Making room in the Bible for the Jewish people

The Bible is chock full of prophecies specifically given to the Jewish people. What happens when Gentile believers re-interpret those Jewish promises away from the Jewish people? Most Christian use of Scripture ignores its Jewish context and simply replaces it with a Gentile Christian context. This is Replacement theology, practically speaking. Even my best friends do this on a daily basis.

Let’s look at this problem, and then try to bring some biblical balance.  The Bible says that cursing, making light of or ignoring the Jewish people is a biblical no-no (see Genesis 12:3; Jeremiah 30:17). Is there a more excellent way of using the Jewish Scriptures – one that will not separate the Jewish people from their promises, while at the same time allowing Gentile believers to apply the relevant spiritual principles to their own lives?

A diamond is forever

The Apostle Paul gives us a solid foundation for understanding and using the Jewish Scriptures: “From the standpoint of God’s choice they (the Jewish people) are beloved for the sake of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) – because the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28).

Simply put, all of the promises originally spoken over the Jewish people still apply to the Jewish people. They are all valid prophecies and they will certainly come to pass for the sons and daughters of Jacob. These promises, like diamonds, are forever. They are the family jewels of Jacob’s children.

Staying honest

How are we to honor the original and lasting intent of the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15) in our teaching, preaching and calls to intercession? Whenever we use a Scripture passage which talks about Israel, let’s ask ourselves some basic questions:

Discovering that the Bible really is a Jewish book

If nearly all of the Bible’s prophecies are about the Jewish people, God must have a reason for that.

God is calling for a radical reformation in the Body of Messiah. His challenge to us all – can we let the Bible mean what it says? Will we allow those prophecies to breathe, giving honor to God’s word by honoring His original intent?

“Does that prophecy actually refer to the Jews and their destiny?” (first illustration)

A movement of worship and intercession is spreading across the planet. Christian believers are glorifying the God of Israel and calling on Him to bring repentance, renewal and revival to their own nations. Scripture passages are often drafted and pressed into the service of these movements. A closer look at these passages almost always reveals that the verses used are actually prophesying specific destiny over the Jewish people.

One example is Isaiah 60:1-3, 12, 14:

“Arise, shine; for your light has come and the glory of YHVH has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples. But YHVH will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising … For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly ruined … The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet. And they will call you the City of YHVH, Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 60:1-3, 12, 14)

This passage is not a declaration that the church will bring revival to other Gentiles. It is definitely a declaration that Israel will bring revival to all the nations (which is part of her prophesied destiny; see Romans 11:12, 15).

How to use this passage honestly? It’s a two-step process:

  1. One, proclaim that YHVH will shine His light on Israel and through them He will bring light to the Gentiles. This is a high strategy for God and we all need to make it part of our strategy as well
  2. Two, encourage people to appeal to the God of Jacob to shine His light upon their own nations as well

This two-step process keeps us honest:

  1. Point one above declares that Isaiah 60 is a prophecy over the Jewish people. It is our privilege to proclaim this prophetic promise over Israel
  2. Point two above is our own prayer response, though it’s not what the prophecy is stressing. We ask God to shine His light on our nations – but without weakening the biblical promise for Israel, and without turning our prayers over our own nations into false prophecies

“Does that prophecy actually refer to the Jews and their destiny?” (second illustration)

Here’s another example of how to use scripture honestly:

“So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O YHVH, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name. For we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. O YHVH, hear! O YHVH, forgive! O YHVH, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before YHVH my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God… (Daniel 9:17-20)

Daniel’s intercessory prayer is highly specific. It focuses on the Jewish people, their sins and their prophetic destiny. If we want to use this scripture passage to encourage other nations and peoples to intercede for their own countries, the same two-step process applies: One, recognize and proclaim that Daniel is interceding for Israel’s repentance, restoration and salvation. This is a high priority for God. It should be our high priority as well. Two, encourage people to appeal to the God of Jacob to bring repentance, restoration and salvation to your own nations. If we follow this two-step process, we walk in God’s ways, honoring His prophetic intentions and His heart for Israel. We enter into God’s burdens without weakening the biblical promise for Israel, and without turning our prayers over our own nations into false prophecies.

“Does that prophecy actually refer to the Jews and their destiny?” (third illustration)

Here’s a third example of how to use scripture honestly:

“In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David and wall up its breaches. I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name, declares YHVH who does this. Behold, days are coming, declares YHVH, when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed – when the mountains will drip sweet wine and all the hills will be dissolved. Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them, says YHVH your God” (Amos 9:11-15)

Amos’ prophecy is very specific. It talks about:

If someone would want to use this scripture passage to encourage nations and peoples to press in to God through worship, the same two-step process still offers help here, though it should be stressed that worship is not the subject of Amos 9:11: One, proclaim that Amos is prophesying the Jewish people's physical and spiritual restoration and salvation. This is a high priority for God. It should be our high priority as well. Two, encourage people to worship the God of Jacob. If we follow the first step of this two-step process, we will be walking in God’s ways, honoring His prophetic intentions and His heart for Israel – without weakening the biblical promise for Israel, and without altering the meaning of Amos’ prophecy.

A little less boasting, a lot more equipping

Two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul called out a warning to Rome’s Gentile believers: “Do not boast against the (original Jewish) branches” (Romans 11:18). To teach that YHVH’s gifts to the Jewish people are revocable and have now morphed into Gentile and not Jewish gifts – this is precisely the boasting against the Jewish people that Paul condemns in Romans 11:18, 20.

Leaders and teachers in the Body of Messiah need to get out of our easy chairs and start teaching what the Bible actually says about these issues. A daily dose of Vitamin J (kosher teaching about the Jewish calling) is long overdue. Paul calls us upward: “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Messiah – until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:11-14)

Mañana (tomorrow) is good enough for me

One of our ministry emphases focuses on the urgent need to equip believers – so that we will all be pro-actively ready for the restoration of Israel. Occasionally some believers respond to the challenges with these words:

Brothers and sisters, the time for hesitation’s through. Let’s stop the delaying tactics. Let’s own up to our lack of prophetic courage.

Let the Jewish people back into their own tent

In your devotions, in your Bible reading, in your preaching and teaching, allow the Jewish people into your tent. According to Romans 11:24 it is actually their own tent –“their own olive tree”. But do make room for the Jewish people, and allow them back into their own Bible, their gifts and their calling.

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

By the rivers of Woodstock

It’s fifty years on since a half a million young Americans flowed down the Interstates to converge at Bethel in western New York State.  Smack dab in the middle of Max Yasgur’s cow pasture, the Woodstock Aquarian Festival of Music and Art morphed into a muddy stage which would showcase the counterculture generation.  Hundreds of thousands got up and danced to the music, swaying to the songs and promised dreams.

Carlos Santana explains:

Michael Lang, the event’s main organizer, similarly opines:

Rolling Stone magazine stated that Woodstock was:

Now that 50 years have come and gone – the same amount of time as a biblical jubilee (see Leviticus 25:8-13) – what perspectives can we take away from the rock festival that was in Bethel – musically, socially and spiritually?

