Gilbert House Fellowship

By Derek and Sharon GilbertReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Gilbert House Fellowship episodes

May 14, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #376: 2 Sam. 10; 1 Chr. 19; Psalms 20, 50, 53
DAVID’S KINGDOM faced a strong test from his neighbors to the east and north as a coalition of Ammonites and Arameans tried to take down the new Israelite kingdom.
We discuss the nearly identical accounts in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles and the wonderful attitude of David’s nephew and general Joab: “Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.”
Help us Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here.
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Join us in Israel! Our 2024 tour of Israel features special guest Timothy Alberino! We will tour the Holy Land March 31–April 9, 2024, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.GilbertsInIsrael.com.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site!
1 hr 14 min
May 07, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #375: 2 Samuel 8–9; 1 Chronicles 18
DAVID’S KINGDOM expanded outward in all directions, possibly reaching as far as the Euphrates in northern Syria.
This week, we read the records of David’s wars against the Arameans of Damascus and Zobah to the north, the small kingdoms east of the Jordan (Ammon, Moab, and Edom), and the Amalekites in the south.
We discuss the historical context of David’s reign and the recent discovery of an Iron Age kingdom in southern Turkey and northern Syria, known from inscriptions as Palistin (and probably related to the Philistines who settled between Israel and Egypt), whose best-known king, Taita, may be the Toi/Tou mentioned in 2 Sam. 8 and 1 Chr. 18.
We also discuss David’s kindness to Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, something that would have been unusual in a time when preserving the life of a male descendant of the former king, Saul, would have been unusual.
Help us Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here.
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Join us in Israel! Our 2024 tour of Israel features special guest Timothy Alberino! We will tour the Holy Land March 31–April 9, 2024, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.GilbertsInIsrael.com.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site!
1 hr 17 min
April 30, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #374: 1 Chr. 17; Psalms 25, 29, 33, 36, 39
A SUPERNATURAL worldview was perfectly natural to King David. It’s clear from his psalms that he had a better understanding of the unseen realm.
After recapitulating the prayer of David from last week’s reading of 2 Samuel 7, we discuss references in his psalms that point to spiritual beings, such as “heavenly beings,” the bene elim (literally, “sons of God”) of Psalm 29:1. For all of his faults, David knew Who is above all other elohim.
Help us Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here.
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Join us in Israel! Our 2024 tour of Israel features special guest Timothy Alberino! We will tour the Holy Land March 31–April 9, 2024, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.GilbertsInIsrael.com.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site!
1 hr 26 min
April 23, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #373: 2 Samuel 6–7
DAVID WAS not a perfect man by any measure, but if we draw anything from this week’s study it should be his example of humility when he realized that he’d become a little too full of himself.
The narrative is another account of bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, which we previously studied in 1 Chronicles 13–16. Afterward, David proposed building a temple to God, but the Lord appeared to Nathan and directed the prophet to tell David that it was not for him to build the House of Yahweh—and to remind David just who was responsible for elevating him to the throne.
David’s prayer in 2 Samuel 7:18–29 is a wonderful example of a man who realizes the source of his blessings and expresses his heartfelt, sincere gratitude for the blessings bestowed by God.
Help us Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/donate/).
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Join us in Israel! Our 2024 tour of Israel features special guest Timothy Alberino! We will tour the Holy Land March 31–April 9, 2024, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.GilbertsInIsrael.com.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site (https://gilberthouse.uscreen.io/)!
1 hr 22 min
March 12, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #372: Psalms 89, 96
DAVID KNEW that God had a divine council comprised of supernatural beings. We see more confirmation of that in this week’s study.
Psalm 89 mentions the “holy ones” (Hebrew qedoshim) and “heavenly beings” (bene elim, literally “sons of God”) who are in his assembly. The psalmist goes on to praise God for His power in mastering the sea (Ps. 89:9–10). In Hebrew, that’s yam, the Canaanite name for the chaos-dragon of the sea—their version of Leviathan. Given the reference to Rahab in verse 10, this is more than just picturesque language describing God as more powerful than the ocean; the psalmist is referring to the chaoskampf, the conflict between God and Chaos (Leviathan).
