Last week, I showed the truth of Paul’s teaching in Romans 11 that is used by Messianic Jews and Hebrew Roots teacher to show that 1) we get grafted into the tree of Judah and 2) that the House of Judah was not cut off from the Covenant.
I want to finish Romans 11 this week and show why we should all want to abandon religion in favor of Kingdom and what that means; what that looks like.
It took me many years walking in Hebrew Roots to understand that both Houses were cut off. The Jews have their own tree, a fig tree. They never “owned” the olive tree. And Christians don’t have their own tree, either. Both claim to have a tree into which the other must be grafted. This is religious doctrine, not a Kingdom precept or legal reality in Heaven. The only one who has a tree for us to be grafted into is YHVH who is Yeshua in the physical body.
All must come through Yeshua because Yeshua is the King and God of Israel. He sits at the gates to his city, symbolically speaking, and all who approach must be approved by Him before entering. That is the ANEC of Kings sitting at their gates i.e. being the “doors” to their Kingdoms.
John 10:1 “Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
The word translated as ‘door’ is actually ‘entrance’.
G2374
θύρα
thura
thoo’-rah
Apparently a primary word (compare “door”); a portal or entrance (the opening or the closure, literally or figuratively): – door, gate.
An entrance is the legal place for getting in. If you come in by any other means such as through an opening that is not intended to be a legal entrance, i.e. a window or back door, you are coming in as a thief and will be subject to punishment by the owner of the house.
In ancient times, Kings sat at their entrances, the entrances to their cities. All who came to the entrance of the city were required to sacrifice to the god of the city who, by the way, was also the King because Kings were emissaries of the gods. In the case of Jerusalem, Biblical Zion, Yeshua is the King and He is the God who also provided the sacrifice at His entrance.
Israel, those who are authorized to live in His “city” and land, is comprised of 12 tribes. These are represented symbolically in several ways one of which is an olive tree. In the beginning, at the Exodus, all 12 tribes were branches on Israel’s olive tree. Later, because of disloyalty to the King of Israel, YHVH, all 12 tribes’ branches were cut from the olive tree. The olive tree still exists. Its ‘netser’, is a new shoot whose name is Yeshua AKA YHVH. Everyone entering the Kingdom of Israel is required to come through Him after which He grafts them into the olive tree’s ‘netser’, the new shoot that came from the stump of Jesse.
The Kingdom is really very simple.
- Yeshua is God and King
- Religion is of the devil
- You are a citizen of Israel, an Israelite
- Act like a citizen of Israel and live by Israel’s laws as instructed by the King (this Israel is not to be confused with the modern UN-created political State of Israel. This Israel is Zion; Biblical Zion which is not the same “Zion” the modern “Zionists” speak of).
Now, that’s not hard, is it? Here are some additional things you need to know about Israel and being an Israelite:
- Religion and doing the works of religion won’t get you into the Kingdom. Only the King can get you in.
- Yeshua is the King, God, Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, the Good Shepherd and everything else of the Kingdom.
- When you’re in the Kingdom – the Ruach is living inside your heart – YOU are Israel!
- Being a citizen of Israel requires obedience to the laws of the Land, which are also the laws of the Kingdom.
Actually, it is hard because the simple stuff is the hardest and nothing can be harder than leaving religion behind. Here’s what happens when we leave the church. First, we seek others to help us. So, we go to a Messianic Jewish synagogue which is full of Jews who love Jesus or to a Hebrew Roots fellowship or congregation. Both of these assemblies love the Jews. They should! We’re brethren but those coming out of the church have a belief that tells them the Jews know more about doing Torah. So we seek out those who keep the Torah (Messianic Jews) or those who have learned from Jews who keep the Torah (Hebrew Roots people).
