Jewish Lent
August 22nd, 2009Get Ready for 5770
My sister’s illness pretty much consumed the last few days, but I have two days off, so here I am.
Yesterday I told her something I thought she needed to know, and I think you will benefit from it, too.
The Jewish holidays are still important. Don’t listen to Christians who yammer “We’re not under the law” whenever you mention the Old Testament or its principles or the obligations it lays out. Jesus was crucified over Passover. The baptism of the Holy Spirit took place on Pentecost. Many Christians believe Succoth symbolizes our reunion with Jesus. None of this stuff was ever canceled or rescinded. People who ignore the Old Testament are often the same folks who think the Jews have been discarded, and that we are somehow supposed to replace them. It’s hard to imagine anything more offensive to God.
We’re not Jews. Most of us aren’t, anyway. We can eat pork (thank you, thank you), and we are not required to memorize 613 commandments or cleanse our homes of yeast prior to Passover. But many of the principles in the Old Testament apply to everyone, and the holidays are eternal.
Rosh Hashanah is coming up. So is Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish year, which, somehow, does not happen in the first month in the Jewish calendar. Can’t figure that out, but that’s how it is. Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, when the high priest used to go into the Holy of Holies and atone for the sins of all the Jews.
Orthodox Jews believe in a concept called “teshuvah,” which means “return.” It refers to returning to God. When you make teshuvah, you examine yourself and determine what your faults are, and you make a decision to change. Jews don’t equate it with repentance, which they interpret as deciding to behave in a new way. They see teshuvah as returning to your true nature, which is good. That can’t be reconciled with the Christian belief that people start out bad and have to be taught in order to become good, but in practice, the difference between teshuvah and repentance is hard to distinguish. To a Christian, “repentance” would seem correct.
Although it is not mentioned in the Bible, religious Jews believe that on Rosh Hashanah, God decides how we will fare during the new year, including whether we survive, and on Yom Kippur, he inscribes his decision in his book. Here is an English translation of a prayer Jews recite. It may irritate Orthodox Jews; I’m not sure. It comes from the work of a Messianic writer.
On Rosh HaShana it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed:
how many will pass away and how many will be born,
who will live, and who will die; who will die prematurely and who will live out his days;
who will perish by fire and who by water; who by sword and who by wild animals;
who by hunger and who by thirst; who by earthquake and who by plague;
who by strangling and who by stoning; who will have rest and who will wander about;
who will be at peace and who will be tormented;
who will be at ease and who will be bothered;
who will become poor and who will become rich;
who will be brought low and who will be raised up.But repentance, prayer and charity avert the harsh decree.
The word translated “repentance” is “teshuvah,” so right away, you can see fodder for argument. The word translated “prayer” is “tefillah,” which means to attach yourself to God; it doesn’t mean to get on your knees and ask for things. Maybe it’s the kind of prayer David wrote about when he said, “put thou my tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?”. The word translated “charity” is “tzedakah,” which means to give to others because it is just and you recognize that what you have is actually God’s. Orthodox Jews consider this different from charity, but to a Christian, this is exactly what charity means.
Quibbling aside, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are on the way. And the 40 days prior to Rosh Hashanah are known as the Forty Days of Teshuvah. The idea is that God will judging us soon, so we should be thinking about the way we live and doing things to fix it. To “avert the harsh decree” we might otherwise face.
This period began at sundown on Thursday, August 20. While my sister was receiving her first dose of chemotherapy. The following day, on the way to the hospital, I told her about the Days of Teshuvah, and I pointed out that it began on the same day as her treatment. Was it coincidental? I can’t say. But when you have something medical science considers incurable and unsurvivable, what could be more appropriate than repentance, prayer, and charity? Everyone needs these things, but the need is more obvious and likely more urgent in a cancer patient.
I work to fix my faults all the time, whether or not it is possible to detect any signs of that from my behavior. I’m thinking this would be a good time to work on laziness and irresponsibility. I want to be neater and more organized. I want to take better care of things. Christians tend to think being a good steward means pinching pennies and giving to charity, but we are entrusted with lots of things that aren’t money, and I think we need to take good care of all of them. We have to try to be healthy. We have to take care of our possessions. We have to use our time well. You can complete the list yourself.
This is all pretty horrifying to me. Already, I’m looking around, noticing things I should take care of. Arrgh. This means WORK. I’ll have to get the ladder out and paint the soffit in front of the house. I’ll have to fix the door by the sprinkler pump. And it’s AUGUST. It’s like a vegetable steamer combined with a thousand sunlamps out there. Arrgh. I can’t believe I chose this.
