Tag Archives: Yeshua

Who are the gods of Psalm 82:1 and how does it relates to you?

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Psalms 82:1, Elohim stands…the gods. This is a reference to Elohim acting as the Supreme Judge among his divine, heavenly council that carries out his orders. This is more than the traditional “Godhead,” and includes angelic and spirit beings, and even Satan himself. From time to time, Elohim gathers his council together as we see in Job (Job 1:6; 2:1). Even lying spirits are subject to and do the bidding of Elohim who presides over this council also referred to as the host of heaven (1 Kgs 22:19–23). Some of “Us” passages in the Scriptures, which have typically been attributed to the “Godhead,” likely also refer to this divine counsel (e.g. Gen 11:7; Ezek 44:6). This has been the view of ancient Jewish sages as well.

Modern biblical theologians have traditionally taken a non-supernaturalistic view of this passage by saying that the gods here refer to human rulers. While elohim may by definition and biblical usage refer to human rulers, this passage can’t be limited to this definition alone, since verse seven refers to these gods/elohim as “dying like men” as a result of Elohim’s divine judgment on them because of their wickedness. This threat makes little or no sense if it is referring only to human rulers. For the record, Yeshua quotes verse six in reference to human rulers (John 10:34; 14:30; 16:11), so this passage should not be taken to refer only to Elohim’s divine counsel or just to human rulers, but probably to both. This is because behind human rulers are evil spirits or principalities that govern the nations (Dan 10:20; Eph 6:12; Rev 13:2) all under the aegis of Satan who has his own kingdom (Matt 12:26) and is presently the ruler of this world (John 12:31); however, all of this is under the ultimate authority of YHVH Elohim.

The idea that there were and are unseen evil spirits and demi-gods that behind the scenes rule the nations of the world is revealed in the book of Enoch and is also found in traditional ancient Mesopotamian historical accounts and forms the basis for the ancient Greek mythos.

Additionally, we learn from Genesis chapter ten (the Table of the Nations) that, at that time, there were seventy nations of the world that rebelled against YHVH at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11). Interestingly, Jacob had 70 descendants who went down to Egypt (Exod 1:5) and who become children of Israel. From them, Moses chose 70 elders to rule over Israel (Exod 24:1), which would eventually became the Great Sanhedrin that ruled the Jewish people. YHVH then commissioned Israel to evangelize the apostate nations by being a spiritual light to them (Deut 4:5–8)—a task they utterly failed to perform. Picking up where ancient Israel failed in its mission, Yeshua chose 70 disciples not only to replace the Jewish Sanhedrin in spiritual authority over the people of Elohim, but to go forth and to preach the gospel to the 70 nations (Luke 10:1–12, 17; Acts 1:8 cp. Matt 28:18–20) that had been lost to the kingdom of Satan at the Tower of Babel, thereby to reclaim the world for the kingdom of Elohim at the devil’s expense.

Eventually, the glorified saints will become the sons of Elohim and will be adopted into his divine family as small E elohim (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1; Gal 3:26; Rom 8:14; Eph 1:5) to rule and reign with Elohim (Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6) over the new heavens and new earth, all to Satan’s chagrin and the small E elohim rulers in his present-day earthly kingdom, who will be cast into the lake of fire at the end of the age (Rev 20:10).

For those who have put their faith in Yeshua and who daily serve, love and obey him, get ready! Prepare for your spiritual destiny. Now is the time to gird up your spiritual loins and to prepare for the great and final showdown between Yeshua our soon-coming Messiah and Satan, the god of this world, where good will triumph over evil for the final time!

 

From My Bible Commentary on Revelation 20, 21 and 22

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Shalom everyone!

In my as yet unpublished commentary on the whole Bible, I have about a thousand pages long commentary on the NT or Testimony of Yeshua alone. Parts and pieces of this I share from time to time on this blog.

For fun and, hopefully, to bless a few readers, I decided to share my commentary notes on Revelation chapters 20 to 22. These notes are unpublished and not formally edited, so if you find any typos, kindly let me know.

I hope this is a blessing to someone and will get you thinking a little! This ought to keep some of you going for awhile! 😉

Natan

Revelation 20

Revelation 20:1, Bottomless pit. (See notes at Deut 32:22; 2 Pet 2:4; Rev 9:1. Also see notes at Isa 14:18–21.)

