The Two Tithes

A few years ago, a groundbreaking study by Nehemia Gordon concerning the tithe changed my understanding of this ancient practice.

At the time I put that understanding in an article called ‘The Fellowship of the Tithe,’ since revised after the title of the first book in the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings.

At that time it was unknown to me why Yhosha was setting me up for the sequel, The Two Towers!

I had not read the article properly back at the time, nor had I revisited it since so the takeaway in that first article is limited and only part of a much fuller picture.

https://wordpress.com/post/jehovajah.wordpress.com/1703

The article and also the link I think to the research by Nehemia are given above but what I am concentrating on here is the qadash of the tithe and how that feeds into the organisational structure within the Imperial administration of Elohim.

The offerings called terumah are obscured by the English language, just like the offerings called qrbn! And the most important aspect of the act of making a terumah is to lift it up to Yehovah as a thing devoted to him. This is very apt and makes the thing lifted up qadash.

Now there are many things which are qadash as explained in Leviticus and there are several ways in which they become qadash, but every single one of these things is dedicated to Yehovah. And as a consequence is why Yhosha set out instructions for good in how to deal properly and respectfully with these things which are his and which are qadash. It is a matter of life and death!

Concentrating on the tithe with regards to qadash we have now to understand how it is to be handled and that is quite different to the way I was brought up in institutions of the worldwide Church of God and many traditions held by Protestant church organisations today.

We need to go back to Abraham.

Abraham, after recapturing Lot and the citizens of the region taken by the invading kings (The Day Of The Kings) was met by the king and high priest in the region called Melchizedek. This is the first time that there is a report of him in the Tanakh and apparently in any of the records which were in the Babylonian library. In any case it was evident from the report that all the surviving kings and Abraham respected this priest and king. And this priest and king declared that goodwill has been properly expressed to Abraham by Yehovah, or as he says El Alyon and that Abraham has properly expressed goodwill to El Alyon. Abraham confirms this in the name Yehovah, and from the booty or plunder of the successful campaign that he waged with his trained, dedicated men and some allies against the invading kings. He gave 1/10th. He took nothing for himself and negotiated that his allies should be able to take what they had risked their lives for and he left it at that. But he did declare that his wealth was from Yehovah so that everyone there would realise that they could not mutter behind his back that they had contributed to this astonishing man’s power!

So Abraham initiates the concept of returning to Yehovah 1/10th of whatever he delivers into your hand successfully.

The next time we hear about 1/10 is when Jacob negotiates a deal with the Elohim of his father and Abraham and Isaac. He made a covenant oath that if Yehovah brought him back successfully to his father’s house he would give 1/10 of all the produce and he would return to the place where Yehovah revealed himself and his administration to him; Bethel.

Now it would seem that this promise was not just for the one occasion when he returned and not just for this man Jacob, but for all that would come through him, all his descendants and his children. In other words Jacob as a man, Jacob as a family and Jacob as a nation, we are committed to giving bacl to Yehovah 1/10 of all that Yehovah has given to them.

Then we are thrown off track by the introduction of 1/5 by Joseph.

Why did Joseph make the law that 1/5 of the agricultural produce of the land should be given to Pharaoh and his storehouses by the people? Mathematically it doesn’t make sense to cover a seven year famine by taking 1/5 of the harvest of the good years! It would seem that Joseph was using the idea of 2/10; 1/10 to go to Pharaoh directly and the other 1/10th to go to the priests.

Now Joseph was a Hebrew slave, and despite the great power and authority that he had in Egypt his slave status was not removed. Therefore, he worked for his master, the Pharaoh whose responsibility it was to look after the priests and the people in their military campaigns, and to ensure good order and harmony, a particularly powerful and important Egyptian concept. In the Egyptian culture this was something that the Egyptian priests were responsible for so that the entire culture was always pleasing the different Elohims.

We read later that using this 1/5 Pharaoh was able to purchase all the Egyptians and their land as slaves and also to keep feeding the priests. And the Egyptians were submissive to this, because as they said Pharaoh was saving their lives. The end result was that after the famine had passed the Egyptians were now working for Pharaoh and for the temples. And the deal was that they kept 4/5 of all their produce, while 1/5 went to Pharaoh.

We are not told how Pharaoh distributed this 1/5, but we are told that he gave a dispensation from it, oror some of it to the priests throughout the country, even through the famine.

The Tanakh does not record any of the Egyptian festival, and how they were funded and prepared for, but it was well known that the Egyptians had many festivals and many obligations to the dead and to the living, and even built necropolis cities for the dead opposite cities of the living.

So when Yehovah systematically knocked down all the Elohim of the Egyptians: that is the Nile, the creatures and the frogs in the Nile, the flies, and the gnats, the lice and biting insects, the death of the livestock, including the cows, the bombarding of the crops with hailstone, the devouring of the crops and the trees and all the produce by the locusts, and the thick, dark cloud that smothered the land followed by the death of everything that first came out of the matrix of man and beast in Egypt. Every one of these was a deity in Egypt responsible for maintaining the harmony. But clearly Yehovah disrupted their harmony and brought out his people as his first born son out of the matrix of Egypt.

The plague or the strike against the animals removed beast power and followed by the strike against the human beings removed manpower, leaving the early ripening crops in the fields as a sitting target for the next two strikes of massive hailstones and devouring locusts. So we see that in the agricultural year there was a certain time with the movement of produce from the field into the storehouses which was absolutely crucial and required both men and the beast to fulfil it. Similarly when the Israelites finally established themselves in the well watered and well irrigated plots in the land of Canaan, they had a time in the in the year, when everything had to be moved from the field through a process of harvesting and winnowing into the storehouses by manpower and beast power; occurring also at this time was when the flocks began to drop their leaping lambs and goats! So this time of year was quite busy for the different types of agriculture.

There are two types of things which are referred to by the Hebrew bicurim and one is in the plant kingdom and the other is in the animal kingdom. These are the first out of the womb or out of the matrix where the fruit is being developed. In particular for the plant kingdom, there is another word; reshit which is a shmita form, which means the first of, usually applied to mean in the first fruits, but in fact it means the first and the best when things are arranged in order of what is the best, so there is no confusion. This term is usually clearly associated with the produce from the fields and the first produce at the beginning of the agricultural year. And so by extension it is often associated with the beginning of a regnal year for a king or prince. But the word biccurim prioritises those that are first out of the animal womb and sometimes it is confused with the first out of the fields, but this is usually because those translating it do not understand that an offering consists of a grain offering with an attendant meat offering. So again this is a confusion due to King James English.

So the 1/10 part is not the first of the instructions that Yehovah gave that to his new nation, his new son Israel. The first has to be by showing and telling that they were listening to his voice! And to cry out to him in any bitter situation,so that he could establish the power of his salvation in them, both in terms of health and other difficulties. Then the next commandment, probably the most repeated commandment is the commandment about the Shabbat.

Most people do not notice, even though Moses pointed it out, that the entire population of Israel and those that went out with them were made to scramble in the dust, gleaning the manna from the ground and bushes. And this was not just once but for 40 years. There has never been a more consistent training program in which day is the seventh day and how to be humbly prepared for it!

So before they were given produce from the field they had to deal with gleaning from the ground manna. They also had livestock with them so they still received the first born leaping lambs and goats, donkeys and other animals from the herd and all that was with them. These animals were to be kept devoted to Yehovah. This was something that Yehovah commanded Moses before they went through the border sea and is part of the leaping lamb regulations as well as they matzot regulations or instructions, all part of the busy time of the month of Aviv.

So the first time that we come across the idea of the Israelite nation giving the 1/10 is in Leviticus. Now this 10th is from the field and also from the animals. But the Israelites were not gathering from the field so this was in preparation and in training for when they would be.

The Israelites were receiving the leaping lamb produce from their flocks, so they were being trained in identifying and separating out those that are the first born and presenting them to the Aaronic priesthood for the service of the tent of assembly and the other services of sacrifice that Yehovah eventually instructed.

Now this separation of the first born is not part of the 1/10 part. In fact Moses puts it very clearly that you cannot make something holy which is already holy! So, after they had separated out the first born they then went through their flocks, as explained in Leviticus and selected the 10th under the rod to be given to Yehovah regardless of its condition!

During the wilderness wanderings then that 10th part of the flock was regularly brought to the 10th of assembly and to the priests, and as it soon turns out to bethe case to the Levites.

We then find within the book of Numbers that the first born sons of the Israelites are to be redeemed by the Levite‘s and any sons left over to are to be redeemed by the shekel in the tent of assembly. In other words amongst those who are to be devoted to Yehovah are the sons of Israel, the first born son and they are to be entirely replaced by the sons of the Levites. After the institution of this any other firstborn sons, which will be many will be redeemed by silver.

The numbering of the children of Israel had two purposes, one was to establish this replacement of the first born son of the Israelites by the Levites, and the other was to set up the military structures. Therefore nobody had the right to number the children of Israel, except Yehovah. The new king had the right to number the children of Israel and then to compare them with the children of Levite and re-establish the equation sensibly. By for the first born of the Israelites and definitely no king had the right to number the children of Israel in order to make up his army or armies.

So we are limping along and we are going along with the leaping lambs on the way to the land of Canaan and to the left and to the right of us thousands, are dropping down dead, because they would not have emunah in Yehovah and in Moses. But then Yehovah explains how he wants the 10th of the produce of the field to be dealt with. He’s already dealt with the first born and what to do with the 10th from the flock so now he is dealing with the 10th from the field.

It is important to note that this 1/10 is embedded within the system of land distribution and that the land distribution system is embedded within the concept of a well irrigated and well-drained plot or area of land. It had to be well irrigated with either a broock or a spring and well-drained so that crops could grow and so the livestock could raise and feed on it.  This was to be the basis of a stable society of human beings and animals and land, which would sustain the Imperial administration in the land of Canaan to do its work in all the world.

So when the land was spied out it was important to make sure that each of the areas had access to running water or springs and good drainage so that it could grow crops.

Once again it was important that the arable land should be well watered and have a good drainage so that crops could grow to feed the families and the animals so that there were trees and other resources that would sustain the community. Most of this was sorted out by the Canaanites who lived in the land and who the Israelites came to completely mass exterminate them and take over their properties. Yes, this is genocide so let’s not back away from it.

So the issue was what to do when in the land? At the time when this instruction was given the people were entirely used to scrambling on the ground and gleaning manna and living from day to day and resting on the Shabbat and on the other assembly dates. But when they came and took possession of the land things would be different and this is where the 10th system becomes crucially important as an organising principle and as a way of bringing communities together in fellowship and celebration.

We already see that the first born have been set up in an established pattern to go to the priests and also that the 10th of the flock had been set up to go to the priests. However, now the modification was made that the 10th of the flock would go to the Levites as part of their well watered and well irrigated land, equivalent for the work that they were assigned to do.

We cannot understand what the 10th part was being used for without understanding the foundation of a well watered, well irrigated, viable piece or plot of land! Every tribe and there were 13 tribes was assigned a huge area in which there were many viable, well irrigated, well-drained plots of land already established by the Canaanites. But the land was to be divided amongst only 12 of the 13 tribes. The Levites were not to have physical agricultural resources like all the other tribes. Their ‘well watered and well-drained plot of land’ was actually Yehovah. So you have to understand that every tribe, the 13 tribes were supposed to have plots of land that were well watered and irrigated which could produce crops and sustain herbs and fruits from trees. However, the Levites were removed from this agricultural base system and placed in a position where their hard work would be rewarded directly by Yehovah from the other 12 tribes! And so all 13 tribes would have a source which could produce crops and fruits from the field to present to Yehovah.

How this works is the basis of the two tithes! First of all the physical land workers would produce from the land that which was given to them by Yehovah, and from that produce of the land they would take one 1/10 and give it to the Levite‘s in their cities within their areas.

Now the cities within their areas are laid out in detail in the book of Joshua and big areas had more Levite‘s and the smaller areas had a smaller number of Levites. Whether there was a proportion I haven’t worked out.

So the Levites expected to receive from the other tribe the produce of the land due to them by a gift from Yehovah. This would make them equivalent to all the other tribes in having produce from the fields to give a 10th to Yehovah! Every tribe therefore, irrespective of the first born animals was expected to give 1/10 of its produce from the fields to Yehovah and that included the Levites who didn’t have any fields! And so their fields were represented by this 10th part given to them by their fellow tribes.

So let’s say it again. 12 tribes of the 13 had well watered and well irrigated land from which agricultural crops could be produced in the service of the Imperial administration of Elohim. The Levites did not have these well watered and irrigated and drained plots but they were still expected to produce agriculture and give Yehovah a 10th from all their agricultural products! The only solution was that the other tribes should give them agricultural products from their fields so that the Levite could give a 10th of their agricultural products to Yehovah.

But what about the other 12 tribes giving a 10th of their agricultural products to Yehovah? Well this is precisely what they have done by giving it to the Levites! It is a matter of transportation and redistribution. It makes no sense to centralise all these 10th parts and then re-distribute them to the Levites. Instead, give them to the Levites in your area and the job is done. The only ones then left to bring the 10th to Yehovah would be the Levites! And this was their duty and agreement to do three times a year, so that the priests in the place where Yehovah laid his name should receive the 10th part offered to Yehovah, and also their share of this well watered and well drained plot of land or sustainable and sustaining resource.

This then is the first part of the fellowship of the 10th part. It brings together all the 12 tribes with the one tribe of the Levites and helps to sustain their work at the tent of assembly, very important work which has to do with qadash and so cannot be done by just anybody.

