Watch: About Mashiach ben Yosef
Welcome to Nazarene Israel. My name is Norman Willis. In this chapter, we would like to ask if you know about the special relationship that has existed between the Christians and Jews from literally all the way back to the days of the patriarchs, even before there were Christians? And would you like to know who is this mysterious shadowy figure that appears in Orthodox Judaism from time to time called Mashiach ben Yosef (or Messiah, Son of Joseph)? And would you like to know how this special ancient relationship between the Christians and Jews, coupled with our Jewish brethren’s desire to see their Mashiach ben-Yosef figure, affects the end-time headlines that we see today? Join us in this study as we talk about Mashiach ben Yosef, who he is, what he wants, and how to protect you and your family from losing your crowns.
Before we can understand who Mashiach ben Yosef is, how he affects the special relationship between the Christians and Jews, and how he affects end-time events, first we need to understand what is called The Mystery of the Two Houses. We write about this in the Nazarene Israel study. If you have not had the time to read the Nazarene Israel study I encourage you to please read it, study it, and understand it. If you will read that study you will literally understand more than what 99 percent of the Christians worldwide understand.
In the Nazarene Israel study, we explain that the Christians and Jews are essentially estranged brothers in the Abrahamic covenant. We also explain in a book called Revelation and the End Times, as well as in our video series on our YouTube channel called Revelation Simplified, that after Armageddon our Orthodox Jewish brothers will finally accept Yeshua as their Messiah. At the same time, after Armageddon, the Christians also are going to realize that they are the spiritual (if not also the literal) descendants of the Lost 10 tribes of Israel. We explain that in the Nazarene Israel study.
We also see in these studies how the Christians are going to revert and come back to the original first-century Christian-Jewish faith which is Nazareth Israel, which is a Jewish (or Israelite) form of worship.
Well in Jude verse 3 it says,
Jehudah (Jude) 1:3
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
He is saying that there are different belief sets, even in the first century. And he is not saying they are not saved, but he says to contend earnestly for the original faith. So there is one original faith. And as we understand, as we explain in the Nazarene Israel study, that original faith is what many call the Original First-Century Jewish-Christian Faith. But actually, it is more correct to call it a Christian-Jewish faith or Christian-Israelite faith because in the first century it had a Jewish and Israelite character, and that is very important. In fact, the original first-century faith was called the Israelite Sect of the Nazarenes. Just as there is a Sect of the Sadducees and a Sect of the Pharisees, you also had a Sect of the Nazarenes, but yet it was part of the nation of Israel. That is what we call the faith Nazarene Israel. That is so important to understand.
To understand all these things better, first, let us take a brief history recap of the Two Houses for those of you who have not read the Nazarene Israel study. There is much more in that study, I encourage you to read it, you are in for a treat.
But back in the days, the patriarch Jacob (Yaakov), later renamed Israel, had twelve sons. Each of Israel’s twelve sons fathered one of what is called The Twelve Tribes of Israel. Well, Moses then led the twelve tribes of Israel out of Egypt, and then Joshua led them into the Promised Land. Then the twelve tribes settled in the land of Israel, each in his own specific tribal territory.
What many Christians do not know is that many centuries later, after the reigns of kings David and Solomon, the nation of Israel split into two parts. Ten tribes in the north, and two tribes in the south. Now the southern two tribes were led by the tribe of Judah, and that is why Scripture refers to the southern two or three tribes as the house of Judah or the house of Jacob. What many people do not know is that their descendants are the Jews of today.
In contrast, the northern ten tribes were led by the tribe of Ephraim (Ef-rai-eem). Scripture calls these ten tribes the house of Ephraim and also calls them the house of Israel or the house of Joseph (as we will see that Ephraim is Joseph’s son). It is very important to understand the difference between these two houses.
Now, in Matthew chapter 15 Yeshua tells us that He came not except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is because the northern house of Israel had already been lost at that particular point.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 15:24
24 But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
[The house of Ephraim, or the house of Joseph (Yosef)].
And this is why the Jews of the southern house of Judah did not believe on Yeshua when He came the first time. Because He had not been sent for the house of Judah, He was only sent for the 10 lost tribes of the northern house of Israel (Ephraim, or the house of Yosef).
Now names in Scripture are very important. Let us take a look at Genesis chapter 30.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 30:24
24 So [Rachel] called his name Yosef, and said, “Yahweh shall add to me another son.”
It is fascinating because names in Scripture are always prophetic. There is always extreme meaning attached to the names. So let us take a look at the name Yosef.
