NEW EVIDENCE AND SCRUTINIZATION OF AN ANCIENT PRACTICE THAT USED GRAVEN IMAGES AS DEVICES OF DIVINATION; CREATED FROM SLAIN FIRST BORN MALES

 

Author and researcher RF Hawthorne challenges the reader to consider a new way in understanding graven images, the Ten Commandments and advanced methodologies embraced by ancient inhabitants of our planet and more importantly how it may be impacting modern medical science and why it may be crucial to our understanding today:

 

I wish to lay out for all to scrutinize a new paradigm of thought that through my own personal, first hand experience and 30-years of study that graven images, as our forbidden in the Ten Commandments were a form of, what I would describe as human-oracle devices of divination that were created anciently, primarily only known to have been a practice of the Assyrians, by slaying a first-born male and using the head/brain as a form of 'computation server' with the purposes of obtaining answers to any questions the possessors of such a device required, simply by "...asking it."   

 

 There are glimpses, hints of and sketches of these occult-driven devices talked about in both the Old and New Testaments but for hundreds of years, civilization has not, first: Given the ancients any credit for being anything more than 'camel jockeys' with no advanced abilities or because of the ancient practice of creating graven images being lost since the time Jacob collected all these "strange gods" and destroyed all of them that were collected from his household, family and servants when they returned to Canaan from Assyria, where Jacob buried them under an oak tree in Genesis 35!  The truths of these ghastly creations are an abomination and affront to God that have been dormant and obscured by our own unbelief for over 4,000-years -- until now. And of course, it is simply too unfathomable to think for a moment such devices were possible or anyone would do such a thing.  Yet, if we examine the hard evidence that we’ve overlooked for years, questions as to there validity begin to form.

 

Let us examine to possibilities:  

 

Why is just a segment of the story of Jacob and Rachel in Genesis 31, perhaps the least understood, most overlooked scripture in the Old Testament and what, if any significance does their events have to do with today, 4,000-years later?

 

There is hidden significance in the story of Rachel stealing her father’s image in Genesis

31:19 that has gone completely unnoticed and that does have relevance today with respects to what these images were; the significance and importance for which her father, Laban, the Assyrian used them; all combining with potentially frightening implications with today’s most advanced, bio-medical/ethical research, particularly with embryo stem cell research and the new paradigm of medical science now being capable of producing any organ in a laboratory, without harming a single, human embryo:

 

 I think this is an important subject which deals directly with some of the basis of our

religion as well: This discussion involves the Book of Genesis; Jacob or Israel as he is

later known whom is also the Father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel is at the very foundation of our belief Christian-belief structure; Jacob's family’s sudden departure from Assyria and Jacob's own acknowledgement of the “images” as “strange gods” and associated practices that they (the Assyrians) participated are at issue; The Ten Commandments, the very core of our values and religious foundation that all Christian sects believe (which curiously has one that no one particularly understands or acknowledges what it really is, while all the others (of the remaining Ten Commandments) maintain simple definitions and are easily understood and described:  killing, stealing, coveting, honoring Mother and Father...).  "Thou shalt not create any graven image or anything like it under heaven!"  Many will say, "I know what that one is too!" I learned it in Bible study during my elementary school summer vacations at Bible school at the church."  (Or something similar.)  Is it possible we have all been misinformed?  Not in conspiracy-like fashion but simply through a lack of understanding or clear identification in research?  I wish to attempt to convey this new idea which is solely based on relatively new historical data and a better explanation of the events that transpire in Genesis 31.  I do this for two reasons:  First, the evidence is there to suggest what takes place in Genesis 31 indicates whatever these devices were (images) they weren't simple "pendants", "good-luck charms" or "property deeds" as many will suggest.  I say this simply because the dynamic circumstances that take place in Genesis simply just does not support that. 

