"Reject The Evidence Of Your Eyes And Ears"
Isaiah 36
1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them.
2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.
3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder.
4 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
5 I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.
7 But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?
8 Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
9 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10 And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? the Lord said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
12 But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
14 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.
15 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
16 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
17 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, the Lord will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
20 Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
21 But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
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Let me get right to my point:
If you had found yourself in the real-time of this chapter, specifically in verses 16-18, with the same ultimatum put before you, what would you have done?
I asked myself that.
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I can imagine the conflicting emotions and thoughts running through the hearts and minds of the people hearing this finely laid out line of logic:
“Stay put until we come get you and take you to a specially designated location where you will be well taken care of and protected. Please don’t worry. We have your best interests in mind. We’d rather not force this upon you; we would rather you simply comply … for your own best interests. Think of your future. Think of the elderly in your midst. Think of the children, the vulnerable children.
“Oh …
“And by the way, please don’t worry. There’s no need to fear or have doubts. All your questions and concerns will be addressed once we get you where we want you.
“We know what you’ve heard about how we’ve treated those we’ve encountered before you. That was all so unfortunate, really. As long as you trust our word NOW and do as we instruct you NOW, you’ll see that the benefits well outweigh the alternatives.”
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Soooo … as you’re thinking about this now, what do you think you would have done then?
Probably, as you’re thinking about this now, your reaction is that you would not believe them. You would follow the guidance of your king.
You probably (thinking about this now) would not reject the real time evidence of your eyes and ears. Up until that moment you would have been certain that Sennacherib wasn’t to be trusted.
But, imagine that all of a sudden …
It’s not just theoretical. It’s YOUR present reality.
You find things aren’t quite as clear now. You were sure before but, you’re unsure now. Maybe you ARE a little extreme and perhaps it would be OK under these circumstances to be a little more understanding, a little more compliant. After all, it’s not just you. It’s everybody else as well. Am I being too selfish?
Kind of sounds eerily right where we find ourselves in our “now”, doesn’t it?
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The title of this blog is actually a line from the George Orwell book 1984.
The Party, the empowered authorities, expected and demanded that the people reject their innate senses and blindly obey. The Party was to be their eyes and ears. Personally accumulated evidence was to be viewed as irrelevant. It wasn’t to be trusted. You are wrong and only they are right — even when they contradict themselves
Just like now …
The Science says — The “New Science” says
Masks DON’T work — Masks DO work
The vaccine will keep you from getting and spreading COVID — The vaccine will NOT keep you from getting and spreading COVID
There are no plans for enforced vaccinations — We are strongly urging that agencies and businesses require vaccinations
We are not anticipating the need for vaccination identification — We are strongly urging that agencies and businesses require vaccination identification
Children aren’t in danger. — Children ARE in extreme danger
We will all get back to normal — This is now the “New Normal”
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What are you going to do in the coming days?
You’re brave now. But are you really? I’m brave now. But am I really?
Wouldn’t you agree that the simple challenges of the mask issue have revealed to all of us how difficult it is to be brave in real-time? And that’s just facing the challenges of not wearing a mask.
What will we do when our jobs are at stake? What if we’re told that in order to keep our jobs we must take the vaccine. We’re brave now. Will we be then?
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I am not overstating this. If you’re not concerned, you need to become very concerned.
We have become the personal illustrations of the proverbial frog in the pot. It’s happened all so slowly. It’s been by little increments. We haven’t noticed that we’ve been strung along, willingly.
But you say: I’ll trust God.
I get it.
But up to now our trust in God as Americans has been, to a great extent, theoretical. We haven’t really had to trust God. We have our patriotism. We have our government. We have our Constitution. We have our right to vote. We have the hope that ….
Pretty soon though, it is going to get very practical and very in our faces. The lines are being drawn. The sides are being marked out.
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The 66 books of the Bible have everything we need. The Word of God will equip us with the wisdom and insight necessary to face whatever comes our way. The Bible is relevant, practical, and instructive for every generation of believers until Yeshua comes again.
This passage in Isaiah is a great example of that. It has all the drama we are faced with now, right now. It’s there. Do you see it? It IS there.
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If we don’t want to be confused, running around in circles asking everyone else what they think, then the only source for the clarity, wisdom, and assurance we need to make our own informed decisions is right there in front of us: The Word Made Flesh In Print.
And here’s the great thing: It’s even better than the evidence of our eyes and ears. It’s that little voice of the Spirit that says: “This is the way, walk ye in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)
That’s the ultimate promise we look forwarded to. But until Yeshua returns and rules on this earth, those of us that are born-again now have the Word and the direction of His Spirit to guide us.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105
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Recently we were officially informed that yesterday’s “SCIENCE” is not the “NEW SCIENCE” of today. That is the type of 1984 Doublethink we are to unequivocally reject.
I truly hope we will increasingly see our need to rely upon the superior light of God’s Inspired Word to safely guide us.
That TROWLY is our only hope.
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“Doublethink: the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct.
According to Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, doublethink is:
‘To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.’
Four examples of doublethink used throughout 1984 include the slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, and 2 + 2 = 5”
https://cfa.gmu.edu/news/2019-10/big-brother-and-other-terms-1984