Pentecost, Messianic foundations and rabbinic Replacement Theology

The Jewish Feast of Shavu’ot is here (Deuteronomy 16:10). The fifty-day period between Pesach/Passover and Shavu’ot is drawing to a close. That period is described in Leviticus 23:16 as the counting of the Omer (a biblical peck measurement). Shavu’ot is the fourth of seven celebrations in YHVH’s divine Feast-calendar (Leviticus 23:2).

Moses calls this holiday the Feast of Reaping/Harvest Festival (Qatzir; Exodus 23:16) and also the Feast of Weeks (Shavu’ot; Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26). This day celebrates the joy of the harvest and our thankfulness to God for the Exodus from Egyptian slavery:

YHVH’s focus in the Books of Moses is threefold:

At Shavu’ot the Bible tells us exactly what God wants us to emphasize in celebrating this holiday – our heartfelt thanksgiving for His harvest blessings

First the barley, then the wheat
 
The Jewish New Year comes fourteen days before Passover, according to the Bible (Exodus 12:1-2). Exodus 9:31 and Ruth 1:22 describe this season as the time of the barley harvest. The Book of Ruth is thus connected to Passover time, not to Shavu’ot.

 
The maturing of the next crop in Israel’s fields comes approximately fifty days after Passover, and it is the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:9-12). Shavu’ot thus celebrates the wheat harvest, as these above passages explain. Fifty days separate these two bountiful harvests.

Jewish pilgrims and exiles

Shavu’ot is considered one of the three Pilgrim feasts (Passover, Shavu’ot, Tabernacles), when all Jewish men are commanded to make their way to Jerusalem and worship before YHVH (Exodus 23:14). It is part of the shalosh regalim – Hebrew for ‘three times’ – in Exodus 23:3 and Numbers 22:28. Paul the Apostle’s personal calendar was marked as wanting to come up to Jerusalem in time to celebrate the Day of Shavu’ot (Acts 20:16). He expressed his apostolic faith in some very Jewish ways (Acts 21:24; 28:17).

Pentecost – the Greek name used by Jews in the Exile

Two millennia ago, the Greek-speaking Jews of the Western Diaspora used the words ἑβδομάς (hebdomas - ‘of seven’) or Pentēkostē (πεντηκοστή) to describe holidays revolving around ‘fifty.’ The Greek word Pentecost eventually became more famous that the Hebrew Shavu’ot, though of course both refer to the original Hebrew holiday in the Jewish Bible.

God’s dates

Moses gives us the exact days of:

But YHVH does not give an exact calendar date when to celebrate Shavu’ot.

The closest we get is Leviticus 23: “You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering. There shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath. Then you shall present a new grain offering to YHVH” (Leviticus 23:15-16).

Moses explains that the 50 day counting of the Omer (which ends on the day when Shavu’ot is celebrated) begins on “the day after the sabbath” – meaning the day after the first Sabbath day which occurs after the first night of Passover. The Karaite movement in medieval Judaism follows this exegetical meaning of Leviticus 23:16. But the rabbinic stream takes a different approach, defining this ‘sabbath’ as the day after the first night of Passover. Interestingly, the biblical text does not use the word ‘sabbath’ here or anywhere else to describe Passover or the day after the first night of Passover.

So based on Moses’ instructions, the biblical celebration of the day of Shavu’ot/Pentecost will vary from year to year (depending on what day of the week Passover occurs). The exact day is fluid, and reflects changes in the yearly lunar-based calendar. Rabbinic tradition has chosen to lock down the celebration of Shavu’ot to a specific calendar date every year, and it is the rabbinic traditional date that nearly all Jews celebrate today.

Forty days of ministry and ten days of ‘tarrying’

In Acts 1:3 Messiah Yeshua ascended to heaven 40 days after the crucifixion: “He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Ten days later (50 days on), “when the day of Shavu’ot had come, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1). The Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) came upon the gathered Messianic Jews all of a sudden and with great power: “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues” (Acts 2:2-4).

This supernatural visitation let to a huge Messianic harvest of salvation: “Therefore let all the House of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Messiah – this Yeshua!” (Acts 2:36). Simon Peter’s message was bold and evangelistic and spoken to all the Jewish men gathered for the Feast of Shavu’ot: “Repent, and each of you be immersed in the name of Messiah Yeshua for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”  ‘And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying: “Be saved from this perverse generation!”  So then, those who had received his word were immersed. And that day there were added about three thousand souls’ (Acts 2:38-41).

The Jewish men who embraced Yeshua on Shavu’ot were all followers of the Mosaic covenant. Indeed, nearly all Jews in those days lived a Mosaic lifestyle. “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Teaching” (ed. of the Mosaic covenant; see the context of Acts 21:20).

On the day of Acts 2 they were powerfully inaugurated into what Messiah Yeshua called ‘the New Covenant’ in Luke 22:20. In the words of Jeremiah, this New Covenant would be different from the Mosaic covenant:  it would not be “like the covenant which I made with their fathers in 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, says YHVH” (Jeremiah 31:32).

Peter declared (Acts 2:16-21) that these amazing manifestations were a reflection of Joel’s Last Days prophecies (Joel 2:28-32). Earthquakes, world-shaking signs and the outpouring of the Ruach Hakodesh would characterize these Days. In the same way, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Jewish believers in Acts 2 was a down payment, a promise that all these events will one day come to pass, and that all the Jewish people would one day be filled with the Spirit of YHVH.

Sleight of hand: sidestepping the New Covenant

My dear friend (who is now with the Lord) Dr. Louis Goldberg (former Professor of Jewish Studies at Moody Bible Institute) often taught that the rabbis who rejected Yeshua’s Messiahship and atonement fashioned a non-biblical connection between Shavu’ot and the giving of the Mosaic covenant on Mount Sinai. This attempt to tie in Shavu’ot to the Mosaic Covenant was not based on any clear biblical information. Instead, it came from the theological desire to shift focus away from the amazing events of Acts 2 – the inauguration of the New Covenant.

Rabbinic Judaism refused to accept the Acts 2 connection with Shavu’ot, since that would involve validating the inauguration of the New Covenant. This would accept Gentile inclusion into the commonwealth of Israel through faith in Yeshua alone (see Ephesians 2:11-22). Instead, rabbinic Judaism tried to create ‘new facts on the ground’ – which were in fact ‘fake news.’ They created a new narrative – the Mosaic covenant was given to Israel on Shavu’ot. Rather than accepting Gentile salvation as coming about through faith in the Jewish Messiah Yeshua, rabbinic commentators now made the Book of Ruth do double duty: Ruth herself would now be presented as a convert to rabbinic Judaism, and Shavu’ot would be highlighted as the day of the Giving of the Sinai Covenant.

What if the Gentiles take over the neighborhood?

This business of allowing Gentiles to have access to Jewish blessings and to have equal fellowship with the God of Israel alongside of Jews – this was shocking to the majority of Pharisees as well as to the other streams of Judaism. Most Jewish religious leaders feared that this new upstart Messianic movement, by allowing Gentiles in, would overwhelm rabbinic Judaism’s role as watchman on the Mosaic walls.
 
Whereas Messianic Jews such as Paul declared that Gentile followers of Yeshua could now be fellow heirs of the same Messianic body and fellow-citizens with the Jewish saints (Ephesian 2:19-3:6), the rabbis countered with a new paradigm – that the hero of Shavu’ot would now become a heroine. Ruth was about to be elevated as the poster child for Gentile conversion to rabbinic Judaism. Her Passover barley harvest story was morphed into a re-formed Shavu’ot harvest narrative.

The rabbis who used to fellowship with Paul before his Damascus Road experience had other even more serious objections to apostolic Messianic teachings. Though Paul did live a Mosaic life (see Acts 28:17) as did all Messianic Jews at that time (see Acts 2:20-25), Paul taught that one of the main purposes of the Mosaic covenant teachings (the word ‘Torah’ in Hebrew means ‘teaching’) was to lead the Jewish people to the New Covenant through Messiah Yeshua. Paul adds that, when the Jewish people come to Messiah Yeshua, they are no longer under the guardianship of the Mosaic covenant. Paul uses the Greek term παιδvαγωγός (paidagogos), which referred to a bodyguard who would take the child from his home through the rough Greek streets, protecting him and bringing him safely to the Greek school. Paul calls the Mosaic covenant a paidagogos (loosely translated as ‘a tutor’):
 
Why the Torah then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the Seed would come to whom the promise had been made . . . But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the Torah, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the Torah has become our tutor to lead us to Messiah, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:19, 23-25).
 
The Rabbis understood that Paul was interpreting the Hebrew of Jeremiah 31:31-34 as meaning that the new covenant was “not like” the Mosaic covenant. Their counter-reaction? It involved closing down open discussion of Jeremiah 31, while insisting that Jeremiah must have only meant ‘a renewed covenant.’ But this rabbinic decision involved violating the clear Hebrew meaning of Jeremiah 31:32, “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt.” Jeremiah clearly prophesied two things:

Dating the Giving of the Mosaic Covenant

Here are the biblical dates given for the period between the first Passover and the giving of the Ten Commandments:

This biblical time line reveals that it’s inaccurate to state that Shavu’ot and the Giving of the Two Tablets happened on the same day or even in the same month.

The Scriptures do not give an exact date for the Giving of the Mosaic Covenant. The event happened, but the Bible does not specify when (Exodus 19:1, 16; 24:4, 16; 34:28; 40:17). It’s a little like Christmas: the reason December 24/25 was chosen has nothing to do with specific dates in the Gospel records, and everything to do with freshly baptized Roman and Constantine traditions. People hunger for dates and, when the Bible is silent about such things, folks tend to choose dates anyway – ‘everyone does what’s right in his own eyes’ (see Judges 21:25).

The Bible is silent in all these passages about a date for the Giving of the Mosaic Covenant, or about any connection between the Feast of Shavu’ot and the Giving of the Mosaic Torah.

Religious Jews are taught that Shavu’ot is the date of Matan Torah (the giving of the Sinai Covenant), and the story of Ruth the famous Moabite woman who ‘converted to rabbinic Judaism’ receives strong attention. It may come as a surprise for some to find out that the Bible’s take on these events is rather different.

 Let us rejoice in the great Harvest Feast of Shavu’ot as we thank God for His coming rains and look forward to the mighty harvest of the nations – when Israel will bring much greater riches to the nations and life from the dead to the entire world! (Romans 11:12, 15)

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

Telling the truth in the Days of Noah

 

The grass is browner on the other side

 Sometimes we read in Bible about the sins of days gone by, and say to ourselves, “This could never happen in our day! It’s only describing ancient times. We are not primitives like those people. Their grass was parched and brown, but our spiritual grass is green!”

Messiah’s Last Days description of the world’s spiritual condition immediately preceding His return to Jerusalem gives pause for thought:

The Scriptures speak plainly of days ahead and the spiritual dynamics facing all who live at that time.

King David asks – How many of earth’s inhabitants do good?

This is the reason why David cries out, “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults!” (Psalm 19:12). Isaiah mournfully echoes the same lament regarding the spiritual condition of many of his people: “For they are not a people of discernment” (Isaiah 27:11). Human history – and that includes Jewish history – shows that the flocks of humanity’s tribes are flecked with sin and self-deception. The testimony of the Jewish prophets does not shrink from speaking the truth, even when it hurts:

Messiah Yeshua brings this point home as He interacts with some Jewish leaders who had come to listen to His teachings:

Our beloved teacher Moses shares a heartbroken word of pastoral caution with us: “Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived” (Deuteronomy 11:16). And Obadiah 1:3 adds, “The arrogance of your heart has deceived you.”

Self-deception and spiritual corruption are a universal problem – they affect both Jews and Gentiles:

This was the condition of mankind in the days of Noah and David, in the days of Isaiah and Messiah Yeshua. It is also the condition of humanity in our day. We stand under the shadow of a similar destiny as did Noah’s relatives and friends.

The spiritual dimension

 Corruption, rebellion against God’s character and His ways – all have spiritual roots:

Mankind is struggling against the blowback of Adam and Eve’s sin. Death, lies, sickness, moral corruption and perversion – these have all been loosed on God’s originally perfect planet. These viruses have infected the hearts and souls of all flesh. They have touched kings and queens; prime ministers and politicians; coalitions and oppositions; capitalists and communists; billionaires and paupers; security forces and criminals; medical professionals and patients.

The Fourth dimension

Sin has also touched the media, known as ‘the press’ or ‘the Fourth Estate’ – specifically in its capacity to advocate, to frame and to influence political issues and understandings.

There was time in the Western world when TV news commentator Walter Cronkite was known as “the gold standard of journalism.” In those halcyon days, most American citizens trusted their government, their President, their police and their newspaper and television news. The past ten years has seen a precipitous drop in media credibility, much of it bi-partisan. Media ‘spins’ and portrayals of current events (e.g., BLM,  the mollycoddling of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, earthshaking social tremors in matters of gender, etc.) have left many confused and concerned. Those who hold to a Bible-based or Scripture-influenced worldview often are in shock, trying to read between the lines as they watch TV news or read the paper. How are we to really know what is happening and what it all means?

