The Rose Apple

 This fruit -- Syzygium jambos  (there are apparently hundreds of species in the genus) -- is a rural, somewhat rare, treat in Jamaica, it is often pink fleshed, smells of roses and tastes like sweet roses too:

An obvious relative of the Otaheite Apple we just discussed. (And yes, there are the usual claimed health benefits.) END

Thai fruit market stall, with seedless Otaheiti [= Malay] and Wax Apples

 This Thai fruit vendor's skills are amazing, starting with how he extracts a coconut's jelly and water to sell as a treat:

Quite a show, but what caught my eye is the demonstration that there are seedless Otaheiti/ Malay Apples (also known as Plumrose etc here in the Caribbean):

(On a cross check, this may be a red skinned wax apple, see just below.)

Likewise we see similar wax apples:

Could we bring these and similar fruit to our region?  END

PS, Bonus, thanks to YT's side list -- making cricket bats (it looks like, in Pakistan) -- of course, as usual, safety issues could be better addressed in this factory:

Then, there are high end cricket balls:

H'mm, could we try?

The Exodus as a model for sound reformation -- the decalogue and sound civilisation

Amenhotep II, likely Pharaoh of the Exodus

Last time, we paused to tie the Exodus in the Bible to a credible point in Egyptian and world history: Pharaoh Amenhotep II, of the Eighteenth Dynasty, c 1446 BC. 

Yes, it is not mere dismissible "religion." (Nor, is "religion" equivalent to mindless irrationality, blind following of dubious myths, hateful ignorance and oppression. That, is an inexcusable slander that needs to be rejected. God is foundational reality and it is entirely reasonable to found worldview, life and community on our relationship with our Creator. Those who would project otherwise, need to go take a sobering look in the mirror. There are two types of ignorance, innocent and willful. Pretending to know there is no God, or that one may take that as a "doubt and dismiss" default, etc is willful and artful, not innocent.)

Clearly, such is important in itself, as it helps us understand that the Exodus-Passover-Sinai event is anchored to on the ground history:

 

. . .  despite dismissiveness of the usual hyperskeptics and those who would rather forget than draw lessons from this confrontation of YHWH and his champion with arrogant, lawless oligarchy, oppressive misrule and misgovernment. 

It also helps us find a way to exercise godly, prophetically informed reforming leadership in a day where it is increasingly obvious that lawless, nihilistic, perverse, reprobate minded, anti-God, misanthropic, anticivilisational ideological domineering ideologies are on the march. 

And in a day when today's would-be Pharaohs too often wield abusive censorship and ostracism power, a valid historically anchored example becomes vital for us, to guide our own action. 

Let us begin at a certain strange, burning bush that was not consumed:

Moses at the Burning Bush,
Dura Europos Synagogue,
244-245 AD [HT: Wiki et al]

Exodus 3:1  Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 

 ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”  

⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

  ⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 

 ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 

¹³ Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”^[a] And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord,^[b] the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

 There is much food for thought in this already:

•  This is a manifestation of God (notice, the bush burns, but does not burn up and go out), and is the point where Moses is called to his work as liberator and civilisation reformer in the face of a world turned away from God
• The result of erecting rebellious kingdoms of man is oppression under lawless oligarchs
•  God is concerned over oppression and intends to liberate, judging rebellious nations. We will see ten plagues of Egypt, ten tests of Israel and a judgement on the lands of the Amorites who have filled up the cup of their iniquity
• God identifies himself, thousands of years before we had thoroughly analyses necessary being: I AM, the self existent Creator, Lord and Rescuer
• And now, to the task of liberation and sound reformation (with the decalogue as a focal topic).
  

In that process, once the liberated nation was beyond Pharaoh's reach and was duly assembled at Horeb, the decalogue was given, pivotal guide to law (and so, sound government); indeed, a framework for refounding civilisation on sound principles:

 

 Notice, there is an anchoring to the liberation event. Lawful freedom is just that, freedom under just law framed by conscience-guided love to our Creator God and to our neighbour who is also made in God's image, with respect for marriage and family as foundational to human community. Those who disregard this, sooner or later will fall into oppression under lawless oligarchy, today's Pharaohs. So, we can freely take hostility to the decalogue as a strong sign of the wicked spirit of pharaoh at work. 

United States, I am looking straight at you. (Yes, that includes you, would-be censors who wish to put darkness for light and call light darkness. Go read Isa 5:20 and context.)

Indifference and neglect is but little better.

Caribbean, I am looking at you too.

Next, we may tie in to the endorsed core natural law testified to by sound conscience. To do so, let us look at Paul's summary exposition on the Golden Rule:

Rom 13:⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

It is interesting to compare Leviticus 19, to see how Moses built up, step by concrete, practical court room step, to that general rule of love:

Lev 19:⁹ “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

¹¹ “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. ¹² You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

¹³ “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. ¹⁴ You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

¹⁵ “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. ¹⁶ You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life^[a] of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

¹⁷ “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.  

¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Let us note the yardstick cases:

• Leaving room for the poor and the refugee to glean, check
• You shall not steal, defraud, deceive, check
• You shall not misuse the name of God (doing evil or wrong under false colour of serving God, even before thoughtlessly using his name or turning his name into a swear word) check
• you shall not oppress or rob . . . Pharaoh, take due note, check
• you shall not take advantage of the disabled, check
• you shall do no injustice under false colours of courts of justice, worth a book in itself, check
• judge by what is right, not by who is rich or who is poor, check
• you shall not spread defamation [yes, media, this includes you], check
• you shall not persecute the innocent, check
• you shall not harbour hate or malice, check
• you may reason frankly to address grievances, check
• you may not carry out a vendetta, check
• THEN, we sum up, love neighbour as self
  

Frankly, just this list would be a major reformation in today's world.

