The Good News of Israel and Her Messiah

Is Israel The Suffering Servant?

2011-08-17T21:13:00.001-07:00

Indeed, Israel is the suffering servant - but has not yet attained to the measure that is set, the measure that is set by Yehoshua HaMashiach for her – and only with him can she attain to it... And already she does attain this merit with Mashiach Yehoshua, for it is he who holds her hand in all her suffering and gives her all victories, though she does not know it. She has the merit because he is with her and will never leave or abandon her, but how shall she receive what is hers with honor and joy, the honor of the suffering servant, who redeems the lost nations? Only when she claims the good news that is hers, his gift of himself for her, will she do this.

Glorify the Lord of Israel in the Fires

2011-03-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

We are told that circling around the Pacific Ocean is the "ring of fire". As the weight, the glory, of God's presence presses in on time itself, Scripture tells us that the earth will be moved, causing ever more frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. It is within this very circle of the Pacific Ocean that the "ends of the earth" as measured from Jerusalem are to be found. It is the coming to these "ends of the earth" of the Good News of Israel and her Messiah, the good news of the King and his Kingdom, his Kingdom of those whom he chose, though they did not choose him, it is the coming of this good news that is the true and only mark of the end - according to the word of Israel's Redeemer himself.

Isaiah 64:1-5
Oh that You would rend the heavens, that You would come down, that the mountains might flow down at Your presence, as when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make Your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence! When You did terrible things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains flowed down at Your presence. For since the beginning of the world no one has heard, nor perceived by what they have heard, neither has any eye seen, O God, beside You, what he has prepared for those who wait for him. You meet them who rejoice and work righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways: Look! You are angry; for we have sinned: in this confession is our sustainability, and we shall be saved.

Isaiah 24:14,15
They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the oceans. Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the seas.

And the prophecy was given to Elijah to bring the understanding of these signs, as it says,

1 Kings 19:12
And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

For the earthquakes and the fires are only for preparation, in order that we, the Human Race, might know our need for mercy. But the heart of God is not in the anger or the expression of the possible merciless sentence of death for the Human Race. The heart of God is in the grace of the quiet and gentle voice of mercy and salvation - which will be heard when He has finally brought us all to silence in His courtroom.

Talking About Nahum

2011-02-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

ESV's Introduction to The Book of Nahum http://biblia.com/

When Jonah preached repentance on the streets of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, the people responded and were spared. A century later, sometime between 663 and 612 b.c., Nahum preached in a time when Nineveh would not repent. Nineveh, which had destroyed Israel’s northern kingdom in 722, itself fell to Babylon in 612—just a few years after Nahum’s warning. The Assyrians were notorious for the brutality of their treatment of other nations. Nahum declared, however, that God is sovereign: he punishes whom he will, and they are powerless to stop him. Much of Nahum’s prophecy was directed to the people of Judah, who could rejoice at the good news (1:15) of Nineveh’s impending fall.

Yehoshua (Jesus) the Messiah of Israel, identified the sign that Nineveh received from Jonah having been dead for three days and three nights - which brought them to a measure of repentance - with the sign that Israel would receive from his being dead for three days and three nights and then coming to them again. This is the background for Talking About Nahum.

In Nahum 1:9 we read that the God of Israel will not allow iniquity to rise up a second time. When the prophecy is fully studied and understood it will be realized that there is an ultimate prophetic reading to this statement. It will be seen to apply to the whole history of the world. God has designed the history of redemption in such a way that He not only will deal with the first uprising of iniquity which has characterized this whole world and its history from its beginning, He will also deal with it in a way that makes it as certain as His word that iniquity can never rise up a second time. This is the crown of the Good News. Therefore, this is a most precious study for us to undertake.

A person needs to be prepared inwardly to come to this understanding. It is not enough to simply read about it in the form of a conclusion. One needs to be a disciple, a student of the word of the Messiah of Israel. Even to come this far you had to have some interest in the Book of Nahum. That is unusual. Hopefully, you were drawn to this interest by the Holy Spirit. If you follow on from here in this study you will find it a little difficult. If you continue on you will come to the realization of its promise.

In the following study section you will find a few of my notes in the following format:

MCK NOTE -> ..............

RESOURCE STUDY SECTION

First See Rabbi Greenbaum's notes on Nahum 1 posted here:

http://www.youversion.com/users/Benjamin-ben-Nathan/notes

Talking About Nahum: Part One - Resources and Orientation for Hope and Faith

2 Peter 3:9 KJV
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

1 Peter 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. (NASB: Lockman)

1 Peter 5:9 Commentary

1 Aug 2010 ... (MacArthur, J.: The MacArthur Study Bible Nashville: Word Pub) ..... 106:43, 44, 45, 46; Is 30:18, 19, 20, 21; Lam 3:32; Micah 7:7, 8, 9; Nah1:12 ... In turning us to God -Deut 4:30,31; Neh 1:8,9; Ps 78:34; Is 10:20,21; Ho 2:6,7 ... Only the KJV is free with this download but you can also download a ...
www.preceptaustin.org/1_peter_59.htm

MCK NOTE -> Knowing that the faithfulness of the faithful is based upon the faithfulness of the God of Israel, who is faithful in that He tempers His judgment with mercy:

Nahum 1:12

"Thus saith the Lord; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more."

Tempered with mercy -

Ps 78:38,39; 106:43, 44, 45, 46; Is 30:18, 19, 20, 21; Lam 3:32; Micah 7:7, 8, 9

Talking About Nahum:
Part Two -

Resources and Orientation for Faith to Face Judgment

Ezekiel 7:1-13

1 Aug 2010 ... (The Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Translation: 1995. ..... Let usboldly petition God for 5 things as did David, "Search me, ..... "own possession" (KJV"peculiar treasure", NIV "treasured possession") (Ex19:5)! ... (Nah1:6) The answer is that only those whose "life is hidden with Christ ...
www.preceptaustin.org/ezekiel_71-13.htm

The question the prophet Nahum posed applies to every person ever born -- "Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken up by Him." (Nahum1:6)

Talking About Nahum: Part Two - Resources and Orientation for Faith to Enter Eternal Life

THUS SAYS THE LORD GOD, 'A DISASTER, UNIQUE DISASTER, BEHOLD IT IS COMING: (Nahum1:9)

...described by Jesus as "a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall." (Mt24:21)

MCK NOTE -> But what is the second part of Nahum 1:9? The very perfection and completion of the affliction means that affliction share not rise up the second time.

1:9 What do you imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.

MCK NOTE -> Now this is to say that affliction from the Lord against His people will not rise up the second time because the affliction of iniquity itself shall be brought to an utter end in the world and shall not rise up a second time.

If we narrow in on a couple of words, we can begin to clarify what it is that this verse is saying:

⁹ Whatever you (imagine) devise ^R23 against the LORD,

He will make a complete ^R24 end of it.

Distress (affliction) will not rise up twice.

R23: Psalms 2:1; Nahum 1:11

R24: Isaiah 28:22

Book of Isaiah - NASV
Chapter 28:22 - And now do not carry on as scoffers, Or your fetters will be made stronger; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts, Of decisive destruction on all the earth. In reference to this - Chapter 10:22 - For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
"Imagine" or "devise" is in Strongs: 02803: 2803 chashab khaw-shab' a primitive root; properly, to plait or interpenetrate, i.e. (literally) to weave or (gen.) to fabricate; figuratively, to plot or contrive (usually in a malicious sense); hence (from the mental effort) to think, regard, value, compute:--(make) account (of), conceive, consider, count, cunning (man, work, workman), devise, esteem, find out, forecast, hold, imagine, impute, invent, be like, mean, purpose, reckon(-ing be made), regard, think. We might translate it: "Design" or "plan"... It is interesting that in one place this word, "chashab,", is translated, "compute". So we would have: : "Whatever you design against the Lord..." Or, "Whatever you plan against the Lord..." We might paraphrase it in this way: "Whatever strategy that you devise against the Lord..." In the context of Nahum's prophecy, "against the Lord" means against Jerusalem. The name translated here as "Lord" is The Name, HaShem, the unique name used of God only as the God of Israel. "Affliction" or "distress" is in Strongs: 06869: tsarah tsaw-raw' feminine of 6862; tightness (i.e. figuratively, trouble); transitively, a female rival:--adversary, adversity, affliction, anguish, distress, tribulation, trouble. The masculine of, "tsarah," is in Strongs: 06862: tsar tsar or tsar {tsawr}; from 6887; narrow; (as a noun) a tight place (usually figuratively, i.e. trouble); also a pebble (as in 6864); (transitive) an opponent (as crowding):--adversary, afflicted(-tion), anguish, close, distress, enemy, flint, foe, narrow, small, sorrow, strait, tribulation, trouble. We might paraphrase: "Whatever you design or plan, whatever strategy you devise, against the God of Israel, He will make an utter end of it! The adversary will not rise up the second time."

