I posted this audio blog episode specifically for our sister site “It’s Not As You Perceive.” I was led to post it here for your review as well. I realize that many of you who are of the Hebraic Roots/Messianic Community might be familiar with the context. But I hope, trust and pray that this may be a blessing to you regardless. May you be most blessed fellow Saints. Shalome.
My Torah studies brought me to Deuteronomy 7: 8 this morning and the passage reads accordingly:
But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deu 7:8 KJV)
cf.
Jer 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Deu 10:15 Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.
I recall a few years ago having a conversation with my boss about the dichotomy in character of the Godhead. Before I go too much further, let me be transparent and say that I do not believe that the Father or God is made up of 3 or 2 persons as much of churchianity* believes and teaches. Nor do I believe that Yeshua was pre-existent and the God and creator of the Old Testament as many myopic Messianic Believers do, based upon their read and understanding of John 1 and other isolated passages of the Renewed Testament. This subject is a huge and controversial topic that I wholly plan to get in to the early part of next year. But for now, this is not the forum to discuss this matter. But I wanted to point out that from that conversation with my boss about the dichotomy in character of the Godhead, she put forth her obviously taught and indoctrinated position that the God of the Old Testament was harsh, uncaring, unforgiving, brutal, impatient, angry and without love towards His creation. Conversely, Jesus in the New Testament is forgiving, compassionate, benevolent, nice, patient and filled with love. Now I actually used to believe all that, especially after reading throughout the Tanakh about the harsh exploits of the Almighty. He seemed to always be on Israel’s case for something they had done or would do. Typically Israel’s plight was seemingly always on the cusp of devastation or destruction. And certainly if one were to simply read the various passages of the Tanakh outside of context and treat this half of the Bible as a separate entity that is distinct from the Renewed Covenant, then most certainly one could naturally develop an erroneous conception about the character of Yehovah.
I guess this myopic and uninformed perception about the Father is partly the reason why churchianity is so “Jesus-centric” and focused on the person of the Son, with very little alluding to God the Father, apart from the occasional utterance of the title during a reciting of the trinity during Baptisms and other liturgical exercises. I believe that this mindset is one of the most injurious issues facing Christianity over the last one and three-quarters of a millennia. With a complete rejection of Yehovah (a brilliant tactic and ploy of the enemy) as a result of postulating such an erroneous mindset about the character of the Father, churchianity has to her pending doom, pinned most of her faith on the grossly misunderstood, twisted and manipulated doctrine of grace. More than even the teachings and example of the Master Yeshua Himself, grace is the central over-riding theme of Christianity. Grace has all but eliminated any thought on the part of believers to be obedient to the Word of the Almighty. Additionally, this entire mindset has covered over the simple beauty of this pivotal verse where Moshe is rehearsing for Israel the Father’s steadfast love for them and His faithfulness in keeping His end of covenants when men would so easily default on their end of covenant with the Almighty. With the undeniable love of the Master as a clear and prominent backdrop in the Renewed Covenant, the love of the Father for Israel–and also for the Gentile–is the overarching theme of the whole of the Bible! In other words, without the steadfast and faithful love of the Father for His creation, there could never have been a Yeshua, much less a nation of Israel to this day. It is the Father’s declared love for Israel that has translated into the mission and work of Yeshua HaMaschiach and we must not forget that.
Oh how it must hurt the Father when He sees His beloved in adulterous abandon pursue after a Hellenistic Savior that has been created to replace Him. Hasatan is so conniving and all encompassing in his efforts to separate man from His Creator. It must be our mission to keep this thing in its proper perspective. Living Torah is the absolute best way in which to maintain this proper balance. It is also our mission to somehow teach our wayward cousins who are emeshed in the muck and mire of religion (i.e., Christianity) the truth about the love of Yehovah and how that love has translated into the mission and work of His adopted Son.
Happy beginning of the 10th Biblical Month (as the renewed moon was sighted over Israel yesterday) and a blessed remainder of Hanukkah. Shalom.
*Churchianity–a term that some Hebrew Roots folks use to describe denominational Christianity and the overarching concept of being “Churched” (my perceptions of the term which is not an official terms by the way).
Many in the Hebraic Roots/Messianic Community reject Hanukkah as a legitimate time of observance and celebration. The primary reasons are that Hanukkah is not one of the mandated Feasts of Yehovah and that Hanukkah is not found in our Bibles. Both of these are sound and accurate reasons for certain, but these and other reasons cause the unknowing believer to have a myopic view of their Faith and miss out on tremendous benefits to be had by an observance/celebration of this great Feast. In this episode of Torah Living, I submit to you, the True Believers in Messiah, 5-reasons to celebrate Hanukkah; and for those who still are on the fence whether or not to celebrate Christmas (for whatever reason) reasons to reject Christmas altogether. This my dear fellow Saints is Torah Living 43-5 Reasons to celebrate Hanukkah (and reject Christmas).
1. Yeshua observed the feast of Hanukkah
A. The only mention of the Yeshua-Hanukkah connection is found in John 8:12-10:39
2. We need a radical re-dedication to our Faith which is Torah-based
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Jos 24:15 KJV)
Cleansing the Temple after it was defiled by the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes. (1 M. 4)
References:
Denis Otero’s Teaching on Hanukkah
Michael Rood’s Chronological Gospels-The Life and 70-Week Ministry of Yeshua the Messiah
Continuing my Torah studies, I’ve come to Deuteronomy 7:7 &8:
7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deu 7:7-8 KJV)
Does this not describe accurately the situation of our Faith? Upon first coming in to the knowledge of the Hebraic Roots and the Messianic community, I was often concerned about the relative size of of our group. Indeed, our numbers in comparison with the number of orthodox-traditional Christian adherents is infantismal. I remember at one point conducting a google search in relation to the number of Hebraic Roots believers in the world today, only to be disappointed that no such numbers existed. In fact, simply trying to nail down what constituted a true Hebraic Roots/Messianic Faith was challenging. The overwhelming majority of websites and data that were associated with the Hebraic Roots/Messianic Community were Messianic Judaism in one form or another. I wish to make it known at this juncture that we are in no way associated with Judaism, Messianic or otherwise. Yeshua fought against Judaism during His 70–Week Life and Ministry, only to be crucified by the leaders of this religion that calls itself Hebraic Roots or Messianic. I’m not casting judgment upon those dear brothers and sisters who know about the Jewish Messiah but are in bondage to religion, which is what Judaism really is. Yeshua came to set His people free from the slavery and bondage of religion, and that includes Judaism. And I’m a firm believer that many who find themselves in Messianic Judaism, got into that mess unaware that they actually were not adhering to the true Faith spoken of by the brother of our Master Yeshua HaMaschiach. Heck, I came very close in my early years of examining the Hebraic Roots of giving over to Messianic Judaism as I became more and more convinced that Torah had to be my consuming passion and focus. As I focused solely on Torah (that is the rote obedience to Torah), I became slowly removed from Yeshua and the true Faith delivered to the first century saints. I began to identify more with the teachings of Jewish sages and rabbis than I did with the teachings of Yeshua Himself and His chosen apostles. This all happened quite slowly and over the course of time as I searched for teachings of Jewish leaders and instructors and began doubting the efficacy and applicability and genuiness of the teachings of the Apostle Shaul. In fact, I can pinpoint the time when much of my confusion over Shaul and his teachings occurred to me and I began leaning towards Messianic Judaism: and that was when I began reading Robert Eisenman’s book “James the Brother of Jesus.”
Eisenman’s book opened my eyes to the historical Jesus and many of the individuals associated with the first century Faith. Eisenman’s primary focus in part was on James’ role as the chosen leader of the Jerusalem assembly over the erroneously perceived teachings and doctrines of Paul and Peter being the head of the first-century Church. Beyond this, Eisenman compared and contrasted a mystical, unidentified-somewhat evil-character in many of the Essenes’ ancient writings (i.e., the primary occupants of the Qumran settlement and the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls) that was constantly in an insidious conflict with the righteous James. Eisenman argued that this unidentified-somewhat evil-character was Paul the apostle, who was actually a wolf in sheeps’ clothing, who was agressively attempting to hijack the Faith from the true head of the nascent Christian Faith. It was my reading of Eisenman’s material that set me on a journey that led me dangerously close to adopting Messianic Judaism “lock-stock-and barrel.”
Fortunately I was introduced to the teachings of Michael Rood and Arthur Bailey soon thereafter and it was their teachings that broke the hold of Judaism over my life. I accept a goodly amount of the information presented by Eisenman regarding James the Brother of Jesus. He provides what seems to be sound historical data. The problem with Eisenman’s work is that he attempts to apply match one of Yeshua’s chosen apostle, Shaul, to some mysterious, crazed, overly ambitious and evil character bent on taking over the Christian Faith to fulfill his evil desires. But then, we’re on a journey aren’t we. And I guess that’s why we must resist judging others who may not be grounded in the true Faith once delivered. Indeed, that old saying, “There but by the grace of God go I” rings ever so true. Yes, we are in a very very small group, outside the so-called orthodox and the traditional. To the orthodox and traditional, we appear as strange, abberant, cultic and lost. But then, so thought the other nations that surrounded ancient Israel. It may seem daunting at times, especially when we are trying to put forth the truth to a lost world. But here in Deuteronomy 7:7, we are reminded that we weren’t chosen because of our size, but because Yehovah loved us and He purposed to keep His word and it is through His wisdom and the work of His son Yeshua that we have been engrafted in to the heritage of Israel. Be blessed.