Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: “Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him who speaks what is right.” (Proverbs 16:13)

I’ve been looking for little green men. Actually, at images representing extra-terrestrial aliens, as imagined by artists and Hollywood. It’s hardly a major revelation to point out that many movie aliens bear a strong likeness to humans, unless they are drawn in animation.
If aliens really do exist, then, what do they look like? Are they little green men in space suits? Do they look like the drawings of the aliens that supposedly crashed near Roswell, NM? If so, they are about four feet tall, skinny, with long arms, big round head about the size of a basketball, tiny nose, and big eyes about three inches wide which are shaped like a football. Do aliens have lips? These examples seemed to have a small mouth and, possibly, thin lips, or no lips at all, as far as I can tell.
Well defined lips seem to be a common characteristic of humans. According to Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image.” But what about all the other intelligent, cosmic inhabitants? Hollywood has created aliens in man’s image, convenient for storytelling, because you already know how to read their intentions. Their behavioral cues are familiar, and you can tell if their game plan is to be amorous or aggressive.
The Bible has a lot to say regarding lips. They can be unclean, stammering, flattering, perverse, righteous false, or burning. “An evildoer gives heed to false lips; a liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue.” (Proverbs 17:4) We are counseled to “Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.” (Proverbs 4:24)
Righteous lips may be used for prayer, praise, vows, singing God’s judgments and spiritual fruitfulness. “Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him who speaks what is right.” (Proverbs 16:13)
When Isaiah saw the Lord, “sitting on a throne, high and lifted up,” and heard seraphim crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts,” he confessed that he was a man of unclean lips, dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips. In this instance, his iniquity was taken away, and his sin was purged by the touch of a hot coal to his lips. (Isaiah 6:1-7)
Perhaps extraterrestrials can speak whatever they choose to without violating Biblical principles, if they truly have no lips. However, I think the same rules apply to them as to us humans, because “lips” is a metaphor for speaking, as is reference to the tongue and the mouth.
James notes that “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:10) Peter, likewise, counsels that “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit.” (1 Peter 3:10)
People judge us by what we say, and how we say it. Our lips bear witness to our innermost thoughts. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Be sure you are filled with His Spirit, and have no attitude contrary to love. “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:12)

Note: Biblical references are from the New King James Version

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Scripture: “Year by year you shall set aside a tithe of all the produce of your seed, of everything that grows on the land. You shall eat it in the presence of the LORD your God in the place which he will choose as a dwelling for his Name - the tithe of your corn and new wine and oil, and the first-born of your cattle and sheep, so that for all time you may learn to fear the LORD your God.“ (Deuteronomy 14:22-23., New English Bible)

A tithe is the tenth of one’s income. Tithing was the process by which the people returned a portion of the LORD’s blessings to the LORD, and His servants, the Levites. The Levites (Priests and workers in the temple) did not receive a patrimony of land, as was given to the other tribes, so had no income from farm, orchard or flocks of animals. The Levites are listed in Deuteronomy 14:28 and 29 with the aliens, orphans, and widows, to be supported.
“Every tithe on land, whether from grain or from the fruit of a tree, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.” (Leviticus 27:30, NE The laws included provisions for substitution, and payment for the valuation of the land or property.
A man could keep the physical property; “He shall pay its value increased by one fifth.” (Lev. 27:31) Other laws applied to lending money, making payments, and charging interest.
The widows, orphans and Levites were not the only persons that the LORD considered worthy of support by His people. The New English Bible translation of verse 14:7-8 reads, “When one of your fellow-countrymen in any of your settlements in the land which the LORD your God is giving you becomes poor, do not be hard-hearted or close-fisted with your countryman in his need. Be open-handed toward him and lend him on pledge as much as he needs.”
Deuteronomy further comments that “the poor will always be with you in the land.”
Did the people keep these commandments? Apparently the tradition was advocated several centuries after the giving of the laws and commandments during the Exodus. Tobit, the subject of one of the books included in the Apocrypha, describes how he kept the eternal commandment to journey to Jerusalem with the firstfruits of crops and herds, the tithes of cattle, and the first shearings of the sheep. He also took the tithes of wine, corn (barley, not maize,) olive oil, pomegranates and other fruits to give to the Levites.
Unfortunately, he was one of the few members of the tribe of Naphtali to observe the commandment, since the ten northern tribes of Israel had broken away from the nation built by David and Solomon, and didn’t go to Jerusalem.
The book of Tobit advocates the practice of charity and tithing. The works of God should be acknowledged publicly. ”Better give alms than hoard up gold. Better prayer with sincerity, and almsgiving with righteousness, than wealth and wickedness.” (Tobit 12:8) “Sinners and wrong-doers are their own worst enemies,” proclaims Raphael, the angel. “Worship (the LORD) all your life long, sing his praise.” (Tobit 12:18)
Judith, also, at the end of the battle against the enemy, struck up a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the LORD. She offered the spoil from the victorious battle with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; burnt-offerings, freewill offerings, and gifts.
The commandment has passed down to us, even in the words of James, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27, NKJV)
(Note: The books of Tobit and Judith are in the Apocrypha.)