The saffron-robed swami and I

Woodstock began with Sri Swami Satchidananda leading at least 400,000 American youth in invoking the spirit of the Hindu deity Ram.

In 1991 it was revealed that over the years at least 11 women, including two of Satchidananda’s former secretaries, had been coerced into having sexual relations with him.

The saffron-robed swami had just shrink-wrapped ancient polytheism and given it a new Aquarian rock 'n' roll packaging – his present to the youth of the Western world. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times of Judeo-Christian spiritual consensus were rapidly changing.

A text with a context

Woodstock flowered at the end of the American Sixties. A lot had gone down in the previous twenty years:

President Eisenhower had challenged America to give a wide berth to a carnal materialism which spurned biblical and spiritual realities. His 1954 State of the Union address declared:

The spiritual thirst of America’s youth had found little that was appetizing in increasingly liberal and anti-supernatural traditional forms of Christianity and Judaism. This irresistible spiritual hunger was about to crash into an immovable American religiosity.

Francis Schaeffer remarked that “the hippies of the 1960s did understand something. They were right in fighting the plastic culture, and the church should have been fighting it too ... More than this, they were right in the fact that the plastic culture – modern man, the mechanistic worldview in university textbooks and in practice, the total threat of the machine, the establishment technology, the bourgeois upper middle class – is poor in its sensitivity to nature ... As a utopian group, the counterculture understands something very real, both as to the culture as a culture, but also as to the poverty of modern man’s concept of nature and the way the machine is eating up nature on every side” (Francis A. Schaeffer, Pollution & the Death of Man).

A hard rain’s gonna fall

An entire generation of baby boomers grew up with a nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 seeded existential fear across the continent. Why plan for a distant retirement when faced with the clear and present danger of total human destruction? The ‘American Dream’ was beginning to look like an illusion. The assassinations of John F. and Robert Kennedy as well as of Martin Luther King shook the stability of a nation.

These and other pressures colored developing social dynamics:

Disintegrating values were leading to disintegrating boundaries.

This was the matrix from which Jefferson Airplane sang out at Woodstock:

Look what's happening out in the streets!

Got a revolution, got to revolution

One generation got old, one generation got soul! 

This generation got no dissertation to hold

Pick up the cry! Hey now it’s time for you and me - Got a revolution, Got to revolution”

(“Volunteers,” Marty Balin & Paul Kantner, © BMG Music)

The Who’s stunning performance at Woodstock threw the spotlight on a similar message:

Things they do look awful c-c-c-cold. I hope I die before I get old…

Why don’t you all fade away and don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say

I’m not trying to cause a big s-sensation. I’m just talkin’ ‘bout my g-g-g-generation

(“My Generation”, Peter Townshend,© Brunswick/Polydor)

The disillusionment with Western materialism in general and with America in particular bubbled up into what many see as the anthem of Woodstock – Canned Heat’s ‘Going up the country’ –

I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away.

All this fussin’ and fightin’ man, you know I sure can’t stay

So baby pack your leavin’ trunk, you know we’ve got to leave today

Just exactly where we’re goin’ I cannot say but we might even leave the U.S.A.

(Alan Wilson, © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC)

Outwards appearance and secret societies

Mark Twain once declared, “Clothes make a man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” Woodstock was famous for tie-dye t-shirts, fringed jeans and skinny dipping. Those outward manifestations nevertheless had a significant influence on Western society.

A music/social philosopher Bill Mankin offers some insight on this point:                                                         

The circle of life

The promise of a new generation that Woodstock hoped for – that utopian dream of a turned-on world, a transformed humanity and a new spiritual age – rapidly fell by the wayside. The nightmare of the Altamont Speedway Free Festival (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert) barely four months later saw an African-American stabbed to death by Hell’s Angels bodyguards while a white British rock-blues band (the Rolling Stones) played Sympathy for the Devil and Under my thumb. “Altamont became, whether fairly or not, a symbol for the death of the Woodstock Nation” (Mark Hamilton Lytle, America’s Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon, p. 336).

The Rolling Stones were not the cause of Woodstock Nation’s collapse. The spiritual pillars of the Aquarian Age had been tottering from the outset. And the moral compass of the movement was giving a false reading of the true North from the get-go. It is said that the apple does not fall far from the tree. In the end the hippies of Woodstock did not walk that differently from their fathers.

Joni Mitchell, famed Canadian singer-songwriter, has a verse which might sum up this aspect of the Woodstock journey: “And the seasons they go round and round. Painted ponies go up and down. We’re captive on the carousel of time. We can’t return we can only look behind from where we came and go round and round and round in the circle game” (Joni Mitchell, © Siquomb Publishing Company).

Searching for Paradise Lost

The spiritual yearnings which were part of the warp and woof of the rock festival crystallized in another Joni Mitchell song ‘Woodstock.’ According to David Crosby, Mitchell captured the feeling and importance of the Woodstock festival better than anyone who had actually been there. Her anthem describes a spiritual journey to Max Yasgur's farm, making conspicuous use of sacred imagery and comparing the festival site with the Garden of Eden.

Well, I came upon a child of God. He was walking along the road

And I asked him, “Tell me, where are you going?”

This he told me. Said, “I’m going down to Yasgur’s Farm

Gonna join in a rock and roll band.

Got to get back to the land and set my soul free”

Well, then can I roam beside you? I have come to lose the smog

And I feel myself a cog in something turning

And maybe it’s the time of year, yes and maybe it’s the time of man

And I don’t know who I am but life is for learning

We are stardust, we are golden. We are caught in the devils bargain

And we got to get ourselves back to the garden

(Joni Mitchell, ‘Woodstock’ © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC)

The Woodstock Generation was suddenly cut adrift. Within a year the three ‘J’s (Jimi, Janis and Jim Morrison) were dead of drug overdoses. But many of hippies soon came into a deep spiritual encounter with the Messiah of Israel, Yeshua, during the Jesus Revolution of the late Sixties and early Seventies. A significant number of these were Jewish people, and some of them became the leaders of the Messianic Jewish movement around the world and in Israel.

Who remembers the Babylonian Hit Parade?

Over 2,600 years ago Judah was crushingly exiled to Babylon. The Jewish people may have lost their homeland, but they didn’t lose their common sense. They realized that God had exiled them to a foreign land (Psalm 137:4). The prophetic restoration and future of their people lay in remembering the national connection between the scattered Jewish people and their Promised Land (verse 5). Indeed, every Jewish wedding shouts out these words: May even the high joy of my wedding day pale in comparison to YHVH’s promises to doubly restore the Jewish people – spiritually through the Messiah, and physically to the Land of Israel!

In the same way that no one today remembers the ancient Babylonian Top Forty, the Jewish people also no longer remember the Hebrew melodies we were forced to sing beside the Euphrates River 2,600 years ago.  But do the Jewish people still remember the fact that most of Jacob’s sons and daughters are not in Israel, but still reside in the lands of our Exile (2 Kings 17:23; 25:21; Ezra 5:12; 9:4; 10:16; Isaiah 5:13a; Jeremiah 16:13-15; 29:13-14; 30:10-11; 16-18)?

