Your comment is a precise acceptance then of #2 isn't it?
Not in the way you (and Jer) IMPLY, dear Jeff (again, peace to you!): that is for some UNgodly, UNrighteous, WICKED reason on HIS part that certain prayers are not heard. But I have been directed to help you "see", if you truly WISH to... that that is not the case... by referring you to HIS own words... as stated by the Prophet at Isaiah 59:1-15... because you won't believe ME or accept the truth of it otherwise. In that light (and I would caution you to read the following CAREFULLY):
"The hand of JaHVeH has not become too short that it cannot save, nor has his ear become too heavy that it cannot hear. No, but the very errors of YOU people have become the things causing division between YOU and YOUR God, and YOUR own sins have caused the concealing of [his] face from YOU to keep from hearing. For YOUR own palms have become polluted with blood, and YOUR fingers with error. Y OUR own lips have spoken falsehood. Y OUR own tongue kept muttering sheer unrighteousness.There is no one calling out in righteousness, and no one at all has gone to court in faithfulness. There has been a trusting in unreality, and a speaking of worthlessness. There has been a conceiving of trouble, and a bringing of what is hurtful to birth.
" The eggs of a poisonous snake are what they have hatched, and they kept weaving the mere cobweb of a spider. Anyone eating some of their eggs would die, and the [egg] that was smashed would be hatched into a viper.Their mere cobweb will not serve as a garment, nor will they cover themselves with their works. Their works are hurtful works, and the activity of violence is in their palms. Their own feet keep running to sheer badness, and they are in a hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are hurtful thoughts; despoiling and breakdown are in their highways.The way of peace they have ignored, and there is no justice in their tracks. Their roadways they have made crooked for themselves. No one at all treading in them will actually know peace.
"That is why justice has come to be far away from us, and righteousness does not catch up with us. We keep hoping for light, but, look! darkness; for brightness, [but] in continuous gloom we kept walking.We keep groping for the wall just like blind men, and like those without eyes we keep groping. We have stumbled at high noon just as in evening darkness; among the stout ones [we are] just like dead people.We keep groaning, all of us, just like bears; and like doves we mournfully keep cooing. We kept hoping for justice, but there was none; for salvation, [but] it has stayed far away from us.For our revolts have become many in front of you; and as for our sins, each one has testified against us. For our revolts are with us; and as for our errors, we well know them.There have been transgressing and a denying of JaHVeH; and there was a moving back from our God, a speaking of oppression and revolt, a conceiving and a muttering of words of falsehood from the very heart.And justice was forced to move back, and righteousness itself kept standing simply far off.For truth has stumbled even in the public square, and what is straightforward is unable to enter. And the truth proves to be missing , and anyone turning away from badness is being despoiled.
Because of this, just as with Israel, MOST people (including you, by your words here, if nothing else) have concluded a covenant... with Death. They say, as you do:
"Whom will one instruct in knowledge, and whom will one make understand what has been heard? Those who have been weaned from the milk, those moved away from the breasts? For it is “command upon command, command upon command, measuring line upon measuring line, measuring line upon measuring line, here a little, there a little.”
His reply?
"For by those stammering with their lips and by a different tongue he will speak to this people,those to whom he has said: “This is the resting-place. G IVE rest to the weary one. And this is the place of ease,” but who were not willing to hear.And to them the word of JaHVeH will certainly become “command upon command, command upon command, measuring line upon measuring line, measuring line upon measuring line, here a little, there a little,” in order that they may go and certainly stumble backwards and actually be broken and ensnared and caught.
" Therefore hear the word of JaHVeH, YOU braggarts, YOU rulers of this people who are in [Jerusalem]:Because YOU men have said: “We have concluded a covenant with Death; and with She´ol we have effected a vision; the overflowing flash flood, in case it should pass through, will not come to us, for we have made a lie our refuge and in falsehood we have concealed ourselves”...Isaiah 28:9-15
UNLIKE Israel at that time, however, there are some who have concluded a DIFFERENT covenant... even from the Old Covenant with Israel:
“Look! There are days coming,” is the utterance of JaHVeH, “and I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant; not one like the covenant that I concluded with their forefathers in the day of my taking hold of their hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, ‘which covenant of mine they themselves broke, although I myself had husbandly ownership of them,’ is the utterance of JaHVeH.”
“For this is the covenant that I shall conclude with the house of Israel after those days,” is the utterance of JaHVeH. “I will put my law within them, and in their heart I shall write it. And I will become their God, and they themselves will become my people. And they will no more teach each one his companion and each one his brother, saying, ‘K NOW JaHVeH!’ for they will all of them know me, from the least one of them even to the greatest one of them,” is the utterance of JaHVeH. “For I shall forgive their error, and their sin I shall remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34
They conclude that [new] Covenant... and become "one" with God... through His Son, the Holy One of Israel and Holy Spirit: JAHESHUA, the Chosen One of JAH (MischaJah). There is NO OTHER "Way". (John 14:6)
Now, of course, I don't expect that you will have read what I posted here, dear Jeff... but that's your error and your loss. Take note, however, that you won't be able to say you didn't know... or didn't hear... or weren't told. You have been. Whether you LISTEN or not... is, like everything above... on YOU. YOUR choice.
Again, peace to you!
Your servant (I truly am, otherwise I wouldn't have even bothered responding at all but if you can be snatched out of the fire... and God shows mercy to whomever HE wishes to show it...), and a slave of Christ,
SA
