The Cheese Stands Alone
February 11th, 2009Three Hundred Million Blind Mice
I am somewhat leery of the practice of opening the Bible at random and asking God to tell me what to read. But sometimes I do it anyway, because I can’t decide what to look at. And I have to admit, it seems to work. Usually my eye lands on something very useful or appropriate.
Here’s something I stumbled on a few days back. It’s from the 12th chapter of Job:
9 Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
11 Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
12 With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.
13 With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding.
14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
15 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
16 With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.
18 He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle.
19 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.
20 He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged.
21 He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.
22 He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
23 He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again.
24 He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
25 They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.
This stuff is true. Job said some things that were wrong, and God corrected him, but much of what he said is consistent with the rest of the Bible.
Naturally, I thought of the current economic mess. Barack Obama is doing everything wrong, and leftist cheerleaders are issuing shrill but unconvincing screams of approval. Before Obama came along, liberals in our government screwed up by coercing banks to lend money to people who clearly could not pay. The people who ran our lending institutions made the bad loans, which is really astounding, if you consider what an obvious mistake it was. And George Bush made a bizarre eleventh-hour dive into the cesspool of socialism, rewarding those who helped put us in this mess and encouraging others like them to continue eroding our economy.
Electing Obama, in and of itself, was a remarkable mistake. He’s a career academic and politician with virtually no experience, and his only “qualification” is that he did well in law school. And the more time passes, the more inadequate and immature he appears.
How can you look at a string of boneheaded mistakes like this and not ask yourself if something beyond the natural is at work? The stupidity of the things we’ve done is powerfully evident, and to many people, it was evident before we did them. Can mere human error explain it? I find it hard to believe.
The world is like a rat maze, and we are like the rats. We can’t see over the sides of the partitions. We can only guess at the locations of the cheese and the electrodes that deliver electric shocks. When we find the cheese, we take the credit. We declare our superiority over the rats who have no cheese, and we say our success was due to a combination of hard work and extraordinary ability. Those things matter, but they are worthless unless someone who can see the maze from above gives us guidance. And if you don’t get that guidance, or, worse, you are guided toward the shocks, all your wonderful efforts and attributes amount to nothing.
It looks like Netanyahu is going to win the election in Israel. I am told he has his faults, but surely he will be an improvement over his naive land-ceding opponents. With any luck, he will work to rebuild Eretz Israel, and he will manage to get Obama on board, and our fortunes will improve, because we will no longer be working to undo God’s promise to Abraham.
Of course, if that happens, we will be told that the great genius Obama saved our hides.
Prophecy tells us nations that help divide Israel will be punished. I believe it wholeheartedly. I hope we change course before times get so hard Americans end up smuggling themselves to China in shipping containers.
February 11th, 2009 at 12:16 PM
China? Pish posh, I’m off to Brazil. They at least know how to drill for their own oil, and the women are much more attractive (at least for my taste) than China’s.
February 11th, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Netanyahu should be appointed Israel’s Finance Minister for life for turning their economy around by reducing socialism. The shekel is strong against the dollar and I never thought I’d say that in my lifetime.
Netanyahu gave up Hebron, burial site for Judaism’s patriarchs and matriarchs and first capital of King David’s monarchy. Hebron, Shechem (now called Nablus) and Jerusalem are clearly titled to Jewish ownership and are more the property of Jews than Eilat or Tel Aviv. Imagine a US president giving up the Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials to appease groups whose charters called for the annihilation of the US? Sorry, but Bibi is not the answer. I think Clinton’s goons (Carville and Shrum openly and actively meddled in Israeli elections) found skeletons in Bibi’s closet and are holding him hostage as they did still-comatose Ariel Sharon, who could not bear seeing his son imprisoned by Israel’s uniformly leftist judicial branch (imagine a Supreme Court with anti-religious clones of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, but with John Kerry-esque arrogance).
Ps. 146:3 “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation.”
February 11th, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Being a tolerant Atheist, I understand your desire and need for that powerful creator.
However, also as a former scientist, I say, let’s do some science!
I am also going to open a book with an idea in mind.
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Third Edition) is in hand. This is especially fun because it also has biblical quotes.
Here is where the book opened, and my eye landed:
ELIZABETH BOWEN 1899-1973
One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it.
The Heat of the Day (1949), ch 10
No joke.
February 11th, 2009 at 3:04 PM
How does that quotation relate to this post?
February 11th, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Steve, we don’t know if Barak Obama did well in law school, or any school, for that matter. His academic records are sealed tighter than Fort Knox. Well, tighter than Fort Knox used to be, anyway.
February 11th, 2009 at 3:36 PM
Is that true? I’ve read that he graduated magna cum laude.
February 11th, 2009 at 6:38 PM
[…] Old Wire Road A church of Christ Undenominational Christianity in Fayetteville AR. created an interesting post today on The Cheese Stands AloneHere’s a short outlineThree Hundred Million Blind Mice. I am somewhat leery of the practice of opening the BBible/B at random and asking God to tell me what to read. […]
February 12th, 2009 at 8:07 AM
Well, he may have started doing better at Harvard, but he never did release his transcripts. These are the best links I can find, don’t know how reliable they are.
http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2008/10/barack-obamas-gpa-and-college-records/
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB122108881386721289.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_Barack_Obama's_grades_in_college
For someone who’s so high on himself, you’d think his stellar records would be all over the place.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:48 AM
A mediocre guy with a proer bit of wisdom about the world will do far better than an exceedlingly bright guy who doesn’t understand the way the world actually works. If the One is truely smart, with his fundamental misunderstandings of human nature and the way life actually works, he will do even greater harm.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:23 PM
I don’t know about anybody else, but all this gloomy talk makes me hungry for cheesecake.
yoho
February 12th, 2009 at 6:26 PM
I don’t know about you, Leo, but everything makes me hungry for cheesecake.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:30 AM
“How can you look at a string of boneheaded mistakes like this and not ask yourself if something beyond the natural is at work?”
Steve, I’ve thought the same thing many times. The strange, almost eery adulation being heaped on Obama for everything he MIGHT do. He’s somehow a role model for marriages, a savior of the economy, a visionary leader…despite never having actually led anything.
It forces one to seriously consider the influences of spiritual deception. I’m not saying that he’s the Serpent of Revelation or anything, but something along the lines of, “such that even the elect might be deceived…” does spring to mind.
It disturbs me that people are so ready and willing to put so much of their faith in one man, to be so dependent on him, and untried and unknown quantity, for their “salvation.”
I’m working on a post to this effect entitled, “The Golden Calf.”
February 13th, 2009 at 12:10 PM
Dis you see the guy chosen to ask a question at the town hall meeting in Florida? Went all hyper like he was a pentecostal type worshiping the O. Scary.
February 14th, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Israel would be better off inviting Lockeed and FMC to move to Israel and forgetting about Obama… this is a man whose entire career has been built on screwing people who depended on him and profiting off it…
February 16th, 2009 at 12:13 PM
The concepts people are embracing have not only never worked whenever tried in the past, but should be sufficiently obviously contrary to human nature that no one would expect them to ever work.
Spiritual deception is the best explaination (nothing else seems to make sense).