So You Want A King?
This blog explores Samuel's answer when the people asked for a king. From there we look at the feast at Cana. Both are Villain list stories. Finally project status and request for help follows at the bottom.
Asking For A King (1 Samuel 8, BRB)
The link here is to the story of the elders asking Samuel to give them a king. This request displeased Samuel. He prayed and was told to listen to their voice, and give them a king.
His answer to this request involved enumerating the problems this would cause. The list of problems begins in verse 11 in the chapter linked above.
Of course this follows the villain list, our list of 6 primary editors. Samuel's answer is particularly weighted to the first editor, Solomon. Solomon will return the children of that generation to life as it was in Egypt.
Let me take Samuel's answer in order but list his answer under the matched editor as a general title. This is the same format I have been using in this series of Villain blogs. I will paraphrase Samuel's answer, you can follow the link above for the precise text.
1) Solomon (1 Sam. 8:11-13)
Samuel's first point is that the king will enslave the public into government service, especially the young. He lists chariot driving, horsemen and runners. Samuel says the king will create a military hierarchy, officers over 1000s (at the top) then officers over 100s (aka Centurions) then another layer over 50s, then 10s. The king's men will plow his ground, reap his harvest and make implements of war. He ends this point on taking daughters too, as weaves and grinders and bakers.
We have much modern and specialized vocabulary for these things. So we don't typically map Solomon's works to our own. Socialism, communism and fascism capture elements of this. The text, though is not using technical terms, just long lists of examples. Precise technical vocabulary is how the modern world hides how it imitates the past.
Much of our modern economy is government based, which of course is what Solomon started. The extent of this is seen in the lists of conscripts that Solomon used just for his temple building project. Solomon's military hierarchy is how most modern businesses are run. Think about every chain store you know as an example.
The reference to plowing the king's ground is particularly interesting given American history. It was once a nation of small farmers. Now, Pharaoh's officials, think Bill Gates, are the largest holders of farmland in the country.
Read 1 Kings 5 for lists of how Solomon deployed tens of thousands as conscript laborers. This is of course just as it was in Egypt, and is very similar to our days. Typically most modern forced labor is through debt, fractional slavery. The public does not own much of the productive capacity of the nation, so they own few assets that produce real wealth on their behalf.
2) Ahab/Jezebel (1 Sam. 8:14)
The pace of the rest of Samuel's list will now be quicker. It will key to ideas in the stories of each of the rest of the editors.
In this case Samuel says the king will take the best of your fields, vineyards and olive yards and give them to his servants.
This is of course the main narrative involving Ahab and Jezebel. Their identifying letter deals with the details of how these 2 took the vineyard of Naboth.
3) Nebuchadnezzar (1 Sam. 8:15)
Samuel now hints at events in Nebuchadnezzar's day. He hints at more taking of land, but also giving it to his eunuchs and servants. Though similar to the earlier list, the prophet Daniel may be the first example. Isaiah 39:7 warns that the king's sons will become eunuchs in Babel. This is another reference to the idea that Nebuchadnezzar is a eunuch maker.
It is also the case that the national lands, already taken by local kings, is now combined, and forming districts. In other words there are no local owners of land at all. Principalities is a Nebuchadnezzar era keyword for this. This is disconnecting people even further from actual leaders, everyone is now in a hierarchy.
4) Mordecai (1 Sam. 8:16)
By verse 16 Samuel discusses taking servants, maids, attractive young men and donkeys and making them his servants.
At this point in the story the problem of kings has now turned to taking those who are physically attractive.
During Mordecai's time the key story is the taking of Esther, another man's wife, as his attractive new queen. Samuel's example is attractive young men, but the actual historical example is an attractive young woman.
5) Ezra (1 Sam. 8:17)
In verse 17 Samuel says the king will take 1/10th of your sheep and become servants.
This verse picks up the tithing system seen as the basis for church funding to this day. This suggests it began formally with Ezra. Servants within a large formal church system is also likely implied.
6) Ananias (1 Sam. 8:18)
Finally in verse 18 Samuel ends by telling his audience that cries for help in that day will go unanswered. The key idea here is being cut off from Joshua. Prayer will go unanswered.
The 6th and final villain was Ananias. He was cut off from Paul. Though prophetic originally, Ananias was now cut off completely, working against the things of Joshua and outside of any answer to prayer.
This is ultimately what happens when we want earthly kings. We get completely cut off from Joshua.
Someone Else
Now, go back to the beginning of the story. The people wanted someone else to fight their battles. This is the pattern that triggers the desire for a king. They want government to solve their problems instead of themselves.
There is no such thing, of course. The king just enslaves everyone to fight the people's national battles.
When I see people who want others to fight their battles I see someone who is on this slippery slope. All battles are ultimately our own. We fight them by going to Joshua and doing what he says. We are not supposed to turn to the king.
Grids of 4, 6, 10 and Holidays
The way we have been finding the villain list is by looking at passages to see if there are 6 items. When there are, we have been checking the list to see if the content is matching what we already know about the 6 villains. This has been working essentially everywhere we have tried.
