September 2021 - Page 3 of 4 - NazareneSpace Blog

The Branch of My Planting

The Branch of My Planting
By
James Scott Trimm

And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
(Matthew 2:23 KJV)

Some critics have attacked this verse saying that there is no such prophecy in the Tanak. However the truth is that such a prophecy concerning the Messiah is found throughout the Tanak.

To begin with it is important to know that “Nazareth” in Hebrew is “Natzret” from the Hebrew word “Netzer” meaning “branch” and there is a whole series of prophecies in the Tanak that identify the Messiah as “the branch”.

Perhaps the most obvious of these is Isaiah 11:1:

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
(Isaiah 11:1 KJV)

There is no question that this is a Messianic prophecy, in fact the Targum renders this verse as follows:

And a King shall come forth from the sons of Jesse,
and from his children’s children the Messiah shall be anointed.
(Is. 11:1 Targum Jonathan)

And in another passage Isaiah says:

In that day shall the branch of the LORD [YHWH] be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
(Is. 4:2 KJV)

The Targum also interprets this verse as speaking of Messiah:

At that time shall the Messiah of the Lord be for joy and for glory to those that are escaped and those that keep the law shall be for greatness and for praise.
(Is. 4:2 Targum)

This is actually only two of a number of passages which refer to the Messiah as “The Branch” (sometimes with the Hebrew word NETZER and sometimes with the Hebrew word TZEMACH ).

The various uses of the term “Branch” in the various passages reveal to us four major aspects of the Messiah:

MESSIAH THE SERVANT

Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH [TZEMACH].
(Zech. 3:8 KJV)

Although the immediate context refers to Joshua the High Priest at the time of Zechariah (whom Rashi identifies as Zerubbabel), it is also clearly presenting Joshua as a type of the Messiah designated as “my servant the BRANCH”.

Of course the name “Joshua” in the Hebrew (Yahushua) is a variation of the Hebrew name Yeshua (Yeshua is short for Yahushua).

The Messiah is called “my servant” in several passages in Isaiah known as the four servant songs (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-12; 50:4-11 & 52:7-53:12). These passages describe a suffering servant Messiah who suffers and dies to redeem his brothers.

As we read in the Wisdom of Solomon:

12: Therefore let us trouble the Righteous One; because he is not pleasant to us, and he stands up against our doings: and he reviles us for our transgression of the Torah, and records against us the trespasses of our audacity.
13: He professes that the knowledge of Elohim is his: and he says concerning himself “I am the Son of Elohim”
14: He is a rebuker of our thoughts.
15: He is heavy upon us even to behold: because his way of life is not like others, his ways are different.
16: We are esteemed by him as impure: he abstained from our ways like from impurity: he blesses the ways and the end of the righteous, and he boasts that Elohim is his father.
17: Let us see if his words are true: and let us test him by his departure.
18: For if the Righteous One is the Son of Elohim, he will receive him, and deliver him from the hand of those who rise up against him.
19: With despitefulness and with torment let us examine him, that we may know the concern of his humility, and be harmful to him.
20: To a shameful death let us condemn him: we shall be upon him and shall question his words.
21: These insipid things they did think, and were deceived: because their own wickedness has blinded them.
22: And they did not know the mysteries of Elohim, neither hoped they for the reward of the pure, and they did not discern an old soul without blemish.
(Wisdom of Solomon 2:12-22 – from my ongoing work on the HRV Apocrypha- Translated from the Peshitta Aramaic)

This actually recalls an account in the Torah concerning the life of Joseph. When his brothers cast Joseph into the pit we read:

20 Come now therefore and let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits. And we will say, An evil beast has devoured him. And we shall see what will become of his dreams.
(Gen. 37:20 HRV)

Joseph’s life was a type of the first coming of Messiah which parallels the Rabbinical Messiah ben Yoseph. The Suffering Messiah is called Messiah ben Yoseph because his brothers were redeemed by his suffering.

Like Joseph the Patriarch, Yeshua was betrayed by his own for a few pieces of silver (Gen. 37:28) he was cast into “the pit” (death) and raised back up so that he might redeem his brothers, Like Joseph, Yeshua’s teaching and revelation angered his brothers, who sought to put his claims to the test by casting him into the pit (of death).

So one aspect of the Branch is the Suffering Servant Messiah with Yosef (Joseph) as an antitype.

THE PRIESTLY MESSIAH – THE MAN

11 Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest;
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH [TZEMACH]; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
(Zech. 6:11-13 KJV)

This passage is again speaking of Joshua (identified by Rashi as Zerubbabel) in its literal meaning, but also presents Joshua as a type of the Messiah who will rebuild the Temple and who serves has a heavenly Priest.

Here Messiah is portrayed in type as “the man whose name is The BRANCH” which recalls the Messiah as a mortal man, as we see in the “Son of Man” in Daniel:

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
(Daniel 7:13 KJV)

When the Essenes of the Qumran community wrote of the two Messiah they spoke of a priestly Messiah and a kingly Messiah.

Zerubabbel was a type of the priestly office of Messiah which parallels the Qumran concept of the “Messiah of Aaron”. He is the Messiah of Aaron because he ministers in the heavenly Holy of Holies, and will restore (either rebuild or purify) the Temple on earth. Zerubabbel is an important figure in 1Esdras in which is an important type of the restorative work of Messiah ( see: 1Esdras: A Picture of the Restoration )

So one aspect of the branch is the man called the Branch, with Zerubbabel as an antitype, a priestly Messiah.

KING MESSIAH

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
(Isaiah 11:1 KJV)

5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
(Jer. 23:5 KJV)

The Branch also reveals the Messianic King who will come and reign from David’s throne forever.

In the Torah we read:

10 The scepter shall not depart from Y’hudah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And unto him, shall the obedience of the peoples be.
(Gen. 49:10)

Who is this “Shiloh”?

This Gemara also asks “What is Messiah’s name?” Rabbi Shila offers the answer: “His name is Shiloh, for it is written, ‘until Shiloh comes.” (b.San. 98b)

The Targums (Onkelos, Pseudo-Jonathan and Yerushalmi) all have “until Messiah comes” in place of “until Shiloh comes”.

We read also in Isaiah:

5 (9:6) For a child is born unto us, a son is given unto us, and the government is upon His shoulder: and His Name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty El, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
6 (9:7) That the government may be increased, and of peace there be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom: to establish it and to uphold it, through justice and through righteousness, from henceforth even forever. The zeal of YHWH Tzva’ot does perform this.
(Is. 9:5-6 (6-7))

King David was a type of the second coming of Messiah which parallels the Rabbinical Messiah ben David. The Suffering Messiah is called Messiah ben David because he comes and reigns from David’s throne forever..

So one aspect of the Branch is the Kingly Messiah with David as an antitype.

YHWH THE BRANCH

In that day shall the branch of the LORD [YHWH] be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
(Is. 4:2 KJV)

5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD [YHWH] OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
(Jer. 23:5-6 KJV)

Isaiah calls Messiah “the branch of YHWH” and Jeremiah says “he shall be called, YHWH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS”.

Here we are told in no uncertain terms that the Branch would be YHWH HIMSELF.

Man was created in the Image of Elohim and that Image of Elohim that served as the blue print for man’s creation was the Messiah.

Isaiah writes:

Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
(Isaiah 60:21 KJV)

In this passage it is the Assembly of Israel that is being identified as “The Branch”, however as we will see later, there is an identification between Messiah and his people.

The Zohar sites this passage (Is. 66:21) as follows:

AND THE LORD GOD FORMED MAN. “Man” here refers to Israel, whom God shaped at that time both for this world and for the future world….. Forthwith at that time He planted Israel in the holy Garden of Eden, as it is said: “and YHWH ELOHIM planted” (Gen. 2:8). The two names here refer to the Father and the Mother; the “Garden” is the Shekinah on earth, and “Eden” is the supernal Mother; “the man” is the Middle Pillar; the Shekinah was to be his plantation, his spouse who was never to depart from him and was to be his perpetual delight. Thus God at that time planted Israel as a holy shoot, as it is written, “the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, in which I glory” (Is. 60:21).
(Zohar 1:26a)

The Zohar is here commenting on a verse from Genesis:

8 And the YHWH Elohim planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
(Gen. 2:8)

The Zohar brings this together with:

Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
(Isaiah 60:21 KJV)

The Zohar then identifies the two names “YHWH” and “Elohim” as indicating “the Father and the Mother” because we know that man was created “male and female” in the image of YHWH (Gen. 1:26-27 see Zohar 1:22a). Eden represents the Heavenly Mother and the “garden” represents the Shekinah on earth. The “man” is the “Middle Pillar” and “The Branch of My planting” (Is. 60:21). Elsewhere in the Zohar we are told that the “Middle Pillar” is the “Son of Yah”:

Better is a neighbor that is near, than a brother far off. This neighbor is the Middle Pillar in the Godhead, which is the Son of Yah.
(Zohar 2:115)

So now lets “decode” the verse as understood by the Zohar:

8 And the YHWH Elohim [Father and Mother] planted a garden [the Shekinah on earth] eastward in Eden [Heavenly Mother]; and there he put the man [The Son of Yah] whom he had formed.
(Gen. 2:8)

The Father and Mother planted the Shekinah on earth eastward in the Heavenly Mother and there they put the Son of Yah, the BRANCH. the Shekinah was to be the BRANCH’S plantation, his spouse who was never to depart from him and was to be his perpetual delight.

Here we have a picture of the Branch as the Image of the Father and Mother symbolized in antitype by the first Adam [at this time both male and female] symbolizing the Son of Yah and the Shekinah on earth.

So we have two aspects of the BRANCH: male and female. As we read in Jeremiah “he [the Branch] shale be called”

And then later “she [the Branch] shall be called”:

15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD [YHWH] our righteousness.
(Jer. 33:15-16 KJV)

The BRANCH is therefore the “fullness of the everlasting Godhead” (Col. 2:9) because in Him are both the Father and Mother reconciled as one.

The First Adam [Adam with Eve still within him] was a type of the Messiah which parallels the Rabbinical Middle Pillar, the Son of Yah, and Eve (extracted from Adam) is a type of the Shekinnah on Earth.

So one aspect of the Branch is the Messiah as YHWH.

FOUR ASPECTS OF THE BRANCH

The four aspects of the Branch are represented by the four faces of the “four living creatures” Ezekiel sees in his vision of the throne:

As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.
(Ezekiel 1:10)

As well as the faces of the four beasts seen by Yochanan (John) in his vision of the throne:

And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
(Rev. 4:7)

An ox/calf is a beast of burden and represents the BRANCH as “My Servant”.

The face of the man represents the “man called the BRANCH”.

The face of the lion, the symbol of the Tribe of Judah represents the Kingly BRANCH.

The eagle, which flies high above man and looks down upon all from above, represents the BRANCH as YHWH.

There is of course much more to be learned from these types and antitypes of the BRANCH which will help us better understand the Messiah.

ISRAEL: THE BRANCH OF MY PLANTING

Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
(Isaiah 60:21 KJV)

We mentioned above that this passage refers in its primary meaning to the Assembly of Israel, but also to the Messiah. This is because the Assembly of Israel is the Body of Messiah, an allegorical representation of Messiah. When Mattitiyahu 2:13-15 quotes Hoshea 11:`1 and applies this sonship to Messiah he is referring to the reality behind the allegory of Hosea 11:1 and Sh’mot 4:22-23. In effect Matthew is saying that Yeshua the Messiah is the figure that later Rabbinic Judaism came to call “The Son of Yah”. Therefore the Torah in Sh’mot 4:22-23 is prompting us that there is an allegorical relationship between Israel and Messiah:

So how is the Messiah allegorically like Israel?

* Both made a major impact on the world.

* Both were born through a biological miracle on their mother’s womb.

* Both were taken into Egypt to save their lives.

* Both are called up out of Egypt.

* Both have been despised and rejected by man.

* Rome attempted to execute each of them.

* Both are resurrected never to die again.

By saying, “Israel is my first-born son”, ELOHIM is saying that by oppressing Israel, it is as if Pharaoh was oppressing the Son of Yah, the Messiah himself.

In fact the Tanya makes use of this same allegory which connects the Son of Yah as spoken of in the Zohar with Israel:

So, allegorically speaking, have the souls of Jews risen in the [Divine] thought, as it is written, “My firstborn son is Israel,” and “Ye are children unto the Lord your G-d”. That is to say, just as a child is derived from his father’s brain, so— to use an anthropomorphism— the soul of each Israelite is derived from G-d’s (blessed be He) thought and wisdom.
(Tanya; Likutei Amarim; Chapter 2)

Similarly is it with the human soul, which is divided in two— sechel (intellect) and middot (emotional attributes). The intellect includes chochmah, binah and da at (ChaBaD), whilst the middot are love of G-d, dread and awe of Him, glorification of Him, and so forth. ChaBaD [the intellectual faculties] are called “mothers” and source of the middot, for the latter are “offspring” of the former.
(Tanya; Likutei Amarim; Chapter 3)

So the Branch is not just the Messiah, but the Branch is also the Assembly of Israel as well. Thus he is the Nazarene (Mat. 2:23) and we are “Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5). The Hebrew NETZER (Nazarene) means “Branch” and the Hebrew NETZARIM (Nazarenes) means “BRANCHES”. Yeshua said of the Assembly “you are the branches” (Jn. 15:5). And in Romans 11:16-27 believers are called “branches” (NETZARIM) and proselytes are referred to as “branches” that have been “grafted in”.

