Something Different

And God said, “Look—I am giving to you every plant that bears seed which is on the face of the whole earth, and every kind of tree that bears fruit. They shall be yours as food.”

Genesis 1:29 (LEB)

We spend much of our efforts speaking about Sabbaths, feast days, justice, mercy and the importance that we should place on the instructions of the Creator. These are all very important subjects. There is a whole aspect of life that interlocks with these truths and helps us be in tune with nature while we do our best to follow the instructions of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We must learn to work with the natural world around us and not go to war with nature.

One of the ways we can achieve peace with nature is to follow the ways that Yahweh gave us. Fighting nature is going against the instructions of Yahweh. He told us how the world works, and it is a much better experience when we align ourselves with His ways.

Leviticus 26:2–6 (LEB): ² “ ‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.³ “ ‘If you walk in my statutes and you keep my commands and you do them, ⁴ then I will give you rains in their time, and the land shall give its produce, and the trees of the field shall give their fruit. ⁵ And for you the threshing season shall overtake the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall overtake the sowing, and you shall eat your food to your fill and you shall live securely in your land. ⁶ And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and there shall not be anybody who makes you afraid, and I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword shall pass through your land.

I used to spend much of my time on Sabbaths mowing the lawn and trimming everything, being what I refer to now as a “grass farmer”. Don’t misunderstand, I still like a neat lawn, but there was an obsessive compulsive component driving me in the past.

I was looking at some of the neglected areas around my house recently, and realized that I now have a sanctuary for bees, my own herbal pharmacy and wild plants to forage. I have been interested in plant medicine for a number of years and have been trying to learn the uses for the plants that have grown in the absence of a manicured lawn and field. It makes me believe that part of working with nature is using the plants it provides naturally, especially after reading the following section in the book of Jubilees.

Jubilees 10:10-14 (pseudepigrapha.com): And one of us He commanded that we should teach Noah all their medicines; for He knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness. And we did according to all His words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan on the earth. And we explained to Noah all the medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he might heal them with herbs of the earth. And Noah wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine. Thus the evil spirits were precluded from (hurting) the sons of Noah. And he gave all that he had written to Shem, his eldest son; for he loved him exceedingly above all his sons.

Jubilees is a book that was found in the caves of Qumran along with some of the oldest copies of scripture we have available to us. The narrative is similar to Genesis, however, it is written from the viewpoint of angels delivering the information to Moses. This may be a foreign concept to many Christians and actually make them cringe due to the strict adherence that is imposed in much of Christianity to the Westminster Confessions. However, we find Steven saying this very thing in the approved sixty-six book Bible.

Acts 7:51–53 (LEB): ⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people and uncircumcised in hearts and in your ears! You constantly resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so also do you! ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand about the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, ⁵³ you who received the law by directions of angels and have not observed it!”

Some of the variety of plants that have started growing on their own around my house are Mullen, Aster, St. John’s Wort, Yarrow, Golden Rod and of course things such as Dandelion, Hawthorn and Burdock, all of which have unique medicinal uses. Many of these plants and others can also be eaten, and have sustained people for thousands of years before processed food took over society’s diet. It is interesting how the corrupt food chain we have today has caused us to need more pharmaceuticals. Many of the store bought drugs are simply synthetically made compounds of the plants growing around us. One cannot put a patent on a naturally growing weed, so there is a method to market these plants allowing there to be boatloads of money to be made by the different drug companies.

Other plant life that can be used for our health and well-being are lichens found growing on trees, mushrooms and even pine needles. Pine needle tea is a good source of vitamins A , C and Selenium, for example.

Genesis 3:18 (LEB): ¹⁸ And thorns and thistles shall sprout for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

Plants have been used for medicine at least as far back as Noah, and he even wrote it down in a book to pass down to his children. This plant medicine was used to combat diseases caused by disobedience to the laws of Yahweh and from the demons that were allowed to stay on the earth to test us. Today we read all the warnings about plant medicine and see how much disdain there is towards its use in the pharmaceutical industry and medical profession. Could we have the answers to many of our medical problems growing in our neglected fields and lawns? What is more beautiful, mowed grass or life saving flowers growing around us?

Of course, there are people who have capitalized on herbal medicine and have created a market for consumers to buy pills for everything from milk thistle to oregano. Too much of a good thing can be harmful and our ancestors consumed these products by making teas and tinctures out of the plants, not buying high concentrated tablets. Everything gets corrupted with corporate greed and the laziness of consumers.

Revelation 18:21–24 (LEB): ²¹ And one powerful angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “In this way Babylon the great city will be thrown down with violence, and will never be found again! ²² And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will never be heard in you again! And every craftsman of every trade will never be found in you again! And the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again! ²³ And the light of a lamp will never shine in you again! And the sound of a bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again! For your merchants were the most important people of the earth, because with your sorcery they deceived all the nations. ²⁴ And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and all those who had been slaughtered on the earth.

Strong’s G5758 is the word translated to sorcery in this version of the Bible. This is how “Babylon” deceived the whole world.

φαρμακεία
pharmakeia, n.c., use of drugs, sorcery, potions; spells.

The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

Without being too conspiratorial, it is not very difficult to see how the world is being deceived by drugs, potions and spells. The food chain has been corrupted in the name of “science” when it is actually greed that is driving things. The pharmaceutical industry is making billions of dollars for treatments created for mysterious illnesses caused by the corrupt food chain and men doing heinous acts. Most people do not regard the dietary instructions given to us by the Father. This is the One who many believe created everything, yet do not have the faith to eat what He said to eat and not eat what He said was not food.

The context of these verses in Isaiah are at the time of the return of the Messiah when he will deliver the wrath of Yahweh. This is in the future, and the dietary instructions are still valid.

Isaiah 66:16–17 (LEB): ¹⁶ For Yahweh enters into judgment on all flesh with fire and his sword, and those slain by Yahweh shall be many. ¹⁷ Those who sanctify themselves and those who cleanse themselves to go into the gardens after the one in the middle, eating the flesh of swine and detestable things and rodents together shall come to an end!” declares Yahweh.

All of these subjects are connected. The best course of action one can take is to study the words of Yahweh and do what the Creator of everything said to do. Do not fight the laws of nature, of which Yahweh’s laws are at the root. Learn how to live off of the land and leave the corruptions of this world behind!