What I'm Reading - Blood Brothers

After letting it sit on my shelf for several months I finally decided to read Elias Chacour's Blood Brothers over the weekend. Someone gave me a copy without much explanation; the two little boys on the cover lead me to believe it was the story of friendship between a Jewish boy and a Palestinian boy. But there was much more to it.

Elias was born in 1939 to a Palestinian Christian family and was a young boy when the Jewish state of Israel was declared. He vividly recalls Israeli soldiers coming into his village and requesting that everyone leave for a few days for "safety reasons." His family has never had their property restored. As a Christian Elias is able to discuss the Israeli/Palestinian land dispute from a Biblical perspective. In chapter nine he points out that YHWH declares the Promised Land is his in Vayikra 25:23 and that all it's inhabitants are His tenants. He uses his father's fig orchard as a beautiful analogy:

We Gentiles had been "grafted in" among God's chosen people of faith, just as Father had grafted six different kinds of fig trees together to make a delightful new tree. Beneath the rough bark where my hand rested, I knew that the living wood had fused together so perfectly that, should I cut the tree down, I could never see where one variety stopped and the other began.

He shares his life's path of study and seminary in Paris that lead him to be the archbishop of Galilee through the Melkite Church. The above quote is from one of the Father's at seminary. Elias was inspired to make his life's work seeking peace between the Jews and Christians of Israel and Palestine, in spite of the new government's failure to do so. He worked at churches and started schools and community centers in the Galilee area (often visiting some of very same places that Yeshua did; finding comfort on the mountains he spoke on). When a new community center opened one of the first things he did was show a film documenting the persecution of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to teach Palestinians to sympathize with their suffering. His vision and hope was remarkable; recognizing that there was no longer Jew nor Greek and that all Believers become Abraham's seed and heirs he arranged peaceful marches of unified Israelis and Palestinians expressing their desire for peace. 

Elias' story is a tremendous resource for those wishing to understand more of the conflict in the Promise Land, and to learn what it's like to be a Believer in a land filled with Jews and Muslims. His story is unique and powerful.

Harvesting the Fields

"The harvest truly is great, but the workers are few." -Matthew 9:37

Reading a book on local eating I came across an incorrect version of this benediction. It read, "The harvest is plentiful and the labors few." Ha!

Our first frost came this week. If you garden you know the mad dash the night before a frost is supposed to hit. You gather up everything because whatever's left will be ruined. Only the heartier leafy greens and roots can take a bit of frosting. So you take everything else. The green tomatoes, the baby squash, bitty lettuce leafs. And if you are a gardener you know that a plentiful harvest is a lot of work. A bountiful harvest with little labor? Not gonna happen.

"The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few." That's more like it.

What was the point of Yeshua announcing this? He didn't say much that falls under the 'common sense' category, and I struggle to believe that food was so abundant in the fields and vineyards of Israel that it was left to rot for want of harvesters. Plus, an actual commandment is to NOT harvest your fields too well, but to leave some of the grain and grapes behind for the poor. So if we take this strictly as an agriculture statement it doesn't make much sense. The fields are abundant but workers are few? What does that mean?

If we take it as a parable we can understand more. To begin with, Yeshua is hinting that there is something to be gathered that most of us are unaware of. Secondly, there aren't workers for the fields because most people don't realize there is a need.

But a freeze is coming to your garden? You realize the need and you gather the harvest. Food growers tend to do whatever it takes. I moved more weight in squash than I can at the gym. You recruit your family to help out. Shine car headlights on the garden to work after dark. A farmer friend told me he once stayed in the tractor for 36 hours straight to beat a bad storm. Typically, the grains and vegetables of the earth have plenty of harvesters.

But what is Yeshua saying? There's something that needs gathered in that most of us are missing.

This verse appears in Luke as well as Matthew. Taking a closer look at the context gives us a better idea of what he means. Matthew 9:35 tells us Yeshua traveled from village to village proclaiming the Besorah of the malchut and healing the sickness and disease in the people. Verse 36 tells us he saw the multitudes of people and had compassion on them because they were scattered abroad. In Luke 10, immediately after saying, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few," Yeshua sends his disciples to share the Besorah (good news).

"Scattered abroad," is a phrase used hundreds of times throughout Scripture as a threat, warning, and fact. "Scattered abroad," is what happened to the Northern Kingdom of Israel when it was sent into exile, and in a more limited way when Judah was exiled from the land. (Though, by Yeshua's time much of the house of Judah had returned.) The tribe of Ephraim and the Northern Kingdom is still, in every sense, scattered abroad. When he says the fields are ready for harvest, Yeshua is talking about the lost tribes of Israel! In Luke 10 he mentions three cities in particular: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernicum. These are three cities in the Northern part of Israel's territory. Historically they were occupied by tribes other than Judah. Though much of the Northern tribes were exiled, many still lived in the area at the time of Yeshua.

This is what Yeshua wants gathered in: the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He sent his disciples to Ephraim, to Manasseh, to Zebulon. He is after Israel's lost tribes, who have been scattered amongst the nations. He wants to bring them back.

