Blessed is our God, for there is NONE OTHER (‘ein od’) (Deut 4:39), Who created us for His glory to praise and magnify Him and speak about His Majesty as Creator-Redeemer and King of the Universe, as we sanctify Him by remembering and observing His Holy Shabbat.
His loving-kindness to us is greater than to any other nation (Lk 1:33).
Therefore with all our heart, soul and might we proclaim the ‘Shema’ (Mk 12:28-34), to proclaim His Supreme Kingship and Unique (Uniplural) Unity (Gen 1:26; Jn 10:30; 1 Jn 5:7) and the wisdom of the yoke of His commandments which in the DOING, bring liberty, by faith working in love, becoming “our life and the length of our days” (Deut 4:5-8; 32:47; Ps 119:45; Matt 5:17-19; 11:29,30; Jn 8:31,32,36,51,52; 14:15; James 1:22-25; 1 Jn 5:2&3).
May we be occupied with Torah (the entire narrative, Portion by Portion) AND the commandments (within it – Rom 3:31; 1 Cor 7:19), which through the Son of David, Wondrous Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, will bring and increase peace in the world through the House of Jacob knowing “the Way” of the LORD, to fulfil God’s commandment to Abraham (Gen 18:18,19; Is 2:2-4; 9:6,7; Zech 14:4,9; Mk 11:10; Lk 20:21; Rom 11; Eph 2:11,12).
Is 58:13,14 brings the limitless blessing of Jacob within the reach of every sincere Shabbat keeper (‘moreh Shabbat’).
If the many who reject Shabbat only knew what God has invested in Jacob’s life, they would RUN to welcome Shabbat and be last to leave it, to draw on every syllable of the prophesied blessing (Is 29:22-24; Matt 12:8; Lk 1:33)
TOPIC: Jacob is the founder of Israel most closely associated by the sages, with CONSCIENCE, TRUTH and RIGHTEOUSNESS (Gen 27:11,12; 30:33)
For many, that will be hard to accept, even though Jacob did say:
“So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come…” (Gen 30:33).
But that’s only because satan reserved his most intense propaganda, to discredit the Hebrew grandson declared a PRINCE (Gen 32:28) to lend his name to the Household of God which is forever the church and holy nation of prophecy (Ex 19:5-8; Is 66:22; Lk 1:33; Acts 7:38; Eph 2:11,12,19; Heb 12:23).
No individual other than Moses, king David and the Messiah, has received the weight of the honour conferred upon Jacob.
Let’s consider the testimony to Jacob’s righteousness which the following scenarios paint.
Jacob’s righteous character is evident under the great strain of the trial of his faith in his encounter with Esau.
Jacob’s division of his household into “two bands” wasn’t just a prudent decision for self-defence and survival, even though his reasoning in Gen 32:8 and his appeasement strategy with lavish gifts, make that seem to be the case (Gen 32:7,8,13-23).
His reminding YHVH of His prophecies promising Jacob success, deliverance, protection, favour and great multiplication (Gen 32:9,12) showing that Jacob’s FAITH WAS STRONGER THAN HIS REASON, prove that (Gen 32:9-12).
While of course he was fearful of what the outcome of setting up the rendezvous with Esau would be (Gen 32:3), his Fear of God was stronger.
His actions show care, considerateness and kindness towards his dependents, not the desperate scheming of a fugitive and underdog, of which he was neither, having just been exalted to PRINCELY rank by the Angel of the LORD (Gen 32:28).
Esau, the cunning hunter and hands-on adventurer, had done well for himself, both in Canaan, and in Mnt Seir, after leaving the paternal home, which evidently made the crisis that arose over the birthright a distant memory, increasingly irrelevant to his new, apparently happy and contented married life, to Hittite and Ishmaelite stock (Gen 32:3; 33:9; 36:2,3,6-9).
There seems no trace of sibling envy and rivalry in the description of the reunion in Gen 33, especially verse 4, which must have allayed Jacob’s fears that Esau’s four hundred strong ‘household cavalry’ was an ominous presence (Gen 32:6).
In a prophetic twist, Rebekah’s hopeful prediction that Esau would somehow reform (“UNTIL thy brother’s fury turns away”) to allow Jacob a safe return, ON HER CUE (“THEN I will send and fetch thee from hence/Laban’s household” (Gen 27:43-45), is fulfilled by Jacob courageously taking the initiative to ‘test the water’ to “find grace in thy sight” (Gen 32:5) by sending messengers to let Esau know his plan to return to his father’s household (Gen 28:20,21; 32:3-5).
Rebekah could never have anticipated that her expectation of Jacob being TEMPORARILY ‘exiled’ from credible danger, “And tarry with Laban a FEW DAYS” (Gen 27:43), would stretch to TWENTY YEARS, due to Laban’s incessant demands (Gen 31:41) creating the ideal time and space, it seems, for Esau’s soul to be cured of its furious, murderous intent (Gen 27:41-44).
Reminds us of Rom 8:28
“And we KNOW that ALL things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called, according to His purpose,’ as Jacob surely was, and as we are, grafted into his household as his grandfather’s, father’s, and his seed, in the Messiah (Gen 12:2; 28:14; Lk 1:33; Rom 9:7; Gal 3:29).
From the very beginning, the Divine purpose and vision for mankind has been for the Presence and power of the risen Christ slain before Creation for our salvation from our sins through the redemption which is in His Blood (Matt 1:21; Rev 13:8), to inform, charge and pervade everything we think and do, in every season of our lives, in both the good times and through the inevitable testing times, through His merciful provision of “grace for grace” (one grace/measure of favour after another) from one act of faith in believing and trusting Him, to the next (Jn 1:16), to REVEAL HIS righteousness through His FAITHFULNESS to His promises bringing us hope, comfort, courage and victory (as “more than conquerors”), and thereby, glory to Father and Son, by the Holy Spirit (Rom 1:16,17).
The goal of Divine Instruction (‘the law’) in the righteousness of “the Way of the LORD” to which pious (‘plain’) JACOB was no stranger (Gen 18:18,19; 25:27; Lk 20:31; Rom 3:31; 2 Tim 3:14-17), is ‘Christlikeness,’ perhaps most neatly summarized in Lk 6:40, as “The disciple is not above his Master, but everyone who is PERFECT, shall be AS his Master.”
It follows that the goal of FAITH is the salvation of our souls BY REFINEMENT TO PERFECTION of our CHARACTER (1 Peter 1:2-9; 5:6-12), to once again mirror the Divine Nature, shattered by our iniquity which separated us from God (Gen 1:26; Rom 3:12; 8:29; 2 Peter 1:1-11).
The goal of that REFINEMENT like gold and silver, is the sanctification of the reborn ‘temples” of our Holy Spirit-filled bodies by the Father’s Glory, just as the Glory fell in the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Ex 29:43), when it was perfectly ordered in every part in conscientious service to God, to reflect the perfection of the covenant itself (something David desired for his household – Ps 101; 2 Sam 23:5) and which was the ideal at which JACOB aimed by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, long before the nation of Israel and the Tabernacle, existed (Gen 30:33).
His integrity, measured by righteousness, was his preoccupation.
It was the salvation from sin which would come out of Zion and be of and from the Jews (through the Tribe of Jacob’s son Judah), to which Jacob’s prudent life decisions led him, like Isaac and Abraham who also walked before God aspiring to perfection (Gen 17:1; Matt 5:48; 8:11,12), because throughout history, anyone who has longed for the righteousness of God by faith, as their urgent necessity (including Job – Job 1:8; 23:10-12), was credited with the eternal benefit of the saving power of the Blood of the Lamb of God (Rev 13:8), even as Israel received mass deliverance and healing on the merit of the PROPHECY of the Crucifixion which had not yet taken place to ratify the New Covenant (Is 53:4; Matt 8:16,17).
That includes Noah, the “preacher of righteousness” whose faith “condemned the world” for NOT believing warnings about the Flood Judgment, his sensible childlike trust in God rewarding Noah, by making him an heir of the righteousness which is of God, by faith (Heb 11:6,7).
There’s no higher human goal than being sanctified by God’s own Glory, the Sh’kinah, God’s visible Presence (Ex 29:43), for yielding to sanctification by the commandments through the Presence and power of His Spirit.
It is through REPLICATION of YHVH’s Character in us by our imitation of the perfect sonship of the Messiah, that the REVOLUTIONARY RESTORATIVE PURPOSE of the Gospel will be fulfilled.
When human nature, transfigured by Christ, has removed the last trace of impurity, the obstacle to the renewal of the face of the earth (Creation’s repair), in anticipation of the glories of a New Earth (Is 66:22-24; Rom 8:4,14,28-22)
The flow of revelation knowledge to which we have been made privy in these notes, is valuable background information to the AUTHENTIC Gospel of grace, which is the resurrection power offered in this life (pre-Resurrection power – Jn 1:12), to be “wholly sanctified, spirit soul and body,” for the transfiguring of our souls to prepare the Way of the LORD for Him to return for a worthy remnant, to LIBERATE CREATION from its bondage to rapidly increasing deterioration under the burden of its defilement by man’s Torahlessness (Is 24:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4), by “renewing the face of the earth” by His Spirit through the MANIFESTATION (revealing the existence) of accurately discipled, true-worshipper-material as covenant-keeping sons (Rom 8:18-22,29; 2 Cor 3:18; 7:1; 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13,14; Heb 12:14,28).
Which brings us to Isaiah 29:22-24, the fitting CLIMAX of any serious study of Jacob, proving that his rôle in the drama of reconciliation and restoration of mankind to God AS HIS SONS AND HEIRS, as co-heirs “in Jacob” (Gen 28:14; Rom 8:17; 11:17-29; 1 Jn 3:1-3), is nothing short of profound and deserving of high honour (Rom 13:7) because it is as “King of JACOB” that God the Son will rule “in Jacob” and reign over Jacob (as the Seed of Abraham, God’s Friend), to the ends of the earth, forever (Ps 59:13; Is 41:8; Lk 1:33; Rom 11).
The Holy One “given to Jerusalem to bring Glad Tidings” (Is 41:27) makes it known to us that He shall be known as “King of JACOB” (verse 21).
Like Job, whose recommendation by God as a superlative human being was comparable to Godly Noah (Gen 7:8,9; Job 1:8), and whose suffering for righteousness may, for all we know, have gone on as long as Jacob’s (who had a very different set of trials), Jacob had integrity from the start (Gen 25:27).
Job reaped a double- portion (Job 42) for “holding faith” all the way through to victory over a dreadful ordeal as an object lesson in patience and longsuffering to us all (Job 23:10-12; Rom 5:3-5; James 5:10,11); and Jacob became synonomous with the ‘unbounded’ blessing (Is 58:14) for likewise enduring to the end for the glory set before him, by consistently ‘sowing to the Spirit’ (remaining “dead to the law” i.e. walking lawfully) which brings with it, assurance of eternal life (Gen 32:28; 1 Tim 6:11-15; 2 Tim 2:5; Gal 6:7-9 ).
We can be sure Abraham, God’s friend, is absolutely delighted with the favour his God has chosen to shower on his grandson Jacob (of whom YHVH says, “I have taken and called thee from the ends of the earth from the chief men thereof,” which includes from amongst Abraham and Isaac) in the matter of election by grace (Is 41:8,9; 44:2,3; Rom 9:13-21; 11:25-29).
In Hebrew culture, the firstborn mantle is deemed to have passed from father to firstborn consecrated son, at bar mitzvah, when the father’s responsibility for his son expires. This is great incentive for the father to unselfishly champion his son’s success because the well-being, wisdom and competence of the CURRENT firstborn in a family materially affects the well-being of all other members of the family.
Where a firstborn is envied and/or diminished/obstructed rather than honoured and unselfishly encouraged, a curse plagues the family.
So like any proud father, granddad Abraham and father Isaac inwardly crow over the high personal calibre and accomplishments of their firstborn seed (which reflects well on THEM), no matter how far forward in their lineage, hence Jacob’s vested interest in US, as HIS seed in Christ, as described in the VERY DEEP Messianic prophecy in Is 29:22-24, where it is OUR sacrificial, uncompromising conformity to the Way of the LORD (Gen 18:18,19; Prov 16:3; Rom 12:1,2; Eph 5:10,15-17) in the midst of the House of JACOB (Lk 1:33; Rom 11; Eph 2:11,12,15,19; 3:6) which is what will “sanctify My Name” (the concept of ‘kiddush HaShem’) by showing by our willing obedience, that we not only love God but hold Him in reverence and Godly Fear (Is 29:23; Heb 12:28,29; 1 Peter 1:2,13-17; Rev 14:6,7,14).
Of all three fathers, it seems that from his two major prophecies (Gen 28:10-14 & 35:9-15), Jacob had the clearest idea of YHVH’s vision of the Abrahamic household of God which would bear his (Jacob’s) name, as a commonwealth as “one new man” (Eph 2:11,12,15,19; 3:6).
Notice in Is 29:22 how God refers to Abraham prophetically in asserting the function and stature of the coming House of Jacob as final status quo for His definition of the Household of God.
JACOB (whose name must remain – Is 66:22), is henceforth the supreme identity of the body of Christ (Lk 1:33) just as David’s coming ‘second’ Kingdom (Micah 4:1-8; 7:8-20; Mk 11:10) becomes the Kingdom of the Son of David.
YHVH bypasses mention of the House of ISAAC.
This is in no way a subordination of grandfather and father to Jacob (Gen 27:29 does not refer to Jacob’s FATHERS).
Jacob’s Godfearing forbears’ Houses are SUBSUMED in the House of their seed, Jacob, THROUGH their salvation through their Seed, the Messiah (Matt 8:11,12; Gal 3:16).
In other words, although, as believers grafted into the natural olive tree (the New Covenant of the House of Jacob [Judah & Ephraim]), WE are defined as being “in THEE (Jacob)” (Gen 28:14), by being in Christ, technically speaking, because we’re born agaIn by a faith-promise, not by law, we are “reckoned (“called”) in Isaac” (Rom 9:7) IN ORDER TO BE Jacob’s seed, AS Abraham’s seed! (Gal 3:29).
That’s a brain twister, but it stands to reason, since it’s one and the same DYNASTIC LINEAGE, there being no competition between the incumbent patriarchs.
For interest, Deut 4:10; 5:29; 17:19 & 31:12 describe the rôle of the Fear of YHVH in learning the covenant (reflected in learning righteousness in 2 Tim 3:14-17 & Heb 5:11-14; 6:1-11).
Jacob is assured in Is 29:22 that unlike future insolence and contempt for God’s precepts causing grievous backsliding (which the Exodus exposed and judged decisively), the Messianic commonwealth OF HIS (Jacob’s) PROPHECIES would not “fail the grace” to be made available to it to attain the Holiness (devoutness and virtue) of the Messiah, for the fullness of Deity to fill the body of the Messiah (Rom 8:4,29; Eph 3; Col 1&2; Heb 12:14,15,28 KJV; 1 Peter 1:2,13-17), Who would be the Seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Gal 3:16).
That would ensure that the promises given to Abraham would be fulfilled (Gen 18:18,19).
He (Jacob) will ‘see’ his Messianic household, the ingrafted “one new man,” sanctifying His (YHVH’s) Name by accepting correction, to “establish Torah” by obeying His will on earth, as it is in heaven (Is 29:23,24; Matt 6:9,10; Rom 3:31)
Even as you read this, the immortal spirit of Jacob must be observing us from amongst the great cloud of witnesses, to watch HOW WE’RE DOING on the “path of LIFE” (Ps 16:11) which we know from Matt 7:13,14 IS NOT THE BROAD PATH.
Because contextually speaking, Is 28:9-13 is closely related to 29:22-24, we are given a profound prophetic reminder by Isaiah the Prophet of salvation (Is 45:17-25), in 28:9-13, that eternal life is only for those whose baptism was sincere, as proved by their having submitted to the Spirit to be “weaned from milk, to know doctrine.”
If we’re to believe Y’shua and Paul, doctrine and the commandments respectively, are literally everything, whether one is circumcised or not, because it is a Biblical axiom that love is obedience, and obedience is a prerequisite to sanctity without which no-one will see the LORD
1 Jn 5:2&3; 2 Jn vs 5&6,9-11 1 Cor 7:19 Heb 12:14,28
Hundreds of texts and passages confirm that the Way to life and immortality is indeed narrow, and cannot even be ‘found’ (Matt 7:13,14) without acquaintance with the ways and laws of God “from His Mouth,” by abiding in His Word and by waiting on Him regularly for intimate fellowship and Instruction, about which both Abraham and Job are well qualified to testify, LONG BEFORE SINAI (Gen 26:5; Job 22:21,22).
For the same reason, Y’shua as Eternal Father (Avi Ad – Is 9:6,7), the Incarnate King of the Universe, Jesus-Y’shua being “the I Am, the First and the Last” (the Alef and the Tav, the Beginning and the End, the Amein) DECREES our recognition of Himself as “King of JACOB” both “IN Jacob” and “OVER Israel” (Ps 59:13; 68:34; Is 7:13,14; 44:6; 45:21; Lk 1:33; Rev 1:7,8,17,18), just as He decrees that we offer thanksgiving for the Father’s mercy in adopting us “in Jacob” despite His not having covenanted with us (Jer 31:31-34; Rom 11; 15:8-12).
Creation is not safe while the soul of mankind is defiled (Is 24:3-6; Rom 8:18-22).
Everything related to the condition of the Creation is rooted in the conduct of man.
God has intentionally created causality between the ebb and flow of righteousness, and degradation OR stabilization and recovery of Creation.
The New Covenant is our only Hope of Conservation and Improvement of the Universe and therefore of continuity of mankind, through the glory of Christ in US (sharing the mold of HIS Character), because the Gospel of salvation from our sins is the prerequisite for Israel’s exaltation to chief of nations to save Creation from its corruption by the curse of our sins (i.e the curse of the law of sin and death) (Rom 8:18-22).
The hope of the Gospel (life and immortality) is why He is returning to destroy those who despise Israel and “destroy the earth” (Is 60:12; Rev 11:18b)
The Bible is essentially the Gospel of Creation and Redemption of man and the Creation.
Tanach prophecy of the New Covenant shows what working parts of the Bible it is still necessary to fulfil to consummate the complete Plan of Redemption.
The shalom-shalom of the world as it ought to be, is what the true, Holy seventh day Shabbat, the call to sanctification, signifies.
This is why Judaism sums up the mission and calling of Jacob/Yeshurun as YHVH’s witness nation (Is 44:1-8), as “the mission of SANCTITY” (i.e. “everlasting Jewish salvation” to perfect the soul by sanctification by the commandments, for election for eternal life, because “many are invited but few are chosen” – Is 45:17-25).
Jesus is in full agreement (Matt 28:20; 1 Jn 3:3-10)
THAT in short, will be JACOB’s LEGACY on behalf of Abraham and Isaac.
We are participating in it, amongst JACOB’s eternal household, the dynasty of Abraham and David (Lk 1:32,33; Jn 10:16; Rom 11; Eph 2:11,12; Rev 21:12).
There’s no getting away from the fact that YHVH has exalted Jacob for attaining the crown of life as an exemplary overcomer.
He “apprehended,” to have a place reserved in the Kingdom of heaven (Matt 8:11).
Now must we (Phil 3:12-17).
His rôle in the “everlasting covenant” as the patriarchal titular identity of “the general assembly and church” of YaH’s elect-firstborn through Rebekah (Ex 4:22,23; Gen 25:23; Heb 12:23) has been largely underrated (Lk 1:33; Heb 13:20,21).
In Messiah, his family owns the Gates of the New Jerusalem.
We don’t gain access to the tree of life, except by entering in through those Gates into the Eternal City (Rev 21:12; 2:14,15).
Our identity in the end will be determined by which of HIS Twelve Tribes our adoption into the House of Jacob is attributed to.
Safeguarding the original innocence we’ve regained through the gift of the righteousness of YHVH, by abiding in the Vine through faithfulness to do His commandments, is our incomparable holy vocation (Matt 12:50; Jn 15:3-15; Eph 4:1-6).
“For the LORD (YHVH) is a great God, and a great King above ALL gods (and kings)” Psalms 95:3; 135:2-5: 136:2; 1 Tim 6:15,16 KJV
“…He called them ‘gods’ (the congregation of the House of Jacob) TO WHOM THE WORD (Instruction/’Torah’) OF GOD CAME, and the Scripture CANNOT BE BROKEN” (Ps 68:26; 74:2; 82:1,6; 135:1-6; Lk 1:33; Jn 10:35; Acts 7:38)
The Word confirms that we are “gods” called to YHVH’s own glory, purity and excellence (virtue) (2 Peter 1:3), to sanctify the Universe with our HOLINESS (Rom 8:4,18-22; 1 Peter 1:13-17; Heb 12:14,28,29) as He sanctifies our temples of His Spirit, with His GLORY, according to the pattern (Ex 29:43).
Firstly, “A great God” in Ps 95:3 should read “THE Great God…” (the Unity & Oneness of YHVH’s Supreme Sovereignty is definitely implied by the translators, but is obscured by that grammatical slip) because as we well know, there simply is no other God (only lifeless counterfeits in abundance) (Deut 6:4,5; 4:39; Is 44:6-8,24; 45:21-23; 46:9; Mk 12:28-34).
Secondly, the PRINCIPLE that human beings can actually BE “gods” (always lower case, of course) is FORMALLY established by inference from Jn 10:35/Ps 82:1,2,6, fixing its origin to the founding of Israel as a nation at Sinai, where mankind (through Israel, YHVH’s light to the nations, as proxy) first heard the Ten Pronouncements (‘commandments’) of YHVH to which His awestruck elect nation instantly consented, with “ALL that the LORD hath spoken we WILL DO, and be obedient,” believing that all who would be joined to Israel in future, would likewise “enter into the covenant…and into the oath,” to do the same, in order to be established as His special treasure (Ex 19:5-8; 24:7,8; Deut 28:1,2,9; 29:12-15; Is 14:1; Rom 3:31; 1 Peter 2:9,10).