We also discuss the references to “the north and the south… Tabor and Hermon” in Psalm 89:12. The mountains mentioned were sites of cult worship in the ancient world, so we think the compass points north (tsaphon) and south (yamin) have spiritual significance as well. Zaphon was the mountain of Baal in what is today southern Turkey. “South” may be a scribal gloss (change) at some point in history, because the Septuagint translation renders verse 12:
You created the north and the west [or, “the north wind and seas”]…
Psalm 82:12a (Lexham English Septuagint)
The point being that west, the direction of the Great Sea, the Mediterranean, was the direction associated with death. Thus, “the north and the [west]”, in a pairing with two cult centers (especially since one of them is Mount Hermon, a sort of Canaanite Mount Olympus), is a polemic against spiritual evil (north, the direction of Baal’s palace) and death (west).
In Psalm 96 we find another song of praise for God, comparing Him and His power against that of “all gods” (Hebrew elohim) which are “worthless idols” (ĕlîlim; Ps. 96:5). We’ve encountered that word before, which some scholars connect to the chief god of Mesopotamia, Enlil, whose name was spelled Ellil in Akkadian. The ĕlîlim, then, were demons—the spirits of the Nephilim destroyed in the Flood. The Septuagint translators certainly connect the ideas, translating the verse this way:
For all the gods of the peoples are demons…
Psalm 96:5a (LES), emphasis added
For a deeper dive into the ĕlîlim and Enlil, see our previous study on 1 Chronicles 16 here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/2023/02/gilbert-house-fellowship-369-1-chronicles-16-psalms-1-2-15/).
And you can read the chapter of The Second Coming of Saturn where Derek cites the research into “Isaiah’s ‘Worthless Idols’” here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/isaiahs-worthless-idols.pdf).
If you’re coming with us to Israel, we can’t wait to share the adventure with you! Here’s a link to some helpful tips to prepare from Lipkin Tours (https://www.lipkintours.com/index.php?dir=site&page=content&cs=3038).
Help us Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/donate/).
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site (https://gilberthouse.uscreen.io/)!
1 hr 11 min
March 05, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #371: Psalms 24, 47, 68
THERE IS MORE spiritual warfare in the psalms than we realize!
This week, we study three of David’s psalms that have more going on under the hood than is obvious at first read. Psalm 24 praises God for founding the earth “upon the seas and… the rivers.” In Canaanite religion, Baal became king of the gods after a battle with Yam (“Sea”), the embodiment of chaos (i.e., Leviathan), who is often called “Prince Yam [Sea] and Judge Nahar [River]” in Canaanite religious texts. So, David’s psalm is more than poetic language; it’s a rebuke of the pagan belief that Baal was the one who subdued primordial chaos.
Psalm 47 is a song of triumph, encouraging all people to rejoice that God is King of all the earth, but Psalm 68 is, in our view, a prophecy of a future battle between God and the forces of darkness at a place known in the ancient world as the entrance to the netherworld, Bashan.
It begins with the declaration that “God shall arise, His enemies shall be scattered; and all those who hate him shall flee before Him!” Verses 4 through 10 use storm-god language to praise God, again rebuking the pagans around ancient Israel for ascribing to Baal the characteristics of Yahweh.
And then we get to Psalm 68:15–23, a prophecy of a future conflict at the “mountain of Bashan,” Mount Hermon.
The text of Ps. 68:15 is translated, “O mountain of God,” but the Hebrew, har elohim, can also mean “mountain of the gods.” That’s the better translation in this context. Why? Because the mountain of God is Zion—the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Verse 16 makes clear that Mount Hermon, the “many-peaked mountain” of Bashan, looks “with hatred” at “the mount that God desired for His abode” (Zion).
Verse 18, which Paul quotes in Ephesians 4:8, describes a military assault by God on Mount Hermon, after which He “ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train”.
David praises God for delivering His followers from death. The Hebrew word maveth is a cognate for the name of the Canaanite death-god, Mot, who is the equivalent of the Greek deity Thanatos—the rider on the pale horse in Revelation 6.