But I have to do it, so I might as well shut up.
Charity is a wonderful tool. Nobody does the right thing all the time, and if I understand the Bible correctly, you can avoid punishment by looking after others. That’s a real gift, because doing charity is pleasant. What a deal. Prayer is not too hard. Repentance…that’s the hurdle. Ouch. I have to wire up my compressor. I have to get rid of the dead mamey tree.
In the Bible, forty-day periods seem to be identified with change for the better. With cleansing. Think of the forty days of rain, in which the evil people of the world were destroyed. Think of the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert. Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days when he received the commandments and came down to purify the people. Jesus remained on earth for forty days after the resurrection. Are there other Biblical examples? These are the only ones I could think of. All these examples involve new beginnings.
In case you want to take advantage, Rosh Hashanah starts at sundown on September 18, and Yom Kippur starts at sundown on September 27.
While I was looking stuff up, I came across a Jewish blog which goes into more detail about the significance of the number 40. Maybe you’ll enjoy it.
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Wow, I just came in from doing a bunch of stuff I’ve been putting off for months because of the decision-making involved. But it had to be done. And I lent my compressor to a neighbor so we could use my nail gun to roof him up. So I just rewired it here.
There is no such thing as coincidence. Just things happening at the same time. Hope you get the same satisfaction I did.
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:39 PM
> a good time to work on laziness and irresponsibility.
Well, that hit home. Me too, pal.
Best to you and your sister.
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:52 PM
Steve,
If what you say is true, I have a question. Why Paul? Could they not have found an apostle to the gentiles from the left over ones among themselves?
Acts 28:28 should be considered.
You might also want to look up what Paul had to say about the gospel he recieved and from whom.
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 PM
You need to be clearer. I don’t know what you mean.
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:24 PM
My birthday is Sept. 18th and while I’ve always known (In a strictly Gentile way) that that was the first day of Rosh Hashanah, I never knew that it has that kind of spiritual weight. Thanks for opening that up for me! I’m also named for Sarah, the mother of nations. With a great name comes great responsibility.
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:39 AM
Steve,
What I am saying is we are no longer under the law. One of Paul’s dust ups was over the Judizers coming to Galatia. He confronted Peter for acting like a Jew and causing the Galatians to stumble. He brought the problem back to James and the other apostles in Jerusalem. The entered into an agreement, Paul to the gentiles and the rest to the Jews.
All of the law was fulfilled in Christ by Christ.
Paul rebuked the Galatians for trying to be more Christian by acting like a Jew.
He also rebuked the Jews for bringing to law to the Galatians and being a stumbling block to their faith.
It is good to read the old testament to learn how God acted towards the Jews. But those writing were not written to gentiles, they were written to the Jews.
If you have Christ in you, you have all that is needed to walk out the faith.
If you can find the time give Galatians chapter 1 a read.
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 AM
I’m not claiming we are under the law. I’m simply pointing out that the Jews are still precious to God and part of his plan (see the Revelation and various Old Testament prophecies), and that the Jewish holidays are still very significant. And that many of the principles that led to the creation of the law apply to all of us. Surely you don’t disregard the Ten Commandments, which are part of the law.
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We can all benefit from studying Judaism. If you read the work of Messianic Jews, you will learn things Christians would never have figured out without their help.
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It’s a real tragedy that so many Christians discard the Old Testament and have no interest in their Jewish roots. Whether we or the Jews like it or not, we belong to a faith that is fundamentally Jewish.
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It is my understanding that Jesus did not intend to say he had done away with the law, as your citation might seem to imply. As you will recall, he said heaven and earth would pass away before one stroke of the law (he probably referred to Hebrew letters) was done away with. I have been given to understand that what Jesus actually meant was that he did not come to abolish the TORAH, but to COMPLETE it. That isn’t nearly the same thing. The word translated “law” probably refers to the entire Jewish scripture, the tanakh. Furthermore, in the New Testament, Messianics believe Paul himself continued to observe the law, while discouraging its application to Gentiles.
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Here is how The Complete Jewish Bible puts it: “Matt 5:17-19
‘Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. 18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened.'”
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The Jewish believers who made up the early church understood Jesus much better than the Gentile church does today. Jesus was a religious Jew, and he spoke the way a religious Jew would, referring to the Talmud and the Old Testament constantly. One of the great and strange blessings of the Messianic movement is that Jews are showing up to explain our faith to us.
