In 1984, Bob Dylan released the album, Infidels.  It has often been written that the lyrics in this album portrayed a Dylan who had returned to Judaism after having been instructed by the Lubavitcher sect of Judaism.  It was as often suggested that Dylan had come to accept Messianic Judaism. What that means has changed somewhat over time. The term, Messianic Judaism, in 1998  has come to describe the ever increasing number of  Jews who not only await the coming of the Messiah, but believe that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and are looking for His return.  However, in 1984, the term meant something quite different. It was used to describe the religious ultra-orthodox Jews awaiting the first coming of the Messiah & the establishment of His Kingdom. That idea did not include the view of Jesus as that Messiah. 

Infidels became the album that allowed the secularists to find reason to believe that Dylan had turned from his Christian faith.  It also served as a sign to those who wanted to see that Dylan was re-embracing his Jewish roots. At first look it might appear that the Christian zeal he had exhibited in his three previous three albums, Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot of Love was now officially over. Yet Infidels is flooded with biblical prophecies from both the Old and New Testaments that Dylan has here veiled in some of his best poetic writings.

 Dylan’s listening audience, has never, by and large, been entirely comfortable with the idea of Dylan being a Christian. Had the theology presented in those previous three albums been less ardent, more vague and less precise, perhaps the claim that Dylan had returned to Judaism would be more convincing.  But that theology, or sense of what is spiritually real that Dylan had expressed, was not vague or unclear. Indeed, it’s power, or antipathy, lay in its very obviousness. As Dr. Gregory Hagg, PhD (in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from NYU) noted in his seminar titled; "Bob Dylan's Gospel Review", May 1998, 

“Dylan’s theology…is expressed in his inimitable way here in poetry, is a certain kind of theology.  In other words he didn’t just make a profession of faith in any brand of Christianity....  He didn’t become a liberal Christian who didn’t believe in very much.  He became one who studied the bible....He made a profession of faith in what is called evangelical Christianity, conservative Christianity, biblical Christianity...”

If one takes the Bible literally and does not allegorize away the promises made to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob regarding the land, their descendants and the promised Messiah’s kingdom, then the album Infidels becomes a wondrous portrait of mankind’s eschatology. The title Infidels itself reminds us that no man, Jew or Gentile is born with saving faith. 

All of us begin this life as an infidel.

For those acquainted with the many schools of theology out there, my interpretation is from a dispensational, pre-millenial and pre-tribulational view. From this the big question....

Who Is Jokerman?

 Jokerman is a reference to Jesus Christ as the world views Him since His Incarnation and up to the nano-second before His Second Coming.  Clearly, the opening verse alludes to His birth and the last verse points to a final conflict brewing, but it is in the chorus that Dylan grasps this entire dispensation or age.  Each and every person who lives in this age starts out as an infidel.  No one is born with saving faith.

Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune
Bird fly high by the light of the moon
Oh Jokerman

 In the Jokerman video, when the chorus is sung the visual is of a hauntingly dark night with bare tree branches and nightingales flying back and forth. Occasionally, one will fly toward the light from the full moon.  Despite the moon’s fullness, it is the darkness that fills the picture.  To bring the nightingales to safety, Jokerman takes on a familiarity to those He wishes to save.  He enters their world, not in power but to show the way in truth and light.  It is up to the birds to respond to the light that would guide them.

 (Another very beautiful and dramatic means to visualize this is to imagine the triune nature of God (God, His Word/Son & Spirit) in the form of a triangle descending to reach out to meet the triune nature of man (body, soul & spirit) as his triangle reaches upward.  When the two triangles meet and intersect you have before you the Shield of David, the six-pointed star, the Maagen David.)

 Since Jesus’ public ministry in the 1st century, there has been an invitation to everyone to examine His claims; His promises and the Authority that He said rested with Him.  Many dismiss Him altogether, some mock Him, some are indifferent and some oppose Him.  But a day is coming, where the bible says that every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  On that day, many will be on their knees but not in willful submission.

 To illustrate what this will be like, recall the Robin Hood movie starring Errol Flynn.  The final scene had Richard the Lion-Heart returning to his throne and kingdom.  Before him knelt his brother Prince John.  Prince John exercised evil rule over Richard’s kingdom before his return.  Even now in defeat, Prince John was on his knees only because his defeat demanded it.  This posture proclaimed that the rightful king had returned and the kingdom was again united under his rule and authority.  So is it, when The Lord returns, that every knee shall bow and no one will dare dismiss Him as they easily have done in this age.  There will be a time coming when He will no longer just stand at the door and knock, waiting for man, like the nightingales to the moonlight, to willingly respond to His beckoning.

 Interestingly, in the deck of cards, it is the joker that has no set value until it is given its worth by the player.  That person may look at his hand (life) and a "six" may be all he/she needs to win at this game or they may be content enough to discard the Joker entirely or they may give it the value of a King.  Again, in this age, it is our own free will that determines what value we will give to Jokerman.

Now let’s look at the actual verses in Jokerman and see how they describe Jesus.

  Standing on the waters casting your bread

In demonstrating dominion over His creation Jesus walked upon the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret).  When Jesus was being tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread to quench His hunger, He replied that man does not live by bread alone but by the Word of God.  In the gospel of John, we learn that Jesus was the Incarnation of the Word of God and that He is the Bread of Life to all that come to Him.

  While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing
  Distant ships sailing into the mist

In the book of Daniel, the Jewish sage interpreted the dreams of the Babylonian king to paint a picture of the great kingdoms that were to come and dominate the world.  Daniel described four kingdoms.  The fourth kingdom that would be as strong as iron was the Roman Empire which dominated the world at the time of Christ’s life on Earth.  Daniel goes on to describe the arrival of Roman power over a century before Christ’s birth in the ships of Kittim in chapter 11.

 You were born with a snake in both of your fists
 while a hurricane was blowing

In the book of Genesis, God promises that a seed of a woman will be born that will battle with the serpent.  It is for this purpose that the Incarnation occurs.  The hurricane may depict how far from the order and tranquility originally planned for it that the world has come.

 Freedom just around the corner for you
 But with truth so far off, what good will it do?

Jesus’ time in this dimension was very short.  He would experience freedom when He returned to Heaven to be with the Father. But....  He had to go to the cross to be the substitutionary death that would reconcile God & man.  There was no getting around this.  Even if all of Israel had believed in Jesus and made Him King, He still would have been crucified on a Roman cross.  Because the “truth” is that man cannot redeem himself apart from the sacrifice of God’s Son.

 So swiftly the sun sets in the sky
 You rise up and say goodbye to no one

Before anyone knew it the “Light of the world” was gone. In the track following Jokerman on the Infidels album, Dylan writes that “the boss he gone north for a while...he sure left here in style”.  He ascended to the Father and though this was witnessed by hundreds of people, it pales mightily to what we are to expect “When He Returns”.  That will be known worldwide because of its splendor.

 Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
 Both of their futures so full of dread, you don’t show one

Again, many in this age will not take seriously the warnings and prophecies of the future that awaits this world, man & mankind.
Think back to the "fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan" from Slow Train Coming.  Turn on your TV and you can find someone casting out demons.  However, biblically we see how even the archangels tread cautiously when battling with Satan and his demons.  In Matthew 7:22-23 Christ says: "Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out denoms, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."  When the Foot of Pride comes down there will truly be no going back.

 Shedding off one more layer of skin
 Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within

 Oftentimes biblical revelation has been explained as peeling away the layers of skin of an onion: subtle changes that bring into focus God's plan.  For example the entire concept of a Messiah who was to become a substitutionary sacrifice was not revealed until hundreds of years after Moses wrote the Torah.  Within the Books of Moses we read only veiled writings that in looking back establish the prophecies contained in the Haneviim & Ketuviim which are the Prophets and The Writings (Psalms, Proverbs etc). 

Beforel the time of Isaiah, we were told that the seed of a woman would do battle with the serpent and that though the serpent would inflict injury on the seed it would be defeated and we know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.It was not until Isaiah six hundred years later, do we have the scriptures foretelling the death of the suffering messiah oftentimes referred to by the Rabbis as Messiah, the son of Joseph. Jesus during His public life systematically fulfilled the scriptures that dealt with affirming His Messiahship, performing the miracles that only the truly "Anointed One/Messiah" could perform, fulfilling the Law of Moses and illuminating the scriptures, never contradicting them. Those who were in authority to examine His claims became His persecutors instead.

But there was another persecutor that was able to get closer to Jesus to harm him during His earthly life than he could at any previous time.  In the Book of Job, we learn that Satan has access to Heaven.  When he is in the presence of God the Father he can not sin.  Why is he there?  To accuse the brethren.  He must speak truthfully when presenting his case whether it be about Job or us. 

However, when Jesus humbled himself and took on mortality, Satan had a new, albeit temporary, opportunity.  He could try to kill Jesus in a way that would not provide the atonement. He attempted this with the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem, when he induced mobs to try to cast Jesus off a cliff and most evident on the night in Gethsamane.  Satan afflicted Jesus to the point that He sweated blood.  The assault was to make Him die before His trials, beatings and crucifixion as the Lamb of God the next morning at the same time that the Passover Offering for sin was being slaughtered by the priest in the Temple.  Jesus cried out to the Father for His will to be done and Satan lost another chance to foil the fulfillment of prophecies and the one act in history that sealed his fate.

 You’re a man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds
 Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister

Jesus was transfigured on Mount Hermon, He ascended from the Mount of Olives and indeed, His city, Jerusalem, is Mount Zion also known as Mount Moriah.  Walking on the clouds can bring to mind the Ascension or the awaited appearance of The Lord. Under the cruel Roman occupation, the children of Abraham awaited (dreamed of) the arrival of the Messiah who would deliver them from their enemies and establish again the glory of the Kingdom of Israel even greater than the days of King David and King Solomon. 

The crowds wanted to make Him King after he simply fed five thousand of them.  In that action their dreams were satisfied, but that was not the hunger or need that He came for.  There were many who had their dreams shattered by the Rabbi from Galilee.  The zealots who wanted to destroy their Roman oppressors, the rich young ruler who believed that he had kept the "spirit" of the Law of Moses, the Samaritan woman at the well who sought after life with men or Nicodemus, the chief teacher of Jerusalem, who learns from the young teacher that in Judaism there is a seventh way for a man to be "born again".

 You’re going to Sodom & Gomorrah, But what do you care?
 Ain’t nobody there would want to marry your sister

You just have got to love Dylan’s imagery!  In Genesis, Chapter 19, Abraham's nephew Lot offers his two daughters to a male mob of Sodom that seek to rape his two male houseguests.  Whether this was because of the custom of protecting your guests or whether the mob's intentions, Lot perceived as being a more grievous offense to God is uncertain. However, Sodom & Gomorrah were uninhabitable in Christ's day and remain so to this day. 

So, did Jokerman actually try to change someone's lifestyle?  Sure did!  All of ours.  He came into this world, seeking that which was lost and knowing that He would be rejected and despised by it.  Rather than focusing on one particular sin, Dylan captures the bewilderment of why would He go after people who want nothing to do with Him.  Not even if he offered them an enticement, they would still reject Him and choose their sinful state.

 Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame

At the stoning of the first Christian martyr Stephen, the executioners were incensed at the comfort that the condemned man received by a heavenly vision of Jesus at the right hand of the Father.  Also, in the Book of Daniel, three would-be martyr's lives were spared after they were joined in a fiery furnace by a fourth person who appeared to be a “son of the gods” to the pagan Babylonian king.  The woman of shame about to be stoned to death for being caught in the act of adultery by an angry ”righteous” mob obtained physical redemption when Jesus upheld the “spirit” of the Law of Moses. Had the mob truly intended to purge the sin from within the nation of Israel then the male partner should have also been produced.  The mob used the woman to entrap Jesus into violating the Law of Moses.  Under that Law, it was necessary to have corroborating witnesses who were not guilty of the same offense.  Which is why when Jesus stated, "He who is without (this) sin among you, let him cast the first stone", the accusers left no longer in the position to cast judgement on the woman.  (A personal observation here is that not until 1998 A.D. have we had another case where an act of adultery occurred and there was only one guilty party.)

 You look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the account of a certain rich man who dies and goes to the section of Hades where he is in torment. Also in the story are Father Abraham and a beggar named Lazarus who are in comfort in another section of Sheol.  The rich man is never personally identified in the story, however Abraham uses a term of endearment to address him that meant child/son.  Abraham says: "Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things: but now he is in comfort here and you are in agony." 

Similarly, Dylan in the song Under the Red Sky speaks of a little boy & little girl who live in an alley and witness for a time the visit of the man from the moon.  The little girl is promised treasures in the future.  The little boy and little girl are baked in a pie.  The little girl will live again to see the "someday" when everything will be new. The little boy is not even mentioned again.  No promises need to be delivered.  Did the little girl accept God's grace and the little boy who shared the same illumination/revelation of God's plan, not accept it?

 Well, the Book of Leviticus & Deuteronomy
 The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers

Jesus came into this world as a man and more specifically as a Jewish man.  The Torah, which contains the books of Deuteronomy & Leviticus, was the teacher to how Jewish men should live righteous lives. Also, it should be pointed out that Deuteronomy is the book of the Law and Leviticus is the book of sacrifice.  In order to satisfy the Law, Jesus came to be the final sacrifice for atonement.  Though He demonstrated His power over nature, He entered this world that is governed by natural forces.

 In the smoke of the twilight on a milk white steed
 Michelangelo indeed could have carved out your features
 Resting in the fields far from the turbulent space
 Half asleep 'neath the stars with a small dog lickin’ your face

 Indeed of all the scenes Michaelangelo could capture, they could be as diverse as the magnificence foretold in Revelation, Chapter 19, verse 11:  "And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse,  and He that sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war." Or the humility found at the manger scene in Bethlehem that was repeated often during Jesus's ministry as He slept oftentimes in the Judean wilderness among his creatures where "'cept for the sky there are no fences facin'."

 Well, Rifleman’s stalking the sick & the lame
 Preacherman seeks the same, who’ll get there first is uncertain
 Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas padlocks,
 Molotov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain

  Sadly, this verse so well describes the condition of this world and mankind’s abuse of his fellow man.  The weaker are targets in this world for any aggressor.  In this verse, Dylan brings in the concept that amid all of this brutality is the realm of spiritual warfare.  In other songs such as: Trouble In Mind, Man of Peace and Dead Man,Dead Man; Dylan does not hesitate to point to Satan as the chief architect of evil in this world regardless of what form it exists.

 False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin
 Only a matter of time till night comes stepping in

Before Israel had its first king in Saul, it was the judges that were the rulers in Israel.  Under Roman rule, the body of the Sanhedrin ruled in matters of Jewish life.  It was this tribunal that Jesus was brought before.  In acting in the manner that they did, they not only violated the Law of Moses but also, more than two dozens rules of conduct that the Sanhedrin instituted for themselves, as documented by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, a Jewish Christian bible scholar.  In betraying Him in their unbelief, the Sanhedrin caused the promise of the Messianic Kingdom to be withdrawn to a future generation.  Judgement fell upon that generation as a direct result of the failure of the Jewish leaders of that day. This verse also, speaks to those who are leaders today.  Certainly, night, or the "slow train" is coming.

 It’s a shadowy world, skies are slippery gray
 A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet
 He’ll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat
 Take the motherless children off the street
 And place them at the feet of a harlot

This verse describes the fulfillment of prophecy that will bring tribulation upon the Earth.  It speaks of the arrival on the scene of the anti-christ.  Dylan provides us with more information about this character in the song, “Man of Peace”.  The anti-christ will be a counterfeit that the world will see when they are “trying to catch a glimpse of the sun (Son)”.  Satan through the anti-christ and his prophet will counterfeit the Holy Trinity down to the virgin birth and as Dylan offers, even to the star that announced the Lord’s birth.  This anti-christ will put the world religions under his control. One of the more known passages about the anti-christ is that he will be known by the number 666 and will force many to be branded with it as a sign of his authority over them.  Therefore, it is the anti-christ who puts the blade to the heat for this purpose.  He will take every man, woman & child who has not been “bonded” to God’s true love and seal them to the never satisfying attachment of a harlot.

There is a bootleg of cuts from the Infidels album known as Rough Cuts.  These show the lyrical thought progression of Dylan during the recording sessions.  I was given these tapes after the preceding commentary was written.  The lyrics that are heard on this “new” recording are supportive of what has been laid out in this essay.  For example:

 No store bought shirt for you on your back
 One of the women must sit in the shack
 And sew one

This lyric appeared in the beginning verse of the song which dealt with Christ’s ministry on Earth.  He came here with none of the wealth or glory that should accompany his person and stature.  He came as Isaiah described Him as the Servant.  In Luke 8:3, we learn of the women that followed Jesus and supported Him from out of their means.  Might not one of these women had woven the seamless garment that was torn from Jesus’s body by the Romans that was later gambled for.  Is this maybe the scene that inspired the still seeking Dylan to write the lyrics “In a little hilltop village, they bargained for my clothes, I bargained for salvation an’ they gave me a lethal dose, I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn”. (From Shelter From The Storm)

 Scratching the world with a fine tooth comb
 You’re a King among nations
 You’re a stranger at home

In the great commission, Jesus sends those who are His disciples to the uttermost parts of the Earth to bring home the elect.  In Matthew 18:12-14, he tells of the shepherd who will leave 99 sheep to go out and search for the lost one, so that none should perish.  It was foretold that He would be rejected by His own people and accepted by people (gentiles) who were not called by His name.  Certainly, this has proved true.  Jesus is considered the gentiles God/King and rarely thought of as the Jewish Messiah/King.  In I & I Dylan uses the term stranger to descibe the person who made him understand God’s righteousness.

 No crystal ball do you need on your shelf
 Michaelangelo himself could have carved out your features
 So drunk, standing in the middle of the street
 Directing traffic with a small dog at your feet

Jokerman of course knows what the future holds.  The words "so drunk", could they be used by Dylan to describe his Lord as He is conducting the affairs of this age?  Yes, when one knows the following biblical application.  In Ephesians 5:18 it reads:

    And be not drunken with wine
    Wherein is riot
    But be filled with the Spirit.

To be “filled” by the Holy Spirit means that you are controlled by the Spirit.  Ephesians 5:18 contrasts this with drunkeness.  When one is filled with alcohol he is controlled by it.  In contrast to being filled with wine, Paul said to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  In its fullest terms it means to be totally under the Holy Spirit’s control.  That someone would only be able to carry out the perfect will of God.  This does describe Jesus & His ministry.

 Well, preacherman talking about the deaf & the dumb
 & a world to come that’s already been predetermined
 Night sticks, water cannons, tear gas, padlocks, molotov cocktails
 and rocks can’t drown out his sermon
 You let the wicked walk right into a trap
 You give away all the good things that fall in Your lap

The great commission to spread the Gospel has continued since 30 AD.  Satan will ultimately fail and face eternal damnation.  Jokerman does not amass fortune or wealth, He continues on as a humble servant, for now.

 It’s a shadowy world, skies are slippery grey
 A woman just gave birth to a prince today
 And she is dressed in scarlet
 He’ll put priests in the pit that’ll make old men bark
 Take a woman that could have been Joan of Arc
 And turn her into a harlot

The false religion that assists the anti-christ in achieving his power is described as a harlot dressed in scarlet in Revelation.  She has perverted true faith with false doctrine.  Because she has done this, many people have been led down the broad path that leads to destruction.

And finally the haunting lines that end both studio draft and final cut of this song:

 Oh, Jokerman you know what he wants
 Oh, Jokerman you don’t show any response

Of course, Jokerman knows the intentions of Satan, the anti-christ and his prophet.  He inspired Isaiah, Daniel, Hosea, Paul, Matthew, John to write about it!  The world stage is set for the anti-christ.  The Jewish people who were dispersed in 132 A.D.have their descendants now living in the modern nation of Israel that was born in 1948.  Jerusalem is once again under Jewish control as of 1967.  It is foretold that the conflicts in the Middle East will continue and a prince will arrive on the scene seemingly to bring peace to the region. 

But it is a false peace. He will break the treaty with Israel and gather armies together in the Jezreel Valley also known as Armaggedon to destroy the Jewish people. The leaders of Israel will finally realize why this tribulation has come against them.  They will acknowledge their national sin of having rejected Jesus as the Messiah. However, Christ will not return until the Jewish authorities & people cry out for Him.

In Matthew 23:37-39 Christ says to the leadership that rejected His Messiahship:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her.  How ofter I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is let to you desolate.  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord/Baruch Haba BaShem Adonai".

Sweetheart Like You

 Many have written on this song and have made a determination that the sweetheart in the song represents the Christian who is on earth awaiting the Lord’s (boss’s) return.  While I agree, what I find most interesting is how Dylan brings in the special dynamic that comes with being a Jewish believer.

 Well, the pressures down, the boss ain’t here
He gone north for awhile
 They say that vanity got the best of him
 But he sure left here in style
 By the way that’s a cute hat
 And a smile so hard to resist
 But what’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this.

 The Boss has ascended but his own expect Him to return in a while.  The vanity that “got” Him started, according to Isaiah 14, when Lucifer tried to exalt himself above the Most High and in doing so became forever known as HaSatan  (the Adversary).  Vanity continued when Satan tempted Adam & Eve’s pride to become as “God” in Genesis 3:5.  To defeat the adversary and provide redemption for all of mankind was the reason for the Messianic promise that first appears in Genesis 3:15.  The seed of a woman would suffer in the battle to eventually defeat the source of all evil: Satan.  When He ascended, it was in victory over evil.  When He said, “It is finished” on the cross, He had accomplished what the Mosaic Law with its sacrificial system and man’s own righteous works could never do.  That is justify anyone before God  apart from the shedding of blood of His Son.
The words cute hat, smile and sweetheart just bring to mind someone with a type of youthfulness, innocence & purity.

 You know I once knew a woman who looked like you
 She wanted a whole man not just a half
 She use to call me sweet daddy when I was just a child
 You kinda remind me of her when you laugh
 In order to deal in this game, you got to make the queen disappear
 It’s done with a flick of the wrist
 What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?

