Watch: Parasha Toldot: Esau, Ya’akov, and the Kingdom!
B’reisheet (Genesis) 25:19-28:9, Malachi 1-2, Mattityahu (Matthew) 6, Ivrim (Hebrews) 12
Welcome to Nazarene Israel. I am Norman Willis. Ulices Rodriguez is doing some extended family counseling this week and I have been working on some other big projects in our hope to introduce to our brothers and sisters in Judah and to present ourselves to the world.
This week, I am filling in for “Parasha Toldot”. And no matter whether you are Ephraimite or Jewish, in the real big picture panoramic perspective (when we sit back and take it all in) Parasha Toldot is about the profound struggle between two brothers (Esau and Ya’akov) over what is called the birthright and the blessing.
You might say, “Well, the birthright and the blessing, what is that? What is so important about the birthright and the blessing?”
We will talk about the blessing a little later, but what is so important about the birthright is (at least under normal circumstances in ancient times) the birthright established what used to be called the line of succession (in regards to the kingship or the leadership) of the house. That is to say, it established who would be the king and in Abraham’s house. That is a Messianic question.
While Parasha Toldot might not seem particularly Messianic at the face value or shot level, what we are discussing here is essentially who will become the future leader of Abraham’s line. With regard to our mutual father Abraham’s line, what is being discussed is ultimately, who will be in charge of the Millennial Reign?
That in itself is very much a Messianic question. Or we might perhaps call it a pre-messianic question here. But it impacts the Millennial Reign, nonetheless.
Because if Esau gets the birthright the kingship will go to him. And then everything will go wrong. Much like how we have the United Nations, which is widely considered an Esau institution today. Look at all the things the United Nations generates.
If our mutual forefather Ya’akov gets the birthright, then two houses of Israel (Judah and Ephraim) are going to have to figure out how the reign should be run.
We are working on a lot of other materials that we hope to release soon. No matter whether we are Ephraimite or Jewish, as children of Ya’akov, I hope we can bless you this week. We are working on more materials to bless all of Ya’akov’s children. We only have a short time here today, but if you will come with us in Parasha Toldot, I want to show you why I believe it was right for Rivkah (Rebekah) to tell our mutual forefather Ya’akov to steal the blessing from Esau. If I can, I want to show you what that means to every Jew and every Ephramite today.
In “Parasha Toldot”, we are going to talk about Esau, Ya’akov, and the Messianic Reign. In the House of Ephraim, we are just coming back to the parasha series after a hiatus of some 2,730 years. So, hopefully you can appreciate our (shall we say) unorthodox perspective. But we believe it is important to take the right perspective when we are reading the parasha. Because so often times, we take a look at the parasha to see what life lessons we can extract for ourselves.
We often want to know how we can do like the Patriarchs did and earn more money for ourselves. Or have a better place in our company, or a position. Instead of what we should be doing. Which we believe is to take a look at the parasha from what Elohim wants. To take a look at the things from Elohim’s perspective. To see what Elohim gets from this deal.
Let us drop back to Genesis 1. Let us take in the big panorama perspective. In the beginning Yahweh Elohim created a world with a special garden land. Then He created Adam and his wife Havvah (Eve). And they were supposed to tend and keep it.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 1:1
1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”B’reisheet (Genesis) 2:15
15 “Then Yahweh Elohim took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”
Since we were all one family at that point, Yahweh wanted us all to serve as each other’s keepers. Truly as each other’s brothers and sisters. It is easy to imagine that what Yahweh our Elohim really wants from this deal is one single family of humankind submitting to His Spirit and unified by His Spirit; taking care of each other and also taking care of our common home. That is what we believe we are working towards in the Millennial Reign. (We talk more about that in other places.) However, mankind was not along with the program.
Qayin (Cain) was not thinking about what Elohim wanted when he slewed his brother Havel (Abel). He was only thinking about what he wanted. Even King David was not thinking about what Elohim wanted when he slewed Uriah the Hittite. There are punishments for these things precisely because this is exactly the kind of behavior that Yahweh Elohim wants to train mankind out of over time.
