Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome to the second part of this series on the 'Kingdom of our Messiah'.

Last week we looked at the old symbols that had been evolved by the rabbis and the meanings they had come to ascribe to the original biblical ones, symbols that did not properly match with either the Torah realities and prophecies made in the Tanakh (Old Testament) or the new, expanded or deepened ones that Yah'shua (Jesus) introduced. As is the case with the interfering nature of all man-made tradition, the natural progress from Old to New was hampered and therefore spoiled; it had become imbibed by the religious culture of the day, and in consequence of which an inevitable tension arose between what our Messiah announced and what the wrongly taught people of His day were expecting. Truly, then, as it is written:

"To enter the Kingdom of Elohim (God) we must pass through many hardships" (Ac.14:22, NEB).

We ended last week by looking at the mighty symbol that was the Temple. In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) we find a triple reference to the cleansing of the Temple of Herod. Yah'shua (Jesus) was furious at its commercialisation of His Father's House: "You have made it a den of thieves," He shouted (Mk.11:17, KNT).

Liberals and a few others, seeking to force Scripture to fit into their own man-made narratives, have traditionally viewed His motivation for this attack on the money-changers as a political statement against economic exploitation. As is so often the case - and this is why I stress that again and again ad nauseam - careless interpreters just love to take things out of context and do eisegesis (introducing ones own presuppositions) rather than proper exegesis (making a critical interpretation).

In fact, the reason the Saviour violently 'cleansed' the Temple was to fulfil a Tanakh (Old Testament) prophecy which had nothing to do with 'cleansing' at all but was a prophecy of its destruction:

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim (God) of Israel: 'Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying, 'The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh are these ('These buildings are the Temple of Yahweh!' - CJB).' For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers le-olam-va-ed ('for the æon/age', not 'forever and ever').

"'Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," says Yahweh.

"'But go now to My place which was in Shiloh (former northern Kingdom of Israel), where I set My Name at the first (in Ephraim), and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works,' says Yahweh, 'and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren -- the whole posterity of Ephraim" (Jer.7:3-15, NKJV).

Do you see how right context puts a wholly different complexion on Yah'shua's (Jesus') actions? It's all important. Exegetical accuracy is critically important in understanding prophecy. Jeremiah was not, obviously, advocating for reform of the Temple - He was predicting its destruction.

Indeed, you might be interested to know, that the Greek word léstés, usually translated "thieves" in our New Testaments, is in fact a regular word used by the Yehudi (Judahite) historian Josephus to describe 'brigands' or 'rebels'. And when Josephus refers, as he does on two occasions in his writings, to 'caves of léstai', he is talking about the literal caves where the desperate revolutionaries used to hide out. So when Yah'shua (Jesus) rails against the Temple, calling it a "den of thieves", what He is actually saying is that it has become a secularised, hiding place for terrorists and rebels! Is that not what large portions of the Church has become in our own day, a haven for the spiritual terrorism of postmodernist political correctness, social justice (sometimes even promoting Marxist terrorist groups like BLM), and promoting the gods of secularism in general? You see, the same judgment that hung over the Temple, which was the centre of Judaism in Yah'shua's (Jesus') day, likewise hangs over the apostate Church. So you know exactly what's coming.

This is important. It's important because Yah'shua's (Jesus') real charge against the Temple (and therefore the whole nation and religion of His day) was not merely financial malpractice. Now hear this carefully in the light of current events: the main controversy with Roman-occipied Judah that Yahweh had was that the Temple had become the focal point for violent nationalists in their eagerness to revolt against Rome.

Not that there is anything wrong with loving your country and being a patriot, but when you combine nationalism (like Americanism, or Russianism, or any other kind of 'national-ism') with religion, you are setting yourself up for a fall because of the sin of idolatry. That is why I do not approve of national flags being hung up in churches and in sanctuaries generally, flags which sometimes have false pagan symbols on them, whose coins and banknotes have 'Caesar's head' on them.

And this, by the way, is why Yahweh hates Zionism so passionately, quite apart from the fact that it is a counterfeit 'Israel', whose Republic uses the abominable child-sacrificing Star of Moloch as its national and religious emblem. Moloch worship is rampant in our land because of mushrooming pedophilia, abortion, and devil-worshipping, child-sacrificing cults. All of this today is blasphemously jumbled up together. That is why the old Temple had to go and why the equivalent 'Christian' or 'Messianic Temple' of our own age in the form of the 'Church' must go too, allowing the Remnant to properly arise.

How could the Temple, prophesied by Isaiah, come to represent the desire of Yahweh that it should become the beacon of hope and light for all nations, a city set on a hill that could not be hidden (Mt.5:14), if instead it became the focal point of a group of revolutionaries and their secularised priestly backers?

