given entrance to Canaan, the land of their ancestors. We know from the rest of the story that Israel fails and are punished by not being allowed to enter the promised land, they are punished for their failure to live up to the Covenant. So as we can see in this short and somewhat stilted look at the Mosaic Covenant there are elements of both the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace in this particular Covenant.

I could go on for days just in this chapter but this being a blog it does not lend itself to long drawn out explanations so we will stop here for right now and pick this up later.

These records are 100 albums I listen to regularly and find many different levels of music playing, lyrics with meaning at the highest quality. Most albums are present in my collection of music either on CD, Vinyl. I have loved most albums here for many years, or I listen to more then I thought and others are new to the list which I have reacquired or acquired during the last year and I have now replaced some of the worn vinyl's to play with CD's so I can listen to them more.

1. Michael Jackson-Thriller First Released 1982

The first album I was bought and still love as much when I was younger till now!

He is my generations 25-30 year old's Elvis, Beatles and all sorts. Thriller was to most Michael Jackson's peak! He could never eclipse it. No one came close to it, not even Prince. Not a bad song on it apart from the Girl is Mine, Come on Michael what were you thinking, but hey it was the 80's.

Raging monsters such as Billie Jean (that killer bass line, and sparse tight arrangement which became a production technique which still sounds fresh today-remember this is 25 years old), Thriller (A clever song with a interesting arrangement, with some interesting pulse and grooves, check the beat against the bass line in the sections)-also became a benchmark in Music Video, Beat It (Rock mixed with R & B, amazingly simple but effective)-plus who didn't want to learn the guitar to play that solo. Wanna Be Startin Something (The Latin groove, African chanting middle 8's, snappy lyrics and some of the most uplifting joy you'll ever hear recorded) then to gems such Human Nature (one of the best ballads ever in the history of Pop music, with the Caribbean/jazz feel chorus), Baby Be Mine (another great song and has one of the sickest bass line ever for a ballad song, plus the bounce feel to the track is amazing-I wonder why Chris Brown didn't do a cover for the Thriller 25 he could have done a good version), PYT (A joyous song with Quincy weaving his magic arrangement), Lady of my life(a great blues/ballad/soul whatever -this song is going to be played at my wedding) and so for any musician who doesn't have this shame on you!

THIS is why Michael was loved as a musician! And the music was one word JOYOUS! -forget the other sh*T!,

This is why Michael will always be a great musical legend and I don't care what people say, this album has influenced music in the last 25 years. But one thing for me why this album always stands out is the arrangements,

Quincy "The Legend" Jones (tell me someone who competes as a producer/arranger/ the man is top legend! The word "music" in the dictionary should have a picture of Quincy Jones next to it, if Shakespeare is the greatest author, Quincy is probably in my eyes the best composer ever-hands down! ) which are second to none. Whether you like Michael Jackson is your issue, but one thing is the musicians used (the best in the world from the west coast at the time-Louis Johnson on bass, Toto band members the list goes on) and arrangements for these "Pop"(it is such a bad word to use for this album really as it is multi-genre of music, it can't even be catergorised but critics do as they lazy and criticize Michael Jackson because he sold more copies of one album then the Beatles did ) are so layered, every time you listen to this album you discover something new, a layer, a technique, sounds, it is so very in-depth.

2. Marvin Gaye's Here My Dear First Released 1978

Most people love What's Going On (great album...no doubt) but for something very spiritual (critics hated this at the time! I suspect Marvin didn't care really what people thought, though reading books 'Divided Soul' it must have messed him up) but this is the definition of a SOUL album, this is Marvin at his most artistic and remember Marvin never got a penny for doing this album (he did it for the love of art something 99 percent of artists don't do that anymore!) as the advance and the profit went to his 1st wife as part of the divorce to Anna Gordy. The main element of this album is the emotional content mixed with hazy moody jazz, blues, soul, funk, and afro-beat in places. The lyrical content is so personal and you feel you go through the journey with him, I really don't understand why this album is never considered to be a great album by music journalists, as it's a masterpiece in every way. The cover depicts a statue of Marvin and you know why as he knew this would be his final masterpiece, his empire, his achieving glory (which sadly never happened until afterwards, after he died-In Our lifetime is a good album and has interesting lyrical ideas but gets awash in the disco sound which happened alot to soul music in the late 70's, Curtis Mayfield being a sad victim of this)..

Multi layered vocal arrangements-go further advanced then "I Want You" album, amazing counterpoints and the musical painted landscapes go through a hazier utopia, free-form lyrics. Key Cuts: When Did you stop loving me, when did I stop loving you-A mammoth song with so much personal content, the joy, the pain the anguish, you want to know what Marvin Gaye was about, his emotional states, this track alone tells a story (In fact I would probably go as far to say his most personal song!). , Is that Enough-A jazzy poetic semi-free form piece stating the emotional turmoil Marvin was going through and put through, and full of class-short concise lines-spiting at Anna-"fooling around with my mind instead of my heart!", amazingly calm and no anger felt especially after ANGER-this song is about his trust , his feelings and regrets, his attitudes-losing of dear friends, talking about going to another plain to rid of the pain of divorce and loss of friendships(sure this is about him getting high to dull the pain-which in fact probably created more demons for him then needed), Anna's Song-A song about the joys of the relationship he shared with Anna and how he regrets having to express his negative and positive feelings, Sparrow-a track based on a metaphor-raucous compared to the other tracks on the album, in parts, check the sax work-Avant-garde Sh*T!

Also I recommend getting the Deluxe Edition, which has been released as you can hear demos and how Marvin used to compose by the tracks sketches.

3. Love-Forever Changes- First Released 1967

A 60's album with writing way ahead of it's time, written before the winter of disillusionment in 67. Arthur Lee was clearly pissed at the world-he felt he was going to die-which surprisingly he didn't, knowing his state of mind- a tortured soul and how he later on in life got arrested for shooting firearms, it takes a few listens to grab you.

I got some of it at first but then I first heard this album on cassette when I was 12, but you can learn so much from this album-I play it at least once a week, and have done since the reissue on CD in 2001. You wouldn't believe at first listen that this album is negative to the world -as the arrangements are deceptively joyous clever same effect Marvin uses on Here My Dear, listen to this album and get lost in a world of hippy optimism turning sour! Predated Kinks/Beatles(the kinks lyrics were interesting but not on the level of Arthur Lee's writing-and the kinks didn't have a great album like this-the Beatles were too commercial and popular to ever discuss what "Plain" Arthur lee was on) interesting work and Beach Boys-Surf Up's (no sunny harmonies-dark-LSD influences) Pink Floyd marvel's Dark Side which is a great album but the lyrical content is poor compared to Forever changes,

This album has multilayered arrangements, unusual for the time too, melodic songs, with no definite chorus-most if not all the song titles don't appear in the songs (their statements), lyrics with double meanings.

Arthur discusses leaving this world to join the spiritual enlightenment-and is a true follower of Gnosticism, stating a world which was crumbling in front of peoples eyes without sounding angry!

Something Hip-Hop hasn't leant yet to do on this level accept for a few acts such as A Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def and so on.

To me this album influenced such a huge sound coming from the west coast-The Doors, Sly and the family Stone, The Damned, Grateful Dead and so on (including Hendrix-he must have loved this album)

Classic Cuts: Alone Again Or, A House Is Not a Motel, Andmoreagain, Daily Planet, Red Telephone, Maybe the people would be the times (and so on)------It would too long to explain about these, check out a later Blog on this album alone.

4. Prince-1999 First Released 1983

I know the " what's so great about Prince argument!" and have heard it way too many times, it is slightly boring..

He's really foul mouthed, is he gay? He can't sing-blah blah blah blah blah!"

Right well Hello u damn ignorant fools this is the reason

Prince's best album in my opinion (VIBE magazine claimed it to be the most inflectional album of the last 20 years-rightly so!) only Sign of the Times comes close, this album influenced a scene which has been huge for years HOUSE

This album masterpiece has multi-genre qualities-funk, soul, electro, pop, gospel, jazz, rock, crudeness, political stabbings,comedy everything at once (it is like being hit be a musical hurricane),

"Free" however is a bit of a lame track sorry Prince not the best you could do, loving stuttering fool Reagan! UGGH! Who by the way people has caused the crack problem since the 80's and the money he gave to Afghanistan so they can train extremists so to protect themselves from Russia-F*cking retard),

If you Hate Prince's music (if you do I feel sorry for you! as along with Michael Jackson these two are the last best musicians from the 20th Century) don't listen to this, if your a prude don't listen to this as it would overwhelm you but if you marvel at his genius music writing listen to this!

Personally all musicians should have this or obtain it, like Thriller (if any album you should but get my top 5 if you don't own them already).

Classic tracks

The pre-millennium tension of "1999"a song very political (influenced by Sly no doubt), this track is a bit dated but during the 80's this song was very relevant but it was always a tongue in cheek song..

