#or use the informal 'you' with him although Josiah can and does use it with *him*

[isfjmel-phleg]

Before Tamett and Josiah leave for school in Book 3, it has been an established rule that they do not travel together. Not that they travel to the same places but separately, but that Tamett does not accompany the royal family on any trip they may take, whether for public appearances, or state visits, or vacations. The reason for this is that he is simply not needed at these times. He is there primarily to do lessons with Josiah, which are less of a priority while traveling (but still done if possible! Josiah is typically expected to squeeze in some serious reading and an essay or two while on the road). There is no point in his being present for public appearances or state visits because he is not a member of the royal family. Which also disqualifies him from family vacations--he is not being paid to enjoy himself by the sea or in the mountains, and these times are usually when he gets a chance to go home.

As much as he enjoys going home, he has low-key resented getting left out of going anywhere potentially fun or interesting.

So there is one advantage to being sent away to school--he gets to take a steamship for the first time, gets to see more of the world...gets to learn that Josiah is a) extremely prone to motion sickness and b) extremely embarrassed about it, especially in front of Tamett, whom he currently hates, and therefore deals with it by being particularly impossible. And it's now solely Tamett's responsibility to look after him at these times.

This is not overly important. I just felt like mentioning it.

[psycheswritings]

Nothing’s Fair in Love and War - Six

Title: Nothing’s Fair in Love and War

Fandom: Peaky Blinders

Pairing: Thomas Shelby x Daphne Scott (OFC)

Warnings: Swearing.

Word Count: 4022

Author's Note: Hello, people! Here we are with a brand new chapter. A few warnings before we begin (or after, because is basically information about somethings mentioned during this chapter and it could be interpreted as spoilers, so it's up to you): 1. I know that according to the audio of "The Ballad of Tommy Shelby" the boys enlisted in 1915, but as @andtherewerefireworks​ pointed out, this doesn't fit with the historical facts and informations given by the show (as a lot of other thing's don't, but apparently Steven doesn't give a fuck about it - don't let me get started) so I ignored this piece of information - the boys enlisted in 1914 instead and the world makes sense again; 2. I did some research to know more about military nurses and took a poetic license to ignore the age that was permited for women to enlist at the time; 3. Kugel really is a Jewish dish and I am shamelessly entertaining my headcanon that Alfie does, in fact, cook/bake. Sorry, not sorry. 4. Have I mentioned that sometimes I hate Steven? Because I do. There were somethings that took me a lot of time to figure out between episodes 04 and 05 of the third season and I am still not sure about somethings, so if you feel confused about something you're more than welcome to come talk to me and I can explain it.

Fair warning, as always, if you find any mistakes feel more than free to report back to me; warnings are expecific for each chapter; and your feedback is always appreciated (given the fact that this is a sideblog, answers always are in the name of my main one thanks to dumb Tumblr - @myplaceofheavenorhell​). Also, if you haven't read my "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" post (I really don't blame you), please, start following me on @amysteryspot​.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Summary: Alfie and Sabini make amends and join forces to get rid of the Peaky Blinders. Daphne and Polly have a very pleasing evening and Tommy goes visit May to ensure that things are going according to his plan, only to be met with a question he doesn't want to answer.

Masterlist

Six

Alfie Solomons was never known for a man who has a lot of patience, no, people tend to think that he actually has none at all but that is far from the truth. God knows that he had to have a lot of fucking patience to get where he is now, Alfie is a man who is always waiting for the right moment to do the things that would benefit him the most. And that was what he was doing right now - waiting to see if the decision he has made would, in fact, bring him any good.

The doors of the bakery were opened by two of his men and Sabini came into view - the italian flag on his hands, three of his men behind him and his second in command, Matteo, with a white flag by his side. They approached each other, the Jew gave the Italian the basket of bread that was immediately passed over to Matteo, before he stepped closer to Alfie giving him the standard three kisses on the checks as a form of greeting.

“I can’t help but notice that there is a presence in absence here today. Isn’t Miss Scott joining us?” Alfie was kinda expecting that since the Italian seemed to have a soft spot for the young woman, but the question almost made him frown for entirely different reasons. Daphne had left hours before to go to Birmingham and meet with Polly Gray, she didn’t knew about the meeting or his plans but somehow that didn’t make Alfie worry less about her like he thought it would.

“Daphne is out in another appointment. Just us today, so let's talk, eh?” Sabini shared a look with Matteo before nodding to Alfie guide them through the bakery. The Jew sat on one side of the table with Ollie by his side, cane propped up in front of him, his hands resting on top of it, while Sabini and Matteo did the same at the other side, their men behind them and a menacing silence filling the room until the Italian leader spoke.

“Did you know they was going to take the Eden club?”

“I know about the Eden club, yes.”

“Did you know they were going to do it before they did it? Because that's the one who's in charge, isn't it? The one who knows before it happens.”

“I know what I know, you know. If you don't know, then you don't fucking know, do you?”

“Did you know they was going to take Wimbledon dogs? Harringay? The trotting tracks?”

“Talk, all right? I genuinely want to hear you.”

“You've lost control, Alfie.” Matteo was the one to talk, making Alfie look at him in concealed anger.

“Have I?”

“Everybody knows.” The Italian added.

“Talk to me, Alfie.” Sabini said, interrupting the argument and making Alfie’s attention go back to him again.

“Talk to you?” The Jew paused for emphasis. “All right, I'll talk to you. I'll fucking tell you how it was, right? What happened was this. All the time you were talking about dirty fucking Jews. All the fucking time - dirty fucking Jews, dirty Kikes, dirty dustbin lids…” The Italian leader shared a look with Matteo again.

“Everyone makes jokes.”

“You want to talk about not getting into places?”

“Everybody makes fucking jokes. I didn't know you had no sense of humour!”

“And I ain't going to FUCKING mention, right, the great big fuck off elephant in the room.” Sabini closes his eyes for a brief moment before talking again.

“Look, Alfie…”

“How many of my bookies worked Epsom this last May? None. None. Not one.”

“So, for a few fucking jokes and Epsom, you fucking invite a tribe of savages into the city and just fucking unlock the fucking gates!” While Sabini is yeeling and gesticulating frantically with his hands Alfie is just sitting there, not even bored by it.

“I'm sorry, what are you saying, mate?”

“I'm saying I'm sorry about the Jew thing.” To say that Sabini seemed bothered by his own words would be an understatement because he was completely put off by it, to Alfie’s deepest contentment.

“Are you saying you're sorry?” Patience, patience always paid back in kind.

“Yeah.”

“You're sorry about the Jew thing?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“I want that in writing.” He turned to Ollie. Write that down. He said, ‘I'm sorry’.” Looking at Sabini again he continued. “And also write down that all our bookies can go back to Epsom.”

“He didn't say that.” Matteo barged in.

“Who's asking you?”

“No. Write it down. It's all right. Come on. Alfie's an old friend.”

“My friend.” The Jew gangster says while staring at Matteo and pointing at Sabini.

“Now, admit it, the Peaky Blinders is out of control.”

“Yeah, they're out of fucking control, mate. They come down the canal, they spread like the fucking clap.” Although the kind of problem that the Blinders have gotten to the Jew were ones fairly different, the Italian didn’t needed to know.

“Right. So now they're everybody's problem.”

“Yeah.”

“Alfie.”

“Mm.”

“You and me, we've been fighting since we was at school.”

“Yeah.”

“All right? Now, also, we've been friends.”

“Mm, yeah.”

“You know, it goes backwards and forwards. How much better is it when we're friends?”

“Oh, it's much better, mate, yeah.”

“You write that down.” Ollie looks at Alfie that just nods at the younger man.

“So what we're doing here, right, is we're writing down some kind of a deal thing, right?”

“Yeah, a written deal.” 

“Written deal, good. Well, why don't we discuss the border between the Italians and the Jews going back to Farringdon Road.”

“Farringdon Road”

“Yeah, Farringdon Road.”

“Fuck! That's ancient history.”

“Write down Farringdon Road.”

“No, no, no, write down Camden Road.”

“Farringdon Road.”

“Camden Road.”

“Write down Farringdon.”

“Camden.”

“Farringdon.”

“Camden. Write down Camden Road.”

“Just write down ‘peace’. Just write down ‘peace’, right, between the Jews and the Italians.”

“And war against the gypsies.” Alfie just grumbles to the statement, thinking to himself about how Daphne will react when she discovers his plans. It certainly won’t be pretty and for the first time in a long while the Jew gangster starts to rethink his actions.

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

Daphne was waiting at the parlour in the Shelby family home on Watery Lane, the youngest Shelby was the one who guided her there saying that his aunt was coming in a minute and then leaving her alone since Josiah had chosen to wait for her outside, in the car. The young woman took off her coat and hang it on the coat rack on the wall just beside the front door, deciding to take a look around instead of sitting down.

There were a lot of photographs hanging on the walls and on top of the furniture, most of them were of the Shelby’s children growing up. Daphne recognized a young Ada and a little Finn in one of them, just beside the fireplace there was a photograph of each one of the Shelby siblings but what caught her attention almost immediately was the portrait of the three eldest Shelby boys in their uniforms. Her fingers automatically went to her locket, caressing the metal as a way to soothe her own thoughts.

“They were taken just before they left.” She must have been really distracted because she only noticed that her hostess arrived when she was already closing the door, taking off her own coat and approaching her. The gipsy woman noticed that Daphne was yet again playing with the necklace hanging from her neck. They shook hands before the both of them turned to look at the images again. “I’m sorry for making you wait, there were things that needed my attention.”

“Don’t bother, I’ve had only been here for minute.” Silence filled the room but unlike what Daphne expected it wasn’t a discomfortable one.

“It feels like it was a lifetime ago.” There was this hint of sadness that Daphne knew too well when people who had loved ones on the war usually had when talking about that period.

“And at the same time it seems like it was yesterday.” Polly looked at her then, surprise in her features.

“You’ve been there.” Daphne took a deep breath, not looking at the woman beside her when she spoke.

“Yeah. Whole four years of it.”

“My God, you must have been only a child when it started.” The young woman felt quite amused by the motherly concern in Polly’s voice.

“Eighteen.”

“You’re almost John’s age then. He was nineteen when he left. Arthur was twenty seven and Thomas twenty four.” When Daphne looked at her still observing the pictures there was a hint of a smile on her face. “They were so different, so full of life.”

“None of us came back the same. We all left a part of ourselves there.” As her hand rested in her chest, feeling the all too familiar form of her locket through the fabric Daphne thought that she certainly had lost a part of herself there, a part of her that she would never recover.

“You sound like Tommy.” Daphne smiled at that, shaking her head briefly while Polly observed her with a mixture of admiration and curiosity.

“It’s not the first time that I hear it.”

“Come, I will make us some tea.” They headed themselves to the kitchen were Daphne sat at the table while Polly walked around preparing things for the tea. When the pot was ready she served them both a cup and sat down.

“You’ve caused quite the impression on the boys.” Daphne quietly sipped on her tea. She didn’t know what to expect of the encounter, what she did knew was that Polly was baiting at her, getting her out of her comfort zone to see how she reacted and further analyze her especially now that Alfie wasn’t around. But one thing that Daphne have learned from experience was that people involuntary let their guard down at home and even knowing that Polly had another house to call her own now, this was the one she passed most part of the time in still, the one where she lived most part of the last years and the one she still called home.

“A good impression, I hope.” The gipsy woman looked at her, smirking slightly, the action a little warmer than the cold demeanor that she had showed on the party.

“Ah, it was good just alright! I think Arthur is still teasing John for trying to flirt with you.”

“He had it coming.” Polly laughed, really laughed and Daphne couldn’t help but smile too.

“He sure did, but I gotta say that he is not used at being rejected. None of them are, really.” The young woman choose not to answer that, just smiling and sipping at her tea again and Polly decided to change the subject. “You and Ada know each other for long?”

“Yeah, it’s been a while. Before Freddie fell ill.”

“You’ve met him?” Polly was surprised that the two women knew each other for that long.

“Once or twice, he was more running from the coopers than at home.” Polly scoffed at that, getting up to take the food and put it on the table. “You didn’t approved of them.” It wasn’t a question but Polly answered anyway.

“Freddie was a good man, I just wish that he knew how to prioritize his family instead of the cause.” Daphne nodded in understanding, since she befriended Ada she had had quite some debates with herself about the way the Thorne’s lived. It was hard for Daphne to understand how Ada accepted living on the run because of love, her parents were not exactly the image of true love - an arranged marriage, like the one she was supposed to have if she hadn’t gone to France - even though she believed that her mother had loved her father at some point, the other way around was definitely not true.

“I never really understood how Ada accepted living like that but I don’t have much to compare so I tried not to judge her for it.”

“No lad caught your attention after you came back?” The gipsy woman took a sip of her tea before continuing. “Or during your time in France?” Daphne had a pretty good guess that she must be talking about William since she had seen them together at the party.

“No. Not that way.” The older woman just nodded, eyes trained on the other woman’s reactions.

“Not even Solomons? He is not hard on the eyes and you two seemed quite close.” Daphne laughed at the statement - people seemed to never give up on the subject of her and Alfie being a couple.

“Alfie is family.” The way she said it, so naturally, so devoid of doubt made Polly think that their bound was deeper than she first predicted. Polly was certain that there was more to their relationship than what they let people know - Alfie Solomons wasn’t a man known for his honesty or loyalty, nevertheless, the woman in front of her had been by his side since the end of the war.

It was obvious to her too that the man who was observing her and Tommy from the mezzanine during the party felt more than just friendship towards her but it seemed that Daphne didn’t reciprocate it - which, apparently, left the way clear for Tommy and that’s where the lived the danger. Then she decided to make a bold move.

“Let me read your leaves.” Daphne was quite taken aback by the request, she blinked twice before answering the gipsy woman.

“Why not.” Polly was surprised that she accepted the request so easily - maybe more surprised by that than by the fact that she had requested to read the girl’s leaves in the first place.

“Pour some tea into the cup and swirl it.” The young woman did what she was told. “Now put the tea back into the teapot.” Polly extended her hand for Daphne to give her the cup, after taking it she gave one last glance towards the young woman before starting to analyze the cup.

“There’s happiness in your future but there is also a lot of pain.” Silence filled the room while the older woman swirled the teacup in her hands. “You will be betrayed and have your heart broken. You will also find something that you thought was lost.” Polly rested the cup into the table and looked up to meet Daphne’s hazel eyes in silence for a long time before she finally spoke again. “You seem like a good girl, Daphne, and if I didn’t thought that I wouldn’t say to you what I’m gonna say now: be careful. Love is a good thing but sometimes it can blind us and that’s when we get hurt.”

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

When Tommy arrived home at the end of the day one of the first things that he noticed was the teacup resting on the kitchen table. He picked it up, looking at the leaves inside it and directing his gaze to his aunt who was observing him, sipping her own cup of tea while leaning onto the kitchen counter.

