Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven: A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; a time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
Hebrews 12:26-27
“And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.’ This expression, ‘Yet once more,’ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” (Emphasis added.)
Beloved, as the world gets ever nearer to the ‘Last Days’ about which Scripture warns, we would do well to take to heart what the above texts are revealing: Everything – absolutely everything that our fallen flesh holds dear and even idolizes – will have its season… and then it will pass away. Everything of this fallen world is temporary. No part of it that we cling to, nothing to which we may be addicted, and nothing over which we obsess or upon which we’ve become fixated and entrenched… will last. Everything we know, at this point, will be replaced by something else, something that will not come from this fallen world. What is coming at the end of time will come to us from God… from His eternal, infinite Kingdom in the incomprehensible Dimension of Eternity. And that is the only thing that will last forever.
Revelation 21:5-11a
“And He who sits on the Throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He *said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’ Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the Water of Life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’
“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here, I will show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, having the Glory of God…”
So what does this revelation about what is about to befall the temporal world, do to your personal worldly perspectives, opinions and imperatives? Do the rigid, sacred priorities you’ve formed within this world and its system throughout your days on Earth, fit into and align with the revelation God’s written Word is giving? In light of what is coming… the Judgment we must all face… are you ready to let go of all of that God says is going to pass away? The Holy Spirit clearly tells us about the transitory nature and impending end of the time and space dimension in which this fallen world abides. He’s warning us against our habitual weaknesses – our crippling urge to be self-centered and our over-inflated egos that seek to be preeminent and establish our own personal agendas and priorities and strive to control whatever we experience. That fallen, self-adoring, ego-exalting drive within us is the main obstacle. It creates opposition between us, and our Creator!
Our fallen nature and Sin-corrupted mortal bodies constitute an enormous contradiction that is always at work within us. We know we are very limited in our intellectual scope, and abide in bodies that are doomed to die physically, but we still have this incredibly strong, habitual urge to strive to become, ‘like God’. We want to be foremost and at center stage at all times and in all things! But God’s written Word warns against that. For example, ponder the words of John the Immerser (Baptizer). He urges us to repent of our radical independence from, and rebellion against, God. We are commanded to turn back to God, and embody His Word, even at the expense of our own flesh and its Sin-loving drives. God must rule and prevail within us so that He can take us in His direction, which directly opposes the drive that is within our natural fallen nature. Ponder what John said concerning God’s living Word made flesh:
John 3:28-36
“You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the Bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom, who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. HE MUST INCREASE, but I must decrease! He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the Earth is from the Earth and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from Heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has Eternal Life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see Life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (Emphasis added.)
Matthew 10:38-39
“…He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
Only God Himself is the absolute Source and Norm and Judge of whatever will prevail for eternity. He determines what will be valid, true and real, once His created universe enters eternity. At the end of human history, God will no longer have any opposition. Not one voice or heart will ever again be raised in contradiction or opposition to Yeshua, His living Word!
Psalm 110:1-3a
“The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’ The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of Your enemies.’ Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power…”
Nevertheless, at present, most humans continue to refuse to allow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to occupy His rightful place of Authority and Supremacy. Our flesh drives us to try to usurp His place and drown out His Word and assume the Supremacy for ourselves. We want to have the last say and insist that things be done our way. Our self-adoring humanism continues to insist:
“Man is the measure of all things. And we reserve for ourselves, the right to ultimate preeminence, in all things and in every situation!”
God’s Word tells us repeatedly to repent of these grossly ignorant delusions, for they cause us to be the image and likeness of the Serpent, rather than of our Creator. The Word tells us to repent of that, and defer and submit to the Word of the one true God, so that God, by the Wisdom, Power and Guidance of His Holy Spirit and the infinite Authority of His living and written Word, can equip us to discern what He is doing during each season we encounter throughout the short time span in which we exist in this world. If we submit to our Creator’s Authority and defer to His true Wisdom, we abide in eternal Truth and Reality; and we will be blessed eternally, beyond belief! So God desires to equip us spiritually, so that we can join Him in what He is doing and share in His Joy and Inheritance and the endless Fulfillment of His Eternal Plan for Creation.