There are also other grids of other lengths. Everything that is part of a set of 4 forms a different grid. 4 rivers in Eden, 4 trees, 4 watches, 4 creatures, 4 horses and so on. Ultimately there are 4 items in the Tabernacle/Tent of Time, AKA David's fallen tent, that are being called out in these lists of 4. All it takes to know this grid is being called out is to know there are 4 things in the list. I will deal with details of these lists of 4 in future blogs.
There is also a 'grid' of 10. This one deals with Joseph, his 10 northern tribes and his multicolored robe and its various uses. This grid is called out simply by reference to the number 10.
If you have been following this blog you know I recently updated the calendar and added the 2 NT holidays as a replacement for Purim's 2 holidays. Once that was done we had 2 very different final holidays in the annual calendar. Turns out there are various long stories that are giving illustrative examples that grid to these 12 holidays. The book of Daniel being perhaps my favorite examples. More on this, again, in future blogs.
OK, so references to 6, even without a list of 6 things, are references to the villain list. 6 calls out the villains. Knowing this makes interpreting some stories easy to do.
Feast At Cana (John 2:1-10 BRB)
The link here is to the story of the feast at Cana. We believe this to have been edited to make it a wedding feast, rather than a wake after the death of Joshua's step father Joseph.
Our reasoning is that Miriam takes responsibility for providing wine when the wine at the party has run out. In other words, she is the hostess for the feast yet Joseph is missing. Joshua obliges his mother's request and turns water into wine.
Joshua uses 6 stone water jars each holding 2 or 3 gallons. He has the stewards fill them with water, then they draw off wine and give it to the master of the banquet.
To understand what Joshua is doing in this story requires answering the question, why 6 jars? Why are we told 6 jars?
Like the other grid systems, especially the grid of 10, all that we need to know is this is a reference to the text's grid system of 6. This is a reference to the villain list.
Knowing this is a villain list reference tells readers enough to know why Joseph died. He was caught up in some way related to the religion created by the villains. It was deep enough trouble that Joseph could not come to faith even if he had been around for Joshua's ministry year.
Contrast this with Miriam. She most likely becomes a walk off and never died. But Joseph was not demonstrating faith. Joshua could have kept him alive, or raised him like Lazarus. Why did he not do this? Because of the actions of the 6.
The story at the feast contains some other interesting details. Those jars are filled with water. Symbolic at least of washing. Their work must be washed away.
The jars contain 2 or 3 gallons each. This suggests there are 2 or 3 aspects to the work of each villain. For example, 1) Solomon, was caught up with 1000 women, and in that was caught up in their religion, building his temple and various shrines. See how there are 2 or 3 aspects to this?
2) Ahab/Jezebel sees Ahab guilty of Jezebel's murder because he does not constrain her. Then there is some group who can answer her letter. They themselves put on a false trial and commit murder under her orders. Again, there are 2 or 3 aspects in this story.
The other 4 villains are similar. 3) Nebuchadnezzar, collects precepts and builds for his own glory. 4) Mordecai is secretly manipulating government and hiding behind government actions. 5) Ezra turns religion into a public performance and he is franchising that brand to distribute it to a wide audience. 6) Ananias is coming against those chosen by Joshua and taking power to himself. He gets cut off in that process.
There may be more aspects to each of these, but you get the idea.
Now, go back to the story of the feast at Cana. Joshua draws out wine from each jar and presents it to the master of the feast. What does Joshua mean in this?
Wine should be thought of as the text's reference type of medication. People using wine do so because it is a pain killer. People using wine are typically soothing pain related to their soul.
Joshua's wine at the end is powerful medicine for the soul. How? Washing out the work of the 6 editors, the 6 villains heals soul injuries they caused. This wine is the best wine and saved for last.
Why do they not know where the wine comes from? The work of the villains is hidden. Even the inspired text itself does not yield this information easily.
Project Status
After finishing a draft of the Eden Map at the end of November I turned my attention back to the Bill of Materials website. This is where the files ready for 3d printing are kept publicly.
I knew the change in pen shape would impact the design files and set about making adjustments as needed. The pen shape change had impacts on the physics of the 3d printing process so everything needed to be tested again on real 3d printers.
This has been a slow process because I am reducing overall parts counts to make assembly easier and final parts stronger.
This past week I finally finished test prints of the plants that line the river of life. Those tests show they can now be done as single long prints. They need no glue and have no time spent doing manual assembly.
Many lessons learned in this process. Especially important is printers must be tuned well. Good bed adhesion is important for what are now generally bigger print jobs.
While that printing has been going on, I have also turned my attention to the cases that were designed several years ago. At the time they were intended as bases to display the parts. They were glued together and required a massive amount of plastic, both of those are problems.
The glue is failing after a few years, which is a problem. Glue is not only unsafe to use, but it is not enduring. But there was a bigger problem. The Eden map lessons suggested there were design issues with the old cases too.