If we do not truly love Him and we do not truly seek to obey Him diligently and submit to His Spirit, then His program does not work. This is what is happening, mankind is always trying to create his own style of program to where we look like we are obeying Him, but we do not really obey Him. It looks like we are submitting to His Spirit, but we are not really. And that is called Babylon. We will talk about it more in this and in future publications.
What Elohim always wanted was one single family of man that submits to Him and His Spirit, cares for each other, and takes care of our world according to His instructions. The problem is that when men hit adolescents, hormones kick in and everything changes. They forget about what Elohim wants. They do not care about what Elohim wants. They start to follow their own urges. Yeshua tells us that we have to become converted like little children before we can enter the Kingdom of Elohim.
Mattityahu (Matthew)18:3
3 “And said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven”.”
What happens at adolescence is that men begin to realize that when they treat each other badly, they can gain power, money, and influence. And with this power, money, and influence, then they can attract the women that they want instead of submitting to Elohim’s Spirit and allowing Him to bring us the mates that He wants for us, like it was in the beginning.
Some believe this is what it means that the Nephilim or the spiritually fallen mighty men of earth began to use their power, wealth, and influence to attract the women they wanted. Rather than submitting to the Spirit and letting the Spirit bring their wives to them. It essentially shows how mankind began to follow his own will, becoming headstrong instead of submitting to the will of Yahweh.
As we might expect, things progressed from bad to worse relatively quickly. Morality deteriorated in this environment. So much that Yahweh decided it was better to wipe out Adam and Havvah’s children so that He could start over with no Noah’s righteous seed. Perhaps since Noah had obeyed His commandment to build the ark, he had submitted to the Spirit in that sense. Perhaps Noah’s children might also love each other as a family and submit to the Creator’s Spirit long term; building the kind of world He wants to build. It was not meant to be.
Noah’s children also forgot to listen and to obey in the Spirit. Noah’s children also forgot to take care of each other as one single family. So like men do, they began fighting amongst each other and tried to dominate each other in order to gain advantage over one another.
B’reisheet (Genesis) chapter 10 and verse 8 tells us that Nimrod was the first who began to be a mighty one upon the earth. Notice what he did. Verse 9 tells us that He even became a mighty hunter before Yahweh.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 10:8-9
8 “Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before Yahweh.”
But what does that mean? Could it be that rather than watching out for his brothers and tending to his brothers by taking care of his brothers that Nimrod began hunting his brothers politically? Considering that democracy was started in ancient Babylon, could it be that democracy is just such a system by which our elected leaders hunt their brothers? All the while pretending to love and serve their brothers?
We will talk a lot more about the political manifestations of Babylon and democracy later. But what we need to see here is that Babel (Babylon) was the beginning of Nimrod’s empire. We also need to understand that it was in Babylon where the Babylonian mystery religions were first established.
If you would like to see how Roman-style Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy are all the mystery Babylonian religions dressed up to look like the original sect of the Nazarenes, please read our study on Nazarene Israel: The Original Faith of the apostles. And you will see that the Catholic church is basically the mystery Babylonian religions in disguise.
We are working on some projects right now which will also show that rabbinical Judaism is also a product of the influence of the Babylonian mystery religions. Stay tuned for that. Just for the short term, the way you can know that both mainstream Christianity and Zionist rabbinic Judaism are part of the Babylonian mystery religions is by checking their fruit. Both Roman Christianity and Zionist rabbinical Judaism are compatible with democracy. That is a big problem because democracy was invented in Babylon and the only place you see democracy in Scripture is in places like Korah’s rebellion.
I hate to be the one to have to school the Rabbinical Order, but when we do not have a cleansed priesthood (or even when we do) what Scripture tells us is that “Yahweh expects His people to go to the prophet that exists in those days”.
Ivrim (Hebrews) 1:1
1 “Elohim, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.”
The reason you go to a prophet is because he is supposed to be hearing Yahweh’s voice and speaking according to it. That is what prophets do. This is the way we hear Yahweh’s voice and obey it. It is to go to the prophet that exists in those days. You can always tell when you have a genuine prophet because his words will align with those of Scripture. The way you can tell you have a false prophet, or a false priesthood is when their words do not align with Scripture. That is what Yahweh’s word says.