 In biblical Christianity, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob are referred to as the Wife of Jehovah.  Jews & gentiles who place their trust and faith in the redemptive work of the Messiah/Christ become His bride.  The imagery of the two females in this verse fits their unique but separate roles that unfold in God’s plan for mankind.  Before the cross, the nation of Israel was asked to live a separate and distinct lifestyle apart from the other nations.  In the Torah, 613 commandments were given that impacted on the Israelites in moral, civil & ceremonial rules of life.  To try to live them, it required great  determination in every day activity. It required the whole man not just a half. These were necessary at the time to produce a distinct people who would reveal to the world that the God of Israel is the One true God.  Any descendant of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob even though they may  only be a child was a member of the Chosen people. Also, when at the age of thirteen jewish males are Bar-Mitzvahed they are viewed as adults, responsible under the Torah and permitted to comment on it. It was by birthright that they were set apart.  For the Jews who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and having lost the Temple and having been dispersed from the Promised Land, came more rules and controls on their daily lives through Jewish Law (Halacha) and the Oral Law.

   However, for the bride/sweetheart the criteria has changed.  No one is born with saving faith or belonging to any race or church that assures salvation apart from the individual’s acceptance of God’s grace. We are all born as infidels.  That is, someone who is without faith.  And it is by faith that we can stand before a righteous God, not by our works.  As Dylan stated, and Isaiah and Paul before him,  “Ain’t no man righteous, no, not one”.

 There are similarities between the woman and the sweetheart.  It is evident when they laugh; an expression of joy and worship to the same God that they both believe in but just seen  from a different point of view.  One clear example of this is the use of the Psalms throughout most worship and prayer services in churches and synagogues which remind the singer of both the woman and the sweetheart.  Also, many biblical churches observe the Jewish feasts that God established in the Book of Leviticus.

    The wife of Jehovah is the queen that in order to deal(win) in this game, you must make her disappear.  This is so evident in world history and biblical prophecy.  Satan knows that if he can thwart God’s plan to redeem mankind, he will have won.  So the object of Satan’s plan has been the destruction of the Jewish people which contained the necessary bloodline for the first coming of the Messiah and are the only ones who can bring about the second coming.  It is this spiritual warfare that can only explain the anti-semitism that seems to arise out of nowhere to seek and destroy the Jewish people.  References to the  31st chapter of Jeremiah marked Dylan’s performances the months leading to his acceptance of Christ in early 1979.  In this chapter, God equates His sovereignty with the permanence of the Jewish people, the heavens and the foundations of the earth and promises that a New Covenant is to be made with the house of Israel.

 You know a woman like you should be at home
 That’s where you belong
 Watching out for someone who loves you true (somebody nice)
 Who would never do you wrong
 Just how much abuse will you be willing to take?
 Well, there’s no way to tell with that first kiss
 What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a dump like this?

 You know you can make a name for yourself
 You can hear them tires squeal
 You can be known as the most beautiful woman
 Who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal

 You know news of you has come down the line
 Even before ya came in the door
 They say in your father’s house, there’s many mansions
 Each one of them got a fireproof floor
 Snap out of it baby, people are jealous of you
 They smile to your face, but behind your back, they hiss
 What’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

 For all those who believe (the "sweethearts") a mansion awaits, that Christ has prepared in the Father’s house where no harm/fire can come to its occupants.  But the time that is spent in this dimension will not be so protective.  Dylan in the preceding three albums described the ridicule that others heap on the believer in their attempts to mask their own hearts of stone.  (Listen to: I Believe In You, Pressing On & Property Of Jesus)

 Got to be an important person to be in here, honey
 Got to have done some evil deed
 Got to have your own harem when you come through the door
 Got to play your harp till your lips bleed

 They say that patriotism is the last refuge
 To which a scoundrel clings
 Steal a little and they throw you in jail
 Steal a lot and they make you king
 There is only one step down from here, baby
 It is called the land of permanent bliss
 What’s a sweetheart like you doin’ in a place like this?

 This is indeed a world gone wrong. The fall of man is evident in all aspects of living: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, relationships arise from needs rather than love, efforts done in the flesh are not fruitful, nationalism is a  device for destruction...justice will elude us till we looker into a stranger’s beautiful face.

 The sweetheart may be existing in a dump, but she has been promised that she will escape the wrath of God, the final tribulation.  So the dangers in these themes that she faces do not carry the ominous apocalyptic themes that are described on Infidels regarding what is to come upon the Earth.  In the Book of Revelation, the “sweetheart”/church is never mentioned after the third chapter which is prior to the onset of the tribulation that befalls the earth’s population.  While the content of the songs on Infidels do overlap if you were to chronologically plot them, the placement of the songs follow the prophetic sequence of events that the Book of Revelation chronicles.

Neighborhood Bully

 Welcome to Israelology 101.

 Many conservative or evangelical churches are known for their support of the nation of Israel, but within those churches exists the branch of Christianity known as Dispensationalist.  This group interprets the Bible literally, keeping a distinction throughout of Israel and the Church.  This teaching would have been a foundation of the 200 or so classroom hours that Bob Dylan participated in 1979.

 In On The Tracks magazine #4, Fall 1994, Pastor Larry Myers says of his first meeting with the still seeking Bob Dylan: ”...I started at the beginning in Genesis and walked through the Old Testament and the New Testament and ended in Revelation”. 

As he was taught, Dylan begins the first verse of Neighborhood Bully with the conflict first found in Genesis and ends the song with the stage that is set in the Book of Revelation.

  Well the neighborhood bully, he is just one man
  His enemies say he’s on their land
  They got him outnumbered about a million to one
  He’s got no place to escape to, no place to run
  He’s the neighborhood bully.

 The enemies that Dylan alludes to are the Arab nations.  In the 1970’s, the ratio of Arab to Jew living in the Middle East was approximately 100 to 1.  Both Jew and Arab are semetic people descended from the patriarch Abarham.  But the strife and conflict over blessings and birthrights that was documented in the Book of Genesis is being played out to this day.  Both Jew and Arab agree that God made an unconditional covenant with Abraham that his seed shall be blessed and that he would give Abraham and his descendants the land known as Canaan.  However, the Judeo-Christian scriptures tell us that God choose Isaac (Abraham & Sarah’s son) to be the son of promise and Isaac’s son Jacob to be the father to all Israel and to inherit the land.  In Genesis 35:11-12 the covenant is renewed:

And God said to him,
    “I am God Almighty;
    Be fruitful and multiply;
    A nation and a company of nations
         shall come from you
    And kings shall come forth from you
    And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac,
    I will give to you
    And I will give the land to the descendants after you”

The Moslem world believe that the promise went to Ishmael, Abraham’s older son that he had through the Egyptian handmaid, Hagar.  In the 21st chapter of Genesis, God promises to make a great nation come from Ishmael but he is not the recipient of the messianic promise or of the land.

  The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
  He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
  He’s not suppose to fight back, he’s suppose to have thick skin
  He’s suppose to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
  He’s the neighborhood bully

 Throughout history, several dynasties and a reich have sought to extinguish the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Most nations seek to defeat and enslave their enemies.  However, the regimes that came against the Jews always wanted to take it to the point of exterminating the entire race.  Dylan states that he just lives to survive because that in itself is a victory.  Every Jew alive is a reminder that the evil plots against God’s Chosen People has failed.  He still is often the scapegoat for the world’s problems and is the target of criticisms and condemnation routinely at the United Nations. What are common acts of self defense for any nation are unacceptable when undertaken by Israel.

  The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
  He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
  Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
  He’s always on trial for just being born
  He’s the neighborhood bully

 Dylan emphasizes again the fact that the Jewish people are here to procreate and that in itself is enough to bring condemnation at their audacity for persevering.  In 132 AD, the Roman expelled the Jewish people from their homeland.  The Romans had renamed the land Palestine as an insult to the Jews.  This name was derived from the Philistine people.  Throughout the centuries Jews settled in many countries but never had the security in those countries that would come with usual residency.  Though it was horrific experiences that the Jews underwent, it served to keep the hope, or hatikva, alive that they would be returned to the land promised to them.

  Well, he’s knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
  Old women condemned him, said he should apologize
  Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
  The bombs were meant for him.  He was suppose to feel bad.
  He’s the neighborhood bully.

 Since 1948, the nation of Israel has suffered many assaults on their sovereignty.  From the early days of the Palmach and Hagannah, the settlers were fierce defenders and combatants aginst those who would seek their destruction.  With the birth of the modern nation in 1948, the IDF or Israeli Defense Forces were formed.  The world has watched in amazement, as Israel grew to resemble a modern Sparta.  The race of people that was known to produce doctors, scientists, accountants and the poet laureaute of this century could also produce mighty warriors.  Across our TV screens we watched videos depicting the Entebbe Raid, of failed terrorists assaults on Israel’s Mediterranean beaches and the aftermath of Israel’s early morning strike on an Iraqi nuclear power plant that was being built to supply Saddam Hussein with the capability to develop nuclear weapons.  The order for this attack was given by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.  (After this swift action, Begin was fondly referred to by members of my family as Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Menachem.)

Today in 1999, one must wonder how different a world this might be today, had Israel not acted when it did by destroying the bomb factory in the 80’s.  Were Dylan’s words prophetic and the bombs going to be used against Israel?  I believe Iraq’s launching of 39 scud missiles into Israel’s populated areas during the Gulf War illustrates their intent on Israel’s destruction.  And sadly it may need to be emphasized that Israel was a non-combatant during the Gulf War.  Saddam was hoping to draw Israel into the conflict to kindle the anti-Israel passion that is so incindiary throughout the Arab world.

  Well, the chances are against him and the odds are slim
  That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
  Cause there is a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
  And a license to kill him is given to every maniac
  He’s the neighborhood bully.

 With the cry of “Never again”, Israel without hesitation will undertake whatever measures are deemed necessary to protect Israel and all Jews throughout the world from organized assaults.  Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on her enemies who for weeks broadcasted and editorialized their intent with such comments as: 

“The revolutionary forces of the Arab homeland, the Ba’ath at their lead, preach a genuine Arab Palestine liberation on the soil of Palestine; and they have had enough of traditional methods.  The Arab people demand armed struggle and day to day incessant confrontation through a total war of liberation in which all Arabs will take part” (Syrian newspaper Al Ba’ath March 13, 1966). 

Note that it was a call for all Arabs against the Jew and not just a Palestinian call to arms.  Facing six Arab nations, with brigades on all of her borders Israel launched a most brilliant and successful military pre-emptive strike against them.  The war lasted six days, and when it was over the air forces of Syria, Jordan and Egypt were virtually wiped out, leaving the Israeli F-15s in control of the skies.  Israel captured the Sinai as the Egyptian Army fled South. The Jordanians lost the terrortory now known as the West Bank and most importantly, the most fought after city in the history of mankind, Jerusalem. The historical capitol of the Jewish people and the location of the Temple Mount were now in Jewish hands for the first time in over 1800 years.

  He’s got no allies to really speak of
  What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
  He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
  But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
  He’s the neighborhood bully.