Many Jews in the Exile have lost their memory. We have forgotten Zion and are desperately trying to fit in to the lands of our enemies (see Ezekiel 39:25-29; 20:38). And all the while we are afraid that if the Gentiles remember our connection with the Land of Israel and realize that we are only ‘strangers in a strange land,’ they will turn on us and do us evil (Ezekiel 34:5-6. 11-16; 20:32). France once threatened their Jewish community with something similar (https://archive.jewishagency.org/jewish-community/content/24142).

Most English-speaking Jews in the Exile have forgotten these truths, just as they have forgotten the language of Zion and the layout of Jerusalem’s hills. When world leaders remind our people of our need to remember Jerusalem and to be loyal to our people or homeland, this is a divine call for the Jewish people to wake up and press in to know our God!

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Double trouble and double blessing

One day in the Hebrew calendar is connected to devastation. The fifth month (known as Av or Ab) witnessed the destruction of two Jewish Temples – Solomon’s and Herod’s. That catastrophe (ḥurban in Hebrew) and its spiritual significance are unpacked in the prophetic Scriptures. These tragic lessons still resonate for us today.

Building the Temple was a good thing

Distancing our hearts from YHVH leads to severe shaking

On the day of Solomon’s dedication of the Temple, YHVH prophesied that Solomon’s dynasty would eventually undermine the spiritual foundations of the House. This would lead to the destruction of the Temple and the Exile of the Jewish people:

The ecumenical encounter between Babylon and Zion

The iron fist of Babylon broke into Jerusalem on the 7th of Av, 587 B.C. and completed the full destruction of the Temple by the 10th of Av.

Jewish tradition blended those two dates together, synthesizing the Ninth of Av as the memorial day. Since that time Tisha B’Av has become a day of mourning and fasting.

Throughout Jewish history, many tragedies fell upon the Jewish people on or about the 9th of Av, including:

The Ninth of Av is a day when many Jews remember these tragedies, humble their souls and hope for better.

How does God view Tisha B’Av?

Zechariah was a prophet who ministered at the same time as Haggai, during the era of Nehemiah.

The God of Israel notes that He had not established the Fast of Tisha B’Av. That decision had been taken independently by the spiritual leaders of Israel. Mourning and fasting have an important place, but they are no substitute for a repentant heart. Lack of repentance had led to the destruction of the Temple and to the Exile. God was looking for a change of heart in Judah – repentance, confession and return to the prophetic words of the Scriptures. And that repentance was still largely lacking in Zechariah’s day:

God was speaking clearly: it’s not another fast day which is needed. Real turning back to YHVH is what’s on the agenda.

Consider also the prophecy of Ezekiel 20, given on the 10th of Av, hammering home the same message.

What God called for among the Jewish people in Zechariah’s day – He is still calling for today.

My Jewish people need to turn back to our God, repent of our rejection of David and His dynasty (1 Kings 12:16-19) – our rejection of David’s Greater Son Yeshua the Messiah (Isaiah 53) – and our rejection of His gracious New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). We need to learn the biblical lessons of Tisha B’Av. National mourning without national repentance will not tip the balances.

Double prophetic blessing

A day is coming when Israel will repent with a whole heart (see Zechariah 12-14). In that day Tisha B’Av will not be memorialized with mourning and fasting, but with joy, gladness and cheerful feasting: “Then the word of YHVH of armies came to me, saying, ‘Thus says YHVH of armies, The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace’” (Zechariah 8:18-19).

Isaiah proclaims that a future Temple will be established on the Temple Mount, known as YHVH’s House of Prayer: “Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My House of Prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar. For My House will be called a House of Prayer for all the peoples” (Isaiah 56:7).

God will heal the Jewish people’s wounds. He will rebuild our land and our promises. Messiah will rule and reign in our midst.

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Two hearts beat as one

God, like the U.S. Marines, is always looking for a few good men. “For the eyes of YHVH move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Men and women judge by outward appearances and behavior, but the God of Jacob sees deeper still. “YHVH said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature … for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but YHVH looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:7).

YHVH’s radar searches out mankind, and pings loudly when our hidden thoughts appear on His screen. “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind. For YHVH searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts” (1 Chronicles 28:9).

One of the wisest man who ever lived shares a secret with us: “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

God may turn a cold shoulder to the proud. He may scorn those who scorn Him or His people the Jews (see Genesis 12:3). But He wants us to know that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Israel – God’s passionate choice reveals God’s heart

God’s choosing of Israel is not merely an eschatological strategy. It is a matter of the passions of His heart:

Israel – God’s litmus test for our hearts

The God of Jacob wants to know what is hidden in our hearts. One of His goals in the 40 years of desert wanderings was to expose the deepest thoughts of His Jewish people: “Remember how YHVH your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart” (Deuteronomy 8:2).

YHVH’s prophetic spirit wants to reveal the things we sometimes want to conceal. “But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25).

God’s choosing of Israel goes all the way back to Genesis 12:3. It did not begin in 1948.

The choosing of the Jewish people is a challenge to the nations. It is a challenge to Christianity and to Islam, to Communism and to Fascism. How will the nations respond to God’s priority call on Jacob? How will they react to satanic attempts to destroy the Jewish people, their state and their divine calling?

A passionate theological heart for Israel

God cares about all peoples, but at the same time He takes great pains in the Scriptures to emphasize to the nations that He has a priority heart for the Jewish people.

In a passage specifically spoken to Jerusalem, Zion and Judah, the God of Isaac declares His tenderness toward the Jewish people: “See, YHVH the Lord comes with power and He rules with a mighty arm. See, His reward is with Him and His recompense accompanies Him. He tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads those that have young” (Isaiah 40:10-11).

In a similar prophetic declaration, John the Baptist’s father Zechariah eloquently proclaims YHVH’s passionate salvation and defense of the Jewish people:

Any theology about the Jewish people needs to start at the same place where God starts – His deep love for the Jewish people and His passionate embrace of the daughter of Zion. Since “the plans of YHVH stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:11), our teachings on Israel must begin where His love for the Jewish people begins – His embrace of Jacob (see Ezekiel 16:3-14).

True confessions

In my travels I sometimes bump into perspectives which sidestep God’s biblical choosing of Israel. At times it sound like some of these teachings concentrate on anything but what the Scriptures teach concerning Jacob, anything but God’s radar love for the Jewish people.

Let’s stop for a moment and re-calibrate our radar. Why not focus on what 95% of the Scriptures teach concerning God’s irrevocable calling and gifts for Israel? Why major on involved eschatological schemes while simultaneously disregarding God’s overrunning cup of love for Jacob’s children? Why attempt to strike a PC position vis-à-vis Middle Eastern nations while concurrently adulterating the priority call on Israel (often an offense to Gentile minds)?

Let’s remember the Apostle Paul’s heart confession, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation” (Romans 10:1).

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart!” (Hebrews 4:12).

