What’s the Point?

For those of you who haven’t quite figured out what this blog is about, or where I’m going with it, I am going to take you for a little ride today.  I suggest you buckle up and find something to hold on to because I’m about to fly all over the place.

Matthew 7:22 – 23; “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers.’”

In these verses from Matthew, Yeshua is speaking about false prophets, and it comes right after the verses about knowing a tree by its fruit.  But something else struck me about these verses when I looked at them recently.  These people, that Yeshua calls evildoers, are standing before the Lord Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.  I imagine Him, staring down at them with all-knowing eyes.  Eyes that make you completely transparent, that make you feel completely and utterly naked, and helpless before the most awesome power in the universe.  You know you can’t lie to these eyes, yet these people say, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?  Drive out demons and perform many miracles, all in your name, Lord?’  I think the people he’s talking about believe they were doing these things for God.  You don’t lie to those all-knowing eyes when you feel them touching your very soul.  But He says, ‘I never knew you.’  And if He never knew them. They certainly didn’t know Him.

Now let me tell you why these verses struck me, and how God used these verses to speak to me, even if it’s not exactly in the context in which Yeshua originally spoke these words.

I was at a bible study and someone referred to these verses from Matthew, for reasons I don’t currently recall.  At the time, I had been going through a very dark period in my life.  It wasn’t a period of questioning God, or losing faith.  I was just depressed.  It felt like I was under a spiritual attack.  Most likely I still am under that same attack, but I am arming myself for battle.

Now, while I was in this dark period I was still doing God’s work.  Judith and I were here in Israel.  We were running the centers for Jacob’s Hope.  I was paying the bills for our compassion centers and lining up special outreach events.  I was working on the website and writing articles.  

So at this point you are probably asking, “okay, you were doing God’s work, you hadn’t lost faith, so you were a little depressed - we all go through that - what does that have to do with Matthew 7?”

Okay, since you asked, I’ll tell you.

As I said before, I believe those people were being honest with God when they said they were doing all of those works in His name.  And to be honest, when I read these verses my heart sank.  Wasn’t I doing God’s work, feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, all in His name, just like the people Yeshua calls evildoers in that verse.  I was doing God’s work, but did I KNOW God?  

Was I doing His work, because like David, I had a heart after the Lord, or was I just going through the motions?    I was doing the things I know are right, doing the things I know God called me to do, but I wasn’t spending the time I should have been reading His word, or spending time with Him in prayer, other than the occasional, “Lord, please give me.”  

Again, I understand this is a little out of context and that the Lord may not call me an evildoer when I come stand before His throne for my judgment, but while reading that verse I felt God saying to me, “You don’t know me.”

Although I may have taken this verse out of context, there is a story that may better illustrate my point.  In Luke 10:38-42 we read about Yeshua at the home of Martha and Mary:

As Yeshua and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.  She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?  Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Matha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Like Martha, I was distracted.  I was worried about many things.  I was worried about our finances.  I was worried about the centers.  I was worried about all the legal issues involved with running a non-profit in Israel.  I was worried about learning Hebrew, about making friends.  I was worried about my marriage and about my children adjusting to life in Israel.  And I neglected the one thing that I needed. 

The enemy saw his opportunity, and he attacked.  I became depressed.

When I read those verses in Matthew 7, and I felt God stir in my heart.  It was a wake-up call.  I decided I don’t want to be like Martha, a diligent but misguided person.  I want to be like David (yes, it would have made more sense to say I wanted to be like Mary, but I’m a guy, and I have a point, so roll with me).  I want to have a heart like David’s heart, a heart like Yeshua’s heart.  I want to know the Lord I serve.  I profess to Love the Lord, my God, and don’t we want to spend time getting to know the people we love?

When I was in college, I found out I had ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder.  I bought a book recommended to me by a close friend who was involved with teaching.  It was called “Driven to Distraction,” and I remember as I was reading this book, I was like “Wow!  This is a book that totally explains me, who I am and why I do the things I do.”  Years later when my wife and I were making one of our moves, I came across the book and gave it to my wife.  I told her, if she wanted to understand me, to understand what life is like for me with ADD, then she should read this book.  Naturally, since my wife loves me, she read the book and I think it really helped her to understand me and improved our relationship.

We have a book that is all about God.  He gave us the Bible so that we could read about Him and get to know him.  If you love God, you have to read this book.  It’s amazing.  But just like my wife couldn’t completely understand me from reading a book about ADD, we can’t really get to know God just by reading his word.  We have to spend time with him.  We have to talk to him, in prayer, and we have to keep our hearts and our ears open to what he might have to say to us.

