|
1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Measure for measure is so real. So much of what happens to us is the returning of our own actions. The dish life serves us often proceeds from the kitchen of our own cooking. The harvest we reap is surely the result our own sowing. By this standard a man’s life is easily assessed and his character revealed. If someone has many friends, he must have been friendly. If others are generous with him, he must have been sharing. By the same token, if someone finds the heart of others like desert sand or a sky of brass, closed to his needs and pleas, maybe he lived his life as selfishly as a closed book. We are all too often to blame for the hell we create with our own two hands. Jacob deceived his father Isaac by concealing his identity, several years later Jacob becomes victim of the same as Laban conceals Leah’s identity in the nuptial chamber. This would result in a family’s sibling rivalry that would cause Leah’s children to later try to kill Joseph. Joseph would later trick them by concealing his identity, appearing to them as an Egyptian viceroy (Genesis 40-45). When Leah’s children headed by Judah returned from pasture with the news about Joseph, Judah showed Jacob the ‘hard evidence’ of Joseph’s bloody coat to prove their case. Judah used the Hebrew words, ‘haker-nah’, meaning ‘Please, recognize these’. Many years later, Judah would be tricked and exposed by his own daughter-in-law using the very same words, ‘Haker-nah’. These must have pieced his heart as he remembered the treachery of lying to his own father (Genesis 37:32; 38:25)! The concealing identity theme is a common one throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Kings, queens and prophets used it, sometimes even under God’s own purpose. It could even be said that today Messiah hides His Jewish identity from both Israel/Jacob, and the Gentiles. To the Western world He conceals His Jewish identity appears and appears to them as a Westerner, thinking and dressing, eating and living as they do. This in turn makes Him unrecognizable to His people. But as with Joseph with His brethren, the day will come when Yeshua will throw off His ‘Egyptian garb’ and say to them, “I am Yeshua, your brother” (Genesis 45:3). At that time Yeshua will show the whole world who He really is: the King of the Jews. He will also reap the harvest of His own labor and doing. At that time He will reunite Rachel and Leah’s family (the whole twelve tribes) under one banner (Ezekiel 37), and rule over the whole world from His throne in Jerusalem (Revelations 19 and 20). In this day and in the World to Come we will each reap the harvest of the actions of our lives. What will it be for you?
0 Comments
Romans 11:12, 18
Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!? Do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. “You find that as long as Sarah lived, a cloud hung over her tent … her doors were wide open … there was a blessing on her dough, and the lamp used to burn from the evening of the Sabbath until the evening of the following Sabbath …" In this scrap of tradition, Sarah’s tent is homiletically compared to Jerusalem typified by the Temple. The cloud is symbolic of the Shekinah of God’s presence, the doors of the temple being wide opened is an invitation to the world to the house of prayer (as Yeshua called it); the blessed dough is the showbread which miraculously never spoiled, and the lamp is the seven-branches candelabrum which burned continuously in the Holy Place. In the Book of Galatians Paul builds on this illustration. Using the concept that Judaism views Sarah as the great matriarch he says, But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. Then, using Isaiah’s allegory and adding the fact that that Sarah was barren (not Hagar) He quotes, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! Though Paul doesn’t quote it, the rest of the oracle says, Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes (Isaiah 54:1-2; Galatians 4:26).This is an illustration that Jerusalem, (the center of Jewish religion) is one day to open its doors to all nations. The next chapter of Isaiah goes on to call all nations to drink and be fed from the fountain of Jerusalem (Isaiah 55; Zechariah 14:16). Referring to modern history, I now will build on this concept. In their impatience while waiting on God to fulfill the messianic promise of the birth of Isaac, Abraham and Sarah brought Hagar into the picture. As Hagar bore fruit she despised and boasted against Sarah who was still barren and dry. In His own time, Hashem miraculously caused Sarah to bear the fruit of the messianic promise. In the end, though blessed by God because of beloved Abraham, Hagar paid for her attitude having to leave Sarah’s presence. For 2,000 years while waiting for the 19th century when Jerusalem would miraculously birth the present-day world-wide Messianic movement, the nations of the world, who did bear fruit unto Yeshua have done so while ‘boasting’ against the ‘natural branches’ in a doctrine called ‘Replacement Theology’, and even subjecting these ‘natural branches’ to horrible persecutions (or were silent in the face of it). Will the nations suffer the same fate as Hagar? The Text tells us that not, but that in the end Jerusalem will return to its rightful original owners, and that the nations will come and serve and worship God in Jerusalem, bringing in their glory (Isaiah 66; Haggai 2:7). For what it’s worth, there is an ancient Jewish teaching which suggests that Keturah, Abraham’s second wife after Sarah died, is actually Hagar returned (Genesis 25:1-6). Romans 11:17-18
