Sunday, April 18, 2010

Come now let us reason together

    In the next couple of weeks, people from my congregation will be going to Israel for about 10 days. Rabbi Steve made it clear they will not just be visiting the sites but also to breathe life back into God’s chosen people and witness to them. My nefesh was happy to hear that. I was going to go with them but I had to back out because I lost my job. I guess Abba doesn’t want me there this year. I then started to think “Why hasn’t The Church risen up and helped Israel?” I guess I can go all the way back to Genesis 4v6, when Cain has murder in his heart (nefesh) for Abel and it lead to killing him. Abel was the second born. Israel is also the second born. We look at Abraham and his sons Ishmael and Isaac. The covenant went thru Isaac. Isaac’s sons Esau and Jacob, the covenant stayed with the second born Jacob. So is the church trying to kill Israel? Replacement theology is mixed in with most churches today even the ones that say they love Israel. When Constantine, not the apostle Peter, started the catholic church, division between the Jews and Gentile grew rapidly dividing the church from its Hebraic roots creating a false religion that worshiped its leaders and quench the Ruach Hakodesh.
     Martin Luther brought some reform to the church but kept his anti-Semitism toward the Jews. Replacement theology flourished. Abba used this hatred to spread the gospel. This is found only in Luke 21:24 “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” That is what’s been happening with most of the churches today. They truly are against Israel. You would think that statement was wrong but it isn’t. In the bible, we see at times it was the second born that carried the torch (no pun intended). Even with Yeshua redeeming us, sin was represented in the first Adam and Yeshua, our salvation, in the second Adam. We see this pattern repeated in the New Testament. In the book of Luke, we are given the story of the prodigal son. The second son was the one that returned to his father while the first born despised him. This parable is only in the book of Luke. The book of Luke was written for the gentile believers in Yeshua. So what is Yeshua trying to tell us in this story? The first born is against the second born and is close to judgment of hell fire, just like Cain and Abel. The judgment will first start with the house of God.
In the parable, the first thing the first born son does is get angry at his brother and does not celebrate his return. 15:28 “But he was angry and would not go in.” Second the first born doesn’t acknowledge that he is his brother. 15:30 “But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.“ Finally His father has to reassure his son all that he has was his and to come in and join with his younger brother. 15:31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.” Why couldn’t the brother go out and try to get his little brother back in the first place? Why does the older brother hate him so much? Yeshua stops the parable at this point, which I think that is very good for us. What are we going to do next? We have a choice to either to be bitter and not acknowledge them or embrace them. “But they need to follow our rules and regulations!” this statment is not going to win them over but showing Abba’s mercy and intimacy with us will. So are we going to rise up and join with our brothers and acknowledge them or are we going to keep shunning our Hebraic roots, forcing our laws on them to “convert them” and handing them easter baskets. Is this what we call provoking them to jealousy?
We need to rise up and breathe life back into our brothers and not to wait for Abba to bring them home. We need to tell them it was your God that helped me, it was your God that gave me hope, it was your God that gave me eternal life, it was your God that gave me a new spirit, it was your God that gave me Yeshua. Isaiah 1:18 “ Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “ Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”




















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