HashKama: Misplaced Trust – Then and Now

We are going to consider further the word ‘hamas’ in Ezekiel in particular.  If we look quickly at 28:16 concerning the sin of Tyre, it says: “By your far-flung commerce you were filled with lawlessness (ḥamas) And you sinned.”  Ḥamas here means unfair or dishonest trade. There are different shades of meaning in the various contexts.  It does not always indicate social sins.  It might refer to all the sins of the people against God, particularly the most serious sins of idolatry and bloodshed.  In reference to the destruction of the Temple, as we shall see, Ezekiel mentions bloodshed and sexual immorality, and includes religious sins.  He doesn’t refer to social sins in this particular context.  The destruction of the Temple appears to be the result of religious violations that desecrated the Temple, including idolatry and bloodshed – not the moral transgressions of the people in a general sense.

In Ezekiel’s time the people put their trust in the Temple.  It didn’t matter that they were steeped in sin and idol worship, as long as the Temple still remained intact, they considered themselves to be safe.  They didn’t believe the word of the prophet, and they did not heed the word of the Lord.  It is disconcerting today to hear those in Israel saying during the various conflicts, “our strong army will save us.”  They do not refer to the strong arm of the Lord.  It is what the nations would say, but Israel is to be a light to the nations, to bring understanding that God is.  Perhaps that is why Israel has witnessed a change of government; a change that may not be for the better.  Whatever God says and does is so that Israel, and the world, know that He is God, and so that it is known that it is God that has spoken.

Babylon builders

Addressing the G7 conference, Britain’s Boris Johnson said, “We will build better.”  How will they build better when they build without God?  What they build is going to be infinitely worse!  He also promises to make things greener.  The profaning of the Temple in Ezekiel is irreversible.  The Temples that will be built after the destruction spoken of, represents a new creation, not a recreation of the Temple that existed.  The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, but man has profaned the earth.  It is not going to be rebuilt by politicians; it is not going to be better; it is going to be infinitely worse; and, it is going to be destroyed!  There will be an end to this age.  God is going to make a new creation, and He began with Jesus, “He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:18).  Boris also wants to make things more feminine.  That is to attempt redemption without Christ.  It is to revert back to Paradise and the seduction of Eve, with cancel culture making all things new.  The new culture denies that God has cursed the serpent seducer, and that after Adam’s disobedience God cursed the earth (Genesis 3:17).  Cancel culture is a tool of the seducer-serpent, deceiving humans that he does not exist, while seducing humankind into believing that humankind is ‘god’, and can choose and create his own destiny.  Making the world greener and more feminine will increase human-kind’s sorrows; the thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18) will increase as humans move further and further away from God.  Bending the knee to the bizarre Biden will not make the West stronger.  It again is a misplaced trust.  As well as becoming more feminine, Boris wants the world to become more gender-neutral; now there is a conundrum, but it’s all part of the coming “better” world.  The “better” world will be a mass of contradictions and confusion.  Matt Hancock’s recent indiscretion with his most senior aide, wasn’t called out for his offence against God, his family, or his sin against his own body.  His great sin was breaking his social distancing rule.  The Bishop of Manchester referred to Hancock’s lies, deception and unfaithfulness as “a bit of a fling.”  This displays the veneer of religion but denies its power (2 Timothy 3:5), much as in the time of Ezekiel.  It is hardly a “fling” with two marriages and families wrecked and broken.  The most interesting and useful comments I heard in the media, came from Peter Hitchens and Bishop Nazir-Ali on GBNews.UK (28^th June 2021, 8.00pm slot).  Most other comments were that “it happens, people grow along different paths.”  Our mentality is totally earthbound – God and His law does not feature in the new culture.  What we do is considered to be our personal life, and therefore is no-one else’s business.  Our working life, they say, is separate from our private life…even if the indiscretion takes place while at work.  The Church not only turns a blind-eye to such ‘indiscretions’, it actually condones them.  Therefore, there is no possibility of forgiveness from God.  There is no repentance, no seeking forgiveness; in fact, having resigned from his government post, and having left his wife and children, Hancock is said to be already planning his political comeback.  Sin today is to not follow the Woke line; it has nothing to do with rebellion against God.  Following Hancock’s revelations, Michael Gove and his wife disclosed that they have ended their twenty-year marriage, amicably.  They are in the process of finalising their divorce.  Much of what is happening is not new, you can read about it in Romans Ch.1.  LGBT+ and transgender have done the rounds a number of times.  Europe is to hold its first Jewish LGBT+ Pride with prayers and debate today (July 3^rd).  The event will comprise of a prayer session followed by a panel discussion on the challenges faced by the LGBT+ Jewish community across Europe.  This modern phase of rebellion will be the final time before God brings down the final curtain (Genesis 7:16).

Another Church denomination has recently come out in support of same-sex marriage.  I am referring to the Methodist Church’s decision to allow same-sex marriage.  This is playing into the hands of the enemy of God quite as much as those people did in the Scriptures we are considering.  Moab and Ammon both nations that affected Israel with idolatrous influences; idolatrous influences that had begun at least from the time of Solomon.  Influences that became deeply implanted in the Temple from its inception: “At that time, Solomon built a shrine for Chemosh the abomination of Moab on the hill near Jerusalem, and one for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites” (1 Kings 11:7).  To a great extent, the destruction of the Temple in the time of Ezekiel, brings to an end the direct influence that nations had exerted over Jerusalem for years.  “What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace” – John Wesley.  Eventually, as with the Temple, destruction comes.