So now we can see that the first born animals have been set up in a regular system which transports them from the lands of Israel to the place whereYehovah set up his name, and this would be expected to happen whether or not they had learned to grow crops and fruits. But now in the new situation they would have to transport all these first born lambs in droves down to the place where Yehovah had his set up. Certainly, they could bring these down in their droves, all of them first born, all of them distinguished for this purpose; but they didn’t also have to bring down with them the 10th part of their flocks. This 10th part could now be given locally to the Levites.

This is a huge agricultural enterprise, just bringing the first born of the flock down to where Yehovah has he set up. And Yehovah says it must be done three times in the year and they must not appear empty handed, that is without these first born leaping lambs.

Evidently there will be more firstborn leaping lambs in the month of Aviv thzn perhaps in any other month, but there still may be some and so they are obligated to bring them to the priests. And now we understand that the Levites are also obligated to bring the first born of their flocks to the priest. These are the first born of the flocks given to them by the 12 tribes. The 12 tribes do not have to give them the first born of their flock. So once again all of the tribes are bringing up their first borns to Yehovah. Ultimately to be given to the temple service.

The second thing that Yehovah expects and obligates his people to do is what can only be understood as a second tithe for the pilgrimage assemblies. Specific to the pilgrimage assemblies is a command found in Deuteronomy for the individual farmer with his well watered and well drained plots of land, to bring up a tithe, a 10^th part of what that land has produced to eat and celebrate before Yehovah!

This may seem extravagant but it is also liberating that no man should be sitting before Yehovah hungry, poor and naked etc.

Well, then that’s clear. The Levites are to bring up one 10th part of what they are considered as having produced from their work too. The priests, however, there is no instruction other than the general instruction for them to bring up a second 10th part for them to celebrate the pilgrimage assemblies!

One of the reasons for this is because in perfect symmetry during these assemblies all tribes are bringing up to Yehovah 1/10 of what he has given them. However, the individual farmer is bringing 1/10seemingly only for his benefit and the benefit of his family! But when we read the instructions we see that that is not to be the case. The individual farmer is to bring up this second tenth to benefit the whole of the community, especially the Levites and the poor and those who have lost their fathers during war or during some kind of accident and those who are reduced in the circumstances as a mother and woman because they’ve lost their partner. Or those who are too weak and feeble to really make an impact using the plot of land in the well watered and drained area. All of these are to benefit from Yehovah who has shown extraordinary favour too and goodwill in enabling them to bring up for his assembly an amount of good things to be distributed to the whole of those assembling at this place!

So we see that the second tithe brought up by the land owner benefits all and is intended to benefit all. And we also see the solution to a huge logistical problem.

We have droves of first born animals being brought down to the temple or the tent; we also have farmers bringing down huge amounts of agricultural product and we also have Levites bringing down amounts of agricultural product proportional to their size. They also have to bring down the 10th part of their flocks which the individual farmer does not have to, having given them to Levites. So how are the Levites going to transport all this produce down to the place where they need to?

The work at the temple of the meeting is demanding all of their tent of assembly but they can organise themselves so that somebody is able to do this work of transporting goods up to the assemblies. However, it makes sense that they would employ fatherless boys and widows and other people who are not able to work the field fully to help them in bringing all of this produce down. And as they come down they should expect to be paid or rewarded for helping out. This pay and this reward could come from part of the second 10t that the Levite might be able to bring up if they have the help, but in any case it definitely must come from the farmers who are bringing up this second 10th to the assemblies!

So basically all hands to the deck, get everything down to the place whereYehovah wants it, into a storehouse and everybody will have such a jolly good time and give praise and thanks to Yehovah. And in addition to that Yehovah will express goodwill to them so that the land produces and their flocks produce and no one interferes with them as they serve him!

It is important to point out that if the first 10th is qadash so is the second 10th because it is a made a 10th by the same raising up process, so the conditions governing this second 10th have to be met.

So what about the third tithe? The rabbis determined that there were two tithes and this was based on an ancient understanding going back into the time of the Septuagint, where they actually distinguished the tithe or the 10th part in the Greek, calling one of the tithes the first tithe and the other one the second tithe. But this is not in the original Hebrew. Later we find that both Josephus and an author called Tobit explain a system of 3/10 parts. But again this is not found in the Tanakh. It is probably safe to say that if there was a commandment setting up a third 10th system it would have been presented in the Tanakh or found in the library in Babylon. So where does the idea come from? It seems to come from a verse which says plainly the third year, the year of the tithes.

From this one verse Nehemia and probably every other tradition deduce this as a three year cycle! And yet when we go to the years of the Shmita and also of the Jubilee there is no mention of a three-year cycle. So what is this verse referring to?

When I was investigating this topic I came upon a very interesting verse about trees and I don’t think anybody else seems to have quoted this in relation to the 10th part. But it says quite simply that the trees are not to be harvested until the third year! And the reason is that these trees were to be considered as having a foreskin which it took two years to remove, and in the third year it was considered to be removed and the crops could be harvested. All plain and simple. But how does this relate to the declaration that a farmer has to make bringing up his produce before the priest and other such declarations?

The answer is straightforward. The land is conquered in stages. For example, the land on the other side of the river Jordan was conquered first by the hand of Moses and the power of Yehovah. Their wives and their families were left to tend tothe land while their men went over the Jordan to battle with the rest of the children of Israel and take the the land that was given to them. After many years of battle Joshua is able to distribute into parcels  the land which they have conquered. Some of the land contained cities that still needed to be conquered by the Israelites, that is to be exterminated. And we have an example of where the children of his ally Israel are fooled by cities within the land, realising that they had a death sentence hanging over them. They concealed themselves as foreigners from afar and got Joshua and the elders to swear that they would not kill them. However when Joshua and the elders found out that they were part of the cities that were destined to be destroyed they realised that they could not go back on their word. They also realised that they had failed to consult Yehovah before making this agreement and so they made these cities “slave cities“ whose job it was to eternally provide for the 10th meeting! A lesson to be learned, along with the lesson of Ai.

So we see that the land starts to be settled in stages with some land still needing to be conquered. And Caleb in particular conquers a piece of land which he asked for of Moses and settles down there. So what has this got to do with the third year? Simply this. When do you start tything? 

The tything of the agricultural products of the field would not be possible while the land was in contest. The food feeds the armies and there simply wasn’t time to set up an agricultural system. However, as each area became pacified and especially when Yhosha had assigned the plot to the different tribes then the women and children could settle in, and this would take place at different stages. For example, Dan didn’t actually settle in until sometime after Joshua died, and they found a place in the north of what was assigned to them. So now imagine you settled in and you start to organise the agriculture of the land then the instruction about the third year tells you not to tithe that land until the trees were in their third harvest.  So in every part of the land farmers were producing products from the land and from the sheep, but they were not tithing until the third year, the year of the tithes or the 10th part. So over a period of time, gradually the amount of the 10th part being brought down to the assembly of meeting was increasing as more and more farmers became able to farm the land and then after three years to start tything.

So what about the Levites during this period? Like all the other tribe, they would be living off the land and off the already established system of bringing the first born to the and also any other. Food that a benefactor could supply them with. And as there might be many widows and orphans due to the fighting they also need to be supported.

Gradually as the Israelites became established then the Levites came to receive the 10th part from those farmers that could now tithe after the third year. This meant that the Levites began to move over from receiving the benefits of the hands of those who were faithful servants of Yehovah, who understood that they needed to support them to in fact receiving their due from Yehovah as a plot of well watered and well-drained land! In other words  they were no longer were relying on “charity.” They were receiving what was due to them and established for them by Yehovah and what they are and we are receiving was qadash

So eventually the Levites would receive what was due to them but what about the poor, the widows, the orphan etc? They were not to be forgotten and especially during the pilgrim festivals they were not to be left out. It may be that some landowners or benefactors were supporting these individuals by means of the Ruach, moving within their abdominal cavity and opening their eyes to the needs of these individuals that were around them. Not just for charity, but for status, for work and for inclusivity etc.

This kind of thinking about the community was embedded and established in the cleaning of the omer from the desert floor. When you look back over that period the omer is absolutely significant in creating community and shared values. The danger is when one moves from gleaning to actual land owners, those who are not able to fully benefit from the land will be despised by the landowners. Instead remembering how Yehovah humbled all of them and made them all scramble on the ground to get enough food to feed their families and also feed each other. This is what is forgotten my landowners, now, is that there is no difference between them and the poor and the Levites because they are all servants of Yehovah, all obligated to bring up the 10th part and all obligated to celebrate joyfully before Yehovah with the second 10th part.

So there’s no need for a three year cycle because it doesn’t make sense, especially in the context of the conquest of Canaan. But what does make sense is giving each individual potholder a starting time and that starting time to tithe is the third year of the trees in the plot that they have been given. After that all tithing is annual for the first six years with a break on the seventh and the 14th, the 21st and the 28th and the 35th and the 42nd and the 49th with an extended break on the 50th year. As you see there is plenty of opportunity to talk about the three year cycle here but it is not mentioned.

As usual we have to observe that the children of Israel didn’t perform whatYehovah required of them and so they received instead of the goodwill that Yehovahappointed for them the extreme and horror curses to anyone of the children of Israel who didn’t maintain the stipulations of the contract, and in particular help to develop the Imperial administration in this fellowship of the 10th part.

Should we and can we do the 10th part today? The answer is factually no, however practically we can show willing.

But we must never get confused with the expectation of many ministries that we can take a 10th part of our income and give it to them. Firstly the 10th part is qadash and secondly we have to physically lift it up if we were to comply.

So we can give generously, we can think about those who are poor and orphans and fatherless. But they mustn’t cover over the plane facts. This society and the way it is set up is corrupt from the ground up. It does not give each family or tribe the security the way that Yehovah intended and you doing so does not help to build and establish the Imperial administration of Elohim. So what we are in fact doing is papering this over and then expecting Yehovah to bless us because we are supporting this ministry or that ministry, which may not actually be explaining or teaching about the Imperial administration, but rather obscuring it.

If you give remember that this is generosity. If you give to Yehovah remember you have to follow his instructions, not the instructions of some person on the television and you have to make clear that what you give is under his instruction.

The Apparent Reference to Two Yehovahs Explained

When Abraham was visited by, as it says three men in the heat of the day, the context states that these three men were on a mission to the city of Sodom. Three men were sent so that there would be three witnesses? In fact, only two went on to the city and so the report of two witnesses was sufficient.

The third man stopped in order to discuss with Abraham what the purpose of his creator Yehovah was in visiting Sodom. He had also previously brought some good news to Abraham and his wife Sarah, which was perhaps astonishing and unbelievable to Sarah who laughed.

So the man that stopped with Abraham was a messenger deputised to fulfil a mission of bringing good news to Abraham and also on reporting what was declared about Sodom and Gamora.

Abraham recognised that this was not a man, but a messenger through whom he could communicate messages with his creator. We are not used to having this kind of indirect communication through human beings. Unless of course we use the metaphor of a phone. In those days the metaphor of the phone would not make sense. But today we know that we can talk to somebody by using the phone directly or an official who is relaying our spoken communication through a phone contact. So we see that Abraham was able to communicate directly with the creator or the spokesperson of the creator through this intermediary, deputy or messenger. After negotiating a limit on the destructive power which was to be released from the atmosphere, it is said a messenger or deputy returns. One must presume to the authority that sent him, giving his report of his part of the mission and awaiting the report from the two other missionaries sent to Sodom and Gomorrah.

So when the two missionaries enter into Sodom they determine that they will stay in the streets in order to do a thorough observation of what was going on. However, Lot prevailed upon them to come into his house believing that they were men who were on a journey. Once they came in and he was showing them hospitality it became obvious that they had attracted attention and that the attention was violent and bad. Lot tried to negotiate with his fellow citizens to no avail. It was then that the two men showed themselves to be messengers from the eternal one. Yehovah and Lot’s eyes were opened. He quickly took their advice and tried to gather together the 10 people who would save the city, but they would not come with him, thinking or saying that he had lost his senses. However, the messengers moved Lot, his two daughters and his wife out of the city in order for them to be able to give their report and for the consequences to be made plain.

So we come across a saying that puzzles many of us because it seems to say that Yehovah call down fire from Yehovah in the atmosphere. The puzzle is due to the fact that the two messengers who are clearly messengers seem to be called Yehovah by this verse, and yet Yehovah is also clearly referenced as being in the atmosphere.

The confusion arises only because of the simplistic understanding of certain interpreters. From the seventh day we are told that Elohim works as a unified workforce, consisting of many windenergetic functionaries, some of which are not clearly identified, but their work is. The product of their energies is identified as being that produced by a delegate or a deputy. But the unity is also emphasised so that it is a surprise to hear the pronoun being used. By this means we are told straightforwardly that there are many entities who work in unity and that there is possibly a spokesperson who speaks for that unity. The fact is that an individual is identified by the term which is always a singular identification. So we see that there is an I amongst the we which constitutes the Elohim which is very remarkable and acts in complete unity. We later find an individual who is identified by the name Yehovah associated with Elohim but this is very likely a determinative use of the word Elohim. It identifies that this name is not the name of a human being, but the name of some entity which is like the entities of Elohim.

So we have, and it becomes clear, a system of communication between humans and this entity Yehovah that utilises deputies in the messengers, as I have explained above.