The general consensus of doctrine among these two assemblies is that the Jews are Israel. That confuses us because we’ve come out of the church knowing WE are Israel! But the Jews are Israel, we are told, and because WE are Israel, we must join with the Jews. A romantic notion about the 12 tribes coming back together begins to form and before you know it, we’re seeking friendships with Jews! They’re going to be able to teach us! And we think they will be happy to do that because who wouldn’t want to teach others about how to keep the Torah and please YHVH?
It takes awhile before we realize they don’t want Ephraimites! They don’t want the House of Israel because to the Jews, THEY are Israel and ONLY they are Israel.
Now, it’s disheartening and confusing. We’re in a vulnerable spot because we know the Jews are our brethren and we are so happy to see them! We just can’t wait to tell every Jew in Jewish Israel (the modern UN-created State of Israel, not Biblical Israel) that we have discovered who we really are and we want to come join them!
As soon as they hear that, stand back! One of two things will happen. Either you will be rejected outright or one of them will try to convert you to Judaism! But before they do that, they will ask you if you intend to tell them they need to believe in Yeshua?
There are all kinds of ways interactions between ex-churchies and Jews can go. The above scenario has been my overall experience that has happened to me several times. And since some of my friends converted to Judaism and denied Yeshua as the Messiah in the process I think other people have my experience.
The Messianic Jewish Rabbis and Hebrew Roots Teachers keep telling you that the Jews are Israel – see, it’s right there in Romans 11 – but YOU also are Israel. Now, there’s a conundrum because some of Israel doesn’t want the other part of Israel!
Our problem is that we don’t know who or what Israel is and most teachers are not teaching you correctly! The scriptural definition of Israel is 12 tribes who follow Israel’s King who is also a Shepherd whose voice is the only one we hear. Who was the King all through the scripture? YHVH. Who is still the King? YHVH. Who is the Good Shepherd? YHVH. Who is Yeshua? YHVH! He came to save Israel by submitting Himself to be born in a human body, a body that required a name. That name is “YHVH saves” – Yeshua. Get it?
King David’s Kingdom was a prophecy of this.
Who are YHVH’s chosen people? Almost everyone will answer that question by saying, “The Jews!” But they are wrong.
In Deuteronomy 7, YHVH explains to the Israelites about their status as a chosen people.
Deuteronomy 7:1 When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you;
Deuteronomy 7:2 and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
Deuteronomy 7:3 You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.
Deuteronomy 7:4 For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
Deuteronomy 7:5 But you shall deal with them like this. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Who was standing there listening to Moses and hearing that YHVH had chosen them to be His people? Israel! Were there Jews there? No! There was Judah. And there was Benjamin. There was also Simeon and Levi, but there was Reuben, Dan, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Naphtali, Zebulun, Ephraim and Manasseh, too. Israel.
Folks, THIS is Israel, the chosen people! A coalition of Judah, Benjamin, Simeon and Levi is not Israel. It is a cultural grouping of people called ‘Jews’.
Can Reuben, Dan, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Naphtali, Zebulun, Ephraim and Manasseh be Israel without Judah, Benjamin, Simeon and Levi? No! Can Judah, Simeon, Benjamin and Levi be Israel without Reuben, Dan, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Naphtali, Zebulun, Ephraim and Manasseh? No!
Where are these tribes – Reuben, Dan, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Naphtali, Zebulun, Ephraim and Manasseh today? They are scattered everywhere on earth! And they are individuals and families but not whole tribes yet. That will come in Yeshua’s Kingdom, but these tribes remain hidden still.
Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh; “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
Now, let’s not string a list of single scriptures together to make a doctrine. Let’s see who Jeremiah was talking to because, you know, he was mostly prophesying to the Jews just prior to their Babylonian captivity and then afterward, too. Let’s go back further in the chapter to see who Jeremiah’s audience was, who he was telling that YHVH would bring them back 1 or 2 at a time, not as tribal enclaves the way the Jews are seeking them now.
Jer 3:6 Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.
Jer 3:7 I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jer 3:8 I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.
Jer 3:9 Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.