But in Babylon, we cast votes. We vote for whoever seems good and right in our own eyes. We also vote for our own desires, we vote our own will, we vote our own good, and we are basically selfish. We expect that when each man votes his own selfish will and his own selfish desire, this mass, this amalgam, this compendium of selfishness is somehow going to lead to a governmental system that is compatible with the will of Yahweh Elohim! Which is preposterous when you think about it! How can this amalgam of selfishness and doing whatever seems good and right in our own eyes ever be compatible with the will of Elohim? How does that work?
Elohim speaks through his prophet. But Catholics, Christians, Messianics, Zionists, the Rabbinical Order, they have their own ideas. This is not a small issue.
Let us take a look at ancient Babylon’s government to get an idea of just how parallel our system is today. Ancient Babylon’s government reasonably resembles a modern democracy. Yes, you had a king as well as some nobles. They are the ones who made the laws, they declared war, and they decided how the gods were to be worshiped.
However, they also had an assembly of elders and wise men who were elected by the people. Much like a parliament, or much like a House of Representatives, or a Congress, or a Senate. This assembly of wise men could overrule the king under certain circumstances. The assembly could decide to get rid of any particular law. They could also stop an unpopular war. They effectively had veto power over the king. If we replaced the king in this Babylonian scenario with a president or a prime minister, what is the difference?
This kind of democracy is never advocated anywhere in Scripture. Maybe with the elders that are appointed over tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands. But that is it. The leadership is never established in this way. However, to establish a government in this way, that is the Babylonian solution.
So what are we doing today, brothers and sisters? This is a question both for Jews and Ephraimites. If we place our faith in a Babylonian form of government democracy instead of placing our faith in the kind of government and leadership that our Creator commands in His word, (to follow the words of His prophet) then are we truly placing our faith in Elohim and His ways of walking and His ways of governance for our people? Or are we perhaps placing our faith in the Babylonian mystery religions (in its Democratic ways of governance)?
This is not a small question. The rabbis correctly teach that whoever’s calendar you keep, that is who you worship. That saying is true. (It is interesting that the rabbis make up their own calendar instead of keeping the calendar that Yahweh commands in His Torah, but that is another question.) As long as we are on this line of thought, we might also ask, does this dictum of the rabbis also apply to our form of government?
Is it also true that whoever’s government style we use, is that whose gods we worship? Which is to say, if we use the democratic form of self-government that was created in Babylon and the Babylonian mystery religion, are we worshiping Elohim? Or are we worshiping the Babylonian mystery religion?
I believe Scripture would say similar to what the rabbis say; whoever’s government style you adopt, that is who you worship. Yahweh wants us to do what He says, not make up our own ways based upon the Babylon mystery religion.
I know at this point that some of you might be asking yourselves who I think I am that I would dare to offer words of counsel to the Orthodox rabbis about what they believe. It seems like a fair question. I know someone is going to ask it.
If some of you are wondering just who this boy thinks he is, I would remind you of who your rabbis think I am. Because it was your Orthodox rabbis of your very own Sanhedrin who contacted me in 2017 to ask me if I was their Messiah.
There is a part of me that truly wishes I was joking in that! Because then I would not have to realize that the rabbis do not even know what they are doing more than most Messianics.
I apologize for the delay; I am mildly autistic so sometimes it takes me a very long time to process things and figure out what Elohim wants me to do about it. It has taken me about six years of continual prayer to know what to do with the fact that your rabbis asked me if I was their Messiah.
After six years of continual prayer, I realized that if the rabbis think I am their Messiah, they do not really know who they are waiting for. (Or maybe I was their Messiah of the year in 2017 or something like that. Because it seems like the rabbis always are announcing some new Messiah, that they are talking with the Messiah, or they are about to unveil the Messiah, or whatever! Every two or three years is someone new. Maybe I had my 15 minutes of fame in 2017 perhaps!)
But after six years of continual prayer, what I realized is that while our brothers in Judah love the idea of Mashiach very much, they do not really know who they are waiting for. In fact, they are even waiting as we will see for an Esau Messiah. We hope to publish those materials in more detail very soon, Father willing.