“Lizzie’s been here for you to read her leaves again, Poll? You still leading her own…”

“It wasn’t Lizzie.” He recognized the smug look on his aunt’s face - she was leading him to something, the teacup left onto the table was a bait for him to talk to her, it was all part of her plan. He put the cup back where he found it and turned around to pour himself a drink.

“Then who was the poor soul that was believing in your predictions?”

“Daphne. She left just some minutes ago.” He stopped for a brief moment but it was enough for Polly to notice. Daphne had been here? How he didn’t know that?

“Didn’t think that she would be one for these kind of stuff.” He turned around, glass of whisky in his hand and her aunt’s gaze still on him and his curiosity got the best of him. “What did you find out?” By the smile on his aunt’s face he knew that this is what she wanted all along.

“That she is a good girl - too good for you.” Tommy huffed at the statement taking a sip of his drink - he didn’t need any tea leaves to know that. “She will have her heart broken by the man that she loves.” Polly walked to her nephew, stopping right in front of him and holding his gaze. “Will you be that man, Tommy?” He just stood there nursing his drink, long before the woman had left. He had vowed to himself to never let another woman into his heart again, not after Grace, but it was difficult to remember that when he was around Daphne. She was constantly proving him wrong, challenging him, sneaking into his family’s good graces. Would he be the one to break her heart or would it be the other way around?

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

Alfie was waiting for her when she arrived home - sitting on his usual chair in the balcony of the drawing room, humming something to himself. Daphne approached him and called his name but he didn’t seemed to notice, to lost on his thoughts.

“Everything alright?” He looked at her then, his attention caught by the hand she gently placed on his shoulder, the woman could tell that he seemed a little off just by the expression on his face.

“Yeah, yeah.” The Jew got up from his chair to stand in front of her. “How was tea with the gypsies?”

“It was just Polly. Everything went fine, she is actually very hospitable.”

“Hum. Good.” He didn’t seemed less tense after her answer. “I’ve made you some kugel for dessert, I know it is your favorite.” Daphne frowned at that.

“There is some special occasion that I’m forgetting? You haven’t cooked in ages.” He stared at her in silence for a long moment before answering.

“No, just appreciating the company, love.”

“Well, thank you, kind sir. I’m just going to take a bath and we can have dinner then.” Alfie nodded at her, letting her go upstairs while he just observed as she disappeared. He really hoped that at least for one time in his life he was doing the right thing.

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

As Tommy drove to the Carleton’s property he thought about his next steps. May had showed her interest in him and he was going to play his cards to ensure that his horse would be able to run the Epsom. She had also mentioned having contacts at the War Office and that could grant them information on Daphne. He just wasn’t expecting the extent of the Carleton’s wealthiness.

“Mr. Thomas Shelby, madam.” One of the maids announced him and Tommy entered the room without a second glance at the girl.

“Nice house.” He says as he looks around and approaches May, who is looking at him a little unsure. It was more than nice house, probably the most expensive fucking place he had put his foot on during his entire life.

“Would you like a whisky? Scotch or Irish?”

“Irish.” She turns her back to him to serve the drink and he takes the time to look out the window, taking a cigarette from his case. “Sorry for the short notice. I was passing.”

“We're not quite on the Birmingham road.”

“It was a small diversion.”

“Sixty miles, I checked.”

“That's a small diversion these days.” He says, approaching her and lightening the cigarette that is already between his lips.

“So, I'm a small diversion. Good.” She hands him the whiskey before taking a sip of hers. “Your horse is still out on the gallops, but I had Mickey prepare this report. You can read it now if you'd like, then we can go see her.” May hands him the file with the reports and he rests it on the table, starting to scan the pages as he clears his throat. “Is there enough light for you to read?”

“Yes, it's fine.”

“It's getting quite late.” She sits down on the couch, Tommy doesn’t react to her words and continues to read the report but he notices that she is nervous. “Mickey says she has the lungs of an elephant. She's nimble in the heavy going, but bounces a little on the hard ground. Sorry, I'll let you read.”

“So, he thinks she'll favor good to soft ground, eh?” Tommy closes the file while talking.

“A little juice in the grass.”

“Mm. Well, that's good for Epsom.” He pauses, looking at her and placing his empty glass on the table. “Does he think she's not good enough for Epsom?”

“She needs a lot of work.” May observes as he takes a drag from the cigarette. “The race board will need convincing.”

“I imagine you have some influence.” She doesn’t answer him directly.

“Mm. That's the suggested program for the next two months.” As Tommy goes back to looking at the report, May gets up from her seat. “Your glass is empty.”

“It's fine.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes, a bit.”

“I can prepare something.”

“Do you have engine oil?” There’s a hint of surprise in her features as she looks at him. “Before I set off for Birmingham, the car needs oil.”

“I'm sure my husband kept some in the garage. I can get someone to do it.”

“This evening or tomorrow?” They stare at each other for a moment, he waits for her next step.

“Well, we're so far from anywhere, people usually stay over.” She is clearly nervous as she takes a set at the couch again, sipping her whisky. “Especially before cars, when it was just carriages, people used to stay over all the time.”

“But I have a car.”

“Yes.”

“And you have engine oil.”

“Probably.” Her words are all but a whisper before she pauses, nervously looking at the other way. “But it would be very usual.”

“What would?” His eyebrows raising as he waits for the answer, making her admit it out loud.

“For a guest to stay. We have a whole wing called the guest wing.”

“Oh, you…” He almost smirked at the information. “You have a guest wing. Well...” Then Tommy notices that she is crying, silently, trying to hide her tears by facing the opposite wall. He walks to her, calling her name softly and resting a hand on her shoulder, trying to soothe her. Thomas never liked when woman cried, most part of the time it put him off because he didn’t exactly know how to react and, in this particularly scenario, it wasn’t something that he had predicted. “Have a smoke.”

“Thank you.” She accepts the cigarette from his hands and observes as he takes a step back to light another, taking a sit at the other end of the couch. “Ignore this. It's actually all right. I put all his photos in a drawer and locked it, as if that was going to make a difference. I'm like a fucking lighthouse keeper, out here on my own, keeping his flame burning. But, of course, when anyone sees a lighthouse they stay clear, don't they?” May observes as he seems to take a moment to think.

“Now, do you have a map? Of the house. Do you have a map? Because I'm not going to be able to find my way in the dark. You see, at midnight, I'm going to leave my wing and I'm going to come find you. And I'm going to turn the handle of your bedroom door without making a sound and none of the maids will know.”

“You don't know maids.” She scoffed at him.

“They hear a pin drop?”

“If there's a man in the house, they listen. They take turns.”

“So, let them listen.” Things were going according to his plan but Tommy couldn’t help remembering his aunt’s words that would keep echoing inside his head for the whole night.

Taglist: @stressedandbandobessed7771​

[keepingupwithfundies]

Sure! I can try anyway! A lot of stuff like this is me going with my gut and reading tea leaves. I could be off base for sure. But as a reminder, my list:

So the first three are together for a few reasons. Alyssa and Whitney have shown they will work outside the home. All three take their children on experiences and expose them to things many fundies wouldn't. All three dress modernly and casually, and don't seem overly concerned about modesty standards. Jinger and Alyssa, at least, attend non-home churches not run by a parent of one of them, and I THINK Whitney and Zach do too. Whitney and Alyssa both send kids to VBS. All three have some degree of separation from the larger family structures, and have eschewed many of their parent's rules and teachings. I suspect, although this is one of those things I can't confirm, all three couples intend to limit their family size one way or another.

I think Carlin and Evan will fall into this group eventually, but there's just not enough information yet. Evan is clearly less fundie than many of them, and was raised more mainstream. Carlin was basically in pants the second the wedding ended. They at least SEEM less focused on OMG IMMEDIATE BABY. They dated a long time before marrying and followed the rules for it, but they were definitely on the more touchy feely side.

Jill and Derick are a bit of a puzzle, because it's possible they are limiting family size but there were also reasons to at least speculate there may have been complications with Sam's birth that could have delayed a third pregnancy, although I've never really believed that because I don't think Jill would have kept it a secret this long. Derick is a jerk, but he seems to have lost his missionary zeal and taste for extreme fundamentalism. It almost seemed like a phase. He's seeking a professional degree. Jill is hanging out with moms who send their kids to preschool. They've separated a lot from her family. And frankly, they very rarely reference church and religion these days. It happens but it's gotten less and less over time. Then there is The Nose Piercing Heard Round The World. They still engage with his alma mater. They go to science museums and train restaurants rather than creation museums.

Josie and Kelton are very 🤷‍♀️ for me. His family seems more fundie than Evan's, but not as fundie as the Bates or Paines. She was pregnant immediately after marriage though and she's still super young, so they could have easily taken a year or two to get used to being married first. But she does clearly put some value on working outside the home, or at least did until Willow was born, so we will see if that's something she stays open to. And obviously they've chosen different modesty standards than her parents. Josie is very young, so I do see some possibility that she remains very wrapped up in her parent's orbit which seems like it would lead to being more fundie than otherwise. So very up in the air for me.

JD and Abbie is another confusing one. Both ATI/IBLP kids, but Abbie's family seemed to move away a bit, at least in terms of allowing her to work as a nurse, which would be a huge no under IBLP teachings. She's lived and worked in the real world. They were pregnant within a year, we now know, but they're both also older, so I think they're of an age where they've lived adult life and a lot of people marrying at that age would start trying right away. We don't see enough of them really to know if Abbie has continued to wear pants, and we don't know if she'll ever return to working. JD certainly seems the most independent of the Duggar sons, and seems like he buys the BS parts the least of them, so I think there's some hope they'll move to a less restrictive form of fundamentalism. I'm not sure we'll ever know really though, because they both seem to want to stay as private as possible.

Jessa, Tori, and Josiah all seem to have stayed or returned to their family orbits, and have maintained similar modesty standards. They all seem likely to not limit their family size, given current circumstances and who they married. Bobby has been involved with pretty fundie churches. Jessa and Josiah both still depend on JB in various ways for their financial well being. Josiah at one point seemed primed to move further away from fundamentalism, but I think they found him the perfect wife to prevent that and seem to have reprogrammed him much as they did Joy. Honestly, there's not a huge jump from this group to the one below, but I think all of them allow their wives strong voices in the family and world and a big part in making decisions, so that's some separation. I also believe Jessa lets her boys access entertainment that some of the next group wouldn't.

Joe, Josh, Erin, Joy, and Michael all seem to live fairly standard, by the book IBLP lives. Joe married a pastor's daughter and they've maintained the same modesty standards. They seem to have a very traditional dynamic. Kendra has no schooling or work history. Their children thus far are very close together. All of the women are very Keep Sweet. All of them have maintained their modesty standards. Many of them are still heavily involved in IBLP. None appear to be trying to limit family size. The women don't work, and definitely seem to cede decision making to their husbands. (Maybe Erin is a bit if an outlier there. I think Chad respects her a lot and she still works on her music.) Brandon obviously works for IBLP. Chad and Erin both have parents on the IBLP Board. Joy and Austin help run a fundie camp. If you wanted a group at Big Sandy to show off as the model of marriage, this would be the group you'd pick. (Josh excepted, but Anna definitely.)

Hopefully that all makes sense! - Mary

[magic-multicolored-miracle]

Nancy Drew: The Curse of the Dark Storm

So, I really liked this episode. It was atmospheric and exciting, moved the mystery along while still giving us new questions, and had some moments that showed off character cleverness.

I also really like that the show is making it so that her friends are just as clever as Nancy is and really able to share the mystery-solving equally depending on the situation/circumstances. In fact, so far we’ve seen more puzzle-solving from Ned, sorry Nick, than we have from Nancy. Get on your game Drew. 

As usual, context-less commentary there below:

What is with your accent right now Ace? You got all…southern

Ah good. George is being practical about it and does not believe she’s marked for death. 10/10 appreciate you’re logical

I mean because we saw him pull something out, we as the audience know the text is referring to Nancy’s mom’s car. But he’s a MECHANIC, that text could have meant ANY CAR

If he were a murderer, this confrontation would be an excellent way to get yourself killed girl

Ok, I liked her attitude at first, but it’s starting to get one-not and annoying

Do you not have an office building Carson? Or at least a room where your confidential client conversations can’t be eavesdropped on?

What natural causes could have killed her suddenly?! She was a young, healthy woman in her 20s/30s who randomly dropped dead in a diner parking lot. Really?!

Is there anything you people don’t have a ghost story attached to?

I swear, Yelp! must sponsor the show or something

Rat on your boyfriend or go to prison. Thanks for those great options, Karen… Also her felony charges are unrelated to the murder so they shouldn’t be dropped because you find someone more likely to be guilty of that (legally) unrelated crime.

Congrats Nancy, you made things worse!

Kate’s a social worker now instead of a journalist? Interesting. I wonder how much it’s going to matter ultimately

I mean that’s what you get for heating a completely empty coffee pot…and having dangerous decorations precariously hung…and…dammit please don’t let curses be real

Also, Rita is a new person several episodes in. Tragic, or suspicious. Only time will tell which.

Will solving the clock lead to Josiah Crowley’s real will?!

A salt circle stops demons not curses usually. And why did you need a how-to video for making one?!

I felt that way about Edith Wharton in my English class too. Although we were reading Ethan Frome.

Not going to lie, but the way Nick is talking about her and the one quote he read, calling books their “secret language,” it all adds up to a very romantic-feeling picture of their relationship and I hate it because it would be the second weird, creepy adult-child relationship in the show, or alternately I hate it because the CW’s subliminal messaging is getting to me

That thing does not look like a B&B at all. Certainly not one I would ever want to stay at…

Why are you so obsessed with money? 

Even if this was not a terrible clichéd idea, you are in a professional meeting and should not have wandered out of it, dumbass

Under the influence can also explain away ghosts…I can work with that

Snerk. Dad car.

Oh no, poor Bess…

She was going to make this into some sort of library or reading-centered community center, wasn’t she?

Again, confrontations that can lead to major problems, so maybe don’t have them in creepy buildings in the middle of a storm. Know your tropes.

I feel like we could appreciate this whole “Nick solves an important puzzle” thing more if we had the context and information to be thinking about it ourselves too, or if he and Nancy were starting from the same basic info and he’s working it out faster/better.

Glad you figured its in the kitchen, whatever “it” is, but hiding would be an excellent idea right about now, not getting caught sneaking about on a dead woman’s property, especially since you’re a major suspect in said death.

He already told you it’s being made a public landmark. That means you can’t strip it for parts to sell, idiot.

Carson, asking the smart questions, but much like your daughter, wrong place wrong time is how people DIE

Hell yeah! Cask of Amontillado!

So all this was for or because of Nick? That’s…concerning…

Shit, they’re gonna get caught…

Has Nick been wearing gloves? Or are his fingerprints all over everything now?

Well shit. Poor timing Karen.

I really like how each character has a color associated with them. Nancy is blue, George is green, Bess is yellow, Karen seems to be purple.

