When rivers flow from our kishkes

This weekend is the Hebrew calendar’s celebration of the seventh day of the Feast of Sukkot/Tabernacles, known as Hoshana Rabbah (‘the Great Hosanna’).

A gut feeling

Kishke is a well-known Ashkenazi Yiddish food made from cow’s intestine stuffed with mincemeat, rice, vegetables and flour. The origin of the word is Slavic. In Polish it is kiszka; in Russian the word is кишка́ (kišká); in Ukrainian ки́шка (kýška). The ancient Slavic root is kyša, kyšьka, meaning ‘intestine’ or ‘stomach.’ It may even go back to the ancient Sanskrit synonym koṣṭha, and the Ancient Greek κύστις (kústis, “bladder”). In Yiddish kishke can be synonymous with ‘gut’ – as in, ‘I feel it in my kishkes.’ As a writer said in the Hamilton Jewish News, “Yiddish . . . lives on in our kishkes – our guts – should we choose to remember those who lived by them and spilled them.”

Frank John Yankovic (who passed in 1998) was an accordion player from Cleveland with Slovenian roots known as Grammy-award winning ‘America's Polka King.’ His 1963 cover of ‘Who stole the kishka?’ is still a popular polka tune.

The Yiddish expression ‘kishke-gelt’ refers to money earned by self-deprivation so extreme that it’s ‘ripped from the intestines.’

The Greek equivalent to ‘kishkes’ used in John 7:38 is Κοιλία (koilia), meaning the whole belly, the lower belly, the womb, or the innermost part of a man, the soul, heart: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being [i.e., his belly/kishkes] will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).

The Feast of Tabernacles – a promise for every believer

The Apostle John takes pains to explain to us, his readers, that this Feast of Tabernacles promise is for ‘the one who believes in Me’ and for ‘anyone who is thirsty:’ “But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Yeshua was not yet glorified.” A normal believer’s spiritual inheritance is to have rushing rivers of living waters flowing from his or her innermost being. That is Yeshua’s promise!

Paul echoes and amplifies this calling: “And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit!” (Ephesians 5:18). He contrasts two words ‘become drunk’ (methuskó) with ‘be filled up’ (pléroó). The overwhelming nature of the experience and its profound effect on our behavior and conduct are what Paul wants us to meditate on.

Sukkot/Tabernacles/Booths is a multifaceted Jewish holiday. It not only reminds us of two biblical principles:

It also calls us to remember Messiah Yeshua’s promise – that if we thirst for God and believe in Him whom He has sent, we will experience Holy Spirit rivers of living waters flowing out of our kishkes! What an amazing promise to lay hold of!

May we as followers of Israel’s Messiah Yeshua reach out to the God of Israel and ask Him to fill us up in our innermost being; to reveal any obstacles or stumbling blocks which might impede His work; and to ask YHVH to keep tenderizing our hearts on a daily basis: “But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called ‘today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org   

Riders of the Lost Ark – A Yom Kippur story – Part Two

This is the second of a two-part newsletter about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

I had an interesting childhood – attended Yiddish school, was involved with Yiddish theater and played in a Yiddish mandolin orchestra. Though at rare times I got suited up with my dad on the High Holidays and went to synagogue, my viewpoint was like that of my Yiddish-speaking communist parents: anyone who believed in God was both primitive and superstitious.

But I still knew that there was something different about Yom Kippur. Call it a nagging feeling, but I knew that many Jews felt that the Day of Atonement was the one Jewish holy day not to treat lightly. Jews who didn’t fast or try to feel repentant on that day might be cut off from the Jewish people forever. That’s what I understood Jewish tradition to say. For many of my friends, Yom Kippur was the only time they attended synagogue – ‘Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur Jews’ were like ‘Christmas and Easter Christians,’ it seemed to me.

As a child, my father backed up Yossele Rosenblatt, considered the finest cantor of his time, in a synagogue choir in Manhattan. I still have my father’s Yom Kippur prayer book which he worked from as a cantor in the U.S. Army during WWII – complete with penciled-in notes as to who would sing what. I remember how his voice sounded when he sang Yom Kippur cantorial melodies.

I knew that the high point, the most decisive spiritual climax of the synagogue service, was the Ne’ila – the locking of the doors of Heaven, I was told.  These were the last possible seconds in the packed service where one’s personal repentance might actually accomplish something before the God of Jacob. The final blast of the shofar brought that drama to a close, and my father and I would slowly return home.

Only after I came to faith in Messiah Yeshua did I begin to sift through tradition and history, comparing them to what Moses and the Prophets taught. As a young Messianic Jew, I also tried to learn from older brothers and sisters in the Lord, but found that most of them knew even less than I did about these matters. This newsletter is a short summation of what I have learned since then, presented in five questions:

A Day in the life

The Third Book of Moses (Vayyīqrāʾin Hebrew, Leuïtikón in Greek and Leviticus in English) describes the events of the Day of Atonement, step by step and hour by hour. Leviticus 16:1-34 presents the events from the perspective of what tasks the High Priest needed to accomplish, while Leviticus 23:26-32 addresses the common people of Israel and their commemoration of the Holy Day. Numbers 29:7-11 gives a complete list of the offerings and sacrifices (sin, burnt, grain, drink) commemorated on that day. Here are the five main stages of Yom Kippur:

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews [Messianic Jews] sums up this activity:

The Book of Leviticus 16:29-34 stresses the following heart attitudes and practices:

The Book of Leviticus 23:26-32 adds:

Israel’s sobriety of heart and self-humbling of spirit were part and parcel of the national sin offering event. Yom Kippur was not exactly a happy festival; its somber nature eventually was connected to fasting, although that specific word is not used by the Bible in all of the contexts.

Cutting it close

YHVH entrusted the act of male circumcision on the eighth day to Abraham in Genesis 17:14. Disobedience on this point entailed being cut off from the Abrahamic Covenant and from the Jewish people:

The Hebrew term karath used in Genesis 17 means to cut down, cut off or destroy. It has a secondary meaning ‘to cut’ or to make a covenant. When the term is used with the sense ‘to cut off,’ it can refer to one of three possible meanings. Context is important in the interpreting which one of the three is being stressed. It should also be understood that these definitions are probably the maximum limits which judges could mete out, and not woodenly required in each situation:

The following are 14 examples of activities which result in ‘being cut off,’ according to the Mosaic Covenant:

Some of these judgments were capital offences, while other would involve exclusion from the community – either open-ended or limited in time (a ban). Numbers 27:14 refers to the rebellion at Kadesh, yet YHVH did not destroy Israel. Instead, His discipline entailed a national delay in entering the Promised Land – though most of that generation did die in the wilderness (Numbers 26:65).  When the Mosaic Covenant allows no atoning sacrifice for sin, and yet God graciously does not cut our people off, there is room for humbly rejoicing:

In 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 11:28-32 Paul points out how God can bring judgment on believers who highhandedly violate biblical commands. Though prosecutable evidence may escape human judges’ detection, God who sees everything may bring His justice about in His own time. The fear of the Lord is supposed to affect the community, so that all will know that YHVH will not tolerate hypocrisy and hidden sin in Israel’s public worship, praise and celebration (see Jude 1:12).

Messiah our Righteousness is cut off

There are two passages in the Scriptures which use the verb ‘cut off’ in connection with the Messiah: “Then after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off (yikaret) and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Daniel 9:26). Isaiah adds a corresponding thought, using a similar Hebrew verb to karath  (‘nigzar’): “By oppression and judgment He was taken away. And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off from the land of the living for the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due?” (Isaiah 53:8). God’s redemptive decision to ‘cut off’ the Messiah is the highest point in the history of atonement!

The Tashlich tradition – future sprinkling, washing and cleansing

A Jewish tradition from the late medieval period is based on Micah 7:18-20, where YHVH promises to cast (tashlich) all Israel’s sins into the depths of the sea. The forgiveness of the sins of the sons and daughters of Jacob is an oft-repeated theme in the prophets. This cleansing comes about as a result of Yeshua’s atonement:

Psalm 51:2                  washing and cleansing

Isaiah 44:22                wiping out sins

Micah 7:18-19            passing over the sin of remnant, casting it into the sea

Ezekiel 26:25              sprinkling clean water, cleansing

Jeremiah 33:8            cleansing and forgiving

Jeremiah 50:20          searching for Israel’s sins but they are not found

Zechariah 13:1            fountain of cleansing for House of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem

Ephesians 5:26           Messiah Yeshua cleanses us by the washing of water with the Word

Cherries Jubilee

YHVH commanded that, once every fifty years, a national forgiveness of debts should be proclaimed across Israel. All debts would be wiped off the books – a joyous event indeed! Yom Kippur was the occasion for huge celebration among the Jewish people – a physical manifestation of a glorious spiritual reality:

A rabbinic Yom Kippur

Modern Orthodox Jewish perspectives on the Ten Days of Awe and the Day of Atonement have historical roots. After the Second Temple was destroyed by Imperial Rome, hopes for its speedy rebuilding did not materialize. Rabbinic Judaism then ‘rebuilt itself,’ bringing in non-biblical ceremonies of atonement which were not based on sacrifices on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. This required massive restructuring, and today’s Orthodox Judaism is that product – a step-child of Second Temple Judaism, one which has departed from the atonement-based foundations of Moses and Messiah Yeshua.

IN the 200’s A.D. Rabbi Judah the Prince (author of the Mishnah) brought forward a new and non-biblical concept regarding a staggered process: individual Jews are judged on the Feast of Trumpets but that judgment is only sealed on the Day of Atonement:

A few years after him, Rabbi Yochanan expanded on Rabbi Judah’s new teaching, adding embellishments of his own:

This tradition has led to Rosh Hashana (the Feast of Trumpets) being described as Yom Ha-Din – the Day of Judgment.

