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THE JUBILEE OF MESSIAH

4/25/2013

Luke 4:18–19
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to … preach deliverance to the captives, … to set at liberty them that are bruised,to preach the acceptable year of Adonai.

The Sacred Texts teach us about Hashem’s special times (Leviticus 23; 25). Starting with Spring we have the Sabbatical years every septet, a time where for the most part the land is to be given a rest and people can only eat from what they saved and of what grows of its own accord. It has been calculated that 1967, the year when Jerusalem was freed from occupation and returned to its rightful Jewish heirs was also a Sabbatical year. Another of these times is called the Jubilee year and it comes the year after seven septets.

Due to many interruptions, exiles, occupations, wars, calendar modifications, and lack of information, it is difficult to restore the exact dates of Sabbatical years and Jubilees today. Many have tried by collecting data from history book such as the Book of Josephus as well as taking into consideration hints from biblical texts, and while many of these calculations have somewhat different outcome, there is a body of them that come near to each other in their calculations. A common trend I noticed is that many put the year 28 A.D. (or around) as a jubilee year. I am not a calendar expert so I cannot say, but there are a few factors that can agree to that.

The Jubilee year was to be announced in synagogues at Yom Kippur (Leviticus 25:8-9). During the days of the Master Jubilees were not officially kept but the years of the Master’s ministering on earth correspond to the possibilities of jubilee time. In any case, Yeshua did not miss his cue and could have announced it when he quoted Isaiah sixty-one in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke: 4:18). If that proclamation at the synagogue was indeed done on a Yom Kippur, then Yeshua was not coming in from a one day fast as the rest of the country did, but from a forty day fast in which his virtue was tested by the enemy of his and our souls. These forty days are comparable to the forty ‘Days of Awe”, a Jewish tradition of spending the forty days before Yom Kippur in soul-searching in order to acknowledge sin in our lives and change our ways.

If there was a jubilee during the Master’s ministry, that would also explain why people had the time to leave home, travel, and listen to him. This was the point of the Jubilee, to stop the daily grind of our day-to-day existence, dedicate time to God in prayer and study of the Torah, as well as to family and friends; sort of an extended Shabbat. God knows that we need help in establishing our priorities, and time to sort out problems with the people who are part of our lives.

In any case, it is evident that both Sabbatical and Jubilee years are important times in God’s calendar and we better keep track of them.

Let us also remember that Yeshua is our Sabbatical Jubilee. He is the one who brings us spiritual and physical restoration, and soon his Sabbatical Kingdom will be established on earth as the greatest of all Jubilees.

P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.

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BAPTISM AND REBIRTH

1/23/2013

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1 Corinthians 10:2
All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

The Children of Israel could have left Egypt, traveled directly northeastward and be in Canaan in less than a few weeks. Instead, Hashem had them make a small detour crossing the Red Sea by the Gulf of Aqaba. Were the reasons given for this detour (Exodus 13:17-18) the only real purposes?

The Israelites had just spent several generations in Egypt. They needed to be cleansed from idolatry and Egyptian culture. They needed to be reborn into Hashem’s people, and into the culture of the Kingdom of Hashem. This is where the idea of ‘born-again’ came from: from two tractates written by Jewish sages that say that total immersion into water (baptism) is like being born again. We go into a water and stop breathing which is like being in a grave where we do not have breath anymore, and we come out resurrected a new person. The sages mention the ‘born-again’ idea mostly in regards to converts to Judaism (Yevamot 47b and 48b). They immerse in order to emerge a born-again new creature in God. This is what God had in mind in this nation-wide immersion through the Red-Sea (1 Corinthians 10:2).

When Yeshua told Nicodemus that he needed to be reborn, the modern-day ‘born-again’ Christian movement did not exist, so Yeshua was using the term according to its Talmudic value, and this is why Nicodemus answered the Master accordingly. What Nicodemus said in essence was “Why do I need to convert when I am already Jewish?” To which Yeshua basically answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6). In other words, the Master reiterated John the Immerser’s message that biological descent into God’s family was not enough, but repentance into a new creature for Hashem was also needed (Matthew 3:9). The Israelites crossing the Red Sea were already Israelites, but they needed to also be baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2).

Yeshua continued answering Nicodemus with, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8). Just like the wind cannot be seen and is only perceived though its effects, so we are. The virtues of the new life that we now live, its positive influences on others, and its reflection of Hashem, are the only testimony given to others of our rebirth.

As we claim to have been reborn, as we claim to have been immersed unto Yeshua, let the effects of our rebirth be felt by others. May we live and walk in the newness of life that He has given us to be God’s children, and as the healing reflection of His spirit on our poor world.

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THE NEW MOON AND THE DAY OF MESSIAH!

1/17/2013

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Matthew 25:13
"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour!"

The Biblical calendar is a lunar calendar adjusted with the sun and the seasons. Because of a Scripture in Colossians, some deduct that we are not to attach importance to certain calendar dates (Colossians 2:16), but we need to remember that the people that Paul chided for calendar observances where pagans. Paul himself observed Sabbaths, Passovers, Jewish festival, and the Yom Kippur fast which all were calendar base dates. God has asked that we ‘sanctify’ the New Moon (Exodus 12:2), meaning to set it apart. Setting apart the New Moon gets us all in sync celebrating festivals all at the same time. The Hebrew word used for Levitical Festival in Leviticus is ‘Mo’ed’: ‘appointed times’, appointment’. At these times we have a ‘date’ with the Creator; would we want to miss it?

Because of our undue independent nature, even something as simple as coordinating ourselves together with God has been a major issue over the centuries. A cloudy night could mess up the whole thing up. Also, with Jews living more and more outside of Israel, it became more and more difficult to synchronize everybody. To top it all, in the fourth century C.E., the Roman government desiring to stop the believers from observing Passover officially forbade the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem from convening and determining the New Moon. This had the desired effect of leaving everyone to their own devices creating division and chaos until today. As a result, the method of determining the moon by sighting fell in disuse and Jewish leadership started to do it through astronomical calculation. This is how the Hillel ll calendar was born. Until Yeshua returns and re-organizes the whole thing, it needs to suffice.

Days are important. There was a particular day when the door of the ark was shut, a determined day for the Children of Israel to put blood on their doorpost and for them to leave Egypt. In these cases, a calendar fluke would have had disastrous consequences. The Master followed the calendar dates of Passover scrupulously in His death and resurrection. The Sabbath also is a set day with particulars if not, how do intend to fulfill Yeshua’s injunction, “Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20)?

Even now a day is coming, a day which is the culmination of all of our calendar dates, a day which has been foreseen and predicted by all patriarchs and prophet. We are told that the only people who do not know that day are the ones living in the night of ignorance, but that those who live in the light of knowledge should know (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6). That day is a very special day. As the arrival of the day for the children of Israel to leave Egypt was punctuated by signs and plagues, so will the Day be of Yeshua’s return to avenge His people and judge the whole world. These signs will not be esoteric or mystical, they will be real and tangible, so that everyone will be able to recognize them. May we be ever faithful to study and obey the Word which gives us the light to know that Day!

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THE THORNS OF SINAI

1/3/2013

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Mark 15:17
And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him.

Thirty four hundred ago the Creator of the universe revealed Himself to a man who would in turn introduce Him first to Israel, then to the world. For many years Hashem watched the affliction of His people; He was now ready to bring them out of Egypt to embrace their grand destiny. The One who created us knows us. Whether we realize it or not, He is always with us even in this exilic world. He also knows that our human frame causes to judge by appearances so as a long awaited mysterious visitor He carefully prepared His grand entrance on the scene of our History. Everything had to be right, especially the form of His appearance to us for His message is not only in His Words, but also in the form of His revelation.

In the Text, we read that the Creator appeared in what seems to us a paradox: a bush that burned, yet was not consumed. None of it was illusionary: the thorn bush really burned, yet it was not consumed. The Hebrew word for thorn is: ‘s’neh’ carrying the same etymological root as ‘Sinai’. According to Rabbi Yanni's perspective, God’s appearance in the midst of a thorn bush was emblematic of the anguish He suffered over Israel’s affliction. The Revelation of the Almighty El-Shaddai within a lowly dry thorn bush was something akin to putting on sackcloth and ashes. The thorn bush then represents a royal messianic statement: Hashem’s empathy for Israel.