Commentary Section

From Rabbi Greenbaum's Notes: While the classical commentators explain Nahum's prophecies about the coming doom of Nineveh as referring to its overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar, Targum Yonasan also interprets the same prophecies as alluding to the future destruction at the end of days of all the nations that harmed Israel. As a prophecy of vengeance against her enemies, Nahum's message, although fearsome and doom-laden, is a consolation to Israel.

The Good News:

To render the Hebrew of Nahum 1:9 as literally as we can, we might translate: "What do you scheme against HaShem?" The openness of the question, the openness of "What?" and the openness of "you", in the context of the thought of Nahum's prophecy allows us to conclude that it is the evil inclination that is ultimately addressed.

The evil inclination is otherwise called, "the flesh", where that term indicates the fallen nature of rebellion against God, where it has not been tamed by the influence of the Holy Spirit. In its extreme manifestation it is represented by the King of Assyria arrogantly coming to overflow Jerusalem and her witness to the God of Israel, the Creator and Redeemer of the heavens and earth. If that anti-Messiah will not rise up the second time it is because the evil of sin in the heart and soul of Humanity, iniquity, will be completely brought to an end by the victory of the merciful righteousness of God.

Nahum as Revealing The Crown of The Good News:

Luke 21:24: And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

To Be Continued

Follow the development of this study on Springpad -> http://sprng.me/9n0hc

Messiah and Israel Now

2010-12-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

The Ramban says that Yehoshua could not be the Messiah because the the Anointed One is one who is ruling over Israel - which means that Israel is redeemed from captivity through him, as when Moses was king over Israel as God's redeemer of Israel from Egypt. And Israel is not yet redeemed from captivity.

In the Book of Acts, Yehoshua's disciple, Kefa, (Peter), said that through his resurrection God had anointed Yehoshua. This distinction means everything. Indeed, the message of the death and resurrection of Yehoshua means that there is not and never will be a Messiah of Israel who rules according to the order of this world. But there is a Messiah of Israel. Since Yehoshua is made Messiah of Israel, the anointed Lord and King of Israel, as Kefa said, then Israel itself is re-created, and if it were not so there would be no good news at all.

Does this mean that Israel is to be brought back from captivity only in the sense of being brought into the realm of the World to Come through the death and resurrection of her Messiah, but is not to be fully restored by her Messiah literally in her land? Not at all. It means that the power of the World to Come is the power that brings Israel out of the nations, and the power of the World to Come cannot be resisted. When she is fully in her Land of Testimony she will bear witness to the truth of her deliverance from captivity to all the powers of This World through the power of The World To Come.

Then it will be known and seen by all that it was and is Yehoshua, Israel's Messiah, who brought the power of the World to Come into This World to save Israel.

Therefore, if anyone believes the Good News of the Bible they are believing that Israel as they see Israel with their own eyes, as Israel appears to the natural understanding of this world, is not Israel as God sees Israel through Yehoshua her Messiah. Before this Good News, every motion of Israel was the dialogue of God with the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob drawing toward the death and resurrection of Yehoshua, Israel's Messiah. Now, since this Good News, every motion of Israel draws Israel into the Holy Spirit of God and Israel is continually transformed in God through Yehoshua's death and resurrection, though this transformation is as hidden as Yehoshua himself in spiritual places.

Nothing that an individual Israelite does is in isolation. Rather, it is always an action of Torah Israel, Torah in death and Torah in resurrection power, in and through the death and resurrection of her Messiah. What if some individuals in Israel do not trust in him? Did Joseph's brothers trust in him? Yet he testified that God sent him down into Egypt in order to save them alive. It is not Israel's choosing him but his choosing Israel that brings the power of the World to Come into this world.

So also, as it was with Joseph and the Egyptians and other nations who benefited from his actions to save Israel, so it is with any gentile grafted into Israel through Messianic faith. Anyone believing in him is now eternal in all motions of life - all motions of their lives pass through the death and resurrection of the Messiah of Israel. For their resurrection, when they shall be perfect toward him in all ways of faith and conduct, is yet to come, but their salvation cannot come from this. All salvation comes alone from the perfect love and faith and conduct of Messiah toward Israel. This alone brings joy to God. There is no other salvation than God's joy.

The Harvest of The Goyim

2010-09-07T18:37:00.001-07:00

The Wailing Place
Everything Shaul (Paul) did and said was about the work of planting and harvesting a testimony among the nations, a testimony that the promise made by God to Abraham has been fulfilled in Yehoshua (Jesus) the Messiah. All of this work is now about to be finished.

When it is finished there will be no more adversity coming to the Jew in the name of Christianity. There will no longer be an anti-Semitic Christianity in the world. Instead, it will be acknowledged by everyone who has any interest in Yehoshua (Jesus) at all that he was claimed only to be a Jew of the tribe of Judah of the line of David. He was not reported by anyone to be of the tribe of Benjamin, for example, nor of Levi, nor of any other tribe or people. If he was Messiah he was the promised Messiah of the Jews, not of the Romans, not of the Persians, not of the Arabs nor others. When the work of the testimony among the Goyim, (the nations), is finished everyone, friend and foe, will admit to the importance and truth of this.

It will be admitted by all that if he was the promised Messiah he was giving new revelation to the promise of the Messiah in Israel. He was revealing himself as a Messiah who would be rejected and would freely lay down his life, rather than forcing himself on his beloved bride, Jerusalem. It will be admitted by all that if he is the Messiah he gave himself over to death in order that God might keep His promise to Abraham, the promise He made by covenant with Abraham.

It will be agreed that if he is the Messiah he is the Messiah because he was sent by God to be the Prophet like unto Moses to lead Israel into the perfection of obedience to the Torah. It will be acknowledged that if he is the Messiah he is the Messiah because when he was rejected by his own, rather than condemning his people for rejecting him and his Father who sent him he laid down his life. It will be recognized that if he laid down his life, he laid down his life freely in an act of eternal justification and forgiveness toward Israel. And then the testimony will be clear that he did this in order that God might keep and fulfill His covenant with Abraham, to bless him and his family and all the nations of the earth through him.

It will be admitted by all that if he is the Messiah he will come again to his own when his own are prepared to receive him. For this is truly the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah, the corporate salvation in heavenly places of God's chosen nation, through Yehoshua, her Messiah and Redeemer.

2010-07-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Image by david55king via Flickr

The following is the lead post from my new site:
Scent Essence of Jerusalem

Jesus/Yeshua/Yehoshua did not separate himself from Israel. For the sake of the world learning the nature of his faithfulness he has endured for a long time all efforts to separate him from Israel. He will not allow these efforts to continue forever. Soon he will make all the world to know that no one can call him Christ/Messiah/Mashiach before the Father who seeks to separate him from Israel. But anyone who has done so who has not known what they were doing will be forgiven."

Read More Posts There

Matthew 5:25 Come to Terms Quickly

2010-05-12T20:08:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

In the Torah, for a judge to rule and then set aside the rule and mediate is a dishonor to the law.

Matthew 5:25 Come to terms quickly with your opponent while you are on the way to court, or your opponent may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.
26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out of there until you pay back the last penny!” ISV

Why does Yahoshua teach this? Does he seek to warn us against the Courts of the Torah? Rather, he teaches one and the same thing as when he says that The Torah must be upheld in all until the world is no more - and then it will remain but there will be no more need of courts - for all will live within its ways forever.

