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Appointments With Our Creator If you were invited to an appointment with the Creator Himself, you would consider it very important, wouldn't you? You would make every effort to be on schedule and not miss a detail of how He wanted you to dress and comport yourself. But the truth is, you have been invited to not just one, but many appointments with Him! Yet most of those who say they love Him are missing every one of them. Today we are used to the Roman calendar and its holidays. But our Creator, whose name is Yahweh, set up a different calendar long before ours existed. He built into it repeating themes so that the same type of thing happened several times on the same date. For example, both Solomon's and Herod's Temples were destroyed on the same day of the year, the ninth of Av. On a happier note, Noah's ark came to rest on the very same day of the year that the waters of the Red Sea buried Pharaoh's army, and the same date on which Haman was exposed and condemned in Queen Esther's time. They all picture deliverance. There is a special reason for this. The day they fell was on the 17th of Aviv (also called Nisan), a day Yahweh had a special appointment with His people. At Mt. Sinai, Yahweh commanded Israel to appear before Him at certain "appointed times" on which there were to be "holy convocations" which also have the sense of "rehearsals" of great events that would happen later in history on those very days on His calendar. He gave these festivals in two sets. (See chart at right.) The first set falls in the spring: SPRING FESTIVALS: 14th of 1st Month: Passover (Peasch) 15th-21st of 1st month: Feast of Unleavened Bread Day after the Sabbath following Passover: Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest (Begin "Counting the Measure") 7 weeks later on 1st day of the week: Shavuoth (Feast of Weeks/Pentecost/Firstfruits of Wheat Harvest) The year begins at the the new moon when the barley crop has reached a stage of ripening called aviv. At creation (Gen. 1:14) Yahweh had said the sun, moon, and stars were created for signs and "appointed times", this same Hebrew term for the festivals. So we must watch the signs He gave in the heavens to know when the festival seasons begin. And studying Yahweh's patterns in agriculture teaches us about bearing spiritual fruit as well. Once these two signs converge, Passover will fall at the next full moon, the 14th of the month also called Aviv. Passover is the day when Yahshua was crucified, and with the unleavened bread, which represents sinlessness, and wine which represented His blood, He renewed the covenant and made it possible for Yahweh to "pass over" our sins. The day after the Sabbath that follows Passover is called the Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest. Do you remember anything else that happened on the Sunday after Passover? It was the day that the Messiah--whom Paul calls the "firstfruits of them that slept" (I Cor. 15:20)--rose from the grave! And since we know he was in the grave for three days and three nights, that day had to be the 17th of Aviv, the day Yahweh had accomplished those other momentous examples of deliverance. Firstfruits begins a countdown of seven weeks, culminating in the "Feast of Weeks" (Shavuoth), when the wheat crop would be ready, and, by tradition, when the ten commandments were given. Shavuoth is known in Greek as Pentecost, when Messiah Yahshua's disciples were endowed with great fruitfulness, also after a period of waiting. So He kept every one of the first set of appointments on its very day. But He has not yet fulfilled the latter set of feasts that come after a long gap: FALL FESTIVALS: 1st day of the 7th month (Ethanim): Yom T'ruah (Feast of a Shout or Trumpet Blast) 10th of Ethanim: Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) 15th-21st of Ethanim: Sukkoth (Feast of Booths or Tabernacles) Jewish scholars have long associated the Feast of Trumpets with the resurrection of the dead. So there is another "season of fulfillment" that will occur upon His second coming. The Day of Atonement foreshadows "judgment day", and Sukkoth is a forestaste of the Messianic Kingdom. The New Covenant includes these festivals in the "milk"--the most basic teachings we must understand before we can get to the "meat"--the deeper meanings of Scripture. (1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5) Paul told non-Jewish believers to celebrate Passover. (1 Cor. 5:8) Yet most are busy with a whole different festival calendar that is actually based on the dates of pagan feasts. Many of their customs were also carried over into the church. Adding non-prescribed commemorations is not in itself sinful, for Purim seems endorsed by the Book of Esther, and the Messiah participated in Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication, John 10). But Yahweh wasn't pleased when Jeroboam changed the time in which the festivals were observed. This is a characteristic of the Counterfeit Messiah, the Prince of Rome who is to come. (Daniel 7:25) Most Christians realize that Yahshua was not really born in December, but haven't known what to replace it with. Now that there are so many knowledgeable Jews believing in Him, an answer is finally coming to light. David's schedule for priestly service (1 Chron. 24) clues us in on when John the Baptist's father was serving in the Temple and was told he would have a son.(Luke 1:5) From there we can calculate Yahshua's birth, six months after John--and it comes out at Sukkoth. It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals when every able-bodied male was required to come to Jerusalem. The city was just over a square mile, so many would spill over into the suburbs, including Bethlehem, only five miles away. This explains why there was no room in the inn; Joseph would combine the trip to Bethlehem for the census with his necessary journey for the festival. Sukkoth also means "stables" in Hebrew (Gen. 33:17). It's fitting that the Word who became flesh and lived temporarily among us (John 1:14) should arrive during this feast of dwelling in temporary structures. A sukkah (singular) is traditionally to have gaps in the roof big enough to see stars through--foreshadowing the "star of Bethlehem". Shepherds would not have sheep out in their fields during December, but would still have them there during Sukkoth, just after the harvest. The angel told them he had good news of great joy. Sukkoth is nicknamed "the season of our joy", and emphasizes atonement for all nations. It was on the final day of Sukkoth, during a special ceremony in which water was poured over the Temple altar, that Yahshua offered living water to any who were thirsty. (John 7) There were four great lights in the Temple used only on this occasion. They were called "the Light of the World"--a title Yahshua specifically applied to himself. Clearly everything He said and did was set by this calendar. If we return to the feasts Yahweh prescribed, not only do we lose nothing of any value that was in the half-pagan holidays; rather, we learn much more than ever about Yahshua. 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 short-changed when Constantine removed them from the church! But in His mercy Yahweh is restoring them in these last days so we can prepare for the Kingdom, when Zechariah 14 says all nations will be required to come to Jerusalem for Sukkoth or forfeit that year's rains. We mustn't overlook the first of Yahweh's appointments with us: the Sabbath, established all the way back at creation as a way to share in Yahweh's rest. How can people who live for the weekend view a day when no one is ALLOWED to work as legalism?! The Sabbath and the Festivals were given as a "statute forever". (Ex. 31:13; Lev. 23) Yes, they are in a sense only "shadows" of what's to come (Col. 2:17), but a shadow does give an accurate outline of what cast it! These appointments are a hands-on way Yahweh offers to learn many things He wants us to know about Himself. What more reason do we need?
