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CHURCH LETTER
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
`Therefore say to the people, `I am YaHWeH '
Readers of our Church Letters may recall that in October 2014 we wrote a condensed `history' of Islam entitled, `The Empty Husk of Islam'. This was followed in February 2016 by another condensed `history', this time of the Church entitled, `I Will Build My Church'. Now comes a third condensed `history', that of the Jewish religion and entitled `YaHWeH' (written in large and small letters) which was written in late 2018. This title really encapsulates all that needs to be said on the Jewish religion, other than the great `Sh'ma Yisrael', which is found in Torah in Deuteronomy 6:4 and in other Books of the Bible: `Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One'. This twice-daily recitation of the Sh'ma is known as a Mitzvah, a Scriptural commandment, and it contains the fulness of Jewish belief. From that great prayer Jewish life and practice emanates, for it springs from the unspeakable Name of God . . . YaHWeH . . . Who has entered into an unbreakable Covenanted relationship with them through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and for want of a title it can be called `Judaism'. Over the years many misguided theologians with a genuine desire for peace have sought reconcilliation between what they call `the three monolythic faiths of Abraham'. But in doing so they have rejected the Christian Bible with its 66 books revealing God's full and complete Revelation, and which is described as `the closed Canon of Scripture'.
Islam, a mixture of Hebraic, Christian and pagan writings and traditions, is an `empty husk' and more of a religious ideology concerning a physical man than a true religious faith concerning the One True God, as revealed in Jesus, God the Son. Christianity, a title coming from historical traditions, is the revelation of the One True God in the Person of the Messiah Jesus through the Holy Spirit. His is the new `true and only faith' spoken of in the old `true and only faith' of the Hebraic Canon of Scripture. Therefore this shows that there is but one Abrahamic faith, for as the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote:
" God, Who at various times and in various ways in the past spoke to our forefathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, through Whom He also made the universe. " Hebrews 1:1-2
So at last we can turn to this third `condensed history', which, at the risk of contradicting what we have previosly written on the one Israel, we have entitled a condensed history of Judaism. We therefore start our search in Torah and in the Book of Genesis, where in chapters 2-3 it records the events surrounding `the Fall of Man', caused through the serpent's whispers to Eve regarding eating the fruit of `the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil'. The Fall of Man came through disobedience to God's Word, but to the woman a clear word was given which forms the central walk of faith for the people who one day would be called `Israel'. To the serpent God said: `I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His Heel. "
It would be some two thousand years before we begin to see this word outworking, where in Genesis 12 we find:
"Now the LORD had said to Abram: `Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing'. "
Later in chapter 15 we read of that Promise being confirmed by a Covenant, and at this point it was revealed that the Promise concerned a Son, the Seed of the woman of Genesis 3: "After these things the Word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision." Abram was perplexed. How could he receive more since he was childless and his heir was a tribal relative?: "And behold, the Word of the LORD came to him saying, `This relative shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir'." What follows is well known to our readers, for the Covenant Promise was passed down to the sons of his own body, Isaac and then Jacob. Finally in chapter 49 we see this Abrahamic Covenant being passed on to `one from his own body' - by Jacob to his son Judah: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the people." Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, now comes into the picture, and we read in Genesis 37: "Now Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age, and so he made for him a robe of many colours." So Joseph was now given authority over all of Jacob's sons, and with him being the eldest son of Jacob's marriage to his beloved Rachel we see that Joseph beloved by Jacob is a foreshadowing of the promised Messiah of Israel. And here we shall leave the `Patriarchal Age' which takes us into the time of slavery for the Hebrews in Egypt: (Exodus 2:23-24)
"Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out! And their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning and remembered His Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. "
We move on now to the `call of Moses', the man God had chosen to lead His people out of bondage and to form them into the People of Israel. We read of Moses' apprehension at being called for this mighty undertaking, which resulted in his meeting with God so that whatever might happen he knew that if God had called him then He would undertake its outcome: (Exodus 3:5-6)
" Then God said: `I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. "
And so there came about the `exodus' from Egypt, the land of slavery for the Israelites, and we read in Exodus 12:37-38 that the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, `about six hundred thousand men on foot besides children, and a great multitude went up with them'. (Although here we are going ahead of ourselves in this condensed history, the `great multitude' who went with the Hebrews would have been Egyptians and other camp followers and they would cause the Israelites continuous trouble - as can be seen in the making of the golden calf in the wilderness - even up to and after the captivity in Babylon.) We read of this in Nehemiah 13:3 where, `they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel' and afterwards `they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God'. However we now return to the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai, where Moses met with God and was given the two stone tablets of the Law with instructions on the building of the Tabernacle (Exodus 33). Within the Tabernacle the Ark of the Covenant was placed, the visible Presence of God in the very heart of the people wherever they travelled or when they rested.
