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But is this the whole story? NO!
The same Scriptures that tell us about the Exodus from Egypt also say that one day the recalling of Israel from among all nations will eclipse the first exodus so overwhelmingly that we'll no longer even mention it! Now the Jews no longer have to end Passover by saying, "Next year in Jerusalem!" They can already move back. But their numbers there barely exceed those who came out in the Exodus--and the Passover seder hasn't changed. So something even bigger is still to come!
A clue as to just what ...is found in the fact that Ezekiel was told his vision of the dry bones represented "the whole House of Israel". At the time he prophesied, the Jews had not even been dispersed yet. There was, however, another part of Israel that had...
Not Every Israelite is a Jew
You see, the Jews--who are specifically descendants of Jacob's son Judah-- are only one of twelve tribes. To some extent, the Levites and Benjamites were included in their identifiable heritage. But what became of the other tribes?
To answer this, we have to go back nearly 4,000 years to the time when Joseph was the second in command in Egypt.
Joseph (Yoseyf) had two sons, Ephrayim and Manashe, but Jacob adopted them as his own, and actually put Ephrayim in the position of his firstborn. (Genesis 48) This means he was given both the right to rule and a double portion of Jacob's inheritance, given so there could be someone to rescue his brothers in a time of calamity, as Yoseyf had already done, proving that his position was rightfully given. Reuven had forfeited this right. (Gen. 49:4)
Several centuries later, during Israel's Golden age, we're told that all the kings of the earth had dealings with King David and his son Solomon. This was no exaggeration, since, according to Stephen Collins, they were part of the Phoenician alliance, which traded as far away as North America and India! But wise though he was, Solomon (Shlomo) allowed idolatry back into Israel, mainly through his marriages to pagan wives, entered chiefly to seal political alliances. This was a false security. For his wives' sake, but contrary to Torah (YHWH's instruction), he not only built altars to Molech, on which people sacrificed one of their children in exchange for the hope that their others would be strengthened. He himself also followed foreign gods in addition to YHWH. (1 Kings 11)
Yarav'am Jeroboam), the overseer over the labor force for Solomon's magnificent building projects, brought a complaint to Solomon's successor, Rehav'am (Rehoboam), about the burdensome workload, and the elders of Israel concurred that he should indeed lighten the burdens his father had imposed. But instead, Rehav'am listened to his youthful peers, and promised to only make the load heavier. So the oppressed northern tribes would not accept him as their king. (1 Kings 12) It even angered YHWH, who sent the prophet Achiyah to Yarav'am. Achiyah tore a garment into twelve pieces, and told Yarav'am to take ten of them. Only two were left with Rehav'am .
Jeroboam, who was given the Kingdom of Israel, was from the tribe of Ephrayim. Thus "Ephrayim" became a kind of shorthand for the northern ten tribes, and sometimes it was called the House of Joseph, Ephrayim's father. The Southern Kingdom, Judah (Yehudah), is where we derive the word "Jew". Note that the name Israel stayed with the Northern Kingdom. While Judah prevailed in carrying on the royal line (all the way to Messiah), the birthright still belonged to Joseph. (1 Chron. 5:1-2) And now the "stick of Yoseyf" was in the hands of Ephrayim.
What Became of Ephrayim?
Jeroboam was promised a secure kingdom IF he obeyed all of YHWH's commands. (1 Kings 11:37-38) But he was afraid that if his subjects kept going to Jerusalem three times a year (as YHWH commanded), their hearts might again become loyal to his rival kingdom of Judah. So, just like Aaron, he set up golden calves at alternative worship sites, and said they were the Elohim that had brought them out of Egypt!
One of these unauthorized altars was here at the city of Dan, a watering stop on the trade route from Mesopotamia to Egypt, at Israel's northern border.
Some citizens of the northern tribes did reject this compromise, and joined the southern kingdom of Judah, but only a token remnant. To "rightly divide the Word of truth", we have to recognize the distinction the prophets made from that time on between Judah and Israel. They are not just poetic synonyms. Now Israel's rulers grew more and more evil. They kept mixing religions, even dedicating altars "to YHWH and His Ashtoreth (consort goddess)".
YHWH sent prophets to dramatize their true condition. Just as Hosea's own wife was unfaithful, Israel had committed harlotry, so the Kingdom would be brought to an end in the vast Valley by the name of Jezreel-which was also the name YHWH gave to Hosea's eldest son.
By 722 B.C., YHWH had had enough. Ephrayim had "mixed himself with the Gentiles". They wanted to be just like any other nation, rather than His unique treasure. So they got what they asked for; their punishment was to actually BECOME Gentiles! YHWH used the brutal Assyrians to carry the Israelites away into exile and resettle them in other parts of the empire. Some broke away and became separate nations early on, but they all eventually migrated in every direction. (2 Kings 17 records the first places they were taken.)
But YHWH had a far-reaching purpose even in this, and when we understand what He was doing behind the scene, it gives a whole new--and very important--perspective on one of the reasons the Messiah came.
The Mystery of Jezreel
The name "Jezreel" (Hosea's first son) is an agricultural term which means "Elohim scatters" or "Elohim sows seed". Both apply. Elohim did indeed scatter the Northern Kingdom like seeds--but a sown seed is hidden in the ground for the very purpose of later showing up again to bear much fruit.
When Rehav'am tried to take the northern tribes back by military force, YHWH warned him not to do it, saying, "This things is from Me."
Batya Wootten of the Messianic Israel Alliance has identified one positive reason why He divided Israel: To confirm a matter in Israel, two witnesses are required. So YHWH split the Kingdom into two parts so there could be two separate groups bearing witness to different aspects of His truth.
