theology

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Moses and the King who Hides

Having briefly touched on this week’s Torah Portion and how I suspect that Moses would have been heartbroken, I also want to raise an interesting issue around the concept of the Almighty, the King of the Universe ‘hiding’ himself.

Moshe Kempinski in his Torah Portion Podcast points out that the Hebrew in Duet 31:17 literally reads ‘I will hide that I will hide’, where we read in English: “and I will abandon them and hide my face from them.”

Apparently, the Jewish sages understand this to mean that God will hide or turn His face away even when people don’t know that He has!

That is, they may think they are walking in Truth, and with God, when they are NOT!

What a profound and challenging thought!

In a related story that Moshe Kempinski shared in his Torah Podcast, he relates the story of the Rabbi grandson of the great mystical Rabbi Baal Shem Tov. He is sitting outside studying Torah when one of his grandchildren comes crying to him. His grandchild has been playing hide and seek and found the perfect hiding place. The only problem was no-one found him! After the child had been soothed and went off to play, the Rabbi pondered on this. When his wife came out to the verandah where he was sitting, the Rabbi was crying. She asked why. He said, God hides so well, that few try hard enough to find Him!

God WANTS us to find him! We WILL find him when we seek Him with all our heart, mind and soul!”

I had written a blog post (at luke443.blogspot.com.au) some 18 months ago on this concept of ‘The King Who Hides’. It is reposted below:

The King who hides:

I recently heard a good analogy.

A young King saw a beautiful but poor peasant girl and was taken by her grace, her beauty and her joy. He desired to get to know her better and perhaps win her heart. He did not want to command her obedience or to intimidate her, but wanted her to love him for himself.

Yet if he faced her in all his finery and authority and with all his royal assembly and displayed the great breadth and majesty of his Kingdom, he would have little hope of getting to know her on level terms, of getting to develop a mutual and balanced relationship.

He must therefore disguise himself. Not in any dishonest or devious manner, but simply to find a way to let her see the man behind the Kingdom, in the hope that she might connect with his true self, his values, his character and natural beauty.

This is perhaps an analogy for how God interacts with us.

He hides Himself to some degree, He sets a distance between himself and us. Without such disguise, such ‘hiding’, we would be overwhelmed, and our relationship with the Almighty could not develop with the simplicity and normalcy that successful courtship requires.

The Almighty has ‘hidden’ Himself from us to such a degree that he calls on us to seek him and that only by seeking him with all our hearts, minds, strength and soul will we find him.

Consider Proverbs 2:1-5

1. My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;

2 So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

3 Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

5 then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God.

We can see here that the Almighty calls us to receive his words and by meditating of his words and commandments we will be obedient to them. We see here that we need to seek with great diligence as God’s treasures are hidden.

Luke 11:9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Also Jeremiah 29:13

And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

This verse in itself is extremely powerful and I believe sums up the truth that, while God may be hidden, He can be found and we can enter into a relationship with the Creator and King of the Universe. Our King calls for our whole heart.

Are you listening? Are you willing to search for Him and His hidden treasures?

To give a little more of the context of Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart”, we see Jeremiah prophesying about the return from exile in Babylon:

Jeremiah 29:

10 “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

13 You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart,

14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

The context then was that the Almighty himself would lead some of the Jewish people to turn back to Him and He would hear them.

The last king of Babylon was Belshazzar. Belshazzar was aware of what the prophet Jeremiah had prophesied at the time when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel:

“And this whole land [of Israel] shall be a ruin, and a waste, and these nations [the tribes of Israel] shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when the seventy years are fulfilled, that I will punish the king of Babylon …” (Jeremiah 25:1112)

Naturally, this is something Belshazzar was worried about and so he kept count. Unfortunately for him he miscalculated by one year. The year 371 BCE arrived, and Belshazzar assuming that the prophecy had not come true, decided that God must have abandoned His people, the Jews and that he will not therefore restore them to Israel as promised in the Jeremiah prophecy. He also, therefore thinks he won’t be punished.

So to celebrate, Belshazzar throws a huge feast and brings out for all to see the Temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from Jerusalem. He orders his consorts and concubines to drink from Temple cups and to praise “the gods of gold and silver, copper, iron, wood and stone.” (Daniel 5:1-5)

At that moment, a large unattached hand appears and starts to write on the wall  – ‘The writing is on the wall’!

You probably know the rest of the story.