So the situation explains itself in this way: two deputies go down to Sodom and confirm to the third messenger that the situation is as bad as the cry that has reached Yehovah. Yehovah then gives his judgement, which is that fire from him should fall down and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. So it is Yehovah who calls down fire from himself onto Sodom and Gomorrah. There is no indication therefore that Yehovah has to be in two places at the same time as is the popular understanding. In any case, the concept of place for Yehovah is inappropriate. This is the entity that created the entire universe, so to paraphrase what kind of place would you place it in?

What is the New Covenant?

Many of us who have no religious persuasion do not use this word in our everyday use. And we don’t use the word Testament either. These are King James English and although people will probably still have some understanding of it it won’t be a full understanding of this concept. It is a similar situation with the word apostle. The more up-to-date word would be missionary, but the church has tried to create a mystique around the title apostle to give it some kind of official hierarchical status. But the word itself simply means to be sent on a mission.

Many missionaries go out into the world to preach the good news to various native populations sent out by various local churches in other areas and they report back to those churches the work that they are doing. And this is the simple responsibility and role of an apostle in the acts of the missionaries as we shall rename it. Now without a doubt there are hierarchical considerations in terms of the mission work, as some commonly like to put it “who is in charge? But these considerations are often festooned with political and governmental assumptions taken from the world from the society of “benefactors.” A missionary is a servant of the congregation that sent them out and also a servant of the congregations which they raise up. Any authority which they have to rise from their foundational servant status, not from any hierarchical political considerations.

It often happens that somebody that creates a company, ostensibly desiring to be the head of that as the director of that company often finds when they are in charge and the company has to be directed by some kind of legal entity called a board, that they then lose their principal position in relation to the board, particularly if the board is dependent upon shares in the company. They may be marginalised and actually ejected from the board. The concept of authority when you are the originator and initiator of some companies or action is fraught with difficulty. The growth of such a company involves adding other people to it who may initially be “under“ the originator that depending on how the company develops may become equal to and even above the developer in terms of shareholdings and so able to exercise “financial or political“ authority over the originator.

This is not how the body of Yhosha is to be organised. Those who are at the foundation of a community remain at the foundation of the community, promoting growth in that community and exemplifying services within the community. There is no need for any kind of political board or governance based on shareholdings or contributions because the whole organisation is based on serving one another. Now those who are servants serve a master and the master is Yhosha. And if he accepts a particular servant as the “lead“ servant that is only to provide his other servants with the food that they require in due season. It is not so that they can “become the Lord and Master“ of them. So the type of relationship between missionaries and the congregations which they found is laid out clearly as one of the services and provisions of the resources which the congregation requires to grow up into the fullness of the master.

So we can see that it’s quite easy for humans to put their own logical and social interpretations on concepts which are clearly defined within the instructions and by the voice of Yehovah.

Also when we look at this word which is translated as covenant by King James, the first thing that we find is it is based on sharing a sacrificial animal between the parties. In other words it’s about dividing up and dealing a sacrificial animal to each of those people who want to be in a relationship in order to commit each party to some “deal“ or some set of conditions in terms.

Now a deal is probably best understood in terms of the advertising campaigns of this company, but what underlies these words is the usual word contract. And many of us are familiar with these deals and the contract and the terms and conditions of this contract.

To know what we have before us, our contract based on deals which we have made with Yehovah. These contracts are sometimes detailed and sometimes they are imbalanced, in that the person, usually the larger party has a great deal more to provide in the contract than the other party within the contract. This seems to be the case with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in their contract with Yehovah. However when it came to the descendants, the children of Israel, then the contract made with them had many terms and conditions and responsibilities under the contract which would result in behaviours and goodwill being extended to those by the larger party, that is the creator Yehovah. This type of contract in fact follows a form which is found throughout the middle eastern orient. The contract is understandable in terms of these oriental contracts. Where the contract differs is in the parties and also the responsibilities and the rewards and the punishments which will be exacted if the contract is broken.

The first part of this type of covenant which we are now understanding to be a contract is the preamble or overview of the contract. This is usually the part that is left open while the rest of the contract is usually wrapped up in a seal and then the contract is broken into pieces, each piece been given to the parties. This then forms the basis of validating the contract if there is a dispute whereby the parties can bring together the pieces to show that they are parties to a contract and the seal can be broken, and the terms and conditions can be read from the two parts; the hidden part of the contract and the sealed part.

Note the preamble to the contract that Yehovah made with the children of Israel is often called the 10 Commandments. This represents the words that the major party shouted down from the top of Mount Sinai, enjoying a very memorable and terrifying display of his presence and his reality.

However the designation of these things as commandments is incorrect. For these things are proclamations and are declared to be so right from the mouth of Yehovah in the account in Exodus or Shemot.

Now it seems that these proclamations may have continued beyond just the short preamble that was given from the mountaintop, but the people became so petrified that they begged Yehovah to continue only through his servant Moses speaking to the people! So the famous words which were proclaimed by Yehovah don’t stop after the commandments; “do not develop a foaming and fermenting desire” but continue on to reference what to do about silver and gold statues and alters. And these are followed by some judgements which are then finally presented to the children of Israel as the preamble of the contract. It is only later on that we see the description of this preamble as the ’10 Commandments’ but even this is not true because the word is not 10 but a 10th! The number is in the shmikut form. So to try and make it clear we re actually told that these words are a tense part of the proclamations!

Most must think that their 10 Commandments are the essential part of the covenant which continues on. But what we have to understand is that these identified 10 Commandments are in fact only one 10th part of the proclamations to which the children of Israel contracted to be obedient to. This means that there are and were going to be more instructions which would follow, but this 10th part would be the basis on which they would make the agreement and the contract. The terms and conditions in the details etc would follow but as is still the case nowadays nobody really wants to get bogged down in that kind of thing when signing up to some contract.

We can see that this has to be true because after these proclamations were given then Moses came down and performed a sacrificial act which bound the two parties together. The animal was cut up to make the deal and to show that an animal was cut up to make the deal blood was poured on both parties. The blood of this contract, this deal was sprayed on the people and the other portion of the blood was poured out upon the altar at the base in Mount Sinai.

So again the contract is made binding by both parties swearing to it and partaking in a meal from the sacrificed animal and being both covered by the blood from that sacrificial animal which implicates both parties to much older regulations set out by Yehovah at the time when Noah came out of the ark. That fearful provision is the requirement of those that spill blood who have to answer to Yehovah!

After the sacrificial swearing of the covenant parties was made then representatives of the children of Israel went up and shared in a meal before Yehovah to rejoice at the binding element of the covenant.

This being done Moses then went up to receive the further detailed instructions which both parties had signed up to and which he would then deliver overtime to the children. He went up to receive the other 9/10ths of the contract, which we find fully revealed thereafter in the books which are called The Torah, The Torah of Moses and also the Torah of Yehovah.

Interestingly this covenant is immediately broken after a period of say about 40+ days and the mediator of the covenant demonstrated that visibly by shattering two tablets of stone on which the 10th part of the proclamation was written by the hand of Yehovah. These were to be the visible and accessible parts of the covenant which acted as the preamble and also the tenor of the whole covenant.

So we say firstly that this contract was immediately broken, and there were penalties for breaking the contract and these penalties were exacted. However the contract was renewed.

Many of us have gone through this experience of renewing a contract that we have made with some company, such as a phone company or a television service provider company. What that means is quite simply that the same deal is being offered but very often a better deal is being offered to provide the same or enhanced services. The renewal of the contract does not mean that we lose the benefits! It more often means that we retain the benefits with some improvements! And so it is with Yehovah, it will renew contracts with the children of Israel and it will also make improvements to the contract.

Now while the contract is in force nothing can be added to it or subtracted from it. So much so that if any changes are needed to be made these changes are made by agreement and normally to the existing contract. So it is that the renewed contracts are made with each generation as we see. What we see is that the older generation repeatedly breaks the contract, shredding it into pieces and Yehovah exacts from them the penalties under the contract. He then renews the contract with better terms in some cases or with clearer terms. For example, after the first shredding of the covenant or breaking and destroying of the contract Yehovah renews the contracts but adds some clarifying terms about what the children of Israel are to do to the people and the statues and the practices in the land into which they are going. These terms which are part of the original contract have been brought forward and made clear in the renewed contract for the purpose of enabling better adherence to the contract by the children of Israel.

So we see that these contracts continue and renew and are made at different times with different generations and in different situations by different leaders and judges that Yehovah places over them.

How many will say that the contract made with Moses cannot be tampered with. And that is true as far as human contracts are concerned. But Yehovah is able to add terms and conditions to this contract by agreement with the generation with whom he makes his contract. So when we come to the time of Samuel that generation wanted a king, and to this end Samuel was instructed to add a term to the contract allowing them to have a king and to delineate what the king is responsible for and to do.

These terms are not likely found in the contract made with Moses! But as the Torah has come down to us these provisions have been added in by later prophets and scribes We see that the contract is updated according to the will of Yehovah, not according to the will of men!

This is particularly important when it comes to the prophet Ezekiel and his account of the “temple”. Some look at some of the alterations and some of the provisions in Ezekiel. This is a serious consideration, because if Ezekiel is a man and he’s changing the proclamations of Yehovah he is a false prophet. But if he faithfully records the voice of Yehovah then any alterations that he makes are justified by his creator. However there are scribes and Pharisees and rabbis who would put themselves in the position of judging such a prophet and so consequently have killed many of the servants of Yehovah on this pretext, only to find that these were indeed servants of Yehovah. So you can see that being a servant of Yehovah and one of his prophets is a perilous occupation! And it is no wonder that Jonah tried to run away after having received a good reputation as a prophet in case Yehovah did ‘loosing of his curses’ against Nineveh from his judgements, and so make Jonah out to be a false prophet.

So now bearing all this in mind we can see that these contracts are regularly renewed, sometimes updated and many times shredded to pieces by those that are supposed to be partakers of them! But during all of this certain terms and conditions of the contract do not change, even if additional proclamations might be added they are mitigated by the former terms of the contract. In other words no part of the original contract are abrogated by new additional terms.

So why is it then that it is common or fair amongst those that call themselves Christians that these contracts which come from Yehovah have been done away with in terms abrogated and removed in favour of some new covenant which they cannot set out before those to whom they preach it?

Now indeed there is a new contract, but it is a new way of contracting the parties to the same terms and conditions and agreements and blessings as always. And this can quite readily and easily be seen as proclaimed by the prophetsin the Tanakh. Rather than there being new terms and conditions, there are new benefits and aid to performing the terms and conditions of the existing contract. The main and the most fundamental shift in the delivery of these contracts is that they no longer are presented on written texts or on paper, but rather they are delivered by means of the wind energy directly into the abdominal cavity and the guts of the individual contractee. This is very similar to a contract being delivered to your mobile phone or by email!

So we see that we have an understanding of contracts which we should apply to the understanding of what Yehovah is doing with us through Yhosha.

So let us understand that when Yhosha passed the cup around he drew attention to the cup. The cup he declared was the new contract. Now having a symbol of the cup being the new contract what are the terms of this contract? Right now we know they are the existing terms that have been renewed and updated with the children of Israel from the time of Moses. These terms and conditions are as solid as the cup which he shared. In other words in drawing attention to the container he draws attention to the solid vessel which has been passed down through the generations to the children of Israel; this is the contract which is solid and unchangeable. So there was no need to draw attention to some tablets of stone or to some scrolls or to some wooden arc because all of these are containers of the proclamations, of the common link of the contract, and a cup which will be of gold or silver or pewter is a sufficient symbol of a container of the covenant or the contract terms as any.

So given that we have the contract presented to us in a new form we require then the blood of the contract to be poured out to the contractee and this is symbolised by the wine which is in the cup and which is shared amongst his students. This is the blood of the contract and the deal which they all sharing is his body. This is symbolised by the bread which all took a part of in remembrance of his indefensible beating and malicious murder by being hung on some stake or tree!

So let’s not be ignorant of the importance of the cup. For that cup also was the cup presented to him by his father which he had to drink! The covenant would not be given to his students unless he drank that cup!

So while his students drank a representation of his blood as part of the contracting of the contract he himself drank a much more vitriolic and broiling potion of his own blood to ratify that contract!

So the house of Israel is not to dismiss this form of contract; but rather to properly understand them in the light of the precious blood of this new contract, which proper understanding is given to us by our Lord and master Yhosha, the mediator of the new contract. And with him being the mediator that means we no longer have anything to do with the old teachers of the previous contract or understandings of the Pharisees and the of teachers and of the scribes and their wise people. They are not mediators of the new contract but proclaimers of the old contract as they understood it. But being the mediator of the new contract takes from them the terms and conditions of the contract and shakes off of them all their halakah and burdensome interpretations and defilements and fences placed around them, making it impossible for people to even know the terms of the contract; and having done this to present them a new refreshed clean and sparkling to his students by means of a spiritual implantation and implementation through a wind energetic entity which enters into them into the abdominal cavity, into the guts and begins the process of decontaminating them from the inside; enabling them to not only understand the terms of the contracts but to rejoice in performing them and to go beyond in presenting them in every aspect of their daily living.

The symbol of the original covenant at Sinai, the preamble, was the two tablets of stone written on by the hand of Yehovah. The symbol of the renewed covenant made in Jerusalem is a cup of fellowship distributed by the hand of Yhosha.

In the original covenant Moses brought a bowl of blood and with his branch sprinkled it all over the people.

This act of sprinkling the blood of the contract on the people was the significant ratification of the covenant but is totally ignored! It is like the signature to a contract being so important that the contract cannot be agreed unless it is signed, but once the signature is done it is totally ignored! So it is that the bowl of blood which is so important to actually bringing the contract into force is emphasised here over and over again by Yhosha and his father Yehovah. It is not the two tablets of stone written on by the hand of Yehovah that is crucial, it is the signature to the contract that is crucial and that signature is given by blood.