This was to be a defining moment for Israel, which lasts to this day for although now there is no Ark of the Covenant a new Ark has come to them. It was and it is this knowledge, that the Jews are God's Chosen People, His `Treasured Possession' (as written in Deuteronomy) and that He has protected, cared and provided for them over the many centuries. YaHWeH, the Name not spoken by Jews because God Himself is in the Name, the Covenant Name of God, with its meaning as near as can be described: `I will be there, present, leading the way, helping, strengthening and delivering from danger'. There is within the Covenants the promise of a `delivering Messiah', a Son of Promise, and it is with this understanding we wrote an earlier Letter `How does the City lay Solitary', that Israel carries within its `womb' this Promise, the very centre of life. We read of this in Revelation 12: A woman (Israel) `then being with child she cried out travailing in birth and in pain to be delivered'. Only a woman with children can truly understand travailing in birth after nine months of increasing discomfort, but following the pain there is joy. It is this `travailing in birth' that has drawn the enmity of the Serpent against the woman's Seed over the long centuries of Israel's journey, with Israel constantly under the threat of destruction through the Serpent's worldly seed, for the LORD God had said to the Serpent: `He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel'. The enmity continues to this day, for although `the Man Child' has been born the Serpent knows that his head has not yet been crushed. The past is not a dead past but still lives in the present which it has formed, and together in the future its fulfillment will come: (Romans 11:26)
" And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written. The Deliverer will come out of Zion, He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is My Covenant with them. "
And so we now journey on with the Israelites into another Age after they had crossed the River Jordan into the Land of Promise - yet still they were burdened by `the great multitude' that came with them in the exodus from Egypt! A very salutary lesson which all who have been brought into the Promises of God should heed! Faithful Moses was now safe with the LORD. His work was completed and the twelve tribes were in a new Age and under the care of Joshua: (Joshua 1:1-5 in part)
" Ater the death of Moses, the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant saying: `Moses My servant is dead, Now therefore arise, go over the Jordan, you and all this people, to the Land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel . . .' . So they answered Joshua, saying, `All that you command us we will do . . . . Just as we heeded Moses, so we will heed you. Only the LORD your God will be with you as he was with Moses. "
Although the Israelites had crossed over into another Age on their journey, the wording here shows that their past is firmly embedded in their present - the LORD, the Covenant Name of God, confirming His promise given to Abraham that his offspring would be `as numerous as the stars in the heavens'. Also the promise of a land . . . `To your descendants I have given this land'. And so they carried in their midst the Covenant Ark of God, His Presence with them! Although they were twelve distinct tribes, each with thir own tribal leaders, the whole tribe was gathered around `the Presence of the LORD', the Ark of the Covenant, under the leadership of the LORD's anointed servant Joshua. The people recognised this when confirming their acceptance of him by their words: `the LORD your God be with you as He was with Moses'.