The Zohar also uses the imagery of being “grafted in” to describe a proselyte’s being “grafted in” to Judah:

For this reason proselytes will no longer be admitted in the days of the Messiah (that is in the Messianic Kingdom). The Shekinah will be like a vine on which there cannot be grafted any branch from another species, and Israel shall be “every tree pleasant to see”, and their former beauty shall be restored to them, of which we are told: “He cast from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel” (Lam. 2:1).
(Zohar 1:26)

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1st Esdras: A Picture of the Restoration

1st Esdras:
A Picture of the Restoration
By
James Scott Trimm

Everything in the Scriptures is there for a purpose, so what is the purpose for 1st Esdras? The vast majority of this book rehashes material found in 2Chonicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, with completely new material only appearing in the account of the three bodyguards in the court of King Darius in 3:1-5:6. (This book is synoptic (parallel) to Ezra-Nehemiah and reproduces the material of 2Chron. 35:1-36:23; most of Ezra and Neh. 7:38-8:12 along with one added story.) So why is this book there? Why not simply include the story of three bodyguards alone, or incorporate that story into the Book of Ezra? Why was Ezra inspired to write a second book? And why was it a book HaSatan tried so desperately to get out of your Scriptures?

The answer is that 1st Esdras is about the return of Judah after the Babylonian captivity. It is a type of the restoration of the House of Judah. In previous blogs I have written about the Apostasy and Restoration and the implications of Isaiah 29 and Romans 11 for Restoration of the ancient sect of Nazarene Judaism. 1Esdras includes the material that it includes, in just the order that it does, so as to teach us a typological message about the restoration we are experiencing right now!

The book begins with a brief recount of the last days of the Kingdom of Israel (1Esdras 1:1-58 parallels 2Chron. 35:1-36:21).

The book moves on to the decree to return to the Land of Judah (1Esdras 2:1-15 parallels Ezra 1:1-11 & 1Esdras 2:16-30 parallels Ezra 4:7-24) but then gives us the additional information about the three bodyguards in Ezra 3:1-5:6)

The added story (3:1-5:6) recounts how three of Darius’ guards (one of whom is Zerubbabel) debate which is strongest: wine; the king, women or truth. Zerubbabel argues that women are stronger than a king, but that truth is stronger than either. His argument is so good that Darius rewards him by allowing him to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.

Why is this story here? It is here to teach us something. In Ezra 1:1-11 and 4:7-24 Ezra tells us about the decree to return of the House of Judah, but 1Esdras tells us that this return was fueled by a revelation Zerubavel received while yet in the captivity, a revelation of the strength of truth so as to overcome all things.

In the story we are presented with three things that are strong, but not as strong as truth: wine, kings and women. These represent the strength of Babylon, which is no match for the strength of truth!

Wine brings on drunkenness and delusion and is often associated in the Scriptures with apostasy:

9 Stupefy yourselves, and be stupid! Blind yourselves, and be blind: you that are
drunken, but not with wine; that stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For YHWH has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your
eyes: the prophets and your heads, the seers, has He covered. (quoted in Rom. 11:8)
11 And the vision of all this is become unto you as the words of a writing that is sealed,…
(Isaiah 29:9-11 HRV)

Bavel has been a golden cup in YHWH’s hand, that made all the earth drunken. The
nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations are mad.
(Jer. 51:7 HRV)

Kings represent political and military might. This brings to mind the political and military might of the Beast of Revelation 13:

1 And I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up from the sea that had ten horns and seven heads: and upon his horns, ten diadems, and upon his head, the name of blasphemy.
2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet like those of a bear, and his mouth [was] like that of lions. And the dragon gave to him his power, and his throne, and great authority.
3 And one of his heads was, as it were, wounded to death: and he was resurrected [from] the wound of death, and the whole world was amazed after the beast.
4 And they worshipped the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast. And they worshipped the beast saying, Who is like this beast, and who is able to make war with him?
(Rev. 13:1-4 HRV)

Finally there is the seductive power of women. This recalls the great whore of Babylon who seduces believers away from YHWH. The picture of the king’s concubine manipulation and control of the king in 1Esdras 4:28-32, recalls the unholy alliance between the Great Whore as she rides the Beast (Rev. 13)

All three of the great strengths of Babylon are pictured in Revelation 17 as the Great Whore rides the Beast with the cup of the wine of her fornication in her hand.

2 With whom the kings of the earth have fornicated, and all the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk, from the wine of her fornication.
3 And he led me to the wilderness in the Spirit: and I saw a woman who was sitting on a red beast that was full of names of blasphemy; that had seven heads and ten horns.
(Rev. 17:2-3 HRV)

Thus wine, kings and woman represent the strength of Babylon.

Zerubavel agrees that wine is strong and that kings are stronger, but he also realizes that both of these are just tools for the Great Whore. Zerubavel recognizes that stronger than these three strengths of Babylon is truth which is strongest of all!

Upon their coming out from Babylon, Judah begins to a restoration based on this revelation that truth overcomes all of the strength of Babylon.

The first thing they do is to “Begin to build the House of YHWH” (1Esdras 6:2). Likewise, based upon the revelation of truth, this last days restoration and coming forth from Babylon began by beginning to rebuild the spiritual House of YHWH, the Assembly of Elohim, built not of stones, but of believers:

19 Henceforth, you are neither strangers nor foreigners, but sons of the city, who are sanctified, and sons of the house of Eloah.
20 And you are built upon the foundation of the emissaries and of the prophets: and Yeshua the Messiah has become the head of the corner of the building.
21 And in Him all the building is fit together and is growing into a Set-Apart Temple in YHWH,
22 While also you are built in Him, for a habitation of Eloah, by the Spirit.
(Eph. 2:19-22 HRV)

Of course Ephesians tells us that the unity of this body is built upon its leadership:

11 And He gave some: emissaries, and some prophets, and some proclaimers, and some pastors, and some teachers,
12 For the perfecting of the Set-Apart-Ones: for the work of the service; for the edification of the body of the Messiah,
13 Until all of us become one and the same, in the Trust and in the knowledge of the Son of Eloah: and one complete man, according to the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Messiah.
14 And we should not be infants, who are shaken and turned about by every wind of the deceitful teachings of the sons of men, who by their craftiness are plotting to deceive:
(Eph. 4:11-14 HRV)

And likewise Ezra’s Restoration of the House of Judah also involved the restoration of the Beit Din:

23: And you, Ezra, according to the Wisdom of Elohim ordain judges and justices, that they may judge in all Syria and Phenice all those that know the Torah of your Elohim; and those that know it not you shall teach.
(1Esdras 8:23)

Finally Ezra’s Restoration of the House of Judah involved reading the Torah to the people, teaching it, and explaining its meaning to them:

38: And the whole multitude came together with one accord into the broad place of the set-apart porch toward the east:
39: And they spake unto Ezra the cohen and reader, that he would bring the Torah of Moshe, that was given of the Adonai YHWH of Yisrael.
40: So Ezra the chief cohen brought the Torah unto the whole multitude from man to woman, and to all the cohanim, to hear Torah in the first day of the seventh month.
41: And he read in the broad court before the set-apart porch from morning unto midday, before both men and women; and the multitude gave heed unto the Torah.
42: And Ezra the cohen and reader of the Torah stood up upon a pulpit of wood, which was made for that purpose. …

45: Then took Ezra the Book of the Torah before the multitude: for he sat above them all honorably in the first place in the sight of them all.
46: And when he opened the Torah, they stood all straight up. So Ezra blessed Adonai YHWH Elyon, the Elohim of hosts, Almighty.
47: And all the people answered, Amen; and lifting up their hands they fell to the ground, and worshipped YHWH.
48: Also Yeshua, Hanan, Sherevyah, Adinus, Akuv, Shabtai, Auteas, Maianeas, and K’lita, Azaryah, and Yozavad, and Ananias, Biatas, the L’vi’im, taught the Torah of YHWH, making them all to understand it.
49: Then spake Attharates unto Ezra the chief cohen. and reader, and to the L’vi’im that taught the multitude, even to all, saying,
50: This day is set-apart unto YHWH; (for they all wept when they heard the Torah:)
51: Go then, and eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send part to them that have nothing;
52: For this day is set-apart unto YHWH: and be not sorrowful; for YHWH will bring you to honor.
53: So the L’vi’im published all things to the people, saying, This day is set-apart to YHWH; be not sorrowful.
54: Then went they their way, every one to eat and drink, and make merry, and to give part to them that had nothing, and to make great cheer;
55: Because they understood the words wherein they were instructed, and for which they had been assembled.
(1Esdras 9:38-55 parallels Neh. 7:74-8:12)

Likewise in this Last Days Restoration of the House of Judah we must teach the Torah to the people whom have been called out of Babylon so that they may understand it.

Babylon has strength in the wine of her deception and in the political and military might of her kings. She may keep the masses drunk with her wine and controlled with her kings, but she is no match for the strength of truth by which true Nazarene Judaism is being restored in these last days!

And that is why HaSatan did not want you to have 1st Esdras in your Bibles!

And that does not count the online Scripture commentaries and related free online materials we are producing regularly, as well as my ongoing work on the Scripture Restoration Project!

Although I have written a handful of books that are for sale, I have learned that the way to have the greatest impact on the world, is to make information freely available on the internet.

It is likely that no other ministry puts out this much high quality free teaching.

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And a River Went Out of Eden: Philo’s Midrash on the Four Labors of Wisdom

And a River Went Out of Eden
Philo’s Midrash on the Four Labors of Wisdom
By
James Scott Trimm

in the Wisdom of Solomon we read:

5 If riches are a desirable possession in life,
what is richer than wisdom who effects all things?
6 And if understanding is effective,
who more than she is fashioner of what exists?
7 And if any one loves righteousness,
her labors are virtues;
for she teaches self-control and prudence,
justice and courage;
nothing in life is more profitable for men than these.
(Wisdom of Solomon 8:5-7 RSV)

The first century Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria also composed a beautiful midrash on Genesis 2:8-14 about these four virtues. These verses of Genesis read:

8 And YHWH Elohim, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
9 And out of the earth, made YHWH Elohim to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was parted and became four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasses the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12 And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasses the whole land of Kush.
14 And the name of the third river is Tigris: that is it which goes toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
(Gen. 2:8-14 HRV)

Philo saw the presence of “an allegorical spirit” in the Torah, and specifically in these verses about the Garden of Eden or Paradise, an allegory in which he saw “…the paradise, made by God, all the plants were endowed in the souls and reason, producing for their fruit the different virtues,…”. He writes:

(153) …But in the paradise, made by God, all the plants were endowed in the souls and reason, producing for their fruit the different virtues, and, moreover, imperishable wisdom and prudence, by which honourable and dishonourable things are distinguished from one another, and also a life free from disease, and exempt from corruption, and all other qualities corresponding to these already mentioned. (154) And these statements appear to me to be dictated by a philosophy which is symbolical rather than strictly accurate. For no trees of life or of knowledge have ever at any previous time appeared upon the earth, nor is it likely that any will appear hereafter. But I rather conceive that Moses was speaking in an allegorical spirit, intending by his paradise to intimate the dominant character of the soul, which is full of innumerable opinions as this figurative paradise was of trees….
(On Creation 153-154)

Elsewhere Philo writes about the river that went out of Eden to water the garden:

(125) As, therefore, the seeds and plants which are put into the ground grow and blossom through being irrigated, and are thus made fertile for the production of fruits, but if they are deprived of moisture they wither away, so likewise the soul, as it appears when it is watered with the wholesome stream of wisdom, shoots forth, and brings fruit to perfection….
(127) On which account it is said in Genesis, “And a fountain went up from the earth, and watered all the face of the Earth.” (Gen. 2:6). …In this way in truth, it is that the word (Logos) of God irrigates the virtues; for that is the beginning and the fountain of all good actions. (128) And the lawgiver shows this, when he says, “And a river went out of Eden to water the Paradise; and from thence it is divided into four Heads.” (Gen. 2:10) For there are four generic virtues: prudence, courage, self-control, and justice. And of these, every single one is a princess and a ruler; and he who has acquired them is, from the moment of the acquisition, a ruler and a king, even if he has no abundance of any kind of treasure; (129) for the meaning of the expression, “it is divided into four heads,” is … nor distance; but virtue exhibits the pre-eminence and the power. And these spring from the word [Logos] of God as from one root, which he compares to a river, on account of the unceasing and everlasting flow of salutary words and doctrines, by which it increases and nourishes the souls that love God.
(Philo; On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile; 125, 127-129)
Notice that Philo says:
And of these, every single one is a princess and a ruler; and he who has acquired them is, from the moment of the acquisition, a ruler and a king, even if he has no abundance of any kind of treasure;
This connects neatly with my last article “Storing up Treasure in Heaven: The Four Labors of Wisdom“

Philo gives a more detailed explanation in Book I of his Allegorical Interpretations (I have quoted the relevant verse from the HRV version for reference):

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was parted and became four heads.
(Gen. 2:10 HRV)

XIX. (63) “And a river goes forth out of Eden to water the Paradise. From thence it is separated into four heads: the name of the one is Pheison. That is the one which encircles the whole land of Evilat. There is the country where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. There also are the carbuncle and the sapphire stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon; this is that which encircles the whole land of Ethiopia. And the third river is the Tigris. This is the river which flows in front of the Assyrians. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” (Gen. 2:10-13) In these words Moses intends to sketch out the particular virtues. And they also are four in number, prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. Now the greatest river from which the four branches flow off, is generic virtue, which we have already called goodness; and the four branches are the same number of virtues. (64) Generic virtue, therefore, derives its beginning from Eden, which is the wisdom of God; which rejoices and exults, and triumphs, being delighted at and honoured on account of nothing else, except its Father, God, and the four particular virtues, are branches from the generic virtue, which like a river waters all the good actions of each, with an abundant stream of benefits. (65) Let us examine the expressions of the writer: “A river,” says he, “goes forth out of Eden, to water the Paradise.” This river is generic goodness; and this issues forth out of the Eden of the wisdom of God, and that is the word of God. For it is according to the word of God, that generic virtue was created. And generic virtue waters the Paradise: that is to say, it waters the particular virtues. But it does not derive its beginnings from any principle of locality, but from a principle of preeminence. For each of the virtues is really and truly a ruler and a queen. And the expression, “is separated,” is equivalent to “is marked off by fixed boundaries;” since wisdom appoints them settled limits with reference to what is to be done. Courage with respect to what is to be endured; temperance with reference to what is to be chosen; and justice in respect of what is to be distributed.
(Allegorical Interpretation I, 63-65)

Philo’s Midrash on Genesis 2:10 teaches that generic virtue goes out as an unceasing and everlasting flow from the Word of Elohim to increase and nourish specific virtues in the souls of those that love Elohim and that from there generic virtue is marked off by fixed boundaries as prudence, courage, self-control, and justice and that each of these is a ruler and a queen that helps us to rule over our passions.
I have often written about the Word of YHWH called in the Aramaic Targums the MEMRA and by Greek writers like Philo of Alexandria the LOGOS. See my article on the topic

Abraham’s Faith was in the MEMRA

In Genesis 15:6 we read concerning Avraham:

“And he believed in YHWH, and He counted it to him for righteousness.”
(Gen. 15:6)

The official Targum to this verse paraphrases:

“And he believed in the Word (Memra) of YHWH. And He counted it to him for righteousness.”
(Gen. 15:6 Targum Onkelos)

And Targum Psedo-Jonathan has:

“And he believed in YHWH, and had faith in the Word (Memra) of YHWH, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness.”
(Gen. 15:6 Targum Pseudo-Jonathan)

Philo of Alexandria made a very interesting comment about this verse (Gen. 15:6):

“It is best, therefore, to trust in God, and not in uncertain reasoning, or unsure conjectures. “Abraham trusted in the Lord, and it was counted to him for Righteousness” (Gen. 15:6) And Moses governed the people, being testified to that he was faithful with his whole house. But if we distrust our own reason (LOGOS, Word), we shall prepare and build ourselves a city of the mind which will destroy the truth.”
(Philo of Alexandria; Allegorical Interpretation, III, 228)

So Abraham’s faith was a rational faith, but what does this really mean?

