John 17 is commonly known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer. In some conservative circles it is also called “The Lord’s prayer.” In it Jesus prayed for himself, then he prayed for his disciples followed by prayer for all future believers. In the end of the chapter he prayed that the believers will see his glory, the glory God gave him before the creation of the world.
A few hundred years has passed since the end of Genesis. Exodus 1 tells how the Hebrews multiplied and became a perceived threat to the Egyptians. The Egyptians told the Hebrew midwives that every boy they delivered must be thrown into the Nile, but every girl were to be let to live.
Which seamlessly leads into Exodus 2, how Moses when he was born was placed in a papyrus basket, which then was thrown into the Nile and the child was left crying in the reeds. Pharaoh’s daughter heard it, picked him up and asked her servant to find somebody to nurse him. Of course she found Moses’ own mother to nurse him. After he was weaned Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s household and got educated. He did remember he was a Hebrew, so when he saw an Egyptian mistreat a Hebrew he killed the Egyptian. This became known and Moses fled to Midian, where he spent 40 years tending flocks. This is great reading.
John 16:17-33. Jesus continued his instructions to his disciples. They did not understand why it is good he leaves and sends the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that their grief would turn to joy and ended with this encouragement: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Ecclesiastes 1. The author, king Solomon spoke of the vanity of life and the grief of wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 2. King Solomon continued with the vanity of pleasure, the end of the wise and the end of the fool.
Psalm 9 speaks of God’s faithfulness and the victories of the wicked one are only temporary.
John 16:1-16. Jesus continued his instructions to his disciples, telling why it is good he leaves and sends the Holy Spirit. He also promised they would be persecuted for following Jesus.
Genesis 48 describes how Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh. He blessed Ephraim ahead of Manasseh, even though Manasseh was the older of Joseph’s sons.
In Genesis 49 Jacob blessed all his sons with a different blessing for each of them.
And finally, Genesis 50 tells how Jacob was buried back in Canaan near Mamre where Sarah, Abraham and Rebecka also were buried. Joseph forgave his brothers; “Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good”. Finally even Joseph dies, and he wills that his bones will be carried out when they depart and enter into the promised land.
John 15. Jesus continued his instructions to the disciples. There are many memorable quotes from this chapter: “I am the true vine, I am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, love each other as I have loved you, greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends, this is my command: Love each other” and “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”
In Genesis 45 Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and all rejoiced. It contains the phrase “But God” and shows clearly that God was in control all the time.
In Genesis 46 Jacob joined Joseph’s brothers in going to resettle in Egypt, and is a retelling of the names of all that went, sixty-six in total – not counting women and children.
Genesis 47 tells of how Jacob and his descendants settled in Goshen, about the continuing famine, and how Joseph, controlling the food supply enslaved the people. All power corrupts, and so even Joseph failed in comparison to Jesus, who came to set people free.
John 14:15-31 records the events of the hour after the Passover meal before they all depart to Gethsemane. Since Jesus told his disciples he was leaving, he promised to send another comforter or advocate. (I have put in a short explanation on the difference in the interpretation of this passage between Christianity and Islam). Jesus then explained clearly he will be going away and send the Holy Spirit in his place.
In Genesis 42 there was famine in Canaan, as happened quite regularly, so Joseph’s brothers went down to Egypt to buy food. They met Joseph, now governor of Egypt, and he demanded to see Benjamin, who was left behind with Jacob. They agreed to do so and left one of the brothers behind as collateral. Joseph was very distraught at the proposition, since Joseph and Benjamin were his favorite children.
And in Genesis 43 the famine continued, so they had to go back to Egypt for more. This time they had to bring Benjamin with them to keep their promise to Joseph. Joseph gave them all food from his table, and he gave a five times larger portion to Benjamin. So ends that chapter.
Genesis 44 tells how Joseph tested his brothers by having Joseph’s own silver cup placed in Benjamin’s sack as the brothers returned back to Canaan. They all passed the test and returned to Joseph to await his judgment.
The U.s census is doing a remarkable job of statistics. This is from US Mortality
We can see the 2020 excess mortality was 14%Total 425,794 deaths broken down i 6 age categoriesPercentage wise it looks quite different!
COVID deaths in 2020 was about 377,878 not much different than the total excess deaths. For the 6 categories they are as follow: 0-24 721 or 27% of excessive deaths; 25-44 9,144 or 24% of excessive deaths; 45-64 62,536 or 63% of excessive deaths; 65-74 80,617 or 88% of excessive deaths; 75-84 104,212 or 127% of excessive deaths; 85+ 120,648 or 109% of excessive deaths;
We can see that for people under 45 years of age only a quarter of the excess deaths came from COVID-19. Most of the deaths came from excess stress, delayed medical treatments, depression, drugs, drinking and misbehavior, but for people over 65 there was a positive effect of the protective provisions that followed. But 2020 was the year without vaccines and a learning year for how to best treat the pandemic.
So how are we doing in 2021? We now have three vaccines and have learnt a lot about how to best treat COVID. Well for openers COVID deaths in 2021 were 452 thousand, far more than in 2020! And we have learned a lot of best treatment for hospitalized patients. The official results are not in yet, but there are charts that can give us a clue.
The all cause excess mortality for the age group 0-24 years in 2021 is not much different than for 2020, the chart below indicate it is about 3% more, or about 4,000 excess deaths.
For the age group 25-44 years: From the time COVId started to the end of the year 2020 the excess mortality rate was about 30%. In 2021 the excess mortality ate was around 44%, or about 41,500 excess deaths.