I recently saw a short video a missionary has put together about his relationship with three children from the village where he serves (I embedded the video, so you can actually skip the next couple of paragraphs summarizing the video and watch it yourself if you'd prefer).  The first child in the video, Fernando, is always coming up to him and telling him, “Give me some food.  Give me a shirt.  Give me some shoes.  Give me money.”  He said he feels bad for Fernando, because he knows that he doesn’t get all the food he needs each night, but he can’t help but be turned off by Fernando’s rudeness in always saying, “Give me!”

The second boy he showed in the video, Antonio, he said was a little older, and a little wiser.  He would come up to and thank him for being his friend.   But after a few pleasantries, he was more or less like Fernando, demanding a hand out.

The third boy he showed, Basilio, was younger than the first two, only five-years-old.  He said Basilio was his best friend.  No matter where he was in the village, he said this boy would find him.  He even showed on the video how he would walk down the street, and the boy would appear out of nowhere to be by his side.  Basilio didn’t want anything from the missionary.  He just enjoyed being with him and spending time with him.  When the missionary wasn’t off somewhere else, Basilio would sit and wait for him to come back.  You could see in this video the wonderful, loving relationship these two had.

At the end of the video, the missionary asks, “When it comes to you and God, who are you like?  Fernando? Antonio? Or Basilio?  When we pray to God, do we say God, give me this, and give me that?  Perhaps we dress it up in a few pleasantries like Antonio.  Or do we wait on the Lord?”  My summary really doesn't show the impact of this video.  You should really watch it!  No, I don't know this person, nor do I get anything from you watching it, other than knowing that I am blessing people by sharing it. 

While I was in my depression, I mostly prayed for me.  I didn’t spend time praying for others, or asking God for His will to be done.  The devil has many schemes, many ways to distract us, to turn our focus away from God.  Maybe we are like Martha, we are too busy worrying about the things of this world, distracted by our jobs and our busy lives, too busy to do the one thing that is needed: just to sit at the feet of our Lord and listen.  Maybe we have been hurt, and we are distracted by our own pain or our own fears.  We are too busy looking inward at ourselves to look up to God.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV) says:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Another thought occurred to me recently about knowing God, about knowing his one and only son Yeshua of Nazareth.  I have been blessed in getting to know a part of Yeshua that isn’t taught in most Churches, because most Pastors don’t fully comprehend.  When we study people from history, we try to understand them in their culture and the context of that culture.  Although we can learn about other cultures, we often don’t fully appreciate much of the differences unless we live in that culture.  We analyze what we know about Yeshua from the Bible, but too often people are limited in their understanding because their perception is tainted by a twenty-first century Western perspective.  Marrying a Jewish woman, celebrating the Jewish Holidays, living in the Land where Yeshua himself lived, has given me a new understanding and a new appreciation for who He was as a Jew on this earth and who God is as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 This brings me back to my blog, in a round-about sort of way.  Since my last blog posting, I have been a little surprised by some of the reactions to my blog.  I have not had any negative reactions, but it seems to me that there is a desire for me to go deeper into subjects that I only plan to summarize, or to take it in a different direction than I plan on going (which is fine, if that is the way the Lord leads me).  It’s not that I am not interested in going deeper into these topics or going in those directions, but it’s not really what this blog and my book are about.  Of course, nobody really knows what exactly I am writing about since the only person I have discussed it with at any length is my wife.  Therefore, I have decided to give you all a brief overview so that you can decide if this blog is something you are actually interested in.

Who is my target audience? 

My target audience is Christians.  Mainly those who have heard about Messianic Judaism and want know more, or those who would just like to understand more about their own faith, and how the Jewish roots of Christianity affect our understanding of the Bible.  It is also for those who just want to better understand Judaism.  Those who want to find out about Jewish Holidays and if they still hold any meaning for Christians today. 

Many of my Messianic Jewish friends may be asking themselves now, “then why did you send your blog to me?”  I sent my blog to you because I respect your knowledge and your opinion.  You may already know all of the information I post about in my blog, but I want to know if anything I say is false, misleading or even offensive to you.  There has already been enough anti-Semitism in the church without me inadvertently adding fuel to the fire. 

What specific topics am I writing about in my book? 

Keep in mind, that I may or may not discuss these and other topics in my blog.  Nor is this to be taken as an outline of my book as some of these topics will be discussed in multiple chapters.  But I think the following list will give you an idea of what I am writing about.

