You have often heard me say that YHVH did not create a religion. Well, here is another statement: Israel is not the name of a religion. Israel is the name of YHVH’s righteous nation comprised of a righteous remnant.
What does this have to do with the news? Everything, if you want to avoid the traps being set by teachers of false doctrine who are now upholding the right of the Jews to own all Israel! For years, I have analyzed the wrongdoings of all 3 monotheistic religions and their lies and distortions. Recently, the focus has been on Judaism because this is the religion now rising to global power and that rise is being facilitated by Messianic Jewish and Hebrew Roots teachers and leaders! This is something you need to know about.
One of Judaism’s biggest lies infiltrating the Hebrew Roots Movement from the Messianic Jewish rabbis is that believers are grafted into the tree of Judah. We now have Hebrew Roots leaders and teachers teaching this. One of the first ways this is done is by telling Christians -those who have not yet left the Church – they must return to their “Jewish roots”. I have heard major Hebrew Roots and Messianic Jewish leaders call for people to return to their “Jewish roots” and teach that the olive tree of Romans 11 is Judah.
The first time I heard it was in the early years of my Torah walk when I attended a Messianic Jewish synagogue. The Rabbi taught a 6-week series on being grafted in. Each week, he reiterated that the tree we are grafted into is Judah’s tree. Even in my early walk, I knew this was not true but did not yet have the understanding to explain why. Today, I will give you the benefit of the understanding YHVH has provided to me over the years and through the studies done by the midrash team that is with me every Shabbat.
This is a wicked teaching! What that false doctrine means in practical terms is that all believers must convert to Judaism! That is the message! The problem is that Judaism is a religion; it is not YHVH’s Kingdom. We must analyze this false doctrine and teach others to stay away from it and those false teachers.
The teachers who teach this do not know the identity of the “tree” they speak about. The tree is the ‘netser’ shoot that came from the stump of Jesse and that has now grown into a mature tree! In fact, the two sticks of Ezekiel are already one tree in YHVH’s hand. This is not still a future event entirely even though its final fulfillment will be to make the physical realm’s reality comply with the spiritual realm’s reality. The sticks of Ezekiel 37 are what is left of the two Houses. A stick was part of a tree but now is cut off. Both Houses were cut from the olive tree. But some teachers are saying the olive tree is the House of Judah. If the House of Judah has become a stick, how then can Judah be the olive tree? The answer is that YHVH’s tree is the olive tree and both sticks must be grafted back into it; they must become one tree in His hand.
Paul explains about the olive tree in Romans 11 but the blind have misinterpreted it because they are coming from a religious perspective and one that is skewed toward another religion. So while they are calling people out of one religion, they are using it to call them into another religion. This is a problem because YHVH did not create religion and He does not want His people participating in religion! That’s what idolaters do; idolaters do religion.
The place to start is by seeing who Paul is talking to. It comes in hints. First, Paul compares himself to Elijah in Romans 11:2, the prophet sent specifically to the House of Israel. In verse 11, Paul identifies his audience – Gentiles. But let’s start at verse 1 so that we can clear up the false doctrine that has been taught for decades. That false doctrine is designed to trap people in Judaism or have them return to Christianity because they reject Judaism after which those people will become Noahides. Yes, Hebrew Root people are flowing in both directions.
Romans 11:1 I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Notice that Paul does not identify with the House of Judah. Neither did he call himself a Jew or Jewish, the collective title for the 4 tribes of the southern kingdom. Instead, Paul calls himself an Israelite. Why? It is because Israel is the Kingdom and “the remnant”. Paul was identifying himself as part of 12-tribed remnant of Israel over his “Jewish roots”. Thus, Paul is careful to keep the House of Judah and the Jews out of his identification in this chapter!
Romans 11:2 God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:
Paul is explaining that the House of Israel’s having been cut off was not rejection of all Israel. We must make the distinction between the cut off House of Israel and all Israel. We must make the distinction between the House of Judah and today’s Jewish Israel and all Israel. YHVH does. He makes the distinction all through the scripture from Genesis forward. So should we. But most teachers miss who is being spoke of here. They say Paul is talking about the House of Judah and the House of Judah’s tree which they say identifies the olive tree! Not so. Keep studying.