Our first duty as “gods,” as “children of the Most High” (Ps 82:1,6), once we’ve been baptized into the adoption of sons, is to keep FOURTEEN requirements: all Ten Commandments (which include the Gen 2:2,3/Matt 12:8/Heb 4:1-11 seventh day Shabbat as the first of “the first principles of the Oracles of YHVH” – Heb 5:12) plus the four Levitical regulations in Acts 15:20, derived from the marriage covenant. These are the nucleus of the yoke of Messiah (Matt 11:29,30; 28:20; Rom 3:31).
God unites us to Him by teaching us how to act according to His will, in order to cleave to Him – which becomes in turn, “our life and the length of our days” (Deut 30:10,11,20; 32:47; 2 Jn vs 5&6).
He united the foundational Ten Commandments as ONE, to shine like sapphire (Ex 34:27,28,32; Is 54:11). Those who divide them will see no light. James, speaking about the REDEEMED, makes this point in James 2:8-10, in connection with the six Words of the Royal Law (do to others as you’d be done by – Matt 22:39). The same applies to the first four Words (Matt 22:37,38). All Ten, the pillars of righteous civilization, are indispensable, to live acceptably to partake of the Father’s holiness (Heb 5:9; 12:1-4,8-14,28).
The House of Jacob’s description by the God of the Hebrews as “gods” would remain (just as the name of Jacob would remain the identity of the church forever – Gen 28:14; Ps 59:13; Is 29:22-24; 66:22; Lk 1:33; Rev 21:12) in anticipation of Israel’s corporate salvation (Rom 11:23-29), as an ASPIRATIONAL title (currently honoured more in breach than in observance), notwithstanding the fact that “walking after the flesh” (which became Israel’s default mode – Rom 8:12-14; 10:1-3) was NEVER acceptable to God.
If it were, and if there were no Spirit amongst them, Stephen would not have been stoned eviscerating his fellow Israelites for “ALWAYS resisting the Holy Spirit, AS YOUR FATHERS DID” (Acts 7:51-53) ; and Jesus would not have levelled His sweeping indictment in Jn 7:19 (which confirms Stephen’s later charge in verse 53), that “NONE of you keeps the law” (Jn 7:19).
Dismissing and voiding the good laws of God is never good! (Is 29:13; Mk 7:6,7,13; Rom 3:31; 7:7,12-16,22,25).
We err greatly if we imagine the Holy Spirit played a negligible rôle (or none at all), in the Exodus (Is 63:11-14), and if we assume it was not possible for an individual to have a circumcised ear and heart (Deut 10:16,17; Is 50:4,5; Jer 6:10).
Since being “under the law” means to be convicted by YHVH Himself for transgression of His holy laws (as ALL Israel was in Jesus’ day – Jn 7:19), it has ALWAYS been possible to be faithful “under grace,” by leaning not upon one’s own understanding and strength, but by resting in the Spirit, supernaturally obtain quickening power to overcome the power of sin AND discern WHAT Word to apply in ANY circumstance.
This ‘savoir-faire’ (knowing the right thing to do at the right time), has always been within grasp of pious men and women.
It’s the prize for a ‘tutored soul’ – a soul molded by obedience to righteousness to be “crucified to the world” (Gal 6:14). It’s what it means to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, led by the Spirit (Rom 8:4,14; Gal 5:24,25).
There was ALWAYS a remnant which reflected the righteousness of God which is by faith, as a foil to those who did NOT mix the Word with faith, but who followed after righteousness TO merit BEING UPRIGHT (Heb 3&4).
Caleb & Joshua (along with Moses himself), were the outstanding examples of Spirit-led forerunners to New Covenant freedom in the Spirit to do right without UNNECESSARY strain – though entering into that blessed state of rest would always require holy labour (2 Cor 5:9-11; 2 Tim 2:5).
There was no bondage to the flesh in Moses’ and Caleb’s believing and doing.
The generation that perished in the wilderness for “contemning” (having contempt for and defaming) YHVH “these TEN times” (Nu 14), is testimony that Moses, Aaron, Caleb and Joshua and the surviving, like-minded remnant that eventually crossed the Jordan, were indeed “gods.”
The New Covenant has radically increased the power to overcome sin, and our comfort by the Spirit, in the process, through our washing of regeneration and renewal of the Spirit (Titus 3:4,5) through baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection to “this new life,” through which we are enabled by the indwelling Spirit to draw on the fullness of the better promise that “sin has been condemned in the flesh” (Rom 8:3) so that “the righteousness of the laws of life which comprise the Way of YHVH (the paths of righteousness, precept by precept), may be fulfilled in us,” as the sanctifying work of the Spirit (Is 28:9-13; Rom 2:13,26; 3:20,31; 7:7,12-16,22,25; 8:4,14).
Calling the church of Israel (Acts 7:38) “gods” was intended to magnify God’s Instruction ABOVE EVEN HIS NAME (Ps 138:1,2; Is 42:21; Matt 5:19; Rom 3:31) AND highlight the vital rôle of a well-exercised human conscience in attaining His purity (Heb 5:11-14;;1 Jn 3:3,4), by setting the bar of holiness where it ought to be for spiritual offspring of the Godhead (Acts 17:29) so that there would always be an objective measure of obedience, as the basis of just judgment of motive, speech and actions.
We’ll see below how God uses “gods” as the benchmark for evaluation of Israel’s spiritual condition.
In other words, only a hypocrite with a seared conscience would not feel uncomfortable being called a “god.”
YHVH does not make PERFECTION a CONDITION to be known as “gods” (Eph 4:11-14; Col 1:28,29; 2 Tim 4:17).
Just as He calls us righteous (2 Cor 5:21) expecting us to “learn righteousness” to BE righteous (Is 26:9,10; 28:9-13; 51:1-7); so He calls us “gods” in expectation of our providing justification for bearing His Name and bearing that title.
it’s also important to bear in mind that while YHVH treats every saved individual as a “god” (subject to our living up to that honour in all truth and righteousness, failing which we’ll die compromised “as mere men” as CANCELLED “children of the Most High” – Ps 82:1,2,6,7), this is NOT SO with FRIENDSHIP with God, which is awarded highly selectively by Divine Prerogative ONLY AFTER the most rigorous proving of one’s consecration and integrity (Gen 22; Heb 11:8-19; Jn 15:3-15; James 2:17-24)
The God of HEBREW MONO-THEISM (i.e. of the “one faith” of the one and “the same body,” namely, the ekklesia/kahal YHVH/church of YHVH/ “congregations” of “Abram the Hebrew,” now reckoned “in Isaac” “from the fountain of Jacob”), is the only LIVING Deity (Gen 14:13; 28:14; Ps 68:26; 74:2; Lk 1:33; Acts 7:38; Rom 9:7b; Gal 3:29; Eph 2:11,12,15,19; 3:6,14,15; 4:5,6).
Which means that eternal life is nothing less than the OFFER to all the redeemed, of HEBREW ETERNITY (i.e. “sleeping” in Christ, the Seed of “Abram the Hebrew” – Gen 14:13; Gal 3:16, then resurrected to partake of the promise to Israel of rulership of the Universe), because we’re all saved by adoption (through baptism into Jesus as King of Jacob – Is 41:21,27; Lk 1:32,33) into the eternal House of Jacob (Ps 59:13; Is 14:1; 45:4; 54:3; Lk 1:33; Rom 11), the household of YHVH (Eph 2:11,12,19), to be heirs of the world with Israel, by grace, through the righteousness which is of faith (Rom 4:13,16; Rev 21:12).
This one, universal (common, ‘catholic’) (Titus 1:4; Jude vs 3) HEBRAIC faith which came out of Zion from the Jews for the “everlasting salvation” of Israel and the nations (consummated in the mystery of the Lamb slain before Creation), was Moses’ foundation message from YHVH to Pharaoh in Ex 3:13-18; Is 45:17-25, to extend grace to turn him and his people from idolatry.
Because of the deceitfulness of the heart, only a certain number of enlightened Egyptians called a “mixed multitude,” grabbed the opportunity to join themselves to the victorious God of Israel on Exodus 12:38.
That’s the Passover pattern, the forerunner for OUR “sprinkling,” surnaming by the God of Jacob, and ingrafting (by adoption) into the natural Hebrew olive tree (Israel’s covenants and commonwealth – Rom 9:4,5; 11:17-29) as co-heirs of the House of Jacob, to learn “the Way,” for the maturing to perfection of our souls, by obedience to character-forming precepts (1 Peter 1:22) to be “AS our Master” (Is 14:1; 49:5-8; 54:3; Lk 6:40; 20:21; Acts 24:14; Rom 11; Col 1:28,29; 1 Peter 1:2b; 1 Jn 3:3-7).
Mercy and compassion were the reason YHVH devised the destruction of idolatrous Egypt’s ten predominant “gods” (Ex 12:12-14).
He could have extricated Israel with far less Testimony about Himself, had He chosen to do so.
One day Egypt, too, will keep the genuine seventh day (Friday sunset to Sat sunset) Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment, the “sign” of sanctification (Gen 2:2,3; Ex 20:8-11; 31:13,16; Deut 5:15; Is 56:6; 58:13,14; 66:22-24; Mk 2:27,28; Heb 4:1-11), to prove that they’ve fully learnt the prophetic lesson of Passover and the Exodus to become believers in “the Messiah our Passover” (Is 19:24,25; 1 Cor 5:7,8) through the revelation knowledge, that “preservation in Christ” (from the penalties, shame and guilt of sin; and from the power of sin – Matt 1:21; Rom 8:3), is possible only by “sanctification by the Father” through our justification through reconciliation with the Father through the Sacrifice of Christ, the ONLY Hope for us ALL, of glory (Rom 5:8-11; 2 Cor 5:19,21; Col 2:26-29; Jude vs 1-3).
Let’s drill down now, into the question of the identity of “gods” in different contexts.
Ps 95:3 is a GENERAL STATEMENT branching into two (maybe thee) classifications of “gods,” namely,
faithful true believers, as heirs of “the God of the whole earth” (Ps 82:1,2; 138:1,2; Jn 10:35; 14:15; Rom 8:17); and
the pseudo-gods or fetishes (idols) of world idolatry (Ps 86:8,9; 97:7,9).
Possibly also,
fallen angels (who were also “sons of God” – Job 1:6) AND the hybrid creatures (giants) caused before the Flood by angels fornicating with “the daughters of men,” gross abomination to YHVH (Gen 6:2,4-7).
The two MAIN classifications are reflected by the following two texts:
“[A Psalm of Asaph.] GOD STANDETH in the CONGREGATION of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.” Psalms 82:1, KJV
AND
“For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared ABOVE ALL gods. For all the gods of THE NATIONS are IDOLS: but the LORD made the heavens.” Psalms 96:4-5, KJV
The second sentence in the latter text confirms its context as idolatry.
The first text clearly refers to believers (Ps 82:1,6; Jn 10:35), the first indication that it was the Passover salvation-rescue that led to the redeemed from Goshen (and fleeing Egyptians) being credited as “gods,” as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” at Sinai when in good faith, YHVH CONSTITUTED the nation of Israel by receiving the refugee Exodus congregation of the House of Jacob there (Ex 15:13-16; Ps 68:26; 74:2) as His bride-designate, on the strength of their UNANIMOUS ACCEPTANCE of His marriage covenant of Ten Words “given in commandment” (acceptance on OUR behalf too – Deut 29:12-15), with accompanying Instruction (Ex 19:5-8; 24:7,8; 34:27,29,32; Deut 4:10,13,14).
Although the imputing of “gods” to men is strongly associated with the fulfilment of God’s prophecy to Abraham about the release of Israel from captivity (Gen 15:13-16; Ex 12:40-42), It seems that the epithet, “god/s,” is synonomous in EVERY generation (beginning with Seth and Enos, when men “began to call on the Name of the LORD” – Gen 4:25,26, through Enoch and Noah to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, Moses, David etc), with anyone redeemed as “an heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (e.g. Heb 11:7); AND, having received the Word of the LORD (as in “unto whom the Word of YHVH came” – Jn 10:35), whose lives (“conversation”) would in the end prove to have been conscientiously consecrated and conducted acceptably, to be an offering acceptable to YHVH (Rom 15:16-18; Heb 12:14,28,29).
Which means, lives lived honourably as “children of the Most High” (Ps 82:6), in righteousness and true holiness (Ps 50:5,23; 15; 24; 106:3; Acts 10:35), to receive the crown of life through their willingness and obedience to submit to the process of sanctification (separation) from “friendship with the world,” to be sure to die “the death of the righteous,” in the Last Adam, like Jacob (Nu 23:9), to be reckoned worthy to enter the everlasting Kingdom like the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Gen 18:18,19; 26:5; Matt 8:11,12; Lk 20:35; James 4; 2 Peter 1:1-11; 1 Jn 2:17,28,29; 3:7; Rev 18:4,5).
So this is a wonderful topic, bearing in mind our Father really does WANT to magnify us (Job 7:17,18; Ps 8:4-6), though on HIS terms, of course.
So it’s excellent for straightening out overall doctrine.
To begin with, it serves to humble us by the reminder that creation of distinctions (Jn 3:27; 1 Cor 4:7; 15:10) and assignment of talents, conferment of purpose (in predestination – Eph 1:11), orders (callings – Eph 4:1), set apart work (Mk 13:34), honours (titles, designations, epithets) and the award and distribution of rewards, is forever a matter of DIVINE PREROGATIVE.
We vainly take honour for ourselves by “the arm of the flesh” at our peril, given that pride AND the conceit and arrogance of presumption are deadly sins (Ps 19:13).
John 15; Phil 2:6,7 & James 2 clearly show us that Y’shua-Jesus’ essential EQUALITY with God (“I and the Father are One”) which He did not consider “ROBBERY of God” (because their DIVINITY is a Unique Uniplural Parity, with the Holy Spirit), cannot be used as a pretext for a PRIVATE claim, that we are God’s FRIENDS.
Proof of having counted the cost of carrying one’s own cross (Lk 14:27-35 ; Heb 12), the willingness to be a ‘living martyr’ by being obedient to YHVH’s will, is the LEAST condition for attaining that state of grace (Matt 6:9,10; 12:50; Lk 17:10; Jn 12:47-50).
Otherwise, we are guilty of FAMILIARITY, which is a vile ASSUMPTION OF INTIMACY which is a sure sign of the absence of appropriate honour and awe (reverence and Godly Fear of God) of the Creator-Ruler of the Universe and Saviour of the World (Is 8:13,14,16,20; Mal 1:6; Rev 14:6,7,12).
We find proof of Abraham’s devotion to the Fear of God (Ps 119:38) through submission to His Voice and His ways, TWICE CONFIRMED in Gen 22 , to which James 2:23,24 refers.
“…for NOW I KNOW…because thou hast done this thing, not witholding thy son…” said the Angel of YHVH about Abraham’s trustworthiness to carry out a command (Gen 22:12,16).
That should help us as “gods,” read Ps 138:1,2 with fresh insight.
Abraham did EXACTLY what it says.
In Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac (suppressing his paternal compassion to do his Father’s will), and in Isaac’s willingness to BE the sacrifice (equally astounding acts of devotion to God, by both father and son), Abraham magnified God’s command (Word) above even His Name, and passed the Mt Moriah test with flying colours!
How many of US have listened FOR the will AND yielded TO the righteous demands (“if ye do WHATSOEVER I command you”) of our Father, often for NECESSARILY extreme testing (1 Peter 1:2-9; 4:12-18), even like silver refined seven times in a clay oven, to prove worthy of the ultimate commendation, “friend” (Jn 15:14,15; James 2:23), because not all “gods” will attain that acknowledgement.
Very few of us would credit an instruction such as that given to Abraham to sacrifice his son of promise in Gen 22:1,2, as the Voice of YHVH.
As is true of so much in Scripture, NOTHING we’re allowed to partake of during our probation (Phil 2:12,13; 3:10-18; Heb 12) is to be taken for granted.
EVERYTHING pertaining to salvation into the Kingdom of light, must be “confirmed TO the end,” if we are to have “full assurance of hope, to the end” in order to “lay hold ON eternal life.”
Our sanctification is twofold:
We’re saved from our sins through repentance and justification by faith through sanctification by the Blood of sprinkling and baptism;
To overcome the POWER OF SIN through our sanctification by obedience to the Spirit (Acts 5:32; Rom 15:16-18; Eph 4:23;24,30; 1 Thess 5:23; 1 Peter 1:2b), to show evidence (fruit worthy) of the sincerity of our repentance (Acts 26:18,20).
Heb 6:11 assures us that that will require “the same diligence” as others who have taken Jesus seriously as our impeccable Rôle Model (Prov 23:17,18; 24:13,14; 1 Cor 1:8; 1 Tim 6:11-14; Heb 6:1-11; 1 Jn 2:3-6,17).
When we acknowledge the finished work of Reconciliation to the Father through the Atonement of YHVH-Immanu El as Y’shua the Word made flesh (2 Cor 5:19,21), we “all receive of His FULLNESS” (His righteousness, purity, innocence, the Character traits of His Divine Nature, the rights and obligations of heirs AND the title and stature of “gods,” as “children of the Most High”) as the IMMEDIATE benefit of being justified by faith through the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
From that moment on, our lives become a DEFENCE OF OUR REBORN INNOCENCE.
By learning righteousness to “deny (say no to) unGodliness” we have to PROTECT the PURITY which Jesus ascribed to us through our sanctification by His Blood, when we first believed the Word of faith, the grace that brings salvation (Jn 15:3; Rom 10:8-13; Titus 2:11,12).
The sincerity of our salvation is tested by EVERY choice we make, once becoming heirs of the righteousness of God, by faith.
Sin will “find us out.”
Being a “god” means living up to the Holiness of the “God of gods,” by which we demonstrate whether we’re willing to sanctify (‘hallow’) His Name on the narrow path of transfiguration of our souls from glory to glory to be conformed to His Image (Matt 7:13-27; Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18), by doing His will on earth, as it is done in heaven, to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling (in love AND reverential and Godly Fear) to be accounted worthy to be included in the holy and spotless bride (Matt 6:9,10; Lk 17:10; 20:35; Phil 2:12,13; Heb 12:14,28)
The obedient “jewels” (of holiness) (Ex 19:5-8; Is 35:8; Mal 3:16-18; Heb 12:14,28; 1 Peter 1:2,13-17; 2:9,10) who served God “acceptably,” to “remain” in Christ to STILL BE “gods” in the end, will be welcomed to enter “the Everlasting Kingdom” because they’ll be RECOGNIZED AS PURE, by having been fully conformed to the Image of God by allowing Him to form Himself in us (Rom 8:29; Gal 4:19; 2 Peter 1:1-11).
They will be those who will have obeyed the Holy Spirit to the end, to be “the blessed and holy” worthy to be given “fine linen clean and white” to wear with holy and spotless Y’shua (Acts 5:32; 10:35; Rom 8:4,14; Eph 4:11-14,23,24,30; Heb 5:9; Rev 3:1-6; 19:7-9; 20:6).
We are Israel’s inheritance in Messiah (Is 14:1; 54:3; 49:5-8; 55:1-5; Lk 1:33; Rom 11).
We’ve joined THEIR remnant, not them, our’s.
That’s what Gabriel prophesied to Mary, to confirm dozens of Old Testament texts (Is 49:5-8; 56:6-8/Jn 10:16; Lk 1:32,33).
Bear in mind we are heirs of YHVH Himself, not just joint-heirs with Jesus as Messiah (Rom 8:17)
So it’s easier to understand why, as bona fide sons of God (1 Jn 3:1,2,3-7), we should we called “gods” provided we are wholeheartedly applying ourselves to walk in truth & righteousness and “true holiness,” NOT GRIEVING THE SPIRIT (Acts 5:32; Eph 4:23,24,30).
The LORD uses different labels and epithets for Israel in history, as well as for us all as co-heirs of and with Israel today, to describe us at different stages of our sanctification of spirit, soul and body (1 Thess 5:23), to show His pleasure or disappointment at our commitment and progress, or lack thereof.
“Yeshurun” (a description of ideal Israel – when noble and true, merciful and just) in Deut 32:15 & 33:5,26, and “gods,” are examples.
Deut 32:15 laments their failure to clear the bar of purification; while Deut 33:5,26 applauds the fine achievement which lies ahead, when Zion, refined like silver and gold, rises to chief of nations in their Land (Is 46:13; Jer 31:7,10,17,31-36; Haggai 2 :7,9; Micah 4:1-8; 7:8-20; Lk 2:32) and Y’shua will not only not be ashamed to call them brothers (Heb 2:11; 1 Jn 2:28,29), but as one of His many crowns, will joyfully and triumphantly wear the crown of “King in Yeshurun” as Head of the House of Jacob, forever (Is 44:1-8; Rev 19:12)
In Ps 86:2, He is warning Israel their backsliddenness is jeopardizing their use of “gods” as a compliment.
In disobedience, they self-congratulate themselves to their shame, a pitfall which we too need to avoid (1 Cor 15:34).
They will “die as MERE MEN (i.e. NOT “the death of the righteous”), if their error and unbelief and injustice persist (Ps 82:2,3; Heb 2:1-3; 10:26-39).
“For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons (no respecter of persons/impartial in judgment/consistent in chastising and scourging), nor taketh reward:” Deuteronomy 10:17; Heb 12 KJV
“The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know; if it be in REBELLION, or if in TRANSGRESSION against the LORD, (save us not this day,)” Joshua 22:22, KJV
The great lesson in all of this is that everyone saved by grace into the PROMISE of salvation (it has to be “worked out” in word and deed with real understanding, through sanctification by the Spirit, hence “in fear and trembling” – Rom 15:16-18; Phil 2:12,13; 2 Thess 2:13), is a soul under reconstruction in the image of the Highest, El Elyon, to perfectly reflect His Character and Way of life.
The “But” in Ps 82:7 (implied in Is 41:23’s “Yea, do GOOD…”), reinforces the fact that being called a “god” is CONDITIONAL.