The Memra is the Mind of YHWH

It is important to understand the MEMRA is the very expression of the Mind of YHWH. Philo of Alexandria makes this case as follows:

IV. We must mention as much as we can of the matters contained in his account, since to enumerate them all is impossible; for he embraces that beautiful world which is perceptible only by the intellect, as the account of the first day will show: (16) for God, as apprehending beforehand, as a God must do, that there could not exist a good imitation without a good model, and that of the things perceptible to the external senses nothing could be faultless which wax not fashioned with reference to some archetypal idea conceived by the intellect, when he had determined to create this visible world, previously formed that one which is perceptible only by the intellect, in order that so using an incorporeal model formed as far as possible on the image of God, he might then make this corporeal world, a younger likeness of the elder creation, which should embrace as many different genera perceptible to the external senses, as the other world contains of those which are visible only to the intellect. (17) But that world which consists of ideas, it were impious in any degree to attempt to describe or even to imagine: but how it was created, we shall know if we take for our guide a certain image of the things which exist among us. When any city is founded through the exceeding ambition of some king or leader who lays claim to absolute authority, and is at the same time a man of brilliant imagination, eager to display his good fortune, then it happens at times that some man coming up who, from his education, is skilful in architecture, and he, seeing the advantageous character and beauty of the situation, first of all sketches out in his own mind nearly all the parts of the city which is about to be completed–the temples, the gymnasia, the prytanea, and markets, the harbour, the docks, the streets, the arrangement of the walls, the situations of the dwelling houses, and of the public and other buildings. (18) Then, having received in his own mind, as on a waxen tablet, the form of each building, he carries in his heart the image of a city, perceptible as yet only by the intellect, the images of which he stirs up in memory which is innate in him, and, still further, engraving them in his mind like a good workman, keeping his eyes fixed on his model, he begins to raise the city of stones and wood, making the corporeal substances to resemble each of the incorporeal ideas. (19) Now we must form a somewhat similar opinion of God, who, having determined to found a mighty state, first of all conceived its form in his mind, according to which form he made a world perceptible only by the intellect, and then completed one visible to the external senses, using the first one as a model.

V. (20) As therefore the city, when previously shadowed out in the mind of the man of architectural skill had no external place, but was stamped solely in the mind of the workman, so in the same manner neither can the world which existed in ideas have had any other local position except the divine reason (Logos) which made them; for what other place could there be for his powers which should be able to receive and contain, I do not say all, but even any single one of them whatever, in its simple form? (21) And the power and faculty which could be capable of creating the world, has for its origin that good which is founded on truth; for if any one were desirous to investigate the cause on account of which this universe was created, I think that he would come to no erroneous conclusion if he were to say as one of the ancients did say: “That the Father and Creator was good; on which account he did not grudge the substance a share of his own excellent nature, since it had nothing good of itself, but was able to become everything.” (22) For the substance was of itself destitute of arrangement, of quality, of animation, of distinctive character, and full of all disorder and confusion; and it received a change and transformation to what is opposite to this condition, and most excellent, being invested with order, quality, animation, resemblance, identity, arrangement, harmony, and everything which belongs to the more excellent idea.
(Philo; On Creation IV, 15b-V, 22)

The Memra is the Rational Order of the Universe

Philo taught that the universe is an effect that must have a cause, i.e. a Creator, and that this Creator has a preference for order as opposed to chaos, as expressed by the order of the universe itself. Philo speaks of Moses account of the Creation saying:

(3) And his exordium, as I have already said, is most admirable; embracing the creation of the world, under the idea that the law corresponds to the world and the world to the law, and that a man who is obedient to the law, being, by so doing, a citizen of the world, arranges his actions with reference to the intention of nature, in harmony with which the whole universal world is regulated. (4) Accordingly no one, whether poet or historian, could ever give expression in an adequate manner to the beauty of his ideas respecting the creation of the world; for they surpass all the power of language, and amaze our hearing, being too great and venerable to be adapted to the sense of any created being.
(On Creation 1-4)

Elsewhere Philo writes:

…for he [Moses] was not like any ordinary compiler of history, studying to leave behind him records of ancient transactions as memorials to future ages for the mere sake of affording pleasure without any advantage; but he traced back the most ancient events from the beginning of the world, commencing with the creation of the universe, in order to make known two most necessary principles. First, that the same being was the father and creator of the world, and likewise the lawgiver of truth; secondly, that the man who adhered to these laws, and clung closely to a connection with and obedience to nature, would live in a manner corresponding to the arrangement of the universe with a perfect harmony and union, between his words and his actions and between his actions and his words.
(On the Life of Moses 2, 48)

To Philo Natural Law is revealed in the very order of the universe, which is the Creator’s work, and thus reveals the will of the Creator.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul also addresses this concept that Natural Law is revealed in the very order of the universe, which is the Creator’s work, and thus reveals the will of the Creator.

[17] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
[18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
[19] Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
[20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
[21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
[22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
[23] And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
[24] Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
[25] Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
[26] For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
[27] And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
[28] And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
[29] Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
[30] Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
[31] Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
[32] Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
(Romans 1:17-32 KJV)

And after a few other words he says:

[13] (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
[14] For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
[15] Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
[16] In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
(Romans 2:13-16 KJV)

Man Connects to the Memra Thru Rational Thought

The Memra was the “likeness of YHWH” which served as the model for man’s creation, as we read in the Targum Jonathan:

And the Word [Memra] of YHWH created man in his likeness,
in the likeness of YHWH, YHWH created,
male and female created He them.
(Targ. Jonathan Gen. 1:27)

Philo of Alexandria elaborates on this idea saying:

XLVIII. (139) And that he is superior to all these animals in regard of his soul, is plain. For God does not seem to have availed himself of any other animal existing in creation as his model in the formation of man; but to have been guided, as I have said before, by his own reason [Logos] alone. On which account, Moses affirms that this man was an image and imitation of God, being breathed into in his face in which is the place of the sensations, by which the Creator endowed the body with a soul. Then, having placed the mind in the dominant part as king, he gave him as a body of satellites, the different powers calculated to perceive colours and sounds, and flavours and odours, and other things of similar kinds, which man could never have distinguished by his own resources without the sensations. And it follows of necessity that an imitation of a perfectly beautiful model must itself be perfectly beautiful, for the word of God surpasses even that beauty which exists in the nature which is perceptible only by the external senses, not being embellished by any adventitious beauty, but being itself, if one must speak the truth, its most exquisite embellishment….

After a few more words, Philo concludes that all men therefore have within them a fragment or emanation from the Memra through which he connects with both the Creator and the Creation through the unique power of rational thought:

LI. (145) We have now then set forth the beauty of the first created man in both respects, in body and soul, if in a way much inferior to the reality, still to the extent of our power, and the best of our ability. And it cannot be but that his descendants, who all partake of his original character, must preserve some traces of their relationship to their father, though they may be but faint. And what is this relationship? (146) Every man in regard of his intellect is connected with divine reason [Logos], being an impression of, or a fragment or a ray of that blessed nature; but in regard of the structure of his body he is connected with the universal world. For he is composed of the same materials as the world, that is of earth, and water, and air and fire, each of the elements having contributed its appropriate part towards the completion of most sufficient materials, which the Creator was to take in order to fashion this visible image.
(Philo On Creation 139, 145-146)

In other words we can connect with the Creator through rational thought, by examining the reflection of His Mind as expressed in the order of his Creation, and by virtue of the fact that the MEMRA, which is the Mind of YHWH is at its very essence rational thought (logic) itself. This also leads us to the conclusion that the rational man submits his will to be in agreement with the Creator as revealed in the Creation. This does not mean that man has no freewill, but it does mean that the upright and rational man must learn to submit his will to the reality of the world in which we live and adjust to the reality of circumstances. In such a way a man can be oppressed in the world and remain at peace and even be joyful (more on this later).

Rational thought Produces Torah Virtues

King Solomon wrote:

And if a man love righteousness her [Wisdom’s] labors are virtues: for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice and courage: which are such things, as one can have nothing more profitable in their life.
(Wisdom of Solomon 8:7)

The 4th Book of Maccabees expands on this idea in detail:

15 Reasoning [Logos] is, then, intellect accompanied by a life of rectitude, putting foremost the consideration of wisdom.
16 And wisdom is a knowledge of divine and human things, and of their causes.
17 And this is contained in the education of the law; by means of which we learn divine things reverently, and human things profitably.
18 And the forms of wisdom are prudence, and justice, and courage, and temperance.
19 The leading one of these is prudence; by whose means, indeed, it is that reasoning bears rule over the passions.
(4Maccabees 1:15-19)

The Tanya of the Rebbe Zalman (founder of Chabad) gives a detailed explanation of this process, saying:

The intellect of the rational soul, which is the faculty that conceives any thing, is given the appellation of chochmah—כ”ח מ”ה— the “potentiality” of “what is.” When one brings forth this power from the potential into the actual, that is, when [a person] cogitates with his intellect in order to understand a thing truly and profoundly as it evolves from the concept which he has conceived in his intellect, this is called binah. These [chochmah and binah] are the very “father” and “mother” which give birth to love of G-d, and awe and dread of Him.
(Tanya; Likutei Amarim; Chapter 3)

The Tanya goes on to say:

For when the intellect in the rational soul deeply contemplates and immerses itself exceedingly in the greatness of G-d, how He fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds, and in the presence of Whom everything is considered as nothing— there will be born and aroused in his mind and thought the emotion of awe for the Divine Majesty, to fear and be humble before His blessed greatness, which is without end or limit, and to have the dread of G-d in his heart. Next, his heart will glow with an intense love, like burning coals, with a passion, desire and longing, and a yearning soul, towards the greatness of the blessed En Sof. This constitutes the culminating passion of the soul, of which Scripture speaks, as “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth,.. .” and “My soul thirsteth for G-d,…” and “My soul thirsteth for Thee….”
(Tanya; Likutei Amarim; Chapter 3)

You may recall that the Targum Jonathan had said of the Memra:

And the Word [Memra] of YHWH created man in his likeness,
in the likeness of YHWH, YHWH created,
male and female created He them.
(Targ. Jonathan Gen. 1:27)

This the Memra is the “male and female” image of YHWH. The Tanya discusses this idea saying:

Da’at, the etymology of which is to be found in the verse: “And Adam knew (yada) Eve,” implies attachment and union. That is, one binds his mind with a very firm and strong bond to, and firmly fixes his thought on, the greatness of the blessed En sof, without diverting his mind [from Him]. For even one who is wise and understanding of the greatness of the blessed En Sof, will not— unless he binds his knowledge and fixes his thought with firmness and perseverence— produce in his soul true love and fear, but only vain fancies. Therefore da’at is the basis of the middot and the source of their vitality; it contains chesed and gevurah, that is to say, love with its offshoots and fear with its offshoots.
(Tanya; Likutei Amarim; Chapter 3)

The Tanya teaches that the Wisdom of Torah is like a seed that implants and gestates in the womb of our understanding to produce a knowledge of Torahm just as a father and mother produce a son. This imagery draws on the very concepts of the Zohar which identify these with three pillars of the Godhead, and with the middle pillar headed by Da’at (knowledge) being identified as the “Son of Yah”.

Emotions Hinder Rational Thought

While rational thought leads us to the Torah and the will of the Creator, emotions, especially negative emotions, can cloud our thinking and impede our ability to live out the virtues that Torah should produce in our lives. As we read in 4th Maccabees:

3 If, then, reasoning appears to hold the mastery over the passions which stand in the way of temperance, such as gluttony and lust,
4 it surely also and manifestly has the rule over the affections which are contrary to justice, such as malice; and of those which are hindrances to courage, as wrath, and pain, and fear.
(4Macc. 4:3-4)

And as Philo writes:

For these passions are the causes of all good and of all evil; of good when they submit to the authority of dominant reason, and of evil when they break out of bounds and scorn all government and restraint.
(Life of Moses 1; VI, 26)

For this reason Philo taught that circumcision is “…a symbol of the excision of the pleasures which delude the mind…” (Philo on Circumcion)

The Memra is Master of the Emotions

While emotions can impede the clarity of the rational thought that connects us with the Memra and guides us to to live out the virtues that Torah should produce in our lives, there is a solution. Paul lists one of the “fruits of the Spirit” as “patience” or “self control” or “temperance” (Gen. 5:23 the second word, in Aramaic M’SAIB’RANUTA and in Greek EGKRATEIA).

