Matthew 22:34-46 The Pharisees tried to entrap Jesus by asking him which is the greatest commandment. Jesus answered with the first commandment and added another: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Once more they tried to entrap him with the question: Whose son is the Christ? Jesus answered: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” That shut them up.
Deuteronomy 9, Israel’s rebellion is reviewed, but in spite of being a stiffnecked people doing abominations to the LORD like the Golden Calf, God in His mercy kept His promises.
Deuteronomy 10, take Two Tablets, Fear the LORD and circumcise your hearts, that is the Essence of the Law. Remember, you too were aliens in Egypt.
Psalm 22, of David. It is also called “The Crucifixion Psalm”. Read it and ponder.
In Matthew 22:1-33 Jesus continued to talk in parables. He was in Jerusalem, teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven and told the parable of the wedding banquet, from which we have the expression “many are called but few are chosen.” Continuing on, the Pharisees tried to entrap him with the question “is it legal to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus answered by the famous quote: “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” an early call to separation of Church and State. Jesus did not say “let the Romans do it”. The Sadducees also tried to entrap him with the riddle “if there is no resurrection and seven brothers have had a woman as his wife on after another, who would marry her in the resurrection?” Jesus answered with another, now made famous, saying: “God is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Deuteronomy 7 promised that the Israelites were always a Chosen People. God will drive out the people before them. When entering the land they must completely destroy all idols and false gods.
Deuteronomy 8. Remember the LORD your God, but if not you too will be destroyed.
The power companies in California asked people to avoid charging their electric vehicles to lessen the strain on the power grid.
California has a giant power problem. It depends on solar power to over 10% and wind power to 10%, but depends on hydro power for over 13% of their needs. The two last nuclear power plants in Diablo Canyon, supplying 9% of Californians electricity are being shut down in 2024 and 2025. Hydro-power is declining because of the drought, so the rest has to be made up by fossil fuels and imports from other states. Therefore California has one of the largest transmissions losses of any state, close to 10%. When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine they import peak power at a price that has a few times been as high as one dollar per kWh. But they are building fast charging stations for their electric vehicles:
This one is in Menlo Park, Ca. Where Else?
The infrastructure bill will add $7.5B in EV charging stations, which could result in around 1,900 highway and rural stations, 100,000 urban stations, and 215,000 Level 2 stations for workplaces, apartments, and airports. There are already 45,000 private charging stations, and s number of exclusive Tesla charging stations. And then there is no saying how many are installing a fast charger in their garage. If electric cars really takes off we will have to greatly expand our electric grid, which is still powered over half with fossil fuels.
But fear not, when all else fails, here is a diesel powered electric charging station for your electric vehicle:
Should you run out of charge there is always AAA:
I am for electric vehicles as soon as the electric grid is fixed up, the dependency of fossil fuel to stabilize the grid and the grid is built up to accommodate electric vehicles being charged at the same time. As it is now, over half of all electricity is still produced using fossil fuels, and coupled with 10% transmission losses and conversion losses, plus that electric vehicles use electricity to get heated, they are not carbon neutral.
I have a proposal to solve the water problems in the American Southwest and at the same time triple the nation’s hydro-power storage capacity allowing for a greater use of solar panels, and some windmills, they will be a small part of the solution, but the great change will be the use of Small Modular Reactors, preferably Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors. The proposal is here-.
Matthew 21:12-46. Jesus cleansed the Temple and threw out the money changers. The spiritual leaders were offended that people sang “Hosanna in the highest” at the triumphal entry, even that little children sang it. As an object lesson Jesus cursed a fig tree, the symbol of Israel, and it withered. The spiritual leaders questioned Jesus authority. Instead of giving an answer Jesus gave two parables, the one about the two sons and the parable about the wicked tenants. Moving on, Jesus quoted scripture by saying :The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” meaning that the kingdom of God will be inherited by another people.