But our fallen nature continually causes us to stumble over the Word of God and His Supremacy; the fulfillment of God’s Plan, is not what we naturally desire and pursue. We come up with agendas of our own, and that gets us into trouble. No two humans are alike. Each has his or her individual quirks, traits and tendencies. So we are usually in conflict with God and with each other, and wallow in endless antagonism, enmity and violent destructive strife. Fallen flesh always feels an urge to resist, reject and actively oppose what God’s living Word is actually here to do on the Earth. A casual observation of the carnage that takes place in the world, in any given era, will prove how adamant and rigidly set in their own ways the humans of each generation truly are. And that is why we always see conflicts arise between the will of God and the wills of the people of this fallen world. God has clearly pointed this out to us:
Isaiah 55:6-9
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Emphasis added.)
But God’s Word Made Flesh Always Does His Father’s Will
So what does Scripture tell us about what will eventually happen to our rigid, rebellious opinions, viewpoints, imperatives and sacred cows? Will any of that last or prevail? Will our will and its imperatives prevail in the end, or, will we too run our course and then be forced to surrender to the inevitability of whatever God has decided will come next? Beloved, there is no real substance to anything in this fleeting life! Everything here is transitory and temporal. Nothing that is currently prominent can prevail or be of any effect after we’ve been ushered into Eternity. So… what is the message we should take from all of these passing seasons? The prophet Jeremiah puts it very well:
Jeremiah 17:5-10
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant.
“‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.
“‘The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” (Emphasis added.)
So notice that God doesn’t deny that absolute, objective Truth exists! He’s not saying there’s nothing solid or substantial upon which we can rely and into which we can sink the roots of our faith, hope and trust. He’s warning about trusting in the gross limitations of our own fallen, Sin-corrupted, living death humanity… and our inability to perceive and grasp the depths and vastness and incredible richness of His Incomprehensible Truth and Infinite Reality. He’s warning that nothing created has the authority or ability to grasp and comprehend the levels of Truth and Reality that are known only to Him, The Creator! Each of us can only be aware of and operate within, a very small portion of God’s entire, cosmic panorama of Reality and Truth. There are so many levels and dimensions of Being and Activity that lie far beyond our ability to grasp, that most of what exists extends far beyond the scope of what our faculties and perceptions can perceive, comprehend, explain, or even imagine! We are pathetically limited! We do not have it within ourselves to try to be as God is. In this sense, we are deaf and blind to His level and quality of Reality. And yet, the Sin-drive within us is always easily aroused and can drag us back onto the slippery slopes of arrogant rebellion and myopic disobedience to our Creator.
Scripture reveals and exposes the malice and depravity of the Serpent, the Father of Lies… how he has damaged, twisted and mutilated the inner workings of our human nature. Our mortal, Sin-corrupted flesh drives us to try to make the Serpent’s delusions and lies become true! It makes us just like the Serpent –‘decapitated’, or severed from the Headship of God’s living and written Word. And that compels us to try to validate the gross lie the Serpent told to Eve in the Garden of Eden:
Genesis 3:4-5
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD, knowing good and evil!’” (Emphasis added.)
So the writer of Ecclesiastes, and prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other wisdom writers, prophets and apostles of Israel, warn us against putting trust and reliance upon our fallen, Sin-corrupted, twisted viewpoints, opinions, reasoning and agendas. We must not reject and ignore the Word that comes to us from God our Creator. That always leads to spiritual blindness and fatal error. The venom of the Serpent’s arrogant pride leads us into his endless radical independence from, and enmity with, Almighty God. That venom was injected into the DNA of the entire human race. That lust for independence from God killed us, and the residue it leaves in us hinders us from being able to recognize, value, love and pursue our Creator’s Truth. And, as long as we remain entrenched in that blinded state, we’re doomed to share in Satan’s final downfall and his eternal disgrace and desolation:
Isaiah 14:10-14
“They will all respond and say to you, ‘Even you have been made weak as we, you have become like us. ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to Sheol; maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you and worms are your covering.’ How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations!
“But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
The fatal disaster that Sin imposed on God’s beloved humans is what moved Him to speak forth His living Word so the He could bring about our total rescue, reconciliation, redemption and restoration. Thus the Word introduced Himself to Abram, a Sumerian moon worshipper. God chose to bring him and his family into His personal service. Thus all generations of Abraham’s family were brought into God’s Eternal Covenant. Through them, God reaches out to the rest of the fallen human race… to reconcile, redeem, purify, bless and fully restore us all.
But His selection of Israel was not in itself enough to redeem them. That did not change or regenerate their fallen nature. It didn’t wipe away their Sin and its lethal corrupting effects. It simply set them apart from the rest of humanity, to reserve, or set them apart for God’s personal service. But something much more radically personal and basic must take place within each person’s innermost being before their Sin can truly be dealt with. This is what Yeshua said to one exalted Israelite spiritual leader:
John 3:3
“… ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God!’ (Emphasis added.)