The words of Messiah Yeshua have peculiar resonance for us now: “And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold” (Matthew 24:12). In Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming, he references “masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition – but the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency . . .” The world is becoming deeply disillusioned with their secular prophets, whose less-and-less believable pronouncements are covered with just the faintest veneer of righteousness. As Yeshua said in Matthew 23:27, these pundits “are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

‘1984’ is approaching

 The growing realization that many politicians, governmental leaders, security and intelligence forces, medical professionals and corporate autocrats are not to be automatically trusted (or even trusted at all), is shaping a reality which seems prophetically close to George Orwell’s dystopic vision in ‘1984.’ The following quotes are prescient in their sharpness:

The word, the Spirit and boot camp

 As an increasing amount of people feel the pillars of society shaking, they are beginning to ask the same question that Paul Simon voiced in ‘You can call me Al:’ “Who’ll be my role model, now that my role model is gone?”

For those who accept the revelation of Messiah Yeshua in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, there are some tried and true guidelines for us here.

Guideline #1 – Knowing the word and how to use it:

Guideline #2 – Drawing closer to the Holy Spirit in intimacy:

Guideline #3 – Going through a ‘boot-camp’ of training in continuing personal discipleship with the Lord:

Watching the foolish become wise

 We are all called to learn to trust God, His ways and His word in increasing measure. Though that may mean choosing a path which is mocked by the world, a path that is rejected by worldly authorities and powers, there is a blessed reward: “Take care that no one deceives himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God. For it is written: ‘He is the One who catches the wise by their craftiness’ and again, ‘YHVH knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are useless.’ So then, no one is to be boasting in people” (1 Corinthians 3:18-21).

When it seems nearly impossible to make sense of what secular ‘prophets’ are declaring in the media, then it has come time to press in to God, His word and His Spirit to receive burning answers directly from the Throne of Heaven!

How should we then pray?

Would you pray for the nation of Israel at this moment in time?

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

“And you are not to fear what they fear” (Isaiah 8:12)

It has been said, “Two Jews, three opinions!” Our Hebrew nation has a long recorded history of theological debate, especially regarding rabbinic law and related discussions. In the Talmud (the rabbinic commentary on the Bible, codified between 400-500 A.D.) multiple perspectives and differences of opinion are recorded regarding each and every issue discussed. This rhetorical methodology eventually has become part of Jewish thought – hence the above proverb. 

An apocryphal tale recounts how one yeshiva student advised his younger brother (who was entering his freshman Talmud class), “If you find yourself not paying attention in class and the teacher calls on you for an answer, just say that the issue is a machloket (Hebrew for ‘a matter of dispute’). You will nearly always be right.”

Messianic Jews are made of the same flesh and blood as the rest of our Jewish brothers. We too have areas of dispute and disagreement. But one thing distinguishes us from our rabbinic fellow Jews – our ultimate source of authority. Whereas in rabbinic Judaism differing opinions often co-exist (sometimes uneasily), most Messianic Jews agree that our perspectives need to honestly reflect and accurately represent the exegetically based truths that the Bible teaches: “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).

Regrettably, some teachings coming out of the Messianic Jewish community do not always accurately reflect Biblical truth. Not every dynamic ‘prophetic revelation’ coming from Messianic spokesmen responsibly represents the word of God. This newsletter considers a handful of relevant examples which show us the need to exercise greater discernment in these areas. “Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything. Hold firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22).

 Identity – Jewish, rabbinic or Gentile?

 In Ephesians 2:11-11 (KJV) the Apostle Paul tells us about the incredible gift of Messiah Yeshua’s Good News: both Jews and Gentiles can enter as fully equal co-citizens into the one Jewish commonwealth through repentance and faith. When they become part of the body of Messiah, men are not transformed into women, and women do not become men. Jews do not turn into Gentiles, and Gentiles do not become Jews. The rich do not become poor, and poor do not suddenly become rich. We become born-again Jews, born-again Gentiles, born-again men and born-again women. We become co-equals, co-citizens – yet with continuing God-breathed callings: Jews remain Jews, Gentiles remain Gentiles, etc.

The bedrock message of the Gospel is that Jews and Gentiles enter into one spiritual body without going through any kind of ‘trans’ process. Gentiles do not need to convert to rabbinic Judaism and, in any event, cannot become Jews.

According to the Bible, Jews are defined as the patrilineal descendants (‘the seed’) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:

There is a teaching among some streams in the Messianic Jewish movement that advocates Gentiles converting to rabbinic Judaism if they want to be an integral part of Messianic Jewish congregations. This false teaching is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of apostolic teaching, and muddies the clean waters of the gospel. “Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me Your Teaching” (Psalm 119:29).

Is all Jewish teaching kosher?

There are some streams in the Messianic Jewish movement which advocate for an abiding authority to be ascribed to rabbinic teachings. They convey the impression that rabbinic perspectives are more authentic, more Jewish and more authoritative that those of Jews and Gentiles who follow Messiah Yeshua and the New Covenant scriptures. This is not the place to explain in great detail why this perspective is askew. For more information see https://davidstent.org/product/how-to-be-messianic-without-becoming-meshuggeh/ for greater detail on these matters.

Often these rabbinic advocates quote Yeshua’s words: “Then Yeshua spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, whatever they tell you, do and comply with it all” (Matthew 23:1-3). But they sidestep Yeshua’s conclusion in the verses immediately following regarding the glaring spiritual problem of many of these self-appointed teachers:

Yeshua explains to us in His Great Messianic Commission that dependable teachers not only teach the principles of the kingdom; they also disciple believers how to follow these principles. They not only teach the truth; they do the truth.

When a teacher of the Bible says one thing from the podium, and does the exact opposite in his private life, he is deceived. He is not worth following:

Kosher Messianic leaders do not encourage their followers to ‘kiss the rabbinic ring,’ or to honor those aspects of Jewish tradition that run roughshod over the Hebrew Scriptures. There are some wonderful nuggets to be found in rabbinic writings, but there are also other tidbits which can bring spiritual shipwreck and malady.

Messiah Yeshua’s sober words are worthy of our consideration:

Two recent examples of such spiritual blindness can be seen in the use of rabbinic liturgy without the necessary discernment and sifting, and in the support by some Evangelicals in efforts to rebuild the Third Temple and raise red heifers for rabbinic sacrifice.

Jewish spiritual identity– based on Mosaic Covenant-rabbinics or the New Covenant?

 A measure of confusion exists in some areas of the Messianic Jewish movement regarding how to relate to the Mosaic covenant. Since Orthodox (and even secular) Jews view Mosaic observance (as interpreted by rabbinic teaching) as the touchstone of Jewish identity, some Messianic Jews struggle with trying to sidestep rejection by the Jewish community through touting Mosaic-rabbinic ‘observance credentials.’ There is a studious avoidance in some circles of declaring that we Messianic Jews are followers of the New Covenant. Instead, some of us declare that the New Covenant is simply a ‘renewed Mosaic covenant.’ This sidestepping finds its origins in rabbinic attempts to avoid the clear declaration of Jeremiah 31:31-32:

The apostolic declaration is more than clear on this matter:

The disciple whom Yeshua loved (see John 13:22-24) cautions us here: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols!” (1 John 5:21)

Does prophecy describing the Jewish people find its most prophetic fulfilment in non-Jewish events?

The past 14 years have seen the rise and rapid spread of a few teachings which take Hebrew prophecies concerning the Jewish people, and apply them as really referring to various international events among the nations. There is no question that certain biblical principles can be applied to various and sundry nations in a secondary sense – without robbing those prophecies of their God-breathed and God-intended priority relevance to the sons and daughters of Jacob. Regrettably, some of these ‘new prophetic teachings’ replace the Jewish people and insert other events as the prophetic culmination of Hebrew Last Days oracles.

Two examples of this new form of Replacement Theology: [1] teaching which states that Isaiah prophesies about the events of September 11, 2001; [2] teachings misinterpreting Isaiah 19 in order to create a distorted and unbiblical Last Days theology regarding a supposed mediatorial role of Egypt and the non-Abrahamic Islamic world in Israel’s salvation and protection.

Isaiah’s prophecies regarding Israel can be spiritually applied in a secondary and pastoral sense to other nations, but that is not the main thrust of those prophecies. Isaiah 19 does refer to a Last Days role for Egypt, but that passage is quite sobering in its future rebuke of Egypt and of prophesied coming judgments on that nation – and not only of some wonderful End Time blessings after those shakings are past.

Gathering inaccurate usages of the word of God under the umbrella of ‘Messianic Jewish revelation’ or ‘Middle Eastern revelation’ does little to straighten that which is crooked. “What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). God wants us to accurately handle His word.  

Messianic Jewish fears

 The Psalmist declares: “YHVH is for me; I will not fear! What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6). Yet Saul of Tarsus once confessed that he had “conflicts on the outside, fears inside” (2 Corinthians 7:5). The past few years have seen a dynamic across the globe of “people fainting from fear” (Luke 21:26). The people and State of Israel (now celebrating our 75th birthday as a sovereign nation) are no exception.

The past four months have seen well-funded and superbly organized demonstrations against the government. The majority of the spokespeople at these rallies are leaders of the political parties which have recently lost the latest round of elections. Their message (which stays on target throughout) is consistent: Israel is in mortal danger from the man who has been Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister and who has garnered the clearest electoral majority in many years.  The slogans being used to instill fear into the hearts of Israelis include the charges that this government is a threat to democracy; that it is fascist; that it wants to set up an anti-democratic dictatorship; and that those religious parties supporting PM Netanyahu are going all out to establish a rabbinic-halachic dictatorship similar to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Interestingly, these talking points are the same ones as Israel’s long-hemorrhaging left-wing parties have espoused over the past thirty years.

It is helpful to focus on the last of these abovementioned points ever so briefly. Israeli talking heads in the media and at recent demonstrations express the most fear about a rabbinic (or halachic) take-over of the Jewish state. And certainly, there are those parties in the present coalition who would like to ram through laws establishing a rabbinic theocracy. This could entail suppression of Conservative, Reform and Messianic Jewish expressions of faith; limitations on women’s rights in the marketplace and in social settings; a creeping enforcement of religious adherence on Israel’s Jewish citizens, etc.

At the same time, it should be understood that the majority of religious Jews in the country would not support such drastic steps, preferring a ‘live-and-let-live’ approach of mutual toleration. To draw a parallel to the American social experiment, most Evangelicals would not want to enforce Christian behavior on secular Americans, though they would advocate for the limiting or banning of abortion (which is considered  to be infanticide by biblical standards). Most Israelis (80% approximately) are not religious, yet their grandparents and great-grandparents certainly were. There is a tenderness among many Israelis toward moderated expressions of Judaism, of the holidays, of Jewish music, thought and philosophy. Those are user-friendly aspects of Judaism that much of Israel appreciates or at least tolerates.

But the stridently vocal shouts of thuggish voices (some of which are fringe members of Bibi Netanyahu’s present coalition) have seeded the soil of the Holy Land with fears. And much of the reaction of the demonstrators is based on such fears, and they express these fears openly and even with attenuated hatred. Many Orthodox Jews who see this rising secular hostility feel like hunkering down and pressing forward in defense of their way of life and their legal protections and advocacy.

How do Messianic Jews (and some Messianic Gentiles) fit in? Many Messianic Jews have suffered in the past (and not too distant past) from organized anti-Messianic groups which often have under-the-table government support. This has been the case since the 1950’s. Some have been denied civil rights; have experienced job discrimination and firing; have been picketed and had posters slapped up around their homes; have seen their congregations attacked, even with chief rabbis leading the charge; have had their marriage certificates refused, their passports withheld, their foreign spouses refused recognized immigration status, their meeting facilities cancelled, etc. More than all other Jewish Israelis, Messianic Jews in Israel have experienced such intolerance and persecution on our own flesh, from those who are also our own flesh and blood. So it is understandable why some Messianic Jews would side with the propagandistic narrative being foisted on an unsuspecting public by a media apparatus adversarially opposed to the present government in all of its permutations.

Yet the present divide and fostering of hatred from opposition-based political and corporate forces in Israel is regrettably influencing some local Messianic Jews, including some leaders as well. There is a groundswell knee-jerk reaction of “rally ‘round the flag, boys!” which can be seen in the writings of various Messianic leaders. Religious and Orthodox Jews are being ‘tarred and feathered’ and described as a threat to Israeli democracy. The right wing of Israeli politics (the electoral majority) are being typecast as fascists and supporters of dictatorship, as destroyers and troublers of Israel (see 1 Kings 18:17-18).

Some Messianic Jews are coming out to join demonstrators who are cursing the government and its leaders, calling for civil disobedience and even refusal of military service in defense of beleaguered Israel. It seems that some have forgotten the scriptural admonitions here:

How should we then pray?

Would you pray for the nation of Israel at this moment in time?

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

Passover flames

Passover is known as both the Feast of Freedom and the Festival of Redemption, and it is the most intimate family celebration of the Jewish calendar year. I remember how my Kievan Jewish grandmother Rivka prepared for Passover delicacies for us: concord grape wine prepared weeks in advance; gefilte fish and matzah ball soup; tzimmes (glazed carrots with honey and raisins); beef brisket with prunes. The memories are perhaps even sweeter than the food.