In Sanhedrin 6b the emphasis is on the virtual blaspheme of a judge who would set aside a ruling after it is given to find a compromise. In Yahoshua's teaching the way of peace through volunteer effort at settlement is contrasted to the peace which comes by settlement through the strict justice of the court. Furthermore, negotiated or mediated settlement is placed where it belongs in the preferable place, as in the new covenant as foretold by Jeremiah when all will make peace with one another willingly from the new Godly heart - but it is given this preferred place only when pursued before the case goes to court. After that there is according to Yahoshua and according to the Talmud, no going back. For it is not possible that the Torah be dishonored.

The Straight Gate

2010-05-02T12:57:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Through the calling of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Adam, for the sake of repentance, is given power to establish righteousness in This World at every point of openness in the Law, for every moment of question of what the will of God is in Israel, for corporate Adam. But not one point of openness or question in the Law in This World is the gate into the World To Come. For that gate is composed of the combination of all points of openness and every point designed for questioning and searching in the Law - all combined into one. And the power to establish righteousness at that point, in order that Adam might walk uprightly through that gate, in accordance with the Law of God, is given only to the True Tzaddik, the True Righteous One, the Son of Adam.

For the gate of the point of the Law that opens into the World To Come can only be opened from the side of the World To Come.

Now the antinomian says, If it is true that only the Son of Adam can open the gate into the World To Come, and if it is true that gate into the World To Come must be opened from that side, then all that they do who labor to establish righteousness at every point of the Law they do in vain. But the truth is that the gate into the World To Come is straight and the way unto it is narrow, like a narrow bridge that crosses over the sin of This World and is not defiled by it. Every point of openness in the Law of God is only a point of openness for the sake of presenting a lesson in repentance for Adam, and the lessons of repentance for Adam would be infinite and endless were it not for the knowledge of the soul of the Son of Adam. For only by the knowledge of the soul of the Son of Adam can all the lessons of repentance in every moment of question and searching in the Law of God be gathered into one lesson that has a beginning and an end.

Thus every point of openness and question in the Law must be decided and every lesson of repentance for Adam must be learned. And all must be learned according to the measure of the knowledge of the soul of the Son of Adam.

Until Adam's lessons of repentance are all learned according to the measure of the knowledge of the soul of the Son of Adam the Son of Adam will not open fully the gate into the World To Come. For until that time Adam will not be ready and prepared to find it. Should Adam enter through that gate to eat of the Tree of Life before their corporate repentance was complete, before it had completely prepared them for the judgment of Truth, they would not find that Tree to be life to them but would find it to be eternal destruction.

Antinominanism therefore is found to be the evil inclination in Adam toward resisting repentance, and those who fight in the end for antinomianism are found to be fighting against the soul of the Son of Adam.

Therefore, to straighten the way for Adam on the left hand and to straighten the way for Adam on the right hand, the Son of Adam elevates the lowest sinner from the dunghill to the place of the Temple mount, but he does not cause them to enter into the Temple immediately but causes them to wait there. He does this in order that the truth of God's glorious grace is magnified in Israel, lest the wisdom of those who are wise in the lessons of Adam's corporate repentance is over magnified in the last days. Nevertheless, he does not allow those whom he raises up by the demonstration of God's grace alone to the exalted hights of the Temple mount to enter immediately into the Temple but causes them to wait at the wall of the gate until those who come up through all the points of repentance in the Law arrive and become their teachers and receive from them the charity of a share in the gift that has been given to them. For, "the first shall be last and the last shall be first," and only then when all the souls of Adam have become one in one school will the soul of Adam be measured according to the soul of the Son of Adam and be prepared in repentance for the full opening of the gate into the World To Come.

Ruling on Bleeding

2010-04-27T13:42:00.001-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

"It once happened that due to the great demand the price of pairs of birds rose in Jerusalem until it stood at the level of gold dinars. Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel declared, 'I shall not sleep until pairs of birds are sold for silver dinars. I swear it by the Temple.'

Thereupon he entered the court and taught the following law: A woman who was liable to bring pairs of birds for five definite cases of childbirth or five definite cases of zivah must bring one pair of birds for a sacrifice and may thereafter eat of offerings, and the remaining four offerings are not incumbent upon her. And that very day the price of pairs of birds dropped and stood at a quarter of a silver dinar, which, some say, was one hundredth of the original price." [Adapted from ArtScroll Schottenstein ed. BT Bava Basra 166a]

Now understand this as a ruling of Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel on bleeding. In this he testified that the tears of the daughters of Israel should yet be dried for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. How can this be known?

To Adam it was said: "In the day that you eat thereof..." Thus, in that it was said, "in the day," there was time given for bleeding, and time given for bleeding is time given for prayer. And the offerings of the Temple are the offerings prescribed by the Torah for the prayer of Israel in this day of bleeding. Therefore if through inflation prayer and offerings were being brought to nothing the bleeding also of the daughters of Israel was for nothing.

If the bleeding of the daughters of Israel was for nothing then we can see by means of a holiness of spirit through the ruling of Rabban Shimon Ben Gamliel that all hope in the word of G-d was gone. We see that for this reason with the sword of his ruling he slew the dragon of inflation.

And we have learned from the texts of the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah which are hidden in plain sight:

"As Yahoshua went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.

And Yahoshua said, 'Who was it that touched me?' When all denied it, Kefa said, 'Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!' But Yahoshua said, 'Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me'.

And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace'." [From Luke 8]

Now I speak to those who know the Torah. Here is the light of understanding that radiates from this story when we place it in the setting of the story of Rabban Shimon Gamliel's ruling concerning the price of two birds in Jerusalem:

In Yahoshua the shedding of the blood of the daughters of Israel is consummated. Through him the eternal prayer of Israel is heard.

See Update On Obadiah post

2010-03-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

See this critical update on the book of Obadiah, who prophesied against Edom and against the nations of the age of the Holocaust. Read here

Did Israel Reject Joseph?

2010-03-01T11:46:00.001-08:00

Did Israel reject Joseph? No. Only certain of his brothers rejected him, and some, Reuben and Judah, for instance, were a remnant among the brothers to testify to the love and trust of their father's heart toward Joseph, though they too, personally, may have doubted him.

Joseph is sold by his bothers Wikipedia

For why did his brothers reject him? It was on account of their perception of his replacement theology. For they saw him as putting himself above even his father and his mother. Such would be a violation of the covenant that God made with Abraham, the promise he gave also to Isaac and Jacob alone.
With a righteous indignation Joseph's brothers were offended by him. Of being a mere "Dreamer" they accused him. Should one's dreams outweigh the very word, the very covenant, of God? But in this judgment of Joseph as being an heretic and guilty of the invention of replacement theology his brothers understood neither his dreams nor their father's trust in Joseph.

Jacob blessing Ephraim and Manasseh Wikipedia

For Joseph did not dream of his exaltation above them and above his father and mother in a dream of life but in a dream of death. Therefore his brothers, in their ignorance of this, fulfilled the very words of God in covenant with Abraham. For Egypt would be a parable of death for Israel. And it would be in the fulfilling of this justice of God's sentence upon Adam that Joseph would rule over all his father's household. And it would be in all Israel's repentance toward the heart of their fathers that Joseph and his brothers would reign as one together over the world in their redemption from Egypt, a parable of life.
For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not made to Abraham to be fulfilled in This World but in the resurrection of the dead.

How Israel is Corporately Redeemed

2009-12-18T14:41:00.001-08:00

The corporate understanding, first of Adam, then of Israel, is really the right starting place for understanding the good news of God for the world. If we want to say that the God of the Bible is our God, and that, for example, His ten commandments apply to us, then we must begin by acknowledging that He is our God - not because we lay claim to Him but because He lays claim to us. How he lays claim to Israel is very plain to see. "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." It is because of this that Israel is commanded to have no other gods than the God who has corporately redeemed her from Egypt. But how is it seen that God lays claim to us who are not Israelites so that we might understand his ten commandments as applying to us also?