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Before leaving earth Yeshua told His disciples to immerse people in His Name. The Torah idea of immersion has to do with being born again. For Jews, ritual immersions had to do with being born-again into repentance or renewal after a disease such as leprosy but for a gentile, ritual immersion meant conversion from paganism into monotheism, becoming part of the House of Israel. Such people in Synagogues were called proselytes or 'Children of Abraham' (Acts 13:26). A famous proselyte was Phillip's Ethiopian dignitary (Acts 8:26-40). Why, 'Children of Abraham?' Let me now engage you in a little Hebrew word-play. The sages of Israel loved those! Hashem said to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:3)." It is because of this verse mentioning that those of the nations would blessed through Abraham that Judaism always looked at converts from the nations as 'Children of Abraham'. Yeshua followed the same idea In His admonition to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). You see, the word blessing in Hebrew is 'b'rachah', which is the same word used for an immersion pool. In this sense, Abraham becomes an 'immersion pool’ for the gentiles to repent and turn to the God of Israel. Of course, this is what is called in Hebrew a 'midrash', or a creative interpretation to explain a spiritual principle. Yeshua, Paul, and all the writers of the apostolic Scriptures indulged intensively in 'midrash-ing'. Here is another one. The Hebrew word for 'shall be blessed' in our Genesis verse is 'nivrechu'. This word is a conjugated from of the verb 'to bless'. Many words are cut from that same 'cloth': the word for 'knees' which describes the position in which we bless or are blessed, but also the term ‘mavrich’ or ‘to inter-mingle/to graft'. The later one is quite amazing as in his midrash about the nations entering the covenant of Israel, Paul uses the concept of grafting (Romans 11). He must have gotten the idea from an ancient 'midrash' stating the 'grafting' of Rachab the Amonite and of Ruth the Moabite into Israel by conversion or, being 'blessed/immersed/grafted in’ (Yavamoth 63a). The conversion of these two women into Judaism is all the more amazing because the Torah implicitly forbids Amonites and Moabites to enter the congregation of Israel up to the tenth generation (Deuteronomy 23:3). This shows that they were not thought as foreigners anymore, but proselytes with complete rights in Israel. It also teaches us that if Hashem accdepted them, he will certainly accept you! Today we are sent by the Master not only to ‘immerse/bless/graft’, make disciples of all nations, but also to teach them to observe all things which He has taught us. At His coming may we be found being faithful Torah teachers not only in words, but in deeds also, teaching all who come to us by the sample of a godly life. 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession… Whereas evolution wants to tell us that life started sporadically anywhere and at anytime, Hashem tells us that He is the author of life. He also tells us that He is the One who started life in one place, at one time, and that the earth populated from the one man: Adam (Genesis 1). In fact, we are all related to Adam through either sons of Noah; through Japhet who fathered the Caucasian race; Ham from whom came the black race, or from Shem from whom come all the Asian races including our father Abraham (Genesis 10). As it is in physical, so it is in the spiritual. Whereas New Age teachings try to teach us that all the gods worshipped on earth are local and cultural representations of the God above and should be respected as such, God teaches us that faith solely comes from the God of Israel, and that all the others are idols designed to snare the heart of man away from the One True God who created the Heavens and the earth. In fact, according to the text, the goal is that, as the tribe of Levi was established as the priesthood for Israel, Israel is eventually to be established as the priesthood for the whole world. God has even divided the world according to the numbers of the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 32:8). Jewish sages claim that number to be seventy, why? When the children of Israel entered Egypt, they were seventy Genesis (46:27). Also in Genesis 10, we read the list of the seventy sons (and grandsons) of Noah. This may be arguable, but the facts remain that as creation comes from one man, faith also comes from the one man Abraham solely through whom all the families of the earth are blessed (Genesis 12:3). This gives a whole new theme to the idea of being in Messiah. In the days of Yeshua there were only two types of people on earth: those who knew the God heaven and those who didn’t. The Children of Israel already knew God; they had been introduced to Him at Mt Horeb long before Yeshua’s manifestation on earth, while the rest of the world remained in the darkness of ignorance and idolatry. As Moses received the mission to Israel, Yeshua initiated the mission to the gentiles, which Paul successfully conducted. This all should give a new sense of mission to the idea of being grafted into the olive tree of Israel as Paul puts it (Romans 11). Before Yeshua, only people from Israel who knew God could exercise spiritual leadership within the congregation, but when one is grafted into Israel through Messiah he, along with Israel, becomes a recipient of the promise made to Moses to be part of a nation of priests (Exodus 19:6). In fact, anyone who through Messiah becomes grafted into Israel also becomes a part of God’s peculiar nation, what He called: His portion (Deuteronomy 9-10). May we be found worthy of the great calling whereas he has called us! John 10:16