1.        My story – Who I am and what makes me uniquely qualified to write my book

2.       The Jewish Roots of Christianity – Yeshua and early believers as Jews

3.       Mosaic Law, Torah and Oral Law – What’s the difference and how does that shape our understanding of New Covenant scriptures?

4.       Traditions – in Judaism and Christianity

5.       Jewish Holidays – What does the Bible say and how do we celebrate today

6.       Shabbat and Kosher Laws in the Bible and Early Christianity – burden or blessing

7.       Biblical and Modern Israel

8.       Understanding Christianity from a Jewish Perspective

9.       Proselytizing or Persecuting – A history of the Church and Judaism

As you saw in my last blog, one of the things I struggle with is how to deal with the rabbinic teachings.  Our view of rabbinic teaching will greatly affect how we view many of the topics I do plan to cover in my book, especially that one about the Law.  The Talmud is essential to understanding modern Judaism, and it also is very helpful in understanding a lot of what is written in both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.  The Jewish leader Hillel, who is considered to be the founder of the teachings found in the Mishnah, died in the tenth year of the first century or 10 AD, about 20 years before Yeshua began His ministry.  So much of what is written in the Mishnah most likely reflects the various opinions of the Pharisees and Jewish leaders before and during Yeshua’s ministry and the time the New Covenant books were written.   

Yeshua himself refers to a teaching of Hillel in Matthew 22:39-40.  Hillel is attributed as saying, in reference to the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself,” in Leviticus 19:18, “That is the whole Torah; the rest is explanation; go and learn.”  Yeshua, of course, also adds Deuteronomy 6:5 (NIV) “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Matthew 22:39 reads “all your mind” in the NIV versus “all your strength” from Deuteronomy 6:5 in the NIV, but I digress) in saying “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Although, it is often taught that Paul is quoting Yeshua in Galatians 5:14, as a Pharisee, Paul is more likely quoting Hillel, especially since he did not include the reference to Deuteronomy 6:5.  Some people may also point out Paul was not one of the twelve disciples and much of his knowledge of Yeshua came from his encounter on the road to Damascus and the teachings that the disciples shared with him.  He was not following Yeshua around to hear all his teachings so he may not have ever heard this story when he wrote his letter to the Galatians.  Paul likely wrote his letter to the Galatians around the same time Matthew wrote his Gospel (between 50-60 AD), so it is unlikely he had a chance to read Matthew’s Gospel (books took a while to circulate given the lack of a printing press).  Of course, he likely spent time with Matthew in Jerusalem, so there is no evidence he did not hear the story either.  Does this change any Christian doctrine?   No, but it certainly explains to me why Paul left out “Love the Lord your God” in his letter to Galatians.

Basically, what I am trying to say, without digressing too far down a tangent, is this blog will deal with both the topics in my book and those that run parallel to the ideas that run throughout the book.  I may jump around from topic to topic, especially around Holidays, as celebrating the holidays will likely get me thinking about the origins and traditions of the holiday.  But my book is being written to help Christians get to know their Jewish Messiah better than they already do.  We can better understand His teachings and His heart by understanding His culture and the context of His life.  Basically, I’m trying to give you a chance to better know and understand our Lord and Savior, perhaps in a small and insignificant way, but hopefully in a way that will be pleasing to our Father and will break downs barriers that have existed for thousands of years between Jews and Gentiles. 

Judges, Pharisees and Rabbinut

“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.”  1 Timothy 1:8 (NIV)

One of the hardest things for me to do, in writing a book explaining differences in Christianity and Judaism is finding the proper balance between reverence and disregard for rabbinical teachings.  For many of us who are not Jewish, it is easy to dismiss what the Rabbinut (the plural for Rabbi in Hebrew is Rabbinim, where Rabbinut is a word that reflects, generally, all of the Rabbinim) teach because it is so foreign to us, and doesn’t seem to make any sense.  To better understand the importance of rabbinical teachings in Judaism, we need to understand the history of Judaism and where these teachings came from.

The Rabbinut claim their authority from the time of Moses, when he appointed judges to help him in Exodus 18, from the advice of his father-in-law Jethro.  Verses 24-26 (NIV) read, “Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.  He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.  They served as judges for the people at all times.  The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.”  We see from Matthew chapter 23:2-3 (NIV) Yeshua recognizes this claim to authority, and perhaps the type of balance I am searching for, in saying, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.  So you must obey them and do everything they tell you.  But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”  It is important to note here, that Yeshua himself teaches us to listen to the teachers of the law and to do everything they tell us to, regardless of how we feel about them personally.  