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Jewish roots - authentic identity in the midst of broken branches

One of the main deliberations in the Messianic Jewish movement today is, “What is true Jewish identity, and what is authentic Messianic Jewish identity?” Some Gentiles who are interested in things Jewish ask a similar question: “What are the Jewish roots of our faith, and how can Gentile believers embrace those Jewish aspects which are kosher/acceptable in God’s sight?”

Paul prophesies that a day is coming when the majority of the Jewish people (the natural branches) will be re-grafted in with great power and fruitfulness into their own Jewish olive tree of faith: “How much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Romans 11:24). He also speaks of Gentile believers in Yeshua as wild olive branches “grafted in among the (Jewish believing) branches and have become partakers with them of the rich root of the olive tree” (Romans 11:22). The Greek here literally says ‘partakers with them in the root of the fatness’ or ‘partakers in the rich sap’ which comes from the root of the tree).

Déjà vu all over again

Not so long ago – only 2,850 years back – the Jewish people found themselves in a spiritual pickle. The God of Jacob had promised, “For YHVH will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because YHVH has been pleased to make you a people for Himself” (1 Samuel 12:22: see also Psalm 94:14). But ten tribes rose up in rebellion against the House of David:  “When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, ‘What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse! To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!’ So Israel departed to their tents … So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day” (1 Kings 12:16, 19).

This rebellion significantly influenced Jewish spiritual and physical history. Fateful decisions were made.

The northern Ten Tribes still worshiped YHVH, but Israel had become physically and spiritually sick, and in rebellion against Jacob’s God.

Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth, for YHVH speaks. Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me. An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know! My people do not understand! Alas, sinful nation! People weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned YHVH. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away from Him. Where will you be stricken again as you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it – only bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil (Isaiah 1:2-6).

Eventually the southern two tribes of Judah also rebelled. Davidic kings, Levitical priests and the common people all joined in forsaking YHVH: “Now the word of YHVH came to me saying, Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says YHVH, I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals, your following after Me in the wilderness through a land not sown … For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters – to hew for themselves cisterns – broken cisterns – that can hold no water’” (Jeremiah 2:2-3, 13).

What an incredible scenario! The people whom God chose, and the royal dynasty that YHVH had chosen – all turned against Him. Even so, God remained faithful and still remains faithful to His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: “Thus says YHVH, If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares YHVH” (Jeremiah 31:37).

A precious remnant remains

The God of Jacob will never abandon His people, even when the sins of the majority of the people are grievous: “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in covenant faithfulness” (Micah 7:18).

Paul echoes this prophetic promise: “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice” (Romans 11:5).

Ministering to a people beset by apostasy

Israel had moved into full blown rebellion and apostasy. As a result, the Hebrew prophets faced challenging problems as they attempted to minister to Jacob’s children.

How to minister to a rebellious and apostate nation? This tension comes out most clearly in the story of three Jews – Elisha, Jehoshaphat and Jehoram:

Elisha would have refused to honor the King of Israel’s request for a royal audience. He consented to show up and minister only because of the presence of a descendant of the House of David at the meeting. Some thoughts here:

A decisive rejection

When Messiah Yeshua the Son of David presented Himself to Israel, the Zenith of prophetic revelation came face to face with His Jewish nation. Though many Jewish people did happily receive Yeshua, the majority of Jacob’s leaders did not. As the Psalmist prophesied, “the Stone which the builders rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22) Peter added that Yeshua “is the Stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the Chief Cornerstone” (Acts 4:11).

This rejection of Messiah brought a measure of darkness and suffering to my people. Through it all, though YHVH has not rejected us as a people, we have experienced increased woe. We have also experienced an extended national Exile – both spiritually and physically – because of our leaders’ rejection of Messiah.

Part of our national rebellion expressed itself in Jeroboam’s day in the way we developed unauthorized and inauthentic religious traditions. In the same way, after Israel’s religious leaders rejected Messiah Yeshua, the non-Levitical Pharisaic leaders developed many unauthorized and inauthentic religious traditions. Some of these new Jewish traditions leave no room for Yeshua, and they sidestep the biblical need for Messiah’s atonement.

We Messianic Jews often find ourselves stepping onto this creaking bridge of Jewish tradition. Truth is, certain beams in that spiritual structure cannot bear the weight of Messiah’s glory. Nevertheless, the pull of these traditions often remains very strong in the souls of some Messianic Jews. 

Searching for our roots

In the 20th century modern African-Americans have searched for their roots in the writings of Franz Fanon, Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver and Alex Haley’s Roots TV program. Italian Americans cast a longing eye toward their past roots in Hollywood epics like The Godfather. Jewish people in America look to Fiddler on the Roof and Schindler’s List for a glimpse of Eastern European roots. The American melting pot may slowly be dissolving ethnic and cultural backgrounds, but some of these ethnic streams are very much trying to keep ‘roots memories’ alive.

I agree that the Black Panthers and the Cosa Nostra may not be the best role models available. And for many North American Jews, the wider Jewish community no longer sees its identity as defined by Orthodox Judaism. Our forefathers in Poland, Ukraine and Russia were not happy with the strong religious control they faced, a very real part of shtetl life. Their emigration to the New World included a deliberate choosing of American civil rights and democratic and secular ways. It is we, their grandchildren, who sometimes look back longingly and unrealistically to an Orthodox Judaism lifestyle, hoping that a dream-like sojourn in Tevye’s world will confer true and authentic Jewish identity upon us.   

Today significant streams in the Messianic Jewish community advocate that there is only one authentic Jewish lifestyle, and that it is rooted in the Mosaic covenant. They believe that an authentic Jewish life looks a lot like Orthodox Judaism. These folks add that non-Jews don’t need to follow the Mosaic Law – unless of course these non-Jews want to be part of Messianic congregations …

Continuity and discontinuity

Jeremiah 31:31-34 prophesies that YHVH is bringing forth a New Covenant, “not 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, declares YHVH.”

The New Covenant described by Jeremiah is not like the Mosaic Covenant. The New Covenant is not a renewed Mosaic Covenant, but a truly New Covenant.

As Messianic Jews struggle with the ramifications of this passage (and with others, like Galatians 3:19-25) we will hammer out our own authentic identity. Then we will be able to offer true hope and light to Israel and to the world. Only then will we successfully proclaim Messiah Yeshua’s atonement and the gift of the Holy Spirit to our people, many who are experiencing brokenness in many ways.

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

We wish you a kosher Pentecost!

Today is the Day of Pentecost (Greek for ‘fiftieth’). The original Hebrew name is Shavuot (‘weeks’), referring to the waiting period between Passover and Pentecost – seven weeks of seven days each, culminating in the holiday on the fiftieth day (Leviticus 23:15-21). 
 
My Polish Jewish grandfather used to say, “A goat may have a beard, but that doesn’t make him a rabbi!” In the same way, some Jewish traditions may have beautiful beards, but that does not make every last one of these traditions biblical or authentic. Shavuot is a good illustration of this proverb. Let’s look at this together.
 
A harvest by any other name
 
The first biblical harvest of the New Year (Passover time, according to Exodus 12:1-2) is barley (see Exodus 9:31; Ruth 1:22). The Book of Ruth takes place closer to Passover time, during the barley harvest.
 