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:12 PM
I should really read everything in a thread before I go off half-cocked. Sigh. But if anything, Steve, your response is probably better than your thought-provoking post.
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You could spend an interesting morning (or much longer, likely) pondering the mechanics of the relationship whereby Gentile Christians have become adopted into the Jewish family (and I’m speaking here as to how and why Christians are, in essence and in particular, Jews “under the Law and the The Prophets”).
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Start here (with a study of achuzah):
http://www.starsofdavid.org/stories/adopjew.html
http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker/ChaySara.txt
http://www.kolel.org/pages/5764/chayyei_sarah.html
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Because the mechanism of our adoption is pretty explicit in EPH 1:5, 11 “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will …In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will”
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And the importance of the implication of that process of adoption, to Christians (at least), is that we are as subject to the fulfilled Law and The Prophets, as any good Jew is.
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Christians are …Jews.
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Just …adopted ones.
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August 23rd, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Rick, like Steve said. There’s a book in the public domain (you can read it online here: http://philologos.org/__eb-lat/ ) by a Jewish Christian named Edersheim. As I read this accompaniment to the gospels, I came to realize all the misunderstandings gentile Christians have of the Word due to not understanding the context of Jewish culture at the time of Jesus’ ministry prior to His ascension.
The Law foreshadows the church and, as Steve was saying, it’s good to understand it so we understand God’s Word to us more clearly.
That’s one reason I look forward to Aaron’s comments as much as I do. He may not be a Christian, but he sure knows the Old Testament better than anyone I’ve met.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:17 PM
“It comes from the work of a Messianic writer.”
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It’s from the Yom Kippur liturgy, more than 2000 years old.
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The “gentile Yom Kippur” is the seventh day of Sukkot, Hoshanah Rabbah. There were sacrifices for the welfare of the 70 nations in the Temple during the festival of Sukkot. Had the world understood the value of the Temple to them, they would have fought the Romans, themselves.
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The month of Elul, which starts the 30 days before the 10 Days of Repentence between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, is the anniversary of the beginning of reconciliation between God and the Jews which climaxes with the evidence of God’s forgiveness by the giving of the second set of tablets. The shofar is blown every morning except Shabbos. It’s a wake-up call.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:19 PM
This TRANSLATION comes from a Messianic writer.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:57 PM
The laws, other than the Noachide laws, never applied to gentiles. Nor were they ever intended to. It’s a theological straw man to claim being released from laws one was never bound to in the first place.
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To suggest that the laws no longer apply to Jews directly contradicts the many times scripture says “for all your generations”. Unless generations ceased 2000 years ago, this makes no sense. Again, these statement wasn’t directed at gentiles:
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Lev 23:14: And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until this selfsame day, until ye have brought the offering of your God; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
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Num 15:14-15: And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever may be among you, throughout your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; as ye do, so he shall do. As for the congregation, there shall be one statute both for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you, a statute for ever throughout your generations; as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.
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Exodus 30: MANY times.
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Exodus 12: MANY times (about Passover), And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; howbeit the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore shall ye observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance for ever.
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Exodus 31:13: Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying: Verily ye shall keep My sabbaths, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the LORD who sanctify you.
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Regarding davis,br, adoption of gentiles into the Jewish nation has always had procedure, just as each commandment has had specifics that would have been utterly lost if we had relied on Christianity to transmit them. Show me one contiguous provenance of Christian scholars from 2000 years ago to today that can describe the specifics of the biblical commandment of fringes or the method of kosher slaughter or any of the other 613 commandments in the Torah? Can I assert that I have been adopted by you?
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Find me something in the OT about the law becoming “fulfilled” and no longer needing to be practiced. You won’t find it because that would create a scriptural paradox of negating the many instances of “for all your generations”.
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Read Deuteronomy 4 http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0504.htm and explain to me exactly how Jews will ever lose their relationship with God and how anyone else could possibly replace them? This doesn’t suggest that others can’t also have a direct relationship with God but any theology that suggests the Jews losing their status (and responsibility) is scripturally untenable. Don’t ask me to reconcile your interpretation of scripture and its “fulfilled” doctrine with the OT any more than Steve can reconcile the Book of Mormon to the NT.
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Isaiah 59 concludes: And a redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression IN JACOB, saith the Lord. And as for Me, this is My covenant WITH THEM, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of THY MOUTH, nor out of the mouth of THY SEED, nor out of the mouth of THY SEED’S SEED, saith the LORD, from HENCEFORTH AND FOR EVER.