For the age group 45-64 years: From the time COVID started to the end of the year 2020 the excess mortality rate was about 23%. In 2021 the excess mortality ate was around 29%, or about 126,000 excess deaths.
For the age group 65-74 years: From the time COVID started to the end of the year 2020 the excess mortality rate was about 24%. In 2021 the excess mortality ate was around 22%, or about 84,000 excess deaths.
For the age group 75-84 years: From the time COVID started to the end of the year 2020 the excess mortality rate was about 18%. In 2021 the excess mortality ate was around 11%, or about 50,000 excess deaths.
And finally, for the age group 85+ years: From the time COVID started to the end of the year 2020 the excess mortality rate was about 18%. In 2021 the excess mortality ate was around 3%, or about 30,000 excess deaths.
First the good news. In 2020 the COVID-19 deaths were 89% of the total excessive deaths excessive deaths, in 2021 they were 131% of all excessive deaths. This means the vaccines are effective in reducing total deaths.
But do they reduce total deaths in all age categories?
For age group 0-24years: Excessive deaths 2020, 2,641 2021, 4,500, a 75% increase. 25-44years: Excessive deaths 2020, 38,271; 2021, 41,500, an 8.5% increase. 45-64years: Excessive deaths 2020, 99,869; 2021, 126,000, a 26% increase. 65-74years: Excessive deaths 2020, 91,249; 2021, 84.000, an 8% decrease. 75-84years: Excessive deaths 2020, 81,700; 2021, 50.000, a 39% decrease. 85+ years: Excessive deaths 2020, 111,284; 2021, 30.000, a 73% decrease.
Now, vaccines are not the only determining factor in the excessive deaths, overdoses of Fentanyl, opioids, alcohol and other drugs played a role. Especially in the 25-64 age group the additional stress to care for elderly parents while the children are still in high school or college plus being locked in at home and having to wear masks can be devastating to the mental health of anyone.
The conclusion from this study is: Dont vaccinate children and young adults. For people 25-44 vaccinate people with compelling medical needs to be protected. For people 45-64 make an informed decision, and since there are very often co-mprbidity factors, consider get vaccinated. For people over 65: By all means get vaccinated and boosted. Your immune system is already weakened anyway.
The vaccines that exist do not provide immunity. That was the old definition of vaccine. The new definition is that vaccines are prophylactic therapeutics for a time period, to be followed by boosters. There are two excellent prophylactic therapeutic medicines tha so fr has been overlooked by CDC, but are used at great advantage in much of the rest of the world: HydroxyChloroquine and Ivermectin. Check out Why is U.S.A. doing so poorly in fighting the pandemic? Is it beecause they refuse HCQ and Ivermectin?
John 14:1-14 records the events of the hour after the Passover meal before they all depart to Gethsemane. Jesus told his disciples he is going away to prepare a mansion, more precisely a dwelling place for them. Thomas, always questioning him, asked him “How can we know the way?” And Philip added “Show us the Father“. Jesus answer? “Believe in me“.
Genesis 40 deals with dreams. Joseph’s two fellow cellmates in prison each had a dream, Joseph interpreted the dreams that the cup-bearer would be released and restored to his former position, while the baker would be hanged on a tree.
In Genesis 41 Pharaoh himself had a dream, and Joseph was released from prison to interpret the dream. It dealt with seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Joseph interpreted the dream so well that Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of all affairs of Egypt. The seven years of plenty came and good harvests filled the storehouses. Then came the seven years of famine.
Psalm 8 has been set to music many times. Even I have sung it many times, both as a choir number, and the first verse as an introit. Looking for the music I found a far better, very free rendition of the Psalm, this one by Marty Goetz.
John 13 begins the last 24 hours before the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet before the Passover meal, a task normally performed by the lowest servant. During the meal he announced his betrayal, and then he gave the disciples a new commandment “love one another”. He also predicted Simon Peter’s denial.
Genesis 38 tells the story of Judah and Tamar. One of the rules of the Old Testament is that if a man dies without producing an heir, it was the duty of his brother to try to produce an offspring to his widow. Onan shirked this responsibility, and that was the sin of Onan. Tamar was thus still barren, so she tricked Judah into committing adultery. You can read it for yourself. Judah finally confessed: She is more righteous than I.
Genesis 39 then picks up the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. The story is a classic, and for doing the right thing Joseph was falsely accused and thrown in jail.
Psalm 7 is a shiggaion, a dithyrambic ode of David. I would love to hear what the music to this Psalm sounded like.
John 12:20-50 . Some Greeks came to Jesus and Jesus prophesied about his being “lifted up, and draw all men to himself”, and some believed. Many Jews also believed but kept quiet for fear of being kept out of the synagogues.
In Genesis 36 is recorded the genealogy of Esau and the rulers of Edom.
Genesis 37 tells of Joseph’s dreams, outrageous as they were they made his brothers jealous, so they sold him into slavery to the Ishmaelites and then the Midianites sold him to Potiphar in Egypt.
John 12:1-19 begins the last week before the Crucifixion. It is important when this happened, so I have inserted a segment on the correct dates for Passover and the Holy week. Jesus was anointed at Bethany, on Sunday and, as prophesied, he rode on an unbroken donkey colt in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Trouble started in Genesis 34. Dinah was violated by an uncircumcised person, two of her brothers executed revenge on not only the violator but every male in the whole town, killing them all. Jacob said: “You have troubled me to make me a stink among the inhabitants of the land.” And so trouble started.
Genesis 35. Jacob returned to Bethel, got rid of all the idols and built an altar. Moving on from Bethel, Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, a birth so hard Rachel died in childbirth. The chapter ends with the death of Isaac.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 