My favourite track of Princes is the song about the lady lover "Little Red Corvette"

A song with one of the best first lines in a song-musical/lyrical genius-"I guess I should known by the way you parked your car sideways it wouldn't last" conjures such a painting of the character, amazing layers and the journey is unreal-pretty much like getting F*cked in this car journey with this girl,

The pure grimy funk rawness of "DMSR"-how you could never love this song is beyond me-it makes you wanna dance!

The ambiguous sexual "Something in The Water Don't Compute"-something so cold and electro but amazing soulful

The pity filled "Lady Cab Driver"-with interesting views on the world which the make the track end up being a raucous jam "check the Middle 8"and scholar like writing "will you accept my tears to pay the fare".

5. Stevie Wonder's Innervisions. First released 1973

Stevie most complete album-he played most of the instruments on it too and not a weak song on it,

Song in the key is his other great album but it lacks the concise punches this album had, a classic in every sense of the word and funky as hell!

All songs are great but the key songs to me are

Higher Ground-A funk/blues song stating of the chance to re-do his life again, very political with a amazing funk presence, one of the most funkiest songs ever-Chilies cover is good too, and Stevie's live versions are good too

Golden Lady-not the song most people associate with Stevie or people mention from this album much (I think it is one the greatest songs ever as it's so simple yet a mutli layered arrangement) it influenced the acid jazz movement, straight forward lyrics, interesting arrangement around it (the bass line is phat!, Stevie was on a mad one)-just check it out!

Living In The City-a story of a country boy trying to get work then becoming after jail time deluded by life-harsh reality with amazing production but hey someone had to talk about it -truth hurts , Too High-an inventive way of the dangers of drugs-two amazing things in this song "the drums and the harmonica solo in the middle-it sounds like a battle between the normal state of mind and the drugged up-very clever -again listen and listen again in amazement.

All in love is fair-a ballad with amazing emotional depth, (I have heard (and I know what your thinking, what a F**) a Barbara Streisand cover of this and it's amazing, probably one of the best Stevie covers ever, but the original is the best, the jazz timbre/classical styling and the piano playing is amazing, very complex compared to other tracks on the album.

6. Curtis Mayfield-Curtis, First Released in 1971

Curtis Mayfield is by far one of the most amazing composers ever, political statements & arrangements (out of this world).

Written and predating What's Going On this album is beautifully arranged and has interesting songs on it from the beautiful

Making Of You-a spiritual love-ode with lyrical beauty and tenderness (another wedding song-along with lady of my life and golden lady), it may not seem much at first but it's subtly is special,

The spiritual Move On Up-unfortunately Kanye West had wrecked this song for me for a while (along with some others he mashes up to create some of his horrible hybrid crap!-some Stuff you should leave alone-word to "Kanye"-this was one of them! Please watch what you pick-as you lose the content of the original so much), but an amazing song with the joy of peace and enlightenment and a message very similar to "keep on keeping on" but more commercial viable, check out the arrangement not just horns but the breakdown, the drum pattern (Questlove from The Roots must love this track for that!)

The cautious Hell Below!-Spiritual readings-better then any preacher i have heard, gritty punchy, and a arrangement with great depth Listen to this to learn what was so special about this man, sorely missed!

7. Sly and The Family Stone-There's A Riot Going On –First released in 1971

Sly created such a joyous sound with the Stand album and everything else then he felt his optimism went sour and wayward-so created in the aftermath is this Dark, Moody, evil (perhaps), happy in parts, sad, creepy, a Monstorous oxymoron of an album, trust me 1971 was such a peak year with albums along with 1982,

Do you like Sly's 60's stuff (forget that) listen to this and see him in a different light he became a bastard (the PCP and other concoction of drugs didn't help perhaps) to his band but hey even the band put up with his bullsh*T how could you not when you come up with this a master piece!

Family Affair-bluesy-soul telling of a family in tatters, simple lyrics but under a infectious groove that is mesmerizing remember hearing this track when I was 8 yrs old and thinking what is this! It was on BBC Radio 2- so I heard who it was and obtained a 45 record of it (which wasn't in great nick when I got it)

I played it to death, tried to do the drum pattern with my voice, all sorts it is such a wonderful track I studied it alot,

Smilin-like family affair but the woman singing changes the feel of this, the horn parts too jazz turn a rounds

Poet-that harpsichord and funky wahs makes this potent, with a lyric so simple but with emotional depth.

I will write a separate blog on this album--you have probably hurt your eyes reading thus far by now! But continue!

8. D'Angelo-Voodoo- First released in 2000

Where is he? What is he doing?, Some say overrated! Nah! Never!

This to me is the last best album I have bought in the last 10 years, it makes me realise that there is great music out there, but nothing comes close to this…

D'Angelo is in the same league as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Prince spiritually and musically and people may wonder why he takes so long to write albums

I personally don't care about his personal problems but it does make him a emotional writer like Marvin Gaye when he writes but more ambiguous

Brown Sugar (good album for it's time and got me back into up-to date music as the mid 90's bored me before then, but not great like Voodoo) then this! His talent comes from somewhere else-it is out of earth experience

Key Tracks

Spanish Joint-rumored he wrote this originally when he was young about 14 (I heard. don't quote me, same age as Bach when he wrote Toccata and fugue in D minor-GENIUS), where do I start Charlie hunter playing the guitar and the percussion and drum pattern build up to the part he sings coming in like a monsoon like a "whenever it rains, fell this way" it is a killer, I believe Fela Kuti influenced this album a lot along with the ebat style of J Dilla -listen to the acoustic version done on piano on Spanish joint, the vibe, the feeling, by D'Angelo has reminisce of Fela or the great Cuban music.(if you don't have it, obtain it somehow!)

One Mo'Gin-hazy-dark, a modern day sly track from there's a riot, the build-up the bass line, the harmonies, the lyrics, subtle but poignant,

Send It On-The lyrics and the movement in the song the middle 8 is an amazing drop then the subtle guitar solo, the horn samples used, genius,

Left And Right-A great song, which builds on a great groove and becomes very hypnotic

Untitled(how does it feel)-yes the video (ladies I know you love it! LOL) but the song, Marvin crept into him, one of the best soul ballad for years-only Till the cops come knockin is close. (Another blog soon on this album too)

09. Simon and Garfunkel-Bookends First released 1968/69

An album of many great melodies!

Amazing songs and would you believe at this time they couldn't stand each other, but when they were together at their peak they do in my opinion rival and better Lennon & McCartney!

To be honest neither did anything as amazing singular (except Graceland for Paul Simon) or before as albums, but amazing songs just the same Old Friends/Bookends is my favorite song of theirs from this album and one of my all top 25 songs and others from this masterpiece album are Overs and the classic Mrs Robinson.

10. Michael Jackson -Off the Wall –First released in 1979

An obvious choice following on from Thriller, some say even a better album and if it had been promoted like Thriller it would have done better!

I'd disagree with that, it is not in-depth enough to be as good as Thriller, nut Thriller did follow the template layout of this album but the energy and classic songs such as

Rock With You-probably one of the best pop-ballad songs ever (Rufus played on this-Bobby Watson-bass, the groove by john Robinson, the melody and the arrangement),

The energetic Off The Wall-short staccato lyrics, horns, vocals,

Working Day And Night-a Latin masterpiece which builds and builds (check out the Bad "Live " version) give it a fair argument (Michael beginning his meteoritic rise to elitism)

Even timid ballads such as Girlfriend and I can't help it (my 4th favorite track of this album-one of Stevie's best written songs) pull this album through, the only criticism I have about this album is sometimes it sounds too dated disco for me and with not enough bite say compared to the edginess of Thriller!

11. Donovan-Sunshine Superman-First Released 1967/68

A poor mans Dylan people claim, what misjudged fools they are!

This album has so much to offer, in fact I have had so many people buy this album from every walk of life after hearing it! I also met the man recently (within the last three years) as well which was interesting!

Worth having a listen to and something British (warning very LSD and hippy inspired though but very cool!) and he also taught Lennon and McCartney finger picking on the guitar!-who can put claims to that!

The joyous Sunshine Superman-someone should do a funk cover of this (perhaps i will!),

The funky blues "Season of The Witch" to the sonnet Celtic, "Three kingfishers".

12. Bill Withers-Still Bill First Released 1971/72

A classic song writer who has written great songs, Ain't no sunshine, use me, who is he and what is he to you, the latter two on this album,

A great mantel for anyone wishing to learn how to write great R &B or edgy pop songs

I have had this album since the age of 9 and the greatest hits was a regular playing album when learning to compose and along with Marvin, Stevie,

I consider Bill Withers to be a high standard writer with so much depth

Key cuts are the stated before along with Lean on me, Lonely Town, Lonely Street

13. (I'm a little superstitious using this number)

Marvin Gaye-What's Going On, First released in 1971

"The first Black music concept album"

Berry Gordy tried to stop it coming out,

But Marvin believed in this (but he was a stubborn Git too, that's why i love his music) and ultimately was his masterpiece but to me never showed the diversity like Here My Dear but aside from that.

