Surprising truths re-discovered in our Hebraic roots:
….that we’re going to heaven.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. We’re going to Jerusalem. The meek shall inherit the EARTH. Heaven is not a place located in outer space that we go to right after this life for all time. (See Randy Acorn’s book, Heaven; the enlightening true concepts of which he nails with scores of scriptures from start to finish.) FIRST we’ll enter the Millennium…the earthly kingdom of 1,000 years…and following that the LAND of Israel is our ONGOING inheritance for all time, with its headquarters in the New Jerusalem.
….that the church replaced Israel: called Replacement Theology.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. The church did not replace Israel. Israel is still alive and well and will be an entity to deal with for all eternity. God has a covenant with the NATION of Israel, not with the gentile nations. Gentiles have ACCESS to salvation, but God has made a covenant with the NATION of Israel that he WILL bring to pass. He intends to FINISH that story. He did not quit THAT that story.
….that it is was OK to replace everlasting eternal Biblical holidays/ ”feast-days”/ seven divine appointments a year with short-term cultural pagan holidays.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. We are told in Leviticus chapter 23 that these are EVERLASTING feast days. They were never done away with. We will still be doing them in the future (Zechariah 14). Constantine (in the 300’s) lumped pagan rituals and holidays with Christian holidays and delivered them in one package to the Roman Church. We inherited the mess, and have been practicing these unquestioned rituals ever since. The Yule log originated in child sacrifice. The Christmas tree is a pagan idol (Jeremiah 10:3-4). Christ was born during the feast of TABERNACLES, not in the middle of the snow when shepherds were NOT out watching their flocks.
…that New Testament Scripture is more important than Old Testament scripture.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. The Torah, the first FIVE books written and assembled by Moses, from the direct words of God on Mount Sinai are the REAL CORE of scripture. All other scripture explains, augments and fleshes out that first divine oratory. The Torah was the only scripture the early believers had when they referred to “the Scripture” in the book of Timothy.
…that the New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. There were actually seven covenants all of which are still in existence. The rainbow hasn’t vanished. The New Covenant is an OLD Covenant that BEGAN in the Garden of Eden with animal skins, the shedding of blood to cover the sinful naked condition of Adam and Eve. It is now a RE-NEWED covenant with a perfect, final sacrifice made by a perfect mediator, Yeshua. Just as THAT covenant was renewed and fulfilled, so too, will the remaining six of them be fulfilled.
The seven covenants are:
- The Adamic covenant – the promise of a redeemer,
- the Noahic Covenant—the promise to never again destroy the earth with a world-wide flood as a punishment for sin,
- The Abrahamic covenant—to give them a chosen people and a land,
- the Mosaic covenant – to give them the law,
- the Davidic covenant – to give them someone from the seed of David to sit on the throne of Israel forever,
- the Messianic Covenant – the redeemer IS given along with the gift of resurrection,
- and the Covenant of Peace – the millennial reign where all of Israel’s enemies are silenced and Israel lives in complete rest and peace for 1,000 years.
…that grace replaced law and that it is impossible to keep the law.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. Grace is, in fact, IN the law. The law is a gift of grace. It is the basis of all civil law for all time and for the administration of a pure and righteous government. The law was tenderly moved from outside of our hearts INTO our hearts by the atoning work of Yeshua. We CAN keep the law, as is evidenced by the fact that we CAN decide not to commit adultery. MANY believers SUCCEED in not committing adultery just as they succeed in not stealing someone else’s loose change. The law is NOT BEYOND US once we have a new nature. It says in Isaiah that “His yoke is easy and his burden, light.”
…that the sacrificial system has been done away with.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. Far from done away with, the sacrificial system will be REINSTATED during the Millennium. Many sacrifices were for praise not just atonement. The fellowship offering, the peace offering, first-fruits offering, thanksgiving offering, grain offerings, incense offerings, etc. (Zechariah 14). Yeshua’s blood is our final complete sacrifice for atonement, but just as the sacrificial system looked FORWARD to Yeshua’s high priestly death for us, so the continued sacrificial system will look BACKWARD to that act…both an ongoing supreme object lesson of the cost of divine blood. By having to DEAL with blood, we are reminded continually of what Yeshua DID for us.