Revelation 20:4, A thousand years. This is but one of six references in the Bible to the Millennium lasting for one thousand years. The other references are found in the surrounding verses (vv. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7). These are more than enough references to meet the biblical criteria of establishing a truth in the mouth of two or more witnesses. Even then, some biblical students still question the idea of the Millennium and categorize it as a NT concept only and, therefore, feel they can disregard it. This is a shame and shows naive ignorance with regard to the Word of Elohim. An understanding of the prophetic implications of the seventh day Sabbath should settle this discussion once for all. In Hebraic thought, the seven days of creation picture the time man will be on this physical earth. Six days (for six days or six thousand years) man does his own work, while on the seventh day (or one thousand years) he rests and fellowships with Elohim. This is a picture of the millennial rest, which the Jewish sages have long called the Messianic Era, which is to come. The Millennium is not uniquely a Christian or NT concept, but is rooted in Judaism going back before the Christian era. The writer of Hebrews makes reference to this in Heb 7 when he compares Joshua taking the Israelites into the Promised Land with Yeshua taking the saints into the Sabbath, millennial rest of our spiritual inheritance.

Revelation 20:5, The rest of the dead. This phrase is a parenthetical thought. Before and after this phrase, the author is discussing those who will be part of the first resurrection, which occurs at Yeshua’s second coming. Later in the same chapter, John goes on to discuss what happens to the rest of the dead (vv. 12–13).

Revelation 20:7–21:1, Events after the Millennium. The events in these verses appear to be chronological and occur after the Millennium. In Rev 20:2ff John seems to be receiving a f pre-millennial flashback vision. (See my discussion on these verses.)

Revelation 20:8, The four corners. These rebels who will inhabit the millennial earth have removed themselves as far as possible from Jerusalem, which is the seat of King Yeshua’s rule and the at the center of the earth.

Revelation 20:9, Fire came down from heaven. If the New Jerusalem, the seat of Continue reading →

 

Two Kinds of Peace: Know Yeshua and Know Peace—No Yeshua, No Peace

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In Isaiah 26:1–4 we read,

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; [Elohim] will appoint salvation [Heb. Yeshua] for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in YHVH forever, for in YAH, YHVH, is everlasting strength.

My commentary on verse 3:

Isaiah 26:3, Peace. Heb. shalom. This word is spelled in its undiminished form (shin, lamed, vav, mem sofit) here containing the Hebrew letter vav (as opposed to other places in the Hebrew Scriptures where shalom is spelled deffectively [shin, lamed, mem sofit] without the letter vav denoting an incomplete or human-originated peace).

This verse is referring to that deep and inner soul-quenching peace of Elohim that passes all understanding that comes through a relationship with Yeshua the Messiah (Phil 4:7)—the fruit of the Spirit, as opposed to human or earthly, temporal peace. This peace comes  because of our salvation through Yeshua, which is our spiritual bulwark and wall as stated in verse one. This is the same peace that Yeshua talked about when he said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

If you don’t know this peace that calms the storms in your heart and mind, forgives sin, takes away all one’s shame and guilt and replaces it with love, joy, peace, hope and assurance of eternal life after you die, then now is the time to put your faith in Yeshua the Messiah, repent of your sins and love and obey him for the rest of your life.

 

One of the coolest Messianic prophecies in the Bible

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Yeshua—YHVH Elohim’s gift to mankind from heaven!

Read and study the Bible and discover the genius of the Creator’s mind breathed into its words. Fall in love with the Elohim and his Word as you read it, and let it transform your life and thinking! — Natan

Notes from Natan’s Bible commentary:

Isaiah 7:11–17, A sign. This is an amazing prophecy—a twofer prophetically showcasing the genius of the Creator’s ability to accomplish so much by saying so little. Here Isaiah prophecies to the rebellious Jewish king his kingdom’s (and hence his own) downfall, but at that same time, the rising up of the King Messiah to be born of a virgin woman as well as being deity. So while Isaiah prophesies judgment upon the apostate southern kingdom of Judah, at the same time he is giving a message of hope in predicting the coming Messiah—the ultimate and eternal hope of Elohim’s people even in the midst of darkness and judgment.

