In the Beginning was the Word

 By: Kathy Zahora

Because YHVH, the Creator, is an Eternal Being Whose nature is to “change not”¹, we know that what He is, what He does, and what He says, has permanence and inviolability².  The closest concept we have to this principle is the idea of law; but man’s law is imperfect and temporal, while YHVH’s is absolute and absolutely righteous altogether.  In the creation for example, the laws of physics³, i.e. established order, cause/effect, consistent and impartial application of unchanging elemental principles⁴ express the Holiness, Faithfulness and Justice of the Creator toward the work of His Hands.  Summer and winter, seedtime and harvest continue⁵ His promises are ‘Yea and Amen’⁶.

In revealing Himself to His creation, we see that His very Name ‘I AM’⁷ declares that He maintains a state of present, all-encompassing truth.  This ‘Truth’ about the nature of YHVH, and the nature of His Creation, was the essence of His communion with Adam in the Garden.  Walking daily in His Presence⁸ to communicate these principles, and to define and maintain Adam’s reality and environment was His intended plan for transferring His Light and Life to creation, i.e. for conveying His essential nature to Adam.  In His wisdom and foreknowledge, however, because man’s nature is not consistent⁹, He knew that that communion would be broken; that Adam’s understanding of His Life, His Truth and His Ways would be darkened¹⁰; that His ownership and possession of all creation would be challenged; and that corruption would endeavor to destroy the work of His Hands¹¹. 

Mercifully, redemption is at the heart of His plan¹².  While He ‘changes not’, our understanding of, and communion with Him increases and deepens with our understanding and conformance to the statutes and ordinances, principles and judgments of His Truth¹³.  These elements govern His redemption plan.  In progressive revelation, He expressed His Truth by His Spirit¹⁴, by His Word¹⁵, and by the Work of His Hands¹⁶.  He embodied His Word in His Son¹⁷ and has shown us His plan of redemption through His everlasting covenant.  It is this covenant, the body of statutes and ordinances, the Torah instruction for the redemption of creation and the Word spoken by His prophets of old, that we have before us.

He has sent His Spirit of Truth to illuminate this Torah Word which was in the beginning, was with God, and was God¹⁸.  The Holy Spirit of YHVH is working, deep in our hearts, to inscribe the Torah there so that we’ll begin to live out of a heart of Torah¹⁹, consistent with the heart/nature of the Father.  The Torah is the most important document we have in understanding the ‘who, what, where, how and why’ of existence.  It is the DNA of creation²⁰.  There is an order to His plan and its success is assured because, the Torah is binding on all creation²¹.  It is the bond (that holds together, as well as the surety) of the created world.  In this respect, we can think of it in terms of its legality; of its contractual aspects.  We can view Torah as the legal instrument, in writing under seal, which defines the statutes and ordinances bearing on the redemption of the Creation.  It identifies both the Executor and the Heir/Beneficiary.  It defines the contractual consideration, i.e. that which is given, done, or promised as the compensation for the required performance/obligation of the covenant.  The covenant will be/must be executed to the “jot and tittle” ²².  The Torah was in existence before the foundation of the world. 

 

End Notes

1 Mal. 3:6. 2  Ps. 119:89-91. 3  Gen. 1:14-18. 4  Matt. 5:44-45. 5  Gen. 8:22, Ps. 119:90. 6  2 Cor. 1:20. 7  Ex. 3:14. 8  Gen. 3:8. 9  Gen. 3:19, I Cor. 15:42-44. 10 Gen. 3:2, Ps. 14:1, John 1:5. 11 Gen. 2:17, Rom. 6:23.

12 Gen. 3:15, Rom. 6:23. 13 Ps. 1, Ps. 119. 14 Gen. 1:2, & 2:7. 15 Gen. 2:16-17, John 1:1. 16 Isa. 45:11-13, Ps. 111:6-7. 17 John 1:1-34. 18 John 1:1. 19 Jer. 31:33. 20 Gen. 1:1-2:5. 21 Gen. 2:4, 5:1-2, 9:12, Ps. 90:1-2, 145:13. 22  Matt. 5:18.

 

 

Before the Foundation of the world

           

The Author of this legal document was YHVH Himself.  It’s the Scroll of Redemption¹.  A redemptive scroll was written on two sides.  One side of the scroll delineated the property/possession which was the subject of redemption; alternately, the ‘inheritance’, in the event of the death of the rightful owner.  The other side stipulated all the requirements of one qualified to recover/redeem the property/inheritance should the possession/ownership be lost. 

YHVH would declare in this document that the earth and all of its fullness belong to Him², but He would delegate authority over it to man³.  He would ordain to man a position like unto a servant-king, in which man would have dominion over the creation, but would also serve YHVH by ministering to creation⁴ the Life and Light he would receive from Him.  The stipulation, in order to function in that position, would be to walk in intimate relationship with Him⁵.  This second duty of man, to commune with YHVH, would establish him in the position of a priest.  From the beginning, man, i.e. Adam, male and female together, would be established in this King-Priest (Melchizedek) order of relationship with the Creator and the creation⁶.

The purpose of this King-Priest order would be to continually minister, and administer, His Light and Life to the creation, that it would be perpetually renewed and sustained, world without end.  YHVH would establish this relationship between Adam/Eve⁷ and Himself; but there would be a breach in their communion with YHVH⁸.  As soon as that breach would take place, the whole creation, man included, would suffer the consequence of separation from the Source of Life.  The creation would fall into a declining spiral of groaning and travailing under sin and corruption that leads to death⁹.  With this inevitability, YHVH prepared the remedy so the plan of redemption could be set in motion.  He would immediately reveal the executor of His plan: the seed of the woman¹⁰.  He would be their kinsman and he would recover what would be lost that day. 

Redemption is contingent upon the faithful adherence to the binding instrument which YHVH used to seal the creation.  This Scroll of Redemption, also prepared in advance, explicitly detailed the qualifications and obligations of the Kinsman-Redeemer who would execute the terms of the covenant to the letter.  The book of Revelation records that the Apostle John was taken into the heavens where he saw the One sitting on the Throne with the Scroll of Redemption in His Hand¹¹.   He witnessed a search underway in the heaven, on the earth, and under the earth for someone that could qualify to take the scroll, open the seals, and redeem that which is recorded on the other side of the scroll¹².  To qualify to take the scroll, the Redeemer must fulfill all the criteria written.  The qualifications were so high that not even the 24 Elders sitting around the Throne were able to take the Scroll of Redemption and open the seals.  The Apostle despaired that no Redeemer would be found and he wept bitterly¹³ because he knew that everything in need of redemption, i.e. every created thing, would be eternally lost in a realm of sin and death.  Without a fully qualified Redeemer, there would never ever be any Life given to this creation again. 

This plan of redemption assures that YHVH will not fail in the matter of finding a Redeemer/Judge/Avenger, worthy to open the seals.  Yeshua, the Lamb of God, is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah¹⁴.  The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world¹⁵ who was shown to John, and declared Worthy at the Throne, has taken the Scroll out of the Father’s Hand¹⁶ and redeemed that which belonged to the Father…  But wait, has He redeemed the Creation?  Is the Creation set free yet?    

 

End Notes

1 Jer. 32:7-44 (example use of redemptive scroll). 2  Ps. 24:1. 3  Gen. 1:26 & 28. 4  Gen. 2:15. 5  Gen. 3:9. 6  Gen. 1:26-28. 7  Gen. 2:18, 3:20 mother of all the living. 8  Gen. 3:10, & 23-24.

9  Rom. 8:22, Rom. 6:23a. 10 Gen. 3:15. 11 Rev. 4:2, & 5:1. 12 Rev. 5:1-3. 13 Rev. 5:4. 14 Rev. 5:5. 15 Rev. 13:8. 16 Rev. 5:7.

  

God’s Record of the Firstborn

 

What was written on the other side of the Scroll?  What was the inheritance there?    To understand this matter of redemption from the Father’s perspective, we must see that there is an inheritance that belongs to Him. 

How do we know what belongs to the Father?  We know that from the Torah.  There is a statute in the Torah that says ‘All firstborn belong to Me.  They are Mine’.  The Firstborn of all creation belong to Him¹.  But, there’s a problem with His Firstborn.  They have to be redeemed².  They’re in the same state as all the rest of their brethren. 

YHVH has kept track of His inheritance in every generation, because the first qualification of the Redeemer was that He must belong to the Father; He must be a firstborn.  Every generation has awaited³ the birth of the Kinsman-Redeemer in the line of His Firstborn.  The kinsman-redeemers in each generation are, collectively, the inheritance of God and they are faithfully recorded in the Scroll of Redemption.

 

Adam⁴ was the special and direct creation of God.  He was, along with Eve, ordained to rule and be fruitful in the King-Priest position, according to the order of YHVH’s Kingdom on earth.   Adam’s firstborn, Cain, was disqualified for the birthright because his offering was not according to the Torah; he did not adhere to the requirement of the Scroll of Redemption.  Cain murdered⁵ Adam’s second-born⁶, so no birthright/firstborn blessing could be passed to the next generation without another heir.

 

Seth⁷ was born after Abel’s death, and inherited the birthright in place of Abel.  The genealogy⁸ and the passing of the birthright continued up to Noah. 

 

Noah⁹ had three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  Noah, his sons and their wives repopulated the earth after the flood.  He had the same charge as Adam, to be fruitful and multiply¹⁰.  Noah’s blessing¹¹, placing Canaan, Ham’s son, and Japheth in Shem’s tent, reveals Shem as firstborn.  Thus Shem is known as YHVH’s Namesake.  The line of the firstborn continues from Shem in Arphaxad, Salah, Eber (meaning ‘to pass over’, from which name ‘Hebrew’ is derived), Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah and Abram¹².  