The next crop comes soon after, and it is wheat (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:9-12). Shavuot celebrates the wheat harvest, as these above passages explain. Fifty days separate these two harvests.
 
This Festival of Shavuot is also called the Feast of the Reaping in Exodus 23:16, where it says to celebrate “the reaping of the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field” (also see Numbers 28:2).
 
Shavuot is an agricultural festival in the Bible. It could well be that the declaration of thanksgiving in Deuteronomy 16:1-11 was proclaimed by each and every Jewish farmer on Shavuot when he brought his first fruits offering to the House of YHVH in Jerusalem.
 
Three times a year all Jewish men needed to come up to Jerusalem and appear before YHVH’s presence with offerings (Exodus 23:14-17; 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16). It was one of the shalosh regalim (sholesh regolim in Yiddish), one of the three pilgrim feats.
 

  • That is all that Moses said about Shavuot – no more and no less. Shavuot is not linked to any other Biblical occurrence or date in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

Jumping Jubilee!
 
Over one hundred years before the birth of Yeshua, Jewish scribes translated the Bible from Hebrew into Greek. Their translation, known as the Septuagint (meaning ‘the seventy’ scribes who traditionally did the work) uses the word Pentēkostē in Leviticus 25:10, referring to ‘the fiftieth’ – in this case the 50th year of Jubilee. In Yeshua’s day Hebrew-speaking Jews would call the Feast ‘Shavuot’ while Greek-speaking Jews would call the same Feast Pentēkostē (or Pentecost in modern English).

A Jewish get-together
 
When I studied Second Temple Jewish History at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, my professor Dr. Menahem Stern (the top world scholar of that discipline) pointed out how Acts 2:9-11 was an excellent description of the extent of the Jewish Diaspora in those days – the countries to which Israel had been exiled and still remained in Exile:
 
Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God” (Acts 2:5-11)
 
Shavuot meant that Jews from all over the world were coming up to Jerusalem to honor YHVH’s commandment. Though a few proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism) also came up, it was Jews from Arabia to Asia, from Egypt to Elam who all got together for a national Thanksgiving Day celebration in Jerusalem. This happened every year – a Jewish people celebrating a Jewish feast in a Jewish city.
 

  • Again, nothing in Acts 2 points to anything other than a biblical and agricultural feast of thanksgiving – exactly as Moses wrote.

The message of Messianic Pentecost
 
Shimon (better known today as Simon Peter) is filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, as are his spiritual comrades. Tongues looking like flame were dancing on their heads, and they all began to speak in unlearned languages – the languages of the countries of their Exile (Acts 2:6-8). The good news of Messiah Yeshua and His resurrection were being proclaimed in the very heart of Jerusalem.
 
Peter said that these amazing manifestations were a reflection of Joel’s Last Days prophecies. 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 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 will be filled with the Spirit of YHVH.
 
Eight years later, the Good News of Messiah Yeshua was still only being preached to Jewish people. But three breakthrough events occurred in Acts 8-10: Philip was led by the Spirit to share the Message with an Ethiopian eunuch; Saul was miraculously brought into the Kingdom; and Peter was brought up to Caesarea to share his Jewish message with the family of the Roman centurion of the Italian Cohort. That whole Roman family repented, came into the kingdom, and spoke in tongues  – but as Gentiles and not as converts to Judaism.
 
Rabbinic counter-response part one
 
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 that the hero of Shavuot is actually a heroine. Ruth was now elevated as the poster child of Gentile conversion to rabbinic Judaism. Her Passover barley harvest story was morphed into a Shavuot wheat harvest narrative. Though the rabbis came on the scene over 1,000 years AFTER Ruth, they now tweaked the story of Ruth. Some even said that three rabbis actually were witnesses officiating at Ruth’s (fictional) conversion to rabbinic Judaism on the threshing floor.
 

  • Just to re-emphasize this point, there is not historical or biblical evidence that the events of Ruth took place at Shavuot.

Rabbinic counter-response part two
 
The rabbis Paul used to fellowship with before his Damascus Road roller coaster experience had an even more serious objection to apostolic Messianic teaching. 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 (Torah in Hebrew means ‘teaching’) was to lead the Jewish people to 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 paidagogos, which referred to a bodyguard who would take the child from his home through the raunchy Greek streets, protecting him and bringing him safely to the Greek school. Paul calls the Mosaic covenant a paidagogos (often translated ‘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 was multifaceted. 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 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 that the New Covenant was a Jewish covenant and that it was not like the Mosaic covenant. That’s why Jeremiah called it a ‘New Covenant.’
 
So the rabbis, like Mary Poppins, reached into their magic carpet bag and drew out a new date on the Jewish calendar – they proclaimed that Shavuot actually occurred on the same day that the Mosaic Covenant was given. From now on, Shavuot would become a holiday celebrating Mosaic Torah. The Giving of the Law would be championed, and the New Covenant Messianic movement would be undercut.
 

  • Without any scriptural warrant, authority or proof, the Rabbis tweaked the emphasis of Shavuot from thankful celebration of the wheat harvest to a Mosaic birthday party. It is as if they said, “Let’s make sure to leave out the New Covenant, leave out Messiah Yeshua, and let’s make sure that there are no Gentiles sneaking in the back door into a Jewish kingdom!”

Living in the Day of Small Things
 
The prophet warned his people not to despise the day of small things (Zechariah 4:10). In the Messianic movement in our day, we should also be aware that sometimes some of our theological formulations are more tentative and less accurate that we might think.
 
Most Messianic leaders and teachers have been taught by their leaders and teachers that the rabbinic perspectives on Shavuot and the rabbinic perspectives on the Mosaic covenant are kosher. I have dear Messianic friends and leaders who deny that the New Covenant is actually a New Covenant. Instead, they teach that it is simply a new and improved Mosaic Covenant.
 
I have dear Messianic friends who believe, as the rabbis teach, that Shavuot is when the Mosaic covenant was given and that Ruth is the poster child for friendly Gentiles, who should convert to rabbinic Judaism.
 
It is my conviction that these dear friends err (see Matthew 22:29) not knowing what the Scriptures say (or don’t say, in this case!). They are perhaps unaware of both Jewish and rabbinic history – and unaware of the early clashes between Messianic apostolic teaching and that of the rabbis on these points.
 
How should we then pray?
 

  • Pray for an increased understanding to come to the Messianic Jewish movement about the authentic biblical meaning of Shavuot
  • Pray for revelation to come to many hungry Jewish hearts about Messiah Yeshua and His New Covenantal gift of the Holy Spirit and salvation
  • Pray for followers of Jesus worldwide to receive and embrace these biblical and foundational truths, and not to get hung up on some inaccurate rabbinic traditions
  • Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

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

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
 
Donations can be sent to:
 
FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES 
BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA
 
Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Looking at world events through eagle eyes

As the pace of world events speeds up, values which have stood strong and stalwart for millennia are crashing down like mighty redwoods in a hurricane. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20-21)

Whereas in the 1980’s and 1990’s the world’s mouth gaped in unbelief as Communism became “commu-‘was’-im” – as the Iron Curtain came crashing down – today it is the West which is collapsing as the East rises phoenix-like out of the ashes. Today it is jihadi Islam which raises its murderous black banners as it terrorizes its way across the heart of the Middle East and North Africa.