We need to take a step back. I am not sure what approach you take to interpreting the account of Creation in Genesis, but whatever approach anyone takes, it should be clear that if the Bible is read in its own terms of reference it teaches that Adam is defined by God equally as a corporate entity as an individual entity, equally as a family entity that is fruitful and multiplies as an individual entity that can be identified either as a male or a female. Indeed, it can be seen from the Bible that God did not design Adam as a self-sufficient individual or group of individuals who then had the choice to love or not to love, so that the individual could be defined as complete with or with out love and love could be defined as something that was non-essential to the individual's definition by the design of the Creator. To the contrary, it is written of the individual Adam that it was not good that he should be alone; he was not a complete creation like the other creatures until love was an inherent part of his definition, until he - and she - were able to be fruitful and multiply out of love, until Adam was corporate. So then, once Adam was a corporate creature, a creature of love, then the male was defined as an individual in relation to the female and the female was defined as an individual in relation to the male, and so would it be with their offspring. First the corporate, then the individual. In this way God was pleased with his creature and with all of his creation and saw it as being very good. Now before we can understand anything else, we must understand that when God acted to redeem the creature, Adam that he had made, he acted to redeem it in the way that it pleased him to create it, first as a corporate entity, then, out of the corporate the individuals who derived from the corporate.

We also need to look at the question of what it means to say that God, the Creator of all, is uniquely called the God of Israel. Why is this? When correcting the Sadducees for not believing in the resurrection of the dead Yehoshua (Jesus) said to them that God is not the God of the dead but of the living. We understand that the hope of the resurrection to eternal life is not the inheritance of all but only toward those who convert to the way of repentance from sin and of faith toward God. Adam, without repentance, is counted by God as condemned, as though he were dead already. Because Adam is first corporate, (not first an individual), by the design of creation, all who are of Adam are counted as dead, as though they were dead already, (Romans 5, II Corinthians 5). If Adam were first an individual and only then by an act of free will corporate then the condemnation that came upon him for his sin would have come upon him alone as an individual and not upon the whole of his corporate family. We must also see clearly that the promise made of the seed of the woman in the garden was not given to Adam personally but was made as a promise against the serpent and in Adam's hearing. Thus, there was reason there for Adam as an individual to have hope but corporately speaking this was a judgement upon Adam because the promise as a corporate promise for humanity was being given through and therefore to the seed of the woman and not to Adam. Only when, for the first time, God gave Abraham the promise of blessing and of blessing humanity through him and his seed was the corporate promise of good news first given to any sinner. Before this, the same promise was alluded to by God in dealing with sinners, such as in the case of Noah, but the promise itself was not given to Noah or anyone else before Abraham. The covenant with Noah and all creatures only specified a mitigated judgement; this was an allusion to good news but cannot be called the good news itself.

When all there was in the world was the curse of God, suddenly the good news of the blessing of God came in the form of God's promise, which was made both to Abraham and to the seed of Abraham, and was given by God personally to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. We see now that it was possible for God to make this corporate promise of blessing, and therefore of atonement and resurrection unto eternal life, to these fathers of Israel, who were sinners because he made that promise through and to that seed of Abraham who is his holy Mashiach (Christ). This is the understanding of the corporate redemption of Israel as the corporate redemption of Adam. As there is this chosen branch of corporate Adam which is given a new corporate head, the Son of Adam, the Last Adam, (Daniel 7:13; Matthew 9:6; Romans 5, II Corinthians 15), the first Adam is removed from the headship of the redeemed body of humanity. For Christian theology to have said for so long that Christ redeems only individuals and then God assembles them into a new corporate entity that never existed in any form before has only created confusion on every level. For replacement theology to continue to maintain this teaching today, after the Holocaust, is no longer tolerable. It is time for this to be rectified.

In my next installment in this series of emails I will speak specifically about how Israel as a corporate entity can be forgiven when even the majority of the Jews have yet to recognize the person and work of their Mashiach (Messiah).

May Israel's Savior save us in all our thought and words and actions.

John 8:6

2009-12-06T10:29:00.001-08:00

In tractate Bava Basra 54a of the Babylonian Talmud, in speaking about the process of laying claim to property, one method that is refered to is that of drawing a picture upon the property, (such as upon a building), to show one's ownership of the property by beautifying it.

In John 8:6 we read that Yehoshua knelt down and drew or wrote upon the ground. This 'mark' is the only 'mark' that Yehoshua is recorded to have made by hand. He made it directly on the Land of Israel.

Repentance, Resurrection and Regeneration

2009-09-09T00:01:00.001-07:00

Abraham was born cursed by God with all other people in his father, Adam, but God promised him blessing and to be a blessing to all families. Upon the basis of this promise of blessing repentance came to mean something far more in Israel than it could ever mean outside of the realm of this promise. This is the true meaning of Israel's 'baptism' in the Jordan river.

Only with the promise to Abraham could repentance bring hope in the face of the curse, yet repentance was possible for Adam even under the curse of God. Still, the possibility of Adam's repentance could never itself alter God's curse. It was not repentance under the curse of God that brought the promise of blessing into the world. It was the grace of the will of God alone.

*** Valley of the Jordan River near Beth Shean ***

The promise of blessing came as a word from God that would somehow overcome the curse of God. It could not simply take the place of the curse which came as an act of God's righteous justice on account of sin. Somehow the blessing of God promised to Abraham would have to transcend the curse of God without ever altering the judgement of God which decreed the curse, including the curse of death, for Adam's sin and all subsequent sin following in the wake of Adam's sin.

Repentance under the curse of God could have no reward other than its own goodness. Even if it brought forgiveness this would not entail a change in the word of God. This principle can be seen if illustrated by a case where someone murdered a loved one of a judge. After the judge passed a death sentence upon the murderer, it might come about that the murderer repented of the sin. It might also happen that a relationship ensued between the repentant murderer and the judge resulting in the judge personally forgiving the murderer. This would not change the sentence, just as it would not bring the murdered person back from the dead. For the death sentence did not come from the personal relationship between the judge and the murderer in the first place but from the justice of the law, which is applied to all people in the same way.

If after the sentence is carried out the judge were to have the power to raise the murderer from the dead it would then matter greatly whether the murder had been repentant or not and whether the judge had forgiven the murder or not. And indeed, God, who created all things from nothing had the power to raise the dead. Accordingly, the promise of blessing given to Abraham has everything to do with the resurrection of the dead.

When Abraham believed the promise of God he received the hope of the resurrection of the dead, and when anyone else believes the promise of God to Abraham, the promise of blessing, they receive the hope of the resurrection of the dead. In receiving this hope the soul receives a spirit from the power of that resurrection itself. This spirit is life that comes from the World To Come, the New Creation, the spirit of regeneration. In crossing 'through' the Jordan River Israel passed corporately into the world of God's promise, the world where repentance and regeneration were two aspects of one action. When all Israel came down to the Jordan to the prophet Yohanan to be immersed the confession was being made that the original crossing was spiritually deficient and needed rectification and completion in Israel's heart.

Poetic Commentary on Yehoshua's Prayer

2009-08-08T14:37:00.001-07:00

Our Father who is in heaven - Israel's Father, our Father, who is in the Heaven of heavens alone,

hollowed be your name - Re-create our heart and lips with your name.

your kingdom come - Lift your kingdom, your daughter, up into your arms, your warm embrace.

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven - Flood the earth with the knowledge of your name and with those who do your will, as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread - Give us again today a share of your existence, for we can create no existence on our own.

And forgive us our debts - Forgive us the debts we owe to your Life-Giving Word, even those damages caused by the wind of our wings, as we forgive the debts that are owed by others to us.

And lead us not into temptation - for, even if we take one step without your Presence, light itself becomes a temptation to us.

But deliver us from evil - Deliver us from ourselves, for, without your Presence, we always turn the wrong way and fall into evil.