The first chapters of Exodus describe the selection process. But God must be free to do something much more basic to us, in us and for us, before we can be regenerated and become new creations. The Israelites were, in themselves, just ordinary people, like all the others – sinners, children of Adam and sons of disobedience. They were just as prone to Sin, just as ignorant of the ways of God in their intellectual and perceptual abilities, as the rest. Plus they had the added handicap of their centuries-old state of slavery and disenfranchisement. They had a language and some sort of culture, but no homeland or inheritance to pass on to their children.
Disciples… IN the World, but not OF the World
Although they lived in this fallen world, God required them to stop considering themselves to be of the fallen world. Thus, purely by faith in the Credibility of God’s Word, they had to begin the difficult task of embracing and absorbing a new, God-given, Heavenly perspective and a new identity, purpose and lifestyle. And because, compared to nations around them, the Israelites were so powerless and helpless, they struggled to learn to identify with what God was telling them about themselves. All created fallen flesh is utterly helpless. And Israel’s flesh was no different. So God is the one that has to do everything for them, and for every one of the others. Only He can redeem, purify and transform any fallen human into a new creation. This is what Messiah Yeshua wanted to impress on Nicodemas, that very religious, tradition-bound leader and teacher of first century Israel:
John 3:4-8
“Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’” (Emphasis added.)
Fallen human nature is dead, so it cannot be ‘improved’ or ‘repaired. It must be made anew. This was why God’s dealings with Israel in the days of Moses had to begin with that mysterious Blood Covenant process that God’s Word had previously introduced to Cain, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now it was this generation’s turn to be grafted into the Covering of Righteousness that could only be provided by God’s Eternal Lamb:
“The Lord God made garments of skin (from slain substitute sacrificial animals) for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21 Amplification added.)
“Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ‘This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.
“Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; AND AGAINST ALL THE GODS OF EGYPT I WILL EXECUTE JUDGEMENTS – I AM THE LORD! The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and WHEN I SEE THE BLOOD I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.’” (Exodus 12:1-13 Emphasis added.)
“And when He had taken some (unleavened Passover meal) bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the NEW COVENANT in My blood.’” (Luke 22:19-20)
Can you see how God continues to bring the original blood atonement sacrifice forward, from Genesis, the first book of the Torah, into the other books of the Bible? And did you notice that the Egyptians and Israelites were all in the same bankrupt, helpless state before God? The only difference between the Egyptians that were afflicted with the death of their first born, and the Israelite families that were spared, was the blood covering of the sacrificial substitute lambs that the believing, obedient Israelites had smeared across their doorposts at the command of God’s Word! That was an earthly, physical revelation of the Word’s Eternal Spiritual Covenant Blood. The blood covering of those sacrificial substitute, representative animals… represented and explained the true atoning, infinite Value and Authority of the Eternally shed Blood of the Word of God made flesh, with which God is here in time and space, to cover us all!
“For the Law (the written Torah), since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I (Your Word, the Living Torah) have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.’
“After saying above, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:1-10 Amplification and emphasis added.)
Only the living creative Word of Almighty God has the Authority to separate those who believe and obey Him, from those who refuse to believe and obey. And only He can make His own, into something brand new. So realize that the covering and protection and separation of Israel that took place during that Passover event was entirely God’s doing! The sparing and liberation of Israel had nothing to do with the Israelites, or their performance or merits or any presumed levels of righteousness. It wasn’t about how deep their faith was or how ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ they may have been! Each Israelite’s safety and wellbeing was a gift that came to them thanks to the merit and authority of the revelation and commands that come from God’s living redemptive Word, which was symbolized by and foretold through the shed blood of those sacrificial Passover lambs!
God’s living Word is His True Eternal Substitute Passover Lamb. He is the one that God is revealing in His written Word. The Word is commissioned to represent each Israelite and to be their All-Sufficient Sin-covering. Thus, any human being that would be saved must believe and place all of his or her faith, hope and trust upon Him! He is the Sacrificial Representative we must always offer to God. Nothing short of Him will do!
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:27-28)
Only God’s own Word, as our Eternal Passover Lamb, has the Authority and the Worth sufficient to cover all the rest of His human brethren. That is why He had to become flesh and die – to become one of us, so that He could make full legal Atonement for all the rest of us! It was only by that ‘Blood Covering’ which only God has the Authority and Righteousness to provide, that any of us can be spared from His Judgment over the ‘Egypt’ of this fallen world and its idolatrous system.