Classic songs and influenced many conceptual ideas for Black music albums especially Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield had already released Curtis before What's Going On, hence why I like that album more-the arranging especially, but this album has a huge range of powerful and meaningful songs which keep this in high stead for many years to come!

Subjects including the state of the environment and poverty within society and saving and looking out for the future keeps this album's message even relative to now!

I don't really have to explain these tracks do I?

14. Beatles-Revolver First released in 1966

A had to include a Beatles album in here, but as they are the beginning of pop music as we know now, this album has classic pop songs, unconventional arrangements for that time, and some of the most classic pop songs ever written,

I have been brainwashed since young by bloody musicians and music teachers "The Beatles! Blah Blah-I personally don't get the whole big fuss!

I don't think the could sing for starters but there you go

(No writing to me please telling me how great the Beatles are please-as i will only tell you to F*Ck off)

Eleanor Rigby a tale about a lonely woman, Taxman a funk song about the taxes imposed by government, and a classic love song in Here, There and Everywhere, I'm only sleeping (this could have been funked up by later Sly!), and even Yellow Submarine doesn't spoil this album! LOL

15 Prince-Sign Of The Times First released in 1987

Prince wrote this masterpiece of an album in 1987 it changed a lot of things in Prince's Camp and was the decline in the relationship between him and Warners.

Prince had run the course of the revolution, and was sick of the sound, so he wanted to strip it down to the basic funk, D'Angelo used a similar trait with Voodoo.

The Songs about the state of the world in the title track were very daring at the time, even my mum who 'hates' Prince found this track interesting and stark, to gender reversal "If I was your girlfriend" to the need for a woman "The ballad of Dorothy Parker"-my favourite Prince song apart from Little Red Corvette, to funked-up jams about pure sexuality "Hot Thing" and all together the last great thing Prince ever did and probably ever will do.

16. Jimi Hendrix-Electric Ladyland-First released in 1969/70

Sonically experimental and out of this world genius all created by one man, this to me is Hendrix's pinnacle work and deservedly so,

All Along the watchtower puts Dylan's version to complete shame,

The snappiness of Cross town traffic, the doo-wop of Long Summer Nights, any musician even if they are not keen on Hendrix should try to own this album, warning though it isn't easy to listen to at first...

17. Terry Callier-What Colour is Love-First released in 1972

Who? What is this album!

Well describing this album is as joyous as listening to it is, beautiful arranged and very different from his other bluesy material,

I only heard of this album 9 years ago and fell in love with this as much as Here My Dear by Marvin Gaye, this album feels like falling in Love (sound cliché! I know but it's not smaltzy either) and check out why this album is fantastic and worth listening to even if it's not your thing, if you like Curtis by Curtis Mayfield try to acquire this!

18 Exodus-Bob Marley first released in 1977

The best reggae album, or one of the best albums ever…this wasn't the first Bob Marley album I heard it was Natty dread, but when I obtained this when I was 11, I feel in love with Bob Marleys music and his message (I believe him to be one of the most important people ever in music history and regard him so highly), I also got into Peter Tosh and some of the Trojan sounds.

Well not a weak song on it really, I obtained it again on CD with the 30th Anniversary edition and somehow passed by it for years, only listening to some of the songs on the Legend album

One of my things I love in music is arrangement and lyrics, and Bob Marley is a genius at simplistic lyrics but with so much meaning

My Favourites being

Waiting in Vain, A ballad about longing (it was about Damien Marley's mother-the rest is history) but has such a postive energy and ends up not being smaltzy unlike so many acts who have tried before and afterwards.

Jamming –A great song which conjures the element of being a musician and it ethics in being one.

Three little birds-A song not about animals as first thought but a metaphor about his backing group and how people should look to be positive.

Exodus –A song about the movement of people originally from the idea of Moses leaving Egypt to find the promised land, Bob Marley represents this song in another way of the movement of people away from the current world-a hostile environment, perhaps him being a Moses figure, I find this song has such a spiritual affiliation, as I have gotten older I have always been intrigued as the movement from Babylon to the fathers land, can be seen in many different ways perhaps to Heaven or the land where the world started Ethopia. Well it's your interpretation..

19/20 The Isley Bros -3 and 3/ The Heat Is On- First released in 1973/75

Both these albums have great musicality to them and destroyed the Motown sounding Isleys with elements of rock, funk and other out of this world catchiness.

3 & 3 has a great mixture of funky songs "That Lady" and "Summer Breeze" to the wonderful ballads of "Highways of my life" and "Don't let me be lonely"

The Heat Is On turns up the pace and the strength of songs just under peaks 3 & 3 but has great songs such as "Fight The Power" "For the love of you" and one of the most sexiest songs ever in "Sensuality", if you have never discovered these albums I feel sorry for you, as these are truly excellent musical masterpieces!

21 David Bowie-Hunky Dory, First Released in 1971

A musical legend in his own right but this album is Bowie's first masterpiece(my favorite as well)

This album is where and when Bowie showcases his great song writing before going into his utter dependence on drugs and character idioms and follows on from his creative arty beginnings.

It is one of the artist's least rock-oriented efforts, bearing little relation to what came before or after.

The album covers a wide range of styles from operatic pop "Life on Mars?" a song originally written to take the piss out of ole blue eyes Frank Sinatra to a low-key folk ("Quicksand") to English music hall ditties ("Kooks") and the chugging, life-affirming "Changes".

22.A Tribe Called Quest-People's Instinctive Travels (Paths of Rhythm)

First released in 1990

Well my first and favourite hip-hop album ever, I obtained this in 1991 and hassled my Mum to buy it while in America, and because it had no parental advisory lyrics my Mother didn't mind

It is amazing how this album still has such a emotional connection with myself even after 18 years of listening to this album, and really it wasn't meant for me a British white kid in a racist environment and especially at school but I just got lost in my own world and loved the lyrics which had meaning unlike the garbage which was in the pop charts at that time, and I try to do that even now, even though my environment is more cosmopolitan (when I went to NY last year this album really captured the feel of NY especially Brooklyn and the end of the summer)

It is a masterpiece of what Hip-Hop to me should be about and where most hip-hop has completely forgotten about how to make a solid album.

Only Three hip-hop acts in my opinion seem to have regained this apart from Q-tip himself, The Roots, Common and Mos Def the latter has never hit the heights of his debut 'Black On Both Sides' and Common has become a commercial letdown and The Roots can't seem to come with a album as interesting as Things Fall Apart.

Paths Of Rhythm has such a cohesive theme that you didn't mind listening to the whole album and boy I went through 5 cassettes of this album and I was glad to get a CD of this in 1995…the year I obtained a CD walkman.

The birth of the start of Push it along made you wonder if this was the birth of a new movement in music and from then the journey starts which goes into the comedic tales of Lucien, but during the journey of this album I knew certain tracks samples and then also I wished to discover the original tracks which the samples where taken from…Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Eugene Mcdaniels (this took a while to obtain) and so on…

My favourite tracks which maybe quite obvious are

I left my wallet in El Segundo-a tale about the tribe going to escape the city and tip leaving his wallet in El Segundo…very original couldn't imagine many hip-hop artists talking about this in the 'Bling Bling' Era.

Bonita Applebum-The feel of this track and being one of my favourite hip-hop tracks is the lyrical content and the description about a guy falling in love with a beautiful woman and not being crude but intelligent..

Can I kick it, My favourite hip-hop track of all time and due to the use of a great sample 'Walk on the wild side' and the positive lyrical content which was inspiring and joyous, this has been missed in Hip-Hop for a long time, the video version always was a favourite of mine too.

Youthful Expression-The organ rift sample usage (Inner city blues-redone by Les McCann?) -in this song and the lyrics about the environment of the group, and the political connotations was very smart and subtle compared to that of Public Enemy

Description Of A Fool-A song dissing drug dealers, I didn't understand this when I was young but someone older explained the meaning to me, and I thought it was a smart sonng.

23.Marvin Gaye-I Want You- First released in 1976

Vocally an amazing album

Leon Ware was on top writing form and though not as personal as other solo albums "Here my Dear and "What's going on", the title track with the sense of longing and spirituality beg for your ears to listen with intelligent arrangements

Other tracks such as Soon I will be loving you, after the dance and come live with me angel have such warmth that this album is so irresistible (and more interesting then the raw 2D "Let's get it on")

24. The Jacksons-Triumph-First released in 1980

This album was just written before Thriller and to be honest Michael and his brothers were musically on form and bloody amazing try to watch live shows of this being performed on youtube.com.

From Michael's solo success from Off The Wall to the eventual Masterpiece of Thriller, co-produced by Greg Philliganes,

This album has not a bad moment on it and is never that highly regarded, surprising because this has great arrangements, good songs, in some case people may think OTT, but this comes from a family who were living the American dream from a young age! Come on!