Strong’s Hebrew Concordance
H:3130 (יוֹסֵף) yôsêph (yo-safe’)
Future of H3254; let him add (or perhaps simply active participle adding); Joseph, the name of seven Israelites: – Joseph.
Compare H3084
Okay, now we compare with Hebrews 3084
Strong’s Hebrew Concordance
H:3084 (יְהוֹסֵף) yehôsêph, yeh-ho-safe’
A fuller form of H3130; Jehoseph (that is, Joseph), a son of Jacob: – Joseph.
Notice it is a fuller form of Hebrew 3130. Also notice that Yahweh’s name is contained in it. It has the yodh, he, waw. So it is not just Yosef, the full form is Yehoseph, just like you might have someone with the name of Rich whose full name is Richard, or you might have John which is a short form of Jonathan. Josef is the short form, Yehoseph is the fuller form. But what it really says here is that Yahweh shall add, which is exactly what Rachel named her older son.
So, we are looking at names. Now let us look at Genesis chapter 41, first at verse 45 and then verses 51-52.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 41:45, 51-52
45 And Pharaoh… gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On…
51 Yosef called the name of the firstborn Manesseh: “For Elohim has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.”
52 And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For Elohim has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
So we see that while Yosef was sold down into slavery in Egypt that Pharaoh gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. Very important.
In the Nazarene Israel study, we see that there is a correspondence between the tribe of Manasseh and the United Kingdom (England), which is where the industrial revolution was firstborn. And the industrial revolution has helped people to forget all their toil. But notice in the United Kingdom (or in England) there is also a lot of friction with the Jews and the land of Israel because essentially, they have forgotten their Father’s house in the land of Israel. We are also going to see a special relationship here between the term Ephraim and fruitful.
Strong’s Hebrew Concordance
H:669 (אֶפְרַיִם) ‘Ephrayim, ef-rah’-yim
Dual of a masculine form of H672; double fruit; Ephrajim, a son of Joseph; also the tribe descended from him, and its territory:- Ephraim Ephraimites [house of Ephraim]
Then we look up the reference to Strong’s Hebrew 672 and we see something very interesting.
Strong’s Hebrew Concordance
H:672 (אֶפְרָ֔ת( )אֶפְרָתָה) ‘ephrâth, ‘ephrâthâh, ef-rawth’, ef-raw’-thaw
From H6509; fruitfulness; Ephrath, another name for Bethlehem; once used in Psa_132:6 perhaps for Ephraim; also of an Israelitish woman: – Ephrath, Ephratah.
Okay, so back in old times the p and the f sound were related. One is a ‘pa’ sound and then one is a soft ‘ph’ (fa) sound. If you pronounce ‘E-phra’ the sound relates with the ‘fa’ sound in ‘fruit’. So the p and the f sounds are related, fruitfulness is related to Ephrath which is another name for Bethlehem, where the Messiah came from, and the Messiah basically helps us to bear good fruit. So we see all these relationships in the Hebrew names.
Now we look up the next reference at Strong’s Hebrew 6509.
Strong’s Hebrew Concordance
H:6509 (פָּרָה) pârâh, paw-raw’
A primitive root; to bear fruit (literally or figuratively): – bear, bring forth (fruit), (be, cause to be, make) fruitful, grow, increase.
We see that it means ‘to bear fruit’ either literally or we could say spiritually, but there is a relationship between Ephraim and bearing good fruit.
Now we know that Ephraim is the bride, we will talk about that in just a little bit. But in Genesis chapter 48 we have the very famous passage where Israel blessed Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh, and Ephraim. And Israel (Jacob) crossed his hands giving the greater blessing to the younger son.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 48:5
5 “And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Shimon, they shall be mine.”
So, effectively we could say that Israel adopted Yosef’s two sons, even though they were born of an Egyptian mother. Remembering that Yosef’s name means Yahweh shall add, what we see is that when Israel adopted Ephraim and Manasseh, Yosef was effectively adding sons of an Egyptian mother to the nation of Israel. And this is likewise what his descendants (the Christians who follow Yeshua) effectively do because Yeshua only came for the house of Israel.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 48:14
14 Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 48:22
22 “Moreover I have given to you [Yosef (by extension to his two sons)] one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”
What we see in our other studies and in the Nazarene Israel study is that, effectively, Manasseh corresponds to the United Kingdom and Ephraim corresponds to the United States. And these have been given one portion above their brothers.