I bring this up here because Parasha Toldot translates to generations. But it is all about the generations that lead up to Meshiach. Before we get to Parasha Toldot, we first need to ask ourselves: If Norman Willis is not the Mashiach, and if the rabbis apparently do not know what to look for in a Mashiach, then what do we know about Mashiach? What do we even know about Him?
There are way too many passages to cover here. But there are many verses in Scripture which tells us that the Messiah would be divine.
For just one small example, in Tehillim (Psalms) 110, David (the King of Israel) calls the Messiah Adon.
Tehillim (Psalms) 110:1
1 A Psalm of David. YAHWEH said to my Adon, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
Adon is a title referring to royalty, meaning your superiors. So then the question is (this is a very interesting picture): now if the Messiah truly is King David’s son as Scripture says, (I think all parties agree Mashiach is going to be the son of David) and yet King David calls his son Adon referring to royalty and oftentimes to Elohim, then how is this Mashiach truly a human son? Is David going to call his own human son Adon, or king, or royalty, or Master? That does not make sense. Because ordinarily, it is the son who gives honor and homage to the father, not the other way around.
There are all kinds of these examples if we have eyes to read them.
Psalm 45 speaks of a human Messiah figure, who is also Elohim, who is additionally blessed by his Elohim. Something that Nazarene Israel can explain very easily.
Tehillim (Psalms) 45:6
6 Your throne, O Elohim, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
Psalm 22 shows us a suffering servant. And at the end of the psalm we are told that He is also Yahweh.
Tehillim (Psalms) 22:19
19 But You, O YAHWEH, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me!
There are so many more just all throughout the Tanach. But apart from the Divinity of Mashiach, we also know that Amos chapter 5, verse 2 tells us that Messiah must come from Bethlehem.
Mikah (Micah) 5:2
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”
What that means is, if you are one of the Mashiach candidates and you are not born in Bethlehem (which I was not) you do not qualify to be the Mashiach! You do not get to fill that role.
Further, Daniel chapter 9 and verse 25 tells us the Mashiach would arrive around 26 CE.
Daniel 9:25
25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Mashiach the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.”
These sevens refer to weeks of ‘seven years’ each. The first one is for a total of 49. (Seven times seven, that is 49.) Then 62 weeks of ‘seven years’ each (that subtotal is 434.)
Now we get a grand total. We take the 49 years (7 times 7) plus 434 years, and that equals a total of 483 years.
History tells us that king Artaxerxes gave this command for Judah to go back home and restore and rebuild Jerusalem around 457 BCE. We simply add 483 years of Daniel to the start date of 457 BCE, and this brings us to 26 CE. That is when Mashiach was supposed to arrive according to Scripture.
We should not be surprised that this is the same year Yeshua began His ministry!
When we are looking for a Mashiach (even if we set aside all the evidence that Mashiach is divine) we still need to account for the fact that the Mashiach has to be born in Bethlehem which nowadays is almost completely under Muslim control.
His ministry also has to begin around 26 CE. Setting aside the question of divinity for the moment, who do the rabbis suggest was born in Bethlehem who began His ministry in 26 CE? I know some of the rabbis are old, but I do not think they are that old!
For another thing my beloved rabbis, we do not get to waver any requirements we do not like. If Mashiach does not come from Bethlehem, he is not the Mashiach! If Mashiach did not begin his ministry in 26 CE, he is not the Mashiach!
We have many other mathematical proofs like this and when we get time, we hope to publish them to help the rabbis understand what Scripture really says.
In the meantime, if the rabbis do not really know what Scripture says about the qualifications for Mashiach, my question to my brothers and sisters in Judah is this. How can you establish the Millennial Reign when your leaders do not even know what kind of Millennial Reign they are supposed to be setting up? Meaning, if you do not read the Scriptures for yourself cover to cover, how do you know that the rabbis are not setting you up to establish an Esau Babylonian version of the Millennial Reign of the kind that the prophecies tell us will get destroyed during the coming tribulation?
What does Parasha Toldot have to tell us about Mashiach and the malhut (or the coming Kingdom)?
Consider B’reisheet (Genesis) chapter 25 starting in verse 21. It tells us that “Yitzhak pleaded with Yahweh for his wife [Rivkah] and Yahweh granted his plea and Rivkah his wife conceived“. Verse 22, “But the children then struggled together within her”.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 25:21-22
21 ‘Now Isaac pleaded with Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren; and Yahweh granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of Yahweh.”
