Israel is a very strange entity. A whole nation, intended by Yahweh to be a rôle model for the world to imitate, is of strange construction. One man, four women, and thirteen progeny, twelve of which would become the national units or 'tribes' of Israel. Yahweh could have intended this tavnith or pattern to be different if He had wanted to. Were a Western Catholic/Protestant Christian (or even Eastern Orthodox Christian, for that matter) to have picked his rôle model, it would almost certainly have been the messianic figure that was Joseph - one man, one woman (Asenath) and two children (Manasseh and Ephraim). At least when I was born, that was the ideal, though then it would have been one son and one daughter and not two sons. Things change.

Messianics speak much of 'Israel' but they, like Christians, still really think only of Joseph...or maybe Isaac, both of whom had two sons. And yet Joseph was a part of Israel, one part of it originally, who in the end contributed two (Ephraim and Manasseh), one of which (Manasseh) split into two geographically (West and East Manasseh, on either side of the Jordan). Not only that, but the younger son (Ephraim) became the head, not the elder (Manasseh). Isaac's sons, Esau and Jacob, of the same mother, Rebekah, were rivals, and the spiritual one resorted to trickery to usurp the ungodly one's birthright (Esau). Abraham had a similar struggle between rival sons of different rival mothers (Hagar and Sarah) with some strange goings-on (by our standards at any rate), the elder son (Ishmael) being ungodly and the younger one (Isaac) being the chosen one for the messianic seed, not forgetting Abraham's other women and children. Complicated.

How, you might, ask, how are we to make sense of all of this? To begin with, you must immediately factor-in free agency, because all concerned exercised free will. This is not a Calvinist world. Yahweh is sovereign to be sure, He guides history and takes it to His desired consummation, but He is not a tyrant after the Calvinistic imagination, even though millions of Reformed Christians falsely view Him this way. And the god of Ishmael is even more extreme. As we look at events and the key players in the messianic drama, we must never forget free agency. It's why there is so much mess...at all times...but why also there is order in at least one corner of the mess, a bright light in the darkness where it's most needed. We must not confuse the mess for the order, or the light for the darkness by blaming godly principles instead of fallible human beings who make bad calls.

Christians speak a great deal of Yahweh having two wills - His actual will and His 'permissive' will (things He allows but isn't too happy with). To me, at least now, these are very strange categories indeed that neither conform to reality nor to Scripture. Yahweh has only ever had one will and He often illustrates it using agricultural symbolism. He sows the seed and the seed grows differently depending on the soil on which it falls or chooses to live on, though to us it all appears rather random as it would to the farmer scattering his seed on the field with some falling here, and some there. Yahweh has one sovereign will that includes our free choice, one Way and three general destinations (the three glories) based on the exercise of that free choice. When the final harvest-time comes, as it will soon, it produces three crops, one harvested early (like the Israelite barley harvest for making poor man's bread) and one harvested later (like the Israelite summer wheat harvest). The grape harvest comes then too. But there's also a winter wheat harvest. The imagery is complicated because the fruit of free agency is complicated. People make all kinds of combinations of choices and as a just Judge, Yahweh must be fair in apportioning rewards and punishments.

One thing Christians consistently miss is the fact that 'Israel' doesn't suddenly 'vanish' from the equation at the cross. He doesn't simply dismiss it at Calvary or Pentecost or whenever. At it's most basic level, the messianic imagery appears simple - one Messiah and one Bride. But as you zoom in onto this Bride, you see - particularly in the Book of Revelation, but also elsewhere - that the twelvefold pattern of Israel remains, first, as the twelve apostles, and then, most emphatically indeed, as the twelve gates of the Holy City of New Jerusalem, each gate being named after one of the Twelve Tribes, the sons of Jacob. Not only that but (as Christians also miss) the Constitution of the Nation of Twelve-Tribed Israel, necessary for the nation to exist and thrive, both now and in the better days of the Millennium and into Eternity itself, is absolutely required still - the Torah, Yahweh's laws, ordinances, judgments and code for living, albeit it now in a Messianic context shorn of its old preparatory Levitical sacrificial system and priesthood.

