If you were glued to the 'boob tube' during the Vietnam War, and got sick of watching carnage while trying to eat dinner, don't you have the same feeling now with the never-ending MIDDLE EAST CRISIS? I DO!

Yes, Virginia, ONE rotten apple CAN spoil the barrel! Yes, Dear Patient, if you have CANCER we MUST CUT IT OUT! If an ANIMAL is RABID - it MUST be destroyed!

GEE, EXXON declared RECORD PROFITS AGAIN TODAY - what a coincidence!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!

SIBLING RIVALRY

Copyright: July 27, 2006 – TOM HYLAND



Assume for one moment that I am totally wrong, okay? But if my memory of Bible History from fifty-five years ago is correct, Jacob STOLE Esau’s birthright,
then to add insult to injury, STOLE their father Isaac’s Blessing also. So, I GOOGLED their names, and according to one of the links, I was right! Go to said site for more interesting information about this story: http://www.ainglkiss.com/bibst/ej.html

As this site tells us, they were TWINS, but Esau came out first and was ‘hairy’ which is the meaning of his name. Jacob supposedly was holding Esau’s heel, and was named ‘thief.’ When Rebekah questioned God about the kicking in the womb, she supposedly got this answer:

“The two children inside you will become the fathers of two nations. Just like the two are fighting with each other now, the two nations will struggle with each other. One will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger.”

Esau grew up to be the extrovert, and a hunter, while Jacob was the quiet one. Esau was Isaac’s favorite, and Jacob was Rebekah’s. Upon the father’s death, the eldest son would inherit the ‘lion’s share, or two-thirds of the estate; while the younger would only get one-third.

At some point (doesn’t tell us if they were teenagers, young adults, or what?) Esau returned from a hunting trip, was hungry and BARGAINED AWAY his birthright for a bowl of STEW! NOT TOO SWIFT IN MY BOOK! Anyway, that was the price asked by Jacob, and Esau agreed, nobody twisted his arm. Obviously, he was too lazy to cook for himself, or too much of a gentleman to punch Jacob in the nose and just TAKE a bowl? In either event, he was neither a ‘rocket scientist’ nor a ‘brain surgeon’ OKAY?

Later on, when Isaac was blind and dying, it was good old Mom’s idea to dress Jacob up to smell and feel like Esau, in order to steal the Final Blessing. Nevertheless, when questioned by ‘POP’ because of his voice, Jacob did indeed LIE, and got a stolen Blessing.

“The smell of my son is like the smell of open country the Lord has blessed. May God give you the dew of heaven, and the richness of the earth, corn and new wine in plenty! Let nations and peoples serve you. May you rule over your brothers, and may they bow down to you. Let anyone who curses you be cursed, but blessed be anyone who blesses you!”

When Esau returned and discovered what had happened, he went to Isaac and complained, but the father could not recant the Blessing, so he gave Esau a slightly different one:

“Behold, you shall dwell in the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; By your sword shall you live, and serve your brother; and it shall come to pass when you have the dominion, you shalt break his yoke from your neck. ”

Naturally Esau was quite P.O.’d and stated that he hated his brother, and would KILL him! Overhearing this, later Rebekah decides to send Jacob away for safety and then ‘cons’ her husband to grant Jacob yet another Blessing:

"You shall not marry a Cananite woman. Go to Padanaram, to the home of your mother's father Bethuel ; and chose a wife from the daughters of your uncle Laban. And God Almighty bless you, and your marriage and give you many children. May God bless you and your family as he blessed Abraham so you can possess the land he gave to Abraham.”

Later, while on his journey to his uncle’s, Jacob gets still another promise, in a dream, supposedly from God Himself:

“I am the One Who Is, the God of your grandfather Abraham and of your father Isaac! I am here to make this promise to you. I will give you and your family the land where you are now resting. You will have many children. Your children will have children, until one day, they will be as many as the dust of the earth. In you and your descendants, all nations of the earth will be blessed. Know that I am with you and will protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you safely back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I have promised.”