The spirit of denial of reality and compromise with evil is dominating the deliberations of Western powers as the modern march of Mordor draws near to the modern ‘gates of Constantinople.’ The West is trapped in moral confusion and deception, while narcissism rules the airwaves and the pubs, the coffee houses and the social media. The termites have gnawn away the foundations of the 21st century Titanic, and all the positive confession in the world has not succeeded in waking up many in the Western wing of Messiah’s body to the imminent collapse of democracy and a biblical framework of values.

In such a turbulent world, with such turmoil roiling all around us, how can we be “observant” Jews and Gentiles? How can we observe what is going on and understand it from a “God’s eyes” perspective? How can we be pro-active in a world shaken by moral, material and spiritual earthquakes?

Horsing around with the Hebrew prophets

A stunning night vision came to the Hebrew prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 1:8-21). Worldwide in scope, it sums up superpower diplomacy and war into a profound revelation replete with horses, evil horns and muscled blacksmiths and carvers of wood. The proper understanding of this vision holds the key to us assimilating God’s age-to-age perspective on preparation for Last Days’ ministry.

Zechariah had been called to stand before the courts of Israel’s Almighty God and speak YHVH’s heart to His own beloved Jewish people, as well as to bring heavenly oracles to the mostly hostile surrounding nations. Just a few years prior to Zechariah’s call to the prophetic, his Jewish nation had been dragged off to exile by the rivers of Babylon, and their wondrous Temple (where dwelt the presence and fire of YHVH in visible form) had been reduced to ashes and rubble.

Yet this agony of Jewish Exile and the triumph of pagan and satanic forces (who were blaspheming the God of Israel and taunting His people Israel; see 1 Samuel 17:26-28) frankly left the world’s superpowers of Zechariah’s day unmoved. And in our day the agonies that Israel and the Jewish people face from concerted Islamist efforts to destroy it and from the cruel rise of modern anti-Semitism – these leave most of the world and much of the Body of Messiah bored and blasé.

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the (ed. Babylonian) month Shvat, in the second year of Darius, the word of YHVH came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows: I saw at night, and behold, a man was riding on a red horse, and He was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine, with red, sorrel and white horses behind him. Then I said, “My lord, what are these?” And the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.” And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are those whom YHVH has sent to patrol the earth.” So they answered the Angel of YHVH who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is peaceful and quiet.” Then the Angel of YHVH said, “O YHVH of armies, how long will You have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been indignant these seventy years?” YHVH answered the Angel who was speaking with me with gracious words, comforting words. (Zechariah 1:7-13)

The current condition of the Jewish people and the way the nations treat Israel – these are the touchstones of God’s foreign policy. That is how He operated then and that is how He still operates.

Remember the days of old. Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For YHVH’s portion is His people, Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:7-8)

Acc.ording to the Apostle Paul, the calling YHVH has given to the Jewish people, and the gifts He has lavished on them, are irrevocable and not subject to change or re-interpretation (Romans 11:28-29).

So this biblical foreign policy vis-à-vis the nations is still in force, still influencing the super-powers and the United Nations. And that means that these abovementioned power groups are in deep yoghurt from God’s perspective. The eagle eyes of the Hebrew prophets cut through the mumbo-jumbo and politically correct verbiage of international relations. They reveal what God thinks about the shenanigans of the so-called “peace process” and the “two-state solution” – even when such foolish and anti-biblical language comes out of the mouths of rock-stars (https://www.algemeiner.com/2015/07/09/u2-frontman-bono-dedicates-song-to-former-israeli-president-peres/)

“What’s the big deal?”

The world powers of Zechariah’s day couldn’t understand what the big fuss was all about. They concluded that the Jews were a touchy and overly zealous people. Somehow the whole Jewish people had fallen under a spell, so thought the pagan ancients, believing that the God of the universe actually has a covenant with this primitive Jewish race, that their God cares about Israel as a priority, that the Jewish people’s welfare and the treatment they receive at the hand of the nations (and of some believers as well) is a fatefully serious issue in His eyes.

When the nations of the world think that “all is quiet on the Western front,” the national interests of those countries are not in sync with YHVH’s heart for Israel. As Balaam prophesied (Numbers 23:8-9) , Israel is the only nation that stands alone on the other side of the equation (as President Obama recently said in reference to his Iran deal) – the nation that stands alone as looks out for its own survival and counteracts the threats to its own existence.

“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them” (Isaiah 63:9)

The Hebrew says that in all of the Jewish people’s dire straits (‘narrowness-es’ or tight spots), so YHVH is put in a tight spot, is subject to pressure, is afflicted and is caused pain. There is a clear and undeniable connection between inflicting agony on the Jewish people and inflicting agony on the God of the Jewish people.

Pouring gasoline on anti-Semitism

There is an evil passivity which has taken root in some corners of the body of Messiah. Because of fear – the fear of standing up and being counted, the fear of standing with the Jewish people as anti-Semitism increases – some leaders and teachers are shrinking back from asking and answering the hard questions. The hard questions include:

Shakespeare may well have prophesied of our day when he had Brutus say the following words: “There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures” (Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224).

Zechariah gives us words from the very heart of God, and that dynamic is the core of what the prophetic is all about. Instead of jumping into the fray and standing with the Jewish people, the nations were content to sit out the battle – somewhat like how in recent days the Turkish army was sitting out the battle while ISIS slaughtered the Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.

The nations lack compassion for the Jewish people – for their safety and their flourishing. Their hearts are often cold about such matters. As a result, their “passive bystander” approach only furthers the disaster threatening Israel.

Compassion is the key word here. Are we overflowing with compassion for the destiny and present estate of the Jewish people? In times past, would we be the ones clucking our tongues and not much else, as Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, jihadis or Nazis massacred the Jewish people? Would we have shaken our heads and sagely whispered that “Biblically, the Jews had it coming to them”? Do we not see that the nations of the world (and believers as well) are today being weighed in the balances by YHVH the God of Jacob, and are mostly being found wanting? (Daniel 5:17-28)

God is good, all the time, to Israel

God’s heart toward Israel is overflowing with compassion. His plans for them are good (Jeremiah 32:36-42). He is restoring the Jewish people to Israel in compassion (Jeremiah 30:18). Though He will not leave sin unpunished (Amos 9:8-10), He will abundantly pardon the sin of His remnant who turns to Him in repentance (Micah 7:18-20).

How shall 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

Hansel, Gretel and Cohen

A long time ago, in a German forest very far away, lived a brother, Hansel and a sister, Gretel. Their wicked stepmother decided that there was not enough food to go around, and so she forced her hen-pecked husband into abandoning the two children in the heart of a black forest. Hansel was quick on his feet and overheard the nefarious plot. Arming himself with a loaf of bread, he stealthily left a trail of breadcrumbs on their way into the forest. He counted on eventually leading his sister out of the woods and back home. In the meantime hungry birdies followed behind, pecking and eating up all the crumbs. The two sweet children were lost in the deep, dark forest.

