Curtis Dahlgren
Do pollsters, pundits, and experts get paid for that stuff?
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Give thy king your justice, and may he judge the people with righteousness. Let the mountains bear prosperity, and the hills. In his days may blessed conditions and prosperity abound." – a prayer of Solomon and/or David
I ADMIRE SALESMEN. Because I'm not one. But you just have to admire the sales deal that Mr. Trump just closed. He was the most "outside" outsider since Moses came back from the desert saying that we could make Israel great again, or God would. The short version of the story:
When Moses was born he was an insider with the Hebrews, but doomed. He arrived in Egypt an outsider, a basket-full of deplorable. But after being adopted, he became an insider – inside the royal palace – but an outsider to the children of Israel. After defending a Hebrew slave one day, an Israelite asked him, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?"
Ironically, about 40 years later, he came back to become precisely that. That wasn't an easy sell because by that time he was an outsider to both Egypt and the Hebrews. In the meantime, he had been helping run a resort and golf course called "Burning Bush." He took care of the sheep that mowed the fairways and greens. He liked the outside work, but one day he saw the light and began thinking more about the Hebrew slaves. He told his father-in-law "I quit." And his wife was ticked!
Back in Egypt, Moses' adoptive mother was dead, so he had no insider connections. He may have been "wanted" even. We've heard the story of his sales pitch before the Pharaoh, but it would have been interesting to see Moses and Aaron's sales job in Goshen. Even the outsiders there thought Moses was an outsider. Anyway, conventional wisdom didn't bother Moses because he had faith. He got the Pharaoh's attention without paying any bribes!
His opening trump card was a walking stick that turned into a snake. The insiders at the stock market were nervous, but the Pharaoh's advisers took a frozen snake and laid it on the hot pavement. It woke up of course and wandered off. After that, no matter what plague God brought on the nation, the Pharaoh's cabinet explained everything in physical terms (such as global warming, etc.)! With that kind of a consensus, he wasn't about to let the Israelites go, and we all know how that story ended, don't we?
Moses and Pharaoh had a parting of the ways at the waters, and Moses said "WE WON." It may have been the highlight of his career, but a few weeks later he went mountain climbing. The insider-malcontents in the camp were complaining, in the first week, that Moses had been gone too long and ought to be impeached. When he came down from the mountaintop, he broke the Ten Commandments – into many pieces. Now he was an outsider with God too, and had to go back up the mountain.
To make a long story short though, the Children of Israel made it to the River Jordan in only about 40 more years. Moses got to see the Promised Land. However, God told him that because of his temper, he couldn't cross the river. Joshua and Caleb had become the insiders. He ended up on the outside, but he said "WHAT A VIEW." And the rest is history.
P.S. Psalm 72 (above) is a prayer for the king:
"May he be like rain that falls on the earth. In his days let blessed conditions and prosperity abound 'til the moon is no more. May he have dominion from the River Euphrates to the ends of the earth."
Solomon's empire was a forerunner of a kingdom by a King not natural but supernatural:
"May all kings fall down before Him and bring gifts. May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the mountaintops may it wave. Amen and Amen! [the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended]"
PPS: Speaking of history, Veterans Day was also the 396th anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing at Cape Cod, looking for New York City. I just read a children's book from the library on the 1621 Thanksgiving. The book was by The National Geographic, so of course they get nit-picky and want to rewrite as much of history as possible. They claim the 1621 meeting was more of a negotiating conference than a celebration. Nothing is said about the pilgrims protecting the local Indians from their enemies. If we hadn't come to the New World, tribes would still be fighting over "territory" (even they though they said no one "owned" the land – so how could we "steal" it, eh?).
Anyway, the book mentions Robert Cushman, one of the Plymouth residents, and I'm almost offended by the way the Geographic portrays him, because the farm I grew up on in Wisconsin bordered the Cushman's. A grave marker on their farm noted so-and-so "Fifth from the Mayflower."
Sometimes when the history revisionists insult those early English settlers, those are fightin' words for us Swedes and others who came in their footsteps. Some of the pilgrim and Puritan descendants might have been some of your next-door neighbors as well.
May God STILL find it worth shedding His Grace on Thee, America!