His teaching is in keeping with the teaching of Ben Zoma who, in the Mishnah said: “Who is strong? He who controls his inclinations.” (m.Avot 4:1)
Moreover we read on 4th Maccabees:

3 If, then, reasoning appears to hold the mastery over the passions which stand in the way of temperance, such as gluttony and lust, …
7 I might prove to you, from may other considerations, that religious reasoning is sole master of the passions; 8 but I shall prove it with the greatest force from the fortitude of Eleazar, and seven brethren, and their mother, who suffered death in defence of virtue. …
13 The question, therefore, is, whether reasoning be absolute master of the passions….
29 And reasoning, the universal husbandman, purging, and pruning these severally, and binding round, and watering, and transplanting, in every way improves the materials of the morals and affections.
30 For reasoning is the leader of the virtues, but it is the sole ruler of the passions. Observe then first, through the very things which stand in the way of temperance, that reasoning is absolute ruler of the passions.
(4Macc. 4:3, 7, 13, 29-30)

Philo also writes that Moses, even before he was commissioned by YHWH, had this mastered self-control over his emotions:

VI. (25) And when he had passed the boundaries of the age of infancy he began to exercise his intellect; not, as some people do, letting his youthful passions roam at large without restraint, although in him they had ten thousand incentives by reason of the abundant means for the gratification of them which royal places supply; but he behaved with temperance and fortitude, as though he had bound them with reins, and thus he restrained their onward impetuosity by force. (26) And he tamed, and appeased, and brought under due command every one of the other passions which are naturally and as far as they are themselves concerned frantic, and violent, and unmanageable. And if any one of them at all excited itself and endeavoured to get free from restraint he administered severe punishment to it, reproving it with severity of language; and, in short, he repressed all the principal impulses and most violent affections of the soul, and kept guard over them as over a restive horse, fearing lest they might break all bounds and get beyond the power of reason which ought to be their guide to restrain them, and so throw everything everywhere into confusion. For these passions are the causes of all good and of all evil; of good when they submit to the authority of dominant reason, and of evil when they break out of bounds and scorn all government and restraint. (27) Very naturally, therefore, those who associated with him and every one who was acquainted with him marvelled at him, being astonished as at a novel spectacle, and inquiring what kind of mind it was that had its abode in his body, and that was set up in it like an image in a shrine; whether it was a human mind or a divine intellect, or something combined of the two; because he had nothing in him resembling the many, but had gone beyond them all and was elevated to a more sublime height. (28) For he never provided his stomach with any luxuries beyond those necessary tributes which nature has appointed to be paid to it, and as to the pleasures of the organs below the stomach he paid no attention to them at all, except as far as the object of having legitimate children was concerned. (29) And being in a most eminent degree a practiser of abstinence and self-denial, and being above all men inclined to ridicule a life of effeminacy and luxury (for he desired to live for his soul alone, and not for his body), he exhibited the doctrines of philosophy in all his daily actions, saying precisely what he thought, and performing such actions only as were consistent with his words, so as to exhibit a perfect harmony between his language and his life, so that as his words were such also was his life, and as his life was such likewise was his language, like people who are playing together in tune on a musical instrument. (Life of Moses 1; VI)

This process is taught in detail by the Rebbe Zalman in the Tanya.

YHWH does not wish us to seek to extinguish emotions but rather to transform them through self-control to enable us to develop clear judgment and inner calm. Logic, reflection, and concentration are the methods of such self-discipline.

The Memra is Messiah

The Targums also identify this Memra as the Messiah:

Behold, my servant, the Messiah, whom I bring,
my chosen in whom one delights:
as for my Word [MEMRA], I will put my Holy Spirit upon Him;
He shall reveal my judgment unto the nations.
2 He shall not cry aloud, nor raise a clamor,
and He shall not lift up His voice in the street.
3 The meek who are like a bruised reed He shall not break,
and the poor who are as a glimmering wick with Him, He will not quench:
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
4 He shall not faint nor be weary,
till He have established judgment in the earth;
and the isles shall wait for His Torah.
(Targum Jonathan to Isaiah 42:1-4)

Likewise Philo of Alexandria identified the Logos as the Messiah:

“The head of all things is the eternal Word (Logos) of the eternal God, under which, as if it were his feet or other limbs, is placed the whole world, over which He passes and firmly stands. Now it is not because Messiah is Lord that He passes and sits over the whole world, for His seat with His Father and God but because for its perfect fullness the world is in need of the care and superintendence of the best ordered dispensation, and for its own complete piety, of the Divine Word (Logos), just as living creatures (need) a head, without which it is impossible to live.”
(Q&A on Exodus, II, 117)

So we see that the Messiah is the very incarnation of this Word, as Yochanan writes:

Yochanan (John) writes:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him,
And without him was not any thing made that was made…
And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,)
full of grace and truth.
(John 1:1-3, 14 KJV)

And in Revelation he writes:

And he was clothed with a vesture,
dipped in blood: and his name is called
The Word of God.
(Rev. 19:13 KJV)

These statements MEANT something in context of Second Temple Judaism. And they meant something very significant. The concept of the “Word” (Greek: LOGOS; Aramaic: MEMRA; Hebrew: DAVAR) already had a very special and unique meaning in the Second Temple Era. The LOGOS/MEMRA was a very important concept in the Second Temple Era, and if we are to understand what Yochanan (John) is saying, we must understand this concept.
Philo’s Midrash on Genesis 2:10 teaches that generic virtue goes out as an unceasing and everlasting flow from the Word of Elohim to increase and nourish specific virtues in the souls of those that love Elohim and that from there generic virtue is marked off by fixed boundaries as prudence, courage, self-control, and justice and that each of these is a ruler and a queen that helps us to rule over our passions.

Thanks to all of those who helped us clear our rent last Tuesday. We must now raise at least $900 by the end of the day Monday to clear other bills!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Storing up Treasure in Heaven: The Four Labors of Wisdom

Storing up Treasure in Heaven: The Four Labors of Wisdom
By
James Scott Trimm

Yeshua said:

19 Lay not up for yourselves stores upon earth, and moth devour, and where thieves break through and steal,
20 But lay up for yourselves stores in heaven, where caterpillar and moth waste not, and where thieves do not steal,
21 For just where your store is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-21 HRV)

A similar teaching appears in the Talmud with very similar wording:

Our Rabbis taught: It is related of King Monobaz that he dissipated all his own hoards and the hoards of his fathers in years of scarcity. His brothers and his father’s household came in a deputation to him and said to him, ‘Your father saved money and added to the treasures of his fathers, and you are squandering them.’ He replied: ‘My fathers stored up below and I am storing above, as it says, Truth springeth out of the earth and righteousness looketh down from heaven. My fathers stored in a place which can be tampered with, but I have stored in a place which cannot be tampered with, as it says, Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne. My fathers stored something which produces no fruits, but I have stored something which does produce fruits, as it is written, Say ye of the righteous [zaddik] that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings. My fathers gathered treasures of money, but I have gathered treasures of souls, as it is written, The fruit of the righteous [zaddik] is a tree of life, and he that is wise winneth souls. My fathers gathered for others and I have gathered for myself, as it says, And for thee it shall be righteousness [zedakah]. My fathers gathered for this world, but I have gathered for the future world, as it says, Thy righteousness [zedakah] shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.’
(b.Baba Batra 11a)

The most valuable things we can acquire are things that cannot be taken away from us. There are things we can control and things we cannot control. As Yeshua said:

25 And therefore I tell you, be not anxious for your nefeshot, in what you will eat, or in what you will drink, or for your bodies, with what you will be clothed. Is not the nefesh more than food, and the body more than garment?
26 See the birds of the heavens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into their granaries; yet your Father which is in heaven feeds them. Are you not much better than they?
27 And which of you by taking thought, can add even a single cubit unto his stature?
28 Why then, are you anxious about garments? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: yet they toil not, neither do they spin.
29 Of a truth I tell you, that not even Shlomo in all his glory, was so arrayed like one of them.
30 Therefore, if Elohim so clothes the herb of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven: how much more so you, of little trust?
31 Therefore be not anxious, saying, What will we eat? Or, What will we drink? Or, What will we wear?
32 (For after all these things do Goyim seek) For your Father, which is in heaven, knows that you have need of all things.
33 Therefore you seek, at the first, the dominion of Elohim, and all His righteousness, and all things will be added unto you.
34 And be not anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient to today, is the evil thereof.
(Matthew 6:25-34 HRV)

Worry is a form of fear, and fear is the anticipation of pain. The key to overcoming worry is by mastering the virtue of courage.

We cannot control other people, we cannot control the universe, in the end the only thing we can control is our own choices. The material things we acquire can be taken from us by thieves, by governments and by natural disasters. These things are ultimately out of our control. However there are four things we can acquire which cannot ever be taken from us.

We read in the Wisdom of Solomon:

5 If riches are a desirable possession in life,
what is richer than wisdom who effects all things?
6 And if understanding is effective,
who more than she is fashioner of what exists?
7 And if any one loves righteousness,
her labors are virtues;
for she teaches self-control and prudence,
justice and courage;
nothing in life is more profitable for men than these.
(Wisdom of Solomon 8:5-7 RSV)

The most profitable things we can have are these four labors of Wisdom:

self-control
prudence
justice
courage

The First Century Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria writes of these four labors of Wisdom:

For there are four generic virtues: prudence, courage, self-control, and justice. And of these, every single one is a princess and a ruler; and he who has acquired them is, from the moment of the acquisition, a ruler and a king, even if he has no abundance of any kind of treasure;
(Philo; On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile; 128)

These four “labors of Wisdom” are also known as the “four virtues”. These for labors of wisdom are closely connected with the full armor of Elohim and are absolutely essential, not only to spiritual warfare, but to living a happy and fulfilled life.

We cannot make our lived better or happier by focusing on things that are out of our control. Money and material things cannot produce happiness because, in the end, they are out of our control. We may think we control them, but there are always factors we cannot control, and these factors lead to worry, and anxiety about the constantly looming possibility of their loss.

Now there is nothing wrong with having material things and enjoying them, but we must not focus our priorities on them, they must not be central to our happiness. If we have them then we have them, and if we lose them we lose them, and we can still be happy, because money and material things are ultimately not the things that make a meaningful life or a better person. The things that make a better person are self-control, prudence (rational thinking), justice and courage. Neither caterpillar nor moth can destroy these things and thieves cannot steal these things.

We must raise at least $382 by the end of the day today, to keep our account from going into the negative tonight (11/29/24) and starting a chain reaction of returned items and fees!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me.

Click HERE to donate

Is the Tithe Only for Levites?

Is the Tithe Only for Levites?
By
James Scott Trimm

Friends, if we want to see the message of Torah and Messiah flourish, we must observe not only the Sabbath, the Biblical Kosher laws and the Biblical feasts, we must observe the tithe of YHWH as well. If we maintain that the whole Torah is for today, then that must include the commandment of the tithe.

Now one might ask: Where in the Mosaic Torah is the commandment “Thou shalt tithe?”. The answer is, nowhere. When Moshe went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, he did NOT receive a commandment to tithe. Nowhere in the Mosaic Torah is the Tithe instituted. Instead the very first mention of the tithe in the Mosaic Covenant is not until the end of Leviticus where we read:

30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is YHWH’s: it is Set-Apart unto YHWH.
31 And if a man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add unto it, the fifth part thereof.
32 And all the tithe of the herd, or the flock, whatsoever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be Set-Apart unto YHWH.
33 He shall not inquire whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it. And if he change it at all, then both it, and that for which it is changed, shall be Set-Apart; it shall not be redeemed.
34 These are the commandments, which YHWH commanded Moshe for the children of Yisra’el in mount Sinai.
(Lev. 27:30-34)

Notice that this first mention of the “tithe” does not initiate the tithe, it simply recognizes the fact of the tithe saying “it is Set-Apart unto YHWH”. In fact Abraham had paid the tithe much earlier in Gen. 14:18-20 and Hebrews makes it clear that this was the same tithe that the Levites later received (Heb. 7:4-10)

Notice also this first reference to the tithe in the Mosaic Covenant says nothing about Levites or Priests. It does not say that the tithe belongs to the Levites, but rather to YHWH Himself.

When next we read on the Tithe in the Mosaic Covenant is in the book of Numbers:

And unto the children of Levi, behold,
I have given all the tithe in Yirae’el for an inheritance,
in return for their service which they serve,
even the service of the tent of meeting.
(Num. 18:21)

Notice that these are two different precepts of Torah. Lev. 27:30 recognizes that the Tithe belongs to YHWH, while a separate commandment in Num. 18:21 tells us that the Levites were to be paid out of the tithe, for their service in the Tabernacle (later Temple). The tithe was not directly paid to the Levites, it was paid to YHWH and from that “fund” the Levites were paid. This was so that the Levites could devote themselves to full time Torah Study (2Chron. 31:4-5) so that they could in turn teach Torah to the people of Israel (Deut. 14:22-23; Ezek. 44:23-24).

Nowhere are we told to pay the Tithe to the Levitical priesthood. We are told only that the Tithe is paid to YHWH and YHWH gave the Levites payment from the Tithe “for their service.”

Paul tells us that those who “labor in the word and in teaching” are entitled to receive the same support as the Levites who labored in the Temple and at the alter:

Those elders who conduct themselves well
should be esteemed worthy of double honor,
especially those who labor in the word and
in teaching, For the Scripture says that
`you should not muzzle the ox, while threshing,’ (Deut. 25:4)
and `the laborer is worthy of his wage.” (Mt. 10:10)
(1Tim. 5:17-18)

Paul also expands on this thought in 1Cor. 9:6-14:

Also, I only, and Bar Nabba, have we not the power not to work?
Who is this who labors in the service (ministry) by the expanse of his nefesh?
Or who is he who plants a vineyard and from its fruit does not eat?
Or who is he who tends the flock and from the milk of his flock does not eat?
Do I say these [things] as a son of man?
Behold, the Torah also said these [things]. For it is written in the Torah of Moshe,
`You shall not muzzle the ox that threshes.’ (Deut. 25:4)
It is a concern to Eloah about oxen? But, it is known that because of us he
said [it] and because of us it was written, because it is a need [that] the plowman plow unto hope and he who threshes, unto the hope of the harvest. If we have sown spiritual [things] among you, is it a great [thing] if we reap [things] of the flesh from you? … those who labor [in] the Beit Kodesh [the Temple] are sustained from the Beit Kodesh and those who labor for the alter have a portion with the alter?
So also, our Adon commanded that those who are proclaiming his goodnews should live from his goodnews.”
(1Cor. 9:6-14)

The Tithe belongs to YHWH and may be used as wages for Levites who labor in the Temple at the alter, or by any teacher who labors in the Word and teaches the Word of YHWH to the community.