Through Isaiah our great Father unveils His emotional attachment to His people; He says, In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old (Isaiah 63:9). “This is comparable to the spiritual connection twins experience with each other Rabbi Yanny says, “if one has a pain in his head the other feels it. Israel certainly had a pain in his head.” Eventually, as an illustration of Hashem's empathy for His people, Mashiach wore the thorns of Sinai upon his own forehead (Mark 15:17).

A father naturally suffers when his child is afflicted, so naturally Hashem suffers when His people are afflicted. He takes upon Himself all their suffering until the time when in His fury He awakes and desires vengeance, yes vengeance on those who afflict Him through His people (Isaiah 63:3). As we are afflicted, He is afflicted! On the other hand, parental love contains an element of hatred against our children’s evil behavior. Parents should not be afraid of afflicting their children in order to set them straight.. Thus the uncomfortable love, hate, and affliction paradox of returns.

If we succeed to solve the love, hate, and affliction paradox of the burning bush; once our finite mind feels comfortable with the idea of a God who loves us so but in His hatred of our sins can also let us suffer, we may have succeeded to rationalize ourselves into the greatest of all errors. Hashem reveals Himself to us in a paradox: the mystery of the burning bush; the Mystery of Mashiach.

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THE ROD OF MASHIACH

12/26/2012

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Revelation 12:5
She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,

Believing the time of his departure was nigh, Jacob blesses his children. The pronounced words are not just blessings; they are insights into the future of Israel, and thereby, of the world. When comes Judah’s turn, Jacob says, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Genesis 49:10).

Judah’s ‘scepter’ takes a prominent place in the Torah from Genesis to Revelation. The Hebrew word for it is ‘Shevet’, a word also related to ‘tribe’, each tribe being represented by the staff of the tribe leader.

In Genesis thirty-eight, Judah uses his staff as collateral; as a token of identity. It was most probably a shepherd’s staff, a tool that represents the ruling, shepherding, and even disciplining of the flock. Judah’s staff is a foreshadow of the Messiah’s scepter as it is said in the Psalms, Adonai sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies (Psalms 110:2)! This staff/scepter represents Messiah’s ruling and disciplining of the disobedient as the psalmist says: You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. (Psalms 2:9)". King David must have believed in this rod of discipline as his son Solomon often talks about it in his proverbs (Proverbs 13:24).

The ‘shevet’ of Messiah is not only a tool of correction; it is also used for protection against those wolves that would eat us alive if they could. It is also Messiah’s instrument of comfort as is said, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod (Shevet) and your staff, they comfort me (Psalms 23:4), and the sign of our passage into covenant with Him: I will make you pass under the rod (shevet), and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant (Ezekiel 20:37).

The staff/scepter/rod/shevet of Messiah is powerful to chastise, to lead, to comfort, and represents a rite of passage of some sort. Isaiah speaks of the ‘rod of His mouth’, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod (shevet) of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked (Isaiah 11:4), indicating that this rod/staff/scepter/shevet is also the spoken Word of the Master.

May we pay attention to His Word. May we obey them carefully and emulate Abba by emulating the Master. The word Judah or ‘Yehudah’ means to praise God. It is not enough to praise the Father in Words only; we praise Him best through our actions of obedience to His ways. Just as we as fathers feel praise and honor when our children emulate and obey us, the Father which is in Heaven is also praised and honored when we obey and emulate Him who He has chosen to give us as a guide. It is our choice whether the ‘shevet’ of Messiah is the gentle leading staff of the Great Shepherd, or becomes the heavy a rod of iron and correction.

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WE NEED A SECOND CHANUKAH REVOLT

12/9/2012

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Matthew 24:15
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand) …

From Cain to Nebuchadnezzar, everyone who tried to conquer the Jewish, the People of the Covenant, did it forcefully through land and military conquest. In his Jewish Antiquities, Flavius Josephus gives a detailed account of Alexander the Great's visit to Jerusalem and the transpiring events that caused him not to invade and destroy it. Even though Alexander the Great did not conduct a military campaign against Jerusalem, the Hellenic empire is responsible for the historically most successful conquest of the People of God, and that through cultural assimilation. The Western philosophical Greek is as opposite to the Eastern covenantal Jew as day is opposite from night, but is commonly said, 'opposites attract!'