"My People Will Know My Name" If someone who had fallen into a ditch shouted up to you, "Hey, Bud, would you help me out of here?", you would undoubtedly help him out, even if "Bud" wasn't your name, and think nothing of it. But what if, after you introduced yourself and you became good friends, he kept on calling you "Bud"? You'd find it strange and a bit irritating, wouldn't you? Yet this is exactly the way our Creator is often treated. "Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and the name of His son? Tell me if you know!" (Prov. 30:4b) How can you really love someone whose name you don't even know? This connection is directly highlighted in Scripture's parallel poetry: "Because he has set his love on me, I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known My Name." (Psalm 91:14) He is commonly known as "God" and "Lord", but these are just substitutes for the Hebrew titles Elohim and Adon or Adonai. At best, this is like calling Him "the Boss" or "Sir". That may be respectful enough in some situations; there is some Scriptural precedent. But when addressing Him directly, this could be as impersonal as calling Him "the man upstairs" or referring to your best friend as "that guy". Even legitimate titles are not always specific enough. Elohim can also refer to other angelic or demonic beings, and even human judges. At root it means "mighty ones". But in modern times the Beatles' George Harrison used the generic term "Lord" to refer to Hare Krishna. Such ambiguity will certainly be part of the coming Counterfeit Messiah's smokescreen to deceive the masses, making it all the more urgent to be more specific. The ten commandments are actually called the "Ten Declarations" in Hebrew. The first is, "I am Yahweh your Elohim ". The very first thing He wanted to tell His people about Himself was His proper name. Why? Because it reveals much about who He is. Linguistically, Yahweh is a composite of several tenses of the Hebrew word "to be": Hayah, Hoveh, and Yihyeh--together meaning "the One who was, is, and will remain". At the burning bush, He commanded Moses to "Tell the children of Israel [that] Yahweh... has sent you; this is My Name and how I am to be remembered for all generations." (Exodus 3:15) Why, then, are foreign titles substituted for His Name when the Hebrew names of most others in Scripture like Avraham or David are closely transliterated? The third Commandment says: "You shall not bring the name of Yahweh your Elohim to nothing." (Exodus 20:7) We can bring His name to nothing by claiming to be His people yet practically denying that He really has any power by relying on other securities. But we can also nullify it by failing to use it when we should. Of course we must never use His holy Name flippantly. We've seen what has been done to the name "God". He kept His true Name from widespread use until we stopped mixing true Hebraic worship with paganism. But the Psalms show that ideally He wants us to use His real name. It was used every day (yet respectfully) in ancient Israel. Boaz greets his fieldworkers with "May Yahweh be with you", and they reply, "Yahweh bless you!" (Ruth 2:4) "You shall not profane the Name of your Elohim. I am Yahweh." (Lev. 19:12) Profaning His Name is more than just using it as a "swear word". It can also include substituting it with foreign names that were once used for pagan gods. What the verse misquoted on page 1 really says is: "I am Yahweh; that is My Name, I will not give My glory to another, or My praise to graven images." (Isaiah 42:8) If idols have no power, the only way His glory could go to them is by our giving other deities credit for what He has actually done! And you might even be doing this without realizing it or intending to. What if your wife kept calling you by her former boyfriend's name? Yet that's what we do if we call our true Master by the name by which our old master was known! You see, "God" and "Lord" are not simply neutral translations for Yahweh's true Name. They actually came from pagan sources. An unsettling verse links "forsaking Yahweh" with "setting a table to that troop" or, better, "Fortune", a pagan deity. (Isaiah 65:11) In Hebrew it is Gad, pronounced exactly like "God"! Ba'al (best translated "Lord") was a category of pagan deities. One of them was named Ba'al-Gad--all too close to "Lord God"! That they sound alike may not seem compelling enough. But there is no question that German Gott, from which we derive "God", was a particular pagan deity's name before being borrowed to communicate the Christian concept of the Most High. The Institute for Scripture Research (South Africa) traces it to the Indo-European Ghodh, which means "union" (with a sexual connotation, from which the Dutch/ German gade led to the English term "gad about"). Some trace the English word "lord" itself to a deity associated with pig farmers! Pigs are unacceptable for holy people to eat; how could we call our Master by such a title? He does not accept worship that imitates pagan practices. (Lev. 20:23; Deut. 12:4) Even mentioning the names of pagan deities is an abomination to Him. (Ex. 23:13; Joshua 23:7). "My Name is continually blasphemed every day. Therefore My people will know My name." (Isa. 52:6) That was a high priority to Yahshua. When recounting to His Father in Gethsemane how He had finished the work He had given Him to do, He prayed, "I have revealed Your Name to those whom You have given Me." (John 17:6) If it needed to be "revealed" or "exposed", it must have been hidden. The religious leaders of His day had forbidden anyone to voice Yahweh's Name. Yahshua disagreed with this practice, which stemmed from a Babylonian taboo of not speaking the names of their deities, since they did not want the "gods" to pay them too much attention. There's some truth to that; Yahweh says that when His people "call on My Name, I will respond to them..." (Zech. 13:9) Why wouldn't we want our Elohim, who desires to bless us, to pay attention to us? So the Maccabees reinstated the usage of the Name. It became so widely used that people were writing it even on business documents that ended up in the trash at times. So concerned leaders swung back to the other extreme and again forbade its use altogether, except by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. The Talmud (a Jewish commentary on the Scriptures) says the rabbinic leaders declared that everything possible had to be done to obscure the true pronunciation of the Name. The 8th-century Masoretic text added a system of points under the Hebrew consonants that comprise the original Scriptures, to make pronunciation easier for people who no longer spoke Hebrew every day. But in the case of the Sacred Name, they deliberately added the wrong vowels, so that no one would accidentally pronounce it correctly! The common English rendering "Jehovah" actually results from translators being ignorant of this substitution. In 134 cases they even substituted the name Adonai where the sacred text actually said YHWH. Adonai is acceptable elsewhere, but adding to or taking away from His Holy Word is directly forbidden. (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18) "If we have forgotten the name of our Elohim, or spread out our hands to a strange god, won't Elohim search this out?" (Psalm 44:20-21) So the only way to repair this situation is to cause the name of Yahweh our Elohim to be remembered." (Psalm 20:7; compare Jer. 23:27) Orthodox Jews say that one reason His name was hidden was because Israel was in exile--a concept linked in the prophets with His hiding His face. But Rabbi Pinchas Winston affirms the tradition that when the Redemption takes place (both houses of Israel are brought home together) at the dawn of the Messianic era, the Sacred name will again be pronounced as it is written! So now we have a more positive reason to use His real name: it means our exile is nearly over! Scripture bears this out completely: " You will call me, "My husband" instead of "my Lord" [Ba'al], because I will take the names of the Ba'als out of her mouth." (Hosea 2:16-17) "This time I will make them familiar with My ...power, and they will know that My Name is Yahweh." (Jeremiah 16:21) "They will be treating My Name as sacred." (Isaiah 29:23) But if both Jews and the church stopped using the actual Name that is written with no vowels, how can we be sure we're saying it correctly? It can't be "Jehovah", because there is no "J" sound in Hebrew. (This also rules out the possibility of a Hebrew Messiah's name being pronounced "Jesus".) Others say it should be Yahveh because of modern Hebrew pronunciation.* But transliterations into other languages from when ancient Hebrew was used daily all point to "Yahweh" being the way it was said in Biblical times.*** Yahweh has overlooked our ignorance and responded because of our need even when we used the wrong name. But once we know the facts, we must immediately repent and leave past mistakes behind. (Acts 17:30) "To whom much is given, from him much is required." (Luke 12:48) Where do you start? In a typical English Bible, wherever you see the word "LORD" (in all capitals) replace it with the correct name, Yahweh. Where you see "God", begin pronouncing it as Elohim, and when you see "Lord" with only a capital "L", begin reading it as "Adonai", which simply means "Master". Read "Jesus" as "Y'shua" or "Yahshua". This time, let's get it right, going to neither extreme of profaning His Name or "bringing it to nothing". ____________________________________________________ This is actually a fifth-hand transliteration of the Hebrew name Y'hoshua. The Aramaic version was the Y'shua (as in ) to Iesous ("Yeh-soos") in Greek (since the "sh" sound does not exist in Greek and every masculine name in Greek ends in "s"). In German the same pronounciation was rendered "Jesus" since the German "J" has the "y" sound. We kept the spelling but changed the pronunciation. It is often written as Yahshua to distinguish from the first Y'hoshuaâ€”whom we know as Joshuaâ€”as well as to show the connection to Yahweh's name more clearly. There is also some evidence that it may have originally been pronounced Yahushua. This results from the influence of German/ Yiddish, which has no "w" sound. The equivalent letter in Arabic (which is closely related to Hebrew but continued to be used every day, unlike Hebrew, which for a long time was used only in liturgy like Latin today) is pronounced like a "w". **The historian Josephus, whose life overlapped with Yahshua's, said the Name was made up of 4 vowels. (Wars of the Jews, book 5, Chapter 5, Section 7) He was writing to a Roman audience whose lingua franca was Greek. Early "Church Fathers" like Clement of Alexandria did transliterate it into Greek as the equivalent of IAUE. Theodoret says Iaove was a variation used by the Samaritans. (Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 9, p. 161) Anson Rainey, a noted archaeologist and professor of Semitic Linguistics at Tel Aviv University, cites the best pronunciation from Greek papyri found in Egypt as "Iaouee". (London Papyri, xlvi, 446-483). The Oxford English dictionary gives IAHUE as another possibility.