"My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isa.56:7, NKJV).

What the symbol of the Temple had become was a grievous distortion of Israel's vocation. It had become so grievously wrong that it had to be destroyed. This 'mountain' - that is, Mount Zion - therefore had to, figuratively-speaking, be lifted up from the land and cast into the sea. Yes, I believe Yah'shua (Jesus) had far more in mind than an illustrative lesson on faith and prayer when He said:

"Assuredly, I say to you, if you have emunah (faith) and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done" (Matt.21:21, NKJV).

And what did He mean by the fruitless fig-tree which He cursed, causing it to shrivvel up? It symbolised what? The House and Nation of Judah which would never be restored as a separate nation as it had become after the death of Solomon.

"'Let no fruit grow on you ever again.' And immediately the fig tree withered away" (Matt.21:19, NKJV).

And thus Judah would only return as one of the company of the twelve tribes of Israel, having no special pre-eminence leading to the Second Coming, giving the lie to modern Zionism. Remember, Judah in Babylonian exile did not go the way of permanent diaspora like northern Israel. It was permitted to return only that messianic prophecy might be fulfilled. Judah was not spared another round because she was more 'special' or less 'sinful' than Ephraim - she was only spared because Messiah had to come through the Tribe of Judah, not because she was 'teacher's pet'. All of Israel was the 'apple of Yahweh's eye' (Dt.32:10; Ps.17:8; Prov.7:2) and then only when she was obedient and faithful.

I realise that this subject arouses a lot of both religious and nationalist passions but the nation of Israel has not yet been restored in the Promised Land. What appeared there in 1948 did not fulfil any biblical prophecy concerning the restoration of the Nation of Israel. If this shocks you, please study my sermon series on Jacob's Trouble. Furthermore, the navi (prophet) Jeremiah confirms it, refering to Judah as a shattered clay pot, never to be restored separately as its own kingdom, and Ephraim as soft clay that may yet be reshaped and reformed into Israel with Judah in attendance playing a secondary (though important) rôle in the end times. That is why, as I have said so many times, you will witness the destruction of the counterfeit 'Israeli Republic' in the Middle East, and why the Temple which is about to be raised there is likewise counterfeit, as I mentioned recently. Do you see why it is so essential to get all the end-time symbols right? [1]

There was a reason, incidentally, why Yah'shua (Jesus) singled out the traders in the Temple for his wrath and not other corrupt elements, like the cohenim (priests). Think about it - without the Temple-tax, the daily sacrifices could not be supplied. Without the right money, individual worshippers could not buy ceremonially pure sacrificial animals. Without animals, sacrifices could not be offered. And without animal sacrifice the Temple had lost its whole reason for existing, even if only for an hour or two.

Yah'shua's (Jesus) action in overturning the tables of the money-changers was an Ezekiel-type prophetic depiction of the soon end of the Second Temple. His prophetic action was a way also of saying that Yahweh would not return to Herod's Temple as the religious leaders, politicians, revolutionaries and terrorists had hoped, that their distorted, twisted hopes would never be fulfilled, even two thousand years later with the rise of Zionism in the 20th century. Yahweh is not returning to the modern anti-Yah'shua (Jesus) Rabbis' temple nor to their Rothschild Illuminati State! That fig tree is cursed and dead. The old, preparatory religion and covenant is GONE FOREVER too.

Yah'shua's (Jesus) brief interruption of the business of the Temple in overturning the currency exchange tables, symbolised the destruction of the whole institution, represented by the symbol of the Temple, which would take place within a generation, indeed, within the span of the New Testament itself as far as the end of the Temple was concerned. Until Christians and Messianics - and in particular Zionists - realise and accept this, they will be out of sync with what Yahweh is doing and cannot be a part of the Remnant which has no business with the City of Hagar, which is Mount Sinai and the 'modern' Jerusalem (Gal.5:25). They are unwittingly marrying themselves to the Beast System itself by giving their hearts to this counterfeit. The 'Israeli Republic' is just another nation like Syria or Jordan following a false religion or none at all.

To the old, original, unspoiled symbolism of the Tanakh (Old Testament) Yah'shua (Jesus) added a higher, more important layer of symbolism. There are four of these we're going to look at, two of which we shall cover today so as not to make this study too long.