So, before continuing, Jacob blesses a stone upon which his head had rested, while sleeping, with oil, names the place, Bethel – “House of God” and then offers God his personal promise:

“If you watch over me as I go, and bring me safely back, then you shall be my God. I will worship you here in this place, and I will return to you one-tenth of everything you give me.”

Sound a little bit like the birth of “tithing” ?

Well now, Pilgrims, isn’t this wonderful fairytale-like story quite CONVENIENT? Does it not suggest a reason for any brothers, anytime afterwards, even millennia later, to promulgate hatred with a vengeance?

Now, bearing in mind that I was raised as a devout Catholic (Holy Roman Catholic Church) and thereby a member of the FLOCK, and a Christian (one of many such variant sects today) I still believed personally that WE, all Christians owned our allegiance to a Messiah, who was a JEW, and we worshipped the SAME GOD of Abraham, and were all a newer strand or off-shoot of the parent faith – JUDAISM!

Be that as it may, in time, with age, education, training, and experience, I learned to QUESTION – not just religion, but everything! I began realizing that usually, with some further research, investigation, and analysis, almost NOTHING was permanently ‘carved in stone!’ Some call this phenomena Skepticism. SO BE IT! Referring back to the story above, several questions come to mind, namely: Just WHO wrote this story down? Where? On what? Was there a fifth person present who was an unbiased observer of this small family of four? Or, like many other tales, stories, or oral histories, were they passed down through generations, by word of mouth, until ultimately years, or decades, or centuries had elapsed? If so, were they subject to inadvertent changes, or embellishments?
If and when they were TRANSLATED from ancient Hebrew to another language, or even dialect, were ERRORS possible? Probable?

Well now, who am I to be so bold as to question anyone’s belief in so-called historical FACTS? Face it – there is a: TORAH, KORAN, BIBLE (Old and New Testament), and only the Good Lord knows how many other such written records, or annals were created. GOD – ALLAH – BUDDHA – RE – OSIRIS –
ZEUS – JUPITER – THOR – and on, and on, ad infinitum – is there really only ONE RIGHT ONE? Is He/She all one and the same, but assigned different names, in different cultures, in different times? Ponder, ponder, ponder…

Yet, here we are in 2006, waging WARS over BELIEF Systems! As Shakespeare’s character Puck so aptly stated: “What fools these mortals be!”

Now, getting back to my topic, Sibling Rivalry, we jump to another website for more information, see: http://www.tntrevealed.org/news.cfm?c=3


Fact Summary on the Arab/Israeli Conflict
Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, two thousand years before the rise of Islam in the 7th century CE.

Let me repeat that – TWO THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE THE RISE OF ISLAM !!!

If you take the time to visit this site, and read, you will find no less than NINETEEN statements of fact that anyone with common sense would exclaim:
“Gee, it seems Israel does in fact have more ‘Claim’ to the Holy City of JERUSALEM than any other Race of people!” CAUTION: this particular site is one belonging to a Messianic Jewish group! They could be BIASED! They might have purposely SLANTED these so-called facts, right? Well. Guess what Pilgrim, if you don’t believe something there – pick a date, or name, or event, and GOOGLE it! Do some of your own research. Visit some other sites that are PRO-ISLAM - bet you’ll be surprised!

So, let’s do the MATH – 1,312 years + 2,006 years = 3,318 years that JEWS have lived there! I’d say that’s pretty solid evidence and reason for them to DEFEND themselves against ANYONE, or ANY COUNTRY, or ANY FANATICAL religious sect that openly DECLARES they want to KILL them and DRIVE them out! ANYONE!

SIBLING RIVALRY? HELL – who needs a brother or sister that is a RAVING LUNATIC anyway? Wouldn’t YOU disown them? Wouldn’t YOU want to draw the line somewhere… in the SAND?

OH – lest I be remiss – did not CAIN SLAY ABEL? Gee, the very FIRST BROTHERS! Who’d a THUNK?

Via Con Dios, Amigos!