Having said this, I need to explain one of my own personal beliefs; one should never use a single verse of the Bible to create personal religious doctrine.  This does not mean that we can ignore what each individual verse of the bible, but that we must understand there are times when a single verse can be misinterpreted or taken out of context, and it is best to base our beliefs on the overall spirit of the text, rather than on a single incident where a verse may contradict what the rest of the word says.   I am sharing this now because I do not want anyone to think I am telling you that Christians must do everything the Rabbinut tell you to do because some things have changed in the last two thousand years since Yeshua made this statement, but I do believe we can glean from the spirit of this verse, that we should at least have some respect for their authority and their teachings.  

Getting back to Judaic history, we will trace how modern Rabbinut became more than just the “judges” as were chosen by Moses back in Exodus.  They did not have to be a priest or a Levite in order to be a judge, but they were chosen from all Israel, just as today you do not have to be born into a particular Jewish family to become a Rabbi, but each Rabbi receives his training based upon his own capabilities.  

After Moses’ death, Joshua became the leader of Israel.  After Joshua, there seemed to be no clear leader of the people.  We read in Judges 2:15-19 (NIV);

Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

While the priests and the Levites watched over the Tabernacle and the sacrifices, it was the judges, along with the elders, who lead the people in their daily religious and political affairs.

When Samuel was in his old age, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel, but we read in Samuel chapter 8 that his sons were dishonest and perverted justice, causing the elders to ask for a king, like the other nations.  

From the time of King Saul to the exile in Babylon, I do not believe there is any mention of judges or teachers of the law, but this duty (of interpreting the law) seems to have fallen to the prophets during this period.  I will need to study First and Second Samuel, Kings and Chronicles further to confirm this.

After King Solomon’s death the Kingdom splits in two, Israel in the North and Judea in the South.  After several generations of disobedience, God has had enough of Israel and they were conquered by Assyria and they began dispersing the people from Israel or Samaria, creating what people refer to as the “Lost Tribes of Israel.”  A couple of generations later (or 125 years from the final deportation), Judea falls to Nebuchadnezzar and the Jews are exiled to Babylon.  The Babylonian Empire was overthrown by the Persian Empire, and after the Jewish people returned to Israel, they built the Second Temple (around 516 B.C.).  The Persian Empire was replaced by the Greek Empire which was in turn replaced by the Roman Empire.  All of you History buffs out there are probably pulling your hair out, at my abbreviated version of History, but work with me.

After the Temple had been rebuilt, there was concern that the Jewish refugees were no longer living according to the laws found in the Torah and a growing importance was placed on the “Mosaic Law,” or “Law of the Torah,” and for those who could interpret how it was to be implemented.  At first, this was largely the duty of the Temple priests, but there were a number of lay teachers, or scribes, who also studied the law.   As time passed, this small number of lay teachers began to increase.  It may be at this time that the title of Rabbi began to appear in Judea.  The title Rabbi most likely came from the exile to Babylon, where “Rab” was the title of the sages who taught in the Babylonian academies.  The title was used as one might use the academic title of “Doctor” today, to indicate a certain amount of education or achievement.

In 167 BC, Antiochus IV invaded Judea and defiled the Temple and forced Jews to abandon their laws and customs.  In 165 BC, Judah Maccabeus lead a revolt which liberated Jerusalem from Antiochus and the Temple was restored.  Judah established a new political and religious monarchy, known as the Hasmonean dynasty, even though he lacked the authority of a Davidic lineage (citation needed – sometimes I feel like I’m writing articles for Wikipedia). 

According to Josephus, a well known Jewish-Roman Historian from the first century, Judaism was divided into four sects of thought, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots.  In the years leading up to Yeshua’s ministry, two of these distinct sects had emerged as the political and religious authorities of the Law, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The Pharisees, who emerged from the scribes, emphasized the “Oral Law” and claimed prophetic or Mosaic authority for their interpretation of Jewish laws, and the Sadducees, who emphasized the importance of “Mosaic Laws,” represented an aristocratic authority of the Temple Priests.  Many of the ideas and interpretations of the Pharisees, largely attributed to Hillel (but believed to be passed down, uninterrupted from the time of Moses, through the judges, prophets and scribes), would later be written down in the Mishnah by Judah HaNasi (about 150 years after the destruction of the Second Temple), in order that the Oral Law would not be forgotten.  The Mishnah is considered the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism, and coupled with the Gemara, comprise the Talmud.