 

Abram was a member of the society that built the Tower of Babel.  The land, people, and culture out of which Abram was called were the kingdom of Nimrod¹³ .  Abram left that country and followed YHVH to the Land He promised to his Seed¹⁴.

 

In that day, the rightful leadership in the human community yet belonged to Shem.  Abram was in the line of the firstborn, as were all his fathers before him.  But the line would stop with Abram as he was childless¹⁵, and without YHVH’s intervention would have remained so.  YHVH made an everlasting covenant with him, promising Abram that he would be a father of many nations and be exceedingly fruitful¹⁶.  Shem was yet living when Isaac, the son of promise, was born to Abraham.

 

Preceding Isaac, however, was Ishmael, born to Abram by Sarai’s handmaid, Hagar.  Though he was born first, was blessed and fathered 12 princes and a nation, Ishmael was not in line of succession for the birthright¹⁷.

 

Isaac inherited the firstborn birthright when Shem died, and he was a ‘promised one’.  Isaac was called¹⁸, and he did lay himself down on the altar¹⁹ and submitted to his father’s will, which satisfied one of the qualifications of a redeemer, …but what were the rest of the qualifications?  Did he meet them?  Had the time for redemption arrived?

 

By this time, it was evident YHVH’s plan involved nations, because He promised that Abraham would father nations²⁰.  Twin sons were born to Isaac, but not before the nations they represented wrestled in the womb of Rebekah and she was told that the elder would serve the younger²¹.  Esau²², the eldest, was not worthy of the birthright.  In fact, he so lightly esteemed it, he sold it to his brother Jacob for a meal. 

 

With Rebekah’s help, Jacob also acquired the firstborn’s double-portion blessing²³, as splitting the blessing from the birthright would have left the family of the firstborn without a kinsman-redeemer.  But, it was through the sovereignty of YHVH that Jacob was chosen²⁴.  This divine ‘choosing’ illustrated a Torah principal of ‘life from the dead’, as Esau was faint, famished, and thought himself facing death when he sold his birthright for food²⁵, and Isaac was presented with death when he sought to bless his firstborn, before being gathered to his fathers²⁶.  Jacob/Israel had two wives, and so had two firstborn²⁷.  By a delay of one generation, the birthright was split, and so began two Houses in the progeny of Jacob/Israel, neither with a kinsman-redeemer.

 

Joseph, later presented his two sons to his father and scripture records that their grandfather, Israel (note: Israel vs. Jacob), adopted them: Ephraim, in place of Reuben, and Menashe, in place of Simeon.  Israel said of both Ephraim and Menashe “Let my name be named on them….”, so they are called ‘Ephraim’, the House of Joseph, and/or the House of Israel²⁸.  Israel settled the double-portion blessing on the head of the younger, Ephraim.  Ephraim carries the ‘double-portion’  anointing, i.e. the means of redemption (the anointing breaks the yoke²⁹ and releases out of bondage³⁰; and the double-portion recovers the property of, or pays the ransom/debt of the bond-servant³¹).  Ephraim was also destined/prophesied to become “m’lo ha’goyim”, the fullness of the nations³², i.e. that multitude of nations.

 

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn by Leah, was found unworthy of headship because he dishonored his father³³.  Younger brothers Simeon, and Levi were passed over, as well because they presumed to avenge³⁴ an assault on their sister, Dinah³⁵, which at the time was the jurisdiction of Reuben.  Later, the scepter was placed in Judah’s hand because Judah³⁶ was willing to fulfill kinsman-redemption for Benjamin³⁷; to ransom Benjamin’s life with his own. 

 

In the fullness of time, David³⁸ son of Jesse was anointed King over Judah³⁹, and then King of all Israel.  David was YHVH’s exceptional ‘firstborn’, in that he was the youngest of Jesse’s 8 sons⁴⁰.  He also drew to himself the antitype manifestation from his brothers who ridiculed and derided him⁴¹; as well from his predecessor, Saul who hated and hunted him⁴².  Pointing to the time when the birthright would be united again, the Lord revealed to David the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek⁴³; He allowed King David to wear an ephod⁴⁴, a priest’s garment; and He permitted this king to eat a priest’s bread⁴⁵.  (In succeeding reigns, severe judgments fell on Israel’s kings who usurped the priest’s office. ⁴⁶)

 

The line of the firstborn⁴⁷ continued until Yeshua, ‘salvation’ was sent by the Heavenly Father⁴⁸.  He came, by way of adoption⁴⁹, to the lost sheep of the House of Israel⁵⁰, and was found faithful, in all things, to Him that appointed Him Apostle and High Priest, Kinsman-Redeemer, Righteous Judge, Guarantor, and Blood-Avenger of our calling and testimony⁵¹.

 

 

End Notes

 

1 Ex. 13:2, 22:29-30, Numb.3:11-13, 18:15. 2  Num. 3:12-13, 39-51. 3  Hag. 2:7. 4  Gen. 2:7. 5  Gen. 4:8. 6 Cain’s retort to YHVH ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (Gen. 4:9) profiles the self-serving antitype of the Firstborn Kinsman-Redeemer.  The attendant hatred, envy, and murder typify the character of the antitype.  These fruit of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21) are the reason the natural man cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50).  They are not according to Torah. 7  Gen. 4:25. 8  The names of the Firstborn from Adam to Noah have this meaning, in the order they appear in the bloodline: Man (Adam) is appointed (Seth) mortal (Enos) sorrow (Cainan).  One who blesses God (Mahalaleel) will come down (Jared), teaching (Enoch) that His death will send (Methuselah), the hidden king (Lamech), and rest (Noah), (Gen. 5:1-32). 9  Gen. 5:32. 10 Gen. 1:28, 9:1 & 7. 11 Gen. 9:26-27. 12 Gen. 11:10-26. 13As a grandson of Ham, Nimrod was not in the line of the firstborn, yet he ruled a kingdom.  His name means ‘we will rebel’ or ‘let us rebel’, and it is YHVH’s Kingdom order (as defined by Torah) that he rebelled against.  Nimrod set up a kingdom to make a name for himself, (Gen. 11:4).  This is the antitype to both the Servant-King, and the Kingdom order of God.  Torah establishes the supremacy of YHVH’s Name (Ex. 20:2-3 & 7), and ascribes do- minion to the firstborn.  The firstborn were His, and His Name was sealed upon them.  As His servants, they did not belong to themselves.  They were born for His purposes and plan of redemption.  All that they did was to be ‘unto Him’, i.e. for His Name’s sake and for His Glory.  Likewise, what He does for them is done for His Name’s sake (Ezek. 36:22, Isa 48:11).  Nimrod’s kingdom order is the inverted counterfeit of YHVH’s kingdom, in that his is hierarchical, placing that king-priest at the zenith ruling over men (Luke 22:25-27).  Initially, this counterfeit system mimicked the combined king-priest position of YHVH’s kingdom.  But the counterfeit king-priest position has been divided into separate political and religious arenas* (or the beast and false prophet, Rev. 19:20); with the hierarchy being retained in both spheres.  The most

recognizable icon of this order is the pyramid, or its predecessor in Nimrod’s Babel, the tower (Gen. 11:4), i.e. ziggurat.   *[In the spiritual parallel, Satan had two princes/lieutenants, the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece (Dan. 10:12-13 & 20).  His seat was in Pergamum (Rev. 2:12-13), Asia Minor (Turkey).   From his orientation to Zion, the coveted ‘sides of the North’ (Isa. 14:12-13), the prince of Greece was on his right hand; the prince of Persia, on his left.  When his counterfeit kingdom was divided and the people were scattered, these two princes received the respective kingly-priestly portions of the ruling position, i.e. the kingly/political to Greece; the priestly/religious to Babylon.  The most developed manifestations of these two rulerships are democracy and Islam.  (Both of these are separate composites, i.e. neither is, as yet, a universal system in their respective arenas; nor is there any natural merger of these ideologies.  Democracy and Islam are, rather, the points of pincers bearing down on Jerusalem, pivoted together to work in opposition.  This ‘pivot’ point is the extent of their ‘joining’, or unity.)]   Nimrod enlisted others in his rebellion.  He separated a people to himself and set up a ‘goy’, i.e. people living together under a government, a nation.  (Gen. 10:8-12, & 11:4, At first these collectives manifested as cities, then city-states, etc.)  YHVH hindered their capacity for corruption by confusing their languages; in effect, dividing them into many rebel nations/Nimrodic goyim (Gen. 11:6-9), sepa-rated by distance and natural boundaries, absent the ability to communicate with each other, and lacking the strength of international unity in their rebellion, until recent times. One of the offspring of Japheth, Javan (i.e. Greece) had a son, Rodanim, (I Chron. 1:7, alternately Dodanim, Gen. 10:4), from the Hebrew ‘rado’, to rule (Adam and Eve were told ‘rado-rule’ Gen.1:28, Strong’s 7287).  At the division of the people, Rodanim settled in what came to be called the gateway from the west to the east, i.e. the island Rhodes, a strategic place with access to 3 conti-nents.  One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was erected in the harbor there: the statue of the sun god: Helios, the Colossus of Rhodes.  (In-terestingly, the statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the US symbolizing ‘democracy’, is the

 

End Notes, Cont’d.