Finally, verse 22 describes God’s victory over chaos:
The Lord said,
“I will bring them back from Bashan,
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea…”
However, scholar Nicolas Wyatt argues that this difficult passage is better translated:
From Bashan I shall bring back,
I shall bring back, from the depths, Sea [i.e., Yam, the Canaanite equivalent of Leviathan, or Chaos]
In other words, David prophesied God’s final assault on Mount Hermon and the land of Bashan, which in his day was believed to be the literal entrance to the netherworld (Sheol/Hades), where the Lord will finally destroy Death and Chaos.
In so doing, David presents a prophecy similar to the one recorded a thousand years later by John in Revelation 20:13–14 and 21:1:
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire… Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and he first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
If you’re coming with us to Israel, we can’t wait to share the adventure with you! Here’s a link to some helpful tips to prepare from Lipkin Tours (https://www.lipkintours.com/index.php?dir=site&page=content&cs=3038).
Help us to Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/donate/).
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site (https://gilberthouse.uscreen.io/)!
TRAVEL WITH US TO TÜRKIYE! Join us and our special guests Dr. Judd Burton and Dr. Aaron Judkins as we visit the churches of Revelation, Göbekli Tepe, Abraham’s home town Harran, the “Gates of Hell,” Mount Nemrut, and more. Tour dates are October 17–November 3, 2023. More information is available at www.gilberthouse.org/travel.
1 hr 28 min
February 26, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #370: Psalms 22–23
THE PSALMS OF DAVID are often prophetic. We know this. But we often overlook just how supernatural they are.
This week, we focus on two of the most profound and stunning psalms in the Bible. Psalm 22 begins with a line quoted by Jesus on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
It’s widely acknowledged by Bible scholars that the 22nd Psalm is a prophecy of the Crucifixion written more than 600 years before the Persians invented that horrific method of execution. However, verses 12 and 13 are usually misinterpreted. They read:
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion. (Psalm 22:12–13, ESV)
Bible commentaries usually explain these verses as a reference to the well-fed livestock of ancient Bashan. That’s not what the passage means.
Bashan was a terrible place to raise cattle, which would have starved on the poor pastureland available on that rocky, volcanic soil. Goats and sheep thrived in Bashan, but the ancient kingdom of Og was not then, and is not now, a place that would support a thriving cattle operation.
The point is that the “bulls of Bashan” were not bovine, they were divine (We’re borrowing a phrase from Dr. Robert D. Miller II, whose paper “Baals of Bashan (https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/45173/Miller_Baals_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)” is the source of this information). These were dark spirits from the land known from the time of Abraham down to Jesus’ day as the entrance to the netherworld—an evil place with a name, Bashan, that literally means “place of the serpent.”
Then we move to the 23rd Psalm, one that many of us have memorized. We suggest that the valley of the shadow of death is a literal place—the Huleh Valley, which separates Bashan from the Upper Galilee. The valley is ringed with more than 5,000 dolmens, megalithic monuments to the dead that resemble giant stone tables (which is what dolmen means in the Brittonic language).
We base this analysis on the gospel of Matthew, where he writes:
Now when [Jesus] heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:12–16, ESV)
Matthew quoted from Isaiah 9:1–2, the beginning of the messianic prophecy that includes the lines, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given”. The Way of the Sea is the Roman road, the Via Maris, that ran from Egypt through Judea, north through Galilee alongside the west shore of the Sea of Galilee, north through the Huleh Valley, and then “beyond the Jordan” (i.e., east) toward Damascus.
In other words, Jesus’ move from Nazareth to Capernaum, on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of a light dawning on those living “in the region and shadow of death”.
This makes this verse all the more powerful:
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies
you anoint me head with oil;
my cup overflows. (Psalm 23:5, ESV)
In the context of the pagan rituals for the dead, especially in the region of ancient Bashan, this verse is a celebration of Christ’s victory over the fallen spirits who have rebelled against their Creator—and who want to take us to destruction with them.