The word in Hebrew is Ratzatz. it is Strong’s Hebrew 7533. It is a primitive root meaning to crack in pieces.
Ratzatz רָצַץ
A primitive root; to crack in pieces, literally or figuratively — break, bruise, crush, discourage, oppress, struggle together.
Strong’s Concordance H7533
That is what was happening in Rivkah’s womb. Esau and Ya’akov were trying to crack each other and their world views in pieces.
We explain this in more detail in Revelation & the End Times or especially in our video version Revelation Simplified on the Nazarene Israel YouTube channel.
The Patriarchs are all representative of the four horses of Zechariah in Revelation. Judah (especially Sabatean Francist Judah) is the black horse. Ephraim (and effectively Nazarene Israel) is the white horse. Secular Egyptian and mystery Babylonian Esau is the red horse. Then cousin Ishmael is first a dappled horse in Zechariah and then, after the first century, he morphed into the green horse, and the order between the horses changes.
This simple realization resolves a lot of doctrinal problems. we talk about this in the Revelation & the End Times study.
Coming back to Parasha Toldot, Rivkah has these two twins going at it inside her. They are trying to crack each other in pieces. She says “If everything is okay, why am I this way?” So she goes to inquire of Yahweh.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 25:22
22 “But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of Yahweh.”
Verse 23. “And Yahweh said to her: Two nations are in your womb.”
B’reisheet (Genesis) 25:23
23 “And Yahweh said to her: Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.”
This is critical for understanding. In Scripture, a nation is defined as a group of people who all share a common religious or cultic belief. So if a nation has a common cultic belief, therefore it has a common culture. If you have a common culture, then you have a common cultic belief. If you do not have the same cultic belief then you do not have the same culture and you do not have the same religion, then really you have no national unity. You are a kingdom divided against yourself and ultimately you will fall. That is the Babylonian system.
There is no bond that you are going to form that is going to heal a broken kingdom. The only way to have unity in the kingdom is to have one single religion. That is the truth. The United Nations is preaching all against it, but that is the truth. If you do not have the same cultic worship, you do not have the same culture, and you cannot live together beyond certain very narrow parameters. This is what is truly at the root of Israel’s constitutional crisis and also the coming civil war in the United States. This is prophesied in Jeremiah. There is no common religion. There is no Babylonian religion that serves Elohim and at the same time takes into account the will of every single individual in that nation.
If every single person in that nation has their own cultic belief or if they have a joint Babylonian cultic belief, then the nation cannot help but grow further and further apart. That is true whether we are talking about the United States, or we are talking about the land of Israel, or talking about any other nation on the planet. This Babylonian democratic system is really a key evil that has to be rooted out. It is the coming of Esau’s kingdom is what we are seeing.
The Protestants were able to fake unity in the United States for about 200 years; from the time of the colonies up until the death of what you might call the WASP Protestant era in the United States in the 1970s and 80s.
Israel has been able to fake a kind of a unity for about 75 years, but we also see a civil war schism starting to form in the land of Israel. The reason for this is just very simply that both the United States of America and the state of Israel are formed on the basis of Babylonian democracy. It is a Babylonian institution. It is inspired by the Babylonian mystery religion. This false, phony Babylonian religion tells us that if we will just cast our vote for whatever or whoever seems good and right in our own eyes, that we can forge National Unity this way. It is false. It is a peace that is no peace.
If you take it back to its religious roots and back to the definition in Scripture, we see it is no peace at all. Under democracy, the rule is that if you are going to rule, you need to have the majority. Either you need to limit the scope of your rule (as is being done in the land of Israel), or you need to maintain the majority rule by whatever reason or another. If at whatever point you become in the minority (as it is happening to both the white and the black horses, both in the United States and in the land of Israel), then you are going to have problems.
Under the Babylonian system, as long as you are in the majority or as long as you have a lot of money, democracy can serve you well. But let us think about it. If King David was here today, is he going to be taking a census? Is he going to be relying on a vote to establish his power? If Shemuel the prophet were here today, would he be concerned with a vote or would he be concerned with hearing and obeying the voice of Elohim?