This `tribal Age' is seen to be a `community of God' under the Rule of God, Whose Presence was always there in the heart of the people of God whilst they accepted the authority of Joshua - who could be said to be the visible Presence of `the LORD your God'. Surely this gives us the understanding of what Paul the Apostle wrote on the community of God in his Letter to the Ephesians: (Ephesians 4:4-6)
"There is one Body and one Spirit . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in you all. "
It may be said that we have moved beyond `a history of Judaism', but with the understanding of the one people of God, chosen by Him as His `treasured possession' whether they are the `redeemed people of God' of Paul's time (and beyond) or the unredemeed community of God of Joshua's time, all are Israel standing in the Covenant given to Abraham. It was Joshua who was given the task of organising the tribal system into a federated form of government so as to ensure the continuance of tribal unity. We read in Joshua chapters 3 and 4 that the priests were commanded to stand in the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant: `Joshua said to the children of Israel: Come here and hear the words of the LORD your God'. Words are important, and earlier we read of the Israelites accepting Joshua as their leader and his (your) God. But now in chapter 3 there comes that `new and better way'. The Israelites were about to cross over the Jordan, but first came the clear words of the LORD `as you cross over'! Here there is a clear cutting off of the old and now the Israelites were individually responsible to `the LORD your God': (Joshua 3:13)
" And it came to pass that as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests, who bore the Ark of the LORD - the Lord of all the earth - shall rest in the waters of the Jordan that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that came down from upstream and they shall stand up in a heap. "
Furthermore in chapter 4 we read of `the Word of the LORD to Joshua' telling him to chose twelve men from the twelve tribes to take twelve stones and carry them over the Jordan into the land where they would build a memorial so future generations would know of the salvation of God, for under Moses' leadership EL the Saviour had fulfilled His promise and had delivered and saved them and cut them off from their past lives. They were now God's Community, twelve tribes, each one precious to God, a Community with a priesthood as a reminder of God's salvation as they stood in the Jordan with the Ark, enabling the Israelites to cross over and be cut off from the past. Little is known of the character of Joshua because as a person he was overshadowed by the great events of his life. This is said not to dishonour this great man of God but to give glory to God for His servant's heart - as befitting a foreshadowing of God's Final Salvation in the Person of Jesus the Messiah Who came to do His Father's will to enable the Israelites to cross over the `spiritual Jordan' and into the Land of their final rest. This `Age of the Tribes' continued after the death of Joshua, and we read in chapter 2 of Judges:
" Now Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD died . . . . When all the generations had been gathered to their fathers another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work that He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals . . . . Nevertheless the LORD raised up Judges who delivered them out of the hands of those who plundered them. "
The title of `Judges' has a Hebraic meaning of `those who put right and rule', and was an office peculiar to Israel. In simple terms the Books of Joshua and Judges cover one distinct age of the Israelites' journey. Under Joshua they entered into their promised inheritance, but in Judges we read of that inheritance becoming despised by a new generation who turned to the Baals. We recall that when the Hebrews made their exodus from Egypt they also brought with them `a great multitude' of people who worshipped other gods. Even after the Israelites had crossed over into the Land of Promise and were `cut off' from the past this `great multitude' who crossed over with them caused the Israelites to continually stumble in their walk with the LORD - and here we need a Selah to consider this salutary lesson for God's people today!
And so the LORD raised up Judges to `put right and rule', but the path of the Israelites in the Land is a dismal story. During this time there were twelve Judges raised up by the LORD and one usurping Judge, thirteen Judges in all. The number `13' shows disorder and rebellion - one more number than God's Governmental Order for His twelve tribes! This thirteenth Judge was Abimelech, for after the defeat of Midian (chapter 8) Gideon was entreated by the Israelites: `Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian'. But Gideon said to them: `I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The LORD shall rule over you'. But Abimelech's ambition overruled his father's understanding that the LORD would bring forth His righteous Judges, and so Abimelech assumed the position of Judge over Israel. This had disastrous results, and before we leave this Age of the tribes of Israel and this thirteenth Judge, there must surely be another Selah.