A BROKEN STICK
Zechariah broke a rod to symbolize the breaking of YHWH's covenant with all peoples. (ch. 11) The price he asked was 30 pieces of silver--the same price as that of the Messiah's blood.
This was taken care of here in Gethsemane, and there is a clean slate. But it also means He now has no covenant with anyone but Israel.
But he broke a second stick to symbolize the end of the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. This has yet to be remedied.
Through the names of the next two children of Hosea's wife Gomer (probably born of her harlotry), YHWH laid out the two curses that would be the Northern Kingdo's specific punishment. The first was named Lo-Ruhammah--"no mercy", because they had reached the point where He had to discipline, since "those whom YHWH loves He disciplines". They would have to undergo the curses laid out in Leviticus that were to fall on anyone who, as a group, forsook His covenant.
The name of Gomer's next son Lo-Ammi means "not a people". In other words, there would be many descendants of the northern tribes, but they would no longer be considered one nation. They would be cut off from their roots and be dispersed. They would forget that they had ever had any connection to Judah. They "mixed themselves with the Gentiles". (Hos. 7:8; 8:8)
Now, Judah also disobeyed and was exiled to Babylon, but they repented there (e.g., through Daniel), and returned to the Land. YHWH spared them for David's sake. But the northern tribes assimilated with the nations and most eventually lost their identity completely. That would help explain why Abraham's descendants can't be counted! Nobody knows who most of them are anymore! From a human standpoint, that is... But YHWH never forgot. He said not a kernel of Ephrayim would fall to the ground. (Amos 9) He knows where each of the descendants of the Northern tribes is today.
Just after the vision of the dry bones, Ezekiel used two sticks to depict Judah and Joseph again being made one in YHWH's hand--a reversal of Zechariah's broken stick. It's a prophecy that one day, somehow, the scattered tribes of Israel would be reunited with Judah.
On the Mount of Olives after his resurrection, the disciples of the Messiah, whose Hebrew name is Y'shua, asked him point blank if he was now going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. They knew this was one of the tasks Messiah had to fulfill. Indeed, one reason today's Jews by and large have rejected Y'shua is because he did not bring the Lost Tribes back.
Or did He?? Let's take a closer look.
The command regarding the Kinsman Redeemer, illustrated in the Book of Ruth, foreshadowed perfectly what he came to do. His own ancestor, Boaz, who also lived in Bethlehem, paid the way for his relative Naomi to recover the lost connection to her heritage.
Remember the prodigal's father, who had one son still at home, looking expectantly for his other son to return? At that time, Judah was still at home, safe in the sheepfold, and though YHWH had forsaken Ephrayim "for a moment", His heart longed to have His firstborn back! "How can I give up you up, my son?" (Hos. 11:8) So He says, declare it to the far-off coastlands (a synonym for particular Gentiles, Gen. 10:5) that, "He who scattered Israel will regather him and keep watch over him like a shepherd."
Hosea went on to say, "In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people', they shall be called 'Sons of the Living Elohim'." (1:8)
Can you think of any group that comes out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and people, who have been given a second birth and are now called "sons of Elohim"?
Whoever fits this description is where we will find Ephrayim today.
In Jeremiah 31, we see Ephrayim shocked because he had thought he was an upright man until it was pointed out that he was really still doing many pagan things. So this narrows our identification of Ephrayim to apparent "Gentiles" who see themselves as obeying "God", yet don't realize that even that name had its origins in paganism.
When Ephrayim recognizes his error and repents, YHWH says, "Isn't Ephrayim a precious son to Me, after all? It's those self-serving shepherds who have led him astray!"
So YHWH says He'll provide His own Shepherd. (Ezek. 34; Jeremiah 50) This is the context for Y'shua's identifying himself as the "Good Shepherd". When he said he had other sheep that were not of this flock, he was echoing Ezekiel's prophecy that there would be one shepherd for both Judah and Ephrayim. We have to read the New Testament in light of these promises to regather the house of Joseph.
Jacob said Ephrayim would "grow into a multitude in the midst of the land." (Gen. 48) But we lose something big in the translation. In Hebrew, it really says he would multiply or spawn like fishes. But--fish multiply on land? The only place we ever see this idea again is when Y'shua multiplies the loaves and fishes--near the landlocked Sea of Galilee--and there are 12 basketfuls left over (enough for all 12 tribes)!
When he spoke of going as "fishers of men", Y'shua was alluding to a prophecy in Jeremiah 16. He was sending his disciples out with a dragnet to draw Ephrayim back to the covenant they once forsook. In the process of finding them, other kinds of fish were pulled in too, which, in a roundabout way, fulfilled His desire that Israel be a light to all nations.
A centurion named Cornelius was stationed at Maritime Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea, and he saw that light and was attracted to Israel's lifestyle. He began doing the best he knew. He gave so many alms to the Jews that YHWH took special notice, and responded by giving him more light. He had Cornelius send messengers 30 miles down the coast ... to the ancient port of Joppa (Yafo) --now a suburb of Israel's modern metropolis of Tel Aviv-- to seek out Simon Peter (Kefa), whom He had also just given a vision that taught him that Gentiles who feared YHWH could also become citizens in the commonwealth of Israel. Joppa actually had a long tradition of connections with YHWH's concern for the nations. From this 4,000-year-old port, Jonah had tried to escape the call to give Assyria an open door to repent and be forgiven.