Isaiah 7:11, A sign … either in the depth, or in the height above. Sign is the Hebrew word owth (Strong’s H226) meaning “sign, token, signal, a beacon, a monument, evidence, prodigy or omen.” Traditionally, Christians have viewed this passage along with the following verses as a prophecy concerning the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Some who are opposed to the virgin birth interpretation of Isaiah 7:14 will say that owth is never used in Scripture in reference to a miraculous sign. To the contrary, there are numerous examples in the Scriptures where owth is indeed used in reference to a miraculous sign (e.g. Exod 4:8, 9, 17, 28, 30; 7:3; 8:23; 10:1, 2; Num 14:22; Deut 4:34; 6:22; 7:19; 11:3; 2 Kgs. 20:8–11; Neh 9:10; Isa 20:3; Jer 32:20, 21). For example, owt describes such supernatural occurrences as rods becoming serpents, the Nile turning to blood, the death of the Egypt’s first born, the splitting of the Red Sea or time moving backward ten degrees on Hezekiah’s sundial. So when Isa 7:11–14 uses the word owth to describe a virgin miraculously giving birth to a child, such an interpretation is not a biblical hermeneutical twist on this scripture.

The word depth is the Hebrew masculine noun aymek (Strong’s H6009 from H6010) meaning “valley or depression.” This same Hebrew word in its adjective form (same spelling, different vowel points) refers to the depths of sheol or hell (Prov 9:18; Job 11:8). In Psalm 139:15, David in reference to his formation in his mother’s womb (verse 13) says, “I … was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth (Heb. aretz). Aretz (Strong’s H776) is the commonly used word for earth or land in Scripture. A valley or depression is the lowest part of the earth. Here David figuratively likens his mother’s womb to a low place or depression in the earth. Though the Hebrew words for depth in Isaiah 7:11 and lowest parts in Psalm 139:15 are different, the Hebraic concepts seem connected and analogous.

Height is the Hebrew word gabahh (Strong’s H1361) and means “to soar, to be lofty, to exalt.” This root word in its adjective form is also gabahh (Strong’s H1362) with the only difference between the two words being a slight vowel pronunciation difference in the second syllable. This word means “lofty or high.” We see this adjective used in Job 35:5 as a poetic reference to heaven (Heb. shamayim) as well as in Isaiah 55:9; Psalm 103:11 (“For as the heaven/shamayim is high above the earth …” or “according to the heights of heaven” (alternate Hebrew rendering, KJV marginal notes).

Above, which is opposite the word height in the passage under analysis, is the word ma’al (Strong’s H4605) meaning “upward, above, overhead, from the top, exceedingly.” Thus, the phrase in this verse could be rendered as highest heaven (where YHVH abides). The word ma’al can be used as an adjective to refer to heaven above where YHVH dwells (Deut 4:39; Josh 2:11).

What is the point we are trying to make here? YHVH prophesies, through Isaiah, that he will give a supernatural, miraculous sign to the house of Judah from both the depths (or womb of a woman) and the highest heavens. In verse 14 Isaiah speaks of the (the Hebrew uses the definite article the) virgin or the young maiden (depending on your Bible translation) giving birth to a son named Immanuel meaning “El With Us.” Now great controversy has raged as to the meaning of the word virgin (Heb. almah). Does it refer simply to a young maiden or to an actual virgin? Much has been written by scholars on both sides of this hotly debated issue and it is outside the scope of this work to deal with this particular subject. Both sides (the pro-virgin birth side and the anti-virgin birth of Messiah side) have valid points to their credit. This author maintains that if Isaiah 7:14 were to stand alone, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove the virgin birth of the Messiah either way. However, with the context of verse 11 considered (not to mention the other references in the Tanakh referring to the virgin birth of the Messiah (e.g., Gen 3:15; Isa 9:6–7; Pss 2:7; 110:1–7), it seems that Isaiah had one thing in mind in penning verse 14: the Messiah would be born of a virgin. He would be formed in the womb of a woman (without the seed of a man (see Gen 3:15) and at the same time would originate from the highest heaven. This seems to be a clear reference to the incarnation, that YHVH would miraculously fuse (by the Spirit of Elohim [Matt 1:20]) with the physical egg of a woman to form the Yah-Man (God-Man) referred to in Christian theology as the incarnation or the hypostatic union.