And so we move on in the journey of Israel and into the Age of the Kings of Israel'. `Ages' do not move smoothly from one Age to another, or indeed along a straight and peaceful path for they are also born out of conflict, and so it was in this new Age of the Kings. We must always remember that the `old' is not dead but lives on in the `new' - the central belief in `the LORD our God' is never lost in the `new'. Respect for the `old' and acceptance of the `new' should ever be present in God's people in their journey on the twisting path to Glory. Such changes from one Age to another can be caused by an outside threat, but more often than not the change comes over a protracted period of time through the internal decay of the governance of a nation's political, economic and social life - its `religious life' long since thrown off and leaving the nation totally exposed and vulnerable. Both these elements were at work in the tribal life of the Israelites, for within the `security' of a tribal system they had forgotten that they were chosen by the LORD as one people with the Presence of God always in the midst of that one people of God.
Within this tribal indolence there was a growing awareness by a remnant of the people that they had moved away from this understanding of a common call by the LORD to be a witness to the surrounding nations of the Sovereignty of God over all His creation. That common witness of a community of people would be central and seen to be centered in a kingdom under the authority of a king, revealed as a priest-king in acknowledgement of the One Who ruled and reigned over them. This Age of Kings, then at an embryonic stage, would see the Israelites moving from being a tribal people into a nation of people under one head, a king who would lead them, provide for them and protect them against any who would challenge this `national' witness to the One True God over all creation. The second element at work in this `move of Ages' would be seen in an external threat, which came from the people already in the Land, the Five Lords of the Philistines. The Philistines were a powerful people with greatly advanced and well-organised power, bent on control over all the land of Philistria. The temporary charismatic Judges of the Tribal Age were no protection against these powerful people, and so the Israelites clamoured for `a king to judge us, such as all the other nations have'. Yet this insistence of the people did not come about without resistence from the `old' Judges who wanted to continue in the old ways, who even then were slipping into the ways of a former Judge, Abimelech, who had tried to form a dynastic House, surely a quasi-monarchy!
However the LORD God was pointing to His way forward for His chosen people in their demands for a king to rule over them. The LORD God allowed this, and once accepted by the people as the LORD's will for them the monarchical system of government would now be at the service of the LORD and its religious life, for a priest-king was required to lead from one Age to another - the Theocratic government was never lost. Saul, Israel's first king, was designated by Samuel - a Judge, prophet and priest of Israel - and accepted, even acclaimed by the people, but this led to Saul's final rejection by God as His appointed king. But as we mentioned earlier, such a change into another Age never comes smoothly! The Monarchy under Saul was more than a `chiefdom' over a tribal people, and he was never a King over the Land of Israel with territorial national boundaries to protect. Saul's kingship was more a King of the Israelites!
The change over into a new Age came with the LORD's choice of David, who for all his faults was (as Samuel said when rejecting Saul as king) `a man the LORD has sought for Himself, a man afer His own heart'. David understood God's intention that once the people's demands for a king to judge them had been granted and they had been given their acclaimed king, therefore a king from the tribe of Judah was the LORD's appointed, but also His anointed king, who would restore the Living Presence of the LORD God of Israel to the centre of Israel's national life. This David, a man after God's own heart and led by the Spirit of God, `saw' that his kingdom required a central place from which he would reign. Jerusalem was in his `prophetic sight', a mountain fortress with its `hill of Zion' as his residence, but Zion, towering over all his kingdom, would have been nothing more than a `strong city built on a hill' without the Presence of the One True God in their midst. This led to the Ark of the Covenant being brought to Zion, where David dressed in the priestly ephod ministered to the LORD. David, as the anointed and accepted king over all Israel and Judah, never did rule over a united people, for an `Israelite Empire' was never the LORD's intention. All that was required of David was for him to make Jerusalem with its Hill of Zion his own possession and the possession of his earthly dynasty as `the City of David'. As a man after God's heart that was `the beginning of the end' of God's final purpose, which is `a Holy City, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God'. Surely time for another Selah!
