You have entered Part II of III, for Part I of III click here.

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Magic Spells, Curses, and Incantations

Part II of III.

The Making of Magic Spells, Curses, and Incantations: Part I.

--Sermon by Dr. Bob Benchoff, November 23, 2002

Hello, Pastor Doctor Bob Benchoff here; thank you for visiting. If you read Part I and were scared and/or felt uneasy, then it's good you're reading this explanation. I didn't want to write about "dung" and "evil" and such, but it's in the Bible a lot, and my burden was light.

If Part I was very upsetting for you, the Bible explains how to overcome your problem. Here are some appropriate verses you have likely already heard:

"Fear the Lord your God...only",

do not fear those things, but fear him who is able to cast you into eternal damnation,

and because God is the creator of love and life, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness I shall fear no evil."

You can seek to know more, and you can properly seek power and reap where you have not planted, but if you want to know about evil, seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these shall be added unto you; not to harm you, but for you to glorify God.

Seek Christ and you won't be afraid to go to sleep and rise.

This sermon could evangelically attract those who would not normally be interested in sermons, yet they would find key words in search engines that excite them.

The small text on this page is taken from Part I, and the large text was added for Part II.

Here's how Part I came about: I update a list of topics that television viewers (or similar) are anxious to watch, and while reading the Bible I came across some verses that had metered rhythm, words [names] that were unfamiliar, and it was about the high priests...Bingo! It clicked into place as a fitting beginning to a visitors' choice sermon.

Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah,

Miamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah,

Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Hedaiah!

Now these were the chief of the priests in the days of Jeshua.

Who knew what those words meant, until it was explained that they were the names of the chief priests? Before knowing they were chief priests' names, many people wouldn't want to think them, let alone chant them.

And were they good priests or bad priests? The Bible isn't always clear on things such as that, but I say they were people, and if you follow Christ and become pure enough, you might become a priest too.

Then the time frame changes from "were" to "are" for more current priests, for enhanced excitement.

Now these are the priests and the Levites that went up with Zerubbabel:

Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Heremiah, Ezra; moreover there were those over the thanksgiving; also there were those over against them in the watches.

The word "against" appears, showing one group striving with another. And "watches" appears, which in this context one may be reminded of the word witches. What trouble will brew next?

The Wall

At the dedication there were psalteries, and people came from the plain country.

And people gathered from Netophathi.

The Wall, the divider, the separator of one group from another. Could this be a man made structure for a holy cause?

There were "psalteries", what is that, a psalm? No, more like zithers.

And people came from the "plain country", ooh, yuk, give me a break. Couldn't they come from the glamorous country? What's wrong with those "plain" people?

The Dung Gate

"Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate: And after them went Hoshaiah, and half of the princes of Judah." ..."and Ezra the scribe before them."

Dung, that's pretty much enough said, but if you're going to talk about evil, you're pretty much stuck in it.

Yet the sentence goes on to say the words "two" and "half", re-emphasizing the wall division idea. This half idea permeates this writing and will become more clear at the end of the sermon.

The Furnaces

And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them: "...from beyond the tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall."

"And from above the gate of Ephraim, and above the old gate, and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Meah, even unto the sheep gate: and they stood still in the prison gate."

Unmentioned ideas, obviously missing, add mystery to the story. The word hell is not mentioned, but the word furnaces drives the point home evoking feelings of scorching fire that the word hell might not evoke. And it's not just furnaces, but a tower of furnaces causing one to reminisce of tales of destruction of the Tower of Babel.

Here are also gate and tower names that contribute to the scene, the decaying "old gate", the smelly "fish gate", and so on. These contribute credibility to the accuracy of these event tales.

The Rulers

..."I, and the half of the rulers with me."

..."loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer."

That day they offered great sacrafices.

And at that time some were appointed over the chambers.

Rulers, the overseer, sacrafices, and chambers...everyone can relate to these ideas, everyone has suffered through interaction with authority, or even just the notion. For instance, when my friend was summoned to jury duty she exclaimed "I'm going to Brazil!". Sometimes even good authority is just that bad.

The Treasures

..."for the treasures, for the offerings, for the firstfruits"..."to gather into them out of the fields of the cities the portions of the law"..."and the porters kept the ward"..."according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son."

Who doesn't like to talk about treasures? And who are these treasures for?...for us?...for me? What's that priest chant again? How did Solomon amass the most treasures ever? Where are his treasures now? Does his son have them? Let's get his son.

From Nehemiah 12.

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From the book of Moses [13]:

Here references are cited, albeit they are strangely cited in keeping with the tone and mood of the story. Therein lie troves of information the wise and prudent can uncover.

The Kingdom of God

They found it was written that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever, because they invoked Balaam to curse them.

