Mixed Multitude?

 Over the years, the term “mixed multitude”, with reference to those who came out of Egypt with the Israelites, has often been applied to the body of believers, “church”.  The question arises, therefore, does this term also apply to Israel? Is the Exodus a picture of the future church/Israel, where there is no distinction between Israelites (twelve tribes) and the rest of humanity (the mixed multitude)?  Can one apply the words spoken to the forefathers in covenants and promises to other people groups? If so, then why bother attaching any significance to Israel, the land, and, much more, to the faithfulness of Elohim to His Word?

Suppose we want an answer to why there has been so much antisemitism in the “Church”. Let me postulate that it is because of this mixed multitude idea, which was adopted in the third century by the “universal-catholic" all-inclusiveness doctrine.  Therefore. the meaning of the Hebrew word “goy”, and in Greek “ethnos” – nation - as a specific family of people with a specific calling and purpose, is lost. In other words, YHVH went back to the beginning and started all over with a “one new man” and decided to randomly take out from the “mixed multitude” a new variety “for His name's sake”, a mixture of seeds from all different forefathers. Thus, YHVH supposedly discarded His original inheritance (Israel) for a new one.  

When Nimrod called for all the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth to join his kingdom in Babylon, this was precisely the idea that he had in mind.  As we know, it was not a great idea, since YHVH intended, even from the very beginning, to multiply and fill the earth.  So, in the aftermath of the "Tower of Babel", Elohim scattered the three families of Noah and gave them each their own territories. For two thousand years, they multiplied into many nations, traveling and expanding throughout the known earth.  Motivated by economic and political ties, the brothers resumed their association with each other, which ultimately culminated in the Bronze Age (approximately 3000 BC -1600 BC) 

It was during this age (2000 BC) that Elohim called out an individual from the family of Shem - Abram - to be the progenitor of a chosen firstborn nation (Jacob). The Spirit of the Word anointed the soul-life of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in order to establish this nation as the head of all the nations that came out of the loins of Noah. Note the principle in nature, if you sow wheat in your field, at harvest time you would expect to gather wheat sheaves into your barn.  The soul/life of a forefather is passed on to his progeny through his seed/sperm. Thus, in all of humanity today, we are either a Shemite, Hamite, or Japhetite.  It is the Word of Elohim (Messiah as the Word) that determines the pedigree in each of the three fathers. The Word of Elohim becomes the guiding force in the destiny of these families. In other words, the sovereign rule (i.e., the Kingdom of Elohim) has been in every generation governing the Noaic family to their ultimate chosen role and fate.

YHVH’s eternal purpose is to establish His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. In so doing, He is setting up the administration of His earthly Kingdom by speaking into the lives of a handful of human forefathers in the book of Genesis. There are statutes, laws, and ordinances that belong to this governmental process that should not be altered or changed.

 “YHVH is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.  YHVH is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.  All Your works shall give thanks to You, YHVH, and Your godly ones shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of YHVH’s power; to make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts, and the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.  ¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations” (Psalm 145:8-13 emphases added).  

“Therefore thus says YHVH, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale; But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they will sanctify My name; Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.  And those who err in mind will know the truth, and those who criticize will accept instruction” (Isaiah 29:22-24 emphasis added).   

Gentile Exposed

 Letter 474 (Gentile Exposed)                                              21/01/2011

 Psalm 83:2-4: "For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; and those who hate You have lifted up their head.  They have taken crafty counsel against Your people/am, and consulted together against Your sheltered/hidden/treasured ones.  They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation/goy, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more'" (Psalm 83:2-4 emphasis added).

 For several years now, I have had cause to suspect the usage, in the English translations, of the Hebrew word "goy" and "goyim."  The more I thought and prayed about it, the more I began to be alarmed, especially after reading Psalm 83.  Indeed, if the enemies of Israel want to cut us off from being a nation/goy, what better way of doing it than through a change in the definition or translation of words?  If, for example, "goy" is understood to mean a non-Jewish person, heathen, or gentile/non-Israelite, then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's progeny/seed, who according to YHVH's promises were supposed to be a "goy gadol" (great goy) and m'lo-ha-goyim (fullness or multitudes of nations), would actually turn out to be non-Jewish\non-Israelite individuals, heathens, and gentile/pagans. Does not that sound like replacement theology? Or worse, loss of identity/ethnicity.

