There is an old children’s tale about a little red hen who found some wheat. She decided to plant it, so she could harvest enough to bake bread. First she asked the other animals to help her plant the wheat, and then to help harvest the crop, thresh the grain, grind it into flour, and finally to bake the bread, but at each stage the other animals refused to help with the work. Then when it was time to eat the bread, the other animals were very eager. However, the wise hen said that since the other animals did not help her with the work, she and her chicks would eat all of the bread themselves.
There is a parallel to this story in Yeshua’s Parable of the Minas. In the parable, a certain nobleman (Yeshua) gives a mina (salvation) to each of His ten servants (who probably represent the ten tribes of the northern house of Israel, or Ephraim). Two of the servants use their minas to gain even more minas (more saved souls) for their master, and because of this they are given a great reward. However, a third servant lays up his mina in a handkerchief, and does not use it for his master, and because of this his mina (salvation) is taken from him.
Luqa (Luke) 19:12-27
12 Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
13 So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’
14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’
15 “And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
16 Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’
17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’
18 And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.’
19 Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.’
20 “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.
21 For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’
22 And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.
23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
24 “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.’
25 (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas.’)
26 ‘For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'”
The nobleman in the parable did not give his servants a mina to spend on themselves. Rather, he gave them a mina to use for him, and he expected them to use it in a manner of which he would approve. If they did not spend it for him then their mina was taken away—and this is exactly how Yeshua gives us the gift of His Spirit. While Yeshua gives us His Spirit freely, He expects us to use it to build Him a kingdom according to His instructions. One day we will all stand in the judgment as to how well we obeyed Him in this.
Hitgalut (Revelation) 20:11-13
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before Elohim, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
However, while Scripture is clear that we will be judged according to our works, some believers behave as if we will be judged according to our level of knowledge. While they seem eager to learn all they can, they don’t want to organize or support the leadership, so that leadership can then go and do the myriad things that it takes to build Yeshua’s kingdom the way He says. If we are willing to receive it, this is akin to laying up one’s minas in a handkerchief in that it does not build Yeshua’s kingdom (or accomplish His will).
The reason Yeshua gives us His Spirit is that He wants us to do a big job for Him. In Nazarene Israel we saw that the lost ten tribes of the northern house of Israel (Ephraim) were scattered to all the four corners of the earth, and that they are being brought back into the covenant by the leading and guiding of Yeshua’s Spirit. However, the job is not only to bring them back, but to use them to form a literal kingdom for Him that will rule and reign over the earth once the millennium begins.
While the lost Israelites (Ephraimites) were scattered into every nation, spiritually-speaking the tribes were taken captive by the Little Horn (i.e., the papacy). The papacy would take Yahweh’s saints spiritually captive for a time, times, and half a time (which we show in Nazarene Israel to be 1,260 years). When this 1,260 years was complete the saints broke away from Rome in the Protestant Reformation.
Daniel 7:25-27
25 “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time.”
26 But the court shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and destroy it forever.
27 Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.”
As we explain in Revelation and the End Times, Yeshua will not be here on earth during the millennium. Rather, the heavenly court will sit at trumpet 7 (near the end of the tribulation), and they will take away the papacy’s kingdom and dominion, and give it to the saints. What this means is that the kingdom and dominion will be given to Yeshua’s body (which is Nazarene Israel). That is how verse 27 can say that the power will be given to the saints, and yet all dominions will serve and obey Him (i.e., Yeshua), is that they will be obeying His body (Nazarene Israel). However, to qualify as Yeshua’s body is not easy.
What some people seem to miss is that to qualify as part of part of Yeshua’s body, first we must do the things that Yeshua’s Spirit would have us do. We must let Yeshua’s Spirit have its way with us—and if we do not, then we do not truly have the fullness of Yeshua’s Spirit (and we are therefore not fully part of Yeshua’s body). If this is the case, then at least from a certain standpoint it is as if we have never received (the fullness of) Yeshua’s Spirit.
Sometimes people wonder why the dominions would obey Yeshua’s body, if Yeshua is not physically present. We saw the answer to this in Torah Government. In the Great Commission, Yeshua tells us to observe (i.e., guard) everything that Yeshua commands.
Mattithyahu (Matthew) 28:19-20
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in My name*,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amein.