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QED
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:19 PM
I guess it a matter as to how you choose to look at the events that involved Jesus’s ministry while He was on the earth.
It you read the gospels you find one important matter. Jesus didn’t come to minister to gentiles. He in fact ordered his disciples not to go to the gentile nor the half gentiles.
Two events stand out to me that point to this as well. Read the accounts of how Jesus responded to blind Brartimaeus and the gentile woman who cried out the same thing. “Son of David, have mercy on me.”
He called the woman a dog. He answered her prayer but He was prodded by His disciples to pay attention to the woman.
We are now included in salvation pretty much by forfeit.
The Jews rejected the messiah and salvation went to the gentiles.
Paul’s gospel given by revelation was a gospel of freedom, not good works. He could embrace the the holy days or not. It didn’t add to his salvation. Our life is not to imatate but rather to allow His life to be lived through us.
All scripture is God breathed. But not all scripture was written to gentiles.
If I write a letter to a friend and a friend of his happens to read the letter and gets some benefits from it, it was still written to another.
If you have Christ you have all that is necessary, holidays for the Jew are holidays for the Jew.
We have the life of Christ, His very self in us. We would be far better off seeking how to allow Him to give His expression through us than trying to figure out how to be more kosher.
One might want to consider that Christ isn’t a Jew anyone more, He is the risen Messiah sans any blood. That was poured out at the cross.
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Christ isn’t a Jew? Did he ever renounce Judaism? Is there any scripture saying he isn’t a Jew? I’ll save you the trouble. The answer is no. The Revelation says 144,000 Jews have been set apart to participate in the end times. Did God make a mistake? Did he mean to choose Gentiles instead? I don’t think so.
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Prophecy says the temple will be rebuilt. Did he mean a Gentile temple? No, he meant the temple in Jerusalem. The Bible tells us a new Jerusalem will be created. Isn’t Jerusalem the Jewish capital? Of course it is. We are also told sacrifices will take place during the Messianic Age. There is only one place where this is permitted. The temple in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the conflicts that will take place at the end of the world all center around Israel. Not the US. Not Europe. Finally, prophecy says Jews will eventually come to believe Jesus is the messiah.
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Replacement theology is generally based on anti-Semitism. It can’t be derived from, or reconciled with, the Bible.
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The idea that Gentiles are somehow spiritually superior to Jews is asinine and disgusting, and only bigoted people who read the Bible selectively buy into it. If we had gone hundreds of years without a prophet or a miracle, do you think we’d be Christians now? The Jews endured one spiritual drought after another, and there are still Jews who revere God and keep the law. Gentiles have had it much easier, but we are still falling away from God.
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The Jewish holidays are still extremely important. They prove the authenticity of Jesus, and they tell us about our future and the nature of God, which has never changed. God is not a Catholic or a Baptist, regardless of what conceited Christians want to believe.
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As for the Jews rejecting Jesus, please remember who brought Jesus to the Gentiles. We are told that 20% of the Jews in Jerusalem converted, and all 12 disciples were Jewish, and eleven of them, plus Paul (a lifelong Jew) died martyrs’ deaths.
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 PM
What unites us greatly exceeds what we disagree on. Observant Jews and Christians have more in common with each other than with their less serious respective brethren. Observant Jews share little with their fellows who have substituted secularist activism or myopically selfish exclusionism for what God demands through scripture. Ditto Christians. Judaism is losing its secularists. Christianity is losing Europe and even official Episcopalianism and other branches are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from leftism.
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Just as a “kosher style” deli that makes Reuben sandwiches is 100% unkosher, there are “Christian-style” ideologies that are anathema to Christianity.
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It’s religious insecurity that compels people to try to change others. The message of Elul is to change ourselves before we face our Maker. Not many replacement theology Christians have ever been worthy of emulating nor have they been successful at perpetuating goodness for generations in the name of their faith. The inability to transmit a provenance of faith is solid evidence of their not abiding by even their own tenets. It’s simply not enough to learn to root for the right religious team as justification for our souls to descend from Heaven to experience life in His image, incarnate.
August 23rd, 2009 at 5:55 PM
Steve,
Your tone has increased as to the point I was trying to make.
Was Jesus a Jew before He was born a Jew? Is God a Jew?
Was Abraham a Jew before he recieved the promise of God? No.
The express purpose of each Holy day was to the Jew for the Jew to remenber the mighty acts of God on behalf of the Jews.