What this means - and this is something Christians (and still to a certain extent, Messianics) have to wake up to - is that even in the New Covenant of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) the 1-4-12 pattern still exists, otherwise the Book of Revelation's long-term view of the future of the Kingdom of our Messiah as Messianic Israel makes no sense. Those ancient divisions were, in spite of having apparently come into existence randomly or semi-randomly because of Jacob's agency, are, in fact, eternal. Jacob and his four women were no aberation, even if in the Story it all appears semi-random what with a devious father-in-law and (initially) a carnal Jacob, because Yahweh preserves the tavnith (pattern) and enshrines it in the New Jerusalem. 'It may all appear random to you,' He says, 'but this family was Mine, for all its imperfections, and I created it, preserved it and multiplied it.' One thing He does not do, is take us all back to the innocence of Eden to walk around naked eating only nuts and fruits. Yes, there is an important layer of innocence that comes through the redemption of Messiah - Eden is restored on a certain level as the Bridegroom and the Bride - Adam and Eve - but He never intended the original Eden to remain the way it was. He did not intend us to remain innocent children forever. He foreknew what our first parents would choose and factored those choices - quite brilliantly, I might add - into the long-term goal: making mature children, spiritual adults, who work out their salvation in fear and trembling (Phil.2:12), overcome the flesh (1 Jn.5:4), and emerge back into the fullness of the Light of the glory of the sun (1 Cor.15:41).

That includes, in the final part of the journey, the gathering and restoration of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that I spoke I little about yesterday, a subject I said we needed to return to. I indicated, too, that the 12 tribes represent 12 ideal or perfect temprements or characteristics that are not in competition with one another but are complimentary. Yah'shua (Jesus) is the perfection of all of them-in-one, and whilst, it is true, we shall be found to be like Him when He returns (1 Jn.3:2), if we have been true and faithful, we are not told in what way we shall be like Him other than, by implication, that we shall have the same moral, ethical and spiritual nature. We were never intended to be carbon copies of one another, even in possessing these same basic moral and ethical attributes, as the diversity of animal and plant life alone ought to inform us. Yahweh loves diversity, and even in single species like the dog, for example, He has created the possibility for tremendous variety, something that breeders exploit from German Shepherds to Yorkshire Terriers...and not just dog breeders. Yahweh loves variety. Dogs are all dogs - they're clearly of the 'dog kind' - yet there is such an exciting variety, if you happen to be a dog-lover.

Likewise, no two humans are the same. Not even twins, and I've met a number of twins in my time. Indeed, one of you here has twin sons and knows what I am talking about. But Yahweh does not intend us to only be individuals. The "Elohim (God) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (Ex.3:6) - and by extension, Joseph (for the purposes of illustration, since he is the chief messianic figure of Jacob's sons) - designed us to be families too - twelve Tribes, to be exact, with their clans. Of these four examples (we could probably cite David as a fifth, Yah'shua/Jesus refering to Himself as the Son of David - Lk.20:41), three were polygamous (Abraham, Jacob and David) and two monogamous (Isaac and Joseph). Not that these are different 'kinds' of marriage, just the same divinely appointed and sanctioned marriage estate in different states of expansion or development, from the simple to the complex. We could include Adam and Eve too, if you like, making three monogamous examples. Joseph and Asenath were a type of the Bridegroom (Christ) and the Bride (us, the Body) on one level. Jacob with Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah were a type of the Bridegroom (Christ) and the plural Bride (us) on another level. Indeed, Yahweh likens Himself to the polygamous husband of Israel and Judah. Each produces different fruit for different purposes, the one not being greater or lesser than the other. The Isaac's, Joseph's and Adam's produce two sons each (Adam produced a third after the second was murdered by the first) whereas the Abraham's, Jacob's and David's produce many more. As you look at the progeny of both the monogamous and polygamous marriages, you'll see they were a mixed basket indeed, so neither the one nor the other can point to being the superior form. The reason: because sons and daughters are free agents too and you'll get good and evil monogamists along with good and evil polygamists and good and evil single people.

Of necessity, given the Torahlessness of Christendom, marriage in Europe settled down to one man and one woman. Though forbidding marriage in either form is reckoned a sin and a doctrine of demons in Scripture (1 Tim.4:1-3), its limitation in the West was, I suggest, providential, as we have seen by all the chaos caused by wholly unprepared polygamous lawless Christians who tried to reintroduce multiple-wives at the end of the last century, a reason we have always discouraged the practice in the West, and still do (see our Statement on Plural Marriage). However, if anyone is serious about the restoration and gathering of the Twelve Tribes in the end-time, which is our day, then they must, first, seriously start obeying the Torah again and then start allowing for the possibility of the restoration of the ancient marriage ways too, since Yahweh has not only clearly indicated that many of those with a shem tov or good name will be called to live this way again (Is.4:1) but as in the first Exodus, in which the practice was widespread (those of the second generation who crossed the Jordan and conquered Jericho with Joshua were almost certainly nearly all the children of polygamous families), we should expect something similar in the second and last exodus too while it is in the wilderness gathering. The fourth chapter of Isaiah links this restoration to the final Exodus. But given the total ignorance of this Israelite way by Western believers at least, not to mention the extreme lack of moral and ethical judgment in the current generation, this is not something that can happen in a chaotic, disorderly way, but can only be done at the end of a long discipling program, remembering too that free agency on the part of all concerned is essential. No one can, or should, ever be forced into this. Ever. And even more importantly than this, no one is allowed to unilaterally break their monogamy-only marriage vows if they have taken them (which most have) without mutual consent.