 How true.  Israel’s initial battles for independance were fought with an air power reminiscent of a traveling air show in the 60’s.  Piper cubs were the backbone of their air power.  As the nation grew, Israel was able to buy military planes and hardware from the US.  This was very beneficial to the U.S. military because they were able to evaluate the performance of their planes, tanks, weapons against the Soviet suppilied Arab armies without incurring the financial or loss of personnel that Israel endured.  Even as late as the 1991 Gulf War, Israel was supplied Patriot missiles and advisors on those weapon systems and only as a means to pacify them into not striking out against Saddam’s unprovoked scud missile assaults on Israel’s cities.  The U.S. did this because the cost of the Gulf War and its scope would have been without end if the Arab coalition that President Bush brought together had broken ranks because of Saddam’s drawing Israel into the conflict.  This goes to show how deep the antagonism is for Israel (just one man) by Arabs (his enemies).

  Well he is surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
  They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
  Now they wouldn’t hurt a fly, to hurt one they would weep
  They lay and thay wait for this bully to fall asleep
  He’s the neighborhood bully

 The pacifists take an extreme position against all war.  They do not accept the reality of what Dylan states in the Infidels track, Union Sundown, “Democracy don’t rule the world, You better get that in your head.  This world is ruled by violence.  But I guess that’s better left unsaid.”  It is mostly  the threat of military reprisal that keep aggressors at bay. Certainly Israel has benefitted greatly from having the reputation of being a nation that will act swiftly and powerfully against terrorists and aggressors.  To ask Israel to lay down its guard is to ask for it to commit national suicide.  Israel is not evaluated by the world as a nation fighting against enemies that would destroy her but as a provocateur in the Middle East.

  Every empire that enslaved him is gone
  Egypt and Rome even the great Babylon.
  He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
  In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
  He’s the neighborhood bully

 When the Zionist movement started, small numbers of Jews emigrated to Palestine to be on the land of the ancestors.  The landscape was covered with rocks, untillable soil and malaria infested swamps.  The survivors of the Holocaust entered a land that offered few comforts.  But to travel through Israel as I have done and seen the transformation into a vast agrarian economy with ingenious irrigation triumphs is a marvel.  The land has become so fertile that one of Israel’s largest exports are roses and exotic flowers.  It is very common to drive by miles of fields covered by tall Sunflower plants or vineyards in the north of Israel.  Even the Negev desert landscape has been drastically changed in the last ten years as was the wish of Israel’s premier David Ben Gurion similar to JFK’s desire to go to the moon.

  Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
  No contract he signed was worth what it was written on
  He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
  He took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
  He’s the neighborhood bully.

 Many oppressors have desecrated items that are holy and sacred to the Jewish people.  A few incidents are: the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus which brought on the Maccabean Revolt, the destruction of the Temple by Rome in 70 AD and Krystallnacht in Germany during the late 1930s.  How many agreements has Israel entered into in which their own morals dictate that they follow through on their committment, but the other signer feels no such obligation.  Throughout the centuries the contributions of the Jewish people in the areas of finance and medicine have benefitted the world at large.  Interesting, that it was because this exiled man was forbidden to own land in many countries resulted him in following the trades such as banking and medicine rather than rural farming.

  What’s anybody indebted to him for?
  Nothing they say, he just likes to cause war.
  Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
  They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
  He’s the neighborhood bully.

 Again, the blessings that have come from the Jewish people are easily dismissed.  His very existence is likely to “cause” others to wage war.  For what reason, is it pride, prejudice or superstition?  It need not be justifiable to Israel’s enemies.

 Up to this point, I have followed Dylan’s lead in attempting to analyze these lyrics.  By that, I mean that I have left out injecting any biblical references. (It took great restraint)  Because truthfully, the lyrics can stand just on the basis of recorded history.  But that ends with the last verse.

 In the Bible, there is the Book of Esther.  Before the Jewish authorities accepted this writing as Canon, there was great debate.  The Megillah/Scroll details one of the too many times that Jews were targeted for destruction and how events occurred that spared them.  This writing however, never mentions the God of Israel or alludes that the Jews were delivered by His hand.  If one were to review Dylan’s previous verses in Neighborhood Bully and discount his public comments regarding biblical prophecy, there is enough secular documentation to support his description of Israel without mentioning God.  But you would be missing the entire reason for Israel’s existence and from where the hatred of the Jewish people originates.

  What has he done to wear so many scars?
  Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon & stars?
  Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
  Running out the clock, time standing still,
  Neighborhood bully.

 Dylan wants an answer to the hatred that is directed at his people.

 Moses tells us in Deuteronomy 4:37 that Israel is an Elect nation because of the love that God had for the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac & Jacob and because of the covenants that He made with them.  There were several reasons for God to have an elect nation such as:  Israel was to be a recipient of God’s revelation & law, a nation truly under ONE God, a holy nation of priest to the world and a nation that would in time bring forth the Messiah. This can begin to explain why even the non-Arab nations seem to wish that this bully would fall asleep.  They were chosen by God and the other nations, the gentiles/goyim were not chosen for this purpose.  Therefore, the type of anger and resentment that we read that preceded the first murder in human history has taken root.  But there is another antagonist on the world scene.  He knew that God had promised to bring a deliverer from out of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.  This is why the Pharoah of Egypt sought to kill off the male newborns of Israel and why Herod, the Idumean tetrarch, ordered the slaughter of all male children in Bethlehem around the time of Jesus’s birth. 

Who inspired these abominable acts?  It was none other than the serpent, Ha-Satan himself.   He targeted the Jewish people and focused on the house of David because he knew that the Messiah would come from that line.  Satan failed. 

The Promised Seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David and Mary was born in Bethlehem fulfilling the prophecies regarding His birth such as: Genesis 3:15, Genesis 22:18, Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 11:1-2, Jeremiah 23:5-6, 1 Chronicles 17:10b-14, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2, Psalm 80:17 and Psalm 110:1-7.

 Satan’s next chance was to have the Messiah die in a way that would not bring atonement.  He failed at Bethlehem, but tried to work through an angry mob in Nazareth and continued to assault Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He caused the Roman Procurator Pilate to inflict two methods of mortal punishment on a man in whom he found no guilt.  (Many people died from the 39 blows delivered from the Roman executioners whip) 

Of course, Satan worked in the hearts and minds of the Jewish nation and especially in their leaders to blind them to God’s plan through His Son, but the failure of Israel to accept Jesus as their Messiah only delayed the coming of His Rule.  This is the 1000 year reign from Jerusalem that Dylan often referred to from the stage during his evangelistic period.

Because even if the Jewish people believed in Him, atonement still had to be made. The Messiah, the Son of God had to be nailed to a Roman cross on Passover.  Once this was done, Satan’s fate was sealed.  The Messiah may have been bruised but by suffering so, will crush Satan’s head.

 So what has Israel done to deserve such hatred today.  Why have people even those who claim to be Christians taken part in anti-semetic activities?  It is because of ignorance and again, Satan has not accepted his fate.  He has one more opportunity to defeat God and exalt himself.  Satan must again try to destroy the Jewish people.  Why?

I would like to extract from the book; Israelology by a Jewish-Christian Bible scholar Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum.
 

If Satan can exterminate the Jewish people then he can thwart Christ’s return and God’s sovereignty.  But as stated in the writings on License To Kill  and I & I, it ain’t gonna happen.

 Also, those who want to Christianize the world to offer a bride/sweetheart to Jesus that will induce Him to return are mistaken.  What is going on in God’s plan is captured in Dylan’s lines: 

Neighborhood Bully standing on a hill, Running out the clock, Time standing still.

 Standing on a hill: The Jews are not only back in the land, but they have national and religious leader. They are not scattered.  God promised that He would bring them back in unbelief as a preparation for their return to Him in faith.

Running out the clock: The time for this age is coming to a close. The nations are falling into an alignment that will embrace the anti-christ and seek to destroy Israel. On the spiritual plane, the “fullness of the gentiles” is approaching and God will bring the   Sweetheart home.  We are also witness to the return of the sons and daughters from the four corners of the earth to a Jewish homeland is daily before our eyes in the thousands. (Can anyone tell me why Mikhail Gorbachev opened the gates that allowed Russian Jews to emigrate?  Did he hear, “Let My People Go.” as pharoah heard three thousand years ago?)

Time standing still:  There is a eschatalogical clock ticking. Again I would like to quote Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum from his book, Israelology:
 

 So Dylan in these last three lines brings in to the picture the common thread that weaves the Infidels cast of characters such as: the estranged woman, the sweetheart , the Man of Peace and He who will be referred to as Jokerman no more.

 Neighborhood Bully without doubt was a song that Dylan wrote to defend and support the nation of Israel. I would like to impart to you more of Dr. Frucchtenbaum’s writing, this on the definition of Zionism:
 
 

   It appears that Dylan has stepped up to the challenge that Dr. Fruchtenbaum gave to all who believe in Jesus as the Messiah of Israel.  The Infidels album is completely consistent with what a Jewish believer would write if they too were blessed with Dylan’s talents.

License To Kill

In the book of Genesis/Beresheit, we learn that God has given this Earth to be under man’s rule.  This was spoken to Adam and he represented all of us who would come after him.  Dylan affirms this fact in his opening line of the song.

Man thinks ‘cause he rules the earth
he can do with it as he please
And if things don’t change soon,  he will
Oh, man has invented his doom
First step was touchong the moon
Now, there’s a woman on my block
She just sits there as the night grow still
She say, “Who....gonna take away his license to kill?”

But like Lucifer/HaSatan in Isaiah 14, man seeks to elevate himself even over the Most High.  It is not the location/height of the moon by which man is trying to exalt himself, but the fact that the heavens, stars and the moon were never placed under man’s authority.  How could they be when God uses them as signs of His sovereignty, existence and faithfulness to His creation and especially the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 31:35-36?

    Thus says the LORD,
    Who gives the sun for light by day
    And the fixed order of the moon
        and the stars for light by night
    Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar
    The LORD of Hosts is His name
    If this fixed order departs
    From before Me, declares the LORD
    Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease
    From being a nation before Me forever.

Within the writings of scripture is the Book of Proverbs that gives mankind insight and knowledge to the many traps and waylaid paths, that we mortals pursue.  In Proverbs, chapter 8 wisdom itself is personifed as a woman trying to change mankind direction.

Proverbs 8:1-4 states:

    Does not wisdom call
    And understanding lift up her voice
    On top of the heights beside the way
    Where the paths meet, she takes her stand
    Beside the gates at the opening to the city
    At the entrance of the doors, she cries out
    To you, O men, I call
    And my voice is to the sons of men.

Could the woman on the block be the wisdom in Proverbs 8 calling out to man?
I will parrallel some of the lines from Proverbs with Dylan’s lyrics.
 

Now there’s a woman on my block
She just sit there facin’ the hill
She say, “Who....gonna take away his license to kill?”

Ya may be a noisemaker, spirit maker, heartbreaker, backbreaker
Leave no stone unturned
May be an actor in a plot, that might be all that you got
Till your error you clearly learn

The turning from wisdom and actually choosing ignorance is detailed in the Book of Romans chapter 1 verses 20-23, the Apostle Paul/Shaul tells us:

    For since the creation of this world
    His invisible attributes
    His eternal power and divine nature
    have been clearly seen
    Being understood through what has been made
    So that they are without excuse
    For even though they knew God
    They did not honor him as God
    or give thanks
    But became futile in their speculations
    And their foolish heart was darkened
    Professing to be wise, they became fools
    and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible
    God for an image in the form of corruptible man...