It took a while for the old symbolism to be fulfilled in the minds of Yehudi (Judahite) converts two millennia ago, at least as much as a whole generation, because, well, we're slow learners and hate change. It's why a whole new generation was needed in the First Exodus under Moses before the nation was ready to enter the Promised Land. And so it is today. My generation has to die off because it clings too eagerly to all the old symbols and practices of the compromised Messianic Community or Church, formed as it has been by centuries of apostacy and incomplete reformation. New spiritual batallions are being called to replace the old, with a few 'oldies' like us, as with Joshua and Caleb, hanging around to pass a while longer on the baton as soon as the new generation is ready to receive it, which it isn't just yet.

That is what this new judgment season of emerging trial and tribulation exists in part for - why Yahweh has permitted it. It's shaking-up time, spiritual revolution time, but first we have to have our minds prepared to receive it by a good jolting following by lots of thorough, sound instruction and seasonal anointings. We're here to throw everything up into the air to ensure the light of emet (truth) illuminates every part before catching and re-embracing that which is pure even tighter than before.

So in a way we are in a transition time not unlike that of the Four Gospels, which is why I am sharing this message right now, on the eve of political revolution, accelerating social upheaval and imminent financial collapse. The timing is important. As for Yah'shua (Jesus), back in His own particular first century timeframe, He was making sure, step by step, that His talmidim (disciples) came to understand that everything had now to point to, and pointed at, Him, and remain pointed to, and pointed at, Him like a giant flood-lit traffic sign covering the entire highway, until the Great Day when He returns all authority and power back to the Father (1 Cor.15:24-25) and everything again becomes, as it was in the beginning - in the original Creation - by, for, and in the Father, Yahweh-Elohim.

We started with the sabbath last time, but this time we shall start with the land and people of Israel. For Yah'shua (Jesus), like the four evangelists reporting the story of His ministry, geographical location (a reason you need to include geography with history on your list of 'gospel things to do'). He deliberately chose key locations for key actions and statements. The Temple, the Mount of Olives, Jacob's Well, and many others should spring to mind. And He linked His sayings to these places in much the same way as Americans equate the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour with Freedom, and as German's equate the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (originally called the 'Peace Gate') with Peace and, in the post-war and post-unification period, with Freedom.

Most of the biblical texts Yah'shua (Jesus) draws upon, concern restoration, and specifically, restoration of the land which is always linked to the theme of return from exile. These He links to the restoration of broken and damaged human beings. Thus, when the "wilderness and the dry land" were summoned to rejoice in Isaiah 35:1 (NRSV), it was now time for "the eyes of the blind [to] be opened, and the ears of the deaf [to be] unstopped; [for] the lame [to] leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless (dumb) [to] sing for joy" (vv.5-6a, NRSV).

This is the thing: Yah'shua's (Jesus) healing work, which formed a central and vital part of His whole symbolic praxis, were not supposed to be seen, as many of the early 'church fathers' supposed, merely (or even primarily) as evidence of His divinity, and nor were His healings merely to be seen merely (or even primarily) as evidence of His compassion for those in physical need, even though both these are undoubtedly true. More importantly than both of these otherwise legitimate reasons, all the healings were the symbolic expression of Yah'shua's (Jesus') reconstitution or restoration of Israel.

We can compare Yah'shua's (Jesus') teaching in this regard to the teachings of a strict anti-establishment Jewish sect called the Essenes. The 'Messianic Rule' [2] of Qumran was the steering document where a large colony of Essenes lived. There, the blind, the lame, the deaf and the dumb were deliberately excluded from membership in the supposedly 'restored community of Elohim's (God's) people'. Some of their purity laws were, to put it mildly, extreme and ruthless - you weren't even allowed to urinate or defacate on the Sabbath! This was a restrictive, oppressive, and exclusive community. Compare their approach with Yah'shua's (Jesus'), and you will see His was the diametric opposite. His healings were, in the words of N.T.Wright, "the sign of a radical and healing inclusivism - not simply including everyone in a modern, laissez-faire, anything-goes fashion but dealing with the problems at the root so as to bring to birth a truly renewed, restored community whose life would not symbolize and embody the kingdom of which Jesus (Yah'shua) was speaking" [3].

Indeed, this view of restoration was for Yah'shua (Jesus) so important that Christians, by and large, took little interest in a physical restoration of the nation of Israel until the 20th century. Add to this the fact that they have long been confused over the relationship between Israel and 'Church' (so-called), assuming (because of Catholic-developped Replacement Theology) that they were, are, and always will be, two separate entities. Thus to the historical rulers of Christendom, interest in the physical land of Israel rapidly diminished in interest and importance, save when it came to protecting pilgrims journeying to visit holy sites against bandits and Musselmen. With the exception of the Roman Catholic crusader state called 'The Kingdom of Jerusalem' which lasted nearly two centuries (from 1099 to 1291 when it was destroyed by the Moslems), Christians have not been much interested militarily or politically in the Holy land, and it was left to the Arab conquererors and then the Ottoman Turks to rule it. Apart from the brief 32 year-long British rule in Palestine from 1917 to 1949, there really has been no Christian presence in the Holy Land to speak of. Christian states have appeared across Europe, Russian Eurasia, North and South America, and Australasia but none have sought to object to, or interfere with, Jewish claims to the Palestinian territory for reasons we don't have time to go into today. It is largely post-Christian states that have tended to side with those who call themselves Palestinian Arabs.