 Ethnos" is typically translated "Gentile” in the New Testament. But we have to remember that in the Church's understanding even when it is rendered "nation" all too often it is perceived as a non-Israelite or “a mixed multitude”.  In Damascus a Jew by the name of Ananias had a vision where "… the Lord said to him, "Go, for he [Saul, the former persecutor of the Believers] is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles/ethnos, kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts  9:15).  Was Ananias referring to the promises to Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob: "Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations/goyim shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body (Genesis 17:6; Genesis 35:11 emphases added)? 

 Was Paul another one who was sent out to the nations to procure the sons of Israel (the "lost sheep") who had become nations and kings?  I'm sure Yeshua didn't change his mind when He said that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel (ref.  Mat. 15:24). In the following scriptures Paul writes (quoting from the Tanach):  "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles [ethnos] has come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob…"  (Romans 11:25-26 (Isaiah 59:20) emphasis added).  Again, the usage of "Gentiles" totally takes the reader away from understanding the "mystery of the blindness of Israel."  The "fullness of the nations/goyim" is of course quoted from the blessing to Ephraim in Genesis 48:19. Additionally, what does "all Israel" and a "Deliverer who comes out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob," mean if these expressions have nothing to do with Jacob and his seed or progeny?

 A similar case could be made in regard to Peter's commentary, where he quotes from the Tanach (Old Testament) about Israel: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation/ethnos" (Exodus 19:5-6; 1 Peter 2:9).  According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the Protestant denominations, and unfortunately many Messianic believers also, these scriptures apply only to the "once- you- were- not- my- people" meaning non-Israelites. Which is actually the opposite of who it is referring to.   In Hosea 1:9-10, these very words were spoken to the northern house of Israel, but now are viewed as the “Gentiles” who are in the 'holy and universal Church,' and are therefore regarded as the new "Israel of God" or the "one new man."  What has enabled Christendom to come to this conclusion is the way that this one Hebrew word - "GOY" - has been tampered with. Peter is quoting Hosea because he recognizes these believers as the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” He wants to prove that Elohim is faithful to harvest the seed that He sowed, thus “how great the day of Yezreel” (Yah sows) (Hosea 1:11).

 Did St. Jerome and the Catholic Church have any reason to introduce a translation of the Bible (the Vulgate) that would eliminate Israel as YHVH's legitimate chosen nation/goy?  It is not that Latin did not have a word for nation/goy. As a matter of fact, the origin of the English "nation" comes from the Latin "natio" (close in sound to the Greek "ethno," which is the root word the Greeks used for the Hebrew "goy," as mentioned above).  Jerome adapted the term “gentile” from the Latin “genitalis,” which in English is “genital” (male or female sex organs).  Of course, the seed issues from the male genital to the female’s, but humans do not become sex organs - “gentiles”!

 YHVH defined "goy" and "goyim" when He divided the people and divvied out to them their lands (see Genesis 10:5, 32).  Thus, the true definition of "nation/goy" has three basic aspects: a people, tribe, or families living on a piece of real estate/land and subject to one government.  Thereby, we could say that government, people, and land are   the necessary components that define a "nation."  If we look at the covenant with the forefathers, it always entailed these three: land, a people, and YHVH's kingdom government (or man's).

 What is so amazing is that even Jewish Israelis of today, as well as the Messianic Jews, do not identify themselves as a "goy."  They make use of the term "goy" or "goyim" exclusively for non-Jews or "Gentiles."  However, "goy" is still the one Hebrew word that YHVH uses to unite us as one people, and one nation (see Ezekiel 37: 22).  Without correcting this obvious mistranslation and misunderstanding, the "one new man" idea of Ephesians 2:15 is a nice concept, but it does not bring about unity.  The existence of thousands of Christian denominations attests to this fact; nor does it bear witness to YHVH's faithfulness in keeping covenant with Abraham and the "goy gadol" - "great nation" – Israel that was to issue forth from his loins.  