The question is will man learn his error in time.  Dylan tells us to leave no stone unturned.  It was prophecized in Psalm 118:22 that

    The stone wich the builders rejected
    Has become the chief cornerstone

Even those who were charged with the instruction of the people became blind guides leading them away from the truth that God wished them to find.  In place of God, man found religion.  Traditions, ceremonies, festivals, obligations that keep their hearts darkened.  In 1 Peter 2:4-10  the apostle Peter predates Dylan’s call to all of us not to examine the stone that to many will be an offense, to others  a cause of stumbling and to some the very precious cornerstone of their saving faith.

Now he’s hell bent for destruction
He’s afraid and confused
And his brain has been mismanaged
with great skill
All he believes are his eyes
And his eyes just tell him lies
But there is a woman on my block
Siting there in a cold chill
She say, “Who...gonna take away his license to kill?”

In Blind Willie McTell a song that was recorded for but did not appear on the Infidels album, Dylan writes: "God is in His heaven and we all want what’s His". In Foot of Pride also a song recorded for Infidels but not on the final album Dylan warns: "You know what they say about being nice to the right people on the way up   Sooner or later you are gonna meet them coming down".  This parallel theme continues in the last verse.  Man exalts himself. (Foot of Pride & Blind Willie McTell will be discussed in their own essays later.)

Now he worships at an altar of a stagnant pool
And when he sees his reflection he is fulfilled
Oh, man is opposed to fair play
He wants it all and he wants it his way
Now there’s a woman on my block
She just sit there as the night grow still
She say, “Who...gonna take away his license to kill?”

A final question might be, what is the license to kill?  Can we substitute the word “ability”  for license and the word “destroy” for kill.  Who can take away man’s ability to chose destruction?  Earlier in Jokerman it was shown how man presently has the free will to choose, accept, neglect, mock, attack and be indifferent to God’s revelation through His Son. ater, in the section on: Lord, Protect My Child, you will see that Dylan expects and looks forward to a time when Righteousness will reign and ntil then his child needs the protection that comes with acknowledging that this world was never intended to be ruled apart from the instruction in wisdom found in Proverbs 8.

As more evidence that Dylan’s was still holding to a literal belief in a kingdom that is coming is the expectation that man’s rule over the earth is to be taken from him during Christ’s reign from Jerusalem.

Man of Peace

  In the last verse of Jokerman, Dylan announces a woman just gave birth to a prince today.  He is destined to rule.  He will put the priests in his pocket, put the blade to the heat, take the motherless children of the street and place them at the feet of a harlot.  Jokerman is not unaware of the prince’s evil intent, but the stage is not fully set for the Lord’s return.  But for Dylan observing the apparent success of the prince, he is bewildered and like the prophet Habbukuk wants to know “How long, O Lord?” Dylan states, “O Jokerman, You know what he wants, O Jokerman You don’t show any response”.  It is the song Man of Peace that Dylan describes the prince’s ascension to power that heads the entire world into the time that has been called Jacob’s Trouble or the Great Tribulation.  He is the figure that has been known by the title; anti-christ, who is Satan’s counterfeit, his proxy and also, his seed.  (See Genesis 3:15)

   Look out your window baby  There’s a scene you’d like to catch
   Band is playin' Dixie  A man got his hand outstretched
   Could be the Fuhrer    Could be the local priest
   You know sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

 Using all the trappings of patriotism, nationalism and religion, the prince will lure the masses unto him.  He will not be unlike previous evil leaders such as Hitler & Mussolini.  He will not be a Jew but someone of  Roman origin.  At his side will be a recognizable religious figure who will endorse the reign of the man of peace. 

   He’s got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue
   He knows every song of love that ever has been sung
   Good intentions can be evil  Both hands can be full of grease
   You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

The anti-christ will seduce individuals and nations into a sense of false security.  Con men are sometimes described as having a slick/slimy handshake but Dylan describes a man who has two hands that are greasy.  This brings to mind the image of a man extending to someone in need both hands to rescue and protect them, only to have those in distress realize they have been terribly betrayed when it is too late. Although many will be deceived by this man, it is the nation of Israel that will be seduced into trusting him for their security. They will be set up for their own destruction by the man of peace.

   Well, first he’s in the background, then he’s in the front
   Both eyes are looking like they are on a rabbit hunt
   Nobody can see through him  Not even the Chief of Police
   You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace

He will rise to power over a one-world government.  In 1Peter, we are warned that the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.  Deceiving everyone (military, civic, civil & religious leaders) as he consolidates control.

   Well he’ll catch you when you are hoping for a glimpse of the sun
   Catch you when your troubles feel like they weigh a ton
   He could be standing next to you
   The person that you notice least
   I hear that Satan comes as a man of peace.

The anti christ will place himself as the awaited ruler in place of Jesus Christ in hope to thwart His return.  He will try to block out the “Son/sun”. 

   Well he can be fascinating, he can be dull
   He can ride down Niagara Falls in the barrels of your skull

Through the ages the image of Satan has been portrayed as a grotesque creature that exudes evil or as a sly cunning character that plays havoc with our sense of right & wrong.  In actuality, Satan can successfully devour a person without lifting a finger.  As Dylan wrote in Saved: I was blinded by the devil, born already ruined, stone cold dead as I stepped out of the womb.  For Satan to be triumphant in a person’s life all he needs to do is to keep that person apathetic to God’s plan for redemption.  C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters describes how simple it is for man to be preoccupied with petty things and completely be blinded to things of an eternal value.  So, Dylan captures this with he can be fascinating, he can be dull.  To get a person not to seek God, Satan only has to deaden that person to spiritual things.  He will fill your life with dull and mediocre experiences.  On the other hand, if you are a seeker, he will be fascinating, using signs and wonders to keep you from the simplicity that is expressed in Dylan’s song: What Can I Do For You. Talking of man’s peril: He gets wise in his own eyes and he is made to believe a lie.  Who would deliver him from the death he is bound to die?  Well, You’ve done it all and there is no more anyone can pretend to do.  Seven years after recording Infidels, Dylan wrote a song called the Man In The Long Black Coat.  It describes a mysterious character who quotes from the Bible (Matthew 4:6) & has dust (Genesis 3:14) upon his clothes.  He shows up outside a dancehall and a young maiden just wanders off with him.  No word to her family, none of the normal courtship, she just “floats” away.  The sense given in the song is that her upbringing and the preaching that she heard did not impact on her enough to have given a foundation to make a wise decision.  Not since Grandpa built the fire on Main Street and shot it full of holes has a town been so shocked.  I believe Dylan uses the stranger to demonstrate the subtle ways of Satan and the willingness of mankind to be indifferent to the threat that this adversary brings with him. 

Another way for Satan to achieve victory is to rob people of their physical life before their spiritual life has taken root. Plunging them over a precipice to certain suicide while he safely rides encased in the victim’s mind/skull.

   I can smell something cooking
   I can tell there is going to be a feast
   You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace. 

In biblical eschatology, we are made aware of simultaneous events that are occurring on earth and in heaven.  As the anti-christ and Satan take the world on the path to a final conflict with the Most High and the campaigns against the Jews are engaged, in heaven there is preparation for a feast.  It will occur at the end of the tribulation.  It is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  It is for everyone who was made righteous through believing in the Messiah’s atoning death.  They are His bride, the girl in Sweetheart Like You.  He has already taken them into His house as is customary of the Jewish biblical wedding, but now He is ready to present His Bride to the world at the banquet.

   He’s a great humanitarian, he’s a great philanthropist
   He knows just where to touch you, honey, and how you 
   like to be kissed
   He’ll put both his arms around you
   You can feel the tender touch of the beast
   You know that Satan comes as a man of peace.

Again, he will deceive them pretending to be something he is not. The description of humanitarian and philanthropist may very well describe the public persona of the anti-christ.  But also, these titles can deceive people into thinking that man can achieve righteousness apart from the atonement provided by Christ’s death on the cross.  Dylan here uses one of the names to describe Satan in the book of Revelation, simply: the beast.  Other biblical names for this individual are: man of perdition, man of sin, seed of Satan, little horn, the willful king, the lawless one, the desolator, the king of fierce countenance and the prince that shall come.

   Well, the howling wolf will howl tonight, the king snake 
   will crawl
   Trees that stood for a thousand years suddenly will fall
   Wanna get married?  Do it now,
   Tomorrow all activity will cease
   You know that Satan comes as a man of peace.

Well, all bad things must come to an end.  Topography, landscapes will be changed during the years of tribulation.  Since there will be births in the Messianic Kingdom, one would assume that marriages would continue for the 1000 years.  But if Dylan is addressing many who will probably lose their life in the tribulation than according to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 22:30 there will be no marriage for those who are resurrected to return to rule in the Kingdom.

   Somewhere Mama’s weeping for her blue eyed boy
   She’s holding them little white shoes and that little broken toy
   And he’s following a star,
   The same one them three men followed from the East
   I hear that Satan comes as a man of peace.

There is a human mother that has given birth to the boy that grew up among us to become the anti-christ.  Just like Mary, she must watch her son fulfill his tragic destiny.  He has set out to portray himself as the second person in the counterfeit godhead.  Satan, the anti-christ and his prophet will have their final showdown with God the Father, His Word/Son and the Holy Spirit.  As they strive to deceive the nations, they will be able to perform wonders in heaven such as an appearance of “a” star to herald the anti-christ’s arrival.

Take heed to Dylan’s warning about a man that seems to be able to bring peace in the Middle East and order to the world. 

Union Sundown

 At first look, it may be difficult to see how Union Sundown found a place on this prophetic album and songs like Foot of Pride and Lord, Protect My Child did not.  But prophetic events are not always of the supernatural or of cataclysmic magnitude.

 In Union Sundown, a song written in 1982 we read the headlines that have appeared on newspapers of the nineties.  Between the lines of Union Sundown, you can hear the thud of the sledgehammer on the Berlin Wall, the bail out of Mexico and of course, see the handwriting on the NAFTA agreement in 1996.

 Dylan carries off an artful balance here.  He pleads for the American worker whose jobs are being sent abroad because of cheaper labor and he criticizes the exploitation of the third world work force.  He sums it up in the chorus,”Till greed got in the way”.  Bob rips the masks off of those who sit behind desks and make decisions that ruin the lives of families, towns, cities and home town industries.

 Union Sundown does fit in the Last Days scenario of the other songs.  It prepares us for the end of the United States as this independant, self sustaining economical & industrial giant. Because as production jobs are sent over seas, it causes all countries to become more interdependant for the merchandise of the others.  The inventor of a micro-chip processor in Simi Valley will purchase exports from many foreign sources just to put together a new outfit or furnish an apartment.

Because of this free trade, we already have the introduction of new currencies that will replace many national monetary systems as we know them.  The main example is the arrival of the Euro and Eurocheques in the Common Market.

 The interdependence of nations will be an impetus for a one world government.  There are many organizations that have been working towards this for decades.  Many are think tanks that see the United Nations as a vehicle to arrive at that destiny.