Key songs

The anthem call "Can u feel it" to the sinister

"Heartbreak Hotel" a predecessor for Billie Jean

Funky arranged pop songs "Give it up" to the evils of woman, "Your ways",

If you want to understand, study or get inspiration from music in Michael Jackson's key period in musical history this wouldn't be a bad bet to purchase along with Off The Wall and Thriller! Highly Recommended

25 Maxwell-Embrya- First released in 1998

Embrya is the modern day "I Want You" album,

As a concept album not highly regarded this will become a future classic, great arranging, great melodies but alienated fans as a departure from Urban Hang Suite, but to me this is Maxwell's best album by far and only in modern day soul D'angelo is better, competes with Marvins, and Stevie Wonders best work.

Classic Cuts "Drowndeep hula" "Arroz con polo" "Luxury/cococure"

Blog on this album coming soon too

26 Cat Stevens-Tea For the Tillerman- First released in 1970

One the best writers of songs for the last 30 years and his albums still stand up as testimonial to his genius to his gems classic cuts such as "Wild wood" "Father and Son" (Covered too many times the original is still the best" and "Where do the children play?"

27. Kate Bush-Never For Ever -First released in 1980

Now most people know Kate Bush by her famous songs Wuthering Heights, Hounds Of Love,

Never for Ever has a diverse range of music(very like Hunky Dory) and has inspired a lot of woman performers such as Tori Amos, Bjork, Fiona Apple.

Babooska, The Wedding List and Army Dreamers are my favorites but this album contains so many gems and the writing has many different influences, in fact I get a lot of inspiration from this album and I had to represent a female artist on here somewhere!

28/29 -Eugene McDaniels-Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse/Outlaw-First released in 1969/70

Before writing great songs for Roberta Flack, Eugene McDaniels had written two concept albums which for him nearly broke him financially and mentally, but what gem's these are.

Re-released for the last ten years you wonder why the record company made a fuss! But great grooves, very dark and moody! This has great song writing and very original, in fact I would highly recommend this to anyone who wishes to explore the darker side of music, it's just a shame I heard this after "Sly's There's a riot and Marvins "What's going on" but nevertheless a great masterpiece

Key Cuts' "Jagger the Dagger" "Lord is Back" Lovin Man" "Freedom Death Dance" on Headless and on Outlaw, Cherrystones, Unspoken Dreams of Light, Reverend Lee, Love Letter to America

30. Roberta Flack-Feel Like Making Love album First released in 1975

Beautifully arranged songs, great musicianship.

This has great songs from the title track to the laid back Mr Magic, and to uplifting songs such as "Feeling that Glow" and some "Gospel according to Mathew!", a lot of people prefer Killing me Softly but as an album I feel this is more complete and not a bad moment on it.

31 Carole King-Tapestry-. Tapestry First released in 1971

A well regarded classic songwriters album took the Grammy over Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" which people felt she deserved after all the famous songs she had written,

Very raw and emotional interesting from the famous classic "You've got a friend" to the classic songs she wrote for 60's female doo-wop groups "Will you still love me tomorrow" and to the man biting "It's Too Late", this has stood the test of time and deserves a few listens to get the essence of this album!

32 Joni Mitchell-Blue, First released in 1971

A template for Female Singer songwriters everywhere and not a bad song on this album either, which is a surprise, to be honest Joni Mitchell never did an album close to this apart from Ladies in the Canyon.

Classic Cuts: "My Old Man" "Blue" "All I want

33. Shuggie Otis-Inspiration Information-First released in 1974

Pre-Dated Prince played every instrument known to man (asked to be The Rolling Stones Guitarist before Ron Wood) and now is a pauper because of the record companies' poor marketing and has become a recluse!

After Sly's "RIOT" and "Fresh" album I would listen to this, reissued 8 years ago...a forgotten classic.

His back catalogue keeps him alive! Some albums at the time just get slated too much

A lot of critics (famous) slate albums on this list which I love!

Hence why I want people to discover my list but listen to this and see what I get from it! "Aut of mi Hed", "Inspiration information", if you love "There's a riot Going On" get this it more bluesy/jazzy and positive though...

34 Pink Floyd-Dark Side Of The Moon- First released in 1973

A group who really never took off in the 60's but

Moved the Beatles ideas sonically forward and maxed it further,

A great sonic art work and still considered a masterpiece very ahead of it's times unusual time signatures and counterpoints, poly rhythms trying to push boundaries Key Cuts "Money", "Breathe" and "Time" and all the pills they took

35 Bob Dylan-Freewheelin- First released in 1963

Freewheelin is a classic album and to think this was his second album and the strength of his song writing was way beyond his years,

I prefer this album to everything else he did or does, and to me it has one of the best songs known to popular music "Blowin in the wind" and other cuts such as "Master of War" and "I shall be free",

36 Funkadelic-One a Nation under a Groove- First released in 1979

This album mixes so many things I like in music funk, melodies, arranging, surrealism and most of all humour! This album has it all, everything you want to know about the funk, and well this album would be a good start!

The title track and other jams make this album a must have for any dull party to light the f*Ck up or to start a party, George Clinton is still a genius and listen 2 this and see why he is so regarded!

37.Miles Davis-Bitches Brew First released in 1970

One of the greatest and important records ever made!

A few days after Woodstock and a world of new music on the horizon leaving the 60's behind and going into the nexus towards the 70's, some jazz fans hate it and some people just don't get it!

To me this album has given me such inspiration and shows the level musicians can get when exploring ideas, Highly recommended and shows Miles Davis as the pioneer of Jazz music

38 Stevie Wonder-Songs In the key of Life-First released in 1976

An epic record which never to me eclipses Innervisions but nevertheless is an impressive masterpiece

With some of Stevie Wonder's best songs "As", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" "Pastime Paradise" and ballads with depth and musical bite which he never explored again without going into schmaltz "If it's Magic" "Knocks Me Off My Feet", "Summer Soft" Isn't She Lovely", worth adding to you collection for just so much creativity, why it isn't higher on my list is because it's too long sometimes, tracks can be 8 mins long, and some tracks lose their focus!

If this wasn't the case this would be in my top 15!

39 The Dramatics-Whatcha See is What You Get-First released in 1970

The Stylistics were more successful but never came up with a whole album to compete and only the Chi-lites could match this group in talent and versatility, but as an album this has Great writing all by one man Tony Hestor, great arrangements and excellent songs

Key cuts; the title track "In The Rain", "Hot Pants In the Summertime" "Get up and Get down" and an album so good Ghostface Killah comes back to this and samples the sh*T out of it!

40 Michael Jackson-Bad- First released in 1987

Trying to write a follow-up to the biggest selling album in the world ever is no easy task but Michael keep up with the times with this amazing effort, where at least six songs are his best ever he has done

"The Way you make me Feel" to the gritty "Smooth Criminal" and the killing me softly ode "Dirty Diana" and to one of the funkiest songs he has ever done "Another part of me" to the interesting simplicity of "Liberian Girl", and the anthem cal "Man In the Mirror".

Just some cheesy smaltzy songs let this down for me "Just Good Friends" & "I Just Can't Stop Loving U" but other wise worth owning!

41 Bjork-Debut First released in 1993

Well Bjork has been so pioneering but this is where it started and as an album the most complete of her work

Being a admirer of Kate Bush, I was always after a female artist who could be experimental and interesting as well as writing good songs, many tried to Tori Amos, Fiona Apple to an extent but never to the imagination of Bjork.

Venus as a boy, play dead, big time sensuality, human behavior are my favorites in fact they still stand up so well makes them great,

42.Fela Kuti-Expensive Shit

43. Q-Tip-The Kammal Abstract Theory

44.D'Angelo-Brown Sugar-

45.The Roots-Things Fall Apart-

46.Erykah Badu-Mama's Gun

47. Jill Scott-Words and Sounds Vol 1

48.Rufus -Streetplayer

49. Simon and Garfunkel -Bridge Over Troubled Water

50. Donald Bryd-Places and Spaces

51. Sly and the Family Stone-Fresh

52 Prince-Dirty Mind

53 Carly Simon-No Secrets

54 Mos Def-Black On Both Sides

55 Lenny Kravitz-Mama Said

56 Leon Ware-Musical Massage

57 Jimi Hendrix Experience-Are you Experienced

58 Michael Jackson-Dangerous

59 Lina -The Inner Beauty Movement

60 Outkast-Speakerbox /The Love Below

61 Brother Johnson-Light Up The Night-

62 Fiona Apple-When The Pawn

63 Curtis Mayfield-Superfly

64 Common-Like Water For Chocolate

65 Tracey Chapman-Tracey Chapman

66.Sly and The Stone-Stand

67 Raul Midon-State Of Mind

68.Wanted Dread And Alive-Peter Tosh

69. Seal-Seal

70 Steely Dan-Aja

71 Herbie Hancock-Headhunters

72 Ginuwine-The Bachelor

73 Aaliyah-Aaliyah

74 Prince-Parade

75 Beck -Midnight Vultures

76 Funkadelic-Uncle Jam Wants You

77 Paul Simon-Graceland

78 Velvet Underground & Nico-Velvet Underground

79 Rachael Yamagata-Happenstance

80 George Harrison-All Things Must Pass

81 Beatles-Abbey Road

82 Miles Davis-On the Corner

83 Scott Walker-Scott 3

84 Marvin Gaye-In Our Lifetime

85. Bill Withers-Justments

86 Gary Numan-The Pleasure Principle

87 Pink Floyd-The Wall

88 Elton John -Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

89.The Clash-Sandista

90 Keite Young-The Rise and Fall of

91 Frank Zappa-Hot Rats

92 West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band -West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Vol.2

93 Squarepusher-Feed Me Weird Things

94 Pharoah Saunders-Thembi

95 Coldplay-A Rush Of Blood To The Head

96 Rage Against The Machine-Rage Against The Machine

97 Radiohead-Ok Computer

98. Aphex Twin-Druqs

99. Isaac Hayes –Hot Buttered Soul

100.Alicia Keys-I am

"But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you." - Exodus 7:3

In Exodus God repeatedly states that He will harden Pharaoh's heart, and that this is the reason that Pharaoh does not listen to Moses. Honestly, God states that He hardens Pharaoh's heart more than a dozen (if not two dozen!) times! This really calls into question our freewill in God's scheme. How can the notion of freewill be reconciled with a God that can control our actions, and what's more, our emotions?