 

female version of the Colossus.)  This was the re-presentation of the kingly portion of the ruling position in the counterfeit kingdom order. The counterfeit priestly position, as represented by the crescent moon and the domes (breasts of Astarte/Ashtaroth/Ishtar, Judges 2:13, 10:6, 1 Sam. 7:3, 12:10), remained centered in the precinct of Persia (Babylon). 14 Gen. 12:1, &17:8. 15 Gen. 15:1-2. 16 Gen. 17:5-7. 17 Gen. 16:15, 17:15-21. 18 Rom. 9:7. 19 Gen. 22:7-10 20 Gen. 17:4. 21 Gen. 25:20-23. 22 Esau’s firstborn later fathered Amalek (a firstborn by a concubine, Gen. 36:12).  Amalek, became the proverbial receptacle for the aggregate hatred, envy, and strife of the antitype (Deut. 25:17-18).  His generations proved to be enemy to Jacob in perpetuity (Ex. 17:16). 23 Gen. 27:5-37a. 24 Isa. 41:8. 25 Gen. 25:32. 26 Gen. 27:1-4. 27 An ordinance of Torah stipulates that an unloved wife’s firstborn could not be disinherited in favor of the firstborn of a loved wife (Deut. 21:15-17).  But Jacob’s firstborn by his beloved Rachel was shown favor with the princely robe (Gen. 37:3) and it engendered strife and envy between him and his brothers, who eventually sold him into slavery in Egypt (Gen. 45:4). 28 Gen. 48: 5 & 14-16. 29 Isa. 10: 27. 30 Isa. 61:1. 31 Lev. 25:47-52. 32Gen. 48:19, This “fullness of the nations” prefigures a multiplicity of redeemers.  Not just one firstborn redeemer in every generation; but in due season, a nation of Firstborn in every generation and scattered, like seed, (Hos. 2:23, or, as Yeshua said, salt, Matt. 5:13) into all the other nations of the earth.  When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel (Deut. 32:8), whom He had told Jacob would be “as the sands of the sea” (Gen. 32:12).  The sands are a boundary to the sea (Jer. 5:22); and the sons of Israel scattered to the nations have preserved, like salt, and limited, as

the shores the sea, the Nimrodic goyim from the extremity of utter corruption, while He has been forming, from the seed sown, a firstfruit of the harvest (Hos. 1:10-11) from which a remnant of firstborn/firstfruits will return to Zion at an Appointed time.  Like seed covered in soil, this is the mystery hidden in iniquity.  33 I Chron. 5:1. 34 Redemption of property lost to indebtedness was not the only duty of the Redeemer.  The loss could be due to an injustice suffered by the family.   When the thief would come to kill, steal, or destroy, the kinsman-redeemer would reckon with him.  In each case, the Redeemer would judge the situation, and then redeem the property/person, or avenge the injury, as the circumstances warranted according to Torah principles.   Another duty of the Kinsman-Redeemer was to raise up sons to one who had died without an heir.  This was seen, as Boaz had put it, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, i.e. to bring life from the dead, that the dead be not cut off (Ruth 4:9-10). 35 Gen. 34:25, 30, & 49:5 36 Gen. 49:10 37 (Gen. 43:8-9, 44:30-33) Benjamin became so closely associated with Judah that the tribe of Benjamin, Rachel’s son and Joseph’s brother, would be assimilated into the House of Judah.  Israel’s first king, Saul, was a Benjamite (I Sam. 9:21).  This was because the people had rejected YHVH as king, demanded a king like the rebel nations (I Sam. 10:19), and the incumbent firstborn of Judah wasn’t qualified as kinsman-redeemer.  (Although the sovereignty of YHVH eventually ‘righted the wrong’ and life raised up the name of the dead, Judah had broken the Torah in the matter of Tamar (Gen. 38:6-26, Lev. 18:15) and 10 generations (Deut. 23:2) were to be fulfilled before Judah’s seed would sit on the throne of Israel (Matt. 1: 2-6).  A succession of ‘judges’ presided over the people during this interval (Judges 2:16-18, Ruth 1:1, I Sam. 8:1, 2 Kings 23:22, Acts 13:20).)  38 2 Sam. 2:4 & 11. 39 2 Sam. 3:17-18, 5:1-5. 40 1 Sam. 16:10-11. 41 1 Sam. 17:28. 42 1 Sam. 18:7-11, 25, 19:1, 10-11, 15, 20:31-33, 22:17-18, 23:8, 14-15, 25, 24:2, 26:2. 43 Ps. 110. 44 2 Sam. 6:14. 45 1 Sam. 21:3-6. 46 2 Chron. 26:1 & 16-21 (example).

End Notes, Cont’d.

 

47 Matt.1:1-17, Luke 3:22-38. 48The angel told Miriam that she would bear a son and call Him Yeshua (Salvation) and that He would be called the Son of the Most High.  And the Lord God would give Him the Throne of His father David and He would reign over the House of Jacob forever, and His Kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:30-33).

49As Joseph was not His father, by marrying Miriam, he adopted the Child she carried (Matt. 1:20-21). 50 Matt. 15:24. 51 Heb. 3: 1-2 & 7:22.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Torah Instructions for Kingdom Living

 

The Firstborn are to receive instructions for living which qualify them to be redeemers.  Beginning with Adam, YHVH set up His Kingdom in the earth along with its statutes and ordinances¹.  He tested the first family over one issue: faithfulness to Torah.  When they came of age, Cain and Abel² were to offer that which belonged to God.  Cain was a farmer.  There’s a statute that says all the firstfruit³ of the crops and the trees belong to YHVH.  Cain’s brother Abel looked after sheep.  Again, there’s a statute that says all the firstborn⁴ of the herds and flocks belong to YHVH.  This was the first test to find out if a Firstborn would succeed in being a redeemer; because a redeemer must fulfill all of the qualifications.  Cain offered up “fruit” (not firstfruit)⁵ of the ground and Abel offered the firstlings of his flock.  Abel’s offering was acceptable because he fulfilled an ordinance in offering up that which belonged to YHVH.

Torah⁶ was not a new idea that first occurred to YHVH at Sinai.  Torah was His instruction manual for Adam from the beginning⁷.  By it, Enoch walked so faithfully with Him that one day he ceased to be compatible with the rest of fallen creation.  He was so fully restored not only to the Kingdom of Life, but to the Divine Nature, that God translated him out of the earth altogether and into the ‘in Him’ realm, i.e. the Cloud, as Enoch preceded the season of the revelation-by-incarnation⁸.

            Abraham was faithful to teach his children the Torah⁹.  The Torah as a document, as a bond, was not manifested yet to act as guarantor on the promises of the covenant, so YHVH swore by Himself¹⁰ as surety of His Word.  So the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were taught the statutes and ordinances that would be incumbent upon the parties of the covenant.  They descended into Egypt and came under bondage to Pharaoh, remaining there until the time of deliverance¹¹.  Then He brought them out to formally espouse them to Himself at Sinai¹².  He gave them tablets of stone on which He engraved the terms of betrothal¹³, He set His Seal of Fire¹⁴ upon the visitation, and He gave the revelation of the Tabernacle¹⁵ they would share.  He presented His plan: the Truth, the Spirit, and the moveable tent in which they would reside with Him.

In the earth, YHVH’s Wisdom and Truth was first embodied by the Torah, and later expounded in the Words given by His prophets.   Still later, Wisdom and Truth¹⁶ were incarnate in His Son¹⁷, Whom we recognized because he fulfilled the Torah and the prophets.  The Kingdom of God rests, increases without limitation¹⁸, and will endure without end, on no other foundation than this¹⁹.  The Torah is the eternal Word of God, as much as any other part of the Bible.  It has been discounted as ‘the law’, i.e. mere legalism.  That is a misnomer, and a misunderstanding of its purpose.  That is the representation of the Torah as expressed by the 613 laws of rabbinic Judaism.  Even so, law is operational in YHVH’s creation and will remain so, because He is a Faithful, Just, and Holy God.  We can experience the operation of His statutes and ordinances as blessing²⁰, through obedience, or as curse²¹, through disobedience.  But, do not be deceived, God is not mocked.  As a man sows, so shall He reap²².  Jacob, who deceived his father, was later deceived by his father-in-law²³.  But Torah is much more than mere legalism.  It is the Wisdom to discern between the Holy and the profane.  It is the Clock from Creation to Tabernacles.  It is the Map from the Garden, to Egypt, to Zion.

Moses wrote down the Torah²⁴ for the generations that would follow because each generation’s journey from Egypt to Zion is informed by this instruction²⁵.  Each generation’s journey is punctuated by the Feasts of YHVH²⁶.  As we celebrate them, we need to appropriate all that each feast has to offer.  The Children of Israel were told to burn the remains of the Lamb on the morning after the Passover²⁷.  The smoke (Strong’s 6227=vapor/dust/anger) of the burning became the pillar of the Cloud that led them²⁸ out to Sinai.  If they had not burned the remains, there would be no Cloud to follow.  It is by obedience that we, also, must move beyond our slain Lamb, to follow a risen, Living Messiah²⁹.  Likewise, we have not fully celebrated the Feast of Shavout, which gives the Torah, until He has written His Torah on the flesh tablets of our hearts³⁰; until His Fire descends upon us³¹.  Each generation wanders the wilderness until the carcass of disobedience and unbelief is shed behind, and the generation is prepared by His Torah to inherit the Land³².

 

Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or in respect of a festival, or a new moon, or Sabbaths: which are a shadow of what is to come, but the body of Messiah (passage is absent any words added by translators), Col. 2:16 -17.

 

 

End Notes

1 Ps. 145:13. 2  Gen. 4:1-5. 3  Ex. 22:29a, 23:19a,  Deut. 26:2,  Neh. 10:35, Prov. 3:9. 4  Ex. 13:1-2 & 12, 34:19, Num,. 18:15, Deut. 12:6, Neh. 10:36. 5  Gen. 4:3. 6  Tree of Life. 7  Gen. 2:2-3, 7:2, & 14:18-20 as examples. 8  Gen. 5:21-24, Jude 14-15. 9  Gen. 18:19. 10 Gen. 22:15-18. 11They represented the nation of firstborn as YHVH had told Abram He would ‘make a great nation’ of him (Gen. 12:2), and had told Pharoah ‘Let my Firstborn go’ (Ex. 4:22-23). 12 Gen. 19:1-8. 13 Ex. 20:1-17, Deut. 9:10-11. 14 Ex. 19:17-18, 24:17.