The LORD God of Israel's intention for His people was for them to enter His Rest in the Heavenly Jerusalem, a personal rest in His Heavenly City where there is `no Temple in that City because the LORD God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple'. It was given to David's son Solomon to build the glorious Temple into which the Ark of the Covenant was brought, where finally the glory of the LORD fell on it. The City of David was now established as the centre of David's kingdom which would last for ever, and at its centre was the Ark of the Presence of YaHWeH, the LORD God of Israel. Solomon asked God for wisdom to enable him to rule as king over the LORD's `most treasured possession', and that request was abundantly granted by a gracious God. But Solomon was given more than he asked, for it is recorded in the First Book of Kings chapter 3:
" And I have also given you what you have not asked for, both riches and honour so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days."
These were two unconditional gifts of God given to Solomon. However there was a third conditional gift given:
" If you walk in My ways, keep My statutes and My commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days."
Certainly Solomon's days were long, for he reigned for fourty years - surely a time of the testing of his character! But Solomon was a despotic king whose absolute power went beyond wisdom! His massive building activities caused enormous economic poverty amongst his people, bringing about tension between the northern and southern tribes. The splendour of his court, his promotion of the arts and sciences together with his cultivation of foreign attachments led to the re-introduction of foreign gods, endorsed through his marriage to the pagan Egyptian Pharoah's daughter. He also had a vast harem with numerous foreign wives whose gods needed pagan shrines built within Jerusalem! The magnificent Temple enclosing the Ark of the LORD's Presence soon became a symbol of State power rather than a place of worship to the LORD God of Israel - and as the Royal Palace was built with its splendid courts rising in ascendancy over the Temple of the LORD, it drew in ambassadors from the surrounding nations. Upon Solomon's death his kingdom was torn in two, leaving the stronger northern kingdom of Israel without the Temple and the Presence of the LORD, its religious life built upon the worship of pagan gods!
It was now the time of the prophets, those `awkward men of God' who admonished and warned, foretelling the fall of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. They were the `scouring Word of the LORD' to His people who had embraced pagan ways, proclaiming afresh the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and speaking openly against an elite group of people who were enriching themselves at the expense of their own people. The prophets were the great critics of those days, warning of the days of God's judgement to come if there was no repentance. Their writings were a reminder of the past, and of the barreness of the present which would lead to captivity in the future. They spoke not against the Monarchy but against the kings' contempt for the outworking of their responsibilities. They spoke not against the priesthood, only against their unthinking mechanical performance of the prescribed rites and sacrifices, but they did rail against the false court prophets. Those Godly prophets were a people `after God's own heart' and the `hand of God's scouring'. Little wonder they suffered such persecution! Surely this is time for a pause . . a Selah . . in which to ponder the parallel in our times!
With the exception of a few the kings of Judah and Israel soon entered into a time of total apostacy, paying only lip-service to the LORD God of Israel. The end of the northern kingdom soon came and its people were scattered. The southern kingdom of Judah finally succumbed to the armies of Babylon, with the people taken into captivity and the Temple and the Ark of the LORD's Presence destroyed. However the purposes of the LORD were centered on an Eternal Covenant with His people, and it is this that runs like a Scarlet Thread woven into the `garment' of Israel and holds the remnant of His people into their sure and certain hope that He will never leave or forsake them . . . that He is in their midst, even without the physical Ark of His Presence to remind them of His faithfulness. The remnant knew with that inward assurance that the LORD would once again lead them out of captivity and into a new Age of the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem.
But how? Captivity had meant the end of the State political power and the independence of the Kingdom, with Jerusalem stormed by the Babylonians and its Temple destroyed along with the Ark of the Covenant. The sons of the king were executed, destroying the dynastic rule of David, before Zedekiah himself was blinded and taken into Babylon where he died. Little wonder that the 9th day of the month of Av - or as it is known `Tisha B'Av' - is kept by religious Jews today as a day of national mourning. However the new Age that was coming came through the Decree of Cyrus, which allowed the people of Judah to return to their land. Earlier, at the time of Artaxerxes the father of Cyrus, Nehemiah asked the great king for permission to return to Jerusalem so he could see for himself the news that had come to him, which led to his work of reparing the walls of Jerusalem. This great work showed that this new Age was close - and when Zerubbabel together with 42,360 Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple the new Age finally began!