Aren’t your legs cold Nancy?

That speech was sweet. Melodramatic, but sweet.

I do not like Karen.

Who the hell are you Rita?! And why are you so creepy af? Oh good, so she was never really there. Awesome. Goddammit.

Nick, you don’t need to open these wounds just to build trust. Although I did kinda suspect it was something along the lines of protecting someone else, or that the person was abusing him somehow, or maybe just racist and trying to kill Nick, but the first is the plainest/surface “what  good guy” justification, almost cliché at this point, to be honest.

Thank you for that levity Ace. It’s part of why I’ve quickly come to love you.

Perfectly timed dramatic sunlight after the storm is perfectly timed and dramatic.

There’s no hole in the floor where she pulled that out…

$5mil in Bearer Bonds is exactly the kind of thing Ryan Hudson would have been looking for, and might have killed to get… Don’t do anything stupid Nick…

Oh, we’re intervening in the Bess situation, good. Or at least as much as she’ll let you.

Jut…forget what you know Carson. It’s for the best.

Creepy ghost, maybe, I don’t know, fuck off?

So I was technically right that Rita was tragic, just in a creepy/sus. Way

If you did, it seems like you’re just consolidating killers under one roof. Since we’re still being expected to believe that Carson is responsible for “Dead” Lucy

Trailer: Alright, so it looks like it might be a Bess-centric episode, which is cool since we don’t know much about her. But also, I’m just going to have to accept that ghosts are real in this version of things, aren’t I? I refuse and intend my denial to last at least the first 5 episodes. Fight me.

[cassandraclare]

q&a prejudice and Shadowhunters

nevergonnagiveyouuporletyoudown said: Hi Ms. Clare! I was just curious as to why the kids at the Academy were mean to Alastair. Shouldn't Shadowhunters be less racist? They travel and see people of all different backgrounds, and if Idris is a center for Shadowhunters then shouldn't there be people of color there too? They have to work together so why wouldn't they accept each other?

katy-krazy-xoxo said: Hi Cassie! I want to ask about Alastair and Jem. Alastair was treated poorly in the Shadowhunter Academy due to his Persian heritage. So how was that Jem, with his Chinese heritage, wasn't being discriminated against in TID?

galbinuscarnation said: I was wondering, why was Alistair made fun of for being of Persian descent? I was under the impression that he was a Shadowhunter first, although as we've seen many Shadowhunters adopt their local customs from whence they came. It could be a product of the times, or maybe related to his parents, but I have been wondering this for quite a while. Thank you!

I see this question is on people's minds! Yes, Jem’s experience was different than Alastair’s — because there is no one monolithic experience for people of color in any situation, and we’re talking about an entire spectrum of behavior. Shadowhunters are generally less racist than mundanes, because their prejudice against mundanes and Downworlders trumps their prejudice against other Shadowhunters. They’re already banded into a subgroup — Shadowhunters — by which they identify themselves. That doesn’t mean there’s never any prejudice within the subgroup: that’s sadly not usually how these things work. 

As we’ve seen, Idris is indeed full of people from all over the world, but so is New York, and that hasn’t erased racism from existing there. And while being a Shadowhunter is the most important thing to them--the first, essential thing--it isn't the only thing. Since we’re looking at 1903 — Shadowhunter society would have involved somewhat less of the systemic and structural racism of the time, because racism wasn’t encoded into their Laws the way it was into the laws of the US and England: what we see is more of a pattern of microaggressions and offensive assumptions and beliefs. 

To look at another issue: Shadowhunters in 1903 were also generally less sexist than mundanes — women had a vote in the Council in 1878 when they didn’t have a vote in mundane government. But that doesn’t mean they’re not sexist at all. 

“I never meant to hurt Charlotte.”

“Charlotte is very sensitive about the way the Institute is run. As a woman, she must fight to be heard, and even then her decisions are second-guessed. You heard Benedict Lightwood at the Enclave meeting. She feels she has no freedom to make a mistake.” — Clockwork Angel

Shadowhunter society is folded into ours, never entirely independent of ours--though invisible to us, they walk among us, and are necessarily influenced by our world. Portals are a new invention in TID, and still recent in TLH, and so before that it was easier for Shadowhunters--as it was for everybody in the past--to think of the world as just the people immediately around them, who often looked and acted like them, because travel and seeing different places and people was immeasurably more difficult. (In part, the whole idea of the “travel year” was meant to ameliorate that, and we can see that in some cases it did help, but it wasn’t enough on its own!) 

Moreover, Shadowhunter Academy, as we saw in 1899, was populated overwhelmingly by white boys--who were also presumed to be straight--being brought up in what was thought of as Shadowhunter Tradition, capital letters. The Victorian Era was a time of travel and an expanded world, but also a time when the British Empire —which stretched over vast portions of the globe — uplifted white men as the default, the natural ones to have power, and the Clave is influenced by that as they are always influenced by the bleed of mundane culture into theirs. Boys at the Academy make connections that turn into them being comrades with political influence later in life, in the same way old boys' networks of politicians exist now. Josiah Wayland, Consul during TID, was a white guy. and Victor Whitelaw, Inquisitor during TID, was a white guy--and that wasn't an accident. Inquisitor Bridgestock in TLH is a white guy, and very powerful because conservative Shadowhunters are edging away from their female Consul, and that isn't an accident either. There are people of color, there are women of color, who would've been amazing Consuls and Inquisitors in the 1870s, but they didn't get the chance. Women were rarely sent to the Academy; we know this from Nothing But Shadows. Charlotte was the first female Consul, and she didn’t have an easy time of it: women in the next generation were still less likely to be warriors or politicians. Most, though not all, of the Consuls have been white. Also, PoC Shadowhunters just weren't sent to the Academy as often, because the Shadowhunters are aware of how the world works and the parents of those children didn’t want to do that to their kids. James with his Downworlder heritage went because he wanted to go, because he wanted to find friends his own age (which he did) and look how that turned out. 

Racism is varied in different times and places and situations, and all circumstances and experiences or racism are not monolithic. I think it's fairly clear that Alastair attended the Academy at a time when there was a pretty rotten bunch of kids in his class. That sucks. It happens, in real life and in fiction: in the Narnia series, one brother (Edmund) has a horrible character-altering time of it at school, and his older brother Peter is just fine. Alastair was sent by his father Elias, who is white, and thus being white was able to tell himself that racism doesn't exist among Shadowhunters, that there are no microaggressions (I mean, none of them would know that word, but microaggressions still exist in TLH: we see Mrs Bridgestock call Alastair “that Persian boy” and Mrs Bridgestock, who loves her PoC daughter, thinks of herself as just describing Alastair, but Alastair and Cordelia both know what's up, and react accordingly.). Elias had the privilege of not really thinking about it. Alastair paid the price. 

Jem didn't go to Shadowhunter Academy--neither he nor Will ever went, and neither of them knew what the Academy was like: Jem lived in London with the very accepting Charlotte and Henry. And Jem was the son of two well-respected Shadowhunters who died hero's deaths, and so he got some slack. Alastair, the son of a suspected murderess and a disgraced and despised Shadowhunter (we'll see what's up with Elias in TLH!), does not. These things are never simple! But Jem did have to deal with racism. Benedict Lightwood and Tatiana and--I'm sorry to say--Gideon and Gabriel's attitude to Jem is definitely informed by racism. Will has behaved badly to the Lightwoods (for understandable curse reasons) but Jem has done nothing to them, and Gabriel definitely prefers Jem to Will, but Gabriel isn't exactly a peach to Jem either. In Clockwork Angel Gabriel references Jem's “disability”—which Will understandably takes extreme issue with!--and equates Jem being tortured by yin fen with an opium addiction--the fact Jem is half Chinese, and that Gabriel's mind jumped to opium addiction, is no mistake, and Will understands and is insulted on Jem's behalf. Even though Gabriel, like Mrs Bridgestock, doesn't intend to be racist, microaggressions are often unintentional.  

(From Wikipedia: “There was much prejudice against the East End Chinese community, with much of it initiated by the writings of Thomas Burke and Sax Rohmer. Both of these men wrote about the Chinese community. Burke and Rohmer exaggerated the Chinese community's true size and made much mention of gambling, opium dens, and "unholy things" in the shadows.”)

I don't say this to be down on Gabriel. Benedict raised his kids horribly, in bad harmful beliefs! They needed space to learn, and grow away from him — and they did! Gideon and Gabriel changed for the better. I don't want to portray a perfect society, or perfect characters, but complicated ones, with complicated attitudes that can hopefully change. Jem didn't have the same experience as Alastair; he had his own experience and both are valid. So has Magnus, and Lily, and Jia, and Aline, and Raphael, and Diego, and Cristina, and Jaime, all in their different ways. Shadowhunters are urban fantasy books, not high fantasy books: they do take place in part in our real world, and though prejudice in the Shadowhunter culture is complicated by prejudices we don’t have (Downworlder prejudice, prejudice against folks with demon blood!) they also experience the prejudices we do have. 

“They have to work together, so why wouldn't they accept each other” is really true, but also applies to the real world. We all have to work together, so why don't we accept each other? I wish we would. The world would be better, and work better, if we did. But we don't. I hope someday we will.

[jupitermelichios]

Cap 4: Marvel’s big chance for important diversity

Captain America really doesn’t have a lot of iconic solo storylines, probably because he’s been a team player since before Mutants were an acknowledged thing. Which is probably why Marvel have mostly been using Cap movies to further their main Avengers storylines.

My suggestion for the next Cap film is to a) do an actual Cap film, and b) take the chance to explore the most important part of Cap mythology left unexplored in the MCU – Isaiah Bradley.

See, after the scientist who turned Steve Rogers into the magnificent hunk of all-American beef he is today was killed, it was discovered that he hadn’t actually written any of his notes down, because he was really fricken bad at science. No peer-review for you, Dr Erskine. The first Cap film dealt a bit with the Nazi’s attempts to recreate the formula, but so far the MCU has carefully avoided talking about the experiments the American government did to try and recreate it. (The MCU’s incredibly pro-America, USA-centric attitude is a discussion for another day).

Specifically, I’m talking about the experiments they did on a unit of African American soldiers, a fairly obvious reference to the actual experiments run on African Americans by their own government in the 40s. The one survivor of the unit was Isaiah Bradley, sometimes called the Black Captain America. He gained powers similar to Steve’s, and stole an old Captain American uniform to lead a mission to destroy the German super-solider research programme. He was successful, but one his return to the US he was court-marshalled for stealing the uniform and spent seventeen years in solitary, slowly getting sicker and sicker due to the corrupted version of the serum the army had given him.

He was eventually freed because of his wife, a Muslim professor of Comparative Theology called Faith Bradley, who petitioned the president tirelessly. He was free, but sworn to secrecy about what was done to him, and his health was rapidly deteriorating.

In an attempt to recreate the qualified success that was Isaiah Bradley, the army used genetic material (including sperm, because the Marvel military are the actual worst) from Isaiah and later also Faith, to attempt to create a child who would be born with the super solider abilities.

Long story short, he was named Josiah (and later took the surname Saddiq), raised in a Catholic orphanage, fought in Vietnam, and then later discovered the identity of his bio-parents.

He did eventually get to meet them, though by this point Isaiah’s neural damage had progressed and he was largely unaware of his son’s presence.

He converted to Islam shortly after, and was a member of the Black Panther movement for a time, before training as an Imam, opening a Mosque in Brooklyn, and becoming a Superhero by the name of Justice, who used his inherited powers to defend his community, using the shield his father had used.

I think you can all see why this is an important story for the Marvel universe to include.

How I’d do it is this – Isaiah, perhaps through his old military contacts, becomes aware that the military is restarting its Super-soldier programme. It’s important that this is the military, not Hydra, or AIM or any other monster. This is sanctioned. Obviously he wants to stop this, because he’s seen what this did to his father.

(This is also a chance to bring in the Weapon Plus programme, although probably by a different name because rights issues. You know how Wolvie is Weapon X? Cap is weapon 1. Weapon 2 is technically a super-intelligent squirrel with Cyclops eyes and wolverine claws, because comics are the best. Currently we’re up to weapon 16. The various Weapon Plus programmes are really major antagonists in the Marvel comics, and by focusing on Isaiah, Marvel have a way to bring them into the films without annoying Fox and starting another rights battle).

Josiah seeks out Cap, (he’s aware of Justice, who I would have introduced in the Defenders), and tries to tell him what’s happening. At first Steve is kinda suspicious about this random Imam trying to tell him about weapon plus, and he doesn’t believe him.

But Cap’s a good guy, so after Josiah leaves, he does some digging, and what he finds horrifies him. Everything Josiah said is true, and more. It’s not just those initial experiments on Isaiah’s unit, this shit has been constant for years. There’s the experiments on animals in the 50s, there’s the skinless man, there’s the experiments on prisoners in the 60s and 70s, there’s Bruce Banner, because that’s why his research got funding. And then he finds the references to Project Homegrown, most of which are recent, none of which mention it being shut down, and shit, maybe Josiah had a point.

Project Homegrown looked at the other weapon programmes, and decided they didn’t include enough child abuse. It produced on only result, from a starting pool of at least 15, but they’d been working on him since he was a child. His name is Frank Simpson, code-name Nuke, and he’s armour plated, part Cyborg, and has a pretty effective healing factor. He’s also been massively brainwashed, which seems unnecessary when his handlers are literally drugging him to induce the emotions they want him to feel, usually massive amounts of psychotic rage.

Cap and Josiah fight him, destroy the facility, because it’s a Cap film someone inevitably betrays them (probably whoever was Cap’s source for the information about Weapon Plus), and the film ends with Cap meeting and paying his respects to the other man who wore the uniform, and who gave up so much for it – Isaiah Bradley.

And our post credits scene? Isaiah’s grandson, playing with his Uncle’s costume, because that grandson is Elijah Bradley aka Patriot aka the leader of the young Avengers, and someone vital to the future of the MCU.

[faithfulnews]

The Rebellion and Restoration of Israel

By Dan & Brenda Cathcart

The video version of this teaching is at: https://youtu.be/s61lkuLX4dc

The Scripture reading is: Isaiah 1:1-27

The last few weeks we have been focusing and studying the life and prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived in Judea and Jerusalem at the time of king Josiah and later through the destruction of Jerusalem, the first temple and the subsequent exile of most of the inhabitants of Judea to Babylon. This week Shabbat falls on the ninth day of the month of Av, the very day that Jewish history records that both the first and second Temples were destroyed.

As we finish out the remainder of the year leading up to The Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah, we will be reading exclusively from the prophet Isaiah.  The opening chapter of the book of Isaiah is a kind of preface or table of contents to the rest of the book. Isaiah introduces us to himself and outlines the overarching themes of his dissertation.

Isaiah 1:1-2 NKJV 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me;

It all sounds so familiar. Although Isaiah lived some one hundred and thirty years prior to Jeremiah, the pattern is the same; rebellion against God, judgment, and restoration. On this ninth day of Av, the saddest day in history, there is still the hope of restoration.