Jer 3:10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.
Jer 3:11 Yahweh said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
Jer 3:12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever.
Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”
Jer 3:14 “Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh; “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
Jer 3:15 I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Verse 11 and 12’s “backsliding Israel” is a reference to the already exiled and scattered House of Israel. Jeremiah calls the Jews ‘Judah’ to make the distinction between the two Houses. The House of Judah had not yet gone into Babylonian captivity where that demeaning name was given to them. Jeremiah would later use the term “Jews” starting in chapter 32 after their captivity, but at this point, he just refers to the ‘House of Judah’ as ‘Judah’. Thus, verse 14 tells us how the scattered sheep from the House of Israel will return – one or two at a time! Individually. That is how Jeremiah says the return of the House of Israel would happen. By the way, this particular “House of Israel” Jeremiah talks about is the WHOLE House of Israel. All the people who come back are from the 12 tribes, not either of the “Houses”.
Today’s Jews say they are looking for us but they are searching for whole tribal communities that will say “we’re Reuben” or “we’re Asher” and so forth. The Ethiopian Danites and Pakistan’s Manassehites are the examples to the contrary but notice where these people are: south and east. Where did the majority of the House of Israel go? North! Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand and so forth. The Westernized nations are proof that YHVH keeps His Word. Wanna know how? Isaac blessed Jacob saying that wherever he would go, he would have the “dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, plenty of grain and new wine (Genesis 27:28). Sounds like the West to me! In other words, Jacob would prosper. The West is proof that Jacob’s descendants still live and they are prospering!
In their effort to help us deal with the changes in our paradigms as we progress in the Torah coming out of the Church, Torah teachers say we are grappling with the Greek vs Hebrew mindset. It’s even worse that that! We are grappling with two paradigms – the two mindsets of religion vs Kingdom; Satan’s realm vs YHVH’s; the world vs Israel and the two Houses of Judah and Israel! Talk about a mindset change, a paradigm change!
Don’t think that getting to the Hebrew mindset is enough. Esau is a Hebrew! He is Isaac’s son just as much as Jacob. Being Hebrew is not enough. You must be an Israelite! And it’s really simple to be an Israelite:
- Yeshua is God and King
- Religion is of the devil
- You are a citizen of Israel, an Israelite
- Act like a citizen of Israel and live by Israel’s laws as instructed by the King (this Israel is not to be confused with the modern UN-created political State of Israel. This Israel is Zion; Biblical Zion which is not the same “Zion” the modern “Zionists” speak of).
Greek vs Hebrew mindset is just cultural change within Satan’s world. Converting from Judaism to Christianity is just changing beliefs within Satan’s world. Converting from Christianity to Judaism is the same thing – a change of beliefs within Satan’s world. You see, Satan has a vested interest in keeping you jumping from one religion to another, from one church to another, from fellowship to another. If he can keep you busy doing that and fighting over how to say YHVH’s name and whether to light the erev Shabbat candles right at sundown or 18 minutes beforehand, keep the Feast on this day and don’t follow the calendar YHVH set, he can keep you out of the Kingdom!
Our problem is religion and Satan’s main weapon against YHVH’s people is religion. The problem is not culture, as in Jewish culture – it’s religion. The coming Antichrist is part of a religious system called Judaism. Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Messianic, Atheist Judaism (yes, there is such a thing) along with homosexual Judaism (and yes, there are homosexual synagogues in Judaism). There are some things that Judaism says about these people that is not what YHVH says about His Kingdom.
There is a difference between Christianity and Judaism. Christianity believes that only THEY will go to heaven (you know, they don’t even inherit the land; they just go to heaven) while the Jews believe all Jews will make it into the world to come. Yes, even the atheists and homosexuals will be there. Christians, on the other hand, believe that only a select few from their particular church or denomination will make it! Talk about confusing! Satan is the father of this confusing mess!
