The foundation of the revelation in the world, first in Israel, then in the nations, that God is Hashem, the LORD, and that this is the meaning of his revealing himself as the God of Israel, is found in the usage of this statement in the Book of Exodus, as I have highlighted here:
Thursday, January 19, 2017
You Shall Know That I Am The Lord Your God
The foundation of the revelation in the world, first in Israel, then in the nations, that God is Hashem, the LORD, and that this is the meaning of his revealing himself as the God of Israel, is found in the usage of this statement in the Book of Exodus, as I have highlighted here:
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Notes on The Angel of The Lord
The following are the places in the Tanach where the Angel of Hashem appears.
The angel of the LORD also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude" (Genesis 16:10).
She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me" (Genesis 16:13).
The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day (Genesis 18:1).
He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" (Genesis 22:12).
The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven (Genesis 22:15).
Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am' (Genesis 31:11).
the Angel who has delivered me from all harm - may He bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth (Genesis 48:16).
There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up (Exodus 3: 2).
I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him. But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out (Exodus 23:20-23).
when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" And he said, "No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" And the captain of the LORD's host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so (Joshua 5:13-15).
Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the LORD; and Gideon said, "Help me, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die" (Judges 6:22).
When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, "Enough! Withdraw your hand." The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24:16).
Then they spoke to the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, "We have patrolled the earth, and lo, the whole earth remains at peace." Then the angel of the LORD said, "O LORD of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?" Then the LORD replied with gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with Me (Zechariah 1:11-13).
Notes:
It is sometimes thought that The Angel of The Lord is a manifestation of the Lord Himself. However, a messenger of someone, in this case The Lord, is by definition not that person. Since in seeing The Angel of The Lord people would sometimes not see that angel but The Lord Himself, we are left to understand that this angel was created to be able to manifest an appearance of The Personal Presence of The Lord. This is the case In Revelation chapter one, where this angel manifests the Personal Presence of the Glorified Mashiach. Just as it was Hashem who was the person present and speaking in a number of occasions in Israel's past, on those occasions when He desired to be present through the limiting vessel of the angel, so it was Mashiach who was present and speaking through the vessel of the angel to Yochanan.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
The Baptism To Come
| טו וְהֶחֱרִים יְהוָה, אֵת לְשׁוֹן יָם-מִצְרַיִם, וְהֵנִיף יָדוֹ עַל-הַנָּהָר, בַּעְיָם רוּחוֹ; וְהִכָּהוּ לְשִׁבְעָה נְחָלִים, וְהִדְרִיךְ בַּנְּעָלִים. | 15 And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His scorching wind will He shake His hand over the [Euphrates] River, and will smite it into seven streams, and cause people to march over on dry ground. |
All of Isaiah 11 is to be revealed in light of this event. This is the baptism of all Israel in the death and resurrection of entering into the cloud, the garment of Mashiach, the fire of his new creation, wherein dwells Torah righteousness.
It is unto this that Yochanan the Immerser testified concerning Yehoshua, speaking to all Israel saying, "I immerse you in water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and [Shechinah] fire."
Read more about this
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Concealment and Revelation
See:
The Concealment and Revelation of Mashiach and The Good News
After that Yehoshua made atonement for his own people Israel who did not receive him, he was taken up into heaven and concealed there from the world. This concealment is the aspect of grace which is created in his offering for Israel and continues on. Read more...
Thursday, August 7, 2014
The Body - update
The Body
See post for:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2011
SEE my studies on this in my Evernote files here:
SEE ALSO: Anticipating the Redemption by Menachem Mendel Schneerson
or
http://sichosinenglish.org/books/anticipating-redemption-1/02.htm
He is the Day
The redeemer of Israel will not rest in his land until he has established eye to eye justice in all the earth.
He will dwell in his land for a day of rectification. Then all the earth will obey the Torah that goes forth from Zion, and as a reward the old heaven and the old earth will be destroyed and transfigured into a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells, and in that Shabbat the redeemer of Israel will rest. For he is that day.
He shall appear from heaven to do the work of the day and shall transform the day of work into the day of rest, for he shall finish the work upon the earth. Therefore at the end of the day the enemy shall come out against Jerusalem and Gog and Magog with him.
