Introduction
By Paul Anderson
My first cousin (once removed), Daniel Scott, was chosen by the Indianapolis Colts as the 158th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. My mom and I spent the weekend watching 157 players we could care less about just for 5 minutes of excitement.
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| Loose The Colts! |
It was totally worth it!
I had collected some stats on his University of California, Golden Bears' football teammates (and one former Bear and one UCLA Bruin) to see what were his chances of getting selected in the Draft. Only 4 players did better!
It turns out that his chances were better than I thought since he was part of Cal's defensive backfield (DB) known as "The Takers" during his college football career with the Golden Bears. Starting in 2018, the Cal football secondary did not just earn a nickname — "Takers" — it set a new standard of playing defensive back at Cal. Daniel Scott (Safety) became the fifth Cal defensive back to be drafted in the past four years when he was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the fifth round of the NFL draft. He was the only Cal player drafted in 2023, but Cal has had at least one player drafted in 35 of the past 37 years.
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| Takers taken in the NFL |
The photo includes (from left to right): Daniel Scott (Indianapolis), Traveon Beck, Elijah Hicks (Chicago), Ashtyn Davis (New York Jets), Gerald Alexander (DB Coach), Jaylinn Hawkins (Atlanta), Camryn Bynum (Minnesota), Josh Drayden (Washington), Unknown Player, Trey Turner III.
My mom and I have been following Daniel since 2017 when Cal came out to our alma mater (University of Colorado). In an effort to win free tickets to the Draft, I submitted 10 photos of us from the games we attended. We failed to win the tickets, but the contest did get me to create an album of the memories I captured.
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| 2017 Cal vs CU |
Interestingly, I noticed that the earliest game was at the beginning of my weight loss journey. So, the album is sort of a before and after photo of losing 125 pounds.
You should be able to view the rest of the photos here:
So, we are excited to see how he does in the next chapter of his football career. Go Colts!
Since I am now a Colts fan, here are my top 12 verses on Colts:
Jesus On Colts
Matthew 21:1-7 King James Version
1 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
Mark 11:1-7 King James Version
1 And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples,
2 And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.
3 And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.
4 And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him.
5 And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt?
6 And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go.
7 And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him.
Luke 19:29-35 King James Version
29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
30 Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
31 And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
32 And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
33 And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
34 And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
John 12:12-16 King James Version
12 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
14 And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,
15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.
16 These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.
Colts In The New Testament
Revelation 6:2 King James Version
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
Revelation 6:4 King James Version
4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
Revelation 6:5 King James Version
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
Revelation 6:8 King James Version
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
Colts In The Old Testament
Genesis 49:10-12 King James Version
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
Judges 12:14 King James Version
14 And he had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years.
Job 11:12 King James Version
12 For vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt.
Zechariah 9:9 King James Version
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Conclusion Of The Whole Matter
The word "colt" occurs 17 times in the Bible, which seemed like enough verses for me to pick my top 12. However, most of the references have to do with one event that is mentioned in all four Gospels: the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
So, I used those 4 verses and got all eleven times "colt" is included in the New Testament. However, I still needed 4 more verses from the New Testament. Since a colt is considered a young horse, I thought the Four Horses of the Apocalypse would fill out the study nicely. While the colt brings the Messiah and Redemption, these horses bring conquest, war, famine and death with God's Judgement at the End Times.
Fortunately, the Old Testament references appear in only 4 books and in the categories from which I usually choose verses (Torah, History, Wisdom, and Prophets). Of course, the Prophet's verse is the prophecy of the triumphal entry, the main purpose of the colt in the Bible. This seemed a fitting connection to me as I was celebrating the triumphal entry of my cousin into the NFL.