We’re all on what Judaism insightfully calls ‘a mission of sanctity,’ to sanctify the Creation which is groaning in bondage to decay, under the curse of defilement by the sin, transgression and iniquity of mankind (Is 24:3-6; Rom 8:4,14,18-22; Rev 11:18b).
It is appointed to “gods,” namely, true worshippers in Spirit and in Truth, to find and confine ourselves to the narrow path (Ps 119:1,45), to be undefiled by walking in the light, to ‘repair the world,’ to improve the Universe (‘tikkun ha olam’ in Hebrew), because it is only PROVEN righteousness as fruit worthy of repentance (Acts 26:18,20; 1 Jn 3:3-7) that will result in “the God of gods” sending His Spirit to “renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30).
So we have much to live up to, as “gods” “called to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3-11) by being called in YHVH’s Name as those “created for YHVH’s glory, formed and made by Him” to inherit and curate the Universe amongst Israel’s remnant, as THEIR inheritance (Is 54:3; Rom 11).
No greater purpose and plan; no more noble theme and endeavour, has ever existed.
But none of it can be lastingly achieved without us being occupied with and deeply engaged in the transfiguration of our souls (minds, wills, emotions) from glory, to glory (Lk 21:19; 2 Cor 3:18), by each of us “putting on the new man (“learning Christ,” to imitate the perfected Last Adam) which is renewed in knowledge after the image of YHVH (Heb 11:1-3) Who created Him” (Eph 4:23,24; Col 3:10).
If more of us would see ourselves as “gods,” fully comprehending what that means in PRACTICE, both as an honour and as a comprehensive set of duties as true sons (Lk 17:10; Heb 12) there can be little doubt that the redemption of mankind and thereby, the Creation we’re part of, would be more speedily accomplished, with far less collateral damage along the way due to poor judgment through lack of exercise of the advanced meat of the Word (Heb 5:11-14).
Godly character (acquired by trials of obedience to righteousness – Rom 6:12-22; 1 Peter 1:2-9) is the criterion for the integrity by which our holiness is being tested, moment by moment (Job 7:18b; 22:21-30; Heb 5:9; 12:14).
To conclude, wrap your mind around the moral of the fascinating account of the healing of the paralytic in Matt 9:1-8, of whom Jesus said: “Which is EASIER to SAY: ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee,’ or, ‘Arise and walk (i.e. be made whole)?’ “
He continued with, “But that thee (the condemnatory scribes) may know that the Son of Man hath POWER on earth TO FORGIVE SINS… ‘Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house'”
Even though salvation from our sins is itself a miracle of conviction by the Spirit, and therefore, forgiveness of a repentant heart is RELATIVELY EASY, it is a far greater, time-consuming miracle of transformation (through step by step parting of the veil and redemption from the POWER OF SIN) for the Spirit of Truth and Holiness to renew the spirit of one’s MIND to all the counsel of God (Acts 20:25-32; Col 4:12), to purge, purify and SANCTIFY a professing believer in the WAYS of YHVH, to make their souls a mirror of the Divine Nature, to bring them to final redemption of their bodies (Jn 5:24,28,29; 17:17,19; Rom 8:4,14,29; 1 Thess 4:1-3a; 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13-15).
THAT is the great test of a “god” – ‘saying no to Ungodliness’ (Titus 2:12), and “adorning God’s doctrine” with good works (2 Tim 3:10; 4:3-8; Titus 2:10) consistent with our call to a sanctified, sacrificial life of well-doing (e.g. Matt 5-7).
Righteous works (commandments, ordinances, Biblical traditions) ultimately decide both eternal status and rewards, because once saved, faith without works is dead because we are called to “WORK RIGHTEOUSNESS” (“follow after righteousness” to BE righteous), not just PROFESS it (Acts 10:35; Rom 2:6-13; 8:3,4; 1 Cor 7:19; 11:1,2; Eph 2:10; 2 Thess 2:13-15; 1 Tim 6:11-14; Titus 2:11-14; James 1:22-25; 2:8-26; 1 Jn 3:7).
We are to imitate our Father’s works, to walk circumspectly as His Son did, being made perfect by the love command, to be perfect as He is in heaven (Matt 5:19,48; 12:50; Mk 12:28-34; Eph 5:1,10,15-17; 1 Jn 4:17).
The Gospel and the New Covenant it represents is actually the Reformation of the fall of man through restoration of our original innocence (Jn 15:3), in preparation to own and be worthy of being stewards of a Universe greater and far more glorious than the one that first existed when the earth was young (Jn 15:3).
The Gospel is the Glad Tidings “to the Jew first” (the first to be regarded as “gods”) that YHVH has made a way where there seemed to be no way, to restore the Image of God to man (Gen 1:26), as proof of preparation of our souls for eternity by being “chaste virgins” by striving for masteries of “the Way,” which will be the fulfilment of His promise to redeem “fallen virgin Israel,” and make them a commonwealth of nations.
That’s why CHRISTLIKENESS, meaning “gods” reflecting the marked traits of the Goodness of the “God of gods,” is the goal (telos) of Instruction in righteousness (Gen 35:9-15; Amos 5:2,4; 9:11-15; Lk 1:33; 20:21; Acts 24:14; Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 5:9-11; 11:1,2; Eph 2:11,12; 2 Tim 2:5; 3:14-17).
So there’s a lot more to “gods” than meets the eye.
“Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O LORD; neither are there any WORKS like unto THY WORKS.” Psalms 86:8; Rev 2:5,26; 3:2-6 KJV
A ‘BEREAN’ (Acts 17:11) EXPOSITION OF THE MISCONSTRUED BOOK OF GALATIANS
(REDEEMING GALATIANS FROM FOLLY, FANCY AND CONFUSION)
“…if any man preach any OTHER Gospel unto you than that which ye have RECEIVED (i.e. other than that which I/we have preached, received directly from Y’shua-Jesus), LET HIM BE ACCURSED” (Gal 1:9-12)
“…the seal (certificate, living evidence) of my apostleship are ye in the LORD [confirming and authenticating it]” (1 Cor 9:2 KJV & Amplified Bible)
“…in all his (Paul’s) letters, speaking in them of these things (purification to perfection, for sanctification as chaste virgins), in which are some things HARD to be UNDERSTOOD, which they who are unlearned (ungrounded in Torah) and unstable (due to a foundation of sand) wrest (twist, pervert, torture) as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction” (Rom 3:31; 2 Peter 3:9-18)
That should convince us that this is one Book not to sell-short, not at ANY cost.
As an opening remark, note that Galatians is controversial, sometimes even the cause of shrill, flaring and flaming arguments, only because so many deluded sheep MISTAKE LEGITIMATE REFORMATION of false doctrine, by ‘de-Hellenization’ of the apostate, Replacement Theology-bound church, FOR MORE INSTALLMENTS of the first century Judaizing which took place, hotly opposing Gentiles receiving salvation without circumcision and keeping the law.
“And many (Jew and Gentile) who BELIEVED came, and CONFESSED, and ‘showed their deeds’ (REPENTED of their sins) (and were baptized)” (Acts 16:30-34; 19:18; Mk 16:16).
As those examples prove, reconciliation by grace ALONE (confirmed by adoption through baptism of repentance for remission of sins) is the INVARIABLE RULE upon which most of us would agree.
So the controversy today has less to do with THAT, than with what a true, Spirit-led, Jesus-imitating walk requires of us, to prove our integrity and loyalty, both to God and to His Word (1 Jn 2:3-6).
Legitimate arguments AGAINST those who MAY lean towards favouring some form of works doctrine to QUALIFY for inheritance of “the righteousness of God” (which is by faith alone), are being IGNORANTLY BRANDISHED against the very truths that define a God-pleasing, sacrificial walk on the narrow path which by purification by obedience to the dictates of the Spirit (Rom 7:22,25; 8:4-14), LEADS to eternal life (Matt 7:13-27).
These naïve dissenters and agitators who are on the wrong side of the covenant, don’t credit the fact that IMPUTED righteousness is both a GIFT and a YOKE to be PRACTISED, if one wants to be considered righteous in the end, because the GIFT makes us ACCOUNTABLE to wholeheartedly apply ourselves to the high call to do “all the will” of the Giver of the gift of HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS and of HIS SPIRIT, to work it out in fear and trembling, since salvation and righteousness are MUTUALLY DEPENDENT (Matt 11:29,30; Acts 20:25-32; Col 4:12; 1 Jn 2:29; 3:7).
Reckless accusers of Abraham-like, Torah-wise COVENANT-KEEPERS (Gen 18:18,19; 26:5; Rom 3:31) who wield empty slogans profanely borrowed from phrases in Scripture by twisting the Spirit’s intended meaning, even bordering on hate speech, have not grasped that the big picture of salvation which in short, is RECONCILIATION AND ADOPTION BY GRACE, is acceptance of inheritance of the world (Rom 4:13,16) along with curatorship of Creation (Gen 1:26), under “the ordinances of heaven and earth” (Jer 33:25; Matt 6:9,10; 1 Cor 11:1,2), to bring Divine order to every aspect of life, which is impossible without Instruction in the ways of God which constitute the holiness that befits His House (2 Sam 23:5; Ps 101; Is 56:6-8; Jn 10:16; 14:15,21-24; Rom 3:31).
As a backdrop to our discussion, let’s ALSO consider the fact that grace and law are two faces of the same coin.
Equivalent and like Deity, CO-ETERNAL.
And that grace is itself NEVER disassociated from OBEDIENCE which is the purpose of all Godly Instruction (the sum of compulsory requests), in whatever form that Instruction (Torah) takes (whether as precepts, commandments, ordinances, statutes, rules & regulations, duties, or testimonies/traditions).
As the highest expression of grace, Jn 3:16; 1 Jn 3:16 REST on unconditional love, grounded in UNWAVERING OBEDIENCE.
It is THAT which makes the Atonement by the Incarnate “God and Saviour” (Is 7:13,14; 45:17-25; Titus 2:13), the greatest test of love.
Gethsemane and Calvary COMBINED, are eternity’s greatest test of obedience.
That principle is highlighted in 1 Jn 5:2&3.
Jesus, of Whom Isaiah was a type, “counted the cost” of going to His Cross and by saying “Hineini” (“Hear I am; send Me”), chose life for the world, by being willing and obedient to overcome soulish resistance, to follow-through His mission of martyrdom, to accomplish His Death which He’d shortly before discussed with Moses and Elijah on the Mt of Transfiguration (Is 6:Lk 9:30,31; 14:27,28; 22:40-44).
That said, we could go FURTHER, to say that because grace is God’s unmerited favour towards us, it is the highest expression of the law of love through which we are called, to be perfected (1 Jn 4:17), because it was Y’shua’s OBEDIENCE to His Father and ours, that “sprinkled” us with His sanctifying, saving Blood, “unto (His degree of) obedience” to the faith, to be “offerings acceptable to Him” (Jn 13:34,35; Rom 1:5; 15:16-18; 1 Peter 1:2b; 1 Jn 3:16,17), THE PART MANY OVERLOOK.
Galatians is grossly misportrayed because of criminal wilful ignorance of Biblical first principles of holiness
There’s no contest between grace and law.
They are in an eternal symbiotic relationship.
Just as ‘day follows night,’ a metaphor for the grace of FREE “deliverance from the power of darkness and translation into the Kingdom of (the Light of the world”(Jn 3:16; Col 1:13,14), FOLLOWED BY the grace to learn to “come into the light” as “doers of truth” (Jn 3:19-21; Rom 2:6-13; James 1:22-25) in order to prove to have been DILIGENT “children of light,” for “FULL assurance of hope, to the end” (Heb 6:11).
There could be no law without the grace of God Who in love, gave law to humanity as our collective heritage, through the House of Jacob (Deut 33:2,4; Rom 3:31); nor could there be grace without law, because LOVE (the foundation of grace and of every fruit of the Spirit as well as being the first principle of righteousness, which is light) IS the law “against which there is no law” (Gal 5:23-25).
That is a challenge to absorb, but it shows the subtle interrelationships of concepts we mostly regard as free variables.
In a nuanced way, they tend to blend into one another, essential to attain the UNITY of the faith.
So love becomes law to bring us to eligibility for the first resurrection BLAMELESS as “the blessed and HOLY” (Eph 1:4; Col 1:22,23; Rev 14:6,7,12; 20:6), just as law becomes love (Matt 22:36-40; Mk 12:28-34; Lk 10:25-28; 1 Jn 5:3), all due to the grace they represent.
For the love of God, all of Creation depends upon the right alignment of grace and law, through the renewal of the spirit of our minds for acceptance of the reality that grace and law are not a binary choice, but that each plays an indispensable interrelated rôle in the covenant drama of restoration of mankind to the image of God, for the Spirit to be sent to “renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30; Rom 8:18-22).
So, knowing the affinity between grace and law in the Spirit (Gal 5:18-25), where “living in the Spirit” and “walking in the Spirit” means being INNOCENT OF TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW, leaves no room for prejudice against law and/or fear of law, so that we can make an honest, thorough, constructive and BALANCED investigation into what Galatians is actually contributing to our knowledge and understanding of the “everlasting covenant” (Heb 13:20,21).
The skill in “rightly dividing the Word” (2 Tim 2:15) is knowing which Word goes where, to build a valid, coherent interpretation, so as not to muddle the embedded patterns in Scripture and draw absurd conclusions that result in a “different gospel.”
Yet that’s precisely what’s happened for generations, with a heavily slanted MISrepresentation of Galatians (deeply prejudiced and antagonistic towards any mention of law), being fanatically held to be the FOIL to the accursed “other gospel” Paul refers to in Gal 1:6-9, which is actually the misrepresentation itself!
The greatest CRIMES AGAINST CONTEXT have originated in anti-Semitism and Gentile apathy towards the Bible’s ‘mission of sanctity’ (Israel’s calling) – pursuit of moral excellence as a spiritual IMPERATIVE (1 Peter 1:13-17; 2 Cor 7:1; 2 Tim 2:19-26).
This is reflected in the conceited, resentful reflex response, trotted out with alarming predictability, in the words, “We’re not under the law. We’re under grace” (not understanding what they’re saying), to even the gentlest correction and invitation to hear God’s plan for the sanctification of THE REDEEMED (Jn 17:17,19; Acts 26:18,20; Eph 5:26,27), to make their candidacy for selection for the bride, successful, for many are invited but few are chosen.
Like waving a wand, they imagine their stock recitation, given wildly out of context, gives them the moral and doctrinal highground.
Not knowing that “under the law” principally means “convicted as a transgressor of/sinner against/someone in enmity toward the law” (Rom 8:6,7; James 2:8,9).
Which is why we read:
“But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal 5:18).
The Spirit will never lead us to break God’s laws (Rom 8:4,14).
Substantiated by Jesus’ furious indictment that “NONE of you keep the law.”
The nation was dangerously at risk in the midst of Roman occupation, along His Father’s reputation, by the sheer extent of its sinfulness.
Matthew 23 bears witness.
Ezek profaned amongst the Gentiles
Nor do believers who are fed on oversimplified doctrine and subject to a regîme of selective omission of doctrine, therefore having superficial understanding, know that while to be sure, there’s an application of the phrase “under grace” that gets you saved “without cost” (Is 55:1-5); there is also an application of “under grace” AFTER salvation by grace, that covers our missteps on the narrow path to complete sanctification (1 Thess 5:23), until we’re accounted worthy of final redemption by obedience to righteousness (Rom 6:12-22; 8:23; 1 Jn 2:3-6), to walk with Jesus in white (Lk 20:35; Rev 3:1-6; 19:7-9)
All for lack of comprehension of the meaning of the statement that we’ve “all received fullness and GRACE FOR GRACE” (Jn 1:16).
This oversimplification and superficiality has bred the vanity of pride, expressed in complacency, cynicism and judgmental arrogance, the worst possible combination to keep a heart open to receive balanced instruction for the light of the full counsel to transfigure our souls from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18).
Resentfulness of correction is a suidical attitude ( ).
And so the maxim, ‘The devout Jew knows more about HOLINESS (by studying Torah and despite not knowing the Messiah), than most Christians know about the Holy, Jewish, Torah-championing Messiah Y’shua they profess as Master, by the Name Jesus” gathers weight as time goes by.
Galatians can be profoundly misleading if one is not grounded.
And it would be arrogant for someone to say that, if he or she didn’t know what it means and what it takes to BE grounded.
The renegade cult use of Galatians has been to treat the laws of God shabbily and shamelessly as less than poor cousins of grace, ignorant, no doubt, of the fact that YHVH has “magnified His Command (Word) above even His Name,” for grace to bring the SAVED to full obedience (Ps 138:2; Is 42:21; Matt 5:17-20; Lk 17:10; Heb 12:28).
Yet if you read between the lines, Galatians reminds us that THREE- PART SANCTIFICATION (1 Thess 5:23) is vital to LIVE UP TO both our imputed righteousness AND to the call to holiness (on which “laying hold on eternal life” depends – Rom 6:22; 1 Tim 6:11-14) represented by the THREEFOLD angelic Proclamation of YHVH’s Holiness (Is 6:3), implied in 1 Peter 1:13-17.
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
It is impossible to match that criterion for purity, without steadily acquiring virtue (absorbing sanctity) by following the precepts which Ps 119 romances, to REMAIN UNDEFILED and safely in “the Way” (Ps 119:1,4,45,63,69,78,93,94,96-105,173; 1 Cor 3:17; 7:19; 11:1,2).
We derive that from Gal 2:17,18; 5:13-26 & 6:7,8 Amplified Bible.
Galatians is not opposed to the PURPOSE of the precepts of righteousness – perfection of the soul for sanctification of the WHOLEHEARTED as the bride (to which Mal 3:16-18 & Matt 25:10-12 both refer).
Who wouldn’t want his soul trained to perfection in righteousness, for Y’shua’s Father and ours to say to us what He said in tribute to David: “I have found…a man after Mine own heart, who shall fulfil ALL MY WILL” (Ps 101; Matt 28:20; Col 1:22,23,28,29; 3:9,10; 4:12; Eph 4:11-14,23,24; 2 Tim 3:14-17).
Galatians excels in strenuously opposing any thought of invoking precepts (circumcision or ANY other in the vast ‘pandect’ [repertoire of precepts] in “the perfect law of liberty”) as the MEANS to obtain “the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God” and thereby, RIGHTSTANDING with God (Ps 119:45; James 1:23-25)
We can all agree on that.
Galatians is mainly a vehement defence of the doctrine of justification by faith, beautifully and powerfully laid out, as the Amplified Bible puts it in its Introduction to Romans, in Paul’s “DIGEST (resume) of the CONTENT of his teaching and preaching based on his experience after his conversion” (Rom 3:21-26; Gal 2:16).
The emphasis on FREE reconciliation to the Father (Rom 5:10; 2 Cor 5:18,19; Col 1:20-23) dominates the Book, giving the impression it whitewashes mention of law, in any aspect and respect.
But more of that, further on.
The church is “the ground and the pillar of the truth” IN REALITY, only if it is “nourished up” by PURE doctrine, as verified by the Torah and the Prophets (Acts 24:14; 1 Tim 3:15).
This is the mark of the high calling of the holy vocation (Eph 4:1), the fulfilment of which we are to “press toward” in order to attain as the prize, the “crown of righteousness” obtained by following after righteousness by striving by the Spirit (labouring to be acceptable offerings) through “masteries” of “the Way,” to walk in the light “to attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Lk 20:21; Rom 15:16-18; 2 Cor 5:9-11; Phil 2:12,13: 3:11-17; 1 Tim 4:6; 6:11-14; 2 Tim 3:10,14-17; 4:3-8).
This example of a grounded Scripture chain is a fundamental statement of fact.
Scripture chains adduced as proof of the truth of interpretations, must themselves be grounded, in order to ground those who independently test them.
Let’s begin with some irrefutable principles, which make misuse of Galatians to discredit and denounce God’s Instruction (generally known as Torah wisdom), leaving multitudes astray, reprehensible.
It is appointed for Scripture to INTERPRET ITSELF itself, if we’ll allow it that function, using the Berean legal test of verification of accuracy of interpretation on the strength of two or three witnesses of Scripture from the Torah and the Prophets, the eternal plumline (Acts 24:14; 2 Cor 13:1,5; 2 Tim 3:14-17)
That infallible safeguard against apostasy is the incalculably valuable legacy of the devout, PRUDENTLY SCEPTICAL Hebrew Bereans (Acts 17:11), whose approach to holding the pulpit to account was commended to us by Paul.
Untested opinion served up as truth, like voiding the Word of God (“making the Word of God of none effect”) by “teaching as (if it were sound) doctrine, the commandments of men,” (Mk 7:6,7,13; Rom 3:31), has no place in the home or in the pulpit.
It contaminates both, and protracts the spiritual drama of defence of intelligent, Spirit-led debate with ourselves and with others, for all to receive a sound education for life as early as possible by not wasting our breath on trivia and speculations.
Every one of our words will be judged (Matt 12:36,37).
We each have the Word upon which to base our conversation and lifestyles, to be light, not peddlars of endless conjecture and the factionalism and strife and dissension it brings.
Doing OUR ‘Berean homework’ is the least God expects if we are do “NOTHING against the truth” (2 Cor 13:8,11).
We are not OF the world.
Drawing from the precedent of our heritage in the house of Jacob (Lk 1:33), our homes and congregations (all of which are “the congregations of the fountain of Jacob” – Ps 68:26), should be citadels of careful learning and above all, love for truth.
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Sincere, patient, persistent waiting on the LORD, asking seeking and knocking, brings clarity by the Spirit (Prov 25:2; Jer 33:3).
