Common Sense

The fear of Yahweh is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether, more desirable than gold, even much fine gold; and sweeter than honey, even honey in the comb. Moreover, your servant is warned by them; in keeping them is great reward.

Psalms 19:9-11

Remember the phrase “common sense”? We are not supposed to use that term anymore because it is supposedly unfair to expect everyone to have the same basic knowledge. Another phrase that I have heard is “stupid should hurt”, meaning when people get hurt doing stupid things it has the potential of “knocking some sense into them”. I am going to suggest this idea of common sense has a specific meaning, and that common sense has been systematically removed from society, ultimately by Yahweh, due to rebellion.

Paul gives us a hint that we all have a basic knowledge of right and wrong in his letter to the Romans.

Rom 2:13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
Rom 2:14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
Rom 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
Rom 2:16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Paul is speaking of people who do not know the law of God, but yet their conscience guides them to do what the law requires. Paul knows that if you love your neighbour then you will not murder, steal, lie or take their spouse. Throughout history, even though people always have done these things, there wasn’t the same sense of approval there is now. Most people would consider these things wrong, even if they did them. There is no moral compass now and suggesting that there should be one causes anger in many parts of society.

1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
1Ti 4:2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
1Ti 4:3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

I realize many people would view leaving the institutionalized church as leaving the faith; however, it is plain to see that many of the 40,000 plus denominations have had their consciences seared. When we start to purposely abandon the instructions of Yahweh, He will give us over to our own doings, and the teachings of demons.

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Rom 1:19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Rom 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Rom 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Rom 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
Rom 1:25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
Rom 1:27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Rom 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Rom 1:29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
Rom 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Rom 1:32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

This “debased mind” is lacking the common sense of right and wrong imparted to us from the Creator. Notice Paul states that it is by unrighteousness that people suppress the truth. It is not by word, but by deed. When we stop upholding the Ten Commandments as a secular society, there is less of a voice present to revive the debased mind. It is not a secret that many laws in the West were based on the Torah of Yahweh. While ultimately Yahweh is responsible for giving people over to a debased mind, it is only due to the fact that this is what people want by rejecting the truth.

Yahweh told Israel He would scatter them for disobedience. They were supposed to be a light to the other nations because of the relationship they had with Him and the righteous instructions He gave them to live their lives. Is this not the commission of the church? How can the church be a light to the world when they are no different than the world? What the church misunderstands is that Israel was given the ability to return through Jesus, and that Christians were not supposed to start a new world religion with 40,000 different sects that all have different belief systems. It is the lost sheep of Israel and those who sojourn with them that are able to be grafted into the cultivated olive tree. This is the elect. The root of that tree is Jesus who came as a shoot from “the stump of Jesse”, who was King David’s father.

Isa 10:33 Look! The Lord Yahweh of hosts is about to lop off the branches with great power, and the towering trees will be felled, and the tall trees will be brought low.
Isa 10:34 And he will cut down the thickets of the forest with the axe, and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.

Isa 11:1 And a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit.
Isa 11:2 And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him—a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.
Isa 11:3 And his breath is in the fear of Yahweh. And he shall judge not by his eyesight, and he shall rebuke not by what he hears with his ears.
Isa 11:4 But he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and he shall decide for the needy of the earth with rectitude. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and he shall kill the wicked person with the breath of his lips.
Isa 11:5 And righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

Chapter breaks do not mean a start of a new subject in the Bible. The chapters and verses were added by hopefully, well meaning men, in modern times.

It is in Deuteronomy where Israel is told they will be scattered. In the latter times, they will be regathered. Where God completely divorced the people and scattered them to the other nations to serve their gods, which were really demons, they needed a way to be reconciled to God. This is one of the jobs Jesus came to perform.

Deu 4:23 Watch out for yourselves so that you do not forget the covenant of Yahweh your God that he had made with you and make for yourselves a divine image of the form of anything that Yahweh your God has forbidden,
Deu 4:24 for Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
Deu 4:25 “When you have had children and grandchildren and you have grown old in the land and you act corruptly and you make a divine image of the form of anything and you do evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God, thus provoking him to anger,
Deu 4:26 I call to witness against you today the heaven and the earth, that you will perish soon and completely from the land that you are crossing the Jordan into it to take possession of it; you will not live long on it, but you will be completely destroyed.
Deu 4:27 And Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations to where Yahweh will lead you.
Deu 4:28 And you will there serve gods made by human hands, of wood and stone, gods that cannot see and cannot hear and cannot eat and cannot smell.
Deu 4:29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 4:30 In your distress when all these things have found you in the latter days, then you will return to Yahweh your God, and you will listen to his voice.
Deu 4:31 For Yahweh your God is a compassionate God; he will not abandon you, and he will not destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant of your ancestors that he swore to them.