YHWH will reign from a TEMPLE (imagine a King without a palace). He wants His name NOT profaned, His sanctuary NOT defiled (there is a detailed protocol for how to approach Him, otherwise we’d all run in there in dirty jeans and speak with slang) and wants the first fruits of land, produce and people to be brought to Him and owned by Him, just like any other King would. He wants us to say thank you, and show Him utter reverence both within the Temple and without it, for all time, not for HIS sake, but for OURS. Just like with a child and parent…the parent trains the child to say thank you and walk softly because it is good for the CHILD’s character…the parent doesn’t NEED the thank you…and is not an ego-maniac. Showing specific detailed reverence for God, according to HIS detailed wishes, which sometimes look bizarre to us, looks GOOD on OUR face and living in our heart. Keeps Him being the Lord, and we the creatures. Keeps the realm right side up.
…that the atoning work of Yeshua by his blood is the whole story.
We accept His atoning work and go back to a secular/pagan lifestyle, doing exactly what our culture does.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. The atoning work of Yeshua is the foundation. AFTERWARDS, He has rules for the conduct and “manner” of His house, just like ANY father does. It is in the keeping of COMMANDMENTS that further blessing is incurred for the believer ..and with which the tribulation saints who triumph in that dark hour are marked (Revelation 12:17 and 14:12). “They hold to the testimony of Yeshua AND keep his commandments.” BOTH things are in evidence.
…that to love His commandments is somehow a lessening of our love for Him, a legalism (a word never used in Scripture) rather than a loving embrace of His nature expressed in those commandments?
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. He IS the embodiment of the graciousness that permeates His codified word/law. “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was WITH GOD” (John 1:1). To love one is to love the other. They are inseparable.
…that there are only two commandments, love God and love your brother as yourself.
Go deeper and it’s larger than we knew. There are, in fact, MANY commandments …some of them very specific. If you find a donkey in a hole, get him OUT! Stone a man who willfully kills another. Thinking we have a better plan, we let criminals go free regardless of the heinous level of the crime. Pump ‘em right back into the culture. We disdain, and get rid of, God’s laws and substitute our own. We aren’t totally lawless, we just prefer our own replacement laws….law books 3 inches thick of arbitrary human, governmental laws ad nauseum.
…that we may eat pig (i.e. pork chops, bacon, and sausage).
Go deeper and its different from what we knew. We may eat all FOOD. And only the God who created food, gets to describe what food IS. We don’t eat alligators or rats because we all know they were never designed to be food. In scripture we are told that pigs were never designed to be food. And modern science has shown us that pigs are scavenger animals. They eat garbage and as a result deadly trichinosis lives in their gut. They never sweat so that delicious taste is actually uric acid stored in the meat. God specifically tells us NOT to eat pork. Who knows, there may be an end-time plague that is carried ONLY in pork, that he keeps us from. This COULD be life and death, as most of His commandments ARE…eventually. The prodigal son, at his lowest hour, woke up in a pig-pen. This was not touted as a paradise. It is sobering that we are told in Isaiah 66 that swine eaters will not inherit the kingdom. The Catholic Church, in direct defiance of God told us to eat pig. Picked it as THE meat of choice for pagan rituals, and for pagan Easter festivals dedicated to bunnies and fertility, as a direct way to snub God. They didn’t choose elk, or cow, or lamb. They went for the forbidden and MADE it the normal.
In addition to not eating pork, God has specified further lists of clean and unclean animals to eat and not eat. He should know having made the chemistry in both the human and the animal, himself! It is possible that we might not know everything there is to know about what goes on inside of us when we eat, yes, even with modern science. Science is ever finding NEW discoveries, and blushing with a fair number of “oops”…insisting the world was flat as one of them. But HE knows. Knew it from the day of creation.
…that Sunday is a better day to worship than Saturday.
Go deeper and its different from what we knew. God instituted the Sabbath for all mankind AT CREATION. Not just for the Jews. Even when giving the Ten Commandments he said REMEMBER …hearken back to when I first told you. At creation He both “hallowed” it and “blessed” it, two supernatural conditions surround the keeping of it. He commanded the keeping of it in creation and validated it by his own life, going to the Synagogue on Saturday “as was his custom” (Book of Acts) and KEPT it even in the work of redemption…resting IN THE EARTH on Sabbath. He WAITED to burst forth in his own resurrection until after the Sabbath was over.