That has nothing to do with a gentile. Is God done with the Jews? No. He had a plan and has a plan for the Jews.
In Revealation it tells the believer to listen to the angels of the 7 churches.
Do you see them anywhere? Can you point them out. Revelation was written by a Jew to Jews. Many have tortured the book of Revelation to fit into their interpretation.
I don’t for a minute believe God is done with the Jews. They haven’t accepted the Messiah. They will when He returns to take His rightful place and rules a thousand years. All I am saying is that Jesus came to the Jew first. Because they rejected Him. Salvation came to the gentiles.
Just so there is no misunderstanding here, I was led to the Lord by a Jew. He is the sponser of my son in case his mother and I are removed from the earth.
That said, Paul is the apostle to the gentiles and his writings speak to the gentile. They were met for the gentile churches that met in homes.
He is the one who said that the Jewish holidays have nothing to do with your salvation and he never encouraged gentile to take on the practices of the Jews.
At no time did I say that replacement theology was in play here.
You ran with that. What I am saying is—–the gospel that Peter, John and the rest preached is quite different than the one Paul preached. For a good reason, Peter, John and the rest were reaching out to the Jew.
By the way, they remained kosher even after they believed Christ was the messiah. { Read Peter’s vision}
Gentiles didn’t even understand what kosher meant.
Bottom line is this, Jesus came, He died for sinners, Jews and Gentiles and will come again.
August 23rd, 2009 at 6:15 PM
You are arguing with assertions I never made and mentioning things that are not relevant. Whether Abraham was born a Jew is irrelevant. Whether Jesus was a Jew prior to his human incarnation is irrelevant. Jesus was definitely a Jew when he died, and there is absolutely no evidence that he ever claimed he was no longer a Jew. I don’t understand why you think he ceased being Jewish.
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You say “The express purpose of each Holy day was to the Jew for the Jew to remember the mighty acts of God on behalf of the Jews.” This is a very shallow and incomplete description of the holidays. The Bible speaks to us in language to be taken at face value, and it also speaks to us in symbols and metaphors which are extremely important and which prove that God inspired the scriptures. The first Passover presages the crucifixion. The unleavened bread and the lamb’s blood presage the sinless body of Jesus and his atoning blood. The flood–this is according to the New Testament–presaged baptism. There are too many other examples to list. People devote their lifetimes to explaining these mysteries, and it’s not just an academic game. It’s helpful to other believers in very practical ways.
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If you can’t see the value of studying Judaism, including the Jewish holidays, I can’t make it any clearer. The absurdity of the notion that these things have no importance to Christians, who worship a messiah who was crucified over Passover and who delivered the baptism of the Spirit on Shavuot, ought to be obvious.
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There is more to being a Christian than salvation. “The kingdom of God” is not heaven. It’s a state in which we are supposed to live, here on earth. How we live here matters, and the Old Testament is extremely helpful in finding our way. If salvation was the only thing of value, there wouldn’t be much point in living. Christians who focus only on salvation tend to lead ungodly lives which are wasteful and silly.
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Steve,
I am not making myself clear to you so rather than letting this turn into something it wasn’t met to be, I will stop.
I fully understand what the holy days mean and that they are types and shadows of He, who was to come. I have taken part in them.
Now could you point me to scripture that shows me where gentiles celebrated in there home churches as the Jews did in the temple?
Never mind it isn’t important.
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Rick utterly bypasses the “for evers” and “all your generations” evidence I raised. A messianic candidate that would suggest the Jews ceasing to observe those eternal commandments would be contradicting scripture.
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While West Point is accepting cadets in violation of the messianic prophecy against “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”, it’s not a matter of Jewish rejection, it’s a matter of Jewish messianic definition.
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Christians believe in a second coming. A messiah dying and returning to finish the job is not part of Jewish scripture. It’s what distinguishes Christian from Jew. You believed the Jewish messiah came and will return. Jews have always believed that the messiah will be a temporal human king who will complete the prophecies during his reign. 2000 years later, should the messiah appear, the first question that’ll be asked by humanity “is this your first or second time?” Jews will then wait, AGAIN, for West Point to close its doors and turn into an agricultural college, for compelling evidence that the candidate is who he says he is. We’re don’t call a messianic winner until the messianic age is incontrovertably here. That we can debate theology is evidence that the messianic age, which requires “they shall teach no more his neighbor”, hasn’t come.
