A war is on. Between a worldwide family rent in two. The family's have taken the first names of their eldest kids.
They are each literalists set upon each other to the death. In the balance? The fate of God, heaven, and earth. And all life. Animals dont know whats up, they're just scared because everything smells like fear and death and there's nothing to eat.
Darryl judges harshly by literal interpretation by categorization. Stone them.
Having suffered at the hands of Darryl and his literal interpretation of the word, his other brother Darryl judges harshly by literal interpretation for spite. Cut their heads off.
Both dogmatically and literally kind of almost not really at all even close to right. Right words, right order. But neither are at the right field. On the right day. With the right gear. Unaware at all of the purpose, much less the means to, um, win.
Darryl gets blamed for his callous and what have you done and you spilled your brothers blood act. But his other brother Darryl instigated it. Like vapor the clue of his guilt in his having "started it", is only found in the echo of Darryls "am I my brothers keeper?" Because his other brother Darryl played judge, jury, and executioner because he didn't know "stone them", like so many other words weren't written as physical literal violence against Darryl but a gentle reminder to the 2nd thems which could be microbes to whales attacking his other brother Darryl, preventing both Darryl and his other brother Darryl from being as close as twins. So his other brother Darryl decided Darryl was deficient because that one phrase in the whole massive body of text was about the only thing apparently and obviously repulsively clear to him and wanting to "him to heaven" he was prepared to browbeat, shame, humiliate and then execute his brother with stones, rather than spending a lifetime talking to gain understand and grow with his brother and the word and let God guide them through the rough terrain. Because who do all shepherds turn to when things get edgy, hairy, or wow we're not gonna make it, scary, but the beat shepherd at being shepherd? Darryl tried logic from the book that was designed to cut through his other brother Darryls ignorance, but his other brother Darryl was afraid he would look weak in the eyes of his flock if he treated his brother Darryl with compassion and humanity.
Enter the one guy who can start the party, bring everybody together and make the family whole again, and how's he received?
Wow. He's having a rough slog. Seems everybody wants to beat him, steal his thoughts, tell him to shut up, and stomp him out. He's being inflicted with both sides, the stone him Darryls and the cut his head off other brother Darryls. Because the status quo is good and Darryl and his other brother Darryl are comfortable because they're both pretty sure they're each gonna win if they just get a few more troops in place. And even if they have to fight another 1,000 years, the red tide is in each of their favor, no matter how many Darryls have to die.
And besides, Darryl knows to stuff his fingers in his ears and not hear one word the one guy has to say because the one guy's gonna start killing animals again and his other brother Darryl is sure the one guy is gonna pick Darryl's side because they're on his team because they believe in the word of that hypocritical book.
In military parlance? It's a clusterfuck of epic madness that makes total sense, but only in the minds of Darryl and his other brother Darryl. If they could talk, they'd realize they were being knuckleheads. But they won't and now there are missiles a d jets and bombs and wow, so many guns. So it shouldn't be surprising if nothing makes sense to Darryl and his other brother Darryl, that nothing makes sense to the animals. They're not sure how to feed their babies. The one guy is like, later for this, let 'em all have it and die. Almost. Nobody likes to be the tail end of every joke and for life. But he understands things and has a perspective unlike anybody and all the way in his heart, in a teensy spot he's sheltered from the insanity, he reminds himself he believes in Darryl and his other brother Darryl getting it. One day. Soon.
Meanwhile, nobody's listening to either side and nobody wants to hear anything the one guy has to say because then shit's gonna be final and Darryl and his other brother Darryl are each sure nobody is going to heaven except the other Darryl and the one guy. So Darryl and his other brother Darryl each together but separately decide on a scorched earth policy defined by screaming at but not talking and trashing the shit out of everything before nobody goes to heaven and make sure nobody survives anything because Darryl and his other brother Darryl are each gonna neither win. Ever.
So everybody arrays in war to destroy the family, God, his book of wisdom, and all life on earth, because literally the book makes no sense, except it does for judgment for Darryl and for spite for his other brother Darryl, each of whom would rather decide to go to hell by their own hand than hear judgment from the one guy...who's not anybody's judge and just wants to clear things up because Darryl and his other brother Darryl will both be happy and together again and nobody will lose face or be anything but relieved. And no rocks will be thrown or animals slaughtered.
But who's gonna listen to the one guy when he's broken, poor and starving? God's the God of heaven, his representatives have wings, harps, gold, and the insane ability to scare the snot and total life out of people - it's literally in the book.
The book of the shepherd. The book of the shepherd! The book of the shepherd? Is gonna emphasize gold? Or is God gonna send a shepherd who isn't a primadonna gold medallion statuette, but one well versed in...earth, dirt, poop, plants, bugs, snakes, worms, birds, whales, stinky animals, psychology, tenacity, fitness, health, kids, marriage, tech, music, business, construction, contracts, logistics, teenagers, suffering, inspiring people to keep going, even when it hasn't stopped hurting for what feels like forever, and maybe more? Like the utter tragedy and foolishness of: war.
I think Darryl and his other brother Darryl have spent enough time fighting over literal interpretations and are ready to do what God programmed us to do: laugh. Hold feasts in the desert. Finding the food where? Exactly! We grow trees and eat the fruit. Can't grow trees and eat fruit when we're all judging Darryl and throwing stones or angry at the hypocrisy of his other brother Darryl and cutting heads off for spite.
The real problem is both Darryls are looking for a guy with one name not another. Because the one guy is in one teeny tiny place in the animal killing book and the other guy is everywhere in the nutty crunchy happy time book, coming back with a whole different name with nutty crunchy happy sunshine and kumbaya.
