The Mystery of Ephraim

We have read of the house of Israel and the house of Judah both have idolatries, but what are they? Perhaps, the following chapters could shed further light giving us more details about what walking after other gods means. (1) Astarte, the queen of heaven; from whom Easter is derived; (2) worshipping of heavenly bodies, especially the Sun, hence professing Christians have shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday by outlawing the keeping of the Sabbath.

Jeremiah 7

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:

² “Stand in the gate of the Lord’S house, and proclaim there this word and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord! — stand in the gate of the Lord’s house… that is, of the temple, and the court of it. This gate is believed to be the eastern gate, which was the principal gate of all; see Jeremiah 26:2:

— and proclaim there this word, and say; with a loud voice, as follows: hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah; the inhabitants of the several parts of Judea, which came to the temple to worship; very probably it was a feast day, either the Passover, or Pentecost, or feast of Tabernacles, when all the males in Israel appeared in court:

— that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord; there were seven gates belonging to the court, three on the north, three on the south, and one in the east, the chief of all;

— the names of them were these; on the south side were these three, the watergate, the gate of the firstlings; or the gate of offering, and the gate of kindling;

— on the north were these three, the gate Nitzotz, called also the gate of the song, the gate Korban, sometimes called the gate of women, and Beth Moked;

— and the gate in the east was the gate Nicanor, and this gate was the most frequented; and therefore Jeremiah was ordered to stand here, and deliver his message.

³ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴ Trust ye not in lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.” — these were the lying words on which they trusted, and against trusting in which the prophet here solemnly cautions them;

— the three-fold repetition of the words, the temple of the Lord, was, because every Jew was obliged to visit the temple thrice a year. But it seems more likely that they are thus repeated, to express the confident and reiterated boasts of the temple;

— trust ye not in lying words… in the words of the lying prophets, as the Targum, “do not trust in lying words, for the false prophets do not profit you in anything;”

— the Septuagint version is, “trust not in yourselves, in lying words.”

⁵ For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgement between a man and his neighbor,

⁶ if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt,

⁷ then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

⁸ “‘Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit.

⁹ Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not,

¹⁰ and come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered” — to do all these abominations?

¹¹ Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.

¹² “‘But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. — but go ye now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, a city in the tribe of Ephraim, on the north of Bethel, and not far from Shechem;

— here were the tabernacle, the ark and altar of the Lord, and the sacrifices; and therefore the tabernacle is called the tabernacle of Shiloh; and here the Lord calls it his place; the place of the house of his Shekinah.

¹³ And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not,

¹⁴ therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

¹⁵ And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.’ — as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim; or as the Targum says, the ten tribes; so called because Ephraim was their principal tribe and Jeroboam was their first king of the ten tribes;

— as Ephraim were carried captive off into Assyria, so would the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; who could not expect to fare better than their brethren, who were more in number than they; and both were guilty of the same sins.

¹⁶ Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me; for I will not hear thee.

¹⁷ “Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? — and in the streets of Jerusalem? these words, with what is said next, show the reason why the prophet was forbidden to pray for this people, and the Lord was so provoked with them as to cast them out of his sight;

— and he appeals to the prophet, and to what he saw; for what was done was done not in secret, but openly, in the very streets of the city; by which he might be sufficiently convinced it was what God wanted to do and what he determined to do with them.

¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. — the whole family involved; the children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, the female goddess Ashtoreth, or Astarte, the counterpart of the male idol Baal, in whose honor the cakes, made of honey, fine flour, and other ingredients, bore a round, flat surface to resemble the disk of the moon,

— and to pour out drink-offerings, the libations made as sacrifices, unto other gods that they may provoke Me to anger, the expression implying design on their part, the deliberate intention to arouse His wrath;

— from the queen of heaven, Astarte; to Easter today (more at the end)

¹⁹ Do they provoke Me to anger? saith the Lord. Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

²⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place — upon man and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn and shall not be quenched. — behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place; as the flood of waters was poured upon the old world, or the shower of fire and brimstone upon Sodom.