This Teutonic fable parallels a tragic aspect of Jewish history. Stevie Winwood (of the rock super group Blind Faith) said something similar in his ballad “Can’t find my way home.”

Trails of tears and breadcrumbs

When Israel went into Exile – first the ten tribes to Assyria (northern Iraq) and then the remaining two tribes to Babylon (central Iraq) – the Jewish people sat down and wept beside the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. They remembered from whence they had come – Zion (Psalm 137:1). They remembered God’s purposes in irrevocably choosing Israel (see Romans 11:28-29) and treasured that calling and those gifts, even above their chiefest joy (Psalm 137:5-6).

But barely 70 years later, the mighty King Cyrus of Persia proclaimed “YHVH, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the House of YHVH, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:2-3). But barely 50,000 Jewish people returned, leaving millions in Iraq for millennia to come. The Hebrew nation had forgotten the road back home.

The God of Jacob knew this would happen. People do get comfortable, even in exile. His first prophetic word to Israel was COMFORT: “Thus says YHVH, restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded, declares YHVH. And they will return from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares YHVH, and your children will return to their own territory” (Jeremiah 31:16-17).

But knowing human nature, the God of Isaac’s next prophetic emphasis was on pro-active PLANNING. Jews would not return to Zion without a ‘Zion’-ist focus: “Set up for yourself road marks! Place for yourself guideposts. Direct your mind to the highway, the way by which you went. Return, O virgin of Israel! Return to these your cities!” (Jeremiah 31:21). Israel needed to lay down a trail of indestructible bread crumbs – etched into the depths of the Jewish soul – remembering two points:

Today the majority of the world’s Jewish population is in somewhat of a spiritual fog about these two points.

Interestingly, the term ‘breadcrumb trail’ is used today by computer programmers A breadcrumb or breadcrumb trail is a graphical control element often used as a navigational aid in user interfaces and on web pages, allowing users to keep track and maintain awareness of their locations within programs, documents, or websites.

“Get back to where you once belonged”

The last live performance of the Beatles was on the rooftop of Apple Corps, 3 Savile Row in London. Their closing song was “Get Back” with the chorus of this song echoing “Get back to where you once belonged!”

Today many sons of Jacob would respond to God’s call to ‘get back’ with the words of Thomas (Yeshua’s disciple), “Lord, we do not know where You’re going. How do we know the way?” (John 14:5). But YHVH promises, “I will lead the blind by a way they do not know. In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone” (Isaiah 42:16).

Who cares about identity theft when you lose your memory?

The Exile of the Jewish people began with Assyria and Babylon, and has continued into the 20th Century. The Jews of Exile (Persia, Rome, Alexandria, Baghdad, Paris, Berlin and London) had all had settled down for a long winter’s nap. They did pray for Messiah to bring the Hebrew nation back to the Promised Land in His time, but there were precious little pro-active moves. Jewish people began to describe themselves as “Germans of the Mosaic faith” or in similar terms. The horror of the Holocaust and the wonder of the rebirth of the Jewish state of Israel were catalysts which shook some of Jacob’s children into remembering the promises of return and restoration.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov once said that “Forgetfulness leads to exile, but remembering is the key to redemption.” When Jewish people forget who they are – forget their calling and their culture, their language and their homeland – they no longer remember the most important things.  David Crosby encapsulated this in the name of his 1971 LP “If I could only remember my name.”

Reminding the Jewish people

Gentiles who know the God of Israel have a calling to the Jewish people. Paul calls it ‘the ministry of jealousy’ (Romans 11:13-14). It includes reminding the Jewish people about their God, the God of Jacob, and their Messiah Yeshua, the Son of David.

Unfortunately, the picture of Jesus that is usually presented by the Christian world to the Jewish people is that of a non-Jewish Savior bringing a Gentile message. The religious terms are often based on Greek, Latin or German words (‘Christ’ is Greek for Messiah’; ‘Jesus’ is a Greek reworking of the Hebrew ‘Yeshua;’ ‘church’ is from the Greek kuriakē meaning ‘of the Lord’). The artistic depictions of Jesus and His disciples reflect Italians more than Galileans.

Using original Jewish terminology is important, for sure. But the matter goes much deeper than that. It includes other such points:

The gospel is not only a message birthed in Israel. It remains a message with a Jewish priority. And it will come into its prophesied zenith when a Jewish King sits down on a Jewish throne in a Jewish city, and all the nations come up to Jerusalem, rejoicing in this prophetic fulfilment and worshipping the King of the Jews.

It is not only Jewish people who need to understand the Jewishness of the gospel. The majority of Gentile believers need to understand it and embrace it as well!

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Israel’s destiny - Two prophetic sons

Over 2,700 years ago Isaiah received an extremely strong prophetic word, “For this is what YHVH said to me according to the great power of His hand” (Isaiah 8:11). This multi-faceted message concerned the agony of defeat and the joy of victory. King Ahaz would refuse to trust in the God of Israel’s prophetic counsel (the ‘quietly moving waters of Shiloah’) and instead turned for military support to the Assyrian superpower (‘the huge and mighty waters of the [Euphrates] River’ (Isaiah 8:6-7). The eventual result would be the invasion of the land of Israel and the Exile of the Jewish people.

Those children of Jacob who trusted in YHVH would find Him to be a holy sanctuary. But Israel’s majority would encounter a different aspect of God’s character – a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, a trap and a snare (8:14).

Part of God’s response to Israel’s cold shoulder was a ‘divine withholding.’ Isaiah is told to tie up his prophetic scrolls and to seal his oracles – because YHVH will now “hide His face from the House of Jacob” (8:16). Nevertheless, Israel is exhorted to walk in the light of God’s teachings which have already been revealed – apart from that there is no spiritual dawn, no future hope (8:20).

Who said that it’s easy being a prophet? YHVH gave Isaiah a hard prophetic message and it fell mostly upon hard hearts. Nevertheless there was hope.

Two sons, two destinies

Part of Isaiah’s calling involved prophetic actions. He was commanded by the God of Israel to give prophetic names to his two children – names which spoke of different aspects of Israel’s destiny. With laser-like precision these names focused on two future streams of the Jewish people’s history. Isaiah proclaimed, “Here am I and the children whom YHVH has given me – for signs and wonders in Israel from YHVH of armies who resides on Mount Zion” (8:18).

Isaiah’s second son was named Maher shalal – Hash baz (‘quickly the war spoil – hasten the war plunder’). His name was a prophetic sign (8:3-4) that Assyria would soon conquer Aram/Syria and exile the Ten Tribes of Israel (in line with Isaiah’s previous prophecy in 7:4-8). Isaiah’s second son was a prophetic sign – shocking judgment would follow Israel’s spiritual disobedience.