If you’re coming with us to Israel, we can’t wait to share the adventure with you! Here’s a link to some helpful tips to prepare from Lipkin Tours (https://www.lipkintours.com/index.php?dir=site&page=content&cs=3038).
Support the continuing ministry of our friend Dr. Michael Heiser, Miqlat, at www.miqlat.org.
Help us to Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/donate/).
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site (https://gilberthouse.uscreen.io/)!
TRAVEL WITH US TO TÜRKIYE! Join us and our special guests Dr. Judd Burton and Dr. Aaron Judkins as we visit the churches of Revelation, Göbekli Tepe, Abraham’s home town Harran, the “Gates of Hell,” Mount Nemrut, and more. Tour dates are October 17–November 3, 2023. More information is available at www.gilberthouse.org/travel.
1 hr 19 min
February 19, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #369: 1 Chronicles 16; Psalms 1, 2, 15
READING THE HEADLINES each day can cause anxiety, depression, and frustration at the plots and schemes of those who apparently feel qualified, if not entitled, to tell the rest of us how we should live.
When the news is getting to you, remember these words:
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in His fury, saying, “As for Me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:3–4, ESV)
We discuss David’s song of thanksgiving and note a reference that’s packed with supernatural meaning: The “worthless idols” of 1 Chr. 16:26 (Hebrew ĕlîlim) may well refer to the spirits loyal to Enlil (also known as El, Dagon, and Molech), who we believe was the Watcher chief Shemihazah, leader of the Genesis 6 rebellion. Here’s a link to a short chapter from Derek’s book The Second Coming of Saturn on “Isaiah’s Worthless Idols” (link opens PDF document (https://www.gilberthouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/isaiahs-worthless-idols.pdf)).
If you’re coming with us to Israel, we can’t wait to share the adventure with you! Here’s a link to some helpful tips to prepare from Lipkin Tours (https://www.lipkintours.com/index.php?dir=site&page=content&cs=3038).
Support the continuing ministry of our friend Dr. Michael Heiser, Miqlat, at www.miqlat.org.
TRAVEL WITH US TO TÜRKIYE! Join us and our special guests Dr. Judd Burton and Dr. Aaron Judkins as we visit the churches of Revelation, Göbekli Tepe, Abraham’s home town Harran, the “Gates of Hell,” Mount Nemrut, and more. Tour dates are October 17–November 3, 2023. More information is available at www.gilberthouse.org/travel.
Help us to Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/donate/).
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site (https://gilberthouse.uscreen.io/)!
1 hr 17 min
February 12, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #368: Psalm 107; 1 Chronicles 13–15
GOD IS enthroned above the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. Failure to treat the ark with proper respect, according to the Law, cost a teamster his life.
This week, we discuss the move of the ark to Jerusalem and a section of scripture in 1 Chronicles 13 that’s difficult for many to accept. Why was Uzzah killed by God for putting his hand on the ark to steady it? The answer: The ark was supposed to be treated with reverence, carried by Levites with poles made specifically for that purpose (Exodus 25:12–14; Numbers 4:5–6, 15). Instead, it had been loaded onto an oxcart, like cargo in an Iron Age U-haul van.
We also discuss an interesting section of a psalm of joy and thankfulness that is more supernatural than it first appears. Psalm 107:3 refers to the people gathered “from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.” However, “north” is the Hebrew word tsaphon, a reference to “cosmic” north—the mountain sacred to the king of the Canaanite pantheon, Baal.
And “south” is yam, usually translated “west” or “sea.” This is the only place in the Bible where yam is rendered “south,” because of its opposition to tsaphon. Yam is the name of the Canaanite chaos-dragon, equivalent to Leviathan, and often used to represent the abyss—the bottomless pit, or Tartarus.
What is meant in Psalm 107:3 is that God has gathered his people from “cosmic” north, the realm of the pagan gods (fallen angels), and “cosmic” south, chaos and eternal destruction in the abyss.
Support the continuing ministry of our friend Dr. Michael Heiser, Miqlat, at www.miqlat.org.
