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Introduction
    “RIGHT” is a significant word in the Scriptures and is understood from ancient times as representing primacy, strength, authority, blessing, equity, integrity, position, or direction. The Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance references the word “RIGHT” more than 350 times. It is the first syllable in the word “RIGHTeousness.” Other derivative entries of the word – RIGHTeous, RIGHTeously, RIGHTeousness, RIGHTeousness’, RIGHTeousnesses, RIGHTly – appear more than 570 times. That’s some 920 times the word or its derivations appear in the Bible and nearly all of which, carry the spiritual connotation of primacy, strength, authority, blessing, equity, integrity, position, or direction.
   For example, in Matthew 25:31-34, we read, When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His RIGHT hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His RIGHT hand, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (King James Version used throughout, unless otherwise noted.) 
   In Acts 7:55-56, the martyr Deacon Stephen, but moments before he yielded his spirit in death, declared seeing the risen Yahshua standing at the RIGHT hand of Yahweh.
   The Apostle Paul severally, in Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, and Colossians 3:1, attested to the risen Messiah, to whom all judgment has been entrusted, being positioned at the RIGHT hand of His Father, Yahweh.
   At Jerusalem, the Apostles James, Peter, and John, in adjourning the Council that had convened for the purpose of taking up the matter recorded in the 15th chapter of the Acts, dismissed their peers Paul and Barnabas by extending to them the RIGHT hands of fellowship (Gal. 2:9).
   Typically, the RIGHT hand was used to confer blessing or consecration. In the Genesis narrative, the viceroy Joseph is seen presenting his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim before his father Israel (Jacob), that the elder might impart a blessing upon them – a blessing of primogeniture, reserved for the eldest son. Joseph had positioned his elder son, “Ephraim in his RIGHT hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s RIGHT hand, and brought them near unto him. And Israel stretched out his RIGHT hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn” (Gen. 48:13-14).


RIGHT with Blood
    Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put [it] upon the tip of the RIGHT ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the RIGHT ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their RIGHT hand, and upon the great toe of their RIGHT foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about, Exodus 29:20.
   For this reason, at the time Aaron and his sons, priests of the Levitical order, were consecrated and set apart for the conduct of their office, blood was taken from the second of two rams offered for that purpose and smeared upon the tip of the RIGHT ear; upon the thumb of the RIGHT hand; and upon the great toe of the RIGHT foot.
   The blood was put upon these body parts to sanctify and cleanse them from sins and to teach the priests that they ought attentively to listen to what should be said unto them of Yahweh, and then to faithfully report what was conveyed them, to the people. And because their hands and fingers were instruments of activity, and their feet and toes for walking, their behavior should be pure and holy … their affairs guided by discretion and most certainly, exemplary and above reproach.
   As for blood, the Scripture further reads, “And almost all things are by the Law purged with blood …” (Heb. 9:22). Blood, come from a sacrificial offering dedicated or consecrated in accomplishing the service of Yahweh, was essential in representing an acceptable atonement for an article such as the brazen altar and the Ark of the Testimony, as well as for the priest who served as the mediator between the offeror and Yahweh.