²² For I spoke not unto your fathers nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

²³ But this thing commanded I them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people; and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.”

²⁴ But they hearkened not nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. — and went backward, and not forward; they went backwards from the ways of God, and walked not in them. The Targum says, “they turned the back in my worship, and did not put my fear before their face.”

²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

²⁶ Yet they hearkened not unto Me nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck; they did worse than their fathers.’

²⁷ “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee.

²⁸ But thou shalt say unto them, ‘This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction. Truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth. — but thou shalt say unto them, this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord, their God, being therefore classed with the heathens;

— nor receiveth correction, hardened to the point that all rebukes make no impression upon them; truth is perished, all reliability, all fidelity is lost, and is cut off from their mouth. There is a fine bit of sarcasm in this phrase, for the Jews confessed the Lord (like professing Christians today) with their mouths only, and not with their hearts.

²⁹ “‘Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

³⁰ “‘For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it.

³¹ And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into My heart. — and they have built the high places of Tophet… where was the idol Moloch; that the parents of the children that were burnt might not hear the cry of them: which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom; a valley near Jerusalem, and lay to the south of it.

³² Therefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place.

³³ And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall be desolate.

~~~

More on Astarte, Easter:

Easter (which is how you pronounce Ishtar) is originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, in its entry “Easter,” states:

“The term ‘Easter’ is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover] held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast . . . From this Pasch the pagan festival of ‘Easter’ was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity” (W.E. Vine, 1985).

Ishtar was an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, fertility, and sex. She is featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the “Ishtar Gate” was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. Her worship involved animal sacrifices; objects made of her sacred stone, lapis lazuli; and temple prostitution.

Superimposed over an image of Ishtar are these words: “This is Ishtar: pronounced ‘Easter.’ From Ishtar the name Easter was derived. It’s well known that Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and the bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols.

Back at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, Constantine read out the letter that he would subsequently send to churches everywhere: “When the question arose concerning the most holy day of Easter it was decreed by common consent to be expedient, that this festival should be celebrated on the same day by all, in every place… Let us then have nothing in common with … the Jews” sums up one of the key movement for the establishment of Easter to be celebrated in the Church today.

After Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent Jesus. And everything Jewish were understood to be totally incompatible with Christianity. But at its roots, Easter is outwardly all about celebrating fertility and sex but inwardly it’s paying homage to a Mesopotamian goddess, the queen of heaven, Ishtar.

Jeremiah 8

¹ “‘At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves.

² And they shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped. They shall not be gathered nor be buried: they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. — worshipping of heavenly bodies are forbidden, Deuteronomy 17:3-5, whose penalty is death;

— a parallel Scripture is in Ezekiel 8:16 “And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’S house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east,” thus they worshipped the sun;

— the heads of the twenty-four courses of the priesthood, led by the high priest, making up the “twenty five men” were not only worshipping the sun: they were doing so in the very temple of God, with their backs turned upon the presence of God! (more at the end)

³ And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts.’

⁴ “Moreover thou shalt say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord: “‘Shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return?

⁵ Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

⁶ I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

⁷ Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgement of the Lord. — as was true in those days, and so much more true today;

— Jews and Christians don’t know the the significance of the events leading to the 70 AD inferno in Jerusalem; why did the Sadducees and Essenes died in the inferno while the Pharisees and Nazarenes escaped?

— Christians don’t know what are the Oracles of God; what are the components; some claim, “we don’t need the oral law” is this true?

— Jews don’t know that the Messiah they look so much for had came, but he went off and will come again; and they will morn for him one day as one morns for his firstborn; from Sabbath to Sabbath, they read the Scriptures diligently but couldn’t identify the second person in Psalm 110:1-5;

— no body seems to understand the various symbols and riddles in the book of Ezekiel to put all the puzzles into a big picture; Jews couldn’t neither do Christians!

— nobody knows who Ephraim is, neither anyone knows about the United States; and who or where her enemy will come from and what her destination is. All are written in a coded language by Ezekiel; hence God says “but My people know not the judgement of the Lord.”

⁸ “‘How do ye say, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us”? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. — (MEV and many other translations) How do you say, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us”? Certainly the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.

— examples are (1) Isaiah 7:14 – a “virgin” shall conceive and bear a Son – changed to a young woman which renders the text meaningless as any young woman could have a child; (2) Isaiah 9:6 “the Everlasting Father” – the Son has never been known as the father; this lying pen is just to run contrary to the characteristic of the Son; who would be the Messiah in the name of Yeshua which the Orthodox have blinded themselves in a amaze.

⁹ The wise men are ashamed; they are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord: and what wisdom is in them?

¹⁰ Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them. For every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

¹¹ For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightingly, saying “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

¹² Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.

¹³ “‘I will surely consume them, saith the Lord. There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.’”

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there. For the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold, trouble!

¹⁶ The snorting of His horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His strong ones. For they have come and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell therein.

¹⁷ “For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you,” saith the Lord.

¹⁸ When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint within me.

¹⁹ Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, because of them that dwell in a far country: “Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King in her?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images and with strange vanities?”

²⁰ “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!”

²¹ For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

