Final Lesson: Part IV The Kingdom of God

In our last lesson, many of the Jews had returned home to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity while many stayed in Babylon.

By the year 200 BC the Talmud tells us that the Sanhedrin was in control of all Jewish concerns.

From the Sanhedrin two different sects of priests emerged; the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The Pharisees believed that the Torah should be obeyed by following the traditions handed down from their forefathers.

The Sadducees believed that the Torah should be obeyed literally without the additional laws which made up the "Oral Torah".

The Torah, according to the Talmud, is the first five books of the Bible.

The word is often translated as "law" but its translation comes from a Hebrew root word meaning "teaching".

The Torah is actually all of the teaching and instruction God has given us in His Word.  Therefore, to me, the entire Bible is the Torah.

Many times when we read in the New Testament that the commandments of men have replaced God's Word, Yeshua is referring to all the added laws which were passed down by the Jewish forefathers.

The idea, according to Ariel Berkowitz ("Torah Rediscovered"), was to build a "hedge" around each of God's laws to make sure one didn't sin against God.

These additional laws are what became an overwhelming burden to Israel, and also, denied the Holy Spirit's working.

Two thirds of the law in the Torah regarded service at the Temple.

When the Temple burned in 70 AD, the Sadducees no longer had a way of obeying God's Word literally.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, found in God's word that He preferred prayer to sacrifice and many other ways of continuing after the Temple burned.

When we are asked, "Are you Torah observant", what is really being asked is, are we "Talmud observant".

All of the man made laws that were passed down from the Jewish forefathers are written in the Talmud and are considered "oral Torah".

So yes, I am Torah observant, but no, I am not Talmud observant.

Those who are still following those laws, which came down from third century BC to fifth century AD Babylon and Palestine, are following after the way provided by the Pharisees.

Churches today can be found doing the same thing.

Men interpret the law of God and it becomes a church doctrine.

Each religion holds a certain belief or doctrine different from another.

If all the church doctrines were done away with, all that the believers would have would be one shared belief in the written Word of God.

The walls would surely fall which separate the body of Christ.

Stephen accused the Jews of denying the Holy Spirit as their fathers had done.

How is it that the Holy Spirit was denied?

The Word tells us that man need not teach but that the Holy Spirit will lead us to all truth.

We know there should be teachers and preachers, so what is mean by this?

I think it means that teachers and preachers are to teach us God's Word, and allow the Holy Spirit to "work" within each of us.

Preachers and teachers bring us to know God and His Son.  Salvation provides the rest by the workings of the Holy Spirit leading us to all truths.

When Yeshua came as the Messiah, we find that He interprets God's Word by parable.

He told His disciples that not all were meant to hear and understand and be healed and He would have to save them.

This reminds me of God throwing Adam and Eve out of the garden after they had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "less they eat of the tree of life and live forever".

Until we stop eating of the knowledge of good and evil, we cannot eat of the tree of life.

What was the knowledge of good and evil, and why did Satan want Eve and Adam to eat of it?

Why was eating of the tree a way of denying the sovereignty of God?

Yeshua called the Pharisees the sons of Satan.

What fruit were the Pharisees offering the people in the New Testament?

What fruit are the Pharisee offering still?

After the resurrection of Yeshua, we find that "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, " (Luke 24:25) for the disciples, who were no longer students, but apostles - teachers.

This is what the Holy Spirit does for us when become weaned from the breast milk.

"For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.  But strong meat belongs to them that are full age, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Heb 5:13-14)

"Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upward upon His name. And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son, that serves him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves Him not."  (Malachi 3:16-18)

Yeshua came to collect the lost sheep of Israel first.  Paul tells us to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.   Zechariah 12:7, "the Lord will save the tents of Judah first..."

There were no other known tribes in existence when Yeshua came to redeem Israel.

In Acts 7:42-43 Stephen accuses the Jews of following other gods and addresses them as, "O ye house of Israel."

In Acts 3:36, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ."

"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."  This is the only reference to the house of Judah in the entire New Testament.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days:

"I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."  (Heb 8:10-12)

"And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore." (Ezekiel 37:22)

There is only one kingdom, one house of Israel, and one king over her.

All who are chosen were chosen before the beginning of the foundation of the earth.  Israel is the chosen people of God.

It doesn't matter if you are Jew, Gentile, free, slave, male or female - if you are in the salvation of Yeshua, you are of the seed of Abraham.

You are included in the covenant which was made only to the house of Israel.  There is no other salvation.

There is no other kingdom, there is no other God, nor Messiah.

The house of Israel was one nation before 10 of the tribes revolted and chose their own king instead of accepting the king God had chosen.

After they went into captivity, there was no longer a need to separate the kingdoms..., the 10 tribes were lost.

God's chosen was still Israel, and when Yeshua came into His ministry, He went to the only children of Israel known to the world.

Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and the Aaronic priesthood made up the house of Israel.

When the Jews refused Yeshua, then the Gentiles were given brought into the covenant promises made to Israel.

"Then Paul and Barnabus waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it away from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles."

Yeshua said of Jerusalem, "How oft I would have gathered you but you would not be gathered...Behold your house is left to you desolate."

We know that the first believers were Jewish, but are most of the Jews today believers in Yeshua as the Messiah?

Have they come home to Jerusalem, which is from above?

Many of the messianic congregations are mostly former Gentiles.

Who is the world looking at to accept salvation?  Is Israel made up of mostly Jews who are religious?  Do most Jews in Israel claim their rights as religious or ethnical?

Has the church replaced Israel?

Yeshua said He came to clean His church and to make her without spot or blemish to present her as perfect to Himself.

"For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be as one flesh.

This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

God put away Israel as a stranger from Him.

But He promised to bring her back from her captivity and she would be called a people who wasn't a people, and she would receive mercy who had not received mercy.

In the New Covenant with the house of Israel, God uses those terms again.

God never replaced Israel with anyone.

She was chosen from before the foundation.

According to the word, the Jews denied Him, and the ten tribes were absorbed by every nation under God.

In James we him addressing the twelve tribes scattered abroad.

Who were the twelve tribes scattered abroad?

Who are the elect "strangers" according to the foreknowledge of God addressed in II Peter?

In Exodus we are told that God would make Israel a kingdom of kings and priests.  We find in Peter, we are a royal priesthood.

In Ephesians we are no longer strangers and aliens, former Gentiles according to the flesh.  We are joined to the household of Israel.

"Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.  As He says in Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved.  And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said of them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God."  (Romans 9:24-27).

"For as ye (Gentiles) in times past have not believed God, yet have obtained mercy through their unbelief; Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.  For God has concluded them all in unbelief that He might have mercy on them all." (Romans 11:30-32)

"Has God cast away His people?  God forbid...God has not cast away His people which He foreknew..." (Romans 11:1-1)

Who is Israel?  She is the twelve sons of Jacob and their descendents.

How are the twelve tribes scattered abroad being brought into the new covenant with the house of Israel?

If you are a lost tribal member, or if you are a stranger added to Israel, or if you are Jew -- it makes no difference once you come into Yeshua.  In Him we are all the same, according to His Word.

How do we know if we are a part of Israel?  When He calls, do you hear His voice?  Were you once lost but now you are saved?

If you know you are His, you are of the seed of Abraham and have been since before the beginning.

Ephesians I:18, "Your eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."

The sheep hear His voice and no other voice will they obey.  Are we listening to His voice, or are we listening to another?  His voice is His word.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if ye be Christ's, then ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:28-29)

This is the final series on Israel teaching.  Questions and comments are welcomed now!

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