New Video: Yeshua Teaches on Divorce and Children

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In this video, Natan discusses how Yeshua teaches that divorce isn’t YHVH intended ideal marital situation, but that due to the hardness of the human heart, Moses (obviously, with Elohim’s permission) allowed for it (under certain stringent conditions, as the Torah spells out).
Lest anyone get the idea that the Bible permits divorce for any reason (as the Pharisaical school of Hillel taught), Yeshua asserts that divorce and remarriage (often) results in an adulterous situation.
Then the Gospel writer seeming switches gears and records Yeshua’s blessing the children and encouraging this disciples to become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of Elohim.
Is Yeshua’s discussion about divorce and his blessing of the children just random and unrelated events in the Gospel narrative, or are these events strangely related employing a typically Hebraic teaching style to teach an important lesson? What this video to find out.

 

Who Did the Ten Tribes Become According to the Jewish Sages?

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Genesis 48:19, Multitude of nations. Here is what the ancient Jewish sages say about this prophetic verse pertaining to the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh:

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  • Ibn Ezra: Many nations will descend from him (i.e., the word fullness [Heb. melo], connotes abundance, the phrase meaning: And his seed will become the abundance of the nation [Neter; Karnei Or].) (The ArtScroll Bereishis/Genesis Commentary p. 2121)
  • R. Avraham b. HaRambam somewhat similarly: The expression denotes abundant profligacy to a point that they will have to inhabit lands of other nations it is an allusion to Ephraim’s expansive territory (Ibid.).
  • Radak: This refers to the Exile when the lands of others will be filled with his scattered descendants … See also Hos 7:8: “Ephraim shall be mingled among the nations. (Ibid.)
  • 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 …” (Ibid., pp. 2121–2122).
  • Ibn Ezra declares that many nations will descend from Ephraim, Continue reading →
 

New Video: Yeshua’s Triumphal Entry—Prophetic Implications

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This video discusses Yeshua’s triumphal entry, his cursing the fig tree and overturning the moneychangers’ tables how and these events contain a prophetic subtext that point to events that will occur at his second coming.

 

New Video: Joseph, Judah and the Two Messiahs

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This video discusses the prophetic implications of Genesis 44:18 and Judah presenting himself to Joseph and how this is a prophetic picture of Yeshua the Messiah, the Suffering Servant as opposed to the Conquering King.

 

Blog Scripture Readings for 12/8 through 12/14/13

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Parashat Vayechi — Genesis 47:28 – 50:26
Haftarah — I Kings 2:1 – 2:12
Prophets — 2 Samuel 1:1 – 7:29
Writings — Psalms 76:1 – 81:16
Testimony — Mark 14:1 – 16:20

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 12/8 through 12/14/13.

 

The Final Redemption of the 12 Tribes

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Genesis 47:28, The Jewish sages recognize that this final portion of Genesis chronicles Jacob’s wish to reveal to his sons prophetic understandings pertaining to Israel’s long and numerous exiles, culminating in the final redemption (return of Israel from her exile in “Babylon” at the end of the age prior to the return of Messiah at which time the two houses of Israel will be reunited under Messiah Son of David). Jacob states this in 49:1 when he gives his prophecies relating to what will befall his sons “in the last days.” Prior to the establishment of the Messianic Age (Millennium) all Israel would go into a time of darkness, gloom and exile. The sages teach that this idea is implicated in the fact that the Torah scroll fails to place the customary nine spaces between the last word of the previous parashah and the first word of the present one. There is only a one space gap in Hebrew letters which predicts the “closing in” of Israel as they go into exile and captivity in Egypt.

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Here’s an excerpt from a larger, yet unpublished, article on the timing of the return of the 12 tribes to the land of Israel in the last days. This extract deals with the concept of redemption in Israel’s long history, and specifically with the final redemption of the last days.

I hope you enjoy this Shabbat-day study.

The Repeating Paradigm of Israel’s Redemption

Biblically, the concept of the return of exiled and scattered Israel (including Ephraim) to the land of Israel is tied to the idea of redemption. Biblically, the concept of redemption involves a stronger person (the redeemer) intervening on behalf of a weaker person (the enslaved, i.e., the one needing redemption), defeating the captor of the slave thus allowing the enslaved to go free.

The first biblical example of this process occurred when Elohim redeemed Israel out of Egypt. The biblical prophets compared this first exodus to a greater, or second exodus that is yet to occur in the future. In Jewish thought, the exodus out of Egypt is called the first redemption, yet the biblical prophets also speak of Israel going into captivity again — this time not to Egypt, but into the exile of the nations. From this place of exile and spiritual Continue reading →

 

Are You ‘Not Far From’ the Kingdom or ‘In’ the Kingdom?

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Mark 12:34, You are not far from the kingdom. Yeshua makes this complimentary statement to the scribe who had correctly and succinctly summarized the message of the Torah (both its letter and spirit intent) in verses 32–33.

However, note that Yeshua didn’t say, “You are in the kingdom of Elohim (i.e., you have eternal life).”

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What was the one thing that kept the scribe from being in the kingdom? It was doubtless the same thing that kept the rich young ruler from obtaining the eternal life that he sought (Matt 19:16).

After having obeyed the Torah the best he could, the young ruler still needed to surrender all to Yeshua the Messiah, and to follow him unreservedly (Matt 19:18–22).

Not only is it difficult for humans to surrender all to the Master, and then to follow him wherever he leads, but having followed the Torah the best we can, we must still humbly recognize that without the righteousness of Yeshua in the equation, our best efforts at Torah-obedience will still miss the mark of YHVH Elohim’s acceptable standard of righteousness, thus leaving us maybe not far from the kingdom, but definitely not in the kingdom of Elohim.