Paul talks about Elijah in verse 2! Elijah was sent only to the House of Israel. Elijah never prophesied in or to the southern kingdom! Just from this alone, we can see that Paul was not talking about the House of Judah in this chapter.
Romans 11:3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.”
Now, Paul quotes Elijah from before and after the incident with the prophets of Baal which identifies his topic as the House of Israel. Jezebel, wicked king Ahab’s even more wicked wife, was killing the prophets of the House of Israel – the remnant – who were calling the people to repentance (1 Kings 18). Then Elijah went up against the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 19. Who were the prophets of Baal? They were all Israelites from the HOUSE of Israel, the northern kingdom who had learned to do the Baalim worship from Jezebel.
Hebrew Roots and Messianic Jewish teachers equate Paul’s lament in Roman’s 11:3 as the same lament of Yeshua when He spoke to the Pharisees (Matthew 23:31, 34, 37, Luke 11:47, 49, Luke 13:34, Acts 7:52) about how the House of Judah, the Jews, had been killing the prophets that were sent to them. Paul’s words in verse 3 and Yeshua’s words to the Jews address two different “Houses” who killed their prophets sent to them by YHVH. Paul specifically addresses the killing of prophets from within the House of Israel.
Romans 11:4 But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
‘How does God answer “who”’? Elijah! YHVH said that within the House of Israel there was still a righteous remnant. Again, Paul is addressing what was going on in the northern tribes, not the southern.
Romans 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Rom 11:6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Romans 11:7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
Here is where people get all twisted up about works and grace. They say Paul is criticizing the Jews for their doctrine of works. No! Paul is talking about the House of Israel and how, before their exile, they were doing their own works trying to achieve righteousness! They did not obtain righteousness through their works. The chosen ones, the remnant from the House of Israel during Elijah’s time and afterward, obtained righteousness by following YHVH, rejecting Baal’s false religious doctrines. The rest of Israel had their hearts hardened like Pharaoh’s heart was. YHVH will give us our heart’s desire. If we desire another God over Him, He will let us go that way.
What people fail to understand also is that the righteous remnant of the House of Israel had some from among them that were exiled with the rest. Some of the righteous remnant remained in the land along with some of those who were unrighteous from the House of Israel. We know this because there were still people from the tribes in the north during Hezekiah’s time (see 2 Chronicles 30 when Hezekiah invited the northern and southern people to come to Jerusalem for Passover). YHVH sent some of the righteous remnant into the House of Israel’s exile with them so the righteous remnant could continue being His light in their darkness.
Romans 11:8 According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”
Again, Paul is talking about what happened in the House of Israel’s territory after the Assyrians took the House of Israel captive (2 Kings 17:6). The Assyrians had resettled the tribes that were left after the invasion into Samaria. The Assyrians also brought people from other nations including Babylon.
Here is what Paul is paraphrasing:
2 Kings 17:34 To this day they do what they did before. They don’t fear Yahweh, and they do not follow the statutes, or the ordinances, or the law, or the commandment which Yahweh commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
2 Kings 17:35 with whom Yahweh had made a covenant, and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;
2 Kings 17:36 but you shall fear Yahweh, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.
These are scriptures Paul is referencing. “They do what they did before”. Who does this? The House of Israel that is now settled in Samaria and who are being called Samaritans or Samarians and no longer “Israel”.
Notice that Paul reiterates through this quote that Israel is the “children of Jacob”. Who are the children of Jacob? Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Benjamin. The children of Jacob are not “Judah”, the southern kingdom – “Judah, Benjamin, Simeon and Levi”. But the only people left that are not cut off at that point are those 4 tribes! Now, YHVH has a problem because He promised Jacob that Israel would be all 12 tribes!