Understanding CLEAN and UNCLEAN We are often told that since the Messiah came, we are free to eat anything we wish, and are not bound by any of the dietary laws of Scripture. In fact, one of the ways throughout history that Jews were called on to prove they were truly converting to Christianity (and not just pretending for reasons of personal advantage) was by eating pork. It even became traditional to eat ham on Easter to celebrate the "triumph of Christ over the old Jewish ways". But this could not be further from the spirit of Yahshua the Messiah or His earliest followers who wrote the New Testament. But Didn't He Declare All Foods Clean? This is a widespread belief that highlights the very real danger inherent in building doctrines based on English translations. One popular version of Mark 7:18-19 reads, "...whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated. (Thus He declared all foods clean.)" Yet what the Greek from which it was translated actually says is, "...because it does not enter into his heart, but into his stomach, and goes out into the toilet, purging all foods." The word for "purging" is the word from which we get "catharsis"--i.e., a cleaning-out. In other words, the body cleans itself out naturally. "Catharsis" can mean "cleansing", but this does not fit the grammatical context. The whole phrase "thus he declared" is nowhere to be found in the original! If He did mean to contradict Yahweh's earlier instruction, then He was, by His own measure, someone of very little consequence: "Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:19a) No, YHWH did not change His mind. He still considers eating swine's flesh abominable. (Isa. 65:4; 66:17) Yahshua was not even talking about different kinds of food in Mark 6. What He did mean is clear; He explains in the next verse that men don't have to eat unclean foods in order to be defiled; they are already defiled by what is in their hearts. Getting a little dirt from unwashed hands into one's system (which is what started the argument in the first place) is so minor in comparison to that, that it is basically a joke. When Paul says things like, "Nothing is unclean in itself" or "One man has faith that he may eat anything", we have to remember that every Scripture must be taken within the parameters set by the earlier Scriptures. Most of what he said about foods had to do with meat offered to idols, anyway, not unclean meats. They were not even considered food to start with, so they were already excluded from the question. Whatever he said has to fit with the rest of Scripture, especially the five books of Moses: "To the Torah and to the Testimony! If they do not speak in agreement with these words, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah 8:20) Wasn't Peter Told to Eat Unclean Beasts? Simon Peter, one of Yahshua's closest followers, had a vision in which a sheet full of all kinds of animals, clean and unclean, was lowered from heaven. He was told, "Arise, Peter, kill and eat!" (Acts 10) When he objected, he was told, "What Yahweh has cleansed, do not call unclean." So that means Yahweh cleansed every kind of food after all, right? We can eat now anything without being concerned about those old-fashioned regulations? That's not the message Peter got from this vision. In fact, after the same thing had happened three times, he was still very puzzled about what this could mean. (v. 17) He knew Scripture well enough to know what it could not mean, but what did it mean? The answer came right away. Some Gentile men were at the door of the house where he was lodging, and when Peter told them the story of what had happened, he made clear what the only meaning that he had drawn from it was: "Now I understand very well that Yahweh is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him." (v. 34) It was people, not food, that Yahweh was concerned about! (See 1 Corinthians 9:9-10.) The sheet of unclean animals was just an illustration. Now, there is much to say for the physical benefits of the diet Yahweh prescribed: "If you will listen very carefully to [and obey] the voice of Yahweh your Elohim and do what is right, and give ear to all His commandments and carefully preserve all His prescribed limits, I will put none of the diseases on you that I brought on the Egyptians, because I am Yahweh who makes you healthy." (Ex. 15:26) In a very real way, "we are what we eat". Eating blood has indeed been found to cause many types of cancer. The danger of trychinosis from eating pork is well known. Shellfish are actually poisonous several months out of the year. And we could go on and on. So yes, there are definitely hygienic reasons to eat clean foods as the Bible defines them. But this reason can only be taken so far. The priests who worked in the Temple had to have a doctor on hand because of the stomach problems they incurred by eating so much meat, yet they were obeying Yahweh by doing so. Ultimately, "Yahweh's Kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the spirit of holiness." (Romans 14:17) Yahweh is not so concerned about what we eat as with what we learn from it. The main point of the dietary laws is what they teach us. Now this does not cancel the literal commands: "...Hypocrites! You tithe mint, anise, and cummin, but neglect the weightier matters of the Torah--justice, mercy, and faithfulness! These are what you ought to have done--without neglecting the others [either]." (Matthew 23:23) Yahshua said to get to the heart of the matter, but we can't learn much from what we aren't doing. But Yahweh constantly reiterates that we must both "do and observe" the things He commands--not just "jump through hoops", but find out the deeper meaning behind the loving instruction of our Heavenly Father. It is a gift He gives to help us know Him better. Do we really want to refuse such a gift? So What Kind of Things Can we Learn? Clean animals must both have a divided hoof and chew the cud (Lev. 11), like the cow, sheep, goat, or deer. A divided hoof makes an animal sure-footed. The three pilgrimage-festivals are literally called "three feet" (or legs) in Hebrew. (Ex. 23:14) A three-legged piece of furniture is the most stable. If we follow Yahweh's calendar instead of man's, we will have stability. Our "walk" also means the way we live out our faith. Chewing the cud, as a cow does, is a picture of meditating on Yahweh's Word "day and night" (Joshua 1:8)--i.e., over and over, until it goes deep into our hearts and can be eventually feed those who are young in faith. A pig, on the other hand, has a cloven hoof and therefore looks clean on the outside. His "walk" may look wonderful, but it will eat anything and cannot pass impurities from its body since it cannot sweat. It is a picture of indiscriminately taking in any and every "wind of doctrine", whether from Yahweh or men. So we are not to eat swine. Learning to Make Distinctions One of the explicit reasons YHWH gave Israel His instructions was so that we would learn to "make a distinction between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean." (Lev. 10:10; 11:46-47) This does not just refer to food. One of the most poignant examples of being unclean was the disease of leprosy. Every time in Scripture that we see someone specifically stricken with this affliction (Miryam, Elisha's servant Gehazi, and King Uzziah), he or she was desiring a position he or she had not been allotted. Thus, being ritually "unclean" is a picture of being selfish. Other types of ritual uncleanness involve activities necessary in this world but which somehow touch death or corruption. (Lev. 5:2; Lev. 11-15; Numb. 19; Deut. 23:14) Likewise, a selfish choice may not in itself be a sin, but it is a path that leads us away from love for one another, which is life as Yahweh defines it. So it is something to be avoided--a plague to our souls. As we see in the Sermon on the Mount, Yahshua does not relax the commandments in the least; rather He often makes them stricter. The Apostles did the same. When deciding on the "ground rules" for new believers who were returning to Yahweh from among the Gentiles, they considered four prohibitions indispensible: "Abstain from pollutions of idols, from illicit sexual intercourse, from things strangled, and from blood." (Acts 15:20). A meat can be clean yet not not kosher (which means "acceptable" or "appropriate"). Chicken is a "clean" meat, but if its blood is not removed, it is still not to be eaten, since we may not eat animals with their life [literally, soul] still in them (Gen. 9:4), and "the life of the flesh is in the blood." (Lev. 17:11) But this word rendered "strangled foods" was specifically used of any animal killed without being bled, but with the wider connotation of anything not killed according to Jewish practices. Though Moses only said all the blood must be taken out, the Apostles went further and said Gentiles should eat only what is kosher by Jewish standards. This was so that Jews and Gentiles could begin to share the same dinner tables, since Jews, from whom these Gentiles needed to learn how to live a holy life, would not eat from a table where unclean foods were being eaten. Any further argument is a moot point. All who accept the Messiah are now part of the Commonwealth of Israel (Ephesians 2:12), so the Covenant made with Israel for all its generations applies to us all: "I am Yahweh your Elohim, who has made a distinction between you and other peoples. Therefore, you must make a distinction between clean animals and unclean, and not make your souls abominable by means of any animal ...which I have separated from you as unclean. Then you will be set apart unto Me, because I have set you apart from other people, to be Mine." (Lev. 20:24ff) In other words, "Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit." (1 Cor. 6:19) What we do with it matters; we can't just spiritualize it away. He wants us to "both divide the hoof and chew the cud": not choose between the letter and the spirit of His instruction, as so many have done, but be among those who both "believe and are zealous for the Torah" (Acts 21:20), who "keep the commandments of Yahweh AND have the Testimony of Yahshua" (Rev. 12:17)
The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel The Messiah said He was sent "only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel" (Matt. 15:24). Yet most of His followers after the first century have not been Jewish. So what did He mean? The problem lies in our tendency to think there is a one-to-one correspondence between "Israel" and the Jews. But by definition the Jews are descendants of Jacob's son Judah, and thus are only one of twelve tribes of Israel. When King Solomon's son Rehoboam decided to impose heavier burdens on his subjects, ten of the tribes seceded, led by Jeroboam, who was from the tribe of Ephraim. (1 Kings 11-12) So "Ephraim" became "shorthand" for that Northern Kingdom. Sometimes they were also called the House of Joseph (Ephraim's father). They also retained the name Israel. The Southern Kingdom was called Judah, and it retained the throne of David. Two other tribes stayed with Judah. In order to "rightly divide the word of truth", we must recognize the distinction the prophets made thereafter between Judah and Israel. They are not just poetic synonyms. Yahweh said that He had a purpose in this, and promised to bless Jeroboam if he remained obedient. But Jeroboam was afraid that if his subjects kept going to Jerusalem for Yahweh's feasts, they might again become loyal to his rival kingdom. So he set up alternative worship sites, and from there the idolatry grew worse. By 722 B.C., Yahweh had had enough. Hosea describes Ephraim as "mixing himself with the Gentiles". (7:8) They wanted to be just like every other nation, rather than His unique treasure. (2 Kgs. 17:8) So they got what they asked for; their punishment was to actually become Gentiles! Yahweh used the Assyrians to carry these Israelites away into exile and resettle them elsewhere. Judah also disobeyed and was taken into exile, but repented and returned to the Promised Land. But the northern tribes assimilated with other nations and most lost their identity completely. But Yahweh never forgot who they were. Jacob had prophesied that Ephraim's descendants would become "the fullness of the Gentiles". (Gen. 48:19) Does that ring a bell? It shows up again in Romans 11, when Paul says a partial callousness would remain over Israel âÃ‹â€ œuntil the fullness of the Gentiles comes inâÃ‹â€ , but then, "all of Israel"--not just Judah--would be saved. Hosea named his third son Jezreel ("Elohim will sow" or "scatter"). He 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. Amos (9:9) said Yahweh would sift these tribes among all the nations, yet He would not lose track of one kernel. "Joseph" would one day, somehow, be reunited with Judah. (Ezek. 37:15ff) So again, who is Ephraim? Where are they today? In Jeremiah 31, we see Ephraim slapping himself since he'd thought he was an upright man until it was pointed out that he was really still doing many pagan things. This narrows our identification of Ephraim to apparent "Gentiles" who see themselves as obeying "God", yet don't realize that even that name is tainted by paganism. When Ephraim recognizes his error and repents, Yahweh says, "Isn't Ephraim a precious son to Me? It's those self-serving shepherds who have led him astray! So I'll provide My own Shepherd." This was always understood to be referring to the Messiah. After His resurrection, one reason His followers were disappointed was that they had "thought he would restore the Kingdom to Israel". (Lk. 24) Indeed, one reason many Jews reject Him as Messiah is because He did not bring the lost tribes back. Or did He?? Let's take a closer look. Just before His ascension,Yahshua's disciples asked Him if this was the time he was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. (Acts 1:6) Where did they get that idea? That certainly hasn't been a tenet of church doctrine since then! But He had just spent 40 days teaching them, and Isaiah had said that Messiah's main task was to "resurrect the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved ones of Israel." (49:6) So maybe we have not understood His mission the same way His first followers did. The command regarding the Kinsman Redeemer, illustrated in the Book of Ruth, foreshadowed perfectly this aspect of what Yahshua came to do. His own ancestor, Boaz, paid the way for a relative to recover the lost connection to her heritage. Two punishments had been assigned to the House of Israel from which they needed redeeming, symbolized by the names of Hosea's sons. (ch. 1) The first was "no mercy", and the second was "not being a people". But He also said, "In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people', they shall be called 'Sons of the Living Elohim.'" (Hos. 1:10) Can you think of any people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and people, who describe themselves as redeemed and are called "sons of Elohim"? (Hint: John 1:12; 1 John 3:2) Whomever fits this description is where we will find Ephraim today. Paul said all of creation was eager for the time when it would be revealed who these "sons of Elohim" are. (Rom. 8:19) Remember the prodigal's father, who had one son still at home, looking expectantly for his other son to return? Judah was still safe at home then, but though Yahweh had forsaken Ephraim "for a moment", His heart longed to have His "firstborn" back! So He says, "Declare it to the far-off coastlands that He who scattered Israel will regather him and watch over him like a shepherd."