Letter to a Friend

This post is the result of an email I sent to a friend (on which I copied my previous pastor but unfortunately he is still not interested in dialogue) and some of yesterday’s Sabbath discussion topics. I think it is a great example of the difference between a Sabbath get-together and a “church” homegroup. But I digress. I hope it benefits any reader and I hope it does not offend any “christians”. I hope it helps anyone on this journey in understanding what we are supposed to be doing and learning. There’s a complicated balance between doing and learning. There are people at EVERY stage of this walk and we have to be careful not to judge yet be careful not to compromise. At any rate, here is what I posted for today:

 

Hey brother, 

Great conversation today. I have been wanting to touch base for a long time, but we were both busy. I have learned SO much since the last time we talked, and I want to plant some seeds in your walk. In love and humility I desire to show you some scriptures that I never even understood until God opened my eyes. And I want to also include your wife as well. I can’t teach you anything nor do I desire to. You already know your Bible, you already know the Holy Spirit and have a relationship. You guys have hearts on fire like me to keep growing in love and Truth. So I know that Father will do His good and perfect Will in this. This is His work, not mine. I am just thankful to be used.

But to tell just the end of the journey won’t help. It will be confusing. So I just hope to help you in the direction to look. The Spirit of Yahwah will do the rest. I will give you some scriptures to go and study together with you wife. I will do the same with mine and if you ever want to join us via skype or something during our Sabbath rest, that would be great. I don’t have it all figured out, I am just walking with the Spirit. I promise you, this will be one of the best Bible studies you will have ever done.

One thing that I ask is just that you pray with me. Pray with me specifically that “Father God will remove any scales from your eyes and your wife’s eyes if it is in His perfect Will”. Here is why: Ro 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

The fullness of the Gentiles is come. And Father is removing scales from the eyes of His Children. I know, because He did it to me, then my wife as I discipled her. Don’t forget, Wendy has a double masters degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. Not that it’s that important, just to show that we aren’t crazy. Wendy is classically trained as you were and then some. I’m not, but that doesn’t matter to our Father in Heaven, Yahweh is His name that we have forgotten just like His prophet prophesied. 

Jer 23:27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

The church, I fear,  is becoming wise in their own conceits. I believe Father is getting ready to divide between the wheat and the tares, to show the true hearts of those who claim to be His and to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. Do we choose His ways or our ways?

I don’t think anymore there is such a thing as the “church age”. There is only the time between Yeshua’s first fulfillment of the spring feasts of Yahweh (Passover meal, feast of unleavened bread, feast of firstfruits and Pentecost/ Shavuot) til the fullness of the nations (that is partially what it means to say He fulfilled the Torah [penteteuch] and prophets) and then the ultimate fulfillment of the fall feasts.

Mt 5:17 ¶ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

All will be fulfilled when He returns and fulfills the Fall feasts of Yahwah (the day of trumpets, the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles/ sukkot) and the rest of the prophesies. The book of Revelation cannot be understood without understanding the fall feasts. That’s why we are to do them, they teach us what is going to happen just like they taught His followers the first time he came. I have spent much prayer and study on this lately:

https://homegroups.org/the-book-of-revelation/

But who did Yeshuah (Jesus) come for and who did He send His disciples out to the nations (gentiles) to find?

Mt 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mt 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Who are the lost sheep of the house of Israel? They are the 10 Northern Tibes and the sojourners of the Northern tribes of Israel who are grafted in, that means US, the assembly/ church. 

Ro 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

 We become broken off, or sent away when we commit adultery against our jealous Bride.

Isa 50:1 ¶ Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Now in order for our Bride to be betrothed to us once again, He had to die. That is the mystery of the Bride. God has to obey His own rules.

 Ro 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

1Co 7:39 ¶ The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

But also, there is another reason He died. We were committing adultery and were subject to the law of jealousies:

Nu 5:11 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man’s wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,  And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; and the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:  Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:  And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:

 That earthen vessel, or cup of holy water and dust is the cup that Yeshua drank on OUR behalf!

 Mt 26:42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

That’s how much He loves us! If He first loved us that much, how much should we love Him back and how? Take another look at these verses with that in mind:

Joh 14:15 ¶ If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

1Jo 2:3 ¶ And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

1Jo 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

1Jo 2:7 ¶ Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

1Jo 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

1Jo 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

1Jo 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

2Jo 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

Re 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Re 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Re 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

There are more than 125 places in the new testament that say we are to obey the commandments of God. But the church teaches us that they were nailed to the cross? Jesus obeyed the law of Moses and so did His Apostles AFTER the resurrection. So if we are to follow Yeshua and His Apostles, then we have to do what they did or we aren’t following Him.

For example, We see Paul and Peter observing the feast of unleavened bread:

Ac 12:3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)Ac 20:6 And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.

Paul told the Christians to do the same:

1Co 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul also can be seen taking the nazarite vow to prove he followed Torah

Ac 18:18 ¶ And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.