But this extension of the Kingdom to complete Gentiles was more of an "afterthought"--an added gift to Y'shua, since YHWH said he had earned the right to rule more than just Israel; in Isaiah's words, he would also be given the nations as an inheritance.
It also fulfills Noah's blessing that made room for Japheth to one day inhabit the tents of Shem-an idiom for coming under the protective umbrella of Semitic religion.
Yet this exception to the rule has ended up being seen as the norm. Isaiah had said it was too small a thing for the Messiah to the restore the tribes of Israel. So this points to that task as being his primary mission.
Y'shua spoke of a mustard plant (usually a very small bush like this one) growing into a monstrosity that all kinds of fouls of the sky would nest in--generally a bad sign in Scripture. It got to the point that any who wished to be part of the institutional church had to cut all ties to their Hebraic roots! But the fact remained in Scripture that YHWH's only covenant was with Israel. So a doctrine formed that the church had replaced the Jews as the new "spiritual Israel".
Now, figurative extensions cannot cancel literal promises, but there may be more overlap than we think.
Batya Wootten points out that, as anyone knows, the early church was completely Jewish. In 132, at the time of the Bar Kochba rebellion, when believers in Y'shua were required to acknowledge Bar Kochba as the messiah in order to keep fighting for Israel, they had to make the terribly difficult choice to make their chief source of fellowship the Romans who believed "Jesus" was the "Christ" since they were no longer offered a place among the Jews. Yet Peter had a wife, Paul had a nephew, and all of these Jewish and Levite believers had descendants. How could the fact that they did believe in the one Moses said would be prophet like him mean they were no longer a part of the people of Israel? No one can change who his grandfathers are! And the same holds true for the northern Kingdom.
But now we have a strange paradox: Moses told Pharaoh that Israel was YHWH's firstborn. YHWH later says, "Ephrayim is My firstborn." But in the New Testament, Y'shua is also called YHWH's firstborn. How can this be? Is this just an analogy being loosely thrown around? You can only have one firstborn! So there must be a connection between Y'shua and Ephrayim.
Abraham's covenant could not be passed on to an adopted son; in fact YHWH says specifically that his servant Eliezer would NOT be his heir. Abraham's lack of a biological heir was the very conflict that makes his story so riveting. YHWH promised that his own seed, from his loins, would be a blessing to the entire world. That exact same blessing was passed on by Jacob to Joseph's two sons.. He said Ephrayim's seed would become "Millo haGoyim". Goyim is a familiar term meaning "Gentiles" or "nations". The word "millo" is used in Psalm 24:1-The earth is YHWH's and the millo [fullness] thereof."
So what Jacob prophesied was that Ephrayim's descendants would become "the fullness of the Gentiles". Doesn't that ring a bell? It shows up again in Romans 11, when Paul says a partial callousness would remain over Israel "until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in". He says all creation waits for these Sons to be revealed.
So when Y'shua said he was sent to the "lost sheep of the House of Israel", it was Ephrayim that he meant! He said the kingdom was like a field full of good seed, as in Hosea's prophecy of "Jezreel". But an enemy (through Constantine) also sowed a different crop there that looks just the same--until the harvest, when it proves inedible and useless. (Matt. 13:24ff)
But if Ephrayim's seed mixed with all nations in this way, then many, if not most, of the people who respond to the Gospel may be Gentiles only in a secondary sense.
Paul addressed his letters to those who were formerly Gentiles. So many of these non-Jews who are feeling the uncanny pull back to things Hebraic are really only returning to their true roots.
The throne is promised to the seed of David, which Y'shua is. But the King of the Jews does not have a kingdom in this age. (John 18:36) The Kingdom belongs to Israel, but the King belongs to Judah. But Y'shua came to find a bride. His "foreign" bride, unlike Solomon's, turns out to be from the seed of Ephrayim, who is only half-Gentile. The patriarchs went back to the same family to find their brides, though they were in anotehr land. And through this "political" marriage, the king is reunited with his kingdom! Unlike Rehav'am (1 Kings 12:7), THIS man from Judah would NOT lay too heavy a burden (Matt. 11:30) on the other tribes. (Acts 15:20) He would serve the people-and Ephrayim (even if still in exile) would accept this king from Judah as their own once again! (Hos. 1:11)
Almost every time Y'shua mentioned the Gospel, he connected it with the Kingdom, which we've already seen is inseparably linked to Israel.
But this focus got lost in the push to reach every last tribe with what was turning out to be a new religion rather than a call back into the same covenant they had abandoned.
Batya Wootten's husband, Angus, emphasizes that if we are truly to carry out the task the Y'shua gave to his disciples and those who would come after them (Yochanan/John 17), we have to understand what the disciples believed their primary task to be. Only then can we really understand what our job is. When he met the two disciplkes on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, they told him, "We had thought he was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel." Where did they get THAT idea? Col. Wootten says, "I don't know of a single church, denomination, or even cult which has that goal today!" Yet when the disciples asked that infamous question in Acts 1:6, it was right after Y'shua had just taught for 40 days about the Kingdom. (Matt. 24, 25) Now the question they all had was, "Is it now...?" What follows-the "Great Commission"--was not some new proclamation. It was Y'shua's answer to their question. He said the Father had already established a time for the Kingdom to be restored to Israel. He only said it was not for them to know when. (If he'd told them it would be 2000 years later, it would have taken much of the urgency out of their message, and they might have slacked off.)
So Y'shua never did deny that he had come to restore the kingdom to Israel. What he did on the Mount of Olives was simply turn the disciples' focus toward what turns out to have just been the first step--finding the subjects of the northern Kingdom--his long-lost relatives--and again making them into people worthy to be its citizens.