And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. Retelling the life story of Joseph we have played with the very important midrashic messianic analogy equating Joseph to Messiah. This has led us to observe that Benjamin represented the Jewish people who did not reject Messiah/Joseph. Continuing the same methodology in the story, we are confronted with Jacob introduced to his grand-children conceived through Joseph by an Egyptian mother. At first, he does not know who these Egyptian looking kids are. When he finds out, he adopts them as his own. The idea of redemption through adoption is a main theme throughout the whole Bible. Starting with Abraham, each of us is an adopted son (Romans 9:4-5). In adopting Joseph’s son as his own, Jacob accomplished a tricky maneuver. His showing favor to Joseph had already caused him much trouble, so this time, instead of openly giving Joseph the right of first-born, Jacob confers this honor to the first born of his true chosen bride and love of his life, Rachel by adopting as his own the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, thereby causing them to receive each an inheritance. This not only has the effect of these sons and nephews becoming brothers to their father and uncles, but for Joseph to receive the double-inheritance which is conferred to firstborns. These could be compared to the offspring of Messiah while in Diasporah exile. Jacob actually says of Ephraim that he will become ‘the multitude of the nations’ (The Hebrew text uses the definite article ‘the’); in Hebrew, this is the same expression used in Romans 11:25, ‘a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the ‘fullness of the Gentiles’ (in Hebrew: the multitude of the nations) has come in.’ Judaism teaches that when Israel was evicted from its land by the Romans, Messiah went to exile with them. Just like Joseph, while in exile Messiah has been busy raising Himself an offspring among the Gentiles, an offspring to be adopted alongside the Jewish people (Ephesians 1-2). Today Judaism and Christianity are seen as two different religions, one who accepts Messiah and the other who doesn’t. The truth of the matter is that Christianity started as a sect of Judaism within Judaism. Christianity without Judaism did not exist for the first three hundred years after Yeshua and the apostles. The tragedy is that today if a Jew wants Messiah he is told to ‘convert’ and become a Christian. It is strange because the big question and novelty for the disciples in the early days of the Nazarene movement was if a non-Jew could be accepted as a follower of Messiah. In the adoption of Ephraim and Manasseh, we see that in actuality, in Messiah non-Jews are grafted in the olive tree of Jacob/Israel, not Israel in the Gentile Roman ‘Christmas tree’ (Romans 11). We also foresee Joel’s prophecy that at the end of time God will pour His Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), not just Israel. In that day, there will truly be one shepherd and one flock. May it happen soon Abba, even in our days! Romans 11:17-18
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Before leaving earth Yeshua told His disciples to immerse people in His Name. The Torah idea of immersion has to do with being born again. For Jews, ritual immersions had to do with being born-again into repentance or renewal after a disease such as leprosy but for a gentile, ritual immersion meant conversion from paganism into monotheism, becoming part of the House of Israel. Such people in Synagogues were called proselytes or 'Children of Abraham' (Acts 13:26). A famous proselyte was Phillip's Ethiopian dignitary (Acts 8:26-40). Why, 'Children of Abraham?' Let me now engage you in a little Hebrew word-play. The sages of Israel loved those! Hashem said to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:3)." It is because of this verse mentioning that those of the nations would blessed through Abraham that Judaism always looked at converts from the nations as 'Children of Abraham'. Yeshua followed the same idea In His admonition to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). You see, the word blessing in Hebrew is 'berachah', which is the same word used for an immersion pool. In this sense, Abraham becomes an 'immersion pool’ for the gentiles to repent and turn to the God of Israel. Of course, this is what is called in Hebrew a 'midrash', or a creative interpretation to explain a spiritual principle. Yeshua, Paul, and all the writers of the apostolic Scriptures indulged intensively in 'midrash-ing'. Here is another one. The Hebrew word for 'shall be blessed' in our Genesis verse is 'nivrechu'. This word is a conjugated from of the verb 'to bless'. Many words are cut from that same 'cloth': the word for 'knees' which describes the position in which we bless or are blessed, but also the term ‘mavrich’ or ‘to inter-mingle/to graft'. The later one is quite amazing as in his midrash about the nations entering the covenant of Israel, Paul uses the concept of grafting (Romans 11). He must have gotten the idea from an ancient 'midrash' stating the 'grafting' of Rachab the Amonite and of Ruth the Moabite into Israel by conversion or, being 'blessed/immersed/grafted in’ (Yavamoth 63a). The conversion of these two women into Judaism is all the more amazing because the Torah implicitly forbids Amonites and Moabites to enter the congregation of Israel up to the tenth generation (Deuteronomy 23:3). This shows that they were not thought as foreigners anymore, but proselytes with complete rights in Israel. It also teaches us that if Hashem accdepted them, he will certainly accept you! Today we are sent by the Master not only to ‘immerse/bless/graft’, make disciples of all nations, but also to teach them to observe all things which He has taught us. At His coming may we be found being faithful Torah teachers not only in words, but in deeds also, teaching all who come to us by the sample of a godly life. |
Thanks for thinking of us... even a tiny donation is a blessing to us...
Order our new CD at: http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html
Also available on itune. 
Our 'UNDER THE FIG TREE' atL:
http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html 
Check our original judaica and other jewelery at:
http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html Archives
May 2013
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed