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“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

Thomas Jefferson

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I use the Facebook group His Name is Yahweh to notify people when a new SnyderTalk has been posted.  If you are not already a fan, you should consider signing up.  Click here to visit the site.  Eventually, this may be unnecessary, but for the time being it seems to be an effective way to distribute information.

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Today’s Feature

Exodus Chapter 28

1. ‘From among the Israelites, summon your brother Aaron and his sons to be priests in my service: Aaron and Aaron’s sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
2. For your brother Aaron you will make sacred vestments to give dignity and magnificence.
3. You will instruct all the skilled men, whom I have endowed with skill, to make Aaron’s vestments for his consecration to my priesthood.
4. These are the vestments which they must make: a pectoral, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered tunic, a turban and a belt. They must make sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons, for them to be priests in my service.
5. They will use gold and violet material, red-purple and crimson, and finely woven linen.
6. ‘They will make the ephod of finely woven linen embroidered with gold, violet-purple, red-purple and crimson.
7. It will have two shoulder-straps joined to it; it will be joined to them by its two edges.
8. The waistband on the ephod to hold it in position must be of the same workmanship and be of a piece with it: of gold, violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and finely woven linen.
9. You will then take two cornelians and engrave them with the names of the sons of Israel,
10. six of their names on one stone, the remaining six names on the other, in the order of their birth.
11. By the stone-carver’s art — seal engraving — you will engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You will have them mounted in gold settings
12. and will put the two stones on the shoulder-straps of the ephod, to commemorate the sons of Israel. In this way Aaron will bear their names on his two shoulders, before Yahweh, as a reminder.
13. You will also make golden rosettes,
14. and two chains of pure gold twisted like cord, and will attach the cord-like chains to the rosettes.
15. ‘You will make the breastplate of judgement of the same embroidered work as the ephod; you will make it of gold, violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and finely woven linen.
16. It must be square and doubled over, a span in length and a span in width.
17. In it you will set four rows of stones: a sard, topaz and emerald for the first row;
18. for the second row, a garnet, sapphire and diamond;
19. for the third row, a hyacinth, a ruby and an amethyst;
20. and for the fourth row, a beryl, a cornelian and a jasper. These must be mounted in gold settings.
21. The stones will correspond to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve like their names, engraved like seals, each with the name of one of the twelve tribes.
22. For the breastplate you will make chains of pure gold twisted like cords,
23. and on the breastplate you will make two gold rings, putting the two rings on the two outside edges of the breastplate
24. and fastening the two gold cords to the two rings on the outside edges of the breastplate.
25. The other two ends of the cords you will fasten to the two rosettes, putting these on the shoulder-straps of the ephod, on the front.
26. You will also make two gold rings and put them on the two edges of the breastplate, on the inner side, against the ephod;
27. and you will make two gold rings and put them low down on the front of the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod, close to the join, above the waistband of the ephod.
28. The breastplate will be secured by a violet-purple cord passed through its rings and those of the ephod, so that the breastplate will sit above the waistband and not come apart from the ephod.
29. Thus Aaron will bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgement, on his heart, when he enters the sanctuary, as a reminder, before Yahweh, always.
30. To the breastplate of judgement you will add the urim and the thummim, and these will be on Aaron’s heart when he goes into Yahweh’s presence, and Aaron will bear the Israelites’ judgement on his heart, in Yahweh’s presence, always.
31. ‘You will make the robe of the ephod entirely of violet-purple.
32. In the centre it will have an opening for the head, the opening to have round it a border woven like the neck of a coat of mail, so that it will not get torn.
33. On its lower hem, you will make pomegranates of violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, and finely woven linen all round the hem, with golden bells between them all round:
34. a golden bell and then a pomegranate, alternately, all round the lower hem of the robe.
35. Aaron must wear it when he officiates, and the tinkling will be heard when he goes into the sanctuary into Yahweh’s presence, or leaves it, and so he will not incur death.
36. ‘You will make a flower of pure gold and on it, as you would engrave a seal, you will engrave, “Consecrated to Yahweh”.
37. You will put it on a violet-purple cord; it will go on the turban; the front of the turban is the place where it must go.
38. This will go on Aaron’s brow, and Aaron will thus take on himself the short-comings in the holy things consecrated by the Israelites, in all their holy offerings. It will be on his brow permanently, to make them acceptable to Yahweh.
39. The tunic you will weave of fine linen, and make a turban of fine linen, and an embroidered waistband.
40. ‘For the sons of Aaron you will make tunics and waistbands. You will also make them head-dresses to give dignity and magnificence.
41. You will dress your brother Aaron and his sons in these; you will then anoint them, invest them and consecrate them to serve me in the priesthood.
42. You will also make them linen breeches reaching from waist to thigh, to cover their bare flesh.
43. Aaron and his sons will wear these when they go into the Tent of Meeting and when they approach the altar to serve in the sanctuary, as a precaution against incurring mortal guilt. This is a perpetual decree for Aaron and for his descendants after him.’

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SnyderTalk® Commentary

Below is the executive summary of a report from the Israel Policy Forum (IPF).  They recently convened a Policy Roundtable Discussion of analysts, academics and former policy makers in Israel.  The executive summary below is based on the Roundtable discussion.  The paper will be released in its entirety soon.  As quickly as it’s available, I’ll let you know:

“President Obama’s ‘Israel problem’ is not one of public relations, but of inadequate success.  This was the key conclusion arrived at by a distinguished group of some twenty former and current Israeli officials, analysts and academics during an in-depth, off-the-record Roundtable discussion convened by Israel Policy Forum (IPF) in Tel Aviv on October 25, 2009.  This discussion revealed that Israelis view America’s current policy vis-à-vis the peace process as outdated, almost fossilized in the year 2000; limited in scope, imagination, subtlety, and consistency.