BROUGHT NEAR AGAIN!
One reason YHWH placed Israel's inheritance by the sea and on busy trade routes was that those now eligible to reconnect to their lost inheritance were all over the world. Paul sailed the Mediterranean to spread this good news of the renewal of the covenant.
The apostles soon reported that many were returning to YHWH from among the Gentiles. Those who were "far off" were being brought near again (Eph. 2) -- for Daniel 9:7 defines "those who are far off" as a PART OF ISRAEL who were driven away because of their trespasses. They had once been under the covenant, but had alienated themselves from it.
The myriads of stone "dolmens" near Ahab and Jezebel's capital city of Jezreel and on the Golan Heights (the Biblical Bashan) are believed to be the remains of ancient burial sites. What's perhaps most interesting about them is how closely they resemble those found all over Great Britain.
Some even teach a one-to-one correlation between the Northern Kingdom and Britain; another widespread doctrine says the Native Americans are the lost tribes. Clearly, both are oversimplifications. Yet they each do hold a grain of truth.
In fact, Native Americans are beginning to awaken to a sense of being connected with Israel, and are receiving it with great enthusiasm. They are recovering a sense of responsibility, as the first stewards of this continent, to initiate a reconciliation deeper than human politics could ever forge.
At Hanukkah in the year 2000, they participated in a protocol perhaps unprecedented since the days of William Penn, but it was more than a peace treaty; it was a covenant with the House of Judah and with others who recognize themselves as part of the Commonwealth of Israel.
Lynda Prince, former chief of the Carrier Sekani Nation in British Columbia, took a group of Native Americans to visit Israel. AS they dressed in their full regalia and played their drums at each of Jerusalem's gates, Orthodox Jews came and told the group, "You are the lost tribes!" and asked where they had been all this time, as they knew this was one group that had to be included in those who would return to Israel.
As for Britain, there are many legends about a descendant of the last king of Judah establishing the royal dynasty in what is now England. And until the sixteenth century, at least one tribe in Scotland kept the Sabbath and didn't eat pork.
But each of these is just one piece of the puzzle. The historian Josephus, a contemporary of Y'shua, wrote that in his day, the ten tribes had still never returned from beyond the Euphrates River, and there is now evidence suggesting that some of them grew into the mighty Scythian, Cimmerian, Parthian, and Gothic empires.
But YHWH promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that people from all nations would be grafted into their seed. In other words, every tribe or clan on earth would, somewhere along the line, intermarry with at least one of Jacob's offspring.
So Israel includes a lot more people than we had ever imagined! Like the legends of peasants who discover they are really royalty, you may find that you are an heir to a noble lineage after all!
But what if you can't trace your roots back so far? Well, first of all, there was always a "mixed multitude" from other nations becoming part of the people of Israel.
In Esther's day, we read that multitudes became Jews. Indeed, whole tribes of Gentiles have converted to Judaism throughout history. Some might not have even one drop of Abraham's blood, but their primary identity today is still that they are "Jews". So anyone can JOIN Israel and be given the same rights as native-born Israelites, as long as they keep the covenant.
Angus Wootten points out that genealogy takes up a large portion of Scripture, so it is important. But there are major gaps in the records available to us now. So how do we know who we are?
When we first established a relationship with YHWH, no certificate fell out of heaven telling us so. The Holy Spirit informs us that it is true.
Now Paul says that if you belong to Y'shua, you are Abraham's sperm, and his heirs. Scripture tells us that Ephrayim was scattered and mixed among every tribe and tongue, out of which the followers of the Lamb come by the book of Revelation. We can look deeper: Dan went to Denmark, etc. But if you know the history of Rome, you know that when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans in 50 A.D., there were no Jews in Rome, yet he says to those he is addressing that Abraham was their "forefather according to the flesh"!
Even James, who at first hesitated to allow these supposed Gentiles into the household, later addresses his epistle overtly "to the twelve tribes of Israel who are scattered abroad".
Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky, another Jewish leader who wholeheartedly welcomes the House of Ephrayim, brings us assurance that there is indeed "proof positive" of who the lost tribes of Israel are. History and archaeology confirm it more and more each day. Only in this way can the divisions between races and between Jewish and Gentile believers be eliminated. How do you know you are Israel? If you are a believer in Y'shua, you have his own word: "I was sent only to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel." That in itself should be enough.
But if this is really "Gospel Truth", and not some new wind of doctrine, how is it that we are only now beginning to recognize it?
Paul tells us that a temporary slumber was imposed on ALL Israel for a time, in order to allow YHWH to do something else in the meantime. That "slumber" in the passage Paul was quoting is the same word for the deep sleep YHWH brought over Adam when He was creating Eve. It was so YHWH could bring forth ...a bride!
Ezekiel was told to lie on one side for 390 days for the number of years YHWH would punish Israel's unfaithfulness, and the other side for 40 days for the years of Judah's discipline.
In Jeremiah 16, YHWH doubled Ephraim's sentence, but Leviticus 26 also says that if they would not repent, He would increase their punishment seven times. So there are two sentences running concurrently for Ephraim. The first ran out in 46 A.D., right when Paul began his missions to the Gentiles. Individuals from Ephraim began responding to Y'shua, and Hosea's judgment of "no pity" was no longer in effect. But Hosea's other sentence--that of not being a people-lasted 2,730 years from the time Assyria took Israel into exile, and it was not up until right around 1996! That's why the blinders are only now being removed from our eyes.