Today the majority of Jews who keep the Passover are celebrating it in the Exile, as Moses prophesied even before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land:

We sons and daughters of Jacob are in the middle of process – we are coming out of Exile and returning to our Land. But the majority of us still feel overly comfortable in the lands of our scattering – the Diaspora. Here is a tale of an unusually bittersweet Passover – a night to remember.

 Preparation

On April 18, 1943 the eve of the Nazi aktion, the SS and Police chief in Warsaw, Obergruppenführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg was replaced by SS and Police Leader (SS- und Polizeiführer) Jürgen Stroop. Stroop had extensive experience in partisan warfare and had artillery and tanks at his disposal, as well as approximately 2,000 soldiers and police. These forces surrounded the Warsaw Ghetto on the night of April 18. April 19 would be the first night of Passover, and April 20 would be Adolf Hitler’s 54th birthday. “No one was sleeping in the ghetto that night. Everybody spent the time packing the most necessary articles, linen, bedding, food and taking it down to the bunkers. The moon was full and the night was unusually bright. There was more movement in the courtyards and streets than by day” (Tuvia Borzykowski, Between Tumbling Walls, p.48).

Around midnight, the two Jewish underground guerilla organizations – Żydowski Związek Wojskowy (The Jewish Military Union) and Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (The Jewish Combat Organization) – fanned out throughout the ghetto, banging on gates and doors, raising the alarm. By 0200, all Jewish fighters (only several hundred) were in position and waiting. Outside the ghetto were the sounds of the revving of trucks and tanks, and the marching of infantry. On that day the Jewish population of the Warsaw ghetto population was approximately 45-50,000.

A Jewish resistance fighter recalled the morning of that final battle: “Monday, April 19, was the day before Passover, and the first day of Spring. Sunshine penetrated even to the cheerless corners of the ghetto, but with the last trace of winter the last hope of the Jews had also disappeared. Those who had remained at their battle stations all night were annoyed by the beauty of the day, for it is hard to accept death in the sunshine of Spring.”

Alexander Donat, another ghetto fighter, felt a sense of Jewish destiny unfolding before his eyes: “Suddenly I felt beyond life and death. I felt sure we were going to die; but I felt a part of the stream of Jewish history. We were part of an ancient and unending stream of immortal tradition that went back to Titus and his Roman legions ravishing Jerusalem, to persecution in Spain under Isabella and Ferdinand, to Khmelnitsky massacres, and to more recent pogroms and massacres.”

Shoshana Baharir, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, testified about that foreboding April 19:  “It was Passover eve, 1943, and we had arranged everything in the house in preparation for the holiday. We even had matzot (unleavened bread), everything. We had made the beds . . .  The policeman who lived with us always told us everything that was going to happen . . . He told us, ‘You should know that the ghetto is surrounded – with Ukrainians. Tonight will not be a good night.’ He had heard this. We took all our belongings and went into the bunker. Why wait? . . . So we took what we still had at home, whatever food we had, everything, and went down into the bunker. And waited.”

Invasion of the ghetto

 Simha Kazik, a ghetto fighter, explained: “On April 19, at four in the morning, we saw German soldiers crossing the Nalewki intersection on their way to the Central Ghetto, walking in an endless procession.” Their orders were to arrest and deport ghetto Jews who did not possess officially required permits. “Behind them were tanks, armored vehicles, light cannons, and hundreds of Waffen-SS units on motorcycles. ‘They look like they're going to war,’ I said to Zippora, my companion at the post. Suddenly I felt how very weak we were. What force did we have against an army, against tanks and armored vehicles? We had nothing but pistols and grenades. I didn’t get depressed. Finally, the time came to settle accounts with them.”

At 0600 the first German detachment crossed into the ghetto. Jewish ghetto fighters concealed in neighboring buildings opened fire with sub-machine guns, grenades, and small homemade bombs. Several Nazi soldiers were killed or wounded. A second, larger battle took place later that morning at the intersection of Gęsia, Nalewski, Miła and Zamenhofa streets. The Nazis were surrounded on all four sides and suffered extensive casualties. Two German tanks were set on fire with Molotov cocktails. A strategic retreat was in order as Nazi forces prepared for a period of intensified urban combat.

Here are three stories of Jews who experienced and survived this ‘Passover amidst the flames.’

Keeping traditions alive

Roma Frey was 24 years old that Passover, recalling how she and her family tried their best to make their basement as nice as possible for the holiday, “We tried to put the candles on the table, and a white table cloth . . . The table was made of a wooden board resting on a few things underneath . . . We acknowledged to ourselves and to God that we want to keep the traditions. That’s what we felt in our hearts, we remembered our grandfathers, the hard times, slavery and our slavery, and here we have hardly a hope to survive even just one day or night.”

He never missed a Seder

Itzchak Milchberg was 12 years old in April 1943. He had watched while his father was shot. His mother and two sisters had been deported, most probably to Treblinka. His uncle Feivel remained inside the Warsaw Ghetto. Itzchak passed as a German, selling contraband cigarettes outside of the ghetto walls. But he returned to the ghetto to be with his uncle for Passover. “I had never missed a Seder.”

With bullets ricocheting around him, he ducked into his uncle’s candle-lit bunker. Sixty people were crowded into that tiny space. “The building was shaking,” he said, “People were crying.” His uncle Feivel embraced him in Yiddish, “Ir vet firn di seder mit mir - You’ll perform the Seder with me.” Some people cried out, “God led us out of Egypt. Nobody killed us. But here, they are murdering us!” Uncle Feivel whispered into his nephew’s ear: “You may die, but if you die, you’ll die as a Jew. If we live, we live as Jews. If you live, you’ll tell your children and grandchildren about this.”

The Seder began but there were no bitter herbs, “There was plenty of bitterness already,” Itzchak said. He and his uncle recited the Haggadah from memory. “We did most of the prayers by heart,” he recounted. “The Seder went very, very late.”

Itzchak snuck out of the ghetto before dawn through the sewer system. For a week he smuggled arms through those sewers to the Jewish fighters, until he was caught on the sixth day of the Uprising. He was placed on a train deporting him to Treblinka extermination camp, but jumped off on the way. He survived the Holocaust thanks to a Catholic family in Warsaw. After the war he moved to Canada, raised a family of his own and fulfilled his uncle’s charge to tell his children and grandchildren about that 1943 Seder night – Passover in the flames.

The Last Passover

That first day of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising blended into the first evening of Passover. All across the ghetto, Jews in their cramped hiding places remembered the Exodus from Egypt with whatever meager provisions were available. Matzot were baked with coarse dark flour. Warsaw’s Jews were determined to celebrate the feast as had been done since the days of Moses.

One ghetto fighter whose mind was totally not focused on Passover but on the Nazi incursion was Tuvia Borzykowski. He had been searching an apartment looking for supplies, and that basement flat happened to be the home of 60-year-old Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchak Meisels. Meisels had left Łódź, his hometown, along with some followers after the Nazi invasion, hoping that Warsaw would be a safer location. Meisels’ flat was littered with shattered glass and broken furniture. In the middle of this chaotic scene stood a table set for Passover. So Borzykowski sat down to celebrate Passover with the rabbi against the background of a ferocious battle which they all knew they were destined to lose.

Borzykowski, a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization, described that Seder: “Amidst this destruction, the table in the center of the room looked incongruous with glasses filled with wine, with the family seated around, the rabbi reading the Hagaddah. His reading was punctuated by explosions and the rattling of machine-guns. The faces of the family around the table were lit by the red light from the burning buildings nearby” (Tuvia Borzykowski, the Yiddish book ‘Tzvishn Falendikeh Vent’ [Between Collapsing Walls], p.48).  Borzykowski survived the war and later helped found Kibbutz Lochamei Hageta’ot (Ghetto Fighters Kibbutz) north of Akko and Haifa.

Another witness to this Seder was Zivia Lubetkin, a ghetto fighter. She gave testimony at the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem about this Passover: “I also remember that on the second day - it was the Passover Seder - in one of the bunkers by chance I came across Rabbi Meisels . . . This time, when I entered the bunker, this Jew, Rabbi Meisels, interrupted the Seder, placed his hand on my head and said: ‘May you be blessed. Now it is good for me to die. Would that we had done this earlier [ed. joined the uprising]!’”

God can deliver from the fire

 The prophet Daniel proclaims that YHVH the God of Israel can deliver His people from the fire. But even if He does not deliver them, they will still remain faithful to Him:

In the case of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, the God of Israel miraculously delivered them from the fire:

A day of shaking is yet coming on the whole world, and the Jewish people will not be exempted from it. A promise remains that Jacob’s children will be saved out of that day of distress and that, after it passes, King David will be raised from the dead, and will reign over the entire world from Jerusalem under the blessed oversight of his Greater Son Messiah Yeshua.

As we celebrate this Passover, let’s remember the mighty works of YHVH, and that He will purify and rescue His people from all their enemies – even as He did in ancient days in Pharaoh’s Egypt.

The one constant

 One of the most beloved Passover songs sung at the Seder is “V’hi sheh’amda,” extolling the God of Jacob for His protective promises in the Abrahamic Covenant:

Though one third of Jacob’s children were cruelly murdered in the Nazi Sho’ah, the Lord God of Israel preserved the rest of His Jewish people and opened the gates of return for their homecoming to the Promised Land. God’s promise to curse those who dishonor and attempt to destroy His Jewish people abides today as well. And it stands firm in the face of those modern troublers of Zion who have risen up to destroy the children of Jacob in our day.

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

In a wilderness of mirrors

The English author T.S. Eliot once wrote: “In a wilderness of mirrors what will the spider do?” Should he attack what seems to be an incoming threat, or is that threat only a mirrored reflection of himself? James Jesus Angleton (CIA chief of counterintelligence from 1954 to 1975) liked Eliot’s term ‘wilderness of mirrors’ and used it to describe the “myriad of stratagems, deceptions, artifices, and all the other devices of disinformation which the Soviet bloc and its coordinated intelligence services use to confuse and split the West … an ever fluid landscape where fact and illusion merge.” At the end of his life Angleton, having somewhat lost contact with reality, succumbed to paranoia regarding the issue of Soviet double-agent penetration of Western intelligence agencies. He had become a prisoner of his own ‘wilderness of mirrors.’

The term ‘a roomful of mirrors’ describes a confusing or disorienting situation in which it is difficult to distinguish between truth and illusion, between competing versions of reality. Some lovers of Israel are today faced with this dynamic as they watch the news and attempt to read between the lines, separating the wheat from the chaff. One well-respected Jewish author insists that the past week has been “one of the greatest weeks in Jewish history,” while one evangelical Christian commentator based in Israel states that this is an ‘unprecedented crisis worse than anything [he’s] ever seen.” What is actually going on in Israel at this moment? What facts are available? What do those facts mean? Are trends developing? What will be the likely results? In short, what can be discerned here?

This newsletter is the third of three newsletters dealing with this developing issue. The previous two form a foundational background to what is being discussed here.

 

 Truth or consequences

“The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17). This biblical principle stresses the need for care, patience, accuracy and due diligence when weighing matters. Those who lean to one side of the political spectrum tend to see events through their own spectacles, while their opponents (approaching the same situation from a different angle) draw opposite conclusions. The facts in question may be the same, but the gaps in interpretation are wide. When we consider Israeli realities, there are some sine qua non requirements needed for dependable and kosher information-processing – a professional level of fluency in Hebrew, a hands-on and long-term ‘insider’ acquaintance with Israeli culture and religion, a solid awareness of Israeli political subtleties, and personal time in the Israeli army.

Another important criterion is honesty in dealing with sometimes uncomfortable facts – those details which may not always bolster one’s position. Does one try to understand the ‘other side’ – what the ‘other side’ thinks and feels – or is one simply communicating propaganda and incorrectly labeling all one’s talking points as ‘truth.’ Fairness, comprehensiveness and compassion help in presenting one’s case, even when one strongly disagrees with the opposing position.

Someone has said that the definition of ‘a specialist’ is someone fifty miles away from home. Today the internet offers up a potpourri of perspectives and an overload of opinions. The Latin proverb ‘caveat lector’ (‘let the reader be warned’) is doubly relevant for us all.

Two weeks is a long time

 Our last newsletter went out on March 15, 2023. A lot has happened in the past two weeks. The Saturday night demonstrations in Tel Aviv’s Habimah Square have grown from approximately 100,000 people to close to 200,000 in attendance. These have escalated, blocking Tel Aviv’s central freeway for hours, and closing down main municipal arteries. Eventually mounted police, stun grenades and water cannons have been deployed, and multiple arrests followed. Over the past week demonstrators have blocked main freeways with increasing frequency, setting bonfires, erecting barricades and shouting down and even shoving and striking a pregnant media reporter. In Jerusalem mobs screaming threats broke through Israeli security and rushed the Prime Minister’s residence. In Tel Aviv the Prime Minister’s wife was surrounded by an angry mob while at her hairdresser’s appointment, trapped for three hours until police forces were able to rescue her. In a parallel dynamic to Black Lives Matter catalyzed riots (where rioting damages were estimated as between one and two billion dollars, yet were described in the media as ‘mostly peaceful’), some Israeli political leaders insisted that the demonstrations were entirely peaceful. Ya’ir Lapid declared in Hebrew on March 28 Machal News that violence at the protest demonstrations “never was and never happened.” Dr. Daniel Gordis declared from America that the protests were “almost completely violence-free . . . you saw virtually no violence . . . Having burst through the barricades and having blocked the highway . . .  [they] remained fundamentally law-abiding . . . This was about love.”