The prophetic season of the Eden map continued into this season. If you are paying attention to recent blogs you can see we are gridding and understanding the text in ways we've never been able to do before. These grids are coming fast and they are coming easily. They are coming across the text. That new insight is because of the Eden map work.
It turns out the cases themselves are supposed to tell important stories in their design. They are NOT simply carriers for the 3d models. There is important lessons that must be correctly conveyed in the design of each case. There is room for artistry in the design and execution, but certain basic lessons must be conveyed in each case.
The cases also need to hang on walls, and not sit on tables. Anyone who might want a copy of a case at home will likely have space on walls, while almost nobody has space on tables. These cases are, in some sense, like functional pieces of wall art.
Like the original Ezekiel's bones models, described in Ezekiel, the cases appear to be described in the text too. The prophetic lists of 4 grid to the 4 cases. Each grid has a certain story it must tell in its design.
But finally the prophetic has made clear these are the same artifacts as set up by Moses and Joshua son of Nun after coming out of Egypt. They form the basis for instruction in the text, they explain how the text itself functions and how various systems around the text function.
Other Artifacts
There are a few other items besides the cases that are needed to complete a set of artifacts for a full modern copy of the Tent of Time. As I advance through this work there may be more items, but let me review the list as I understand now.
Joseph's robe was quilted and embroidered with a grid of letters.
The essential detail of that design came to me prophetically in a vision one night at dinner in December of 2012. I excused myself from the table and went to a white board and wrote what I'd been shown. In the end it is a massive grid of letters.
At that time I did not know the importance of what I was being shown. I did not yet know most of the 3d systems, so I had much more to learn. Note this quilt object is referenced in the text as the 10. Think about it being torn and 10 parts given away when Jeroboam is offered an enduring kingdom.
Note we just passed the 10th anniversary of that prophetic vision. Another strange personal use of the 10 in regards to this item.
Only this week did I understand the significance of that vision. I have gone back to my diary notes from that day in 2012. I still have enough details to lay out the design of that special quilt.
I will design and render the quilt squares in plastic for use on a wall. No matter the eventual scale, there are around 750 quilt squares and 1500 parts that must be 3d printed. With 3 inch squares and 2 inch letters it is very roughly 6 foot by 6 foot in size.
The design will show every letter and where they belong on the quilt. As a teacher I will eventually explain why this quilt is so special.
Others who can sew will see what is going on. They can make decorative cloth versions of the same design. The tassels along the edges were likely beads that mark punctuation as trim.
There are people in the text who where healed by touching this garment, or by touching the fringe. Every example around cloth is a parable of healing through access to inspired text.
My list of design items includes a lamp. There is a lamp referenced in various places in the inspired text. This matches a component of the Eden map. I know where to start with this but I know prophetically I am not finished.
There may be a wheel within a wheel object, if this is not just something about the lamp. It is unclear to me at the moment if these are the same objects or different.
There are also the commandments on 2 stones front and back. Anyone could mock this up, but the purpose is to show how the letters of the text arrange in written form on pages. This requires some prophetic insight that is still to come.
Barring any 3d objects that I am missing, finally, of course, is the inspired text itself. This is the main artifact for any gathering house. I currently presume I need to see the other artifacts finished before I know enough to recover the text. The prophetic flow that began last summer with looking at the Genome has not stopped. This is the goal of this journey.
Help
The first place where we read about the setup of a space like this is with Moses. (Though Jacob making Joseph a robe indicates Jacob knew the system.)
Moses took up an offering for the work of building that tent. These are supposed to be public assets. Owned by nobody, owned by everybody.
The designs will be online, open sourced, and anyone who wants can build copies later. I, though, need to build the first set. This to work out the design issues for the printing process and to make sure Joshua agrees with the final design forms.
I have never asked for provision for anything going on around here. But this work is different. If you have any interest in contributing in some way to this work, please do so. The top right menu of paleo.in has a contact form. Use it to get a hold of me. The physical mailing address is given there if you want to reach me by mail.
There are 3 areas where I need help.
1) More printers. I am staring down a huge parts list that is gated by printer time available in my shop. The quilt alone is maybe 1000 hours of printer time. I only want Prusa printers made by Prusa, no clones. This so the software stack is the same across all the machines and so the maintenance for the print farm is the same across the machines.
I was given what is now printer #4 in October. It is a Prusa printer that barely survived a previous owner with dementia. I kept the parts in a box until this past week when I saw the need. It is getting some 3d printed replacement parts printed now. It needs a few factory replacement parts, around $120 worth.
If you have any spare real Prusa printers that you would like to give me, please contact me. Any model.
2) Plastic Filament. I am using specific colors from the Hatchbox brand of PLA plastic. I have been given enough plastic to get started, but will need more spools as this progresses. Amazon gift cards are best because the plastic comes from there. This same brand of plastic is also readily available on EBay. So EBay gift cards also work for plastic. I can give specific color choices if you want to send me spools, contact me for that.
3) Other expenses. There are a few other expenses that need to be covered for this work to continue. The primary expense here is for the websites. So help towards these other expenses would also be greatly appreciated. Help with this as Joshua leads.
More Later,
Phil