Angus Wootten reminds us of the tale of the Ugly Duckling. When it found out it was really a swan, it did not change anything about its appearance, but it certainly changed the way it looked at everything, especially itself! We all have to understand who we are, or we can't do the work He gave the children of Abraham.
Now, if we are indeed Israel, there's a particular lifestyle that comes with it...and a proper way by which we need to enter. Remember, we have been outside the covenant for all this time. When someone was put outside the camp of Israel in the wilderness, there were ceremonies he had to go through in order to be restored to the fellowship of the community of Israel.
YHWH told Ezekiel that the Northern Kingdom's ticket to full restoration to citizenship would be our response to the Temple. That sounds strange to modern ears, but let's see what he meant. (And credit goes to Web Hulon for many of these insights.)
"You, O Son of Man, confront the House of Israel with the Temple, and they will blush from shame over how they have distorted it." (Ezek. 43)
Ephrayim's idolatry wasn't so much overtly turning away from YHWH, as dedicating to Him things that He never asked for. He wasn't pleased when Jeroboam changed the month in which the festivals were observed. And how is that any different from our substituting the day pagans had dedicated to the Sun for the Sabbath that He ordained?
The Reformation went a long way in dealing with the paganism in the Church, but much more remains than we often realize. For example, Christmas and Easter are not just secularized; from the very start they have been mixtures of biblical truth and outright paganism.
Most Christians concur that Y'shua was probably not born in December, but have felt that they would dishonor him if they just dropped the celebration--or haven't known what to replace it with.
One of the advantages to there now being so many knowledgeable Jews believing in him is that an answer is finally coming to light.
David set up a schedule for priestly service that clues us in on when John the Baptist's father was told he would have a son, and from there we can calculate when Y'shua would be born, six months after John--and it comes out at Sukkoth, which is the feast of "tabernacles" or "booths". It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals, and not everyone would fit in Jerusalem, so many would spill over into the suburbs, including Bethlehem, only five miles away. This would help explain why there was no room in the inn. Joseph would combine the necessary trip to Bethlehem for the census ...with his journey for the festival.
Genesis tells us Jacob built stables for his animals when he re-entered the promised land. The Hebrew word translated "stables" here is none other than "sukkoth"! It's fitting that the Word who became flesh and lived temporarily among us should come at this feast of dwelling in temporary
structures. A sukkah is traditionally required to have gaps in the roof big enough to view stars through, suggesting a connection also to the astronomical event that led the Magi to Y'shua.
Shepherds would not have the sheep out in their fields during December, but would still have them there during Sukkoth, which comes in the early fall, just after the harvest.
But why were shepherds the first to be informed about Y'shua's birth? We now have an answer to this, too. Agricultural workers would often build a strong tower near their fields as a place to sleep during the harvest--or to take shelter should an enemy or predator attack.
Micah chapter 4 tells us that the "first dominion" would make its appearance at such a tower--a particular one called the Tower of the Flock--from which modern Bethlehem is clearly visible in the background.
The Mishnah, a Jewish commentary on the Bible, tells us that the Tower of the Flock was the furthest from Jerusalem that lambs could be raised for Temple sacrifice. So the angel was telling not just any shepherds, but particular LEVITE shepherds that the fulfillment of their life's work--the Ultimate Passover Lamb--had arrived!
The angel told them he had good news of great joy; Sukkoth is indeed nicknamed "the season of joy" (z'man simchateynu) for all nations.
So those who leave Christmas or Easter behind and take on the festivals actually given by YHWH are finding that not only have they lost nothing important; rather, they are in fact learning much more than ever about Y'shua. These feasts put everything we've known about him back into its
original context, and make more sense out of so much of what he said. We were truly short-changed by their removal from the church!
"If they ARE ashamed over all they have done", YHWH told Ezekiel, "let the House of Israel measure the plan of the Temple. Acquaint them with its design and its arrangement, its exits and its entrances."
But why are exits mentioned before entrances?
YHWH made a promise to Jacob, which he passed on to Ephrayim, that his descendants would become a "company of nations", or "a congregation of Gentiles".
At Caesarea Philippi, within view of a cave thought by the Romans to be one of the entrances to the underworld, or Hades, Simon Peter affirmed that Y'shua was indeed the Messiah, and Y'shua specifically said the gates of
Hades would not prevail against the congregation that He would build upon that Foundational truth.
But that congregation is identified in Scripture as the ek-klesia, or "called-OUT ones". ("Come out from among them and be separate." There's the "exit".) Those who left the covenant are being called OUT of any paganism into which they were assimilated and back INTO the commonwealth of Israel. Now, that means responsibility to the covenant which our ancestors agreed to, at Mount Sinai. What we call the New Testament was really a renewal of this covenant.
YHWH then told Ezekiel, "Show them all the Temple's walls--and its laws... so that they may observe them and carry them out. This is the instruction in regard to the House: the top of the mountain and all that border on it are most holy."
The hill on which the original Jerusalem sat was known as the Mount Zion in David's time. From the eastern slope of Mount Zion flowed the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem's only water source, which King Hezekiah channeled under the city and into the Pool of Siloam during the siege by the Assyrians. This is a picture of hiding YHWH's word in our hearts so we'll be ready for any spiritual attack.
But another reason this site was so important is that the Gihon flowed through the Garden of Eden! There, before his fall, Adam had open, direct fellowship with YHWH.
The Eastern Gate, the most direct route into the Temple, is now sealed up, the work of a Muslim ruler who wanted to keep the Jewish Messiah from returning. But the Garden of Eden's eastern entrance was also closed off; entering YHWH's presence is no longer such a simple matter. Access can be regained, but only through repentance and the blood of Y'shua, as well as the long process of unlearning and relearning our patterns of walking.