Bamidbar

2009-05-23T12:22:00.001-07:00

G-d's commandment of the firstborn, of the Levite, of the Tabernacle, etc., is Israel. This means G-d's commandment to temporal Israel is to become eternal Israel. This is to say, The commandment brings Israel to G-d, and so, in coming to G-d by the commandment, Israel is Israel - brings Israel to G-d, that is, in accordance, in each commandment, with the "permitted purpose of Adam's existence," and so Israel is Israel. In this principle of the commandment bringing Israel to G-d and to herself, the commandment of the firstborn, and those commandments associated with it, can be fulfilled completely by Israel only together with Mashiach. See ArtScroll Interlinear Bamidbar p.9 nt. 51 > also, as per reference there, Menchos 27b.

This is the meaning of corporate Israel, which is to say, Adam according to the design of G-d, which allows relationship with G-d in a manner which sustains and does not destroy Adam. For if it were not for Adam being defined by G-d's mercy and judgment in Mashiach, the Son of Adam, Adam would be destroyed on account of the action of sin. According to this re-definition of Adam is the corporate redemption of Adam, that is to say, the corporate redemption of Israel through/in/by Yehoshua HaMashiach. "In this way God loved the world..." John 3:16. Every specification of the Torah is established in him. When anyone begins to think that they replace the Torah they immediately lose all true understanding and leave themselves and all who follow them with no hope except the non-expressible grace of G-d. And concerning this prospect for the nations, the gentiles, as we say, we have an example of this, for if they are cut off a second time there is no assurance, and the only hope left is the non-expressible grace of God. Romans 11:21-24. But now the grace of G-d is expressed for all the world to understand, for all who would hear. It is expressed in Yehoshua's laying down his life to save Israel from all humiliation. And just as he laid down his life to do this, so he took it up again by the commandment of his Father in heaven as the demonstration of the power given him to lead all Israel into victory over the fear and love of Egypt, the fear and love of Babyon, Persia, Greece and Rome in their hearts.

Truth and History

2009-04-20T12:34:00.001-07:00

The term historicity refers to whether something reported is true in history. In modern times the historicity of the whole of the Bible has been brought into question and denied by many. The real question behind this issue is the question of why people believe that anything in particular is true and not false.

That people believe what they want to believe is shown clearly by the practice of idolatry. That people can just as easily disbelieve what they want to disbelieve is shown clearly by the phenomena of Holocaust denial.

The supposed authority of science and scholarship is a movable foundation of sand for building any possible certainty upon. Even the most honest court system is fallible. There can be and is only one unmovable, infallible foundation of truth and that is G-d Himself and His Torah. If we would be certain of the Good News of Yehoshua of Nazareth we can only be certain on the basis of conviction from the Spirit of G-d of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, a conviction that is based upon the Torah of G-d.

It is only through such a conviction that we can come to repentance and faith toward the God of Israel. Questions about the historicity of the Good News or the Torah arise when we begin to think from an assumption that we are capable of seeing evidence clearly and judging it to come to a conclusion about what is true and what is false. If we trust scholars or scientests as expert witnesses in making such judgments, we trust that their minds and hearts are pure enough from bias and all moral corruption to be able to cross-reference their evidence to be able to test their theories and prove them to our physical senses or sensibilities.

Thus when we judge according to the proofs of scholarship and science we buy into the philosophy of materialism, the philosophy that nothing is true or real that cannot be proved in terms of physical matter or physical energy. By definition materialism rules out the existence of G-d who is spirit before it even begins to present its case concerning the veracity of the Biblical record. There can, therefore, be no possibility of minds that are able to begin thinking only with the paradigm of materialism to understand the words of the Biblical record, and yet they proceed to give evidence against its historicity and to judge it. As this is the case, there can be no discussion with such thought on this level.

There is only one leve of discussion that is possible and that is the level of morality. Only when by the testimony of the Torah of G-d, given through Moshe or given by Yehoshua, has brought someone to actually listen to the words of the Bible will the Bible itself, with the help of G-d's Spirit, teach them how to understand it. For to begin to understand the Bible one must begin to learn to understand the world in terms of G-d's will, then of G-d's wisdom, compassion, grace and judgment. When one has learned to understand the world in terms of G-d's mercy then, and only then, will one be able to begin to learn to understand the nature of the material world and one's perception of the physical world of physical matter and energy. For time and space are not what they seem to be to mortal beings. The physical universe is not an existence in itself, but is an expression of the mercy of G-d, by which He allows it to exist conditioned upon His own eternal and unsearchable purpose of love.

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How We Can Obey The God of Israel

2009-03-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

The reason that there is truth and goodness in Christianity is because all the things that its replacement theology has always said about Israel and the relationship of Jesus - Yehoshua - and Israel are not true.

God's Good News to the nations is not that some individual Jews received His anointed one. His Good News is that his anointed one came to his own as he was sent to them by their God and did not forsake them in death, but gave new life and salvation to his people, his nation, Israel, through his resurrection from the dead. This is God's Good News! And this Yehoshua demonstrated by sharing his own power of obedience to their God with that portion of Jews who then began to receive him. This is God's Good News to the nations, even as it is His Good News to Israel.

This now is how Israel can obey their God, with the power of the Messiah's resurrection from the dead. And this now is how the nations can obey the God of Israel, by repenting of going their own way and thinking their own thoughts, by instead believing this Good News about Israel and her Messiah, and turning toward her and joining with her, supporting her in her new resurrection power of Torah obedience.

Accordingly, because Jesus - Yehoshua - did not bring a judgment of rejection upon Israel, upon the nation of his own people, (for it was not possible that the natural mind of human beings should be able to receive the revelation of the new creation of God), there is truth and goodness within Christianity, (as the faith of those gentiles who have heard and responded to God's Good News for Israel has come to be called). And this is despite the fact that Christianity as an organization has come to teach replacement theology, replacing the whole of Israel, in their mistaken understanding, with the part, the part which those who teach replacement theology see as their own foundation.

Because the opposite of what is taught in replacement theology is true and replacement theology is false, because salvation was accomplished by Yehoshua for the whole of Israel, even the sin and error of replacement theology which is found in Christianity cannot take away the truth and goodness of Yehoshua which is found there and Christians can be forgiven for the error of replacement theology. For replacement theology shall fall away and be forgotten and only the beauty of the truth and goodness of Christianity shall remain, having been preserved by the glory of God's grace and love toward Israel.

See part two of this posting here:

How We Can Obey The God of Israel - Part Two

Let The Name

2009-02-14T20:07:00.001-08:00

Let the name
of the God of Israel be heard
parting the sea of war
dividing the waters of fear
splitting the waves of death
opening the door that no one can shut
and shutting the door that no one can open
for the highway of peace to pass through
for the crippled spirit to cross over
for the aborted soul to walk upon
for the prisoners of pride to march to freedom on
for the martyrs of truth to dance upon
for the lost among the waste heaps of empires
to be found upon
for the meek before their Creator
to be enthroned as nobles upon
for the lonely from sin
to be enraptured in righteousness upon
for the guardians of the heavens
to return home upon
to lead little children to their Father's chest
to give the stars their rest
to make the God of Israel known by all forever
world without end
Amen

Torah Music

2009-01-31T20:04:00.003-08:00

Isaiah 60:21 Your people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever; the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, wherein I glory. JPS

All your people shall be tzaddikim. This means all will be Torah sages judging, each and every one, with the wisdom of Solomon. For the individual human being is truly defined by the decisions of interpretation and understanding of the Torah in the community, and the community is truly defined by its relationship to the head of the whole Torah body of Israel. When all are one with each other in the creative expression of Torah wisdom together with Mashiach, this is the Torah Music of the God of Israel, the Creator and Redeemer of heaven and earth. And this is, "Every person shall sit under their own vine and their own fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the God of Israel has spoken it" Micah 4:4. That is, He has breathed and breathed again into the nostrils of Adam.

Psalms 72:1 and the Interpretation of Isaiah 53

2009-01-17T14:50:00.001-08:00

Psalms 72

(Text translation and commentary quotations from ArtScroll.)

Verse 1. For Solomon. O God, Your judgments to the king - do give and Your righteousness to the prince.