The only person in Scripture who SEEMS to say otherwise is Rabbi Shaul, (Paul). That is because Christians don’t understand what Christ actually did nail to the cross that Paul is talking about. I can’t believe I never understood this before now.  What was nailed to the cross? The handwriting of ordinances for breaking the covenant. 

Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;Nu 5:23 And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:

And this wasn’t the first time time Israel was made to drink of the cup, just like the first “Pentecost” of Israelites on Mt. Sinai. Pentecost wasn’t when the “church” began like I have been teaching for so many years.

Ex 32:20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

The other thing that might be considered nailed to the cross was the temporary Levitical priesthood although this was more related to the fulfilment. Originally, There were 9 High priests of the order of the Mechizadek. We see that Noah was the 8th preacher of righteousness or king of righteousness:

2Pe 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Enoch was the 7th

 Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

So we see Adam, is the first. Then we have Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Noah, Shem and finally Moses. Then it was prophesied that the one after him would be Yeshua:

 De 34:10 And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

Ac 3:22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

Ac 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

Ps 110:4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Ge 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

How did the Melchizedek that Abram met know that a savior whould be coming whose body would be bread and blood would be wine? Because God told adam EXACTLY what was going to happen in the Book of Adam and Eve including when the last Adam would come. But we can leave that part out for now. And now we will begin to understand why it is so confusing what Paul seems to be saying about the commandments and what was “nailed to the cross”. The Levitical priesthood wasn’t nailed to the cross, it was fulfilled. And Yeshua drank our cup and blotted out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, and is now against our nature. There is no more penalty for sin and no more condemnation. What is sin?

 1Jo 3:4 ¶ Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Sin is transgressing the law. If the law was “nailed to the cross”, then that means there is no such thing as sin as Paul wrote to the believing Jews in Rome:

Ro 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

So we have to see that the law and the Sabbaths were NOT nailed to the cross and we have been disobeying our Savior and not making Him our Lord for all these years. Neither was the 7th day of rest “nailed to the cross” as we read in Hebrews:

Heb 4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

Some will say the Sabbath is also nailed to the cross, or moved to Sunday. Or that we have entered into the eternal rest, but that’s not what the Bible says. It is partially true that we have begun to enter the eternal rest But not if we are doing it on the opposite day as God said to do it (The last day, not the first day) which is the one we are supposed to set apart. Which makes perfect sense because He is Lord of the Sabbath:

Lu 6:5 And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

I spent a lot of time researching and documenting this here https://homegroups.org/where-did-the-sabbath-go/. I also realized that there is no way that the “Easter” story is correct, because it is absolutely impossible that the “good Friday to Easter Sunday” math works, because of the only sign we have been given:

Mt 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Being raised “on the 3rd day” is not the sign that was given exactly as Yeshua gave it. The only way the math works is if Yeshua was buried on Passover (Wednesday at 3PM) and raised on the first Sabbath after Passover. Which is exactly what the Bible says in the Greek, but not what the church teaches. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg brother. And I am giving you the overview so you don’t have to spend the hours and hours that I have spent, but I still want you to please check it out for yourself and trust ONLY in the Word of God. I have come to learn that Torah (the first 5 books) is the Word that became flesh.

Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The first 5 books of the Bible are also called Penteteuch. The numbers 5 and 2 are very significant as I will show you. Yeshua IS Torah, Torah is the Tree of Life. The bread of life. The Living Water. And what worries me the most is that when Yeshua returns, many will hear these words:

Mt 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (lawlessness, sin).

The ones who will NOT hear thois words are called Israel. All 12 tribes together. We are the either of the 10 scattered/ dispersed lost tribes known as the House of Israel (AKA the House of Ephraim and the house of Joseph) or the 2 main tribes of the southern kingdom. There are some of us also who are sojourners who by choice want to be grafted in and change our citizenship, like the story of Ruth. We are the ones that Yeshua came for and sent His Apostles, to graft in to the Olive tree. This was all prophesied but we were blind to it until recently when Yahweh started removing the scales from our eyes. The house of Judah is made up of Judah and Benjamin. We have to understand history to understand the future. All of this is prophecy unfolding right before our very eyes if we have eyes to see. There was a time when both houses loved David and the commandments of Yahweh:

1Sa 18:16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

So we are 2 houses being made 1 house as was prophesied in Jeremiah and Exekiel. The 2 loaves of bread that Yeshua multiplied were the 2 houses. The 5 fish that He multiplied are reminiscent of the 5 wise virgins of Mt 25 that are waiting for the marriage feast of Mt 22 :

 1Ki 17:12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.Eze 37:19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

I have put these details together and found that we are GREATER than the previous  2 houses for several reasons and documted it here https://homegroups.org/the-remnant/. Not the least of which is because we are strictly servants who are feeding the sheep NOT as Levitical priests, but as priests and kings of the order of Mechizedech who now have the greater understanding of the spirit of the law and now have the scepter that Judah once had :

Mt 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.Ge 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

This will need quite a bit of clarification that I am only understanding recently. The sceptre departed from natural Judah when “Shiloh” came. He came 2000 years ago, for those who received (and continue to receive) Him. Those who are “in Shiloh” (in Christ/ Messiah) touch the sceptre even now. All judgment has been committed to the Son (John 5:22), but we know that we have been given a level of “delegated” authority to judge righteous judgement within Israel, “the church” (John 7:24, 1 Cor. 6, 1 Pet. 4:17) and in the future we shall judge the world and angels with Him(1 Cor. 6:2-3). 