During Y'shua's day, there was already a picture of this in place, since the Temple was much more complex than the Tabernacle had been.
Before one could even enter the Temple compound, he or she had to go through a total immersion in a regulation pool called a "mikveh", in order to arrive in a state of ritual purity.
The way one entered the Temple teaches us how to become pure in heart and thus worthy to take part in the momentous work YHWH is doing to restore all of Israel.
The 32 southern steps, by which all but the priests entered the Temple courts, were staggered in length so no one could rush irreverently into this holy place.
Steps also represent our spiritual growth. If we just find a set of doctrines we're comfortable with and stay there, we will never get very far into the depths of all YHWH has for us to learn.
But after entering through gates at the top of those steps, a remnant of which can be seen today, worshippers still had to walk up a long tunnel and across a wide courtyard just to get to the eastern gate, the real entrance to the Temple complex proper. So there is a long way to go just to get back to the starting point! Y'shua's death and YHWH's mercy put us on the same footing Adam had before he fell. Only then can we BEGIN to worship as we were really meant to. So being born again is not the goal, but only the first step.
Anyone interested in knowing YHWH ...could come into the outer court, called the Court of Gentiles.
But there was a low inner fence within that court which prohibited all non-Jews from entering the actual Temple courts. This was understandable, since the Greeks, for example, had come in and defiled the altar, as we remember at Hanukkah--a festival Y'shua attended, as recorded in John 10.
But keeping all Gentiles out oversimplified the distinctions YHWH had set up, and this law added by men was now unwittingly screening out those who were returning from Ephrayim. (Acts 21:28) Isaiah tells Judah to "open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps the faith may enter in", and even the rabbinic writers believe that this refers to the return of the lost tribes. So this is the wall that Paul said Y'shua had figuratively broken down. (Eph. 2:14)
But there were many other walls meant to be in the Temple, and they symbolize a concept we've almost lost today in our desire to include as many as possible. Holiness means being separate from the outside world.
The urgency of becoming firmly grounded in our Israelite heritage is underlined by the fact that while we are being drawn back into unity with Judah, the world is also forming its own unity, and on the surface it will seem all too close to the unconditional love that popular culture has co-opted from the Gospel's original context. Soon our only choice will be to side with either Babylon or Jerusalem. If we don't build walls at this juncture in history, we'll end up building the wrong house--one that can't stand the test of fire.
Surrounding the Court of Women, before one entered the innermost courts, were four large chambers that teach us how to prepare ourselves to enter YHWH's presence.
One was for storing wood, a picture of laying down our lives as the basis for an offering that's pleasing to YHWH.
Another was for the Nazirites, a symbol of consecration to YHWH and separation from defilement.
The chamber for lepers teaches us about putting away selfishness and the glory of our flesh.
The fourth chamber was for oil. Enormous amounts were needed to light the lights in the sanctuary, for grain offerings and incense, and anointing the priests. Oil represents the Holy Spirit's revelation of truth so we can be a light for others.
The whole Temple complex pictures a series of ascents into higher and higher degrees of holiness.
From the Court of Women there were 15 steps up to the Nicanor Gates and the Court of Israel. Gates are places to be guarded most heavily, as we can see in this model of ancient Megiddo's elaborate gate complex. Sin gains entrance at OUR doors, and some of the laws in the Torah in regard to beards and fringes on our garments are there to remind us to be on guard about what enters our lives. The traditional Jewish side curls are one interpretation of a similar command; they symbolize being careful what we listen to.
Some gates in the Temple were only open on the Sabbath and Festivals, which shows how important those days are to an accurate knowledge of YHWH.
Through the manna, He used the Sabbath as a test of Israel's obedience even before the Torah was given, so you can imagine how important the Sabbath and Festivals are in His screening out who can move to a higher level in their drawing near to Him. And "drawing near" is really what the Hebrew term for sacrifice or offering means.
The Court of Priests was the slaughter area. ... The altar stood right in front of the Temple doors, reminding us that we need atonement before we can enter YHWH's presence. Only the priests, who had gone through intensive purifications, were allowed in the Temple itself, and the Holy of Holies was off limits to everyone except the high priest-and him only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
The Renewed Covenant says these festivals and Temple procedures are the basics--the "milk" that we have to understand first before we can get to any of the deeper meanings of Scripture. Of course, the laws in the Torah are only a few concrete examples of an attitude meant to pervade our every
thought, but many people want to skip right to the meat and forget the milk! For a baby, that would be disastrous!
The Sabbath and the Festivals were given as a "statute forever". To say they had somehow ceased would mean that YHWH's own word had been broken. Paul said he had done nothing against the Torah. He even remained a Pharisee all his life, and told us to celebrate Passover. Y'shua said he would again celebrate that feast with us in the Kingdom as well. "Not the letter but the spirit" is a Hebrew idiom meaning the heaviest emphasis should be placed on the heart of the matter, not that the letter is invalid. Otherwise, we make YHWH contradict Himself. Isaiah warns that every Scripture must be taken within the boundaries set up by the Torah.
We have to think of the New Covenant in context of the way the ancient ones worked. If the situation changed for one party, a covenant could be amended. But only what no longer fit would be revised; everything else remained in effect exactly as before.
The Apostles knew it would take time to make the transition back from living like Gentiles, and they made allowances for the returnees to do that gradually. In Acts 15 they decided not to burden them with too much too soon--one reason the northern Kingdom had separated from Solomon's son in the first place.