What did Yeshua say? All Israel will be saved! You want to be saved? Be Israel! Be part of 12-tribed Israel. Being Israel means you know that He is your King, your God and Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer and Shepherd and He has the right to tell you how to live! There is nothing else, folks. It’s this Kingdom or that one.
Let me tell you the story of Israel for modern times, ok?
There was a rancher who had lots of land but no wife and no children to share it with. Miles and miles away was a ranch where that rancher trapped people and kept there without letting them leave. They had to do hard labor all the time. It was brutal.
The first rancher thought to himself that he would go rescue those poor people. Surely they would love to live on a ranch where they didn’t have to work that hard all day, their children could play in safety and he would even give them a stake in the land!
One night, very late, the rancher sneaked into the other rancher’s property and began to take the people out of their beds to bring them to his ranch. Many people were rescued that night.
Once back at his ranch, he let them sleep for 3 whole days than he built a big bonfire to get their attention and he told them he would be their father and they could be his family if they would agree to keep some simple laws. These laws were designed to keep the land happy and prosperous and them, too.
They were simple rules. Number 1 was for them to always remember that he had rescued them – and to teach their children in future generations that – and to not bring other ranchers onto the property. He asked them to visit with him just one day a week; honor your parents, don’t murder, steal, take someone else’s spouse and don’t even be envious of what someone else has. If you want something, come to me, said the rancher. I will get it for you. Just talk to me.
There were some other things, too. Don’t kill and eat the squirrels; wash up before you come see me once a week and come to 3 big parties a year!
It wasn’t long before the people had torn up the place, they never came to see the rancher 1 day a week, they were adulterers and murderers. They preferred eating squirrels instead of the best food – the best steaks on earth – from the ranch kitchen. But worst of all, they invited the other rancher, their former captor, to come visit along with many other ranchers who all came to snoop around and do harm to the one that had rescued them!
This went on for a long time. The rancher pleaded with them to stop because he loved them so much. One day, he said he would have to kick them all off the land if they didn’t stop. He was miserable! He thought he could have a family, a nation, by showing them love but they didn’t show love back.
The very next time they invited the other rancher to come party with them, the rancher threw them all off the ranch!
But he still wanted a family so he decided not to rescue people anymore because often those people show no loyalty no matter what you do for them. Some of the better people had stayed on the ranch with his permission because they had been loyal to him, so he got them to go out into all the world to tell everyone about his wonderful ranch and ask the people individually to decide to come live on the ranch.
They would still have to follow the same rules as the first group, but this time the inhabitants would be people who actually wanted to be there.
There’s the difference between the two Covenants. They are actually the same Covenant only with new and different people who are happy to call themselves Israelites and behave that way as lawful citizens of Israel!
Here is one more thing you need to know about the Kingdom. It is necessary for everyone to have a personal relationship with King. He wants to personally know every citizen!
Let me return to Romans 11 to finish the chapter.
Rom 11:25 For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
Partial hardening has come to Israel, all Israel, not to just the Jews as we have been taught, or just to the House of Israel, as others might say.
Rom 11:26 and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
The LORD intends to save Israel – Jacob. Who will be saved? All Israel! Not the Jews. Not the Christians. Not the Muslims. Israel! You want to be Israel! You want to be a Gentile who decided to enter into the Kingdom of Israel as a citizen and declare yourself to be an Israelite. Or you may be a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who decides to accept Yeshua as King, Messiah and God to be a citizen of the Kingdom who declares yourself to be and Israelite.
Rom 11:27 This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”
What is the Covenant with them when He takes away our sins? That we will be saved! If we are Israelites because only Israel gets saved!
Paul is paraphrasing Jeremiah 31:31-34:
Jer 31:31 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 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 covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says Yahweh.
Jer 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Paul is telling the Gentiles who have come into the Roman synagogue boasting that they have replaced the Jews because they are the “exiled House of Israel” and the covenant is with them.