So from about the 7th century to the 20th, with a burp between the 12th and 13th centuries - some 1,200 years - European (and later, American) political interest in the Holy Land was minimal. It is our belief that it will not again become relevant to believers until Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) returns to set up the Millennial Kingdom. The judgment issued by Yah'shua (Jesus) against the land, symbolically by His action in the Temple, has meant it was not intended for Messianic settlement for a couple of Millennia, and all those who have lived in it since then are but temporary tenants, as it were, whether Greek, Roman, Idumean, Arab, Jew, Samaritan, Druze or whoever.

Purposing His people to live among the nations, to be a leavening influence, Yah'shua (Jesus), through His actions and words, is seen to have been calling into existence a people with a new identity in a purposeful diaspora (dispersion) rôle - a new Family.

Though He by no means undid or weakened the nuclear family (no celibate monks and nuns were ever recommended by Him [4]), He insisted that it was now a part of something bigger, equivalent in some respects to the old 12-tribed Israel (that briefly operated in 2-tribed Judah-Benjamin of the apostles' day before the Roman expulsion, and will again, one day, operate within 12-tribed Messianic Israel) when Yah'shua (Jesus) restores it. In the absence of an actual bona fide Messianic Nation in the Promised Land, the nations of the world would instead serve as a kind of multi-tribal equivalent: instead of Judah, Ephraim, Zebulun, and the other 9 tribes, there would be Britain, the USA and Tanzania, Argentina, China and another 190 countries or 'tribes' (at least in 2020).

With or without Israel restored in the Promised Land (which has not occurred...yet, in spite of a non-Christian/Messianic Republic calling itself that), this new 'layer' of 'Family' was central to Yah'shua's (Jesus') teaching, something He brought into sharp focus in Mark 3:34-35:

"Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, 'Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.' But He answered them, saying, 'Who is My mother, or My brothers?' And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, 'Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of Elohim (God) is My brother and My sister and mother'" (Mark 3:31-35, NKJV).

There is a new community now, call it 'Israel' if you will (as is actually right and proper), but it is not exclusively ethnic Israel any longer. This big Family, that includes hoardes of Gentiles who, if they are Torah-obedient followers of Messiah, become grafted into Israel like wild olive branches grafted into a natural olive tree (Rom.11), centers around Yah'shua (Jesus), not Abraham, even though Abraham remains, in a very real sense, the father of the faithful in a symbolic way:

"Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham" (Gal.3:7, NIV).

This does not mean that this new Family of Messiah will not later be divided into 12 Israelite Tribes, only that that this future prophesied division is not for now, indeed, not until the Final Gathering and the Second Advent of our Master, so we need not trouble ourselves over it for the present. That's a matter for the last generation when they are called to gather into 12 international/inter-tribal cities of refuge. The spiritual family of the regenerated, born-again, commandment-keeping believers, of all races and nationalities, is what matters most right now.

There is only one qualification for becoming a member of this new, regenerated or renewed Family, and that is adherence to Yah'shua (Jesus) and His Kingdom message, doing His will. That doesn't mean there are now two 'Israels', or indeed something called 'Israel' (consisting of Jews) and something called 'the Church' consisting of those who accept Yah'shua (Jesus). There has only ever been one People of Elohim (God), never two. Acceptance of the King means acceptance of the Kingdom (which, as we will see, has a mystical quality about it), but acceptance of this mystical 'Kingdom' also means acceptance of that Kingdom's 'rule' or 'standard of behaviour' which is the Torah (minus the old sacrificial system and its now redundant Levitical priesthood).