The house of Israel broke the covenant with Yahweh. Yahweh disowned them and nullified the covenant with the house of Israel. It was not because Yahweh did not uphold His end. It is much like a landlord evicting a tenant for breaking the terms of a rental agreement. They may get removed from the apartment for having wild, destructive parties or for whatever was in the agreement. Yahweh’s agreement was the Ten Commandments. Jesus came with a new covenant, or rental agreement, allowing former tenants back in, along with new tenants. Unfortunately, much of the church thinks the new agreement allows for the things that caused the first agreement to be terminated. As if Jesus, the landlord, now allows wild, destructive parties, or Baal worship. We are blessed to have another chance to rent the apartment again. It is foolish to think that the things which caused Israel to be divorced are now okay in the new covenant. We are the only new part of the new covenant.

Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
Rom 3:22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom 3:24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Rom 3:25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Rom 3:26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Rom 3:27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Rom 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Rom 3:29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
Rom 3:30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
Rom 3:31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Because we are given a free gift, which is another chance, we cannot boast that salvation is by anything we have done. This does not mean there are no terms to the covenant. As Paul emphasizes, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law”. When we break the covenant through rebellion, just like Israel, (because we have been grafted into Israel), we too can be cut off.

Rom 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,
Rom 11:18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
Rom 11:19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
Rom 11:20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.
Rom 11:21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
Rom 11:22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

What is this rebellion? We must remember that there have always been forces of darkness trying to separate us from Yahweh. It was this way in Jesus’ day, in our day and in ancient times. The following is from the book of Jubilees, a book ignored by Christians, but found along side the oldest copy of Genesis in existence, in the caves of Qumran.

AND in the third week of this jubilee the unclean devils began to lead astray the children of the sons of Noach, and to make to err and destroy them. And the sons of Noach came to Noach their father, and they told him concerning the devils which were leading astray and blinding and slaying his sons’ sons. And he prayed before Yahuah Elohayu, and said: Elohiym of the ruachoth of all flesh, who has shown mercy unto me and has saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood, and has not caused me to perish as you did the sons of perdition; For your grace has been great towards me, and great has been your mercy to my soul; Let your grace be lift up upon my sons, and let not wicked ruachoth rule over them lest they should destroy them from the earth. But do you bless me and my sons, that we may increase and multiply and replenish the earth. And you know how your Watchers, the fathers of these ruachoth, acted in my day: and as for these ruachoth which are living, imprison them and hold them fast in the place of condemnation, and let them not bring destruction on the sons of your servant, my Elohiym; for these are malignant, and created in order to destroy. And let them not rule over the ruachoth of the living; for you alone can exercise dominion over them. And let them not have power over the sons of the righteous from henceforth and forevermore. YOVHELIYM (JUBILEES) 10:1-6 את CEPHER

Another job Jesus came to do was to set people free from the demonic influences, afflictions and oppression. It was an answer to Noah’s prayer.

Luk 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
Luk 4:17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
Luk 4:19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luk 4:20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Luk 4:21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

People were oppressed by demons and devils. Jesus cast many out of people. He was cleaning up the mess rebellion makes. Moses also exposes these demonic forces concerning idolatry.

Deu 32:16 They made him jealous with strange gods; with detestable things they provoked him.
Deu 32:17 They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them.
Deu 32:18 The rock who bore you, you neglected, and you forgot God, the one giving you birth.
Deu 32:19 Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
Deu 32:20 So he said, ‘I will hide my face from them; I will see what will be their end, for they are a generation of perversity, children in whom there is no faithfulness.

Even at the end, some will not give up their alliance with the demons.

Rev 9:20 And the rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, in order not to worship the demons and the gold and silver and bronze and stone and wooden idols, which are able neither to see nor to hear nor to walk,
Rev 9:21 and they did not repent of their murders or of their magic spells or of their sexual immorality or of their thefts.

Common sense can be found in the Ten Commandments, and one of the reasons common sense is hard to find in society, has to do with society as a whole rejecting God’s law. Now more than ever, we see the church reject God’s law too, and the evil forces of darkness celebrate, taking control of people’s lives.