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Rick, Revelations is simply not part of the Jewish canon any more than the writings concerning any of many other messianic candidates. It’s no more a part of Judaism than any of the many post-NT “scriptures” that claim to supercede or enhance Christianity.
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It’s puzzling from where I sit to see supercessionary theologies deny all subsequent faiths on shakier logic than that which Jews merely point to “no peace yet, ergo messianic age hasn’t come yet, ergo the messianic candidate hasn’t been firmly established yet.” The Muslims have all kinds of apologetics to assert why they supercede Christianity and Judaism. Bahai do the same to Muslims. Protestants to Catholics. Mormons to Christians.
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Reminds me of a joke that everybody to the right of me is a fanatic and everybody to the left of me is an apostate.
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The incontrovertable evidence of war colleges is sufficient to permit anyone to assert that the messianic age hasn’t come without even mentioning the candidacy of Jesus.
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A horse that’s ahead by 10 lengths coming around the final turn hasn’t won the race. It may be possible or probable but it’s simply not a done deal and it’s fraudulent to assert a winner and to pay bets until the race is conclusively over. You have no idea whether that horse could break its leg 50′ from the finish line and never cross.
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That you believe that Jesus is clearly going to win this race is what makes you Christian. Jews can’t certify a winner until the outcome is over, not merely probable or someone else claims a prophecy that it’s a “sure thing”.
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In the meantime, I think the messiah won’t be particularly annoyed at those who demanded that the “race” be fair and results scrupulously honest according to the OT’s definitions.
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A God who created the universe with the goal of creating free-willed humans in His image to believe in Him is less appealing to me than a benevolent God that desires humans to study His scripture and seek to emulate Him.
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In facing the Divine tribunal, I’d bet on messianically-mistaken emulators versus messianically-correct violators. Scripture and human history the the purpose of human creation doesn’t boil down to the one issue of “did you believe in the right messianic candidate”?
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 PM
Great exposition Steve and Aaron. I love it. Maybe you will preach some day Steve.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:33 AM
I don’t claim we are required to observe the Jewish holidays. Just that we have a tremendous opportunity to learn from them and to profit from them.
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I’m sorry if I seem crabby, but much of the typical anti-Judaic claptrap you hear from Christians has to do with antipathy toward the Jews. Anti-Semitism is increasing rapidly, and we are heading toward a crisis, and ignorant Christians will be heavily involved.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:27 AM
I also believe that much can be learned from Jewish holidays. I was merely trying to point out that if you have Christ you have all that is necessary to live the Christian life. That is by learning how to get out of the way and let Him live His life through you. Paul mentioned that He no longer lived but that the life of Christ lived in and through him.
However, I also believe the Jews are to celebrate all the Holy days and times until the messiah returns and establishes His throne among the His chosen.
I also believe that the Jews rejected Him as the suffering messiah when He walked among them and because of this rejection God sent salvation to the gentiles.
I also believe that God is working in two streams. One a stream of gentiles, the other a stream of Jews that will one day merge together upon His return.
His purpose is to be All in All and nothing can stop His devine will and purpose.
August 24th, 2009 at 2:58 PM
Here’s one Biblical holiday that WILL be observed by gentiles.
Zechariah 14:16-17 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). And it shall be, that whoso of the families of the earth goeth not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain.
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Zechariah 8:23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’
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Psalm 146:19-20 He declareth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for His ordinances, they know them not. Hallelujah.
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Many Psalms are written in either past, present and future tense and much can be learned from the exact text in the original Hebrew. Ps. 146:20 is not David discussing the past or just his generation. This is a Psalm to be read in every generation to help the reader connect to God. It’s present tense.
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Jews don’t believe they rejected the messiah. They believe — with legitimate evidence — that no candidate has fulfilled the major prophecies. Again, when West Point becomes an agricultural college, that will be compelling. While a few messianic Jews assert that Jesus will return to complete these, the rest of us (all of us *also* messianic Jews) believe a different candidate is more likely. Among the first questions the remnant of Jews would ask a “returned” messiah would be why he didn’t drive out the pagan Romans, end war and famine, nor prevent 2000 years of harsh, murderous exile for God’s people.
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I may be wrong, but there really isn’t a mean-spirited element of rejection in me. Maybe because I’m a Levite, who were charged with perpetuating scholarship and maintaining God’s law. Levites didn’t succumb to the moral cesspool of Egypt. They didn’t participate in the Golden Calf. It’s a matter of standards and rigor and adherence to the text of the Scripture God gave us to preserve. Of course, the very notion of standards seem to enrage some people who want to get credit for what they haven’t earned.