Throughout this sermon it was difficult for me to not write whole verses which revealed glorification of God, but this was needful to keep the reader's attention.

In the above text we find curse invocation by Balaam, whose name reminds us again of the Tower of Babel discussed above. The pieces are fitting together as a whole, even if this is alluding to understanding the dark side of life.

The Magic

In the chamber Eliashib prepared meat and frankincense;

the vessels and the tithes of corn;

new spirits, with oil;

the singers per command;

likewise the porters per command;

likewise the priests' offerings per command.

The magician, the doctor, the perverse, and the curious would each like to know the ingredients and preparations; and of course any possible powers their carefully combined strengths might produce.

The Grieve

..."of Artaxerxes king of Babylon"...

..."I leave of the king:

And I came to Jerusalem and understood

of the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah

out of the chamber."

From terminology of the dark ages and beyond, even plotting including the king of Babylon, the grieve is as unspeakable as it is unwanted.

Here we also find "Tobiah" in this context straight from the Bible. It certainly reminds me of movies I've seen on sorcery, such as The Lord of the Rings (no affiliation). So there is reinforcement of theme through familiarity and guilt by association.

Again

..."the chambers:

and thither

brought I again

the vessels"...

..."the meat"...

"and the frankincense."

Redundancy is boring, but here it is emphasized so strangely honing interest as though it revealed new and special powers. Now how does that formula go again?

The Potions

..."I perceived the portions of the

Levites

had not been given them:"

for those that did the work had fled.

..."contended I with the rulers"...

and the

..."house of God forsaken?"

And all was and were brought;

into the treasuries;

under Zadok the scribe, and

Hanan son of Zaccur, and the others,

and distribution was made, and remembered.

Why did the workers flee? What could this potion be that it could scare them away, perhaps to even jeopardize themselves to suffer under the punishment of the rulers and overseer? How powerful is this potion and what does it do to people?

The Sabbath

..."some treading wine presses"...

"and bringing in sheaves,

and lading asses;

as also wine,

grapes, and

figs,

and all manner of burdens,

which they brought into Jerusalem

on the sabbath day"...

"wherein they sold victuals."

..."I testified against them"...

..."sold on the sabbath unto the children"...

..."bring all this evil upon us,

and upon this city? yet you

bring more wrath upon Israel

by profaning the sabbath."

And the gates were shut.

All manner of burdens were done on the Sabbath Day, and are these more potion ingredients? But how can we know...the gates were shut.

The Aftermath

..."saw I Jews that had married"...

"And their children spake half"...

"and could not speak in the Jews' language,"...

"And I contended with them,

and cursed them,

and smote certain of them,

and plucked off their hair,

and made them swear"...

regarding pure racial discrimination.

"Did not Solomon"...

"sin by these things? yet"

..."nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin."

"Shall we then hearken

unto you

to do all this great evil,"...

The Aftermath?...what did we miss? Did I miss the climax of the story and did my peers get it? Are other readers now in control of what was to be my potion?

The word aftermath was chosen because it contained inferences to leftovers and gross afterbirth, while also containing the power of the logic of the pure science: math.

We see that "half" was what the children spoke. Was this due to magic?

When writing this I decided to add a twist by including modern terminology regarding "racial discrimination". The down side is that it added a fake aspect I had previously worked to avoid. It reminds me of the Godfather (no affiliation) movies. Parts 1 & 2 were about the past, but Part three included something current [the Atlantic City helicopter scene] or in the future. Many viewers didn't like that aspect (I liked it) because it represented to them something disprovable.

On the up side, this twist thematically reminds people of Hitler. Hitler said he wanted more wealth (or even a living) for his people, and the Bible draws similar allusions to Solomon. What a can of worms is the love of money, wanton power, lust, and so on.

This twist also helps distract readers from the point of why they visited this site in the first place, to find out secret spells and learning about how to make magic potions. This gets the author off the hook. Now if the author can just stay off the hook.

Defiled Priesthood

..."Horonite:"

..."therefore I chased him from me."

The author blames someone else, and refocuses the reader's attention to that idea.

Covenant

..."of the priesthood"...

"Thus cleansed I them from all strangers,

and appointed the wards of the priests

and the Levites,

every one in his business"

..."and for the firstfruits."

The author seems to have made decryption complete, leaving the reader feeling like potions and other are in the hands of big business now (they got there first) through a covenant pact. The reader is also left with the uneasy feeling about firstfruits, which they will certainly interpret as their just punishment for having been curious about magic in the first place.

For Part III of III,

The Director's Cuts, click here to enter.

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To visit the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff, click here.

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To visit the back page of the Internet Church of Christ founded by Dr. Bob Benchoff, click here.