Doesn't this understanding of the fields make more sense? The world has plenty of people to gather in food. While there are lots of missionaries, how many of them are reaching out to the house of Ephraim? Bringing back the lost tribes into covenant with YHWH doesn't occur to most of us, but it is the utmost desire of Yeshua!

Matthew 9:38
Make tefillah to the Master of the harvest, that He will send forth workers into His harvest.

Israel: Overcoming with YHWH

When you hear Israel what comes to mind? The land along the Mediterranean in the Middle East or the those former Egyptian slaves wandering the desert are the typical answers for most of us. But originally Israel was a name for a person.

After wrestling through the night, Yahusha changed Jacob's name to Israel in Beresheet 32:28. In the Restoration Scriptures it reads like this,

And the Man said, your name shall no longer be called  Yaakov, but Yisrael: for as a sar you have power with Elohim and with men, and have prevailed.

In other words, you are now called Israel because you have power with YHWH and have overcome. YHWH helps you overcome.

In Western culture names are given mostly for how they sound. The meaning of the name is secondary or not considered at all. But in Scripture names are given for the significance of what they mean. When women like Havah, Leah, Rachel, and Hannah give birth they tell us why they gave their children the names they did. The meaning of their names is significant.

A few name meanings in Scripture:

Yahudah - I will praise YHWH

Eliyahu - My God is YHWH

Yeremiyahu - Whom YHWH has appointed

Eliezer - YHWH helps

Yitzchak - Laughter

Micah - Who is like YHWH

Sarah - Princess

Shmuel - God heard

Moshe - To draw out

Yahusha - YHWH is salvation

Think for a minute the impact of getting called by one of these names. Would your life be different if every time someone spoke your name you were reminded that YHWH appointed you? How could your mom calling, "Come here My God is YHWH," sink that truth into your being? What was it like when people were whispering of Yahusha and literally saying things like "The one doing miracles is YHWH is salvation,"? We can see everyone on this list lived out their name. Sarah is the matriarch of all Israel. Moshe drew the people of Israel out of Egypt. Elijah's God was YHWH.

YHWH renamed Jacob Israel. YHWH chose to call the Hebrews Israel. Why?

Israel literally translates as "YHWH overcomes."

I love that. YHWH overcomes. YHWH overcomes evil.  YHWH overcomes religious lies and partial truths. YHWH overcomes my broken nature. YHWH overcomes demonic bondage. YHWH overcomes sin. YHWH overcomes anxiety. YHWH overcomes a corrupt and pagan world.

YHWH overcomes it all.

YHWH calls His people Israel. Not some of His people. Not the ones with a certain bloodline. All of His children He calls Israel. Israel is the family of YHWH. When you accept Yahusha and make teshuvah you are grafted into Israel (Romans 11). He calls you Israel. He reminds you that He overcomes.

Gilyahna/Revelation 2:7 says this:

He that has an ear, let him hear what the Ruach says to the Yisraelite congregations; To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the eytz chayim.

Overcome and you will get to eat from the tree of  life. If you have ears--hear that.

Israel is a reminder that we are to overcome this world. YHWH will help us. YHWH overcomes.

Celebrating Passover Seder

We took a different approach to our Seder meal this year. It was smaller, more relaxed, not quite as long. Somehow the Haggadah was condensed to a single page. There were fresh flowers, real china, and two lit menorahs. We set aside some of the traditions of hand washing, and salt water. More emphasis was placed on the Messiah than on the story of the Exodus. The evening was a beautiful celebration of the redemption of YHWH in days past, like the Israelites leaving Egypt, and of his redemption in our own lives.

We used real china for place settings and couldn't have been happier. It was a special touch in an elegant evening.

This year we had just sixteen people. The smaller group made it more like a dinner party (like the last supper).

Lighting the menorah.

Another pre-guest table shot. Each guest had a Hagaddah, a 10 Plagues coaster, and a fresh almond that I remembered to add after I took this photo. Haha.

This year's reading: "The Story of Israel."

Passing of the matzah, symbolizing his body broken for us.

I like to describe the items on the Seder plate as the Gospel in six courses. Extra points if you can see the tired little pup laying beneath the table.

 Our miracle one page Hagaddah! Nes gadol hayah sham.

 Our Passover meal included the mandatory grilled lamb, matzah, and bitter herb salad, as well as add ins like roasted asparagus and peppers, charoset, potato salad, and hummus with veggies.

 Both plates had the same things, I promise.

Our cutest attendee.

Oh these coasters? They're from Matanote on Etsy.

The third cup of wine, "I will redeem you."

Instead of afikomen we had pavlova with fresh berries and whipped cream for dessert.

Party favors?

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Passover and Feast of Matzah!

Understanding the Other 88% of The Bible

In The first time I read the entire Bible I had a lot of questions.

So many. Things like, "When will I get to the part where it says to ask Jesus into my heart?" and, "Where are Christmas and Easter?" or "When does God say to forget all the instructions he gave?"

I enjoyed the beautiful and poetic writings of the prophets and enjoyed the adventures of the rulers in Kings and Chronicles, but one thing didn't make sense. Why does it keep switching from Israel to Judah?