One could also say that it is written in blood if we use the signature metaphor but this is the ratification process, the sprinkling of blood on both parties. So again and again this ratification process is emphasised in the new contract. This contract has to be ratified over again. It’s not good enough to sign it once and then to forget about the commitment that you’ve made by signature! This is the normal way we deal with contracts until something goes wrong! And then we try to argue against the terms of the contract and we are reminded gently or harshly that we signed the contract. So in this way the cup with the blood of the contract is re-emphasised in our mind over and over again. It says we signed the contract.

Now this symbol, the cup which represents the contract and the wine which is in it which represents the blood of the contract has been spiritualised into something called the Eucharist. It is the central act of many so-called Christian religions. And it has been made into some kind of mystical or magical moment in the course of a religious ceremony or in the course of somebody’s day, a week or year, however Yhosha said as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. And this was done during a meal; granted it was not an ordinary meal in the sense that it was the last meal before he drank the cup which is father had prepared for him. But nevertheless it was in the context of a meal. and was as familiar as saying grace or blessing the food and the wine in many situations. So what this is saying is that this is a continual remembrance that we should do at every meal. We should remind ourselves that every meal of the contract that we made with Yehovah through the deal involving the ‘sacrifice,’ that is the horrific beating and death of our Lord and Master Yhosha.

So for all intents and purposes the cup becomes an everyday reminder that we are in a contract relationship with Yehovah which is serious, not only involving the blood of our Lord, but if we follow him our blood will be offered up on the altar in the same way and for the same purpose, and if we fail to follow him our blood will be required at the hand of Yehovah to account for all the covenant shredding that we are doing or have done.

The symbol of the new contract is a cup. This cup is full of the blood of the grape which symbolises the blood of Yhosha which is the blood of the covenant or the contract. It reminds us of other sacrifices that he made pouring out his blood to his father Yehovah on our behalf or in order to make this new contract official for those of us who are in fellowship with him. It also reminds us of the cup which he also had to drink, that is the covenant or the contract which he signed with his own blood.

The two tablets of stone of the original covenant are no longer visible but they will be returned in due course. What is visible are the abdominal cavities and the guts of all the people who sign up to this covenant and the evidential presence of the wind energy within their internal organs. This is the symbol and the preamble of the new contract. And of course the blood that ratifies his new contract is that of our Lord Yhosha which we do well to remember in great fear and trembling for its potency. And that blood was poured into the cup of the new covenant so that when we look upon this cup we are reminded of the new contract that we are exhibiting through the force and the power of the wind energy within us.

This is what we signed up to using the blood of Yhosha to ratify this contract.

The Sinners Prayer is Misleading.

The so-called ‘sinners prayer’ in the context of Romans chapter 9 through to the end of chapters 11.

There is another context in Acts where the sinners prayer is supposedly enunciated. In this context, the prison controller, deputised by the local authority in the town where he lived, was sworn to guard his prisoners in safekeeping with the loss of his life, if he lost any prisoners! For this, he and his family were provided with an income, but he always had this “Damocles sword“ hanging over his head.

One day he was asked to guard Paul and Silas and some of his entourage in the prison. But while in the prison Paul and Silas and his company was singing joyfully to Yehovah and to his son Yhosha and very truly rejoicing at being able to ‘participate in the hardships and sufferings, and rejections and undoubted beatings’ which were handed out to Yhosha and to his missionaries, as part of the package deal which they signed up for! As if this was strange enough towards midnight an earthquake rattled the town. And apparently it released all the cell doors! This was unusual. The prison warden was able to see at a glance that all the cell doors released and immediately believed that all his prisoners had run away and escaped. It seemed to him that his day had come and he drew out his sword ready to fall on it.

It says something about the man, that he didn’t even attempt to check whether the prisoners were still there, but immediately concluded that as the doors of the cells were open these men all prisoners would’ve taken advantage and escaped.

To his surprise a voice rang out from Paul’s group commanding him not to harm himself! All the prisoners were safe and in their cells. As he checked and locked the cell doors again he was full of a powerful trembling. When he came to Paul, he said you have saved my life today. What must I do to show my appreciation to you and this strange God that you serve and sing to? And he was told that he needed to confess that the Messiah was Yhosha from Nazareth and to believe in his abdominal cavity that Yehovah and raised him from the dead.

Apparently this is what he did and he and all his household were saved. Paul and his entourage were taken to his house to teach them about this message that they were teaching and they all became believers and rejoiced with great joy.

In the book of Acts chapter 16 where this incident is recorded we don’t find the statement “confess with your mouth that Yhosha is Lord,” nor do we find a statement believing an abdominal cavity that God raised him from the dead! Instead we find that he is just asked to believe that Yhosha is the Messiah. And this is in the context of him teaching in the synagogue and proving that Yhosha is the Messiah is a fact. We also find that a man and his family broke with protocol, took these prisoners out and tended to their wounds and later joined with the group of believers proclaiming the good news. 

As we go through the journeys of Paul we see the fact that he taught the good news in synagogues and out of synagogues and tried to explain to both the Jewish population and the Greek god-fearing population that Yhosha from Nazareth was the Messiah, found within the pages of the Scriptures which they studied. What they were then asked to do was something which we don’t understand. They were not converted to a different belief system; they were taught how to understand the belief system they were already involved with and the difference was who was teaching them.

The one that was teaching them was Yhosha so they became his students and brought their questions and judgements about living in their communities to Yhosha and not the rabbis! This is the practical meeting of accepting that Yhosha is the Messiah and that it is his advice and instruction and direction that trumps everyone elses. 

How they live their daily lives was now governed by the great teacher Yhosha and the wind energy which he poured out upon his students to enable them to understand.

So seeing as the sinners prayer does not really represent an altar-call situation or even a situation where the person is being prayed for let us look at the context of the so-called sinners prayer.

We have a problem with the context, but also with the word believe and we will have a problem with the word confess. The context as I have shown is not about an alter-cool but about conviction and a real abdominal visceral reaction to the continuation of one’s life and existence! It is so visceral that the individual wants someone or something to be the support of his or hers practice of living going forward. In other words, the person no longer thinks in terms of food and drink and gainful employment as being supportive of his or her existence. It’s not even as simple as “repentance“ in which the person turns away from the course of his or her life and returns to the way shown to them by some preacher. It is as easy as involving the internal organs and every step that one takes in order, not only to remain alive in the instant, but to continue living going forward.

Emunah the Hebrew concrete concept, which is usually translated as ‘faith’ is about fixing your life support reliance on a wind energetic being called Yehovah. It is like trying to walk across a flowing torrent or like jumping off a cliff to get to the other side, or like walking along a tight rope slung between two high buildings or even low one. This is the deep meaning of this concrete concept and there is another meaning which involves the risk that one is willing to take in order to support one’s life in Yehovah or particularly in Yhosha. Unless you understand that Paul is talking about this level of life support reliance then you missed the point. You are not asked to give your intellectual ascent or to propound on your conclusions after a Bible study. You are being asked to step on a thin wire, to jump off a cliff or to wade into a raging torrent. So as a consequence action is always involved. It’s important to notice this because we are going to come across the idea of works. And this idea of works is so unspecified in the English that leads to all kinds of misunderstandings in regard to what Paul is saying.

We also have to look at the concept of ‘saved’. There is only really one meaning of being saved and that is obvious. If you are captured and released, if you are about to fall and someone holds onto you, or if you are thrown in the path of an oncoming bull and something restrained it these are clear-cut understandings of the notion of salvation. In the time of Yhosha salvation was also clear-cut. If you were under occupation and that occupation was removed, if you were being attacked by wind energies and they are removed, but if you are being oppressed by a government or social system, and you are released from that oppression, or even if your life is forfeit and it is returned to you, then you have been saved. However there is a much greater salvation that is on offer by Yhosha from Nazareth which involves the wrath of Yehovah. Many today don’t even know about this terrible affliction that is coming upon the Earth and all mankind. In terms past they were frightened by stories of hellfire, exactly because people couldn’t believe that their reality would turn into a nightmare by the wrath of Elohim so they had to be frightened of things that would happen to them after death. But salvation is not about the afterlife, but about the life that we live in reality. Salvation is the process of living in a relationship with your creator and his son Yhosha and working in his service and on his mission in order to bring about the state of affairs that Yehovah desires for humanity.

So once again being saved results in actions in real time. The person doesn’t hide away, but shines like a menorah, it doesn’t withdraw from society but seasons it in order to preserve it with the wisdom and the instructions and the viewpoint of Yehovah. We are students and we become students of the teachings of Yhosha concerning the Imperial administration of Elohim. And this is not just a theoretical knowledge or knowledge in preparation for a future to come. It is knowledge and teaching of how to administer this administration in your present reality. Not everyone is a missionary or a teacher; some are farmers and some work in factories. Others have their own businesses and the idea is learning in each of these areas that the work of the administration is being done. So say that you work in a factory which produces cars, then some of those cars are to be produced for the administration of Elohim. And it’s not that we are supporting this current situation because it will be changed, this society will be changed and so if you feel that it will be changed towards agriculture and a new working agriculture in what you are producing some of it, if not all of it will be directed towards the Imperial administration of Elohim. 

We have been told to isolate the church from satan society but Yhosha wants us to go out and ‘win souls’ for the church in order that these new souls can also be isolated. Instead, we are to overcome the world and represent not just the theoretical, but the actual implementation of the Imperial administration.

Some people will look at the Catholic Church and see it as an administration dealing with the religious lives of people and letting the state deal with the practical lives but this was not always so. At times monks, monastries, abbots and other clerical figures were supported by actual servants or congregants who served for the maintenance of the buildings and the ministry. Today cost cutting savings has taken over this demonstration of the effective management and stewardship of the Imperial administration.

The Imperial administration is like a government in waiting and it’s not even a shadow government; it is a real alternative functioning administration within the extant social situation. There are no borders and yet when you come into the administration you know the difference. There are boundaries which are negotiated with the political powers but not as subject but as embassies of a different administration and you can have dual citizenship in most countries. And when it comes to war and fighting the question is not shied away from. Those that are in the Imperial administration of Elohim do not shrink back from fighting but they do not fight in the armies of men but in the hosts of Yehovah. 

America and the Christian world love revivals. Those that promote revivals have honed them down to a fine art which can be practised by anyone, even an unbeliever. Billy Graham was a sincere, even devout Christian all his life. However, he never seemed to challenge or question the established religious order or theology but certainly wouldn’t give up the homegrown, homespun belief system which he developed.

So let’s look at the apostle Paul who was a Pharisee, but by his own admission a fundamentalist, the zealous fallacy of his was to seek to be closer to Yehovah by following the curriculum and the courses as set out by his teachers or rabbis.

What this means is that the homework that he would be set would be “marked“ by his rabbis and he would be evaluated by them and in this way he would know how well he was doing. We know this as our education system. We all enter into education and then we are given homework and tasks. We go to school to learn but also we see it as part of our work ethic. We will get nowhere. We are told if we don’t work at our education, at our learning, at our reading, at completing the curriculum etc when we leave the education system we look back and wonder how useful is it going to be.

Many of us will never use what we learned in school again. Instead we will develop practical skills and experience all coming through our interaction with our fellow human beings and our own risk-taking and the freedom that we have to choose when we become adults.

The problem with being a rabbinical student is that the class never ends. The student is not greater than the rabbi and only eventually become skilled enough to take the place of his rabbi, while his rabbi is laid to rest. Otherwise, a student is continually a student and continually assessed and continually measured by the works, the homework and the tasks that are given to him by his rabbi.

The idea of works therefore is nothing to do with work per say. It is to do with whose work you are doing. As an apprentice you hope to be evaluated by work in the skills of your apprenticeship and as a trainee you hope to be trained in the skills of the career choice or the activity you’re engaging in. These are the works that we understand as works of education.

When Paul therefore is talking about works these are the types of work that he is referring to. He is not referring to your daily work, for the work of your job or even the work of some project which you have engaged in. It may be that you are very skilled in your chosen career and the work that you produce is highly valued but everyone knows this highly skilled work will not get you into ‘heaven’. It will not save you and it will not bring about the salvation of others. The only work which is called work which is addressing the topic of salvation is the educated work of a so-called spiritual leader who apparently knows the way and what you need to do, and what you need to learn in order to achieve the qualification which guarantees salvation when Yehovah sent out his wrath and also when he comes to judge the character and life of each individual human. These works are not in any way certain!

Despite your greatest care to not be misled this kind of curriculum and system can easily mislead you giving you a worthless qualification at the end. But you will never know if you go to Oxford or Cambridge or Princeton, or some MIT University and take a course and become qualified in a particular subject or subject area. You will never know if this training was worth it! It is only when you receive a lot of backslapping and back passing in cheers from colleagues and people that admire you that you get a sense that you have perhaps done something worthwhile. However, what you don’t know is whether you actually have done something worthwhile.

Many scientists seek to achieve the Nobel Prize as a recognition of their important work. There are many Nobel Prize winners, too many for us to know about but who does the work is important and what most of us don’t realise. We are swayed more by charisma and politicians and those who make a difference to our roads and our gardens and our streets and our economic status than we are by any individual who has achieved a doctors degree or a master of philosophy etc. It’s only when they produce a company which brings technology which we then access that we might even know that this person has been squeezed through an education system and by battling against others found investors and supporters who will help him to promote his ideas and bring them to market. And when they come to market we will buy them and will then evaluate that person and his whole education will be validated, otherwise his education is worthless in the future.