15 Ex. 35:4-40:33. 16 Prov. 3:19, John 14:6, 1 Cor. 1:30. 17 John 1:14. 18 Ps. 119:89-91, 145:13, 146:10, Isa. 9:7, Luke 1:33. 19 Isa. 28:16-17a, Eph. 2:19-20, 1 Pet. 2:6-8. 20 Deut.  28:1-14. 21 Deut. 27:15-26, 28:15-68. 22 Gal. 6:7. 23 Gen. 27:15-19, 29:20-25, & 31:7. 24 Deut. 31:9. 25 1 Cor. 10:11. 26 Lev. 23:1-44, Zech. 14:16-19, 1 Cor. 5:7-8, Col. 2:16-17. 27 Ex. 12:10. 28 Ex. 12:3-10, 13:21-22, 19:9, 40:34-38. 29 I Cor 10:1 & 2, Isa. 4:5, Heb. 12:1. 30 Jer. 31:31-33. 31 Matt. 3:11, Acts 2:1-4. 32 Deut. 6:17-18, Heb. 3:8-19.

 

 

The Land

            When the Children of Israel came out of the wilderness, YHVH brought them to the Land He had promised to them.   His purpose in establishing Israel in that particular place was because His favor was upon it1.  He designed the topography, precipitation, and natural conditions in order to magnify Himself there.  It is a place where His might, and His omnipotence are manifest.  His eyes are upon the Land of Israel from the beginning of the year to the end2; and they were to fix their eyes upon that which He favored.  This Land is a place which forces those who dwell there to totally rely on the God of Israel. 

            There was a view to this aspect of the land even from the wilderness.  The Holy of Holies faces east.  From that perspective, looking at the Holy Place, the menorah/candlestick is positioned on the right side, which is south3; and the Table of Shewbread is on the left side, which is north4.  In Israel the weather conditions of the spring Passover season fluctuate widely.  It can either be very cool, or fairly warm.  The menorah on the right side required oil of the olive5 tree.  In that particularly unstable spring season, the olive tree needs warm winds from the South for full growth and maturity.  On the other side, is the Table of Shewbread, which represents the grain.  In that same season, the grain needs the opposite conditions: cold winds from the North.  In the placement of those two important articles, the conditions of the land of Israel are brought right into the Holy Place; into the place of worship.  In the center, supplying the provision necessary to fulfill the requirements of His Torah6 regarding the articles of worship, is the God of Israel.  Only He can judge the perfect balance, and govern the elements7 so that these two all-important fruits of the land can produce the necessary yield.  This is one example of the importance of this land and how it manifests the omnipotence and greatness of YHVH.

            The land also reflects the relationship of the people of Israel to YHVH, and reflects the condition of their hearts, i.e. their degree of obedience.  In this land, drought follows disobedience, as bounty follows obedience8.  The unique climate, conditions and growing season of Israel are necessary to the observance of the Feasts, as with the counting of the Omer.  The 50th day past the waving of the Omer, i.e. Shavout or Pentecost, has no set date in the Torah9.  The counting of 50 days starts whenever the sickle is put to the first crop10.  The harvest-readiness of the crop depends on the God of Israel, on YHVH’s favor on the Land and its inhabitants.  This 50th day, is a prophetic landmark.  It links the times and the seasons of the progressive plan of Redemption to the physical Land of Israel.  This was the day the Torah was given at Sinai.  This 50th day was the day the Holy Spirit was given in Jerusalem11. 

            It is of paramount importance to know when to observe the Feasts of YHVH.  The Feasts and all that is necessary to celebrate them are tied to the Land of Israel. 

 

For He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant.  And he brought forth his people with joy, and His chosen with gladness:  And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labor of the people; That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws.  Praise ye the Lord, Ps. 105:42-45. KJV 

 

So it served YHVH’s purposes to deliver the Land¹² into the hands of the Children of Israel.  But when the representatives from each tribe that went in to spy out the Land returned, they had differing opinions of their ability to possess the promise.  Only two of the twelve had a good report¹³.  Without unity and faith, they were not able to go in and YHVH sent them back to the wilderness where He could teach them to follow Him; and feed them on the simplicity of His ability to sustain them¹⁴ in a waste-howling wilderness, not to mention in the Land of Promise.  As David would later write:

 

Trust in YHVH, and do good; you shall dwell in the land, and you shall be fed on truth.  Ps. 37:3

 

 

End Notes

1 Ex. 3:8, Num. 14:7-8, Deut. 1:25 & 8:7. 2  Deut. 11:7-12. 3  Ex. 40:24. 4  Ex. 40:22-23a. 5  Ex. 27:20. 6  Deut. 28:9-11. 7  Deut. 28:12.

8  Deut. 11:13-17, Lev. 26:2-5, Jer.5:24-25. 9  Lev. 23:9-11, 15-16. 10 Deut. 16:9. 11Acts 2:1 & 4. 12 Deut. 1:19-38. 13 Num. 13:1-33. 14 Deut. 2:7.

 

  

The Captivity

 

            The conditions in the Land of Israel were a reflection of the relationship of the people to YHVH and the measure of their obedience to His statutes and ordinances.  In times of disobedience, the Land could not supply the provision to fulfill the observance of the Feasts.  In a year of drought, there was no harvest and the Omer wouldn’t be counted.  Therefore Shavout couldn’t be observed.  In protracted periods of disobedience, the knowledge of the Torah declined and was all but forgotten1.  Without knowledge and active observance of the statutes and ordinances of God, the righteousness of the people deteriorated even further2.  Moreover, there is a point of depravity which even the land will not suffer and will, itself, vomit out the offenders3 by one means or another.

Such a progression of events was the experience of the House of Israel after rebelling against Rehoboam.  The Northern tribes ceased to worship in YHVH’s Temple⁴ and went after other gods.  They fell steeply into idolatry, were taken captive and scattered to the nations⁵.  The account is foretold by the prophet Hosea⁶.

Hosea was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom, the House of Joseph.  Hosea was told by YHVH to take, Gomer, a wife of harlotry to represent His wife, Israel, who was in harlotry.  Hosea’s first son was to be named Jezreel, meaning ‘God will sow’, saying ‘I will scatter you’.  A second child was to be named Lo-ruhamah, meaning ‘I will have no mercy on you’.  Here YHVH distinguishes between the House of Israel and the House of Judah, upon whom He says He will have mercy⁷.  The third child was to be named Lo-ammi, meaning ‘not My people’, saying ‘I will not be your God’. 

Judah, however, would have a different prophetic destiny.  By His Mercy, Judah would retain their identity as His people, while the House of Israel would become ‘lost’.  In 722 BC, the Assyrians took the House of Israel out of the land⁸ and settled them in the upper regions of the Euphrates, the territory of Gomer⁹.  From there, over time they were dispersed even more broadly.  Their migrations have been recently uncovered, and we see that they have truly been sown to many nations.  YHVH says through His prophet Hosea:

 

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, in the place where it was said unto them ‘You are not my people’, it shall be said unto them ‘You are the sons of the living God’.  Hos.1:10¹⁰.  

 

The House of Judah did not escape the sin and the scourge of idolatry but also transgressed in it, and was later taken captive to Babylon to fulfill 70 years of consequence, the duration defined by the ordinance of the Sabbath years’ rest that was owed to the land¹¹.  Torah had not been observed, and curse followed disobedience.  Idolatry was so vigorous in Judah, it was practiced in YHVH’s own Temple¹².

But his promises are Yea and Amen, and His Mercy endures forever¹³.  In captivity, in the midst of Babylonian idolatry, Judah retained their identity.  And those who did not forsake His instruction¹⁴, even under pain of death, gave witness, before Nimrod’s successor, to YHVH’s Power over creation (lions¹⁵), over the elements (fire¹⁶), and over the unknown (secrets of the heart¹⁷).  Even so, they suffered torment and exile¹⁸. When Daniel saw in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah that the time of their release from captivity was near, he began to petition YHVH to forgive their idolatry, and the idolatry of their forefathers¹⁹.  YHVH had named Cyrus²⁰, their benefactor, 150 yrs before he reigned, to favor them and allow their return to rebuild His city and His Temple which, by then, would lie in ruins; to prepare it to receive His Son²¹; so that He might be obedient in all things.

But theirs was only an interim return as they would not perceive the time of their visitation²².  They would be under Rome’s oppression.  They would have been without a prophet 400 years and would have reduced YHVH’s Living Word to a codified formula of ritual, void of Spirit and Truth²³.  The majority would not recognize Him when He came to the House of His brothers²⁴.  They would seek to restore the Kingdom by natural means and lose it altogether.  In 70 AD, even the Temple would be taken away²⁵; and in 135 AD Judah would also be scattered to nations, so that Judah could continue in his charge to hold out the Scepter of Torah²⁶ before the rejected ones²⁷ of Israel.  Because of YHVH’s plan, Judah suffered resentment, rejection, was driven place to place (had nowhere to lay his head) and was eventually slaughtered en masse by the working and forces of the antitype.

 

 

End Notes

1 2 Kings 22 (example). 2  Hos. 4:6, Prov. 29:18. 3  Lev. 18:6-25. 4  1 Kings 12:26-33. 5  Hos. 4:12-13 & 17, 2 Kings 17:1-17, 20-23. 6  Book of Hosea. 7  Hos. 1:7. 8  2 Kings 17:6. 9 Gomer was the name of the firstborn of Japheth (Gen. 10:2).  YHVH planted the seed of Jacob in the firstborn of Japheth because Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem (Gen. 9:27), the one in whom He had placed His Name.  And Jacob’s seed, even though they would lose their identity for a designated period (Hos. 6:1-3), ultimately would continue under His Name and be raised up His sons (Hos.1:10). 10 Rom. 9:25-26.