What you may not realize though, is that when given the opportunity to return to Israel, most reject the dream. There were estimated to be around a million Jews living in the Babylonian empire, yet only 42,000 go back ― only about 5% of those that went into exile 70 years earlier go back and the remaining 95% stays put.

The same thing happened in 1948 when the state of Israel was declared. There were about 12 million Jews in the world at that time and only 600,000 or 5% settled the land. The rest, some 95% preferred to stay in exile. This story is, of course, far from complete.

The recent and even more miraculous return (see my article ‘Israel: Return in Belief or Unbelief’ – at www.circumcisedheart.info ), is a more complete, but still on-going, fulfillment of all of Jeremiah’s ‘return’ prophecies.

So now think of the implications! In seeing the fulfillment of these prophecies, can we now identify, who has sought God with all their heart, and who has found, or at least is finding Him?

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Super-Heroes: Heartbreak for Moses!

In this weeks Torah Portion (Vayelech – Deut 31:1-30), we read about Moses last day and how the Almighty tells Moses that he is about to die, after the last 40 years leading the Nation of Israel in the desert.

God calls both Moses and Joshua into the Tent of Meeting (where His presence was most revealed; most real and ‘physical’ or felt). Along with ‘passing the baton’ to Joshua and encouraging Joshua as the new leader of His People, God informs Moses that the people will fail God (for a time) and God will hide His face from them!

Here is what He shared:

Deut 31:

“15 ADONAI appeared in the tent in a column of cloud; the column of cloud stood above the entrance to the tent.

16 ADONAI said to Moshe,

“You are about to sleep with your ancestors. But this people will get up and offer themselves as prostitutes to the foreign gods of the land where they are going. When they are with those gods, they will abandon me and break my covenant which I have made with them.

17 Then my anger will flare up, and I will abandon them and hide my face from them. They will be devoured, and many calamities and troubles will come upon them. Then they will ask, ‘Haven’t these calamities come upon us because our God isn’t here with us?’

18 But I will be hiding my face from them because of all the evil they will have done in turning to other gods.

19 “Therefore, write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the people of Isra’el. Have them learn it by heart, so that this song can be a witness for me against the people of Isra’el.

20 For when I have brought them into the land I swore to their ancestors, flowing with milk and honey; and they have eaten their fill, grown fat and turned to other gods, serving them and despising me, and broken my covenant;

21 then, after many calamities and troubles have come upon them, this song will testify before them as a witness, because their descendants will still be reciting it and will not have forgotten it. For I know how they think even now, even before I have brought them into the land about which I swore.”

The song that Moses writes for the people ends in hope (see Deuteronomy 32), with

“43 Sing out, you nations, about his people! For he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries and make atonement for the land of his people.”

The Tanakh of course, shares in many places that despite all their wrongs and their turning away, HaShem will bring His People back into the Land of Israel, for His Name’s sake! See my article ‘Israel: Return in Belief or Unbelief’ (at www.circumcisedheart.info) for some of the evidence for this.

What I wanted to touch on though was Moses heartache!

Imagine, he has led the Jewish people out of Egypt; they have seen many miracles on a daily basis; they, this 2 million people, have ‘seen’ the Almighty in a way that no-one else has, and yet, after his forty years of leading them, Moses is told that they will turn their back on the Almighty!

And Moses can’t do anything about it; he is about to die; to ‘sleep’ with his ancestors!

How heart-broken must he have been; how despairing! He had been like a father to his brethren; he had devoted everything to them; he had rejected a royal life for them; he had sacrificed much and here he is being told in a sense that he has failed! Yes, he knew that at the great Day of Judgment; the People of Israel would be restored and all the prophecies to Abraham fulfilled, but what comfort now; in this his final moments.

Moses was a super-hero! And yet, in a sense HaShem tells him he has failed! Was it worth it?

Do you feel for Moses; do you empathize with him; when you have given your all and it appears you have failed? Evil still abounds! Man still hates his brother! What can we do?!

Let us turn to the Almighty, the King of the Universe and acknowledge we need Him; we need His strength; His comfort; His mercy and justice! His Messiah! His great Day; the Day of Judgment; the Day of Atonement; the Day of cleansing!

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From Awe to Atonement

From Unity (through Yom Teruah) comes strength of mind;

from Strength, peace of mind;

from Peace, deep introspection,

from Introspection comes recognition of wrongs committed;

from  Recognition comes repentance (turning back to HaShem).

Repentance seeks forgiveness and,

Forgiveness brings Atonement and,

stays Judgement (Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement)!

You have 10 Days – choose Life!