We often find that some highly educated men end up emptying bins. To them the works which they have been forced to go through in the hopes of achieving something they desire proved fruitless. The works have not saved them.

Let us now consider that you become an apprentice to a very successful entrepreneur and as you learn from him the entrepreneur becomes more and more successful and so do you. And so his success validates your success. It may be that you are able to make contributions to his success which are highly valued by him and his company and you reap the rewards. But none of this will come to you if you don’t remain a loyal and supportive member of his team. If you fix your wagon to his horses you will go far with him, and this is the meaning of emunah. Yes, it involves work and training with this particular successful person, and yes, it involves being educated and passing on his test examinations, but it also means that you stick with that person and you take risks with that person and you don’t desert him for your own alternative dreams.

Men want to get to a certain level of capability and then branch out on their own. They want to make it bigger by means of the work that they have produced. Again, this is no guarantee of salvation. Many entrepreneurs fail and end up working for other people. And even those who are successful may find their business and life in jeopardy, according to the economy of the land that they are in or according to warfare etc. 

As careful as a man is to try and build his own secure future nothing is guaranteed. And even if he becomes unbelievably successful, one day he will die and be forgotten.

So who should you become an apprentice with? The answer is clear. Yhosha is offering apprenticeships which really matter. And the qualification is endurance and loyalty and in relying upon him and only him in every situation. And the goal of these apprenticeships are not only to become like him but also to study who his father is.

With him the entrance into the knowledge of his father guarantees eternal success.

I am testifying to you on the 3rd of April 2023 that Yehovah through Yhosha from Nazareth, by means of the wind energy which he has graciously given to me and to all his servants, so that he is indwelling with our father and I am in dwelling with them but after days of malaise and almost giving in to the wind energy of fabrication he opened my eyes and ears to this important language pattern.

You are not X because of Y, you are X to do or be Y!

This is the pattern expressed in terms of the second person singular but it can be expressed in all persons.

I can also testify that during this period Yehovah has showed me how the use the “hypnotic“ language patterns as described in the work of Richard Bandler and John Grinder, especially in the description of the work of neuro linguistic programming and others who are part of the fundamental structure of communication between all consciousnesses. And they are used and are to be used by the grace of Yehovah under the instruction of his son Yhosha. This is how we may break free from the lying or false reality imposed upon us by nachash, the poisonous serpent who has infected our limited and malleable consciousness from the beginning.

This language when written in Hebrew, whether using the Paleo script or the Aramaic script is a constant powerful directive from the wind energy that communicates with us. And it is not that we read the words written on parchment or paper, or further more chiselled in stone, it is rather that we open our ears to the voice of the wind energy of our creator. And having opened our ears and having opened our eyes, our abdominal cavities become the sounding board of this most penetrating of voices. By the grace of our father we may open our mouths and speak these voices, these songs, these words, directly from the wind energy; directly from our memories of what we have experienced and read and been through; directly from reading these written words which were written down as a crowd, that is a heap of words to witness and testify to us and against us what it is that our creator has done and is doing and will do not because we are Y but so that we can be or do Y!

After several days of humbling me about my own failings in applying the wisdom and understanding that has been given me regarding the wind energy and the wind energetic functionaries and the systems that are around me and society and my feelings I was enabled to attend the Jewish leaping lamb celebration on April 5th 2023 in my local Jewish community. So I am not reporting this in order to justify that is to declare before the court but I am more just than these people! Instead I am reporting on a form of “godliness“ which denies the ‘power’ there.

It is and will be a surreal experience to attend a modern rabbinical Jewish Seder. So intense and conforming to this reality that they do not dig down deep into the reality of Yehovah. Everything is done with a ‘light touch’. Even the current tragedy in Ukraine for the Jewish communities there, although introduced into the celebration was done with a light touch.

However, it is not surprising that our people, my people who have suffered so much would not want to suffer during the celebration. Every light touch is a hammer blow to some individual in the community and yet this is a celebration.

Where it denies the power of Yehovah it can be declared simply in denying the Messiah, Yhosha from Nazareth. All our people have suffered through a consequence of the plan and that Yehovah is working out to produce the fruit of excellent stewardship.

At the end of the Seder they fling open the doors to signify that they are waiting for Elijah in the beginning of the messianic age when all their questions will be answered. And then they shut the door and say Elijah has not come yet so we are not in the messianic age. And this suffices them, this suffices those who are sick and deteriorating because of illnesses, those who are trying to work out their gender role, businesses to eke out their existence in the modern world. Those that see the power of their creator, not in their personal lives, but in their community is spread throughout the world and in their traditions and in their survival based around these books and stories related to this surreal combination.

So we go back nearly 2000 years to Paul, a man zealous for his people Israel. So zealous that he was willing to go to any length to persecute and remove any sect or movement within the authority of the Pharisees. He was a star pupil of Gamaliel and he believed that Israel would only be saved by assiduously complying with the teachings of these great masters and yet in this day these great masters lose control. The house of Hillel and the house of Shamai had no influence over the rank and file in the land and especially around Jerusalem.

The synagogue system, which they had developed in Persia and finally established in the land of Palestine. In the hills of the holy land if it wasn’t one itinerant preacher or another bandit or some charismatic person claiming to be the Messiah, it was the Romans and the Hellenists all seeking to deprive the pure seed of Israel.

So Paul was wound up and let loose on the latest movement which was growing out of control. This movement was the movement of the Nazarene Yhosha. Within a year the whole population of the pilgrims in Jerusalem are focused on this one single individual. The plan of his teachers was to kill this man and publicly humiliate him and then watch his followers fade away.

But this didn’t work. In fact killing him seemed to spawn a nest buzzing with humming bees, proclaiming, that he whom they had killed was demonstrated by a resurrection to be the Messiah! So since they had killed the man, according to their understanding, the only thing that was left was to destroy was the growing following. This part was easy to do.

Here we have to understand that zeal that was in him, as the zeal of bringing about all the things that he desired for his people, Israel, all the things that his teachers Gamaliel and Shamai said was just out of reach because the people would not follow the strictness of the instructions of the leaders. They would not submit themselves to a training program and understanding the rich heritage of writings and instructions handed down to them by their wise leaders in Babylon.

We see that the driving internal motivation of this man was from his bowels, from his abdominal cavity extended into his actions and his vision and understanding. So it is of no surprise when Yhosha changed him it was first by blinding his eyes and opening his ears. From there after three days of adjustment he then sent one of his servants to remove the scales from his eyes and to commission him.

It was there this man retired to the desert into the mountain of Sinai for three years. Three years to make sense of what had just happened to him for three days. In those three years in the wilderness his abdominal cavity and bowels transformed with a new reality and a new vision was given to his eyes and his ears were tuned, no longer to his teachers, Gamaliel and Shamai but to the risen, Lord Yhosha. Then he was set off at a pace a few can match to introduce himself to the other missionaries and then to take up his responsibilities in the mission work that he had been given by Yhosha.

By then the gathering and students of this way had to spread northwards, partly because of the persecution caused by Paul, but also because of the great mission that they were given to take this good news to all the 12 tribes of Israel. And these 12 tribes were scattered all over the continent of Africa, the northern continent, Eastwards, to India and beyond to the borders of China, into the Philippines, Westwards into the Celtic regions conquered by Rome and extending outwards towards the British Isles and beyond.

And it seemed that his area was allocated to the Jews in Asia Minor and to the God-fearing gentiles in those areas. And this he did with the greatest zeal and endurance, exhibiting joy. A joy that looked on all his past learnings and understandings as worthless, compared with the experiences that he was gaining every day in the service of Yhosha. 

He was a bookworm! His nose was buried in books and letters in comparing this character with that character. He was educated in the teachings of his teachers Emunah and those that went before him, and he could perfectly quote the entire Torah and yet he had never had the experience, the wind energy guiding and directing him until he met Yhosha. He knew what it meant to be a good and excellent steward, according to the teachings of his teachers. It meant jumping through the hoops that they set, doing the study and the homework that they approved, applying the principles the way that they established and said was right. Everything was assessed by someone greater than himself and also by many opinions which he had to negotiate and resolve according to the opinion of his teacher. So he never expected to have any direct relationship with his creator. He expected to be advised and guided by another human being with greater understanding and learning and ability than himself. And he expected to have to demonstrate to that person that he had a mastery over whatever subject that person set before him to do.

And even if he did have a job he was expected not only to be good at that job, but to nevertheless not diminish the excellence of his study. Such a man would take up a position in the hierarchy of the Pharisees. He would not be a worker of the soil, but instead he would be one to teach, guide and direct all those who were inferior to him in intellect and would come to him to know what to do in their daily lives and their daily troubles. And he would guide them in how to apply the instructions of his rabbis to work in the soil, to doing business, to having families and to interacting with other social groups etc. 

With this a new reality in his consciousness and the guidance and inspiration and direction of the wind energy of Yehovah Paul set out on his mission to convert Pharisaism! He now knew that the Pharisees lacked one thing and that was the wind energy off Yehovah. With the same gusto with which he attacked the students of Yehovah he set about attacking the pharisaical synagogue system and the Pharisees and their education system, which had spread not only from Persia into Judah, but across into the Asia Minor area going further west. It was his desire to show them that not only had the Messiah come, but also, the way to achieve excellent stewardship had come with him.

Time and time again he met the same result. His pharisaical brothers welcomed him. They listened to what he said and then they rejected it. They did more than reject it. They violently attacked it. And yet those who were god fearers amongst the nations who were not allowed to become part of the pharisaical system by an edict of Hillel, who ruled that those who were students of the Pharisees would have nothing to do with those who are from the nations! This was after he found that Herod had slaughtered and massacred a huge number of Pharisees.

Nevertheless, people from the nations came to the synagogues and wanted to hear the word of Moses. But when they heard the word of Yhosha concerning Moses and concerning the way to please and serve Yehovah they became excited by means of the wind energy and wanted to know more. Again and again this happened so that he knew that this was the will of Yehovah for the people of the nations to which he was sent. Nevertheless, personally, he questioned why it was that his own pharisaical brothers were being left out of the picture, having their ears stopped up, having their diligence and zeal and heritage ignored! He was very much internally disconcerted by this. It didn’t seem to add up that his people who descended from Abraham should be missing out on the wonders being led by this incredible leader Yhosha by means of this incredible, powerful wind energy! He wanted to know why this was the case and what follows in chapters 9,10 and 11 is a conversation that he had with Yehovah through Yhosha which the reason is explained to him. And it reads like the brains searching the ‘scriptures’ to find out what they say or what is written in them concerning this phenomenon. Gradually it began to become clear to him that there was a greater plan and even he could understand for his people Israel. Not just the Jews of which he and also Yhosha were outstanding examples, but also of the whole house of Israel, Ephraim and Judah and the other ten tribes, 12 tribes in all.

He starts about giving praise to Yehovah for what he’s doing through his son Yhosha even though it apparently brushes of the majority of his Jewish pharisaical brothers and Jewish intellectuals who will not embrace this way.

He starts with the interaction of Yehovah with Abraham. He could have gone back further but his concern is about his national people. And what he points out from the beginning is a consistent pattern which Yehovah demonstrated over and over again. It is not about flesh and blood genetics. It is about the divine will and choice of Yehovah. He gives three clear examples which unequivocally demonstrate this reality in the service of Yehovah and he quotes the divine pronouncements both in the Torah and also in other Naviin. In other words it is a divine principal found everywhere in the scriptures. So why is it that the Israelites and particularly the Pharisees ignore this clear cut principle?

He explained it not once, but several times. It was because they didnt want to fix their life support reliance on Yehovah or risk their life on what he has set out. Instead they wanted to establish their own way and their own understanding of acquiring excellent stewardship through their own training program and their own training schools.

Now there is no doubt that their training program and their training schools are of the highest excellence with the most exacting standards. But what they do is remove their students from the way that Yehovah once wanted and still wants to train up his servants, and that is by them fixing their life support reliance in him.

The Pharisees did not want their students to be exposed to this kind of risk or to rely on anyone else, but for them to achieve the excellence of stewardship that they alone understood. As a consequence he lay heavy burdens on the students, so as to squeeze out those who were not of a good enough standard.

Surprisingly, this addiction to their high standards, which I’m sure men would praise to the hilt was seen as rebellious stiff nakedness! That is these people would not respond to their creator. They intended to establish their own rock solid curriculum which would turn out people with the right characteristics that they wanted to see in the positions of leadership and rulership over the children of Israel. And they wanted to do this with the same further and zeal that Paul had so they weren’t afraid to kill off any opposition to their intended plans. 

So right off the bat there was no way of getting through to the Pharisees that Paul could devise. What his creator advised was far more realistic but it did mean that for only a remnant of his people Israel would achieve the standard that Yehovah desired! So instead of what Paul was imagining, that is droves of his pharisaical brothers turning to this incredible opportunity, the reality was as he found it only a few. But to make the point even more sharply one of only a few of his brothers turned to the Messiah. Those who were good for Yehovah amongst the nations turned to the Messiah in their droves! Not only turned on his own and rose but also were filled with this divine power and energy from the father, the wind energy that gave them the ability to please the father under the direction of his son, the Messiah.

What a strange turn of events and it was all down to a choice between risking your life support reliance on your creator or risking your life support reliance on the educational system set up by the most excellent and intelligent men in your community, the rabbis.