Nearly one thousand years later, Rambam (Moshe ben Maimon or Maimonides) tried to explain the spiritual basis behind these not-biblically-based decisions. In his Mikra’ot Gedolot commentary on Leviticus, he stated:

There we have it. Without biblical warrant, a whole new envelope was created and a whole new emphasis and understanding was given to these two biblical Holy Convocations. This transformed the biblical understanding and emphases of Yom Kippur into what is traditionally followed today.  From changing the biblical New Year to Eitanim/Tishrei, to a legally legislated Ten Days of Awe, to proclaiming that each and every individual Jew’s destiny is written down one year at a time in the Book of Life – these less-than-biblical emphases are traditionally embraced by many Jewish people.

It’s not easy being a Messianic Jew

For the remnant of Israel, we Messianic Jewish men and women who follow Messiah Yeshua, there are many scattered rocks and remains of broken buildings on our spiritual path to restoring the Jewish people in our Land – both physically and spiritually. Occasionally and poetically speaking, there is unexploded ordnance and even an active mine or two. Do pray for our fledgling community as we stride forward, laboring for the restoration of Jacob’s seed to the God of Jacob and to David’s Greater Son!

How can Messianic believers relate to Yom Kippur? Here are some foundational points:

Clearly, we are under the New Covenant and our atonement is through Yeshua.

We are not looking for our names to be written once yearly in heavenly books, for as Messiah Yeshua said: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven” (Luke 10:20).  “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time. And at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued” (Daniel 12:1)

If we choose to fast, it is in intercession for our people, that they would turn to Messiah Yeshua and receive His atonement – and not that our fasting would atone for our sins. These have already been atoned for by Yeshua. “But as for you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by people but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:17-18).

It seems that the Apostle Paul was used to fasting on Yom Kippur: “When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the Fast was already over . . . “ (Acts 27:9).

We who follow Messiah are called to confess our sins before God on a daily basis, and to experience our personal Yom Kippur each day, as the blood of Messiah Yeshua cleanses us from all sin:

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org   

Riders of the Lost Ark – A Yom Kippur story – Part One

This is the first of a two-part newsletter about Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

The Scriptures tell us that the God of Jacob rides upon the highest heavens; He rides on the clouds of heaven and through the desert; He rides on the cherubim:

In Moses’ Tent of Meeting and Solomon’s Temple, YHVH’s manifest presence hovered or rode above the two cherubim (Psalm 80:1), those golden representations of angels (see Genesis 3:24) who stand before God’s presence at all times:

In the Holy of Holies, the God of Jacob would actually appear to Aaron (Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 16) and later to the High Priest (both descended through Levi), manifesting His glory above the gold-covered sacred chest known in Hebrew as the kapōret or place of atonement (translated into Greek as hilastērion – i.e., to appease or make favorable; and into Latin as propriatorium – i.e., a place of reconciling or atoning).

What’s an atonement?

The Holy Convocation which is commonly called ‘the Day of Atonement’ is actually plural in the Hebrew of Leviticus 23:27 – Yom Hakippurim (Day of Atonements). The Hebrew root has commonly been connected to an Arabic cognate meaning ‘to cover’ or ‘to conceal.’ But a study of how the root ‘kaphar/kapar’ is used in the Hebrew Scriptures (150 times!) reveals that the biblical meaning is more accurately ‘ransom.’ A secondary meaning is ‘a bribe’ or something that will purchase favor in a challenging situation, In Leviticus the root kaphar is used 49 times with the concept of ransom-atonement. Here are some examples through the Hebrew Bible:

The exchange of life principle

Dr. Louis Goldberg (former Professor of Jewish Studies at Moody Bible Institute) – a dear friend now with the Lord – loved to stress that the heart of the sacrificial system in the Mosaic Covenant was something he called ‘the exchange-of-life principle.’ When the High Priest would lay his hands on the live sacrificial animal, the sins of the guilty sacrificer would (as it were) go into the innocent animal, and the life of the innocent animal would be accredited to the one who was laying his hands on the sheep or goat – thus granting him atonement:

Blood, body and soul

God’s perspective is that blood is what ties body and soul together. It symbolizes life. Indeed, without it there is no life:

Blood has one purpose in the Scriptures. It is to be used to honor God who has given us the gift of life. Blood is not to be eaten, but to be used to atone for human sins. To eat blood is a serious spiritual offense, for YHVH says that the blood and the fat of the sacrifice – the most significant part which represents precious life – belong only to the God of Jacob, and to no other deity or creation (see also Exodus 13:2; Leviticus 17; 27:9, 26). To take what God claims as His alone and to eat it for ones’ self, this is to rob and plunder the Lord Himself.

The Apostle Paul adds a New Covenant perspective here:

These concepts form the background for Yom Ha-kippurim, the Day of Atonements.

Our next newsletter will:

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org   

The goat without a beard

The Yiddish language is rich in humor and irony. Though much of ‘the world of our fathers’ has disappeared in Holocaust flames, some of its wit and wisdom is preserved in sharp proverbs which still bring enjoyment and recognition.

In my fifty years of walking as a believer in Messiah Yeshua, I have run into occasional declarations by some Christian leaders advocating some wacky and unbalanced things, which are defined by them as being truly Jewish or Hebrew in nature. Few of these people actually speak Hebrew or have studied Jewish and rabbinic history. Yet their declarations imply that they have access to hidden spiritual understandings of secret Jewish ways. Representatives from both the Messianic Jewish and the Christian world would be included on the short list here. Another Yiddish proverb springs to mind: “A specialist is someone fifty kilometers away from home.”

Some dear friends have been exposed to such unfounded teachings. The Apostle Paul calls these declarations words which have “the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion” (see Colossians 2:23). Regrettably, we are seeing an upsurge of such things in our day. The goal of this newsletter is to shine discernment’s light of on some of these misguided teachings, and to encourage the embrace of biblical perspectives.

It has become fashionable among some Christians who love Jewish roots and ways of expression, to unquestioningly accept rabbinic perspectives and practices in some areas. Two flashing red lights are of concern here: (a) the use of the rabbinic calendar, and (b) the use of gematria – numerological calculations influenced by kabbalah (Jewish black magic).

Reeling in the years

Every year, during the seventh biblical month of the year (called Eitanim in 1 Kings 8:2, but inaccurately called Rosh Hashana or the ‘Jewish New Year’ by rabbinic Judaism), a significant stream of Christian social media is abuzz with Jewish perspectives and traditions which are non-biblical and occasionally occultic. Among some groups there is a strong focus on the rabbinic use of letters of the Hebrew alphabet which are supposed to represent the year when the world was created – at least, according to rabbinic Judaism’s calculations. This year the rabbinic number under discussion is 5784 Anno Mundi – the counting from ‘the years of the earth/Creation’ (minyan la-yetzirah in Hebrew). What is the origin of this tradition?

Today’s rabbinic computation of ‘the years of Creation’ is not laid out in the biblical text. The first instance of this appears in the medieval period (800’s A.D.),  based on a Hebrew scroll called Seder Olam Rabbah. That scroll was probably authored in the post-Hadrianic period by the Tanna Rabbi Yose ben Ḥalafta circa 165 A.D., a rabbinic scholar mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 88a, Yevamot 82b). Some of his conjectures (though he does not clearly define the date of Creation in his description of Genesis) appeared in a reworked framework (circa 800’s A.D.) in a scroll called Baraita di-Shemu’el. In the late 800’s A.D. Jewish tombstones in Venosa (southern Italy) are found mentioning a similar dating system to Seder Olam Rabbah. About 946 A.D. Shabbetai Donnolo mentions such dating in his commentary on the Sefer Yezirah.  In 1514 Seder Olam Rabbah was published in Mantua, and in 1517 it was published in Paris. In 1658, Archbishop of Armagh James Ussher’s Chronology was published, with conclusions based on Seder Olam Rabbah’s approach.

An interesting historical note: the usual calendar calculation used by Jews in Talmudic and post-Talmudic times was not rabbinic, but that of the Greek Seleucid era (post-Alexander the Great, with the starting point beginning in the year 312 B.C.) That axial date was referred to by Jewish sources as minyan hashtarot (‘the dating of documents’). Only after the center of Jewish life moved from Babylonia to Europe (in the middle Medieval period) was the Greek method of counting replaced by the Anno Mundi reckoning related to Seder Olam Rabbah.

When He walked the hills of Galilee, Messiah Yeshua did not tell time based on a rabbinic calendar, nor did the Apostles after Him.

Though we may admire rabbinic zeal in their desire to search out the exact year of Creation, the accuracy and precision of their conclusions cannot be endorsed by those who depend on Scriptural teaching. In the same way, prophetic words lose much of their reliability when they are based on unfounded rabbinic speculations.

The year of Creation is simply not given to us in the Bible. The occult use of Hebrew letters and the importing of arcane rabbinic reasoning – these are unable to pave a road which the Bible in any case never laid down for us to walk on. We exhort those who are spreading these ‘teachings’ among believers in Yeshua to pull back from seeding such falsehoods in the body of Messiah.

As in the days of Jeroboam, it is essential to make this point clear: the rabbinic dating system regarding the date of Creation is not God-breathed, nor is it accurate. When believers blindly use this rabbinic dating, an unwittingly spiritual dependence on rabbinic authority is set in motion – and that rabbinic authority denies Yeshua’s deity and Messiahship, the authority of the New Covenant, etc. Caveat emptor!

Fudging God’s commission can equal witchcraft

“No reason to get excited,” the thief he kindly spoke.

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.

But you and I, we’ve been through that and this is not our fate.

So let us not talk falsely, now – the hour is getting late.”

(Bob Dylan, “All Along The Watchtower”, Dwarf Music © 1968, 1996)

“Pride cometh before a fall, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (Proverbs 16:18). King Saul of Benjamin’s tribe was more interested in public opinion polls than in being a godly and obedient leader in Israel. He masked his disobedience to the prophet Samuel’s direct order by conducting a religious ceremony – a sacrifice – in defiance of YHVH’s commands (1 Samuel 13:8-14; 15:1-21). In our day, we might not grasp the severity of disobeying a clear command of God. But perhaps thinking about this situation from a military point of view might help. What happens when a soldier disobeys the command of his superior officer? That is considered a very serious offense. In God’s kingdom when a king disobeys the express command of God, there is a stricter judgment – even if that king is Jewish.