“We shall ascribe holiness to this day. For it is awesome and terrible.

Your kingship is exalted upon it. Your throne is established in mercy.

You are enthroned upon it in truth. In truth You are the judge,

The exhorter, the all‑knowing, the witness, He who inscribes and seals,

Remembering all that is forgotten. You open the book of remembrance

Which proclaims itself, And the seal of each person is there.

The great shofar is sounded, A still small voice is heard.

The angels are dismayed, They are seized by fear and trembling

As they proclaim: Behold the Day of Judgment!

For all the hosts of heaven are brought for judgment.

They shall not be guiltless in Your eyes

And all creatures shall parade before You as a troop.

As a shepherd herds his flock, Causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff,

So do You cause to pass, count, and record, Visiting the souls of all living,

Decreeing the length of their days, Inscribing their judgment…”

  • From the great  Unetanah Tokef prayer

King David wrote:

1. O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than God
and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,

7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,

8  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9  O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8)

In these Days of Awe, we should reflect not only on the awesome majesty of the Creator and King of the Universe, but also on the amazing role that he gave to us, to human beings made in His image. He is a personal God; He is always in our Presence; He is always communicating with us!

In fact, as we learn from Ps 19, He is speaking to us through His Creation every day and night!

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,  and night to night reveals knowledge.

Ps 19 also tells us that:

8  The Torah of Adonai is perfect, 
restoring the inner person.
The instruction of Adonai is sure,
making wise the thoughtless.

9  The precepts of Adonai are right, 
rejoicing the heart.
The mitzvah of Adonai is pure,
enlightening the eyes.

10 The fear of Adonai is clean,
enduring forever.
The rulings of Adonai are true,
they are righteous altogether,

11  more desirable than gold,
than much fine gold,
also sweeter than honey
or drippings from the honeycomb. …

15  May the words of my mouth 
and the thoughts of my heart
be acceptable in your presence,
Adonai, my Rock and Redeemer!

Let us seek the Almighty in these days leading to the great Day of Judgment and Atonement. May we fully turn back to our King and may we be given life so that we can also enter in the Appointed Time of Sukkot, the Marriage Supper of Heaven!

Aubrey and I will be speaking on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) in our next Podcast. If you haven’t listened to Parts 1 and 2 on Yom Teruah (the Day of Trumpets), you can hear it here.

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It is NOT too hard for you – the practicality of Torah:

Here is a very short summary of the last Torah Portion before Yom Teruah – from Chabad:

“The Parshah of Nitzavim includes some of the most fundamental principles of the Jewish faith:
The unity of Israel: “You stand today, all of you, before the L‑rd your G‑d: your heads, your tribes, your elders, your officers, and every Israelite man; your young ones, your wives, the stranger in your gate; from your wood-hewer to your water-drawer.”
The future redemption: Moses warns of the exile and desolation of the Land that will result if Israel abandons G‑d’s laws, but then he prophesies that in the end, “You will return to the L‑rd your G‑d . . . If your outcasts shall be at the ends of the heavens, from there will the L‑rd your G‑d gather you . . . and bring you into the Land which your fathers have possessed.”
The practicality of Torah: “For the mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not beyond you, nor is it remote from you. It is not in heaven . . . It is not across the sea . . . Rather, it is very close to you, in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it.”
Freedom of choice: “I have set before you life and goodness, and death and evil: in that I command you this day to love G‑d, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments . . . Life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. And you shall choose life.” – http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3078/jewish/Nitzavim-in-a-Nutshell.htm

For more on the practicality of Torah read my short article:

The last Torah portion before Yom Teruah

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Who is the Messiah from a Hebraic Perspective – Part 2

In this Podcast (part 2 of 2) we ask the question of who/what the first believers expected the Messiah to be; why many Jewish people reject the belief that Yeshua is this end-times Messiah; how Christians have misunderstood his ministry and how we should view the Messiah.

In this second podcast on this question, Pastor Aubrey and I look back through time to Yeshua’s day and ask the question of who the Messiah was to be; who was expected; what sort of man was he to be; what was he to do? What was the understanding that the first disciples would have had and how did they see Yeshua as fitting their criteria. We touch on Isaiah 53; Psalm 110 and Psalm 2, etc.

How does the answer to this question help us some 2000 years later, both in a better appreciation of who Yeshua is; but also a better appreciation of typical Jewish perspectives on Yeshua as the Messiah. Also how does such an understanding help us now as we look forward to the Coming Age?

