New Video: Is the Two-House Message Biblical or Not?

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Based off of Genesis 48.

Is the commonly called “two house” or “two-stick” message” of the Bible something we should study? Are there any spiritual and prophetic benefits to understanding who the two houses of Israel are? The answer is yes. I would prefer to call it the “One House Message,” since this biblical truth involves the regathering and reunification of the Jews (the house of Judah) and the Christians (the house of Israel or Ephraim) into one nation through Yeshua the Messiah. This is the one new man message Paul proclaimed in Ephesians chapter two. This is the great and largely overlooked truth behind the message of the gospel of Yeshua the Messiah. In this video, you will discover the twelve benefits of understanding who the two houses of Israel are and how it relates to you.

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 1-4 Through 1-10-15

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THIS WEEK’S SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

Parashat Shemot — Exodus 1:1 – 6:1
Haftarah — Isaiah 27:6 – 28:13; 29:22-23
Prophets — 2 Samuel 10:1 – 16:23
Writings — Psalms 89:30 – 95:11
Testimony — Luke 5:1 – 8:25

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day. One each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 1/4 through 1/10/15.

 

Two Messiahs? One from Joseph and Judah?

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Genesis 49:24, Shepherd…Stone of Israel. This seems to be an irrefutable prophetic reference to the Messiah of Israel whom Scripture refers to in various places as “the Stone the builders rejected,” “the Chief Cornerstone,” “Precious Cornerstone” and “the Rock of our Salvation” (Ps 118:22; Isa 28:16; Mark 12:10; Eph 2:20; 1 Pet 2:6–8). Yet this verse appears to be saying that this Messiah is coming from the tribe of Joseph. At the same time, Jacob’s prophecy to Judah contains another classic Messianic prophecy in the reference to the Shiloh to come (Gen 49:10). These two prophecies led some Jewish sages to believe that two Messianic figures would arise out of Israel: one from Judah and other from Ephraim.

What kind of blessing was this prediction that one day his descendants—the Ten Tribes—would be scattered among the nations? R. Munk explains: while it is true that the dispersion was caused by the unfaithfulness and sinfulness of Ephraim’s descendants (Hos 7:8ff), Jacob’s blessing was not in vain for “they will return to God” and will have their share in the world to come (Sanhedrin 110b). And R. Eliezer adds: “Even the darkness in which the Ten Tribes were lost will one day become as radiant as the day’ (according to the version of Avos d’Rabbi Nosson 36). And in the perspective of history, did not these exiled children of the Patriarchs enlighten the nations among whom they were scattered? They did so by teaching their conquerors the fundamental ideas of the knowledge and love of God, ideals they had never forsaken. Hence they too have a messianic vocation and their Messiah the. … Messiah son of Joseph (Succah 52a), also called Messiah son of Ephraim (Targum Yonasan on Exod 40:11), will play an essential role in humanity’s redemption, for he will be the precursor of the … Messiah Son of David …” (The ArtScroll Bereishis/Genesis Commentary, pp. 2121–2122).

How do we explain this seeming contradiction in view of the facts that there was only one Messiah, and his name was Yeshua, and he came from the tribe of Judah? These two Messiahs are explained in Yeshua’s two comings. In his first coming, he was like Joseph, a suffering servant who then become a king after enduring great hardships (read Isa 53). When he comes back the second time, he will be like David, the conquering, triumphant or warrior king where he will rule over the world and a united Israel (Rev 19:11–16). The Jewish sages had a concept of these two Messiahs, as well, but were unclear as to whether they would be the same person or not and how much time would separate their two comings. With perfect 20-20 hindsight, we can now look back and see how Yeshua fulfilled this prophecy as the Messiah Son of Joseph (figuratively speaking) at this first coming, and how he is yet to come as the Messiah Son of David at his second coming where as the Conquering King he will defeat Babylon the Great and establish his earthly millennial kingdom where he will rule as King of kings (Rev 19–20).

 

Americans need a spiritual revival to help get over themselves!

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Metaphor For America: Starving 4 Pound Baby Dies In Car While Parents Eat At Golden Corral

By Michael Snyder, on December 31st, 2014

Golden Corral - Photo by Park92What should be done to parents that stuffed themselves full of food at a Golden Corral while their starving four pound baby girl died in their car outside?  This actually just happened down in Florida, and it is a crime that is shocking the entire nation.  Sadly, it is also a perfect metaphor for what is happening to the country as a whole.  We have become an exceedingly selfish and self-centered society that seems to care very little that we are literally destroying the future of America.  We are stealing trillions of dollars from future generations and destroying what was once the greatest economy in the history of the world just to make ourselves a little bit more comfortable in the present.  We stand by and do nothing while our politicians flush the U.S. Constitution down the toilet and construct a Big Brother police state all around us.  We have become a nation of “sheeple” and “zombies” that are so addicted to entertainment that we can’t even see how our society is rotting and decaying in thousands of different ways all around us.  So yes, the parents that starved their precious little baby girl to death are guilty and should be punished.  But what about the millions of Americans that are doing nothing while America slowly circles the toilet on the way to oblivion?

There are very few news stories that affect me deeply on an emotional level.  But when I read about the starvation of this precious little baby girl down in Florida, I was quite upset…

A baby girl named Betsey died, having being starved to death while strapped in her car seat as her parents ate a Florida Golden Corral restaurant.

The parents of the 22-day-old baby have been charged with first-degree murder, police said on Tuesday, accusing them of neglecting the suffering infant.

Ruby Stephens, 23, and Roy Stephens, 48, of Indiana, were visiting relatives in central Florida on December 23 when they called 911 after discovering the baby was unresponsive in their car, according to Lakeland Police.