When Israel had gotten truly addicted to Hellenism and even had a Greek appointed corrupt Jewish High-Priest, all Antiochus Epiphanes thought he had to do was to send his emissary with a list of reforms to put all of Judaism into his evil hands. He didn't expect the Maccabee revolt. From where I stand, the Maccabees may have won the war and rededicated the Temple, Antiochus Epiphanes may be dead, but the form of Anti-Semitism that he taught is still alive and vibrant.

In his great graciousness and compassion Hashem gave us His Messiah. This Jewish, Righteous, and Torah-observant Messiah was high-jacked by Greco-Roman believers who in less than two hundred years displayed Him as a Roman god dressed as a Greek Adonis teaching Greek philosophy. Under a twisted ignorant interpretation of Paul's epistles, this identity theft of our Messiah included the same set of religious reforms initiated by Antiochus Epiphanes which are to stop observing the Sabbath, practicing circumcision, eating according to biblical dietary laws, and studying theology as per the Torah.

As a Jewish believer, I find myself in awe that today, my non-Jewish brothers live by the same religious reforms as those pushed by Antiochus Epiphanes and even find myself shunned from their fellowship as one whose, to say the least, theology is overly influenced by Judaism. I wonder what Yeshua would think of the fact that if I want fellowship with non-Jewish believers, I have to live by Antiochus Epiphanes rules.

It may be OK for others, but Jewish believers need another Chanukah revolt where with Matthias Maccabee we say "NO" to Antiochus Epiphanes' rules and live our faith in Messiah according to the terms of the covenant Hashem gave to His people. Maybe that Day will be the Day of Messiah. May Hashem give us another Matthias Maccabee who will stand for us and lead us into the cultural battle to defeat Antiochus Epiphanes once and for all!

May it be soon Abba, even in our days.

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THE JOSEPH/ISRAEL/MESSIAH CONNECTION

12/3/2012

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1Timothy 3:6
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil (KJV).

It is easy to see Joseph the son of Jacob as a foreshadow of Messiah. Even classic Judaism presents Joseph as prefiguring the Messiah. Because of the messianic allusions to both Joseph and Judah, Judaism even believes in two Messiahs; first a suffering one: Joseph, and second a ruling one: Judah. We know now that the two ideas are resolved in Yeshua’s first and second coming.

Joseph and Judah were the recognized heads over the families conceived by their respective mothers: Leah and Rachel. Tensions were high between the two brothers, which resulted in the dividing of the country.

From the onstart, Joseph seemed rather unwise. He flaunted his father Jacob’s preferential love strutting around in his princely coat. He also probably didn’t have to pull in as much of a work load as his brothers. He was treated like a first-born. To add insult to injury, Joseph volunteered his seemingly narcistic dreams at which even Jacob was astounded. His brothers even surnamed him, ‘The Master of Dreams’, which proved in fact true, as the story confirms later (Genesis 37).

Joseph was truly the ‘Master’ of dreams’, and he was to be established over his family and the known world of his day for that matter. But in order to fulfill his destiny he still needed the humiliations that only slavery and unjust incarceration could offer. It doesn’t seem to be good enough for Hashem that we fulfill our destiny for Him. This is true of all of us. If we are to represent Him through our life or even verbal messages, we are to represent Him properly by exerting a life of humility and virtue He can be proud of. Before being finally given his God-given destiny, like Joseph, every man needs to go through rejection, slavery and the cruel injustice of man. Only the distress and humiliation of wrong and unjust treatment provides the qualities needed for Godly leadership. Without it, any would-be leader of God’s people is prone to the pitfalls of novices.

Come to think of it, the same was told of Messiah (Hebrews 5:8). Yeshua was not to be given the crown without the cross. As a nation, it is also true of God’s people. For centuries, like Joseph and Messiah, the nation of Israel as a whole was afflicted by the world without as cause, just for being Jews. We are told though that it is God who put ‘blindness’ on Israel for awhile so that the nations could have their time (Romans 11:25). This time of humiliation of Israel serves therefore to prepare him for its priestly destiny in the World to Come (Exodus 19:6).