However this Age was not to be `the Golden Age', the hope of the remnant of Israel, for we see in the words of the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi that continual encouragement was needed as `the pull of Babylon' drew the people's minds away from their calling and the reason for their release from captivity. The words of the prophets spoke to them: `Work, for the glory of this latter House shall be greater than the former House, says the LORD of Hosts'. With the building of the second Temple there came a change in the Governance of the people - a return to the Theocratic rule under the Priesthood, which began with Ezra the priest bringing `the Book of the Law of Moses' to read from and to teach the assembled people. This was the time of the Sopherim - from whom came the Sanhedrin - who would bring together the Closing Canon of the Hebrew Scriptures. Now back in the Land, the people of Israel would become a closed, separated people of the Book under the direction and increasing control of the Rabbis. This was the Age that would lead to the compilation of the great Talmud which would bring into the national life of Israel the learned Scribes and Teachers of the Law.
The Talmud - called `the traditions of the fathers' - originated in the Mishnah, meaning `the teaching', and is a collection of the oral traditions handed down though the generations. But they became equal with the written Torah because it was taught that the oral word was contained within the written word which was given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. Such an understanding was unheard of before the fall of the first Temple, for the Mishnah now formed the whole basis of this new Theocratic Age. The Mishnah was further commented on by the Teachers of the Law through the writings of Gemara, which together with the Mishnah formed the later Talmud. In short, the Talmud is an extended commentary on the Mishnah and forms the Halakhah . . `the way to be taken'. The Talmud is not so much a legal ruling on Jewish life as a recording of the discussions and many opinions on the Law and traditions of the Learned School of the Scribes and Lawyers and their disciples! It was a form of a National Library of Babylonian Judaism, formed outside the Mishnah which became the foundation of the orthodox Rabbinic Judaism of this new Age and which has lasted right down to our contemporary time. No changes can be made to the Talmud - only the addition of further opinions and often conflicting interpretations `laid alongside them' are permitted, which keeps the people in often bitter disagreement and far from being a united People of the Book!
It was said later that the Talmud was `the hedge around Torah' to keep it safe from corruption during the Babylonian captivity. However the Talmud, with its 613 precepts containing 248 commandments and 365 prohibitions, has turned the hedge around Torah into a prison for the People of the Book! In order to preserve the cultural identity of the people there came `the way to be taken', the Halakhah, a life lived by strict observance of the oral Law which determined their identity. The cultural need of identity in captivity replaced the earlier identity of the Jewish people who had the Temple and the kings ruling and reigning over them in Jerusalem, and as the power and authority of the Rabbis increased so did their earlier thoughts of a Redeeming Messiah emerge. The voice of the prophet was stilled and the Age would experience the long `Great Probation' which lasted four hundred years when the Voice of God was not heard! For sure there was a Temple, but there was no Ark, no Mercy Seat, and no Altar, and the priests, scribes and lawyers `ruled' in this new Theocratic Age!
What, then, of the hope of the remnant of the people of Israel? The Menorah became the focal point of the people's sure and certain hope - as can be seen in the writings of the prophet Zechariah, who wrote at this time: (Zechariah 4:2-3)
" And he (the angel) asked me `What do you see?' So I said, I see a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one to the right of the bowl and the other to the left. "
Such prophetic words drew the people's minds back to Solomon's Temple where there was a great golden seven-shafted candle stick, reminding them of the six days of creation and the seventh day when `God rested from all His work He had done . . . and blessed it and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all the work which God had created and made'. And so the Scarlet Thread holding the garment of Israel together lay in the `seventh light' of the Menorah yet to come, the One Who would redeem His people - indeed a rest in the Seventh Day to come - and an understanding of this is seen in Psalm 95. Unfortunately it is this one Age that many Christian teachers major on - that is, the Rabbinic Theocratic Age - in their criticism of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time. But this was a time towards the end of that particular Age which had been required to bring together a fragile unified people after the monumental shock to their national identity, albeit that the `great works' of the priesthood had finally brought the people into the greater captivity of the Talmud! Such short-sighted `teachers' fail to comprehend `the long journey of the Ages' of the Jewish people who have carried within them the Presence of the LORD and also the remnant who kept alive the certainty of the coming of the Messiah Who would lead them into their final rest. Such teachers, if they only paused and thought, would soon see that `the redeemed people of Israel' have also followed a similar path for two thousand years, and that throughout this time the remnant within them has held to the Certain Hope of the Messiah Jesus - but here we have digressed and need to return to `the Ages'! However another Selah might be in order here!