In addition to the animals of the NFL, I was enjoying some animals in literature. This month my son had me read The Jungle, a 1906 work of narrative fiction by American muckraker novelist Upton Sinclair. While not about colts per se, his book was about a life of sausages and sarsaparillas in the poor working conditions of Chicago's meat industry. Of course, with the complete lack of health regulations, one never knows what kind on meat ended up in the sausages. If rats and human body parts falling into the grinder could lead to reforms like the Meat Inspection Act, surely a colt or two can't be ruled out.
"They use everything from the hog except the squeal."
The closest thing I found to a colt in the story was an antiquated expression about the humor of horses.
"And then he would go on to tell you that Socialism was "paternalism," and that if it ever had its way the world would stop progressing. It was enough to make a mule laugh, to hear arguments like that..."
The meat packing plant was just one of many jobs the characters are unable to hold as Upton Sinclair's real purpose with his book was to promote his true religion: socialism.
"It was the new religion of humanity—or you might say it was the fulfillment of the old religion, since it implied but the literal application of all the teachings of Christ."
He would even quote entire chapters of the Bible to point out the evils of capitalism.
"Take the twenty-fourth chapter of the Book of Job, which I am accustomed to quote in my addresses as 'the Bible upon the Beef Trust'"
Of course, this was 1906 and the idea of socialism still seemed appealing. The rise and fall of Soviet Communism was yet to happen. Sinclair seemed hopeful that in one hundred years socialism would be ruling the world and the Catholic Church would be denying its opposition at that time. By 1945, George Orwell had turned the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union into Animal Farm, a fable about hogs and horses who overthrow their human farmer to create a society where the animals share equally.
Unfortunately, the animal farm experiment failed and life would go on as it had always gone on--that is, badly. The animals in power began to slip changes into the original constitution to benefit themselves:
"It ran: "No animal shall kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE." Somehow or other, the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory."
This change reminded me of when Martin Luther slipped the word "alone" into Romans 3:28 of The Luther Bible.
Orwell seemed to catch on to what Sinclair failed to grasp; a system is only as good as its promoters and Sinclair's socialists seemed to be a bit chauvinist:
"Jurgis, who knew nothing about the age-long and everlasting hypocrisy of woman, would take the bait and grin with delight...They ought not to marry, to have children; no workingman ought to marry—if he, Jurgis, had known what a woman was like, he would have had his eyes torn out first...The ancestors of these black people had been savages in Africa; and since then they had been chattel slaves, or had been held down by a community ruled by the traditions of slavery. Now for the first time they were free—free to gratify every passion, free to wreck themselves."
While Sinclair's socialists missed the mark about the future world to come, one was not bad about the secret of weight loss. Nicholas Schliemann, a Swedish philosopher and socialist, was tracking his calories even back then:
"He studied the composition of food-stuffs, and knew exactly how many proteids and carbohydrates his body needed; and by scientific chewing he said that he tripled the value of all he ate, so that it cost him eleven cents a day."
I don't know what on earth is scientific chewing. However, my weight loss system used the app Cronometer to track my "proteids and carbohydrates." I have lost 125 pounds and got my cost down to $5.02 / day in 2023, $6.35 / day in 2022, $5.91 / day in 2021. Based on my calculations of inflation, that is about half of what 11 cents per day would be now ($10.82). Not bad for a capitalist.
So, while The Jungle was good on food, it was bad on socialism. While Sinclair had Jurgis reeking from the packing plant, it really was from his ideas.
"There's the devil of a stink in here," he said, suddenly. "What is it?"
"It's me," said Jurgis.
I will finish this month with a quote from The Art Of War:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
17 Bible results for “colt” from King James Version.
- Old Testament (6)
- Genesis (2)
- Judges (2)
- Job (1)
- Zechariah (1)
- New Testament (11)
- Matthew (3)
- Mark (4)
- Luke (3)
- John (1)
188 Bible results for “horse” from King James Version.
- New Testament (18)
- Acts (2)
- James (1)
- Revelation (15)
Scripture contributions for May 2023 by: Paul Anderson, Matthew Anderson
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