Verse 23 tells us that Rivkah had two separate nations in her womb and that these two separate nations were trying to break and crack each other in pieces. It says that the older son Esau would serve the younger son Ya’akov. I need to speak to this.
Sometimes you hear people question Rivkah’s motivations in urging her son Ya’akov to steal the blessing from Esau. We have to approach this with an understanding of the malhot because if we approach it in a very simplistic way, I do not think we are going to take the right lesson.
Remembering what Elohim said, I believe Rivkah made a correct choice in telling Ya’akov to steal the blessing from Esau. I believe it was a necessary thing in that Rivkah believed the word that she had received from Elohim. She did not just hear it, she did not just know it, she did not let it fly in one ear and then out the other. She took it to heart, and she made Elohim’s word part of her being. Then later when the time was right, she acted on Yahweh’s word.
Elohim had already stated that His will was for Ya’akov to be the one to rule and there are important Messianic reasons for this. Rivkah believed this word of Yahweh and she did what she had to do to see the word of Elohim walked out.
Notice then in verse 25 that Esau is all red. And we tie this to the red horse of Zechariah in Revelation. Red is a color of anger. It is often taken as the color of madness. Just like the madness that we see in the madness of the political Democratic left and also in secular humanists. What they propose is a kind of a madness. If you take a look at their actions, they are motivated by what triggers them. They are motivated by madness. Their anger is what motivates them.
As the boys grew, Esau became a man of his passions. He went after hunting and fishing and camping instead of pursuing the finer arts of refined civilization and Scripture study. In contrast, Ya’akov dwelt in tents and around other people. He was a man of civilization and of culture if you will.
Now we get to the real problem which was that Esau is basically spiritually lazy. He does not love Elohim. How do we know this? Take a look at red horse Esau around the world. It should be fairly obvious, but when we look here in the parasha, in verse 29, it seems like perhaps Ya’akov might be practicing the finer culinary arts. Maybe he is a gourmet. Apparently, his food is pretty good because Esau is ready to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew! (That is why they say that gourmet cooking can be a promising career because sometimes your clients pay with their birthright!)
Someone will say, “Well, who cares really? I mean what is so special about a birthright, right?”
The thing is that biblically, the birthright ordinarily determines who is going to be the next leader. Who is going to be the next king, prince, or whatever other kind of hereditary leader. The birthright determines who will rule under ordinary circumstances.
Someone might say, “Well, I do not really want to be a king. What do I care about the birthright? I think I would just be happier being a normal person living a normal life like Esau.”
We do see goy kings and princes abdicate the throne. We have seen it in England, we have seen in other nations precisely because they just do not want all those heavy duties, heavy responsibilities, and the intense pressures that go along with being a king or anyone in the kingship role such as a president or a prime minister. For a goy nation, that is fine, you can do that. If you are a goy prince, like Esau, then that is a choice you can make.
You can say, “I do not want the burden. I would rather have good food in a good restaurant. I would rather have a fine dinner than take on all the cares, pressures, and responsibilities of establishing Yahweh’s Kingdom here on earth.”
The lesson I believe that we need to extract from this is that if we do not want to work and serve Elohim in establishing the kind of world that Elohim wants to see made into reality, then we really do not deserve the birthright.
In contrast, Ya’akov could see that Esau did not really value the birthright. He did not really want to do the job for Elohim. When we think about what all that entails and the Messianic role in this decision making, it was really next thing to a duty for Ya’akov to buy the birthright from him. That was a simple purchase and sale. I do not attach anything negative to the purchase of the birthright. That was a simple ‘do not want her’ situation. He did not want the birthright, so it was a steal, so to speak.
With the kinds of pressures and responsibilities that come on kings, really the thing with Rivkah urging Ya’akov to steal the birthright is this. If you are going to be under all that pressure in the kingship, then you need the blessings. Or you are not going to be able to be effective, survive, and do good long term. You will not be able to sustain it without the blessing. That is why I believe Rivkah had to set up Ya’akov to steal the blessing from Esau. Without the blessing, Israel cannot effectively rule.
There is a lot more we could say here in the Torah portion, but now we need to go to the Haftarah portion. This particular portion is oriented primarily towards brother Judah because Malachi is oriented towards Judah.