How we have used that delegated authority in this life is how we will be judged as well (except we repent of any unrighteous judgments we have rendered, Matt. 7:2-5). He still holds the sceptre, but we have been given a signet ring (as it were) confirming a level of authority given to us in rendering righteous judgment in working out our own salvation with fear and trembling.  All one needs to do is look at Haman to understand this.  The legitimately declared judgment he declared in the Name and authority of the King by the power of the sceptre, the LAW, ultimately fell upon his own head when the power and authority was taken from him and given to a nation “producing the fruit thereof”- Mordecai and Esther, true Jews.  The judgment he rendered against Mordecai and the Jews was the judgment that fell upon him (and his sons).

There is a remnant, a “little man” (manchild, Mordecai means “little man”) that will be born out of the church who will be given the sceptre because they have heard.

For all of these points I am giving mainly 1 key scripture, but don’t just study the scripture by itself because no scripture is there for private (by itself or only by us) interpretation. Read them all in context.

Matt. 21:37-43 37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? 41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. 42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

The Sceptre represents the Law, the Torah itself as it is the law that judges sin and the people who sin. It is the “rod of chastening” that is used for correction. Who is true “Judah”, but the King of Judah? Who is true Judah but the people (tribe) who willingly make themselves subject to the King of Judah?

Even the word “sceptre” (shebet, H7626) is also translated as TRIBE or BRANCH Who brings forth the “fruits thereof”, fruits of repentance as John proclaimed:

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance : And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Matt. 3:7-9).

Are not the fruits that the vineyard owner is looking for within those who have aligned themselves with the King of Judah, the King of the “jews” (judeans, Judah) because they repented and began to follow the King of Judah, Yeshuah?

There are two baskets of fruit (figs) being offered. One is “good figs” and the other is “evil figs” (Jer. 24). Both were sent into captivity . The difference is that the good figs willingly submitted to it as the judgment of God whereas the evil figs rebelled. They did not want to go into captivity, did not see it as the judgment of God, and were judged more harshly in captivity because of their rebellion. Thus, one acknowledges the judgment of the sceptre (the law) required them to go into captivity until they repent, while the other rebels against the judgment of the Sceptre that said they will go into captivity except they repent (Lev. 26:27, 33; Deut. 4:25-27).

“I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence , and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.” (Hos. 5:15).

Judah is not defined by rebels “surnaming themselves by the name of Israel” (Isa. 44:5). Orthodox jews understood this then, and many still do now. They understand that they were not to return to the land except they repent. Yet God knows who Judah (true jews) are. It is those who agree with the Torah, which is to say, they agree with the judgment that still stands against them; they “kiss (touch) the sceptre” as Esther did…a true jew that was hidden by a GENTILE name . “

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye *perish* from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.” (Ps. 2:12).

God also knows who true Israel (true israelites) are as well (though they are hidden among the nations, i.e., the GENTILES ):

“Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, *Behold an Israelite indeed , in whom is no guile!* Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast *under the fig tree* , I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the *Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel* . Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.” (John 1:45-50).

Messiah recognized Nathaniel “because He saw him sitting under the fig tree” (in other words, submission to the King of Judah and abiding in the “good fig” tree). To recognize Him then as the “King of Israel”, one must therefore FIRST recognize Him as the “King of Judah”, thus remembering the fact that Judah crowned David as King well before the 10 tribes of Ephraim / Israel did. The prophetic parallel here is that before one is an “Israelite indeed”, he must first be sitting under the right fig tree. He must have already produced the “good figs” , the “fruits of repentance” the vineyard owner has always been seeking.

“I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence , and seek my face: *in their affliction* they will seek me early.” (Hos. 5:15).

Therefore my view of the geographic nation called Israel is that God has allowed the land to be given to them for the opportunity to “acknowledge their offense” when affliction comes. True Ephraim/Israel will finally be recognized by them when they see that they are “an Israelite indeed” in that they are “sitting under the good fig tree”, the Torah. THEN they will finally “see” (acknowledge) Yeshuah as the Messiah by and through the testimony of these witnesses.

This is all very much missing from my previous understanding, because I just never saw it before. And I am sure there will always be “more to see”.

About the Author

You may also like these