Remember that this spiritual principle concerning God’s Lamb was first revealed through the Word in Genesis 3, to Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. God sent His living Word to be the ‘Covering’ and the ‘Coverer’ for the Sin-full fallen mortal flesh of anyone who will believe and obey God’s revelation and instructions. So we can see the absolute consistency of the written Word: throughout all the books of the Bible, God says the same thing, in a variety of ways. Whoever embraces and obeys His living Word made flesh, will be covered by His Perfect Performance… the Perfect Obedience, which He rendered to God, as our Covenant Representative! This is why all of our hope, faith, trust and expectation must be centered on the living Word who serves as the Eternal High Priest and Messiah for the entire human race!
The eventual reunion of mankind with God is made available to individual humans through the Covenant relationship God’s Word created between God and Abraham. That Blood Bond makes God and His chosen people to be one Family. And that is the Family into which the rest of humanity must be grafted, so that God can redeem, save and restore us all. This is why God brings His chosen ones, generation by generation, into His Kingdom, as His heirs. He intends to join the rest of mankind to them. So, at Sinai, God brought forward in time the Eternal Union and Substitute Atonement He originally revealed to Abraham, centuries before. Now He offered the same privilege to the generation of Moses, so that they could be equipped to reveal this to the rest of the world. God wants this revelation to be given to all of Humanity! He intends to free us all from the coils of the Serpent and his Sin and Death Curse! This is why the Exodus is for all of us.
And now we’re in the era of New Covenant Fulfillment, the Word’s Eternal Substitute Covenant Sacrifice and Perfect Atonement are now available for the whole world! God has brought the full revelation of His Salvation forward into our time, and His Spirit is here to apply it to every generation of Abraham’s physical and spiritual descendants, Jew and non-Jew alike. This is what God began to do at Sinai. He started to forge a mixed rabble of former slaves, into a new people, a new creation… His own, world transforming, regenerated Covenant Family! But in the beginning, those chosen ones did not yet possess any land to call their own. And before they could be made ready to occupy the Land of Promise, they had to become one with God’s living Word, for He is to be King and Lord over that Land, and from there, He will soon rule the entire world.
Perfect Covenant Provision
Originally, God made Adam and Eve in His own image and likeness. And He blessed them and made them His viceroys and gave them preeminence over all the Earth and its inhabitants. But after they fell into Sin and Death, the Serpent usurped their dominion over the earth, because the humans had forfeited their ability and responsibility of serving as the Creator’s embodiment on earth. Thus this world was cursed through humanity’s severance from God. Barrenness, frustration and desolation became the lot of all earthly creatures. That’s why the Blood Union with God’s Word, had to be reestablished. That is what is needed to regenerate, transform and restore humans back to being God’s image and likeness. And it can only happen when the Blood Atonement of the Lamb, which is God’s living Word made flesh, can be applied to each one of us, personally. By obedient faith in the Perfection of God’s Nature and His Word’s Perfect Finished Work of Creation and Redemption, the human race is united to God’s Word, one person at a time. And the Word begins to transform them into His image and likeness once more. Nothing short of this Covenant union with God through His Word can save anyone! Thanks to Sin, mankind is dead, so nothing they do for themselves will avail. Almighty God must do everything… on our behalf! And He already has done everything!
So, after the Blood Covering was applied to them, through their obedient faith, the Israelites were spared from the Judgment that fell upon Egypt on that Passover night. And after that, God began to give Israel His Torah revelation and instruction in written form. The Torah was to serve as their national charter and disciple manual. It provided God’s chosen with the means of putting on their new Heavenly personal identity, purpose and infrastructure. It was the narrow path that would lead them into God’s full protection and nurture. It would develop them into full-fledged, mature and fruitful sons of God. This is why God’s Word commands all those that are grafted into Israel, to remember and observe this Passover and its significance, perpetually:
“…And when He had given thanks, He (Messiah Yeshua, the risen Lord) broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the New Covenant (Fulfillment) in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s (Eternal, All-Sufficient Passover) death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:24-26 Amplification and emphasis added.)
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law (Torah) or the Prophets (the Hebrew Scriptures); I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19 Amplification and emphasis added.)