Samuel’s pronouncement applies not only to King Saul, but also to any religious authority in Israel who rejects the Messiah and His message, and who then establishes for himself a religious framework born out of rebellion and rejection.

“Has YHVH as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of YHVH? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of YHVH, He has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:22-23).

God’s choice of the word ‘witchcraft’ to classify Saul’s behavior was not accidental. Rebellious religious activity and sacrifice that do not accept God’s sovereignty and lordship, even if they are performed ‘from the heart’ – these are actually a spiritual façade disguising witchcraft. Orthodox Judaism’s spiritual roots are anchored in a rabbinic leadership that unfortunately rejected Yeshua’s Davidic authority, His Messiahship and His atonement.

Pride and witchcraft versus servanthood

One of the central activities of rabbinic Judaism is based around the study-hall (Beis Medrish in Yiddish, Beit Midrash or yeshiva in Hebrew). Intellectual acumen, prodigious memorization and blistering academic speed are treasured in that environment. Learning how to control vast amounts of halakhic information is a young man’s challenge in these institutions, while competitive pride in one’s own achievements can be a professional blowback of this educational method.

Unfortunately, there are a few Messianic leaders who make use of the same yeshiva dynamics – strong hierarchical control and appeal to pride – in overseeing believers committed to their care, all the time insisting that these manipulative methods are actually proof of apostolic authority. Yeshua invites us to follow a different way, a more excellent way – the way of servanthood and self-sacrificing love.

Playing the numbers

There are things which may definitely be Jewish, but they are also definitely non-kosher.

A mystical strand of Judaism which purports to come from Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (a 2nd century rabbi) blends gnostic and Hindu magical practices, and then clothes them with ultra-Orthodox garb. Claiming that these teachings represent the hidden spiritual core of the Torah, these spiritual adulterers insist that these ‘spiritual secrets’ have been handed down from generation to generation as a valid and kosher ‘received tradition’ or kabbalah (from the Hebrew root KBL ‘to receive’).

To put it plainly in Christian evangelical terminology, kabbalah is Jewish occult, Jewish black magic. It bases itself on spiritual exercises aimed at manipulating spiritual powers, and propagates its false teaching with its own ‘map of the spirit world’ based on a gnostic interpretation of an allegorical ‘tree of life.’ It offers spiritual power and revelation to its followers – but it is stolen and treif.

The Jewish community’s response to kabbalah has been varied. Some traditional Jews see kabbalah and Chasidism as pagan and superstitious perversions of Judaism. Other Jewish communities believe that kabbalistic wonder-working rabbis are holy men. There are even some Messianic Jews (and Gentiles) who dabble in kabbalah and attempt to disseminate these teachings to audiences who lack the ability to sift and discern what it is that they are being spoon-fed.

Kabbalah was snapped up by some Christian Hebraists over the past hundreds of years, who mistakenly thought that they had found secret Jewish mystical texts proving the Trinity. Some even came to the unreal conclusion that kabbalistic rabbis secretly believed that Yeshua is the Messiah.

Playing the numbers

A Jewish tradition tied to kabbalah – to Jewish black magic – is called gematria. According to this teaching, every Hebrew letter in each Hebrew word has a mathematical equivalent. Like the ancient Romans who used their alphabet letters to represent numbers (C equal 100, L equals 50, etc.), so Hebrew letters can be used to equal mathematical sums. This method becomes occult when it moves away from simple mathematics and starts:

doing fortune-telling by looking for hidden prophetic meanings in the total mathematical equivalent of a word

compares the numerical total of a word to another word with the same mathematical total, and draws ‘prophetic’ meaning from the equivalencies

takes individual letters of the Hebrew calendar rabbinic reckoning, and gives allegorical or quasi-prophetic meaning to each letter

A recent example, seen across social media, involves this rabbinic year – called TaSH’PaD (5784 A.M.). A Christian kabbalistic/gematria interpretation floating around on social media takes the Hebrew letter for ‘D’ (‘dalet’) and proclaims that the ‘D’ stands for ‘delet’ or ‘door.’ Then a pseudo-prophetic word is brought declaring that this is ‘the Year of the Door.’ To be tongue in cheek, one could take the ‘SH’ (the Hebrew letter ‘shin’) and proclaim that the ‘SH’ stands for ‘sha’ar’ which means ‘gate.’ One could then declare that this is ‘The Year of the Gate.’  Or one could take the Hebrew letter for ‘P’ (‘peh’) and proclaim that the ‘P’ stands for ‘paz’ or fine gold. One could then declare that this is ‘the Year of Fine Gold.’ The possibilities are endless. But the results are neither biblical nor kosher nor prophetic.

Instead of consulting ‘the fortune-teller woman’ at the county fair, it has become ‘chic’ in some circles to consult ‘cutting-edge prophets and apostles’ who proclaim hidden Hebrew meanings for the coming rabbinic calendar year. This mystical and occult hermeneutical technique removes logic and biblical discernment from the interpretative process. Instead, a squirrely hermeneutic is substituted, which pridefully appeals to a seemingly superior Hebrew knowledge. But this method is dead in the water, lacking both biblical basis and kosher qualifications.

These dabblings into Jewish mysticism are at times trumpeted by some Gentile believers who lack sufficient ability and discernment in these matters. Unfortunately, even some Messianic Jews are getting on the same rickety bandwagon. These above-mentioned rabbinic influences can exert an unhealthy pull on believers who may have started off positively inclined toward Jewish subjects. These abuses have a real potential to confuse and fog believers’ spiritual discernment, and to open up doors of deception in the name of ‘Jewish roots.’ It is our heart’s prayer that all dear believers stay far away from these non-kosher aspects of rabbinic theology, tradition and mysticism. They are not only spiritually unclean. They also come from a worldview that denies the reality and power of Israel’s Risen Messiah.

For greater detail on this subject, feel free to consult chapter nine of my book (‘Kosher and non-kosher Judaism’) titled ‘How to be Messianic without becoming Meshuggeh (*crazy): A common sense approach to kosher Messianic foundations’ which delves into these issues more deeply.

How should we then pray? 

Pray for believers who appreciate the Jewish roots of our faith to cleave to the Scriptures as our foundational authority

Pray for believers to treat rabbinic authority with healthy caution, and to not grant it spiritual influence over our faith

Pray for Messiah Yeshua to be revealed to and accepted by many hungry Jewish hearts

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org   

Why the shofar? Why the trumpet?

The gnarled and curved ram’s horn – the shofar – is universally recognized as the musical instrument par excellence associated with the Jewish High Holidays. It may come as a surprise that YHVH’s commands regarding the events of Yom Hakippurim (Yom Kippur/ the Day of Atonements) to Moses in Leviticus 23:26-32 and Numbers 29:7-11 do not mention a shofar or a silver trumpet. Why the connection, then? What do the Scriptures tell us about the symbolism of the shofar and the trumpet, and how do these meanings connect to these two Holy Festivals?

YHVH is a man of war (Exodus 15:3)

The first use of the word ‘shofar’ or ram’s horn in the Bible is found in the Book of Job, the earliest scroll written down by the ancients. In the context of fierce combat, the war horse is described as charging forward when he hears the voice of the shofar, the smell of the battle, the thundering shouting of the military officers and the teru’ah (war cries/shofar sounds).

In Psalm 47 the Sons of Korah, a Levitical guild of worshippers (see 2 Chronicles 20:19), worship the God of Jacob who triumphs over Israel’s enemies in battle, accompanied by the sound of the shofar:

The epitome of the shofar’s use in battle is of course Joshua at the Battle of Jericho:

The joyful sound of shofar worship

King David incorporated the victory sound of the shofar and the military sound of the silver trumpet into his worship orchestra which led the Ark of the Covenant in public parade to the House of YHVH:

An anonymous psalm declares the centrality of the shofar blast in high praise: “Sing praise-songs to YHVH with the lyre – with the lyre and the sound of praise-songs. With [silver] trumpets and the voice of the shofar shout joyfully before the King, YHVH” (Psalm 98:5-6).

The zenith of the Book of Psalms concludes with the shofar used in high praise: “Praise Him with the sounding of the shofar” (Psalm 150:3)!

The great rejoicing that Israel entered into at the New Moon celebrations, at the Feast of Trumpets and on the first day of the Feast of Sukkot/Tabernacles, is described in all its glory by Asaph in Psalm 81: “Blow the shofar at the New Moon [see Leviticus 23:23-24], at the full moon [the 15th day of the Hebrew month – see Leviticus 23:33-35], on our feast day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob” (Psalm 81:3-4).

The sound of the shofar was associated with joy and as a reminder to the God of Jacob to remember His prophetic promises and protection over His people Israel: “Also on the day of your joy and at your appointed feasts, and on the first days of your months, you shall blow your [silver] trumpets . . . and they shall be as a reminder of you before your God. I am YHVH your God” (Numbers 10:10).

Every Jewish man and woman, boy and girl instantly knew that the prophetic blast of the shofar called them to high praises, to shouts of victory and to war.

The coming of the terrible Day of YHVH

The God of Jacob is soon coming to judge the earth and to vanquish Israel’s enemies. The Hebrew prophets called that day ‘The Day of the Lord.’ That Day will be announced by the blowing of a shofar: “Blow a shofar in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the Day of YHVH is coming. Surely it is near” (Joel 2:1).

The prophets describe that, on that day of judgment YHVH Himself will blow His divine shofar of victory in battle as He uses the mighty army of Israel to accomplish His awesome task (see also Ezekiel 37:10; 25:14):

Many great Last Days events will be heralded by a shofar

The prophetic End of the Jewish Exile will be accompanied by a shofar blast: “It will come about also in that day that a great shofar will be sounded. And those who were perishing in the Land of Ashur and who were scattered in the Land of Egypt will come and worship YHVH in the holy mountain at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13).