God also takes credit for the skill and abilities of men:

"See I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts..." - Exodus 31:2-3

But not only do we need to reconcile the notion of God with our own selves, for God takes credit over things that happen outside of ourselves as well. There are many miracles that occur in Exodus, especially the ten plagues, which God all takes credit for. If a natural disaster occurs, are we to interpret it as a sign from God?

There's an old saying, attributed to Ben Franklin, that God helps those who help themselves. But Exodus seems to suggest just the opposite! When the Egyptians were chasing the Israelites as they fled towards the Red Sea,  Moses had this to tell his people:

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." - Exodus 14:14

So how are we to treat the world around us? More importantly, the world within us? Are we not to trust our eyes, are we not to trust our hearts? Exodus is very troubling because it paints a picture of the world in which God has a hand in everything, and we can have control over nothing, and indeed, we can know nothing.

If at least we could know that our hearts and our souls belong to us, then we could find comfort in the idea that although our senses may be deceiving, we can at least be righteously judged by our responses to the world around us. But if God can harden the heart of Pharaoh, then he can harden the hearts of us as well. How can we be expected to take responsibility for our actions if anything we do can be attributed to God?

Exodus really undercuts the notion of freewill, and without freewill, a lot of things become meaningless, indeed existence itself may be suggested to be meaningless. Does the Bible reconcile this later on? Have I misunderstood something?

A person who often replies to this blog...and me...are in a discussion on slavery in the Bible.

I feel that by condoning the practice in many places in the Scripture, the Bible is letting us know that Christianity and the Bible is not ‘Divinely Inspired' or the actual work of a God.

For those who want to look it up, here are a few places to go:

Exodus 21:4-6 Guidelines for buying, selling, treatment, etc.
Deuteronomy 15:15-17 Handle your maid slaves
Exodus 21:7-9 Sell your daughters into.
Joel 3:8 Sell off your sons and daughters
1 Timothy 6:1-2 Masters are worthy of honor
Matthew 10:24 and John 13:16 Masters are better, maid slaves be submissive in ALL ways
Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22 ‘Slaves obey your master'
10 Commandments, numbers 4 and 10 recognize and therefore give tacit approval to slavery.
Matthew 8:5-13 Jesus heals Roman centurions slave while praising centurion.
Luke 12:47 Jesus recommends the beating of slaves.
Matthew 24-25 Jesus reminds slaves they are not better than their masters.
Neither the Old nor New Testament condemns slavery. By not condemning, there is tacit approval given.

There is Christian Apologetics out there that try to minimize what they were teaching and practicing.
It took secular leaders and common people to finally get together and condemned it. As you know a war was fought over it...surely a God would know this, and put a verse in the Bible to call Christians together to end slavery...never happened.

If you put yourself into the position of the writers of the Scripture and realize that they were brought up seeing slavery all around them. Their fathers and grandfathers and so on were brought up with the practice all around them. Some of them were slaves maybe.  There was no thought that slavery is a BAD (unless you were one) thing...that a God would not allow it, or condone it. So they wrote slavery into the Bible as common everyday stuff.

One of the lines of apologetics for slavery follows:

"Another crucial point is that the purpose of the Bible is to point the way to salvation, not to reform society." http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-slavery.html

I believe that yes...religion, God, and the Bible's purpose IS to reform; not only society, but also man himself.  This Bible is used all the time as an example to reform man and society. Jesus was set up to be a shining example of how a human should be.

So the Hebrews did not realize when they wrote their ‘holy text' that slavery wasn't normal, it wasn't a Godlike thing to do, and a real God would not condone enslavement. This of course speaks to the Bible not being inspired by God, but written by man.

And lets not forget all those Old Testament babies being bashed against the walls, and the pregnant women being run through with a sword...at God's direction.  No amount of apologetics can explain these actions as the works of a loving God.

The only reasonable explanations for all of the carnage, rape, murder, torture, and slavery that is recorded by the old Hebrew scribes and Paul is...it is a product of human minds...not a God creature.

"Once there was a time when all people believed in God, and the church ruled. This time is called the Dark Ages."

For latest post go: Here

more cat pictures

It is a sad day when "inanimate human-made" gets added to the list of things which probably hate humans (this list includes, of course: ice, Al Gore, and the sand that covers structures of archaeological value (it just wants to be, man)).

Philadelphia is the first victim of this population vacuum. "More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100." Clearly, manhole covers have had enough being treated as the ____ man's (____ in this case changes as the race ratio in cities fluctuates) indebted servant. They have apparently chosen to run off to a new and freer place, where they can finally just sit on the couch and watch TV.

In Other News: Philadelphia becomes "World's Greenest City" as roads become impassable and everyone decides to start walking.

-AA

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/index.html

One of the great crimes committed against the people of Iraq was the looting of the Baghdad Museum and the destruction of many important ancient sites inside Iraq.

As the drums beat for more war in Iran, there is a valid concern that Iran's ancient archeological sites face risk of destruction. I agree. And more to the point, I think that destruction of ancient sites is deliberate policy.

Egypt is literally littered with the ruins of the ancient temples and palaces of her rulers. As much as has been found, it is estimated that only 1/3 of Egypt's archeological wonders have been uncovered. A newly discovered temple was uncovered while digging a sewer line, and a cache of finely preserved mummies was literally stumbled over by a cow in a pasture.

Iraq's ancient heritage was enshrined in its ancient sites and museum. As a result of the war, many of those sites have been damaged or destroyed. Part of the ancient city or Ur now lies underneath a US air base runway. The treasures of the museum have only partly been recovered. The treasures from the looted archaeological sites have been scattered to the world.

Now we take aim at Persia, and as the illustrations in this National Geographic article show, there is a rich cultural heritage of artifacts and ancient sites facing the bombs.

All of this wealth of archaeological treasures must of course annoy Israel. We are raised from birth with Old Testament tales of the greatness of the ancient Israelites, of the powerful kingdoms of Solomon and David and the first temple. Yet Israel, while rich in antiquities, is almost totally devoid of artifacts from this supposedly glorious time in her history. The existence of the fabled First Temple was supported with just two artifacts, a carved staff ornament in the shape of a pomegranate and the Jehoash tablet. Both of these artifacts have been exposed as frauds. We are told that once there was a magnificent temple on that hill, but it "all went away." The wonders emerging from the soil of Egypt, Iraq, and Iran serve as a constant reminder that ancient buildings of such a scale as we are told the First Temple was simply do not vanish without a trace.

There is considerable reason to suspect that the tales told in the Old Testament are just that; tales. The Bible is not science, it is the collected stories of a primitive tribal people telling each other how important they are. And like fishermen talking about the won that got away, or Ramses with his temple carvings of the did-not-really-happen victory over the Hittites at Kadesh, the writers of the ancient testaments assumed that the people they were telling stories to had no way to verify the claims for themselves. So "embellishment" was a low-risk activity.

We do know from the available archaeological evidence that the Exodus probably actually happened to the Hyksos, not the Israelites. We know that the story of Moses is suspect because no Egyptian princess would hide a Hebrew child inside Pharaoh's household, then give the kid a Hebrew name ("Moses" is actually an Egyptian title meaning "Prince" and is included in the names of many Pharaoh's names such as Tut-Moses, Ah-Moses, Ra-Moses (Ramses) etc.) But a good story is a good story and the writers of the ancient texts were probably not thinking much further into the future than the guys who pen the "Celebrity dates space alien" stories you see at supermarket checkout lines. The fact that the celebrity is a real person does not prove the space alien exists. It's just a story.

But, over time, entire religions with attendant wealth and power structures have been built on the premise that these stories really happened exactly as written. And today, here in the 21st century world, technology has started to catch up with these ancient legends and call many of them into doubt.

So, for a nation that justifies its existence on the writings of the Old Torah, the plethora of sites and artifacts confirming the ancient histories of Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc. etc. etc. must seem a dire political threat for a nation whose own ancient history seems to have left little if any traces.