 In the Book of Genesis, we are told what happened the last time the inhabitants of the earth were unified.  They decided to bond together and in defiance to God, began to exalt their leaders and themselves over the Living God.  Knowing that this would lead to their destruction, God confused their language.  This dispersed the people throughout.  No longer were they unified.  Life became more of a struggle as they had to learn to deal with eachother.  Tribes became peoples which became nations.  If this world were to be placed under one ruler, is  it not still in man’s nature to try to defy his Creator once more.

 Certainly, this is what is written of in Man of Peace and Jokerman and I & I.

I & I

 The identity of those the title I & I refers to, is believed by me to be revealed very plainly in the chorus.

   I & I
   One says to the other,
   No man sees my face and lives

This conversation is taken straight from Exodus 33:20.  It is God speaking to Moses as the representative of the Israelites who are waiting for His direction at the foot of Mt Sinai.  At the giving of the Law, God's Chosen People became a nation with a leader.  This occurred on the feast commonly known as Shavuot or Pentecost. The commandments would separate the patriarch's descendants from other peoples/nations(haGoyim) with a unique identity, set of customs, obligations and traditions .  Therefore, I interpret The first I as The Lord and the second I as the nation of Israel.

   Been so long since a strange woman slept in my bed
   Look how sweet she sleeps, how free must be her dreams
   In another lifetime she must have owned the world, or been faithfully wed
   To some righteous king who psalms beside moonlit streams

 As discussed in earlier writings on Infidels, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are described as the wife of Jehovah.  However, because of transgression a type of divorce has occurred.  I say type because we are told that Israel will be restored to her proper place in time.  The time for that restoration is approaching.  The Lord looks upon the woman who seems to not be aware of the tribulation that is about to befell her.  She knows that she is chosen  but she has not heeded the words of the King's messengers who have warned of the time of Jacob's troubles or the Great Day of The Lord.

   Think I'll go out and go for a walk
   Not much happening here, nothin' ever does
   Besides if she wakes up now, she'll just want me to talk
   I got nothin' to say, 'specially about whatever was.

 She has not listened to the prophets, judges or the promised Messiah.  But the Lord is faithful to her.  He will not cast her away for her unbelief.  He will extend His hand a second time(Isaiah 11:11).  But He knows that it will only be after persecution that the world has never seen before, will she turn back to Him in faith and love.  So, He seems to be focused elsewhere.  He will leave her alone for awhile. There are other plans, peoples that require His attention.  Sadly, if she were awake she would only want to recall her past glory and not question how or why it was lost.

   Took an untrodden path once, where the swift don't win the race
   It goes to the worthy, who can divide the word of truth
   Took a stranger to me to look into justice's beautiful face
   And to see an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

 Is this not the path that the songwriter, himself one of the chosen people took on the road to faith.  Earlier, I stated that any jew or gentile that accepted God's grace by believing that atonement was made for their sins by the sacrificial death of the Messiah became a member of what is called the bride of Messiah/Christ.  (The sweetheart in Sweetheart Like You).  Their destiny will follow a different track than the sleeping woman. How did Dylan change his status. Well, he became one who studied scripture.  The bible gave him answers.  He understood the necessity for atonement.  That sin/evil must be dealt with and can not be overlooked.  He focused on Christ, who was as a stranger to this Jewish man and found that in Him was mercy and righteousness.

   Outside of two men on a train platform, there's nobody in sight
   They're waiting for spring to come, smoking down the track
   The world could come to an end tonight, but that's allright
   She should still be sleeping when I get back

The Book of Revelation tells us that during the first half of the Great Tribulation the will be two men known as the Two Witnesses.  They will be God’s prophets.  They will with great boldness and supernatural ability be one of the final foretellers of God’s wrath that is to come, but also of His mercy.  Dylan’s use of the train metaphor to describe the inevitable judgement that man will undergo is very pervasive in his lyrics and comments.  These two witnesses see past the train to when the Messiah’s Kingdom (spring) will reign. Earlier lyrics written for this verse that appear on the bootleg tapes known as Infidels: Rough Cuts, Dylan writes:

   Outside of two men on a train platform, there’s nobody in sight
   They’re waiting for spring to come or something to crack

 In place of “smoking down the track” we now have “waiting...for something to crack”.  This change still describes the awaited Messianic Kingdom.  After the Messiah has defeated the armies that come against Israel for her destruction , He will ascend to the top of the Mount of Olives.  In Zechariah14:3-5 the translated Hebrew reads:

"Then shall The LORD go forth and fight against those ations as when He fought in the day of battle.  And His    feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which  is before Jerusalem on the east.  And the Mount of Olives    shall cleft in the midst there of toward the east and toward the west.."

 When His feet touch the mountain it will crack, splitting the mountain towards the west and the east.  One interesting fact is that the Mount of Olives is one of the most coveted pieces of real estate on the planet by hoteliers and developers.  However, Israel will never give a building permit for any high structure to be built there...why? Because there is a deep fault that runs north-south through the mountain and if that fault “cracks” the mountain will split in two...from the east to the west.  Once again, what was revealed centuries ago in the bible is accredited through modern science.

In the 2nd half of the Tribulation, the anti-christ and his armies will turn their attention to destroy the sleeping woman/Israel.  But God has prepared a place for her to be protected until His return for her.  It is an enclosed city called Bozrah, which means sheepfold and more commonly called Petra in southern Jordan. The woman has been guided by scripture to this place of safety.  In the Tanakh /Old Testament some references are: Micah 2:12 and Isaiah 33:13-16. In the New Testament passages that deal with this event are the warning in Matthew 24:16 and in the Book of Revelations 12: 6 & 14.  The woman is to flee to the mountains where she will be given sustenance and protection until the national regenration occurs when they fulfill what is descibed in Zechariah 12:10.

An intriguing observation is that in 1990 when it was not safe for Jews or Israelis to travel in Jordan to this city, Bob Dylan posed for the cover of Under the Red Sky on the Israeli side with Mt Seir in the background.  The city of Petra is enclosed in that mountain range.  Many view the UTRS album to be filled with apocalyptic inferences.  So we end this verse with the certainty, that Israel will be there when He gets back.

  Noontime and I’m still pushin’ myself along the road, the darkest part
  Into the narrow lanes, I can’t stumble or stay put
  Someone else is speakin’ with my mouth, but I’m listening only to my   heart
  I’ve made shoes for everyone, even you while I still go barefoot

Here is a look from God’s perspective as the events unfold on earth.  He wishes that there would be another way, but He can not let Satan/evil win.  It is the height of the conflict and it grieves Him so.  As judgements are being spoken into action, God only is hearing the pounding of His own heart wishing that everyman not perish.  Indeed, He has made shoes for everyone that can put them on the road to eternal life not just for the church, but for His Chosen People, Israel.  Yet He Himself, will remain barefoot until the Remnant and the bride are with Him delaying the comforts and pleasures befitting His office.  At the Passover Seder, the night before He died, He said regarding the 4th cup of wine (the cup of praise) “I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes”.

 The other line to the chorus is:

  I & I
  In creation where one’s nature neither honors nor forgives

 Since the Fall of Adam all of mankind enter this world needing to be reconciled to their Creator.  Man can not in his own nature accomplish this or attain the honor of standing before God through works.  As Dylan said in Saving Grace there is only the narrow path....and it leads to Calvary.

Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight

 This song appears as the last track on the Infidels album released in 1984.  In the June 1997 edition of On The Tracks magazine, Jonathan D. Lauer from Messiah College wrote an intriguing article that wonders if Dylan has not used the last track on his albums especially since 1974 to impart a personal message to us.  Songs that just give us a closer look at where he is and where he may be headed if he is not taken off this dirt road.  This theory works for me.  So it is 1984 and the question now is:  Where is Dylan Tonight?

   Just a minute before you leave, girl
   Just a minute before you touch the door
   What is it that you are trying to achieve, girl?
   Do you think we can talk about it some more
   You know, the streets are filled with vipers
   Who’ve lost all ray of hope
   You know, it ain’t even safe no more
   In the palace of the Pope.

Dylan is trying to appeal to someone.  The two seem to be seeing things differently, possilbly just from a different point of view.  Dylan definately believes that what he has or intends for the girl is for her benefit.  He cares for her and does not want to see her in danger.  In leaving him and trying to make a point, she is exposing herself to some dark peril. As stated in Man of Peace, Jokerman, Foot of Pride and I & I, Dylan continues an eschatological theme that there are many counterfeits to the true Gospel.  The vipers are Satan’s legions, they are sealed in their damnable state.  They have no true hope but that does not keep them from trying to destroy those who Dylan wants to safeguard.  In the early eighties, the news was full of stories about the sudden death of Pope John Paul I and possible financial mismanagement at the Vatican (Pope’s palace).  Also in 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot by an assassin in Saint Peter’s Square (courtyard outside Pope’s residence). 

  Dylan pleads in the chorus:

   Don’t fall apart on me tonight
   I just don’t think I could handle it
   Don’t fall apart on me tonight
   Yesterday’s just a memory
   Tomorrow is never what it’s supposed to be
   And I need you, yeah.

 It seems obvious that Dylan is at the crossroads between yesterday and tomorrow.  In actuallity aren’t we always at such a juncture, so Dylan intimates that there is going to be a visible change about to take place, he hopes that the girl will stick with him.

   Come over here from over there, girl
   Sit down here. ou can have my chair.
   I can’t see us going anywhere, girl.
   The only place open is a thousand miles away
     and I can’t take you there
   I wish I’d been a doctor
   Maybe I’d saved some life that had been lost
   Maybe I’d done some good in the world
   ‘Stead of burning every bridge I crossed 

 Dylan is trying to win the affection of the girl, but he still must not speak falsehood.  In the song Angelina, Dylan speaks to another female with whom the possibility of a deepening relationship has come to a dead end, why...”I tried my best to love you, but I can not play this game.  Your best friend and my worst enemy are one and the same.”  They are on diverse paths.  Scripture warns against entering a relationship in which you will be unequally yoked.  Two oxen unevenly bearing a yoke will never be able to plow a field.  They will be unproductive, unable to control their direction and not advancing in life.  Dylan tells the girl there is a place open but it is far away and he does not have the ability to take her there.  No one person can save another.  No matter how hard we pray, how many arguments on scripture we win, it always comes down to the person’s free will.  Dylan then wishes he could be in an arena where he can have a certain degree of success.  After three years of delivering a powerful message, what does he have to show for it. Audiences and record sales are dwindling.  His successes will not be fully known until he appears before the judgement seat of Christ that he speaks of in Precious Angel.  But if he were a doctor, he could have a tangible sense of the good that he has been part of in this world.  Dylan feels very much alone at this time, so he needs the girl to be open minded to his intentions.  So many have rejected him over the last few years, he can not go back over those bridges.  Indeed it was Dylan who burnt a lot of those bridges.  In a song that he performed during the first year of his ‘evangelistic” shows called I Ain’t Gonna Go To Hell For Anybody, he explains why he had to do it so boldly.  He writes: I can deceive people as well as anybody   I know all the angles, how to make the tangles  I can twist the truth as well as anybody   Find ‘em and Blind ‘em  Wine ‘em and dine ‘em   But it don’t serve my purpose To gain the whole world And give up my soul.  He does not want to appear before the Messiah’s Judgement Seat as the watchman described in Ezekiel 33:2-6 who does not warn those whom God has brought into his path.

"Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, “If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from   among them and make him their watchman; and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the trumpet and warns the   people; then he hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.  He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself.  But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.

But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not blow the   trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a   person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will   require from the watchman’s hand”. 

 As I write this, I am struck by the fact that the watchman is a person that the people have elevated to watch over them, to be someone they will listen to.  He is not in the class of the prophets that God has annointed and sent to deliver His message, but he has incurred similar stature.  How many times has Dylan been referred to by all of us as the Voice or Conscience of an entire generation.   It is apparent from Dylan’s writings that he recognized that he carried an incredible responsibilty on his shoulders.  Dylan will be able to stand before the Judgement Seat not only in the righteousness he was imparted by his faith, but also, he was a faithful watchman when his moment of truth came.  I wonder if Dylan does not describe how he has been ill treated by those who are suppose to be his fans in the waitress scene from Highlands on Time Out Of Mind.  In it, the waitress acknowledges he is a gifted artist, when he reluctantly agrees to draw her, he captures her truthfully and she resents it and insults him by questioning his intellectuality.  The truth is Dylan has always been able to get below the surface waste.

    I ain’t too good at conversation, girl
    So you might not know exactly how I feel
    But if I could, I’d bring you to the mountaintop, girl
    And build you a house made out of stainless steel
    But it’s like I’m stuck inside a painting
    That’s hanging in the Louvre
    My throat starts to tickle and my nose itches
    But I know that I can’t move

 Dylan has never been one to explain himself.  He has been both villified and exalted by the right and the left, by liberals, conservatives, pacifists, Christians, Jews and even the Vatican.  Like Jokerman, he shows no response.  How many times has the Dylan album titled Saved been descibed as Dylan being self-righteous.  How is one self-righteous when he is acknowledging that Someone went to His death on a Roman cross to pay the debt for Dylan’s sins (and ours, of course)? His intentions were so misunderstood.  He wanted to bring the girl to the safety of the mountaintop but again he begins this with an “If I could..”   Only she can choose to go there.  Being on the stage, he would literally drag people to safety if he could.  He is ready, willing and able to jump into the crowd, but he knows again, it is not like being a doctor, in this realm he can not save anyone.

 At this point the chorus changes to:

    Yesterday’s gone but the past lives on
    Tomorrow is just one step beyond 

 The evangelistic performances are behind this watchman, but not the Truth that was spoken of.  That will live on as Dylan stated in In The Summertime from the album Shot of Love that preceded Infidels, “I am still carrying the gift You gave, It’s a part of me now, it’s been cherished and saved.  It will be with me unto the grave and into eternity.”

    Who are these people who are walking towards you?
    Do you know them or will there be a fight?
    With their humorless smiles so easy to see through
    Can they tell you what’s wrong from what’s right?

  The girl may leave Dylan to be with this group.  This is not the vipers from the first verse.  It is just a group of people who can not offer the girl what Dylan wants her to receive and that is the ability to discern their true objectives and choose safety.  This is similar to the “she” who just went off with the Man In The Long Coat much to the dismay of the preacher and townspeople.  Indifference is just as deadly as outright rejection, and Dylan fears like his character in Silvio , she may leave it all til the time comes that she learns what all dead men know. 

    Do you remember St. James Street
    Where you blew Jackie P’s mind
    You were so find Clark Gable would have fell at your feet
    And laid his life on the line

 Dylan not only has affection for the girl, they share a history.  He is proud of her and knows that she is capable of becoming the sweetheart in Sweetheart Like You.

    Let’s try to get beneath the surface waste, girl
    No more booby traps and bombs,
    No more decadence and charm
    No more affection that’s misplaced girl,
    No more mudcake creatures lying in your arms.
    What about that millionaire with the drumsticks in his pants
    He looked so baffled and so bewildered
    When he played and we didn’t dance.

 Dylan is calling for a truce.  Things have become polarized.  Both parties are going to have to calm things down and reflect on where they are at. He won’t be using the stage as a pulpit and she has to let go of her idols, the mudcake creatures even if one of the idols is Dylan, himself. Again, Dylan recalls their glory days.  When the critics, night club owners and record company execs with the drumsticks in their pants, dismissed the young Bob Dylan  as a “nasal-voiced hillbilly”, the not so young Bob Dylan as having sold out his idealism and the evangelical Bob Dylan as just “dead”; the girl may be a little unsure, but still hung on to him. This rocked the status quo and as Joan Baez said, he was a legend from the moment he arrived on the scene. Dylan evolved his art using the God given talents he was blessed with and he changed the entire culture of this century. 

 In 1999, Dylan again is attaining great success.  His fan base is regenerated.  The age range at his shows spans four generations.  Within the last two years he was celebrated by being inducted into the Kennedy Center Honors Program and walked away with all three Grammy’s for the masterpiece, Time Out Of Mind. 

 Sadly, by those fans who rejected the message that Dylan gave in the eighties, he is ridiculed.  They would rather view the man they see as a genius in other areas as an emotional wreck, an eccentric or as opportunist.  I always find fascinating the argument that Dylan was just broadening his base to appeal to main stream America.  That possibly could explain the Slow Train album, but not the albums that followed or the stage shows.  The fans that appreciated what Dylan did in the early eighties, then for the most part abandoned him without even looking back to see if he ever really abandoned the faith they shared.

 As for me and my house, we will always be grateful that as a watchman, Bob Dylan responded to what God had asked of him and  know that he will someday hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. 

The song, Lord, Protect My Child was recorded during the Infidels sessions, but alas did not make it onto the album.  In 1991, when the Bootleg Series was released, this song was included on the 3rd CD.

  For his age he is wise, he got his mothers eyes
  There’s gladness in his heart
  He is young and he’s wild
  My only prayer is if I can’t be there
  Lord, protect my child.

  As his youth now unfolds, he is centuries old
  Seeing him at play makes me smile
  No matter what happens to me
  No matter what my destiny
  Lord, protect my child

  For the whole world is asleep
  You can look at it and weep
  Few things that you find are worthwhile
  And though I don’t ask for much
  No material things to touch
  Lord, protect my child

  He is young and on fire
  Full of hope & desire
  In a world that has been raped, raped and defiled
  If I fall along the way
  And can’t see another day
  Lord, protect my child

  There’ll be a time I hear tell
  When all will be well
  When God and man will be reconciled
  But until men loose their chains
  And righteousness reigns
  Lord, protect my child

 In no way do I want to detract from the absolutely beautiful prayer of a father for his child, but another application can be made here without taking anything away.  It is that Dylan could also be offering up this prayer for family, friends, fans and Israel.  At the time of this recording, he had started to perform without any of the evangelistic songs from the previous two years of touring.  Could it be, after having given it all that he had, he knows that he/Dylan must leave everybody in the Lord’s hand.  Dylan was faithful in putting out an uncompromising message though it brought him great ridicule and sadly, that ridicule continues to this day. But this world is asleep.  He tried to wake them up, but they have turned a deaf ear to Dylan.  Satan’s ability to harden hearts and deafen ears continues. Dylan prays that the child will not be blinded and will perservere until righteousness comes. 
 The second verse mirrors the Apostle Paul’s plea that even if he be accursed that it was his desire that all of Israel will be saved.  The image of Israel can be seen in that the nation of Israel is but a child, its history is centuries old.  Certainly watching this nation grow out of the ashes of the Holocaust within the borders that God promised it must make Dylan smile and should all of us who believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In 1963, Dylan wrote A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall and in its last verse the father asks the son what is he going to do with the knowledge of the reality of man expressed earlier.  Dylan answers him with, “I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it, And reflect from the mountains so all souls can see it, Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin, But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’.

So let’s hear what a modern day prophet might sing when looking out at this world.

This is actually my second attempt to analyze Foot of Pride.  The first essay had to be tossed away once I begin to truly study the song and put away my preconceive thoughts on it.  What thrills me is that once again, Dylan evidences a greater knowledge of scripture and then slips it in under the defensive systems inherent in many who listen to him. 

Originally I saw the Foot of Pride as a metaphor for Divine judgement.  This changed when I downloaded the lyrics from Bobdylan.com and noticed that the definitive article preceding the title was your foot of pride and not the foot of pride.  This stumped me until I turned to a Bible concordance and scriptures themselves. 

The phrase foot of pride was written by King David in Psalm 36.  In verses 1 through 4, he describes men (the ungodly) very much like those in Dylan’s License To Kill who worship at an altar of a stagnant pool and when they see their reflection they are fulfilled. 

   Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart
   There is no fear of God before his eyes
   For it flatters him in his own eyes
   Concerning the discovery of his iniquity
    and the hatred of it

   The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceipt
   He has ceased to be wise and to do good
   He plans wickedness upon his bed 
   He sets himself on a path that is not good
   He does not despise evil.

 In the book of Proverbs chapter 16, verse 18 we read:

   Pride goes before destruction
   And a haughty spirit before stumbling

 The act of being proudful and arrogant are described by the action of putting one’s foot on a path or road that it should not travel upon.  Many types of sin can be committed and put us on roads that though they take us further from God, it is very possible at many junctures for us to change paths.  Not so easily with the path that we willfully set upon with our foot of pride.  With the first touch of our heel on that path we are defiantly dismissing God and not only any need for Him, but denying Him the honor and glory that His very Being demands.

 King David continues in Psalm 36 verse 11 with a plea from a God fearing man:

   Let not the foot of pride come upon me
   Let not the hand of the wicked drive me away
   There the doers of iniquity have fallen 
   They have been thrust down and cannot rise

  Dylan begins Foot of Pride with examples of how the natural order that God intended has been undermined.

  Like the lion tears the flesh off of a man
  So can a woman who passes herself off as a male

 In the Noahic covenant Genesis 9:3  God tells Noah , “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you as I gave the green plant”  Man was given dominion over the Earth.  How far has this world gone wrong?  Man has become food for the king of the animals. 

In Genesis 3:16 God tells Eve that she (all women) will desire her husband but that he will rule over her.  Woman will strive to dominate and when successful are in opposition to God’s will.  Now this does not imply some blind willful submission of every female to a male, but there is a preferred line of authority that God wishes His creation to abide by.  Truly, many woman have had to assume authoritative roles because on the flip side: it is presidents, husbands and fathers who have given away a blessing and a responsibility similar to Esau’s birthright.   Eventually, whether the failure is by a man or woman, the result is the same as if the man was killed by a hungry beast.

  They sang Danny Boy at his funeral and the Lord’s prayer
  Preacher talked about Christ betrayed
  It’s like the earth just opened and swallowed him up
  He reached too high, was thrown back to the ground
  You know what they say about being nice to the right people 
    on the way up
  Sooner or later you gonna meet them coming down 

 Most funerals are events that deal with tradition, culture and a time for “honoring” those who are no longer alive.  But they are blinded to the spiritual milestones that have occurred with the person’s passing.  When we take our last breath, our fate past this life has been sealed.  Dylan stated it this way in Precious Angel, “Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief, and there ain’t no neutral ground.  The enemy is subtle, how be it we are so deceived.  When the truth’s in our heart and we still don’t believe.”  The man whom this funeral was for never feared judgement and for him, all that he valued was gone in the twinkling of an eye.  There is no song, no reading of accolades, no sermon and no ritual that can alter whether or not that person appropriated God’s grace before he died.  If he ever expressed faith it can not be taken away and if he failed to come to faith it can not be acquired past this life.  Dylan speaks of this again from Precious Angel, “What God has given to us no man can take away.”  When Dylan later in the same song says that he hopes his forefathers found mercy in their bone filled graves this would not apply to anyone who recently passed on.  But to all the Old Testament saints who looked forward to God’s redemptive work and therefore, received mercy with Christ’s death on the cross.