A new Age was forming for the Jewish people, and we see the events recorded in the Gospels, the Good News of God, of the unveiling of His Messiah Jesus to His people Israel. The angel Gabriel was sent by God to announce the news to Mary, `a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the House of David: (Luke 1:30-33)
" Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. And the LORD God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the House of Jacob forever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end. "
A remnant was there to acknowledge Him, such as the shepherds and later Simeon and Anna in the Temple, but they still had to wait a while longer for that new Age to finally come!
This new Age broke into the long history of Israel when Jesus was finally rejected by His people and crucified unto death. But He rose again on the third day, according to the prophetic Jewish Scriptures, and on the Closing Feast of Passover (the Feast of Pentecost) in the 50th Jubilee year when all things are redeemed, returned to their former owners, the New Covenant which was long ago spoken of by Jeremiah and Ezekiel was released to the assembled people in the Temple compound. The beginning of a new Age had come, this time not only for the Jewish people for this was the Feast of the Wheat Harvest, the gathering in of both Jews and Gentiles who would accept Jesus, the Messiah of God. Those assorted Jews in the Temple compound were the First Fruits of what was to be the great Gathering-In from `the people of the earth' - as the Apostle Paul was later to write: (Ephesians 2:11-15)
" Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh . . . . that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the Blood of Christ . . . . so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. "
A new Age had burst onto the world's stage, unnoticed and uncared about by the world for at first it concerned only the people of Israel. Then it reached out over the long years and touched the whole world for this Age reached out and changed all nations - and will continue to do so until `the Times of the Gentiles are fulfilled'. But following the release of the New Covenant which brought in the new Age there came a 40 year Probation, a testing of Israel's character, and we read in Acts 28 that the elders of Israel who represented the people rejected the evidence that Paul spoke of. This resulted in a cutting off of the nation of Israel, leaving them as `broken-off branches' of the Olive Tree which Paul wrote of in his Letter to the Romans. However, down through the Ages there has aways been a believing remnant running like a thread through the `garment' of Israel, and this was evident at this Feast of Pentecost - Jew and Gentile together in the Commonwealth of Israel, as Paul later wrote in Ephesians.
Now would come the great Diasporah of unbelieving Israel, the `broken-off branches' of their Commonwealth. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, the people being forbidden to even approach this area, and so they were scattered amongst the nations, settling for a while until persecution drove them onwards. Their journey of seeking for a Land was not to be at that time, but the True Hope of a Land and a Kinsman Redeemer journeyed with them for it was promised in the sacred Torah! However as those long years were drawing to a close another Age was appearing on the journey of these `broken-off people of God'. Jerusalem and the surrounding Land lay under the yoke of the once-mighty Ottoman Empire which was now in the death throes of the Great European War of 1914-1918, and in 1917 Jerusalem was liberated by the British army under General Allenby. The mighty Ottoman yoke was shattered, leaving Jerusalem and the surrounding area ravaged by war.