We also touch on the issue of the New Covenant and it’s still future fulfilment – see Pastor Aubrey Burt’s series of 5 Podcasts on this topic – go to pfherring.podomatic.com

Podcast – click here – Part 2

Articles & links:

Background article: http://www.charismacomputers.com.au/The%20Messiah%20from%20an%20Hebraic%20perspective.pdf

Yeshua Preached God – see blog post on this site;

Righteousness Before Messiah; Yeshua THE High Priest; The Times of Yeshua; Psalm 2 v6 and Siblings of the King – all at http://www.circumcisedheart.info
http://aubreyandpaul.podomatic.com/entry/2012-09-13T06_00_00-07_00

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The Apostle Paul and the Festivals of God

Some biblical scholars have tried to argue that the Apostle Paul (Sha’ul) only attended Pentecost (Shavuot) because that was where the crowd was so he could preach the Good News, and that this was the ONLY festival he attended! (This would also imply a degree of duplicity in his actions as well).

In other words some Christian theologians try to argue that after his Damascus Road experience, the Apostle Paul no longer observed the Jewish festivals and the ‘trio’ listed in Colossians 2:16-17.

I have listed many of the ways in which the Apostle Paul demonstrated that he remained a practicing orthodox Jew after his Damascus road experience in my articles ‘Siblings of the King: Living in the Will of the Father’ and ‘Living the Way: The Path of the Circumcised Heart’. For the details read these articles at www.circumcisedheart.info

However, as I have just stated, some scholars continue to read Col 2:16-17 back to front and believe that Paul was exhorting the Gentile followers of Yeshua NOT to keep the ‘trio’!

So here is a short, non-exhaustive list of Paul’s keeping the ‘trio’ (as recorded in the NT):

Paul observed and/or supported many of the Feasts, New Moons such as Yom Teruah (- only a few days away! – writing on the 13th Sept 2012) and the Sabbath(s), either by a direct reference to it; or by attending the festival or making some supportive implication or reference to it:

For some examples see:
Shabbat: Acts 13:14-16; Acts 18:4; 4:16 – Paul imitated Yeshua (1 Cor 11:1)
Pesach (Passover) – 1 Cor 5:7; Acts 27:9
Festival of Unleavened Bread – Acts 20:6
Shavuot (Pentecost) – 1 Cor 16:8; Acts 20:16
Yom Teruah – 1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:16 (New Moon Day, Rosh HaShannah)
Yom Kippur – Acts 27:9 (the Fast Day)
Sukkot – Acts 18:21

While this list does not include all 7 ‘Feast’ days, as they are grouped into 3 (Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot), with the first and last being week long and including the others, attendance at Sukkot would by inference assume attendance at Simchat Torah (the Joy of Torah celebration) for example.

As Shaul/Paul said we should be imitators of him, as he was of Yeshua – 1 Cor 11:1; Phil 3:17; 1 Thess 1:6; 1 Thess 2:4; I would suggest we should consider the blessings of these Festivals of YHVH.

If the Apostle Paul only attended these festivals to to evangelize, should we do the same, should we also engage in such duplicitous and dishonest expediency? No! I don’t believe Paul/Shaul was a hypocrite. Rather he was a Torah observant Jew!

Thus, I think the evidence most strongly indicates that, as he himself declared, he observed the ‘trio’ and hoped Gentile followers would do likewise and imitate him, and not allow the ‘judgment’ and ridicule of their pagan neighbours to stop them embracing these great indicators of even greater feasts in the Coming Age!

For details see my ‘Colossians 2 and the Sabbath’ article at www.circumcisedheart.info

Our next Podcast will touch on this topic – click follow to receive it automatically.

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The Messiah: A King, a Prophet, a Priest?

The Hebraic perspective – Who the Messiah? 

Since the days of Moses, what were the people expecting from the Prophet that Moses foretold would appear (Deut 18). Were they expecting a King, a Prophet, or a Priest. Were they expecting 1, 2 or even 3 Messiahs?

Today there is a common Jewish understanding that there will be two ‘end-times’ Messiah’s:

“A Kabbalistic tradition within Judaism is that the commonly-discussed messiah who will usher in a period of freedom and peace (Messiah ben David) will be preceded by Messiah ben Joseph, who will die sacrificing himself while uniting all of Israel in preparing the world for the arrival of Messiah ben David.” – see http://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/48909612.html

The Qumran scrolls, the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the Tribes—all of which are close to the Essene[1] worldview and written prior to the first century of the Common Era, reflected the belief in three messiahs: an eschatological messiah, along with the messiahs of Aaron and Israel.

