From:          Gary Collett
To:              heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject:       The City of Jerusalem


Greetings from Jerusalem!

  Thank you for the responses, interest, comments, inquiries, and
requests concerning the "Hand of God, Jerusalem".

  Have you ever considered that the left hand is the mirror of the right
and the right the mirror of the left?  This seems like a child's
statement.  But is it not true that many times Children pick up on the
obvious?  I have found that it is often what is right in front of me that
I miss the quickest!  I have often failed to take scriptures in the
simplest of meanings.  Of course, it is dangerous to take one or two
scriptures and build a whole theology or doctrine upon them.  That is how
individuals or groups go off into tangents, which turn out to not be
truth!  So how do we establish "truth"?  Before I continue talking about
the left hand and the right hand let me dialog about truth for a moment,
as ** discerning truth is **  Spiritual Warfare!

    There is not room, nor time to establish all of the evidences
of both scientific, legal and personal experiences that the Bible is
exactly what it claims to be, namely the Word of God  (inspite of
translation differences or denominational understandings, which also
differ).  (Please do not take me wrong, I am not against differing
translations nor denominations as they all have their strong points).

   I was once told by a young woman, who wanted to discredit the Bible,
that there were no absolutes.  The response to her statement..."is that
an absolute"?  There are absolutes!  How do we establish a truth or
absolute from the scriptures?  First, if there are multiple statements
about or related to the same issue.  Second, if something is said only
once and our understanding of it does not conflict with any other
scripture.  And lastly, if scripture implys but does not outright say.

** Obviously **  the last method of establishing truth is
the most dangerous because of interpretation.  The last method
has to be more in line and in agreement with all other scriptures than
any other method.

      For our investigation of the right hand/left hand imagery we
have a multitude of scriptures to look at.  In the Tanach (Old Testament)
there are 119 verses (if  I counted right) dealing with the right hand.
In what is called the New Covenant or New Testament there are forty-five
verses.  All of these verses are also complimented with other references
to the "right" toe, shoulder, arm, ear, etc, etc.  If all these verses
are compared against each other ** and **  those speaking
of the "left", then I think there is a clear picture, which shows truth
concerning the r/l imagery.  The right hand is a depiction of God's
spiritual realities and is then reflected back to the left hand.  Without
the right hand there is no left hand.  What does this mean concerning
Jerusalem as it is geograhicly a left hand?

    In the desert economy, which Israel took on in the forty years of
walk-about with Moses, water was a very limited, precious commodity, as
also in Egypt.  I know people argue over just how many were partakers in
that forty years and just how many came into the promised land.  How many
people is not the issue here, but their need and use of water is an
immense issue.  Whether one person or several million, water is of prime
concern.  Water would be the first item scouted out in any area for the
flocks, drinking, washing and all other needs.  Without water there
was/is death.  The desert helped promote the habit of only
washing the right hand, ** to conserve water, ** used for
eating, ** shaking hands **,  for social contact.  If a
person was caught in a serious crime, such as stealing, then such a
person was marked by the index finger of the right hand being cut off.  A
harsh but effective punishment, but also a great deterrent!  Who wants to
lose a finger and become permanately, socially marked?  But if a person
was caught a second time in a serious crime the hand, ** the
right hand was cut off at the wrist **.   An even harder and
harsher punishment.  It is called "the right hand losing its cunning"!

The effects are more than just losing a hand, which is personally
devastating enough.  The person could no longer eat with the right hand
or shake hands, literally the person became a social outcast, rejected,
unaccepted in any form or way, in society, with others.  This is
devistating, litterally at times leading to death!

        I know that in the Psalms the writer is reflecting his own
feelings in Psalms 137:5.  But I have more than just a suspicion that the
writer is also reflecting the heart of God.  Why would God allow such a
statement to be said about His own right hand? Remember Isaiah 51:16
reflects that God covers the city with his "right" hand.  If Jerusalem is
destroyed or un-retrievable then there is no city to which Christ can
return.  Simply put...the left hand of the Earth becomes a signature of
God's promises because of the "right hand".  Jerusalem is a modern day
signature to the truth of the Bible!  It is the city to which Christ
shall return.  God has an invested interest in the earthly Jerusalem as
He has His name placed there! Remember the Hebrew letter formed by the
three valleys?

    The newly started resolves to expand the boundaries of Jerusalem, by
the Municipality of Jerusalem, is going to have repercussions world wide.

    Could this be a beginning of the reflection of God's Right Hand and what
He intends for the future?  On whose side will we stand?

In his Love,

G.R. Collett, DD

**********************************************************************