But the Apostles also expected them to learn the rest of the Torah week by week in the synagogues. The view was toward getting to where we no longer needed special interim measures. It's not completely possible to live every aspect of the Torah lifestyle without a Temple intact, or even outside the Land of Israel... and we have a stopgap; Y'shua does take care of the essentials. But it is good to learn all we can, so that as soon as it IS possible to carry out more of it, we'll be ready.
So the "age of grace" is like the amnesty that a nation grants to an offender. He is allowed to come back home a free man, but he has to start obeying the laws of his nation again! Paul clearly said grace was not a cancellation of all YHWH had said beforehand; His word endures forever.
Everyday experience tells us that having a few "days of grace" doesn't mean we don't have to eventually pay the rent--if you want to live there! That YHWH overlooks past ignorance and our mis-steps while we try to learn to walk again... is a far cry from permission to totally disregard many of His commands! "Grace", as used in the New Testament, means rather the provision of whatever we need in order to rise above our natural inclination to sin, and fulfill the requirements we once thought unattainable.
Torah really means "instruction", not "law"; it tells us HOW to make this empowerment work. With the curse removed through Y'shua, it is no longer our executioner, but our friend. A grown child is no longer punished if she touches the hot stove, but she certainly appreciates the information from a mentor about what will happen to her hand... if she does! This, too, is grace.
Y'shua said nothing in the Torah would be abolished until everything was fulfilled. The festivals are also called "appointments" in Hebrew, and indeed Y'shua kept the first set of appointments that fell during the spring on their very days. His death took place at the precise moment the Passover lambs were being slain in the Temple. Three days later, the second Adam fulfilled the meaning of the Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest, becoming the "firstfruits of those who rise from the dead" (1 Cor. 15:20), a guarantee that Ephrayim, which means "doubly fruitful", could also be resurrected.
But not all has been fulfilled, because there's a second group of festivals that come in the later part of the year, which prefigure the resurrection of the dead, the day of judgment, and the Messianic Kingdom respectively. Yes, they are in a sense only "shadows" of what's to come, but a shadow does give you a pretty accurate picture of the shape of what cast it! The festivals are a hands-on way to learn many things YHWH wants us to know about Himself. That's grace, not legalism--and remember, as Paul says, that the only real alternative is slavery again in Egypt--to our sins.
While Y'shua was dying at Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, the onlookers could from hear the Levites in the Temple, scarcely half a mile away, chanting the Psalm traditionally associated with Passover: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone".
Indeed, in this very same hill was a quarry from which stones were cut for Herod's improvements on the Temple grounds.
He Himself predicted, though, that not one stone of the Temple would be left on top of another, and this did come true. "Leprosy" in that House had to be dealt with. This also drove home the point that a spiritual Temple is really the more important kind.
The main point of the physical Temple is indeed to teach us what a community in which YHWH can make His home is meant to look like.
Some people got the idea. Here in the world's oldest remaining synagogue, atop Masada, you can see how the original design was for congregants to face each other, just like the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant --because the fruit of a renewed obedience to His Torah, when we understand its spirit (or underlying attitude) will be to love those of the same "flock" as ourselves--unselfishly using our gifts to become that "One New Man" who can repair the breached walls.
More than anything, as Angus Wootten points out, YHWH wants a people for His own possession, and that people is called Israel." If you asked a Christian what his relationship with the "God of Israel" is, he will speak in very personal terms, unrelated to genealogy or heritage. Ask a Jew the same question, however, and he will probably say he is part of the covenant people of Israel. The call in our day is to stop being a kingdom of Robinson Crusoes, and again become a PEOPLE-a NATION, the nation of Israel. This is what the Temple teaches us.
But as archaeologists sift through the physical rubble of the ancient Temple, they are now able to isolate stones that were actually part of the sanctuary-seemingly a sign that its loss was only meant to be temporary. Y'shua gave other prophecies that require there to be a temple in place once again, and the Temple as Ezekiel describes it has never yet been built, so sacrifices will once again be offered in Jerusalem.
But doesn't the rebuilding of the Temple, complete with animal sacrifices, contradict the finished work of Messiah? No, because, as the book of Hebrews says, the blood of bulls and goats never did take away sin. They were always a picture of the more complete sacrifice that we have in Y'shua's death. But during his Kingdom, there will still be more people to teach about all the nuances of what his redemption entails, and nothing does that better than the sacrifices.
In fact, Zechariah says that during the Messianic Kingdom, people from every nation on earth will be required to come up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Sukkoth, and those who don't come will not get rain. And that festival mandates the slaughter of 70 bulls, among other animals. (The killing, by the way, has to be painless to the animal for the sacrifice to be acceptable.)
Not all the offerings have to do with sin; many are voluntary expressions of just wanting to draw closer to YHWH, and that will certainly reach unprecedented proportions at that time.
We've been to the ends of the earth; now the fully-extended net is being drawn back into the boat. The outward thrust toward a faith that could be practiced anywhere in the world will soon be replaced by a kingdom once again centered in one geographic location. In anticipation of this "time of the restoration of all things", while the world is obsessed with things modern, He's calling us back into ways we once considered outdated. The spirit and the letter are becoming one and the same again.
In Hebrew, the festivals are actually called "rehearsals", since they picture things that are yet to come. It was at Sukkoth that Y'shua offered living water to anyone who was thirsty. In the Court of Women, there were four great lights used only on this occasion, and they were called "the Light of the World"--a title Y'shua specifically applied to himself. Every courtyard in Jerusalem was lit by them, and, late into the night, the sages and the rest of the nation danced in celebration.