But the secret to decoding with your super decoder ring lies in Daniel chapters 2-7, written in Aramaic - though similar to biblical Hebrew, is intended to say king Nebuchadnezzar wrote a book lacking the detail of the rest of the book and in a foreign language. It's not the book of life. And your decoder ring shows it because only chapter 7 has a date and the date is the reign of the king who's son of the queen he's ruling with and under.
The queen is in charge of Babylon - all the earth - women. And their kids. Dads, if they read the writing on the wall? They get to be third in the kingdom - slaves to the queen and their children. The queen thinks the mysoginistic bible is for men. It's not. Women are everywhere men are.
But until the queen sees? Darryl and his other brother Darryl aren't going to listen to the one guy. And we'll keep on the merry go round of warfare, disease, illness, and death. And watch our kids suffer, too. And the animals die. And the oceans, too.
Until we pop the bubble and meet God and he's crying because we weren't eating the way he taught us to, and it was right there in the book, and Michael has tried sharing it with you and everybody else for 14 years.
And not only is nobody listening to Michael, he's going to starve to death.
Where are the women in the bible? Eve named Cain because she wanted him, and when she wanted him, and he was special, and Abel was invisible, and they grew and fought and didnt get along. Because Adam and Eve didn't tend their flock by doing the right things, for the right seasons, with the right food. And Abel judged Cain to be stoned and Cain said Abels a hypocrite and Abel said "am I my brothers keeper?" And Cain got so mad, he killed him and mocked him saying, "am I my brothers keeper?" And decided he would teach Abel a lesson about how hypocritical the bible and Abel is and decided he would do everything opposite what the bible says because it's a stupid book, so acting stupid, mean, violent, and spiteful makes sense in a backwards and upside down way.
Cain and Abel, Darryl and his other brother Darryl, will only survive if they are born again. As Shem. We will only survive if we stop fighting and start collaborating about what we eat - from food to science. So we pass useful, grounded knowledge for survival for generation after generation, like Genesis 5.
Women have great influence as shepherds. Like Ishmael, raised by Hagar to turn against his fathers teachings and to disrespect Sarah (Torahs) teachings. Hagar turned to do what she wanted. Not what was right for the season and time and place. And in order to save his family, Abraham had to send her away for a while until she could show Sarah respect.
Like Rebecca, teaching Jacob (Jewish) to steal his birthright from his brother Esau (Babylon/Roman), to start the "Jacob is a hypocrite" campaign. And then having him steal his father's blessing before sending him to her organized crime brother to finish him off. Isaac was blind and Rebecca took full advantage. Kind of sounds familiar...But before he killed Jacob, Laban got 20 years of abuse in, forcing him to work as a slave to earn his daughters. Then tricking him in a big joke, forcing him to marry Leah and then Rachel, both of whom demanded Jacob do what they want and be used as a breeding stud for their competition. Women exhibit a range of behaviors and strategies towards each other, men, and kids, and for their desires all through the bible. But like in real life as queens their machinations and strengths are Esther; hidden.
Speaking of Esther, heroine who realized Haman wasn't just plotting to kill all the Jews, he was plotting to kill the king and take over the kingdom. A plot that had almost succeeded when Haman and his sons, from different mothers with surrogate, substitute fathers, stole every piece of the kings plans against Greece, sold them as "the total kings plan" and expected nobody to come back. One to five million humans slaughtered by Haman the traitor.
But the king and his guard survived. So Haman taunted his poor, destitute king by offering him money, all the money he'd made selling his countryman out, in exchange for all the Jews throughout the kingdom, worldwide. What looked like an investment was really a purchase, as evidenced by Hamans desire to ride the kings horse in the kings clothes. A signal that the cous had been successful.
Esther bravely saved the king and kingdom and her people, all with inspiring tact. She never said a word, but helped her husband the king grow and solve the puzzle by clues and hints. Then, she knocked Haman out with the truth, making the kings job clear and easy. So he didn't just look like, he became king again by his trust of Esther and her trust in him, and together they achieved understanding as to the depth of some individuals greed, avarice, malice, and genocidal intentions. Esther is an amazing woman at a time fraught with abject terror.
Then there's Ruth, friend, who was simply her loyal, faithful self to Hadasa, becoming and remaining family to her mother in law, even after both and Orpah, lost their husbands, Hadasas husband and sons. Orpah left to go follow her heart and do What she wanted, like Eve with her first 2 sons.
The bible is full of stories of women and men. Its had bad marketing and PR. Aided by misunderstanding of which path makes sense to pursue. But one can't start down the right path until getting ones shepherd head right to know which path, when, and why.
So that's a quick intro to the story of one family split in two taking the names of their eldest, Darryl and his other brother Darryl and their war of nonsense that almost makes sense but so totally doesn't make any sense and the one guy who just wants the same thing everybody else does except he makes sense and knows how to translate the writings that aren't literal because we arent computers and literal interpretations reduce us to running software without interpretation.
And we know that makes a little bit of total sense but not at all because "walk across the street" has a million tiny little additions that rapidly trend towards infinity depending on time of year, location, visibility, etc, so God has reduced life to the essence and in ways that make us smart to interpret things as shepherds, based on time, season, temperate zone, water, air, moisture and a million other metrics that help us shepherds lead our flock wherever we have to go and with food and shelter and what we need to keep going. 7
Because most everything we run into is trying to kill and eat and mostly, like lions, sees things as meals or not. Everything, anything, that's food, and us. And we can't let any of it eat us, but have to make sure whatever it is? It's life and needs food and Darryl and his other brother Darryl are the only creatures capable of tending to all life. So they, and by extension we, have to be born again as Shem and learn to eat of the word, not of the kings table (Dan 1), which sounds remarkably like "everything in moderation". And make sure all life, from microbes to whales have food. And we can't both be at war and tend to the earth and each other. War has to stop or nothing works.