That Kingdom is Israel, of whom Yah'shua (Jesus) is its King; so when a Yehudi (Judahite) rejects King Yah'sjua (Jesus), what this means, effectively, is the cancellation of his citizenship within the Nation of Israel. It matters not if people of any belief system call themselves 'Israel' if they reject Yah'shua (Jesus) as the Messiah (and King) of Israel, even if they are of the genetic line that claims to be able to trace itself back to the redeemed man 'Israel' (though today it's all genetically jumbled up) - it means, as Christ-rejecters, that they revert to being unredeemed 'Jacob'. They're Jacobites now, not Israelites, and are outside the Kingdom and Nation appointed by Yahweh. The Republic of Israel is at best the Republic of Jacob or at worsst just another gentile nation having the appearance of being 'Israel' - possessing the geographical sites gives them a kind of legitimacy in the eyes of many. If you reject the King, then you reject the Kingdom too, i.e. Israel, because Israel underwent a change in the first century, like a republic turning into a monarchy, or a dictatorship into a democracy, for example. Yahweh, the Father, transferred the Kingship to His Son.

In quietly implying a change of Kingship, Yah'shua (Jesus) therefore challenged the groups of those Yehudim (Judahites) who adhered to the teaching of the Pharisees, Sadducees, or Essenes or indeed any group other than His (Jn.14:6). And like a new political party starting up under the noses of the Establishment block (like the 'Brexit' party in the UK which won the European election in 2019 as a complete outsider, non-establishment entity), this was inevitably perceived as a threat. However, this was no mere political party or indeed even a 'religious faction', as others might be wont to see it, because the way this 'party' (if I may call it that, just for a moment, so we have a modern handle on it) was established was supernatural. This was not a group like the Zealots. It spoke of Elohim's (God's) new world opening up, bringing healing and blessing wherever it went, revitalising souls and miraculously transforming individual characters into the image of Elohim (God) the Creator. In other words, it manifested a new power in a world where any claims to power potentially meant danger.

In the world, it's all about power, really...about who has control and the perks that power brings. I remember when I lived in Oxford wanting to be allowed as a minister to go around the John Radcliffe Hospital wards offering anyone prayer and healing ministry if they wanted it. These were the mid 1980's when things weren't nearly as bad as they are today as far as the 'political correct' culture is concerned. I was denied permission, understandably. A minister could be summonsed only, as I was on one occasion to the new hospital in Oxford, to minister to a dying baby of a family who in our little congregation. I prayed over the child and he miraculously survived. But the parents were not happy that he was not fully healed, had unresolved issues that were eating away at their faith, and a year or two later later the baby died. I conducted the funeral, my first. After that they lost their faith and some years after I left England, they divorced.

It was even worse in the Psychiatric hospitals. Someone I knew, in the days before I became a deliverance minister, had a tremendous ministry healing psychiatric patients through the power of prayer. The patients couldn't obviously ask him for help because they were mentally disturbed so he just went round healing people unilaterally. The hospital was furious and in the end they banned him, not because he wasn't helping the patients but because he was upsetting that profession's power base. You'd have thought they'd have been happy having their patients fully recovered, but they didn't believe in Yahweh or the supernatural. No patients for them simply meant no work just as one of the Welsh revivals meant no work for the police as no one was committing any crimes for some years (though the police did not, I might add, object). Having power and control was more important for those materialist psychiatrists with their useless potions than doing their job as healers. See what I mean? The fact that Yah'shua (Jesus) did wonderful things healing people of illness and casting out demons was not the issue. The issue was a loss of influence and prestige for the powers-that-be, and therefore a loss of power and control by the Pharisees and other leaders in Yah'shua's (Jesus') day. Never mind Yah'shua (Jesus) was doing good but He was building up His own following in consequence of His success and the religious leaders of the day were losing their own disciples. Yah'shua (Jesus) was putting them out of business as later Paul would do with the idol-making silversmiths of Ephesus as their customers came to Christ and rejected idols (Ac.19).

So that covers two of the four symbols I wanted to talk about. Next week we'll look at the last two, namely, the Torah and Temple. Yahweh bless you over the next week as we come to the conclusion of the Roman month of August and head for the critical month of September. A terrible struggle is taking place between the forces of good and evil as I speak. Those consumed with evil want absolute, dictatorial and murderous power in order to crush the forces of good. We're seeing this nasty battle being enacted on the streets of American and European cities and elsewhere. The vicious farm tortures, rapes and murders continue in South Africa, unchecked by the Marxist government there, the oppression against Christians in Pakistan and many other countries is unchecked, even aided, by governments histile to Christianity, and hideous genocidal oppression is being waged against the Moslem Uigurs of China by the Communist Party. Be watchful and prayerful, repent of your sins - for you know the Scripture that says "wrongdoers will not inherit the Kingdom of Elohim (God)" (1 Cor.6:9, NIV). Get right with Elohim (God), do not allow the Enemy even a small corner of your heart, and so walk in shalom (peace) and in the the spiritual empowerment Yahweh has promised His sons and daughters. Then the doors will open that need to open and your only task then be to walk through them. Have a blessed Sabbath day in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes