Connecting Dots

 

In last week’s article, we attempted to explain the two names - Jacob and Israel that were (and still are) attached to the one nation/goy which was in the womb of Isaac’s wife Rebecca.  YHVH decided to stake His claim and name upon this natural, human, fleshly, down to earth people group, in spite of their corrupt nature. "For YHVH's portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:9).  He also gave them an inheritance, a land, and covenant promises.  However, being His namesake-family the realization of all of those blessings was contingent upon their faithful witness to His righteousness and justice.  As we know from history, the people of Jacob failed to live up to those conditions and suffered the consequence of their behavior.  Isaiah sums it up in three verses: “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 1:4-6).  This is why this flesh and blood nation (Jacob) cannot inherit the Kingdom of Elohim (see 1 Corinthians 15:50).  Nevertheless, the promise to receive YHVH’s Kingdom still remains within the context of Elohim’s “will” for His called out nation/Jacob.  In the same chapter Isaiah gives them/us a flicker of hope:  "Come now, and let us reason together," says YHVH, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool” (1:18).  

There is no possible way for this transition to take place unless YHVH acts sovereignly to make this a reality for His chosen nation.  Thankfully, the prophets of old heralded “good news”, such as: "Behold, days are coming,’ declares YHVH, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…’” (Jeremiah 31:31 emphasis added). Another one is Ezekiel 36, which is replete with the “I will” of YHVH (see verses 22-31). 

Because YHVH’s word stands forever and will not fail, He has already brought to pass many of the promises that He made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, in spite of their progeny’s dire condition.  "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins...  for the gifts and the calling of Elohim are irrevocable” (Isaiah 59:20; Romans 11:26-29).  In the letter to the Galatians we note that the children of the inheritance are kept under the elemental laws of the universe, as well as the Torah of Moses until the time when the Almighty would send His son/seed into the family of Jacob as a kinsman Redeemer.   “But when the fullness of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law/Torah, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law/Torah, that we might receive the adoption as sons…” (see also Romans 9:4)… ^“And because you are sons, Elohim has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’"  (Galatians 4:4-6).  Paul is connecting the dots for us regarding both our natural identity, as Jacob’s posterity, and our spiritual identity as “sons of Elohim” in Messiah Yeshua, at which time we will express the true nature of the “Israel of Elohim”  (Galatians 6:16).

"For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you.  In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,’ says YHVH your Redeemer.  ^‘For this is like the days of Noah to Me; when I swore that the waters of Noah should not flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor will I rebuke you.  For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,’ says YHVH who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:7-11).  

In His end time dissertation in Mathew 24 Yeshua mentions that the coming of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah (verse 37). Could it be that the above Isaiah scripture is also hinting at that day? As at His coming He will take out of the nations His redeemed remnant. Is this why He goes on saying, “one will be taken and one will be left” (verses 40-41)?  Some believe that this is pointing to the greater Exodus.  Just as He was in the midst of the Hebrews when He brought our ancestors out of Egypt, so again He will be in the midst of them/us when He brings them/us back a second time. 

Seeing that today’s state of affairs is comparable to the days of Noah, when sin and iniquity abounded, so too we may be witnessing at present conditions not unlike those when YHVH acted to extricate His chosen people from their bondage in Egypt. “Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as YHVH your Elohim did for you in Egypt before your eyes?  To you it was shown that you might know that YHVH, He is Elohim; there is no other besides Him” (Deuteronomy 4:34-35).  Are we ready for this if it were to happen in our day?  Or is it already in progress, before our eyes?