Betsey Kee Stephens was declared dead at the hospital.

‘She suffered tremendously over the 22 days that she was alive,’ Mike Link, assistant chief of Lakeland Police, told a news conference.

He called photographs of the baby ‘absolutely horrible.’

How cold-hearted do you have to be in order to do such a thing?

How could anyone neglect such a precious baby girl like that?

Inside the Golden Corral, her parents had access to an endless buffet.  But they didn’t even bring Betsey inside with them.  She sat outside strapped in her car seat as she died from starvation.

But like I said, this is such a perfect metaphor for where we are as a nation.

We have become a selfish, greedy, gluttonous nation that doesn’t care about others and that always wants more for ourselves.

For example, in 1962 only 13 percent of all Americans were obese.  But today, 35.7 percent of all Americans are obese, and it is being projected that 42 percent of all Americans could be obese by the year 2030.

And of course it goes far beyond just being physically gluttonous.  Much worse is… (to continued reading http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/metaphor-for-america-starving-4-pound-baby-dies-in-car-while-parents-eat-at-golden-corral).

 

Torah-Obedience 101: Just Be Nice!

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Luke 3:7–17, Then he said to the multitudes. What’s really going on in this exchange between John and the religious folks of his day? Let’s step back and look at the bigger picture.

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The multitudes of Jews had to make the long, hot and arduous journey down through the Judean mountains down to the Jordan River, which was the lowest spot on earth, to hear John the Baptist who was the latest fad preacher to come on the scene. However, when they arrived at his lonely wilderness pulpit, instead of stroking their egos by complimenting them for their religious zeal, he excoriates them and calls them a brood of vipers. John confronts them when he says that if they don’t repent, the fires of YHVH’s judgment will consume them (John 3:7–9). John’s preaching pierces their hearts, and lays them low spiritually, and they ask him what he expects them to do (John 3:10). John then preaches a message of social justice involving giving to the poor, being fair and honest in your business dealings, and if you’re a government worker, treating the citizens you serve with respect (John 3:11–14).

Interestingly, he doesn’t instruct these religious Jews in what many might consider to be the specificities and dos and don’ts of the Torah-law.  In our day, most Messianically inclined Torah teachers are telling their listeners to punctiliously start observing the 613 commandments of the Torah, and to cease working on the Sabbath, stop eating pork, toss the Christmas trees in the dumpster, grow a beard, put on a tassel and a head-covering, and to say “Yeshua” instead of “Jesus.” John instead tells his hearers to go back to the basic — something they either never learned to do or they had forgotten along the way. He’s really saying,  “Just be nice to your neighbor. Be fair, honest, loving and caring in your dealings with your fellow man.” And then John points them to Yeshua the Messiah who is soon to become the new star on the Judean preaching scene (Luke 3:16–17). So be nice and follow Yeshua—the most loving Person of all, he says.

When witnessing to people, what is our approach? Do we bash them over the head with a Torah scroll by telling them all the religious legal requirements that are required of them, or do we tell them simply to love one another and to follow Yeshua, which inevitably, but lovingly, will lead them to observing the righteous requirements of the Torah?

But there’s more. Continue reading →

 

Peace on earth and good will toward [all] men. Really?

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Luke 2:14, Peace on earth. (See William Mounce’s  Basics of Biblical Greek textbook, p. 43 for further explanation on this.) This often quoted phrase can also be translated as “on earth, peace toward men of good will.”

This phrasing makes more sense, since the biblical concept of peace or shalom is a blessing only to men who have good will, make good choices or who are benevolent or of kindly intent, which is the definition of the Greek word eudokia.

The shalom or total well-being, which is a gift from YHVH, doesn’t come to men who are of ill-intent or ill-will. For example, when Yeshua was teaching his disciples how to preach the gospel, when going from town to town, he instructed them to lodge in homes that were worthy to hear the message. Upon them, the disciples were to leave their peace. Those homes who didn’t receive the  gospel message were to considered unworthy and their peace was not to be left with them (Matt 10:11–14).

This teaches us that peace is something that is befitting of those who are worthy or of good will, and not to those who are unworthy or of ill-will.

 

Was Yeshua born in a barn or a sukkah?

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Luke 2:7, Manger. The Greek word means “feeding trough” and according to the word’s etymology and lexicology  as stated in the TWOT, gives no indication for this manger to be anything but a manger.

Was Yeshua born in this …

Was Yeshua born in this …

 

or this?

or this?

Nevertheless, this manger may have been a sukkah or tabernacle, which is the flimsy little hut that Israelites build during the biblical Feast of Tabernacles (Heb. Chag Sukkot) as commanded in the Torah (Lev 23:33–43).

We see the connection between a manger and a sukkah in Genesis 33:17 where Jacob built booths (or

tabernacles; Heb. succot or sukkot is the plural form of sukkah) for his livestock showing us that the Hebrew word sukkah (pl. sukkot) can also mean “livestock barn or manger” as well as a temporary habitation where Israelites dwell during the biblically commanded festival of Sukkot.

This raises the possibility that Yeshua was born in a festival sukkah during the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot and not just in an animal barn as Christian folklore would have us believe.

The LXX Greek word for sukkah in Gen 33:17 is skenas meaning “habitation, dwelling or tabernacle” and is the same word used in John 1:14 and Rev 21:1–3 in reference to Yeshua tabernacling with his people.

Putting all the pieces together, Yeshua may have been born in a sukkah-manger prior to or during the Feast of Tabernacles with a human sukkah (or body, of which the physical sukkah during Sukkot is a metaphorical picture) in order to redeem man from sin, so that Yeshua might tabernacle with redeemed men forever in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:3).