Rom 11:28 Concerning the Good News, they [all Israel] are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
The Good News, the Gospel, is the return of all Israel, NOT the salvation of Gentiles. It is first to the House of Judah, the Jews, because Yeshua and all His Apostles were Jews. But the Gospel goes into the world to the Gentiles because that is where the northern tribes were scattered. The Gentiles get to come along when the descendants of those from the northern tribes re-enter the covenant of Abraham.
Israel, all Israel, is beloved by the Father for the sake of some men Paul calls “fathers”. Who are the fathers – plural? Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Along with the Gentiles coming in, physical Israelites will believe in Yeshua and become true Israelites once again.
Jeremiah 31:31 says the new Covenant will be made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. Nowhere are the Gentiles mentioned there. The House of Israel and the House of Judah have always been Israel even after the fracture. But now, because of the “new/renewed” covenant, Gentiles can be added.
There is no “new/renewed” Covenant without the dissolution of the first one. This is something that Paul speaks about using marriage as the example where the husband dies making the widowed wife free to remarry. Who is the widowed wife? The House of Judah AKA the Jews.
Who was the divorced wife? The House of Israel.
Both the widowed wife and the divorced wife are no longer in covenant with YHVH. Under Yeshua, and because of His work on the cross, we now have only 12 tribes, most of whom are scattered and cannot identify their tribe.
YHVH never wanted an Israel comprised only of Jacob’s physical descendants. He wanted their hearts! He did not get their hearts so He either divorced or widowed them to get rid of the Kingdom that had no heart towards Him. What means something in the Kingdom is our soul, our heart! People who choose to be there are better than people who need to be there but who would rather be somewhere else! So YHVH kept the Covenant structure and changed the people by reuniting the House of Israel and the House of Judah into the WHOLE House of Israel and then bringing in Gentiles, grafting them into His tree along with the WHOLE House of Israel so they become Israelites. He had to graft those natural branches of Israel back into the olive tree and, while He is doing that, the Gentile wild olive branches are being grafted in at the same time. Everyone has to become Israelites because Israel is only full of Israelites. There are no Gentiles in the Kingdom! There also won’t be any Christians or Jews, either. No males or females. No free people or slaves. (Galatians 3:28). Everyone will be worth a half shekel.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
This is the reason why YHVH has a problem if He doesn’t bring back Abraham’s physical descendants along with the Gentiles that are not from him. Abraham’s physical descendants will do what the Gentiles have to do – come in individually, making the decision to be in the Kingdom, not coming in as a corporate body of physical descendants trying to escape the Pharaoh.
Rom 11:30 For as you [Gentiles] in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their [Israel’s] disobedience,
Rom 11:31 even so these [Israel] also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you [Gentiles] they [Israel] may also obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all [the Israelites and the Gentiles alike].
G4788
συγκλείω
sugkleiō
soong-kli’-o
From G4862 and G2808; to shut together, that is, include or (figuratively) embrace in a common subjection to: – conclude, enclose, shut up.
The word “shut” means to “shut together” and also to conclude something. The Israelites were all concluded – divorced or widowed – though not at the same time. The House of Israel was concluded in the Assyrian captivity. The House of Judah was concluded at His death. The House of Judah died as the last remaining part of corporate Israel, and at His resurrection all Israel – the “one new man”, as Paul call them – resurrected. Their old-new mission was to bring in the Gentiles. And that, my friends, is what the Apostles began to do immediately! What the Apostles did was what YHVH wanted that first generation to do.
YHVH’s plan was always been to make a way for all nations to come to Him. That is the purpose of Israel – to bring the Gentiles to YHVH. Instead, the Israelites went to play with the Gentiles and worship their gods. But YHVH’s plan will never fail. He intends to have all the people of the earth as His people and to destroy Satan’s Kingdom and all its people from the earth.
To that end, now all the “whosoevers” – anyone who are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob along with any who are not – may come in because of Yeshua’s sacrifice and resurrection.