Paul dug a little deeper in his questioning of Yehovah and found that this was orchestrated by the creator. It was not a natural consequence of human activity. It was purposeful and its purpose was founded upon a stone!

This stone was a stone which looked smitten! It looked like a stone that had been so badly treated no one would use it in anything. It was a stone of offence, in that it would not be used in any building work because according to the skills of a craftsman this stone would not create a beautiful finished product! Paul put this offensive stone, this stone which looked like it had been beaten up, maltreated as a stone that the rabbis became offended with. They didn’t want this kind of stone in what they were building. But as the prophets simply pointed out, those that did risk their life support reliance on the stone, did build their future buildings on this stone and did not reject it, despite the way that it looked. They are the ones who would not be disappointed!

We have lost the perspective of salvation. Both from the city scale to the national scale and finally to the scale of the entire Earth. Yhosha from Nazareth gave us a couple of skills to think about salvation: a tower falling on a group of people, a group of people being massacred by the Roman armies, and then Sodom and Gomorrah, and then Nineveh and the scale goes upwards for Paul, the context was given by a prophet who clearly stated that unless Yehovah had to save the remnant of Israel, Israel would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah! This is why he was exercised to save some of his people when they were Jews or Israelites. This was not about saving souls. This was about actual salvation from a decree from Yehovah as a judicial decision against the evil eye and twisted practices of a city or a people or a nation. And this additional decision did not delay until the day of judgement because Yehovah is always judging amongst the nations! To salvation was an ever present necessity. Those of us who think that our ongoing relationship with Yehovah and Yhosha from Nazareth continues without judgement live in the false reality sent to us by a deceiving wind energy. Even those who are criminals know one day judgement will come in their lifetime. So with this reality before him as declared by Yehovah through his prophets and given that he was sent particularly to the nations, yet he still exercised himself in order to contribute to that minority of his own people that Yehovah revealed would be saved as a remnant.

Chapter 10: The Romans is a perfectly good break in the argument for a Greek or Hellenistic thinker, however, Paul is a pharisaical thinking rabbi and doesn’t develop his arguments according to the Greek style of thinking, as some would say. His arguments develop according to his rabbinical or pharisaical training. But more importantly by the power of the indwelling wind energy which is from the holy one of Israel, the father Yehovah intermediated by the son Yhosha.

So to the best of our understanding is it diaspora due from a very important town in modern Turkey now called Tarsus. Some have related the fact that this town was a centre of Greek philosophy second only to Athens and intimated that this has affected the way Paul thought.

In reality it probably aggravated his Jewish sensibilities! The background to him being in Silencia and Tarsus is related to the Maccabean and then the Hasmonean period in which the Maccabees made various contracts with the Romans to support them in their military campaigns. And it is very likely that his father joined the Roman expansion into this part of the Persian empire or the Seleucid empire, and as a consequence was rewarded with Roman citizenship. However, the family establishing estates in the area did not move back into Judea, but their inner culture of the family were very Jewish, and in fact pharisaical. Despite the fact that they had been awarded this status their physical appearance still attracted antisemitic prejudices. 

In any case it is very likely that Paul was sent to Jerusalem to be tutored in the ways of his pharisaical heritage and because his father was wealthy he was able to be tutored by the top teacher at that time, Gamaliel who would have started to learn about these things at an early age and shown promise, but we might reasonably assume that he went to be taught by Gamaliel around his bar mitzvah; around age 13. The interesting thing about this possibility is that he possibly interacted with the young Yoshua from Nazareth in some of the public teaching. The young Yhosha turned up at the edge of the crowd of those who were listening; both to listen and to ask questions. It was noted that when he was 12 the young Yhosha spent three days in the company of these teachers, these men who were astonished at his understanding.

I am sure that some of them might have been willing to take him on as a student but his parents were unwilling and probably guided not to allow that to happen, rather than not being able to afford to pay the cost of upkeep. And in any case Joseph, the adoptive father of Yhosha appears to disappear from the lives of the family between the period when he was 12 years old and when he was about 30, putting some responsibility on Yhosha to head up and lead the family.

I mention this only in passing in reference to the statement made by Yhosha to Saul about it being hard to kick against the pricks and why was he persecuting him!

So Saul comes to Yhosha as a young impressionable man and finds not only that his teacher is engaging, but also engaging in public politics. His teacher is also in an extended debate with the house of Shamai and the realities of the Hellenistic and Roman influence on this Jewish homeland are impressed on him! So much so that the Romans stated that it has been buried deep behind the growing accreditation of pharisaical competency. In fact, as some psychologists like to argue it may have been a spur to him, outperforming all his other supposed students of Gamaliel. The psychological view which attracts much attention today disregards the fact that a wind energy is driving all our internal experiences.

So back to chapters 9, 10 and 11 Romans we see that the wind energetic in tune experience of Saul was very harrowing concerning his people, the children of Israel and the Jews in particular. In the diaspora they had this kind of mythic unconquerable invincibility, because of the special status with the creator of the universe. At his fathers own standing within the Roman elite he testified to something special in the Jewish economy but when he comes to Jerusalem he finds it a very corrupt and a disassembling place! Not only are arguments rife amongst the leaders of this community, but also violence, political chicanery and murder are all also common. And those who arose to so-called high positions were often hypocritical, saying one thing in public and doing another thing in private. Some were out and out Hellenist and some were supporters of Herod in his manipulation of the Roman authorities, Others were devout students of the written Torah as is and the prophets and rejected the Persian and pharisaical influence on the understanding of this Torah insitu in Judah. There were some priests who because of political manoeuvrings were pushed out of the priestly duties and replaced by high priests dictated by the Roman government. These priests formed a community in Qumran and they are those who are called it seems Tzauqim that we really don’t know much about, but they were probably an isolationist community trying to live away from the ‘rat race’.

So this young man was brought up in this kind of swirling community, with the attention of his genius devoted to restoring the true behaviours of his people by means of the pharisaical method.

We know that this understanding was rudely interrupted by an intervention by the all powerful Yhosha and he had to have the scales removed from his eyes and then go away it seems to Mount Sinai to have his whole mentoring and student training worked through and removed and sharpened up with the truth by means of the wind energy from the father. When he returns he is a divine wind energetic entity. When he returns he operates through the power of the wind energy given to him and through experiences and visions and dream  given to him during that period, in which he encounters all those messages and mediators that he needs to as well as communications from Yhosha and through him from the father.

So we find a man who has encountered Yhosha in his most powerful form and given a mission like the other 12 disciples, who encountered Yhosha in his attenuated, fleshy form, but over a longer period of time up to a year! So whether it is induction by a long slow period or induction by an immediate power blast, all of them had an experience of Yhosha driving them and operating in them by means of the wind energy given to them.

And revisiting chapter 9, now the incessant questions of Saul were gaining answers, which were shocking. His people were destined to become like Sodom and Gomorrah, whereas by his preaching a new people made up of the Jews and those God fearing gentiles who wanted to serve Yehovah was evidently growing in leaps and bounds and his teachings. And what caused this was the father and Yhosha by their choosing of who was to receive the fathers wind energy! Paul also could not dictate that!

So now it is important to realise that in his communication with Yhosha, his diligent and critical study of the Torah was being used and activated to give him answers to the internal turmoil which he felt and and so he was studying in the book of Isaiah chapters 52 through to 54, and in other prophets, and in the son in which the wind energy within him makes it plain that it is Emunah that explains who they are choosing. They are not choosing on the basis of flesh or signs in the flesh or lineal heritage; they are choosing on the basis whether a person demonstrates the same Emunah as Abraham, as Isaac and Jacob and as Moses and Samuel etc. It is by this demonstrative behavioural pattern and experiential signal that both those who are Jews and those who are God fearing are brought together into a single unity under a single Adon. 

This is astonishing and unbelievable and offensive to Jews and ridiculous to the Gentiles, but Paul could not do anything other than testify to what was happening when he did as
he was told and proclaimed the good news of the Imperial administration of Elohim.

And he rests his explanation on an accessible scripture which is found in the Psalms and in the Prophets and relates to everything in the entire Tanakh and it is the offensive stone, the rock of offence and the stone is sharp and jagged.

Builders will take a stone and smooth it to fit in the work which they are creating. If they find a stone that they cannot smooth they reject it. It has no part in what they are building, it has no part in the work that they are busily engaged in, but Yehovah declares that he is laying or establishing such a stone in Zion!

This stone would not matter if it wasn’t life and death of his people. if it wasn’t a choice between Sodom and Gomorrah and the garden of Eden! But it is such a choice and so he was convinced of it.

What was this stone? What was this rock of offence? The word nega ties all these disparate concepts together. It ties the pillar that Jacob anointed to the altars that Abraham built and sacrificed on to the altars that are not acceptable to Yehovah and the plague and the strikes that he made against the Egyptian civilisation in bringing out his people also called by him, his first born son!

It turns up again in Psalm 91 and then is dealt with extensively in Isaiah chapter 53 in the very context of proclaiming the good news of the Imperial administration of Elohim to the city of Jerusalem and to an exiled people scattered abroad.

And it says so simply and sweetly that if you fix your life support reliance on it and risk your life in the service of it you will not be made ashamed or embarrassed or made fearful of Yehovah. In saying that it ties this rock, this stone right back to Adam and Eve and to their relationship with him before nachash ‘bit’ them and poisoned them with venom.

So, with this full background picture in his mind, his questioning abdominal cavity, his internal experience of anguish and questioning about his people and shock about their fate he cries out and says; “brothers, my constant representation and crying out for them before Elohim is that they will be saved!”

They will be saved does not mean all of them. It means that the remnant that has been alluded to by means of messages from Yehovah who Yhosha as indicated by Elijah and Isaiah, and Moses, and in fact all the prophets; his constant churning and yearning prayer is on their behalf that this should happen! It’s not that he didn’t believe the messages and the instructions that he was given in answer to his query. It was rather that he was terrified that any of those that Yehovah had reserved should actually miss out on this great privilege and grace. And also, it was his desire to have some impact on the saving of his people, just as he was having a huge impact on the saving of those chosen by Yehovah and by power and grace of the wind energy from Yehovah.

Was it his responsibility? No, but it was and is a privilege that we had to participate in the work, in the mind and the plans and policies and procedures of Yehovah. It is yet another opportunity for us to show our enthusiastic support of what Yehovah has set out and is setting out to do.

Why not just dismiss them as enemies, after all their opposition to Saul and the proclaiming of the good news which was pointed and deadly at many times, putting his physical life in jeopardy and caused him to be guided around the obstacles which they presented. And yes it was easy and is easy to align with Yhosha realising that they are a ‘synagogue of Satan’. The synagogue of prosecutors and opposes. But to do so without knowledge of Yhosha’s deep love of his own people is to allow the evil eye to take control of your understanding.

In this way, Saul is showing us very much the struggle that Yhosha went through regarding his people during his own mission and today! He focused on his Jewish people and called out from among them his sheep, but many more, including those in the political elite were against him and motivated by the snake. And before he entered into the last stage of his mission he cried out to Jerusalem about what was really going on in the streets, in their houses and in their governments in their political manoeuverings. And their only salvation was in fact him. He was about to become the stone that was smitten and the rock of offence.

Saul didn’t have his eyes opened at this time to see as to what was happening to that young man from Galilee called Yhosha from Nazareth, but neither did his close students. They couldn’t understand what it was that he was telling them about being beaten black and blue and eventually being executed and dying outside the walls of Jerusalem, hung on the stake and left in a form unrecognisable as a dignified human with a huge bleeding gash in his side; and the other missionaries that were his students would never forget what they saw and what was perpetrated on this man Yhosha. Instead of Jews sticking together to defend their traditions and their ways of life against the occupying powers of Romans and the Hellenists they turned in on this one single unique human being and killed him. They killed him with the strongest evidence that he was the Messiah that they were waiting for all around them.

When he was resurrected, Saul along with his pharisaical brothers and those in the hierarchy did not want to accept the final miracle of miracles. Instead they did everything in their power, which was waning to suppress and cut the head of this new movement and it wasn’t working. Saul could see it wasn’t working and his wind energy within him was riled up to the very great extent that he would personally wipe this new movement out for the sake of his people. And yet here he was persecuting his own Jewish brothers and sisters whom he was claiming to be saving! Here he was attacking a movement around a young man that he might have had fake memories of interacting with as a rival in the study of Torah. Here he was going to kill his people in order to save them, to kill the few in order to save the many!

Of course it didn’t make sense but he needed have that powerful blast from Yhosha to burn out the false blinkers that were put over his eyes and pull out the cotton wool padding that was stuffed in his ears so that he could finally break down and realise that what he was doing was not the work of Elohim and this is why he says that he can testify and stand up for his people that they have an Elohim, but that is an evil eyed zeal and not based on a relationship with Elohim! And this is why he prays so earnestly having been trapped in this ‘matrix’ of blind rage filled concepts and then released by Yhosha from Nazareth. It is his desire for the same thing to happen to others with the same kind of zeal that he has from among his brethren. If only there were a few more like Saul then we would get the job done in super quick time! He is probably thinking and he might have been right, but he was not the one orchestrating the development of the proclamation of the good news of the Imperial administration of Elohim. 

He now goes on to explain the profound difference between those who are in the service of Yhosha and his proper relationship with Elohim and those who are students under the curriculum and works based studentship of the Pharisees and rabbis. These people with teaching that the purpose and the goal of the law was their idea of excellent stewardship, whereas the purpose and the goal and the end destination of the instructions in wisdom from Yehovah, is, in fact, the Messiah Yhosha from Nazareth.