In that context, the strange behavior of the US military which posted guards around the Iraq oil ministry while leaving the Baghdad museum unguarded suddenly starts to make sense, if the supporters of a very insecure nation decide that leveling the archaeological playing field is preferable to allowing the obvious disparity in archaeological proofs of claimed ancient histories to stand clear in the world's view!

Posted Jul 23, 2008 10:30 AM PST
Category: IRAN

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/iran-archaeology/del-giudice-text

Notice what Nova producer Apsell says,

"I was always brought up to believe that the minute Abraham and the patriarchs came on the scene, the Israelites accepted one God and there was just always one God and that was it,"

Meaning that she was brought up with little or no biblical instruction. Although Abraham was a monotheist, Israel flirted with polytheism for centuries and had to constantly be called back into the worship of the True God. So, I guess any 'facts' might actually shock her.

In attacking Abraham, they go beyond Christ or Mohammad; they seek to destroy the very foundation of all the monotheistic Abrahamic faiths. Granted, I do not see an legitimacy in Islam, but in undermining Abraham, they are attempting to kill off all three religions.

Abraham is the single person that must exist for Judaim to be trure. If Judaism is not a true faith (let's skip supercessionism at the moment), then Christianity is a hoax and a sham. Speaking out side of of Faith for a moment, if Abraham is proved to be a myth, then the great call to leave a homeland for a promise of a redeemer is false. If the call is false, then the children of Israel as slaves in Egypt were little more than vagabonds and a colony of escaped convicts. If these people were not chosen by God to recieve the promises of Abraham, then the Law is a man-made priestly code derived by imaginations. If the Law is thus stripped it's divine origin, then we have no school master and no real need for an atoning sacrifice. If there is no need for an atoning sacrifice, then their is no need for a Messiah. No, Messiah, no Cross, and no Christianity.

Does a worship service consist of three songs and a prayer, or is it an hour of rocking, jumping and swaying as we become deeply connected with the Lord? I personally don't care much for Southern Gospel genre of music. Last night I went to a concert that was the Southern Gospel equivalent of Country Music's Fanfare.  There in the middle of rose-scented talcum powder (no doubt applied with a fluffy puff) and Old Spice After-Shave, I found myself experiencing a little bit of heaven on Earth. I was caught up in the richness of harmony that's sung (generally) with family.

In our Christian homes, sometimes there is a disruption of harmony. Family will be at odds over the silliest things...my closest friend's sister-in-law was mad at her mother for four years because of dish detergent. Sometimes it is big: a child or sibling or friend announces (s)he is gay. Oh my...then we get all structure and legalistic on our dearest gifts from God. Then grace isn't enough. At least grace from us---the grace that says "I'll love you no matter what" to "until you change you can't come home". Maybe there's even a hint that it would have been better had we died.

So if grace is enough, then grace is enough. Grace isn't "love the shoes, love the dress" when we honestly hate it. That's lying. Grace is laying down our expectations, desires, wishes and loving beyond reason. That's what Jesus did, and it was enough.

I think if it was enough for Jesus, then loving beyond reason and when it is most difficult should be enough for us. And when you love beyond reason...heaven will open no matter where you are. Corrie ten Boom was able to tell the world: "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." Grace isn't subtly wrapped in rules or ultimatums. His grace is enough!

Continued from My British Gwag - Pt. 1

So, after about four hours of happy sleep, following our little pub crawl/play reading evening, I was awakened by Jane bursting back into the flat we were staying in, tossing things into her bag and preparing to depart for the airport, whereupon she would be returning to America.

Her departure was oddly anti-climactic, involving just me standing at the head of the stairs and saying, "K, then.  Um ... see you in the States."  And her responding, "Yep, bye.  Don't forget to make the bed."

Somehow, despite the strong affection and cross continental nature of my friendship with Jane, we're not huggy friends.  I guess we both just knew we'd be hanging out again soon, and we were, so it was all good.  Kind of like a few weeks ago, when I saw her for the last time before her move.  It was kinda like, "Thanks for the book ... um ... see you in London."  "K, bye."

Since I was up, and I only had two days left in the country, I figured I might as well shower and go about my day.  I ended up taking a train to Kensington where I checked out Hyde Park for a few hours and then went over to the Victoria and Albert museum and wandered around in contented bliss for a few more.

However, I have to admit that I was watching the time with taut anticipation.  Around 1, I got back on a train to Queensway, and made my way down to a shady little internet cafe with phones in the bottom corridor.  It's worth mentioning that I didn't have a working cell phone while I was in England, and that this was a constant cause of upset for me.

When Royce answered the phone, I immediately understood what Jane had been going on about concerning his phone voice.  Very sexy.  Even after the fact that he has a hot accent, it was a sexy phone voice.  He asked me if I'd eaten yet, and I said no, and he asked me if I wanted to go ahead and meet up then.

"Can you meet me at London Bridge?" he asked.

... Okay, come on.  Really?  

Yes.  Yes, for God's sake, I will meet you at London Bridge.

He went on to tell me it was quite a big station and that I should find him in front of the Burroughs Market.

Lucky for me, none of the people at London Bridge Station spoke English, and I had to find the market on my own.  I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't recognize Royce, since I'd only met him briefly, and like I said, he wasn't remarkably eye catching (though not unattractive).  

I found myself making eye contact with every shortish, blonde British guy who looked my way, which actually put me in a pretty compromise-able situation.  In fact, one of the guys was a clipboard-carrying solicitor for something like fair wage in Africa.  I went along with him until he needed my mailing address, then I told him I lived in Florida, and he gave me a button and went on his way.

Slightly amused, and carrying my button, I spotted Royce across the way, being accosted by another clipboard carryer, and looking rather annoyed by it.  I was strangely thrilled that I recognized him, and waved, rushing over.  

Royce snapped to the guy, "See! I told you she was coming," then quickly grabbed my elbow and steered me into the market.  

Chuckling to myself, I affixed the "Save Africa" pin to the bottom of my sweater as he, rather cordially, began the tour, telling me about the history of the giant farmer's market we were passing through.

Since I wasn't fully attracted to the guy yet, and was just so damn excited to have a new friend to talk at, I got him from cordial to chatty pretty fast, and as we exited the market onto the bank of the Thames, we were fast friends, talking about everything from the publishing world to what the American South is really like and even Royce's stance on Jane's drama with Grey (which, by the way, he's deeply invested in seeing realized).

At some point, we'd reached the bottom of the Millennium Bridge.  He shot me a sly look and said, "You know ... I've never walked across it before."

"Well, come to it, neither have I," I said, with a grin.  "Shall we?"

Now, aware of how absurdly romantic this already felt, when we got up onto the platform and a gypsy woman, in a long, red skirt was playing violin, and I noticed the sun was setting in a smoky haze of pink and silver, the only reaction to the absurdly piled-on nature of the thing I could muster was a laugh.

Later, I would refuse to explain to him what was funny, but he didn't feel moved to ask right away, as we walked across, experiencing mutual silence for the first and only time during the two days we'd spend together.  In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion he was laughing too, but only to himself, as not to disturb the rhythmic lapping of water serving as a metronome for the gypsy violinist we slowly moved away from.

After the bridge, he suddenly was very keen to show me the sights I hadn't seen yet.  We went to an art museum that featured Louise Bourgeois's giant spider statue outside.  I rotated under it in total awe (absolutely brilliant), and he was clearly intrigued by a female who thought that a giant spider was a thing of beauty, and let me tell you, it was.

He also took me to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, though it was locked up for a production.  All the while, we chatted continuously, and in fact, in retrospect, I said things to him that I'd never, ever say to a guy I'm trying to woo, because I was still trying to convince myself that he was friend material.  

After all, he has a girlfriend.  And according to Jane, she's just awesome.

</bitterness>

Anyway.  

As it was rapidly getting dark, we'd begun to walk in the direction of the pub where we were meeting his friends for their comedy show.  I still have no idea where this pub was or how the hell we got there.  The magic clouded my vision, but I was already dreading the inevitability of having to meet the Girlfriend, and having the spell broken.

"So, what's your favorite thing about London, so far?" he asked me, snapping me out of my neurotic obsessing about his faceless, yet somehow uber hot girlfriend.

"The Cathedrals," I answered immediately.  I've always loved cathedrals.  I love the history behind them, I love their decadence, and the very irony of their existence.  I love the Romanesque and Gothic ones the most.

This clearly surprised him.  "Are you very religious?" he asked, with a hint of trepidation.

"No!  God, no," I answered, laughing.  "They're just so beautiful," I explained, and then gave him a minor overview of my obsession.  "We don't have anything like that in Florida," I explained.  "It's all beach condos and Mickey Mouse."

"Well, which ones have you been in, then?" He asked, visibly relaxing.

"Oh, none.  I did want to go into Westminster, thou-."

I was cut off by him demanding to know why I hadn't gone into one.  "Churches are, after all, public property," he said.  I honestly hadn't even considered that.

He picked us a chapel off of St. Paul's, a beautiful Romanesque structure with latticed doors, and ushered me up the stairs and inside, even as I protested to the discomfort of just going in.  My arguments fell silent as soon as I saw the inside, though.