(Jer. 31:10) This is the context for Yahshua's identifying Himself as the "Good Shepherd". When He said He had other sheep that were "not of this flock" (Judah), He was echoing Ezekiel's prophecy that there would be one shepherd for both Judah and Israel. (34:23) We have to read the New Testament in light of these promises to regather Ephraim, or we will miss a major theme of why Yahshua came. Almost every time He mentioned the Gospel, He associated it with the Kingdom, which since Jeroboam had belonged to Ephraim. Being from the House of Judah, He is a King without a kingdom until both houses are back together. Jacob had prophesied that Ephraim would "grow into a multitude in the midst of the land." In Hebrew, it really says they would "multiply like fishes". Fish multiply on land? The only time we ever see this idea again is when Yahshua multiplies the loaves and fishes, near the landlocked Sea of Galilee, and there were 12 basketfuls left over (enough for all 12 tribes)! When He spoke of going as "fishers of men", this was not a new idea; He was alluding to a specific prophecy: "'Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when it will no longer be said, 'As Yahweh lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of Egypt', but rather, 'As Yahweh lives, who brought the descendants of Israel from all the lands to which He had driven them.... I will send for many fishermen, and they will fish them out...for My eyes are on all their journeyings..." (Jeremiah 16:16) So Yahshua did not deny that He had come to restore the kingdom to Israel. All He did was to 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. He was sending them out with a dragnet to draw Ephraim back to the covenant they once forsook. For He was that Kinsman Redeemer for the prodigal tribes. When Yahshua paid our ransom "in the fullness of time", Hosea's sentence of "no mercy" was up, and it was only a matter of informing the scattered Israelites that they could come back home. That's what He sent His apostles to do. Before long, they were celebrating because many were "returning to Yahweh from among the Gentiles". Even James, Yahshua's brother, 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". If Ephraim's seed so mixed with all nations, then many, if not most, of the people who respond to the Gospel may be "Gentiles" only in this secondary sense. Indeed, Paul writes to the new believers as "former Gentiles"! (1 Cor. 12:2; Eph. 2:11) Yahweh had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that people from all nations would be grafted into their seed. I.e., every tribe or clan on earth would, somewhere along the line, intermarry with at least one of Jacob's offspring. So in the process of seeking them out, many others were afforded the opportunity to join Yahweh's people. There had always been a "mixed multitude" from other nations becoming part of the nation of Israel. They are given the same rights as the native-born, as long as they keep the covenant. (Num. 15:15) This extension to total Gentiles was more of an "afterthought"--an added gift to Yahshua, since YHWH said He had earned the right to rule more than just Israel. (Isa. 49:6) Yet the exception began to be seen as the norm. The focus on bringing Israel back to the covenant they had abandoned was lost in the push to reach every last tribe with what was turning out to be a new religion instead. Eventually all who wished to be part of the institutional church had to cut all ties to their Hebraic roots. The other side also gave an ultimatum: to believe that Bar Kochba, not Yahshua, was the Messiah or be put out of the synagogues. So the two houses became separated once again. But in our day, we have another unique open door. Hosea's other sentence--the concurrent, but longer, one of "not being a people"--is coming to an end. Like the legends of peasants who discover they are really royalty, we may be amazed to find that we are heirs to a noble lineage after all--again, if we will keep the covenant this time. What is His covenant with Israel? The Torah, which was given to Israel at Mt. Sinai for all her generations. By accepting it, our ancestors obligated us to it as well. At His last Passover, Yahshua initiated a "New Covenant" (prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31). In Hebrew, it is really a renewal of the same covenant, with a few allowances added for while we make the transition back. But the Covenant is "with the House of Israel and the House of Judah". It cannot be fully in effect until Israel is back together, for it is not with individuals but with a unified nation. So our focus needs to shift from just being saved individuals to again being the people of Israel. Don't pass up this highest of callings! We dare not fail again.
Are You Building the Right House? Fears of war and economic disaster are all around us. But we've only seen tremors compared to the upheavals that are prophesied for the coming years. Don't expect things to settle back to normal; prepare for changes like you've never seen before. But there's no reason to fear if our anchor is in the right place. "In the time of trouble He will hide me in His protected place." (Psalm 27:5) So the question is whether we are in that protected place. Yahshua the Messiah told us: "Whoever comes to me and pays attention to my words and carries them out...is like a man who built a house [with its] foundation on a rock, and a flood came and the torrent beat violently against that house, but could not shake it, because it had a stable foundation on a rock." (Luke 6:47-48) He said the opposite would happen to a man who built his house on sand. So what are these words of His that we need to carry out? When someone asked Him how to inherit eternal life, Yahshua told him to keep the commandments. (Luke 18:18-20) He also said the way to prove we love Him is to "keep my commandments." (John 14:15) His commandments do not differ from those His Father, Yahweh, had given through Moses. (John 5:19, 30; 10:30) That seems simple, doesn't it? Yahshua made it clear that none of His Father's expectations had changed. (Matt. 5:17-19) Yet men have muddied the issue by saying that since He paid for our sins and has given us a grace period, we no longer need to obey Yahweh's commandments (called the Torah, which means "instruction"). They are portrayed as legalism or in opposition to grace. But let's examine why this is not true. Yahweh's desire in creating humanity was to dwell with us. He visited Adam and Eve daily in Eden and held conversations with them. When they forfeited this intimacy, Yahweh "subjected the whole creation to vanity in hope [of being] freed from the slavery to corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of Yahweh" (Romans 8:20) Meanwhile He imposed vicious cycles of laboring and getting nowhere (the theme of Ecclesiastes) to set the stage. But mankind became impatient and tried to unite at the Tower of Babel and break free from Yahweh's "oppressive" limits and "make a name for themselves". (Gen. 11:4) So He placed further restrictions on men as a deterrent to this taking place again, since this was not yet "the place of our rest". In contrast, Abraham was called out from that culture and given the promise that YHWH would instead make a name for him. He began a counter-history that would be called Israel--an alternative to all being "vanity of vanities", like the law of aerodynamics, which supersedes the law of gravity while the latter remains intact too. Before the curse had left His lips, He had set limits on how far it could go. The Sabbath day kept us from total enslavement to the sweat of our brow. The path to liberation took a more concrete form in the Torah. Its particular commands show us how to overcome many of the effects of Adam's fall in our daily lives. It is a taste of Eden in the midst of our fallen condition. Far from being legalism, the Torah itself is grace--a supernatural provision to overcome our separation from Yahweh and our tendency to sin. He set up the Tabernacle (then the Temple followed its pattern) as a picture of how He desires to dwell among us. Its rituals illustrate the cleansing from sin and holiness we need to walk in if He is to be able to do so. This was the prototype of the House Built on a Rock. Meanwhile, after Babel, the rebels had gone underground, led by Nimrod (Gen. 10). He was execu-ted by a righteous man, causing great lamentation among his followers. But then his wife, Semiramis, revealed that she was pregnant, and claimed her son was a reincarnation of Nimrod. He was memorialized in mythologies around the world under dozens of names (such as Osiris, Tammuz, Mithras, Bacchus, and Adonis), and paganism--a counterfeit "temple"--was born: the House Built on Sand. Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a statue made of various metals (Daniel 2:31ff) shows how it developed. Babylon (the Greek name for "Babel") is the head. Thus "mystery Babylon", which shows up over and over in Scripture, is indeed a continuation of this theme that began with Nimrod's Tower of Babel. It is the mother of pagan worship all over the world. This "dynasty" continues through the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires. Then Rome blends into the "feet of clay"--the weakness that finally allows it to be toppled by a kingdom that will never fall. But there was a wrinkle. Though Israel was given a lifestyle meant to demonstrate to all the tremendous wisdom Yahweh offered to any who would side with Him, it became sidetracked and divided in two. The northern portion, called the "House of Israel" (vis-a-vis Judah) left Yahweh's covenant, preferring the pagan system, mixed with the Gentiles (Hos. 8:8) and essentially becoming part of the "other house". The framework for our liberation became complete when Yahshua perfectly kept the Torah and triumphed over death. The way into the sanctuary was reopened, and a "new man" began to be restored, who would form the dwelling place Adam had failed to maintain. (1 Cor. 15:45-47) Yahshua is called its "head" and made it possible for us to become a part of this "restored Adam". But it could not be complete without the other part of Israel. Many prophets had said Yahweh would preserve a remnant until it could be brought back into the Covenant, and this was one of the Messiah's jobs (Isaiah 49:6). He did in fact say He had come "only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel" (Matt. 15:24), and sent His disciples out to finish the job of finding and bringing them back. The apostles did get busy trying to unite the northern kingdom and Judah into one house. (Rom. 14:19) But Emperor Constantine resuscitated the pagan empire by granting Gentile believers a legitimacy of their own, and the Kingdom was divided once again. As Daniel had said, this fourth kingdom (Rome) "had the idea to change the times and seasons", replacing Yahweh's calendar with a pagan one. To hide its true agenda, paganism adopted a veneer of Christian terminology, and forged an alliance that parallels the iron mixed with clay in the statue's toes. Baal's (Mithras', Saturn's, Nimrod's) birthday was now called "Christ's". Ishtar's festival (Easter) was merged with the commemoration of the resurrection, since it sometimes coincides. Who was being glorified by this? Certainly not the true Yahshua! So the church was now inadvertantly strengthening the wrong house --or building a pagan house on the pure foundation Yahshua laid (1 Cor. 3:11), instead of a holy dwelling place for Yahweh. The Reformation set this back somewhat, but did not go far enough. The Northern Kingdom had been punished by being scattered among all nations (Hos. 1:4-11). In Hebrew, "scattered" can also mean "sown". Yahshua predicted this: an enemy comes along after the field is seeded and adds darnel, a plant that can't be distinguished from wheat until both come to maturity, when it produces a bitter yield. (Matt. 13:28) This is a picture of the now-hybrid church: part Israelite and part-pagan. Yet many are awaking to the fact that the Torah forbids such mixtures (Lev. 19:19), and the house we were meant to be building is Israel. After 20 years of serving his pagan uncle, Jacob realized he was really strengthening another's household, not his own. Our "benefactor", too, is proving only to want to get rich at our expense. The "image of the Beast" turns out to be only a projection of Satan's wishful thinking. To survive, it must feed off Yahweh's real idea as a parasite. Its true colors show up when it turns on the church that prostitutes itself with it (Rev. 17:16) by becoming subservient to society's goals. It is seldom blatantly wicked. The Gospel--the proclamation that there is complete amnesty for the Northern Kingdom if we repent, and that others may join Israel--has been co-opted and watered down to "God loves everyone, whether they obey Him or not." This generic "God" is used of anyone from Yahweh to Allah--another way many will be deceived into thinking they are building the right house. (Mark 13:22) The only way to recognize subtle differences is to become intimately acquainted with the real thing--the commands and teachings that Yahweh actually gave. Of this counterfeit Messiah, Daniel says, "By peace he will destroy many." And indeed, everywhere we hear cries for "peace" and "universal brotherhood". The Holy Roman Empire was one of many attempts to rebuild Babel. Many who no longer know Scripture well enough to see any reason for the rift are heeding Rome's invitation to take advantage of her amnesty and rejoin the "mother church". She is making bold overtures to every other religion to join the unification, too. Israel is not to be counted among the nations (Num. 23:9; Jer. 10:2)--i.e., not part of this coalition. We're tempted to compromise to ensure our security. But Yahweh can provide manna now as easily as He did before. We can't resist this pressure alone. Yahweh wants not just a relationship with individuals, but a "people" He can dwell among. In building Him a Temple, we also build a "sheepfold" for each other. The house He wants to dwell in is made up of those "who believe and are zealous for the Torah" (Acts 21:20), who both "keep the commandments of Elohim and have the testimony of Yahshua the Messiah." (Rev. 12:17) He'll let even a foreigner be part of it if he keeps His Sabbath (Isa. 56:3-8)--not a substitute day. Yahweh overlooks our ignorance, but now that we know better, it's time to repent and leave these mixtures behind. (Acts 17:30) He still considers eating pork, etc., an abomination. (Isaiah 66:17) To those who keep funding the holidays that the House on Sand feeds off, "who set a table to Fortune/Luck [Gad] and who fill a cup with mixed wine for Fate/Destiny [December 24 and 25]", Yahweh says, "I will number you for the sword." (Isa. 65:11ff). Soon our only choice will be to side with either Babylon or Jerusalem. One will soon be all evil, the other all holy. (Rev. 22:11) Anyone associated with Babylon at that point will be judged along with her. Our motives may be impeccable, but we'll be found to be building the wrong house--the one built on sand. So there are the tests; which are you building? Your practices prove which it is. Daniel recognized when the time of his exile was due to be up. While others were comfortable in the luxury of Babylon, he took steps to in fact bring the exile to an end. Yahweh had reasons for our exile too, but now it is nearly over. It's time to "come out of her, My people" (Rev. 18:4) and, now that it is possible, be the Temple we were truly meant to be.
"So That I May Dwell Among Them" When Adam and Eve were still in the Garden of Eden, Elohim used to walk among them. (Gen. 3:8) They had open, direct fellowship with the Creator. But things changed one dark day when they broke that fellowship. The Garden's eastern entrance was closed off. Entering Yahweh's presence is no longer a simple matter. But He promised to one day bring about a "restoration of all things." (Acts 3:9) He began by calling Abraham out from his own people--the first step in delineating a holiness that was needed to form a solid foundation for this reconstruction. When Abraham's descendants had formed a big enough community to inherit a land He likewise marked off as holy, they were brought out of Egypt and told: "Yahweh your Elohim walks in the midst of your camp... So your camp must be holy, so that He will see nothing unclean in you, and turn away from backing you." (Deut. 23:14) The Tabernacle This holiness took the form of particular standards that He laid out in the Torah of Moses: "If you walk in My instructions, guard My commands and carry them out... I will set My dwelling place in your midst, ...walk among you, and be your Elohim..." (Lev. 26:3, 11-12) If His people would follow these instructions, their lives would be "like the days of heaven on the earth" (Deut. 11:21) --i.e., like a return to Eden! A special dwelling was to symbolize His presence: "Tell the descendants of Israel to ... prepare a set-apart place for Me, so that I may dwell among them. Make it exactly according to the pattern that I am showing you." (Exodus 25:2, 8-9) He added that once the promised Land was settled, He would choose a place for it where He would "set His name" (Deut. 12:5-26, etc.). The Temple The Gihon Spring is Jerusalem's only natural water source. But it was also one of the rivers that flowed from the Garden of Eden. So there is a special connection between Jerusalem and Eden. King Solomon recognized that this was the Place where He had chosen to set His Name. (2 Chron. 6:20) So he built a more permanent dwelling there. But the "camp" in which Yahweh walked split into two shortly thereafter. The Temple still stood, but the unified dwelling place for Yahweh that it represented was no longer intact. The larger Northern portion, which retained the name "the House of Israel", slid quickly into idolatry and Gentile ways, and was therefore scattered among all nations, essentially becoming Gentiles themselves. The other half, Judah, followed suit more slowly but at last lost the Temple. But when they repented, Yahweh allowed it to be rebuilt. Yet the other half of the covenant people was still missing. Isaiah 49:6 tells us that one of the main reasons Messiah would come was to regather them, since Yahweh had not lost track of who they were, and had preserved them nonetheless. If you have responded to His message, you are probably one of them! The Way Back In Curiously, Yahweh told the prophet Ezekiel that the Northern Kingdom's ticket to full restoration to citizenship would be our response to the Temple: âÃ‹â€ œSon of man, the House of Israel will no longer defile the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, or My holy Name... Let them remove their prostitution and their kings' idols far from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever. You, son of man, confront the House of Israel with the Temple, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities, then let them measure the pattern." (Ezekiel 43:7-10) In the Messiah's day, a fence prohibited non-Jews from the inner Temple courts. This was understandable since the Greeks had defiled the altar, as we remember at Hanukkah. But keeping all Gentiles out oversimplified the distinctions Yahweh had set up, and this law added by men was unwittingly screening out