So what were the characteristics of this eschatological (end-times) Messiah?

Messiah is the English transliteration from the Hebrew ‘Mashiach’ meaning ‘anointed one’ i.e. someone chosen specially by God for some purpose. This term is translated into ‘Christos’ in Greek and then to ‘Christ’ in English. The term occurs some 37 times in the Hebrew Scriptures (KJV OT version – Strong’s #H4886) and is not always a prophetic reference to the eschatological Messiah. It is used to refer to the kings of Israel, the high priest, the patriarchs, as well as the Assyrian Cyrus (see Isaiah 45).

Look at Isaiah 11 where we read of his characteristics. His seven main attributes are described in Isaiah 11:1-10 and they are:

(1)… and the spirit of Adonai will rest upon him,

(2) the spirit of wisdom,

(3) and understanding,

(4) the spirit of counsel,

(5) and might,

(6) the spirit of knowledge,

(7) and the fear(awesome respect) of Adonai. …

He was also to redeem the Land of Israel; remove the oppressors and return all of Israel from the four corners of the Earth. He was to introduce a time of great peace, a time when all would know the Almighty, as per the New/Renewed Covenant prophecy of Jeremiah 31. This would also involve the cessation of war; the universal conversion of the world to Judaism or ethical monotheism; the rebuilding of the Temple; the recognition that it is the Jewish people who know God as prophesied in Zec 8:23, and the ‘swallowing up of death’ (Isaiah 25:8; Isaiah 26:19; Ezekiel 37:12)!

To read more – check out the rest of this article at www.circumcisedheart.info 

Part 2 of our Podcast on this topic will be available to listen to very soon – click follow to be notified.

[1] The Essenes were a fringe sect of the ‘proto’ – Judaism of Yeshua’s time.

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Who is the Messiah from a Hebraic Perspective?

In this Podcast (part 1 of 2) we ask the question of who/what the first believers expected the Messiah to be; why many Jewish people reject the belief that Yeshua is this end-times Messiah; how Christians have misunderstood his ministry and how we should view the Messiah.

In this our second podcast, Pastor Aubrey and I look back through time to Yeshua’s day and ask the question of who the Messiah was to be; who was expected; what sort of man was he to be; what was he to do? What was the understanding that the first disciples would have had and how did they see Yeshua as fitting their criteria.

How does the answer to this question help us some 2000 years later, both in a better appreciation of who Yeshua is; but also a better appreciation of typical Jewish perspectives on Yeshua as the Messiah. Also how does such an understanding help us now as we look forward to the Coming Age?

Podcast – click here – part 2 out in a few days.

Articles & links:

Background article: http://www.charismacomputers.com.au/The%20Messiah%20from%20an%20Hebraic%20perspective.pdf

JewFAQ.org – 11 attributes of the Messiah – http://www.jewfaq.org/mashiach.htm

Site on Isaiah 7:14 issues – see Doctrine of the Virgin Birth at http://www.wallsofjericho.info/

For more on issues with Ps 22; Zex 12:10; Dan 9:24-27 see ‘The Teacher and the Preacher’ by Moshe Avraham Kempinksi

Podcast #2: Who is the Messiah from a Hebraic Perspective? Part 1 of 2
http://aubreyandpaul.podomatic.com/entry/2012-09-10T05_46_56-07_00

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The Times of Yeshua

Understanding the times in which Yeshua (Jesus) lived in vital to properly interpreting what he said and did and who he was.

I have shared some of my extensive research on this issue on a number of occasions. The Podcast at the link below was from the first time I spoke on this. The linked powerpoint is from another session I gave on this topic at a Sukkot Celebration.

Podcast: The Times of Yeshua
Related Powerpoint: Talk 2 The Times of Yeshua latest version

I would recommend listening to this talk as preparation for our next Podcast.

In Session 2 we will touch on some of the following:

  • Who is he Messiah from a Jewish perspective?
  • Who he is-what he is to do– in what ways have Christians misunderstood his ministry?
  • Why some Jewish people may reject the christian messianic perspective;
  • How we should view the Messiah?
  • Who the New Covenant is with—when the New Covenant-Testament will be instated—who are the parties involved?
  • How does Yeshua mediate the covenant—why believers are, or are not experiencing the NC-NT as of yet?
  • What happens when Yeshua is returned to earth?
  • Why the Torah as not been abolished–Will the Torah ever be abolished?
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Yom Teruah Approaches

Some thoughts as Yom Teruah approaches:

The Apostle Paul believed that God’s adoption of the Gentiles was to precede the restoration of Israel (including the full return from exile and re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel).