It was all marble and stone, lit with candles all along giant curved arches.  We walked slowly through, him watching me, and me watching the church, completely overtaken by the whole thing.  Our footsteps were absorbed by the creamy Italian marble as we weaved our way through the fold out chairs left out for a mass or a wedding.

"Go to the alter," he said, softly.

"Why?" I asked, managing to tear my eyes away from the church to look at him.  When I did, I felt real attraction for the first time.  Just a flutter, in my stomach, but the way he was looking at me was intense and involved.  

"Trust me," he said.  And I did.

I left him with a glance over my shoulder to move through the empty pews, past the silly fold out chairs, onto the alter, elevated ever so slightly under a dome.  Once standing there, I looked at him expectantly.

"Now look up," he said, or mouthed at me.  I seem to remember us not speaking very loudly at all.

There was a fresco in the dome, a scene from Exodus, somehow managing to be ominous and comforting, a reassuring glow in the terror of a Flood.  I still think it was a strange choice for a church alter, but it was clearly very old, and there's no telling how the decision was made.  Regardless, it was incredibly beautiful.

I was startled back to reality by voices.  I glanced at him, but he clearly hadn't heard them.  He was watching me, still.

I walked quickly over to him and said, "Is something starting?" motioning to the people filing in.

"Oh, I dunno," he said, coming back to his senses.

"Maybe we should go," I said, motioning to the door, "So we don't get stuck in a three hour mass."

He laughed and agreed, and we walked out of the church and the warm shroud of unreality that we'd encountered inside.  We didn't talk about the cathedral while we walked the rest of the way to the pub, but I'm pretty sure we were both thinking about it.

Haley is the leader of one of the most destructive departments of one of the most destructive organizations in America, Focus on the Family.  As director of Focus' 'Gender Issues' Haley is responsible for pain and suffering of thousands of gay kids who struggle under the illusion that changing their sexual orientation is possible.  I don't want to go into details about how the whole 'ex-gay' process has been essentially a massive failure, or how the organizations sponsoring the crap pretend to do it out of love while at the same time spread misinformation and fear.  You can read all about the 'ex-gay' shame here and here.

Bottom line:  Mike Haley, and his cohorts, should be held responsible for the pain and suffering they cause, the families they destroy, and the suicides they encourage (by actions not words).  Mike Haley shouldn't be involved in anything involving children or those training to teach children and youth.  Mike Haley's participation in the Kanakuk Institute is an embarrassment and raises questions about Kanakuk's leadership.

2.  The Tabernacle Erected (Exodus 40)

3.  Conclusion and re-cap of the 2nd Book of Moses

1.  The construction of the Tabernacle (con'd) (Exodus 37-39)

Exodus 37-39 sees a direct obedience of the people to the LORD's instructions to Moses.  Here especially is the extent of the freewill offering of the people mentioned in Exodus 38:21-31:

21These are the records of the tabernacle,^(L) the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were recorded at the commandment of Moses, the responsibility of the Levites^(M) under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 22^(N) Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses; 23and with him was^(O) Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.

24All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels,^[e] by^(P) the shekel of the sanctuary. 25The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary: 26a^(Q) beka^[f] a head (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for^(R) 603,550 men. 27The hundred talents of silver were for casting the^(S) bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil; a hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent a base. 28And of the 1,775 shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made fillets for them. 29The bronze that was offered was seventy talents and 2,400 shekels; 30with it he made the^(T) bases for the entrance of the tent of meeting,^(U) the bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar, 31the^(V) bases around the court, and the^(W) bases of the gate of the court, all the^(X) pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs around the court.

First and foremost is the active participation of the responsibility of the Levites, who have not succumbed to the violent unchristian behaviour which would have plagued their future (c.f. Genesis 48-50 with Jacob's 'blessings') if they did not repent and display their allegiance to God by the slaying of the 3000).  Ithamar ("land of palms") is Aaron's youngest son (Exodus 6:23) and he is responsible for the actions of the Levites.  I find this quite odd: why aren't Aaron's two elder sons present?  Perhaps this is indicative of their relationship with God.  Nadab and Abihu may have contributed somewhat to the making of the Tabernacle, but being the two eldest sons who actually dined with God, it is disappointing that their obedience is not even mentioned in Scripture.  This may be prophetic of the reason why they were destroyed later on (Leviticus 10:1).

The financial value of the free-will offering

Secondly of course is the offering given in v.24-31.  The amount is not small - William Brown had this to say about the value of the sockets for the silver foundation of the Tabernacle itself (100 silver sockets):

"Each socket weighed a talent (Exodus 38:27), equal to 1500 oz., worth, when the silver was raised for the foundation, at least 400 GBP (British pounds), so that the value of the hundred was not less than 40,000 GBP... [then, in reference to the price which the Israelite men paid (Exodus 30:13)]... When all the pretty glittering coins were counted, it was found they numbered 603,550, being the same as the number of men (Num 1:46), showing that every man paid his ransom money.  The 603,550 half shekels, divided by 6000, the number of half shekels in a talent, show that the total amount in talents was 100 talents, and 1775 shekels (or 7/12ths of a talent).  This summation exactly agrees with that of the sacred historian"

He goes on to speak of the significance of the historical accuracy of the detail given and the symbolism provided by it under the subtitle "Christ the Church's Sure Foundation" in his chapter "The Silver Foundation":

"The beautiful shining foundation made of the ransom silver, worth forty thousand pounds sterling, constituted a very costly basis, from which our thoughts not unnaturally rise to an infinitely more valuable one, even to Him "who gave Himself a ransom for all".  Prophets and apostles alike testify that He is the sure foundation on which the spiritual edifice rests.  Had the sockets not been made of the atonement money as commanded (Exodus 30:16; 38:27), but of some other material, God certainly would not have acknowledged the tabernacle as His palace-temple.  He never would have enthroned Himself in visible symbol on the mercy seat.  In like manner, those who substitute their own good works, or anything else, in the room of the Redeemer, on which to build their hope of salvation, are building on the sand, and cannot form a part of that building which is an "habitation of God through the Spirit," for "other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Christ Jesus".  Rest, then, on Him, and on Him alone, and your hope will be founded on Rock that will never fail you, and you will be one of the living stones of the great spiritual temple, and He who dwelt between the cherubim will dwell in you, and be your God."

That, however, is just the silver foundation, and what great symbolism this foundation provided.  Only men were allowed to bring silver, and this re-inforces not sexism, but the headship of man over the woman, and the role of man in relation to his church.  The church is sanctified by the head - and so the salvation is provided symbolically through man, so to preach the message of Christ the man blessing his bride, the church.

What of the gold offering?  This is the offering contributed to making the golden walls of the tabernacle (Exodus 38:24), 3000 GBP worth of gold used in covering one board of the tabernacle - and in covering them ALL would be 144,000 GBP.  The entire gold offering weighed 29 talents and 730 shekels - equal to 43,865 ounces.  Thus, the approximate value of gifts for the tabernacle, including the gold (this is a table taken from Brown's work):

Gold - 184,344 GBP

Silver - ~17,603 GBP

Brass - ~331 GBP

Probable higher price of the precious metals at the time of the Exodus - (an additional) 50,000 GBP

Grand Total:  252,168 GBP (by William Brown's time; when his book on the tabernacle was written, it was 1899.  If you can figure out the exchange rate of 1 GBP to whatever currency you feel most comfortable working in to the exchange rate of that today, then the tabernacle may have costed at least 1 million GBP by today's standard.  This, however, doesn't include the value of the other voluntary offerings and needful materials, and as Brown stated, it would be quite safe to round the original figure from 252,168 GBP to 300,000 GBP by the 1899 exchange rate standard.

And no doubt, these various colourful, and beautiful materials contributed in a variety of ways: from one, which is the finances spent on the tabernacle is sufficient to magnify what the woman with the alabaster flask did with the expensive ointment (Matthew 26:7) - it is an act of reverence, faith, and acknowledgement of the divinity of the Son of Man by contributing this amount of money towards the building of the tabernacle.  It isn't a financial stress; but it is a worshipful privilege to partake in the theatre of God's glory.  The gold gilded boards must have shone majestically as they stood on the ransom silver, and like the Christians who rest on our ransom silver symbolised by Christ the man, we too will shine with unfading glory and holiness represented by the gold.

The tenons and sockets at the foot of every board of the tabernacle takes hold of two atonement money sockets, and the sockets in their turn took hold of the boards firmly.  Our faith is like the board hands, since it is by faith that we can even cling onto our ransom money Christ; yet the perfecter and founder of our faith is Christ himself (Hebrews 12), and his love will never depart us like the clinging of these tenons and sockets (Romans 8:38 ).  The golden bars encircle the boards and helped (along with the silver sockets) to support them, representing the arms of God which protect and support His children; and the pillars mentioned so often are also strong supports of the tabernacle, helping to sustain the roof, and the veils were suspended from them.  This is what Revelation 3:12 has to say about the representation of the pillars:

12^(A) The one who conquers, I will make him^(B) a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him^(C) the name of my God, and^(D) the name of the city of my God,^(E) the new Jerusalem,^(F) which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

So also, let us conquer in His name, let us conquer by His grace, let us conquer and become a pillar in His temple and partake in the brightness and glory which the tabernacle materials are only shadows of.