Isaiah’s first son was named She’ar Yashuv (‘a remnant will return’). The prophet speaks under the anointing of YHVH, using the phrase four times (10:20-22). His name was a prophetic sign that, even though heavy judgment was on its way, God would spare a believing Jewish remnant who would be totally dedicated to YHVH, the Holy One of Israel (8:20).  “A remnant will return (She’ar yashuv), the remnant of Jacob (She’ar Ya’akov) to the Mighty God!” (8:21).

Firstborn gets the double

Moses was sent to Pharaoh in Egypt with a heavy prophetic declaration. “Thus says YHVH, Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn” (Exodus 4:22-23). But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and his rebellious response to God’s word kicked off Passover events.

Being God’s firstborn nation is part of the Jewish people’s irrevocable calling and gifts (see Romans 11:28-29). It includes receiving more stringent discipline (see Deuteronomy 21:15-17; Isaiah 40:2), as well as a double portion of reward and blessing from the hand of YHVH (Isaiah 61:7). The Jewish people have been granted more light and revelation. YHVH “has exalted the horn of His people … the sons of Israel, a people near to Him” (Psalm 148:14). The benefits include the gift of the Promised Land and the gift of the Holy Scriptures. Salvation itself is from the Jews, as Yeshua explained to the woman who lived in what is today called Jenin (John 4:22).

And even as we remember God’s promise to refine His Jewish people though shakings and judgments, let’s remember that “in all their afflictions He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9). Ultimately, YHVH declares, “I will not turn away from doing them good … Yes, I will rejoice of them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul!” (Jeremiah 32:40-41). God is aware of all the sins and disobediences that many in Israel have done. Nevertheless He will never cast away all the seed of Israel, but will be their passionate God and they shall be His passionate people (see Jeremiah 31:33, 37).

Balancing on the see-saw of life

As the Middle East convulses with birth pangs, and as anti-Semitism raises its cobra head above the Western world, let us guard our hearts from growing numb. “Because of the increase of lawlessness, most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).  As jihadi forces stretch out their gnarled fingers to press the button on rockets, missiles and fire-bombs aimed at Israel, let us press in to deeper burning intercession: “For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a burning torch” (Isaiah 62:1).

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

Boskey newsletter May 6 2019 - The Day After

In 48 hours a total of 690 rockets and mortars were fired against Israeli civilians by the Islamist jihadi terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). At 04:30 local time on Monday May 6 both jihadi groups unilaterally and anonymously announced a cease-fire:

A third terror group (the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine / DFLP) was given permission to present information about the cease-fire to international media.

The mediation was sponsored by the United Nations, Egypt and Qatar though all three sources insisted on anonymity:

Israel has not acknowledged a cease-fire. PM Netanyahu stated that “the campaign is not over. It requires patience and deliberation. We are preparing to continue” (www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-israel-hit-gaza-terror-groups-hard-but-preparing-to-continue-campaign/).

What does this all mean? What is actually happening?

Jihadi perspectives – ‘jihad at any time is good’

Hamas and PIJ reflects the Koranic view that the rough-and-tumble of jihad involves the real possibility of death – either of the non-Muslim or of the mujahid (jihad warrior). Article #15 of the Hamas Covenant explains: “In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad … We must imprint on the minds of generations of Muslims that the Palestinian problem is a religious one, to be dealt with on this premise. ‘I swear by that who holds in His hands the soul of Muhammad! I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah! I will assault and kill, assault and kill, assault and kill’” (https://davidstent.org/hurtling-through-the-fog-of-war-a-messianic-perspective-on-the-new-hamastan/). The Koran says, “They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed (Quran, Surah at-Tawbah 9:111; https://quran.com/9/111; see also Sahih al-Bukhari 51:1)

For these terrorists, dying in battle is honorable – similar to Japanese kamikaze in World War II. What is important is to attack and kill the ‘unbelievers’ in the land of Israel. This religious motivation drives Hamas and PIJ and overwhelms other military considerations.

The recent conflict on Friday, May 3, 2019 began when Islamist snipers shot into Israel from Gaza, wounding two IDF soldiers. Israel’s military response on a nearby Hamas observation post resulted in a pre-planned Hamas/PIJ campaign of rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli farms, kibbutzim, towns and cities (www.timesofisrael.com/idf-nabs-gazan-armed-with-knife-who-breached-border-fence-into-israel/).

A similar ambush/setup occurred on January 22, 2019 when a PIJ sniper fired into Israel and wounded an IDF officer (www.timesofisrael.com/lebanese-tv-airs-footage-of-gaza-sniper-shooting-idf-officer-in-helmet/).

Jihadi perspectives – ‘Palestinian rights are not the issue’

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated on Monday, “Our message is that this round is over, but the conflict will not end until we regain our rights.” This is a politically correct soundbite, but it actually is deceptive disinformation on Hamas’ part (www.timesofisrael.com/as-ceasefire-goes-into-effect-netanyahu-says-gaza-campaign-not-over/).

According to the Hamas Covenant, separate national identities have no Islamic validity. Only one international Islamic Caliphate is acceptable. This applies regarding Israel and the world: “The Platform of The Islamic Resistance Movement: Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors” (Hamas Charter Introduction).” 

Jihadi perspectives – cat and mouse

Hamas and PIJ see themselves as the cutting edge of an international Islamist movement. They can afford to initiate and even lose battles because they are convinced that they will ultimately win the final war:

Hamas and PIJ initiated this round of fighting. They fired many rockets and mortars, caused four Israeli deaths and many wounded. Though Islamist forces also endured casualties (including the removal of some top Hamas leadership), their organizations are intact and most of their tunnels, command-and-control centers, long-range rockets and short-range mortars are safe. Hamas/PIJ see this as a tactical victory. Their spokesman says, “The resistance succeeded in deterring Netanyahu’s army, and dragged its nose through the dirt. Our message is that this round is over but the conflict will not end until we regain our rights” (www.timesofisrael.com/may-6-2019/).

Next round

Hamas/PIJ are planning for the next round of attacks. Probably Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran are sitting in on some of these meetings. The war is by no means over.

Israel made the decision not to destroy Hamas and PIJ, since that would have caused many Gazan casualties. The terrorists locate their HQ’s and rocket launchers smack dab in the middle of Gaza’s civilians. They aim their rockets directly at Israeli civilians. So for right now the jihadis are still in the Gazan saddle.

The political and military leaders of Israel are doing the best they can in trying circumstances. It is sometimes said that a bad peace is better than a good war. However, faced with the combined Islamist forces of the Middle East who see jihad as a high religious calling, the above proverb needs to be reworked.

As God is raising up His Ezekiel 37 army (see Ezekiel 37:9-14), it is worth meditating on some prophetic Scriptures that have special relevance for days ahead.

The first from Isaiah 11 describes a future Israeli complete takeover of Gaza, as well as triumph against enemies who use Jordan as a base of operations against the Jewish state:

The second is from Psalm 83 which  describes a future Israeli triumph over its many Middle Eastern enemies:

The ultimate result of these ‘Wars of the Lord’ will be very different from the halting steps we now see.

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 or credit card) through: www.davidstent.org

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