Now, the northern ten tribes of the house of Ephraim were favored because they were Yosef’s sons. But there was still a problem here because they did not obey the Father’s Torah, instead, they fell into idol worship. Because of that, Yahweh sent several prophets to warn them, but they did not obey the prophets. So, later they were taken into captivity in Assyria, and from there they were dispersed into the nations and became lost to history. Interestingly enough, we will see that our Jewish brothers always knew where they were!
But in the Nazarene Israel study, we show how the plan always was for the lost 10 tribes of the house of Israel (the house of Ephraim) to be scattered into the world like seed. And how several prophecies such as Ezekiel 4, Hosea 6 (and other places) tell us that one day the lost ten tribes would be regathered and returned to the land of Israel because of their faith in Messiah Yeshua. In other words, they would one day bear good fruit, being from Ephraim (E-phrat, fruit). This is also why we see so many references to seed and fruit in Scripture.
Luqa (Luke) 3:8
8 “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Avraham as our father.’ For I say to you that Elohim is able to raise up children to Avraham from these stones.”
The children of Israel, both Judah and Ephraim would be of Avraham’s seed. But that is not enough. The point is that we need to bear good fruit.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 13:23
23 “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Again, we know that Ephraim is the bride, and what is the job of a bride but to bear good fruit? So we see all these references to fruit, and the house of Ephraim, and the bride.
Well, I remember when I was first called to repentance back in 1999. Yahweh led me straight away to what at that time we called the Messianic Israel Movement or the Two-House Movement, and it has some other names as well. The Ephraim Movement, all kinds of different names, whatever they are calling it this week. We focus mainly on Nazarene Israel. But at that time back in 1999 it was the big focus, we tended to believe that we just simply had to reveal ourselves to our brothers in Judah. Just like the patriarch Joseph revealed himself to his brothers.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 45:1
1 Then Yosef could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Make everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him while Yosef made himself known to his brothers.
So we felt that was all that we needed to do, we just needed to declare ourselves to Judah.
We could say, “We are your brothers, we are Ephraim, by extension we are Yosef! We are coming back because of Messiah Yeshua! So if we are your brothers and we are coming back to our inheritance in the covenant because of Messiah Yeshua, then how is He not the Messiah?!”
We thought that was a great strategy, but of course, it did not work. And the reason it did not work is that the rabbis already know who we are. (It is not a surprise to them!) But here is the thing, the rabbis want Yosef and Ephraim to add sons to the nation of Israel, but they do not want him to add sons to the nation of Israel because of or through their faith in Yeshua Messiah. And that is because, effectively, they hate Yeshua. They see Yeshua as an idol because they have been blinded to Yeshua for a time, and for a purpose, and for a season. And it is all going to shake out after Armageddon.
But the rabbis know that Ephraim was carried away into captivity in Assyria and then became lost to history (although not lost to them) because of Ephraim’s golden calf worship. We read about that in places such as First Kings chapters 11 and 12. So, effectively, they see Yeshua as another manifestation of Ephraimite idol worship. From the rabbinic point of view, what they see is that Ephraim went out the door to the north because of his idol worship and they are expecting Ephraim to drop his idol worship before he is brought back in through the same doorway. They see us as still worshiping a golden calf, so to speak, Yeshua. And what they do not understand is that Yeshua is not a golden calf, because they have a different concept of who and what the Messiah is. We will talk about that in the second half of this chapter.
We see how Ephraim (our forefathers) committed idolatry in Second Kings.
Melachim Bet (2 Kings) 17:15
15 And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom Yahweh had charged them that they should not do like them.
16 So they [Ephraim] left all the commandments of Yahweh their Elohim, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal [the Lord].
As we see in the Nazarene Israel study and other studies, the term Baal translates to ‘the Lord’. And who is it that the Christians worship except ‘the Lord’, or effectively ‘Baal’ because it is not Yahweh’s name.
So again, it is the same thing. We Ephraimites try telling the rabbis, ‘We are the Ephraimites, we want to come home because of Yeshua!’ And then all our rabbinic brothers can imagine is that we are still worshiping Jeroboam’s golden calves. They believe that we need to be separated from our idol worship and here is where Mashiach ben Yosef comes in. Because they have a secret plan to separate us from what they see as our idol worship.