[*For why we immerse only in Yeshua’s name, please see “Immersion in Yeshua’s Name Only,” in Nazarene Scripture Studies, Volume Three.]
In Torah Government we also saw that before Yeshua went up to heaven, He Himself commanded a renewed Melchizedekian order that was to spread the faith in Him to all the four corners of the earth. Each part of His body was to do its part to help supply the needs of this Great Commission, and this is what verse 16 calls the effective working by which every part of the body does it’s share, to cause the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Ephesim (Ephesians) 4:11-16
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Messiah,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of Elohim, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Messiah;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Messiah —
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Again, since this is what Yeshua Himself commanded, this is what He wants us all to do with our saved lives—and if we are not eager to do so, then we cannot possibly have (the fullness of) Yeshua’s Spirit.
Yeshua’s Spirit would have us be zealous to expand His kingdom without end, as Isaiah 9:7 also indicates.
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 9:7
7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will perform this.
Do we have this zeal to help build a kingdom without end for our King? It is what Yeshua wants us to do with our minas.
Before Yeshua ascended to heaven, He established a renewed Melchizedekian order in which the priesthood was separated from the people. We show the rules for this in Torah Government, but a separated priesthood not only allows for greater specialization of knowledge, it also has the ability to tie all of the assemblies together worldwide. This forms a literal spiritual kingdom in all nations. This kind of spiritual kingdom eventually gains temporal political power, and it is this spiritual-political power that will allow Yeshua’s body to rule and reign in all dominions during the millennium.
As we saw in Nazarene Israel, inside the borders of Israel the Torah was understood to be an eternal marital covenant. Therefore, the original Nazarene Israelite faith was more popular inside of Judea. However, outside of Judea the Torah was not understood to be an eternal marital covenant, and so a torahless Christian variation flourished instead. This torahless Christian variation of the faith was later merged with Roman sun worship, to form the Catholic (“Universal”) faith.
Although the Catholics attempted to change the days of worship and the Torah, they did keep the concept of a separated priesthood, which allowed them to tie all of their assemblies together. We should not lose sight of the fact that it was by this separated priesthood that Rome was able to establish dominance and authority over the Christian kings of the world. The spiritual power of Rome’s global priesthood was so great that prior to the Protestant Reformation, if Rome excommunicated a king his people would likely rebel against him. This is the kind of spiritual kingdom and dominion that we must prepare to receive after Babylon-Rome falls at trumpet 7.
Just as the Catholic Church had to be well-organized to wield this kind of global power, the Nazarenes must also be well-organized. In Torah Government we showed the development of spiritual and temporal authority within Israel from Edenic times through the first century. In this study we hope to show what a well-ordered body should look like, to receive and to employ the kind of authority that Yahweh plans to bestow on us after trumpet 7.
Everyone who loves Yeshua, no matter how great or small, high or low, should be excited at the prospect of helping to further Yeshua’s kingdom over all the earth. We should be eager to employ our minas in this way. Yet even though this promises a great reward, today there is a surprising amount of resistance to performing the Great Commission as Yeshua wants. Perhaps part of this is attributable to Ephraim’s rebellious nature, and his history of rebellion.
As we saw in Nazarene Israel, after the 1,260 years of spiritual captivity in Rome had expired, the Ephraimites began comparing their worship practices to Scripture. As the Ephraimites began to realize that Rome’s model was corrupt, first Ephraim broke from the Catholic church, and then later he broke from the Protestant church. Both breaks were very much needed, yet because breaking away from the Church system had led to good, today some Ephraimites mistakenly believe that there should not be any religious structure or authority at all (even though the Renewed Covenant commands it). At the time of this writing (in 2018), this mistaken ideal is even championed by certain very popular teachers, who teach that we should not have any organization, structure, or Scriptural covering at all, even though their teaching is in direct violation of passages such as Titus 1:5.
Titus 1:5
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you —
Many are called, few are chosen. Some will value their freedom, their money, and their time more than they value the opportunity to help build a millennial reign for Yeshua. However, increased access to information has wrought many good and positive changes for our people in the past, and it is my hope and prayer that this study will help our people begin to understand how Yeshua wants all of us to use our minas, so as to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Adon.”
Mattityahu (Matthew) 25:21
21 His adon [master] said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your adon.”
If you would like to learn how Scripture says we should organize to build our Husband’s millennial reign, please read on.