Yom HaAtzma'ut (Israel Independence Day)

(Today is Israel's Independence Day. I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 04/24/2007.)

Readings:

Debarim (Deuteronomy) 7:12-8:18; 11:8-21
YeshuaYahu (Isaiah) 10:32-12:6
MattithYahu (Matthew) 24:29-44

Today is Israel's Independence Day.

In the first reading from Debarim, Mosheh is giving the Israelites instructions from YHWH for when they enter the Promised Land.

Deu 8:1 "Guard to do every command which I command you today, that you might live, and shall increase, and go in, and shall possess the land of which יהוה swore to your fathers.
Deu 8:2 "And you shall remember that יהוה your Elohim led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you guard His commands or not.
Deu 8:3 "And He humbled you, and let you suffer hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of יהוה.
Deu 8:4 "Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.
Deu 8:5 "Thus you shall know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so יהוה your Elohim disciplines you,
Deu 8:6 therefore you shall guard the commands of יהוה your Elohim, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

This is a touching reminder of how YHWH took care of His people. He fed them, and their clothing never wore out!

There is much for us to learn from this. Just as with the ancient Israelites, YHWH will lead us, humble us and prove us to show what is in our hearts and whether we will obey Him or not.

He also gave specific instructions regarding what to do with anything related to false worship:

Deu 7:25 "The carved images of their mighty ones you are to burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to יהוה your Elohim.
Deu 7:26 "And do not bring an abomination into your house, lest you be accursed like it. Utterly loathe it and utterly hate it, for it is accursed.

Many modern-day holiday traditions involve objects and customs associated with heathen worship. YHWH wants us to utterly loathe and hate such abominations because He doesn't want us to be snared by them.

The other reading in Debarim is one of the places where we find these instructions to keep YHWH's Words in our hearts and to surround ourselves with them as we teach them to our children throughout our waking hours:

Deu 11:18 'And you shall lay up these Words of Mine in your heart and in your being, and shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
Deu 11:19 'And you shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up,
Deu 11:20 and shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
Deu 11:21 so that your days and the days of your children are increased on the soil of which יהוה swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens on the earth.

It is amazing what a blessing and positive influence it is to obey this commandment and to actually post His Words on all the doorposts and gates in the home! I recently finished making a handbinding so I could also bind His Words on my hand.

It may be tempting to spiritualize such instructions/commandments away in order to avoid actually physically doing them, but I believe that YHWH says what He means and means what He says. He knows that we are carnal beings and constantly need reminders of Him and His Words so that we will not go astray from Him.

1Co 15:46 The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.

The physical things help us with the spiritual things.

All of YHWH's words were to help Israel to become a strong nation under Him in the Promised Land, but sadly, as the years passed, Israel failed to diligently follow His instructions and fell into heathen worship and abominations until eventually they were dispersed to the four corners of the earth--first the Northern Kingdom of Israel (also known as Ephrayim), then the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

But an amazing thing happened in 1948--a nation was born in a day as had been prophesied:

Isa 66:8 "Who has heard the like of this? Who has seen the like of these? Is a land brought forth in one day? Is a nation born at once? For as soon as Tsiyon laboured, she gave birth to her children.

After nearly 1900 years of exile, Yehudah returned to the Promised Land, and the nation of Yisra'el was born again. The first part of the prophecy in Yehezqel has come to pass:

Eze 37:16 "And you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it, 'For Yehudah and for the children of Yisra'el, his companions.' Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Yoseph, the stick of Ephrayim, and for all the house of Yisra'el, his companions.'

The stick of Yehudah is already in place. It is now up to Ephrayim to form ourselves into a nation so that the rest of the prophecy will be fulfilled:

Eze 37:19 say to them, 'Thus said the Master יהוה, "See, I am taking the stick of Yoseph, which is in the hand of Ephrayim, and the tribes of Yisra'el, his companions. And I shall give them unto him, with the stick of Yehudah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand." '
Eze 37:20 "And the sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes.
Eze 37:21 "And speak to them, 'Thus said the Master יהוה, "See, I am taking the children of Yisra'el from among the gentiles, wherever they have gone, and shall gather them from all around, and I shall bring them into their land.
Eze 37:22 "And I shall make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Yisra'el. And one sovereign shall be sovereign over them all, and let them no longer be two nations, and let them no longer be divided into two reigns.
Eze 37:23 "And they shall no longer defile themselves with their idols, nor with their disgusting matters, nor with any of their transgressions. And I shall save them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and I shall cleanse them. And they shall be My people, and I be their Elohim,
Eze 37:24 while Dawid My servant is sovereign over them. And they shall all have one shepherd and walk in My right-rulings and guard My laws, and shall do them.