2.  The Tabernacle Erected (Exodus 40)

There are a few things to question in this final chapter of Exodus:

(a)  Why is the Tabernacle set up on the first day of the first month (v.1-2)?

This being the beginning of the new year, it is a sign of the tabernacle pointing towards a renewed start, a new creation being realistically filled with the glory of God (but symbolically shown by the Shekinah glory dwelling in the Tabernacle).

(b)  What is the meaning of the arrangement in v.3-5?

Again, as covered in the post covering the three Tabernacle furniture representing that of the Trinity, the focus on the veil is mentioned in v.3.  Immediately after the ark of the testimony is placed within the Most Holy Place, the next thing is not to bring in the table of shewbread, nor golden lampstand.  Rather, it is to bring in the veil; that is the status which we are at now, as the glory of the Living God is too great for us to bear.  The veil is to show symbolically how his holiness would destroy sinful humans; so the veil, like the flaming sword preventing the way to the tree of life, is for our own safety.  If, while being in the sinful state, we ate from the tree of life or entered the Most Holy Place, then we would be destroyed.

(c)  What is the significant 'phrase' of the final verses of Exodus 40 (v.17-32)?

The refrain is "as the LORD (had) commanded Moses" (v.16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31).  Moses did according to the LORD's commandments: this is true, humble obedience essential to enforcing the typology of Moses and Aaron and his sons (v.31) acting as prototypes of Jesus, the one man whose obedience is unrivalled (as opposed to the Catholic overly-exaggerated view of Mary's obedience).

(d)  The cloud of the LORD on the tabernacle by day, and pillar of fire by night throughout all their journeys (v.34-38 )?

The entire verse 34-38:

34Then^(BW) the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and^(BX) the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36Throughout all their journeys,^(BY) whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37But^(BZ) if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

I find these verses exciting, and helps to substantiate the new creation forward-looking faith.  The end of Exodus points towards the glory of the LORD, of the Shekinah resting and guiding the Israelites throughout all their journeys.  The ironic thing is the number of times the Tabernacle or the Temple is neglected throughout the rest of the Old Testament.  The final verse, v. 38, seems to be sarcastic.  Was the cloud of the LORD with them throughout all their journeys?  No - but that is because all of what has been spoken of is merely prophetic and symbolic of the greater thing to come and fulfill the meanings of these shadows.

3.  Conclusion and re-cap of the 2nd Book of Moses

So let's quickly recap the entire book of Exodus.

Chapter 1-2: speaks of Moses' typological birth after 400 years of silence, akin to that of Christ, during a time of persecution and death of Hebrew babies due to a sinful authority who is powerful over the land.  Moses is made an outcast, just as Jesus was an outcast (Hebrews 13:13).  During this time, Israel was groaning, as Israel was also groaning during the New Testament gospel period.

Chapters 3-11: speaks of Moses meeting with the Angel, and the Angel, Christ, promising the Israelites that the Exodus is in fulfillment of a prophecy made many hundreds of years ago, and their temporary Saviour is displayed typologically through Moses.  However, it is constantly re-stated that it is the Angel who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, not Moses (nor God the Father).  Moses returns to bring the people out of Egypt, just as Jesus was called to Egypt and desires to provide the spiritual exodus to the New Creation just as all of mankind have been waiting for (Genesis 3:15) the foundational Messianic moment in history.  The plagues speak prophetically of the plagues in Revelation, pointing again to the shadowy and prophetic nature of the events at Exodus, merely witnessing to the future global destruction by these plagues (rather than local, Egyptian destructions).

Chapters 12-15: the great exodus begins with the Passover representing the death of the firstborn son of God, Jesus Christ, through whom we live through the global fiery punishment symbolised by the crashing of the 2-walled waters (a testament of the preaching of the gospel through day 2 of creation) at the Red Sea.  Chapter 15 responds to these trials with song and praise, sung in the face of the Israelites' enemies.

Chapter 16-18: speaks of the struggles which Israel faces regardless of the salvation, because their journey until the promised land will be filled with trials.  Yet, our trials will be fought for us by the power of the cross on the holy hill symbolised by Moses' stretching of hands and his staff on the hill, and fought by Christ, the true Yeshua of the prophetic name of God in Joshua/Yeshua in chapter 17.  Amalek is caricatured as the enemy whom we struggle against in our daily struggles as a Christian.  The management of the Israelite church is needed given the huge and growing numbers of Christians according to Jethro's advice, and the biggest cell-group system is established... and increasingly growing.

Chapter 19-31: prophetically symbolised the meeting of the Son and the Father on the third day after they arrive at Mt. Sinai, and the dining with the Son, the Seen God sent from the Unseen God is symbolic of the wedding day feast when the LORD will come down from heaven to eat with us (when New heavens and earth are joined, and the dividing curtain is destroyed).  Yet, the laws spoken of in these chapters are shadows and only work to reveal the sin in our hearts and the laws only work to display God's holiness, and aiding us in turning our view from ourselves to Jesus Christ's righteousness.  This is the reason why the law is limited to the physical Canaan.

Chapter 32-34:  the golden calf incident displays the Israelite's ease in idol-worshipping in the time of trial for the 40 days and 40 nights while Moses is in the thickness of the clouds.  Moses returns (non-transfigured) and smashes the two tablets of the 10 words; and 3000 were taken from the church on that day by the Levites contrary to the 3000 added on the Pentecost after Christ's resurrection (Acts 2).  Yet, God now tells the Israelites to leave Sinai, leaving the place where they heard the commandments from the Father, but the new tablets take away the focus on the physical land of Canaan.  The older tablets served as the older Old Testament system of the law which pointed towards Christ; the newer system pointed to the gospel, the spiritual life which the law pointed towards, which explains the lack of focus on physical Canaan.  On this note, the covenant between God and Israel is renewed, resulting also in the 'transfiguration' or the shining face of Moses.  Such is the true glory of the second, not the first, set of tablets.

Chapter 35-40:  Exodus ends on the obedience of the people, filled with the Holy Spirit, in response to the mighty instructions given from the mountain of God and in response to the second set of tablets.  The old set elicited insufficient response and only a few obeyed the truth of the older tablets as pointing to Christ; but the new tablets and the 'transfiguration' of Moses pointed almost the entire congregation to Jesus Christ as displayed by their sudden obedience.

Thus, chapters 19-40 work to become a blue-print of the future; the Exodus of the Christians when they come to embrace the blood of their Passover Lamb, symbolised further by the meeting of the Son and the Father on the Third Day when the work on the cross is complete.  We, as Christians, are then filled with the Spirit after acknowleding Christ's reconciliatory propitiation of sins and are equipped to worship and evangelise through whatever means, symbolised by the finances given to the building of the tabernacle, the detailed temple and body of Christ Jesus.  So chapter 40 ends on a positive note, much like that of Genesis 50.  Both looked forward to God's fulfillment of his promise and his covenant by his faithfulness (Romans 3:4) - yet the fulfillment is yet to come and until then, we continue to contribute more free-will offerings to the tabernacle, the church of God, by the power of the Spirit until the day when the Shekinah glory will reside with us for all of eternity.

Final words from Brown on the materials:

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the LORD; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:19-22).

What is it with the officals in this state?  It seems that they are only interested in getting and giving bribes!  Why not take a different approach, and lower taxes across the board for all businesses?  How about showing that New Jersey not only wants companies to stay, but we want others to come here.  How about making New Jersey a haven for businesses?

For all the idiots in Trenton, "IT'S TAXES STUPID"!

Exodus ship survivor France Goldberg, 88, of Pittsburgh, will be one of 210 new immigrants to arrive in Israel on Tuesday. The Nefesh B'Nefesh (NBN) flight is scheduled to arrive at approximately 7 a.m., and dignitaries and the press will welcome the olim (new immigrant) at the old Terminal One facility at Ben Gurion International Airport.

Mrs. Goldberg tried to come on aliyah in 1947 after having survived the Holocaust by fleeing from Poland to Siberia. She left a displaced persons camp in the middle of the night and boarded the Exodus for Israel.

The British army torpedoed and tear-gassed the ship, killing several passengers.

The others, including Mrs. Greenberg, were forced to return to France and then to Germany rather than arrive in Israel and increase the Jewish presence in Palestine, which it occupied under a League of Nations mandate.

The Nazis had wiped out her family. After returning to Germany, she met and married her husband Isak. She survived a nearly fatal illness, and the couple moved to Pittsburgh, where her sister lived, in 1949. They have two children, and her desire to move to Israel grew after her daughter married and moved to Israel 36 years ago. She was widowed a year ago and decided to make arrangements to be close to her daughter and grandchildren in the Jewish state.

Click here to read the full article.