Waking Up to Wisdom

 “My son, if you will receive my sayings, and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of YHVH, and discover the knowledge of Elohim. For YHVH gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:1-6).  

YHVH gives us wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.  The scribes and prophets of old were anointed to hear “Thus says YHVH”, and we are still blessed today to read these messages in our scriptures. Therefore, “wisdom” means we should be attentive to what He says.  The fact that the Almighty addresses each of us as “My son” is not only extremely endearing but also makes for a significant identity marker.  Having come from an ancestry of rebels and sinners who “have now found grace in the wilderness” (Jeremiah 31:2) what should be our response to YHVH’s “speaking”?  His Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but do we have eyes to see and ears to hear?  Habakkuk was told to “see” what YHVH would speak to him (ref. Hab. 2:1). Many have had their eyes open to see the truth, but then have slumbered off into dreamland.

Elohim is sovereign over all of the history of humanity and has arranged everything by His Word, both the good and the evil. As those who profess to hold on to His Word, we have no excuse for walking in rebellion anymore, nor to interpret the history of His people, both Judah and Israel/Ephraim from any other perspective than His.

One of the reasons for the anti-Semitism and hatred that is rampant today in the nations is the prevailing ignorance of Elohim’s Word and biblical history.  Some Christians and other ‘believers’, for example, declare that the Jews living in Israel are not ‘real’ ethnic Jews, even though they and the generations before them were persecuted in many nations and had to flee from place to place precisely because they were labeled “Jews”. After the State of Israel was formed in 1948, thousands of Jews fled Islamic countries (again, because of persecution). They are the Sephardic Jews, many of whom (especially from Iraq) can trace their ancestry back to the Babylonian exile.  Obviously, at the same time (i.e. after the 2^nd World War) Jews from eastern and central Europe, who were survivors of attempted extermination for being known as Jews for centuries, also made their way to the newly formed Jewish State (a return which is prophesied in numerous scriptures).  Thus, today after 76 years, there is a third and a fourth generation of the two groups merging and producing young men and women who are giving their Jewish blood to defend the only country in the world that YHVH has given to His people.  The Marxist and Islamic agendas (although very far apart ideologically yet united in their mutual hatred for the Elohim of Israel) are currently closing in on the western Judeo/Christian civilization. Those of us who have awakened to the obvious must pay attention to “wisdom”. “The fear YHVH is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). “Trust in YHVH with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear YHVH and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:5-7).

YHVH is pouring out His Spirit in these latter days and with it a spirit of “wisdom” so that His people will ‘fear’ Him and listen to and obey that which comes from His mouth for:  “From His mouth come knowledge and understanding”. If we have these we will not be deceived by the lying spirits flooding the airways. Remember who the prince and power of the air is!

Gospel of Elohim Two in One

 A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the Gospel of God/Elohim. What is the Gospel of God/Elohim, other than His way of making Himself known? In Romans chapter 1 Paul introduces us to Elohim’s Son – Yeshua  (v.3), whom He sent to reveal His Holiness, His righteousness, and His power to resurrect the dead (vs.4, 19).  The Father’s life was in His Son in order to reconcile the fallen creation/creature back to Himself (see 2nd Corinthians 5:19).  Everything about Yeshua the Son was to glorify and reveal the Father. 

In the second half of Romans 1, Paul points out a characteristic of the Father that many believers seem to be uncomfortable with, and that is “the wrath of Elohim” (v.18), proving that He is just and righteous in all His ways and that His statutes, laws and ordinances have never changed.  Paul continues, by describing the rebellion, apostasy, adultery and idolatry of the people that knew YHVH (v.21) – Israel. As he goes through the history of YHVH’s people, Paul enumerates the specifics of the behavior of Israel who strayed into rebellion, even “not seeing Him in the things that He created” (v.20), reflecting the depth of humanity’s spiritual deprivation. But in spite of this complete falling away, the Father presents His people with a message of “life from the dead” and thus launches the Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah of Israel. 

When Miriam, Yeshua’s mother, visited her pregnant relative Elizabeth, she was extolling the Almighty in worship and at the end made this statement: "He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy,  As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever" (Luke 1:54-55 emphasis added). Later in the same chapter, Zacharias the father of the other baby, being full of the Spirit prophesied: "Blessed be Adonai Elohim of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant--  as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old …  to show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days” (Luke 1:68-70, 72-75 emphases added).  It bears repeating, YHVH wants His chosen to serve Him in “holiness and righteousness and live before Him all our days”.  Already before He made the covenant with Abram, YHVH charged him “walk before Me and be tamim - blameless” (Gen. 17:1 emphasis added), without spot or wrinkle “that He might present to Himself the church [the heirs of the promise] in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27).  

In the above scriptures YHVH coalesces the New Covenant and the Abrahamic Covenant into One Covenant. He is thus bearing witness to His faithfulness to Abraham, the forefathers and to their seed, whom He promised to “bless and multiply”. The proof of these two immutable promises is revealed in the New Covenant.  “In the same way Elohim, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things (blessing and multiplying) in which it is impossible for Elohim to lie” (Hebrews 6:17-18a emphasis added).  This mystery is great but if we see the inherent connection between the two covenants and the heirs who have been “blessed and multiplied”, we will understand our true identity and bear witness to an Elohim who does not lie. He will not compromise His own nature but will reveal it in His people who will walk before Him and be ‘tamim’. 

Those who claim to be Christian-believers and are looking to be blessed by blessing the Jews, do not understand that they have already been blessed because they are the Abrahamic heirs of the multiplicity aspect of the blessing - “the fullness of the nations”. (This is not replacing one group for another, but the reality of the fulfillment.) “Thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘the Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob’" (Romans 11:2; 25-26; see Genesis 48:16-19).

This “One Covenant” requires faith in order to walk before YHVH and be “tamim”.  "Come, let us return to YHVH. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him” (Hosea 6:1-2 emphasis added).  Hosea states that Israel would live before YHVH, as does King David before him: “How blessed are those whose way is blameless [tamim], who walk in the Torah of YHVH” (Ps. 119:1) by faith.