Title: 13
Author: Joe G
Last saved by: Auth User
Company: GDC

Clanking Chains		06-10-31.CC02-674 /

The Problem of Prejudice; the Problem with Dogs: the Israelites’ Problem with the Goyim; the Problem of Client Nation Arrogance; the Problem of Multiculturalism

		40.	If the person with whom you are in conflict is a former enemy that you have forgiven, then remember this principle: You are bound to forgive your enemy, but you are not bound to trust him until he proves through consistent observable conduct that he can again be trusted.   In the meantime, beware.
		41.	In addition it is also important to remember that in order to maintain harmony in personal relationships, both inside and outside the church, a grace mental attitude must be maintained.
		42.	Often when people are wronged they use the wrongdoing as a means of justifying an implacable attitude toward their antagonist.  This is self-centeredness.
		43.	If you have truly allowed the Supreme Court of Heaven to handle the matter then you should have a relaxed disposition so that hypersensitivity is inhibited while your spiritual growth is facilitated.
		44.	The royal family honor code calls for the quintessence of what a gentleman should be—it is not simply good manners but the thing that motivates good manners: thoughtfulness of other people empowered by doctrine.
		44.	When antagonism festers in the souls of men and is not managed with doctrinal problem-solving devices the result can be hatred directed toward an individual or prejudice directed toward a social, racial, religious, or cultural group.
		45.		This brings us to the next paragraph of our discussion:
The Problem with Dogs:
		1.	Many of you have a dog, or something closely resembling a dog, for which some paid big money.  You train it in various ways, keep it inside your house, feed it, and spend thousands of dollars caring for it.  Some of you have two or more of these animals and consider them to be an asset to your life and act as a close friend.
		2.	This is not the attitude that the Jewish people had toward dogs in the first century A.D. and their disdain for them is revealed in Old and New Testament Scripture.
		3.	The Hebrew word for “dog” is bl#K# kelev while the Greek’s is kÚwn, kuōn.  In both languages it refers literally to dogs and figuratively to sodomites: Deuteronomy 23:17-18; Revelation 22:15.
		4.	In addition, the term was used as an expression of contempt by the Israelites toward Gentiles who they also referred to as <y]oGh^ ha goyim.  To refer to someone as a dog was to offer the strongest possible insult.
		5.	To the Jew, dogs were considered the most despicable and miserable of creatures.  It was thought of as cowardly and lazy while at the same time violent and treacherous.
		6.	Dogs were also classified as unclean:
Fauna and Flora of the Bible. 2d ed.  (New York: United Bible Societies, 1980), 21:
The dog of the Bible is an unclean animal because it feeds on carrion.  It is described as running wild in the village streets without a master (Psalm 59:6).  So the stranger arriving at the village in the evening could find himself surrounded by ‘a pack of dogs’ (Psalm 22:16-21).
The voracity of the dog, like that of a pig, made it omnivorous.  Dogs served as scavengers in the village streets, into which the housewives threw all the rubbish of the house.  So it would be no kindness to take bread from the children and give it to scavenging dogs.  It was also customary among Israelites in the time of Jesus to use the word as a term of abuse for Gentiles (Matthew 15:26; Mark 7:27), who like dogs were unclean.  
		7.	To call someone a “dead dog” was the last word in vilifying his character.  To be eaten by dogs was considered the sign of special judgment from God.
		8.	The latter was the fate of Jezebel, the Gentile wife of Ahab, the seventh monarch of the Northern Kingdom.  Her body was eaten by dogs, prophesied by Elijah the Tishbite in 1 Kings 21:23 and fulfilled in 2 Kings 9:36-37:
1 Kings 21:23 -	“Of Jezebel also has the Lord spoken, saying, ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.’”
		9.	Isaiah castigates the politicians of his day calling them dogs in:
Isaiah 56:10 -	His watchmen are blind, all of them know nothing.  All of them are mute dogs unable to bark, dreamers lying down, who love to slumber;
v. 11 -	And the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied.  And they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.
v. 12 -	“Come,” they say, “let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink; and tomorrow will be like today, only more so.” 
		10.	The apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus \i‑klē‑zē‑as'‑ti–kas\, or Sirach \sī'‑rak\, has the following statement: “What fellowship has the wolf with the lamb? so the sinner with the ungodly.  What agreement is there between the hyena and a dog?” (vv. 17-18a).
		11.	The Israelites, because of their election as a client nation, assumed themselves to be superior to all other races.  Among the reasons in addition to this was the fact they possessed the Torah.
		12.	The Midrash, one of the many Jewish commentaries on the Old Testament, teaches the Torah to be a divine secret which must not be declared to the Gentiles.
		13.	Considered as sacred, the Jews sought to keep it separate from common people and anyone not Jewish was considered common: <y]oGh^ ha goyim.
		14.	The term yoG goy which means “nation” came to be a disparaging name to refer to any Gentile and indicates that the Jews were guilty of client nation arrogance.
		15.	Client nation arrogance is defined by the following principles:
1)	Client nation arrogance begins with an arrogant form of government that reflects the decadence of the people:  apostasy among believers, indifference among unbelievers, and irresponsibility by all.
2)	Client nation arrogance includes moral and immoral degeneration.
3)	It blurs the distinctions between church and state in that the state assumes functions of the church in the form of welfare through forced redistribution of wealth while the church assumes functions of the state in the form of social action at the expense of the Gospel.
4)	When the government stresses the Welfare State and the church stresses social action, then the difference between the two is blurred although the propaganda insists a separation exists.
5)	In this way client nation arrogance is characterized by social degeneration, economic depression, military disaster, and the apostasy of believers resulting in a shrunken Pivot.
6)	Client nation arrogance finds its catalyst in the presumption that the blessings and prosperities from God to a client nation are the result of national and ethnic superiority.
7)	Arrogance rejects the laws of divine establishment, ridicules the Gospel, and ignores the fact that all national blessing is associated with the pivot of mature believers.
		16.	Client nation arrogance for Israel was the conviction that the Torah’s teachings must be withheld from the Gentiles since they were inferior: dogs!  This is expressed through an attitude of ethnic, religious, and cultural prejudice.
		17.	On the other hand, there is a place for discernment in dealing with unbelievers and an example of this is taught by the Lord in Matthew 7.

© 2006 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org