As we approach the time of the fulfillment of the Messianic era, the true followers of Messiah will all be unjustly treated, just because they are God’s people (Revelations 12:17). May this coming tribulation, as it did with Joseph, heal us from our arrogance, pride, and immaturity that we may be worthy to rule and reign with Him in the World to Come (Revelations 20:4).

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THE LEPER MESSIAH

4/26/2012

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Matthew 8:3
And Yeshua stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

One of the identifying signs of Messiah is that He would heal lepers, and He did. It was such a known fact that that some lepers even traveled from afar to ask Him to heal them. The apostolic texts also inform us that Yeshua only did healing when people confessed Him to be the Messiah. When He did not ask for this confession, it was because the people’s actions denoted of it. Such was the case with those who touched the side fringes of His garment (Matthew 13:46; Numbers 15:38; Malachi 4:2) and the blind men who asked for sight calling Him ‘Son of David’, one of the Names of Messiah (Matthew 20:30-34). The text also tells us that many people He couldn’t heal because of their lack of faith (that he was the Messiah). This does not mean that failure to obtain divine healing is the result of not having faith that He is the Messiah though. For one reason or another sometimes He chooses that we remain sick. There will even be a time when no matter how much we pray and have faith, He will let us die. These are the times to not sin nor charge God with wrong and say with Job, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. Adonai gave, and Adonai has taken away; blessed be the Name of the Adonai" (Job 1:21-22). Our timing is in His hands. We are owed nothing; we deserve nothing; and even in the worst of situations we get away easy! Healing when it occurs though, is always tied to confession; that’s why even the disciples healed in His Name.

One of the most overlooked elements of Yeshua healing lepers is that He touched them, therefore rendering Himself ritually unclean. Again we notice that Messiah did not come here trying to remain in His purity; He came and put on the clothing of sinful humanity. He had contact with lepers and with those with an issue of blood and hanged around with some of the lowest strata of society, all in order to fulfill the Messianic role He was sent by the Father to fulfill. This is particularly interesting when we realize that the Talmud interprets Isaiah 53: 4 and 5 by calling the Messiah ‘The Leper of the House of Study’, which would mean ‘The Scholar Leper’. Another Talmudic interpretation describes Elijah telling Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi that he could find the Messiah by the gates of Rome among the poor lepers bandaging their wounds, meaning in the most unlikely of places.

Would you find Messiah today? Seek no longer among the pompous holiness of religious scholars, teachers, and congregations. Messiah is still found in the most unlikely of places. You may find Him among the dregs of society bandaging the wounds of those the world leaves by the way side. He might also be found healing the leprosy of an enemy of our people (2 Kings 5), or even the spiritual and physical blindness of one of our worst persecutor (Acts 9). He was sent to the ‘Lost sheep of the House of Israel’ (the Israelites of the twelve tribes)’, and as a light for revelation to the gentiles (Matthew 15:24; Luke 2:32).

As He came to us taking upon Himself our diseases and the iniquity of our sin, He became the ‘Leper Messiah’. As He mingled with us, He trusted the Father for His own sanctity: we should not fear to do the same!

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THE TRUE MOTHER REVEALED

12/30/2011

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Revelations 5:13
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"

Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea ... And Judah and Israel lived in safety … every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon (1Kings 4:20-21, 25). King Solomon prefigures the Messianic Age, the time when God’s Messiah will reign on the earth as King, Priest, and Judge; a time when Judah and Israel will finally live as one independent sovereign nation in peace and prosperity; a time when the nations will come to Jerusalem to learn God’s Word and offer tribute (Micah 4).

It is said that at that time the Messiah will judge the earth with righteous judgments (Isaiah 11:1-5). The wisdom of Solomon was heard worldwide and made famous by the unorthodox way he revealed the truth during a difficult case, a difficult case because there were no witnesses, a must for any biblical court case (Numbers 35:30). Here is the case: two prostitutes lived in the same house and gave birth to a child. One night one of the babies dies and its mother exchanges it for the live baby. Now both mothers claim the living child (1 Kings 3:16-22). Here is how Solomon found the truth.