Messiah Yeshua will send out angels with a great shofar to gather together Israel’s scattered flock from across the face of the whole planet: “And He will send forth His angels with a great shofar and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Matthew 24:31).

The resurrection of the dead will be accompanied by the sound of the shofar: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52; the Greek equivalent word for shofar/trumpet used here is σάλπιγξ - salpigx).

The return of Messiah Yeshua to Israel will be signaled by a shofar blast – “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

The appearance of YHVH to the people of Israel

When the God of Jacob appeared to the Jewish people to reveal His Mosaic covenant, His fear-inspiring voice sounded like a shofar:

The writer of the Book of Hebrews (Messianic Jews) draws a powerful lesson for us, drawn from Moses’ Messianic prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:

The shofar of Jubilee

The Bible mentions blowing a shofar on Yom Kippur in only one verse – as part of a discussion about the Year of Jubilee (a joyous occasion) when once every fifty years each individual Israeli gets all his debts forgiven and wiped off the books:

Every fifty years the Day of Atonement ended with a shofar blast, declaring the wiping away of a nation’s fiscal debt. This was an economic picture of something spiritual – how, only moments before this, YHVH had covered (made atonement for and ‘wiped away’) the sin of the Jewish people (see Zechariah 3:1-5). The national response was a sober heart filled with humble thanks to God. After the shofar blast, that heart would now blossom with overflowing joy. The gates of praise swung open as the entire Jewish nation began preparations for the pilgrim feast of Sukkot, the Harvest Feast better known as ‘the Feast of Tabernacles.’

As the High Holiday season draws near, it encourages our souls to remember all these shofar-related events. The shofar gives voice to our praise and our intercession. It accompanies our request for God to remember Israel in times of war (Numbers 10:9) and to visit our spiritual gatherings (Numbers 10:7). It is His clarion call to the Jewish people, emphasizing that YHVH never forgets a promise.

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org   

A blast from the past

On May 21, 1910, the first modern Jewish city was founded. It was given the name Tel Aviv [Hebrew for ‘Hill of Spring’] borrowed from a Babylonian town mentioned in Ezekiel 3:15. The coat of arms of Tel Aviv featured a red Star of David and a quotation from Jeremiah: “I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt." (Jeremiah 31:4).

Archeologists dig into the hard ground looking for keys to the past. They may uncover a palace or a garbage dump, yet these broken remains throw light on long forgotten kings and commoners – their clothing, food, lifestyles – even their worship and music. For those who love the Bible and Jewish history, the same dynamic exists. Those who dig into the layers of Hebrew history and sift through medieval and rabbinic writings will discover the fundamental richness of the Israeli people, and will gain understanding about the foundational roots of the Jewish faith. There will of course be some surprises along the way, since the currents of tradition sometimes flow in different directions than biblical perspectives do.

This newsletter (the second of three) looks at biblical teachings regarding the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teru’ah – the day of blowing [of shofars]; the fifth biblical feast in the seventh month of the biblical year as per Leviticus 23:2) as well as at rabbinic and traditional perceptions.

Shofar so good

The two central passages defining and outlining the celebration of the Feast of Trumpets (the Day of Blowing) are Leviticus 23:23-25 and Numbers 29:1:

Again, YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest [shabbaton], a reminder by blowing (zichron teru’ah), a holy convocation [miqra qodesh]. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to YHVH’” (Leviticus 23:23-25)

“Now in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy assembly [miqra qodesh]. You shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing [Yom Teruah]” (Numbers 29:1)

The essential ingredients in both passages are:

a wonderful Sabbath rest (a shabbaton), where no professional work is done

a holy convocation (‘being called together’; miqra qodesh) a meeting with a holy and set apart purpose

a special commemoration/remembering (zichron) through blowing (a musical sound called teru’ah) of shofars/trumpets

The Scriptures describe teru’ah as a musical expression of joyous and explosive power:

a shofar blast (Leviticus 25:9; Hosea 5:8; Psalm 81:3/4)

a great shout of joyous praise (2 Samuel 6:15; Ezra 3:11; Job 8:21; Psalm 27:6)

a resounding cymbal clash (Psalm 150:5)

YHVH the designer of the holy trumpet

In Numbers 10, YHVH gives Moses specific instructions about trumpets made of metal – how to make them and how to use them:

YHVH spoke further to Moses, saying, “Make yourself two trumpets of silver, you shall make them of hammered work; and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and breaking camp . . . And when you go to war in your land against the enemy who attacks you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, so that you will be thought of by YHVH your God, and be saved from your enemies.  Also, on the day of your joy and at your appointed feasts, and on the first days of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be as a reminder of you before your God. I am YHVH your God” (Numbers 10:1-2, 9-10)

These metal trumpets are to be used to alert the nation regarding breaking camp, military gatherings, spiritual worship and intercessory pleas to the God of Israel.

The idea here is that God hears the blowing of the trumpets, remembers His covenant with the Jewish people and is moved by His own heart of love to respond (see Deuteronomy 7:6-8). The trumpet blast is an intercessory act, reminding YHVH of His prophetic promises over the Jewish people.

The joy of the Lord is our strength

The God of Jacob considers the Feast of Trumpets a joyous convocation. Festive food and drink (and lots of it) are part of the celebration, and YHVH emphasizes that, on this special day His joy is our refuge (Hebrew, ma’oz – stronghold or refuge). This is not a day for tears or fears, for being afraid, for grieving or mourning. It is a holy party day!

Also, Yeshua, Bani, Sherev-Yah, Yamin, Akuv, Shab’tai, Hodi-Yah, Ma’aseh-Yah, Klita, Azar-Yah, Yozavad, Hanan, Plah-Yah, and the Levites explained the Torah [the Mosaic teaching] to the people while the people remained in their place. They read from the scroll from the Teaching of God, translating [from Hebrew to Aramaic] to give the sense so that they understood the reading. Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to YHVH your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the Teaching. Then he said to them, “Go, eat the festival foods, drink the sweet drinks, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of YHVH is your refuge.” So, the Levites silenced all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy. Do not be grieved.” Then all the people went away to eat, drink, to send portions,  and to celebrate a great feast, because they understood the words which had been made known to them. (Nehemiah 8:7-12)

In Nehemiah 8 the nation had just heard the words of Deuteronomy 27-28. They understood that their national Exile was a deserved judgment, and they immediately repented of our national rejection of God’s prophets. The holy celebration of the Feast of Trumpets followed immediately on the heels of a national revival.

Our Jewish people today have followed our national leaders in rejecting the message of the Prophets about Messiah Yeshua (Matthew 23:34-39; Mark 12:1-12). Our need in this awesome hour is to wake up and realize that our existence in the Exile is like that of a bird in a gilded cage. We need to enter into national repentance both in Israel and across the globe.

A fork in the road

A crucial fork in the road was crossed in 33 A.D. when Messiah Yeshua was rejected by Israel’s spiritual authorities and handed over to the Romans to be crucified. If Jerusalem’s then spiritual leadership could have made such a horrific decision to reject the Messiah, these same leaders could eventually make errant decisions about a host of other issues – including the nature of the New Covenant, the status of the Mosaic covenant, the way of salvation, the authority of the rabbinic leadership, the date of the New Year, emphases associated with the Feast of Trumpets, etc.

By circa 200 AD Rabbi Judah the Prince (the editor of the Mishnah) made a valiant attempt at justifying an obvious departure from the biblical New Year date, when he proclaimed that there are actually a whole bunch of New Years. He explained that there are “four New Years – on the first of Nisan is the New Year for kings and festivals; on the first of Elul is the New Year of the tithe of cattle…; on the first of Tishrei is the New Year for years, for release and for jubilee years, for plantation and for tithing vegetables; on the first of Shevat is the New Year for trees” (TB, Tractate Rosh Hashanah, Mishna 1, 2a). This teaching seems to be his attempt to justify an accommodation to the Babylonian calendar. His argument has been accepted in rabbinic Judaism as the kosher solution.

This same Rabbi Judah added (with no biblical warrant): “All are judged on New Year and the separate dooms are sealed each in its time – on Passover in respect of produce, on Pentecost in respect of fruit, on Tabernacles judgment is passed in respect of rain, and man is judged on New Year and his doom is sealed on the Day of Atonement” (Babylonian Talmud [TB], Tractate Rosh Hashana 16a).

Another Rabbi (Yochanan bar Nappaha) declared (again, with no biblical authority): “Three books are opened (in heaven) on New Year, one for the thoroughly wicked, one for the thoroughly righteous, and one for the intermediate. The thoroughly righteous are forthwith inscribed definitively in the book of life. The thoroughly wicked are forthwith inscribed definitively in the book of death. The doom of the intermediate is suspended from New Year till the Day of Atonement. If they deserve well, they are inscribed in the book of life. If they do not deserve well, they are inscribed in the book of death” (TB, Tractate Rosh Hashana 16b). This tradition has led to Rosh Hashanah being described as Yom Ha-Din – the Day of Judgment.

These traditional rabbinic perspectives have shaped the way most Jewish people see and relate to the Feast of Trumpets. Their emphases are quite different from those that the God of Israel conveyed in Nehemiah 8, Leviticus 23 and Number 29.

How sweet it is!

The traditions associated with the Feast of Trumpets are deeply moving; the liturgy and celebrations are a rich part of many Jewish people’s lives. The sons and daughters of Jacob nibble on apple wedges and honey in hopes for a sweet coming year. They bless each other with wishes that each one will be inscribed in the Book of Life at this season (more on this in our third newsletter). Worldwide, synagogues register their highest attendance as the High Holy Days or ‘Days of Awe’ approach. As the Day of Atonement draws closer, there is a heightened awareness of the dynamic of sin in the Jewish community.