Therefore the Apostle Paul believed that God had temporarily hardened the hearts of many Israelites to the truth regarding Yeshua as the eschatological Messiah so that Paul’s mission to the Gentiles could first be accomplished.

So, as Prof Paula Fredriksen points out in ‘Judaism, the Circumcision, and Apocalyptic Hope: Another Look at Galatians 1 and 2,’ “a generation after his experience of the Risen Messiah, and despite the great Day having not yet dawned, Paul could still ‘coherently and reasonably affirm to the Church at Rome  that ‘salvation is nearer to us that when we first believed’ (Romans 13:11)” – p564.

It is also instructive to recognize that this statement of the Apostle Paul’s in Romans 13 is part of his exhortation to the Gentile believers in Yeshua (worshiping God within the Jewish synagogues/homes in Rome), that they are to show proper respect and obedience to the Jewish leaders (‘ministers of God’) of these synagogues (see Mark Nanos, ‘The Mystery of Romans’ for the full explanation of this historical setting – here is an introduction).

It is also vital that we see that Paul (Rav Sha’ul), in true Hebraic fashion is generally speaking corporately, rather than individually, when he speaks of salvation.

Thus he sees the Coming Age as imminent as Gentiles are turning from their idolatrous practices to the One True God of Israel and fulfilling the promise to Abraham that he would become the father of many nations.

It would appear (to me at least) that Paul did not fully appreciate that the Tanakh’s prophecy of a dispersion to ‘the uttermost parts of heaven (earth)’ (Deut 30:4) had not yet been fully enacted and so the end times return from exile could not yet occur. (This return, a miracle greater than the parting of the Red Sea, is now occurring before our very eyes! – see my ‘Israel: Return in Belief or Unbelief’ at www.circumcisedheart.info for some more detail on this.)

And yet, for the Apostle Paul’s message to fully reach to all Gentiles throughout the entire earth, perhaps it really did need the historical events of the last, almost 2000 years for this to occur.

The Apostle Paul believed he lived in the ‘end times’ and that in those times God would graciously redeem the nations (gentiles) from their idolatry without the ‘works of the Law’ (Jewish proselytization) and so Jew and Gentile would go up to the mountain of the LORD, to worship together at the House of Jacob (Zec 14:16-21).

Before the resurrection of Yeshua, Gentiles who were learning about the One True God, the Creator of the Universe through attending synagogues on Shabbat (Sabbath), could only enter the family of God by undertaking the ‘works of the Law’ and becoming Jews (Israelites). With only Jews gaining entry into the Kingdom of God, this meant that prophecies such as Zec 14:16-21 could not be fulfilled.

I believe that somehow Yeshua revealed to the Apostle Paul that God had initiated a new way; a new path through which Gentiles could become fully ‘children of Abraham’,  and equal members of the Kingdom, while still remaining Gentiles.

This revelation of the Messiahship of Yeshua and the imminent arrival of the Coming Age (the Olam HaBah) brought great joy to the Apostle Paul and drove him forward in his mission with great energy and passion.  I have written at some length on this in both ‘The Mystery of Romans: A Torah and Shema Centric View’ and in ‘The Tripartite Salvation Paradigm’.

Note as well verse 9 of this prophecy of Zechariah: “And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be One and his name One.”

Perhaps the increasing recognition and rejection of such idolatrous doctrines as the Trinity and ‘Dual Nature of Christ’, etc., coupled with an increasing embrace of Torah by Gentiles in particular, is indicative of the lateness of the hour in this 2000 year ‘end times’ scenario?

Perhaps also the increasing recognition of Jewish scholarship; of brilliant Jewish theologians like the late David Flusser; Prof Mark Nanos; and Rabbi’s like Abraham Joshua Heschel, Ken Spiro and Moshe Reiss, to name just a few shows that Zec 8:23 is also being fulfilled before our eyes!

Zec 8:23:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” 

As it appears to me that this great prophecy has not yet come to full realisation, this is just one of a number of reasons why I don’t believe that this Yom Teruah is THE Yom Teruah.

However, there is great tension in the air; many sense the Spirit of Adonai moving; something momentous may yet occur.

I believe Yeshua will return on a Yom Teruah in the near future (see my article for details) – may it be soon!