  Hear ya got a brother named James, don’t forget faces or names
  Sunken cheeks and his blood is mixed
  He looked straight into the sun and said revenge is mine
  But he drinks, and drinks can be fixed
  Sign me one more song, about ya love me to the moon and stranger
  And your fall by the sword love affair with Errol Flynn
  In these times of compassion when conformity is in fashion
  Say one more stupid thing to me before the final nail is driven in.

Who James is I do not know.  But he too is following the wrong path.  In Blind Willie McTell Dylan tell’s us that God is in His Heaven and we all want what is His.  James defiantly mocks God and wants to deal out vengeance as if he had the righteousness of God to be able to do so.  Interestingly, when God first asserts that “Vengeance is Mine & retribution” His next phrase in the Book of Deuteronomy is, “In due time their foot will slip for their day of calamity is near.”

Man is ignoring that the judgement is required to fall on the unrighteous and Dylan recogizes the foolishness in this attitude. As in Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking when Dylan proclaims that he is gonna “stop being influenced by fools”  he can not be swayed by the stupidity of trusting in emotional or perishable experiences.  Dylan can see what others are blinded to.  As they proclaim this belief of non judgemental compassion, the nails are being placed in their spiritual caskets that will doom them to a fate brought on by their own exaltation of themselves over their Creator.

 The chorus of Foot of Pride is:

  Well, there ain’t no goin’ back when your foot of pride come down
  Ain’t no goin’ back.

 The day of calamity does not seem to be a judgement that will cease or allow man to escape.  When man takes that step and stumbles, there ain’t no going back.  The chorus parallels the verse from Proverbs earlier quoted in this essay.

  There’s a retired business man named Red, cast down from heaven 
   and he’s out of his head
  He feed’s off of everyone that he can touch
  He said he only deals in cash or sells tickets to a plane crash
  He is not someone that you play around with much
  Miss Delilah is his, a Philistine is what she is
  She’ll do wondrous works with your fate
  Feed you coconut bread, spice buns in your bed
  If you don’t mind sleepin’ with your head face down in a grave.

 Clearly, Dylan is dealing with Satan, the adversary of God.  It was Satan who first stumbled because of pride.  He tried to exalt himself over the Most High.  He was not satisfied to have remained as God’s most beautiful creation.  In Isaiah 14:12-15,

   How you have fallen from heaven
   O star of the morning, son of the dawn
   You have been cut down to the earth
   You who have weakened the nations
   But you said in your heart,
   I will ascend to heaven
   I will raise my throne above the stars of God
   And I will sit on the mount of assembly
   In the recesses of the north
   I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
   I will make myself like the Most High
   Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol
   To the recesses of the pit.

 The initiator of all evil, pain and death is the one who could sell tickets in advance to a catastrophic event.  As the Apostle Paul has called him the god of this world.  But just as Satan will work through the anti-christ, he will work through man’s vanity.  He used Delilah with Samson in the Book of Judges.  Samson was not brought down by his foot of pride but by disobedience.  He had been on a path that took him away from God, but a path that he returned from as evidenced by his turning to God in verse 28 of Judges chapter 17. 

  Well, they’ll choose a man for you to meet tonight
  You’ll play the fool and learn how to walk through doors
  How to enter into the gates of paradise. No!
  How to carry a burden too big to be yours
  Yeah, from the stage they’ll be tryin’ to get water outta rocks
  A whore will pass the hat, collect a hundred grand and say thanks
  They like to take all this money from sin, build big universities to study in
  Sing, “Amazing Grace” all the way to the Swiss banks

 Pride especially in the guise of religion has kept more people from saving faith than any other scheme that the devil has.  This verse is so powerful in describing what is found in most churches.  Rather than acquaint you with God’s plan for salvation and enter the gates of paradise, people are told yes Christ died for your sins so now here is what you must do to obtain mercy.  This is a works oriented path to salvation and scripture clearly has stated that no man will be judged righteous or worthy because of his own effort.  Isaiah, Paul & Dylan state, “Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One”.  So a person enters the church mentioned above, and he experiences something.  He then rationalizes I am in a church so it must be of God.  He is able to walk through a door or attains some success so he trusts the people on the stage.  They are tryin’ to get water outta rocks, well that is right from the Bible, he wrongly concludes that he must be in with Godly people.  The apostate religion is referred to as a harlot in Revelation and here Dylan uses the term whore.  Religion has become big business, the financial numbers are staggering but in the end they leave the visitor to the church with a burden too big to be his.  Jesus said, “Come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden, I will give you rest...For My yoke is easy and my load is light”.  No man is made righteous through works, penance, ancestry or the Law.  In Ephesians, Paul states, “It is by grace that yu have been saved through faith...not as a result of works, that no one should boast”.  The simplicity of this saving fact terrorizes religious organizations that depend on controlling their congregants.

  They got some beautiful people out there, man
  They can be a terror to your mind and show you how to hold your tongue
  They got mystery written all over their forehead
  They kill babies in the crib and say only the good die young
  They don’t believe in mercy
  Judgement on them is something that you’ll never see
  They can exalt you up and bring you down main route
  Turn you into anything anything they want you to be

 Dylan turns his attention to cultic organizations.  The biblical themes of judgement and mercy have no place in them.  Whatever the leadership decrees acceptable becomes just that.  The person in the cult  is there at the whim of the leaders.  All is sacrificed on their word, including children.  On the Slow Train Coming album, Dylan sums up the cult mindset with, “Spiritual advisors and gurus to guide your every move.  Instant inner peace and every step you take has to be approved”. This is from the song, When You Gonna Wake Up?  A common thread through most cults is that its member can attain a god-status or that their leaders have. This demonstrates that they have placed themselves on the path to destruction.

  Yes. I guess I loved him too
  I can still see him in my mind climbing that hill
  Did he make it to the top, well he probably did & dropped
  Struck down by the strength of the will
  Ain’t nothing left here partner, just the dust of a plague
   that has left this whole town afraid
  From now on, this’ll be where your from
  Let the dead bury the dead.  Your time will come.
  Let hot iron blow as he raised the shade. 

he funeral is over.  Those who question what has transpired are numb with the knowledge that their friend’s foot of pride has resulted in eternal judgement.  Just as Lucifer/Satan expressed in Isaiah 14, his intent by means of “I will...” so too, this friend made it to the top by his will, not God’s and he...dropped.  This takes us back to the suddeness expressed in the first verse; the earth just opened and swallowed him up.

The “partner” seems to be at the crossroads.  He has not yet stumbled at least not with pride.  His eyes have been open to perceive the spiritual workings that most are blind & deaf to.  The advice is  “Let the dead bury the dead. our time will come”  This advice was given by Jesus to a young man who would have delayed following Jesus to wait out his parents life.  That young man and the partner only have the ability to change their own eschatology as a shade is raised that looks out on a spiritual horizon.  Nothing will stop the inevitable Slow Train that is descibed here as hot iron. 

 As Psalm 36 ends: There the doers of iniquity have fallen.  They have been thrust down and cannot rise.  But also in Psalm 36 we read;  "For with Thee is the fountain of life.  In Thy light we see light".  I end with this verse thinking of Dylan’s 1965 statement that all his songs end with an implied “Good Luck”

-- 1999VeronicaKeohane

According to the Jewish Book of Why: Jews visiting gravesites will place a stone as a symbolic act indicating that members of the family and friends have not forgotten the deceased. 

So why is Bob Dylan photographed placing a rock on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem?  Well, let’s look at the historical and biblical events that have taken place on that site. For this purpose, I will use The Historical Study Guide of Israel by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum. It tells us on this mountain that:
 

Dylan may be memorializing his ancestors. But to choose this photo on an album that is flooded with biblical prophecy leaves us to another assumption.
 

It is only logical to conclude that this is the closest thing that Dylan could get to in lieu of an actual gravesite. He is remembering that the Messiah ascended from this spot and as the angels stated will return some day in the same glorious manner to this location.

Oh men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven. Acts 1:11

According to prophecy, Christ’s actual return will be to a city hidden in the mountain range that is behind Dylan in the picture that appears on the Under The Red Sky album released in 1990. Christ will then after He has defeated Israel’s enemies will ascend triumphantly to the top on the Mount of Olives, where Dylan knelt placing a symbol of remembrance to His Lord.

Post script:  More information regarding this photo has come to my attention in July 2001.  According to Clinton Heylin's book Behind The Shades Revisited p. 710 the photo was taken by Sara Dylan.  The occasion was the Bar Mitzvah of Jesse Dylan that reunited the parents in Israel.  Bob told Rolling Stone magazine that the Bar Mitzvah was Beatty Zimmerman's (Bob's Mom) idea.  Jesse's younger brothers had their Bar Mitzvah in California the previous year.  Now 16 year old Jesse was going to have his belated coming of age.  Bob flew to Israel to be with his son on this festive day.  The ceremony took place at the Western Wall in the Old City section of Jerusalem.  There is a photo of Bob and Jesse that was taken by a press photographer who happened to be on the scene.  This photo shows Bob Dylan at a table that is covered with Siddurs (prayer books), yamulkes, prayer shawls and tefillin (phylacteries).  This is to aid itinerant worshippers who happen to find time to pray to the Almighty and do not have their own accessories with them.  Dylan by donning the prayer shawl, phylacteries and yamulke is correctly respecting the customs and traditions of religious Jews. The fact that Dylan did not have his own yamulke, prayer shawl and phylacteries may or may not be evidence of how much orthodoxy he routinely practised, if any.  To say that this is something that he should not do because he is a "Christian" is absurd.  It is the Law of Moses and the Hebrew Scriptures that Dylan honors knowing that they lay the foundation in his messianic beliefs. After the Bar Mitzvah is completed Dylan ascends the Mount of Olives with his family.  The hillside going up from the Kidron Valley is covered by a vast Jewish cemetary, the Garden of Gethsamene and a few churches/shrines.  Dylan goes to the very top of the Mount; to the area that is recorded to be the site of Jesus's ascension into heaven.  So just as he paid respect to the Mosaic Law earlier at the Wall, he now with his family looking on emotionally identifies with the hope and anticipation of the resurrected Messiah and His awaited return.  This act would have been senseless if Dylan had renounced his faith in Jesus.  I have included these facts to refute the appearance in several recent publications that Dylan supposedly renounced Jesus on this day in September 1982.  There is no such record of any type of denial.  Again, Dylan's appearance at the Wall observing the customs at his son's Bar Mitzvah is consistent with a Jew who believes in Jesus as his Savior.  The ascent to and humble position taken by  Dylan at the top of the Mount of Olives before his family are also consistent with a man whose faith identifies with the Resurrected Jesus of Nazareth and the expectation of His Messianic Kingdom. 

Copyright VeronicaKeohane1999