One of the callings that we have as the remnant of Israel – those Messianic Jews who have accepted Yeshua as our Messiah and atonement – is to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets in full light of these above-mentioned biblical teachings. We hold up the flag of God’s word and the glorious person of Messiah Yeshua, and call our people back to Him and His ways. As the Jewish world celebrates the Feast of Trumpets this year, would you join in with us in asking the Redeemer of Israel to shine His glory on His people, and that we would receive Him with open arms and shining eyes!

How should we then pray? 

Pray for God to bring revelation and alignment to believers everywhere concerning His times and seasons (Daniel 2:21; Genesis 1:14-18)

Pray for many Jewish people to reach out to our God during this season of heightened spiritual focus

Pray that YHVH would pour out a spirit of grace and supplications on Israel through a revelation of Messiah Yeshua our atonement

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s army speedily and in our day

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Jeroboam’s Feast

In the days of King Solomon, there was a valiant warrior whose name was Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 11:28). King Solomon promoted him to an important governmental post. But YHVH had even bigger plans. He sent Ahijah the Shilonite to prophesy over Jeroboam and to commission him to overthrow Solomon’s rule over the ten northern tribes of the Jewish people:

Jeroboam was YHVH’s tool to weaken the Davidic dynasty. This happened because King Solomon had not walked in God’s ways. He did not do what was right in God’s sight and did not keep YHVH’s statutes and ordinances. In turn, Jeroboam was given the opportunity to listen to all that God was commanding him, to walk in God’s ways, and to do what was right in YHVH’s sight by keeping His statutes and His commandments. But, like Solomon, Jeroboam also flagrantly violated the terms of his own calling.

Four wrongs do not make a right

Those who do not learn from history, it is said, are fated to repeat that history. The Bible describes Jeroboam’s sins in detail:

Jeroboam was motivated by fear of the people and not by a holy fear of YHVH. He realized that the God of Israel had not granted him to rule over Jerusalem and the House of YHVH. He feared that the yearly pilgrimages of the ten tribes to Jerusalem would undermine his royal credibility and eventually lead to his own overthrow. As a result, he deliberately violated YHVH’s commands in Leviticus 23:23-25 that the Feast of Trumpets should be in the seventh month:

By moving the date of that Feast, he hoped to ensure that his ten tribes would have no difficulties attending his ‘new and improved’ feast celebrations.

Jeroboam also moved the center of worship from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to Bethel (less than a day’s journey from Jerusalem) and also to Dan in the north (for those Jews who lived in the Galilee and the Golan). Yet this change of location was also forbidden by Moses:

Jeroboam also chose priests who were not from the tribe of Levi, to oversee the worship, the burning of incense and the sacrifices. Jeroboam’s decision was in clear violation of YHVH’s commands:

Jeroboam himself went up to the altar in Bethel to burn incense. But this calling was only given to the descendants of Aaron; Jeroboam was a descendant of Ephraim (1 Kings 11:26) and thus not qualified to burn priestly incense:

The ten tribes of Israel were in a bad way. They were now stuck in the middle with a wrong dynasty, a wrong feast date, a wrong worship city, a wrong priesthood, and a wrong master of ceremonies. All these were the result of a leader with a wrong heart.

No Messiah, no Temple, no atonement, no New Covenant

Nine hundred years later, the leaders of the Jewish people – both the High Priestly sons of Zadok (Bnei Tzadok or Sadducees) and the self-appointed scribes and interpreters of the Teaching of Moses (the Perushim or Pharisees) – were involved in rejecting Messiah Yeshua, handing Him over to the occupation forces of Rome and catalyzing His crucifixion:

The rejection of the Messiah and the destruction of the House of YHVH resulted in the practical removal of the authority of the Davidic dynasty, as well as no national atonement for the Jewish people. Though the New Covenant had been ratified (see Hebrews 9:11-15) at that Passover season nearly 2,000 years ago, the majority of Israel’s sons and daughters have not yet entered into its provisions and blessings (see Hebrews 1:1-2):

When God’s word challenges what our heart feels

Jeroboam had established a ‘kosher-style Judaism’ which was not really kosher. Instead of following YHVH’s calendar in Leviticus 23, he tweaked God’s clear commandments and devised in his own heart a different month for celebrating the Feast of Trumpets. The Hebrew Scriptures warn against such behavior. Moses challenges the Jewish people to remember that the tassels (tzitzit) on the borders of their robes have a spiritual purpose: “It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of YHVH, so that you will do them and not follow your own heart and your own eyes, which led you to prostitute yourselves” (Numbers 15:39). Yet the period of the Hebrew Judges was characterized by Samuel in exactly this way: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). And Solomon concludes the matter: “Every person’s way is right in his own eyes, but YHVH examines the hearts” (Proverbs 21:12).

The Prophets saw that a day was coming when self-appointed teachers of the Mosaic Covenant would actually twist the plain meaning of the Torah (a Hebrew word meaning ‘Teaching’). Isaiah warned that such violation of God’s word would lead to spiritual shipwreck: “To the Teaching (Torah) and to the testimony (te’udah)! If they do not speak in accordance with this word, it is because they have no dawn” (Isaiah 8:20). One hundred years later Jeremiah declared that the spiritual leadership of the Jewish people was in mortal danger of reshaping Judaism into a leaky vessel that would not find favor in the sight of YHVH: “For My people have committed two evils: They have abandoned Me, the Fountain of living waters – to carve out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

From this vantage point the words of Daniel the prophet take on added weight. He describes the final manifestation of evil – what is usually referred to as the anti-Messiah or anti-Christ – as someone like Jeroboam, who changes God’s appointed times and seasons:

When seven becomes eight

YHVH revealed to Moses that His own divine calendar (which is also called the Hebrew calendar; see Leviticus 23:1-2) begins in the Spring: “Now YHVH 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’” (Exodus 12:1-2). This month is known in the Bible by its Hebrew name – Aviv [which means ‘Spring’]: “On this day in the month of Aviv, you are about to go forth . . .  Therefore, you shall keep this ordinance at its appointed time from year to year” (Exodus 13:4, 10; see also Exodus 23:15; 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1).

Yet modern rabbinic practice calls this month by a different name – Nisan (from the Akkadian nisānu, meaning ‘sanctuary’ or ‘sacrifice’, or possibly from Sumerian nisag meaning ‘first fruits’) and lists it as the seventh month of the year. The Jewish New Year according to the rabbinical reckoning does not occur in Aviv (which is biblically the first month) but in Tishrei (from the Akkadian word tašrītu or ‘beginning’) – the month which the Bible describes in Hebrew as Eitanim (1 Kings 8:2) – that is, the seventh biblical month. These are significant changes in times and seasons. How did this change of calendar – this departure from the biblical pattern – happen?

In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the calendar described in the Bible still reflected the biblical New Year as being in the Spring: “Then Josiah celebrated the Passover to YHVH in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover animals on the fourteenth day of the first month” (2 Chronicles 35:1). Yet in Persia, at approximately the same time period, the pagan Babylonian and Akkadian month-names were what was being used in foreign courts. The Jewish people still used the biblical calendar’s year order, but began calling the Hebrew months by pagan names. Aviv was now referred to as Nisan, but it was still seen as the first month of the year: “In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, Pur, that is the lot, was cast before Haman from day to day and from month to month, until the twelfth month, that is the month Adar” (Esther 3:7). For more background on this, see ‘Raiders of the Lost Jewish New Year’ and ‘The blast of the shofar.’

By the rivers of Babylon

The twelve Jewish tribes went into Exile between 722 B.C. (Assyria) and 587/6 B.C. (Babylon). They took the 12 original names of the Hebrew months with them. These included:

When Israel returned from Babylonian Exile, according to Rabbi Hanina bar Hama (d. 250 A.D.) “the month names came up with them [with the exiles] from Babylon” (Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh HaShanah 1:2, 56d). Babylonian names gradually replaced the original Hebrew names after the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Today eight of the twelve original Hebrew names of the months have disappeared from our sources. The Babylonian month-names are for the most part names of Babylonian demons, even as most modern Western months are based on the names of Roman gods, while European days of the week are taken from Norse and Germanic gods. The Babylonian royal calendar began its year in Tishrei (biblical Eitanim) and so the Jewish people gradually fitted their calendar into this accepted international calendar. The Jewish calendar was swept along by the riptide of Babylonian paganism. It was still based on the biblical lunar cycle, but its month-names and New Year now differed from the biblical calendar. Whereas Jeroboam moved the Feast of Trumpets from the seventh to the eighth month, the rabbis moved the New Year from Aviv to Eitanim – from Nisan to Tishrei. All of this was done without biblical authority, yet today it is considered part of the normative traditions of Judaism.

The Karaite movement (an early medieval Biblicist form of Judaism) celebrates the New Year according to the Biblical commandment, in the month of Nisan, in the Spring.

When Messiah Yeshua returns, the whole planet will follow the Hebrew calendar. Ezekiel 45:18 prophesies a future Jerusalem holiday on the 1st of Aviv, while Zechariah 14:16-19, 8:18-19 and Isaiah 66:23 show that the entire planet will be keeping the Jewish calendar. Greek, Roman and Norse titans will all bow the knee and declare that Messiah Yeshua and His calendar are sovereign over the whole earth (Isaiah 45:23; Philippians 2:10-11).

And what about Messianic Jewish traditions?

The simple facts are that most Jews (and Gentiles, too!) are not aware of all the above historical information. Most Messianic Jews are similarly unaware of these facts. In an effort to identify with our people, we strive to imitate the traditions we learned as children or have heard about in old movies and Jewish literature. For most Messianic Jews, if it was good enough for Rabbi Akiva or the Lubavitcher Rebbe, it’s good enough for us. Come the High Holidays, most Messianic Jews publicize their Jewish New Year services and exchange the traditional Jewish greetings which are based on the rabbinic perspective.