those who were returning from the Northern Kingdom. Isaiah (26:2) tells Judah to open the gates that the righteous nation might 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 Yahshua had figuratively broken down. (Eph. 2:14) It is significant that the apostles, who were well aware that Yahweh was restoring the lost tribes, did most of their teaching right in the Temple courts, where so many object lessons were right on hand. The Eastern Gate, once the most direct route into the Temple, is now closed off. But there was another, roundabout way in. Before one could even enter the Temple compound, he or she had to go through a total immersion in order to come into the Temple in a state of ritual purity. This represents repentance and the fresh start it allows. Then there were 32 steps to ascend to the first gates. (We mustn't stop on the first for very long if we want all that Yahweh has for us.) Next, worshippers had to walk up a long tunnel and across a wide courtyard just to get to the entrance to the Temple complex proper. So there was a long way to go just to get back to the starting point! Likewise, access to Eden can be regained, but only through repentance and the long process of unlearning our fleshly ways and relearning the right patterns of walking as outlined and exemplified in His Torah (instruction). The altar stood right in front of the Temple doors, reminding us that we need atonement before we can enter Yahweh's presence. Through Yahshua's blood, we can be restored to the same footing Adam had before he fell. Only then can we begin to worship as we were really meant to. Some of the Temple's chief gates were only open on the Sabbath and Festivals, showing us how important those days are to understanding the proper way to approach Yahweh. 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 is 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 whole Temple complex pictures a series of ascents into higher degrees of holiness. Every aspect of its architecture and furniture teaches us how to prepare ourselves to enter Yahweh's presence. (For details, order Web Hulon's book, Let Them Measure the Pattern from Congregation Beth Lechem at www.bethlechem.20m.com.) Another Temple In the Torah, Yahweh had specified that a house with "leprosy" had to have the affected stones removed, and if it kept spreading, the whole house had to be taken down. (Lev. 14:34ff) As Yahshua prophesied, due to Judah's rejecting Him, not one stone of the Temple was left on top of another. But He gave other prophecies that require there to be a Temple in place once again, Also, the Temple as Ezekiel describes it has never yet been built, so sacrifices will once again be offered in Jerusalem. This does not contradict the finished work of Messiah; the blood of bulls and goats never did take away sin. (Hebrews 10:4) We do have the true sacrifice in Yahshua's death. But during his Kingdom, there will be many people to teach about all the nuances of what his redemption entails, and that's what the sacrifices always were for. People from every nation on earth will be required to come up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Sukkoth, a festival that mandates the sacrifice of 70 bulls and other animals. (Zech. 14:18-19) Also, many of the offerings have nothing to do with sin, but are voluntary expressions of just wanting to draw closer to Yahweh. The actual implements for use in the next Temple are already being prepared. This is an exciting development to which we'd do well to pay attention. Ultimately, though, it is far more important to have a spiritual temple than a physical one. "Your body is the Temple of the Spirit of Holiness." (1 Cor. 6:19) That demands holiness. But just as the Temple's design followed the same pattern as the Tabernacle, only on a larger scale, our individual temples are only a microcosm of something larger. The Messiah is called the cornerstone of a permanent Temple that will include both Jews and former Gentiles who have been brought near and made part of Israel. (Ephesians 2:13-22) Becoming His Dwelling Place "You, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house...to offer up spiritual 'slaughter offerings' acceptable to Elohim." (1 Peter 2:5; cf. 2 Cor. 6:16) The main point of the physical Temple is indeed to teach us what the community in which Yahweh can make His home is meant to look like. Some people got the point. Ancient synagogues were designed to have congregants face each other like the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant, because the fruit of a renewed obedience to His Torah, when we understand its underlying spirit, will be to love one another, unselfishly using our gifts to repair the breached walls. The altar was built from uncut stones, shaped only by water--a symbol of having our doctrines formed by the direct influence of Yahweh's Word, rather than being conformed to human purposes. The Temple itself was built with chiselled stones, to which man had set his hand, symbolizing those whose doctrines have been muddied by human theologies, but who will still be in the Kingdom because they have at least responded to Yahshua. Yet He Himself said those who disregard any of the commandments will be least in the Kingdom. We make the choice of which we will be. (2 Tim. 2:20ff; 1 Cor. 3:11ff) Historically, every time the tabernacle or temple came into use, the altar was built first. Yahweh is calling out a corps of forerunners who will not be satisfied to climb only the first step of salvation, but will press on to be as holy as they can possibly be. But uncut stones don't stay together easily. What can hold together the many different shapes of stones that are so very different but who each fill a very necessary place in His "building"? It is the love we have for one another. Rather than trying to make the other stones look just like us, Paul told us to "eagerly pursue the kinds of things that promote peace, and the things that facilitate the building process in which we fit into one another." (Romans 14:19) Then His dwelling place will be complete: "I saw the set-apart city, the renewed Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, adorned as a Bride for her Husband, and I heard a loud voice from the heavens, saying, 'Look! The dwelling place of Elohim is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people...'" (Rev. 21:2-3) This will finally be the "days of heaven on earth", the return to Eden!
"One New Man" It is common to hear Yahshua the Messiah referred to as the "Son of God" (and rightly so, except that "Son of Elohim" or "of Yahweh" is more accurate). But the New Testament says the same thing about Adam. (Luke 3:38) In fact, Yahshua's favorite title for Himself was "the Son of Man". In Hebrew, that's Ben Adam (as used frequently in Ezekiel). So Yahshua bears a special relationship to Adam. "Elohim created Adam in His own image: in the image of Elohim He created him; male and female He created them." (Gen. 1:27) Together they were called Adam even before there was an Eve: "Male and female He created them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam on the day in which they were created." (Gen 5:2) Once He separated them, He intended that they voluntarily come back together into one. (2:24) This is the history of the world from start to finish, in a nutshell. An Ancient Hebrew conceptualization of creation portrays the Infinite One wishing to share Himself with someone else, but being unable, since He was All there was. So He withdrew a space within Himself that was not Himself (much like a womb), created a universe within it, then injected into it a light that refracted to reveal as much of His nature as can be known by finite beings. (Compare John 1:4-5 and 1:18) This began a pattern of expansion also seen when Eve was separated from Adam. That refracted light is also described as a "body" known as the "Ancient Adam"Ã¢â‚¬â€mankind, when the image of Elohim was complete. But not satisfied to be merely His "image", Adam tried to fit into himself what only Yahweh's infinite nature could contain, just as Lucifer had done (Isaiah 14), and the "image of Elohim" shattered like a wineskin that had burst. Though mankind had forfeited the intimacy Yahweh intended to have with us, He immediately began restoring that "image of Elohim", but meanwhile imposed vicious cycles of laboring and getting nowhere (one theme of Ecclesiastes) to set the stage. He "subjected the whole creation to vanity, in hope [of being] freed from the slavery to corruption, into the glorious freedom of the children of Yahweh." (Rom. 8:20) Humanity became impatient and tried to unite at the Tower of Babel and break free from Yahweh's "oppressive" limits and Ã¢â‚¬Å“make a name for themselvesÃ¢â‚¬Â (Gen. 11:4)Ã¢â‚¬â€just as Lucifer had. Yahweh had told men to fill the whole earth; it was too soon to unite. He said, "'The people are unified; ...nothing that they plan to do will be out of their reach.'" (Gen. 11:6) So He scattered us (expansion again) so we would not be