The old Worldwide Church of God under Armstrong flourished in the 20th Century, built two colleges and distributed massive amounts of free literature, even distributing the Plain Truth magazine free to more subscribers than Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report combined. This was all accomplished by a fairly small group of people because they were serious about the tithe.

I could cite many other examples of what can be done when even a relatively small group of people begin tithing.

Our forefathers responded faithfully to YHWH in building the tabernacle and two temples. They responded faithfully in bringing in the tithe of YHWH to bring about restoration. Shall we do any less in these last days? Elohim has given us greater blessings that He has given our forefathers, shall we fail to show our appreciation by being less faithful than they? Let each believer will have to answer this question for himself (and one day to YHWH).

Our $300 electric bill is past due and our rent is due in less than a week!

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Codification of Nazarene Halacha

Shalom Chaverim,

My recent YouTube video series on Understanding the Halacha of Yeshua has garnered a great deal of interest in this subject. I have gotten a lot of feedback on these videos, and it was suggested that there is a need for a systematic codification of Nazarene Halacha similar to the Shulchan Aruch, the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, the Mishna Beruah or the Mishna Torah.

There is indeed a real need for this kind of a work in this restoration of the ancient sect of the Nazarenes, and unfortunately, I know of no one else both qualified and inclined to produce such a monumental text.

Therefore I am pleased to annoumce that I will be adding this to my plate, under the title The HaDerek Laleket (the Way to Walk).

We need more of you to step up to the plate to donate, even in small amounts. I know you are out there.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Is the Tithe Only on Food?

Is the Tithe Only on Food?
By
James Scott Trimm

There is a false doctrine being taught by some that the tithe was only on agricultural produce. Some even argue that it applies only to agricultural produce from the Land of Israel. This false doctrine cannot withstand a close examination of the Scriptures.

Where in the Mosaic Torah is the commandment “Thou shalt tithe?”. The answer is, nowhere. When Moshe went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, he did NOT receive a commandment to tithe. Nowhere in the Mosaic Torah is there the Tithe instituted. Instead the very first mention of the tithe in the Mosaic Covenant is not until the end of Leviticus where we read:

Notice that this first mention of the “tithe” does not initiate the tithe, it simply recognizes the fact of the tithe saying “it is Set-Apart unto YHWH”.

Tithe was not initiated in the Mosaic Torah because the principle of tithing did not originate in the Mosaic Covenant. Avraham tithed in Genesis 14 long before the Mosaic Covenant (or even the Abrahamic Covenent) was entered into.

18 And MalkiTzadek, king of Shalem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was a cohen of El Elyon.
19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Avram, of El Elyon–Maker of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be El Elyon, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tenth (tithe) of all.
(Gen. 14:18-20 HRV)

Note that Abraham’s tithe in Gen. 14 was not being made on agricultural produce but on “all” (Gen. 14:20) and specifically in this case the “spoils of his enemies” (Jasher 16:12; also Hebrews 7:4). This dispels the theory taught by some, that the Tithe is only paid on agricultural produce.

Now some have taught that the tithe Melchizadek paid was not the same Tithe mentioned in the Mosaic Torah from which the Levites were paid. This is also not true, as Paul argues in the book of Hebrews:

4 Consider and see his greatness, which also Avraham our father, gave to him a tenth from the spoil.
5 And also the sons of L’vi collect for the priesthood, having received a commandment to collect the tithe from the people, according to the decree of the Torah. And this is of their brothers, although having come from the loins of Avraham.
6 Truly he who is not from their tribe, has received the tithe from Avraham, and blessed those, who are blessed, to him.
7 And behold, this no one disputes: that the lesser is blessed by the greater.
8 Behold here, sons of man which die, receive tithes: but sleep received he of whom it is said that He lives.
9 For so to say, that to he who was accustomed to take the tithe, he also tithes through Avraham.
10 For He was yet in the loins of the Father, when He met, he who was called Malki-Tzedek.
(Heb. 7:4-10 HRV)

The whole logic of Paul’s argument here is based in the fact that the tithe that Avram paid to Melchizadek was EXACTLY the same tithe from which the Levites were paid.

Another example of the pre-Mosaic tithe is the vow Jacob made to tithe saying to Elohim “and of all that you shall give me I will surely give the tenth onto you” (Gen. 28:22). Note that Jacob tithed on all that Elohim had given him and not simply on agricultural produce.

The prophet Malachi writes:

1 Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me; and the Adon, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in, behold, he comes, says YHWH Tzva’ot.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap;
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and there shall be they that shall offer unto YHWH offerings in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim be pleasant unto YHWH, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers; and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, says YHWH Tzva’ot.
6 For I YHWH change not; and you, O sons of Ya’akov, are not consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, says YHWH Tzva’ot. But you say: ‘Wherein shall we return?’
8 Will a man rob Elohim? Yet you rob Me. But you say: ‘Wherein have we robbed You?’ In tithes and heave-offerings.
9 You are cursed with the curse, yet you rob Me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring you the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now herewith, says YHWH Tzva’ot, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall be more than sufficiency.
(Malchi 3:1-10)

Now it is very clear that this is speaking of the last days judgment “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness” (Mal. 3:5). In this context, YHWH calls the Body to return to keeping Torah, and the Body says “Wherein shall we return” (3:7) in other words “But YHWH, we HAVE been keeping Torah.” Then YHWH informs them to their surprise that they have failed to keep his Torah because they have failed to tithe, though they did not even realize that they were not tithing (3:8). The context here is clear, why would YHWH rebuke his last days people for not tithing, if there is not obligation to tithe in these last days? Are we to seriously believe this passage is simply about farmers in Israel in the last days not tithing on agricultural produce?

We need to be as serious about tithing as we are about the Sabbath and eating kosher.

Bring you the whole tithe into the store-house,
that there may be food in YHWH’s house.
(Mal. 3:10).

In a generous spirit pay homage to YHWH,
Spare not freewill gifts.
With each contribution show a cheerful countenance,
and pay your tithes in a spirit of joy.
(Sira 35:8-9 HRV)

Our $300 electric bill is past due, and our rent is due in less than a week, and we do not have it! We need more of you to step up to the plate to donate, even in small amounts. I know you are out there.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me.

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Lost! – The Ten Tribes

Lost!
By
Rabbi Robert O. Miller

“Rebbe YahShua said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:9, 10)”

One of the most popular television shows here in the US right now [2010] is “Lost.” It mixes thrills with Sci-Fi wonder, it began with a jetliner traveling from Australia to Los Angeles crashing (too close for comfort for me since I take that route often), leaving 48 survivors on an unidentified island with no sign of civilization or hope of imminent rescue. A kind of Gilligan’s Island meets Survivor meets Land of the Lost. Why this popularity for one television show? We have a fixation with things that are lost.

And one of the most popular prophetic subjects has to do with the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” But were they “lost” in the context that we did not know where to find them? For the answer we must refer to the words of our Messiah: “Go…to the lost sheep of Israel. (Matthew 10:6)” He is saying this to the disciples, notice their lack of response. What they did not say is more important than what they could have said. They did not say, “But Rabbi no one knows where they are…they’ve been lost for centuries.” Rather, the disciples expressed no difficulty with the commission given to them.

“These twelve Rebbe YahShua sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. (Matthew 10:5-7)”

“…He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Adon, help me. (Matthew 15:24,25)”

“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will hear to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (John 10:16)”

“…this full Messianic message of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14)” “…ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)”

“…Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father, by authority of the Son through the inspiration of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. (Matthew 28:19)”

The Fall of the Commonwealth

We begin our excursion to find “The Lost Tribes of Israel with an often overlooked event by many in Yahweh’s Word, that is, the separation of the Commonwealth of Israel into two specific ‘houses’ around 926 BCE. Up to then, the twelve tribes of Israel (plus the priestly tribe of Levi) had been united under the monarchies of Sh’aul, David, and Solomon. Kings David and Solomon absorbed the Phoenicians into the Commonwealth of Israel who had massive fleets, which sailed the globe. Via the widespread sailing routes of the Phoenicians, the Israelites established a large network of colonies that stretched from Africa to Britain. The Scriptures assert that King Solomon had a global impact, and that ancient kings traveled to Israel to witness Solomon’s wealth and wisdom. As evidence of Israel’s global impact, the 10 Commandments (in Paleo- Hebrew) have been found written on a mountain in Los Lunas, New Mexico and on an unearthed tablet in Newark, Ohio. But when King Solomon’s son Rehoboam ascended to the throne, the ten Northern tribes rebelled and seceded from the union. This left only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin and most of the Priests of Levi under the control of the King in Jerusalem. From that time on, the tribes were divided into two nations, which came to be called the House of Israel (the Northern ten tribes) and the House of Judah (the Southern two tribes).

However, the division of Israel truly began in the heart of King Solomon.

“…King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; of the nations concerning which Yahweh said unto the children of Israel, “Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods:” Solomon clave unto these in love. (I King 11:1,2)”

Yahweh even ‘appeared‘ unto King Solomon ‘twice‘ concerning these abominations, but he would not הבושת teshuvah (return) unto Him.

“Yahweh became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. (I King 11:9)”

As an act of love and the fulfillment of His Word, Yahweh said to King Solomon: “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole Kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. (I King 11:11-13)”

Notice,Yahweh didnot ‘rend away all the kingdom’ of Israel, ‘but will give one tribe’ (which was actually a composite of Judah & Benjamin) to King Solomon’s son Prince Rehoboam of Judah, the Royal Sceptre Tribe. Wherever you find Judah you find Levi (Num.3 & 18) to be the Torah givers.

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a Torah giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. (Genesis 49:10)”

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (John 4:22)”

“What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Primarily, because to them were committed the oracles of Yahweh. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the Faith of Yahweh without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let Yahweh be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged. (Psalm 51:4)” (Romans 3:1-4)”

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery–so that you will not be wise in your own estimation–that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written,” THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM,WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS. (Isaiah 59:20, 21)” (Romans 11:25-27)”

The severity of King Solomon’s sin was that he broke one of the major Commandments from Yahweh: “Thou shalt have no other elohim before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Yahweh thy Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exodus 20:4,5).” Now, this does not mean Yahweh will punish a child for their parent’s sin. Each individual is responsible for their own actions before Yahweh.

“I Yahweh search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. (Jeremiah 17:10)” However, the consequences of the actions of our forefathers will extend to the third and fourth generation and if each generation continues in the iniquity, then they will be punished.

The Northern Kingdom consisted of 10 of the tribes of Israel (excluding Judah and Benjamin). It lasted for about 210 years until it was destroyed by Assyria in 721 BCE. Its capital was Samaria. Every king of Israel was evil. They all “did evil in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin by which he had made Israel to sin. (1 King 15:34)”

Jeroboam, the Ephraimite, was the first king of the Northern Kingdom. While a young man King Solomon placed him over the tributes of Ephraim and Manasseh. He superintended the labors of his tribesmen in the building of the fortress Mello in Jerusalem. It was while a civil servant to the King that Jeroboam became aware of the widespread discontent caused by the extravagances which marked the reign of Solomon.

One day, the prophet AhiYah meets Jeroboam the Ephraimite coming out of Jerusalem, and Jeroboam had on ‘a new garment’: “And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet AhiYah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field: And AhiYah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces: And he said to Jeroboam, “Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, ‘Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee (I King 11:29-31).” Yahweh spoke through AhiYah and promised that if Jeroboam were faithful to Yahweh his house would be confirmed in authority over Israel. “If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.’ (I King 11:38,39)”

Not satisfied to await the death of the king, Jeroboam attempted a coup which was unsuccessful, and he fled to Egypt, where he remained until the death of King Solomon in 975 BCE. After the death of King Solomon, Jeroboam returned to Israel, where he became the leader of the delegation sent by the malcontents of Israel to ask the new king, Rehoboam to lighten the burdens, which his father, King Solomon, had placed upon them. No sooner had King Rehoboam imprudently and harshly rejected their petition did the Ten Tribes of the North withdrew their allegiance to the House of David, seceded from the Commonwealth and proclaimed Jeroboam their king, while only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to King Rehoboam.

“So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, “What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David.” So Israel departed unto their tents. But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. (I Kings 12:16,17)”

King Jeroboam established his headquarters at Shechem. Fearing the Temple worship in Jerusalem prescribed by the Torah might cause the people of the Northern Kingdom to go back to their old allegiance, he provided a new form of worship within their own boundaries, and for this purpose he set up two golden calves to be worshipped as Yahweh, one in Bethel and the other in Dan. He also built temples in the high places the main one on Mount Gerizim – the Mount of Blessing – which was a replica of King Solomon’s Temple at Jerusalem and had them served by priests selected from the common people. He also moved the High Holy Days from the seventh month to the eighth, thereby effectively setting aside the Sabbath commandment, since the Holy Days are Yahweh’s Sabbaths. Those who didn’t agree with King Jeroboam’s ‘golden calf’ worship also left the Northern Ten Tribes and moved to Jerusalem to the ‘House of Judah’.