The living Torah’s Passover Redemption is the root and spiritual principle and guideline for all of humanity. And the written Torah supplies the parameters needed to sink Israel’s roots into God’s Righteousness, Authority and Ruling Government. So, even though the newly liberated slaves were still living as nomads, roaming back and forth across the wilderness, God was planting the seeds of His Truth into them and their children. He was preparing the second generation for the time when they would be allowed to enter and possess the Land He had promised to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thus did God’s Torah impart the ‘grooming’ they needed to be a Light for all other nations. And by that Light, God intends to draw all men into His Eternal Covenant Family.
All of Creation Belongs To God Alone
God promised His chosen people the Land He had reserved for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But never can they claim exclusive, outright ownership over it. It is not their personal domain. The Land of Promise belongs to Almighty God! His Word is Lord and King over it at all times. This is also true of the entire Earth! God owns it. and He apportions the various areas to whomever He wills. But worldly men do not admit or acknowledge God’s Preeminence. So the Land God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was to be the showcase example for all the rest of the nations. According to the revelation of the Bible, nothing of this world will ever truly belong to fallen men. Everything always belongs to Almighty God. Only He has the right to rule over the universe, and He establishes men in various locations as He chooses, on His own terms. This is what the Torah was meant to teach to Israel and then through her, to the rest of the world.
God’s living Word was made flesh and came to dwell among us to be The Way back to God, and to reveal and demonstrate and be the Fulfillment of God’s ways. He is the Eternal Covenant Representative of Israel before God. And as Israel’s Messiah, He represents God to the entire human race. He serves as Israel’s perfectly obedient Eternal Human High Priest before God. That is why He must always represent and rule and prevail over His people. Only when they acknowledge and obey their Lord and Covenant Representative, will the chosen people be allowed to live in total peace and be allowed to possess God’s unique showcase Promised Land without any opposition or objection. And so, God’s True Israel will always be made up of true disciples and bondservants to God’s living Word. The Land is theirs… as long as they abide willingly under the Full Authority of God’s Word.
This is a vitally important point: It isn’t enough just to be conceived by Jewish parents and raised in the traditions of a Jewish family. Nor is it enough to be born within the confines of the Land of Promise. To be true Israelites in God’s estimation, we must have God’s Word written on our hearts! Only then does the Word truly rule and reign over our fallen flesh. And the Spirit of God must be the indwelling Power that equips us to think, act, react and interact as the human image and likeness of God’s living and written Word:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God; the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
“Zion will be redeemed with Justice and her repentant ones with Righteousness. But transgressors and sinners will be crushed together, and those who forsake the Lord will come to an end. Surely you will be ashamed of the oaks, which you have desired, and you will be embarrassed at the gardens, which you have chosen. For you will be like an oak whose leaf fades away or as a garden that has no water. The strong man will become tinder, his work also a spark. Thus they shall both burn together and there will be none to quench them.” (Isaiah 1:27-31)
“For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise YOURSELVES to the Lord and REMOVE THE FORESKINS OF YOUR HEART, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.” (Jeremiah 4:3-4)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (to cover you), and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:37-39 Emphasis added.)
“For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law (Torah of Moses); but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God!” (Romans 2:25-29 Amplification and emphasis added.)
So, as long as the inhabitants of this special ‘showcase’ God-given Land allow God’s living Word to rule over them, He will fill them with His Holy Spirit, who will equip them to embrace and serve and live as one with His Word, under His Dominion. When the Word is truly our King, we are truly part of God’s Kingdom. And thus God allows us to live and thrive in His Heavenly Kingdom, even while we abide on Earth. So, True Israelites must obey the commands of God’s Word. Only then, is He truly their Lord. And only when He is our Lord, are we truly, His Kingdom. Then, we can actually walk before God, according to His ways, blamelessly.
But, if anyone rejects and defies God’s Word, God will not allow them to rest in peace and fully possess His Land. In that case, the Land reverts to a barren, desolate wasteland, the wasteland that the sons of Adam’s disobedience inherited so long ago:
“Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’” (Genesis 3:17-19 Emphasis added.)
Remember that since the first humans fell into Sin, and decapitated themselves from being under the Life-giving Headship of God’s living Word, the fallen human race died. That is why Death is already at work within each Jewish or non-Jewish child from the moment of conception. Death is passed on from generation to generation. And the Death that is in human nature infects, contaminates and kills anything that Sin-corrupted mortal men may choose to touch. No man-made or man-controlled false god or religion can save us from Sin’s death curse. Rebellion against God’s living and written Word always spawns more rebellion; Death always gives rise to more Death. That is the only legacy that Sin imparts; and that is all that our fallen flesh has to offer – nothing but Death!
But Death is totally incompatible with the Nature of God’s Eternal Life! And this is why the Blood Covenant Substitute Death Atonement of God’s own Word must be applied to any human who will be redeemed and saved from the Serpent’s spiritual Darkness and fate of Eternal Death. God chose Abram and his family to demonstrate this spiritual reality and the necessity of the Word-obeying lifestyle. This Torah-based Truth He told Israel to share, serves as God’s ‘Template’ and demonstration-example for the Salvation of all humanity. Israel is to be God’s Life-restoring instrument, serving on behalf of all the rest. This is why it was so important for God’s chosen ones to get this right. They must lead the way so that all other men and women can eventually become reconciled to God’s living and written Word.
And this is why, especially in these Last Days, it will be vitally necessary for the true disciples of God’s living Word to remain bonded and united to Messiah Yeshua in the Holy Spirit, on God’s terms. Then the wonderful eternal Torah-revealed Covenant Bond that the Word of God has created and established with Israel can be protected, enhanced, demonstrated and shared with the world. Israel’s authentic union with God’s living Word is the Root into which all other humans are to be engrafted. This Covenant Union is what brings living dead humans back to a share in the Eternal Life that God gives to us, through and by His living Word… the Messiah of Israel.
And as these blessed people abide with God, in and from His living Word, they become God’s New Covenant ‘branches’ that abide in their Vine. God’s living Word is The Vine. And through His true branches, The Vine is able to make present in time and space, the Fruit He produced in Eternity. As His Israelite disciple-branches bear the fruit for Him on behalf of this fallen world, the Word, God’s Vine, introduces salvation, redemption and restoration to the rest of the world, and gives Eternal Glory and Satisfaction to Almighty God. It is this ongoing, abiding union between the living Word and His Israelite disciples, which provides the Way that leads mankind out of the Darkness left by Adam’s original fatal fall into Sin, and away from the ongoing curses that befell the human race. All of that original Adamic slavery to the Serpent and to Death will be broken, stripped away and replaced… by the Life-giving Blessing and Abundance that God always intends to transmit to the human race through His Lamb, the living, creative Word of God:
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, ‘Behold (through My living Word), I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food’; and it was so. God saw all that He had made (through His living creative Word), and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:26-31 Amplification added.)
“Jesus (God’s living Word made flesh) then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the Bread out of Heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the True Bread out of Heaven. For the Bread of God is that (living Word of His) which comes down out of Heaven (by His command), and gives Life to the world.’ Then they said to Him, ‘Lord, always give us this Bread.’
“Jesus said to them, ‘I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE! He who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the Last Day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son (the living creative Word made flesh) and believes in Him will have Eternal Life, and I Myself will raise him up on the Last Day.”
“Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, ‘I am the Bread that came down out of Heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of Heaven’?’
“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the Last Day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has Eternal Life. I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread, which comes down out of Heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread that came down out of Heaven; if anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever; and the Bread also which I (the Eternal Passover Lamb of God) will give for the life of the world is My (Perfect, Sin-less, crucified Covenant Substitute) flesh!”
“Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you (that I am the Ultimate Passover Lamb that Moses revealed in Exodus, and), unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no Life in yourselves. He who eats (absorbs by faith and identifies with and bonds with) My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My (Sacrificial Substitute) Flesh is true Food, and My (Sacrificial Substitute) Blood is true Drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the Bread which came down out of Heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this Bread will live forever!” (John 6:32-58 Amplification and emphasis added.)
The Continually Unfolding Revelation of the Torah
Hopefully we can all see that the original Torah revelations progressively unfold throughout the rest of the Bible. That enables us to see, with ever-increasing clarity, that the other books of the Bible, as given in Israel’s Tanach and the writings of Israel’s New Covenant Messianic apostles, lead us into the full, New Covenant Fulfillment revelation that springs from the Seed God planted in His Torah. God is One and His Word is One. The revelation begins in the very first verse of Genesis and flows into the Torah. And then it is developed and expanded throughout the succeeding books, ending with the book of Revelation. That one, unbreakable Tree of Life-giving Revelation enables us to see, to the fullest possible extent, who Yeshua really is and how He will finally, truly, complete and fulfill the Exodus. The two Covenant halves revealed in the Scriptures must always remain, and work, together. The Old reveals the New and the New fulfills the Old. Thus every book of the Bible amplifies and explains what is in all of the others.
We said that the Glory of God’s Word first began to be revealed within the very first sentence of Genesis: “In the beginning GOD (by and through His living creative Word, who later became flesh) CREATED the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 Amplification and emphasis added.)