utterly ruined before He could complete the restoration. (Acts 17:26-27) Then, in contrast to Babel, Abraham was given the promise that Yahweh would make a name for him. His obedience of faith began a special counter-history that would come to be called Israel. Yahweh set clear parameters within which His people had to remain so His image could again begin to be seen. He provided the Torah ("instruction") by which order could be held together in a disjointed world. Isaac Luria, A wise Jewish scholar, wrote, "Woe to the man who sees the Torah as anything more than a garment, and fails to see the Man that lies beneath it." The Hebrew word for "garment" emphasizes that it is something that "takes the shape" of what it fits over. (I.e., it, too, is an "image".) So all the particulars in the Torah are meant to teach us what that "Man" (that image of Elohim) is like. Perhaps he knew Yahshua after all. When all the tribes of Israel were together at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah, the reunited image of Elohim did flicker into flame for a moment when the whole nation agreed "with one (united) voice" to obey His commands. (Ex. 24:3) On another occasion, all of Israel was said to "assemble as one man before Yahweh". (Judges 20:1) But these were still mainly previews; the expansion was not yet complete. After King Solomon's reign, the northern tribes of Israel seceded, but Yahweh said this was from Him. (1 Kings 12:24) The northern kingdom kept the name of Israel, but went off into idolatry, and, for that, was scattered all over the world and mixed with all nations, ceasing to be a nation. But even in the type of punishment He chose, Yahweh had the larger interests of the world in mind. (Rom. 8:28) Afterward, He said, He would reverse the process and make Israel one people again (Hosea 1:9-10)Ã¢â‚¬â€a contraction following the expansion, like a rubber band. The southern kingdom (JudahÃ¢â‚¬â€the Jews) retained David's throne, the Torah, and the Temple. They lost the Temple, but it was restored after the Babylonian captivity when they repented. When the altar was rebuilt, "the sons of Israel ...gathered together as one man." (Ezra 3:1) Again, when the Torah was read again to those returning from exile, they "gathered as one man". (Neh. 8:1) At the "fullness of time", the framework for our liberation became complete when Yahshua perfectly kept the Torah and defeated death. A "new man" began to be formed, which would restore the image of Elohim that Adam had failed to maintain. He is called the Ã¢â‚¬Å“second ManÃ¢â‚¬Â (1 Cor. 15:47), the Ã¢â‚¬Å“Last AdamÃ¢â‚¬Â (15:45). In Hebrew, "new" and "renewed" are the same, so this "New Adam" is not necessarily a different entity, but a restoration (like the New Moon and the New Covenant)Ã¢â‚¬â€a "Renewed Adam": "As by one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, ... much more did Yahweh's favor and the gift through [His] provision overflow to many through one Man, Yahshua..." (Rom. 5:12-19) Yahshua is the Head of that restored image of Elohim. In Hebrew, Ã¢â‚¬Å“headÃ¢â‚¬Â is from the word Ã¢â‚¬Å“firstÃ¢â‚¬Â; the head is the part of the body born first. With His resurrection on the feast of Firstfruits, Yahweh made a down payment guaranteeing that the rest of the Ã¢â‚¬Å“new AdamÃ¢â‚¬Â would indeed be born: "Since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead ... each in his proper order: Messiah the firstfruits, and after that, those who belong to Messiah." (1 Cor. 15:21-23) But His followers were Jews; the restoration could not be complete without the other, scattered part of Israel returning also. Restoring them in particular was one of the Messiah's jobs (Isaiah 49:6). He said He had come "only for the lost sheep of the House of Israel" (Matt. 15:24), and He sent His disciples out to finish the job of finding and bringing them back. They did get busy reuniting the Northern Kingdom and Judah into one house (Rom. 14:19), proclaiming that "In Messiah Yahshua you who were once far off have been brought near by [His] blood, since He is our peace, who has made both one, having broken down the barrier, having abolished in His flesh the cause of enmityÃ¢â‚¬â€the rule of commandments through a threat of judgmentÃ¢â‚¬â€so as to create in Himself one new man from the two...and completely restore both of them to favor..." (Eph. 2:13-16) Like Abraham, those who responded were known as the "Called-out Ones" (ekklesia). They were called out from the Gentile lifestyles they'd assimilated to. If you belong to the Messiah, you are meant to be part of this reconvergence. The Ã¢â‚¬Å“bodyÃ¢â‚¬Â of this new Man must Ã¢â‚¬Å“hold fast to the headÃ¢â‚¬Â (Col. 2:19) in order to finish rebuilding the lost image of Elohim. Part of the process of restoration is taking on the selfless attitude of Yahshua, "who, [though] being in the form [similar to "image"] of Elohim, He did not consider [full] equality with Elohim something to be seized" (Phil. 2:6), as Lucifer, then Adam, had. But Yahshua had said an enemy would plant false wheat in the Kingdom (Matt. 13:24ff). That counterfeit "man" that had begun at the Tower of Babel never disappeared; it only suffered a setback. Babylon (the Greek form of "Babel") is its head. This "dynasty" continued through the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires. (Daniel 2:31ff) Rome brought this "mystery Babylon" back into the ekklesia. (Dan. 7:25) So yet another separating out must still occur before there can be a true unification. (2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4) The dragnet has been pulled back in; now it's time to sort out what it has caught. (Mat. 13:47-48) Many have tried without success to resuscitate the Roman Empire. (Dan. 2:41) But when all is ready, it will be permitted one brief reunification so it can be proven to have "feet of clay". The other side (e.g., the New Age Movement) is again saying they are "gods" in their own rightÃ¢â‚¬â€just what Satan told Eve. (Gen. 3:5; Isaiah 41:23) "Unity" and "peace" are their themes. (Dan. 8:25) Soon everyone will merge into one or the other. But the counterfeit man will attack the true, and be executed for it, by stoning. (Lev. 24:10ff; Dan. 2:35) Then there will be only one. (Zech. 14:9) "Then comes the end, when He delivers up the Kingdom to the... Father, when He has rendered every principality, authority, or power inoperative... When all things are subjected to Him, the Son Himself will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so Elohim may be all in all." (1 Cor. 15:24-28) Yahshua is indeed the "son of Elohim", but that's not where it stops. Hosea promised the prodigal Northern Kingdom would also one day be called "sons of the living Elohim". (1:10; cf. Heb. 2:10) Just before His arrest, Yahshua had prayed, "I ask...that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in YouÃ¢â‚¬â€that they also may be in us... The authority which You have given Me I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them and You in Me, so that they may be perfected in unity." (Jn. 17:20ff) We are to become all that He is! Paul called the Galatians Ã¢â‚¬Å“my little children, of whom I labor in childbirth again until Messiah is formed in you...Ã¢â‚¬Â (4:19) So we, too, need to become that ManÃ¢â‚¬â€not as individuals, but corporately: "Speaking the truth in love, [let us] grow up into Him who is the HeadÃ¢â‚¬â€MessiahÃ¢â‚¬â€out of whom the whole Body (fitly joined together and united through what every joint supplies, as each part operates to its proper extent) produces growth that lets the Body build itself upÃ¢â‚¬â€by means of love [commitment]. (Eph. 4:15-16) By looking into the mirror of Torah, we can see our "natural face"Ã¢â‚¬â€that we are indeed Israel, and what that's supposed to look likeÃ¢â‚¬â€then act accordingly, rather than forgetting what that "Man under the garment" is shaped like. (James 1:23ff) As we recognize the face in that mirror as Yahshua's, we will be changed into the same image! (2 Cor. 3:18) "Now we are called sons of Elohim... but ...when He is made manifest we will be like Him." (1 John 3:2) In His Kingdom, the Messiah will be called "Yahweh [is] our Righteousness". (Jer. 23:6) But at that time Jerusalem will also be called by that same name. (Jer. 33:16) Why? Because Jerusalem is His Bride! (Rev. 21:2) The bride takes on her husband's name. The Messiah's Body is also called His Bride. In both metaphors we become one with Him. (2 Cor. 11:2) All the analogies convergeÃ¢â‚¬â€a full reversal of the expansion, except that this time Yahweh has someone to share it withÃ¢â‚¬â€by drawing us into His unity so we can partake of His nature after all (2 Peter 1:4)Ã¢â‚¬â€but in His way and in His timing, not our own. -------- It is best to use Hebrew terms to avoid inadvertently having the names of pagan deities on our lips (Exodus 23:13). "God" was not just a generic term but a particular Germanic deity, and it also sounds exactly like the Hebrew "Gad", which means "Luck/Fortune", with whom Isaiah 65:11 specifically forbids any connection.