He says this again in another place that the instructions of wisdom are a kind of tutor or school tutor whose job it is in the household to install in the children of the household the basic facts of the society into which they were born and their position and status which they have in that society. And having done this to then hand them over to the father of the house so that he can use them in developing his house. In this case, the son of Elohim is Yhosha of Nazareth and the sons of Yehovah are to be handed over to his son, the one who was to finish them in the training and in the education and to present them as graduates of his yeshivah before the father! And this selection criteria was based on the willingness of these students, the sons to fix their life support reliance on Yehovah and in his son Yhosha just as they had been taught to fix their life support reliance in Yehovah and Moses! Had they done so they would have heard the instruction of Moses to move on up to the new teacher, a prophet like himself, whom they should show and tell to everyone. Who else in the history of Israel has recorded against their name as many miracles and wonders and signs as Moses! The answer is Yhosha from Nazareth who outstrips him in all areas, walking in the wind across the waters, healing upon healing, speaking face-to-face with Yehovah and leading his people like a good Shepherd!

And all of this is accomplished outside of the system set up by the Pharisees and the rabbis, based on Emunah, those willing to become lifelong bond slaves and students relying only on their teacher and the teacher is Yhosha and Yehovah their father.

Saul makes this point over and over again, in particular taking the words of Moses and showing how the Pharisees take the bare bones, whereas Moses explains the full context. The full context is that after 40 years interacting with a relationship in bold with Yehovah only now the children of the children of Israel were ready to go into the land promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is because they had evidently demonstrated to those that were left alive that the words of Yehovah were embedded within them, within the abdominal cavities and on the lips. They did not need someone to interpret the law to them as Moses had done his job well and the ideas and intentions of the law of the judgements, of the instructions in wisdom, of the testimonies, of the commandments and directions and the hieroglyphic inscriptions were all embedded within their abdominal cavities. But he urged them and what he continues to urge them to do was not to lose it, not to let it go and not to replace it. But in the same breath, he says, “I know after I have gone that that is precisely what you will do! You will turn away from this gracious and astonishing relationship with Yehovah.” And this particularly was because Moses was about to die and wasn’t going to be there and needed not to inspire them but correct them. And any after him would be dishonest men, men driven by the wind energy from the snake.

The question posed to me when I began the study of Paul of Tarsus was, would I find the same entity? Yhosha of Nazareth, as described in the four biographical memoirs of his impact on his 12 students and many more, and also on the whole of Judaea at the time?

It’s hard to get back to the original situation when Yhosha was being born, growing up, learning and walking throughout the whole land of Judaea with some time spent in Egypt, and possibly some time spent travelling the Mediterranean.

The economies of the time, the warfare, the transport and the communication were much slower and what we expect today was still incredibly faster in the Empire or the empires than in the times before the empires.

The emperors made it a priority, not only to build roads to their most important tributary cities, but also to furnish them with fast horse or chariot stations to take the royal “edict“ – that is messages, letters or instructions to report to every commander who had to return a report either by writing or by sending an envoy. And there were wars between neighbouring countries and also between the empires. The Roman empire was still taking hold of what was left of the Greek Hellenistic empire which was still attempting to establish its borders against the remnants of the Persian empire. And it is in the Persian empire that the region called Judeah was re-established by the messianic Emperor Cyrus who gave the command for the city of Jerusalem to have its walls rebuilt, but more especially the temple to be rebuilt.

Behind this change is the fortunes of the remaining Jewish people. What is the creator? Yehovah who demonstrated to his servants that he was in entire control of everything that happens on the earth, whether they be empires or whether they be earthquakes, or whether they be great powerful rulers. Every one of them was established by his will and according to his policies and with this point of view Daniel was keen to understand the greatness of the Imperial administration of Elohim and the prophets Haggai and Zachariah and others prompted, and could hold the people into doing their part in bringing about these policies and procedures in the land of Judaea.

Ezra cut out from amongst the people a pure remnant to return to build the temple. Nehemia the cupbearer to the Emperor returned again and again to ensure that the job was completed. It was not just at work that the people of Judaea were asked to do so but it was also state policy of the Empire of Persia.

Both Ezra and Nehemia represent the beginnings of the Sadducees and the Pharisees in the land of Judaea, but in Babylon and in the Persian empire the Sages were also moving to create and redact all the writings that they had from the old empire of Israel and also from the kingdom of Judaea. And from these writings along with the help of Ezra, they transferred the script from the Paleo Hebrew to the Aramaic and attempted to revive the understanding of Hebrew amongst the people.

Putting together these now, Aramaic Hebrew Scriptures was a task. That the why is all the men engaged in in order to preserve their traditions, both oral and written to recreate in the land of Judaea the society that they believed would be pleasing to Elohim.

At the same time over the next couple of centuries those in Judaea, finding the old stashes of Paleo Hebrew scriptures began to compile their ideas of what the essential traditions, teachings and wisdoms were for this new society which was suffering from the problems of lack of identity, Hellenistic influence and political manipulations, etc. That led to two Talmuds, one in Babylon and one in Jerusalem in Judaea alongside many other scriptures.

The scriptures were a collection or a body of writings brought back by Ezra  from the Imperial libraries and worked on in order to complete the transformation from Paleo Hebrew into the Aramaic script. But also some writings in Greek were found which dealt with the first five books of Moses and it became important to establish which language was going to be paramount. The older more established leaders in Babylon chose Hebrew written in Arabic script and those in Judaea when they found that they were both on the same project complied. So over this period, including through the period of the Maccabees, leading into the period of the Hasmonean kingdom gradually a set of scriptures was being gathered together and taught. These gatherings of scriptures were extremely expensive and so were limited to only a few places and a few scholars and a few scribes. And people would come to the scholars and scribes and ask for copies of certain scriptures for various reasons for amulets or putting in mezzuzah or writing wedding vows etc but otherwise the scriptures were not widespread.

It became a goal and an important function of the pharisaical movement to change that. It became their goal to commission scribes to write out copies of these scriptures so that they could be used in local communities and local meeting places called synagogues or houses a meeting in Hebrew Beth knesset. Therefore, people came into contact with the sriptures in this educational synagogue system set up by the Pharisees, promoted from Persia and adopted in Judaea and all over the Jewish communities dispersed around the world.

These books, these scrolls and texts were copied, seemingly depending on whoever wanted to purchase the work of a scribe! But behind it all we now can see the guiding hand of Elohim. And it’s not neat and tidy. It is a whole mishmash of writings. Those who know of the Ethiopic, Christian Orthodox churches, the oldest surviving Christian churches in Ethiopia are surprised to learn that they have 81 texts. Those who are part of the western Catholic tradition are aware of 76 texts. And it’s only those who are in the west, especially America who have refined it down to 66 texts, dropping the two books of the Maccabees which were in the original versions, sometime in the 17th century.

This kind of reduction and refinement speaks volumes of the arguments between theologians and scholars defending their positions, and the schisms and making proclamations as to the divinely inspired texts which Elohim authorised and which alone deserve the title the Canon Holy Scriptures!

So it’s hard to realise that nothing could be further from the “truth“. The truth is that only a few scholars had access to any texts and of those scholars only a few had access to more than one of those texts. For many texts the imperial library had to be transcribed and then checked and then made available. You have to pay for that service and it took time for all the texts to be found and then transcribed. It also took time for the transcribe texts to get into the hands of other scribes and scholars and the Pharisees for them to judge whether they were fit for purpose. Were they going to help them stop the curriculum and teachings that they wanted to promote amongst those who were of the house of Judaea!

So we find by the time of Yhosha there is a copy of the books, which is very close to what we know called a Tanakh and these were available in some of the richer synagogues. Whereas in some of the poorer synagogues only a few scrolls or copies of certain parts were available. The consequence of this is that the texts did not have the same authority that ascribed to them today. The scribes and the Pharisees held the authority to teach the traditions and the stories and frankly to make up stuff to teach the people. And whereas those scribes in the temple had full access to copies of Moses writings and a few other scrolls. They didn’t value the other scrolls so the Pharisees had to get hold of these other scrolls from the Babylonian wise people and bring them into the synagogue system to complete what we now call the Tanakh as much as they could. So it was a very real statement that was made by the learned people when they said these people do not know that the law, but the Greek word is Nomos and should properly be translated as customs and culture and not as law. Because these people did not know from any written source all the customs, cultures and traditions they needed to be taught them by these scribes or Pharisees. And those who are teachers of the customs and the cultures and traditions and also the Halakah (that is how to walk these out in every day life).

When some critics are looking back from today they bemoan the fact that the Pharisees obscured the scriptures with all the commentaries and their ‘fence work’ and their teachings. This was not the case. The Pharisees attempted to transmit what little they had in a way that the population could understand, given the great scarcity of materials and the general ignorance of the Hebrew language. And where they couldn’t give chapter and verse, so to speak, because the were no chapters and verses they would make up some kind of story that they hoped would protect the people from following any kind of impulse against the perceived will of Elohim.

So how could you come to know these traditions and cultures and Halikah? Only by being educated by the top-notch pharisaical teachers who overtime acquired enough wealth to purchase more and more of the Aramaic copies from the Babylonian wisemen. And only those best and brightest students would have access to these valuable resources. And they would sit for days pouring over these texts letter by letter learning what each character symbolised and how each word could be divided from these texts and how these would be pronounced. And for the pronunciation they had pronunciation trainers who could read the text verbatim, mostly from memory.

By the time Yhosha from Nazareth was commissioned to begin his teaching campaign after John the dipper had started the ball rolling there was enough textual evidence for him to be able to begin with Moses and work all the way through to the prophets major and minor to point out how they had written about his life, and how he was the solution to all the problems that Moses had spoken off. This is verified by the funding of the Dead Sea scrolls.

So don’t imagine that these people had bibles that they could just run through and check off everything that they saw happen in the life of Yhosha because they didn’t. And in many cases it’s only later on as this text became available to his 12 missionaries that they realised that they had seen this particular scripture fulfilled in the life of there adon. And not only in his freshly life but now in his eternal life form, his windy energetic form! They were therefore lead not by the scriptures but by a wind energy which pushed them forward into proclaiming into risking their lives what they had learned from their teacher, and which was firmly embedded in their abdominal cavities and which was verified by the miraculous resurrection of their teacher after three days as he had said! This wind energy drove them over all areas of the empire, and in every part of the empire they came across texts which they never seen before but which again confirmed what they had experienced. And so the texts acted as a witness to the wind energy that was driving them that they had indeed encountered the solution to the exiles of Israel, there adon.

And it is not as it is now, that adon was just a flippant title, it was a term used to describe a powerful controlling entity or person over a region to whom homage and respect and tribute was due! And so when you went into Rome, and use the word adon unless you are a slave you were referring to the proconsul or to the Emperor! And to say that Yhosha from Nazareth was adon in its not only treason, insurrection and disrespectful, it was clearly not ‘true’. However, with the miracles and powerful works following the words of those who were ambassadors of the Imperial administration it became troublesome for those who call themselves adon in the sense of an earthly power.

All this background is necessary, because I hope by it to enlighten you to the evident wind energetic nature of this movement across the whole of the continents! These people who arose and spoke about an adon called Yhosha a Jewish teacher from an obscure place in the Empire who was crucified by the powerful Roman occupation, and yet appears again three days later, teaching and motivating his students to extraordinary excess and then shaking the very foundations of the temple and the area where they were and spreading out from there, shaking the foundations of the Empire. Despite attempts by emperors to stop them and wipe them out they did not succeed. And so they were infiltrated and corrupted from within. But that is a much later story.

So when we come back to Saul and his terrible internal angst about his people, Israel and the consistent and evident answer that he was given about a smitten stone and a rock of offence and those who fix and risk their life support reliance in it, not being embarrassed, we have to realise that after so many years of seeing this working out and proclaiming and establishing on the basis of that rock of offence that this beaten up and crucified, bludgeoned and stabbed man was the Messiah, but seeing only a few of the house of Judah who were convinced, but many more god fearers who were just overjoyed with the message, he knew it to be true, and the true will of Elohim.

And he could see how that united every human being whether they were of the house of Judah or not they were united under one adon and it wasn’t based on the school system of his teachers and his rabbis. It was based on something that Elohim had set up, a kind of apprenticeship called emunah offered to anybody who was willing to take the risk or was willing to base their life on its teachings and trainings. And so he points out again the difference between those who set up a school system to train people in excellent stewardship and those who have accepted an apprenticeship. In excellent stewardship offered by Yehovah through his son Yhosha entry requirements are the same for both the house of Judah and those who are not in the house of Judah, everyone had to fix their life support reliance on this smitten stone, this offensive rock. Paul/Saul drops back into the Torah the words of Moses. By this time the words of Moses were available in most synagogues and taught in about all synagogues. And in these words Moses said that he that performs all this instruction and wisdom and guidance from Yehovah will even live by performing them. And this is what the rabbis and Pharisees understood and talked and set up systems to enable people to perform them. But they picked and chose and ignored the evidence that was plain to see, that the evil eye of the people didn’t want to perform these words of wisdom!

Instead, the creator had to prune back a whole generation of rebellious and disobedience and stiffnecked people. Without mercy? Never that! But without giving in to their alternative way of doing things and so mercifully enabling the children to come to an understanding of what was the right way to go about things in a relationship with Yehovah. They came to understand that to stick with the instructions and the guidance of Moses is the best way to stay alive over the next 40 years! And as time went on and as the children began to form around the instructions of Moses, to teach their children to speak of these things day and night; when they rose up and when they went to sleep; when they were walking and when they were sitting in their community spaces talking to each other about them, and in their houses. In talking about these wise words and incredible instructions given to them by Yehovah, spoken directly face-to-face to Moses, they could see that they were not harmed and they didn’t lack sandals on their feet and they weren’t hungry; that they had strength in life and hope to inherit by the power of their Elohim.