The unquestioning acceptance of rabbinic tradition here reveals some fault lines in some streams of the Messianic Jewish movement.

Other examples of this include a blind acceptance of how rabbinic theology refuses to accept the teaching of Jeremiah 31:31-32. Jeremiah declares that the New Covenant is not like the Mosaic covenant, and that it is a different covenant: “Behold, days are coming, declares YHVH, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah – not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares YHVH” (Jeremiah 31:31-32).

The rabbis disagree with the ‘peshat’ (the plain exegetical meaning) of this text. Instead, they define ‘New Covenant’ as simply being a renewed Mosaic Covenant. I have had the privilege of sitting down with some of those who are considered to be top Messianic scholars and asking them why they buy the rabbinic reasoning here, and how that fits with accurate exegesis. Their responses were not what I had expected, and fell short of the apostolic standard that Paul exhorts us all to follow: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). 

There is a certain amount of confusion among some Messianic leaders and teachers on these points. Some teach that Jewish identity must be Mosaic-based, and that rabbinic expressions are the quintessential expressions which we need to follow closely. This tendency in turn has led to encouraging Gentiles to convert to rabbinic Judaism, to mold Messianic liturgy based on rabbinic liturgy and theology, etc. These positions can be problematic, because rabbinic theology often fundamentally disagrees with Yeshua’s New Covenant teachings. Two historical vignettes on this point follow.

Rachmiel Frydland and my haredi friend

Rachmiel Frydland was a Polish Jewish Messianic teacher and scholar who survived the Holocaust, losing his entire family. He had studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Poland before becoming a believer. His Holocaust story is available on Amazon. His first language was Yiddish, a language that I also speak. Once I had the privilege of spending a week in 1977 as his house guest. We had deep conversations about Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II. In a discussion we had regarding the differences between halachic and biblical definitions of ‘Who is a Jew,’ Rachmiel emphatically stated: “If we give the rabbis the authority to determine who is a Jew, then we give them the authority to determine who is the Messiah.”

Another interesting interaction occurred at the brit (circumcision or bris) of one of my grandsons in Jerusalem. A haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish man who has an ongoing relationship with one of my sons, asked my other son, “Why is it that you Messianic Jews have this fixation to imitate rabbinic traditions when you yourselves know that rabbinic teaching is fundamentally opposed to what you believe – the Messiahship of Yeshua, the validity of atonement and forgiveness through the New Covenant, etc.?”

Digging deeper – Jewish Roots and Hebraic Roots

I love the roots of my people – spiritual, historical, cultural, musical, culinary, etc. I have seen that sometimes in the Messianic movement the terms ‘Jewish Roots’ and Hebraic Roots’ mean different things to different people. Sometimes it can mean very positive things. At other times it means the acceptance of rabbinic authority, rabbinic anti-Messianic perspectives, and spiritual control that borders on witchcraft and misogyny. I encourage all who would pursue Jewish and Hebraic roots to weigh carefully how hidden agendas may spin out here. I have written a book titled ‘How to be Messianic without becoming Meshuggeh (*crazy): A common sense approach to kosher Messianic foundations’ which delves into these issues and more, for those who would like to go deeper.

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

McDonald's and the Second Coming

The great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem authored a trilogy dealing with Tevye the Milkman (Tevye der milchiker, known today as ‘Fiddler on the Roof’), his relative Menakhem Mendel and his wife Sheyne-Sheyndl (The Letters of Menakhem-Mendl and Sheyne-Sheyndl), and Motel the Cantor’s son (Motel Peysi dem Khazns). In the second book, Sheyne-Sheyndl humorously declares her faltering faith in the God of Israel: “God will provide, but how will He provide until He provides?”

As we peer into the gray fog of the onrushing future, we sometimes ask ourselves that same exact question – “But who can endure the day of His coming?” (Malachi 3:2).

Some rabbis in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. made similar confessions:

Returning to the front pages of history

Life in Israel is spicy – never a dull moment here. Our very existence is lived smack in the middle of a swirling butter churn. Apocalyptic and ‘mostly apocalyptic’ events are a daily occurrence. This is the warp and the woof of prophecy: God is returning His dry bones to the Land of Promise – yet we as a nation are without the indwelling Holy Spirit (see Ezekiel 37:8-9). Our malevolent neighbors (see Ezekiel 25:12-14; 35:10-15) and those who balefully share the Land with us (see Ezekiel 36:2-7) are like thorns and briars to us (see Numbers 33:55). These resulting conflicts continue to trigger international anti-Semitic sympathies for our enemies. This process will hit its zenith in a military invasion by the united nations of the world and the subsequent superpower division of the Jewish homeland (see Joel 3:1-2; Zechariah 14:1-2). The return of Messiah Yeshua – the Second Coming – then ensues with a vengeance (see Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 79:10; 149:7; Isaiah 34:8; 63:4; Jeremiah 50:28; 51:11). Yeshua’s two-edged sword will be stretched out against all the nations who hate Zion (see Isaiah 34:1-8; 66:10-16).

We are beholding the restoration of the Jewish people to their land (mostly in unbelief). This is a central part of YHVH’s strategy. The God of Jacob is returning Israel to the front pages of history, and the world for the most part does not like it. An old Yiddish proverb notes that “If God lived on Earth, people would break his windows.” Since it is considered in bad taste (and a trifle dangerous) to break God’s windows, the nations have come to the conclusion that their second-best choice is to vent their anger on God’s chosen people the Jews. Therefore we should not be surprised by current events.

Restoration is a process

The majority of Israelis consider that Israel’s survival, health and flowering rest on the following three pillars: a Western form of democracy, some sort of expression of Judaism/Jewishness, and a robust military/intelligence community with a universal draft.

Yet not all of these pillars have characterized history. Western democracy was unknown to Abraham, Moses, David and the Maccabees. The sons of Asaph and the prophets Isaiah and Malachi would be shocked at modern Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism, and would have strongly objected to major tenets of today’s Orthodox Judaism. On the other hand, Joshua, David and Joab would have been familiar with and supportive of Jewish military prowess and the accurate intelligence needed to run those models.

Today, many in Israel would not want to see the re-establishment of a Davidic dynasty, or the growth of a Jewish faith expression rooted in the biblical covenants. A growing number of Israeli citizens on the Left side of the political aisle are actively questioning or even opposing the value of strengthening and defending a Jewish state. One stream of recent anti-government demonstrations calls for the weakening or dissolving of universal draft as a national value.

It is worth remembering that God’s restoration of His people does not envision the triumph of an ‘Athens on the Gihon’ (1 Kings 1:38, 45). Isaiah 2:3 prophesies the flowering of the New Covenant in Jerusalem (‘Ki mi-Tziyon tetzeh Torah’ – from out of Zion will come the New Covenant teaching). For that to become a reality, there will have to be many changes made. Many secular and religious Jewish Israelis (as well as non-Jewish citizens of the Jewish state) are not prepared for or excited about such coming changes.

The coconut shell game – praying for Israel’s leaders

There is a time-honored confidence game – a swindle – known as the shell game or coconut shell game. A ball or an object is hidden underneath one of three coconut shells as they are quickly shuffled back and forth on a flat surface. The victim is invited to bet money, attempting to correctly choose the shell which conceals the object. In most cases the victim ends up ruefully forking over his money, as he was unable to keep track of the sleight-of-hand.

Israel’s political mosaic has much in common with the coconut shell game. Three basic coconut shells exist – Right, Left and Religious. But again, these three blocs are amazingly fragmented and have shattered into many sub-groups – sometimes due to political worldviews or theology, but often due to personal ambition. Due to the bitter and broken relationships between most party leaders and their rivals in opposing parties, sometimes two parties may agree to ‘work together’ – to hide under one coconut shell, appearing to be a new ‘unity party’ but in fact are anything but that. At one point in Israel’s chequered political history, nearly every political party has entered into marriages of convenience with their sworn enemies. Today’s coalition and opposition also bear testimony to this reality.

Here are three examples: Israel’s most decorated soldier, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak (whose party barely crossed the electoral threshold in recent elections) has been meeting and planning mass civil disturbances as well as organizing mass resistance to military service – all in an effort to take down PM Bibi Netanyahu, his hated opponent. Right wing former Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman is accusing his own Right wing and all religious parties of being wild-eyed crazed zealots, labelling them as ‘Messianists’ (Meshichistim) – with that term being used as an extreme insult. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security in Israel’s present government, was a follower of Rabbi Meir Kahane  (this man was blacklisted as a terrorist by U.S. authorities). He was much involved with the Kach organization in times past, and is now in charge of overseeing and arresting pro-Leftist demonstrators who are regularly blocking Tel Aviv’s freeways and lighting bonfires on its asphalt roads.

Due to a highly successful campaign of disinformation and propaganda, most non-Israelis (and many Israelis as well) are simply unable to tell what object is hiding under what coconut shell. They drink the soup which is being spoon-fed to them by national Main Stream Media, thinking that they fully understand current events in Israel.

When did ‘Messianism’ become a dirty word in Hebrew?

The use of the term ‘Messianist’ has been morphing lately in Israel. A recent anti-government demonstration displayed signs attacking Bibi’s coalition, declaring ‘Atem meshichei hurban’ – ‘You are the Messianists of the Destruction’ (referring to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D.). A screaming front-page headline of October 2, 2018 in Israel’s premier newspaper Yediot Aharonot, quoted politician Avigdor Lieberman declaring that Member of Knesset (MK and later Prime Minister) Naftali Bennett “is a Messianic and zealot Rightist.” Bennett later was PM, presiding over a coalition that included Lieberman. On July 9, 2023 anti-government activists plastered posters all over the residence of MK Ariel Kallner which declared in red and black bold fonts ‘Boosha la-Likud – kan gar Meshichist’ (Shame on the Likud – here lives a Messianist!). A Facebook post by Ehud Barak declares that PM Netanyahu “is being dragged along by a Messianic stream, is standing next to the abyss and is insisting on striding forward!” And two more: a TikTok meme asks a rhetorical question: “Is the Messianist Religious Zionism movement seizing control of Israel?” And a last example: “Government Minister Rafi Peretz, recently a progressive, an IAF pilot and a rabbi, has been recently involved in the Religious Zionism movement – which is in fact a delusional Messianist cult, darkness from Medieval times.”