The coalition which won the November 2022 election has continued to carry out its electoral promises regarding Israel’s judicial system, passing laws in that direction on a regular basis. In response, demonstrators have upped the ante, calling for wildcat demonstrations. Some opposition politicians have even called for the overthrow of Bibi Netanyahu’s government. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak (former Labor Party leader) declared that “what we have before us is a coup d’état . . . There is no symmetry. This is not a dispute between neighbors. This is a struggle for everything that is precious and holy to us.” Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai (former Labor Party) heated the flames when he declared on Israeli Channel 13 New that “states can turn from a democracy into a dictatorship, as is happening here. Dictatorships only become democratic again with bloodshed. That is the history of the world. I am appealing to all serious people who know the State of Israel. You have to understand that there is no right or left here. There are bad guys versus good guys.” The socialist Labor Party’s leader Merav Michaeli announced in the Knesset on Monday March 27, that “in just a few months the government has taken the 25th Knesset hostage for its extreme plans. The madness must be stopped, the Knesset must be dissolved and it must return to its work on behalf of the country.”

As the clock wound down to the completion of the passing of the coalition’s law package over this past week, demonstrations spread to many other cities in Israel, including Haifa and Beersheva. Perhaps 300,000 demonstrators came out this week in Tel Aviv, and the news media were giving wide and positive coverage to the marchers’ messages and speeches.

Street-fighting man

On Saturday evening March 25 the Minister of Defense (MOD) Yoav Galant called for a time-out in the legal process, stating that “the growing social rift has made its way into the (army) and security agencies. It is a clear, immediate and tangible threat to Israel's security.” He did this when the Prime Minister was out of the country, undercutting the official government position of pushing judicial reforms. The blowback to Galant came from Bibi on Sunday evening after his return from London: Galant would be dismissed from continuing on as MOD. Late Sunday night demonstrations were triggered by people opposed to Bibi’s leadership, party and platform who nevertheless opposed Bibi’s decision to remove his MOD. The ensuing violence of the mob (which included attacks on police and Border Patrol soldiers) was captured by world media and spread across the globe. Former Israel Air Force chief Eitan Ben-Eliahu declared that Netanyahu “declared civil war” though calmer voices brought historical balance here. Former Prime Minister Ya’ir Lapid poured oil on the flames with his proclamation that “the Prime Minister of Israel is a danger to the security of the State of Israel.”

With Tel Aviv’s streets and freeways ablaze, the socialist Histadrut Trade Union stepped in to weaken Netanyahu’s position and fan the fire of the demonstrators. He announced a nationwide wildcat strike, illegally shutting down hospitals, banks, airports, seaports, malls, medical funds, etc. It was illegal because the Histadrut took sides on a political issue, simultaneously violating the rights of the approximately 800,000 members of its labor federation.

These Marxist tactics are familiar. When we first came to Israel in the 1970’s, wildcat strikes were a matter of course. The goal of these strikes is to strike fear and insecurity into the hearts of the populace, thus increasing pressure through manipulation on the political party in power. Rather than seeing these mafia-like tactics for what they are, media spin-doctors point the finger at Bibi and cry crocodile tears, asking how could this Prime Minister do such terrible things. There is a popular Arabic proverb, “First he hits me. Then he starts to cry. Finally he runs ahead of me to the judge and sues me” (Darabani wa baka, wa sabaqani wa eshtaka). Middle East realities have once again proved how relevant this saying is in helping to understand current Israeli events.

Fear is an effective motivator, as Roman Emperor Caligula (assassinated 41 A.D.) recognized: “Oderint dum metuant. Let them hate me, as long as they fear me!” The faceless powers which are stampeding the Israeli populace through fear tactics are engaged in what could be described as a nation-wide military-type psyops (psychological operations) aimed at influencing governments, organizations, groups and individuals – their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately their behavior.

According to the U.S.-based RAND Corporation, “psychological warfare involves the planned use of propaganda and other psychological operations to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of opposition groups. RAND has studied military information support operations (MISO) in many countries and war zones and has provided objective and supportable recommendations to policymakers on methods and tactics to employ or defend against these operations.” A more in-depth article on current use of such techniques in our modern world can be perused, for those who would like to read up on this subject.

The on-off switch

The intensity of the rioting demonstrators (combined with the exploding fears and anger of the victims of the wildcat national strike) joined in with laser-like international pressure on PM Netanyahu. Added to the equation was the fact that some pillars of his Likud party had also been begging him behind the scenes to take a break from successfully completing his judicial push. Their read was that the forces pulling the strings behind the hugely well-funded and brilliantly organized PR campaign directed against the judicial reform had brought Israel to the brink of a possible civil war. Why win the battle of judicial reform at the cost of civil war?

Bibi spoke to the nation on TV that evening, probably the most watched address a Prime Minister has ever given (with 50.6% ratings). Here is the link to the full text of what he said. In the address he referenced the story of King Solomon and the two prostitutes (1 Kings 3:16-28; referring to them as ‘two women’). He declared that he (as well as most Israelis) do not want to destroy ‘the baby’ – that is, the State of Israel. In light of the huge civic strife, he announced his decision to stop the judicial reform process, to be followed by discussions and negotiations with his opponents over possible solutions. After the upcoming Knesset break, he stated that there was likelihood that the issue would be pursued once again. Bibi is taking considerable political risk here.

Within a few minutes, the Histadrut cancelled their strike. Within half an hour airplanes were rolled down the runway at Ben Gurion Airport. Within 20 minutes our local bank had re-issued our appointment for the next day (which had been cancelled due to the general strike). US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides announced 11 hours later that Prime Minister Netanyahu would be invited to the White House “as soon as their schedules can be coordinated.” Amazing coordination, it seems.

Overturning elections

 One of the memorable songs in the Passover film ‘The Prince of Egypt’ is ‘Playing with the big boys now.’ The title is based on Moses’ confrontation with Pharaoh’s magicians. They are warning him that new levels involve new devils. The magicians are hoping to control Moses through fear and manipulate him into doing their will. Recent events in Israel’s political world seem to echo with similar dynamics.

As mentioned in part one of these three newsletters, the dominant and controlling political power grouping in Israel at the time the State was founded was politically socialist, ethnically East European, and religiously atheist. This ‘power circle’ has come to be known by the Hebrew slang word ‘branja’ – a selected ‘inner circle’ of people with extra power – political, financial, or social, usually exclusive and close-knit group. In English the term ‘mafia’ (referring to a well-connected group that takes care of it members) has the similar meaning as the Hebrew branja. Israel had (and has) a political branja, a social branja and a judicial branja.

The judicial branja has for the most parts been off-limits to Jews from Arabic speaking countries. Politically left-leaning, ethnically European and religiously not user-friendly to the religious world – these are the modern characteristics of the leaders of Israel’s judiciary. The blowback of this can be seen in Supreme Court rulings regarding settling the Land of Israel, free speech and civil rights for Palestinian terrorist-affiliated and BDS groups, etc. These Supreme Court dynamics have been clearly obvious to most conservative, religious and right-leaning Israelis over the years. This has been one of the prime catalysts for the Likud’s judicial review.

The past twelve weeks of anti-Bibi and anti-judicial review demonstrations have been financed by groups with deep pockets. This is obvious to many Israelis. Lurid anti-Bibi posters in the Hitlerian colors of red and black have been appearing regularly on streets, computers and cell phones within a few minutes of events which could be spun against Bibi. Every time I have opened my cell phone in the past 12 weeks there have been bitter and nasty ads attacking Bibi. These things take a lot of money, a lot of planning, a lot of people and some very capable PR firms. Many Israelis are aware that ‘the voice may be that of the demonstrators, but the hands are connected to more intense movers.’ The media campaigns and press briefings that the demonstrators’ leaders have organized – including detailed briefing of where and when ‘spontaneous’ demonstrations and civil disobedience are about to occur – are ‘showing their hand’ to journalists and media people who attend these events.

These are not spontaneous and popular demonstrations. They are crafted and led by faceless Rasputins whose goals include overturning the recent November 2022 elections and preserving a judicial status quo where ‘politically correct’ policies are guided along by a ‘father who knows best.’  Here are two articles which gingerly attempt to touch on these sensitive matters. Israel’s top satiric comedy show recently featured a skit based on the premise that foreign organizations and foreign funding are actively involved in overseeing the direction of the demonstrations.

The term Putsch ([pʊtʃ], from Swiss-German ‘to knock’ or ‘to push’) denotes “the political-military actions of a reactionary minority [who attempt a] coup.” It is worth considering if what is going on in Israel now fits this definition. If this is the case, the horse is only in mid-stream and has not yet crossed the river to the other side. It is eminently possible that democracy is currently under threat in Israel – and not only through the Knesset ruling to suspend civil liberties at will (shepherded into law by Prime Ministers Netanyahu, Bennet and Lapid: see details throughout the article https://davidstent.org/nine-blind-indians-and-the-israeli-elephant/).

Bibi Derangement Syndrome

The tenor of Israeli political debate between Left and Right has often been (and still is) abrasive and hate-filled. When Netanyahu won the November 2022 elections, the Left and much of the Center-Left were virulently opposed to the results and vowed that they would remove Bibi in a very short time indeed.  Some Israelis seem to have ‘Bibi Derangement Syndrome,’ where an irrational hatred against the Prime Minister dominates conversations and actions. I have seen more than a handful of Israeli Messianic Jewish friends who nearly start frothing at the mouth at the mention of Bibi. Evidently some U.S. politicians also suffer from this syndrome. New York Times columnist Bret Stephens has written an excellent ‘word to the wise’ about this subject. It is an excellent read.

Conversations, constitutions and override clauses

 At this point in the Israeli body politic, a significant percentage of Leftist, Leftist-Centrist and Centrist parties have clearly stated that their goal is to get rid of Bibi in the fastest possible way. This is not the best atmosphere for healthy and productive dialogue. A believing friend recently states that all the parties just need to sit down and have a conversation after Passover. The nature of the situation is rather abscessed, however. Much pray is need on this matter.

Since Israel does not have a constitution, it is not accurate to say that it is having a constitutional crisis. Perhaps it is having a ‘pre-constitutional crisis,’ and perhaps the major political groups will sit down over Turkish coffee and work out a new Israeli constitution which will solve all the problems – something which has not been achieved in 75 years so far.

For those who are upset about what is called ‘the override clause’ – the judicial change which would allow the Knesset to override a Supreme Court invalidating of Knesset laws – it should be understood that a significant percentage of Israel’s population is smarting from years of what it sees as the Supreme Court overriding their perspectives and those of their legally elected representatives. For this thorn to be pulled from the paw of the Judean lion, there must be revelation and repentance on the benches of Israel’s Supreme Court. 

The ghosts of our grandparents

The unmentioned elephant standing silently between the halls of the Knesset and the Supreme Court is actually a two-tusked creature. One tusk is religion and the other tusk is the secular state. The present clashes revolve around the vision of a future Jewish state; around the balance of power between today’s secular majority and Israel’s religious community.

Israeli secularists are afraid – of fascism, religious fascism and religious coercion. There have been enough attempts and feints in this direction for everyone to admit that these fears are not without foundation. Certainly, Messianic Jews and Evangelical Christians in Israel have tasted such bitter herbs more than most secular Israelis.

At the same time, religious Jews and those friendly to them – those who remember with warmth and tears the beauty of Jewish traditions – are rightfully concerned that the current secular state is playing havoc with the pillars of family, society and biblical ethics, and that left unchecked it will strangle Jewish identity and the Jewishness of the Jewish state. The trends are clear enough for everyone to admit that these fears are not without foundation.

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 person’s enemies are the people of his own household

Over 2,700 years ago Micah spoke prophetically of a sobering day coming upon the Jewish nation – a day when people would be at each other’s throats:

Israel has recently witnessed the rise of unusual political and social turmoil. Just three months ago, the elections of November 2022 brought a conservative government to power with a comfortable majority. Barely three months later, close to 300,000 protestors (a rather large turnout) have been marching in the streets, blocking highways and airport access, and even preventing the Prime Minister’s convoy from freely travelling in the country. Though this massive effort is being presented as a grass-roots popular movement, it is anything but that. It is a highly organized and subsidized effort, fronted by political talking heads on both the Left and the Center Left – the same politicians who were trounced in recent elections.

Two former Prime Ministers, two former IDF Chiefs of Staff and the Mayor of Tel Aviv have publicly called for massive civil disobedience, even threatening that the spilling of blood is needed. Isaiah’s words seem to have special relevance in our day: “No one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies. They conceive trouble and give birth to disaster” (Isaiah 59:4).

Our February 22, 2023 newsletter looked at the historical background of some aspects of the current tensions. This present newsletter digs into the scenario in greater detail.