Thus we see the unfolding significance of the coming Messiah, and who He really is. We see Him appear progressively by what the subsequent texts reveal about Him. The Torah gives the seeds… the clues and ‘telltale signs’ about how the Promised One of God, the One Anointed by God, the Messiah, will save mankind to the maximum extent:
“The Lord God (through the Authority of His living creative Word and the Power of His Holy Spirit) made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21)
“Now (through His living creative Word, who later became flesh) the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and (through My living creative Word) I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And (as My living Word is able to work from with) in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3 Amplification and emphasis added.)
“Moses went up to God, and the Lord (through His living creative Word) called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself (through My living creative Word, your Passover Lamb). Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice (My living Word) and keep My Covenant (that I made with you through My Word) , then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ ‘These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.’” (Exodus 19:3-6 Amplification and emphasis added.)
The whole Earth is the domain and possession of God’s living Word. But the promised Land of Israel was to be the showcase revelation and demonstration of how God’s Absolute Authority over all of mankind was to be extended all across the world! Nothing that the mind and flesh of any fallen man may imagine and devise as a substitute for this will ever be able to save or salvage the human race. It is only by this revealed Blood Covenant union and relationship with the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by Covenant union with His Word, that the fallen, mortally wounded children of Adam can expect to be restored to the original Blessing that God always intended for us to have. There are many different lands and peoples and cultures and nations. There are also many false competing religions and philosophies. But Israel was chosen by the living God to serve as His Template and Example for all the rest. What is to take place in the Land and the People of Israel, is the model of what must take place in every other place on Earth. And in the end, after all demonic opposition and rebellion have been dealt with forever, everything will be exactly done according to God’s living and written Word:
“Now it shall be, IF you diligently obey the (living and written Word of the) Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you IF you obey the (living and written Word of the) Lord your God: blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed (by My living Word, your Messiah) shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed (by My living Word, your Messiah) shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed (by My living Word, your Messiah) shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord (by the Authority of His living Word) shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways.
“The Lord (by the Authority of His living Word) will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord (through your Covenant Union with My living Word) will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, IF you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the Name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-10 Amplification and emphasis added.)
When the people rebel and reject the Authority of God’s living and written Word, they decapitate themselves from Him and fall into the state of spiritual Death. Thus they become liable to the curses that came over the Earth and its inhabitants when Adam gave his authority over the Earth over to the Serpent:
“But (until the Perfect Fulfillment of the Last Days comes) it shall come about, IF YOU DO NOT OBEY the (living Word of the) Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses (that the Lie of the Serpent caused to fall on the sons of Adam when they cut themselves off from the Authority of My living Word) will come upon you and overtake you (once again): Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.” (Deuteronomy 28:15-19 Amplification added.)
Beloved, do you see how important the obedience that faith demands really is? The living Word of God, as revealed in the Torah, reveals the Blessings that come from being as one with the Word of God as opposed to Death and the curses that come when we cut ourselves off from our one and only True Source of Life! Torah is the only source of this Truth and Wisdom. It is the only Way by which we can share in God’s Eternal Life. Separation from God’s Word decapitates and kills us. In God’s sight, it’s as simple as that.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name cast out demons, and in Your Name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS! (Torah-lessness)’ (Matthew 7:21-23 Amplification and emphasis added.)
So it will always be Israel’s God-given task to absorb, embody and demonstrate this never-changing principle of Life that comes to us from God’s living and written Word. The written Word reveals the living Word – our Messiah Yeshua. So… regardless of what Israel chooses to do, whether she obeys God’s Word, or decapitates herself from Him, the Life Principle will be demonstrated through her, be it positively or negatively, for Life or for Death. This is what the prophet Ezekiel expressed so vividly in negative terms:
“Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off (from our God-intended union with His living Word).’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the (living Word of the) Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the Land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” declares the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37:11-14 Amplification and emphasis added.)
“So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus (God’s living Word, the resurrected Messiah of Israel) came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace (Shalom) be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me (His living Word), I also send you (My New Covenant disciples).’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” (John 20:19-23 Amplification and emphasis added.)