11 2 Kings 17:19, Jer. 7:1-2, 9-15, 17-18 & 9:13-14, 2 Chron. 36:17-21, Jer. 25:11-12. 12 Ezek. 5:11, 8:14-16, 23:1-39. 13 Hos. 1:7, 2 Cor. 1:20, Ps. 136. Jer. 29:10. 14 Dan. 1:8 & 3:12. 15 Dan. 6:20-22. 16 Dan 3:13-28. 17 Dan. 1:26-29, 2:47. 18 Ps. 137.  19 Dan. 9:2-19. 20 Isa. 44:28, 45:1, 2 Chron. 36:23.  Isaiah prophesied from 745-695 BC.  Cyrus reigned from 538-529 BC. 21 Luke 2:21-32, Ps 69:9, John 2:17. 22 Jer. 8:7, Luke 19:41-44. 23 Matt. 15:3-6, 23:23, Mark 7:6-9, Luke 11:42. 24 Isa. 53:4-5, Zech. 13:6. 25 Matt. 24:1-2, Mark 13:1-2, Luke 19:43-44. 26 Gen. 49:10. 27 Hos. 4:6.

 

 

The Return

Among the appointed times the Torah teaches about are the fall Feasts¹.  They occur after a long period following Shavout, typifying Israel’s long estrangement from YHVH.  They are preceded by a period called ‘Teshuva’, meaning to repent or return.  In the season of Teshuva, the shofar is sounded each day for a set interval which spans the 40 days before the Feast of Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement.  In this generation, YHVH has sovereignly transferred the possession of the Land from interim custodians back to the hands of His covenant people.  He has been sounding the shofar for their rousing, awakening, repentance, restoration and return from the nations².  Have you heard the shofar sounding, calling you to return?  Are we in that day?

 

House of Judah

The House of Judah retained its identity during exile, retained their possession of the Scepter which governs the Kingdom, and retained leadership in the family of Jacob.  Judah goes first³.  We have seen the return to the land start with Judah: beginning with the pioneer Zionists, the collectives, and increasing influx after the Holocaust: in 1918, there were but 56,000; by 1948, about 700,000; by 1972 the Jewish population had increased to 2.5 million; and by 1996 was nearly 5 million.  By a steady and increasing flow of immigration, little by little, He has brought them back and planted them in the land.  He said He would make them a mighty war horse⁴ and He has.  There is another ‘return’ underway, and that is to the Living Word.  The veil⁵ is being lifted off the eyes of Judah to see their Messiah.  Many are receiving Yeshua/salvation.  Many more have yet to return.

 

House of Israel

What voice was heard in Ramah?  For what children did Rachel weep that ‘were not’? 

Thus saith YHVH Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy labor shall be rewarded, saith YHVH; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.  And there is hope (in Hebrew, hope is the same root as ‘gathering’) saith YHVH, that thy children shall come again to their own border.  I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art YHVH my God…..  Is Ephraim my dear son?  Is he a pleasant child?  For since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still: therefore… I will surely have mercy upon him, saith YHVH.  Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities, Jer. 31:16-21, KJV.

 

YHVH is sovereignly moving throughout the earth to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers⁶.  He is lifting the veil off the eyes of Ephraim to recognize his identity, to see the markers and the memorials: the way home; to awaken Ephraim to the knowledge that he, too, comprises the covenant people destined to return.  Through His prophet Hosea, YHVH revealed Jezreel⁷ as a figure of His sowing seed over 4,000 years of history.  Through the revelation of His prophet John, we see Messiah Yeshua, upon the Cloud, with a winnowing fork in His hand, ready to take a harvest⁸.  YHVH’s principles governing redemption apply when He goes into the ripe fields.  He takes one swipe, one sweep with the sickle and all that falls in that harvest, in that one swipe, is to be gathered together and taken to the place that is called after His Name⁹.  He has sown a seed into all the earth.  In each generation of that sowing, He gathers a ‘firstfruit’.  It belongs to Him, and to Him alone.  These statutes and ordinances were lost to the House of Israel.  But Ephraim needs to return to these foundations because among His Feasts, a time is appointed for awakening and remembrance.  YHVH is beginning to restore, to lift the veil, to renew our minds¹⁰ so that we’ll see and understand these things, because He follows them very, very specifically.

 

House of Jacob

In these days and in this generation, there is a Firstfruit harvest of both Israel and Judah underway.  This harvest is going to go to where He has placed His Name: the Threshing Floor of Israel¹¹.  That is where YHVH is going to bring the harvest from the North, the South, the East, and the West.  The Lord of the Harvest¹² is going to thresh in the threshing floor. 

 

Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him, Isa. 43:5-7, KJV.

 

Likewise, He is restoring us like a flock; a flock that has been fleeced, scattered, left to wander untended, exposed to predators, both neglected and abused by under-shepherds.  We’re being brought as a flock of sheep gathered for the Feast; a flock prepared for the sacrifice in Jerusalem during the Moadim¹³.  As He whistles for the lambs¹⁴ of this Feast, His sheep hear His voice¹⁵.  But first He’s purging the flock.  These unblemished¹⁶ have been set aside from the flock, for a sacrifice. 

Judah could not be a nation until Judah came back to the land.  Ephraim cannot experience national identity fully, until he comes back to the land.  Through the prophet Jeremiah, YHVH speaks to us:

 

Turn O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion, …And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of YHVH: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.  At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of YHVH: and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of YHVH, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.  In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers, Jer. 3:14, 16-18.  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith YHVH, that it shall no more be said, YHVH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, YHVH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.  Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith YHVH, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks, Jer. 16:14-16, KJV.

 

He said He’d send the fishers and then He’d send the hunters.  The fishers are out for Ephraim-Israel now.  But the hunters will follow.  The covenant is not complete until Ephraim-Israel is back in the land.  When Judah’s mighty war horse is in the earth, Joseph is being saved.  Then Ephraim-Israel will be like a mighty man, and their hearts will rejoice as through wine¹⁷.  The prophet Joel tells us that God brings the mighty men¹⁸ into this war.  At the time of His choosing, He will have a remnant of Ephraim-Israel prepared for this battle.  And Isaiah confirms Ephraim-Israel and Judah coming back together into a war¹⁹.  YHVH will make, of Ephraim and Judah, a bow and an arrow: the weapon in His Hand²⁰.  When He saves Joseph, He’s going to whistle like a shepherd whistles for His sheep.  And they’re going to come back. 

 

Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel, Hos 1:11, KJV. 

 

Except YHVH build the house, they labor in vain that build it²¹.  Both Houses need to be praying, need to be asking YHVH to reveal what is our role in relationship to our brother²²; to reveal how and when we are going to be restored to the Land, and each other, to become one house, His House, the work of His Hands. 

 

For thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham concerning the House of Jacob.   Jacob shall not now be ashamed nor shall his face now turn pale, but when He sees His children the work of My Hands in his midst, they will sanctify My Name.  Indeed they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel and those who err in spirit will know the truth and those who murmur, or criticize, will accept instructions, Isa. 29:22-24, KJV.  

 

End Notes

1 Lev. 23:23-44. 2  Deut. 30:1-16. 3  Num. 2:9, 10:14, Judges 20:18. 4  Zech. 10:3. 5  2 Cor. 3:15-16. 6  Mal. 4:5-6. 7  Jezreel means ‘God will sow’. 8  Rev. 14:14-16. 9  Deut. 26:1-2. 10 Isa. 25:7, Eph. 4:23-24. 11 Deut. 12:11, 2 Sam. 24:21-25.

12 Luke 10:2. 13 Ezek. 34 & 36:33-38. 14 Zech. 10:8. 15 John 10:27. 16 Lev. 1:1-3, Eph. 5:27. 17 Zech. 10:3-12. 18 Joel 3:9.  19 Isaiah 11:10-16 20 Zech. 9:13. 21 Ps. 127:1. 22 Matt. 5:23-24, Mark 3:35, Luke 15:11-32, 1 John 3:14-16.

 

 

Remembering the Torah

The children of the House of Israel have lost the knowledge of who they are, of where they’ve come from, and their instruction in Kingdom living.  The children of the patriarchs of Israel need to be reminded to return to their fathers, to their family identity.  They need to return to the heritage of the fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  It’s time for the Prodigal¹ to come to his senses, to long for his father’s gates.

There is a strong exhortation given through the prophet Malachi: Remember ye the Torah of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of YHVH:  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse².  There is a reason why, in the Latter Days, YHVH pours out His Spirit to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers: ‘Lest I strike the earth with a curse’.  What are these statutes and ordinances and what are they pointing at?  YHVH is saying we’re to remember these things because they’re important for all Israel³.  How do they prepare us for a visitation from God?

Vestiges of the enmity between the two Houses of Israel continue to this day.  Distrust, vexation, and envy⁴ still divide these brothers who should be dwelling together in peace.  In fact, in order to dwell together at all, we know from the Torah that the Promised Land must be taken by their mutual aid/faith and obedience⁵.  (It was an Ephraimite and a Judahite that led them in.)  The borders of their portions must be respected and their landmarks not moved⁶.  How will the remaining hindrances to unity and understanding be dissolved, so that cooperation, trust, commitment and bonds of love can grow between these estranged kindred?  The Torah, God’s loving instructions in the 5 Books of Moses, was given to form a nation; to guide the behavior, conduct, attitudes and values of the covenant people.  It is the marriage contract between YHVH and His Bride.  It informs and directs the duties and relationships of a righteous people with whom He can commune in intimacy; the intimacy preliminary to fruitfulness.  By returning to this wisdom, the House of Jacob will find grace sufficient to meet all needs.