 

The second reason is a lot more personal: In 1990, our oldest, first born son, Roice was tragically killed in an automobile accident.  What took place over the first, 48-hours of his death catapulted me into the middle of a driving necessity to investigate, through any means possible including: scriptural, historical, bio-medical/ethical, scientific and technological -- all forms of evidence point squarely to the fact we are, as a modern day society which is full of advancing discovery in all facets of achievement, reaching back clasping hands with ancient times practices towards re-developing 'graven image technology' in what I refer to a 'follow-the-dots' mentality to re-creating a modern day, graven image, even if called something 'more modern'; a device that will be computer like in nature that will incorporate all or parts of the human brain that will be used as a computation server/brain hard drive/"know it all" or whatever acronym will identify it.  In essence, we are on the inside track to re-creating an ancient, forbidden graven image that has not existed on our planet for 4,000-years and we risk breaking the one of the Ten Commandments that we are warned not to and risk our own mortality by so doing.  I know this is slightly ‘Jules Verne’ like, but bear with me. 

 

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT EARTH IS AT THE THRESHOLD OF EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS SET TO UNFOLD IN OUR DAY?

 

 - Genesis 31 sites how they (images) are stolen by Rachel;

 

- The apparent importance Laban places in them by chasing the family down for days to get them back;

 

- How they are destroyed (Genesis 35) and subsequently, how their bizarre capability has been lost over the past 4,000-years.

 

- The Book of Jasher, referenced in the Old Testament, in Joshua and Second Samuel provides us key understanding to Genesis 31;

 

- Jasher was translated from Hebrew, by scholars in 1840AD, published in English in 1887AD.

 

 - Jasher expands on Genesis 31 in illuminating fashion that describes exactly what graven images are:

 

- NOTE:  It is Jasher that makes these extraordinary claims, based on the Hebrew-to-English translation.  Following the title page in Jasher, the authors placed ‘certificates of authenticity’ declaring that the translation was correct – in no nonsense terms – over 160-years ago.  It is these same authors, through their translation making these assertions even if they obviously didn’t understand it themselves.  Today’s world does give us glimpses into the unimaginable.  We need only read our newspapers or surf the internet.

 

 - Jasher tells how graven images were constructed, through the slaying of first born males and through the delving into the occult – an apparent Assyrian practice, not endorsed by Israelites.

 

- Most extraordinary, the bizarre, incredible capability and power the graven images extended to those that possessed them – all power unprecedented.

 

-Jasher explains that Rachel steals her father’s image, even concealing the theft from her own husband so that her father, Laban could not go to it and find out where they had gone, (to Canaan or back to modern-day, Israel, to be near Jacob’s father, Isaac).

 

-Rachel was aware of the extraordinary powers the images possessed as she knew her father could go to it and ‘ask it’ where they had gone and it would reveal it to him. (Jasher points out he had other ‘graven images’ which is how he and his servants found out and chased them down.

 

-Certainly, without question, the images were not “pendants” or “good luck charms” as some, current religionists suggest.  First, Laban wouldn’t have chased them down with his servants to get a necklace back.  Besides, he probably wouldn’t have minded if his daughter had some good luck on her journey or in her new life, wherever they had left in the middle of the night, stealing away off to.  He was a powerful-enough man to do without one less trinket.  

 

-Moreover, and not insignificant -- when Laban and his servants do catch up to Jacob, Rachel and all their families, possessions and cattle, Laban quizzes each of them (Jacob and Rachel) about why they left without him getting to say goodbye to them (his daughters, Rachel and Leah and all his grandchildren, comprising of the 12 sons of Jacob, later to be known as the “Twelve Tribes of Israel) and then asks them both pointedly: “Why did you steal my gods?” Whatever the images were and after the scriptures were translated centuries ago, from Greek, to Hebrew, to English, the translation of Laban’s question referring to them as “gods” just doesn’t sound like a cheap pendant or cracker jack, good luck charm to me!  Obviously, there is something more significant to the images than anyone wants to or cares to understand.