In this Haftarah we are dealing with a very short passage of scripture, but it contains vitally important information about the state of Jerusalem and Judah. The entire scope of the book of Isaiah is about Judah’s rebellion and restoration and is summarized in this short reading. In it we will see the nature, the judgment, the remnant, and the cure of their rebellion along with their restoration.

Over the last several months and especially the last few weeks while studying the prophecies of Jeremiah, I have been amazed at how often the people of Israel and Judah, primarily the leadership, had repeated the pattern of sin against God and the amount of trouble it caused them. You would think they would learn!

Isaiah uses the term “rebel” or “rebellion” throughout his writings.  The Hebrew word is “paw-shah”, number 6586 in the Strong’s concordance meaning to break away, trespass, apostatize, or revolt. Israel, or in Isaiah’s situation, primarily Judah, was in a near constant state of rebellion.

In verse two Isaiah announces their rebellion to all of the heavens and earth. In verse three Isaiah indicates that even the ox and donkey know who their master is.

Isaiah 1:3 NKJV 3 The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider."

It might not be a good idea to open your argument by insulting the intelligence of your audience, but that is what Isaiah did by comparing them to oxen and donkeys. In calling on the witnesses of heaven and earth, Isaiah is reminding them of the covenant God made with them referring to some of the last words from God to the Children of Israel at the plain of Moab.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NKJV 19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Isaiah then launches into a listing of the specific rebellions that Judah did beginning with forsaking the LORD.

Isaiah 1:4 NKJV 4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.

Israel was intended to be called a holy nation, set apart for God among all the nations of the earth to be priests to the nations and an example. Isaiah now calls them a “sinful nation.” They have abandoned and turned away from God and have become like the other nations around them. The Hebrew verbs used by Isaiah make for a particularly strong rebuke against Israel. They have literally “turned away backwards” in their heart, actions and words.

The concept of the holiness or separateness of God is a driving theme throughout the book of Isaiah. The prophet refers to God by the title “The Holy One of Israel” no less than thirty-nine times. By invoking this title, Isaiah is undoubtedly reminding Israel of the nature of God and their unique relationship to the creator of heaven and earth!

In verse seven, Isaiah changes the tone of his oratory from a metaphorical presentation to a present tense. He speaks as if the physical judgment that is coming as a result of their rebellion has already happened or is happening as he is writing.

Isaiah 1:7 NKJV 7 Your country is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

The next type of rebellion that Isaiah speaks of is their practice of an empty religion.

Isaiah 1:11-12 NKJV 11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts?

God was not telling them to abolish the sacrificial system, but that they were abusing the system God put in place and had created an empty religious ritual from it. Perhaps their thoughts were if one sin offering was a good thing then ten was certainly better!  They were also just going through the motions of celebrating the new moons and the appointed festivals as if they were merely the right thing to do in their culture without giving consideration as to what their purpose was.

Isaiah 1:13-14 NKJV 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies-I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

These empty religious practices were going on for quite some time before Isaiah entered the picture. Many celebrations of the Feasts of the LORD are mentioned throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles, but by the time of Isaiah, they were practicing the appointed times in their own way, changing the very character, nature, and purpose of God’s Feast days and filling them with empty ritual.

In addition to the physical judgment because of their rebellion, they will experience a spiritual separation from God because of their empty religious practices.

Isaiah 1:15 NKJV 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah goes on to point out their lack of justice toward each other and the most vulnerable in their society.

Isaiah 1:16-17 NKJV 16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

The rulers and leaders of Judah and Jerusalem had become degenerate and corrupt.

Isaiah 1:21-23 NKJV 21 How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water. 23 Your princes are rebellious, And companions of thieves; Everyone loves bribes, And follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

We see some terrible consequences for their rebellion against the Holy One of Israel! We see the consequences of this rebellion throughout the book of Isaiah, but we also see the promise of healing. Chapter fifty-three, for example, in particular speaks volumes of the healing power of the Messiah and how He will minister to His people.

Isaiah 53:5-6 NKJV 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The Hebrew word translated as “stripes” in fifty-three five is number 2250, khab-boo-raw, from the root word number 2266, khaw-bar meaning to couple together, to have fellowship with. Any healing from their rebellion can only be accomplished by entering into fellowship with Messiah, a personal relationship, not empty religious practices.

Back in chapter one verses eight and nine, Isaiah introduces us to the concept of a remnant.

Isaiah 1:8-9 NKJV 8 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city. 9 Unless the LORD of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah.

The image of the shelter in the vineyard and the watchman’s hut are like small islands of refuge in a sea of desolation and destruction. Sodom and Gomorrah did not have any righteous remnant left within them once Lot and his family were removed.  In chapter’s thirty-six through thirty-nine, Isaiah relates the story of the siege of Sennacharib during the reign of king Hezekiah where all of Judah was overrun and only Jerusalem remained. If it was not for the grace of God, Jerusalem would have been lost as well.

The existence of a remnant does not mean that God would not execute judgment on them for their unfaithfulness to the covenant. In verse ten, Isaiah addresses a warning to the remnant as if they were Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:10 NKJV 10 Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah:

The concept of a faithful remnant is seen throughout Isaiah. And we see that this remnant is a righteous remnant that owes its salvation and existence solely to the grace of God! We also see that this remnant is the preserved true believers and covenant keepers from Israel.

The apostle Paul also speaks of a remnant of those who were faithful and believed God’s word, at one point, quoting Isaiah.

Romans 9:27-29 NKJV 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." 29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."

So far in the opening chapter of Isaiah, we have read about the nature, judgment, and remnant of Judah’s rebellion. But there is more, there is hope! There is a cure for their iniquity and rebellion should they choose to accept it. Part of the cure we already read, but it deserves repeating. Isaiah presents the cure in verses sixteen through twenty.

Isaiah 1:16-20 NKJV 16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword"; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah tells Israel of the path to spiritual and ritual purity.  Their sickness can be cured, and they can be counted as the remnant. The first step is that they must wash themselves from the stain of their sin. The second step is they must do good. Doing good is the outward sign of true repentance. Living a life reflecting God’s righteous acts is a characteristic of repentance.

In verse seventeen, Isaiah tells them that they must learn to do good. Learning involves the study of the ways of God through His word. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is God’s instruction in righteous living. The apostle Paul spoke of this to Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Just learning God’s word on an intellectual level is not good enough.  The people Isaiah and the other prophets address were primarily the leaders, priests, and kings. They had come to know the words, the forms, and the rituals, but little else beyond that. Their religious practices had little substance. If the leadership is practicing an empty religion, how can they properly teach the people the ways of the LORD?

Isaiah puts some emphasis behind his words when he says that doing good means physically practicing justice for the vulnerable and less fortunate of their society.

In verse eighteen of our Haftarah, Isaiah indicates that the stain of their sin can be washed away, and the curse removed. Their sin is a crimson stain that can be made white again.  This is exactly what John referred to in Revelation

Revelation 1:5 NKJV 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

In verses nineteen and twenty, Isaiah reminds Israel of the benefits of repentance and returning to covenant faithfulness. Isaiah restates the conditions recorded in Deuteronomy. The wording that Isaiah chooses emphasizes that obedience will bring blessings and disobedience, disaster.  But the important thing to remember is that nowhere, in Isiah’s prophecies or anywhere else is there ever a dissolution of the covenant God made with the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai!

At the close of the Haftarah reading, Isaiah finishes with stating the things that God alone will do. He gives a hint to the Messianic Age yet to come!

Isaiah 1:24-27 NKJV 24 Therefore the Lord says, The LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, "Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, And take vengeance on My enemies. 25 I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy. 26 I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city." 27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, And her penitents with righteousness.

Ultimately all these things will only happen in their fullness when Messiah returns to rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem. God declares that He will redeem Jerusalem with justice and put an end to all His enemies. At the same time God’s judgment will fall on the unfaithful and unrepentant.

What we see in this opening chapter of Isaiah is a hint at the central, overarching theme of his entire book: the coming of Messiah and His atonement for His people! What is clear from Isaiah is that God alone is the only one able to redeem Israel. The righteousness of Messiah Yeshua and His atoning blood is the only path to the ultimate salvation of Israel. And it is that salvation through Messiah, which is open to all who call upon the LORD God of Israel!

Study Questions:

1. Discuss the connection of this teaching to the Torah Portion Devarim, Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22.

2. Isaiah describes the leadership of Judah and Jerusalem as being apostates practicing a dead or empty religion. Describe the problem they had with their religious practices. Discuss how they fell into this state and how we too can be trapped in empty ritual. Share personal experience if you wish.

3. What is the remnant described by Isaiah? How does this remnant affect the rest of the nation?

4. What are the possible ways to understand verse 1:18?  What is your interpretation and why?

5. What is the difference between the ways God judges the ungodly nations and the way he judges His own people?

6. What new insight did you gain from this teaching? How do you respond to this new insight? How will you realign your life based on this new understanding?

© 2019 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.

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[dailyaudiobible]

12/19/2018 DAB Transcript

Zephaniah 1:1-3:20, Revelation 10:1-11, Psalms 138:1-8, Proverbs 30:11-14

Today is the 19th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is great to be here with you on hump day, and we’re inside of a week for Christmas now. So, my son, Ezekiel, he's starting to count down the days, probably your kids are too. And I don’t know if its busy around your neck of the woods but it's definitely busy around ours. So, having this rhythm, this space, this sacred space that we create each day together around this global campfire for the Scriptures to be poured into our lives is an anchor. So, let's get to that. So, it's no surprise that we we've been moving rapidly through the minor prophets in the Old Testament and previous to that we had moved rapidly through a number of letters in the New Testament. So, we've been encountering new books of the Bible regularly as the end of the year approaches. Today is no different. Today we'll read another short but complete prophetic book. And this is the ninth of the minor prophets the book of Zephaniah.

Introduction to the book of Zephaniah:

Zephaniah, as with so many of the other minor prophets, we know very little about who Zephaniah was. The only substantial information we have is found in the first verse of the book, which reads the Lord gave this message to Zephaniah when Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah. Zephaniah was the son of Koshy, son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah. So, I mean, we could go, well that’s all I really need to know about Zephaniah other than the fact that whatever it was that he wrote down ended up in the Bible. So, I know what I need to know. But what’s interesting about the way this description of Zephaniah is given is that four generations are listed. Usually in the Bible if you're trying to identify a person they will be identified by their father and maybe the grandfather, but in this case,  we’re going back for four generations. And even though it's not certain, this is might be because Zephaniah was a descendent of the good and reforming King, Hezekiah, which would explain Zephaniah’s awareness of the world surrounding him. And we'll see that he's aware as we read the book. And this would also of likely lend credibility to his prophetic work. Like if he was a direct descendent of the good King Hezekiah not only would it have given his voice some standing in the culture it would've also given credibility to the prophecy. So, Zephaniah's name means God has hidden and he states that his message was given during the reign of Josiah. So, this would place him in the early to mid-600s B.C. and make him a contemporary with other prophets like Jeremiah. And, so, many scholars believe that Zephaniah was familiar with the writings of prophets like Isaiah because of the similarities in language and tone. Another thing that’s unique is that a lot of the works of prophecy, whether major or longer works of prophecy or the minor prophets, they’re specifically targeted to a specific group of people, but Zephaniah actually concerns his prophetic work basically with the judgment of the known world, and that included Judah. And according to Zephaniah, this judgment of evil was eminent. And, so, to that end the day of the Lord is a central theme throughout Zephaniah. And with the day of the Lord in view Zephaniah encourages his readers towards repentance before it's too late. In fact, he says as much, “seek the Lord all who are humble and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly, perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you, protect you from His anger on that day of destruction.” So, the day of the Lord and, I mean, we’re kind of in some of this territory in the book of Revelation as well. This can evoke ominous imagery of terrible devastation and it can certainly give fear and dread, but we have to remember that it was evil that God wanted to eradicate, it wasn't people, it was evil, it was deception. But those who were unwilling to rid themselves of evil would indeed be swept away no matter or where they were from according to Zephaniah. But to those who would move through this great day of the Lord would move through with a specific posture and they would survive and, quoting Zephaniah, “those who are left will be the lowly and humble, for it is they who trust in the name of the Lord.” And, as is typical as in the prophetic works, the conclusion of judgment then brings the heralding of a new and pure beginning and Zephaniah is no different, although judgment is foretold and its widespread judgment, so also is restoration. According to Zephaniah, “the Lord will remove His hand of judgment and will disperse the armies of your enemy and the Lord himself, the King of Israel, will live among you, and at last your troubles will be over and you will never again fear disaster.” So, we have certainly end in a tremendously encouraging place. So, with all of this being said, let's read the book of Zephaniah. We’re reading from the new living translation this week. Zephaniah 1:1 through 3:20.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for all that you speak to us each day through your word and the way that your word really does go deep within us and begin to subtly and slowly but methodically and surely change our perspective on nearly everything. And, so, we really have reached a point in the year that we can look back to the beginning of this year and realize we’re not the same person we were. It's not that everything about us has changed, it's not that we are struggle free, it’s not that we still don’t have challenges, and that we still don't have to face hardships, but the way that we're approaching things is being transformed, and we can look back through this period of time where we've invested every single day into your word and we can see that the process of sanctification is in fact real,  it really is happening within us. You truly are making us holy, you truly are changing the way that we see and do everything. And, yes, we acknowledge we have so far to go. But father, we worship you for how far you have brought us. Thank you. We know that this will continue as we continue to apply your word into our lives. So, come Holy Spirit, lead us forward, lead us into all truth, lead us on the narrow path that leads to life, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its the website, its where you find out what's going on around here.