Understanding with Discernment

 Understanding with Discernment

In a few days, Americans will be looking back at September 11^th (9/11) and remember those who lost their lives on the day that Islamists attacked the “Great Satan”, the United States of America.  A month later, another date will be remembered, October 7th, when the State of Israel, “the little satan”, was brutalized in an attack from the Palestinian territory governed by Hamas. These attacks have led to wars in Iraq, ISIS in Afghanistan, and more recently, with not only Hamas, but also Hezbollah from Lebanon and factions in Syria, Iran, and the Houthis in Yemen. Most Westerners do not realize that every Muslim country supports Islam’s war against the “big” or the “small satan”. That is, by necessity, it is incumbent upon every Muslim who reads the Koran to identify in one way or another with its (the Koran’s) agenda.   

When Iraq’s Saddam Hussein declared that he would begin the “mother of all wars” (1991), He was prophesying the beginning of the war of revenge against the Western allies, who defeated the Islamic Caliphate (Ottoman Empire) in WWI.  Saddam launched his attack against both the big satan’s military infrastructure in Kuwait and other regional Arab countries, and directly the little satan who had been supplying Iran (Iraq’s enemy) with weapons. 

In 1917, the British awarded Islam’s worst enemy (the Zionists) the Islamic land of Palestine as a home for the Jewish people (Balfour  Declaration).  Ever since then, there has been an all-out war, “Jihad”, against the Jewish state, a war which has now morphed into a contagious worldwide anti-Jewish, anti-Israel sentiment and hatred. The so-called Arab Spring (2010-2011) sent millions of Muslims, "fleeing" from their own countries, into Europe and other non-Muslim nations. Why were they not taking refuge in nations of their own ilk? The answer is very obvious if one understands and discerns the biblical times in which we live. 

Before the October 7^th’s massacre, Evangelical Christians were the largest gentile group that supported the Jewish state. Still, over the course of this two-year war with Hamas and the Islamists (Palestinians), their support has dropped to an all-time low.  This decline has also occurred in the Hebrew Roots movement to the point where a claim is made that the Jews in Israel are not the authentic Israelites, and worst of all, the land is not important.  But obviously IT IS, to the spirit of Islam, fighting against YHVH’s plans! If one truly knows the Elohim of Israel and His faithfulness to the covenant promises, one should be ashamed and repent for even entertaining such thoughts. 

How are we to understand, discern, and respond to those brothers and sisters in the faith who are beginning to doubt the Jewish State/Israel’s biblical legitimacy, and the Jewish people’s restoration to the land promised, and our course of action taken to defend ourselves against the Islamic agenda? Just because Israel’s military destroyed their residences, along with Hamas’ underground tunnels, thus causing most of Gaza’s two million residents to be homeless, the so-called human rights organizations have attacked Israel’s government with accusations of genocide and starvation. Incidentally, the evidence originates solely from Hamas sources and their sympathizers. Believers must seek truth from the scriptures and the reality as YHVH presents it to us, from His perspective.  We cannot depend on humanistic morality, which judges from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  

Drawing morality from this tree only produces self-righteousness and ultimately death.  It can and will most likely turn one away from "the fear of YHVH" who claims to "watch over His word to perform it, not turning back until He (in zealousness, anger and wrath) will perform and accomplish the intent of His heart; In the latter days you will understand this" (ref. Jeremiah 1:12; 30:24, my modifications). Notice that in the latter days, we are required to have understanding, and may I add, discernment.

This month (Elul) is a season of repentance. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to convict us of anything that we have eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, as its fruit can only produce deception. But seeing through Yeshua’s eyes of biblical truth and reality will encourage us to press on, even though the circumstances seem confusing.