The Sadducees on the other hand, gave no credence to the Oral Law and felt that everything in the Torah such be taken literally.  In this way, they felt that if one were to cause another to lose an eye, that the punishment to the offender must be the loss of their eye, as according to Exodus 21:24.  The Pharisees, however, claimed that this could be interpreted to mean the offender must pay the victim the value of an eye. 

We must remember and be thankful that, because of the Pharisees, the Scriptures were preserved when the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.  One of Hillel’s disciples, Yochanan Ben Zakai, who foresaw the fall of Jerusalem to Rome, faked his own death and was smuggled out of the city gates, which were guarded by Jewish Zealots, in his own coffin.  He then made his way to the Roman camp, where he met with Vespasian and petitioned him for the city of Jabneh and its sages.  After the war, Yochanan was able to establish Jabneh, and its previously unimportant school, as the new seat of the Sanhedrin, and as previously stated, preserved the Scriptures from being completely destroyed.  

The Pharisees became the Rabbinut, and wrote the Talmud, and passed Jewish traditions down from generation to generation.  They continued the celebrations of the Jewish festivals and preserved Jewish thought and culture.  Because the Pharisees and Rabbis took the time to write down their understanding of and reasons for the Laws we find in the Torah, we are better able to understand their meaning, in our modern culture, than we would if there was no other source of reference to these laws.  We must be mindful to respect the teachings of these Rabbis, but use discretion in their implementation.  We must always keep in mind that the Talmud is not scripture, and should be used only as commentary on the scriptures.

I am sure many of you are cringing at the mention of the Talmud because of its negative depiction of Yeshua, as well as false teachings contained therein.  Perhaps next week we will pick up from this idea and how the divide between Judaism and Christianity grew over the centuries.  

Remember, I am looking for your feedback.  Does everything I have to say make sense?  Is there anything you disagree with?  Tell me what your sources are.  If you don't have a source but just want to state your opinion, that is valid too.  

A New Begining

A short while ago I began writing a book.  For years I have thought about writing a book on what it means to be “Messianic.” Of course, there are books already out there.  There’s Daniel Juster’s Jewish Roots[1], David Stern’s Messianic Jewish Manifesto[2] and Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel[3], but all of these titles were written by Jews, about Messianic Jews.  As David Stern points out in his Messianic Jewish Manifesto, since I wasn’t born to a Jewish mother, nor have I ever converted to Judaism through the Jewish Rabbis, I’m not Jewish.  

So, what am I?  And what are the thousands of other non-Jewish believers who attend Messianic congregations throughout the world.  If we cannot call ourselves “Messianic Jews,” do we call ourselves “Messianic Believers,” even though our fellow congregants call themselves “Messianic Jews,” or are we still just simply Christians?  And even if we are only Christians, aren't our religious roots still in Judaism?  Why don't we still celebrate the Jewish holidays?  Why does Christianity look so different from Judaism? 

I started writing my ideas down in book form.  I wrote chapters on who I am, where the Rabbis came from, thoughts on keeping kosher, the Shabbat, the Jewish Holidays, traditions and how all of these things relate to one another.  You may be asking, "what happened to the book?"  Unfortunately, as I began writing, I got more thoughts and learned more information and had new insights into the subjects I was writing about.  I had to go back and rewrite entire chapters as I found information contradicting my original assumptions, or found a source that I had used to be inaccurate.  The information seemed to take on a life of it's own and became overwhelming.  

With this blog I am attempting to cut the information I've learned into small manageable chucks, which I will post each week.  It is my hope that as the weeks, months and even years pass, I will be able to reorganize all these chunks of information back in to book form, supported by reliable and accurate sources.  Until then, I'd love to hear your comments each week, your opinions and find out if what I have rings true to you or just sounds like a bunch of rubbish.  As we discuss each topic, I'd also love to hear what you have to say from your personal experiences, what you have found out in your own research and I'd love to know what sources of information you use to support your ideas.

Until next week, Shabbat Shalom and Shavuah Tov!

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[1]Daniel Juster, Jewish Roots (Pacific Palisades, California: Davar Publishing Co., 1986)

[2] David H. Stern, Messianic Jewish Manifesto (Baltimore, Jewish New Testament Pulications, 1988)

[3] David H. Stern, Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel (Baltimore, Jewish New Testament Pulications, 1988)