And, you know, how many more ways are there to say it's Christmas time around here. But the Daily Audio Bible family Christmas is coming up, hopefully tomorrow. And, so, we have this annual Christmas party that we share together and that will be fun. It will just show up as an extra episode. And, so excited about that and that you are probably well...I don't know…everybody has their own traditions. And even in the United States we have our own traditions about Christmas. So, traditions are different all over the world but the they might include special church, you know, presentations, plays, musicals, these kinds of things. That usually happens over the next few days and into the weekend and then obviously Monday’s gonna be Christmas eve and I just can't…it's here. Like…I so deeply remember, like it was yesterday, this point in the year last year and it's hard to believe a year has gone by and here we are about to, you know, look into Christmas and then into the eyes of a brand-new, sparkly, shiny new year. So, let’s drink it in and enjoy it for all that it brings to us because it really is a unique time of year. Truly, we the way that we feel during this time of year and believe it or not, that's not always a positive thing. So, for some people it's a deep time of reflection and remembrance. It’s not necessarily even a happy time, but what comes up around this time, no matter what's coming up inside of us, it kind of only comes up this way, this time of year. So, whatever is coming up, whether feelings of home, whether feelings of loneliness, whether feeling grief for someone that you've lost, or whether feeling overjoyed that there will be a reuniting of your family, feel it is the point, like, rather than going one set of feelings is a good and these other experiences need to be suppressed. We suppress them all the time. And then something happens around this time of year and things begin to come up and their invitation to invite Jesus, this Christmas child, into these situations, allowing Him to speak into them, allowing Him to grieve with us allowing Him to heal broken places, allowing Him to wide eyed laugh and rejoice with us, and maybe even lead us into a place of peace that we thought that we wouldn't be able to experience all because we just started paying attention that He is near. So, embrace that as we move into these next couple of days.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if the mail is your preference, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi everybody, this is Tony the Tanker, long time no hear. Just want to say thank you to everybody who prayed for me in my situation. Unfortunately, I’m now divorced. So, that turned into a different thing. But I’m also studying theology after a bachelor’s degree online and I’m really loving that. But the main reason I phoned up today is because I heard Diana Olive Brown’s prayer request from the 12th of December and, Diane I am crying for you. I love you so much. You’re such a sweetheart. So, Lord just please, I pray shalom, shalom for my Diane Olive Brown. She is a sweetheart and Lord please remind her that nothing is missing and that nothing is broken. So, Lord, please be with her. So, Ms. Diane Olive Brown you have my love, you have my admiration, you are the sweetest person out of all the DABbers and we are all praying for you __ . God bless you and take care now. Bye-bye.

You gave us Your word to clearly reveal to us our own powerlessness and then You turned around and gave us Your own dear son to clearly reveal to us Your own magnanimousness help me to truly internalize the message that these two wonderful gifts reveal first that You know I would never be able to transcend my own fragility unless You provide the catalyst through which I could heal secondly that all I had to do at least for my part was to acknowledge and confess my condition and believe in Jesus Your son with all my heart believing that he truly is Your son and has all power to save not only in this life but also beyond the grave it sounds so simple so easy to do but I can definitely confess that that definitely is not true every day is a struggle every step of the way cause there is a part of me that always wants to do things my own way to work out my own problems with the strength of my own hands to draw my own lines of demarcation and to make my own stand but after repeating me trying and failing over and over again I’m happy to confess that I’ve reached my wits end and I’m very thankful Father for the catalyst of Your son and for showing me how easily this battle can’t truly be one

Blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Slave of Jesus, haven’t heard from you lately brother. It’d be nice to hear your voice again. And also, Victoria Soldier, shout out to you. Hope all is well. Know you both are in my prayers every day. And once again, Brian and the Hardin family, thank you for this wonderful podcast for God’s Holy Spirit to flow keep it flowin’ ya’ll. All right, bye bye.

Hi, this is Victoria soldier just calling tonight to pray for some of the DABbers. I want to pray for Marla, he has a niece who has breast cancer, she’s from Albuquerque. I want to pray for her and her niece and her 12-year-old daughter. And I want to pray for Angela, she’s from California and she was having some challenges. I want to pray for Roy from Vancouver Washington. I want to pray for Sharon and her daughter. I want to pray for Stacy from Washington __  in agony. I want to pray for Denise from Washington and she was saying that her marriage is falling apart. And I wanted to pray for Lee from New Jersey, and he was praying for Dr. John. And I just want to have a prayer for Sharon who’s lost her daughter. And I want to pray for those who are going through with their children who’s going through depression and anxiety. I want to pray for those people because God wants to do a miracle in their life and I just want to see God work. Precious Father, I just praise You today. Lord, You are so marvelous. You are so wonderful. Lord, You never leave us nor forsake us. Lord, my sister is having those that are going to breast cancer, Marla from Albuquerque, her niece with the breast cancer. I want to choose…Lord You’re a God who never lost a case. You can stretch out Your hands Lord and You can save or You can just speak the word. You’re a God that can do anything but fail. Lord, I ask You to touch her today Lord. You touch her and You heal that cancer Lord in the name of Jesus…

Hi, my name is Kathy I’m calling from Ohio and I’m sorry, I’m nervous. I need prayer for my son. My son needs prayer. He had a psychotic break down on Monday. Today is Sunday the 16th and we’ve had a very difficult week. He’s not getting the mental health help that he needs. He’s had a history of substance abuse. He can’t hold a job. He was in the mental hospital for 10 days a couple months ago. I don’t know what his diagnosis is because of HIPAA laws. He’s an adult. He had a head injury, which probably complicates matters. We try to get him help and when he says he’s ready to go to the hospital either he’s taken to a hospital that keeps him for 12 hours and releases him after he’s been pink slipped, or he’ll jump out of the car or try to jump out and pound on the windows to try to escape. So, he seems to want help at times but then when it comes down to it he’s not really getting the help that he needs. So, his dad and I are divorced after a long-term marriage and we do work together to try to get him some help. He does have a lot of family that he hasn’t seen. He separated himself from them for a couple of years and we all pray and try to talk to him and well…the extended family doesn’t talk to him because he’s cu himself off but now he’s again lost his phone because of the __ phone calls from the police. Nothing legal but… I’m sorry…I’m rambling…and anyway, the only diagnosis that we know that he has is ADHD and he does have medication for that but he doesn’t take it properly and anyway, he was convinced he was gonna die on Monday and was hearing voices and seeing people that weren’t there and this is just a very scary trying time for our…

[barinacraft]

Ward 8 Cocktail - A Sweet and Whiskey Sour Political Drink

Ward 8 Cocktail Sours Election Night

The winds of political change swept the Ward Eight cocktail into the hands of Democratic politician Martin Michael Lomasney in November 1898. The drink's recipe is said to have been created by Tom Hussion at Boston's esteemed Locke-Ober Cafe, located a few blocks below the southern tip of the then thumb tack shaped eighth ward, across Boston Common on Winter Place, where Mr. Lomasney had just won enough election votes to represent the notoriously corrupt Ward 8 district.*

Or was it? See below.

This sweet and (whiskey) sour cocktail is a fairly easy home bar recipe to make and the opposing flavors of the Ward Eight drink mimic the ideological struggles of the left and right (in spirit anyway). So even if you live in a side-winding, incomprehensible, Rorschach test looking, gerrymandered voting district drawn up to guarantee the winning outcome, the sweet taste of absolute political victory there is sure to be offset by sour election results elsewhere outside the lines. Cheers!

Especially popular where it originated, Bostonians over-indulging in same, find the crowded streets of their city beautifully adapted for going home.

~ Irvin S. Cobb 1934

Behind The Bar

Ward Eight Drink Recipe:

1 ½ oz rye whiskey

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp fresh orange juice

1 tsp grenadine ( pomegranate syrup )

1 maraschino cherry (optional)

Fresh squeeze lemon and orange sections in a citrus juicer. Add both of the juices, the rye whiskey and the grenadine to a cocktail shaker with ice.† Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled V for victory glass. Garnish with maraschino cherry, if desired.

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "VideoObject", "contentURL": "https://youtu.be/aaEk-s-5FAM", "description": "How to make a Ward Eight cocktail from Mr. Boston's Bartender's Guide", "name": "How to make a Ward Eight cocktail", "thumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aaEk-s-5FAM/maxresdefault.jpg", "uploadDate": "2018-10-29", }

A Local Will Demonstrate

Seems almost required to show a Ward Eight video made by Mr. Boston. Don't you think?

More old school. Simple syrup instead of OJ. No mineral water.‡

So Who Really Invented The Ward Eight Cocktail?

Who knows?

The story above is the most widely circulated and certainly the juiciest. After all, who doesn't like a juicy story?

Its a lot of fun to tell and that's probably why it gained traction. However, here are two others and some additional details for the first. You be the judge.

Mahatma Brandy

Or, whiskey in this case.

At least when referring to the drink. Its a word play on Mahatma Gandhi, with regards to Lomasney and the cocktail named after the political district he led.

Mr. L was seen as a God by the local people he cared for and influenced, so when Boston Post cartoonist Norman stopped calling him "the boss" and started using "the Mahatma of Ward 8," he was very happy.1 Not sure how he liked his caricature on the right though.

Its probably more of a reflection of the power hungry politician he was than a caregiver concerned with providing food, clothing, shelter and jobs to the large population of immigrants in his district.

Martin Lomasney is said to have run the Eighth without any subsidized corruption and attended Catholic masses outside of his Ward in an effort to separate church and state.2 He certainly pretended to go to great lengths to appear to be pure. However, there's just one thing.

He had the goods on everyone!

When a favor for a favor wasn't enough, that infamous safe he kept locked behind his desk at the Hendrick's Club was full of dirt on everybody who was anybody and all those who may be someday. You know that must have also included compromising details on his main rivals like James Michael Curley, John F. 'Honeyboy' Fitzgerald and Thomas W. Flood. Money may not have exchanged hands, but secrets were kept secure only as long as the votes were cast as he directed.

Can you say blackmail?

🍸 Cocktail-wise, as far as who made what & why—there's more to the story.

The most popular account, as mentioned above, was actually the third of the three main stories floating around to surface in print. Locke-Ober bartender Tom Hussion is cited in a 1951 Holiday Magazine article as the 1898 architect of the Ward 8 cocktail as a way to toast Martin's election victory that year.3

But, that may not be the case.

The part about Lomasney's election anyway. Although he did serve as an alderman, a state representative and a state senator; in 1898 he was a district chairman of the Democratic Party and pulled a dirty trick on his opponents that almost backfired.

In charge of organizing the nominating convention, he scheduled the assembly for 4:30 pm at the Maverick House hotel in East Boston, five miles across the harbor from the State House, where the candidate's name had to filed by a 5 o'clock deadline that same day. Lomasney's and Mayor Josiah Quincy's contingents both tried stalling each other with various tactics.

The Hendrick's Club crew even joined a funeral procession to avoid road blocks on the way. Once there, the tiny room reserved was too small (by design) for both groups so the North End crowd had to meet elsewhere, causing another delay.

Nominations took only minutes and the race was on.

Messengers for each faction first traveled by tugboat and ferry, respectively. Then both pedaled furiously up the hill on bicycles until Mayor Quincy's cyclist broke his chain and had to run the last mile causing him to lose.

Now there's a reason for the eighth precinct to celebrate!

What's funny though is Lomasney wasn't a drinker. Maybe that's why its called the Ward 8 cocktail and not a namesake drink in his honor.

As yet another side note, its rumored that Hussion didn't start working over at Locke-Ober until 1900 so that casts a little doubt for some as well. Unable to find any information that supports or disproves this though.

So, let's go on to the next claim.

Pub Crawl

Puritan Club bartender Charlie Carter wrote Ward 8 drink history as the first mix master said to have concocted this cocktail. At least according to his 1934 letter to G. Selmer Fougner's "Along the Wine Trail" in the New York Sun where he claimed the credit himself for inventing it to celebrate a 1903 Lomasney election victory. Whether it was an office seat or a ballot issue; his own initiative or another whose outcome he influenced is unknown. This date also causes some to wonder.

Apparently its a popular name for guys who paint the town red though, since actor Charlie Carter stars as painter brother Paul, years later, in the 2012 movie Pub Crawl about some friends in Edinburgh, Scotland who go on a bar tour after one of them wins a bet on the Grand National horse race. Go figure.

Kane Is Able

The second person given credit for creating the Ward Eight was a famous bartender at Locke-Ober's named Billy Kane.

Billy's dead and laid in grave, and all his bones are rotten, but his Ward Eight will pick you up when Billy's long forgotten.

Recognition was given years later in 1940.4

History Of The Ward Eight Drink Recipe

Timeline of Major Milestones

1906 - The Ward 8 cocktail is first mentioned as being on the menu at Boston's Winter Palace Hotel a.k.a. Frank Locke's using Sirop de Grenadine made from pomegranate juice.5

1907 - All the mouth watering ingredients were originally fully listed as French grenadine, lemon juice, powdered sugar, whiskey and soda garnished with lemons, oranges, pineapples and strawberries. No measurements or proportions though.6

1912 - 1st Ward Eight drink recipe was printed as the juice of one lemon, 1 tbs sugar, 1 tbs grenadine syrup, 1/2 glass rye and Apollinaris sparkling mineral water strained into a goblet with ice and garnished with fruit.7

1914 - The Santa Clara Company serves notice in the Boston Globe newspaper saying they own and control the brand "WARD 8." Price is $1.00 a bottle, $10.00 a case. Their trademark to the word and numeral asserts use since approximately November 1912 and is said to consist of compounds of whisky, grenadine, rock candy syrup and lime juice.8

1922 - Orange juice replaces sparkling water as an ingredient.9

1924 - Canadian whiskey in particular is specified.10

1933 - Initial use of bourbon in a written recipe.11

1934 - Several dashes each of orange bitters and creme de menthe are added to the mix. Directions call for substituting fresh mint sprigs instead of creme de menthe when available.12

1934 - Esquire Magazine lists the Ward 8 as one of the 10 Best Cocktails Of The Year along with the Champagne Cocktail, the Daiquiri, the Dry Martini, the Harvest Moon, the Old Fashioned, the Old Fashioned Dutch, Planter's Punch, the Vermouth Cassis and the Vodka Cocktail.

Ward 8 Hosts A Political Cocktail Party

Hope your candidate wins. Be prepared for a long night.

If you plan on having your home bar host a political cocktail party on election night to celebrate whatever outcome it is you'd like to be celebrating, then the Ward Eight drink recipe should probably be on the left side of the menu. Don't forget to offer some politically biased beer choices as well.

BTW: This does appear to be the city's only classic cocktail, so why wait every two to four years to partake. You've got the Bruins ice hockey, Celtics basketball, Patriots football, Red Sox basketball and Revolution soccer teams to celebrate on a professional sports level and too many collegiate programs in the area to even list. Not to mention everything else that's great in Olde Towne.

To the good times!

Drinks Similar To The Ward 8 Cocktail

Bermuda Bouquet - apricot brandy, gin and triple sec win enough votes to replace rye whiskey.

Bunny Mother - a sugar sweetened vodka Ward Eight Cocktail with a splash of orange liqueur as well.

California Lemonade - blended whiskey, lemon and lime juice, powdered sugar and grenadine topped with carbonated water.

Chapala Cocktail - a tequila Ward 8 drink with a rain drop of orange flower water.

Chimp In Orbit - a high proof Tortuga minus the lime juice.

Crow Cocktail - Scotch whisky, lemon juice and grenadine.

Double Standard Sour - rye whiskey, dry gin, lime juice, sugar and raspberry syrup with a squirt of seltzer on top.

Eureka / Pink Garter / Gin & Sin Drink - a gin Ward-8. The Texas Fizz adds Champagne or soda to these recipes.

Hoffman House Fizz - gin, lemon juice, OJ, sugar, maraschino liqueur, cream, and grenadine topped with soda.

Hotel Drake Vesuvius - a sweet gold and Jamaican rum Ward Eight recipe garnished with fruit in season and a mint sprig.

100% Cocktail - an Eighth Ward mixed with Swedish punch instead of rye or Canadian whiskey.

