The original Jericho March was many things but one thing it was was a real test of faith for a new generation. All of us have to be tested to see how far we will follow Yahweh. Most people's discipleship, you will discover if you don't already know, is, unfortunately, conditioned by themselves: 'I will be a Christian or Messianic if...'

A brother in Kenya told me a few months ago that the reason so many in Africa become Christians is because of the lure of money. It's a continent of poverty so you can understand why that would be a huge temptation. They are promised riches if they will become followers of Yah'shua (Jesus). But they have been lied to. When they give the little they have and there's no payback on their 'investment', as they see it - when the money doesn't come rolling in as they've been promised, they walk away. Who can blame them. They have been deceived. That's putting a condition on Yahweh and it isn't true emunah (faith). The only reason we are to follow Him is because we know He's real and we love Him. He does not guarantee we will become rich. Only the crooked preachers ever become rich with their mansions and fancy cars.

Human beings in their struggle to yield to Elohim (God) at first try to negociate or bargain with Him when He doesn't yield to their demands. The flesh is expert at both demanding and bargaining. 'I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine.' But Yahweh is not an equal as two men might negociate with one another for mutual advantage. Yahweh doesn't need anything from us. Moreover, He doesn't ask us to be obedient, He tells us, like a military commander, because of who He is. More than once in Scripture men in their relationship to their Heavenly Commander-in-Chief are compared to soldiers (2 Tim.2:3-4; Phil.2:5; Philem.2) and I guess unless you've been in the army yourself, as I have, it's not always easy to wrap your mind around that. And those who have been in actual combat (which I have not) know even better.

The Bible furnishes us with plenty of examples of men and women who attempted to strike up a bargain with Elohim (God). The carnal Jacob did, remember? That was before he overcame the flesh at Peniel, became spiritual and was renamed 'Israel'. 'If I pay you a tithe, will you do so-and-so for me?' Now if Yahweh has already attached a promise to the faithful to a particular mitzvah (commandment), all well and good. If that's that case, you don't need to negoicate or cut a deal with Him. It's already a 'done deal'. (Oh, and by the way, He doesn't do 'deals' - He's not some gangster. That's Satan's department). If He hasn't attached a specific promise in His Davar (Word) to a particular mitzvah (commandment), then you're told to simply trust and obey Him. Sometimes His promises are general and that's enough too - 'Do these things and you will live long'. And one thing He does not promise believers is unconditional good health and prosperity.

The first generation of those who left Egypt, with the exception of two men, totally failed that test. Yes, it's that difficult...for the carnal 'believer', that is, who refuses to become spiritual. It is not for the servant to know the reason why of his Master in everything. Some mitzvot (commandments) are common sense, if not back then, then much more so now in the light of both experience and indeed, at times, science too. Today the ban on pork makes perfect sense health-wise. The ban on promiscuous, non-covenantal sex does as well given all we know about STD's. Many of the mitzvot (commandments) are common sense. They make for a stable personal life, a stable family life and for a stable community. Almost every culture recognises that theft is wrong.

So what if you don't know why Yahweh has commanded you to do something, or not to do something? He will test your obedience, not just once but multiple times throughout your life, to see if you'll make the grade for the highest rewards. The most beautiful gifts are the ones that aren't expected...or demanded by those who would like them. Yahweh is not egalitarian. He does not give us 'rights'. Rather, He gives us responsibilities. It is the parents' responsibility to take care of their children, not the children's 'right' to be taken care of. There's a huge difference. The first is the Besorah (Gospel) and the second is Socialism and they're completely different even if they appear to be similar. Karl Marx merely borrowed Christianity for his atheistic religion and stripped it of deity and all the protections and guarantees Yahweh provides because the state isn't, and never can be, God. Oh, it tries, and butchers millions of people in the process, as the Soviet experience in the 20th century showed, and makes most of the survivors miserable. Read your unsanitised histories of communism to see it is so.