"Messiah is referred to as 'Solomoh', which means, 'Peace is his.' (Radak)

"According to Rashi, David asks that any harsh divine judgment to be meted out to his family be inflicted directly upon him, the king. Thus, David's son, Solomon, the son of the king, would enjoy righteousness..."

(From a previous paragraph) "Thus God, Your judgment to the (first) king - do give; but that the king's son, who has inherited a stable, secure throne, can...afford to show clemency and compassion. Thus, grant Your righteousness (and spirit of mercy) to the son of the king."

(From a still previous paragraph) "It is insufficient for a king to base his ruling solely on a rigid code of law. The responsible magistrate should temper justice with mercy and should help the litigants to fulfill the requirements of the law. (Rashi; Zerah Yaakov)

Notice! In these statements we have an exposition of this first verse of Psalms 72 that allows us to learn from this verse the reconciliation of the two understandings of Isaiah 53. The prayer of David concerning himself as king and the establishment of the kingdom (with strict justice shown upon him, not his son) is the aspect of Israel suffering as the People of God and the servant of God among the nations for the sake of the correction and edification of the nations through mercy. And it is also the aspect of Mashiach suffering all strict judgment in order that Israel might be corrected and edified from its own goyish origin and inclination, as it serves G-d in the process of edifying the nations.

This is the secret or mystery of G-d, as spoken of in Revelation chapter ten, the secret of Judah bringing mercy to Joseph in Egypt and ths receiving mercy by the mercy of G-d shown to Joseph! Thus it will be that when Mashiach comes he will come as the Moshe of Shalom, Solomoh, ruling with shalom over Israel in her land and over Egypt in her land.

Y’shua did not blind himself to Israel

2008-12-14T18:31:00.001-08:00

When Israel was blind to Y’shua, Y’shua did not blind himself to Israel, we can be assured that he continued to make his ruach/spirit available to all Israel, to all who hope in him as their ancestors hoped in him (Jn. 8:56), and that his ruach/spirit is not available only to that remnant which recognized or recognizes him.

If we believe that Yehoshua is the Master (Adon) and Messiah of Israel, we can be assured that he is present corporately with Israel in every generation by his ruach/spirit, even though Israel does not recognize him. When G-d called Abraham it was in a context where G-d’s only promise to the world was death and the only certainty was G-d’s curse, with only a hint of hope. The promise of the seed of the woman was not given to Adam and Eve but to the serpent as a promise against the serpent, so what did it mean to Adam and Eve?

When Adam and Eve were allowed to overhear the promise made by G-d against the serpent, it was made certain for them that they would not die without the serpent who deceived them also ending in death. And in this there was even the hint of hope for redemption. The promise of the rainbow to Noah was only the promise that G-d would not destroy the world by water, which told Noah that G-d was still thinking about ways to destroy the world. There was still only death. G-d’s word to Humanity was still only the curse of poverty and pain, the things that would lead to death. Then suddenly G-d gave a promise of blessing to Abraham. In this context where there the only word from G-d was death and a curse, G-d promised to bless Abraham and his offspring and to bless all the nations, all of Creation, through Abraham. This was good news! Soon after, G-d gave his mitzvoth of life to all Israel. This was good news! Every Jew is born and grows up in this good news as a promise.

The covenant of G-d with Abraham is certainly good news! The sign of that covenant, circumcision, is the sign of that good news! There was only the certainty of death, the anger and curse of the Creator, now there is the covenant of the promise of blessing and life given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for all! This is the incredible good news of the grace of G-d! There was only ignorance and darkness and provoking the wrath of G-d more and more, so that G-d was sorry that He had made Adam, now there was the way of life laid out through Moses line upon line, precept upon precept, for Israel. This was the awesome good news of the mercy and kindness of G-d! It is by this good news that every Jew is called by birth to become an eternal Jew, called to life, called to be redeemed and become a vessel of redemption for the nations, for all Creation, a vessel of the spreading of the good news of G-d’s promise to Abraham.

This is why when Israel heard the message about Yehoshua their were Jews who recognized that this was good news. It was the good news that they had always heard, heard by virtue of being Jews, heard by virtue of having the Torah as their gift from G-d. The message of Yehoshua to those who had ears to hear it was the good news that the blessing of Abraham that had been flowing in partial measure was now flowing in the form of a great river that would one day become a great flood! Good News, indeed!

Honor your parents

2008-11-29T00:17:00.001-08:00

The first sin in the Garden of Eden was the first act of idolatry, the conception of all subsequent pantheism, 'We shall be as God..."

The cure for this was to place Israel under the commandment of the Torah, repositioning Humanity to fear God not its own power of choice. This established Israel on two levels. On the first level Israel is established as a family offshoot of the first Adam, and on the second level Israel is established as defined by God's word as a promise of blessing - that must and will overcome God's word as a curse of poverty and death upon all Humanity, including Israel.

Rabbi Nachman teaches that the Holy Language cannot be perfected without the Targum. This means that the aspect of Israel that is defined by the election of God does not replace the aspect of Israel that is goyish and defined by its identity in the first Adam but rather elevates that original nature.

Adam's sin was the origin of the concept of replacement theology, 'We will be the decision makers for the world instead of God'. But when God turned the relationship of parent/child on its head because of this, so that it became the seed, the offspring, of the woman which God said would crush the serpent and the parents then could only hope as two individuals in this promise made against the serpent, then the natural adamic mind began to elevate itself in the position of child against parent, desiring to be the replacement for the head of Humanity.

Destruction of Kingdom of Edom Leading To Rejoincing of the Nations With Israel

2008-11-12T22:16:00.001-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

<< Isaiah 34:9 >>

And the streams of Edom'shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof
into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
American Standard Version

Obadiah 1
English Revised Version

1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord GOD says concerning Edom: We haveheard tidings from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, Arise! Let us rise up against her in battle.

2 Consider how I have made you small among the nations: you are greatly despised.

3 The pride of your heart has deceived thee, You that dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that says in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

4 Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest be set among the stars, I will bring thee down from there, says the LORD.

5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (consider how your are cut off!) would they not steal until they had enough? if grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes?

6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden treasures sought for!

7 All the people of your confederacy have brought you on your way, even to the border: the people that were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you; they that your bread lay a snare under you: there is no understanding in him.

8 Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one may be cut off from the mount of Esau by slaughter.

10 For the violence done to your brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and you shall be cut off for ever.

11 In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you, even you were as one of them.

12 But do not look on the day of your brother in the day of his disaster, and do not rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither speak proudly in the day of distress.

13 Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yes, do not look upon their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither lay your hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.

14 And stand not at the crossroad, to cut off those of his that escape; and deliver not up those of his that remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations: as you have done, it shall be done unto you; your dealings shall return upon your own head.

16 For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually, yes, they shall drink, and swallow down, and shall be as though they had not been.

17 But in mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall burn among them, and devour them: and there shall not be any remaining to the house of Esau; for
the LORD has spoken it.

19 And they of the South shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the lowland the Philistines and they shall possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, which are among the Canaanites, shall possess even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South.

21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD'S.

A genuine Jewish/Christian dialogue - not just of words, but a dialogue of words of faith - will lead to the destruction of the kingdom of Edom. This will signify the victory in the decisive battle in the great war against Amalek; and this will lead to the open and full rejoicing of the nations with Israel, which will open the way for the spirit of Elijiah and the welcoming of Mashiach, in the name of Adonai, in his eternally beloved city, Jerusalem.

The Biblical Concept of Corporate Adam / Israel part 1

2008-10-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

Abraham Plus Sarah

When the God of Abraham promised Abraham that He would make him a blessing, He spoke in terms of families. He spoke of Abraham in corporate terms.

Why did Abraham's relationship with Hagar, resulting in the birth of Ishmael, not work toward bringing about the fulfillment of the promise of Abraham becoming a channel of blessing for the world? Because it was not Abraham in his individual capacity that was chosen but Abraham in his corporate capacity that was chosen to overcome the Creator's curse with the Creator's blessing.