For those who love this world are of this world of death. They will fight against the King who is the living word of G-d, whose tongue will destroy this heaven and this earth as a reward for obedience to those who obey the commanent of G-d. And truth shall return to Adam in that day.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Notes on Acts 15
http://7with7.blogspot.ca/?m=1
on Acts 15:1
Certain people came down from Judea… This even ought not to be understood retroactively from the point of view of Christian theology 1500 to 2000 years later. What it meant for gentiles to be saved to Jews who believed in Moses and Mashiach must be understood in distinction from its meaning during centuries of the development of christian theology. The most important aspect of this issue is that salvation first and foremost to the Jewish people has always meant salvation of the nation, of all Israel, not primarily salvation of the individual. Therefore, for a gentile to be saved they had to be grafted into the nation of Israel and included in the salvation of the nation. It seemed completely clear from Moses that this meant that gentile men would have to be circumcised. Had something changed? Paul and Barnabas were insisting that something had changed, not in the fact that individual gentiles had to be included in the salvation of Israel in order to be saved, but in how this was now accomplished. If the reader sees these certain people who came down from Judea as being evil decievers (reading the text with the eyes of later gentile christian theology), the whole story of what was taking place here will be confusing and hardly credible. In fact, the Jerusalem council took both sides of this question very seriously and did not resolve the issue easily or superficially. In truth, the profound nature of the resolution that the council came to will go unappreciated by all those who choose to simply think of Paul's side as the good christian side and the side of those who came down from Judea as the bad Judaizing side. Only when it is fully understood how both sides represented distinct understandings and visions of Judaism will it be possible for the reader to clearly see the pivotal story for all ages taking place here in Acts 15.
In verse 5 we are being told that representatives in Jerusalem itself of the same party, (though they were different people), as were referred to in verse 1began to engage in the debate with Paul and Barnabas about how gentiles who had come to faith in Yehoshua as the Messiah of Israel were to be included within the nation of Israel and the salvation of Israel. When these Yehoshua-believing Pharisees stated that the gentiles who believed and were being converted needed to be circumcised and to begin to keep the whole Torah, they understood this to be because they were being saved through their faith in the Messiah Yehoshua. This was so because they believed the nation of Israel was saved and being saved through the Messiah Yehoshua. Only when this is clear will Peter's answer to them, culminating here in verse11, be clear.
Peter is speaking directly to these Yehoshua-believing Pharisees, and to everyone else only indirectly, (verse 7). His argument is that Israel, itself, is being saved and has been given the Spirit of Mashiach only through the unmerited grace of Adonu Yehoshua. This point is the premise of Peter's argument and it is essential to understand clearly what this means in order to be able to understand clearly the conclusion of the argument he makes about the salvation of the gentiles based on this premise. Salvation in this narrative of Acts 15 is represented by the gift and Presence of the Holy Ruach, the Holy Spirit as conveyed to Israel through the promise of Mashiach. Peter is saying that this Holy Presence is come to Israel through G-d's grace and not through Israel's success in perfectly observing the Torah. In no way does Peter diminish the importance of observance of the Torah in Israel. His argument is that since the Holy Presence is come to Israel through the promise of Mashiach through unmerited grace and not through success in perfect observance of the Torah, this same salvation of the gift of the Holy Presence is come to those gentiles seeking and believing in the salvation of Israel through the same grace. It cannot be put upon the gentiles that they should seek to attain what is already given to Israel and to them by the mercy of grace through seeking to become perfect in Torah observance. Peter is implying that there is a great mystery here and that there is a great revelation to be understood through this mystery. He is not demonizing one side or the other in this controversy. For it is the argument on one side and on the other that creates the articulation of this wonderful mystery. In the following verses the council of the Emissaries of Yehoshua the Mashiach will point the way toward the full revelation of this mystery of G-d's grace toward all the nations in the salvation of Israel.
It is essential to understand that James/Yaacov and all of those whom he spoke to were in agreement about the meaning of this prophecy from Amos — that it referred to the salvation of Israel that they were witnessing in their day, which would develop more and more, until All Israel was saved. The vision of this salvation which was given to them has been somewhat concealed to us through history, but this concealment is also an aspect of the Divine Promise of Israel's redemption. This concealment of the orignial vision of the salvation of Israel given to the Emissaries of Mashiach was and is one of the keys of the Malchut/Kingdom which was given to Kefa/Peter and to the twelve talmudim/diciples of Yehoshua. This key, this concealment of the "Apostolic" vision of Israel's salvation, is one of the keys to the fulfillment of the later part of this very prophecy of Amos: "that the rest of humankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name…" Understand: "the rest of humankind," that is, after and through the rebuilding of the fallen succah/tabernacle/tent of David, the kingdom of David, through the promised Son of David, the Mashiach, over the House of Judah and the House of Israel, then "the rest of humankind," the Gentiles who bear my name, who are converted to faith in his name, may, as a result of hearing of this Good News of Israel and her Messiah, turn to seek the Lord. Therefore, since the first measure of this salvation of Israel, the gift of the Holy Ruach/Spirit was come through grace, the first measure of the blessing of all the families of the earth must also be understood to be already come through grace. On the basis of this understanding, James/Yaacov will go on to give the full decision as to how to go forward toward the full revelation of the redemption of Israel and the salvation of all the world.
Acts 15:13
The conclusion that James/Yaacov comes to must be studied with great care. What was the understanding among those present about what the teachers of the Torah call the Noahide, or universal commandments? This statement by James/Yaacov is undisputedly a reference to these Torah requirements, as understood by the Torah teachers, for righteous gentiles. Gentiles who were thieves, murders, sexually immoral, propagators of idolatry, etc. were not sanctioned by the Torah as being welcome strangers and pilgrims in the Holy Land of Israel. For such iniquity G-d had removed the Canaanites from His Holy Land. For gentiles who were dwelling in the Land who committed such crimes there also had to be some legal rulings for justice which was distinct from those by which the Torah ruled over the lives of the Jews. The same applied to those gentiles who desired to live among the Jews in their communities in exile. It is not about judging an individual's standing before G-d. It is about the testimony of the word of G-d in Israel to the truth of the One true G-d, for the purpose of the salvation of the world. This in itself is very significant, as it is the basis upon which Paul built his mission to the nations. However, the way in which James/Yaakov chose to refer t the commandments required of the righteous gentiles was equally, if not even more significant.
The commandment not to commit blaspheme against the Name of the Creator of heaven and earth, the G-d of Israel, usually heads, and is always included, in any list of the Noahide laws. James/Yaakov, however, does not mention this commandment. It cannot be that the Apostles/Emissaries of Yehoshua did not consider it to be essential. Paul, in fact, requires obedience to this commandment explicitly in the congregations among the nations that he establishes, even turning certain individuals over to the satan in order that they might learn not to blaspheme. The Revelation entrusted to Yochanan/John also explicitly mentions blaspheme as one of the sins that G-d requires the gentiles to repent of. That James/Yaacov does not mention the prohibition of blasphemy here in the context of the question of circumcision and conversion of the gentiles could be understood as being because he intended to say that there was no need to require the gentiles coming to faith in the Messiah of Israel and his salvation of Israel to abstain from blasphemy, as these were people who, individually and together, all called upon the name of the Lord. In the same way, they would not be suspected at all of being thieves and robbers, nor of being rapists and murderers. Even though this is so, because of his choice of words and the context within the Oral Torah, James'/Yaakov's reference to abstaining from "blood" can be seen as a possible allusion to abstaining from murder, or revenge killings, etc., even if it should be read more literally as a dietary rule and in association with the prohibition of eating things strangled. This overlap between prohibition agains violence and eating blood can already be seen at the source prohibition or commandment that James/Yaakov is pointing to. This source commandment is the Noahide commandment not to eat a living limb torn from an animal. Understood as a commandment against cruelty it is also a commandment against predatory violence. In Torah mitzvot/commandments for Israel, the commandments regarding kosher slaughter go deeper and broader in speaking to this same concern. The language that James/Yaakov chooses to use in framing the prohibitions he states suggests that he is concerned with there being a bridge and a dialogue between the Noahide expression of the commandments about regard for the soul being in the blood and the Torah commandments about this. The Noahide commandment to establish courts of law is also not mentioned by James/Yaakov, as this commandment is being transposed into the Messianic community by this very council in Jerusalem at which he is giving the final word on these issues.
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