These selected examples reveal cracks of division and extremist rhetoric and behavior growing among Israeli citizens. Those seeking to overthrow the present government have no qualms about classifying all religious Jews as being dangerous ‘enemies of the people’ and as crazy ‘Messianists.’

McDonald’s and the Second Coming

Sometimes our minds play out certain scenarios: we imagine that when Yeshua returns to set up His Jerusalem-centered kingdom on earth, we will be able to watch the entire event on CNN or FOX, and then go out and grab a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder with Cheese at McDonald’s. We may embrace the sovereign reality of these coming apocalyptic events, but we forget how many changes will be involved as these birth pangs get ushered in.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that God whispers in our pleasure and shouts in our pains; they are his megaphone to raise a deaf world. The Return of Messiah Yeshua will not only be glorious; it will also be dramatic and literally earth-shaking. As Haggai 2:1-9, 21-22 explains, everything created will be shaken, and only that which is unshakeable will remain standing. Hebrews 12:26-27 sums up this dynamic: “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.”

Stuck in the moment

Bono, U2’s famous vocalist, wrote a remorseful song for a friend of his who took his own life. He elegized him, regretting that his friend had gotten “stuck in the moment” and couldn’t get out or break free of the deception in time.

How should we then pray? 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Don’t put a stumbling block in the path of a blind man (Leviticus 19:14)

Then YHVH spoke to Moses, saying:

The God of Jacob tells us that our own godly behavior should be rooted in the example of God’s own character. We follow His commandments because He is holy. We are made in His image (imago dei, as Latin theologians and Renaissance philosophers would describe it) and we want to imitate Him (imitatio dei). This is how God guides our ethical behavior throughout the Bible:

The opposite of reverence for God is cruelty to one’s fellow humans and idolatry. To put a stumbling block in the path of a blind man is a violation of love, kindness and honesty. Such behavior is cruel and malevolent. YHVH describes rudeness to one’s parents as evil. And idolatry – the worship of anything other than YHVH, or the encouraging of others to worship anything other than the God of Jacob – is a foundational violation of God’s holiness, says Moses.

  

 

What is a stone of stumbling?

The Scriptures refer to stumbling stones a number of times. In certain contexts, the words refer to physical impediments or obstacles, like those preventing the exiled Jewish people from returning to the Promised Land: “Go through, go through the gates. Clear a way for the people! Build up, build up the highway. Remove the stones, lift up a flag over the peoples” (Isaiah 62:10-11).

At other times the focus of the phrase is on an individual’s sin and wrongdoing, which can cause other people to stumble (see Psalm 140:4-5):

A third use of the term relates to idolatry – engaging in it (in one’s heart or outwardly) or encouraging others to do so:

The Bible – a history book whose principles have not expired

The Bible was given to the world through the Jewish people (see Romans 3:1-2). Part of this gift came from God’s heart to guide and instruct the nations (see 1 Corinthians 10:11). At the same time, these Scriptures are a totally trustworthy history of the Jewish people, waxing eloquent about God’s heart, calling, strategies and priority for the sons and daughters of Jacob (John 4:22; Romans 9:4-5). And here is a point worth stressing:  the historical principles laid out in the Hebrew Scriptures still chart and shape the destiny of Israel. Seven of these principles – national stumbling stones for the Jewish people in the past, the present and the future – will be considered in this newsletter.

Stumbling stone #1 – Rebellion against the House of David

King David’s grandson Rehoboam watched as his kingdom disintegrated before his very eyes – divine payback for his father Solomon’s sins (see 1 Kings 11). The ten tribes of Israel broke away from his rule, leaving him to reign over the much tinier state of the two tribes of Judah and Simeon.

That rebellion has continued up to our day. David’s Greater Son Messiah Yeshua is still not honored and accepted by the majority of Israel’s leaders and populace. Here is a great intercessory challenge: to pray that the Jewish people repent for rejecting David their king (Hosea 3:5) and Yeshua their Messiah (see Matthew 23:39)

Stumbling stone #2 – Broken cisterns

Back in the days of the kings of Judah, the Scriptures tell us that the kings, the priests and the people mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets (2 Chronicles 36:11-16). The spiritual leaders of the Jewish people found themselves ‘in the dock’ before the God of Jacob, who prophetically accused them of rebellion against the Word of God through establishing false religious traditions:

In His day, Messiah Yeshua confronted the developers of what would become the traditions of rabbinic Judaism, challenging with the same message as Jeremiah had presented (Matthew 23).

Rabbinic Judaism’s foundations and influence continue up to our day, and Messiah Yeshua’s challenge remains as valid today as it was in Second Temple times. Here is another huge intercessory challenge: to pray that the Jewish people and our leaders will repent for rejecting Yeshua ‘the Fountain of living waters’ (see Jeremiah 17:13) and whole-heartedly receive the living waters of the New Covenant (Hebrews 12:24).

Stumbling stone #3 – Wanting to get accepted by the nations

Moses warned the Jewish people that a spiritual temptation would come upon the entire nation in days to come – the desire to be accepted into the pagan world and be part of the superpower ‘Old Boys’ Network.’ This political hunger would lead to an embracing of pagan values and demonic influences:

This same misguided passion was manifested in the days of Saul, when the entire nation was seduced (see Isaiah 57:7-9; 31:1-3; Ezekiel 16 and 23) into the trap of spiritual and political compromise in order to hobnob with top kings, generals and diplomats of that day:

The God of Israel is a good judge of character. When He addresses his people, He reveals their ‘heart secrets’ – their carnal desire to fit in to a rebellious and pagan world: “But you said, ‘It is hopeless! No! For I have loved strangers, and I will walk after them’” (Jeremiah 2:25). God’s perspective on this issue is adamant and dogmatic. Addressing His people, he emphatically declares: “And whatever comes into your mind certainly will not come about, when you say: ‘We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, serving wood and stone’” (Ezekiel 20:32)

Israel’s desire to have a seat at the table with the international power-brokers continues up to our day, even though the majority of those groups look upon the Jewish state with barely concealed antipathy. Superpowers and Arab ‘peace partners’/ ‘potential peace partners’ avoid displays of warmth and friendliness to Israel. Yet the Jewish state keeps bending over backward as it attempts to win the favor of these cold suitors.  Here is another intercessory challenge: to pray that the Jewish people and our leaders will receive clear revelation and strategies regarding the true hearts of our quasi-allies and avowed enemies alike – and will respond according to God’s perspectives, values and strategies.

 

Stumbling stone #4 – Narcissism and materialism

The biblical prophets spoke plainly about the spiritual condition of the daughters of Zion, who focused in ancient days on outer appearance while ignoring godly virtues (see 1 Peter 3:3-5):

Looking into days yet future, Isaiah prophesies that there are some future aspects of the same dynamic which will yet be purified by the God of Jacob:

The God of Isaac warns His people that spiritual temptations come when God pours out material blessings. He cautions His nation that prosperity raises challenges of its own (see Ezekiel 18 & 20):

We are thankful for the blessing of the God of Jacob upon the fledgling Jewish state.  And herein lies another intercessory challenge: to pray that the Jewish people and our leaders will receive spiritual revelation that these material blessings are an unmerited gracious gift from YHVH, and not that our brilliance and hard work have earned us this wealth.

Stumbling stone #5 – Idolatry and uncleanness

The testimony of the Hebrew prophets is painfully clear: the Jewish nation repeatedly abandoned pure worship of YHVH and turned to the demonic and pagan worship of its neighbors (Psalm 106:34-40; 2 Kings 17:9-13; 2 Chronicles 24:18).  God’s strategic response is also clear: YHVH would turn to the Gentiles and offer them access to Israel’s spiritual blessings: “They have made Me jealous with what is not God. They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation” (Deuteronomy 32:21).

The God of Jacob promises that, as He gets ready to re-establish His kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven, He will burn away all idolatry from the Jewish people, as He orchestrated in the days of King Josiah:

This future prophetic process is summed up by Hosea. A Last Days revival will occur, and on that day, Israel will turn, trembling and will bow before her true Messiah:

Our intercessory challenge: to pray for divine revelation for the Jewish people and religious leaders, to recognize unclean spiritual sources and teachings and leaders, to repent individually and nationally for the many facets involved, and to ask YHVH for deep and full cleansing from all physical and spiritual impurity.

Stumbling stone #6 – Division

The civil war and tribal divisions that occurred in the days of King Solomon’s son Rehoboam, still continue in our day. The division between streams of the Jewish people may not be clearly defined tribally in our day, but the prophetic reality of this division is clearly laid out by the Jewish prophets:

On a more positive note, Jeremiah tells us that, in spite of the grievous division, “neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken by his God, YHVH of armies, although their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel” (Jeremiah 51:5).

The divisions will be healed, and the scattered twelve tribes will be restored back to their Promised Land:

Weeping will be involved in the process of return (Jeremiah 50:4), and the New Covenant will be fully established with the nation of Israel: “Behold, days are coming, declares YHVH, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).

In that day all divisions will be healed between the divided tribes of Israel: “Behold, I am going to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions. And I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand” (Ezekiel 37:19).

Our intercessory challenge: these prophecies over the Jewish people are also invitations to us – to ask God to quicken the fulfilment of His promises to the Jewish people, speedily and in our day.

Stumbling stone #7 – Fear

Moses reached far into the future and described the Exile of his precious Jewish people. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he spoke over Israel regarding their sojourn in the diaspora: “In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see” (Deuteronomy 28:67). We are thankful the beginning of the gracious restoration and return to the Land of Israel that we are seeing in our day. We recognize that the enemy of both our souls and our people is not pleased (as per Revelation 12:13): “And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.”