What to do about the Obama administration’s failures thus far? The majority of the group IPF gathered together did not believe that negotiations alone would succeed, but thought that Obama could achieve success either by combining negotiations with other supporting efforts, creating a multi-tier process, or by substituting a different process for the currently conceived bilateral talks under the chairmanship of Envoy George Mitchell.

Under the first conception, the majority view, talks would be accompanied by an acceleration of a smorgasbord of activities from security to economics; from settlements to territory that would be designed to build confidence by both Israelis and Palestinians in the viability of a Palestinian state.  The assumption here is that if a Palestinian state appears practical and feasible for the first time that will inevitably and inexorably impact the political atmosphere on both sides and the viability of negotiations.

The second, and compatible, initiative that gained traction with this group was to revive the second phase of the roadmap, which advocates the creation of a provisional Palestinian state.  The Palestinians have long been skeptical of this idea because they feared the temporary would become permanent.  In order to mitigate these fears, several participants embraced the notion of a statement by President Obama on behalf of his administration that the territory of the Palestinian state will be the same size as the territory of the West Bank and Gaza before the Six Day War.  Certainly, combining the roadmap, which Israel has already accepted, with this kind of Obama statement would provide the Palestinians with greater confidence of future progress and Israeli concessions than simply depending on the tenuous results of their own unilateral declaration of independence.

Finally, some of the Roundtable participants see the original Fayyad Plan with its provisos of two years of further Palestinian institutional development followed by the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, as a potential vehicle for progress, with aspects that should be supported and encouraged by the United States.

Under each of these options, some of the group would substitute incrementalism, a provisional Palestinian state, or the Fayyad plan for wide-ranging bilateral negotiations, but the majority would combine one or more of the options with American negotiations and the presentation of US principles and proposals as appropriate.”

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News Items of Interest

• Cleaning out the climate science cesspool
• Ridiculous idol excuses
• The strange, sad death of journalism
• Russia investigates trail derailment as act of terror
• Words from the fire
• The U.S.-Israel construction freeze and what it means
• Angelic Directions

When I read the article above, Angelic Directions, it was impossible for me not to feel both sadness and frustration.  It’s a short article, so please read it.

This is the portion of Genesis dealing with Jacob’s dream:

“He (Jacob) came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place.  He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.  And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, ‘I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.  Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’  Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.’  He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. (Jacob was on Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount)  So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.  He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz.”  (Genesis 28: 11-19)

The Bethel mentioned in Genesis 28: 11-19 is very likely Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, not the town of Bethel in Israel today—a town about 12 miles north of Jerusalem.  For a complete explanation of this interpretation, see Peter Michas’ book The Rod of an Almond Tree in God’s Master Plan, Winepress Publishing, Enumclaw, WA, 2001, p. 113.

As I read Geneses 28: 11-19, these facts stand out in my mind:

1. Yahweh appeared to Jacob in his dream in a human form.  In other words, Jacob saw Yahweh.
2. Yahweh identified Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac.
3. Yahweh confirmed the promise He made to Abraham and Isaac, and He extended it through Jacob’s descendants—the Jewish people.
4. Yahweh promised that Jacob’s descendants would be very numerous—like the dust of the earth.
5. Yahweh promised a blessing to every man, woman, and child on the earth through the Jewish people.
6. Yahweh promised to protect and defend Jacob wherever he went, and He promised to bring Jacob back to the Promised Land.
7. Jacob knew he had had a direct encounter with Yahweh, and he called Yahweh by His Name.

Now take another look at the article above—Angelic Directions.  The most significant difference between my summary of Genesis 28: 11-19 and the fanciful musings in the article is that I let Yahweh speak through His Word and the author of the article did not.  This little exercise should help you to understand how and why the Jewish people are so confused about their God—Yahweh.  People they should be able to rely on to point them in Yahweh’s direction play so loosely with Yahweh’s Word that it’s impossible to get Yahweh’s meaning.  In effect, the author substituted his and other people’s convoluted logic for Yahweh’s clear message.  This is something Yahweh will not endorse, and Jewish people need to know it.

I am sad that the Jewish people ignore Yahweh’s command to tell the world about Him by Name, and I am frustrated that they continue to make up stories and pass them off as Yahweh’s message.  In due course, Yahweh will take care of these problems Himself.  How do I know?  It’s because He promised that He would.

• Palestinians stab Jews in Hebron, fire rockets from Gaza
• Israel bombs Gaza in response to rocket fire
• Ex-envoy: Obama’s approach to Middle East peace is all wrong
• Security beefed up at Gaza-Egypt border ahead of Shalit transfer
• U.S.: Iran to face consequences for nuclear defiance
• Anti-Semitism in Europe: new prejudice fans the flames of the oldest hatred
• Chavez: Israel plans to terminate the Palestinian people

The Resemblance is Incredible: Hugo (Blowfish) Chavez a.k.a. Hugo (Blowhard) Chavez

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His Name is Yahweh

There is a wealth of material available for free download on www.hisnameisyahweh.org including the book His Name is Yahweh.  His Name is Yahweh is also available at Amazon on Kindle for just $5.  If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should.  The importance of Yahweh’s Name is becoming more apparent with each passing day.

Available on Amazon Kindle and it can be downloaded at www.hisnameisyahweh.org