When you - your flesh - first tries to demand something from Yahweh, and when that fails, and then tries to negociate or bargain with Him, you're being a socialist. You are, in effect, demanding power, whether it be by means of personal or collective bargaining, going on strike or starting a bloody revolution. Have you ever tried to go on strike by refusing to serve Yahweh when He hasn't acceeded to your demands? And has that ever worked for you? We can threaten human governments that way but does anyone seriously believe that a microscopic midget-like human-being is in any position to demand anything of the Creator of this incredibly vast Cosmos? Let's just say, to be generous, that our powers are severely limited.

The one who demands and then tries to negociate isn't yet surrendered and has no clue what it means to call Yahweh 'Master' or 'Lord'. Then these just become words. Remember what Yah'shua (Jesus) said about those who call Him, 'Lord, Lord' but don't feed the hungry or visit the brethren in prison?

"He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the æonian fire prepared for the devil and his malakim (angels): for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Master (Lord), when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into æonian punishment, but the righteous into æonian life" (Mt.25:41-36, NKJV).

You see, our problem nowadays is we have almost completely lost all concept of a Master-Servant relationship because we have been socialised into being good communist egalitarians. It has varied in different parts of the world but in the West, at any rate, that relationship has all but disappeared. Even the idea of a 'servant' is viewed with abhorrence as though it were something evil, never mind that we are slaves to those who run the state without usually realising it. And it has most spectacularly disappeared from among Christians and Messianics who though they pay lip service to the concept are, in reality, just egalitarian socialists dressed up to look Christian. Even the 'conservatives', so-called, are guilty. There are exceptions, of course.

Of course, liberal Christians think the Master-Servant relationship is primitive, obscene and a thing of the past and just want to be 'buddies' with God. Marriage has followed suit too. I know very few Christians who take Paul seriously anymore where he twice says that the relationship withween a husband and wife should be similar the the relationship between Yahweh and a talmid (disciple) (Eph.5:22ff.; 1 Pet.3:1ff.). Well, ok, if you think that we're just 'buddies' with God then I suppose you would treat your marriages in the same way but in both cases you would be entirely missing the point. And the proof of that claim lies in the Jordan River and Jericho incidents because Yahweh isn't going to respond with miracles unless you do things His way.

The brutal truth is that most Christians aren't truly Bible-believing Christians because they're not Bible-implementing Christians. The book is just an identity badge for them, like a dishwasher manual nobody ever really consults. And before you nod in agreement with me, neither are conservative evangelicals truly 'Bible-believing' even if they have their noses in it most of the time. Reading is not doing. The words in it aren't magical incantations to just be repeated in the hope that God or an angel will 'do' something nice. That's occultism. It isn't an Alladin's lamp to be rubbed from which an obliging genie emerges to do your bidding, whether it be 'naming and claiming' or otherwise giving Yahweh His marching orders. They're life instructions. The same is true of many 'conservative' messianics who worship the Torah more often than not as though it were God. All these modern believers are the children of the age just as the first generation of those Israelites exodusing Egypt were children of theirs, and could not be permitted to enter the Promised Land carrying all their baggage and had to die off in the wilderness. The baton was passed to their sons and daughters.

Yesterday I lobbed a grenade into your mental stewing pot as also the day before so you could see where you stand in regard to certain doctrines which you have always held to be self-evidently true but which weren't. Your reaction to what I said will have told all. I have lots more 'hot-potatos' like that for you, as I said before, which is why most people walk away offended. That's OK, people have been walking away for Millennia. It's nothing new and I am not offended, just saddened.

The rich young ruler walked away when Yah'shua (Jesus) lobbed a hot-potato or grenade into his pot to help him deal with his idolatrous love of wealth (Mt.19:16ff.). You all know the story. He was faithfully obedient in all the mitzvot (commandments) but one. He would not sacrifice his wealth for the King and the Kingdom. And isn't it ironic that we have millions of deluded folks out there who follow these big charismatic preachers promising them more and more wealth until they are disgustingly rich like those corrupt preachers themselves? They're teaching the very opposite of Christ by twisting the Scriptures and wrenching them out of context. What, if you truly believe in the Scriptures, would be the point of becoming stinking rich only to have the Master instruct you to give it all away to the poor right afterwards? Do you see the contradiction?