Now the plot thickens, and the problem is that Yeshua is the missing piece of the puzzle that our brothers in Judah do not have yet. Have you ever tried to put together a puzzle and you know there are just certain pieces of the puzzle that you do not have? How can you put the pieces of the puzzle together the right way when you do not have all the pieces to the puzzle? Well, it is kind of like that and it is really difficult watching. I mean, I have spent some time with our Orthodox brethren. I have watched them try to interpret the news and have seen them try to interpret Scripture. When you are blinded to certain key passages there is really no way to make proper sense of the prophecies, because you do not have all the necessary information and you do not have all the necessary pieces. And they will not have most of them until after Armageddon.
So, we have the rabbinic concept of two human Messiahs. Now, we in Ephraim (in Nazarene Israel) understand the concept of a divine Messiah. Brother Judah does not understand that, their concept is that of a human messiah, and they have different takes on this. Just like how in Christianity you have all sorts of different takes on Scripture, you have a similar kind of a thing in Judaism. But many of them, particularly the Chabad, see two human messiahs. The first one they call Mashiach ben Yosef (Messiah the son of Joseph) and then the second one they call Mashiach ben David (Messiah the son of David). It is just amazing to listen to that; if they can only hear what they are saying, right? But they cannot hear what they are saying because they have been blinded to who Yeshua is.
We know that Messiah son of Joseph was Yeshua because we are told in Matthew chapter 1.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 1:16
16 And Yaakov begot Yosef the husband of Miriam, of whom was born Yeshua who is called Messiah.
It is very simple; it is very plain for us. But they do not understand this because they have been blinded to that.
If we look up in Wikipedia, we see the entry under Messiah ben Joseph.
Mashiach ben Joseph (Wikipedia)
In Jewish eschatology [Jewish end time interpretation of prophecy] Mashiach ben Yoseph or Messiah ben Joseph (Hebrew: משיח בן־יוסף Mašīaḥ ben Yōsēf), also known as Mashiach bar/ben Ephraim
(Aram./Heb.: משיח בר/בן אפרים), (is a Jewish messiah from the tribe of Ephraim and a descendant of Joseph. [1] The figure’s origins are much debated. Some regard it as a rabbinic invention, but others defend the view that its origins are in the Torah. [2]
So, it says ‘Ephraim’, and Ephraim is descended from Joseph. And then says that he is ‘a Jewish messiah from the tribe of Ephraim’. Well, okay. Those two things do not go together, because all Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites are Jews. You also have Israelites who are from the northern house of Ephraim. But so, that is part of Jewish theology is they call everything Jewish. All the tribes of Israel are Jewish according to them, so they say it is ‘a Jewish messiah from the tribe of Ephraim and the descendant of Joseph’.
Now, Judah and Joseph are two different patriarchs. You cannot be descended from Joseph and be a descendant of Judah, that does not work. But they do not understand that. Father willing, we might go into more detail on this in another chapter, we will have to see.
So what or who Mashiach ben Yosef is really, and who they expect Mashiach ben Yosef to be, is that they expect him to be a son of Joseph (Ephraim). In other words, they expect him to be a Christian who converts to Orthodox Judaism and convinces all the other Christians out there also to convert to Orthodox Judaism. Father forbid, but that is what they believe.
And we know that they believe this. Because in 2016 I was contacted by the Orthodox Jewish Sanhedrin because they believed that I was their Mashiach ben Yosef character! Father forbid! Sort of a dubious honor, it is like have I done something wrong? Oy! I went over there to talk with them and to try to explain to them that I cannot convince Christians to become Orthodox Jews. What I can do is I can try to convince Christians to become Nazarene Jews. And of course, they hated that because they do not like Nazarene Jews. In fact, they hate us Nazarene Israelites more than the Christians! Because I have had them tell me ‘At least with the Christians your average Jew can tell that Christianity is wrong’ [because Sunday, Christmas, and Easter show up nowhere in the Torah]. The fact of doing away with the Torah is that you are doing away with the bridal covenant. So it is very easy for a Jewish person to spot that Christianity is not the correct thing. But a Nazarene Israelite does obey the Torah. A Nazarene Israelite does keep the proper feasts. So it is much, much harder and so they are more afraid of us. And so they hate us more effectively.
But I believe it is very important that all Hebrew Roots believers need to understand what this false prophecy about Mashiach ben Yosef is about. Because we know from experience that the Orthodox rabbis are out there looking for this character and they are hoping to find him within the Hebrew Roots movement. They are very much animated by the Hebrew Roots movement. Because they believe that they see certain Christians coming back to the nation of Israel because of their faith in Yeshua, but they expect us to drop Yeshua as an idol before we come back in the door. They are looking for this person. They are looking for someone to be a false messiah to lead the people astray and basically to get them to lose their crowns.