 

- Perhaps even more significant and an even greater ‘foot stomper’ is that when Jacob is approached by Laban and his servants, further up in the travel caravan of animals and possessions, Jacob stands his grounds when he sees them approach.  He doesn’t run for his life, having kidnapped Laban’s family as he might have thought Laban would have considered such a venture, then when quizzed about why he left without letting Laban say goodbye, where Jacob says he left because he simply wanted to avoid the confrontation and the possibility, Laban would have refused to let him leave; and Laban also asks Jacob, why did you steal my “gods”, as he asked Rachel.  Jacob answers, paraphrasing, ‘whomever did steal your gods, though shalt not let that person live!  Can you imagine for an instant, that Jacob would have condemned his teenage sweetheart to death; the same woman (Rachel) that he waited and worked for 20-years to marry?  No and neither can I!  It simply does not make sense.  My King James Version of the Bible says, upon Jacob condemning the thief of the images to death, in parenthesis, (Rachel also concealed from Jacob that she stole the images!) 

 

-  Graven images are forbidden in the Ten Commandments, yet no one knows what they are, although guesses are wide and varied.  The majority of people polled when asked the question, “What do you say the graven images are that are forbidden in your own Ten Commandments?”  The most common response was:  "I don't know."  (Curiously, the other 9 are instantly and easily described by all of us):  Such as:  What is stealing, killing, coveting anything… (Desiring or craving) and honoring our mothers and our fathers – all solicit immediate responses – except for number 2 of the 10: describing what a graven images is.

 

With some further research, as in many hundreds of hours over the past 30-years as I have invested, some further developments do reveal themselves in scripture:

 

-  Dozens of bible references suggest a combining of devices -- graven images, teraphims, ephods, moulton images -- seemingly all hooked up like stereo equipment, as it was described to me by my brother through his investigations of the same, in bringing about the powers sought in the creation of graven images or ‘devices of divination’ as I refer to them.

 

-  The book of Revelations describes how the temple in Jerusalem will be desecrated by a graven image, what I consider to be the capstone event that ushers in the actual return of the Savior.  Evidence that when investigated, appears to reveal like a game of “Concentration”, reflecting on the ‘end times’ puzzle, that ushers in the Return of the Messiah.

- As people care to dispute this, which is fine, for this weighty subject sorely needs

dialog and communication of understanding -- it is with the scriptures they are taking issue; by refusing to accept the incredible meaning or denying and disputing in my view the power and impact of what has been laid out in the scriptures that with a little research and prayer like assistance through their own personal effort, discovery and revelation, can gain their own understanding of what this all means pertaining to the extraordinary and revolutionary times we are living and how it impacts this apparent linking of this 4,000-year gap, that in these last days connects an ancient, lost and forbidden practice with today’s, hybrid, leading edge bio-medical discovery, even paradigm of capability of producing ‘any organ’ we choose in laboratories, without so much as harming the hair on a first born male’s head or a single cell of a human embryo! 

 

 -An understanding and background history of the incredible story that transpires in Genesis 31 is necessary in recognizing the dynamics and personalities involved that takes place over 2-decades which explains why Jacob and Rachel eventually leave in the middle of the night with all their possessions to get clearly away from Rachel’s father, Laban and out of Assyria (modern-day Iraq).

 

- Clearly, Laban was a very rich, powerful, unkind and oppressive, Assyrian man, who for nearly two-decades, cheated Jacob from the very start, when he hired him to tend his cattle for payment in cattle off spring that Laban colluded a dishonest wage many times; kept changing the agreement of payment...long before -- years before Jacob asked him for his daughter's hand in marriage.  Laban cheated him (or tried to, but it kept back firing on Laban because as he changed the wage scale, example: paying plain coated off spring for let's say, speckled coats).  Consequently, Jacob was gaining considerable wealth through that first, 6-years. 

 

-At the point where Jacob had enough nerve to ask Laban for Rachel's hand in marriage,

Laban agreed with the caveat that Jacob must tend his cattle for another 7-years, to which Jacob agreed, only to be tricked and deceived into consummating the marriage with Leah, the older sister, where upon another 7-year stint in cattle tending was further required to finally gain Rachel's hand in marriage.  Remember, they met as young teenagers at their social, gathering place; a watering well and now, when they do marry, Jacob is already wed to Leah with children, with servants with more children and by the time he has his first child with Rachel...it's number 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel -- when Joseph, with his colorful coat enters the scene.  (It is interesting to me that when you read this account as many times as I have, coupled with Jasher's verses, I have gained an amazingly close and intimate perspective on these people and what they endured...which I believe literally and how just in a few pages, so much of the details seem to come to life; their epic story, what they endured and then...after all that...we see Gen.31:18-19. 

 

These two scriptures could not be more trivialized, overlooked or relegated to insignificance by all churches on the planet, yet to me have such a powerful importance to our day an age -- more perhaps than any others concerning end-times relevance than they do! 

 

-Verse 18 declares their commitment to leave for Canaan, which they do, stealing away in the middle of the night to make their escape.  Verse 19 has eye-popping significance because it says that Rachel, who now gets into the act, basically verifies her father is away in the hills during a large, sheep sheering venture and not at home, which gives her the chance to steal her father's image – with no explanation as to what an image is or why Rachel steals it.  It’s ignored. 

Enter Jasher:  With its 1840 translation from Hebrew into English; it's testimonials of its translators (one being a George Bush) with their accompanying 'certificates of authenticity' of correct translation and it's eventual, 1887 publication into English. 

- The "importance" of these verses, if I am correct, should have the power and impact of the equivalence of... B R E A K I N G  N E W S on cable television because of what they convey, when the whole significance of them are pieced together: 

-To wit:  Graven images were forbidden devices of divination, used by ancient Assyria; that did, coupled with delving into the occult and what Jasher calls, "...the influence of the stars" were capable of providing something we can not do even today:  Answer any question asked that is beyond mortal reason and human ability to discern!

 

-That they (graven images) were forbidden in The Ten Commandments; not as mere idols of worship but as something completely different in scope and ability-- such horrific and vial contraptions, that Jacob called, "...strange gods" destroyed them all that had been collected from their time in Assyria and buried under an Oak tree!  (Genesis 35). 

 

-Numerous other scriptures can be researched about images, with a more significant occurrence in the book of Revelations where it says that an individual, who restores the covenant of Israel, is mortally wounded and...his image is placed in the (yet to be rebuilt) temple in Jerusalem , causing world wide chaos – the capstone event that ushers in the actual, SECOND COMING of JESUS CHRIST.

 

-No one knows the day, time or date of this momentous event, but we can know the approximate occurrence based on the signs.  Are not the hidden pearls of these signs available to those who will listen, ponder and learn?

 

-Look at how bio-medical discoveries are leading directly to a path that is leading to significant developments in human brain research.

 

-The moral issues revolving around the slaying of a first born male to produce an image have been eliminated -- because as the world now knows and as Dr. Leon Cass, President Bush’s Chair on the Council of Bioethics has said, “…We can produce any organ”, in any stem cell research laboratory, from super cells, either gleaned from embryos or am bionic fluids! 

Ready or not, this new paradigm is about to explode, just as the scriptures suggest an image will be reintroduced and produced in our day.

 

-I look at the insignificance our founding fore fathers placed in the regular killings and warring between Arabs and Jews and how they must've placed these warring into insignificance.

 

-Yet, the scriptures talk about all nations being involved in the great and last conflict to occur in the Middle East. 

 

Do you think Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson gave even a care about them?  No, I don't either.  -Enter Drakes Well in 1859!

 

-That first, significant production of oil from the ground would change everything! 

Do you think we or the world cares now what takes place over there?  Yes, of course! 

Because what Franklin and Jefferson didn't know, that the Bible did know was that this earth would be based on an oil economy that 18th century men where yet completely unaware of! 

The Bible knew! 

 

-I hope I've been able to qualify and clarify what I believe is a significant, latter day matter and have helped in some small way for all to understand just a little better, my

research and hopefully allow you, the American people and the people of the world who visit this webpage to scrutinize for yourself the significance of the story of Rachel and Jacob and the understanding of what graven images really were and how close we are to bridging a 4,000-year gap – with end-times events relevance!

 

-I am of the opinion that we are in the last days of mortality and are in a final, count down to the Messiah’s return, now with a clearer picture as to what events will bring this about and that are setting into motion what is to occur:  The modern day creation of graven images that combine in breaking the last of the Ten Commandments given to man over 4,000-years ago.

 

     RF Hawthorne

Author of “Graven Image”