The Apostle Paul kept it 35 years AFTER Yeshua’s death. It was built into his weekly routine. He taught on other days in ADDITION. By precept and example it was established for all time by Yeshua and Paul. It will be kept in the coming kingdom (Isaiah chapters 66 and 58). So if it was there at Creation and will be kept in the coming kingdom, WHEN would it have ever been done away with? By whose precept and whose example?
---that we get baptized once and that’s it.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. Baptism is most important. It is our public testimony of accepting Yeshua’s provision of salvation for us. And a divine picture of going down into death and being resurrected, a new creation. But we CAN dip in the waters at other significant spiritual times, too. These are called Mikvahs. The orthodox Jews have for centuries taken multiple dippings in LIVING waters (not stagnant pools), to mark some spiritual passage. They learned to do it from SOMEWHERE. Teshuvas…are repentance/renewals by dipping in fresh flowing water.
Water is symbolic of “oceans” of concepts, (i.e., several concepts!). The Lord WATERS Israel with the spring rains and the later rains. It is the only nation that HE must water for it to survive (Deut. 11:11 and Isaiah 27:3). If he doesn’t water it, Israel doesn’t exist. The water libation during the feast of Tabernacles is representative of this. In Isaiah it says “Come ye thirsty and drink.”
Historically, YHWH got WATER out of the rock. That is why a very severe punishment was leveled at Moses…to be denied entrance to the Holy Land, when he STRUCK the rock for water…and to add insult to injury he struck it TWICE. The Father alone reserved the right to strike Yeshua ONCE to provide a sacrifice for us…and only strike him once for all time. Water is a gift from YHWH…we don’t demand it, we receive it with thanksgiving. For without it, and his atonement, we die. Water is one of the basest of elements, and one of the highest of blessings. Water is a BIG deal. It is no surprise that YHWH authorized the use of it to denote numerous spiritual passages.
Bar mitzvahs (the passage of youth into manhood), betrothal announcements, feast days, individual repentances can all be marked by Mikvah’s. Yeshua was not dipped in water for conversion. His trip into the baptismal waters was an announcement of His public ministry and solidified His identity by the appearance of all three parts of the Godhead. He had no sin that needed to be washed clean. There are multiple spiritual reasons for baptismals in water.
---that the condition of land, “terra firma” has nothing to do with sin happening upon any land.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. The condition of earth has EVERYTHING to do with the sin happening upon it.
The whole creation GROANS with eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed (Romans 8). The Jewish people and the land of Israel have a symbiotic relationship that is especially close. The condition of its people is reflected in its land. If their condition is sinful, the land stops producing, there is no rain. She is reduced to rocks and dust (Psalm 102:14), forsaken, as Mark Twain noted during his visit there in the 19th century. If God’s chosen people, who are living there, become really sinful they are cast OFF the land. Scattered among the nations. Historically this has happened several times. Being kicked out of the Garden of Eden for sin was the first.
…that the Israelites came to Israel to establish it ONCE in 1948.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. They have returned to the land MULTIPLE times….the scriptures cite repeated waves of returnings, beginning with Adam. He was created somewhere else and brought TO the land. Abraham was brought to the land. The Hebrews came back to Israel after the exodus from Egypt. A remnant came back after the Babylonian exile. They tribes of Judah came back in 1948 and the ten lost northern tribes of Israel will return out of the nations at the end of time.
…that the land of Israel is no big deal.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. The land of Israel is a very big deal as it may be the actual original site of the Garden of Eden. There was a world wide flood that seems to have disoriented us on the point. Hid such a truth from us. A few things got rearranged. But our clue? The Gihon River existed in the original garden and the Gihon spring now exists in Jerusalem! Hmmmm….. might make sense that YHWH would END the story where He began it? Might make sense that it is the most hotly contested real estate on the planet?
…that Israel’s purpose is just political….to provide a shared living space along with equal peoples who believe in a different God (a demon-god) people called Palestinians, in a two-state solution.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it. If He assigns a certain geography to be used for a specific purpose, who are we to tinker with that? Israel is HUGELY significant to God. His eye is on it 24/7. It is the seat of His future throne. His name will live there. Israel is His FIRSTBORN…His light to the nations. He wants to SAY something THROUGH Israel. It is His showcase. “The Law will go forth from Zion” indicates that it is the seat of world-wide divine government…i.e. it will house the Supreme Court. The blood went forth from Zion, as well, by the way. This is not contestable land. This is assigned land.
….that all languages are equal.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. Hebrew is the eternal language. God was, no doubt, busy fashioning its 22 characters BEFORE Creation. He spoke the worlds into existence, VIA Hebrew. He had to use LANGUAGE to do that. Hebrew is the DNA of creation. It was the audible language God used on Mount Sinai and the language He used with the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. Hebrew will be our language for all time. It is a blessing to study it. It is worship to study it.
…that tithes are used to pay pastors’ salaries.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. If a pastor’s income is linked to the money of his parishioners, he will soon reframe the truth to tickle their ears. The synagogue was a PLURALITY of elders all of whom earned money somewhere else. The seats were arranged in a CIRCLE to share multiple spiritual insights gained from Scripture, not arranged in a row for a theater performance. Yeshua Himself was encouraged as a young man to expound the scriptures at the Synagogue among the Rabbis. Tithes and additional tithes were used to maintain the sacrificial functions of the Temple, and to feed the poor, and to spread the good news.
…that the moon is a useless thing hanging in the sky.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. The moon was set in the sky for signs and seasons, during Creation Week. It is to be noted in its waxing and waning and heralded when it cycles around to its new appearing every 28 days. So trained to look there and notice, we’ll be alerted to God’s movements in history. The story of the Gospel was originally written in the constellations ….hence the Virgo, Virgin Mary, the Hercules….really Yeshua, etc. All the names of the constellations were later changed/commandeered by the Greeks and Romans for their own purposes and given new names to that end. Stolen. We are to celebrate the NEW MOONS (Amos 8:5), i.e., keep looking up.
…that shofars and silver trumpets (Numbers 10:2) are curios in gift shops and noisemakers.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. The sound of them may actually split hidden demonic activity, and bring ON celestial angelic help. They herald divine announcements. The numbers and durations of the blasts indicate different spiritual verities. The Feast of Trumpets will be a game-changer, maybe in our not too distant future.
…that we need to understand blood for ONLY the redemption made by Yeshua.
Go deeper and it’s larger than what we knew. Blood is FURTHER significant to initiate a number of blood covenants. YWHW requires the circumcision of baby boys and men who come to faith and have never had it done. At eight days after birth of a baby boy vitamin K is produced which helps the blood clot quickly and the newborn pain threshold become very low at that hour in preparation for being cut in that area at that hour. It is when we disobey that the pain is an ordeal…to do it LATER is painful…nevertheless Abraham and his men DID do it later, as grown men.
Circumcision is done for sanitary reasons as well as to ratify the covenant of all godly seed for all time, which comes through the loins of a man. Every man will need to be circumcised before entering the Millennial reign. And every man needs to be circumcised now to eat the Passover. No matter how much of a messy deal it was (that was the point…it needs to be a mess to remind us of something) God REQUIRED it of Abraham and all his household. They couldn’t proceed without the ritual. It is a blood covenant.
Blood initiates the marriage union. The hymen is broken when a man first enters a woman….his wife. A marriage cloth, used under the first intercourse, used to be presented before a priest to validate or invalidate the virginity of a new bride.
That a baby is born in a BUNCH of blood, followed by a placenta filled with blood….all births are a bloody affair…on purpose.
The law of niddah states that a husband is not to enter his wife during her time of month…when blood is present. Something important here, no doubt. It may keep cervical cancer at bay.
…that the Greco-Roman calendar is the REAL calendar.
Go deeper and it’s different from what we knew. The Biblical calendar and dating are the only dates we can reckon by to understand GOD’S significant moves in history and in prophecy both past and future. History is “HIS – STORY,” including its significant dates. The Biblical calendar tells us EXACTLY when we are to do Sabbaths, and high Sabbaths at feast days. The day of the Sabbath has been kept pure since creation week…even in the conversion to the Greco-Roman calendar the Sabbath DAY OF THE WEEK was never lost. And Biblical Feast Days, are to be kept exactly upon the evenings and mornings of the months specified in scripture. Biblical dating is not sloppy or slippery business…it is specific business attended by quantum blessing! In the “fullness of time he sent forth his son” and on the day of Passover when they examined the lamb within the temple, they examined Yeshua before the priests…at the SAME TIME, at the same hour.
Conclusion:
This is only what we know about, think about what we do not YET know. In Isaiah 55:9 the prophet wrote: “My thoughts are higher than your thoughts; My ways higher than your ways.”