In Deuteronomy 6 Moses laid out The Greatest Commandment, he recommended the Israelites to wear phylacteries to keep them always in remembrance of the LORD and cautioned against disobedience. It is surprising how many of New Testament references there are to the Old testament Law; some are listed here.
Matthew 21:1-11 tells of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and that event begins what is called the “holy week”. Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on an unbroken colt, the prophesied sign of the coming Messiah.
Deuteronomy 5. The Ten Commandments were enumerated a second time, the first time was in Exodus 20. The people were afraid of God’s presence, they were horrified but not in reverential fear.
Matthew 20:17-34. Jesus predicted his death. After that the mother of Zebedee’s sons asked Jesus to have her sons to be seated with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven, but Jesus answer was that is only for the Father to decide. The other disciples got angry, but Jesus admonished them all that the kingdom of heaven means to be a servant. The chapter ends with Jesus, out of compassion healed two blind men.
In Deuteronomy 4 God promised the people they will enter the promised land, but if they are disobedient they will be scattered all over the earth. Obedience means no idolatry “for the LORD, your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God”. Three Cities of Refuge are mentioned.
The Democrats greatest concern was Climate Change, followed by Election Laws and Inflation. At the bottom of the list was the Supreme Court.
The Republicans greatest concern was Inflation, followed by Immigration and Crime. At the bottom of the list was Climate Change.
The Independents greatest concern was Inflation, followed by Immigration and COVID-19. At the bottom of the list was Unemployment.
For Blacks there was a tie between COVID-19 and Inflation as their greatest concern, followed by Racial Inequality. At the bottom of the list was the Supreme Court.
And for Hispanics the greatest concern was Inflation, followed by Climate change and COVID-19. At the bottom of the list was Supreme Court.
The biggest concern was Inflation for everybody but Democrats. Their biggest concern was Climate Change, but for Republicans that was the least of their worries.
Why is that?
Some Democrats believe with religious fervor that we have only limited time to solve the climate crisis before we reach the point of no return. Alexandra Occasio Cortez said in January 2019 that if we didn’t abolish fossil fuel asap the world will end in 12 years. There is now less than 9 years left. President Trump ended our part in the Paris accord, and President Biden rejoined it in 2021. If we fulfill all the Paris accord demands, the world temperature, according to the UN agency IPCC will rise 0.05 C cooler by 2030, and a whopping 0.17C less by 2100. See analysis here. Meanwhile, China is in negotiations to buy another 100 million metric tons of Coal from Russia. They consume half the world’s coal mining.
For other Democrats it is another method of gaining control of all production and consumption, the Venezuelan model.
Then there is the sustainability crowd, and they point out the obvious fact, that unless something is done, we will run out of Coal, Oil and Gas sometimes in the not too distant future. Their suggested solution is to build Wind Turbines with generators made in China and western Europe. Solar panels are mostly built in China. But that is not the worst part. To build these generators and solar panels we need rare earth metals, 80% of which come from China. Details here. The problem is what to do when the sun doesn’t shine, which is most of the time, and the wind doesn’t blow. Energy must then be produced by other means. For now it is generated by coal and natural gas plus some diesel generators. Battery technology is not there yet, and hydro-power storage is way inadequate for today’s need.
And then there is John Kerry, who’s greatest fear is that the war in Ukraine will distract us from our greatest threat, Climate Change. His latest concern on Migration: “Wait until you see 100 million people for whom the entire food production capacity has collapsed.”
Some Republicans thank God for the increased CO2 levels because thanks to that the world can now keep an additional 2 billion people from starving. It seems hard to believe, but as food yield increases in greenhouses when additional CO2 is added, so does the greenhouse called earth benefit from more CO2. Don’t believe me? Look at this map:
This means more roots for plants, less erosion, and more food for animals. The exception is desert areas.