"Bring me a sword …"Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other." Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death." But the other said, "He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him." Then the king answered and said, "Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother (1 Kings 3:23-27).

Today the question rages between two proclaimed ‘mothers’ of the movement of the followers of the Nazarene, two mothers also guilty of harlotry. Was Yeshua born of a Jewish or a Christian mother? Was He an Israeli Jew or a Greco-Roman Christian? Christians say that God has rejected His people in favor of them, that Jews need to ‘convert’ to Christianity to have the Messiah. On the other hand, Jewish believers stand on the everlasting promises of God’s merciful restoration, knowing that in the end, the world comes to Jerusalem to enter peace in Messiah (Micah 4). In other words, that it is the world that is grafted into Israel’s olive tree (Romans 11), not Israel grafted into the world’s Christmas tree!

When Yeshua was brought to the Temple for the dedication of the firstborn ceremony, old Simeon told Miriam, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:34-35)." The sword of Messiah is His discerning and revealing Word of wisdom (Hebrews 4:12-13). Solomon used this sword of judgment in order to reveal who is the true mother. When the Messiah comes, not only like Solomon will He rebuild the Temple, but He will also reveal and re-establish the rightful origins of the Nazarene movement.

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A BROTHER'S TRUE REPENTANCE

12/29/2011

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Matthew 3:8
Bearfruit in keeping with repentance

What is repentance? What does a true change of heart look like? John the Immerser told some who came to him, Bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8), meaning that even before a confession to repentance is accepted, it must be proven with works documenting the statement.

In order to save their skin and inheritance, Joseph’s brothers did not hesitate to sell him breaking his and their father’s heart. As a foreshadow of Messiah, Joseph was sold to the gentiles upon whom he eventually became ruler. Many years later during a famine that threatened to extinguish their family, Joseph’s brothers sought help from Egypt. Unbeknownst to them, they had to deal with the Egyptian Viceroy who by a twist of ‘fate’ (so-called!) was actually Joseph, who chose the opportune moment to test his brother’s hearts.

Through a well orchestrated ruse, Benjamin, Joseph’s full biological brother, was accused of stealing the Viceroy’s special cup. The Egyptian wanted to keep Benjamin as a slave, but Judah won’t stand for it and pleads for his brother. Judah takes the lead and pleads for the uncomforted heart of his father who still mourns Joseph’s loss. He pleads and offers his own self as a substitute for Benjamin’s, the brother who in fact did not sell Joseph. To his father Judah had said, I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever (Genesis 43:9), and to the Viceroy he now says, how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father (Genesis 44:33-34)." It is at this moment that Joseph finally decides to reveal himself to his brothers (Genesis 45:1-3).

Even so today, while gentiles have acknowledged Him as Messiah, Yeshua’s true identity is hidden from his brethren, the Sons of Israel. Even today messianic believers in Israel suffer intense harassment and persecution from a small but very vocal minority of their brother Judah called the Haredim. The question we must ask ourselves is, will there be a test? Will there be a test where the ‘Judah’ community of those who refused Joseph/Messiah’s leadership and therefore sold him for silver in the end will at great cost come to the rescue of the ‘Benjamin’ community, of the messianic believers sons of Israel who believed in Joseph/Messiah and did not sell him away?

The Israeli government is facing difficult choices about this issue. Will there be a time in the future when ‘Judah’ is fully put to the test? Judging from the story of Joseph it seems to be a plausible course of events. May at that time ‘Judah’, the repentant formerly unbelieving brother, make the right choice showing his true repentance by making right choices concerning ‘Benjamin’, his messianic believer younger brother rather than break his Father’s heart again!

May it be soon Abba, even in our days!

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<<Previous

THE JUBILEE OF MESSIAH

BAPTISM AND REBIRTH

THE NEW MOON AND THE DAY OF MESSIAH!

THE THORNS OF SINAI

THE ROD OF MASHIACH

WE NEED A SECOND CHANUKAH REVOLT

THE JOSEPH/ISRAEL/MESSIAH CONNECTION

THE LEPER MESSIAH

THE TRUE MOTHER REVEALED

A BROTHER'S TRUE REPENTANCE

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