Magistracies in Scripture
    And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, “What [is] this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?” And Moses said unto his father in law, ”Because the people come unto me to enquire of Yahweh: when they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of Yahweh, and His laws.” And Moses’ father in law said unto him, “The thing that thou doest [is] not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that [is] with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and Yahweh shall be with thee: be thou for the people to Yah-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto Yahweh: and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear Yahweh, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place [such] over them, [to be] rulers of thousands, [and] rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: and let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, [that] every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear [the burden] with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and Yahweh command thee [so], then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.” So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judge themselves, Exodus 18:13-26. 
   This passage is replete with the word, “judge,” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, H.8199, sha-phal’, rendered, to judge, i.e., pronounce sentence; by implication, to vindicate or punish; by extension, to govern and “rulers,” H.8269, sar, rendered severally as, a head person (of any rank or class): captain (that had rule), chief (captain), general, governor, keeper, lord, master, prince (-ipal), ruler, steward.
   Akin to these words is the Hebrew word, elohim, H.430, rendered in the Scriptures: (in the plural, especially with the article, “the,” Supreme Eloha (Yahweh); occasionally applied by way of deference to civil magistracies and sometimes as a superlative: angels, great judges.
   In the Torah, we see both these words gods and ruler used in the following verse:
   Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people, Exodus 22:28.
   Chief among Yahshua’s inquisitors were the priests, particularly His Levitical counterpart, the high priest. The priests exercised both rule and authority over the people, in both civil and spiritual matters.
   In the Acts, we read of the Apostle Paul being examined by judicial authority, the council of chief priests. And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before Yahweh until this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him, “Eloha shall smite thee, [thou] whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?” And they that stood by said, “Revilest thou Yahweh’s high priest?” Then said Paul, “I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people,’” Acts 23:1-5.
   The Scripture to which Paul referred in this encounter with the high priest is Exodus 22:28: Thou shalt not revile the gods (elohim), nor curse the ruler of thy people.
   (Before proceeding further, we might wonder that Sha’ul who was an Hebrew, and who had been a Pharisee, and whom we might suppose had at once sat in the chamber of the Sanhedrin, could not have known this Ananiah (not Annas, the son-in-law of Caiphas) but an appointee of Herod king of Chalcis in about 48 CE was the high priest. On the other hand, perhaps his reply here was a subtle hint that the Levitical order was come to its successor, the order of Melchizedek and that now, Yahshua the Messiah whom the author of Hebrews calls “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession” (Heb. 3:1) was, at least by this Sect of the Nazarene, so recognized and acknowledged as the High Priest.)
   Following the death of Joshua who had brought the people Israel into the Promised Land, the government was administered by a succession of 15 judges (elohim), the last of whom was Samuel. The people toward the end of his tenure, demanded a king, saying “Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations’ (1 Sam. 8:5) – a fulfilment of the prophecy spoken in Deuteronomy 17:14:
   When thou art come unto the land which Yahweh thy Eloha giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shalt say, “I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that [art] about me.”
   Thus, began a succession of monarchal rule. The first 120 years, Israel was united under the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon followed by a succession of kings (and one queen) among divided kingdoms. A survey of the history of Israel under the divided kingdoms reads, that of all 19 kings which ruled the northern kingdom (Israel) and of the 20 monarchs, 11 kings and 1 queen – Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah who, when he was dead, destroyed all the seed royal – which ruled the southern kingdom (Judah), it is repetitively recorded in the chronicles of the kings, “that he (she) did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh and followed after the ways of Jeroboam, or as his fathers had done” or even, “above all the evil that was done before him.”
   On the other hand, of the eight “good” kings of Judah, the narrative runs something like this: “and he did that which was right in the sight of Yahweh as his fathers” and sometimes, with this addendum, “but not with a perfect heart.”


Throne … Established … Righteousness
    Perhaps the annals of history might have been gracious toward Israel, if the reign of king Solomon hadn’t been marred by him taking to himself, many strange women of these nations that were about Israel – “seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart” (1 Kings 11:4) from Yahweh with their abominable polytheistic practices.
   And maybe, there might have been accorded Rehoboam who had succeeded to his father Solomon’s throne, a second chance if he hadn’t afterward foolishly dismissed the counsel of the old men which had stood before his father and advised him that if he would be a servant to this people Israel, and would serve them, and answer them with good words, then they would be his servants forever. But, no, he favored that which had come from his younger peers, recommending his reply, “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins. And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions” (1 Kings 12:6-11).
   Nevertheless, Eloha is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another, Psalm 75:7. And certainly, none will deny Him His providence from Whom all authority proceeds, to do so – to put down one, and set up another – whether he (or she) who occupies the seat of power is RIGHTeous, (“the throne is established by RIGHTeousness,” Prov. 16:12) or occupied by rulers who by agenda, policy, and practice, are spiritually, reprobate … truth, having its premise in Scripture:
   RIGHTeousness exalteth a nation: but sin [is] a reproach to any people, Proverbs 14:34.
   When the RIGHTeous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn, Proverbs 29:2;
   The prince that wanteth understanding [is] also a great oppressor … Proverbs 28:16;
   When it goeth well with the RIGHTeous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. By the blessing of the upRIGHT the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked, Proverbs 11:10-11.


Of Tribute, Custom, Fear, and Honour
    One wouldn’t have to look far to see the amoral disposition of the plebiscite of this nation called America as but a reflection of its political leadership. Yet, scarcely does the United States stand alone. The old adage, “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely,” is applicable to most every government that has been instituted in the history of humanity which have all, but failed to function in harmony with government’s Author.
   Civic-minded patriots, and particularly the religious among them, like to refer to Romans 13:1-7:
   Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of Yahweh: the powers that be are ordained of Yahweh. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of Yahweh: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of Yahweh to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of Yahweh, a revenger to [execute] wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore [ye] must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are Yahweh’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute [is due]; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour
   The Apostle Paul here, corroborates King Yahshua’s reply, “Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above” to Pontius Pilate who, rather arrogantly, declared, “Knowest Thou not that I have power to impale Thee, and have power to release Thee?” (John 19:10-11).
   Again, the more religious among civic-minded patriots will, furthermore, cite King Yahshua Who responded to those men of religion of His day – scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees – who ever sought to trip Him up with words, like,
   And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute [money] came to Peter, and said, “Doth not your Master pay tribute?” He saith, “Yes.” And when he was come into the house, Yahshua prevented him, saying, “What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers?” Peter saith unto Him, “Of strangers.” Yahshua saith unto him, “Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for Me and thee, Matthew 17:24-27. 
   Tell us therefore, “What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?” But Yahshua perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why tempt ye Me, [ye] hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money.” And they brought unto Him a penny. And He saith unto them, “Whose [is] this image and superscription?” They say unto him, “Caesar’s.” Then saith He unto them, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto Yahweh the things that are Yahweh’s.” When they had heard [these words], they marvelled, and left Him, and went their way. 
   Of course, there are “Sovereign Citizens” – even among the Assemblies – who are but one step removed from anarchy, spouting a doctrine of civil disobedience for every cause, and without cause, against authority that’s been established by RIGHTeousness and refuting what is owed of “tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour” (Rom. 13:7) on grounds that the Government is not a good steward of revenue it levies against, and receives, of its subjects.
   But believers cannot have the answer of a good conscience toward Yahweh by subscribing to, or supporting any purpose either, for every cause or, without cause, to espouse anarchy or insurrection against that which has been established by RIGHTeousness. That is not to preclude however, our deference of obedience to Yahweh over our obligations of supporting those institutions of government administered by man (Acts 5:29) whenever government infringes upon, or usurps authority not accorded it by the Sovereign of sovereigns. Always, “it is better to trust in Yahweh than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:9).


Conclusion: July 13, 2024
    If it should be permitted us an opinion, there seems to be little question whom the plebiscite will likely return to 1600 Pennsylvania in November. An assassination attempted the 13th of July of this year, on the life of Candidate Donald John Trump, together with the tendency of an electorate during perilous times to vote their purse, and more by what they see than what they believe, may assure his accession to the Presidency. (And note well: We’re not campaigning for anyone but King Yahshua. Neither are we taking any position but the defense and confirmation of His Message, that His Truth … and His Truth alone, will set men free.)
   But the presumed assignment of sanctimony by some to Candidate Trump – Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of, Isaiah 2:22 – on account of him narrowly surviving a mortal attempt upon his life with but a slight injury to his RIGHT ear with evidence of blood, and upon the phalanges of his RIGHT hand and stockinged RIGHT foot, could hardly be considered a parallel to that order of consecration Yahweh ordained for His priests in the performance of their service to Him and in behalf of His people. Indeed, it could be argued that Mr. Trump is a man of like passions with every other member of his species and has at least as great a need for redemption, salvation, and deliverance in Yahshua’s Name as any other.
   So, to make anything more of a shooting in Pennsylvania on the 13th of this month … a shooting that drew blood and stipulating, furthermore, that the bullet just missed lodging into its victim’s cranium by centimeters, may but serve to elevate Mr. Trump to a sacrosanct position he can neither presume to himself, nor before an altar at which he has no greater RIGHT to partake than the general population.
On the other hand, regard toward the authority of Scripture having established the sequence of eschatological order must preclude the inclination of some toward validating that which is provided us in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-9, and supposing that Mr. Trump necessarily satisfies the profile of that one described in verses 3 and 4:
   Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Saviour Yahshua Messiah, and [by] our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Messiah is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called Eloha, or that is worshipped; so that he as Yahweh sitteth in the temple of Yahweh, shewing himself that he is Yahweh. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Master shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [even him], whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders
   Better, much better, we should pray “for all that are in authority (and those aspiring toward being elected to authority) … For this is good and acceptable in the sight of Eloha and our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth … that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all RIGHTeousness and honesty” (1 Tim. 2:2, 3-4, 2).



- Elder John W. Reece


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