Knickerbocker Special / Pikaki - a pineapple spear gets muddled in the district's drink and rums up the election.

Lone Tree Cooler - gin, dry vermouth, fresh orange and lemon juice, sugar and grenadine filled with soda or ginger ale.

New York Sour - rye whiskey, lime juice, sugar and grenadine.

Rabbit's Foot Cocktail - light rum brandies about the voting district drink.

Robson Drink - rye not try some Jamaica rum instead?

Scottish Guards - follows a similar theme with Scotch whisky replacing the rye.

Show Boat Drink - egg white caps.

Tonga Punch - light rum, brandy, curacao, passion fruit liqueur, lemon juice, OJ and grenadine.

Tortuga Tiki Tipple - rum(s), Italian vermouth, curacao, crème de cacao, grenadine and juices of lemon, lime and orange.

Welcome Stranger Cocktail - brandy, gin and Swedish punch substitute for rye whiskey in the original.

Whiskey Daisey - rye or bourbon whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, grenadine and optional egg white.

Winberry Drink - let the spirit change to bourbon and Amer Picon.

More cocktails and drinks that start with W.

References

* - Social History - The Traditional past and Locke-Ober... still the Boston Brahmin dining retreat!

† - many interchange bourbon whiskey as one in the same, but the original recipe called for rye.

‡ - Old Mr. Boston was a local distillery located in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts from 1933 to 1986 which now houses a number of different city government agencies.

1 - Leslie G. Ainley, Boston Mahatma (Boston: Bruce Humphries, Inc. Publishers, 1949), 4. Print.

2 - A. D. Van Nostrand, "The Lomasney Legend." The New England Quarterly, December 1948: 435-458. Print.

3 - George Frazier, "There's More than Beans to Boston." Holiday, January 1951: 58. Print.

4 - Eleanor Early, A New England Sampler (Boston: Waverly House, 1940), 371. Print.

5 - Amy Lyman Phillips, A Bachelor's Cupboard - Crumbs Culled from the Cupboards of the Great Unwedded (Boston & London: John W. Luce & Company, 1906), 154. Print.

6 - 1907 Boston Herald via.

7 - Holtz & Freystedt Co. Importers (New York: Holtz & Freystedt, 1912), 19. Print.

8 - Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, Volume 211 (Washington: Government Printing Office, February 2, 1915), 277. Print.

9 - Robert Vermeire, Cocktails - How To Mix Them (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1922), 48. Print.

10 - Carlo Beltramo, Carlo's Cocktails and American Drinks (Geneva: 1924), 44. Print.

11 - A. E. P. Bird & William C. Turner, Cocktails: Their Kicks and Side-Kicks (New York: Read Printing Company, 1933), 28. Print.

12 - G. Selmer Fougner, Along The Wine Trail - An Anthology of Wines and Spirits (Boston: Stratford Company, 1935), 287. Print. Initially via letters to the New York Sun in 1934.

[isfjmel-phleg]

The Blackberry Bushes Book 3 Chapter One [REVISED]: a preview

This is not a complete chapter, but since it's Tamett's birthday, I wanted to share the only complete scene I have so far in this, to give you an idea of the new direction I am taking it. It's short, but it's meant to be our intro to Tamett, as well to Josiah.

How does it work for you? What can I do better?

Even when His Royal Highness not only informed him that he was a disgrace but also elaborated on that assertion in painstaking detail, Tamett Låsrygg said nothing. He had said nothing for most of the afternoon. Not at the luncheon with all the court officials. Not afterward when the dining hall was astir with whispers that no one would explain to him. Not now that he and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Josia, the Hope of Lienne, sat waiting outside the king's study.

Tamett was used to saying nothing. As HRH's companion, that was much of what he was paid to do. But today he found himself wondering, not for the first time, if his silence was really worth one hundred myunzen per mensem.

He would rate it at one hundred twenty-five at least. Perhaps he ought to ask for a rise sometime. Goodness knew his family could use the additional income. Something told him, though, that whatever the king wished to speak to him about, it probably had nothing to do with increasing his salary.

That something was HRH himself, continuing his hissing from the other end of the bench. 

"You've really done it this time, Tamett. I cannot imagine what you could possibly have done that would be so disgraceful that the king my father actually wants to speak to you about it. My father never reprimands the staff. That would be beneath him. And besides, he hasn't time to bother with the likes of you. I hope you're happy that you're wasting your sovereign's afternoon."

If it was such a hardship for the king to speak to Tamett, Tamett would gladly have spared him the trouble and bypassed the impending interview. But the king was clearly intent on following through with it, and he had even been thoughtful enough to supply Tamett in the meantime with HRH's company and all the moral support that came with it.

Such kind people, this royal family. The only comfort they had denied him was to specify exactly what crime Tamett had committed. 

Because Tamett himself had no idea. He had racked his brain to its very cellar and turned up not a single thing that could warrant His Majesty King Odren, Emperor of Lienne and All Her Territories, Sovereign of Ordenna, the Father of the Fatherland himself, wanting to personally take to task a twelve-year-old nobody from Noriber.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have left the luncheon so soon. But a newly received letter from his sister Emenor, stashed in his jacket pocket, had burned to be opened. He had welcomed having an excuse to leave the dining hall—the result of a few too many refills of his water glass—and on his way back had stopped in an alcove of a corridor to devour the news from home. Emenor’s breezy correspondence was infinitely more interesting than anything any of the gentlemen of the court at that luncheon could have aspired to say, and Tamett drank in every word, multiple times. 

“You’re wasting my afternoon too,” added HRH, sticking out his lip. “I have lessons to return to. You’re making me miss my piano practice. If I slip up at the next recital, I’m going to tell the king my father that it’s because you wouldn’t let me take the time I needed to perfect the piece. I’ve never made a mistake at a recital, and if I do, it will be your fault.”

Emenor too had told Tamett about music lessons, although her remarks were rather less accusatory than HRH’s. She was hoping to be taken on by a distinguished violin master whose instruction would better prepare her for education at the Conservatory, which would give her a greater likelihood to become a virtuosa and win the Låsryggs fame and fortune. Which would be much needed, since their father’s efforts to run for court delegate of their district of Noriber were flagging, and the dining room was no longer presentable for the important guests that accompanied campaigning, and the younger sisters were growing out of clothes and shoes at a remarkable rate, and governesses were not cheap, and they were still paying the doctor bills from when Cille and Zella had had measles after Christmas. How grateful, Emenor had said, she was that Tamett’s salary was coming to the family’s rescue—to her rescue—yet again.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” said HRH, “if the king my father only wants to speak to you because he’s going to dismiss you. You’re an embarrassment, Tamett. I am ashamed to have you for a companion.”

Tamett watched his knuckles turn white as he clenched his fingers around the edge of the bench. Yes, he definitely shouldn’t have taken so long to read Emenor’s letter. She was—they all were—counting on him, and now he might not have any salary at all to send home. Just himself, shuffling into the entryway, hat in hand, having to explain to his parents why their son had become a burden.

“Did you hear me, Tamett?” said HRH. “I said you’re an embarrassment. Are you deaf and an idiot? The least you could do is apologize to me.”

Tamett had said nothing for so long, and he was tempted now to keep it up, but when HRH demanded something, his companion gave it to him.

Tamett could do this. One long, slow breath. Another. Blow away all the things he shouldn’t say. He did this all day, every day. Why was it so difficult now?

“I’m—sorry,” he mumbled. “Your Royal Highness.”

HRH made a derisive noise. “Are you?”

Before Tamett could decide whether that was a rhetorical question or not, the sound of a bell from within the king’s study sliced through the thick silence. Its shrill, imperative tones conveyed only one meaning: the king was ready to see Tamett now. No more chance of his changing his mind or forgetting or perhaps some kindly natural disaster intervening. As with HRH, Tamett, a dutiful member of the royal household, had no choice but to do as he was told.

HRH side-eyed Tamett contemptuously. “You had better be politer to the king my father than you are to me. He’s not as gracious and patient as I am.”

Tamett stood up. He took another long breath. He squared his shoulders, and he walked up to the door through which perhaps no other commoner had ever stepped. He glanced over at HRH, still enthroned on the bench, nose in the air, not even bothering to meet his companion’s gaze.

Tamett said nothing. And he opened the door.

[alexandriatilleyphotography]

White Cube

White Cube is a contemporary art gallery owned by Jay Jopling with two permanent branches in London: Mason's Yard in central London and Bermondsey in South East London as well as one in Victoria City, Hong Kong Island.  White Cube Bermondsey opened in October 2011 and is the largest of all the gallery's sites.  The 'South Galleries' provide the principal display area for White Cube's expanding programme of exhibitions and three smaller galleries, known collectively as the 'North Galleries', are used for an innovative series of shows. In addition, at the centre of the building, a top-lit, 81m² gallery entitled '9 x 9 x 9', is used for special projects or for the display of a single artwork or installation. Since its inception, the building has hosted a variety of important exhibitions such as the first UK showing of work by American artist Theaster Gates, a comprehensive retrospective of prints by Chuck Close and the largest presentation of Anselm Kiefer work's ever staged in London. To accompany these exhibitions, an education programme and an ongoing series of artists films, feature films and lectures takes place in the purpose-built 60 seat auditorium.  White Cube Mason’s Yard houses two galleries that provide a total of 1110m² (11,900 sq ft) of exhibition space, comprising of a ground floor gallery on street level and a double-height, naturally-lit basement gallery. Used for White Cube's expanding programme of exhibitions, White Cube Mason's Yard has hosted a wide range of exhibitions by international artists including Andreas Gursky, Georg Baselitz, Jeff Wall, Anselm Kiefer, Robert Irwin and Miroslaw Balka. The gallery opened with an inaugural exhibition by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco.

The galleries artists include; Franz Ackermann, Etel Adnan, Darren Almond, Ellen Altfest, Michael Armitage, Miroslaw Balka, Georg Baselitz, Larry Bell, Chuck Close, Tracey Emin, Katharina Fritsch, Theaster Gates, Gilbert & George, Antony Gormley, Andreas Gursky, David Hammons, Mona Hatoum, He Xiangyu, Damien Hirst, Robert Irwin, Runa Islam, Sergej Jensen, Anselm Kiefer, Imi Knoebel, Rachel Kneebone, Elad Lassry, Liza Lou, Jac Leirner. Liu Wei, Ibrahim Mahama, Christian Marclay, Josiah McElheny, Julie Mehretu, Beatriz Milhazes, Harland Miller, Sarah Morris, Gabriel Orozco, Damián Ortega, Virginia Overton, Eddie Peake, Magnus Plessen, Jessica Rankin, Doris Salcedo, Raqib Shaw, Haim Steinbach, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Fred Tomaselli, Jeff Wall and Cerith Wyn Evans.

White Cube hold events throughout the year, which include; artist talks, previews, exhibitions, book launches, film screenings and performances.  They also have a channel which features videos of discussions and talks with professionals in the industry, all within different locations and categorised as such; In The Auditorium - one to one discussions about certain topics, In The Museum - installations, In The Gallery: Current - installations, Beyond The White Cube - outside artistic ventures, In The Studio - artist makings and processes in the studio and In The Gallery; Past - installations / exhibitions.  I haven't seen this type of channel before on a smaller gallery site (not public i.e - Tate), and this is an interesting addition to the gallery, as it gives context to the exhibitions and the world that the gallery is interested and involved in, it gives the viewers more knowledge and insight into this industry.  I think this is a good idea to get viewers more engaged with the artists, the processes, the exhibitions and the gallery as a company.  I think creating more interactive aspects such as interviews whether it be by video or writing could be a good way to get people more interested in our company as well as keeping viewers interested.  

When reading an article about the owner of White Cube, Jay Jopling, I found out more information about the owner and the gallery that has given me a better insight into how Jay became a successful business man, which inspires me to be a successful business woman.  I picked out key information for the article that inspired me.  

Jay Jopling, the founder of London's White Cube gallery empire, launched its third outpost in the capital to coincide with the Frieze art fair.  - I then researched Frieze Art Fair, which is an international contemporary art fair that takes place every October in London's Regent's Park.  The fair features more than 160 of the world’s leading galleries in which customers can view and buy art from over 1,000 present day leading artists, and experience the fair’s critically acclaimed Frieze Projects and Talks programmes.  It see’s thousands of the world's wealthiest collectors flock to London over the next three days.  This is interesting to know as this is something myself and Sam can aspire to become apart of, as well as attend to gain further insight into the gallery world and most importantly, our competitors.

The article went on to state that one London-based art collector said that some poorer galleries are currently "walking on eggshells" because of the financial downturn. Yet Jopling's mixture of charm, savvy and bullish behaviour will make him this week's most surefire victor. - interesting skills to know about, makes me think about how personality can affect how you succeed - mine and Sams personality combined I believe is strong, determined, friendly and charming - could get us far.  

"Jay told me a long time ago that if he couldn't be the best at what he does he wasn't interested," says White Cube's exhibitions director Tim Marlow. "The Bermondsey gallery is an affirmation of that. He wants a complex of galleries that will allow him to do the best shows with the best possible artists.” - long term goal for myself, I want to succeed in this industry, and as a determined person, I won’t give up easily - need to be strong in this industry and I think I have this personality / determination to go along with work experience that I will gain more of in the future.

Inside the White Cube: Ideologies of the Gallery Space, which emphasised that the blank walls of modern galleries had become "the archetypal image of 20th-century art". According to Melanie Gerlis, art market editor of The Art Newspaper, Jopling's "business-like" approach appealed to bankers with loose wallets "who wanted to put art on bare walls". "He's astute, he runs galleries like a business, not a cottage industry," she says. - Although I want to build a community and a space for all to enjoy, reading this makes me realise that I must not lose focus in terms of making money to keep the company afloat and to be able to do certain events and represent photographers.  Myself and Sam must keep focus on having a business approach that makes us successful so we are able to move the company in whatever direction we wish.

Art buyers put his success down to his polish. "He's very charming," notes collector Kenny Schacter. "He didn't get to where he is without being a very effective communicator.” - always improving my communication skills, and will continue to improve with working with people as well as interning in the future.  He also has a reputation for looking after his artists. "He's great, he's got good energy, and he works with creatives across different generations throughout the process," says the Serpentine Gallery's co-director Hans-Ulrich Obrist. "He does get a kick out of doing unusual things and doing them with absolute conviction," adds sculptor Antony Gormley, whom Jopling represents. "You know he wants to push what's possible, and understands an artist's interest in that, as well as being a very good businessman. That's a very rare combination”. - It is all about understanding the artist, having that strong relationship will push an exhibition to the right direction and as a result, succeed, I think this skill of nurturing will be improved when working at agencies as I will be nurturing artists then - I think that the two aspects of the company in regards to skills will benefit each other well.  