And so, throughout the Tanach and the New Covenant apostolic writings in the Bible, we see the signs that the true Messiah of Israel, God’s living Word, always leaves in His wake. The incarnated living creative Word of the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob always overcomes demonic evil with the Good that comes from God. He is the Light and the Life of this dead, fallen, Sin-corrupted world. He was sent, from the moment Adam and Eve fell, into every succeeding generation to do what the fallen human race could never do for itself. He is the only one who can bring the dead back to Life, to fill them with the Eternal Life and Holy Spirit of God Himself. Thus the Word reverses the devastation caused by our Sin-corruption and mortality… and He heals the sick, cures the diseased and reconfigures what was deformed. He sets free those who are caught in the Serpent’s coils and continually oppressed by his demonic powers of Darkness and their lies, delusions and traps.
And this living Word, the resurrected Messiah, is the One whom the New Covenant disciples are commissioned and equipped by the Holy Spirit to embody. It is the indwelling Life of the Resurrected Lamb of God that abides and works from within each true disciple’s flesh. It is His Perfect Resurrection Presence that the Spirit of God equips the disciples to embody, proclaim and reveal. And the Word’s awesome supernatural fruit cannot be obtained in any other way or from any other source. The Jewish and non-Jewish New Covenant disciples are the ones who are privileged, honored and commissioned to bear His Fruit for Him. This was what God’s living Word made flesh announced that Sabbath day in the synagogue in Nazareth, when He was invited to read from the Scriptures and speak:
“And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:17-19)
He was telling the Israelites in attendance that Isaiah had written those words about Him. And at another time, the living Word of God made flesh told his Jewish contemporaries that Moses had also written about Him in the Torah:
“You (Israelites) search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have Eternal Life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s Name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the Glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:39-47 Amplification and emphasis added.)
So beloved, what God, through His written Word, is revealing concerning His living Word, who is our Eternal Vine. The signs of His true Presence appear when He actually lives in and abides within His disciples and is able to work through them. He produces the Fruit and they bear it for Him. Yeshua revealed some of those signs in Luke’s Gospel. He touched upon what Isaiah had written about Him centuries before. But now let’s look at more of what Isaiah said about the Messiah when He would finally come to be in our midst:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)
God’s living Word was sent to set men free from the Serpent… and from Sin… and from the Death Sentence and the curses that befell the mortally wounded human race after the fall of Adam and Eve. He is here to reverse the damage and devastation that befell Creation after the Sin of the Serpent began to spread to human beings, to whom God had originally given dominion over the Earth. The Word reverses the damage; He completely reconciles, redeems, regenerates, cleanses and restores what belongs to God and to God alone! And this is what the New Covenant Jewish and non-Jewish disciples of God’s living Word are commissioned to embody and fulfill in the Last Days:
“Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations; and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, and foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
“But you will be called the priests of the Lord; you will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations (living dead idolatrous gentiles), and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your (former) shame you will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their Land, everlasting joy will be theirs.
“For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; and I will faithfully give them their recompense and make an Everlasting Covenant with them. Then their (Spirit-filled) offspring will be known among the nations (living dead gentiles), and their (Fruit-bearing) descendants in the midst of the (decapitated) peoples. All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed. I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of Salvation, He has wrapped me with a Robe of Righteousness, as a Bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a Bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the Earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a Garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause Righteousness and Praise to spring up before all the nations (Gentiles).” (Isaiah 61:4-11 Amplification added.)
Beloved, these are the signs of the Eternal Life that Yeshua was sent to impart to us all – healing, freedom, restoration and eternal wellbeing with Almighty God Himself. These things always appear in the wake of our risen Messiah. And they come through Yeshua’s New Covenant disciples! That is why we MUST learn to abide in Him and draw everything from His Perfect indwelling Presence.
“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give!” (Matthew 10:7-8)
“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their (Messiah-embodying) fruits.” (Matthew 7:17-20 Amplification and emphasis added.)
This is the unmistakable Heavenly Fruit that appears in the midst of men. Only God’s living Word can produce it. And through our abiding union with Him, the New Covenant disciples are privileged and honored to bear it… to the Eternal Praise and Glory and Satisfaction of the one who speaks His Word to us, our Heavenly Father. God’s Holy Spirit transmits the Word’s Fruit into and through the Lord’s disciples, as a Sign that the coming of the Lord is very near:
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; JUST AS I HAVE KEPT MY FATHER’S COMMANDMENTS AND ABIDE IN HIS LOVE. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:5-11 Emphasis added.)
“Since you have in obedience to the Truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of Seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring Word of God. For, ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER!’
And this is the Word which was preached to you!” (1 Peter 1:22-25 Emphasis added.)
Beloved Father… please give us the ability to see ourselves as we really are… so that we may finally be able to see Yeshua, Your beloved Son, in our lives and in our midst… AS HE REALLY IS!