 

Angels or the Saints?

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Are the “angels” Jacob saw in his dream angels or the saints?

I received the following question from S.P. in Owego, NY about something I wrote in a recent blog post. Here’s the question.
We read your blog of Happy Shavuot 2017. Great Article and agree how important it is to continue to go higher in our relationship with YHVH Elohim!
The following is from the section labeled “Following the Glory Cloud Onward and Upward”:
“The angels or, more correctly, the messengers going up and down that ladder that Jacob saw in his dream are the glorified bride-saints of Yeshua, who will be ruling and reigning with Yeshua from the New Jerusalem over his millennial kingdom.”
Would you be able to give us some references as to how you know that the angels going up and down the ladder are the glorified saints and that they are ruling and reigning with Yeshua from the New Jerusalem over his millennial kingdom?
Here’s my answer:
The word “angels” in reference to Jacob’s dream is the Hebrew word malak which simple means “messenger.” It can be a divine messenger such as an angel, or it can refer to the preincarnate Yeshua who is referred to in our poorly translated English Bible numerous times as “the Angel of the LORD/YHVH.” Obviously, Yeshua is not an angel in the traditional meaning of the word. He is, however, the messenger of  Elohim as the Word of Elohim sent to man. So angel simply means messenger. It can even be a human messenger as well.
Now go to John 1:51 where Yeshua says that the angels of Elohim are descending on the Son of Man—that’s Yeshua. From this we know that the ladder that Jacob saw was a metaphor for Yeshua who is the way of salvaston. He is the way to the Father. We must go through him to come to the Father. This is how we gain salvation. This obviously applies to humans, not to angels. The word for angels in John 1:51 is the Greek word angelos which is equivalent in meaning to the Hebrew word malak. It can mean a human messenger as well as an angelic one. From Yeshua’s statement, we know that it has to be referring to the saints who are YHVH’s messengers to the world. This, in my opinion, based on good evidence, is what Jacob saw.
To take this one step further, in the book of Revelation, there is strong evidence that the New Jerusalem will be hovering over the earth during the millennium. If this is the case, this will the habitation of King Yeshua who will be ruling the  earth. The glorified saints will be kings and priests helping Yeshua to rule and as such will to likely going to and from earth to the NJ to receive instructions and teachings from Yeshua which they will then come back to earth to implement during their millennial reign of the humans living on the earth at this time. I believe that this is what Jacob saw in his prophetic dream. This all may seem a bit suppositional to some, but it makes sense to me when we put all the pieces together.
Here is a link to an article I wrote on Jacob’s ladder dream and its spiritual and prophetic implications for those who want to go real deep on this fascinating subject: https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/ladder.pdf
Sorry for the paragraph spacing issues in this blog. WordPress is having problems, which I can’t fix.
 

John 20:17, “Touch me not,” Explained

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Recently I received an email from someone asking me to explain John 20:17 where Yeshua had a conversation with Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, but before his ascension to heaven and said the following:

 

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”

John 20:17, Touch me not. Touch is the Greek word haptomai meaning “to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to,” and can be used to refer to touching in a carnal and passionate way as between a man and a woman. Perhaps Yeshua didn’t want his disciples to cling to him as a wife clings to her husband, since, in a spiritual sense, they (and us) were/are only betrothed and not yet married to him yet. (The marriage of the saints to Yeshua will occur at his second coming.)

Additionally, Yeshua had not yet ascended to heaven where he would be accepted by his Father as the perfect, unspotted, undefiled and sinless sacrificial Lamb of Elohim. If a sinful human had touched him, this may have ceremonially defiled his state of perfect cleanliness.

In the Torah, for example, if a man touched a dead human carcass, he would become ceremonially unclean and need cleansing (Num 19:11–13). This was the law of the red heifer, which was a prophetic picture of Yeshua dying on the cross for our sins, which had to be perfect and blemish free (Num 19:1–10; Heb 13:10–12).

The lesson here is that all men are dead in their sins until they come into contact with Yeshua the Messiah, which is the lesson of the red heifer.

For additional information on the red heifer, here is a link to an article I have written on the subject: https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/redheifer.pdf.