Others have noticed that the dire predictions from IPCC, a UN Climate Change Panel, have always been way off base. The temperature increase, while real has always been way below what is predicted. It is predicted that the largest temperature increases occur at the poles, so this summer the South Pole had its coldest winter on record. A weather station at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station registered record cold winter temperatures this season (April – September), averaging at -61.1 °C (-77.9 °F) and breaking the previous record set in 1976 at -60.6 °C (-77 °F). Weather records date back to 1957. The North Pole on the other hand is experiencing a warmer trend, but only in the winter. The summers are marginally cooler, but that is because there is more now to melt. Yes, the Snow over the Arctic is increasing. See the chart from Rutgers Snow Lab:
These are but a few of the differences in opinion concerning Climate change. Let’s see where democrats and republicans live. If we look at the 2020 voting results the map looks nearly all Republican: (84% of the counties voted Republican)
Yet there were more Democrat votes cast than Republican. This is because the largest counties population wise vote Democrat and they experience Climate Change big time thanks to the so called Urban Heat Island effect:
This is late afternoon, somewhere in Urban USA.
People living in the rural America do not experience the Urban Heat Island effect, so they tend to dismiss the constant drumbeat from PBS, everything bad is because of climate change as just idle talk. What do they know; they are stuck in their asphalt jungle complaining about how bad things are. The rural people remember how their grandparents used to say it was much worse in the thirties, heatwave after heatwave and everything dried up. And dust storms and wildfires were much worse. Not to mention the winters, the Mississippi river froze all the way down to New Orleans. We have never has it so good as it is now. Poor Urban Heat Island dwellers.
The Democrats solution to Climate Change is: Eliminate CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and replace with wind and solar but not nuclear power. All cars trucks, trains and busses should be electric. This is impossible.
Republicans want to gradually lessen our dependency of fossil fuel and make electric production come from Nuclear power, preferably small modular Thorium reactors. They have many advantages explained here. There are immense environmental problems, it is not CO2 or even Methane, but water. The American South-west has too little water for its growing population and the east US has sometimes too much. One possible solution is described here.
In Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus told the parable of the workers in the vineyard, that God is always fair even when we don’t think so.
Deuteronomy 2 tells of the first 38 years of wandering in the the Desert. The generation entering the desert had died off and with the help of God King Sihon was Defeated.
Deuteronomy 3 describes how King Og was defeated and how the Israelites conquered the land East of Jordan, but Moses was forbidden to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land.
Matthew 19:13-30 contains some of the most important aspects of life. Here is a jewel: “Let the little children come to me…” After Jesus gave that lesson, a rich young ruler asked what good thing he must do to get eternal life. Jesus answered: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” This he could not do, so he sighed and walked away. Jesus then commented “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God,” in other words, impossible. But cheer up, “with God all things are possible.” And God’s pecking order is not economic or based on power. Instead, sometimes “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” There are many idioms in the English language taken from the Bible. Yet the origin of these quotations are not allowed to be taught in public schools. Ponder that.
Deuteronomy 1 starts with the LORD’s command telling the Israelites to leave Horeb and enter Canaan. Leaders were appointed and spies sent out, but Israel refused to enter the land. The penalty for Israel’s rebellion was that no one would enter the promised land except Caleb and Joshua.
Matthew 19:1-12 is relatively short but contains some of the most important aspects of life, such as marriage and divorce. “What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Ecclesiastes 8. Obey authorities for God’s Sake, and yes, this too is in Ecclesiastes: “Eat, drink and be merry.” It fits with the theme of vanity.
Psalm 19, of David. “This Psalm reflects, more than any other, the beauty and splendor of the Hebrew poetry found in the Psalter. C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.’” (VanGemeren)
Psalm 20, of David. The people’s prayer for the King is heard by the LORD. The most quoted part is: “ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” The Lord saves, we pray for the King.
Psalm 21, of David. The New Testament references from Revelation 14 seems to fit. When I read the Psalm the battle hymn of the republic kept ringing in my ears.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 