 The changing of the guard

 Over the past decade both the U.S.A. and Israel have seen political leaders win and then lose in a back-and-forth political ping-pong game against their opponents: Democrat Obama lost to Republican Trump who then lost to Biden. In Israel Likud Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu lost to Naftali Bennett/Ya’ir Lapid’s coalition, who then lost the November 2022 election to Bibi. Over the past three and a half years, Israel has experienced five elections. In each case the vote was close, with the body politic nearly evenly divided. In each election the opposing parties trumpeted a marked different vision. After each event the opposition was furious over how the winning coalition pressed its agenda forward. In all cases the opposing parties presented their political clashes in apocalyptic terms. And with each move in this country-wide chess game, unrest and dissatisfaction continue to grow on both sides of the aisle.

Big Brother and Big Media

 The parties that lost the November 2022 election have super-wealthy industrialists as backers. Netanyahu’s coalition is also financed by mega-wealthy power-brokers. But unbeknown to media consumers outside of Israel, those whose ardent desire is to crush Bibi have been pursuing this game for many decades, and now they smell blood. The lion’s share of all media platforms are in their hands – and these have become arrows targeting Israel’s Prime Minister. Over the past twenty years a vicious campaign against Netanyahu has been prosecuted. Its targets continue to morph. The focus has shifted from time to time. At first attacks were made on Bibi’s conservative economic policies. Then the target was his support of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. After that poison-pen op-eds focused on his cooperation with ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox political parties. In the past five years attention zoomed in on possible charges of bribery and graft. Some of these charges seem to be contrived; others throw a spotlight on some of Bibi’s actions which may be legal but were not extremely wise. Other actions of Bibi may indeed be illegal. The most recent attacks focus on Bibi and his coalition as a threat to democracy – a concerted effort to demonize the Likud’s election promises to bring greater balance to Israel’s Supreme Court (more specifics on this later).

For the past three months, Israeli media have been beating the drums of fear and hatred, accusing Bibi’s coalition of trying to set up a fascist dictatorship and a theocratic tyranny. They have panicked many in the primarily secular enclaves of Tel Aviv and Haifa, ‘stampeding the sheep’ (as it were) with jingoistic slogans and threats repeated word-for-word at all the demonstrations. They have overseen the publishing of screaming fear-filled headlines proclaiming that the curtailing of Supreme Court powers will lead to Israel being treated as a pariah state; will cause Israel’s partners in the ‘Abraham Accords’ to jump ship; will move hi-tech investors (including Israeli investors) to boycott Israel; will jump-start the International Criminal Court to initiate large-scale arrests of Israeli ex-soldiers on vacation in Europe, etc. Not a few American Jewish groups which are left-of-center have amplified these signals, even to the point of urging Western countries to boycott Israeli diplomats and to sanction Israel-friendly activities.

Lightning strikes twice

The majority of Israel’s media are sticking to their message, trumpeting that “The Likud’s overhaul of the judiciary is actually a coup and a fascist putsch.” Former IDF Generals, Prime Ministers and heads of the Israeli security services have been drafted to appear weekly, communicate this public narrative at mass rallies in Tel Aviv and Haifa, Beersheva and Jerusalem. But unfortunately there is precious little investigative journalism out there, accurately reporting on the many political and legal authorities who have been calling for foundational tweaking of Israel’s judiciary for approximately thirty years. These criticisms go back to the time when Aharon Barak (‘Barak’ means ‘lightning’ in Hebrew), then Israel’s Supreme Court President, deftly effected a ‘judicial revolution’ (he labeled it a ‘constitutional revolution’), vastly expanding the power of Israel’s Supreme Court while simultaneously weakening the authority of both executive and legislative bodies in the Knesset. Here is an assortment of quotes from international legal experts over the years regarding the legal and ethical problems established by Barak’s ‘judicial revolution:’

At present the Supreme Court has the authority to block the legislative power of the Knesset and even remove a Prime Minister from office. Netanyahu has recently been issued an ultimatum by the Supreme Court (less than two weeks are left to answer its summons) to explain why he should not be removed from continuing as Prime Minister.

Many kosher democracies exercise full parliamentary sovereignty

In the United Kingdom, one of the most influential parliamentary democracies in the world, parliament is supreme. According to the U.K. Parliament website: “Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK, which can create or end any law. Generally, the courts cannot overrule its legislation and no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change. Parliamentary sovereignty is the most important part of the UK constitution.” The U.K.’s Supreme Court website states: “Unlike some Supreme Courts in other parts of the world, the UK Supreme Court does not have the power to ‘strike down’ legislation passed by the UK Parliament. It is the Court’s role to interpret the law and develop it where necessary, rather than formulate public policy.”

New Zealand’s constitutional system similarly states: “The Judiciary cannot interfere with decisions of Parliament (the Legislature), such as the decision to pass a law. However, the Judiciary can review the actions of the Executive to see whether they acted within the powers given to them by legislation. This is called judicial review.”

Canada’s Supreme Court was granted a limited version of ‘judicial review’ in 1982, when Parliament passed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 33 of that Charter includes an override, or ‘notwithstanding’ clause, which allows the federal parliament and even provincial legislatures to pass legislation overriding the Supreme Court’s judicial review for five-year periods. “It allows a government to pass a law that does something that the courts have said violates rights and is not justified,” said University of Ottawa associate law professor Michael Pal, according to a CTV report.

In an excellent and well-researched article ‘Is judicial reform a threat to Israeli democracy?’ Alex Safian (Associate Director and Research Director of CAMERA) states dryly: “Restoring a measure of parliamentary sovereignty to Israel’s Knesset – an absolute right it had for the first 44 years of the country’s existence – therefore hardly seems radical, unprecedented, or dangerous.”

One of Israel’s unique difficulties is that it does not yet have a constitution, something that was not originally hoped for by its Founding Fathers.  In 1948 the Jewish state inherited both Turkish and British legal precedents, as well as a large corpus of rabbinic law to draw on. In order to sidestep potential blowups with its Orthodox coalition partners, it was decided to slowly legislate Basic Laws which would form an eventual basis for something similar to a constitution. This process has moved at a snail’s pace. But technically it is not accurate to describe Israel’s current challenges as a constitutional crisis, since Israel does not have a constitution. And the goal of reaching a consensus on these issues still seems very far away in light of Orthodox objections. Most rabbinic authorities see rabbinic law (or halacha) as the only valid legal constitution for the Jewish people.

Religious dictatorship in Anatevka

 Many modern Jews look back with tenderness to Broadway and Hollywood’s idyllic dream of Fiddler on the Roof – to the shtetls of Ukraine, Poland and Russia where everything seemed so romantic – Jewish life at its most authentic. Yet many of the Jews fleeing to America, Canada, Britain, France, South Africa, Australia and Palestine (as it was then called by the Turks) quickly disengaged themselves from Orthodox lifestyles and beliefs as soon as they unpacked their suitcases. The Western world’s freedoms and secular options were opening up new vistas, new lifestyles and new choices. Decades later, it was some of their children and grandchildren who began to look wistfully back to ghetto times, when all Jews were Orthodox and part of the rabbinic communities of Eastern Europe.

Some of the first Jews who returned to farm and rebuild the Jewish homeland in Israel were Orthodox Hovevei Tziyon (‘lovers of Zion’), though the vast majority were socialists and non-traditionalists. Within these fledgling Jewish Orthodox communities, many hoped that the renascent Jewish state would slowly morph into a halachic state, following rabbinic law as the law of the Land. Such luminaries as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook saw secular Jewish pioneers as ‘Messiah’s donkeys’ – spiritually rough and primitive people who were helping to fulfil prophecy by cultivating the land, thus bringing in the first fruits of redemption. He envisioned, based on his interpretation of Ezekiel 37 (the dry bones vision), that these ‘Jewish pagans’ would gradually but ultimately turn their eyes to rabbinic Judaism and end up living halachic lives.

A stream of Orthodox rabbis and politicians began to dream and strategize, attempting to figure out how to enthrone rabbinic laws as legal requirements for all Jewish citizens. This ‘creeping halacha’ was the strategy of MAFDAL (the National Religious Party) as well as AGUDAT YISRAEL and other smaller streams. In modern times, Sephardic political parties like SHAS – the ‘Sephardic Guardians’ or ‘Sephardic Torah Guardians’ – have joined with Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox, running as coalition partners while pressuring Leftist and Rightist governments to incorporate rabbinic traditions, kosher food laws, marriage, birth and death rites as all coming home to roost under strict Orthodox oversight.

Israel’s overwhelmingly secular majority initially humored these attempts, but often found themselves being forced to give rabbinic laws greater influence in their daily and weekend lives than they really wanted to. Gradually the Jewish citizens of Israel found themselves dividing into separate communities – secular (approximately 80%), Orthodox (17%) and ultra-Orthodox (3%). Neighborhoods tended to be divided accordingly. Secularism had won the day, though the future was uncertain.

The Jewish state of the late 1960’s and 1970’s saw the rise of home-grown hippies, Israeli rock music, and radical social activism. Along with the Free Soviet Jewry movement (imported from American Jewry), a new group of Orthodox radicals saw themselves as cutting-edge zealots, shock troops of the reviving but still somnambulant Jewish people. Notable among these leaders was Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (later reorganized as KACH). Kahane’s JDL was classified as a terrorist group by both the U.S.A. and Israel, and Kahane’s teaching have been condemned as racist by all mainstream Jewish organizations.  He and many of his followers moved to Israel and, in later years, former members of his movement established a political party known as Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) led today by Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The party is considered to be Religious Zionist, Kahanist, ultra-nationalist, anti-Arab, and far-right, and has also been described as racist, though the party disputes this. Ben Gvir’s party has affiliations with, and once shared offices with, the anti-assimilation (and anti-Messianic Jewish) group (also here and here) Lehava, whose Director-General Bentzi Gopstein was up to recently a member of the party.

A Greek tragedy in Jerusalem

A Greek tragedy is playing itself out in Israeli politics, one that is essential to understand for those who want to grasp the dynamics of current events. Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest tenured Prime Minister, having served in that office for 15 years. Sadly, he is not known for encouraging his up-and-coming aides, especially if he thinks that they may one day replace him. As a result, some of his top followers, having been humiliated or side-lined by him – or even thrown out on their ear in times past – have resolutely decided not to follow Bibi, but instead to start their own parties. Present heads of political parties like Avigdor Lieberman and Gideon Sa’ar have pressed forward with their own agendas, though this has split the Right-wing vote in Israel, weakening their electability. One of the blowbacks here is that Leftist coalitions have occasionally been able to secure shaky coalitions, leaving the Likud out in the cold. A majority of Israelis at the present time lean rightward and do not believe that negotiations with any Palestinians will end terrorism or bring peace. For them it is frustrating that they, the majority of the electorate, have been ‘voting right but getting left’ results. One outstanding example would be the paragon of anti-terrorism, Ariel Sharon who, under potentially damaging legal suspicion, broke away from the Likud and ended up overseeing a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. This supposedly cunning strategic move ended up leaving the jihadi Muslim Brotherhood terror organization HAMAS ruling the Gaza Strip, eventually turning it into a launching pad for years of rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

In order to clinch a solid majority in the November 2022 elections, Netanyahu was not able to count on those former Likud leaders who were now collaborating with the Left. He chose instead to turn to the extreme right parties, adding their weight to his coalition. This granted Ben Gvir a legitimacy and a platform to build strength for his party’s own dark vision of the future.

Israelis on the Left as well as on the moderate Right are certainly uneasy about this new situation. In the meantime, groups like SHAS, AGUDAT YISRAEL and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party have wasted little time since the latest elections, turning up the pressure in their efforts to ‘make Israel rabbinic again.’ Various attempts have been made by these parties to forbid women from leading prayer at the Western Wall, to enforce ‘modesty’ dress for women at that site, to prevent secular Jews from eating leavened bread in hospitals during Passover, etc. A significant percentage of Israelis are concerned that the present coalition government will give in to these religious parties at the expense of civil liberties and a predominantly secular Jewish state. This fear and this theme is repeated at most of the mass demonstrations over the past 10 weeks.

Another source of trepidation that many Israelis express concerns the issue of corruption – specifically, the fact that SHAS Member of Knesset and former Vice Prime Minister Aryeh Deri has been twice convicted and once imprisoned on charges of bribery. Though Deri and SHAS ascribe these charges to racist Ashkenazi elites’ prejudices (and notwithstanding the reality and dynamics of such prejudices among some today), it is generally acknowledged that Deri was guilty of the charges brought against him. Considering that Deri has served as Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of the Economy, flashing red lights should be going off and on regarding his ethical suitability to be a Minister in any Israeli government. But the fact that SHAS commands 11 Knesset seats as the fifth largest party plays a significant role in establishing stable parliamentary coalitions.

Deri’s specific issue must be considered in light of the long list of Israeli officials from all parties convicted of crimes or misdemeanors: one President, one Prime Minister, eleven Cabinet Ministers, seventeen Members of Knesset, two Chief Rabbis, five Mayors and one Deputy Mayor, a leading member of the Labor Party, and a Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff. Deri is in good company, it seems, and those who cast the first stone against him might want to consider what sins were committed on their own party’s watch.

How is democracy under siege?