The stick of Yoseph is in the hand of Ephrayim, so it is up to Ephrayim (believers in Yeshua Messiah) to stop defiling ourselves with idols and disgusting matters and to faithfully guard and do His commandments so that we, too, will become one stick and can be rejoined with our brother Yehudah.

Isa 11:12 And He shall raise a banner for the nations, and gather the outcasts of Yisra'el, and assemble the dispersed of Yehudah from the four corners of the earth.
Isa 11:13 And the envy of Ephrayim shall turn aside, and the adversaries of Yehudah be cut off. Ephrayim shall not envy Yehudah, and Yehudah not trouble Ephrayim.

When the two kingdoms are one again, Yehudah will know their Messiah:

Zec 12:10 "And I shall pour on the house of Dawid and on the inhabitants of Yerushalayim a spirit of favour and prayers. And they shall look on Me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son. And they shall be in bitterness over Him as a bitterness over the first-born.

And so all Yisra'el will be saved:

Rom 11:25 For I do not wish you to be ignorant of this secret, brothers, lest you should be wise in your own estimation, that hardening in part has come over Yisra'el, until the completeness of the gentiles has come in.
Rom 11:26 And so all Yisra'el shall be saved, as it has been written, "The Deliverer shall come out of Tsiyon, and He shall turn away wickedness from Ya?aqob,
Rom 11:27 and this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."

It is a real eye-opener is to read the story of The Prodigal Son with the understanding that the elder brother is Yehudah and the younger brother is Ephrayim:

Luk 15:11 And He said, "A certain man had two sons,
Luk 15:12 and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods falling to me.' And he divided his livelihood between them.
Luk 15:13 "And not many days after, the younger son, having gathered all together, went away to a distant country, and there wasted his goods with loose living.
Luk 15:14 "And when he had spent all, there arose a severe scarcity of food throughout that land, and he began to be in need.
Luk 15:15 "And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him to his fields to feed pigs.
Luk 15:16 "And he was longing to fill his stomach with the pods which the pigs were eating, and no one gave to him.
Luk 15:17 "But having come to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I am perishing with hunger!
Luk 15:18 'Having risen, I shall go to my father and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against the heaven, and before you,
Luk 15:19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants." '
Luk 15:20 "And having risen, he went to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Luk 15:21 "And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against the heaven, and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
Luk 15:22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
Luk 15:23 'And bring the fattened calf here and slaughter it, and let us eat and rejoice,
Luk 15:24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again, and he was lost and is found.' And they began to rejoice.
Luk 15:25 "And his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
Luk 15:26 "And having called one of the servants he asked what this meant.
Luk 15:27 "And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he received him back in health.'
Luk 15:28 "And he was wroth and would not go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
Luk 15:29 "And answering, he said to his father, 'See, these many years I have been serving you, and I have never transgressed a command of yours, but to me you have never given a young goat, so I could rejoice with my friends.
Luk 15:30 'But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with whores, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.'
Luk 15:31 "Then he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours.
Luk 15:32 'And we had to rejoice and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive, and was lost and is found.' "

Throughout the centuries Yehudah has been entrusted with the Words of Elohim--the Torah--the Rock upon which all of the other Scriptures stand:

Rom 3:1 What then is the advantage of the Yehudite, or what is the value of the circumcision?
Rom 3:2 Much in every way! Because firstly indeed, that they were entrusted with the Words of Elohim.

Ephrayim, on the other hand, went far away from the Torah, and some still teach that it has been done away with, despite what Yeshua Messiah said:

Mat 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to complete.
Mat 5:18 "For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done.

Heaven and earth have not yet passed away, and obviously all has not yet been done. Just from the above prophecies alone we can see that there is still much more to come. Ephrayim needs to leave the pigpen and go back to the Father so that Yeshua Messiah's prayer will finally be answered:

Joh 17:20 "And I do not pray for these alone, but also for those believing in Me through their word,
Joh 17:21 so that they all might be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so that they too might be one in Us, so that the world might believe that You have sent Me.
Joh 17:22 "And the esteem which You gave Me I have given them, so that they might be one as We are one,
Joh 17:23 "I in them, and You in Me, so that they might be perfected into one, so that the world knows that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

May His will be done.