The ministry of Elijah was to confront the House of Israel with their idolatry, to expose the fraud of Baalism⁷, and to declare and to demonstrate that YHVH is God⁸ over Israel.  It is again the season of Elijah’s ministry⁹.  His spirit and his power are challenging us again, to our great and eternal benefit.  Have you not felt the dearth of His Rain¹⁰?  Have you not seen the brazenness of Jezebel¹¹?  Have you not wondered into what caves His true prophets have been sequestered¹²?  Elijah is again setting 12 stones in place, one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel¹³.  Elijah is again putting the wood in order and preparing the sacrifice¹⁴.  Elijah is again getting ready to call down Fire¹⁵.  How merciful is our Father to send His conviction upon us, one more time, before His visitation of judgment¹⁶.  When the Fire comes, all Israel will again know that Baal is sleeping or indisposed¹⁷.   

The spirit of Elijah continued his ministry through Elisha in double-portion¹⁸, and we will know that increase again.   Still later, the mantle of Elijah was seen upon John¹⁹, the forerunner of Yeshua, who prepared the people to behold the Lamb of God²⁰.  The visitation of the Almighty is in power and judgment and the way must be prepared²¹.  This was the message of the spirit of Elijah through John the Baptist: a voice crying in the wilderness ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord’.

 

And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, Luke 1:17. 

 

Remember, the Torah was instruction for living before the Presence of YHVH; the King in residence; His Kingdom on the earth.  YHVH indwelling His gathered elect in the place of their inheritance is an event to prepare for.

 

…The kingdom of God comes not with observation:  Neither shall they say, Look here! or, look there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.  And He said unto the disciples, The days will come, when…they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.  For…as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man…, Luke 17:20-26a.

 

The Kingdom of God comes not by observation, how then…?  How is the rightful King enthroned?  King and Kingdom come, like Elijah came, in demonstration of the power…. Of the Spirit to witness, with signs following²²; and like Paul came, in demonstration of power²³.  The Kingdom of God will not be seen without being experienced and if the way has not been prepared, it will be experienced as judgment, ‘Lest I strike the earth with a curse’.  When we next see Him it will be in power:

 

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clouds of heaven with power and great glory, Matt. 24:30.

 

Yeshua said unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the Clouds of heaven, Matt. 26:64 .

 

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the Clouds with great power and glory, Mark 13:26.

 

And Yeshua said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the Clouds of heaven, Mark 14:62.

 

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud with power and great glory, And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh, Luke 21: 27-28, Ps. 24:7.

 

Yeshua has said that the time of His coming would be as the days of Noah.  Torah is, for us, like the ark was for Noah.  It kept Noah from the judgment upon the whole world; and that which was to be preserved from judgment was drawn to it²⁴. 

There was a period during which the fathers did not know the ‘lost’ children; when, though Abraham didn’t recognize us, YHVH fathered us²⁵.  In this season of remembrance, He will cause the fathers to recognize the sons of the Living God²⁶, the sons born of the Spirit²⁷, the Son²⁸.  As the children turn their hearts to the fathers, the Messiah will be seen in the teachings of Moses.  This is the ministry of the spirit that was upon John²⁹.  Elijah is here again, and his influence will not diminish until we behold the Lamb. 

 

 

End Notes

1 Luke 15:11-24. 2  Malachi 4:4-6. 3  Deut. 31:10-13. 4  Isa. 11:13. 5  Num. 32 & Josh. 22, Deut. 11:8. 6  Deut. 27:17, Prov. 22:28, Hos. 5:10. 7  1 Kings 18:21.   8  Elijah means ‘Yah is God’. 9  Mal. 4:5. 10 1 Kings 8:35-36, 1 Kings 17:1. 11 1 Kings 19:1-2, & 21:7. 12 1 Kings 18:4. 13 1 Kings 18:30-31. 14 1 Kings 18:32-35. 15 1 Kings 18:36-39.

16 1 Kings 18:37-40, Mal. 4:5. 17 1 Kings 18:27. 18 2 Kings 2:9-15.  19 Matt. 11:7-14, Matt. 17:10-13, Mark 9:11-13. 20 John 1:25-31. 21 Isa. 40:3. 22 Acts 1:8, & 4:33. 23 1 Thess. 1:5a, 1 Cor. 4:20, 1 Cor. 2:1-5.  24 Luke 17:26, Gen. 6:13-7:5 & 23. 25 Isa. 63:16. 26 Hos. 1:10. 27 John 3:1-15. 28 John 5:46-47. 29 Isa. 63:11, Luke 1:17.

 

 

 

The Redemption of the Inheritance

Yes, John the Revelator had wept bitterly¹ at the prospect that no Redeemer could be found.  He sensed the groaning of creation which itself awaits redemption. Why is all of creation groaning and travailing?  The Apostle Paul said ‘all of creation is yet groaning and travailing waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God to appear²; waiting for the firstborn nation of redeemers, to come and redeem what belongs to them (the inheritance of the firstborn). 

It will mean the restoration of all things when that King-Priest relationship with the Father Creator is restored. 

There’s an order in this matter, and that order is set in the Torah, according to the ordinances and statutes that govern Redemption.  YHVH wants all Israel to know and to understand them³.  We are to study to show ourselves approved unto God⁴.  In our studies of the Torah, we must learn the qualifications of a redeemer, in order for us in His Body to execute justice in the earth.  We have an enemy that is opposing this redemption and he is a legalist.  He is the prosecuting attorney, the accuser of the brethren⁵.  He’s still cross-examining the witness with ‘Did God say⁶…?’  Our understanding of the Torah and the prophets must surpass his.  We must reply with ‘It is written! ⁷’.  And so it must be written;…written on our hearts⁸ so that out of this abundance⁹ we speak our testimony, so that it is this which flows out of us and issues Life¹⁰.  We must sing the song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb¹¹.

The price of our redemption was the Blood of the Lamb¹².  Behold the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the earth¹³.  The redemption was paid to recover the firstborn because they are the inheritance of YHVH.  Those who have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb do not belong to themselves.  All that has been redeemed belongs to God¹⁴.  The redeemed are ‘in Him’, i.e. they make up His Body¹⁵.  The redeemed were in the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth.   The redeemed are a living sacrifice¹⁶, in the earth. 

What is a living sacrifice?  How does a holy, acceptable sacrifice live/die?  By the statutes and ordinances of the Torah.  To keep the Torah (Yeshua) is a daily sacrifice of your life, a reasonable service unto God¹⁷.

 

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Messiah: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death, Rev. 12:10-11.

 

What is this power of His Messiah?  What power is it that defeats the enemy, even the final enemy¹⁸?

 

For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.  For in Yeshua Messiah neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision but faith which works by love, Gal. 5:5.  For all the Torah is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself, Gal. 5:14.  Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is strong as death, Song of Songs 8:6.

 

What is the ‘Blood’?  The blood is the life (the life is in the blood)¹⁹.  His Blood is His Life.  The Life of the Father was in Him²⁰.  Yeshua said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you, John 15:13-4.    

He is the Firstborn of many brethren²¹.  It is the redeemed firstborn that follow the Lamb wherever He goes and keep the commandments of God.  They overcome by His Blood and their testimony of what “is written”, and they love not their lives unto death²².   

At the appointed time, when The Glory/Fire descends to consume this sacrifice, a transformation will take place²³.  The smoke of it will ascend up to His Face, and the transformed, the purified in Him, shall see God²⁴.

 

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a Cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, …looking unto Yeshua the author and finisher of our faith…Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire²⁵, Heb. 12:1a, 2a &28. 

 

End Notes

 

1 Rev. 5:4. 2  Rom. 8:19, & 22-23. 3  Mal. 4:4. 4  2 Tim. 2:15. 5  Rev. 12:10. 6  Gen. 3:1. 7  Isa. 8:20, Matt. 4:4, 7 &10.  8  Jer. 31:31-33, 2 Cor. 3:2-3. 9  Matt. 12:34. 10 Prov. 4:23. 11 Rev. 15:3, 119:54. 12 I Cor. 6:20, Eph. 1:14.  13 Rev. 13:8.

14 Ex. 13:2. 15 Rom. 12:4-5, 1 Cor. 17:12-14 & 27, Eph. 5:30. 16 Rom. 12:1, Ezek. 36:36-38. 17 Rom. 8:29, Rom. 12:1-2.  18 I Cor. 15:26. 19 Lev. 17:11. 20 John 5:26. 21 Rom. 8-29. 22 Rev. 12:11, 14:4.  23 2 Cor. 4:11. 24 Matt. 5:8. 25 Deut. 4:24, 9:3, Isa. 33:14.

 

  

The Kingdom of God

 

Paul declares the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit¹.  His kingdom is within our reach, even within us.  When He is ruling within us, we possess and embody the righteousness of God, the peace that passes understanding, and the joy of the Lord.  Fear not little flock, for the Father desires to give us the kingdom². 

From his experience on the road to Damascus, Paul had a powerful revelation of the Messiah, and just who He is³.  After presiding over the stoning of Stephan, Paul was arrested by the power of the Holy Spirit: a blinding Light and a Voice which said to him, “Shaul, Shaul, why do you persecute Me?  The Apostle had a revelation in that moment in time that became the foundation and main revelation of His entire ministry.  This is why he later exhorted the disciples, “Examine yourselves to see if you’re in the faith; For do you not know this about yourselves that Yeshua the Messiah is in you?”⁴  He also wrote in Colossians 3, “you’ve died and your life has been hidden in Him; But He Who is your life, when He is revealed (unveiled to you through revelation), then you know who you are and are revealed in that same Glory” ⁵.  The understanding of the Treasure in earthen vessels became apparent to Paul⁶.