How were the Gentiles disobedient to YHVH? Gentiles by their very nature are disobedient to YHVH. And not just disobedient – rebellious. In the Kingdom’s definition, to be a Gentile carries a stigma of rebellion because it means one who is automatically rebellious. The rebellion is by their nature. They can’t help but be that way. It is the worst possible status anyone can get in the Kingdom of God. The stigma of going from Israelite to Gentile status in the Kingdom is like being given the mark of Cain. There is so much stigma associated with it. And it brings huge shame to the Israelites.
Looking at it from YHVH’s viewpoint, Israelites are obedient while Gentiles are rebellious. That’s YHVH’s expectation of these two peoples. From YHVH’s view, that’s the 2 options.
But being an Israelite is not just about obedience. It is also about benefits. An Israelite has direct access to God. Gentiles do not have direct access to their gods or to the God of Israel. An Israelite has direct access to the King of Israel who is also their God. Gentiles do not have direct access to their king; there is always middlemen, gatekeepers who keep the rabble away from the king.
Israelites are given the best of everything; Gentiles get what they can. Some Gentiles appear to do very well; they get very wealthy. But there is a heavy price to pay for their wealth. They work hard to get it; their money takes up all their thoughts (whether the rich admit it or not, that’s true); there are always people trying to take it away from them; serving money ruins relationships.
Israelites get blessings – benefits – of being Israelites. Religious minds see blessings and curses. Christians and Jews are in the business of getting the best for themselves and those who are like them. Israelites see equality for all Israelites and benefit or detriment; advantage and disadvantage.
Those words I just used are synonyms and antonyms but the differences in meaning are subtle but so powerful. We’re not dogs getting treats for obedience and punishment for disobedience. That is not what it means to be an Israelite or a Gentile. An Israelite is free from punishment, lack of provision, free from insecurity while Gentiles are always in danger of punishment, famine and war and not because they do not serve YHVH, but because they serve the demon gods.
There are only 2 Kingdoms on the earth – YHVH’s and Satan’s. Everything that is YHVH’s Kingdom is righteous and holy and all His gifts are good and these serve His people. Satan’s Kingdom is rebellion, destructive and his gifts serve him, not the person doing his bidding.
Rom 11:33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
The manner in which YHVH devised to save the whole world is simply incredible! He knew that giving man free choice over his individual destiny would result in a huge mess but YHVH knows how to make the best of the worst situations.
Rom 11:34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
Rom 11:35 “Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Now, what is Israel? I’ve told you WHO is Israel. Now, WHAT is Israel? Israel is a 3 strand cord: the King, the people and the land. They’re held together by a Covenant.
The King of Israel is also their God and because He is their God, He is also their Messiah – their rescuer, Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer and everything else they need.
Because the three are inextricably bound together, all 3 always suffer the same fate. When one gets hurt, they all are hurt. When one gets kicked out of the land, they all go out of the land and the land becomes barren. When one dies, they all die.
That last part is why when Yeshua died, Israel died and when Yeshua arose, Israel arose. The way Yeshua suffered is the way we all must suffer. There is no separation between the King of Israel and His people. As long as they prosper, the land prospers. If they fail, they drag Him with them into the exile. That is why YHVH said He would go with them and be “little sanctuaries” to them when He exiled them.
Eze_11:16 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
Do you see now why He had to bring us back? If He hadn’t, the Kingdom would be lost.
Summary: Israel is not the Church and not Judaism. “Israelite” is an unknown category in today’s world but Israelites is what you want to be, not Christians, Jews or Muslims.
We serve an awesome King, the only one of all the earthly kings who suffers the same fate of His people. This is why we should want to be Israelites, leaving behind the old paradigm of religion for the correct paradigm of Kingdom. To serve Him, is to be served!
Be Blessed!
Kimberly Rogers-Brown
admin@themessianicmessage.com
06/12/20