Website; http://whitecube.com - the homepage is simple and clean, reminding us of the physical space of the white cube, and therefore represents the gallery extremely well.  Myself and Sam must think about this, what design represents us as a company?  The homepage present the viewers with a piece of work that is currently being exhibited at the Bermondsey space.  The simply composed image on the white background gives a reflection of the work that is featured on the white wall in the Bermondsey space, which is extremely clever and again, makes me consider how myself and Sam can reflect our own space in time.

The information on the homepage next to the image includes the name of the exhibition, the artist, the date and the location, keeping the theme simple once more.  When clicking on the exhibitions page, the images displayed are on rotation, switching between the gallery locations and therefore exhibitions, which is a good way to attract viewers to the other exhibitions as they have no choice to see other images.  When clicking on an exhibition page, the images shown are views of the gallery as well as a few close ups on the physical work, which is rare as I have only recently seen digital images, rather than the whole room, giving you an overview to the exhibition, enticing viewers to go and see physically.  The way the images are taken of the gallery really works well with the design of the site, a clean image that is bright and simple.  

This again is something to consider, how the images work with the design - they need to compliment each other.  I also find the grey and black texts works well together on the site and with the information, as it gives a separation of information and an element of contemporary design.  The information included within the exhibitions are; artist, name of exhibition, dates, location, description of exhibition, format, number of images, why the format works with the images - what it portrays, narrative of the exhibition - structure, artist comments, in depth description of themes / groups of images, colour analysis and what the work suggests.  The images that represent single images in the exhibition also give details of the name, date, size and what it is printed on / how it is framed.  White Cube gallery gives an extensive description of the exhibition both with text and visually, and there are many elements in regards to what they include in their descriptions that I will take away with me - narrative structure of the exhibition, what it suggests, comments etc.  The way the images are taken is also something to consider when portraying an exhibition.  The news page keeps in design with a simple layout and text (grey / black), the page is neat, with only one news articles appearing at a time, as the viewer uses the scroll on the left hand side to read the articles.  I find this a really good way to display news updates as it gives a clean look that doe not overwhelm the viewers, letting them read the news at their own pace due to no pressure with other texts as they are not seen.  The news features updates on the gallerys’ ventures (i.e - participating at Venice Biennale), upcoming exhibitions and artists the are represented by the gallery in regards to prints.   The artist page again, is simple, with a list of artists in grey text.  The artists page is a similar layout the exhibitions, presenting the viewers with images of the prints (or other formats) placed within a gallery setting, with the relevant information that is previously stated with the exhibition images.  

The site is consistent not only with design, but the way the images are taken - work placed in galleries rather than just the digital prints showing, which attracts clients as they are able to see the work in a blank space and are therefore able to imagine the work within their own home, which is an extremely well thought out business tactic. Myself and Sam must consider how we present artists work in regards to exhibitions, as this could increase sales, much White Cube.  The information that features on the page includes; name, exhibitions, films, news, shop, their background, what the artist focuses on, how they stand out, theories that are relevant to them, examples of work - explained, timeline of their work and progress - in great detail, what the work does to the viewer, description of installations, biography and comments from a professional within the industry.  This again, has given me a better understanding of new things that myself and Sam can add to the website, how we can talk about our represented artists as well as artists that are exhibited, it also gives me an insight into what language is used when discussing work and artists, giving me a more formal and professional outlook.  The event page has a similar layout to the exhibitions / artist pages, simple and clear, giving viewers easy navigation.  

The text that is presented with an image that is chosen for the event features; small description, location, doors open, event commences, admission, reserve place, contact details and programme details.  This is a lot less information than other pages give, which seems less consistent, however I think this works with an event, as it gives an element of surprise.  Again, there are elements in the text that I have not considered when thinking about myself and Sams website, and these elements will be put forward when creating the website.  The about page gives the viewers information about the gallery itself in terms of the size, and details on the actual space, however it does not give any information about the company itself.  Again, for myself and Sam company, I think it is important for us to tell people our aims and values, as we want to create a community, and telling viewers this will open them up to us more and want to get involved.  The contact page features the location of the gallery, and the opening times as well as a contact number, all of whch are relevant, however I also think it is necessary to have an email for people to contact you that way as well, a telephone number I believe is limiting.  

Twitter; https://twitter.com/_WhiteCube - the twitter account for the gallery promotes the exhibitions that it has, and does this by featuring work from the exhibition as well as articles and quotes about / from the exhibitions.  The twitter is highly active and uses different materials to promote the exhibitor sheikh I think is highly clever and something that myself and Sam should think about when promoting exhibitions, as this is more unique and interesting, and appeals more the an audience.  The twitter also uses images and text to entice the viewers to read more, in which they are able to click on a link, and again this is an element myself and Sam should think about - the option for viewers to see more by using a link.

Instagram; http://instagram.com/whitecubeofficial - the instagram includes images of both the work separately as well as  featured within the gallery and the space itself.  The text that accompanies the images are large, the  content includes; the artist, name of the piece, a description of the piece of work and the exhibition dates.  I think myself and Sam will limit our text, as we want to be clear and concise, and focus the viewers attention on the image, not overwhelm them with text.  Although, this instagram has inspired me to include images of the work being displayed as well as the spaces we use - which could be interesting when doing pop-up events, this could make our instagram more unique.  

Again, this is further insight into more galleries, looking at the gallery, the businessman himself as well as how they portray themselves online, all of which is extremely important to know and understand for myself and Sams company, giving us further ideas and inspiration. 

[isfjmel-phleg]

Director’s cut: Selections from the Correspondence of the Lockridge Family Please :)

Thank you for waiting so long! This story can be found here.

I wrote this piece in April 2020 over a period of six days—no idea how, besides being stuck at home that whole time. Can’t remember where the idea came from to structure it as epistolary with annotations, but it’s a format that proved to be a lot of fun to work with, although I haven’t been able to duplicate its success elsewhere. I started by outlining how many letters, and from whom to whom, without much sense of where the plot was going. The violin conflict emerged partway through and dragged everything along with it.

The letters were written first, and then I added annotations, using a lot of “[NAME]” as placeholders to keep the writing moving, which worked surprisingly well. It wasn’t difficult to invent “facts” and try to sound like a scholarly work complete with cited sources. For parts about the royal family, I drew from the tone of historical biographies. Facts about the composers were inspired by bits of things from a music appreciation class.

Each of the letter-writers required a different style. Tamett hates writing letters, and I probably wrote him as more communicative than he would realistically be for sake of exposition. But I had Mike Jackson’s letters home in Mike at Wrykyn in mind as inspiration for his style. I thought he probably would be the sort to offhandedly drop a bit of interesting information and then not follow through on it. His affection for his sisters needed to come through too, despite his bland style.

Emenor by contrast is very lively and talkative on paper. She writes as if she’s having a conversation, without consistent concern for letter-writing conventions. Her letters needed to be the most entertaining, and her inspiration was Marjory Jackson, Mike’s sister, although Emenor’s letters are more structured.

Lovisa is the most emotional and socially aware of the cast, so her letters needed to have an emphasis on other people and their doings and how the emotional atmosphere is affecting her—but from the POV of an eleven year-old. Her sentence structure is simpler but a bit breathless when she gets carried away. Cille, who is even younger, has a stiffer style and a straightforward way of expressing herself. She is the most factual and the most conscious of writing a “correct” letter, but I still wanted her feelings to occasionally bleed through in her deadpan manner. Their inspiration was three of my young cousins, who write to me on and off in their own distinctive, age-characteristic styles. And of course Zella as the very youngest needed to have the most simplistic letters, but they still needed to say something worthwhile, which was a challenge.

Josiah’s letter does not exhibit much of his self-important nature; this is his professional voice for official correspondence, carefully instilled in him by his tutors. He would sound entirely different if he were writing to one of his siblings.

The detail about the statue of Odren the Great in the park that Tamett wanders through is there to emphasize that Tamett is constantly surrounded by reminders that his homeland has been subjugated. This of course ties in with Emenor’s playing a patriotic Noriberrian piece for her violin teacher. Noriberrian independence isn’t (as far as I know) going to be plot significant at any point, but it adds a layer to the nature of Tamett’s relationship with the royal family.

After the greeting of each letter, the following sentence is not capitalized, and there are no commas in the closings. From what I understand, these are conventions of German letter-writing, and the characters would of course be writing in Liennese (their world’s equivalent of German). They have been translated for your convenience.

Emenor’s violin aspirations are inspired by plots of Noel Streatfield’s children’s stories, which frequently involve children with talents for the arts trying to make their way in the world.

Boschbrandt = Beethoven, Metzel = Mozart, Becke = Bach, Severin = Sibelius.

Lovisa’s being companion to an unpleasant aunt is inspired by elements in Little Women. The Lockridge girls are not intended as analogues of the March sisters, but I like to think they have a similar dynamic. Alcott by way of Streatfeild.

A violin of Otionovian make is intended to be the equivalent of a Stradivarius.

Josiah looking sad sometimes after he plays is something that Lovisa managed to conjecture, and surprisingly she’s kind of right.

It probably was a genuine shock for Josiah to read that he’s being represented to Tamett’s sisters as not “nice.” It’s probably never occurred to him before that Tamett has enough of a life outside of being a companion to tell tales to a family, so it was something like finding out the pencil you use everyday in class is writing letters to other pencils about how miserably you treat it.

I’m not sure if Josiah had no intention of following through on having Emenor play for his father or if the King simply happened to be busy that day and there was nothing Josiah could do about it. Ayra’s exact role in this I’m not sure of either.

The layout of the children’s rooms in the palace is inspired by the Alexander Palace in Russia, not for any particular associations, but because it was a palace floorplan I had access to.

The violin Emenor is given is of course one of Josiah’s. He was not able to give Tamett’s old violin away and probably didn’t dare ask his father for permission. It was an impulsive decision, and he later regretted it. Not that he can’t get another such violin—dozens of them—if he wants to, but he’s not accustomed to giving anything that genuinely belongs to him away. He has presented gifts on state occasions for show, but this was different.

[faithfulnews]

The Rebellion and Restoration of Israel

By Dan & Brenda Cathcart

The video version of this teaching is at: https://youtu.be/s61lkuLX4dc

The Scripture reading is: Isaiah 1:1-27

The last few weeks we have been focusing and studying the life and prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived in Judea and Jerusalem at the time of king Josiah and later through the destruction of Jerusalem, the first temple and the subsequent exile of most of the inhabitants of Judea to Babylon. This week Shabbat falls on the ninth day of the month of Av, the very day that Jewish history records that both the first and second Temples were destroyed.

As we finish out the remainder of the year leading up to The Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah, we will be reading exclusively from the prophet Isaiah.  The opening chapter of the book of Isaiah is a kind of preface or table of contents to the rest of the book. Isaiah introduces us to himself and outlines the overarching themes of his dissertation.

Isaiah 1:1-2 NKJV 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me;

It all sounds so familiar. Although Isaiah lived some one hundred and thirty years prior to Jeremiah, the pattern is the same; rebellion against God, judgment, and restoration. On this ninth day of Av, the saddest day in history, there is still the hope of restoration.

In this Haftarah we are dealing with a very short passage of scripture, but it contains vitally important information about the state of Jerusalem and Judah. The entire scope of the book of Isaiah is about Judah’s rebellion and restoration and is summarized in this short reading. In it we will see the nature, the judgment, the remnant, and the cure of their rebellion along with their restoration.

Over the last several months and especially the last few weeks while studying the prophecies of Jeremiah, I have been amazed at how often the people of Israel and Judah, primarily the leadership, had repeated the pattern of sin against God and the amount of trouble it caused them. You would think they would learn!

Isaiah uses the term “rebel” or “rebellion” throughout his writings.  The Hebrew word is “paw-shah”, number 6586 in the Strong’s concordance meaning to break away, trespass, apostatize, or revolt. Israel, or in Isaiah’s situation, primarily Judah, was in a near constant state of rebellion.

In verse two Isaiah announces their rebellion to all of the heavens and earth. In verse three Isaiah indicates that even the ox and donkey know who their master is.

Isaiah 1:3 NKJV 3 The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider."

It might not be a good idea to open your argument by insulting the intelligence of your audience, but that is what Isaiah did by comparing them to oxen and donkeys. In calling on the witnesses of heaven and earth, Isaiah is reminding them of the covenant God made with them referring to some of the last words from God to the Children of Israel at the plain of Moab.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NKJV 19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Isaiah then launches into a listing of the specific rebellions that Judah did beginning with forsaking the LORD.

Isaiah 1:4 NKJV 4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.

Israel was intended to be called a holy nation, set apart for God among all the nations of the earth to be priests to the nations and an example. Isaiah now calls them a “sinful nation.” They have abandoned and turned away from God and have become like the other nations around them. The Hebrew verbs used by Isaiah make for a particularly strong rebuke against Israel. They have literally “turned away backwards” in their heart, actions and words.

The concept of the holiness or separateness of God is a driving theme throughout the book of Isaiah. The prophet refers to God by the title “The Holy One of Israel” no less than thirty-nine times. By invoking this title, Isaiah is undoubtedly reminding Israel of the nature of God and their unique relationship to the creator of heaven and earth!

In verse seven, Isaiah changes the tone of his oratory from a metaphorical presentation to a present tense. He speaks as if the physical judgment that is coming as a result of their rebellion has already happened or is happening as he is writing.

Isaiah 1:7 NKJV 7 Your country is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

The next type of rebellion that Isaiah speaks of is their practice of an empty religion.

Isaiah 1:11-12 NKJV 11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts?

God was not telling them to abolish the sacrificial system, but that they were abusing the system God put in place and had created an empty religious ritual from it. Perhaps their thoughts were if one sin offering was a good thing then ten was certainly better!  They were also just going through the motions of celebrating the new moons and the appointed festivals as if they were merely the right thing to do in their culture without giving consideration as to what their purpose was.

Isaiah 1:13-14 NKJV 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies-I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

These empty religious practices were going on for quite some time before Isaiah entered the picture. Many celebrations of the Feasts of the LORD are mentioned throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles, but by the time of Isaiah, they were practicing the appointed times in their own way, changing the very character, nature, and purpose of God’s Feast days and filling them with empty ritual.

In addition to the physical judgment because of their rebellion, they will experience a spiritual separation from God because of their empty religious practices.

Isaiah 1:15 NKJV 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah goes on to point out their lack of justice toward each other and the most vulnerable in their society.

Isaiah 1:16-17 NKJV 16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

The rulers and leaders of Judah and Jerusalem had become degenerate and corrupt.

Isaiah 1:21-23 NKJV 21 How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water. 23 Your princes are rebellious, And companions of thieves; Everyone loves bribes, And follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

We see some terrible consequences for their rebellion against the Holy One of Israel! We see the consequences of this rebellion throughout the book of Isaiah, but we also see the promise of healing. Chapter fifty-three, for example, in particular speaks volumes of the healing power of the Messiah and how He will minister to His people.

Isaiah 53:5-6 NKJV 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The Hebrew word translated as “stripes” in fifty-three five is number 2250, khab-boo-raw, from the root word number 2266, khaw-bar meaning to couple together, to have fellowship with. Any healing from their rebellion can only be accomplished by entering into fellowship with Messiah, a personal relationship, not empty religious practices.