© Curtis Dahlgren
November 12, 2016
"Give thy king your justice, and may he judge the people with righteousness. Let the mountains bear prosperity, and the hills. In his days may blessed conditions and prosperity abound." – a prayer of Solomon and/or David
I ADMIRE SALESMEN. Because I'm not one. But you just have to admire the sales deal that Mr. Trump just closed. He was the most "outside" outsider since Moses came back from the desert saying that we could make Israel great again, or God would. The short version of the story:
When Moses was born he was an insider with the Hebrews, but doomed. He arrived in Egypt an outsider, a basket-full of deplorable. But after being adopted, he became an insider – inside the royal palace – but an outsider to the children of Israel. After defending a Hebrew slave one day, an Israelite asked him, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us?"
Ironically, about 40 years later, he came back to become precisely that. That wasn't an easy sell because by that time he was an outsider to both Egypt and the Hebrews. In the meantime, he had been helping run a resort and golf course called "Burning Bush." He took care of the sheep that mowed the fairways and greens. He liked the outside work, but one day he saw the light and began thinking more about the Hebrew slaves. He told his father-in-law "I quit." And his wife was ticked!
Back in Egypt, Moses' adoptive mother was dead, so he had no insider connections. He may have been "wanted" even. We've heard the story of his sales pitch before the Pharaoh, but it would have been interesting to see Moses and Aaron's sales job in Goshen. Even the outsiders there thought Moses was an outsider. Anyway, conventional wisdom didn't bother Moses because he had faith. He got the Pharaoh's attention without paying any bribes!
His opening trump card was a walking stick that turned into a snake. The insiders at the stock market were nervous, but the Pharaoh's advisers took a frozen snake and laid it on the hot pavement. It woke up of course and wandered off. After that, no matter what plague God brought on the nation, the Pharaoh's cabinet explained everything in physical terms (such as global warming, etc.)! With that kind of a consensus, he wasn't about to let the Israelites go, and we all know how that story ended, don't we?
Moses and Pharaoh had a parting of the ways at the waters, and Moses said "WE WON." It may have been the highlight of his career, but a few weeks later he went mountain climbing. The insider-malcontents in the camp were complaining, in the first week, that Moses had been gone too long and ought to be impeached. When he came down from the mountaintop, he broke the Ten Commandments – into many pieces. Now he was an outsider with God too, and had to go back up the mountain.
To make a long story short though, the Children of Israel made it to the River Jordan in only about 40 more years. Moses got to see the Promised Land. However, God told him that because of his temper, he couldn't cross the river. Joshua and Caleb had become the insiders. He ended up on the outside, but he said "WHAT A VIEW." And the rest is history.
P.S. Psalm 72 (above) is a prayer for the king:
"May he be like rain that falls on the earth. In his days let blessed conditions and prosperity abound 'til the moon is no more. May he have dominion from the River Euphrates to the ends of the earth."
Solomon's empire was a forerunner of a kingdom by a King not natural but supernatural:
"May all kings fall down before Him and bring gifts. May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the mountaintops may it wave. Amen and Amen! [the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended]"
PPS: Speaking of history, Veterans Day was also the 396th anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing at Cape Cod, looking for New York City. I just read a children's book from the library on the 1621 Thanksgiving. The book was by The National Geographic, so of course they get nit-picky and want to rewrite as much of history as possible. They claim the 1621 meeting was more of a negotiating conference than a celebration. Nothing is said about the pilgrims protecting the local Indians from their enemies. If we hadn't come to the New World, tribes would still be fighting over "territory" (even they though they said no one "owned" the land – so how could we "steal" it, eh?).
Anyway, the book mentions Robert Cushman, one of the Plymouth residents, and I'm almost offended by the way the Geographic portrays him, because the farm I grew up on in Wisconsin bordered the Cushman's. A grave marker on their farm noted so-and-so "Fifth from the Mayflower."
Sometimes when the history revisionists insult those early English settlers, those are fightin' words for us Swedes and others who came in their footsteps. Some of the pilgrim and Puritan descendants might have been some of your next-door neighbors as well.
May God STILL find it worth shedding His Grace on Thee, America!
© Curtis Dahlgren
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