When the God of Abraham said to Abraham, "I will make you a blessing," He was not speaking (in the first place) of Abraham's accomplishments as an individual; He was speaking of Abraham corporately as a father, as one part, the male part, of the source of a family. This means that essentially it was Abraham's marriage to Sarah that was chosen. It was Abraham plus Sarah. Only Abraham with Sarah was corporate Abraham as chosen by the Creator of Adam, the man and the woman. Thus it could not be that Abraham and Hagar could work toward the fulfillment of the promise, for this relationship with Hagar represented and understanding of Abraham as an individual, apart from the corporate aspect of Adam.

Thus, it was when Abraham personally believed in the promise as given to him in his corporate aspect, given to him together with Sarah as a corporate source of the branch of Adam chosen for the redemption of the world, to Abraham and his seed, that it was "counted to Abraham for righteousness." And thus it is that if any form of replacement theology denies the present and future corporate redemption of Israel the same theology denies the very promise of corporate redemption for Adam that Abraham believed in in order to be justified by his faith. This presents us with the question, how do we develop our understanding through the grace of the God of Israel from an individual centered hope and theology to the corporate hope that was given to Abraham and in which he believed in order to be justified by faith?

On Matthew 10:23 +

2008-10-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

This posting is in dialogue with a posting on Matthew 10:23 +
That posting can be found at:

http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/eschatology/matt_2nd_com-02.htm

Setting The Mood: The Gospel Records as a Dialogue of Jews with Jews

Matthew 3:7 (NKJV) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

MY NOTE: Is this to say that many of the Pharisees and Sadducees who John saw coming to him were recognized by him to be a "brood of vipers" but perhaps many were not! Or are we to automatically read it to say that John saw Pharisees and Sadducees to be characteristically a "brood of vipers," and so would have described any Pharisee or Sadducee whatsoever with this characterization? In either case, what does this term mean in the mouth of a prophet of Israel? Does this word from this prophet contradict or support the idea that some of the pharisees, at least, were as righteous as any of the greatest Israelites had ever been but were still falling short of the glory of God and their failure was that they were not confessing this at the time when the The King Messiah was in their midst?

On Matthew 10:23+

QUOTE from link provided above: Matthew 10:23 makes it clear that Jesus is talking about His Second Coming as the Son of Man: "When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. The phrase, "Son of Man," comes from Daniel 7:13 and refers to the Son of Man being presented before the Ancient of Days. Jesus is saying to his twelve disciples that they will not have fled through all the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. They will keep running through the cities, fleeing from their persecutors. When He says that they will not have time to have fled through all the cities, it indicates that they will not have fled to all the cities until the Son of Man comes, a promised deliverance for them - the twelve!

MY NOTE: Is the text saying that the twelve disciples themselves would not finish going through the cities of Israel... but rather the Lord would have to come as the Son of Adam, as the Davidic King and be received as who he was and is before the work could be finished? Does this mean, "There will be no peace until he returns." And is this what the Berean Church commentator is saying here? It seems rather by what follows that the commentator sees the notion of the beginning of The Eternal World to be under discussion by other commentators here and this commentator is intending to correct what he regards as the mistaken notion that this is what Yehoshua was teaching about here.

But if to the disciples Yehoshua's words would have meant that they would not finish going through all the cities of Israel until his arrival in majesty like King David in their own time, to Yehoshua himself his words would have meant his second coming in glory in the end of days, even though he did not know the day nor the hour. And thus it would seem, to my understanding, that he was indicating that their work in Israel would never be complete without his being received by Jerusalem and by the nation as one.

There is really only one alternative to this understanding and it is not, as the author here points out, that Matthew 10:23 points to the Transfiguration. {This is not for the reason that the author gives. Matthew 16:28 does find a degree of fulfillment in the Transfiguration. See notes on this below.} There is really only one alternative to the view that Yehoshua knew what the disciples did not know, that he would be killed, would be resurrected would be taken to heaven to actively await the time - work to bring about the time - when he would be received by Jerusalem (although only the Father knew when that time would be). The alternative is the view that the author puts forward here of a fully developed form of replacement theology. In my concluding notes below I point to the window of revelation that is found in understanding that Yehoshua was teaching his students the way of divine failure in this situation.

Matthew 16:27-28 (NKJV) "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. 28 "Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

QUOTE from link provided above: If you believe the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant Word of the Living God, then this passage gives a clear either/or, when determining its fulfillment. Either Christ has fulfilled this passage, and His Coming has occurred, or else some of that initial audience is still alive. There is no escaping this in the language used. Anybody familiar with logic knows that when an "if statement" is encountered, it indicates a split passageway, in which one and only one of the results can be followed. In this case if Christ has not come, then some of the audience must still be alive physically. And conversely if the entire audience has physically died, then Christ has to have fulfilled this verse and come in glory! If Christ was true to His word, there is no other alternative here! There can be no splitting of the pieces and parts of the fulfillment. It is all or nothing.

MY NOTE: The author here [see full text] has virtually equated Matthew 10:23 and 16:28, but they are not equivalent. In fact, Matthew 16:28 can first be associated to John 8:24 on the one hand and John 21:23 on the other hand. Do to these associations we must ask what exactly this idiomatic expression, to "taste of death," actually meant to the Jewish mind of the day. In light of the passages mentioned, we cannot assume that it simply or only meant to physically die. We should also look at the similar expression and its use in Hebrews 2:9. It is even possible to understand the expression to mean that some there would not become regenerate until they witnessed the Transfiguration - they would not die spiritually until they would at the same time and by the same power be made alive spiritually - as a visible testimony of how salvation works for all, though it is never so visible. But while such an idea might be derived from the words, is this the simple meaning of the words?

The author of the quoted text, the Berean church commentator, equates Yehoshua's enthronement in heaven and the subsequent judgment upon Jerusalem within the apostle's life time with his second coming. Is it because of having difficulty with these questions that there is only limited teaching in historic Christianity about the enthronement of Yehoshua in heaven? In order not to come to such anti-Semitic conclusions of replacement theology, is it necessary to avoid all deep discussion and study of the great event of the enthronement of Yehoshua in heaven? But if Yehoshua were making reference to his actual enthronement in heaven in Matthew 16:28, how would he have been saying that any of his disciples were going to witness this?

The giving of the Holy Spirit and the judgment upon Jerusalem could not be said, (as this author tries to do), to be the event itself, but only results of the event. Thus there is no need to draw lines of polar opposition between the idea of the preservation of Israel and the enthronement of Yehoshua as Mashiach in heaven. Judgment had always been corrective chastisement for Jerusalem and for Israel. Why would it now have to be termination for them rather than a part of salvation? Replacement theology wants to see Yehoshua's enthronement as his vindication, his victory over "the Jews." Such enmity is a projection of the replacement theologian's own envy and misunderstanding upon God and upon His Messiah.

But what, then, is this mystery of Yehoshua's enthronement in heaven and not (yet) on earth? Is this mystery not the soil in which all the weeds of replacement theology now grow, in fact is this mystery not the soil in which the weeds of replacement theology have always grown? Consider how the Lord's prayer changed in context before and after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord! "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!"

Did he not have this (vision of his throne in heaven) in mind when he taught the prayer to his students? We can let Matthew 10:23 inform Matthew 16:28 in the following way. The students looked for the glorification of Mashiach in this world in their own generation. What did they think would be the nature of his kingdom? Success. Yehoshua taught them to fail. Matthew 10:23. He taught them then to foresee the glory that would come by grace through the glorification of the divine failure. Matthew 16:28ff.

The Lord's anointing in the heavenly realms is not the anointing of worldly success but of worldly failure. The failure of God is greater than the success of Adam. God rules by His failure over all the successes, all the empires great and small of this world. What is God's failure? It is His failure to have Israel crown Yehoshua in Jerusalem when he came to them. It is by this very failure that God rules over all things. For it is this failure that God turns into Israel's salvation and it is Israel's salvation through this failure of God - wherein He failed in order to give the gift of absolute grace to Israel - that He saves even the Gentiles, even the angels, even the days, even the nights, as well as all creatures great and small on earth, under the earth, in the seas, in the skies, even to the end of the stars, redeeming all things with the blood that Yehoshua shed for Israel, until all Creation is able to keep the Sabbath of God with Israel.