Today, Northern Kingdom believers are beginning to recreate the ceremonies that took place in the ancient Temple during that holiday. But they are also rehearsals for the day when the real thing will again be possible.
That time is drawing near. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem is already preparing the actual implements for use in the Temple itself --everything from the harps to the firepans. Among the furniture already completed are the menorah, the laver (where the priests will wash their hands and feet), and the table of showbread.
Right now, the particular location where the Temple must be rebuilt is occupied by a Muslim shrine. But the political realities in Israel today are not the only thing holding back the fulfillment of these prophecies. Paul said that if we are indeed free in Messiah, the choices we make should be ones that make it easier to fit together with Judah into one Temple--and all the Apostles together decreed that one of the ways to do this was to eat only kosher foods so we can all sit at the same table. But most believers could not even maintain this simple consideration, and the two houses became separated yet again. But a divided house cannot stand.
Today we are being offered another rare opening! Will you perpetuate the division, or join in the reunification of all Israel?
But how can we unite, if the Jews will not recognize Y'shua? We must indeed choose Scripture over rabbinic tradition, when they conflict. Yet the
miracles YHWH has done on Judah's behalf show us that He still remembers His promises to them. It's worth noting that Judah was the first tribe to recognize David's kingship, and the Gospel was given "to the Jew first". But after Absalom's revolt, Judah was the last to reinstate David. There's certainly a prophetic parallel in Judah's response to Y'shua.
As Batya Wootten points out, the two kingdoms have been given different promises as well as two different purposes. Ephrayim's was to be scattered, but later respond to the Messiah. However, he has, as Hosea put it, considered the Torah "a strange thing". Judah came back from exile without foreign gods, and, though he has often missed the main point, he has a pretty good record of trying to be faithful, and has upheld the great truth that YHWH has a law. But Ephrayim and Judah have been trying to do one another in, even after both left the Land, and they are still at war. Ephrayim has been jealous of Judah's roots, but as long as he is, he cannot live out who he really is and stand with Judah as a brother. You weren't born wrong! You were born right! YHWH had an equally important plan for Ephrayim as for Judah, so don't try to be who you are not.
Like the brother in Y'shua's parable, while refusing to obey the letter of the Torah, Ephrayim has often caught on to its spirit after all. But Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones shows that there is still a spirit that YHWH will not send until both houses are reunited. The King is, after all, Jewish, and when the rest of his kingdom is ready to receive him in that context, the dry bones can come fully to life!
YHWH gives each of us components that when all put together will bring this Body to the "full measure of maturity in the Messiah".
Yes, Y'shua is the foundation; but what will you build on it? Once the Kingdom begins, it's too late to start. The houses we build now are the ones we'll have to live in then.
The altar of sacrifice at the Temple was built from uncut stones, shaped only by water--a symbol of having our doctrines formed by the direct influence of YHWH's Word, rather than being conformed to human purposes. Beneath the plaster, its rounded stones would look much like these in the rebuilt walls of the city of Dan.
The Temple itself, on the other hand, was built with chiselled stones--those to which man had set his hand to shape. These stones in the Temple complex were cut by King Herod's workmen. Carved stones symbolize those whose doctrines have been muddied by human theologies, but who will still be in the Kingdom because they have at least responded to Y'shua.
But he said those who disregard some of the commandments will be called "least" in the Kingdom. As Paul says, in every house there are some vessels for noble use and some for ignoble, and we have some choice in which we are to become. Those who strive to obey even when some would say they don't HAVE to (since they're under grace), will be called the greatest, because still they want to get as close to holiness as they possibly can.
Historically, every time the tabernacle or temple came into use, the altar was built first. Reemember, the physical Temple is a shadow cast by the truer Temple made of living stones, so what is true of one is true of both. 19th-century Russian Rabbi Zvi Kalisher predicted (perhaps based on the prophecy that "the tents of Judah will go up first") that the House of Judah would return to the Land and set up an infrastructure that would make the Land habitable again. (At that time, it was all either desert or malaria-infested swampland.) Anyone who has visited the Land has seen that this stage is basically complete. Kalisher said that next, a small portion of "Joseph" would return to the Land and help rebuild the Temple. Then, only afterward, would the rest of the House of Joseph be able to come back home. This fits well with scores of Biblical prophecies concerning the return of the House of Israel. But such a holy venture requires a very high degree of heart preparation.
YHWH is calling out a corps of fore-runners who will not be satisfied to just do the minimum and be saved by the skin of their teeth, but press on to join the ranks of those mentioned in both Acts and Revelation, who have the Testimony of Y'shua and are zealous for the Torah.
So much more awaits those who do repent when they see what the Temple is meant to be, and rejoin the covenant through which YHWH is reversing all the downhill tendencies of human history. Don't shrink back from this awesome privilege! Joshua and Caleb did fall in love with the Land. But the other ten spies saw only the difficulties, and the two who did have faith ... had to wait in the desert for 40 more years until that generation died off. A lot of people came out of Egypt, but never got past this wilderness; the Promised Land is only for those who want it badly enough. Do you?
An 87-minute video which parallels this text
is available for any donation to cover duplication and shipping. It includes much footage from the Holy Land as well as from festival gatherings from 2000 and 2001, which include a re-enactment of the Temple services during Sukkoth, scale models of the Temple, excerpts from the (Native American) First Nation protocol during the Feast of Dedication, and live teachings by Batya and Angus Wootten and Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky. To order a copy, e-mail me at ZimLechem@aol.com.
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