THE SCYTHIAN - A Tale of Violence and Divine Judgment
Weird Stuff
Today’s Verse and Thought
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”(2 Peter 3:8)
Last week we began looking back at ancient history (which from our Eternal God’s vantage point was just yesterday). We discovered a strange, almost mythical culture: the Scythians; nomadic warring tribes of the Steppes.
This led me to a side road because, within the context of the study, I realized it was important to consider the burning reality of an ancient war in the supernatural realm that keeps dropping breadcrumbs into our human story - the Scythians are one of these hints.
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12).
We also considered how religion has played a part in crafting a 7000 year-old story that largely ignores earthly evidence of a much older world. My hope is to bring reconciliation (without fear or loss of faith) to the young creation/old creation beliefs.
I think that the scientific and Biblical evidence - when combined together - point to the fact that our world is actually both old and new. Our Biblical story (the new) appears at the moment in God’s Creation when He was ushering in something new.
In the beginning, God created the universe (the old) and at some point, possibly 10,500 years ago or so, the earth became a dark, chaotic, violent wilderness. God addressed it with a reset (the new). (Genesis 1:1-2)
A true “great reset,” if you will (Satan always tries to copy what God does).
Science isn’t a god to us; it’s just our way of exploring, understanding, and describing God’s wonders. We don’t have to rigidly fear the scientific evidence in order to understand and believe the Genesis account. They don’t cancel each other; they actually support our faith.
After all, science is a speculative foray into the unknown mysteries of God based on our very limited human understanding.
To consider that the world is way older than what we’ve been taught also allows us to open our minds to the fact that it’s also way more mysterious. We have been explicitly told in the Bible that there is a supernatural realm that is active, present, and real in our lives today. The only way to properly understand it, however, has to begin with our renewal in Jesus Christ.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”(John 14:6)
***WARNING - Apart from our Salvation renewal in Jesus - there is DEADLY DANGER***
This foray into the supernatural can suck you into a seductive black hole feeding your primal flesh-nature from the deathly cauldron of dragon worship, demons, magic, mysticism, esoteric knowledge, aliens, new age religion, paganism, Egyptology, shamanism, goddess worship, occultism and the like…when explored apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
I can’t stress this enough.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”(1 Peter 5:8).
They are illegitimate key holders
These Satanic gatekeepers listed above, have been the illegitimate key holders of the supernatural realm for far too long. Satan pulls the unsuspecting, naive, truth-seeker into this realm because the Church closed the door and labeled it all, “OFF LIMITS.” But our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the rightful owner of those keys.
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.”(Revelation 1:17-19)
Children of God should courageously look at the world with both a physical lens, as well as a supernatural view, from the vantage point of Jesus Christ who stands victorious over Death and Hades. If God is Spirit, and our relationship with Him is spiritual - not physical - and our enemies are in that supernatural realm, should we ignore that fact?
Once we embrace the idea that we are both physical and spiritual beings - not just a human practicing a religion - it opens the door to a deeper understanding of the Most High God we serve who loves us enough to keep us safe from the Abyss.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”(1 John 4:18).
An artistic rendering of a stylized Scythian Warrior - (ArtStation)
The following study is based on factual information introducing the Scythians in the context of their time period. Some Biblical names are followed by a verse reference to have an idea of where these characters possibly are in the timeline of the Biblical narrative. It has been enhanced with “story elements” in order to just help set the stage.
675 BC
A Pact of Blood and Marriage
The messenger’s bloodied hands trembled as he unrolled the scroll before the great Assyrian King Esarhaddon (Ezra 4:2): “Great King, the Ishkuzai [Scythians] host moves like fire across the mountains, burning and destroying everything in their path. They have slaughtered the Gimirrai chieftains and now drink from the skulls of our allies!”
The Assyrian monarch’s grip tightened on his lion-headed scepter, as he considered the warning. Just that morning, his seers had read the omens in sheep entrails - “A people without fear of gods or men comes; their women shoot arrows like their warriors.” (Herodotus, Histories 4.67). The great king knew of their reputation and the strange ways their parasitic, transvestite diviners -The Enarees -.gave insight.
There are many diviners among the Scythians, who divine by means of many wi!low wands as I will show. They bring great bundles of wands, which they lay on the ground and unfasten, and utter their divinations as they lay the rods down one by one; and while still speaking, they gather up the rods once more and place them together again; this manner of divination is hereditary among them. The Enarees, who are hermaphrodites, say that Aphrodite gave them the art of divination, which they practise by means of lime-tree bark. They cut this bark into three portions, and prophesy while they braid and unbraid these in their fingers.(source)
That night, beneath the cold gaze of the moon god Sin, King Esarhaddon made his decision. He would send his eldest daughter to wed Bartatua, the Scythian warlord, along with ten chariots of Babylonian gold as a dowry. “Let them be our shield against the Medes,” he commanded. Better to make them an ally, than an enemy.
But the court astrologers whispered behind their hands:
“No man chains the north wind.”
To be continued…
Today’s Question
Today’s Prayer
Father the world we live in is filled with evil. We have reduced it to the realm of cartoons, costumes, and legend. Father, I pray today for all who will follow this story that you will open their eyes to how this world is really operating. Help those who truly have a hunger for truth to be filled with your holiness by your Spirit of grace and love through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that they can recognize that there is such a demonic reality to many things today that we just call “normal.” Help us come out of this dark world and into your loving arms of glory. May all honor and praise be yours. Amen ❤️