Topics In Acts 15 #1

2008-10-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hebrew Roots Pastor Ariel Ehrmantrout [http://www.torah4christians.com/Judaizers.html writes:

Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."

"The Key to understanding what the “Judaizers” were doing is found in this one verse. They were Patrician Pharisee’s from Jerusalem; and they were constantly worrying about “Ritual Purity” as defined within the Levitical System during the 2nd Temple period. They were saying to former Gentiles—that without the “sign of the covenant in your flesh” YOU CANNOT BE SAVED.

"They were teaching a traditional Jewish thought that unless you have both B’rit Millah (Circumcision in the foreskin) then your conversion is not complete. And undoubtedly, Rabbi Sha’uls converts were getting very upset about this. But why would it matter? Because without this sign in your flesh—you could not ENTER THE H-LY TEMPLE and SACRIFICE TO OBTAIN RITUAL PURITY. They were telling them that they would not be allowed into the Temple and thus they were not “fully converted to Judaism!” Rabbi Sha’ul knows that ritual purity is not found in the blood of bulls and Sheep—but in the perfect sacrifice of the blood of Rabbi Yeshua. Ritual Purity is only found in Messiah! So in review—a Judaizer is someone who tells you that the sign of the Mosaic covenant MUST BE in your FLESH for you to be considered “pure” before God." [End quote.]

We might better begin by asking if this term, "Judaizer," is a useful term in the first place. It certainly sounds like a term harboring the kind of "closet antisemitism" that Ariel Ehrmantrout condemns on his website. Perhaps neither Paul nor Luke were so much against Gentiles, who so desired, continuing to convert to Judaism - so long as they understood fully what they were doing, as they were against confusion of the two phases of Messiah's coming. For until the Kingdom is "handed back" to the Father by the Messiah a certain distinction in the world of Adam between Jew and Gentile must be sustained for the sake of witness to the one true God . Rather than demonizing anyone as a "Judaizer" we might better begin by asking why this dispute about circumcision was even taking place in the first place.

Ariel Ehrmantrout points out that without the sign of circumcision in the flesh a possible proselyte could not enter the Temple to offer a sacrifice. A problem would also arise when it came time to partake of the Passover. Problems with marriage would arise. In short, without circumcision in the flesh, a proselyte could not be considered by the Jewish people to be a full convert to Judaism or member of the nation of Israel. Now if James and the apostles had the very same idea of Christians and Christianity as is held by most Church leaders today why would of this even been an issue? Clearly they had no thoughts of a different religion that would be called Christianity and would make the possible circumcision of Gentile followers of Yehoshua a non-issue. Does it not seem clear that, to the contrary, the open question for the apostles was how the Gentiles were to be included in the blessings of the nation of Israel?

Only if this is the question under consideration does it make any sense that there were some voices that were saying that Gentiles who were drawn to the faith and religion of the Jews because they believed that Yehoshua was the Messiah should all take the final step of being circumcised - just like converts always had. Not only will facing this completely change the context in which we must carry out any discussion of the concept of "Judaizers," it will also place upon us the necessity of clarifying our understanding what the apostles would have understood the blessing of the nation of Israel to be - that Christian Gentiles were to partake of either without being circumcised or through being circumcised. For clearly, they would have understood this blessing of Israel to be that blessing that was to come to Israel through the promised Messiah.

So then, we should not talk about "Judaizers" or the conversion of Christian Gentiles to Judaism, or circumcision for Gentiles, or Torah for Gentiles, or any such thing, unless we are first completely clear on that very thing which the apostles had to become clear on - Peter, James, Paul and all the apostles. What was the relationship of Messiah to the nations? And therefore what was the relationship of the Gentiles to Messiah? It is time that this question were completely reconsidered in a context that is completely free of replacement theology, a theology that entirely obscures any truth concerning this question.

YECHEZKEL - EZEKIEL - CHAPTER 20 AND THE CORPORATE NATURE OF ISRAEL

2008-05-27T17:11:00.001-07:00

Certain elders came to Yechezkel - Ezekiel - and sought to receive a message from God through him. The response to these elders from the God of Israel was that he would not respond to their questions. They were then told that the only reason that God had preserved Israel even from the time of Israel's captivity in Egypt was for the sake of his own name. In other words, God has attached his name to the nation of Israel and this gives the nation of Israel its one unchangeable definition. It is for this reason and no other that Mashiach died, was buried and was raised again from the dead. And it is for this reason that Israel is preserved. This is the true corporate nature of Israel and all nations shall rejoice with Israel because of it.

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Immersed In Israel's Good News

2008-05-17T11:33:00.001-07:00

To believe that Yehoshua (Jesus) is the Messiah of Israel is to believe in the corporate redemption of the nation of Israel, whether or not the one who believes realizes and understands this. But it is far better to realize and understand this than not to. Realizing and understanding this is the beginning of the end of all confusion about the relationship of the grace of God and the Torah of God, and of all Antisemitism and of many other problems and evils.

Israel's Good News is that a belief that Yehoshua (Jesus) is the Messiah of Israel is itself a belief in the corporate redemption of Israel. How has this realization and understanding been blocked historically in the Gentile Christian believer? It has been blocked by the natural reasoning that since the faith of the majority of a nation constitutes the faith of the nation, if the majority of the people of Israel rejected Yehoshua (Jesus), then there was no redemption of the nation of Israel. The Good News, however, Israel's Good News, is that in the case of Israel it is not the majority of the people who determine the corporate identity of the nation but God who determines the corporate identity of the nation.

The corporate identity of Israel is written by God in the covenant of God made with Abraham, and God has made Yehoshua (Jesus), the same man who was crucified, to be Lord and Messiah of every Jew who does not reject the covenant of God and every Gentile who believes in the covenant of God. This is the Good News of Israel. Every soul that is immersed in the hope of God's covenant is immersed in Israel's Good News, whether or not they realize and understand this. But it is far better to realize and understand this than not to.

Read more on this subject.

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2008-03-17T14:11:00.001-07:00

Here is some correspondence between my brother and me about Israel's Gospel:

Israel's Good News

There are some other posts about Israel's Gospel at this site as well.

Also here is

The Justification of Life

2008-01-31T12:10:00.000-08:00

The Justification of Life

[Photo]
Introduction
My purpose here is to study the full nature of the Gospel. I have titled this site, The Good News of Israel and Her Messiah, because it is this good news that fully reveals the justification of life, spoken of by Paul in Romans 5.

The justification for Israel's life is the justification for Adam's life. It is a justification through judgement and that judgment fell upon Israel's Messiah and the sacrifice of his adamic soul. In the first act of adamic justification no individual was or could be justified except Yehoshua (Jesus) himself, but he was justified for life not only according to who he was but also according to what he was, human, a Jew, the son of Adam.

In being justified for life in who he was he was alone, but in being justified for life in what he was the humanity from which he came and for which he gave himself up as a sacrifice was also justified for life. This was the humanity of Adam, not as represented by the individual, Adam, the first human being, but as represented by Yehoshua, the one chosen of God to be the anointed King of Israel. And this humanity, Yehoshua's humanity, was the humanity of Adam as represented by corporate Israel the family branch of Adam that was selected by God for no purpose but that ultimate glorious purpose of showing that God's salvation comes through grace, unmerited favor. Therefore, every time God saves an individual Gentile by grace he is giving testimony to his unmerited selection of Israel for the sake of the corporate redemption of Adam.

This family branch, selected by God, is Israel, not as represented in the first place by Abaraham, Isaac or Jacob, but as represented in the first place by Yehoshua and defined by God through Yehoshua as being bounded by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God determined that these would be the fathers of Yehoshua's humanity, which would be justified for life. Life was not justified in or through them, but in and through him for them.

Thus it was necessary that in order to be justified for life in who they were as individuals, as well as in their roles of fathers for God's chosen humanity, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had to believe God personally, that he would justify life for them in the Seed of Abraham, whom he promised to them. This is the beginning of the understanding of the Good News of Israel and her Messiah.