Everybody is waiting for the Messiah to come back again, but the scriptures tell us “Repent therefore and return that your sins may be wiped away; that the times of refreshing may come from the Presence of the Lord and that He may send Yeshua the Messiah, Whom Heaven must receive until the time of the restoration of all things which God spoke by the mouths of His Holy prophets in ancient times is fulfilled”.⁷  On His last night with the disciples, He said he was returning to the Father.⁸  For what reason, we might ask.  The answer would be the same reason as for everything else that He did:  To fulfill the word of His Father’s counsel, the rest of His Father’s will. 

The next time Paul was arrested, it was for preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and Yeshua.  All the documents of the charges against him were lost, so he was given a hearing to fully present the matter at which “He solemnly testified about the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade concerning Jesus/Yeshua, from both the Torah of Moses and from the Prophets” ⁹.  The scriptures say the heavens are going to retain Him until all that has been spoken through the mouth of the prophets from of old is fulfilled.  If Yeshua has returned to the Father, by what means, through what agency, i.e. through what vessel(s), will the prophecies of old be fulfilled?

In Acts 1 as Yeshua was preparing to return to the Cloud, the disciples were questioning Him because they understood that the Messiah was to come to redeem the people.  They knew from the scriptures that a Kinsman-Redeemer would be born in Bethlehem¹⁰.  They knew that a Kinsman-Redeemer would come to deliver and set Israel free…. And set up a Kingdom, just like the angel had told Miriam¹¹.  They knew, as it was written, that that was the plan.  So He came to them and was repeatedly telling them about the Kingdom¹².  But then He died, and they hadn’t seen that in the plan.  That wasn’t part of what they knew or understood would happen.  Then He came back from the dead and that was even more surprising!  And “To these, He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs by appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God.  So, naturally, they enquired “…when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the Kingdom¹³ to Israel”?  He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the epics which the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you shall receive Power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you.  And you shall be My witness, both in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth”¹⁴.    He told them to go up to Jerusalem to wait.  The day He said this was the 40^th day¹⁵ from the waving of the Omer, and the next event on YHVH’s timetable would be Shavout.  Both He and they knew they would be waiting 10 days in Jerusalem, because the Torah tells Israel they are to count the Omer a total of 50 days¹⁶.  In other words, He reminded them of the plan: ‘Just keep following the Torah Scroll of Redemption.  It requires you to be in Jerusalem for Shavout.  Be obedient.  Everything is still covered by the plan.  The restoration of the Kingdom is right on schedule…’  They waited in Jerusalem and on the 50^th day, ‘when the time fully came’¹⁷, Fire came down.  They were filled with the Holy Spirit.  The prophet, John the Baptist, had said, ‘I baptize with water, but there’s One coming after me that’s going to baptize you’, with Fire¹⁸.  And Yeshua had said this would make them His witnesses, not only because it expanded their vocabularies to include many languages, the tongues of men and angels, but because the Kingdom of God comes into you when the Holy Spirit resides within¹⁹. 

Now like Paul, all the documents of charges against us have been destroyed²⁰, but we too are called to give a full accounting of the matter.  When by our testimony and His works, we witness about/preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and others are filled with that Kingdom, they are translated from the kingdom of death into the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of His dear Son²¹.  There they are restored to Light and Life.  The Kingdom of God is being restored to Israel, one lost sheep at a time, one Israelite at a time²²,.  That’s why Yeshua had to leave after paying the redemption price for the Firstborn; so that the Holy Spirit could come, so that the Kingdom of God could be restored; so that His prayer, “Thy Kingdom come” ²³, could be fulfilled.  But, that’s not all:  So that God could raise in one generation, from the dead heaps of dry bones on the face of this earth, the nation of Firstborn redeemers.  He’s going to raise not only the Head, but the Body, the entire nation of Israel, a royal priesthood and a holy nation²⁴.

Through His prophet Ezekiel, we see an army raised up from dry bones and we see two sticks: 

 

The word of YHVH came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel and his companions; then take another stick, and write upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions. And join them one to another into one stick: and they shall become one in thine hand.   And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith YHVH; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.  And say unto them, Thus saith YHVH;  Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:  Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.  And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.    Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.  My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And the heathen shall know that YHVH do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. Ezek. 37:15-28

 

In the book of Revelation, again, we have two sticks in the Father’s Hand….the Scroll²⁵!  It is His Scepter of Righteousness.  The Torah Scroll is wrapped in two sticks.  When both Judah and Ephraim are wrapped in it, clothed in immortality²⁶, He will open the seals, spread us out and everybody will see The Word. 

Yeshua is gathering together His flock²⁷.  He’s gathering together the outcasts²⁸.  He’s restoring them to the Kingdom of God; and restoring the Kingdom of God to them.

 

 

End Notes

1 Rom. 14:17. 2  Luke 12:32. 3  Acts 9:4. 4  2 Cor. 13:5. 5  Col. 3:3-4. 6  2 Cor. 4:7. 7  Acts 3:19-21.   8  John 16:5, 7, & 17:11a. 9  Acts 28:21-23. 10 Micah 5:2-9. 11 Luke 1:30-33. 12 The Messiah is completely consistent with the Father (John 14:9, 1:1 & 14, 5:19) in Essence, in Word, and in Deed. He was raised a son of the commandments (Luke 2:41-49), through which the Father was teaching and instructing Him in the ways of the Kingdom.  His instruction in the Father’s Kingdom came from the Torah and the Prophets.  By what He is, what He says, and what He does, the Messiah presents to us what the Torah and Prophets say about the Kingdom of God.  Almost all of Yeshua’s teachings were about the Kingdom.  The parables were about the Kingdom, and the Torah and the Prophets are the basis on which all of the parables were taught.  The first 5 books of the Bible are the foundations of all the prophets; the microcosm of the Kingdom of God with all of its statutes and ordinances;

and the Melchizedek order explained to man.  (The Aaronic,is also there, but only because of sin and iniquity.  13 Acts 1:6.  When was the Kingdom of God in Israel before? (Psalm 145:13)  And a parallel question arises from the passage ‘Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion’ (Isa. 51:11).  When were the redeemed of the Lord in Zion before? The book of Hebrews tells us that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek (Heb. 7:9-10).  How did Levi pay tithes to Melchizedek?  Melchizedek met Levi’s great-grandfather on the road, after the battle with the kings, before Levi was born.  How does God perceive these things?  When Adam sinned, did you?  How did you sin when Adam sinned? (1 Cor. 15:22, Rom. 6:23a)  Adam was right from the beginning, and we haven’t been around for 5 or 6 thousand years…or have we? Think about this: we have all been alive and well in God’s economy from the time that He created Adam.  It happens that we just turned up in thisgeneration, to express creation life; but we’ve been here, alive in seed form, in all of the forefathers, from Adam to Seth to Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth.  So when Malachi exhorts us to ‘Remember the Torah of Moses’ (Mal. 4:4), we should, because we lived by it.  We’ve been here, on these journeys in history, on these journeys in

 

time.  14 Acts 1:6-8. 15 Acts 1:2-3. 16 Lev. 23:10:16. 17 Acts 2:1-4. 18 Matt. 3:11. 19 The Wind of the Holy Spirit comes into His tabernacle, right into the place of worship, bringing the conditions of the Kingdom of God, in the proper and necessary balance that will produce the fruitful yield, righteousness, peace and joy, from the Seed (Rom. 9:29) sown in good soil; a yield sufficient to fulfill the statutes and ordinances of Torah, written

on the flesh tablets of your heart which is in the ark of your covenant.  Thus, we can be used as a vessel to minister Light and Life to others. 20 Col. 2:10-14 21 Col. 1-13. 22 Isa. 27:12, Luke 15:4.  23 Matt. 6:10. 24 1 Pet. 2:9. 25 Rev. 5:1. 26 1 Cor. 15:54. 27 John 10:16, Ezek. 36:37-38, Matt. 18:11-13.  28 Ps. 147:2, Isa. 11:11-12.

 

 

The Good News/Gospel of the Kingdom

 

Paul never taught that the plan of YHVH had been eclipsed or replaced with a new plan, or that the chosen had been replaced with a new people.  On the contrary, he affirmed the promises made to Israel.  He addressed the Ephesians as “you who were formerly Gentiles”, and told them that they had been brought into the commonwealth of Israel¹.  Paul affirmed YHVH’s love of the forefathers and the irrevocable call placed upon them².  Moreover, he said…

 

… the truth in Messiah, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Messiah for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Torah, and the service of God, and the promises (This is the wealth common to Israel and the irrevocable call); Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Messiah came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen, Rom. 9:1-5.

 

Paul meant that he’d be willing to die without salvation that his kinsmen in Israel might come into the kingdom, along with the (fullness of) Gentiles who come into the commonwealth through adoption (Jacob’s adoption of Ephraim³), i.e. through being “grafted-in” ⁴.  Why?  Why is it so important that all of Israel come in?⁵ 

We see that there have been two Houses; a division in Jacob’s House.  One has had the Kingship and one the Priesthood.  Through His prophet Ezekiel, we see that YHVH purposes to have one nation, one people, one kingdom, and one Lord Messiah Shepherd over them⁶.  That’s why we need to know that we are brothers.  We’ve come from the same lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  As brothers, we need to dwell together in unity⁷.  This is the restoration of the House of Jacob.  The House of Jacob is a unified nation, a Firstborn nation, coming together to fulfill the irrevocable call on the forefathers.  The ‘good news’ is that there is a Kinsman-Redeemer in the House of Jacob.  The wall of partition between the two Houses has been broken down through the cross⁸ and there is a King-Priest in the House of Jacob.  But, why is this good news?  Why is it so important that all of Israel come in? ⁹

Messiah said He came for the lost sheep of the House of Israel¹⁰.  He paid the redemption price for the Firstborn¹¹, but He didn’t set the creation free.  It was groaning and travailing for the sons of God¹² when Paul taught.  It is still waiting today.  As Firstborn, we need to receive instructions for living which qualify us to be redeemers.  The redemption of the creation is the ‘greater work’¹³ to which we’re called.  But, why is this good news?  And what about the House of Judah?  Why is it so important that all of Israel be saved? 

 

Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?  For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? Rom. 11:12-15.

 

Why is it so important that all of Israel be saved?  So that there can be life from the dead!  Ephraim and Judah must be reconciled to each other and to Messiah, united in the Land promised to the forefathers, so that all of creation can be redeemed.  It means Life from the Dead!

 

Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Yeshua Messiah, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Yeshua Messiah for ever. Amen, Rom. 16:25-27.

 

 

Awake O Israel!  Put off your slumber, for the Truth will set you free!

 

Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Messiah shall give thee Light! ¹⁴

 

 

End Notes

 

1  Eph. 2:11-13. 2  Rom 11:28-29. 3  Rom. 11:25, Gen. 48:5 & 16-20. 4  Rom. 11:1 & 16-24. 5  Rom. 10:1, 11:26. 6  Ezek. 37:22 & 24. 7  Ps. 133.

8  Eph. 2:11-14. 9  Rom. 9:25-10:1. 10 Matt. 15:24, 18:11. 11 John 10:11, 15 & 17. 12 Rom. 8:19-23. 13 John 14:12. 14 Eph. 5:14.

 

 

 

Appendix A.  Of Grace, Faith, Works, Righteousness and Judgment

 

The Apostle Paul says we’re not under law but under grace¹.  What grace is it that is sufficient for us? 

 

For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, so that no one should boast, Eph. 2:8-9. 

 

So, we cannot be justified by our works.  We can only be justified by faith, and we can only acquire this faith, by His grace which extends to each of us a measure² of/capacity for faith.  Then, why do our works matter, whether they comply with the statutes and ordinances or not? 

 

For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua unto good works, which God  before ordained that we should walk in them, Eph. 2:10.

 

Grace, then, is not license to lasciviousness³, God forbid, and works continue to matter⁴.  They are, in fact, central to what we were created for.  Paul explained to the Ephesians that we are blessed of the Father, being chosen ‘in Him’ before the foundation of the world, and predestinated unto adoption as children by Yeshua, to the praise of the glory of that grace, His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through His blood, and forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of that same grace.  He made known to us the mystery that in the fulness of times He would gather together in one, all in Messiah, both those in heaven, and those on earth; even ‘in Him’, by Whom we also obtained an inheritance, that we should be to the praise of his glory, in Whom we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory⁵.

What gives God Glory that men should praise him?  Yeshua taught that good works glorify our Father.  Then He spoke of law and of righteousness: that neither law nor prophecy was passing away until all of it, the Torah and the words spoken by the prophets, would be fulfilled.  Moreover, He said that our righteousness had to exceed that of the lawyers, i.e. those who merely know the ‘law’, but don’t do the ‘law’, or the Kingdom would remain beyond reach⁶.  Have we read this?  Do we know and understand this?  So, what are ‘good’ works?  Yeshua instructed us not to labor for, i.e. work for, that which passes away, but for that which endures to everlasting life.  When asked, ‘What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?’, He answered ‘This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom He hath sent’⁷.  He said ‘Believe’, so now we are back to faith.  And later, some claimed, ‘Abraham is our father’, to which He replied, ‘If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham⁸.  He said ‘Works’, so now we are back to works.  Neither knowledge of the law alone, nor lineage alone avails; but faith in YHVH and His Word, leads to knowledge with good, acceptable works, and faithfulness to the heritage of the fathers.  

What are the works of Abraham?  Works of faith that staggered not at the promises of God, and brought forth an heir from one as good as dead…(dead in sin until belief/obedient works were accounted as righteousness); works of obedience that went out when he was called and sojourned in the land of promise; that when tried, offered up Isaac, believing God was able to raise him up, even from the dead⁹.

Scripture tells us that even Moses kept the Passover by faith¹⁰.  Then, as works/observance without faith is dead¹¹ (i.e. works/observance apart from faith in His work* through Messiah, will render no life from the dead), also faith without works is dead¹². 

 

*What are His works?

He hath showed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen.  The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure, Ps. 111:6-7. 

 

Thus saith YHVH, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command  me.  I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.  I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith YHVH of hosts, Isa. 45:11-13.

 

Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified, Isa. 60: 21.

 

And works of faith are accounted as righteousness¹³; not the ‘legalistic’ expression of works, which renders ‘self’-righteousness, but works by faith in God’s work, promises and power, which render righteousness that is of God and ascribes any glory, derived from praise for the work, to His Name.  ‘Law’ was the tutor to reveal the heart condition which, without His Torah written there by His Spirit, can only fall short of God.  Efforts to abide that ‘law’, which is written outside the heart, can only be expressions of the flesh and will of man.  But, when the Torah is integral to our being¹⁴, is fused into us by the Fire of the Holy Spirit, its outworking, becomes the expression of His Divine Nature resident within us.  How can we be the New Creation and deny the Torah written on our hearts?  It is with joy that we embrace it, not by natural efforts.  The Joy of YHVH, then is our new Strength¹⁵, not the might, nor power of our own resources¹⁶.  It was by this Joy that Yeshua endured His crucible of obedience¹⁷.  It is no different for those who are ‘in Him’.  Having received this new Nature, the Nature of the New Creation/His Nature, it becomes ‘natural’ for us to live by it.  We are no longer tutored by the ‘law’, but by the Spirit Whose Nature is the fulfillment of this same ‘law’¹⁸.  The testimony of Yeshua is the spirit of prophecy¹⁹, all of which will be fulfilled before one ‘jot or tittle’ passes away from this ‘law’²⁰.  The active expression of His Spirit fulfilling the will of the Father through obedient New Creation sons will be seen as His ‘works’.

So, faith alone is no value, and works alone is no value, but faith with good works will avail unto eternal life.  Now how will we be judged?  Yeshua says:

 

For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment unto the Son:  That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which has sent him.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.  For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself; And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.  If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.  There is another that bears witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true.  You sent unto John, and he bore witness unto the truth.  But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that you might be saved.  He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.  But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me.  And the Father himself, which has sent me, has borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.  And you have not his word abiding in you: for whom he has sent, him you believe not.  Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.  And you will not come to me, that you might have life.  John 5:22-40. (emphasis added.)

 

Yeshua is saying that we will be judged ‘in him’ according to our works…, were they good works?  Were they His works?  What works did He do?  What remains of the ‘jot and tittle’ to be fulfilled by the Spirit of the Father?  We will all be judged, all of us, according to our works, and our works will be judged good or evil by the standard of His works.

 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.  I am Aleph and Tav, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.   Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city, Rev. 22:12-14.

 

How were the 7 churches judged?

1. Ephesus:  I know your works … Remember therefore from where you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works…,   Rev. 2:2a & 5a.
2. Smyrna:  I know your works…,   Rev. 2:9a.
3. Pergamum:  I know your works…,   Rev. 2:13a.
4. Thyatira:  I know your works,.. and your works…, …and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. … And he that overcomes, and keeps My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations…, Rev. 2:19a, 23b & 26.
5. Sardis: …I know your works…; …I have not found your works perfect before God.  Rev. 3:1 & 2b.
6. Philadelphia:  I know your works…, Rev. 3:8a
7. Laodicea: I know your works…, Rev. 3:15.

 

So works continue, and what/who it is that works, and what the works accomplish will be manifest, as Paul instructs:

 

Now he that plants and he that waters are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are laborers together with God: you are God's husbandry, you are God's building.  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man take heed how he builds on it.  For no one is able to lay any other foundation except that which is laid, which is Yeshua Messiah.  Now if any man builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.  If any man's work remains which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire, I Cor. 3:8-15.

 

What is the foundation of Yeshua Messiah?  The Word from the beginning, that was with God, and was God²¹.  The Word that ‘changes not’²².  Why do good works need to be made manifest?  When Philip asked to be shown the Father, Yeshua spoke to him of works, His works, by which Philip had seen the Father, because our works reveal who our Father/father is.  Yeshua promised that by belief in Him, greater works would be done, after He would go to the Father²³. 

What works, even greater works, remain to be done?  The work of the redemption of creation.  What qualifies the firstborn to be redeemers?  Faithfulness to the statutes and ordinances.  Our works will show us faithful firstborn.  We must remember the teachings of Moses to accomplish His works.  And our only access to the enduement of power to become the sons of God is through His Spirit, which is given to those that believe, for it is by faith through grace.  But to what end?  Redemption of creation according to the statutes and ordinances, to the praise and glory of God.

 

End Notes

1  Rom. 6:14.  2  Rom. 12:3. 3  Jude 4. 4  Rom. 6:15-19.  5  Eph. 1:2-14. 6  Matt. 5:16-20. 7  John 6:27-29. 8  John 8:39. 9  Rom. 3:29-5:2, Heb. 11:8-19. 10 Heb. 11:28. 11 Heb. 7:19. 12 James 2:14-17.

13 Gal. 3:6. 14 Jer. 31:31-33. 15 Neh. 8:10. 16 Zech. 4:6. 17 Heb. 12:2. 18 Rom. 8:1-4. 19 Rev. 19:10.  20 Matt. 5:18. 21 John 1:1. 22 Mal. 3:6, Ps. 119:89. 23 John 14:7-14.

 

 

End of Document.