Back in chapter one verses eight and nine, Isaiah introduces us to the concept of a remnant.

Isaiah 1:8-9 NKJV 8 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city. 9 Unless the LORD of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah.

The image of the shelter in the vineyard and the watchman’s hut are like small islands of refuge in a sea of desolation and destruction. Sodom and Gomorrah did not have any righteous remnant left within them once Lot and his family were removed.  In chapter’s thirty-six through thirty-nine, Isaiah relates the story of the siege of Sennacharib during the reign of king Hezekiah where all of Judah was overrun and only Jerusalem remained. If it was not for the grace of God, Jerusalem would have been lost as well.

The existence of a remnant does not mean that God would not execute judgment on them for their unfaithfulness to the covenant. In verse ten, Isaiah addresses a warning to the remnant as if they were Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:10 NKJV 10 Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah:

The concept of a faithful remnant is seen throughout Isaiah. And we see that this remnant is a righteous remnant that owes its salvation and existence solely to the grace of God! We also see that this remnant is the preserved true believers and covenant keepers from Israel.

The apostle Paul also speaks of a remnant of those who were faithful and believed God’s word, at one point, quoting Isaiah.

Romans 9:27-29 NKJV 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." 29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."

So far in the opening chapter of Isaiah, we have read about the nature, judgment, and remnant of Judah’s rebellion. But there is more, there is hope! There is a cure for their iniquity and rebellion should they choose to accept it. Part of the cure we already read, but it deserves repeating. Isaiah presents the cure in verses sixteen through twenty.

Isaiah 1:16-20 NKJV 16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword"; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah tells Israel of the path to spiritual and ritual purity.  Their sickness can be cured, and they can be counted as the remnant. The first step is that they must wash themselves from the stain of their sin. The second step is they must do good. Doing good is the outward sign of true repentance. Living a life reflecting God’s righteous acts is a characteristic of repentance.

In verse seventeen, Isaiah tells them that they must learn to do good. Learning involves the study of the ways of God through His word. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is God’s instruction in righteous living. The apostle Paul spoke of this to Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Just learning God’s word on an intellectual level is not good enough.  The people Isaiah and the other prophets address were primarily the leaders, priests, and kings. They had come to know the words, the forms, and the rituals, but little else beyond that. Their religious practices had little substance. If the leadership is practicing an empty religion, how can they properly teach the people the ways of the LORD?

Isaiah puts some emphasis behind his words when he says that doing good means physically practicing justice for the vulnerable and less fortunate of their society.

In verse eighteen of our Haftarah, Isaiah indicates that the stain of their sin can be washed away, and the curse removed. Their sin is a crimson stain that can be made white again.  This is exactly what John referred to in Revelation

Revelation 1:5 NKJV 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

In verses nineteen and twenty, Isaiah reminds Israel of the benefits of repentance and returning to covenant faithfulness. Isaiah restates the conditions recorded in Deuteronomy. The wording that Isaiah chooses emphasizes that obedience will bring blessings and disobedience, disaster.  But the important thing to remember is that nowhere, in Isiah’s prophecies or anywhere else is there ever a dissolution of the covenant God made with the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai!

At the close of the Haftarah reading, Isaiah finishes with stating the things that God alone will do. He gives a hint to the Messianic Age yet to come!

Isaiah 1:24-27 NKJV 24 Therefore the Lord says, The LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, "Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, And take vengeance on My enemies. 25 I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy. 26 I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city." 27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, And her penitents with righteousness.

Ultimately all these things will only happen in their fullness when Messiah returns to rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem. God declares that He will redeem Jerusalem with justice and put an end to all His enemies. At the same time God’s judgment will fall on the unfaithful and unrepentant.

What we see in this opening chapter of Isaiah is a hint at the central, overarching theme of his entire book: the coming of Messiah and His atonement for His people! What is clear from Isaiah is that God alone is the only one able to redeem Israel. The righteousness of Messiah Yeshua and His atoning blood is the only path to the ultimate salvation of Israel. And it is that salvation through Messiah, which is open to all who call upon the LORD God of Israel!

Study Questions:

1. Discuss the connection of this teaching to the Torah Portion Devarim, Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22.

2. Isaiah describes the leadership of Judah and Jerusalem as being apostates practicing a dead or empty religion. Describe the problem they had with their religious practices. Discuss how they fell into this state and how we too can be trapped in empty ritual. Share personal experience if you wish.

3. What is the remnant described by Isaiah? How does this remnant affect the rest of the nation?

4. What are the possible ways to understand verse 1:18?  What is your interpretation and why?

5. What is the difference between the ways God judges the ungodly nations and the way he judges His own people?

6. What new insight did you gain from this teaching? How do you respond to this new insight? How will you realign your life based on this new understanding?

© 2019 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.

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[faithfulnews]

The Rebellion and Restoration of Israel

By Dan & Brenda Cathcart

The video version of this teaching is at: https://youtu.be/s61lkuLX4dc

The Scripture reading is: Isaiah 1:1-27

The last few weeks we have been focusing and studying the life and prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived in Judea and Jerusalem at the time of king Josiah and later through the destruction of Jerusalem, the first temple and the subsequent exile of most of the inhabitants of Judea to Babylon. This week Shabbat falls on the ninth day of the month of Av, the very day that Jewish history records that both the first and second Temples were destroyed.

As we finish out the remainder of the year leading up to The Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah, we will be reading exclusively from the prophet Isaiah.  The opening chapter of the book of Isaiah is a kind of preface or table of contents to the rest of the book. Isaiah introduces us to himself and outlines the overarching themes of his dissertation.

Isaiah 1:1-2 NKJV 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me;

It all sounds so familiar. Although Isaiah lived some one hundred and thirty years prior to Jeremiah, the pattern is the same; rebellion against God, judgment, and restoration. On this ninth day of Av, the saddest day in history, there is still the hope of restoration.

In this Haftarah we are dealing with a very short passage of scripture, but it contains vitally important information about the state of Jerusalem and Judah. The entire scope of the book of Isaiah is about Judah’s rebellion and restoration and is summarized in this short reading. In it we will see the nature, the judgment, the remnant, and the cure of their rebellion along with their restoration.

Over the last several months and especially the last few weeks while studying the prophecies of Jeremiah, I have been amazed at how often the people of Israel and Judah, primarily the leadership, had repeated the pattern of sin against God and the amount of trouble it caused them. You would think they would learn!

Isaiah uses the term “rebel” or “rebellion” throughout his writings.  The Hebrew word is “paw-shah”, number 6586 in the Strong’s concordance meaning to break away, trespass, apostatize, or revolt. Israel, or in Isaiah’s situation, primarily Judah, was in a near constant state of rebellion.

In verse two Isaiah announces their rebellion to all of the heavens and earth. In verse three Isaiah indicates that even the ox and donkey know who their master is.

Isaiah 1:3 NKJV 3 The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider."

It might not be a good idea to open your argument by insulting the intelligence of your audience, but that is what Isaiah did by comparing them to oxen and donkeys. In calling on the witnesses of heaven and earth, Isaiah is reminding them of the covenant God made with them referring to some of the last words from God to the Children of Israel at the plain of Moab.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NKJV 19 "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Isaiah then launches into a listing of the specific rebellions that Judah did beginning with forsaking the LORD.

Isaiah 1:4 NKJV 4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.

Israel was intended to be called a holy nation, set apart for God among all the nations of the earth to be priests to the nations and an example. Isaiah now calls them a “sinful nation.” They have abandoned and turned away from God and have become like the other nations around them. The Hebrew verbs used by Isaiah make for a particularly strong rebuke against Israel. They have literally “turned away backwards” in their heart, actions and words.

The concept of the holiness or separateness of God is a driving theme throughout the book of Isaiah. The prophet refers to God by the title “The Holy One of Israel” no less than thirty-nine times. By invoking this title, Isaiah is undoubtedly reminding Israel of the nature of God and their unique relationship to the creator of heaven and earth!

In verse seven, Isaiah changes the tone of his oratory from a metaphorical presentation to a present tense. He speaks as if the physical judgment that is coming as a result of their rebellion has already happened or is happening as he is writing.

Isaiah 1:7 NKJV 7 Your country is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire; Strangers devour your land in your presence; And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

The next type of rebellion that Isaiah speaks of is their practice of an empty religion.

Isaiah 1:11-12 NKJV 11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts?

God was not telling them to abolish the sacrificial system, but that they were abusing the system God put in place and had created an empty religious ritual from it. Perhaps their thoughts were if one sin offering was a good thing then ten was certainly better!  They were also just going through the motions of celebrating the new moons and the appointed festivals as if they were merely the right thing to do in their culture without giving consideration as to what their purpose was.

Isaiah 1:13-14 NKJV 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies-I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

These empty religious practices were going on for quite some time before Isaiah entered the picture. Many celebrations of the Feasts of the LORD are mentioned throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles, but by the time of Isaiah, they were practicing the appointed times in their own way, changing the very character, nature, and purpose of God’s Feast days and filling them with empty ritual.

In addition to the physical judgment because of their rebellion, they will experience a spiritual separation from God because of their empty religious practices.

Isaiah 1:15 NKJV 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

Isaiah goes on to point out their lack of justice toward each other and the most vulnerable in their society.

Isaiah 1:16-17 NKJV 16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

The rulers and leaders of Judah and Jerusalem had become degenerate and corrupt.

Isaiah 1:21-23 NKJV 21 How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water. 23 Your princes are rebellious, And companions of thieves; Everyone loves bribes, And follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

We see some terrible consequences for their rebellion against the Holy One of Israel! We see the consequences of this rebellion throughout the book of Isaiah, but we also see the promise of healing. Chapter fifty-three, for example, in particular speaks volumes of the healing power of the Messiah and how He will minister to His people.

Isaiah 53:5-6 NKJV 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The Hebrew word translated as “stripes” in fifty-three five is number 2250, khab-boo-raw, from the root word number 2266, khaw-bar meaning to couple together, to have fellowship with. Any healing from their rebellion can only be accomplished by entering into fellowship with Messiah, a personal relationship, not empty religious practices.

Back in chapter one verses eight and nine, Isaiah introduces us to the concept of a remnant.

Isaiah 1:8-9 NKJV 8 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a hut in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city. 9 Unless the LORD of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah.

The image of the shelter in the vineyard and the watchman’s hut are like small islands of refuge in a sea of desolation and destruction. Sodom and Gomorrah did not have any righteous remnant left within them once Lot and his family were removed.  In chapter’s thirty-six through thirty-nine, Isaiah relates the story of the siege of Sennacharib during the reign of king Hezekiah where all of Judah was overrun and only Jerusalem remained. If it was not for the grace of God, Jerusalem would have been lost as well.

The existence of a remnant does not mean that God would not execute judgment on them for their unfaithfulness to the covenant. In verse ten, Isaiah addresses a warning to the remnant as if they were Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:10 NKJV 10 Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah:

The concept of a faithful remnant is seen throughout Isaiah. And we see that this remnant is a righteous remnant that owes its salvation and existence solely to the grace of God! We also see that this remnant is the preserved true believers and covenant keepers from Israel.

The apostle Paul also speaks of a remnant of those who were faithful and believed God’s word, at one point, quoting Isaiah.

Romans 9:27-29 NKJV 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth." 29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."

So far in the opening chapter of Isaiah, we have read about the nature, judgment, and remnant of Judah’s rebellion. But there is more, there is hope! There is a cure for their iniquity and rebellion should they choose to accept it. Part of the cure we already read, but it deserves repeating. Isaiah presents the cure in verses sixteen through twenty.

Isaiah 1:16-20 NKJV 16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword"; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah tells Israel of the path to spiritual and ritual purity.  Their sickness can be cured, and they can be counted as the remnant. The first step is that they must wash themselves from the stain of their sin. The second step is they must do good. Doing good is the outward sign of true repentance. Living a life reflecting God’s righteous acts is a characteristic of repentance.

In verse seventeen, Isaiah tells them that they must learn to do good. Learning involves the study of the ways of God through His word. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is God’s instruction in righteous living. The apostle Paul spoke of this to Timothy.

2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Just learning God’s word on an intellectual level is not good enough.  The people Isaiah and the other prophets address were primarily the leaders, priests, and kings. They had come to know the words, the forms, and the rituals, but little else beyond that. Their religious practices had little substance. If the leadership is practicing an empty religion, how can they properly teach the people the ways of the LORD?

Isaiah puts some emphasis behind his words when he says that doing good means physically practicing justice for the vulnerable and less fortunate of their society.

In verse eighteen of our Haftarah, Isaiah indicates that the stain of their sin can be washed away, and the curse removed. Their sin is a crimson stain that can be made white again.  This is exactly what John referred to in Revelation

Revelation 1:5 NKJV 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

In verses nineteen and twenty, Isaiah reminds Israel of the benefits of repentance and returning to covenant faithfulness. Isaiah restates the conditions recorded in Deuteronomy. The wording that Isaiah chooses emphasizes that obedience will bring blessings and disobedience, disaster.  But the important thing to remember is that nowhere, in Isiah’s prophecies or anywhere else is there ever a dissolution of the covenant God made with the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai!

At the close of the Haftarah reading, Isaiah finishes with stating the things that God alone will do. He gives a hint to the Messianic Age yet to come!

Isaiah 1:24-27 NKJV 24 Therefore the Lord says, The LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, "Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, And take vengeance on My enemies. 25 I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy. 26 I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city." 27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, And her penitents with righteousness.

Ultimately all these things will only happen in their fullness when Messiah returns to rule from the throne of David in Jerusalem. God declares that He will redeem Jerusalem with justice and put an end to all His enemies. At the same time God’s judgment will fall on the unfaithful and unrepentant.

What we see in this opening chapter of Isaiah is a hint at the central, overarching theme of his entire book: the coming of Messiah and His atonement for His people! What is clear from Isaiah is that God alone is the only one able to redeem Israel. The righteousness of Messiah Yeshua and His atoning blood is the only path to the ultimate salvation of Israel. And it is that salvation through Messiah, which is open to all who call upon the LORD God of Israel!

Study Questions:

1. Discuss the connection of this teaching to the Torah Portion Devarim, Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22.

2. Isaiah describes the leadership of Judah and Jerusalem as being apostates practicing a dead or empty religion. Describe the problem they had with their religious practices. Discuss how they fell into this state and how we too can be trapped in empty ritual. Share personal experience if you wish.

3. What is the remnant described by Isaiah? How does this remnant affect the rest of the nation?

4. What are the possible ways to understand verse 1:18?  What is your interpretation and why?

5. What is the difference between the ways God judges the ungodly nations and the way he judges His own people?

6. What new insight did you gain from this teaching? How do you respond to this new insight? How will you realign your life based on this new understanding?

© 2019 Moed Ministries International. All rights reserved.

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