~~~

Facing the East, worshipping the Sun:

— the worship of heavenly bodies was against God’s will which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3, whose penalty is to be stoned to death, Deuteronomy 17:5 ’till they die). Those 25 men in Ezekiel 8:16 corrupted themselves by worshipping the sun; and so the Targum renders it, “and, lo, they corrupted themselves, worshipping facing the east the sun; their backs toward the temple of the Lord” — they turned their backs against the most holy place; which is an aggravation of their impiety; casting the utmost contempt for God:

Moses’ warnings in Deuteronomy 17

³ And [if you] hath gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, ⁴ and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, ⁵ then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die. Deuteronomy 17:3-5

The following quotation show that the first Christians understood the Sabbath but were made forbidden and gathered for worship on Sunday: “Christians should not Judaize and should not be idle on the Sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord’s day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians” (Canon 29 AD 360);

— also, Days of the Week Names: “Sunday” is the Sun’s day and “Monday” is the Moon’s day. “Tuesday” is Tiw’s day; Tiw is an Anglo-Saxon god of war. “Wednesday” comes from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon king of the gods; in Saxon the name is Wodnesdaeg. “Thursday” is Thursdaeg, Thor’s day; Thor is a Norse god of thunder, lightning and storms. “Friday” is Frigedaeg, Frigga’s day; Frigg is a Norse goddess of home, marriage and fertility. “Saturday” is Saeterndaeg, Saturn’s day; Saturn is an ancient Roman god of fun and feasting;

— Months of the Year Names: January (derived from the Latin Januarius) is to honor their Roman gods Janus; and March, named for Mars, is the Roman mighty god of war; February is derived from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa (“purifications, expiatory offerings”); April relates to what the Romans called the month Aprilis; from a word meaning “to open” and further back from Aphrodite, the Greek name for the goddess of love. May – named for Maia, is the Roman goddess of spring and growth;

— June is a name attributed to Juno, the female mighty wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology. She is also called the “Queen of Heaven” and “Queen of Mighty Ones.” July is to honor Julius Caesar; the Roman Senate named it “Julius” in honor of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. August honor Julius Caesar’s successor, the emperor Augustus; and the months September, October, November, and December are archaic adjectives derived from the ordinal numbers 7 to 10;

— today, more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honouring the Sun by observing Sunday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly penalty is to be stoned to death – ’till they die.

— also, following the SUN-worshipping Samaritans, most Church of God Communities are showing their contempt for God by having their “wavesheaf offering” and Pentecost on a Sunday; always on a Sunday. And these are supposedly in God’s Sanctuary, but God says He is a jealous God, so these pretentious Christians could be spewed out of His mouth! A death penalty – ’till they die!

~ by Joel Huan on November 4, 2021.

Posted in Jeremiah