As I understand it, the basic problem here in Malachi is simply that in Malachi’s time, the Rabbinical Order had changed. It was not the same as the Levitical Order that is commanded in the Torah. When the rabbis came back from Babylon, they did not institute the Levitical Order. They instituted something other than a Levitical Order. We know that the rabbis existed early in the second temple period even though they did not become predominant until after the change of rabbi Judah the prince around 220 CE.
What Malachi is saying here is that these changes are a big problem. We can imagine all kinds of scenarios where the Levitical priesthood would have gone into Babylon and there is no temple. There is no altar. There is no place for the people to bring their sacrifices. So if you are going to follow Yahweh’s Torah like Yahweh says to do, you do not have the circumstances required. So obviously, some kind of a stop gap measure would have to be put in place in Babylon. Some kind of alteration to the power structure would have to be put in place. You would have to follow the instructions of the senior most respected elders and Levites of that time. And during the time Israel was in Babylon, perhaps that was a very reasonable thing for brother Judah to do.
What is Malachi saying here? What Malachi is saying in his book is that when Judah came back to the land after the Babylonian exile, they did not re-establish a clean Levitical Order. They established a Levitical Order that had certain changes in it. Over time, it has now morphed into what we would call the Rabbinical Order.
That is a big problem because in Elohim’s Torah that He gave to Israel, it was the job of the priests and Levites to hear Yahweh’s Torah and teach the people Yahweh’s words. That was the big fight between Yeshua and the rabbis in the first century. Whose words are we paying attention to? Are we paying attention to our Creator and our Father’s words? Or are we paying attention to the rulings and teachings of men? That is the first century in a nutshell.
The thing is, Yahweh prohibits altering His Torah in any way. For example, in places like Devarim (Deuteronomy) chapter 4 and verse 2, Yahweh tells us not to add anything to the word which Yahweh commanded Moshe nor to take anything away from it.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:2
2 “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim which I command you.”
We are not authorized to make those kinds of additions and substitute changes. He says not to change it. That is the only way that we can keep the commandments of Yahweh our Elohim which He commands us. If we take a look at the way the language reads, it seems to say that if we alter Yahweh’s Torah commandments in any way, meaning if we had fence laws or prohibitions, it is no longer Yahweh’s Torah but our own.
That is understandable is it not? If you own a business and your employees change your laws, they change your company rules, are you pleased? Or perhaps, if you are a father and you lay down the rules for your household and your wife changes your rules or your children do not obey your rules, are you pleased?
Malachi chapter 2 and verse 2. Yahweh says that He wants us to call Him by His name Yahweh, like He says to do all throughout the Tanach. We have a study on “The Set-apart Names” in our Nazarene Scripture study series. It says not to use made up substitute names because these actually hide His name. He wants us to use His name Yahweh and not the names Adonai and Hashem. That effectively leaves His name void and leaving His name devastated.
Malachi 2:2
2 If you will not hear, And if you will not take it to heart, To give glory to My name,” Says YAHWEH of hosts, “I will send a curse upon you, And I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, Because you do not take it to heart.
In verse 4, He says he wants Judah to turn from the rabbinical covenant that they made in Babylon and go back to teaching His Levitical Order. In Verse 8, He says that the Rabbinical Order has departed from the way that He Himself has commanded. As a result, the rabbis have caused many to stumble at His true Torah because they are trying to teach the people to keep the rabbinical version of Torah law. It is not the same thing as the Torah of Moshe. He says that the rabbis “have corrupted the covenant that He gave to Levi says Yahweh of hosts”.
Malachi 2:8
8 “But you have departed from the way; You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” Says Yahweh of hosts.”
This is not to pick on Judah. There are a lot of prophecies that pertain to the House of Ephraim, and we tell those prophecies to the House of Ephraim also. But in love, the verses here are clearly directed towards brother Judah and the context is for today.
According to what Elohim is saying, the House of Judah has a choice. Either the Rabbinical Order can believe what Malachi says and go back to the Levitical Order and go back to Yahweh’s way of doing things, or else the entire House of Judah is going to pay the cost. This prophecy is for today’s times.