"You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me" (Luke 18:22, NIV).

The communists preach egalitarianism then steal your wealth, imprison you and even kill you if you're non-compliant. They killed 10 million people in the 20th century. If you don't pay your exhorbitant taxes in the West, the police will come and seize your property and maybe throw you in prison too. Yah'shua (Jesus) invites you to surrender your wealth. Did He threaten the rich young ruler? No, He gave him the freedom to go on his own merry way. He didn't chase after him and say that if he 'sowed a seed' that like some banking scheme he would receive a big return on his investment. At least not in this life.

He did say, though, that what you sacrifice in this world is an investment in the next one where greedy evangelists can't get their cut. And He has a two-tier Plan at that. The first is the Law of Tithing where Yahweh demands His tenth or ten per cent so that His ministers can be supported, so that the poor can be looked after, and so that His people can gather to celebrate at His annual pilgrim festivals; and the second, is the United Order of All Things in Common for the really serious followers, the way the Jerusalem Assembly did things (Ac.4:32-37). If carnal women balk at the heavenly ways of marriage - and they do - then the carnal men balk at the heavenly way of financial stewardship - and they do. A man likes to be in control of his money in the same way a woman wants to be in control of her marriage and home but Yahweh says, Uh-Uh, No-No, these are both Mine and these are the respective stewardships I allot to both of you.' Wives, you don't own your husbands; and husbands, you don't own your money.

OK, the non-Remnant men can leave now just as the non-Remnant women left yesterday and the day before. That's what carnal men and women do. They go when they're standing before the swollen banks of the River Jordan or in front of the mighty fortress of Jericho. They quake and they run when they're asked to cross and then attack using YAHWEH'S methods. They weren't told to build boats or battering rams just as you cannot manage your marriages and families in either the socialistic or capitalistic ways. Oh, didn't you know, that Yahweh commands a kind of wealth equalisation every 50 years, on the Yovel or Jubilee? Now there's true socialism for you. But didn't He also protect the sanctity of individual property and command that every family have their own, personally owned home and garden, each man with the equivalent of his own vine and fig tree? Now there's true capitalism for you. So, no, Yahweh's financial system isn't American, Soviet or the upgraded, champagne-swigging version of that failed and corrupt experiment called the European Union or that strange and contradictory Chinese semi-capitalistic version of communism.

The Body of Christ has its notions about money upside down completely and Yahweh isn't going to do any sort of revival until believers are serious about reordering their marriages and finances according to the divine tavnith or pattern. Yesterday I was open with you about some of the things I still struggle with but I also told you some of the things I am now 100 per cent certain about. And Yahweh's marriage and economic system I am 100 per cent certain about because they're 100 per cent biblical. Neither American Conservative Christianity nor European Liberal Christianity, or any of the various monstrous hybrids, have the answers, and no end-time Remnant revival is coming through either of them because they're building on false foundations. And the good intentions of both aren't going to cut it - not remotely. I can't stand either of them - not rapacious monopoly capitalism or totalitarian socialism. They are both riven with hypocrisy, greed and self-entitlement. And they are hypocritical because they both pick and choose the bits of the Bible they like and reject the rest. And both of them hate what we stand for. They both of them eat up people alive whereas Yahweh protects and prospers them.

And for that reason the wider Remnant is still a way off yet from any sort of restoration through those wings of Christianity...and I include within them the 'conservative' and 'liberal' wings of the Messianic movement too. And, no, we don't represent some sort of Helegian synthesis or 'middle ground' either - that's the Marxist way. You dont' - can't - create truth that way - you embrace it for what it actually is. It can't be added to anything else nor can anything be subtracted from it. It's a whole. We are not to construct anything out of the world's materials or build on worldly foundations. And using spiritual vocabulary to conceal or hide worldly methods and materials won't work either. We have grown wise to Babylon's ruses.