The reader will recall that according to Leviticus 25 every 49 years the Israelites were to declare a Jubilee Year, the 50th year. Man counts in 49 years but God counts in 50 years, the 50th year being layered onto the last year of the 49 years and the first year of the next cycle of 49 years - the 50th year is indeed the LORD's `Year of Redemption'! 1917 was a Jubilee Year in the Hebrew cycle of years, when according to Torah all possessions in the hands of others are returned to their original owner. And so in 1917 Jerusalem was returned to the Jewish people, as promised to them by the LORD. The actual date on which this redemption took place was the beginning of the Feast of Hanukkah. Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Maccabee family over the invading Greek armies of the Selucid Empire under Antiochus Epiphanes, the one who defiled the Temple in seeking to destroy the Jewish religion and the worship of the One True God. After their victory the Maccabees believed that they were throwing off the Selucids and were at last establishing the Kingdom of God free from all outside oppression and rule. (The reader will also recall that during the Babylonian captivity the Jewish people kept alive their trust and hope by focussing on the Menorah.) At this time the Maccabees, not knowing what to do, found stones from the desecrated altar and had them purified by a priest, after which they built a `Menorah' of seven candles to be lit by an eighth Servant Candle.
But just as in those early Maccabean days the Kingdom of God was not fully restored so we move on from 1917 to another Jubilee Year of 1967, when following `the Six Day War' Israel recovered East Jerusalem - and as a unified nation, instituted by world agreement in the United Nations in 1948, Israel declared `Jerusalem to be the eternal, undivided capital of Israel'. We now move on to 2017, yet another Jubilee Year, when the American President announced that America, the world's most powerful nation, acknowledged Jerusalem to be Israel's capital! Later in that same month the United Nations Security Council met in assembly to debate a Resolution to overturn the American Declaration. This Resolution was defeated by America's veto but all other members of the Council voted for it, including Great Britain! Spiritually this means that the whole world met officially in Solemn Assembly to defy the LORD's purpose! And so here we have three Jubilee Years in succession concerning the sovereignty of Jerusalem and Israel, with the spiritual understanding that a Kingdom yet-to-come has been declared in `the Heavenly Courtroom', a Kingdom to which a King is coming to take up His Throne. The 1967 Declaration was the start of the new Age, while the 2017 United Nations debate was a defiant refusal to accept this, thereby invoking a judgement-to-come on the world!
One other event that occurred in 1967 was the beginning of a Fourty Year Probation for the testing of the belief and character of the two halves of the one Israel. This `probation' was seen in a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit over the whole world, erroneously spoken of as `the Charasmatic Movement' by the Western Church. But in the `Heavenly Jerusalem' the LORD had released more than a Movement for it was a Declaration of the soon-return of Messiah Jesus to take up His Throne in Jerusalem and the release of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to bring His `broken-off' people back to the Land to prepare for His Coming. That `release' was also to call His Redeemed Israel, His Body, into prevailing Proclamation and Prayer for that Aliyah to be seen in all its glorious fulfillment before the Redeemed Israel, their work completed, is caught up to meet the LORD in the air to be with Him forever!
However both `redeemed and unredeemed Israel' failed to fully respond, and yet there was always that remnant who through hope and trust in the LORD were granted understanding of `the times' and that a new Age had occurred for God's people. Within unredeemed Israel there were many who made Aliyah and, as always, this was increased through persecution in their host countries. Within the redeemed Israel there has been a slowly growing awareness of their `Jewish roots' and a desire to understand and fulfil the purpose of this awakening understanding. But as with all Scriptural Probations, the failure of good character leads to judgement - not unto salvation but of character - and as with `old Israel' persecution leads to an understanding and a return to God's call. And so with `redeemed Israel' dismay and anxiety over `the state of the Church' will lead to the same understanding of the Age into which they have been born. As Mordicai said to Queen Esther: `Who knows whether you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this', which was to interceed for her Jewish family.
To go further into this `history' would take us into the future - which is sure and certain for it is His-story, as revealed in Scripture. Those who wait with understanding of the Age are indeed, `brothers on a journey, pilgrims on the road', for we, both `redeemed and unredeemed Israel', have come into the Covenant given by God to Abraham and fulfilled in our new life in the Seed of Abraham, the Messiah Jesus.
Selah
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