You might think I am being mean in telling you what Scripture says, you might feel unfairly picked on because we are focusing on Judah in this parasha and not Ephraim. But what I would say is if there is any discrepancy between what we believe, what we say, what we actually practice, and the word of Elohim, then we need to make a change. We can listen to what the Babylonian rabbis say. We can listen to the world views that they are going to conjure up for us, but if they believe that I am the Mashiach, then are you going to believe them or are you going to believe Scripture?
If we are willing to receive it, there is a reason Yahweh brings up Esau’s name in chapter one. That is that if we as Ya’akov’s children (Ephraim and Judah); If we are not going to do things the way Elohim says and if we are not going to establish the Kingdom Elohim wants; we are not going to do things His way according to all of His instructions (all the instructions that we were shown upon the mountain), then what He is saying is that effectively (in His sight) we might as well be Esau. Because just like Esau, we also are not giving Elohim the Kingdom He wants. We are also establishing a different kingdom than the one Elohim’s word says He wants in the Tanach.
If we think about it, the purchase of the birthright, that is just a simple purchase and sale, there is no problem with that, but we are talking about the theft of the blessing. The blessing has to go with the birthright because you need the blessing to power the birthright. But if we do not use the birthright and the blessing to give Elohim the Kingdom He wants, does that not put the responsibility for stealing the blessing back on our own heads?
Consider, Yeshua ben Joseph was born in Bethlehem like Micah 5:2 says. He also started His ministry in 26 CE like Daniel 9:25 says. Consider, in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 33. We know that the Roman Empire was in the land of Israel. But Yeshua told His followers not to fight the enemy on their own terms. Not to fight their brutality with our own brutality. Not to fight evil with our own power and strength.
Rather what we need to do is do just like our forefathers did back in days of old. That we should seek first the one and only true Kingdom of Elohim. To seek to establish it here on this earth, beginning with ourselves. Then we should seek to obey His righteousness, meaning His Torah the way He says to do things. If we would do that, then His Father Yahweh will add everything else we need to us. He would take care of all the other details, but what this requires is a constant dedication in hearing and obeying His voice and not setting up alternate priesthoods that propagate Babylonian ways.
We have some words of caution for the House of Ephraim also. In verse 33, this phrase “and his righteousness”, that is Hebraic idiom that refers to obeying all of Yahweh’s commandments. Taryag-mitzvot as they say in the land.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of Elohim and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
From Elohim’s point of view, those who obey His commandments and help to establish His Kingdom His way, those are the righteous ones. What this means, (what Yeshua is telling us right here in His very first sermon) is that belief on Him does not excuse anyone from obeying His Father’s Torah or commandments because the Torah is the bride’s marital covenant. It is effectively her ketubah. If you have questions on that then please read or re-read Matthew Chapter 5 and verse 17 in the very same sermon.
Here, Yeshua clearly tells us that “He did not come to do away with any part of the Torah or the prophecies and that as long as heaven and earth still exists, nothing at all can or will pass away from the Torah and that anyone who attempts or even thinks to downgrade the Torah and teaches men so, he himself will be downgraded in the Kingdom”.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 5:17-18
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.“
If you have any questions on that or if you have questions as to why believers in Yeshua would still want to keep all of the Torah commandments and why it is no contradiction, then I encourage you to read our study Nazarene Israel: the Original Faith of the Apostles. It explains the two houses of Israel (Ephraim and Judah) and also explains the prophetic reasons why the sect of the Nazarenes is reappearing today in these End Times.
We will be back soon with more videos about who the Mashiach (Messiah) of Israel truly is and what He wants for His coming Kingdom according to Scripture. And not the traditions and teachings of men.
The two houses have been separated a long time: for more than 2,730 years according to Ezekiel 4. There is still a lot of impurity in both houses. But together, if those of us who love Yahweh our Elohim, if we will submit to what the Father says for Himself in His word and follow His teachings and traditions, then together in the long term; together the sons of Ya’akov (Ephraim, and Judah) can build the kind of a world that our Elohim has always wanted. We can create a world where every man truly looks out for his brothers and sisters and takes care of our common home. With Elohim’s help, together we can establish the kind of Kingdom that Elohim wants here on this earth.