So this demonstrates Emunah and amazingly Saul points this out within the book of Deuteronomy. The way of Emunah is expounded upon in Deuteronomy! Moses points out that they don’t have to go into the atmosphere and they don’t have to go on a long journey; they don’t have to go down into the depths because what they need has now been installed in their mouths and in their abdominal cavities! In other words, the 40 years of training and pruning and moulding in the wilderness had produced a generation that was acceptable to go into the land promised to Abraham. And these were people who had clung to Yehovah by Emunah. They had not relied on their own understanding; they had not relied on their own school system, their own rewards or their merits. Instead, they had relied upon the direction and instruction given to them by Moses directly from Yehovah. And you can see even by their movements that these instructions were many and sometimes tough. Sometimes they stayed for a while and sometimes they stayed just for a day. But they were always on the move by the trumpets and the command of Yehovah through Moses. At any time any one of them could have given up, but those that did not give in to the evil eye but kept their eye on Moses and on Yehovah and opened their ears and listened to what Moses said and showed him and told him that they had heard what he said and had taught them to their children, spoken about them in their camps and in their houses and on the roads and as they went down to sleep and as they rose up and had written them on the door post of the houses and the cities and made them such a part of them that even an embalmer will only find these words in them! These are the ones that Yehovah said to Moses: “you have stayed long enough here. Now it’s time to enter into the land. And behold, I am going before you and defeating all those that standing your way!”

So, don’t miss the point when Saul uses the same words to explain the difference between those who set up their own system and those who learn by the system set up by Elohim. He is not saying that there is a difference between then and now. He is saying it is exactly the same, that the works written by Moses for the exact same purpose to bring you to a state of readiness, to be taken over and taken on by Yhosha. And he is saying it is not by studying the scriptures and passing exams set by men. It is by living and expressing the scriptures by the powerful leadership and teachings of Yhosha.

He then makes a statement which is taken out of context. Right out of the context in which he states them. And it becomes the bases of the altar call and the sinners prayer, etc. In other words, in any revival meeting people are called into the service and fellowship of the community and asked to say these words. “Jesus is Lord and I believe that he is the Messiah and my saviour etc”. There are many variations. And there are some people who tried to explain what the word Lord means in modern terms, but not one of them tries to explain Emunah and the abdominal cavity. No wonder because as you can see it takes a while and is still not finished yet.

The best way to proceed with the next part of Paul/Saul’s elucidation is to consider the way to excellent stewardship and to eternal life, and to being saved, set out by Moses as a way of Emunah as a formula. And we have to substitute the current operation of Yehovah into this formula, which means we have to substitute Moses with Yhosha as the one going up into the atmosphere or on a journey, far away or down into the depths of the ocean. Then we have to deal with this word Dabar, which in this case means the entire contract, message and purpose and policy of Yehovah and the message that Paul puts as being in the guts of everyone who walks in the way of Emunah is that the Messiah, that is Yhosha from Nazareth has to be proclaimed over and over again, and every aspect of our lives as adon. That is when we teach our children, we sit together and we walk together when we are in our communities, when we go to sleep and when we wake up. Yhosha is adon and that same message has to be producing in our abdominal cavity, the firm fixing, an unwavering risk taking based on the fact that the Elohim has resurrected our adon from among the dead people! These are the two substitutions necessary by the formula and the result of that is that we will be saved!

This is the formula which is used to confirm people who come forward after an altar call, not realising that this statement, this formula represents the final combination of 40 years of training and hard testing and walking in a relationship with Yehovah. So it doesn’t seem appropriate to use it in that context! The simplest presentation seems to be the one relating to the smitten stone, the stone of offence and those who fix their life-support reliance on it, not being made ashamed or disappointed. That would be more appropriate.

Those that follow the three part formula will be saved as this is the meaning of not being ashamed.

Moses gives us the ballpark explanation of how we will live forever and then gives us the practical details required to perform these conditions, and surprisingly it involves 40 years of walking in a relationship and clinging to Yehovah. Those who want to go the way of the Pharisees or rabbis opt to go to school and to get a qualification at the end of which they hope they will qualify them to be saved. Somewhere along the line they become so emboldened and so boastful that they assume that they are already saved and this is not the way of Elohim.

Paul tidied away a couple of other questions into rabbinical form, so as to make the point that Israel was in the position that it found itself in due to its rebellious attitude. It can’t say that it didn’t get a message in the areas where they are and it can’t say that Yehovah didn’t personally reach out to them time and time again, but they refused every time.

Before we can get into Chapter 11 we need to understand the purpose of the long rabbinical argument which we are reading through. Because the Greek mind tries to have an orderly debate it is not familiar with the dialectic argumentation which is part of the rabbinical method. A dialectic includes both sides and comes to a resolution from considering both sides. The Greek idea is to marshall all those points and facts which support your side of the debate and the other side does the same and the conclusion is left up to the audience.

So in this dialectical argument that poll begins, it is facing up to the fact that physical Israel is a huge disappointment. Those of us who are older men understand the word jingoism which is a word which some popular historians fall into. They collect together everything that is supportive of some political idea of nation or a country and teach it to the children who end up accepting a false picture of what really happens and extolling the bravery of the ‘national heroes’.

From the start Israel has always been a mixed ethnic group! And whereas there are genetic descendants from other sons of Jacob there is also a mixed multitude which came out with them and is included in the establishment of the nation of Israel. The second jingoistic aspects of the concept of Israel is all the glorious and wonderful things that Yehovah did, like the plagues and the covenants, and the miracles, and the incredible battles and astonishing victory as associated with Israel. All of these are important aspects of the concept of Israel but they are not tied to physical genetics. Elohim so carefully picks out who Israel really is, and surprisingly he ends up with an Israel which is still an amalgam of different nations and genetic and ethnic backgrounds. These are drawn from the physical Israel but stand in rivalry or opposition to it all the way through the generations. And finally to Paul’s day when he could say to the believers gathered into communities that they are the Israel that is being talked about in many of the prophecies and they are often in rivalry to genetic Israel which are also talked about in the prophecies. And by prophecy I include the words of Moses going on through down to the words of Yhosha of Nazareth!

Paul/Saul starts off as if he’s in the jingoistic Israelite camp! And he is genuine in his internal anguish concerning the disparity between the result amongst the Israelites who were following their own way of being considered as pleasing Elohim and the result of his proclaiming the good news of the Messiah. His proclaiming the Messiah was bringing in very few of the house of Israel, in particular of the house of Judah! But he carefully shows how this is the way that Yehovah wants it because the Israel that he wants is based on the Dabar of Emunah.

And this is covered by the stone that is smitten and the rock that offends and those that put their Emunah on it, risking their lives upon it and building their futures upon it, being those who will not be embarrassed or disappointed. So he cries out to Yehovah in order to at least bring some over from the misdirected misinformed approaches to the approach. The Elohim has said it further. He goes to show that Moses explains this way of Emunah in his wrapup speech in Deuteronomy! And he shows how it applies to the true Israel that he has been called into by the grace of Yehovah. How the true Israel, drawn out not only from the ethnic and physical Israel, but also from every nation fulfils this description laid down by Moses. Whereas the rabbinical pharisaical genetic Israel does not because it rejects the Messiah, and therefore it rejects Emunah and therefore it rejects Moses.  

So he confirms to those who are believers that they are the Israel that is being discussed in many of the prophecies, whether they are from Judah or not from Judah as long as they have Emunah. And this genetic Israel has no advantage, either by genetic relationship or by the Tanakh. They are the Israel that Yehovah has rejected and this is simply and consistently because they have rejected the outstretched arms of Yehovah and his every attempt to encourage them to walk in Emunah. Whereas those who were outside of these genetic people suddenly became interested and wanted to fully participate in what the Messiah, Yhosha of Nazareth was proclaiming and promoting and establishing. This they were able to do because of the smitten stone and the rock of offence and the resurrection of this man from the dead.

So any rabbinical argument against what Saul has written falters, but the rabbinical arguments against what the Christian theologians spout are often more accurate than what the Christian theologians tried to convince with. There is no other argument than the smitten stone, the rock of offence and the resurrection of Yhosha of Nazareth. Although many put these things up for debate they are not debatable. However, what many tried to do is undermine these historical and factual events. Fortunately, our teacher is alive and has given us a wind energy to enable us to understand what the will of Yehovah is and in addition will give us words to defeat any argument if it becomes necessary. In other words, if you’re drawn before a court or some king he will give you words to defend Emunah; but please don’t engage in pitiable debate with people or other ways of doing things. And there are many other ways of doing things but they do not please Yehovah who has only set out one way. And if someone says that is very arrogant then as a servant of Yehovah you can bless them and say you will take their concerns before your adon. It is what it is and the evil eye in man does not like that, it wants to be free to do its own alternatives.

Paul and Moses also explain where the Emunah come from. They explain it comes from showing and telling that Dabar of Yehovah, that Dabar of the Messiah. And this is consistently held up by all the prophets, especially Isaiah who explains that we have good news to show and tell those who are putting their Emunah in it or resting their life support reliance on it. We have to listen to the message that the Messiah brought and then show and tell it from our mouths and from our abdominal cavities, then we will receive, we will be showing or demonstrating or exercising Emunah if in our guts and in our abdominal cavities. If you have fixed your reliance on Yehovah raising up from among the dead Yhosha then you will not be able to keep your mouth shut from declaring that Yhosha is adon and the Messiah and the ruler over all who think that they have authority! And you will not be concerned about anything that they might do to your physical body or to your internal organs because they will be raised up with Yhosha as many times as necessary.

The reverberations of this deep exposition from Saul rings around every aspect of our lives as the Jews and Israel are also given that status by Emunah based on the smitten stone and the rock of offence. Paul and also Yhosha set as an example of caring about the chosen Israel, but also caring deeply about the ethnic or genetic Israel. In his exposition Paul knows that he has opened a ‘can of worms’. In other words, he has giving access to wind energies and wind functionaries to create division in the chosen ones and so he deals with these wind energies by clarifying salient points. “No, Yehovah has not abandoned ethnic Israel”, and Paul himself is a prime example to the people of the nations who are now part of chosen Israel. And furthermore Yehovah reveals to Elijah that he reserves to himself the chosen Israel who are going into his exclusive privileges. And if it is according to his grace then it is exclusive privilege and it has nothing to do with the work study system which they have set up to try and continuously perform or cause to be performed; the commandments and statutes etc.

It is not that these cannot be performed via their determined and their diligent means. It is that when they attempt to do so without Emunah they in fact cut themselves off from listening to the voice of Yehovah and instead of his voice they listen to the teachings and instructions and the constructions of men.

But now to those who are from the nations who are giving ear to a disingenuous and falsifying wind energy. Now they are not greater or more important than ethnic Israel. In fact they are second-class citizens moved up into the first-class position by the grace and the will of Yoshua! Being in that position they are no longer second-class, but that does not give them all or us the right to be arrogant and above our stations. For those who are from ethnic Israel have disqualified themselves by their arrogance and rebellion and disobedience. So why would we who have been given the privilege by Emunah and by the word of the Messiah begin to act like them, haughty, thinking more of ourselves and we ought to? For example we who have been drafted in to the holy route and thereby we have become holy, but those that were in the route and been cut out are still holy. This word holy is misunderstood and misinterpreted. I would replace it by specially mind and washed and purified. So these branches which were cut out are still specially mind and washed
and purified and we who were not part of this root that were not specially chosen have now become specially chosen by being grafted in. So where is our boasting in all of this? We are not supporting the root. It is the root that is supporting us. And they have been cut out because of disobedience and we have been grafted in because of obedience by means of Emunah. Now look at it this way. If by them being cut out we of the nations have been given this exclusive privilege what would be the result of them being grafted back in again? Wouldn’t it be the resurrection from the dead?

Therefore this deep concern will always remind Paul that all the obedient brought in through the Emunah is always what Yehovah has sought and if it includes ethic Israel also turning to this kind of obedience and the joy of his ways, Yehovah would go beyond all measures.

Let us not think that he won’t do it, for he says that he has shut them up, all of them in a kind of sleep. Why? So that the gentiles might come in and becoming obedient and receiving all the blessings which they are striving for might provoke them to jealousy and turn them away from their strong headed, stiffnecked approach to obedience by Emunah which they were invited to from the beginning from the time of Moses.

So we should be praying along with Paul as people from the nation. Not only giving thanks but also for the saving of some ethnic Israel of the 12 tribes because not only is this in accordance with the will of Yehovah it is the purpose of our being grafted in. So don’t let any wind energies create confusion and division: rather let us all be united in this great work of proclaiming the good news of the Imperial ministration, of demonstrating the obedience to Elohim by means of this good news and by helping to rescue ethnic Israel, even in the smallest amount by our prayers, and by searching and following the instructions of Yhosha. 

Rather than giving way to the evil eyed wind energies let us rather glory in the incredible wisdom and depth of planning and strategy which Saul has just revealed as taking place!

We can also find in the book of the revelations of Elohim, of Yehovah to Yhosha, that it is indeed his purpose to mark out 144,000 from the 12 tribes of ethnic Israel to follow Yhosha by way of the word of Emunah by way of the message of the Messiah.