Hebrews

I have taken some time off lately due to needing to get myself in a better place spiritually and to do more study and prayer. I needed this time. Now, I hope to return to writing. I intend to publish some things that have been coming to me in the hope that they will clear up a path forward for me. Possibly they may be of some value to others that are trying to be obedient to YHVH. I am not an authority, not a teacher.  But, a seeker.

Yeshua said,

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Psalm 25:14 The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.

I have been studying the Covenant of YHVH. I have been trying my best to understand and divide the laws into those that are for the descendants of Abraham and those that are for non Hebrews that are trying to follow YHVH. Those that wish to join themselves to Him and avail themselves to His Covenant. I will tell you what I believe has been revealed to me.

There are basically three three prevailing schools of thought on what YHVH requires of His non Hebrew followers. The first is that the instructions given to Moses at Sinai are null and void because Jesus did away with the Law. This is the prevailing doctrine of the church founded by Paul of Tarsus and it is very popular and also completely worng. I have gone into this idea extensively in my other blogs. But, for the sake of anyone that hasn’t read them, I will list a few reasons why this is false.

1. Psalm 49:7 No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God. 8 For the redemption of his soul is costly, and never can payment suffice,
2. Exodus 32:39 Moses asks YHVH to punish him for the sins of the people when they worshiped the golden calf. YHVH says no, that the person that committed the sin will receive punishment for their own sin. Later in Deuteronomy 24:16 YHVH makes a proclamation “every man shall be put to death for his own sin” 
3. Ezekiel 18 “the soul that sins, it shall die…the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
4. Jeremiah calls for a time when the mistaken belief that one person can atone for the sins of another will be no more. In Jeremiah 31:29-30 it says, “in those days they will no longer say, the fathers ate sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But, everyone will die for his own iniquity, everyone that eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge”.
5. Deuteronomy 24:16 “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin”.

There is a principal here that YHVH is just. He does not punish one person for another’s sin. Likewise, no one can atone for another’s sins. 

Also, Yeshua said he did not come to abolish the law.

Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

The second school of thought is that the Ten Commandments are binding on all but nothing else. This is also wrong. There are laws outside the Ten Commandments that are given as universal and binding on all. In the interest of brevity I will just list a few. Eating blood, eating foods that have been offered to an idol, eating the limb of a living animal. There are others. Clearly the Ten Commandments are not all encompassing.

The third school of thought is the one I have long held, which is that those non Hebrews that decided to join themselves to YHVH were in a special class. That there were laws pointed out specifically to them that they should follow. I like many others looked to passages of scripture that spoke of gentiles that lived in the land of Israel. But, were not themselves Hebrews. They were called the “Ger” translated usually as “sojourners”. I believe still that there is a special class of gentile that dwells in the land of Israel and that certain laws pertain to them alone. However, I do not believe that they are the ones that have decided to join themselves to YHVH and avail themselves to His Covenant. I will explain how I came to this conclusion.

First to whom was the Covenant established at sinai given? 

Deuteronomy 29:9 “Therefore, keep the terms of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do. 10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 11 your infants, your wives, and the foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. 13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today.

Isaiah 56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of the Lord and serve him, who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to my covenant –

7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me.

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.”

8 The sovereign Lord says this,

the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:

“I will still gather them up.”

Two important things to note here. The covenant was given to everyone assembled whether Hebrews or not and also to others not there at that place and time. Also, note the words, “all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, and who are faithful to my covenant”.

Now, it is said by many that if one is not a biological descendant of Abraham then one cannot be a full member of the Hebrew people. 

Yeshua said, 

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruit that proves your repentance, 9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 10 Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

It is plain that Yeshua taught that good fruit from a life well lived counted for much more than being a descendant of Abraham and that YHVH could create descendants of Abraham. In other words Yeshua warns them against complacency rooted in ancestry and that being a descendant of Abraham is more about being obedient, just as Abraham was obedient. In fact, the word Hebrew means “to pass over” or “to pass through” many would assume it refers to the Israelites passing through or over the Red Sea during their exodus from Egypt. That may be one reference. But, Abraham himself and his descendants until the time of the exodus were called Hebrews. They must have passed over something else. I purpose that they passed from disobedience and ignorance to the knowledge of YHVH and to obedience to Him to serve Him. They have passed from outside YHVH’s Covenant to being full members of it. I believe they have passed from death to life. 

The passover is one of the Holy Convocations of YHVH. I think it is well named. To eat of it a male must be circumcised. Circumcision is one of the signs of the Covenant along with keeping the sabbath. When one accepts these signs also called marks of the covenant he passes over. He is a Hebrew, an Israelite. No longer a sojourner. He has become a member of the Covenant. In Israel proselytes (also called converts) are spoken of. Not once is the sojourner mentioned that I can find.

(Likewise Israel means to wrestle or to strive. One who wrestles and strives with YHVH as Israel did.)

Genesis 17:12 Throughout your generations every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not one of your descendants. 13 They must indeed be circumcised, whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of my covenant will be visible in your flesh as a permanent reminder.

Ezra 6:20 The priests and the Levites had purified themselves, every last one, and they all were ceremonially pure. They sacrificed the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their colleagues the priests, and for themselves. 21 The Israelites who were returning from the exile ate it, along with all those who had joined them in separating themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel.

Isaiah 56:1 This is what the Lord says,

“Promote justice! Do what is right!

For I am ready to deliver you;

I am ready to vindicate you openly.

2 The people who do this will be blessed,

the people who commit themselves to obedience,

who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

who refrain from doing anything that is wrong.

3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly exclude me from his people.’

Some will say “But, we have a new covenant”. I would ask them to research to whom the new covenant is given and what does YHVH say about it. What is it? When is it? Who is it given to? 

Jeremiah 31:31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord. 33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.

Deuteronomy 30:10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this scroll of the law. But you must turn to him with your whole mind and being. 11 “This commandment I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote. 12 It is not in heaven, as though one must say, “Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 And it is not across the sea, as though one must say, “Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 For the thing is very near you – it is in your mouth and in your mind so that you can do it.

There is no separate “new covenant gentile church”. The new Covenant is given to Israel and Judah. I believe it is time that we begin to obey the Torah, to abide by YHVH’s laws, to celebrate His feasts and Holy days and learn His ways. I do not suggest that we obey the Talmud, Yeshua condemned these added man made laws and regulations. But, those things taught to us by the Torah and prophets alone. I believe we will be lead by the Holy Spirit to all truth if we ask and seek and knock. He will write it on our hearts.