The 20th century has seen much cause for fear among the Jewish people – from Hitler to Stalin and Islamist terror. The citizens of Israel also know something about sirens, rockets, missiles, bombs and assorted terror attacks involving car-rammings, guns and knives.

The words of Proverbs 3:25 and Isaiah 8:10 comfort us here: “Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of the destruction from wicked people when it comes . . .  You all may devise a plan, but it will be overthrown. You may speak of a plan of action, but it will not stand – for God is with us [Immanuel].”

And let us not forget who our God is, as it is written: “A bent reed He will not break off and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (Isaiah 42:3). This is our confidence.

Our intercessory challenge: to ask God to use us and other believers to comfort those Jewish people who are dealing with fear, with the same comfort with which we ourselves are being comforted by God (2 Corinthians 1:4).

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

Making room for the elephant

Israel is the country of prophecy. Its valleys, hills and springs are embossed on every page of the Bible. The Scriptures shine a priority focus on the Jewish people like on no other nation. The God of Jacob weaves the themes of Jacob’s welfare – physical and spiritual – on the loom of redemption history.

In light of Scripture’s divine emphasis on the destiny and restoration of the Jewish people, it is worth paying attention the current news coming out of Israel. Most of the headlines appear to be fraught with negativity and cataclysm. No help here from the Mainstream News Media (MSM), once known as the ‘fourth estate.’ We look for clarity and accuracy, but find instead spin, half-truths and propaganda. But of course, it is worth remembering that the shapers of media narratives are themselves being shaped by shadowy figures who stand hidden behind a digital ‘Wizard of Oz’ curtain. Let’s peer through this fog and ask God to help us discern what He is doing in these troubled times.

The Return to Zion

One of the spiritual hopes of the Jewish people in Exile has revolved around a concept known as ‘Shivat Tziyon’ – the return to Zion from the farthest extremities of the Exile. Moses prophesied about this event more than 3,400 years ago:

The prophet Isaiah reached into the far future and envisioned the Return to Zion:

In David Ben-Gurion’s introduction to the multi-volume View of the Biblical World, he quotes Isaiah 43 to back up his declaration: “Today we can see Isaiah’s prophecy of the ingathering of the exiles taking place before our eyes.” This same vision is reflected in Israel’s Declaration of Independence of May 14, 1948: “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles . . . as envisaged by the prophets of Israel.”

Ben-Gurion adds a postscript to this in 1950: “Because Israel is not like other countries, and there is no instance in history like the revival of the state of Israel – the uniqueness of its revival reflects the uniqueness of its destiny . . .  The entire people carried the hope of the redemption in its heart, and the state is only the beginning of that hope’s fruition. And the Ingathering of the Exiles is the task and the destiny and the mission of the State of Israel. Without this endeavor it is emptied of its historical content and of no significance to the Jewish people in our day, in the generations that preceded us, and in the generations to come.”

Rabbi Yoḥanan bar Nafḥa, writing around 250 A.D., added: “The day of the Ingathering of Exiles is as great as the day on which heaven and earth were created” (Babylonian Talmud; Pesaḥim 88 A).

The reason for the season

The Return to Zion, biblically speaking, only happens after the Exile from Zion – after Israel sins, acts disobediently, rebels against the House of David and is exiled to Assyria and Babylon. The Musaf prayer (recited by religious Jews on Shabbat, festivals and New Moon celebrations) speaks plainly in its public confession: “But because of our sins we have been exiled from our Land and sent far from our soil  . . . Draw our scattered ones near from among the nations, and bring in our dispersions from the ends of the earth. Bring us to Zion Your city in glad song, and to Jerusalem home of Your Sanctuary in eternal joy.”

The history Book of the Jewish people does not mince words: we Jewish people were scattered due to our own sin, and our restoration will be an amazing work based on YHVH’s gracious love – one which we do not deserve:

The Elephant in Zion’s living room

Limor Livnat, former Minister in three Israeli governments, pointed out in 1999 that Ben-Gurion’s vision of a Return to Zion (and that of Israel’s secular Founding Fathers) was seen in socialist terms and not in traditionally religious terms:

There is an old Persian proverb which warns: “Do not invite an elephant trainer into your living room unless you also have room there for an elephant!” Jewish socialists of the 19th and 20th centuries were captivated by an ancient dream – the biblical/prophetic vision of an international Return to Zion by the exiled Jewish people. But their vision was not exactly Isaiah’s, which was Temple centered and covenant based. Instead, it was closer to Theodor Herzl’s 1902 epic novel Altneuland – a European-styled Jewish homeland, a cultural cross-pollination between Vienna, Paris and London. In their wildest dreams, none of the secular founders imagined that their Zionist restoration-enterprise would be peopled by rabbis or run by yeshiva students.

Jerusalem in black-and-white

Yet Jerusalem is becoming more and more an Orthodox/ultra-Orthodox city. A recent May 2022 survey by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics shows a significant increase in Jerusalem’s haredi (ultra-Orthodox) population, with 35% of Jerusalem’s Jewish residents being haredi, and 25% being Orthodox Jews. In contrast, less than one in five residents (18%) are secular Jews. Jews are 61.2% of Jerusalem’s population (590,000) while Arabs are 38.8% (375,000). A January 2023 survey showed national haredi population growth at 4% (13.5% of the national population), while the projection for the haredi community of 2030 is 16% of Israel’s total population.

Ben-Gurion probably never imagined that his Western-styled secular state would morph into an Orthodox/haredi country. Neither did Israel’s secular pioneers – whether kibbutzniks or Holocaust survivors – and their secular progeny. These secular Israelis are struggling with fear, anger and concern.  The prospect of a halachic state – one ruled by rabbinic law – fills many secular Jews with trepidation. Considering that PM Netanyahu’s Likud party has coalition partners, most who long for the establishment of a halachic state – United Torah Judaism, Shas, Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit [Jewish Force], and Noam – it is no wonder that recent Israeli anti-government demonstrations and internet forums hammer away at the perceived threat of ‘the enemy’ – the growing power of Jewish Orthodoxy. To the hi-tech denizens of secular and gleaming Tel Aviv, the black-clothed haredi enclaves of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak appear to be a clear and present danger.

At’chalta d’geula

In 1918 a cutting-edge Orthodox rabbi with a ‘futurist’ bent,  Rabbi Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook began to teach that redeeming the land of Israel through pioneer farming and the establishing of a Jewish state – these activities would hasten the coming of the Messiah and the launching of the Davidic kingdom. He described this movement as at’chalta d’geula (Aramaic for ‘the beginning of redemption’). Here is a quote from a letter he wrote in that year: “At’chalta d’geula is undoubtedly coming about before us, even though this coming-about has not begun this very day, . . . Banishing [us from the Land of Israel], and [then] only from the times that the people of Israel started [again] to shoot forth their branches and yield their fruits to the people of Israel [in their Land], . . . [these days] are at hand to come and only then will this at’chalta begin.”

Rabbi Kook’s teaching helped catalyze the movement now known as Religious Zionism. The Gush Emunim settlers’ movement as well as the Religious Zionist Party both have ideological roots in Rabbi Kook’s teachings. This multi-faceted stream sees political activism as the most productive way to achieve its goals. Though these parties are willing to sit in right-wing coalitions, their vision of Zion has marked differences – both in strategies and in goals.

 Hating and fearing one’s grandparents

An increasing polarization between Israeli Jews has been developing over the past years, but has been quickening on steroids over the past year. Many Israeli Jewish citizens who oppose Bibi had great-grandparents who lived Orthodox lives in Eastern Europe or Morocco. They are finding themselves fearing and hating people who look awfully like their own great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. On the other hand, Likud Coalition-connected conservative, right-wing and more traditionally minded secularists stand aghast as they watch opposition crowds (many who are descended from the original Zionist pioneers) lighting bonfires on Israeli freeways, sparring with police forces, blocking main traffic junctions, and threatening coalition politicians (including the PM and his family) at home or at work – even surrounding them and preventing them from accessing airports, etc. 

The God of Jacob’s Last Days vision is neither secular nor rabbinic. When Messiah Yeshua sits on David’s throne in Jerusalem, all false idols and all broken cisterns (see Jeremiah 2:13) will be swept away; only the shining truth of YHVH will radiate from the Holy City, and the teaching of Yeshua’s New Covenant will flow out to the world.

A handful of my Messianic brothers look forward to the day when rabbinic authority will control the Temple Mount and the people of Israel. They have declared in print that this will be a righteous step in the direction of national Jewish salvation. The facts presented in this newsletter should encourage us to treat such perspectives with necessary caution.

Relocation, relocation, relocation

The political power groups attempting to take down Israel’s present government (see my previous newsletter) have privately (though this has become public knowledge over the past week) developed a strategy to weaken the present coalition diplomatically, economically and socially. This coordinated alignment of major companies, banks, hi-tech owners, MSM oligarchs, educational and medical organizations against the Netanyahu coalition government was demonstrated  a few days ago when all the top major newspapers blacked out their front page on July 25, running an opposition ad declaring that the passage of a Knesset law 64 to 0 was ‘a black day for Israel.’

New waves of screaming headlines daily fan the flames in Israel, declaring that hi-tech and investment companies, medical personnel, internet and digital people are investigating possibilities of relocating out of Israel. Fear seems to be the overwhelming motive – either of rising religious power, or financial and social shakings.  When former PM Ehud Olmert (who makes no secret of his hatred for PM Netanyahu) declares to British TV Channel 4 that “there is a threat. This is a serious threat. It’s never happened before and we are going into a civil war now,” one can understand how such unhelpful declarations could negatively affect some Israeli citizens. Moses’ prophetic curses in Deuteronomy 28:33-37 seem to find a measure of parallelism here.

How should we then pray? 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal) through: www.davidstent.org

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