Ezekiel tried to warn the people time and again, but they would not listen, and the Church is not listening today.  Disaster will strike.  Jerusalem itself holds regular gay marches.  Jesus told His disciples in Jerusalem to go out into the world to preach the Gospel.  Could it be that the evil one will use Jerusalem as a world centre for all that is abominable to God?  It does seem to be a possibility (Daniel 9:25-27).  The pandemic threatening the world is not Covid; it is the spreading rebellion against the God of Creation.  Nation after nation have introduced ungodly laws and practice, and the Church is doing likewise.  I suggest that idolatry will be on the increase, in the Church and in the world – both are in the process of rejecting the God of Truth.  They will fill the gap with things made with human hands.  While in the mode of worshipping anything but the true God, Antichrist will be revealed, and man and (the) beast will be united as one.

Ḥamas

In the previous article (Hashkama: Violence and Corruption – Lawlessness) at the beginning of June 2021, we saw that ḥamas refers to violence and corruption, to lawlessness, and I suggested that through the recent conflict in the Middle East, God is emphasising the word ḥamas to the world.

Besides the above description, ḥamas in several places is also a description of the people’s sins.  Sometimes ḥamas related to social indiscretions, but it could also refer to religious sins.  There is a common meaning for the word found in various places in the bible, where its meaning is robbery, extortion, or exploitation of the poor by the rich.  One doesn’t have to think too hard to realise that this is what is happening on a global scale today.  It has begun.  The super-rich are planning a new world with taxes and measures that will strip the common people, like you and me, bare.  People are complying willingly to “save the planet.”  Man-made Global warming and the measures being proposed, and those being taken to attempt to correct this fictional problem, are all part of the great deception that is taking place.  The natural phenomenon of climate change may be occurring, but releasing dust into the atmosphere will not stop that; it might however create a whole load more problems for the earth.  Control of our money, and of what we own will be taken away from us.  The freedom to think for ourselves, and the freedom of speech is eroding fast.  The rich and powerful are exploiting humanity for their own ends.  Likewise, Satan is exploiting the rich and powerful.  The whole world lies in the power or sway of the evil one (1 John 5:19).

The Destruction of the Temple

Ezekiel is not necessarily speaking of social sins leading to the destruction of the Temple, though many interpret it that way.  The first use of the term ‘ḥamas’ is found in Ezekiel Ch.7.  There is prophesied the imminent destruction of the Temple.  When speaking of the sin that leads to the destruction, Ezekiel mentions “abominations” (7:3,4,8,9,20), “detestable abominations” (v.20), and “bloody crimes” (v.23).  In Ezekiel 7:11 and 23, Ezekiel speaks of ḥamas as a cause of the Temple’s destruction.  Ḥamas here could be a general description of the behaviour of the people, or of the rod (see below), or of the enemy.  It does not specifically describe social sins.  Ezekiel fearlessly declares that “lawlessness (ḥamas) has grown into a rod of wickedness.”  The “bloody crimes” (mishpat damim) or “blood-justice” indicates that it is a perversion of justice that victimizes the innocent.  The plural form of “blood” used here almost always indicates unjust or murderous violence; perhaps in the form of violations of social laws (mishpatim) that entails the death penalty – (the future beheading of the saints in the book of Revelation might not be considered biblically appropriate by scholars, but it is what springs to mind).  Ezekiel therefore speaks of the city as being “full of ḥamas.  The context suggests that it was this sin, along with idolatry (Ezekiel 7:20) and bloodshed that caused the desecration of the Temple.  It is pretty much what is beginning to happen on God’s earth again now.

Ezekiel Ch.8 ḥamas describes contraventions of a religious nature.  After that, ḥamas is used in reference to the context of the people’s sins – “because their land will be desolate of its multitudes on account of the lawlessness (ḥamas) of all its inhabitants” (Ezekiel 12:19).  The land will be bereft of its inhabitants. Why?  Because of the ḥamas perpetrated in it.  As we saw in the previous article, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11).  The people ignored Noah’s message; the people rejected Ezekiel’s message; and the leaders and people today are not listening.  The Church is stymied not only through sin, but by its “imminent rapture” theory…I want to refer to it as “rupture” – while some of the Jews are more interested in building the Temple than they are in meeting the Messiah.

The Profanity of Fake Christianity

A recent report states that heretical ‘fake Christianity’ has gripped America, affectively killing-off true Christianity.  We know only too well that what begins in America often ends up in the UK.  So, what is the story?  It is that Americans have ditched the biblical worldview for ‘fake Christianity.’  Out of the culture corrosion coupled with the lack of biblical literacy has grown the new ‘fake Christianity.’  This counterfeit religion is moralistic therapeutic deism (MTD).  This worldview has quickly gained prominence, providing many Americans with a theology totally different from historical Christianity. Arizona Christian University’s George Barna, describes it as a ‘watered-down, feel-good, fake Christianity,’ saying that it is the most popular worldview in the United States today.  Three out of four people who hold to MTD still consider themselves Christians.  Barna continued, “The fact that a greater percentage of people who call themselves Christians draw from [MTD] than from the Bible says a lot about the state of the Christian church in America, in all of its manifestations.’  ‘Simply and objectively stated, Christianity in this nation is rotting from the inside out.’  These deceptions will keep coming.

In Ezekiel 22:26 we discover that the word ‘ḥamas’ describes the sins of office-bearers.  There, we discover that Ezekiel speaks about the sins of the priests: Her priests have violated (ḥamsu) My teaching;” and in Ezekiel 45:9 it describes the sin of the nesi’im.  It is as though God says, enough is enough!  “Enough, nesi’im of Israel!   Make an end of lawlessness (ḥamas) and plundering…”

The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer (1 Peter 4:7).

Blessings and shalom

Malcolm [03.07.2021]