Our idolatries as human beings are widespread and run deep into the human psyche, unfortunately, and the surgery needed to remove them is usually radical, requiring supernatural tools and powers. But first we have to acknowledge our errors, confess the truth and be willing to fully embrace it. And even that isn't enough - we have to become a covenant people, not in the abstract theological sense, but for real. Our promises have to be reliable, our word a sure refuge. That is why our original name, before we became more popularly known as 'Messianic Evangelicals' because of our theology, was 'New Covenant Christian'. It still is and so appears throughout the Olive Branch. On the surface that sounds a bit like a tautology because Christianity is a Covenant. It sounds as though we are calling ourselves 'New Covenant New Covenant believers'.

Yes, true believers are part of a covenant initiated by Yahweh but true believers are also a covenant people entering into agreements with one another and with Elohim (God) too, even if they're not always spoken. We learn that vital lesson at the Battle of Ai following the conmquest of Jericho when Achan breaks covenant by stealing from the national treasury (Josh.7). Baptism, on the other hand, is a good example of an unspoken covenant, a covenant entered into by a symbolic action or ordinance (immersion in water) and by the eyes of the witnesses watching it. The one being immersed is making a sacred, life-long covenant to follow Christ all the days of his life, and the witnesses that they will suppirt and hold him to account. At Shavu'ot he formally covenants to obey the mitzvot (commandments) of Yahweh the Father. Some call this a Bar-Mitzvah, Chrism or Confirmation. It's his promise to learn the New Song we recently spoke about - the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb (Rev.15:3). Remember?

We renew those covenants every Shavu'ot (Weeks, Ekatost) as a community and every Master's (Lord's) Supper (Communion, Eucharist) individually and communally when we eat the bread and drink the wine, and as families each Pesach or Passover. Keeping covenants is of the utmost importance, a matter of honour, duty, conscience, integrity, call it what you will. And similarly the New Covenant Melchizedek Priesthood enters into its own covenants of service. Indeed, we don't believe in 'love' unless it is Covenant Love. True love is covenant love. That is the core of Yahweh's character and that is what the core of the Remnant's heart is supposed to look like. In other words, covenant love consists of binding commitment no matter how much our minds and hearts may fluctuate in this very complicated and at times challenging life called mortality.

Am I making sense to you? Are you perhaps beginning to see how the pieces start fitting together? I hope you have been carefully noting your reactions and analysing them. If the two hot potatoes I have served you with so far haven't burned holes in your left and right hands - if they are beginning to fit more comfortably with you after much prayer and study, then we can move on to other things. If not, well, I'm afraid they're not going to go away and you'll have to continue making compromises with the truth if you don't want to wrestle with your conscience any further. I won't be the only one informing the Body of Christ of these things. So it's entirely up to you. I respect your free agency and bless you along your way, even if my heart is heavy, if this is too much for you swallow right away and you want to head off into the sunset. Take your time until you're sure but don't postpone the inevitable because once we know the truth, we're accountable to it whereas we weren't before. Grace in the days of our ignorance has a sell-by date! And time, as we're all beginning to see clearly now, is definitely running out.

The Israelites had to circle round Jericho seven times because the truth does take time to, first, be recognised, and, second, be embraced. And each time round there's testing...to see if your faith will hold, until that faith becomes certain and fixed. Then, when you know the truth, it can sink deep into the heart unhindered and make its permanent home there, becoming integrated into both your conscious and unconscious life. Truth must, if it's properly there, also become unconscious and instinctive, not susceptible to further doubting. So, even as Yahweh tests you, be sure to do your own rigorous testing. Don't just take my word for it. It's not me you have to answer to.

I'll be back tomorrow and then on the final day I hope to be able to wrap this all up together so that those who are coming with us have a clearly discernable and well-lit track to walk on for the rest of the year. In time it will become a road but it will always remain a narrow one, because truth is not some broad highway. Just stay with me and see what Yahweh will do. I'm here to lob grenades and olive branches of shalom (peace) too! Have a blessed day of communion with our Father. Amen.