“…the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto Yahweh: and he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.(2 Chronicles 11:14,15)”

“Jeroboam drove Israel from following Yahweh, and made them commit a great sin. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the Sovereign removed Israel out of His sight. . . . (2 Kings 17:21-23)”

War between Israel and Judah continued the first six years of their separate existence (I Kings, 14 : 30; 15 : 7, 16; 2 Chronicles 12 : 15; 13 : 2-3) because of the evil mistrust between two brothers – Ephraim & Judah. The first time the word “Jews” appears in the Scriptures was when the King of Israel, allied with Syria and drove the “Jews” from the Red Sea port city of Elat (2 Kings 16:6-7). King Jehu of Israel (884 BCE) fought with King Athaliah of Judah. King Pekah entered into an alliance with King Rezin of Syria and invaded Judah and carried back a considerable number of captives.

“But a prophet of Yahweh named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army when it returned to Samaria. He said to them, “Because Yahweh, the Elohim of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to Heaven. And now you intend to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves. But aren’t you also guilty of sins against Yahweh your Elohim? Now listen to me! Send back your fellow countrymen you have taken as prisoners, for Yahweh’s fierce anger rests on you.” Then some of the leaders in Ephraim—Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai—confronted those who were arriving from the war. “You must not bring those prisoners here,” they said, “or we will be guilty before Yahweh. Do you intend to add to our sin and guilt? For our guilt is already great, and his fierce anger rests on Israel.” So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and plunder in the presence of the officials and all the assembly. (2 Chronicles 28:9-14)”

This act of Israel brought about the prediction of Isaiah regarding the destruction of the Israelite and Syrian kingdoms by the Assyrians and the remedy for the division the Coming of Messiah: “Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of TabeEl king over it.” Yet this is what the Sovereign Yahweh says: ‘It will not take place, it will not happen, for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’ ” Again Yahweh spoke to Ahaz, “Ask Yahweh your Elohim for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put Yahweh to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you House of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my Elohim also? Therefore the Sovereign himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. Yahweh will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.” (Isaiah 7:4-17)”

The Virgin Birth was not about a flippant miracle to wow people into believing in the Messiah. Rather it was a sign that Yahweh would not utterly destroy Israel both Ephraim and Judah from off the face of the earth. At this ImmanuEl would restore the Kingdom once and for all. The belief of the Messiah’s Virgin Birth is an act of divine nationalism! To deny the Virgin Birth, is to deny Israel!

“All this took place to fulfill what Yahweh had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him ImmanuEl”—which means, “El with us.” (Matthew 1:22, 23)”

The prophet AhiYah announced the Divine vengeance that was to come upon the House of Jeroboam because of these evil deeds: “I raised you up from among the people and made you a leader over my people Israel. I tore the kingdom away from the House of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back. Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the House of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the House of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. Yahweh has spoken!’

As for you (the wife King Jeroboam and Queen of Israel), go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy (the Crown Prince) will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the House of Jeroboam in whom Yahweh, Elohim of Israel, has found anything good.

Yahweh will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Yes, even now. And Yahweh will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked Yahweh to anger by making Asherah poles. And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit. (1 Kings 14:7-16)”

Fearing the prophecy, a portion of the people of the Ten Northern Tribes evaded the Assyrian invasion by migrating northward through what is still called the Pass of Israel, into the Caucasus Mountains in 724-721 BCE led by a member of the House of David (“Our Scythian Ancestors Identified With Israel,” Grawler). “The chief of all the captains of the host” was of the children of Pherez (1 Chronicles 27:3)” from him the royal line of David sprang (Ruth 4:12, 18-22). Likewise this new young ruler identified himself with Pherez by naming himself “Pharotes” (“The Medes and the Persians,” Culican). In fact, there has never been a time when King David did not have at least one descendant ruling over some portion of Israel.

“[For Yahweh promised King David] Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever. (2 Samuel 7:16)”

“I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once and for all, I have sworn by my holiness— and I will not lie to David-that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah (Psalm 89:34-37)”

They established their colony near the Black and Caspian Seas located in present-day Georgia, calling it “Sacae,” named after the Israelite patriarch, Isaac. The Greeks called them Scythians and described them as a very civilized people who eschewed foreign religions and had such Hebrew customs as prohibiting the consumption of pork. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah was told to send a message to the ten tribes of Israel living “north” of the land of Israel: “Yahweh said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares Yahweh, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,’ declares Yahweh, ‘I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt— you have rebelled against Yahweh your Elohim, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,’ ” declares Yahweh. (Jeremiah 3:11-13)”

Hoshea had become King of Israel when he killed KingPekah and then revolted against the Assyrians at the instigation of the Egyptian king (2 Kings 17:4). Shalmaneser IV, King of Assyriaat once invaded Israel. Conquering Israel was not easy for the Assyrians; the siege of Samaria, Israel’s capital, lasted three years. Due to the judgment of Yahweh, Assyria began to decline immediately after she conquered Israel. The siege caused a revolt of the military. General Sargon, the leader of the Military, formed a coup and killed Shalmaneser and became king. He successfully completed the siege and carried the Ten Tribes into a captivity from which they never returned (2 Kings 17:6; 18:11). The captives were carried to Assyria, Mesopotamia and Media (“Antiquities of the Jews,” Book XV chapter 2 verse 2; “Wars of the Jews,” Book 2 chapter 16 verse 4).

“In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their Elohim, Which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against Yahweh their Elohim, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. (II Kings 17:6-9)”

“So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. (II Kings 17:23, 24)”

“At the beginning of my (Sargon II) rule, in the very first year I reigned…I set siege to and conquered Samaria…I carried away into captivity 27,290 persons who lived there; I took fifty fine chariots for my royal equipment.” (Assyrian inscription)

So Yahweh removed Israel from the Promise Land and allowed Gentiles from five specific nations to divide the land and live on it in their place. The vacant country of Samaria was repopulated by colonists from five districts of the Assyrian empire and these colonists ultimately developed into the Samaritan nation (2 Kings 17:24). This is the deeper meaning of the story of the Woman At the Well. The Woman is Lost Israel, who had ‘five husbands’. The woman said to Rebbe YahShua, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. (John 4:20)” Rebbe YahShua told her “Ye worship ye know not what…” (John 4:22). Each one of those ‘five husbands’ represents being ‘married’ to the wrong ‘bridegroom’ in false worship. “…salvation is from the Jews.”

Having abandoned the Sabbath, the Covenant sign marking Israel as Yahweh’s people, the Northern Tribes eventually lost their identification. That is why most Israelites do not know who they are to this day. Take this line of thought to its logical conclusion: failure to recognize who Israel is, is failure to recognize Yahweh who made Israel!

In Ezekiel 4:1-5 there is a strange prophecy concerning the Northern Tribes Assyria took into captivity: “Now, son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

“Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the House of Israel. ”

The key to this prophecy is found in verse 6: “I have assigned…a day for each year.” So if the House of Israel fell when the capital of Samaria was taken in 721BCE starting the 390 year punishment for them, then their captivity should have ended in 331 BCE.

In that year one of the turning points of History occurred. Greece under the sovereignty of Alexander the Great conquered Persia and released the House of Israel from their captivity. Instead of returning to the Promise Land they decided to stay on the land they had known for 390 years and create a new country calling it PehLevi.

The Ten Northern Tribes went first, then the Two Southern Tribes in Judea along with Levi making up the ‘House of Judah’ went into captivity to Babylon for seventy years, as prophesied by Yahweh through Jeremiah.

“Yahweh said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, “Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she had done all these things, ‘Turn thou unto Me.’ But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. (Jeremiah 3:6,7)”

“Judah kept not the commandments of Yahweh their Elohim, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And Yahweh rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight. (2 Kings 17:19-20)”

The ‘House of Israel’ played the ‘harlot’, with the false worship and so did the ‘House of Judah’. Ezekiel 23 labels the two ‘houses’ of Israel as two-harlot sisters, one named Aholah (“she has her own tent” meaning her idolatrous sanctuary – ten tribes), and the other Aholibah (“my tent is in her” – house of Judah).

“And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith Yahweh. And Yahweh said unto me, “The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. (Jeremiah 3:8)”

“And Yahweh said, I will remove Judah also out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, “My name shall be there.” (II Kings 23:27)”

Yahweh brought the ‘spoiler’ Nebuchadnezzar upon the whole House of Judah to do all the things prophesied.

“…this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith Yahweh, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. (Jeremiah 25:11-13)”

Yahweh spoke through His prophet Jeremiah to the ‘House of Judah’ a prophetic time frame on the Babylon captivity of ‘seventy years’ which actually happened, but it is also a blueprint for what we as Latter Day Israel will go through because of our infidelity, the main difference in the ‘seventy years’ of Judah’s captivity and for us today is the symbol of the ‘seven years’ tribulation under the last great false belief system, called Mystery Babylon which is virtually upon us today. That’s why is says, ‘which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations’. This applies to us today also.

“Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith Yahweh. But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My People Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Yahweh, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.’ (Jeremiah 7:11-15)”

“And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land. (Jeremiah 52:27)”

This puts a whole new perspective of why Rebbe YahShua was so violent in cleansing the Holy Temple. He was blaming the Priesthood for not teaching Judah to keep the Faith.

“Rebbe YahShua entered the Temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a House of Prayer, (Isaiah 56:7)’but you are making it a ‘den of robbers. (Jeremiah 7:11)'”

Yahweh promised that Babylon would become a waste and desolation after the seventy-year captivity of Judah, and that’s exactly what happened. Persia, under Koresh (Cyrus), King of Persia, and the Medes conquered Babylon and it became the Medo-Persian Empire releasing the House of Judah of their captivity. The Book of Ezra records all those of the ‘house of Judah’ who returned to Jerusalem.

“Now in the first year of Koresh king of Persia, that the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Koresh king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, ‘Yahweh Elohim of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His People? His Elohim be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Yahweh Elohim of Israel, (He is Elohim,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of Elohim that is in Jerusalem.

Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit Elohim had raised, to go up to build the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:1-5)”

These are those of the House of Judah who returned from the Babylonian captivity that were commissioned to rebuild Yahweh’s House (the Holy Temple at Jerusalem) after the King of Babylon had destroyed It. Nothing is mentioned of the other Tribes of Israel, specifically the Lost Ten Northern Tribes of the ‘House of Israel’.

Only a small percentage of the Jews, less than 50,000, chose to return, “The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and threescore, Beside their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven: and there were among them two hundred singing men and singing women. (Ezra 2:64, 65),” with the majority choosing to remain in Babylonia.

Dr. Alfred Edersheim, in his book “The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah,” says: “In general it is of the greatest importance to remember in regard to the Eastern Dispersion that only a minority of the Jews, consisting in all of about 50,000 originally returned from Babylon, first under Zorobabel and afterwards under Ezra (537 BCE and 459 BCE respectively). Nor was their inferiority confined to numbers only. The wealthiest and most influential of the Jews remained behind. According to Josephus, with whom Philo substantially agrees, vast numbers, estimated at millions, inhabited the Trans-Euphrates provinces”… “the great mass of the ten tribes was in the days of [Messiah], as in our own times, lost to the Hebrew nation” Not lost that we do not know where to find them but lost in their identity and solidarity.

Judah remained a satellite under the rule of the Medes and Persians. Later to the Macedonians (often referred to as the Greek Empire) who conquered the Medes and Persians. Still later, to the Romans who conquered the Macedonians. The Romans were in control at the time of Rebbe YahShua’s earthly ministry.

Where Did They Go?

So, what happened to the rest of Israel and Judah? The prophet Amos (9:9), uses the metaphor of sifting grain to describe what Yahweh has done to Israel. Yahweh, Amos says, “will sift the House of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground.”

The rapid decline of Assyria afforded some Israelites the opportunity to become aggressive. Early on, the Shuthelahite, Bekerite and the Tahanite clans actually became strong enough to mount a guerilla war against their captors. After the internal rebellion was put down Assyria was so weakened that a confederation of the Babylonians and the Medes found it relatively easy to capture Nineveh, Assyria’s capital city, in 612 BCE.

The large province inside Babylonia that Nebuchadnezzar placed most of Judah on became known as PehLevi (Mouth of Levi) after the Levites that were placed over the tribes. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: “The name Pahlavi or PehLevi, which means Parthian, can be traced back for many centuries…the great peculiarity of the language is though it is Iranian, it is full of Semitic (Hebrew) words.” It is said that the Ephriamite Tahanites helped found Parthia. “These were the descendants of Ephraim by their clans: through Shuthelah, the Shuthelahite clan; through Beker, the Bekerite clan; through Tahan, the Tahanite clan. (Numbers 26:35)”

Through an alliance between the Shuthelahite, Bekerite and the Tahanite clan the Parthians defeated the Seleucid Greek Empire founded by Alexander the Great, and established their own empire from the Euphrates River to the western borders of India calling their capital Teheran. As the Israelites had a hereditary priesthood (the Levites), so did the Parthians (the Magi) also called Goans (Geniuses).

The Magi of Parthia were the ones coming to see the Messiah, the Redeemer of all Israel: “After YahShua was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magifrom the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the eastand have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1,2)”

George Rawlinson, professor of ancient history at Camden from 1861 to 1889 and Canon of Canterbury, asserts that the world has been taught history from a Greco-Roman bias giving us an anti-Semetic perspective. “…the picture of the world during the Roman period…put before students in ‘Histories of Rome’ was defective. Not to say false, in its omission to recognize the real position of Parthia…as a counterpoise to the power of Rome…a rival state dividing with Rome the attention of mankind and the sovereignty of the known world…the truth seems to be that…from the first to the last…there was always in the world a Second Power, civilized…which in a true sense balanced Rome, acted as a counterpoise and a check…This power for nearly three centuries was Parthia. (“The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy”)” Parthia regularly defeated the Roman Empire in many wars.

Hosea, uniquely the prophet to the House of Israel, promised that Yahweh would make the Israelites a majority after he exiled them from the Promise Land and ultimately restore them.

“Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then Yahweh said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the House of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the House of Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by Yahweh their Elohim.”

After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then Yahweh said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your Elohim.

Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living Elohim.’ (Hosea 1:6-10)”

Josephus tells us: “…there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers. (Antiquities of the Jews – Book XI chapter 5 verse 2)”

“And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multitude unto him, those are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoner out of their own land in the time of Hosea, the King, whom Shalmanesar, the King of Assyria led away as captive, and he crossed them over the waters, as they came into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves that they would leave the multitude of the heathen and go forth into a farther country … that they might raise up their statues which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into the Euphrates by the narrow passage of the river, for the Most High then showed signs for them, and held still the flood till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, even for a year and a half; and the same region is called Asareth“(4 Ezra 13 : 36-39).