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Is it better to be a Jew? Hardly. Judaism teaches that it’s much better to be a good gentile than a sinning Jew. Jeremiah didn’t speak his Jeremiads to the surrounding nations. Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because of the embarrassing fact that the Ninevites were more likely to repent at that time than his own Jewish people. That’s why we don’t encourage conversion. We don’t have any special access to God as Ps. 145 says God is near to ALL who call upon Him. A new prophet or messiah wasn’t necessary to communicate that God has a relationship with gentiles — the messiah’s patrilineal ancestor, King David, was already clear about that. “Salvation” was already anyone’s inheritance… if they wanted it. Yet those who feel a calling can convert. We have a good tradition of welcoming converts and not denying their descendants anything. While a convert may not become a High Priest due to patrilineage, there is nothing to prevent a convert being the grandparent of a High Priest. We don’t have a caste system. Our messiah will descend from a convert from a reviled nation (Moab, which descended from the incestuous union of Lot with his daughter after they fled Sodom), Ruth.
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It’s not just that “”much can be learned from the Jewish holidays, Rick. Zechariah is clear that in the messianic age, those who believe, not just Jews, WILL observe Sukkot. The nations that don’t won’t be blessed with rain. Do YOU know how to celebrate Tabernacles? Ever construct one? Do you know what the four species are? What is the order of the prayer service for Tabernacles? Is there anyone in your congregation qualified to teach you?
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It’s irrefutable.
August 24th, 2009 at 3:20 PM
Regarding “better to be a Jew”:
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“The Arabs get all the oil, and we have to cut off WHAT???”
August 24th, 2009 at 5:04 PM
Aaron,
My son’s name by the way. I have attended all the festivals. If you google Seed of Abraham in Albany, NY you will see where I have spent many pleasant hours. I even own a Tallit and Kippah. I have sounded the shofar.
The nations you speak of that will go to worship will be gentiles. That in itself doesn’t mean Christians. As I understand it, we who have accepted Christ will be removed at His coming.
Those who have not accepted Christ will remain. So of course the wise ones will go to worship with the Jews. I wonder if the believers in that day will be call Christians? Wouldn’t that be a trip?
August 24th, 2009 at 6:11 PM
[…] http://toolsofrenewal.com/?p=4152 […]
August 25th, 2009 at 2:27 AM
Aaron, I’m not throwing stones here. Legitimate question re: “They didn’t participate in the Golden Calf.”
Exodus 32:5 “When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation…”
Didn’t Aaron head the Levites?
And: “A messiah dying and returning to finish the job is not part of Jewish scripture.”
I’m serious about this, and I’m glad I have the context to ask you, What is Isaiah 53 about?
August 25th, 2009 at 8:24 AM
Steve and Aaron.
I have found this site to be very helpful in understanding the Jewish rejection of Yeshua.
http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/israel/to-our-much-loved-jewish-friends.
August 25th, 2009 at 8:33 PM
Aaron was a single person of the Priestly subset (then only Aaron and his 4 sons). Aaron attempted to forestall the mob, he didn’t lead it. The women didn’t participate in the Golden Calf, either, despite Cecil B. de Mille’s portrayal. That’s why Aaron asked for the women’s jewelry first. The problem (read the Rashi) was a cardinal versus ordinal counting issue. 40th day versus 40 complete days. The eruv rav (mixed multitudes) were at the vanguard of the rebellion and succeeded in convincing others that Moses had failed to come down when promised. Commentaries say that Satan had created a vision of Moses’ coffin.
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Exodus 32:24,26-29: And I said unto them: Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off; so they gave it me; and I cast it into the fire, and ***there came out this calf***.’ .. then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said: ‘Whoso is on the LORD’S side, let him come unto me.’ And ***all the sons of Levi*** gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them: ‘Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Put ye every man his sword upon his thigh, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day ***about three thousand men***. And Moses said: ‘Consecrate yourselves to-day to the LORD, for every man hath been against his son and against his brother; that He may also bestow upon you a blessing this day.’
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***there came out this calf*** was because Dathan and Aviram retrieved the Tetragrammaton used to resurrect Joseph from the Nile and threw it into the fire, and out came the calf. Dathan and Aviram are involved later in the Torah during the rebellion of Korach.
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Who is on the Lord’s side? The sons of Levi.
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How many were involved in the uprising? Three thousand.
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What happens in the end? God forgives, blesses and another 40 day period commences and concludes with Yom Kippur, the festival of Atonement (at-ONE-ment), reuniting God’s nation with God.