Though perhaps 300,000 Israeli have been shouting ‘DE-MO-KRA-TIA!’ (democracy) at recent demonstrations, it is ironic that no such crowds gathered when the successive governments of Bibi Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett and Ya’ir Lapid removed a slew of basic civil rights from all Israelis during the recent lockdowns. The right of assembly, the right to leave one’s home and travel, the right not to be forced to receive injected substances (which technically do not meet the accepted definition of being vaccines, and which have failed to prevent both infection and transmission) – all these rights were removed from Israel’s citizens under the watch of both Right, Left and Center. Other democratic rights were violated – the right of informed consent for medical treatments (based on the post-WWII Nuremberg Code), the right to freely visit museums, restaurants, cinemas, concerts, swimming pools and fitness rooms, etc. – all these democratic rights were suspended. Yet for the most part, Israel’s citizens accepted these blatant violations of democracy with the courage of silent sheep, blindly believing that government authorities, medical authorities, and legal authorities were crushing democratic rights ‘only temporarily,’ and ‘for our own good.’

Hatred without a cause

One of the deeply saddening manifestations in today’s Israeli society is the increased social tension, hatred and fear that people are displaying toward each other. Jews in the Promised Land are separating from each other, cursing each other, treating each other like enemies. Politicians especially, on both sides of the aisle, are treating their fellows with disdain, mockery, derision and contempt. The heated nature of exchanges on social media communications has spun out of control. For those who know something about Jewish history, these days are reminiscent of 70 A.D. (the year Herod’s Temple was destroyed) and the rabbinic principle of sinat hinam (‘hatred without a cause’).

In the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Gittin 55b-56a, there is a story about two people (Kamtza and Bar Kamtza) who had bitterness and hatred between them, for no good reason. Their ‘unfinished business’ (according a later sage, Rabbi Yochanan) was what led to the destruction of the Second Temple and the Jewish people’s Second Exile at the hand of Rome’s armies.

In Jewish tradition, the phrase ‘sinat hinam’ (baseless hatred) is powerful, and it carries a heavy weight. In times of bitter communal rivalry Jews have sometimes asked each other if their internecine rivalry is getting out of hand, and if one or both parties should stop the infighting and pull back from ‘bringing down the Temple.’ King David himself confessed that hatred without cause was something that he had experienced on many occasions: “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head” (Psalm 69:4).

In Pirkei Avot 5:17 (the Talmudic Tractate known as ‘The Sayings of the Fathers’), there is a proverb discussing heated disagreements in Israel, whether between individuals or between groups of people: “Every dispute that is for the sake of Heaven [ed. that is justified in God’s sight], will in the end endure. But one that is not for the sake of Heaven, will not endure. Which is the controversy that is for the sake of Heaven? Such was the controversy of Hillel and Shammai. And which is the controversy that is not for the sake of Heaven? Such was the controversy of Korah [Numbers 16] and all his congregation.”

The furiously boiling Israeli social pot is in imminent danger of boiling over. Those wicked people who hope to profit from the stirring up of hatred and division in Israel will in due time have to answer directly to God for their role in catalyzing such wickedness. But now is the time to pray – for the healing of wounds, the melting of anger, the onset of repentance, and the establishment of righteousness and justice in the Land. Let us also remember that a day is coming when all such divisions in Israel will be removed by the God of Israel’s own hands:

God is in the details

Messiah Yeshua once addressed His disciples and emphasized that His ministry on earth involved a divine separating – winnowing the harvest wheat and removing the flammable chaff (see Luke 3:17): “Do you think that I came to provide peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53).

The God of Israel is also the Lord of the Harvest (see Luke 10:2). He is actively at work in present-day Israel, offending the mind in order to reveal the heart (see Luke 2:33-35). Whether the Jewish people gather in mass demonstrations or in the Knesset, we know that “the eyes of YHVH roam throughout the earth, so that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

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

Queen Esther and Ezekiel’s Army

Children love fairy tales. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White have captivated the hearts of youngsters for decades. For some who love reading the Bible, the Book of Esther lies half-way between angel-dust fantasy and ancient Jewish legend. Liberal Bible scholars glance at the book’s imperial beauty pageants, 180 day wine feasts, foiled assassination attempts, evil villains and secret identities – and consider the whole story to be a pious fiction. A Sorbonne academic taught it that way in a Jewish Studies course I took at McGill University. Among charismatics, the book is often seen as an allegorical love story between Jesus (aka King Ahasuerus) and Esther (aka the Bride of Christ). The first to use those interpretative spectacles was Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (780 – 856 A.D.; aka Rhabanus) a Frankish Benedictine monk, theologian, poet and military writer who later became Archbishop of Mainz.

But the Scroll of Esther has a lot to say when read accurately. This Book holds a prophetic key to Last Days events. Certain ancient Middle Eastern dynamics are once again surfacing, and demonic arrows are again flying through the air against the Jews: the majority of Jacob’s sons and daughters are still in exile; the dragon’s eggs of genocidal efforts against them are once again being hatched in Iran (ancient Persia); and the boiling pot of anti-Semitism is overflowing across the face of our planet. It sounds like an Esther-like solution might once again be needed in our day. What lessons can be learned from the Scroll of Esther from this perspective?

Jewish intelligence networks in Iran

 A dear and departed brother in the Lord often warned believers to be careful of three temptations in ministry – the three ‘G’s – girls , gold and glory. For a more woman-sensitive approach, one could substitute the term ‘girls’ with the term ‘guys.’ The Scroll of Esther is awash with these dynamics. King Ahasuerus is a king-sized womanizer (Esther 2:12-14); gold – whether bribes or booty – plays a central role in the book (Esther 3:9-14); and Haman’s narcissistic desire for glory (Esther 3:4-6) is the fuel which sets his anti-Semitism on fire.

Mordechai was similar to the modern Mossad: he wisely had Esther go undercover in order to be in a position to influence the powers-that-be (Esther 1:10,20). He hung out at the city gates (where gossip and intrigue are the daily bread), passing on the enemy intelligence he had gained directly to the king through his contact Esther (Esther 1:11,19,21-23). He was also a strategic and spiritual thinker, responding to Haman’s threats by alerting his agent and calling the Jewish community into ardent intercession (Esther 4:13-17). When the opportunity presented itself, he knew what strategic military plans to activate in order to rescue his nation (Esther 8:7-14).

Peacemaker in Persia

In King Solomon’s proverbs (Proverbs 10:1), he advises the Jewish people on how to make war: “Prepare plans by consultation, and make war by wise guidance” (Proverbs 20:18). In Tractate Sanhedrin 67A of the Babylonian Talmud, the biblical principle (Number 25:17-18; Judges 8:18-21) is rephrased: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first!”  Mordechai consulted with King Ahasuerus and decided to annihilate those who, like Hitler in days to come, were planning to carry out genocide on the entire Jewish nation:

Messiah Yeshua (also known as the Prince of Peace) is at the same time a Mighty Warrior, as Moses said in Exodus 15:3: “YHVH is a warrior; YHVH is His name!”: “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand?” (Luke 14:31). On the Feast of Purim YHVH raised up the entire Jewish people as an army. This army confronted the haters of Israel face-to-face, and through war defeated them decisively. In Queen Esther’s day and in our own as well, the gifts and calling of God on the Jewish people, the Apostle tells us, are irrevocable – without repentance (Romans 11:29).

Luther and Esther

 The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther is quoted in his Tischreden (Table Talk) as hostile to the Book of Esther: “I am so hostile to this book [2nd Maccabees] and that of Esther, that I wish they did not exist. They are too Judaizing, and contain many heathen improprieties.” Luther viewed the Jewish people through Augustinian lenses, eventually seeing them as chosen for temporal punishment and not as the key to world revival. The military triumph of the Jewish people over Persian anti-Semites did not fit well into his worldview, as evinced in his book Von den Jüden und iren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies):

It seems that Luther did not grasp the huge irony of him calling for murder and destruction against the Jewish people on the one hand, while simultaneously proclaiming Mordechai’s battlefield victories against Iranian anti-Semites as being too Jewish, too heathen and too full of impropriety.

Today there are still some in the Christian church who would prefer to ignore Mordechai and Esther’s defense of their own people as carnal, or even condemn Jewish triumphs as contemptible in the sight of God. Yet the word of God lets us know that YHVH still fights for Israel (Exodus 15:1-21; Psalm 139:21-22), still curses the Jewish people’s enemies (Genesis 12:3), and still will roar over their enemies like a lion (Number 23:19-24).

Purim and Ezekiel’s Army

The prophet Ezekiel spoke into the future, proclaiming that YHVH would return His Jewish people to their Promised Land by the Spirit, but without them having the fullness of the Spirit (Ezekiel 37:8-10, 14). When Israel would receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, they would ‘rise from the dead’ and be transformed into hel gadol me’od me’od – ‘a mighty army much much’ (the literal Hebrew). Such passages as Psalm 110:1-3 and Zechariah 12:1-9 shimmer with revelation regarding this future army. And Purim points us to a past reflection of a coming reality.  Even as Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordechai, so the modern enemies of the Jewish people will be soundly trounced and their own weapons will come to naught: “No weapon that is formed against you will succeed, and you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of YHVH, and their vindication is from Me, declares YHVH” (Isaiah 54:17).

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

Establish justice in the gate! (Amos 5:15)

Israel is once again making world headlines. Over the past weeks, tens of thousands of protestors have filled streets, blocking highways and even surrounding the Knesset parliament buildings. The demonstrations target the new government coalition’s moves to restructure aspects of the Israeli Supreme Court’s powers, with special emphasis on curbing its present ability to override legislative decisions taken by the Knesset (Israel’s parliament).

These recent demonstrations have been guided and spearheaded by the same political parties who recently lost the November 2022 elections (e.g. Zehava Gal-On’s son Nadav; also https://davidstent.org/the-israeli-elections-casting-lots-and-ballots/). The new laws limiting the powers of the Supreme Court are being steered through the Knesset by the Likud-led coalition which won a comfortable majority in those same elections.

In political science the term corporatocracy refers to an economic, political and judicial system controlled by corporations or corporate interests. In Israel (as in many other countries) corporate tycoons fund and influence the major political parties, often holding sway over political decisions and actualizing legislation into directions advantageous to their own economic interests and political power (see https://davidstent.org/the-netanyahu-charges-character-hypocrisy-and-a-million-paper-cuts/). Such support was visible over the past weeks in the anti-government ‘spontaneous’ media campaigns (well-designed billboards, highway banners, protest signs and t-shirts; cookie-cutter slogans), in the fleets of buses suddenly showing up to ferry protestors to sites in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in the nearly military precision and organizational discipline evident, and in the massive press-report blitzes slanted against government moves.

The foundations of these present tensions hearken back to the socialist heyday of the 1930’s and 1940’s. They reflect a one hundred year old struggle of Israel’s leftist founding fathers  against conservatives, right-wingers, the religious and Jewish immigrants from Arabic-speaking countries. This newsletter reveals some of these historical foundations, as well as a brief consideration of strategies involved. May this help the reader to cut through the mists of propaganda, and to focus with greater accuracy and passion on intercession for God’s beloved ‘lost sheep of the House of Israel’ (Jeremiah 50:5-7).

 Conservatives outside the camp

 The secular Zionist movement’s original leaders grew up pickled in a European socialist worldview. The founding fathers of the Jewish state were nearly uniformly Ashkenazi (Eastern or Central European) Jews, staunchly socialist and secularist. The socialist movement led by David Ben-Gurion held the reins of Jewish political influence from the 1930’s until 1977. Ben-Gurion (B-G; the leader of this movement and Israel’s first Prime Minister) despised politicians who were to his right, especially Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Menahem Begin (leader of the right-wing Etzel/Irgun anti-colonialist underground, and later Israel’s sixth Prime Minister). The following quotes reveal the deep-seated animus that B-G and his supporters had for their opponents on the right side of the political plenum. That bitterness still influences much of the political culture in today’s Knesset.

In the Encyclopedia Hebraica (the Hebrew version of Encyclopedia Judaica known in Hebrew as Encyclopedia Ivrit) the entry for ‘Fascism’ states: “Among the Left, the custom to defame any opponent as a fascist is common.” This demonizing aimed at the conservative/right wing of the Israeli body politic has been part and parcel of the Left’s decades-long political culture. Today that same charge is being repeated to world media by leftist political talking heads as they oppose the right-wing coalition’s attempts to bring balance to judicial overreach and thus preserve legislative authority:

Eithan Orkibi of Ariel University, writing in Israel Affairs (vol. 28, #6), points out that, during the period of 2015-2019, Israel’s Left sought to revive its flagging relevance and marginalization by rebranding its message. Rather than pushing renewed peace efforts with a Palestinian community which avidly supported terrorism, the Left morphed its main message into “the Right is a danger to democracy.” “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – the more things change, the more they remain the same.

A reason for the season

 At the outbreak of World War II the Yishuv (the Jewish leadership in Mandatory Palestine) found itself in a cat-and-mouse war with British occupying forces who refused to allow Jews fleeing Hitler to find refuge in Israel.  Yet at the same time both left and right-wing Jewish forces fought alongside British forces against Nazi Germany.  In 1943, as the tide was shifting in favor of the Allies, Ben-Gurion threw his movement’s weight behind the British forces, hoping to gain political benefits after the war. But Begin’s Irgun and Yitzchak Shamir’s Lehi opposed that decision.

In February 1944, the Irgun and Lehi began an insurrection against the British – a ‘Revolt’ against the British Mandate. They stated that the denial of Jewish immigration was a heinous crime, and that they would fight to drive the British out of Israel. But Ben-Gurion applied pressure on the Irgun and Lehi between February and September 1944 to stand down.