 And, we see the clear message to the rebellious kingdoms of man:

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. END

Identifying the Pharaoh of the Exodus (yes, he is credibly identifiable!)

 

Amenhotep II, plausibly, Pharaoh of the Exodus
{HT: Expedition Bible}

Traditionally, the Pharaoh of the Exodus is a major biblical study in the folly of lawless oppressive rule, and where it ends, through the liberation of a "guest people" subjugated through fear that they were a threat. Thanks, in large part, to the predecessors who "knew not Joseph" and the blessing he had brought to Egypt. Of course, more broadly,  the Pharaoh of the Exodus is also a capital example of hard-hearted arrogant, morally blind misgovernment and where it predictably ends.

However, today, such lessons -- would that, say, Hitler, Stalin or Mao had heeded them! -- tend to be lost under a cloud of hostile skepticism and dismissive suspicion. Accordingly, a good place to begin is by dispelling such needless hostility. 

At least, for those willing to learn from history (including, sacred history).

As a beginning, Christopher Eames writes, in a recent article:

On the surface, there appear to be plenty of options for identifying the Exodus pharaoh. Dig down into the details, however, and it is evident that no other Egyptian period, dynasty and pharaoh gets nearly as close to matching the biblical text as the New Kingdom’s Thutmosid Dynasty pharaoh, Amenhotep II!  

And so, amid the multiplicity of theories about the Exodus pharaoh’s identity from scholars, ancient and modern, should it come as any surprise if the very ear-liest historians to mention his name—Egyptians, no less—got it right? More than 2,000 years ago, Manetho and Chaeremon—both Egyptian priests and histori-ans—insisted that the pharaoh of the Exodus was, as they identified him in their Ptolemaic Greek language, Pharaoh Amenophis.

Amenhotep (II), pharaoh of the Exodus.

That may seem bold, but the linked article provides substantial details, and we may find a video worth the pause to watch:

 

 Indeed, a simple timeline (clipped from the video) is suggestive, starting from the widely accepted date for building Solomon's Temple, 966/67 BC and taking the reference to 480 years since the Exodus as plausible, then using Egyptian Chronology based on Manetho:

Not to mention, the simple fact that the earliest two historians said just about that. (This should serve to counter-weight our habitual tendency to dismissiveness.)

Eames also elaborated:

Hatshepsut, plausibly Moses' step-mother

In studying Egypt’s history together with the biblical text, one can’t help but notice . . . Thutmose II’s gendercide, Hatshepsut’s lack of a son and kindheartedness for foreigners [plausibly, Moses' step-mother], and Thutmose III’s matchless power. Then there’s Amenhotep II’s cruelty [= hard heartedness], his destruction of Hatshepsut’s monuments, his wariness of foreign magicians [such as Moses and Aaron], his tubercle-riddled body [see above!] and the miss-ing latter half of his reign. Recall Thutmose IV’s surprise accession, the YHWH-worshiping nomads mentioned by Amenhotep III, and Akhenaten’s final repudiation of the very name Amenhotep and his total rejection of Egypt’s many gods (all while Canaan is being conquered by “Habiru”). All of these accounts directly parallel the bib-lical text—not only in substance but also in chronology!

 Such, should at minimum, give pause to skeptical dismissiveness. And, it should give us a modicum of confidence in pointing to and learning from the history of one of the first successful slave uprisings in history. END

So, how can we restore soundness (and sanity) to law, government and civilisation?

 First, by understanding what it takes to turn around a community dancing heedlessly on the crumbling edge of a cliff:

. . . and, what predictably happens if we go along with the suicidal "flow":

Underlying, it will be helpful to ponder who set up the Plato's Cave Shadow shows we may be confusing for sound reality, and what it takes to move the now notorious Overton Window:

Yes, ideology can lead a nation or a civilisation to ruin. After we saw the havoc wreaked by the Communists and Nazis in the last century, we should be doubly wary of today's Pied Pipers.

I like this video on Plato's parable, just ask yourselves about the spinmeisters behind the show that creates a false sense of reality:

 

This brings us back to the centrality of built in naturally evident first law, which can equip us for sound reformation. This can give us a framework of soundness that then helps us built critical mass to turn back from folly:

(And yes, given that it takes about a dozen exposures to break through the filters so we can actually hear a message in its own terms, we will see things like this chart again.)

Obviously, a first step is to begin to see things more accurately. 

 For example, we need to move beyond the outdated left-centre-right political spectrum. That was based on, champions of the traditional order sat on the Speaker's favoured right hand, and the ever more suspect sat to the left, the sinister side. In a day where the nominal centre -- the Overton Window -- is pulled this way and that and in which even the wrong words or daring to mention obvious but unwelcome truth can get one censored, that is even more outdated than it was once the American experiment in constitutional, democratic self government had clearly succeeded 150 years ago. 

Instead, we need to think in terms of tyranny, lawful government, constitutional, self government, where radical, lawless fashionably ideological oligarchy is every inch as tyrannical as any half mad colonial governor or would be absolutist king:

So, we can proceed to promote sound reformation by highlighting how we depend on cultural buttresses to support a constitutional democracy, as a corrupted public will undermine any attempt to balance freedom and lawful order. In that context, we can see how we can slide into lawless oligarchy if we forget first principles.

So, let us seek to build critical mass for sound reform. END