Which leads us to the opening string of texts
“For if I build again THE THINGS which I destroyed (sin having been CONDEMNED in the flesh to DESTROY [our tendency to do] the works of the devil – Rom 8:3; 1 Jn 3:8), I make myself a transgressor. For through (submission to the Spirit for sanctification by the holy, just, good, spiritual law) I am ‘dead’ to the law (innocent and above accusation) that I might live (uprightly, FOR the righteousness which I’ve been made) unto God” (Rom 2:13; 3:31; 8:4; 15:16-18; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 2:18,19; 2 Tim 2:5,11; 1 Peter 2:24)
“But (if we REVISIT sin which is unrighteousness/unGodliness, it becomes obvious that) we have NOT SO LEARNED Christ” (Eph 4:20-32; 1 Jn 3:4,7,10,18; 5:2&3,17; 2 Peter 2:22; 2 Jn vs 5&6,9-11)
“If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” YE DO WELL (Lev 19:18b; Matt 22:36-40; Mk 12:28-34; Rom 8:4; James 1:22-25; 2:8-14)
“(James and all the elders) glorified the LORD and said to PAUL, ‘Thou seest brother how many THOUSANDS of Jews there are (NOT the crowd in Rom 10:1-3) who BELIEVE (baptized believers), and they are ALL zealous for the Torah”
This was not a disparaging, cautionary comment, but a high COMMENDATION by the core Apostolic leadership of the original, doctrinally pure first century church (kahal YHVH), of SAVED Jews diligently and righteously pursuing the goal of perfection of holiness for perfection of the soul, by obedience to the faith, under grace, to ensure there names REMAINED forever inscribed in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rom 1:5; 15:16-18; 2 Cor 7:1; 1 Jn 2:3-6,17,28,29;;3:3-7; 1 Peter 1:13-17,22; Heb 12:14,28).
No-one is able to understand Galatians without considering the IMPLICATIONS that light up teachable spirits only when we begin to notice that the Torah, the foundations of the New Covenant amplified by Y’shua-Jesus (Deut 18:18,19; Matt 5-7; 7:24-27; 17:5; Acts 3:23), remains INTACT because the Crucifixion which assures satan’s destruction (Heb 2:14; Rev 20:10), and which provides the ‘new’ Atonement for the remission of sins, is a SUBSTITUTION WITHIN THE TORAH (“Messiah shall bruise thy head,” satan – Gen 3:15) for the ORIGINAL sacrifices for blood atonement for the soul (Lev 17:11; Heb 10:9).
Jesus’ teaching of “the Way” from the Torah, as Master of it (Lk 20:21; Acts 24:14), takes us all the way back to the earliest teachings on righteousness at the beginning of Genesis (Matt 13:52), which were part of “the Way of YHVH” known to righteous Abraham, and which was conveyed to us via Moses, then and via Jesus, for our perfection (Gen 17:1; 18:18,19; 26:5; Matt 5:19,48; Rom 3:31), which is why denial of Shabbat is a capital offence, being the earliest covenant requirement to be framed in Scripture, for all generations (Gen 2:2,3; Ex 31:13-17; Mk 2:27,28; Heb 4:1-11).
There’s no question of abrogation of Torah, or the Crucifixion, rooted in it, would be invalidated.
That makes Rom 3:20,31 and Heb 10:9,16 amongst the most important revelations, maybe the greatest (next to revelation of the identity and Deity of the Messiah) in all Scripture
“…by Torah (which contains the teachings of righteousness) is the KNOWLEDGE of sin (Torahlessness)…Do we then make void the Torah through faith? GOD FORBID (compare 2:17): Yea, we ESTABLISH (the validity and efficacy) of the (the “lawful use” of law to access the wisdom deduced from the precedent) law(s of God)” (Rom 3:20,31; 1 Tim 1:8-11)
“Then said the Messiah, ‘I come to do Thy will, O God. HE taketh away the FIRST (system of sacrifices of ATONEMENT, not all), that He may establish the SECOND (His redemption for repentance and forgiveness through faith in Him and in His Blood of sprinkling, UNTO OBEDIENCE)…I will put My laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. I will be to THEM (who co-operate with the Spirit in this process of renewal of the spirit of our minds” (Priv 7:1-3; Acts 5:31,32; Heb 10:9,16) a God, and THEY shall be to me a people” (Ex 19:5,6; Deut 28:1,2,9; 29:12-15; Is 64:5; Mal 3:16-18; Rom 2:6-13).
UNREPENTANT ADVERSARIES of “lawful use of Torah” to line up those in error and unbelief, with the full counsel of the Gospel which defines “the (narrow) Way” to eternal life (Matt 7:13,14; Lk 20:21; 1 Tim 1:8-11), will be “ground” by “the Shepherd and Stone of Israel” (Gen 49:24; Lk 20:17,18), for being COMPLICIT with satan the MURDERER, by not hearing the Son’s REPEATED EMPHASIS on keeping covenant (Matt 12:50; Jn 5:24,28,29; 8:51,52; 14:15,21-24; 15:3-15).
For the sake of accuracy, there’s a principle in the widely used ‘rule of UNITY’ (one of eight rules of legal or Scripture interpretation to ensure the unity of the faith) that proves that Galatians is a jewel in YHVH’s exposure of the anti-Christ anti-Torah (‘anti-nomian’) spirit which is rampant in the church.
The principle is expressed as follows: “It is fundamental to a true interpretation of the Scriptures, that the PARTS of a document or covenant are to be construed with reference to the significance of the ENTIRETY (of the caseload of relevant information) (or Bible in the case of Biblical exegesis)” (Dean Abbot, Interpretation, pg. 31).
“Several documents (or Bible Books) which form part of a single whole are to be read AS ONE, so that the preferred construction (we place on them) is the interpretation which provides an understanding which will render them CONSISTENT (and therefore uphold and safeguard their unity)” (Interpretation of documents, Sir Roland Burrows, pg. 49, Butterworth & Co. London, 1946).
“To them, who by patient CONTINUANCE in well-doing (rejoicing in working righteousness, earnestly remembering You in Your ways) seek glory and honour and immortality, (belongs) eternal life…for not HEARERS of the law are just before God, but the DOERS of the law shall be justified…Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision (Is 64:5; Acts 10:35; Rom 2:6,13-15,25,26; 8:3,4; James 1:22-25; 2:8-26).
Our justification by FAITH, by sanctification by the Blood, is “CONFIRMED to the end” (1 Cor 1:8) by FAITHFULNESS (Hab 2:4; Heb 10:39; James 2:14-26).
That proves that there is no contradiction between James and Paul.
“YHVH He is with you while ye are with Him” by abiding in the Vine through the commandments (2 Chr 15:2; Jn 15:1-15; 1 Jn 2:3-6).
YHVH manifested Himself in the form of a Son to teach us “the (good) Way,” to walk in IT (2 Chr 6:18,27; Is 7:13,14; Lk 20:21; Acts 24:14; 2 Cor 6:16).
As it is written (Deut 7:9-15; 1 Kings 8:23,32; Rom 15:16-18) :
“Justifying THE RIGHTEOUS, to give HIM according to his RIGHTEOUSNESS (in word and deed)”
YHVH was a “Shield and exceeding great reward” to RIGHTEOUS Abraham BECAUSE he showed his righteousness by walking before Him in “the Way of YHVH,” to be perfect, as we are called to be (Gen 17:1; 18:18,19; 26:5; Matt 5:19,48).
If that excerpt from Romans 2:6-26 (in which UPFRONT in Romans, Paul establishes the validity of law under the New Covenant) bears no resemblance to the gleeful denunciation we’re so accustomed to, of Sinai and the marriage covenant to which Israel HAS BOUND EVEN US (Deut 29:12-15) by their unanimous pledge of obedience in Ex 19:5-8 and 24:7,8 as the eternal church of the House of Jacob (Acts 7:38; Lk 1:33; Rom 11), and into which Galatians has been weaponized, is because Romans is less challenging to understand and therefore not quite as susceptible to unscrupulous corruption (2 Peter 3:16-18).
“Of Law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power” – Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, book i.
“Where law ends; tyranny begins” Pitt, speech, Jan. 9, 1770 (Case of Wilkes)
Law ENDING altogether, would be one step worse than our ‘flesh weakening the law,’ law REMAINING (Rom 8:3).
Yet even in the latter case, the remedy – Jesus “condemning sin in the flesh” (subdueing, overcoming and depriving it of its power) by taking on sinful flesh as an offering for sin through Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection which baptismal adoption and circumcision of the heart symbolizes, has not been deemed grounds for RETIRING and RESCINDING the laws of the Kingdom just because through baptism the resurrection power to make us perfect is now with us in the indwelling Person of the Spirit of Holiness (Jn 1:12; Rom 1:4).
Pentecost’s chief purpose is remembrance of the fact that the Spirit is with us BECAUSE justice cannot be done to God’s laws without our walking in and after the Spirit, to be a true witness (Matt 28:20).
“There is now no condemnation” only for those who do so, for only THEY will remain forever in Christ (Rom 8:1-4,6-14; 1 Jn 2:3-6,17).
Paul is consistent in placing obedience to law in the right context, as you’ll see in Rom 3:31 & Gal 2:17.
Gal 2:17 is the reason for Rom 3:31.
Salvation by faith is not a licence to break faith by being a law-breaker, which is covenant-denial.
If we oppose the knowledge of the very laws written to help keep us safe by showing us the narrow path, we’ll inevitably rebuild (the record of wrongs which) we tore down” in an instant, when we were “made the righteousness of Christ in God” to LIVE UP to its moral and ethical standards, as proof of living for Him (2 Cor 5:15,21; Gal 2:18).
Being dead to the law by sharing Y’shua’s Crucifixion (Gal 2:19,20) means walking in innocence in the Spirit, beyond reproach by God and condemnation by the law as a transgressor, thereby vindicating the faith of God by which righteousness was imputed to us through free justification.
Galatians 3:3 (“…are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the FLESH”) acknowledges that the purpose of walking in the Spirit ONCE SAVED APART FROM WORKS, to attain perfection, is NOT to rely on the law as a digest of wrongs and set of ‘demands,’ but on the leading of the Spirit, to internalize law (which is good) within our hearts to sensibly INCLINE us to willingly and gratefully obey it, as He must have done for Abraham who was the first, to our knowledge, to be asked to “walk before Me and be perfect” (Gen 17:1; 18:18,19; 26:5; Rom 8:6,7,14; Gal 3:3-9; Heb 8:8-13; James 2:21-26), because Galatians cannot contradict the rest of the Canon.
RIGHTEOUS Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prepared themselves to be worthy to be included in the bride, by keeping Torah, to walk uprightly, by faith, by the Spirit (Gen 18:18,19; 26:5; Matt 8:11,12).
The gift of the righteousness of God must lead us to the law, the benchmark of Godly character and therefore uprightness before God (Rom 3:20), or we’ve been hoodwinked.
If sincere, Salvation by grace has a heliotropic effect on the heart through the renewal of the spirit of our minds – baptism in the Spirit ‘turns us towards the source of light’ to BE obedient, as “children of the light”
Gal 3:10,11 goes on to remind us that seeking salvation by works, thereby DEPENDING on the law for justification by OBEDIENCE, is futile and indeed, cursed.
Christ purchased our freedom from the curse by Ransoming and reconciling us to put us in rightstanding with the Father by and through faith through the Blood of His Cross, to set us apart to learn the covenant to master the law (as ‘masters of return’ to God, or ba’alim t’shuvah’) under grace, by the Spirit (not under the law per se as a trainer/schoolmaster), to be as BLAMELESS as He (Phil 2:15; Gal 1:21; 2:16; 3:23,24; Col 1:20-23; 2 Tim 2:5,11; Heb 7:26).
The function of law is to DEFINE transgression to expose men to the CAUSE of guilt and shame; refine the perceptiveness of our CONSCIENCE to make us more conscious of the grossness of sinfulness; and by studying the precepts given to teach us how to walk undefiled, to help guide life’s decisions to shape a virtuous legacy (Ps 119:1,45; Is 28:9-13; Gal 3:19; Rom 3:20).
Torah (the Word of Instruction) which IS GOD Who is Wisdom (Matt 5:19; Rom 3:31), is ETERNAL because it is indispensable even after satan’s destruction (because not all temptation is of the devil – James 1:14); whereas Satan is the father of Torah-lessness, as father of lies.
That’s a truism that describes the fatal choice facing us all (Deut 30:10-20).
The legal question that towers over all others, is the decision (to abide in the Vine, or not to abide) which determines whether we’ll make final redemption in the final cut, ‘abiding’ meaning walking the narrow path for the righteousness of the law to be fulfilled in us (Matt 7:13-27; 25:10-12; Lk 20:35; Jn 15:3-14; Rom 8:4,23).
Laws must remain, for that choice (to void or not to void Torah to differentiate foolish from wise virgins), to be possible.
Paul knew that the Torah was not just written on PARCHMENTS, a copy of which he owned, continually consulted and specially treasured (2 Tim 4:13), but is to be engraved on a yielded soul, or we CANNOT be “MANIFESTLY DECLARED to be the epistle/letter of Christ ministered by the Apostles,” who weren’t Torahless (Prov 7:1-3; 2 Cor 3:2,3; Heb 8:8-12; 10:16).
This is the beating heart of pure Christianity which has been ripped out by ill-taught, malevolent dissenters.
The body of Instruction known as Torah is the heritage of ALL who profess faith in the God of Jacob (Deut 33:2,4; Lk 1:33; Rom 3:31; James 1:22-25).
Reading of Torah (‘keriat HaTorah’), as Paul instructed Timothy to do as a matter of course, for the teaching of pure doctrine (1 Tim 4:1,12-16; 2 Tim 3:10,14-17), symbolically affirms the Torah through the New Covenant, as the written constitution of the House of Jacob, as a nation with Divinely delimited, holy borders, forever (Gen 15:7-21; Ps 105:8-11; Amos 9:11-15; Jer 31:31-36; Ezek 47:13-23; Mal 1:5; Acts 15:14-17; Rom 15:8), under the Sovereignty of the LRD-GD YHVH, summoned to demonstrate the beauty of the holiness of the Divine Nature and ways, by translating its ideals into life (Deut 4:5-8; 11:18-21; 32:47).
So the most popular understanding of Galatians for generations (that the New Covenant trumps law) is rebutted by what the rules of logic describe as ‘reductio ad absurdam,’ the proof of the falsity of a premiss by showing that the logical consequence is absurd – wildly unreasonable and therefore ridiculous, as our above examples have already done.
The facts argue their own rebuttal.
Any objective, scholarly analysis of Galatians, which assumes strength of comprehension through intimate knowledge of the full counsel, proves that DENIAL of the rôle of law in purging, purifying and sanctifying a convert, is SELF-CONTRADICTORY.
“DELIGHT in the LAW” for sanctification by the truth to attain the unity of “the faith” (Ps 1; 19:7-13; 40:7,8; Rom 7:22,25; 1 Cor 7:19; 11:1,2; Eph 4:12-14; Jn 17:17,19; 1 Thess 4:1-3a; 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13-15; Heb 2:11), which is the cause whereby Y’shua will not be ashamed to call the FAITHFUL brothers, is TRUE BY DEFINITION of a “true worshipper”/true son(Jn 4:23,24; Heb 5:9; 10:26-39; 12:1-4,8,14,28,29).
So to begin to understand Galatians, we must differentiate between 1) the Torah given to Moses by the Spirit of Y’shua (Is 63:11-14; 1 Cor 10:1-4; Jn 5:46,47), and the heterodox system of Rabbinical Judaism which has turned the Hebrew Bible into legalism; and 2) between the rites of justification by faith for adoption by grace (Mk 16:16; Rom 10:9-13), and the PROVING of maturity of candidates for the spotlessness and holiness of the bride, by their rigorous sanctification by refinement by often fiery trials of the heart, to test ADHERENCE to the covenant, for “THIS is the true grace of God” (1 Peter 1:2-9; 4:12-18; 5:6-12), namely, the grace which is the Holy Spirit’s HELP to bring us through as gold and silver is purged and purified, as overcomers (Phil 2:12,13; 2 Thess 2:13,14; Rev 2:5; 3:1-6,16; 14:6,7,12).
Paul knew full well that the Torah (and the Prophets) are the foundations of the New Covenant, foundations which he endorsed in Acts 24:5,14 as the basis of the Berean test (Acts 17:11; 2 Cor 13:1,5) AND in his own defence against Felix; and to which Y’shua pointedly refers, as the “rock” (petra, fem.) of Wisdom, in Matt 7:24-27.
Moreover, even the Introduction to Romans in the Amplified Bible acknowledges Paul’s tight bond with Torah as essential counsel for interpretation of the New Covenant, in this statement: “Paul’s knowledge of the Old Testament (Tanakh) is EXTENSIVELY reflected by QUOTATION (like Y’shua Himself) and VOCABULARY in support of his themes.” Which is why “The DOCTRINAL elaboration (which so much of the church has betrayed by not following the instruction to be steeped in study of Torah) is developed in an orderly and convincing manner.”
So if Galatians is the ABROGATION of law, or exemption or even indemnity from law, a resurrection to life and immortality (which is based on the righteousness of one’s salvation worked out as proof of innocence – Phil 2:12,13) becomes an IMPOSSIBILITY (Jn 5:24,28,29).
So let’s examine the facts that make Galatians a powerful vindication of both “the first and great Commandment” (Matt 22:36-38) AND the Royal Law (Lev 19:18; Matt 22:39; Gal 5:14; James 2:8-14) through the call to sow to the Spirit by walking and living in the Spirit in the PRECEPTS of God, to reap eternal life (Gal 5:14-26; 6:8).
As the Amplified Bible insightly states, thereby acknowledging and honouring the context which is all about lawful/righteous and unlawful/unrighteous conduct
“Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His PRECEPTS BEING SET ASIDE. For whatever a man sows, that and that only he will reap…he who sows to the flesh will reap decay, ruin and destruction; he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal 6:7-9)
The purpose of faith, once we’ve been saved by grace through faith, is to have faith to believe we “…have grace” to serve God acceptably (Heb 12:28 KJV) to So perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect,” by “remembering Him in His ways” to do “all the will of God,” or we risk “failing the grace” available to walk in the light, to be holy (Is 64:5; Matt 5:48; 12:50; 28:20; Col 1:22,23,28; 4:12b; Heb 12:14,15).
It’s about THIS, our high call to the vocation of holiness (Eph 4:1) by hearing and heeding “all the counsel of God” with comprehensive insight into the ways of God, to be “perfect and complete,” that Paul was warning the churches “night and day with tears” in Acts 20:25-32, as Col 1:28,29; 4:12 confirms.
Rom 1:17,18 summarizes this two part rôle of grace and faith in the salvation process of sanctification, as follows in the helpful Amplified Bible rendering, with part one & two added in brackets to pinpoint the distinction:
“For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ASCRIBES is revealed, both springing FROM faith (part one) AND leading TO faith (part two). As it is written: the man who THROUGH faith (alone) is just and upright shall live, and shall live by ’emunah’ (Hab 2:4 – where emunah is a compound of faith & faithfulness).”
That ’emunah’ must produce abundant fruit of “obedience to righteousness” as fruit WORTHY OF REPENTANCE (as proof of sanctification through the efficacy of our adoption through our baptism of repentance for the remission of sins – Acts 26:18,20; Rom 6:1-22), or our salvation by faith is worthless, because as James reiterates in his chapter 2:14-26, faith alone cannot save us. Faith without actions concordant with faith confession, is dead. Obedience to righteousness is obedience to the commandments because sin is lawlessness (1 Cor 7:19b; 1 Jn 3:3-10)
This is vital knowledge, given what we’re told in the next verse (Rom 1:18)
“For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all unGodliness and unrighteousness of men (i.e. breach/voiding of Torah/Instruction – Rom 3:31), who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.”
So part two of our application of faith is to prove faithful to “the faith” in “the obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5; 16:26) through sanctification by the Spirit to become “offerings acceptable to God in word and deed” (Rom 15:16-18) by acquiring “the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20,31; 1 Tim 1:8-11) in order to keep covenant by walking as Y’shua-Jesus did in His Father’s commandments, to avoid unGodliness, or we claim to know Him, in vain (Matt 12:50; Jn 12:47-50; 14:15,21-24; 15:3-14; 1 Cor 15:34; 1 Jn 2:3-6,17,28,29).
The LORD explains this in Jn 15:3-14 as OUR responsibility to REMAIN CLEAN (i.e. keep ourselves in His love by maintaining our restored original innocence) once washed by the Word of faith and cleansed by the Blood (Jn 15:3), by learning righteousness (Is 28:9-13; Heb 5:11-14) to avoid being DEFILED AGAIN by not BEING righteous, by neglecting to do the commandments to fulfil the love command (Mk 12:28-34; 1 Cor 15:34; 1 Jn 2:3-6,17,28,29; 3:3-10).
Common sense, really!
Galatians concerns itself mainly with reiterating the fact that justification by faith is entirely UNCONDITIONAL.
That includes circumcision, which is singled out of the covenant for special mention, though is no more or less relevant than any other precept, none of which can be a factor in our reconciliation by the Blood of the Cross, which is entirely by grace.
Bear in mind though that eighth day circumcision (referred to in 1 Cor 7:18a) is an everlasting covenant (Gen 17: ) endorsed by James and the elders (Acts 21:17-21) and which is therefore not affected by Paul’s seemingly adverse comment in 1 Cor 7:19a, which is qualified in Rom 2:25,26 & 3:1,2 and elsewhere.
As the quotation at the head of this document makes abundanty clear, being “wholly sanctified, spirit, soul and body” is conditional on covenant obedience (Deut 30:10,11; Is 56:6; 2 Jn vs 5&6)
What most of us miss, is the fact that in Gal 5:2 Paul is not referring to eighth day ‘bris milah,’ which because it is an everlasting covenant requirement is irrelevant to the discussion in Galatians because of the cognitive incompetence of the infant to meet the test of repentance. Which means it cannot be ‘a salvation issue.’
Not one of the many warnings AGAINST being circumcised to be justified, has anything to do with THE REDEEMED learning righteousness to fulfil the command to practise and establish Torah, for their lives to become more and more congruent with the perfect will of God (Matt 5:19; 6:9,10; Rom 3:31; 12:1,2), to be conformed to the image of Messiah by their lives being “ordered in every part,” to MATCH the Divine order of “the everlasting covenant” (2 Sam 7:23; Ps 101; Lk 17:10; Acts 21:20; Rom 8:4,29; Heb 2:1-3; 13:20,21).