In September 1944,  Begin (the Irgun commander) met with Haganah leaders Moshe Sneh and Eliyahu Golomb. Sneh declared. “To expand your activities requires control of the souls and the property of the public. And it is we who control the public. We do not intend to renounce that control, because it is we who have received a mandate from the Jewish people . . . If you continue your activities, a clash will result.” Golumb added: “We demand that you cease immediately [your activities against the British]... We do not want a civil war . . . but we will be ready for that as well. We will be forced to adopt our own measures to prevent your activities. The police, in our opinion, will not be able to liquidate you, but if the Yishuv rebels, it could come to that. It is clear that we are not speaking of your physical liquidation, but the developments could lead to that as well – they could lead to your destruction. And then it will not matter who started – it is a question of propaganda and information.”

On October 29, 1944 Ben-Gurion, the Haganah, the Histadrut Labor Union and the Shai (fledgling Jewish intelligence agency) declared ‘Le Saison’ – the hunting season – a full blown attack to crush Begin’s Irgun as well as the Lehi group. Public declarations were circulated:

In response the Irgun published a pamphlet in 1944 pamphlet titled “There will be no fraternal war!” It proclaimed a policy of non-retaliation against Jewish socialist forces.

Over 250 of Ben-Gurion’s Palmach elite troops were delegated to arrest, torture and hand over to British forces members of the rightist underground. Close to 1,000 people were betrayed to the British and most were imprisoned at Latrun detention camp, though several hundred were deported to Africa. The Haganah imprisoned dozens in prison cells on various kibbutzim, where they were interrogated and even severely tortured.

“The Season left its mark on the Israeli political discourse in the following decades. It is sometimes linked to the tension between Herut and Mapai, specifically between their respective leaders, Begin and Ben Gurion. Ben Gurion would address Begin as ‘The Member of Knesset sitting to the right of MK Bader’ and mention ‘the sacred cannon’ which opened fire on the Altalena.” Echoes of this were seen during the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, when leftist Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan declared that PM Arik Sharon would have to run roughshod over the Jewish inhabitants of Gaza in the same manner as Ben-Gurion had when he ordered Commander of the Harel Brigade Yitzchak Rabin to shell the Irgun arms supply ship Altalena: “Arik Sharon will have to make a Ben-Gurion-like decision. He will not be able to go on juggling all the balls in the air. It’s an Altalena situation . . . The government has to make it clear that it has cannons. And rifles. And that it is ready to use them . . . The security cabinet will be ready to make the same tough decision that Ben-Gurion made in the face of the Altalena.”

These historical dynamics loiter in the wings of Israel’s political consciousness, rhetoric and strategies. The present screaming headlines and political pressures bubbling up today are playing out a very similar script to the one which transpired back in the days before Israel became a state.

 

 “The best of all possible worlds?” (Voltaire, Candide)

 One thing can be clearly noted: at this point in the Israeli political debate, trust is in the gutter. The tone on both sides of the debate has grown nasty and pugnacious.

A powerful intercessory article has recently been authored by former UN Commander in Bosnia, Colonel Richard Kemp (a strong advocate for Israel), and Rafael Bardaji (former national security adviser to the Spanish government) titled ‘Israel: Don't Give Your Enemies More Ammo!’ They appeal to Israel’s leaders to step back from the brink, to accept the results of the elections, and to engage in constructive dialogue. Here are a few excerpts from this excellent appeal for your prayerful consideration:

We encourage you to pray for the leaders and people of Israel, who are right now in a national and political cul-de-sac. We need your prayers and intercession for sanity, discernment and God’s wisdom.

More than meets the eye

 A full analysis of the current situation would have to touch on issues that would turn this humble newsletter into a Ph.D. dissertation. They would include:

Unfortunately, the constraints of time and space require that this newsletter draw to a close. We encourage you to stand with us in earnest prayer and appeal for God’s solutions.

 

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 restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – Part six

This is part six of a six-part newsletter.

Adam’s last words

In his last words to YHVH, Adam communicated his fear of being in God’s presence due to Adam’s having disobeyed the divine command. When we get to the last book of the Bible, one of the last things God declares touches on the healing of mankind’s fear and the renewal of intimacy between God and man: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the Tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them’” (Revelation 21:3).

In the Book of Isaiah, YHVH describes Abraham as His friend: “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend” (Isaiah 41:8).

King Jehoshaphat declared the same truth, “YHVH, God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. Did You not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land from Your people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Your friend Abraham forever? They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name” (2 Chronicles 20:6-8).

Moses was also described by YHVH Himself as a friend of God. YHVH met and fellowshipped with him in the Tent of Meeting:  “So YHVH used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11).

Friendship with God is quickened when He comes and dwells with us: “Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people” (Leviticus 26:11-12).

If you build it, I will come!

The people of Israel stood on the shores of the Red Sea (the Hebrew term is Yam Suf –‘Sea of Reeds’) looking at the bodies of Pharaoh’s charioteers lying lifeless on the sands. Moses then gathered men of Israel together and sang a prophetic song of deliverance: “You will bring them and plant them in the Mountain of Your inheritance – the place, YHVH, which You have made as Your dwelling – the Sanctuary, YHVH, which Your hands have established” (Exodus 15:17). God homed in on a specific location – that was where intimacy would be restored – the Mountain of YHVH’s inheritance, where God’s dwelling and sanctuary would one day be established.

Later on, YHVH issued a command to build a Tent (also called a ‘Tabernacle’ – later called a ‘Sanctuary’) where He could meet with the Jewish people:

A pattern made in Heaven

The Tabernacle or Tent (later replaced by the Temple) was the location that God established where God and man could meet – a meeting-place which would result in intimacy, friendship, relationship. But its builders had to follow a divine pattern in its construction and operation – down to the letter. That complex of buildings would be detailed and beautiful, communicating spiritual truths and realities. YHVH gave Moses (and later, King David) some very specific commands on how to build it:

The first martyr Stephen in his final oration also made reference to this pattern:

God is like a top-notch wedding planner. When He hosts an event, a huge amount of effort goes into even the smallest details. But what were those details and patterns that Moses and David saw? Was it a building? And if so, where was that structure located and what did it look like?

A Temple beyond our three dimensions

Isaiah was launched into prophetic ministry at a sorrowful time in Judah’s history. Judah’s King Uzziah had just passed away, and that was when Isaiah received his powerful vision of the Heavenly Temple of God and His throne:

Nearly 800 years later, God gave John the Revelator a similar majestic vision of the same Heavenly Temple:

The Heavenly Temple

Daniel the prophet contributes other details about this Heavenly Temple:

Zechariah also received a heavenly vision of the Heavenly Temple on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Joshua the High Priest was standing in the earthly Holy of Holies, making atonement for Israel’s sins. He had bathed himself many times that day and was wearing spotlessly clean priestly garments. But the Hebrew word for ‘filthy’ used here refers to excrement-covered garments. The prophet is watching as Joshua the High Priest stands in the Holy of Holies on earth. But at the same time Zechariah is seeing into another dimension. He is simultaneously observing what is transpiring in the Heavenly Temple. He sees Satan accusing Israel in God’s presence in the Heavenly Temple. And evidently there were many sins for which Israel needed atonement! Let’s remember that Zechariah would not have been allowed to enter the Holy of Holies on earth; only one man – the High Priest – was allowed to stand there, and only on one day of the year – Yom Kippur.

John the Revelator was granted, more than any other prophet, both to see and to communicate specifics about the Heavenly Temple and its courts. Here is a list of many of these precise details:

The Heavenly Temple is a real place, but it is beyond space and time. Its heavenly splendor is reflected on earth in Moses’ Tabernacle, in the Temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel/Herod, and in Ezekiel’s Millennial Temple.

Messiah in the Holy of Holies

A Messianic Jew wrote a letter to his fellow Messianic Jews – what is commonly called the Letter to the Hebrews. In that epistle he ties in all the Scriptural information we have looked at so far. He also reveals amazing details about Messiah Yeshua’s ministry in the Heavenly Temple:

In the days of Joshua the High Priest, the blood of a bull or a goat was presented on earth (and simultaneously in heaven, according to Zechariah’s experience) once a year to make atonement for Israel. After His crucifixion, Messiah Yeshua entered the Heavenly Temple, bringing with Him His own atoning blood. He appeared in the presence of God the Father, offering one sacrifice for sins, once and for all time. Yeshua then sat down at the right hand of the Father, “waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet.” This event is stressed eight times in the Scriptures: Psalm 110:1; Matthew 26:64; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2.

The Heavenly Temple is the location where our redemption was ratified. It is where Messiah Yeshua sits at the right hand of God the Father, awaiting His own return to our planet.

The New Heavens, the New Earth and the New Jerusalem

After John the Revelator describes the Heavenly Temple in breath-taking detail, he moves on to describe the next phase of YHVH’s redemptive acts –  the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Peter powerfully describes these same events:

When this above prophecy comes to pass, everything that has existed in history – past, present and future – will be totally consumed by fire and will melt with intense heat. On that future day, the present Jerusalem, the present and future Temple Mount, the continents and the oceans – our entire planet – all will be destroyed.

Something amazingly new will be manifested when God presents His New Heavens and New Earth: the New Jerusalem. This city will be strikingly beautiful, and will possess very different dimensions than the original Jerusalem:

 This New Jerusalem is described as “the Holy City . . . coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1). John adds: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, ‘Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Revelation 21:9-11).

This New Jerusalem is likened to a bride who gets adorned for her husband in anticipation of the marriage celebration. This text says that, in that city, Jew and Gentile will together be called ‘the bride of Messiah’ and ‘the wife of the Lamb.’ This New Jerusalem will be the residence of all the saints from all times – Jew and Gentile alike. And this New Jerusalem will not be part of the present creation; John tells us that it will be part of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

The New Jerusalem has no Temple

John adds an astonishing detail here. The New Jerusalem “comes down out of Heaven” toward the New Earth. The eternal abode of the saints, according to John the Revelator, will be in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem, however, does not have a Temple in it: “I saw no Temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple.” At the same time, other scriptures (Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah and John) tell us that the Temple in Heaven exists, and that it is the center and focal point of Heaven. John clearly states that the New Jerusalem comes down out of Heaven but is not in Heaven. The Temple in Heaven continues to be the Temple in Heaven.

The omnipresent God can be both in the New Jerusalem and in the Temple in Heaven simultaneously (just as, in our day, He can be within us yet also in the Temple of Heaven). Though this biblical truth is hard for humans (bound by space-time) to handle, the biblical text leaves us, the readers, with a certain amount of tension – how does that all work out? Our tensions about this matter will probably remain unsolved until we actually enter the Eternal Order. 

For the saints in the New Jerusalem, Adam and Eve’s ancient longing for renewed intimacy with God will finally be fulfilled. All the promises of deep abiding fellowship made by the God of Israel to the Jewish people will come to pass (see Exodus 25:8; Leviticus 26:12; Isaiah 25:8; 35:10; 65:19; Ezekiel 37:27; 48:35; Zechariah 2:10). God’s application of these promises to believers from all the nations will also find its blessed fulfilment (see 2 Corinthians 6:16b):

Heaven, the Highest Heavens, and the Third Heaven

The Hebrew word for ‘heavens’ is shamayim (שָׁמַיִם) – literally ‘sham’ (there) and ‘mayim’ (water). So if one looks ‘up there’ to the skies, one sees ‘the waters up there’ – the physical heavens.

A reference in Deuteronomy refers to both shamayim (the physical heavens) and shmei hashamayim (the heavens of the heavens, or ‘the highest heavens’): “Behold, to YHVH your God belong heaven and the highest heavens (הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וּשְׁמֵ֣י הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם), the earth and all that is in it” (Deuteronomy 10:14).

Paul refers to a spiritual experience he once had, where he was caught up in the spirit to ‘the Third Heaven:’

It stands to reason that, if there is a Third Heaven, there needs to be a First and Second heaven. Most Bible students assume that the First Heaven is what is called ‘the sky’ or ‘the heavens.’ There is not enough biblical information to lock down the meaning of the ‘Second Heaven.’ Could it be outer space, or is it perhaps dimensionally beyond what people can normally see? Two passages from the New Covenant hint at these realities more than they clarify:

When the New Jerusalem comes down out of the New Heavens (as per Revelation 21:10), are those New Heavens part of the New Creation – what could be called ‘the sky?’ And is ‘God’s Heavenly Temple’ something even beyond that, in a spiritually different dimension than even the physically renewed ‘New Heavens’? These questions remind us of what David describes in Psalm 139:6: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high, I cannot comprehend it!”

A river but no Temple

Since the New Jerusalem has no Temple, no Millennial river can bubble up from under such a Sanctuary. Nevertheless, John tells us that the New Jerusalem does have a river, and that this river bubbles up “from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street:”

The Good News according to John says that Messiah Yeshua came to tabernacle among His Jewish people. The Greek word skéné (σκηνή - meaning ‘tent’ or ‘tabernacle’) sounds somewhat similar to the Hebrew word Shechinah : “And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us. And we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). In the New Jerusalem, Yeshua – our Tabernacling Messiah – will dwell among all of us, and all of us – Jew and Gentile alike – will be His people.

They who wait upon the Lord

As we wait, along with the saints of all the ages, for:

we remember the words of Yeshua, where He encourages us to draw near to God through following His word and longing for His return. Therein lies our strength and hope:

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 restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – Part five

This is part five of a six-part newsletter.

No Temple on the Mount

Since 70 A.D. there has been no operating Temple on the Temple Mount. Since then, Messianic Jews have been excluded from worshipping within the Jewish community by their rabbinic competitors, being barred for the most part from synagogue attendance. But this is not surprising in light of the fact that Messiah Yeshua was also persona non grata in the eyes of Israel’s leaders.

Rabbinic Judaism restructured itself after the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., developing liturgies and theologies which were a Rabbinic form of Replacement Theology: Since atoning sacrifices were no longer accessible, a decision was made to ‘replace’ them with quasi-atoning emphases on prayer services, acts of repentance, and good deeds. Modern streams of Judaism (especially Reform and Conservative) do not teach the need for atonement though Temple sacrifice and often see the concept as a primitive appendix. However, most Orthodox Jews pray and look forward to the eventual building of a Temple and the resumption of sacrifices.

Today, only perhaps 15% of all Jews (which includes a significant majority of Orthodox Jews) hope for the rebuilding of the Temple, though some traditional Jews might also lean in that direction. How are followers of Yeshua supposed to weigh in on this issue? A handful of Messianic Jewish leaders look warmly on the rebuilding of a Third Temple, but the overwhelming Messianic Jewish position is not to support such a move. Why is that? What prophetic issues are involved here?

The Mount of Atonement - Rabbinic or Messianic?

When national or even international sin rises to a high enough level, God must step in to bring righteous judgment (think ‘Noah’). Such was the case in Ezekiel’s day, when he was forced to prophesy: “Therefore on account of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Mountain of the Temple will become high places of a forest” (Ezekiel 9:6-7). The prophets called on the whole Jewish nation to repent, to confess sin and to make atoning sacrifice – the basic building blocks of a biblical and spiritual revival.

The prophets conveyed the divine challenge to repent, and stated that it is to be initiated par excellence from the Temple Mount: “Blow a trumpet 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; Indeed, it is near” (Joel 2:1).

The Scriptures tell us that, at various times throughout Jewish history, Israel’s leadership abandoned God’s pattern of atonement and set up counterfeit systems of atonement which simply could not get the job done. The prophets described this as a two-step spiritual dynamic: abandoning God and His commands; and replacing them with self-made traditions that cannot go the distance:

This was manifested in a striking way after Jeroboam and the Ten Tribes rebelled against King Rehoboam son of Solomon at Shechem:

Nearly 1,000 years later, Rabbinic Judaism set up a non-biblical system of atonement after the destruction of the Second Temple.  From 70 A.D. until 132 A.D. certain activities – liturgies, prayer services, acts of repentance, and good deeds – were advocated by the Pharisaic-rabbinic leadership as having atoning power. But these things were not true: there were no more Temple sacrifices, and the only effective atonement (Messiah Yeshua’s atoning sacrifice on the cross) was not recognized or accepted by the rabbis.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (the Messianic Jews) challenged his readers that, as faithful followers of Yeshua, they would also need to bear the reproach of being associated with a crucified Messiah. That would involve stepping outside the confines of the major stream of Judaism that had rejected the Messiah, and instead holding faithfully to Messianic Judaism that honored and preached Messiah Yeshua: “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy Place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Yeshua also suffered outside the gate, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood. So then, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrew 13:11-13).

The recognized leaders of the Jewish people had rejected King David’s Greater Son (see Matthew 12:6; 22:41-46). The purity of the Temple system had turned spiritually unkosher. The prophet Isaiah reminds us of a similar dynamic in his own day, where kosher atoning sacrifices turned unclean before the face of YHVH:

Messiah Yeshua wept over Jerusalem and prophesied that this city and its House (the Temple) were about to be destroyed, because of her spiritual rebellion and rejection of David’s Greater Son:

Once again the words of Isaiah could be applied to the people of Jacob: “The entire head is sick and the entire heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing healthy in it – only bruises, slashes, and raw wounds” (Isaiah 1:5-6).

A wing and a prayer on the Temple Mount

The Hebrew Scriptures do not avert their eyes when dealing with bad news. One astounding example of this is the prophet Daniel, who was given a startling prophecy by the angel Gabriel (Daniel 9:21) in 9:24-27. Gabriel lays out a clear and detailed time-line of some bad news coming down the pike. He refers to the people under discussion as Daniel’s Jewish people. Specific locations are described – the Holy City (Jerusalem), the Holy Place (within the Temple) also called the Sanctuary (the House of YHVH), and the place of sacrifice and grain offering (the holy precinct within the Temple compound). Messiah will come to the Temple Mount, and then He will be killed (cut off). Jerusalem and the House of YHVH will be destroyed. These events actually came to pass in 70 A.D. when the Herodian Temple was destroyed and the city of Jerusalem was largely destroyed.

Gabriel then looks down the corridors of time and focuses on an evil person who will eventually enter into a covenantal agreement with the Jewish Temple leadership, allowing for animal sacrifices and grain offerings to be jump-started. It’s worth noting that this future scenario pre-supposes that a rebuilt Temple standing will be standing at that time – and that event has not yet come to pass. This person will single-handedly halt these Jewish sacrifices and offerings after approximately three and a half years. And at that point someone enters the scene, “the one who makes desolate,” who enters “on the wing of abominations:”

Paul gives us apostolic commentary on this prophecy: “[T]he Day of the Lord . . . will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:2-5).

Messiah Yeshua adds greater detail: “Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation  which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place – let the reader understand – then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short”  (Matthew 24:15-22).

These prophecies shed important light on some aspects of the Last Days, as well as the order of those events:

The majority of Messianic leaders today are aware of these coming apocalyptic events. This explains why they are not supportive of present efforts to rebuild the Temple or even to import red heifers to the country of Israel.

Trampling of the Temple Mount

Let’s look at one last prophetic passage which concerns the Temple Mount and the Holy Compound:

This passage notes that the actual Temple and altar will be under Jewish control for forty-two months yet future, while the Temple courtyard will be “given to the nations” – the Gentile nations (and their armies) who will trample the Holy City (Jerusalem), also for forty-two months.  The difficulty in interpreting this passage is not with what is written – the words here are very clear. The challenge come in interweaving other biblical texts which add color and detail to this scenario, yet at the same time make it difficult to smooth out all the dramatic details (see Zechariah 12; Ezekiel 37; etc.)

The Last Jerusalem Battle in front of the Temple Mount

Some of us would like greater clarity about events which are not clearly laid out in Scripture. As a result, there is a strong temptation for some of us to ‘fill in the blanks’ and to be dogmatic where the Bible is not dogmatic. An example of such a temptation concerns the gathering of the armies of the world against the Jewish people and the Jewish capital of Jerusalem. Passages like Ezekiel 38-39, Zechariah 12-14 and Joel 3:1-17 are tantalizingly terse in their descriptions. What can be concluded from these passages is that various events will occur:

There are still some pieces of the puzzle which are missing. This should hold us back from dogmatism in dealing with the interpretive tensions here. The key needs of the hour still are study, repentance and intercession.

Down on the threshing floor

The Scriptures have led us on an amazing journey as we have looked at the past, present and future of the Temple Mount – from Abraham’s place of sacrifice to David’s threshing floor. Zechariah shows us that all the nations will undergo a severe threshing as they attack Jerusalem and her Temple Mount. What was Araunah’s threshing floor will be the place of threshing and judgment for all the nations:

Ezekiel’s Temple and Jerusalem – the prophetic dimensions

What will occur on the Temple Mount during Messiah’s millennial earthly reign? Ezekiel’s prophecies convey the lion’s share of the information needed to receive a clear vision.

Many followers of Yeshua stay far away from Ezekiel, since he prophesies things that they do not believe, or do not want to believe. Many believers once scorned and smirked about Ezekiel’s vision of the Jewish dry bones returning to their Promised Land (Ezekiel 37:1-14) – until the Jewish people began to return to their Israeli homeland. Today, with over 1/3 of all Jewish people back in their ancient Promised Land, many Christians are more open to what Ezekiel prophesies regarding other Last Days issues.

In Ezekiel 40-48 the prophet makes 60 references to the future geographical location of the Temple and the Sanctuary. Detailed descriptions are given of the future altar, the future sacrificial system and the future professional functions of the priests. Some believers are taken aback by these things. Their understanding up to this point has been that God’s calling on Israel and His gifts to them (see Romans 11:28-29) have ended. These believers have been raised with a Replacement Theology framework, and have been taught that the Promised Land no longer belongs to the Jewish people, that there will be no regathering of the people of Jacob to the Land of Israel, that there is no more priority calling in Romans 1:16 and that Ezekiel’s 40-48 descriptions are simply spiritual allegory.

But the biblical text does not see things that way. See what the angelic messenger instructs Ezekiel to do and say by:

YHVH the God of Israel then soberly instructs Ezekiel:

Ezekiel’s Temple and sacrifices

It is the God of Jacob who directly tells Ezekiel that certain Levites will in charge of certain aspects of the sacrificial ministry – slaughtering burnt offerings and sacrificing them on the altar in the House of YHVH:

The God of Jacob informs Ezekiel that the Davidic prince will in charge of subsidizing certain aspects of the sacrificial ministry, the grain and vegetable offerings – and all this on the Jewish feast days as described in Leviticus 23. The word ‘atonement’ is also mentioned in this passage.

These Scriptures clarify some aspects of what will be happening in this Last Days Temple. Sacrifices will be part of the divine program.

During the time of the Mosaic Covenant, sacrifices ‘covered over’ sins on a yearly basis (that is the meaning of the Hebrew word kaparah, from which comes the word ‘Yom Kippur’ or ‘Yom Hakippurim’ – the Day of Atonement).  These repeated sacrifices actually did not take away sin: “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4). Those Mosaic sacrifices looked forward to Messiah’s New Covenant atonement. When believers take communion or ‘the Lord’s Supper,’ they are looking back in time and remembering what Messiah Yeshua did on the cross.  As Paul says, “In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the New covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:25-26).

In the same way as Mosaic sacrifices looked forward to Messiah Yeshua’s atonement, so the sacrifices in the Messianic Temple which Ezekiel describes seem to be a reminder – a memorial – looking back on Messiah Yeshua’s atoning sacrifice.

The return of the Shekinah

In Acts 1, an angel addresses the Apostles: “And after [Yeshua] had said these things, He was lifted up while they were watching, and a cloud took Him up, out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, then behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, and they said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Yeshua, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9-11). The angel told the Apostles that, in the same way as Yeshua departed, “in the same way” He will return.

Ezekiel informs us that in the same way that the Shekinah Glory, the Holy Spirit, departed from the Temple Mount, the Glory will return in the same way to the Temple Mount:

An interesting matter to consider: this passage describes the Glory of YHVH returning to a pre-standing Temple, the House of YHVH. This is the clear presupposition of this passage. But where does that pre-existing Temple come from? The passage does not explain the matter to the reader. Will that Temple be built before Messiah’s return, according to the specifications that YHVH gave to Ezekiel in chapters 40-48? Or is there some other solution? A prayerful ‘wait and see’ approach is best here.

In Ezekiel 44, YHVH Himself addresses the prophet, telling him to pay strong attention to the details regarding the rebuilt Temple, since they are extremely significant:

The stress that God puts on the Jewish people understanding these matters, leads us to consider making these issues a priority in our study of the Scriptures.

Get you up on a High Mountain, Zion!

At the time when Messiah Yeshua returns to reign over the earth from the Temple Mount, some geographical changes will occur across this planet. Isaiah points this out:

The highest mountain on earth, according to Isaiah, will be the Mountain of the House of YHVH. Ezekiel 45:1-8 also describes the future dimensions of the Temple Mount and its surrounding areas, the Levitical area, and Jerusalem with its surrounding farmland. The Temple itself will be approximately one mile square, while its surrounding area will be approximately 50 miles east-west and 20 miles north-south. The top strip will contain the Temple Mount at its center; the middle strip will be for the House of Levi; the bottom strip will have Jerusalem in the middle (ten miles square) with farmland on either side. These dimensions will require major geographical alterations. A space of approximately 30 miles north-south will lie between the Temple Mount and the city of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel describes this new geographic order at the beginning of his vision in chapter 40:

The Temple Mount river

A new river will bubble up from under the House of YHVH and will flow eastward to the Dead Sea.

This new river with fresh waters will flow out from under the Temple Mount and then split into two, half heading to the Dead Sea and half to the Mediterranean:

The prophet Joel also received prophetic revelation about this river:

The abundance of water flowing up from under the Temple Mount will change the climate of dusty Jerusalem. The city of God’s appointed feasts will end up looking like Venice, with rivers and canals:

The Temple Mount – a Throne but no Ark

Jeremiah was once granted a special revelation about Messianic Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant (which was originally located in the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount) will no longer be located there. Instead, the very presence of King Messiah will be there, sitting on the Throne of YHVH which will also be the Throne of David!

These remarkable prophetic promises will surely come to pass. In our next newsletter, we will look at what perspectives the Eternal Order and the New Jerusalem will bring to the ‘prophetic table.’

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

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