We often speak glibly of the 'gathering of the Twelve Tribes' yet fail to take into account the cost of doing so: that cost is our requirement to change our attitudes towards such things. And when I say the Remnant must quit Babylon, I mean than quite literally, both as far as its crass immorality is concerned and its distortions on how marriage is, in fact, viewed and defined by the Creator. Many a bullish man driven by hormones rather than the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) has had to be rebuked and turned away by us because such are not of the Bride. Indeed, it is not ideally the business of the men to initiate any of this practically. For according to Isaiah the navi (prophet), this is something that will largely be initiated by the women. That is one of the big differences between the way things were done in the Old and New Covenants, by the way.

Because this is such an 'horrendous', triggering business for the matriarchalised and feministic mindset of our own age, Christians may discover that they are more 'Egyptianised' than they ever realised, even (and especially) the 'conservative' ones. Though the first Israelites were Egyptianised in areas other than in marriage, unlike the latter-day Israelites today who are called up into this work, they still had their values upside down and would not let go of them which is why the first generation had to die off in the wilderness, leaving a purified second generation to cross the Jordan, take Jericho and, finally, occupy most of Canaan. You know what happened in the camp of Israel when Moses went up the mountain to commune with Yahweh for a long spell. Most of my generation, barring a few Joshua's and Caleb's, have to die off before the Final Gathering can take place because my generation is just too entrenched in its heathenistic ways. It has been too leavened by Babylon...by Egypt...preferring the earthly Jerusalem (City of the Zionists), which according to Paul is like Sodom and Gomorah (the City of Hagar - Gal.4:24-26) to the Heavenly One, the Heavenly or New Jerusalem (the Remnanteers), the City of Sarah.

If you think this is the only subject likely to put off Christians and Messianics expressing an interest in the restoration of the Twelve Tribes and the Final Gathering, you would be mistaken, but I thought I would start with his 'hot potato' first of all. I guarantee that those hostile to Israelite ways will not becoming up to this work, nor can they, because they are lawless and love their lawlessness and lawless traditions too much. Nor should it be assumed that everyone coming up to this work must be like Abraham, Jacob or David, because not all are called to be like them...just as many are called to be like Isaac and Joseph, and the occasional one like unmarried Jeremiah. So don't go and get the wrong idea. All that's required to be a part of the Remnant is to at least enthusiastically recognise that this is one of the ways Messianic Israel is to be found functioning in the last days and in the Millennium and to support the principle and those living it when they do. The Remnant needs its Isaac's and Joseph's too, very much so.

So if this matter of large, complex end-time families like that of Jacob is an issue to you, this is something you are going to have to wrestle with until you have overcome. Our Holy Echad Marriage website exists to help you with that struggle. Again, not all the Remnant are called to practice this, but they must at least embrace it as a true principle and be willing to live it if Yahweh calls them personally and they have made their peace with Him concerning it. This will be easier for some than for others, as will be true of other Israelite principles that I must talk to you about during the course of this week, like the Israelite law of financial stewardship (which the men find the hardest). I thought we'd start with the hardest first so that if you want to run away with your tail between your legs you can do it sooner rather than later and so no longer be troubled by me. It is hard when you have been programmed to think in one way all your life and especially when your culture has been programmed to do the same for over a thousand years. We must overcome the errors of our cultures, however, just as the Israelites had to overcome the Egyptian one and as the returning exiles had to overcome the Babylonian one.

So perhaps, now, you have understood the odd title of today's talk, Israel, the Strange - strange not to Israel and to those committed to all the Bible, but certainly 'strange' to the modern, hedonistic Western cultural mindset. Tomorrow we shall look at another Israelite characteristic to see what must be done to embrace it more fully. Until then, Yahweh bless you and give you the grace and shalom (peace) of His Son to successfully navigate all this. Amen.