Galatians is not law’s GALLOWS and EXECUTIONER.
It is law’s CHAMPION, because as we gain “the knowledge of sin” and learn the precepts of “the Way” which Jesus demonstrated under grace, such as the list of unrighteous behaviours in Gal 5:19-23, our decision to “live in the Spirit” in obedience to “the wisdom of the just” (Lk 1:17) is enshrined by the New Covenant as the means to the purification of our souls for the perfection of our sanctification, in Christ (Acts 20:25-32; Rom 15:16-18; 1 Thess 4:1-3a; 5:23; 2 Thess 5:23; Heb 12:28; 1 Jn 3:3,4,7).
Rom 10 and Heb 4:1,2 and 8:8 prove that the fault lay with the Israelites pursuing rightstanding with God by works rather than by faith, and that the Sinai Covenant is not the villain.
Stigmatization of the first Shavuo’t at Sinai by misconstrueing Galatians has blinded the church to the realization that the Holy Spirit was given on Shavuo’t (Pentecost) in Jerusalem, to enable consummation of the practice of the laws/ways of God taught at Sinai (Ex 19:5-8; Matt 5:19,48), to produce a spotless and holy bride whose witness to salvation and faithfulness to keep covenant meets the test of Is 56:6 & Matt 28:20, by the commandments being written on teachable hearts (2 Cor 3:2,3; Heb 8:8-12; 10:16).
There’s no way that the New Covenant has DOWNGRADED the commandmenT to keep the commandmentS, that His will be done (Deut 30:20,11; Matt 6:9,10; 2 Jn vs 5&6).
After all, Galatians was written by the man who wrote what is written in Romans 3:31 and 7:7,12,22,25 to confirm what His Saviour taught in Matt 5:19; Jn 14:15; 15:10.
Galatians cannot contradict their testimony:
Here is what Paul stands for:
Read Rom 3:31.
It’s only those who for generations have been married to the absurd notion that law is BAD, who’ve made Galatians their marching banner for a shamelessly conceited campaign which treats grace as its REPLACEMENT.
Is 51:1-7; Ps 37 and Acts 10:35 make that swagger ridiculous.
To show up the error of this wild assumption, consider Paul’s two statements, 1 Cor 7:19 and Gal 5:6, back to back:
The circumcision issue pales before the importance of keeping covenant (1 Jn 2:3-6; 2 Jn vs 5&6; 1 Jn 5:2&3)
Imputed righteousness is passive.
Our righteousness has to be SEEN to be credible to God (Gen 7:1), or our being heirs of the world as the righteousness of God which is by faith, will be declared NULL AND VOID (Matt 7:21-23; 25:10-12), because we haven’t “seen” the Son if we’re not walking as He walked (1 Jn 2:6), in the righteousness of the commandments, to BE righteous as He is righteous (Jn 6:40; 1 Jn 3:3,7,9).
Because UNrighteousness is lawlessness (breach of Torah), it is impossible to BE righteous in word and deed except by being “taught out of the law” (Job 22:22; Rom 3:20,31; 1 Tim 1:8-11; 1 Jn 3:3-7), to have the DISCERNMENT to “approve the things that are more excellent,” in order to progress to perfection, by becoming “dead with Messiah” “to the law,” by “walking after the Spirit” in the paths of righteousness which the precepts represent (Rom 2:13, 6; 8:1-4; Phil 1:9-11; 2 Tim 2:5,11).
Salvation is ultimately for the CONSISTENTLY righteous (Ps 106:3), not for those who are righteous in theory (passive) and not in practice (active) (James 1:22-25; 2:7-26).
The maxim ‘practice makes perfect’ couldn’t be more applicable than to the task of making righteousness VISIBLE to God (Gen 7:1; Ps 37: 29,31,37-39; Col 1:28; 4:12; Heb 5:11-14; 6:1-11; 1 Jn 2:29; 3:7).
By the grace of God, those who’ve ever tarred COVENANT-KEEPERS with the same brush as first century Judaizers, will repent and save themselves untold grief by pouring themselves into learning the covenant (1 Cor 15:34), to walk to freedom by seeking YHVH’s precepts, to avoid the defilement which will otherwise condemn them to the second Resurrection and the lake of fire (Ps 119:1,45; Jn 8:31,32,36,51,52; 1 Cor 3:17).
Bearing in mind that the ministry of the spirit of Elijah IN John the Baptist (who was greater than Elijah, as Jesus is greater than Moses) was prophesied in both Isaiah and in Malachi’s reference to Elijah as “the messenger OF the Messenger of the (new) covenant” (Mal 3:1), if we go on using Galatians to contradict, stigmatize and curse the REDEEMED whose zeal for Torah wisdom was heartily APPROVED by Jesus’ brother James (leader of the church at the time) and the elders (Acts 21:20-24), we will both dilute and obstruct the command: “Prepare ye the way of the LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT” (i.e. preach the baptism of repentance for VOIDING TORAH and “going OUT of the Way (of righteousness)” (Ps 23:3; Is 40:3; Mal 3:1; Matt 3:3; 11:7-11; Rom 3:12,31).
Which is why both John and Jesus continually provided Torah-based answers to the heart-convicted multitudes’ cry: “WHAT should we DO” (Lk 3:10,14).
Galatians provides one glimpse of the answer in Gal 5&6.
This is why Malachi concludes in chapter 4 (chapters 2-4 are undoubtedly Messianic prophecy) with “Remember the (corpus/body of) Instruction (Torah) of Moses” (the foundations of the New Covenant which serve to help bring us to full repentance) so that the Spirit can fulfil the mandate of the spirit of Elijah, “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers (a metaphor for families in harmony with “the paths of righteousness” which produce holiness), lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (2 Chr 7:14; Mal 4:4,6; Matt 5:19; Jn 5:45-47; Rom 6:12-22; 3:31; 1 Jn 3:3-10).
According to the pattern of the Passover and the first Shavuo’t (original ‘Pentecost), which brought Israel from salvation-deliverance to unanimous acceptance of the marriage covenant, in the words “ALL that the LORD hath spoken we will do, AND BE OBEDIENT” (Ex 19:5,6; 24:7,8)
So the question: “What must I/WE do to be saved (from our sins)” (repent and believe in the sprinkled Blood and Resurrection of “Christ OUR Passover,” confessing Him as Master through baptism of repentance, into His Name) (Acts 16:30-34; Rom 6:1-6; Col 2:10-12; 1 Cor 5:7,8; 1 Peter 1:2), must be followed immediately by “What should WE DO (to be HOLY(” (Heb 12:14; 1 Peter 1:13-17) and therefore be “accounted WORTHY” of the crown of righteousness to escape the second death by ENTERING the inheritance of eternal life (Mal 3:16-18; Matt 8:11,12; 7:21-23; 25:10-12; Lk 17:10; 20:35; 21:36; 2 Peter 1:1-11; Rev 20:6).
By HEARING, LISTENING (Matt 17:5; Mk 12:28-34; Jn 5:24; 8:51,52; Acts 3:23) and ACKNOWLEDGING, AS BINDING, the FULL answer to the SECOND question, is how we are come into agreement with that first act of corporate submission to God at Sinai (which CONSTITUTED the house of Jacob into which WE’VE been adopted through baptism – Rom 11) which ANTICIPATED OUR CONFIRMATION, as co-heirs, of Israel’s acceptance of their One and only God’s Sovereignty and His holy ways – Deut 4:5-8,36; 7:9-15; 29:12-15; Is 35:8; Matt 28:20; Lk 10:25-28).
If we avoid this essential step of faith needed for the practise of “obedience to the faith” (Rom 1:5; 15:16-18; 16:26), Scripture warns us that through seduction by false doctrine (1 Tim 4:1,16; 2 Tim 4:3,4; 2 Jn vs 5&6,9-11; Rev 18:4,5) we’ll inevitably find ourselves “at enmity against God” for forsaking teachings of the law of the Spirit of life (Torah renewed/amplified and ministered in all righteousness by the Holy Spirit – Matt 5-7; 12:50), and will be at loggerheads with the Godhead (Rom 8:6,7; Heb 3:1-3).
If we keep the following master-paradigm in mind, we’ll be cured of ignorance of Galatians:
Obtaining the righteousness of God by grace through justification by faith-confession and baptism (Mk 16:16; Jn 3:16; Rom 10:8-13), FREELY ENTERS US INTO THE RACE.
Those who then choose life and blessing by running their race conscientiously according to the precepts of righteousness (following after righteousness) in order to cleave to God in the love and awe of God (Deut 30:10-20; 1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Tim 6:11-14; 2 Tim 2:5; Rev 12:17; 14:6,7,12), will win the prize of the crown of righteousness and the crown of life, by bring holy and blameless (Matt 7:13-27; 1 Cor 7:19; Eph 1:4,5: 2 Peter 3:9-18; 2 Tim 4:3-8; James 1&2).
If WE can’t ALSO say, “ALL that the LORD hath spoken, we will do AND BE OBEDIENT,” to passages like Matt 28:20; Rom 3:31 & Col 1:22-24,28,29; 4:12, in order to invite the Holy Spirit to purge, purify and steadily sanctify us through the commandments (Phil 2:12,13; 1 Thess 4:1-3a; 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13-15; Heb 13:20,21), for us to be “presented perfect in Christ Jesus,” “standing perfect and complete in all the will of God (even if we inch our way to perfection, “here a little, there a little” – Is 29:9-13), we will not have loved and protected truth and righteousness and the beauty of holiness enough (Ps 40:7,8; 45:7; Rom 6:19,22; Heb 1:9; 12:14), having neither loved nor known the Messiah (Jn 14:15,23; 1 Jn 2:3-6), and Galatians will have been WASTED ON US.
TOPIC: Biblical Caselaw proves that soulish love destroys sound judgment These arguments analyzing the relationship between Isaac and his non-covenanted son, Esau (Gen 25:23), an example of toxic masculinity, were scheduled for Shabbat on 26th November 2022 for a WhatsApp contact list, but are published here for wider internet perusal, because the lessons, like the Bible itself, are timeless
A CHARACTER STUDY on Isaac, his non-covenanted son Esau (an example of toxic masculinity), and princely Jacob (Gen 32:28), showing that Biblical case studies prove that SOULISH LOVE DESTROYS SOUND JUDGMENT
This is one of the greatest canvasses in history, of the impact of the psychology of human relationships on covenant-keeping, which is our single greatest responsibility as a remnant called to adoption as sons of God, to perfect the holiness of spiritual love – as Paul said: “…what COUNTS (to be “accounted worthy” of resurrection from the dead) is KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS of God” (Ex 20:1-17; Deut 7:7-15; Matt 5:19; 12:50; 28:20; Lk 17:10, 20:21,35; 1 Cor 7:19; 2 Cor 7:1; 1 Jn 3:1-4; 4:17; 5:2&3).
To frame the following discussion on the character of three of the most consequential figures in the Bible, here is some mega-macro context, to set the scene.
Prepare your heart to receive the meat of the Word:
The saga of the FOUNDING Abrahamic household which BECAME the Messianic church (Is 51:1-7; Lk 1:33; Acts 7:28; Gal 3:29), is a TRILOGY of case studies on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, showcasing God’s grace and His faithfulness (emunah), the two love traits, along with faith and patience, most needed to see us through to final redemption (Rom 8:4,23; Heb 12:28 KJV).
An few opening comments on Jacob at this point in the study, will greatly aid the reader arrive at tenable conclusions.
As the most tried and contested of the three fathers, Jacob’s character is best summed up in his own words on two separate occasions, both of which were fraught with danger, sacrifice to establish righteousness, and with great complexity – Gen 27:12 & 30:33
The first:
“My father will peradventure (perhaps) feel me (posturing as Esau in skins to simulate hairiness) and I shall SEEM to HIM to be a DECEIVER, and I shall bring a curse upon myself, not a blessing”
Not spoken by someone with no moral code and ethical disposition.
The other:
“So shall MY RIGHTEOUSNESS answer for me (my fair dealing will be evident) in time to come when the matter of my wages is brought before you…”
Again, not usual for an opportunist and fraudster to sing the praises of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
So to arrive at the far-fetched notion that Jacob was a self-reliant, self-interested, conniving opportunistic trickster is not just plain incompetence in Biblical analysis, but ‘presumption on steroids.’
It’s just like Satan, to use sleight-of-hand (‘léger de main’) to flip the truth to try to turn the tables on honest appraisal of the facts.
The leitmotif throughout these chapters in the history of the House of Jacob, the future Messianic Kingdom household (Ps 59:13; Lk 1:32,33), is Jacob’s resilience under almost impossible burdens, in keeping his composure (equanimity), maintaining his connection with the Presence of God, and being thorough in “adorning” Abrahamic “doctrine” with good works (Gen 18:18,19; 26:5; Titus 2:7-10), by being exceedingly patient and just in his thought and actions, which is why he is called by the heraldic title “yeshurun” (ideal son of the covenant) implying noble, truthful, just, considerate, merciful and kind, a precious title extended to Israel as witness nation (Jacob being their namesake) when they RARELY cleaved to God (Deut 32:15-20; 33:5,26; Is 44:1-8)
On a spiritual scale of 1-10 Esau scores well below 5 (his intermarriage and secession from the Hebrew household of God sank him), while Jacob, closer to 10, and probably 10, by Gen 32:28.
Of his own life, Jacob (by then 130) would later say to Pharoah in Joseph’s presence (in Gen 47:7-9,28) that “FEW and EVIL (i.e. heavy, diabolical resistance encountered) have the days of the years of my life been and have not attained unto the days of the years of the lives of my fathers in the days of THEIR pilgrimage (Abraham, 175; Isaac 180). Jacob went on to die at 147 after 17 years in Egypt, in Goshen, escaping famine in Canaan.
Jacob’s is a nearer example of the call of ﹰGod to the adventure and ‘suffering for righteousness,’ of a sacrificially transforming Spirit-led life, than either Abraham or Isaac.
Jacob, a credit to his righteous grandfather Abraham’s zeal for “the Way” (Gen 18:18,19; 26:5) was to ISAAC’s troubled household, what priestly Shem (the firstborn of three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth) was to NOAH’s.
Mankind owes the promise of CONTINUITY of life itself and of a RIGHTEOUS future civilization (Dan 9:24) to both Noah and Shem for the REBOOT of life after the Flood with a spiritual foundation; and to Abraham’s grandson Jacob and his seed, for carrying the patriarchal baton, going forward, as the remnant eternal House of Jacob, the “one new man” (Is 29:22-24; Eph 2:11,12,15,19; 3:6) which, as the ‘ekklesia’ or ‘kahal YHVH,’ “the church of YHVH,” is the AUTHENTIC, One, Holy, Apostolic, Universal (= ‘catholic’), “General Assembly and Church of the firstborn, Jacob,” by the election of grace (Gen 14:13; 25:23; Ex 4:22,23; Ps 68:26; Lk 1:33; Gal 3:27-29; Heb 12:23).
The overarching mystery of the Kingdom (of which there are many – Matt 13:11; 1 Cor 4:1) is that being “in Christ” means being a FAITHFUL covenant-keeper (Jn 12:47-50; 15:3-15; Rom 7:22,25 – Rom 8:14; Heb 5:9; 10:16; 1 Jn 2:3-6) “in Abraham” (Gen 12:3) and “in Jacob” (Gen 28:14), as reckoned through Isaac, as it is written, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Rom 9:7-14).
That places everyone who by faith receives the salvation “which is of the Jews” (Jn 4:22; Rom 9:4,5), within the dynasty of the three fathers whose character development through Spirit-led trials of faith, is INDICATIVE of the sanctifying work of the Spirit to which we are to submit to pursue perfection of holiness (2 Thess 2:13,14), to be “accounted worthy” of escape and of eternal life as the bride for which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prepared THEMSELVES by hearing and heeding God’s Voice and ways (Gen 17:1; 26:5; Matt 8:11,12; Lk 20:35; 21:36).
Let’s begin.
Bible biography, historical narrative and survey of doctrine is like a very advanced JIG-SAW PUZZLE, that can be pieced together ACCURATELY only by revelation provided by the Holy Spirit, the Teacher (Deut 29:29; Prov 25:2; Jn 12-16; 1 Cor 2:9-16; Rom 8:14).
Interpreting the lives of the founding fathers, especially.
Understanding THEM is the grounding for all character study because the holiness to which they were called (encapsulated in Gen 17:1 to them, and in Matt 5:48 to us) is the benchmark of Godly character which all mankind needs.
The three fathers are used in Scripture to reveal the delicate, painstaking work of the Spirit of holiness Who is appointed to sanctify man by impressing the traits of the Divine Nature on our souls to restore us to the image of Deity for us to retain the original innocence imputed to us when we were saved by grace (Jn 15:3; Rom 8:29; Col 3:9-15; 2 Thess 2:13,14).
Isaac, heir to “the Land of Moriah” (Israel) where he and his father Abraham were severely tested (Gen 22:2-17; 25:5; 26:3-5), was the covenanted heir of the dynasty of Abraham (Gen 17:19,21), born 13 years and nine months SUBSEQUENT to Ishmael’s birth which was due solely to “the great transgression” of a PRESUMPTION by Sarah that a prophecy foretelling an auspicious birth from Abraham’s one flesh marriage to her (Gen 12:2; 15:4,5), was God LEGISLATING the procreation of ISHMAEL by Abraham with Sarah’s maid Hagar (Gen 16:1-5; Ps 19:13), which occurred when Abraham was 86.
Sarah (then still Sarai) soon had cause to confess her unsound judgment, even though ungraciously (“MY wrong be upon THEE” – Gen 16:3-5).
Immediately, we spot the parallel between Eve’s temptation of Adam by her temptation by the serpent spirit, and Sarai’s seduction of Abram with a pragmatic, opportunistic idea offered as a solution to manifest prophecy, a preposterous hope (2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:13,14).
If we don’t hear Prov 3:5,6 resound in our spirits, we are ‘leaning’ way out of touch with the covenant.
Our reasoning is never sanctified if not led and disciplined by the Spirit (Rom 8:14).
That unnecessary birth of Ishmael (turned to advantage) was due not so much to impatience and deep disappointment at Sarah’s long years of barrenness, but unsurprisingly, to her incredulity at the thought that a birth might still be possible for Abraham at 100 and to her at 90.
Barren and close to 100, beyond REALISTIC hope of childbearing, Sarah ASSUMED her barrenness would justify IMPROVIZATION (Gen 16:1,2).
They allowed these demoralizing thoughts to hinder a deeper consideration of the prophetic meaning of “SHALL come forth out of thine OWN bowels” (Gen 15:4).
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
Our faith lined up with the Word, directs angels (Ps 103:20)
Faith is schooled by prophecy.
We must patiently let prophecy TUTOR our souls, or we’ll most likely leap to conclusions, as Sarai and Abram did.
Thankfully angels don’t act on the voice of OUR word.
Abraham and Sarah’s initial test with Isaac was therefore COMPOUNDED by the perception of the limitations of their advanced age AND Sarah’s longstanding barrenness (Rom 4:19,20).
On the other hand, Rebekah’s test was believing for fertility AND safeguarding and properly administering the calling upon the elect son, Jacob, AT WHATEVER COST (Gen 27:8,13), since she had personally been made privy to that election while pregnant, by the Voice of YHVH speaking to her directly (Gen 25:23).
God foreknew Isaac would go soft on principle and renege on the Divine decision to elect Jacob, and so He needed a backstop which He found in unflinching, faithful Rebekah:
“My son (Jacob), obey my voice according to that which I command you…And his mother said unto him, ‘Upon ME be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice…”
It is undeniable that vigilant Rebekah and her ‘dear,’ principled son Jacob, had a firmer grasp of custodial responsibility for the patriarchal succession to God’s household, than husband and father, Isaac, the long awaited son of Abraham upon whom the founder of the dynasty had pinned his hope for fulfilment of the cornerstone ancestral promises,”So shall thy seed be” (Gen 15:5,6); and “…in blessing I will bless thee…I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed…” (Gen 22:17,18).
Which Isaac was jeopardizing, because the emotionalism of soul-ties and obsessive desires (Gen 25:28) can dull one into stupor and unreason.
Because of that, destiny hung in the balance.
She knew it.
So did Jacob, or he would not have complied (Gen 27:9,10,12,14).
His righteousness and the righteousness of the defence of his ENTITLEMENT to the blessing, against Isaac’s stubborn, unconscionable self-will, was justification enough for redemptive measures to be taken, as it would later be against his unjust uncle Laban – “so shall MY RIGHTEOUSNESS answer for me in time to come, when it shall come (time) for my hire before thy face…” (Gen 30:33; 31:6-9,38-42).
The common insinuation by unschooled commentators that Jacob was an arch- DECEIVER, is as good as flinging that accusation in the Face of YHVH, since it was He Who ordered and authored both Rebekah’s redemption of the birthright AND Jacob’s innovative steps taken for just and equitable recompense for his twenty years heroic faith in the trials faced in his conscientious service to Laban (Gen 31:6,7,42).
Isaac’s intractability on the issue of the blessing, not abated by his physical decline (Gen 27:1), had to be circumvented, outwitted.
The Holy Spirit provided the inspiration to Rebekah (Gen 27:7-17), as He would LATER do, to chastise and humble Laban to give Jacob his dues to return rich, to Canaan (Gen 30:31-35,37-43; 31:1,9-13).
Who knows what tests of the quality of our faith will face us to prove OUR commitment to the integrity of the Word (1 Peter 1:1-9).
They’re inevitable (2 Cor 1; Heb 12).
What’s so tragic about this family drama so far, is that Jacob’s impersonation of Esau (Gen 27:19,22-24) was even necessary, since Jacob’s election to the ‘mishpat bachor’ (mantle of the consecrated firstborn male, commonly reassigned when the actual firstborn was deemed unequal to the sanctity of the rôle) was already an established and KNOWN FACT.
The whole episode in Gen 27 (the dissembling in the subterfuge necessitated by Isaac’s obstruction) triggered near to Isaac’s time to die by, “that I may EAT, that my soul may bless THEE (Esau) before I die” (Gen 27:1-5), would have been redundant had Isaac, a contested firstborn TO THIS DAY, yielded to prophecy (Gen 25:23) and acted upon it at Jacob’s circumcision and naming ceremony (bris milah) (Gen 17:13,14), to ratify and settle the matter of succession before family and guests, at the start.
Instead, he allowed his and Esau’s presumption to cast a pall over family harmony, for decades.
Rebekah and Jacob must have been horrified by the thought of imminent discontinuation of their family from their heritage due to Isaac being on the verge of DISALLOWING THE AUTHORIZED SUCCESSION.
To mother and son, their husband and father seemed oblivious of the existential and spiritual crisis he was precipitating, after around a hundred years of awareness of Jacob’s ‘sure title,’ by his stumbling at the law to forswear prophetic destiny which in THEIR hearts, was crying out for his PLANNED, premeditated misstep (Gen 27:4), to be foiled.
That Isaac’s conscience was so seared that he failed to join the dots from Esau’s intermarriage with a Hittite (Gen 26:34,35; 27:46), an act of abnegation and secession from the Hebrew sheepfold, to defilement worthy of expulsion from the congregation, beggars the imagination.
Due to failing to “possess his soul” (Lk 21:19), Isaac had committed a fundamental parenting error and sin, by showing PARTIALITY in his relationship with his two sons born to him at age 60, who were born to Rebekah at the same time, Esau emerging first (Gen 25:21-26).
So we read that “as the boys grew” : “And Isaac loved Esau (a cunning hunter, a man of the field), because he did EAT of his VENISON ; but Rebekah loved Jacob (a ‘plain’ man in tents)” (Gen 25:27,28; Rom 9:10-14).
God did not love Esau LESS. For good reason (knowing the end from the beginning) He disfavoured him while respecting Jacob more.
Through Isaac’s weakness of character at that stage, he had developed an irrational, tenacious soul-tie which skewed his judgment and his emotions.
The meaning of “plain” in Gen 25:27 makes all the difference to the exposition of this part of the unfolding covenant drama:
Usually (morally) pious; specifically, gentle, dear: which when coupled together denote plain, undefiled, upright. (Strong’s H8552)
To elaborate further, “plain” denotes sound, wholesome, an ordinary (unpretentious), quiet sort of person having integrity.
Common sense tells us that Rebekah’s was the nobler love.
Isaac’s vicarious delight in Esau’s physical prowess and the TASTE of the evidence of his cunning hunting victories was CARNAL, to say the least; even absurd as the basis of preferential affection for one sibling and of the inevitable divisiveness which would threaten the continuity of the dynasty upon which salvation of the world would depend.
In all these years, the sociological and psychological polarization between extrovert Esau and introvert Jacob, which may have seemed innocent, grew.
It would lead to death threats when immature Esau wouldn’t face the fact of Jacob’s chosenness as Isaac’s heir.
It is inconceivable that Rebekah withheld the Gen 25:23 prophecy from Isaac, because there is no plausible reason for such secrecy.
After all, Isaac’s faithful intercession was the catalyst for Rebekah’s barrenness being reversed: “And Isaac entreated YHVH for his wife, because she was barren, and the LORD heard (was entreated of him) and Rebekah his wife conceived” (Gen 25:21).
They must have rejoiced together and given thanks for the miracle.
There was no obvious strain in the relationship that might account for callous and foolish disregard for their blessings.
This put Rebekah’s delivery of two sons in a similar bracket to Sarah’s delivery against all odds, of Isaac, given the barrenness they’d had in common.
Her subsequently troubled pregnancy could not have escaped Isaac’s notice and compassion, nor the outcome of her petition for an explanation for her prenatal suffering – which she’d petitioned in the poignant words “…why am I thus” (Gen 25:22b), which garnered the astonishing reply that two DISPARATE nations (“two MANNER of people”), as divergent in essence as Isaac’s and Ishmael’s were being gestated, and that the older (which would be Esau, birthed first), would serve the younger (Jacob) (Gen 25:23).
Paradoxically, this contrasts with, yet also strikingly resembles Isaac’s pre-eminence (as bona fide covenant firstborn to Sarah) as lord to ISHMAEL (who was not the firstborn of the Gen 15:4 prophecy, but born of a different mother), as Jacob (prophetically constituted heir by sure prophetic title) was lord to Esau (Gen 27:37).
Neither parent was unaware of Jacob’s election by grace BY PROPHECY (Gen 25:23) as Isaac’s heir and therefore, AS the third dynastic patriarch of YHVH’s household of faith.
Esau’s vigorous outdoor interests and churlish temperament most likely distracted him from co-responsibility to carry the baton of the then known Torah, “the Way of YHVH” received by revelation and instructed by grandfather Abraham under God’s directions (Gen 18:18,19; 26:5).
That Esau grew up believing that the covenant blessing was his is not surprising, given Isaac’s soul-tie, favouritism, wilful ignorance of YHVH’s decree in favour of Jacob, selective omission of knowledge while raising Esau and therefore wilful discrimination against Jacob (Gen 25:31-33).
This is where the plot of the narrative requires especially careful handling.
Was the birthright actually Esau-Edom’s before becoming Jacob’s, or is the narrative treating the facts IRONICALLY by portraying life from Esau’s perspective – his belief that he was incontrovertibly the heir and that he could even barter the birthright at will?
Jacob playing along, by offering to buy the birthright which, as the “plain,” righteous son not unfamiliar with Torah, he’d have known is IMPOSSIBLE!
Knowing Esau’s inflammatory nature, his character, or lack of it, did Jacob reckon this strategy easier than directly confronting Esau with the blunt terms of the Gen 25:23 prophecy that “the elder shall serve the younger”?
We recall Joseph living to regret telling his brothers prematurely that they would serve him (Gen 37:4-11).
Is this scenario there to expose the infantilized condition of this cunning, worldly outdoorsman, who by despising ‘his’ birthright by trading it for a dish of lentils, establishes his own ignominy?
Here the analogy with Isaac and Ishmael becomes very important.
Isaac is the covenant child of the promise given in Gen 15, BEFORE conception, birth and weaning in Gen 21:1-8.
He is sanctified as firstborn in the womb.
He is BORN AS HEIR to Abraham.
Ishmael is the imprudent improvization. Though he lived first, he is not the prophesied son and heir, even though a firstborn.
Jacob, designated heir prenatally, is also sanctified IN the womb.
Esau emerges FIRST, because prophecy ORDAINED that order of delivery, for it (the Gen 25:23 prophecy) to be fulfilled, for Israel to be “chief of nations,” as Isaac (and later YHVH Himself) would himself CONFIRM in his prophecy over Jacob, when endowing him with the blessing of the ELECT, deserving, firstborn CONSECRATED male (Gen 25:23; 27:29; 28:3,4,10-19; 35:11; Jer 31:7); NOT because Esau would emerge as PROVISIONAL heir.
That point cannot be stressed enough.
Esau was not born a PROVISIONAL HEIR (had he momentarily been heir, that status quo couldn’t ever have been more than provisional), because any presumptive claim to the Kingdom inheritance of Abraham and Isaac could not VEST in anyone other than the prophesied recipient of that exceedingly high honour and trust (Matt 8:11,12; Lk 1:32,33).
A presumptive claim must rest on CREDIBLE testimony (‘presumptive evidence’), not on the mere fact of birth timing.
The Word is precise in its recounting of Isaac’s and then Jacob’s prenatal election under a prophetic anointing on Rebekah, to refute ANY thought that Esau’s and Isaac’s claims to the contrary (Gen 37:25,26), have any legitimacy.
The birthright and blessing being NON-TRANSFERABLE, by the law of prophecy (Is 55:11).
Ephraim’s eligibility for “the blessing” due to Jacob/Israel’s prophecy and intervention in the Presence of Joseph (“God hath SHOWN me also thy seed” – Gen 48:8-22), over and against the circumstantial evidence of Manassah emerging first from the womb, STRENGTHENS the argument against Esau being an exception to the prophetic rule of faith which is both ‘irrefragable and indefeasible’ (irrefutable and cannot be annulled) as the common law of PRECEDENT, in the case of all three fathers of the faith.
Note how BLIND Jacob (” he could not see”) “guided his own hands WITTINGLY” (led by the Spirit), to follow what he’d been SHOWN in the Spirit (Gen 48:11,14) to be sure to place his RIGHT HAND (the right hand of fellowship) on EPHRAIM, the YOUNGER’s head, knowing that “Manassah was the firstborn”
Like Jacob and Esau, the principle of the older serving the younger who would be greater and stronger, would be re-enacted (Manassah would honour Ephraim’s election by grace), all because DIVINE PREROGATIVE must prevail over human preferences (Gen 48:16,19,20).
“His (Joseph’s father, Jacob) REFUSED” to cave in to pressure to acknowledge, institute and establish worldly priorities (Gen 48:19), just as he did in co-operating with Rebekah’s emergency rescue plan (Gen 27).
He “set Ephraim BEFORE Manassah” (Gen 48:20), because as “a plain man living in tents,” he had been raised in the Fear and admonition of YHVH (“God hath SHOWN me also thy seed”) as a true heir of grace and of the beauty of the holiness of the Way (Gen 18:18,19; 25:27).
What a change from Isaac’s near-suicidal derailment of everlasting salvation from the PATRIARCHAL TRACK OF DIVINE SELECTION, in idolatrously exalting Esau, a manpleaser, in his heart, by surrendering LESS than 100% of his soul to his father’s God by giving access to a pernicious soul-tie (Gen 15:2).
Soul-ties are rarely if ever benign.
There’ll always be those whom Divine Prerogative displeases (even briefly, as it did Joseph, in Manassah being overlooked – Gen 48:17-20), and as it did Isaac only at first, until his rude awakening (Gen 28), and of course Esau, until his eventual FRAGILE reconciliation with Jacob (Gen 33).
There’s a wealth of revelation of the mind of YHVH in that triumph of the Spirit over the flesh, in matters of death-to-self-will by seeking and obeying the LORD.
To sum up:
Jacob was a spiritual listening post. It’s impossible to make the case that he was not in close fellowship with his fathers’ God. Had he not been, in short order he would have been confounded, embarrassed and dispossessed in idolator Laban’s household (Gen 31:19,41,42).
Jacob was in Mesopotamia under covering of the Spirit and under a WEALTHY PROPHETIC MANDATE (Gen 27:29; 28:1-15; 31:9-13); as Abraham had been in his temporary sojourns from Canaan (Gen 12; 20).
For anyone to argue that the founding fathers whom YHVH LOVES (Deut 4:37; Rom 11:25-29) had LESS of the Spirit of YHVH than Moses (Is 63:11-14), the future leader of Abraham’s household (Acts 7:38), would be invidious.
Jacob is identified most strongly with true Instruction (Torah) and consequently with uprightness, as its heir (Gen 18:18,19; 26:5), BECAUSE he walked in its light.
We are not given a single example of Jacob profaning YHVH by being unGodly.
We know Jacob loved and trusted truth (Gen 32:10).
He never missed an opportunity to call on the Name. The sheer number of Divine visitations to Jacob and the comfort of prophecies received at all critical points in his life should dispel the myth of the amateur character profiles which plunder his reputation by slurring his motives, character and desires.
He continually testifies to and pleads for YHVH’s patronage and providence.
Edom existed because Esau gave it its lack of character, because Esau was of a different spirit to Jacob.
It’s the spirit of Esau-Edom that, like Amalek, will be last to be destroyed on the coming “Day/s of Jerusalem” (Armageddon then Gog and Magog, Gog and Magog 1&2) (Ps 137:7; Rev 20:6-19).
If we drill deep, we’ll see that until Isaac’s admission of his grave fault in driving an occult agenda behind Esau as his candidate for heir, he (Isaac) was dangerously UNEQUALLY YOKED with Esau who would not shy away from murderous defence of his pride and error (Gen 27:41-45), instilling fear in the household.
Soul-ties addle the brain.
Isaac’s self-deception ended only when the need for Jacob to marry into an approved lineage (which Esau had flouted – Gen 26:34,35) which Abraham’s brother Nahor’s line (Rebekah being daughter of Nahor’s son Bethuel) represented, caused it to dawn on him that Jacob wasn’t just going on a marriage journey to discover God’s pick for a covenant wife, but was going into self-exile in self-defence because of Esau’s rage at losing what was never his (Gen 27:40-45).
This was evidently when the blessing given to Jacob UNDER PRETENSE of impersonating Esau (Gen 27), was REITERATED by Isaac with mental assent on the eve of Jacob’s departure (Gen 28:1-7), though we’re left guessing how much of Isaac’s soul was in it.
Only God searches the heart.
Either YHVH/Y’shua is “LORD of ALL,” meaning that we too be light with no darkness in us to be pure as He is pure (1 Jn 1:5 – 3:10), for Him to possess one hundred percent of our souls, or we cannot be as He is and “remain forever” in Him (Lk 6:40; 1 Jn 2&3).
Possession all or in part, by DARKNESS, is a continual reality because as long as seed, time and harvest last (Gen 8:22), we will reap what we sow (Gal 6:7,8).
It’s the reason we’re saved to be sanctified by salting with fire (Mk 9:39; 1 Peter 4:12-17), because fiery trials alone can make God’s ways indelible in our hearts (Heb 10:16) through the purging and purifying like gold, which works experience and Godly knowledge into us as testimony to the salvation of our souls being the goal of our faith (Rom 5:3-5; 2 Cor 2:14; 1 Peter 1:2-9; 5:6-12).
Evidently Esau never attained that goal.
It’s not surprising he remained a credible threat to Jacob, as Edom is to Israel and their interests today.
All of this cannot but reflect on Isaac whose resistance of the Gen 25:23 prophecy (which flattered Esau) continued from age 60 when Jacob was born (he’d married Rebekah at 40), until Isaac’s old age (Gen 27:1,2,41).
What a long span of time to disconsole and diminish one’s true firstborn, who could only have found comfort and been strengthened by the Word, in the face of the attrition of lingering sibling favouritism.
This was torment.
What a way to treat God’s Voice (Gen 25:23).
Jacob’s soul-wounds still being somewhat raw, anxiety about Esau’s attitude and schemes was still afflicting him twenty years into marriage, which was twenty years after Jacob’s father had finally blessed him (Gen 32:9-12).
Was that blessing entirely sincere, or perfunctory?
The answer is kept deliberately ambiguous.
If it was sincere and done in contrition (about which Scripture is silent) one would expect that Esau’s horns would have been pulled in under Isaac’s rebuke (if, of course, Esau came under conviction for mistreating the true recipient of the blessing).
Perhaps Esau’s greatly mitigated behaviour towards Jacob in Gen 33:4 which on the face of it looks like a miraculous transformation, can be attributed to some influence from Isaac, but then again, maybe not.
Though there’s no record, perhaps YHVH spoke directly to Esau as He’d spoken to Laban, to knock sense into him (Gen 31:29).
We don’t read about any remorse by Isaac and restitution to persecuted Jacob.
In fact, Isaac DISAPPEARS from the narrative until his death and burial at age 180 by Jacob and Esau in Gen 35:28,29, which is altogether puzzling since Jacob was re-established in Canaan, his heritage, for some time before Isaac’s passing, erecting an altar and calling it El-Elohei-Israel, God of truth (Gen 33:16-20; Is 65:16).
No homecoming feast reported.
No reconciliatory paternal expressions of mercy and grace even hinted at.
No ceremony acknowledging the birth of the twelve patriarchs to Jacob and his wives, who as the Messianic House of Jacob would become the nucleus of the Hebrew “one new man” who would inherit the world (Lk 1:33; Rom 4:13,16; Eph 2:11,12,15,19; 3:6).
It’s a miracle therefore that Isaac possessed his soul to return to God in FULL consecration before being gathered to his fathers.
As Jacob was consecrated his entire life, becoming aspirational, upright, merciful and just, princely, bridal ‘Yeshurun,’ which is why the church is forever named after Jacob, not Israel, as an encouragement to us, to submit to and overcome trials of purification to be true sons (Gen 32:24-39; 35:9-12; Is 29:22-24; 44:1-8; Deut 33:4,5,28; Lk 1:33; Heb 12).
The Word of the LORD had come to Rebekah in her distress all those years before to settle the matter of the Patriarchal blessing which flows from the Patriarchy of Deity to the sanctified firstborn, through his father (Gen 25:23), because YHVH knew JACOB, not Esau, would be “devoted to His Fear (i.e. to the love AWE of God” (Ps 119:38).
We should all build these chapters into the shortlist of essential readings in our private library of character-development literature, because character, the footprint of the soul, is destiny; and our future, if we’re saved into the coming Kingdom (Is 9:6,7; Mk 11:10; Lk 1:32,33; Acts 1:6,7) through the Blood of the Messiah Y’shua-Jesus, Son of David, is joint-inheritance of the Universe in Him, by cleaving to the God of Jacob (Rom 4:13,16; 11:1-32)
Jacob’s righteous character is evident under the great strain of the trial of his faith in his encounter with Esau.
Jacob’s division of his household into “two bands” wasn’t just a prudent decision for self-defence and survival, even though his reasoning in Gen 32:8 and his appeasement strategy with lavish gifts, make that seem to be the case (Gen 32:7,8,13-23).
His reminding YHVH of His prophecies promising Jacob success, deliverance, protection, favour and great multiplication (Gen 32:9,12) showing that Jacob’s FAITH WAS STRONGER THAN HIS REASON, prove that (Gen 32:9-12).
While of course he was fearful of what the outcome of setting up the rendezvous with Esau would be (Gen 32:3), his Fear of God was stronger.
His actions show care, considerateness and kindness towards his dependents, not the desperate scheming of a fugitive and underdog, of which he was neither, having just been exalted to PRINCELY rank by the Angel of the LORD (Gen 32:28).
Esau, the cunning hunter and hands-on adventurer, had done well for himself, both in Canaan, and in Mnt Seir, after leaving the paternal home, which evidently made the crisis that arose over the birthright a distant memory, increasingly irrelevant to his new, apparently happy and contented married life, to Hittite and Ishmaelite stock (Gen 32:3; 33:9; 36:2,3,6-9).
There seems no trace of sibling envy and rivalry in the description of the reunion in Gen 33, especially verse 4, which must have allayed Jacob’s fears that Esau’s four hundred strong ‘household cavalry’ was an ominous presence (Gen 32:6).
In a prophetic twist, Rebekah’s hopeful prediction that Esau would somehow reform (“UNTIL thy brother’s fury turns away”) to allow Jacob a safe return, ON HER CUE (“THEN I will send and fetch thee from hence/Laban’s household” (Gen 27:43-45), is fulfilled by Jacob courageously taking the initiative to ‘test the water’ to “find grace in thy sight” (Gen 32:5) by sending messengers to let Esau know his plan to return to his father’s household (Gen 28:20,21; 32:3-5).
Rebekah could never have anticipated that her expectation of Jacob being TEMPORARILY ‘exiled’ from credible danger, “And tarry with Laban a FEW DAYS” (Gen 27:43), would stretch to TWENTY YEARS, due to Laban’s incessant demands (Gen 31:41) creating the ideal time and space, it seems, for Esau’s soul to be cured of its furious, murderous intent (Gen 27:41-44).
Reminds us of Rom 8:28
“And we KNOW that ALL things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called, according to His purpose,’ as Jacob surely was, and as we are, grafted into his household as his grandfather’s, father’s, and his seed, in the Messiah (Gen 12:2; 28:14; Lk 1:33; Rom 9:7; Gal 3:29).
Through a love for worship and what occurs during worship, we need to be so careful not to magnify the ministry of the Spirit above the Word itself, because YaH has magnified His Torah above even His Name (Ps 138:1,2), His Name being only as good as His Word, His Word BEING Spirit and Life.
The Word outranks everything, in the pursuit of understanding of the truth.
All “revelation’ is subject to forensic Berean scrutiny using the plumline as the arbiter, by the Spirit.
The Spirit Himself is hemmed in by the Word.
Knowing the church’s fascination with the prophetic, he is not absent from spiritual meetings that take a lightweight approach to the full counsel.
Discernment by the Spirit is ordained THROUGH the full counsel.
Any spirit that does not magnify Torah (Is 42:21; Matt 5:17-19; Rom 3:31) is not the HOLY Spirit Who DERIVES His Holiness FROM THE WORD, which is why He is also known as “the Spirit of Y’shua-Jesus,” the “Holy One and the Just” (Acts 3:14; Gal 4:6) Who is the “express Image” of the Person and therefore of the three-fold Holiness of the eternal LRD-GD YHVH TZVAO’T (Is 6:3; Heb 1:1-3)
Tradition suggests Moses received the foundational revelation of the Ten Words on sapphire tablets (Is 54:11) WHILE PHYSICALLY IN THE CLOUD (the manifest Presence) on SHABBAT MORNING. That is the pattern for seeking YHVH early, literally “anticipating (preventing) the dawn” from Sunday to Friday (Ps 88:13; 110; 119:147)
Living out of the Cloud
By ascending Jacob’s ladder of worship in Spirit and Truth as a lifestyle, to “continually resort to God,” drawing near the Godhead by meaning what we say in the morning ‘Shema’ (the twice-daily supreme Proclamation of the faith – Deut 6:4,5; Mk 12:28-34), we are to learn to abide in the Vine to live in but not of the world, by being continually in the Presence, from experience of lives totally dependent upon receiving Instruction and guidance OUT OF THE CLOUD, to walk in an open-vision anointing, being in the Spirit at all times (as the world does DIGITALLY today), the Cloud (Sh’kinah) being “the place of the Excellency of THE GLORY” which YHVH created, for His Name to be Hallowed.
We do this by leaning “not upon our own understanding,” but especially, by seeking and waiting on the LORD in the dawn vigil of sweet sessions of silent thought, to receive as our daily “certain rate,” impartation of PRECOGNITION (pre-thought thought deposited into our spirits like lodes of gold as freely impregnated ideas and impressions lending context to shape our destiny), to which Words (which are sacred) ARE THEN GIVEN, to clothe and give meaning and therefore substance to the confidential train of Divine thought (Ps 92:2,5; 94:19; 139:17) which is PRECONCEIVED and discerned by the SPIRIT OF REVELATION, WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING (Is 11:2; Eph 1:17) Who searches the deep things of God, to reveal to us what has been prepared, for OUR glory (1 Cor 2:9,10,12), for our lives are “hidden WITH the Messiah in YHVH,” in Whom are hidden FOR us, “ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” as “grace to be accessed by faith.”
All the power of heaven, DISTILLED in the “principal wheat” of ‘Rhema’ Word (‘Davar ha Medubar’ – revelatory truth) as intimate daily personal instruction and direction, for us to “stand in His counsel” to be fully briefed to know our remit (the terms of reference of our mandate) to fulfil our “purpose in predestination” by “asking, seeking and knocking,” then “listening, watching and waiting” for His still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12) to bring clarity and coherence to our lives by EMBEDDING in our spirits what is germane and indispensable to conform our lives to His perfect will.
So shall each morning’s “certain rate” of spiritual manna (with a double portion on Friday’s 6th day “Preparation” for Shabbat) (Ex 16:4) be sufficient to illuminate our pre-ordained path of life (Ps 16:11; Prov 4:18) to bring the day to a prophetically “expected end” (Ps 5:3; 62:5; Prov 8:34-36; 23:17,18; 24:13,14; Jer 33:3; Eph 1:11)
OUR PRAYER:
In Y’shua-Jesus’ Name, may it please You Father to SUPERNATURALLY EQUIP those whom You’ve designated for a fully consecrated life by adoption (Eph 1:4-6), to establish and enhance each of our family’s rôles in the family tree within the Abrahamic dynasty of Your Kingdom (Gen 12:2,3; Lk 1:33; Gal 3:29), to build upon the righteous legacy of forebears, which will redound to Your Glory.
In this way may our pedigree (lineage; family line, all the way to Noah), sanctified by Your Blood through our repentance and good works (Lev 26:40-42; Rom 15:16-18; Titus 2:13,14); and our heraldry (coats of arms, symbols of heredity) raised beneath the Banner of Y’shua as Ensign of Israel (Nu 2:2; Ps 60:4; Is 11:10-12) reflect OUR fulfilment of every covenant test of virtue and holiness, for the glory of the perfection of Your love command by coming into the light by doing all the truth we were born again to embrace as wisdom (Prov 4:8; Jn 3:21; 1 Jn 1:5-9), to be “pillar” households exemplifying “the Way,” to replicate ourselves in other households also being taught to navigate these perilous latter days of Noah to attain final redemption on the narrow path (Jn 3:19-21; Rom 2:6-13; 2 Cor 3:18; Col 1:22,23,28; 4:12b; 2 Peter 1:3; 4:17; 5:2&3; 2 Jn vs 5&6; Rev 3:10-12)
Amein
This is how, through the purity of lives given access to the Cloud (Ps 50:5,23; 65:4), we too can fetch and take Words, to illuminate our way to be an inspiration to others, to follow no other way than “THE Way” (Acts 24:14). HalleluYaH
TOPIC: Choice inevitably requires discernment, and discernment, knowledge; and true knowledge and understanding, the inspiration of the Spirit.
Our greatest need as sons-in-discipleship-by- the-Spirit, to receive the resurrection promise of salvation, by ingrafting by adoption into the “good (natural) olive tree” which is nourished symbiotically, from Y’shua as the Root, by the golden oil of wisdom from BOTH the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament which He affirmed (Matt 5:19), is that we have patience to understand how the “fiery law” (Godly Instruction in holiness) which is “the heritage of the congregation of Jacob” (Deut 33:2,4), fits into the preparation by the Spirit, under grace, of a worthy bride for the eternal House of Jacob (Lk 1:32,33; Rom 2:13,26; 3:31; 8:4,14; 11:1-29; James 1:22-25; 2:12-26).
By the grace of YHVH, these notes will help
Reaching the end of the annual Messianic reading cycle (Deut 33&34) which magnifies Torah (Is 42:21) by proving our dependence upon the wisdom in the Hebrew Scriptures for accurate understanding of “the FULL message (ALL the words) of this new life” (Acts 5:20; 20:26,27,31,32), is like watching the last embers of a warming winter fire in one’s own hearth in the presence of good company, give their final glow. The embers may die, but the memory of the evening is burnt-in to the spirits of those who sat before it, as part of the comforting nostalgia which uniquely shapes the subconscious record of our lives.
So it is for those who habitually sit under Instruction at the Master’s Feet (Lk 10:39-42; Rom 3:31), to ‘Shema’ (Listen/Hear, to treasure and observe/enact and manifest the truth in) His every syllable (Deut 6:4,5; 8:3b; Job 23:12b; Is 66:2; Mk 12:28-34), to receive “the LIGHT of the KNOWLEDGE of the glory of YHVH” and His “Way,” which IS “the Word of His grace” given to “build us up” by WARNING (exhorting, with admonishment), WARMING (encouraging and comforting) and STRENGTHENING the soul, for us to have “the excellency of the power” and “the treasure in earthen vessels,” of discernment (quickness of understanding to make righteous distinctions) and Divine KNOWHOW to perfect the love of God, to be “AS our Master,” entirely conformed to His image, by the sanctifying work of His Spirit which produces pure, true and faithful sons who walk in the light at all costs, because God is Light (Ps 119:96-105; Lk 6:40; 20:21; Jn 1:12; Rom 8:4,14,29; 15:16-18; 2 Thess 2:13-15; Heb 12; 1 Jn 1-3; 4:16,17; 5:2&3).
The wisdom of the Father of the families of heaven and earth SATURATES His EVERLASTING “covenant of life and peace” (Mal 2:5; Heb 13:20,21) which is built upon His perfect, “fiery,” washing, cleansing and sanctifying law of liberty (Deut 33:2,4; Ps 119:45; Rom 3:31; 8:4,14,18-23; Eph 5:26,27; 1 Thess 5:23; James 1:22-25; 2:12) which STRADDLES THE WORD from Gen 1:1 to Rev 22:19 and is found WHEREVER and WHENEVER the Holy Spirit QUICKENS THE LOGOS (to guard us against going beyond what is written) (Jn 6:63) by revealing FACETS of “the paths of righteousness” (Ps 23:3) which comprise the narrow Way of Holiness (Is 35:8), which we need to know for Him to lead and guide us in “ALL truth” to attain the crown of Life (Matt 7:13-27; Phil 2:12-15; 3:10-17; Jn 12-16).
Which is why we need to ‘squeeze out revelation knowledge’ on a wide scale (Alef to Tav, Gen to Rev) by JOINING the “diligent search” by the Spirit of all the Scriptures, ‘old’ and ‘new’ (Matt 13:43-45; 52; 2 Cor 1:10-13), as it were ‘cold-pressing the oil of the two olive trees’ (the Tanakh/Hebrew Scriptures & the New Testament broadly represented by Moses and Elijah as John the Baptist respectively), to draw out the full meaning of the full counsel of YHVH.
If we are submitted, He helps us accomplish this otherwise daunting task by gently urging us to follow His lead to seek the precepts to LEARN the LIBERTY that comes from “continuance” (Is 64:5; Jn 8:31,32,36; Rom 2:6-13) as we “follow after righteousness” to follow on to know the LORD (Hosea 6:1-3) as righteous Abraham did in pursuit of perfection of holiness (Gen 17:1; 18:18,19; 26:5; Ps 119:45; Is 51:1-7; Acts 10:35; 1 Tim 6:11-14), to lead a GODLY LIFE OF REPENTANCE through to the end, by walking wholeheartedly “in YHVH,” and He in us by His Spirit, to be perfected (1 Cor 8:6; 2 Cor 6:16; Col 1:22;23,28,29; 2:6; 2 Tim 3:17) by producing “fruit (obedience) ‘meet’ for (worthy of) repentance,” to prove worthy of acceptance in the First Resurrection as “the (faithful) blessed and holy,” because though many are invited, relatively few will be unblameable to be chosen as the bride (Matt 3:8-10; Lk 20:35; 26:18,20; Jn 15:2; Acts 26:18,20; 2 Cor 5:9-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1-3; 5:18; Rev 17:14; 20:6).
Those who will be “delivered from the wrath to come” will be those who have “lived (repentantly, obediently, holily, “crucified to the world” and have thereby lived) FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (1 Peter 1:2b,13-17,24; 1 Jn 3:3-10; 5:18).
THAT is how we are be OCCUPIED WAITING till the spotless Lamb’s return (1 Thess 1:10; Titus 2:11-13).
That’s the meaning of the idiomatic expression, “KEEPING ‘THE WORD OF HIS PATIENCE’ ” (namely, wisely heeding HIS patient waiting for US, to give US more time to fully reject error and unbelief to be sanctified by all the truth in the “clean Fear of YHVH” (Ps 19:7-13; Is 42:14,15; 48:9; 57:11; Jn 17:17 19; Rev 3:10; 14:6,7,12; 2 Peter 3:9-18).
The fruit, for those who humbly respond correctly to the balanced teaching and prophesying of the authentic Gospel of grace, will be confirmed salvation (1 Cor 1:8) and thereby, assurance of eternal life.
Final and full redemption (of our bodies) (Rom 8:23) is conditional upon ‘living clean’ in the Way of holiness, to not be cut off (Is 35:8; Acts 24:14; Jn 15:2-15; ﹰRom 8:4; 11:22).
Never was a wiser word spoken than that ‘the fruit of repentance IS salvation and eternal life,’ because there’s no forgiveness without repentance, and the growing in the knowledge of God and therefore, in ongoing repentance, which Peter describes in 2 Peter 3, is INCOMPLETE if God’s WAYS are NOT KNOWN – the ways of God, obedience to which the Spirit is given to us to WIN us over from unrighteousness to righteousness in word and deed, to “win Christ” (Rom 15:16-18; Phil 2&3).
None of us should underestimate the importance of our baptism of REPENTANCE for the remission of sins.
Our water baptism of repentance is far more than a static, one time event, but instead, both an act of repentance for “sins that were PAST” (Rom 3:25) AND a DYNAMIC COMMITMENT to spending the time CONDITIONALLY allotted to us to continue drawing breath on this earth (Ps 119:17-21,77) on probation as a candidate for inclusion in the bride, to LEARN and PREFER the will of God over carnal reasoning and human tradition, by repenting EACH TIME we come across fresh understanding of His requirements (e.g. Matt 5:19; 1 Cor 7:19; 11:1,2) in order to broaden the inclusive scope of our obedience to walking in the light, in order to ATTAIN and REMAIN in His perfect will (Rom 12:1,2).
Sin is “condemned in the flesh” (the corollary of “the law was weak through the flesh”) (Rom 8:3 being the fruit of baptismal circumcision – Rom 6:1-6; Col 2:10-13) when we ALLOW the Holy Spirit to both instruct us in righteousness AND lead us away from sin in PROVEN fire- and faith-tested repentance, by fine-tuning our consciences and BEING the power WITHIN us to overcome the power of sin’s dominion (Rom 6:6-22), SO THAT there’s no longer either HINDRANCE or EXCUSE for NOT allowing “the righteousness of the law to be fulfilled in us,” as it was in Y’shua (Rom 8:4,14; 1 Jn 2:3-6).
This is when we’re ASSURED we’re free of condemnation – not by only making a one-time ‘decision for Christ,’ but when for us individually, Godly law becomes known as “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” BECAUSE we CHOOSE to conscientiously abide in the Vine (remain in Messiah) by being “servants of righteousness” by observing the rules of the race by the Spirit, to be “dead with Christ” to sin (1 Cor 9:24-27; 2 Tim 2:5,11) by walking AFTER the Spirit IN the power of the Spirit, to decisively overcome the sin whose wages are always death (Rom 6:18-23; 8:1-3)
Rom 2:13,26 & Titus 2:11-13 end all debate about grace and law which over the course of a consecrated life are designed to BE the HARMONY that brings us to the blessed state of purity that results from the transfiguring of our souls from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18) through death to self-will by SURRENDER to the will of God.
Titus 2:11-13 reads “For the grace of God that brings salvation…teaches us to SAY NO to UNGODLINESS and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, Godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope…” Godliness learnt from the laws of God, good for THAT EXPRESS PURPOSE (Rom 3:20; 7:7,12-16,22,25; 1 Tim 1:8-11).
There’s no “white linen” for those who scoff at the OIL OF THE SPIRIT (revelation knowledge of “the Way”) by scoffing at the holy precepts of the covenant given to keep us out of breach of faith and in Y’shua’s love on the narrow path (Matt 25:10-12; Rom 8:4,6,7; Heb 5:11-14; 6:128:8-12; 10:16,26-39; 12:25-29; Rev 3:1-6,16; 2:5,26; 19:7,8).
We don’t EARN righteousness by “working righteousness” (Acts 10:35; Rom 6:1-22; 1 Jn 3:7).
We live-up to our imputed righteousness by faith perfected by works (Eph 2:10; James 2:14-26), to PROVE that the baptismal work of grace (heart circumcision to make repentance outward reality) is having the desired effect to prove our claim that we ARE the righteousness of YHVH by MANIFESTING righteousness, to REFLECT the light of YHVH’s Righteousness to the darkened world.
Either that, or we hypocritically profess to be children of light.
Our walk/race is a Spirit-governed and executed road-test of the genuineness of our faith (Rom 5:3-5; 1 Peter 1:1-9; 5:6-12), as those called to be wholly obedient TO the faith (Col 4:12b) according to “the doctrine according to Godliness” (Rom 1:5; 6:17; 15:16-18; 1 Tim 6:3).
“Buying gold refined in fire” is a metaphor for the necessary process of sanctification we have to complete by refinement, for our purification (Dan 11:35; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Jn 3:3; Rev 3:18).
It goes hand in hand with asking for “eye salve” and “buying oil” (Matt 25:10-12; Rev 3:18).
To be “chaste virgins” (2 Cor 12:2), we can’t do without any one of that metaphorical trio (each critical to examining our own spiritual condition – 1 Cor 11:27-32; 2 Cor 13:5; 2 Peter 1:10,11), if we are to do what Heb 2:1-3 & Heb 12 require of us, to RETAIN the seal of the firstfruits of the Spirit of YHVH (Eph 1:13,14; 4:30) AND have the protective mark of YHVH on our foreheads, only to be given to those who don’t refuse to co-operate with the writing of His precepts on their hearts, for us to serve those instructions with our minds (Prov 7:1-3; Jer 31:33,34; Rom 7:25; 8:4; Heb 8:8-12; 10:16; Rev 22:3,4).
Salvation, after all, is the grace to both RECEIVE and MAINTAIN the ORIGINAL INNOCENCE gifted to us by believing “the Word of faith” which “made us the righteousness of YaH in Y’shua-Jesus” (Jn 15:3; Rom 4; 2 Cor 5:21), to PURIFY OURSELVES to BE righteous (2 Cor 7:1; 2 Tim 2:20,21; 1 Jn 3:3-7,10) to be holy (Rom 6:22), to “remain forever” “in the Messiah,” to “remain forever” WRITTEN in the Book of Life (the one depends on the other) by having SERVED HIM ACCEPTABLY by joyfully serving His precepts, the transformed by renewal of the spirit of our minds (Rom 7:25-8:14; 12:1,2; Eph 4:23,24; Heb 12:28; 1 Jn 2:3-6,17,28,29).
So Deut 33 has embedded within it, extremely important counsel to give us if we are to be numbered amongst chaste-virgin Israel of God-“Yeshurun,” the sanctified remnant holy nation from antiquity (Ex 19:4-8; 1 Peter 2:9,10; Heb 12:23; Rev 1:6; 5:9,10), by the election of grace designated heirs of the world as the eternal House of Jacob, YHVH’s Portion, for His glory (Is 46:13; Haggai 2:7,9; Rom 4:13; Lk 1:33), the household of the dynasty of Abraham and David, the household of God (Lk 1:32; Eph 2:11,12,19) in and over which Y’shua will reign FOREVER, as King of Jacob (Deut 32:8,9; Ps 59:13; Is 41:21,27; Rom 9-11; 2 Cor 11:2; Gal 6:16).
To conclude, “the ‘church’ of YHVH” (the kahal/ekklesia/”general assembly [for Appointed Times] and congregations of the fountain of Jacob” the firstborn nation) (Gen 25:23; Ex 4:22,23; Ps 68:26; 74:2; Acts 7:38; Lk 1:33; Heb 12:23; Rev 21:12), was scheduled from ANTIQUITY, to be the commonwealth of heart-circumcised and Spirit-filled Jacob- “Yeshurun” (Deut 10:16; 30:6; 33:5,26; Is 44:1-8; Ezek 36; Eph 2:11,12,15,19; 3:6), in which the Holy Spirit (as Counsellor, in HIS ministry of righteousness – 2 Cor 3:8,9) would teach all Whom YHVH gives to His Son, to INTUITIVELY know right from wrong, NOT APART from study of the laws of life, but in conjunction with them (Rom 3:20b; 7:7) TO THE DEGREE that we immerse ourselves in the pursuit of the knowledge of truth and righteousness (Eph 5:26,27), to overwrite our hearts with the higher ways of the Kingdom, to reflect “true holiness” to fulfil the high call in Y’shua, to “glory and virtue” (Eph 4:12-14,23,24; Heb 8:8-12; 2 Peter 1).
Nowhere in Scripture is license given to trade Spirit off against the yoke of the Word (Instruction) (Matt 11:29,30; Jn 8:51,52), or visa versa, for they, like the One Who teaches us, the Godhead Himself, are uniquely and forever One (Jn 6:45,63; 1 Jn 5:7).
How can anyone be CONFIDENT that they’re meeting the test of Titus 2:11-13 (saying NO to unGodliness) unless Torah (“Instruction” as expanded/magnified by Y’shua – Matt 5:17–20; 2 Tim 3:14-17) is being taught (to UNlearn UNrighteousness) as the BENCHMARK FOR REPENTANCE, for grace for salvation “to the uttermost” to be fully appropriated (Jn 1:16; Heb 5:9; 7:25; 12:14,28) for it to be worked out in reverential Fear and trembling, to have run a true race, actually keeping the faith, to be as blameless, as “holy, harmless and undefiled” as the Master Himself? (Phil 2:12,13,15; 2 Tim 4:3-8; Heb 7:26).
May the LORD bless you for considering these revelations
TOPIC: A reader’s question arising from Acts 15:20 & 16:4,5
We might well ask whether there is a relationship between 1) the ‘legal QUARTET’ of FOUR Levitical purity requirements prescribed to the church in Acts 15:19,20; 2) the TEN WORDS of the Tablets of the Sinai Marriage Covenant; and 3) the weekly 7th day Sabbaths and the SEVEN related Holy Sabbatical Convocations in their THREE respective FEAST SEASONS (Gen 2:2,3; Ex 20:8-11; 23:10-17; Deut 16; Is 56:6; Matt 5:19; 12:8).
With this in mind, a reader asks:
Does Acts 16:4,5’s cross-reference to the FOUR RULINGS in Acts 15:20 as “decrees” (which Strong’s Concordance also defines as dogma, laws or ordinances) also INDIRECTLY refer to the Ten Commandments and the perpetual, blessed TIME-RELATED precepts – which include the WEEKLY Shabbat and ANNUAL Sabbaths – the “Holy Convocations” given to us forever, as practised in antiquity, and GROUNDED in observance of the Fourth Commandment, confirmed by the LORD and Paul in Word and deed? (Matt 5:19; Rom 3:31)
ANSWER:
Whether we know it or like it or not, there’s no question that BEHAVIOURAL CONSTRAINTS (some evidence of a circumcised heart/repentant lifestyle, at the very least) apply to acceptance of individuals for participation in the LORD’s set-apart Appointments (Holy Convocations/Sacred Assemblies/High Sabbaths) (Ex 12:48,49; Ps 24:3-6; 42:2,4; Rom 2:13,25-27).
It can be very dangerous taking the ‘holy ground’ of the uniquely sacred Sabbaths, lightly.
The sages warn us that the Divine Appointments are for those who have PURE hearts, not for those who SIMULATE (affect) having circumcised hearts (Deut 10:16-21; Jer 4:4; 9:24-26).
Undoubtedly, Acts 15:20, which pinpoints crucial ‘hygiene factors’ for a righteous walk, addresses this basic concern.
‘Basic’ in the sense that keeping the Ordained Appointments with our Holy Maker, to be “nourished on pure doctrine” in His Presence, and by feasting at HIS table (Ps 23), is the BASIS of covenant-keeping for the sanctification of TIME, within which everything else CREATED, exists.
Idolators, fornicators, the “effeminate” (who violate natural law) and others who fall under certain descriptions of unrighteousness, are unworthy of the most intimate spiritual fellowship.
Generally, God is patient with our spiritual growth (Is 48:9; 57:11b), covering our faltering steps with His Blood (lest we be destroyed) as we learn obedience under grace, but He draws a solid red line FROM DAY ONE, with “these NECESSARY things” in Acts 15:20.
Converts must have produced proof of repentance by having turned from ABOMINATIONS, or the Feasts themselves are polluted and the congregations, defiled.
It’s tempting to believe that salvation by grace entails accountability to no more than FOUR stipulations for righteous living.
However, SANCTIFICATION of spirit, soul and body (1 Thess 5:23) would be a feat, if there were so FEW precepts to lead us away from the REPROBATE nature of the first Adam, to the PURITY of the Last Adam which only heart circumcision and submission to the inward working of the Spirit (the grace which enables obedience to God’s holy requests of us), can accomplish.
We would not be stretching the truth by alleging that in the mind of Messiah are the following riders:
Acts 15:24
“…to whom we gave no such commandment (for your RECONCILIATION and INNOCENCE to be reinstated)”
‘ “But now ye have been made clean through the Word,” “if you love Me” you will follow-on to know Me by learning and doing My commandments’
Jn 14:15,21-24; 15:3-15; 1 Jn 2:3-6
Neither Y’shua-Jesus nor Paul ever knew or kept what we call Sun day as anything but “Yom Rishon,” the head or “first day of the week” (“day the first”), the resumption of the work-week after Shabbat, which dates from the beginning of time according to the pattern of the week of Creation.
The Saviour and His chief Apostle to the Gentiles would have been regarded as having uncircumcised ears and hearts (Jer 4:4; 6:10), had they confessed and acted differently, thereby following a different gospel.
Due to Y’shua being “LORD, even of Shabbat,” the “everlasting covenantal sign” of “all power/authority in heaven and earth” vested in Him over the redeemed (Ex 31:13,16; Matt 28:18), Shabbat is symbolically the THRESHOLD of Y’shua as the “Door” (Jn 10:9,10), which we pass over through the Doorway (i.e. “in Christ”) to “go in (enter Shabbat for total rest) and out (into the secular world) to FIND pasture” after the weekly close of Shabbat, by walking after the Spirit IN but not OF the world from sunset Saturday to mid afternoon Friday.
In other words, labouring VIRTUOUSLY during the six days APPOINTED for work, to establish testimony, and thereby, reputation for the covenant and our covenant-keeping God (Deut 7:9-15; 8:18).
So to characterize Shabbat as anything other than a core axiom of the faith, would be SEDITIOUS DISINFORMATION.
Logically, Shabbat (the inception of “the Way” in Gen 2:2,3) is the first of “the first ways of…David” and is therefore undeniably, at the front of the “first works (of righteousness)” which will be used to evaluate our loyalty to Y’shua as our “Firstlove,” since our salvation is “the sure mercies of David” (2 Chr 17:3-6; Is 55:1-5; Acts 10:35; 13:32-39; Rev 2:4,5).
Just a glance at Is 58:13,14 (14 especially) should convince us that attainment of the promise of ABUNDANT life in Jn 10:10 is heavily dependent on NOT DISOWNING the Biblical, seventh day Sabbath.
Rev 2:4,5 describes Ephesus’ serious spiritual condition, due to estranging themselves from Paul’s MESSIANIC teaching (Rom 3:31).
Amongst all the procedural principles ignored or renounced by the church, misuse of Sun day as an imposter for Shabbat, is the most serious disruption of the Biblical blueprint for the unhindered flow of grace.
Given the number of references to Shabbat in Acts (none of which refer to the first day of the week), it’s inconceivable that Paul, Timothy and Titus would not have affirmed the church in Shabbat-keeping.
No-one can read Ex 20 and Deut 5 and claim Sun day is the seventh day of Scripture (just consider the weekday order, as historically defined in any reputable dictionary), without displaying evidence of a profoundly unscrupulous streak.
Those who follow Rome’s rejection of the Ten Commandments by their denial of Shabbat (according to Scripture, denying even one is repudiation of all), by choosing Sun day over Shabbat as an ‘ecclesiastical innovation,’ show YHVH that they are NOT taking His command seriously, to submit to His Spirit to write His laws on their hearts, to serve them with their minds (Prov 7:1-3; Rpm 7:22,25; Heb 8:8-12; 10:16).
This failure is ultimate proof that they are neither being led by the Spirit (Rom 8:4,14) nor obeying His Son (Heb 5:9), through Whom the Spirit of Holiness originally blessed and set apart the Genesis Frid sunset to Sat sunset Shabbat, as the EVERLASTING covenantal sign between redeemed man and the Creator-Redeemer God of the Hebrews, as well as to Principalities and Powers (Ex 31:13,16; Eph 3:1-10), that they are adopted, by grace, in the eternal House of Jacob which our Master Y’shua will rule forever (Is 14:1; 45:4; 54:3; 55:5; Lk 1:33; Acts 5:32; Rom 7:22,25 – 8:14; 11:17-29).
The grace we partake of with Paul for the “defence and confirmation” of the Gospel and therefore, for the defence and confirmation of the sanctified and blessed Holy Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment (Ex 20:8-11; Is 56:6; 58:13,14; 66:22-24), the first and holiest commandment prepared for and given to man (Gen 2:2,3; Mk 2:27,28; Heb 4:1-6,9-11), is FUNDAMENTAL to our high vocation of holiness, which is to be “valiant for the truth” (Jer 9:3), to testify to and walk in “all truth,” to keep and defend “the one faith,” by the truth being our witness – “to have a good testimony from ALL [who’ve ever walked righteously, as the narrow path demands] AND indeed, from THE TRUTH ITSELF,” that we are “manifestly a letter from the Messiah” (neither adding nor subtracting anything from “the Way”) and therefore a seal of Paul’s apostleship (certifying by our example that he both lived and taught all the truth) (Acts 20:25-32; Phil 1:6,7; 1 Cor 9:1-3; 2 Cor 3:2,3; Eph 4:1-4; 2 Tim 4:3-8; 3 Jn 1:3,4,12; Jude vs 3; Rev 14:6,7,12; 22:14,15,18,19).
We can safely assume that the Acts 15:19-24 table fellowship Regulations/ “Judgments” (“mishpatim in Hebrew which the KJV describes as “decrees”) AND the “Ketubah” (Marriage Covenant) of Ten indivisible Words (Ex 34:27,28,32) and the Seven Holy Convocations (which are extensions of the weekly Shabbat), are JOINTLY foundational doctrine originally kept by all converts (Jude vs 3), as historical records prove conclusively.
The Spirit has QUEUED our heavenly Father’s instructions, for us to encounter and learn to apply them “line by line, precept by precept, here a little there a little,” to mature in obedience to live a sanctified life, wholly in the light, in the full stature of the spotless Lamb of God (Is 28:9-13; Eph 4:12-14,23,24; 1 Thess 5:23; 1 Jn 1-3).
Acts 15:20 is at the FOOT of the ladder of sanctification by being at the HEAD of that queue (priority-wise), along with the Ten Words which include Shabbat, the principal and holiest time-related precept.
Acts 15:20 is not a ‘new,’ liberating mini-Torah as many believers suppose, but a specimen summary of behaviours that are an ABOMINATION to the LORD. Verse 20 barely scratches the surface of what full consecration to the will of YHVH entails (Matt 6:10; 12:50; 28:20; Col 4:12b).
For anyone seriously enquiring after truth, in less than a couple of minutes, a comparison of Acts 15:20 with 1 Cor 5:7-12; 6:9-20 & Eph 5:2-18 will reveal that the contents of Acts 15:20 can’t possibly be the final word on obedience.
If we insist on holding that view, we’ll subvert our souls by deceiving ourselves (“oppose ourselves” as in 2 Tim 2:19-26), and will find it impossible to meet the test of doing “NOTHING AGAINST the truth” (2 Cor 13:5,8).
To put it bluntly, it’s the false gospel of “THE WILL OF THE GENTILES” (dictates of the flesh; rulings of the nations; commandments and doctrines of men; human tradition) (Col 2:8,20,22) which insists that grace now OVERRIDES duties and obligations of sonship, instead of providing the holy power to FACILITATE our full obedience.
Acts 15:20 becomes a fetish (an object of irrational reverence) and a rather dumb rule of thumb to apostates (wilfully ignorant defectors to a different gospel) who haven’t the common sense, let alone the wisdom, to consult the rest of the Bible to grasp how challenging its call is to absolute purity through the obedience of sacrificial living as proof of love (1 Jn 5:2&3), beginning with the principles taught in the Sermon on the Mount.
There are no shortcuts to purification of a bride, and purification, essential to our perfection (Col 1:28,29), is impossible without delighting in the Father’s Instruction (Matt 5:48; 12:50).
That means that recusants (those who obstinately refuse to be conformed to sound doctrine, to be conformed to the image of the Messiah), will hope in vain for a good expected end (Prov 24:13,14).
It’s obvious no Jewish Apostle or protege of Jesus’ Apostles would have press-ganged newly believing Gentiles into a PAGAN mold.
There was no semblance of a Sun day ‘sabbath’ ’till the official apostasy in 321AD and 325AD, which arrogantly overruled the weekly Biblical Sabbath and the Passover Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matt 12:8; Lk 22:1,16-18; 1 Cor 5:7,8).
Early believers, under more or less direct instruction by the Apostles, would all have known that “the seventh day” is the one and only Shabbat; and the three Pilgrim Feasts, the infrastructure for our complete sanctification (Ex 23:10-17; Deut 16; 1 Thess 5:23), for all generations who would join themselves to Israel by faith, to cleave to THEIR God, the one and only God (Ex 23:17; Deut 4:39,40; Is 14:1; 56:6-8; Zech 12:1; Jn 10:16).
It boggles the mind how anyone could keep a straight face trumpeting Acts 15:20, while denouncing ANY of the Ten Words, which were given “in commandmenT” (as “the commandment to keep the commandmentS” – Ex 34:32; Deut 30:10,11; 2 Jn vs 5&6) as the overall benchmark for holy living.
Take a look at Deuteronomy 4:13&14 for confirmation:
Those 4 Acts 15:20 “Judgments” (wise determinations on how to live Godly lives in community, especially in the intimacy of table fellowship), FOLLOW-ON (vs 14) from observance of the pillar-like, immutable Ten Words (vs 13), now to be transferred by the Spirit of Truth from stone Tablets and written on the fleshy tablets of our hearts, to be found in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle of our flesh, now the Temple of the Spirit, or our standing as disciples of truth and righteousness is questionable (2 Cor 3:3; Heb 10:16).
Anyone who imagines that these four ‘collateral’ (concurrent/concomitant but subordinate) Levitical PURITY requirements (which would have been in “the SIDE of the Ark” alongside the Tablets – Deut 31:24-26; Acts 15:20), TRANSCEND and SUPERCEDE the Ten Pronouncements which we call commandments, which are the cornerstone of righteous civilization, in the LORD, has taken leave of his or her senses.
Colloquial English words have been substituted for peculiar Hebrew terms in many passages in most translations, but the purpose and effect is the same. The Instruction (Torah) of our God (Rom 2:13; 3:31; 8:4,6,7; James 1:22-25; 2:12) is our heritage of Instruction too (Deut 33:4; Rom 3:20; 7:7,12-16,22,25; 1 Tim 1:8-11), to learn to reverentially fear God and delight in His ways (Deut 5:29; Ps 1; 19:7-13; 40:7,8; 119; Rom 7:22), to help us understand what our Father regards as the immoveable BOUNDARIES of acceptable behaviour, for US to be “offerings acceptable in word and deed” (Deut 33:4; Rom 3:31; 12:1,2; 15:16-18).
Whether Paul travelled with Timothy (Acts 16:1-5), or Timothy and others travelled without Paul, it’s easy to prove that many Scriptures such as Rom 3:31; 12:1-21 &13:1-14 & 14:1-23; 1 Cor 4:17; 7:19; 8:4; 11:1,2; 2 Cor 2:9; Phil 2:12,13; Col 3; 4:12 describe far more than a set of instructions fewer than the fingers of one hand.
So yes, “decrees” in Acts 16:4,5, while specifically identifying Acts 15:20 as their primary context, also encompass all other “sayings” which have Divine legal weight as the Father’s Instruction, under classifications such as commandments (Matt 12:50; Jn 8:51,52; 14:15; 1 Cor 7:19; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 5:2&3; 2 Jn vs 5&6), ordinances (1 Cor 11:1,2) and “traditions” (2 Thess 2:15 – specifically Shabbat, Passover, Shavuo’t/Pentecost and the Fall Feasts).
1 Cor 7:19; 11:1,2 also cross-reference TRADITIONS (which are YHVH’s Personal “Testimonies” in Ps 119:111; 2 Thess 2:15) which are either commandments or ordinances – decreed as institutions of the faith, in perpetuity (e.g. Ex 12:14,17,23).
Shabbat is both a commanded everlasting covenant in its own right (Ex 31:13,16; Is 56:6; Matt 12:8) and an intensely holy tradition, and both Shabbat & Passover which are thematically related (Deut 5:15), are encompassed by the term “ordinance” in Is 24:5 (Rome having changed both, to subversively and illegitimately swap Sun day and Easter for Shabbat and Passover).
Shabbat is our STATUTORY PROTECTION, as the great covenantal sign of our separation from the world and sanctification “in Jacob,” in Christ as ruler forever of the House of Jacob on David’s Throne (Gen 28:14; Is 9:6,7; Mk 11:10; Lk 1:32,33; Rev 21:12).
As the sages say, God keeps those who ‘Shema’ (Hear & heed) the two-fold command to “remember” AND to “observe” (keep, guard, treasure) Shabbat’s unique sanctity, to keep it INTACT (Is 58:13,14).
The Feast High Sabbaths are NO LESS HOLY than the weekly Shabbat because their ‘gravitas’ hinges on the sanctity of Shabbat as the UNDERLYING testimony of the IDENTITY of the God of the Hebrews as Creator-Redeemer (Ex 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15); and their STATURE is significantly MAGNIFIED by the knowledge of the glory of the accomplishments of YHVH describes to us for advanced instruction in the covenant, in the additional testimonies that each Feast and its unique Sabbaths (two for Passover; one for Shavuo’t/Pentecost; four for the Fall Feast season) represents.
The weekly and Feast Sabbaths JOINTLY proclaim the reasons why the God of Israel is the one and only true, wise, living God (Deut 4:39; Is 44:24) Who alone warrants mankind’s repentance, total trust, loyalty, reverence and the highest praises (Acts 20:21; Zech 14:9).
The only reason given by the sages for the weekly Sabbath having greater weight is, they say, due to there being 52 of them, which is an artful deduction!
That rationale can be effortlessly flipped by inferring from the uniqueness of each once-off High Sabbath, that each of them is greater than any one weekly Sabbath.
But these are moot points.
The truth is that one cannot make an argument that would justify considering the seven special annual Sabbaths any LESS holy and less BINDING upon us, than the weekly Shabbat.
This is truly treasure hidden for us in Christ Col 2:2,3
It’s given to “comfort” and “knit us together in love” in Him as the Hebrew “one new man,” Jacob-Yeshurun, corporately keeping the original, perpetual Appointments, as His true witnesses (Deut 33:5,26; Is 44:1-8; 56:6; Lk 1:33; Matt 12:8).
The sages teach that it can be derived from Scripture (e.g. Gen 26:5) that all three fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob kept Shabbat (Melchizedek ministered bread and wine and blessed Abraham, God’s friend, when he returned from war to REST).
Noah’s priestly firstborn son Shem, extremely long-lived, was alive and quite likely ministered Torah to Abram, the next elect ‘saviour’ of the world (hence Gen 26:5), who like Noah (the “preacher of righeousness” through whom civilization was rebooted as it will be again after the Final Judgment, through Y’shua as the Seed of Abraham – Gal 3:16) and later, Moses, was a type of Messiah our Deliverer and living proof of the holiness of Torah instruction in righteousness (2 Tim 3:14-17).
After all, who can argue that Abram did not take Gen 17:1 seriously, to BE Abraham, father (of the PERFECTED faith) of many nations? (James 1:22-25; 2:12,4-26)
That’s evidently how Abraham Isaac and Jacob prepared themselves, through many trials, to be in the bride (Matt 8:11,12), or there’d be no “Abraham’s bosom” to which to go after death.
To be exact, one really should add this:
James 2:21-23, which refers to Gen 15:4-6 & 22:1-18, refers specifically to “obeyed My VOICE” in Gen 26:5, but note, the rest of the categories of faith for faithfulness in Gen 26:5 (namely, “charge, commandments, statutes and laws”) apply equally to James 1:22-25 & 2:12
CONCLUSION:
Acts 16:4,5 “established the churches in the faith” because while appearing to be a limited reference to Acts 15:20, we should infer from the full counsel that it actually describes the comprehensive ongoing Apostolic training in righteousness in “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:25-32) that was taking place from region to region, since the PREPARATORY, “necessary” RULINGS for new converts in Acts 15:20 (to help set the standard for holiness) are mere spiritual milk.
Its four requirements, important as they are, are amongst the ELEMENTARY precepts included in Is 28:9-13’s reference to “the Way,” spiritual MILK from which we are to be weaned, to progress to maturity in the doctrine that distinguishes the faith into which we’ve adopted, from all other systems of belief (Lk 20:21; Eph 4:12-14,23,24).
Heb 5:11-14; 6:1-12 urge us to advance beyond elementary principles by heeding Is 28:9-13, to learn our entire covenant (Heb 13:20,21), to be sure to be fully pleasing to our King, and besides, have the joy of experiencing the “glorious liberty” and “rest and refreshing” which walking lawfully after the Spirit, to be “dead with Y’shua” to sin (Rom 7:25-8:23; 2 Tim 2:5,11), promises to the faithful who keep themselves “undefiled in the Way,” to remain in Y’shua’s love, abiding in the Vine, honoured to have HIM call us His “friends” (Ps 119:1,45; Jn 14:15,21-24; 15:3-15; 1 Cor 3:17; 2 Cor 7:1,2; 2 Tim 2:20,21; 1 Jn 3:3)
Timing is on God’s heart. You may not think so, but God has a time for everything. We find ourselves now in the “chol-haMoed” (middle of the appointed time) of Sukkot. There is an aspect of this biblical time that cannot be ignored by those who seek to fully understand Yshua’s (Jesus’) embodiment within us of Torah:
Please bear with me as I grind out some of the issues relating to Torah and then I will get to this above-mentioned point.
As we sift through the Torah, The Law of Moses, so inseparably a part of our bibles, we find ourselves wondering just how much of it finds application in the working out of the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. Between Paul’s doctrine of Grace and Jesus’ affirmation that nothing in the Torah will be removed (Mathew 5:17-20), we cling to the counsel of the Holy Spirit to discern what is applicable and what is not.
If you are one of those who think that nothing in Torah is applicable to us, then ponder on Mathew 5:17-20, Luke 16:17 and Mathew 13:52. On the other hand, if you are one of those few who think that everything in Torah is applicable to us, read carefully through Numbers 29:12-40 and think again:
Look at the number of bulls that need to be sacrificed, besides the daily quota of two rams and fourteen male lambs. It gets easier as the number of days of Sukkot progress, starting with the sacrifice and burnt offering of thirteen bulls on the first day of Sukkot and progressively reducing that number of bulls so that by the time the seventh and last day of Sukkot has arrived, only seven bulls are to be sacrificed for a burnt offering. If you add up all of those bulls that are to be sacrificed and offered up during the seven days of Sukkot, you will find that they amount to exactly seventy bulls – that is God’s favourite number times ten.
So then, you thought that you “kept” Sukkot? Well, you didn’t keep Sukkot as it was commanded by God through Moses if you didn’t have a high priest, a temple and an altar to do all of that sacrificing for you. Of course you might say “Jesus is my High Priest”. Well, of course, Jesus is our High Priest but it is our High Priest Jesus Himself who said “I have not come to abolish Torah”. And then it is up to you to decide, together with the help of the Holy Spirit, just how much of Torah is applicable and how much of Torah isn’t.
Personally, I would have loved to have celebrated Sukkot by living for seven days in a Sukkah. But I still haven’t got the logistics of that right to this day. We live in a complex which has a common garden and neither the caretaker nor the local residents would be too pleased if I set up a Sukkah on it. There’s something about Sukkot that is enhanced by the community’s support of Sukkah-building and we live in a society where for the most part, “Sukkot” is an unknown.
So then, you “celebrated” Sukkot. Did you celebrate Sukkot by living in a Sukkah? And let’s get back to those seventy bulls. How many of those got sacrificed as per the prescribed sacrifices in Numbers 29:12-40?
Then you might be saying to yourself “I’m not Jewish” so none of this applies to me. But I say to you that everything that Jesus spoke about concerning Torah applies to every believer. It’s a level playing field, whether you are Jewish or Gentile and whatever exists in the Torah that has applicability should apply to both Jews and Gentiles.
This brings me closer to my initial point: an aspect of this biblical time of Sukkot that cannot be ignored by those who seek to fully understand Yshua’s (Jesus’) embodiment within us of Torah:
So here it is: a special day that immediately follows the seven days of Sukkot. This very special day is called “Shemini Atzeret”. And yes, these words are taken straight out of God’s Word and not out of some famous rabbi’s commentary. We find them in Leviticus 23:36 where it says:
For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.
The word “eighth” is translated from the Hebrew word “Shemini” and those words “closing special assembly” are translated from the Hebrew word “Atzeret”. This Hebrew word is derived from a root Hebrew word “atzar”, which simply means “stop”, but by inference can also mean “prevent” or “restrain” or “hold back”. Because Hebrew for the most part is a rather primitive language, using primitive words that have multiple nuances in meaning depending on their context, we can readily accept the simple meaning of “atzeret”: a “stopping”. That’s like driving along and coming to a stop street. If you don’t stop at that stop street, you will be breaking the law. Even worse, you might get caught by the traffic police. Even worse than that, you might even be putting your life and the lives of others at risk. So then, it’s no coincidence that God calls this day of Shemini Atzeret a “stopping”. It’s a day on which we need to stop everything, stop looking only at our own lives and look at the bigger picture of what God has prepared for those who love Him:
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit.
(1 Corinthians 2:9,10)
What is interesting about Shemini Atzeret is that even though it immediately follows Sukkot as the “eighth day”, it is not a part of Sukkot, which is only seven days. It is a unique day and it finds its fulfilment in a “day” that follows the seven “days”, the seven thousand years, each thousand years being equivalent to a “day” of the existence of this planet Earth upon which we live. That eighth “day” will last for all eternity. It is a day for which we all as believers in Yshua hope for and we strive to obey the words of our Lord and Master, Yshua haMashiach (Jesus the Christ), in order that we may be found to be living according to the faith in Him that saves us from sin and death and transports us into His eternal Kingdom.
So when this special day of Shemini Atzeret arrives, don’t see it as another religious Jewish holiday, but see it as a wonderful opportunity to stop, to gather, to worship, to lovingly set your hearts and your eyes upon things above, things eternal, things that matter for eternity, even as we have caught a glimpse of these things through the Holy Spirit.