And now, Paul moves on to a different quote:
Romans 11:9 David says, “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.
Romans 11:10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Always keep their backs bent.”
Now, finally, we come to a reference about the Jews. Right? No. Not right. What was the Kingdom during David’s time? Twelve tribes. But before they were united, they were split into mainly 2 factions as they are today. David was lamenting about this pre-Kingdom split before he was finally able to bring all 12 tribes under one king.
Paul’s paraphrased reference is from:
Psalms 69:22 Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
Psalms 69:23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
David was in distress over his troubles in trying to unite the Kingdom. So when Paul paraphrases from David’s words, Paul is referencing the split in the Kingdom before David united them. Most of David’s problems came from… Wait for it… Guess where…? The northern tribes! Hello blind teachers! Paul is not talking about the Jews or a “Jewish olive tree” in Romans 11! Thus, you cannot use this chapter to prove your point that people need to be grafted into Judah! There is no Judah tree just as there is no House of Israel tree!
Now, here’s the kicker, the “explainer”, as it were, of who Paul is addressing. He’s got a topic that he is addressing – that’s the House of Israel – but now he will tell us who he is addressing.
Romans 11:11 I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
The Gentiles get provoked to jealousy, not the Jews!
“Did ‘they’ stumble that they might fall? Who is “they”? Paul didn’t change streams here. All along, he has been talking about the House of Israel. It is the House of Israel’s fall that Paul is talking about. The question is did God destroy the House of Israel so the Gentiles would have a chance at getting into the Kingdom? No! The Gentiles have always been able to enter the Kingdom. Part of Israel’s job was to bring the Gentiles into the Kingdom. So the destruction of the House of Israel had nothing to do with making a way for Gentiles to come in! The House of Israel’s divorce has to do with the House of Israel’s behavior and nothing else! Yes, God, YHVH does kick people out of His Kingdom for disobedience! But now, YHVH can use the House of Israel’s fall to provoke the Gentiles to come into His Kingdom when the descendants of those that fell make their return.
Romans 11:12 Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
Paul is going with the false doctrine made by the Gentile converts that the House of Israel was destroyed so the Gentiles would have a chance. But Paul declares YHVH’s justice by saying that if the Gentiles are right about their good fortune over the destruction of the House of Israel that the House of Israel will get that much more reward when all is said and done because the House of Israel’s descendants will return. YHVH did destroy part of His Kingdom to start over with the Gentiles. He won’t leave out any of the tribes for the Gentiles anymore than He will for the Jews! And that’s what the Gentiles were getting at! The newly restored Kingdom was now a Gentile nation comprised not of Israelites, but Gentiles!
Romans 11:13 For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;
Romans 11:14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
Who are those that Paul believes are his flesh? Israelites! He said earlier that he is from Benjamin, an Israelite tribe. Paul is putting an end to the boasting arguments by the Gentiles that YHVH’s Kingdom is now only for Gentiles!
Hosea tells us how YHVH made a bad situation into one that glorifies His Kingdom.
Hosea 2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
But notice what He does with the House of Israel? He sows her to Himself in the earth! They were sown among the Gentiles so Israel’s mandate of bringing the nations to YHVH could be fulfilled. You know, our King will do His good pleasure one way or the other. Israel wanted to play with the Gentiles and worship their gods instead of bringing them to YHVH. So YHVH set up the situation where Israel comes back but not alone. Israel comes back with Gentiles in tow! But now, the Gentiles are saying “we’re it”! But Paul is saying, “No, you’re not”!
Paul has not deviated from talking about the House of Israel and he reiterates the fact that Gentile converts only have opportunity to come to YHVH because the House of Israel has been scattered and sown among them in order for the whole world to be redeemed. YHVH used the House of Israel’s destruction for good because…
Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
That is in the “predestination” chapter. Who is called according to YHVH’s purpose? Israel! Twelve-tribed Israel. YHVH’s plan of redemption restores all 12 tribes AND includes all the Gentiles, too! It’s brilliant, isn’t it?
Why is this important? Because if you understand that there is no Judah tree and no Gentile tree than you will reject the false doctrines when you hear them!
Romans 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree;
Romans 11:18 don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.
What is Paul’s reference “some of the branches” that were broken off referring to? The House of Israel. Their branches had been broken off. The Gentiles were coming back in boasting all kinds of things like the Christian Church does today, things like “salvation belongs to US”!
No, dear Christians. Salvation does not belong to you! Salvation belongs to Israel. Yeshua died to save Israel. Yeshua did not die to save Gentiles. He died to save His Kingdom! Make this distinction. Why? Because His people were killing His Kingdom. Had Yeshua not died for His Kingdom, Israel, His Kingdom would be dead now, defunct, ancient and a forgotten fable of the past like all other earthly kingdoms that have come and gone.
Yeshua’s death was to save Israel, the Kingdom, and provide a way for all His people who are scattered in the world among the Gentiles to return and being repopulating the Kingdom! In addition, then the harvest of His people back to His restored Kingdom as promised to Abraham and Jacob would also involve bringing the Gentiles with them. This may seem like too subtle a point to make a real difference. Trust me! This is huge! A small deviation on a compass can place a traveler hundreds of thousands of miles away from his destination.
What was Israel right after Yeshua died? Dead. Israel was dead. There was no more Israel! We have to understand this point that all Israel died with Yeshua. Christianity teaches that the Torah died with Him. No! Wrong! All Israel was gone. The Jews were just walking dead men at that point for 3 days and 3 nights and they didn’t even know it!
In order to save Israel, to revive Israel and make it into the righteous Kingdom it was intended to be, Yeshua had to resurrect! His death satisfied the Genesis 15 promise to His Father that He would, indeed, die under the terms of the Covenant of the Pieces if His people broke the Covenant.
What was Israel when Yeshua resurrected? It was a bare bones nation comprised of 120 people in an upper room in Jerusalem. It was the righteous remnant! That was it. One hundred twenty (Acts 1:15 says “about 120”. Luke wants you to see something in that number ‘120’. There could have been more or less. Luke was not trying to be exact. He wanted us to see something!). What is it about that number 120 that should make you think something about it? Twelve times 10! The righteous remnant and small beginnings. Moses wouldn’t let YHVH start over with him but these 120 are what Yeshua’s restored Kingdom started with and what was the first thing that happened? The Mount Sinai experience right there in that upper room. They took it to the Temple and the Ruach’s fire spread there. But not to the Gentiles yet! YHVH started with Jews from all over the known world, first restoring the 3,000 that died at the golden calf incident at Mount Sinai and moving outward from Zion. YHVH’s word goes forth from Zion, not from the Gentiles!
The other part of this is that when Yeshua died – and thus all Israel died – the House of Judah was cut off. There was no more House of Israel and House of Judah. There is now only the House of Yeshua, according to Hebrews (Hebrews 3:6) AKA the restored House of Jacob.
The boasting of the Gentiles in Romans 11 shows us how early Christian replacement theology was afoot in the movement. The Jews had their own replacement theology and I have talked a lot about that.
Verse 17 speaks of the olive tree. This is where many teachers go awry because they believe Romans 11 is all about the Gentiles boasting against the Jews and then they teach that this olive tree that the Gentiles are boasting against is the “Judah” tree. It is not. This olive tree is the fully grown ‘netser’ from the stump of Jesse that has now begun to graft back into itself the two dead “sticks” from Ezekiel 37. That chapter reveals that both houses were separated from the tree. What tree? The olive tree! The Kingdom of Israel is always represented by an olive tree!
By the way, Yeshua accomplished the saving of this olive tree by dying on a tree. Do you see the connection? The olive tree is always ALL Israel, all 12 tribes. Israel is not Israel without all the tribes. And Gentiles cannot come into the Kingdom of Israel unless there’s all 12 tribes. Christianity and Judaism disagree! In Christian doctrine, Israel is now all the Christian Church leaving out Judah. In Judaism, Israel is only Judah, Simeon, Levi and Benjamin leaving out Reuben, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim and Manasseh.
Why is this important? First, because we must know how YHVH defines Israel so we can reject joining one of the 2 religions that rejects all the other tribes they don’t like! Second, If you don’t understand this, you risk standing with the wrong people in the coming time of sorrows and tribulation – people who are going to be destroyed.
Our Hebrew Roots and Messianic Jewish teachers lack understanding and people are paying attention to them, not to the truth! If you ever hear a teacher say that YHVH’s people get grafted back into Judah, don’t walk, run from that teacher and stop listening to everything he says! If he doesn’t understand the trees, he doesn’t understand the Kingdom.
What causes lack of understanding in YHVH’s people? Disobedience – NOT doing the commandments when we should be DOING them! One of the biggest strongholds in both Messianic Judaism and Hebrew roots is that going to the Feasts in Jerusalem is optional. We can do that anywhere we are, they say. Study. Look at what YHVH said.
Really? We can do YHVH’s Feasts anywhere we like? If so, why does Israel have a sovereign King!? If He can’t tell you where you need to come worship Him, then why does Israel need Him? According to this particular stronghold, they don’t need Him and this is causing them to go astray and to teach others to go astray from the Kingdom. And they go astray into religion. By the way, religion will produce the Antichrist!
You want to know why YHVH released the coronavirus ahead of the planned timing of the New World Order? Because of His people’s disobedience. YHVH said, “So, you don’t want to come to the place of My name as I have instructed you 3 times a year or even 1 time a year, huh? Well, now you CAN’T get there! I have closed Jerusalem for all of the Spring feasts!”
By the way, if you can pay the large entrance fees for Passovers and Sukkots out there in your own little world, and get the camping gear, absorb the travel expenses and pay for food to go where you’re not supposed to go, you can make it to Jerusalem. I have shown time and again how getting there can be done cheaply. Sometimes more cheaply than attending Sukkots in America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Italy and other places.
Paul’s explanation in Romans 11 has to do with Gentiles coming into the synagogues boasting about how they have replaced the exiled and cut off House of Israel, not the House of Judah! The olive tree is Yeshua’s Kingdom tree, not a Jewish tree. He died to save His Kingdom so we, as individuals, can opt into citizenship in the Kingdom of Israel. It is this individual option that makes the renewed Covenant different than the one at Mount Sinai. There was no destruction of the Torah or any of the terms of the original Covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jeremiah 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The Exodus from Egypt was corporate. The Hebrew Israelites didn’t have another choice if they wanted to escape the grip of Pharaoh. But their hearts were not in it. Their bodies came out of Egypt, but their hearts stayed in Egypt and their hearts are in Egypt to this day!
Ezekiel 20 and 23 explains the love that the Israelites were still carrying in their hearts for Egypt thousands of years after their rescue from there.
YHVH’s corporate people hated Him and His Kingdom. I will repeat something here to tie together what I said earlier that Israel died with Yeshua. Corporate Israel died. The Israel that was not in the hearts of the people died and was exchanged for individual people that He would not have to take by the hand to lead them out of Egypt because they would come out of Egypt willingly, on their own because they love Him!
He requires our love (loyalty) and our willingness to learn what it means to be citizens of a King ruling in a Kingdom. This is a difficulty for the carnally minded who believe they can worship their King any religious way they wish. They cannot see the Kingdom even though it is right in front of their eyes!
We are grafted into Him – into His tree and that olive tree is the Kingdom! Please do not stay in Christianity or convert to Judaism. Begin to identify with YHVH’s Kingdom and its King and stay out of Satan’s!
Here is Daniel’s vision from chapter 12 which is a message to the remnant, the elect. After asking the angel to show him the meaning of the vision, the angel said:
Daniel 12:9 He said, “Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.
Daniel 12:10 Many will purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked will do wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand; but those who are wise will understand.
What is the understanding that the wise need especially now? That Israel is a Kingdom, not a religion.