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Re Isaiah 53: http://tinyurl.com/lg8wxu and http://www.26reasons.com/ISAIAH_53.pdf Both written by neighbors of mine.
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Rick, people who believe that I will only be “saved” by changing to their beliefs don’t love me any more than a Mormon who wishes to convert you to Mormon really loves you. It’s not about intent.
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The Moriel argument would take me days to answer and unlike deceptive groups that target Jews to convert, I am not funded with millions to do so. From 1989 to 1992 or so, I participated in much counter-missionary work and I found the experience fruitless as those I debated would ignore the points I made and regurgitate the same refuted arguments. Then they’d go away and I’d have to start the same old “whack-a-mole” with someone else new who wasn’t there the first time around. None would accept a starting premise that a single disqualification of any messianic candidate is a complete and total disqualification. That is, if messianic candidacy is defined in scripture by “NOT X” and the candidate is irrefutably X, all other arguments are inconsequential. The law of identity is that something can’t be both itself and not itself. God can’t be not-God, nor can He create a stone so big He can’t lift it.
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Psalm 146: Put not your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in him there is no salvation. “Ein lo toshua”, the last three words contain a very significant shoresh (root Hebrew trigram) that more than hints at something.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Again, I would appreciate it if commenters would not use this blog as a forum for arguments as to whether Jews or Christians are correct. It is not possible for a Christian blogger to write about his faith without supporting it and in doing so, writing things that go against the beliefs of Jewish readers. I will continue writing about my faith; there is no way to get around that. But I am not going to turn this site into a stage for pointless debate.
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I would remind Christian readers that the Bible tells us God himself chooses believers, so while we are supposed to give our testimonies and try to convince people we are right, it seems foolish to wander into the realm of harping and nagging. They used to stone us for that.
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I would remind Jewish readers that prophecy is frequently ambiguous, and that even the issue of whether it is ambiguous is subject to distortion due to bias. You don’t have to be a liar, a dunce, or an ignoramus to be a Christian.
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There are Messianics who have built careers around this controversy, and I feel sure at least one ministry out there has a forum where Jews and Christians alike can go to have a nice argument. Here’s a place to start. It’s the website of Dr. Michael Brown, a Messianic who likes to debate and who is famous for arguing with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: http://www.icnministries.org/israel/yeshua.htm
August 26th, 2009 at 9:20 AM
Sorry, Steve. I just regard Aaron as a Jewish biblical scholar and wanted to ask him a question or two. Wasn’t proselytizing, or challenging (as I know he knows way more about scripture than I do). And I appreciate his answers to my questions.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Ed, while I appreciate the compliment, I’m no more a scholar than a bright high school student capable of mastering first year calculus is a mathematician, let alone a doctoral student, let alone a professor of math, let alone a superior professor of math. Of course, most high school students struggled with sophomore-level math and rarely got as high as trigonometry. I didn’t begin studying until I was in my 20’s. Extrapolate from my meager learning what real scriptural scholarship might represent. My son-in-law spent two years at Lakewood Yeshiva, a year at the Mirrer Yeshiva and is now taking courses in preparation for taking the MCATs in late 2010. He’s scary smart.
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My goal as a parent is to educate my children to be thoroughly familiar with scripture in the original Hebrew. Daughter #3 is leaving for Israel next week for her year in a Jerusalem seminary.
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Steve, it’s hard not to respond when a writer insults Jews by repeating the canard that Jews rejected the messiah and inserting a link as if that’s the last word. We rejected a candidate that did not bring about peace on earth by any measure we could agree on. Christians believe Jesus will complete this when he returns. While many of Jesus’ followers were Jewish and asserted that he was the fulfillment of messianic prophecy, there have been MANY messianic candidates, all also with Jewish followers. Saying that we rejected our own messiah is a pejorative and provokes a reasonable response akin to when a Muslim asserts that Christians reject God’s last prophet, as if you don’t even know your own faith better than a Muslim does.
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Saying I rejected Jesus doesn’t trouble me. Asserting that I reject the very messiah that I, my family and my community pray for daily cannot but trigger a response.
August 30th, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Aaron,
I am truely sorry for offeneding you. That was not my intent. The link I left was so that you could see what A Jew has to say to a Jew. I never implied that it was the last word on any subject. That you read into it by your ownself.
That is the last thing I have to say on the matter.
Feel free to contact me should you have any further commits on the matter. Steve has the email address.