After Parthia fell to the nomadic Sasanids from Afghanistan the Northern Ten Tribes dispersed. In 1893, a minister from the Operative Jewish Convert Institute of London, Rev. J. H. Bruhi noticed in his travels: “It is a most significant fact that whereas the Jews in Palestine, Arabia, Turkey, Mesopotamia and Persia style themselves as יְהוּדִים, Yehudim (Jews), those from Persia onwards call themselves Bani Israel (Children of Israel)” (“The Ten Tribes, Where are They? By One Who Has Been Among Them.”)

Dr. Joseph Wolff, a Messianic Jew, tells us that he came across Israelites in Persia, Kurdistan, Khurasan, Kokand, Bokhara and Samarkand. In Bokhara, he estimates, they were ten thousand in number. Regarding the Israelites of Bokhara and Khurasan he says: “They were quite ignorant of his (YahShua’s) history and suffering and death, which also convinces me that the Jews of Khurasan and Bokhara are of the Ten Tribes, who never returned to [Israel] after their Babylonian captivity… they would not even listen to me until I had recited the Shema Yisrael. ” (Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara in the Years 1843-1845).

However, most of Parthians fled to the Caucasus Mountains and Black Sea region after Parthia fell, joining their Scythian cousins who were called “Goths” by the Romans. These armies of refugees needed new homelands, and they sought them by invading the European and Balkan provinces of their historic enemy, the Roman Empire. The tribes were decidedly were more civilized and religious than the Romans. As large numbers of refugees poured out of Asia into Europe in search of new homelands, they fought both the Romans and each other. These tribes made alliances with the natives and overwhelmed Rome and provided the population bases for the modern nations of Europe. These new arrivals brought many aspects of Scythian/Parthian culture with them, including Parthia’s feudal system of government.

The Ministry of the Talmidim

We have been told by old belief systems that Messiah YahShua chose the twelve talmidim (disciples), ordained them apostles, sent them to preach to the Jews, when they, rejected that message, they turned to the Gentiles replacing the Jews but nothing could be further from the truth.

Rabbi Yakkov Ha Tzaddik, the brother of our Messiah and leader of the Messianic Movement of the Netzarim addressed his letter: “Yakkov, a servant of Yahweh and of King Messiah YahShua, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations…(James 1:1)” This letter is not addressed to the Gentiles. It is not addressed exclusively to the Jews. It is addressed to all the Tribes of Israel!

Rabbi Kepha, one of our Messiah’s most trusted talmidim described himself as: “Kepha, an apostle of Messiah YahShua, (sent) to Yahweh’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1)” The word “strangers” used here does not mean Gentiles. The original Greek is παρεπίδημος “parepidemos”. It means literally, “an alien alongside,” “a resident alien” translated from the Hebrew הַפְּזוּרִים הַגָּרִים meaning “the scattered strangers” living “throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” He wrote this letter from Babylon, which at the time was under the rule of the Parthian Empire! Abraham, as you remember from Scripture, was a stranger, an alien, when he lived among the Canaanite Gentiles. Rabbi Kepha was addressing part of the lost ten tribes who dwelt among the Gentiles as aliens or strangers. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia are all located in the northern half of Asia Minor in modern Turkey. These lands lay immediately west of the Parthian Empire!

Rabbi Sha’ul was chosen by Messiah to be His “chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. (Acts 9:15)” Rabbi Sha’ul spent his years in ministry in the southern, half of Asia Minor and Europe. “Yea, so have I strived to preach the Full Messianic Message, not where Messiah was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation” (Romans 15:20). Not preaching in the areas where Rabbi Kepha and others of the Talmidim had carried the Full Messianic Message. Remember, Rabbi Sha’ul was forbidden by the Spirit to preach in Bithynia. “After they (Rabbi Sha’ul and his companions) were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered [permitted] them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas” (Acts 16:7, 8).

With Rabbi Sha’ul’s arrival in Rome he went first seeking the Israelites: “[The Israelites at Rome] replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brothers who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.” They arranged to meet Rabbi Sha’ul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the Kingdom of Yahweh and tried to convince them about YahShua from the Torah of Moses and from the Naviim (Prophets). (Acts 28:21-23)”

After Rome, Rabbi Sha’ul continued to preach the Full Messianic Message to the nations looking for “Lost Israel.” “Rabbi Sha’ul, full of the blessings of Messiah, and abounding in the Spirit, departed out of Rome, determining to go into Spain, for he had a long time proposed to journey thitherward, and was minded also to go from thence to Britain. For he had heard in Phoenicia that certain of the children of Israel, about the time of the Assyrian captivity, had escaped by sea to “The Isles afar off” as spoken be the Prophet [Ezra], and called by the Romans – Britain. And the King commanded the Full Messianic Message to be preached far hence to the Gentiles [nations], and to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. (Act 9:15, 22:21) And no man hindered Rabbi Sha’ul…(Acts 29:1-4)” Rabbi Sha’ul’s commission, after he revealed Messiah to the kings and rulers at Rome, was to bear the name of King Messiah YahShua to the “children of Israel” (Acts 9: 15)

The Catholic Historian Eusebius, in his third book of “Evangelical Demonstrations”, chapter 7, admitted that the apostles “passed over to those which are called the British Isles.”

William Camden in his book “Remains of Britain” written in 1674 said: “The true Christian Religion (Messianic Faith) was planted here most anciently by Joseph of Arimathea, Simon Zelotes, Aristobulus, by St. Peter, and St. Paul, as may be proved by Dorotheus, Theodoretus and Sophronius.” He said this in contention that the religion of the day had been hijacked by paganism.

Rabbi Andrew according to Cave’s “Antiquitates Apostolicae” went into “Scythia and the neighboring countries primarily allotted him for his province. First then he travelled through Cappadocia, (Upper) Galatia and Bithynia, and instructed them in the faith of Messiah, passing all along the [Black Sea]… and so into the solitude of Scythia.” Rabbi Andrew preached to the very area in Asia Minor which Rabbi Sha’ul had bypassed.

Rabbi Yakkov haKatan (James the Lesser) preached in Spain where he planted the [Faith]” (Cave’s “Antiquitates Apostolicae”).

Rabbi MattenYahu (Matthew) according to Metaphrastes: “went first into Parthia, and having successfully planted [the Messianic Faith] in those parts, thence travelled to Aethiopia, that is, the Asiatic Aethiopia, lying near India” slightly east of the area where the Assyrians settled the Israelite captives.

Rabbi Thomas journeyed into Northwest India to whom the Greeks called the “Nephthalite Huns.”

Rabbi Bartholomew also spent part of his time in neighboring Armenia and a portion of Upper Phrygia in Asia Minor.

Rabbi YaHudah ministered in Assyria and Mesopotamia which at that time were part of Parthia which Josephus designated as still inhabited by the Ten Tribes.

Remember, Rabbi Yakkov HaTzaddik referred to Israel as “scattered among the nations” and that is exactly where we have found them. I am reminded of the witnesses of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) being poured out on the Talmidim on Shavuot (Feast of Pentecost): “Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs) —we hear them declaring the wonders of Yahweh in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:7-12)”

What was Rabbi Kepha’s response: “…this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, Yahweh says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of Yahweh. And everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved. (Joel 2:28-32)‘Men of Israel, listen to this…(Acts 2:16-22)”

What Is Our Responsibility?

As we have seen from the prophetic Abrahamic Covenant, the majority of the people you meet are Israelites that have been dispersed all over the world and they don’t even know it nor the blessing given to them as heirs. As King Messiah’s evangelistic ambassadors we are to go out preaching to the Majority dispersed throughout all the nations and sift Israel from the nations.

We have been commanded: “…this full Messianic message of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14)”

“…ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)”

It is our responsibility to get this message out: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the full message! (Isaiah 52:7)” (Romans 10:14,15)”

You have been sent: “…to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. (Matthew 10:5-7)” As we go into the nations preach the Full Messianic Message of the Kingdom the sheep will hear the message. King Messiah YahShua said: “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:14-18)

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. (Matthew 18:12-14)”

“I will whistle for Ephraim (1 King 19:9-18), and gather the remnant; for I have redeemed them, and they shall increase as they increased when I sowed them among the nations, and they shall remember me in far countries; and they and their children will live and return. (Zechariah 10:8-9)”

King Messiah YahShua is the “Great Redeemer.” Redeem, or in Hebrew “ga’al” means to release, deliver, or preserve. The Torah provides for a blood relative (who has the means and willingness) to take it upon himself to recover his kinsman, and restore everything, including that which has been lost; as well as to be an avenger of wrongs. (Leviticus 25:25; Numbers 5:8; Joshua 20:5; Ruth 3:12; Ruth 4).

“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham came to be considered righteous by Yahweh through legalism, then he does have something to boast about. But this is not how it is when we stand before Yahweh. For what is the testimony of the Tanach? ‘Abram believed Yahweh, and He credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)’ Now to the worker, the wages are not credited to one’s account as a favor or gift of mercy but as what is owed him. But to the man who does not “work” but has faith in the One who takes the ungodly man and makes him righteous, his faith is credited to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:1-5)” The Greek word ἀσεβής asebes, rendered “ungodly ” in Romans 4, is from the word ἀσέβως asebos referring to someone who ignores a summons or is not willing to look back when being hailed. To be “ungodly” is to disregard the whistle for the sheep. This is translated from the word רָשָׁע meaning to “be convicted or incriminated.”

The Abrahamic Blessing “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) literally reads: “Ve’nivrechu bekah kol mishpachot ha-adamah.” “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you and in you all the nations of the earth shall be mixed!” The Hebrew word translated in most translations as “blessed”, is the Hebrew word וְנִבְרְכוּ “ve’nivrechu.” It appears only three times in the Tanach in Genesis 12:3, 18:18 and 28:14 and all three times it speaks of how Abraham will affect the nations of the earth. According to the section under “Farming” in Yevamos 63 this word can also mean “mixed” or “grafted” as much as it can be “blessing.”

The severity of our message according to Ephesians 2 is there is no salvation outside the Commonwealth of Israel. If you act as a Gentile, you will be treated as a Gentile. Without your place in the Commonwealth “…you [are] without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without Yahweh in the world. (But if you will accept the Kingdom and its King you will receive salvation through the shed blood of our Messiah) But now in Messiah YahShua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. (Ephesians 2:1-13)” Through this acts of “blessing” of the blood the unbelievers “have been grafted (ve’nivrechu) in among [Israel] and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches (that fell off through unbelief). If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if Yahweh did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. (Romans 11:17-21)”

“And you (Gentiles) He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But Yahweh, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Messiah …and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Messiah YahShua,that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Messiah YahShua.For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of Yahweh,not of works, lest anyone should boast.For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah YahShua for good works, which Yahweh prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh–who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands–that at that time you were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without Yahweh in the world. But now in Messiah YahShua you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. (Ephesians 2:1-13)” This stands to reason since the New Covenant says “…the days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah–not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,says Yahweh.But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know Yahweh,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-36)”

This fulfills the prophecy: “Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,”As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: “For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, “Will you not show us what you mean by these?’–say to them, “Thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”‘And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.

Then say to them, “Thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their Elohim. (Ezekiel 37:15-23)”

This is our responsibility; this is our commandment; this is our commission; and this is our message: “And this Full Messianic Message of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)”

Originally written by Rabbi Robert O. Miller on July 24th 2010*

*A version of this article appeared as a chapter in Rob’s 2007 book The Majority. However this file on his hard drive had been updated on July 24th 2010 and may have had revisions from the original 2007 chapter.
(Robert Owen Miller 1957-2021)

A great restoration is taking place today, and I want to invite all of you to be part of it. Congregations and home groups are meeting all over the world, in places like Belgium, Australia, Brazil etc. If you have a Nazarene Congregation or home study please let us know, so we can all be connected.

The NazareneSpace Social Network is also great place to stay connected!

Is this work worthy of your support? What other ministry provides this kind of teaching?

This is no time to bask serenely in an attitude of apathy, but we need to stir up the fires of enthusiasm for teaching the truth to the world. I am convinced that Elohim will bless us abundantly if we do. Elohim will soon be opening the doors of opportunity as never before, I hope that each of us (and all of us together) will advance through those doors with all of the energy and confidence YHWH can give His people. This is the time to act.

Rent must clear our account tonight!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Does the Lunar Calendar or the Weekly Cycle Govern the Sabbath?

Does the Lunar Calendar or the Weekly Cycle Govern the Sabbath?
(A 1958 Refutation of an Early Version of Lunar Sabbath Error)
By
Victor T. Houteff
(The Symbolic Code; Vol. 13, No. 7,8, May-June 1958; pages 9-14)

We now turn our attention to another Sabbath theory and ism, concerning which another Truth-seeker writes: “A brochure entitled The Bible Sabbath in God’s Perfect Plan of Redemption contends that the Sabbath is governed by the lunar month, not by an independent weekly cycle. Please give me your answer from the Bible.”

Assuming that the seventh-day Sabbath is governed by a lunar calendar, instead of by the independent weekly cycle,

THE BROCHURE SAYS:

“Yes, all Christendom, with the exception of some Saturday keepers, keep a heathen day of the Sun. But the Saturday keepers also keep, and honor a day of heathen origin — the day of Saturn….

“Exodus 12:1, 2: ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month [moon] of the year to you.’ The moon was made to measure the months. Compare 1 Samuel 20, verses 5, 18, 24, 27, 34. And also to mark the seasons(Gen. 1:14 and Psa. 104:19). The moon and the sun and the stars is God’s calendar in the firmament that all men can see and mark God’s times together with the earth….

“The Sabbath of the Bible, therefore, is the Sabbath upon which the Passover comes every year. The Lord has purposely placed the Passover celebration upon the second Sabbath of the first Moon (Abib), every year, for a reminder of the Sabbath every year (Ex. 20:8). It is the second Sabbath of the first month, by reason of the Passover being upon the fourteenth of that month, which is the first full moon after the Vernal equinox when spring begins.”
— The Bible Sabbath in God’s Perfect Plan of Redemption, pp. 9, 13, 16.

To the exponents of the aforequoted Sabbath reckoningTHE SPIRIT OF TRUTH GIVES THE REPLY:

In the preceding quoted paragraphs, the well-intentioned but grossly misinformed author is attempting to overthrow the seventh-day Sabbath by ignoring the original weekly cycle, God’s septenary cycle of creation, and by setting up in its place a moon-controlled septenary cycle of his own devising, so as to make the seventh, the fourteenth, the twenty-first, and the twenty-eighth days of each lunar month commemorative Sabbaths of the week of creation.

It is true that the names of the months and the days of the week are of mythological origin, but the cycle of the week, as we shall see is from time immemorial. True, the Lord said to Moses, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Ex. 12:2. But He did not say, It shall also be the beginning of weeks to you. Thus the question, “How readest thou?” sharply confronts the lunar-Sabbath author for answer. Plainly God could not have said, “this moon shall be the beginning of weeks to you,” for such a course would be as we shall see, contrary to Nature, Scripture, and Logic.

Had He intended the moon to fix the time of the holy Sabbath, He would have made it complete its revolution around the earth once either in exactly four weeks or in exactly one week. But since the moon does not do so, it cannot be taken as the Divine regulator of the weekly holy Sabbath day. Moreover, Sabbath begins at “even,” whereas the new moon may appear at any hour of day or night.

The following paragraphs briefly bring forth solar, lunar, and Biblical facts, not implications, that the weekly cycle never has been and never can be controlled by any lunar or solar calendar, and that the church under God’s direction has never either in the Old or in the New Testament kept a lunar Sabbath.

The Sabbath which the Lord hallowed was celebrated on exactly the seventh day after the creation of the earth began, not on the seventh day after the creation of the moon began (Gen. 2:2). So the weekly cycle which God set in motion, and the Sabbath which He Himself celebrated, were not measured by the revolutions of the moon, but by the revolutions of the earth. Had the Lord blessed and observed a Sabbath that is governed by the moon, then the Sabbath hours could not have fallen on the seventh day from the beginning of creation, but rather must have fallen within the tenth day, for the moon was not created and set in motion until after the fourth day of creation. (See Genesis 1:14-19). Since the week was not then governed by the moon, it certainly cannot be governed by it now and still be the week of creation.

As creation week was three days older than both the sun and the moon, the fact conclusively follows, therefore, that neither of these heavenly luminaries could have ever regulated the week of creation. Moreover, such a solar-lunar regulatory force would, except it be in cycles of tens, deprive Time and Creation of the first three days, leaving them as a phantom “lost period.”

Furthermore, were we to standardize the seventh, the fourteenth, the twenty-first, and the twenty-eighth days of the lunar month for the observance of the Sabbath, as the booklet advocates, we could not keep up with the moon anyway, for the lunar month is not actually four weeks (28 days) long, but approximately twenty-nine and a half days.

All these significant facts completely invalidate the idea of the weeks being dependent upon the monthly orbit of the moon, and should therefore render unnecessary any further discussion of the subject. But since the lunar-sabbath author claims that history supports his contention, we shall therefore quote the following three paragraphs:

“The use of the week was introduced into the Roman Empire about the 1st or 2nd century of the Christian era from Egypt, and had been recognized independently of Christianity before the Emperor Constantine confirmed it by enjoining the observance of the Christian Sabbath. With the Mohammedans the week has also a religious character, Friday being observed by them as a Sabbath.” — Twentieth Century Cyclopaedia, Vol. 8, p. 487

“The period of seven days…was used by the Brahmins in India with the same denominations employed by us, and was alike found in the calendars of the Jews, Egyptians, Arabs and Assyrians.” — Standard Dictionary, definition “Calendar.”

“The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions, — a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity. It was employed from time immemorial in almost all eastern countries; and, as it forms neither an aliquot part of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss, as Dalambre remarks, to assign it to an origin having such semblance of possibility.” — Encyclopedia Britannica.

There is history’s testimony. Plainly, it no more supports the lunar-sabbath author’s claims than do logic and Scripture. On the contrary, it reveals that the present Roman week is the same as the ancient Jewish and Christian week, that it has been and still is the world’s week “from time immemorial” — from creation. The week, moreover, explains Encyclopedia Britannica, “is a period of seven days having no reference whatsoever to the celestial motions.”

The NazareneSpace Social Network is also great place to stay connected!

Rent was paid electronically but must still clear our account Tuesday night (9/7/21)! With other bills also hitting, we are $488 short clearing the account!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

The Laborer is Worthy of His Wage

The Laborer is Worthy of His Wage
By
James Scott Trimm

Yeshua sent his twelve out saying:

7 Go, and cry, saying, Turn you, turn you! For the Kingdom of Heaven is offered.
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out shadim. Fornothing, you have received; for nothing, you will give.
9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor lesser coin in your belts.
10 Pack not for the journey, either two coats, or sandals, or a staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food.
11 And into whatever city or town you will enter, inquire who in it is honorable:and there abide until you go out from there.
(Matthew 10:7-11 HRV)

Sadly for years the phrase “for nothing you have received, for nothing you will give.” (Matt. 10:8) has been quoted out of context and misused by many to “prove” that those in the ministry should not receive community support for our efforts.

In fact the verse in question is, in context, saying exactly the opposite of what these people represent it as saying.

Actually, Yeshua in the next few verses following this statement instructs his talmidim to request and subsist on community support:

Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor lesser coin in your belts. Pack not for the journey, either two coats, or sandals, or a staff, for the laborer is worthy of his food. And into whatever city or town you will enter, enquire who in it is honorable, and there abide until you go out from there.”
(Mt. 10:9-11)

Some light on this text may be acquired by examining a statement by Josephus concerning the first century Essene sect of Judaism:

…and if any of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own; and they go into such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing with them when they travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with them, for fear of thieves. Accordingly there is, in every city where they live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and provide garments and other necessaries for them.
(Josephus; Wars 2:8:4)

Yeshua’s talmidim had for the most part, come from an Essene background. It would appear that they were therefore able to travel within Essene circles from town to town without having to carry additional supplies. Yeshua felt that his twelve were entitled to be supported by the community, driving his point home by saying “the laborer is worthy of his food.” (Mt. 10:10)

Those Who Labor in the Word

Paul later cites Yeshua’s statement to prove that “those who labor in the word and its teaching” are worthy of “double honor” which in context means that they have the right, like any other laborer, to expect to be paid for their work in the ministry. Paul writes:

Those elders who conduct themselves well
should be esteemed worthy of double honor,
especially those who labor in the word and
in teaching, For the Scripture says that
`you should not muzzle the ox, while threshing,’ (Deut. 25:4)
and `the laborer is worthy of his wage.” (Mt. 10:10)
(1Tim. 5:17-18)

Paul also expands on this thought in 1Cor. 9:6-14:

Also, I only, and Bar Nabba, have we not the power not to work?
Who is this who labors in the service (ministry) by the expense of his nefesh?
Or who is he who plants a vineyard and from its fruit does not eat?
Or who is he who tends the flock and from the milk of his flock does not eat?
Do I say these [things] as a son of man?
Behold, the Torah also said these [things]. For it is written in the Torah of Moshe,
`You shall not muzzle the ox that threshes.’ (Deut. 25:4)
It is a concern to Eloah about oxen? But, it is known that because of us he
said [it] and because of us it was written, because it is a need [that] the plowman plow unto hope and he who threshes, unto the hope of the harvest. If we have sown spiritual [things] among you, is it a great [thing] if we reap [things] of the flesh from you? those who labor [in] the Beit Kodesh [the Temple] are sustained from the Beit Kodesh and those who labor for the alter have a portion with the alter? So also, our Adon commanded that those who are proclaiming his goodnews should live from his goodnews.”
(1Cor. 9:6-14)

Certainly the context of Yeshua’s statement “for nothing you have received, for nothing you will give.” (Mt. 10:8) was that of a society in which all things were held in common and each person’s needs were taken care of by that community (Mt. 10:9-11 and Acts 2:44 & 4:32) but we do not live in such a society, and so citing Mt. 10:8 to those in the ministry today, is akin to asking us to make bricks without straw.

To the contrary Paul quotes the verse shortly afterward (10:10) to reach a principle by which those who are proclaiming his goodnews should be supported for doing so, just as those who labor in the Temple and for the alter are supported for doing so. In other words, Paul draws a midrash from the fact that Levites and Priests received tithes and offerings to teach a principle that “those who labor in the word and teach” should be supported with tithes and offerings.

Those that Oppress the Hireling in His Wages

This brings us to a prophetic rebuke in Malachi which says:

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers; and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, says YHWH Tzva’ot.
(Malachi 3:5 HRV)

And how is it that these persons “oppress the hireling in his wages”?

1 Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me; and the Adon, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in, behold, he comes, says YHWH Tzva’ot.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap;
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and there shall be they that shall offer unto YHWH offerings in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim be pleasant unto YHWH, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers; and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, says YHWH Tzva’ot.
6 For I YHWH change not; and you, O sons of Ya’akov, are not consumed.
7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, says YHWH Tzva’ot. But you say: ‘Wherein shall we return?’
8 Will a man rob Elohim? Yet you rob Me. But you say: ‘Wherein have we robbed You?’ In tithes and heave-offerings.
9 You are cursed with the curse, yet you rob Me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring you the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now herewith, says YHWH Tzva’ot, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall be more than sufficiency.
(Malchi 3:1-10)

In a recent blog we discussed how this passage relates to Yeshua’s statement “And then will I profess to them, that I know them not Depart from Me, all you workers of Torah-less-ness.” (Matt. 7:13-23 HRV) and (in the Judaikon version) “If you are in my bosom and do not the will of my Father which is in heaven, out of my bosom will I cast you away.”

Now it is very clear that this is speaking of the last days judgment “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness” (Mal. 3:5). In this context, YHWH calls the Body to return to keeping Torah, and the Body says “Wherein shall we return” (3:7) in other words “But YHWH, we HAVE been keeping Torah.” Then YHWH informs them to their surprise that they have failed to keep his Torah because they have failed to tithe, though they did not even realize that they were not tithing (3:8). The context here is clear, why would YHWH rebuke his last days people for not tithing, if there is not obligation to tithe in these last days?

We also get a reminder here. We do not GIVE the Tithe to YHWH, it was already His. He GIVES the 90% to us. When we do not tithe, we are not simply choosing not to give, we are actually stealing from YHWH!

Tithing is not restricted to the Mosaic covenant. Those who labor in the Word and teach the community, are entitled to be supported by the tithes and offerings of the community. In these last days YHWH says to his people “Return to my Torah”. The people say “But we are Torah observant.” YHWH responds, “Then why are you stealing from Me?”. The people say “what do you mean, stealing from You?” and YHWH says “You have been stealing My tithe”.

These are people in the last days who think they are Torah Observant because they have convinced themselves that they do not need to tithe. They are keeping the 612 commandments.

But to the contrary, they are oppressing the laborer in His Word, denying wages to him who is worthy of his wage.

And Pour You Out a Blessing

“Bring you the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now herewith, says YHWH Tzva’ot, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall be more than sufficiency.”
(Mal. 3:10)

We need to get serious. We need to ask themselves if the cost of the covenant is more than they are willing to pay. Others have paid with their lives, just read 2nd and 4th Maccabees. They were tortured and killed..

Yeshua said:

Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is comparable to a man that is a merchant, seeking
good pearls: Who, when he had found one precious pearl, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
(Matt. 13:45-46)

We need to be as serious about tithing as we are about the Sabbath and eating kosher.

Bring you the whole tithe into the store-house,
that there may be food in YHWH’s house.
(Mal. 3:10).

In a generous spirit pay homage to YHWH,
Spare not freewill gifts.
With each contribution show a cheerful countenance,
and pay your tithes in a spirit of joy.
(Sira 35:8-9 HRV)

Donations have been very low! Rent is due in less than a week and we do not have it! We need your help today!

Do not expect that the established religious denominations are going to be reformed and accomplish this paradigm shift. They are to set in their ways to be of any use to Elohim. To the contrary the established religious leaders are the single greatest deterrent to the promotion of the truth today.

We cannot do this work alone, but if we work together we can accomplish so much. So don’t forget to support this work with your contributions, tithes and offerings.

You make this work possible. Please help us bring the message of Torah and Messiah to a lost world and create Scripture study materials for believers.

Now is time to step up to the plate!

We must still raise at least $180 by the end of the day today, or our account will plunge into the negative, starting a chain reaction of returned items (including our electric bill) and fees! We need your help today!!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Donations can be sent by Zelle, Go Fund Me or Paypal

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Our rent was due yesterday and right now we do not have it!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Donations can be sent by Zelle, Go Fund Me or Paypal

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Thanks to all of those who helped us clear our rent last Tuesday. We must now raise at least $900 by the end of the day Monday to clear other bills!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

We must raise at least $382 by the end of the day today, to keep our account from going into the negative tonight (11/29/24) and starting a chain reaction of returned items and fees!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me.

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Our $300 electric bill is past due and our rent is due in less than a week!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org and by Zelle and Go Fund Me.

Click HERE to donate

We need more of you to step up to the plate to donate, even in small amounts. I know you are out there.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Our $300 electric bill is past due, and our rent is due in less than a week, and we do not have it! We need more of you to step up to the plate to donate, even in small amounts. I know you are out there.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me.

Click HERE to donate

The Fall of the Commonwealth

Rent must clear our account tonight!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Rent was paid electronically but must still clear our account Tuesday night (9/7/21)! With other bills also hitting, we are $488 short clearing the account!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

Donations have been very low! Rent is due in less than a week and we do not have it! We need your help today!

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

You can now donate thru PayPal, Zelle or Go Fund Me!

Click HERE to donate