TRAVEL WITH US TO TÜRKIYE! Join us and our special guests Dr. Judd Burton and Dr. Aaron Judkins as we visit the churches of Revelation, Göbekli Tepe, Abraham’s home town Harran, the “Gates of Hell,” Mount Nemrut, and more. Tour dates are October 17–November 3, 2023. More information is available at www.gilberthouse.org/travel.
Help us to Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/donate/).
Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs, SciFriday, Unraveling Revelation, and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/.
Please subscribe and share our YouTube channel, www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse!
Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study.
Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site (https://gilberthouse.uscreen.io/)!
1 hr 23 min
February 08, 2023 Gilbert House Fellowship #367: 1 Chronicles 11–12; Psalms 133, 106
DAVID ASCENDS to the throne in Jerusalem, and we recount the history of Israel, including some startling examples of warfare in the unseen realm, in the psalms accompanying our study this week.
First, we discuss the Jebusites and the city of Jebus, which apparently was the area around the stronghold of Zion, which is the City of David—the area just south of the Temple Mount. “Jebus” means “threshing floor,” from a verb meaning “to tread down,” as in treading out the grain. In the ancient world, as Sharon wrote in Veneration, threshing floors were believed to be portals to the spirit realm.
This is an interesting connection to the Hurrian people, relevant because Araunah, owner of the threshing floor on Mount Moriah, is not a name but a title that means “lord” or “king.” The Hurrians believed that gods of the underworld, including spirits of the dead, had to be summoned from the underworld in an underground pit called the abi, from which the Hebrews got the word ôb (“medium”). It just happens that there is a cave directly below the Foundation Stone on the Temple Mount called the Holy of Holies by the Crusaders and the Well of Souls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_of_Souls) by Muslims.
We also discuss the cryptic reference to the “Ariels of Moab,” although the ESV renders it “heroes of Moab” (1 Chr. 11:22). In the King James, ariel is translated “lion-like,” based on the Hebrew ari (“lion”). So, ariels are literally “lions of God,” although “lions of El” is more likely, given that they were from Moab, where Yahweh was not normally worshiped.
What are those ariels? We don’t know. There’s an entry for ariel in the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, and it doesn’t give a conclusive answer. We can only guess, but based on the Septuagint, which was translated into Greek from an older Hebrew manuscript by about 200 BC, the best reading might be, “[Benaiah] struck the two sons of Ariel of Moab.”
In other words, as disappointing as it may seem, it’s likely there were no “lion-like men of Moab,” just two warriors from Moab whose father’s name was Ariel.
After a celebratory psalm, Psalm 133, we read the important Psalm 106. This is where we find one of only three mentions of demons in the Old Testament. It’s a translation of the word shedim, a type of territorial spirit depicted in the ancient Near East as winged bulls—like the giant statues of protective spirits found outside the palace of the kings of Assyria now on display at museums around the world.
We also dig into Psalm 106:28–29, a passage that explains why God sent a plague against the Israelites while they camped at Shittim. The worship of Baal-Peor (“lord of the opening to the underworld”) involved eating sacrifices offered to the dead. We’ve recently learned that scholars since the 1940s believe that it’s possible Shittim was not the Jordan valley across from Jericho, but might have been the 80-acre site on the hill called Tall el-Hammam—ancient Sodom.
In other words, the tabernacle may have been directly over the site of the destroyed temple in Sodom.
TRAVEL WITH US TO TÜRKIYE! Join us and our special guests Dr. Judd Burton and Dr. Aaron Judkins as we visit the churches of Revelation, Göbekli Tepe, Abraham’s home town Harran, the “Gates of Hell,” Mount Nemrut, and more. Tour dates are October 17–November 3, 2023. More information is available at www.gilberthouse.org/travel.
Help us to Build Barn Better! This is our project to convert our 1,200 square foot shop building from a place to park our yard tractor into usable studio and warehouse space. In 2023, we plan to fix the holes in the walls, replace windows, insulate the building, install an HVAC system, and move our studios and book/DVD warehouse and shipping office out of our home. If you are so led, you can donate by clicking here (https://www.gilberthouse.org/donate/).
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1 hr 32 min