At the time I assumed they were both names for the same thing. Still this caused me great confusion because often the statements about or directed towards Israel were very different than the words about Judah. Several years ago, I stumbled across this quote:

"Not to understand the distinction of Israel from Judah is to positively misunderstand seven-eighths of the Bible." -Edward Hine.

In No wonder the confusion! A huge amount of Scripture - roughtly 88% by Hine's view - distinguishes between Israel and Judah. If I don't grasp this then I miss a huge amount of YHWH's truth.

So what's the difference?

The first time the word Israel appears is in Genesis 32:28 when Jacob is renamed Israel. His name is used to describe his descendants. His twelves sons and their families are known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

One of those tribes is known as Judah, after Jacob's fourth son. His descendants would later be known as Judahites, and later after that a certain sect of them would be known as Jews, known for practicing Judaism.

For centuries the tribes peaceably lived united under the name of Israel. Around 930 B.C. the nation of Israel was divided when King Rehoboam, son of Solomon, raised taxes and caused the tribes that were in the northern part of the country to rebel. They seceded from the King who was from the tribe of Judah and were ruled by Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim. You can read about this in 1 Kings 12. We know from 2 Chronicles 11:1 that in addition to the tribe of Judah, King Rehoboam also continued to rule over the tribe of Benjamin.

So when the stories in Kings switch back and forth from the King of Israel to the King of Judah, this is why! This seems obvious now that I know it but I missed this for years. I had read Kings, Chronicles, and the prophets many times without catching this! Learning this made understanding Scripture much easier for me and I hope it will for you as well.

Related posts:
The Two Houses: Israel and Judah in Scripture
Four Distinctions We Need to Make to Understand Scripture
Comparing the Melchizedek and Levitical Priesthoods

The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History - What I'm Reading

Browsing the shelves in a library, I happened to come across this book. What are the odds of that?

Until the last few years I had never heard of the Lost Tribes of Israel.

As author Zvi Ben-Dor Benite presents, until the last few centuries the Lost Tribes were an incredibly popular subject; mentioned by the likes of John Calvin, Thomas Jefferson, the Israeli Parliament, Herman Melville, a 19th century theatrical parody, John Milton's Paradise Regained, and Theodore Roosevelt, among others.

A little background information:

The sons of Israel (better known as Jacob) comprise the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Through the reign of King Solomon the tribes were united as one nation known as Israel. When Solomon's son Rehoboam became king he became so harsh that the ten northern tribes revolted and the House of Israel was split in two. See 1 Kings 12:16.

The northern tribes--Ephraim, Manasseh, Reuben, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, Issachar, Asher, Simeon, and Zebulon--were known as Israel, and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin became known as Judah. (Levi doesn't have a land inheritance but they mostly stayed with Judah.)

This is why when you read in Kings and Chronicles it will say, "During the reign of ______ King of Israel," or "King _____ of Judah." I'd always thought Israel could be used interchangeably with Judah—like America or United States—but they are separate kingdoms!

So why are the tribes lost?

Around 740 BC Israel (the northern ten tribes) were taken captive by the Assyrians. This is seen in 2 Kings chapters 17 and 18, and 1 Chronicles 5.

Around 605 BC, Judah was also taken captive, but this time it was by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Judah was captive for 70 years and then returned to their land. The books of Nehemiah and Ezra discuss the return of the exiles to the land.

The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History is filled with fascinating stories of adventurers who searched the earth for the Lost Tribes. They believed they would find them in a specific, hard-to-reach place (the Island of Atlantis, perhaps?), and that they would be obviously Israelite.

Unlike the southern tribes the House of Israel never came back from the exile. They assimilated into the nations and forgot their Israelite identity. Certainly, there are hundreds of millions of people today who have descended from the Lost Tribes, but have no idea. YHWH promised Abraham that his descendants would fill the earth, and there must descendants from the Lost Tribes in every nation.

There are shreds of Hebrew evidence around the globe. The Ten Lost tribes recounts the story of a Marrano Jew named Antonio Montezinos travellin in South America in the 1600s. A local man named Francisco learned of Montezinos' background and offered to take him on a journey to "see your brothers." For one week, they crossed rivers and swamps in what is now Colombia. After resting on the Sabbath they reached a river on a Tuesday morning. Three men and a woman appeared by canoe, excited to meet Montezinos, and began reciting the Shema.

What an amazing story! The Ten Lost Tribes contains many such fascinating fragments. Many considered Native Americans to be the Lost Tribes. Yemeni Jews often said the tribes could be found, "beyond China." A man called Ben-Israel wrote in the 1600s that "a great number of Jews" in China could be descendants of the Lost Tribes. Expeditions were sent to India and others theorized the tribes had gone to the North Pole before venturing elsewhere. Mexico was a popular location, and some believe the tribes had crossed the Atlantic Ocean by way of the legendary Island of Atlantis.

This book was a fascinating read, and much praise goes to Zvi Ben-Dor Benite for what surely must have been a mountain of research. This book is rich in insight for anyone learning of Israel's Lost Tribes.