Well, there are other concepts. Again, we understand the concept of a divine Messiah, but our brothers in Orthodox Judah do not understand the concept of a divine Messiah and they are looking for a human messiah. And if we have more time, Father willing, if we do another section we can talk about why that is. I want to say this respectfully because they are our brothers, but basically, our Orthodox Jewish brothers tend to think of themselves as being slightly divine. Because they tend to see themselves as being higher than the gentiles to start with. In the Talmud, there are certain passages that equate us with cattle, effectively. There are certain passages that indicate that only Jews have souls, only Jews, etc.
In any case, the Chabad Jews believed that rabbi Menachem Schneerson was the Messiah. Of course, he died and he now sleeps. But while the doctrine of Mashiach ben Yosef is not widespread in Judaism as a whole, it is widespread within the Hasidim and especially within the Chabad. The Chabad is about 13 percent of Orthodox Judaism overall.
So, I once knew a rebbetzin (a rabbi’s wife or a female rabbi) in the United States who told me the following straight out.
“It is common knowledge in Judaism that the Ephraimites are lost inside Christianity. Everyone knows that!” [Rebbetzin].
I said, “They do?”
She was talking about the Chabad world, but the Chabad world is about 13 percent of the Orthodox community, and they are also disproportionately influential. So what she is effectively saying is that everyone she knows in the Chabad world understands that the Lost 10 tribes are lost (hidden) inside of Christianity. That is part of Chabad knowledge that is considered common knowledge among the Chabad, they are surprised that not everyone knows that.
Then there was another Chabad rabbi who you could say is a very anti-missionary person of my acquaintance. Rabbi Avraham Feld gives his personal testimony, and he says that he spoke with rabbi Lubavitcher and with rabbi Schneerson before they? passed.
“It was Avraham’s personal conviction and understanding, from the Bible and the writings of the Jewish sages [i.e. the Talmud] that many Gentiles [i.e. the Christians] were of Israelite descent and that these ‘Lost Israelites’ would one day return to their heritage and to the Land of Israel. The Rebbe’s reply to Avraham’s request was: ‘Of course they are’.” [Rabbi Avraham Feld’s testimony].
So he is saying ‘Of course, of course, of course, the lost tribes are hidden inside of Christendom, just like the rebbetzin told me.’
Now notice they are disproportionately powerful; we will talk about that perhaps in another section. But both the Chabad and the Chasidim were involved in getting the Noahide laws. If you know about those, they were involved in getting them signed into law under U.S President George Bush. Also, President Jimmy Carter was the one who had attempted to make the Lubavitcher rebbes into a national holiday, and it was not until somewhat later that it was actually signed to be a national day of recognition as ‘National Learning Day’ (Education Sharing Day). But these are our brothers, and they are disproportionately powerful in politics.
Former President Trump also met with the Chabad and with the Haredim and his son-in-law Jared Kushner is also Chabad. And they are effectively communicating between the leadership of democratic nation-states and also non-democratic nation-states, they are disproportionately powerful because of their positions.
Notice, here is Russian President Vladimir Putin basically taking instructions from Russia’s Chief Rabbi, Berel Lazar, who is once again Chabad and again, believes in this prophecy of Mashiach ben Yosef.
Here again is Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Western Wall in 2012, telling people that he came to pray for the temple to be rebuilt.
Now, why does an ostensibly Christian man pray for the Orthodox Jewish anti-messiah’s temple to be built except if he is actually an agent? Keep that thought in mind.
Here is the problem. You try to talk with our Orthodox brethren about this and they cannot hear what you are saying. I tried to talk to several of them, I tried explaining how they are looking for this messiah character to come which, by Scripture, it is impossible. Because Scripture says the Messiah has already come. We give other examples of this in the Nazarene Israel study, Daniel chapter 9 is one piece of evidence. Let us take a look.
Daniel 9:25
25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks (69 weeks);
The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times.”
Well, we run the numbers and we do the math. History tells us that the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given by King Artaxerxes in 457 BCE. Now it’s simple, just do the math. We add the ‘seven weeks of years’ and the ‘62 weeks of years’ together and we get ‘’69 weeks of years’. So ‘69 weeks of years’ (69 times seven years) is 483 years. And from the start date of 457 BCE when the command was given by King Artaxerxes we add 483 years, and we get about 26 CE. That is when Yeshua’s ministry began. They figured that Yeshua was born about 4 BCE, 4 BCE plus 30 years of age is when Messiah began his ministry at about 26 CE.
As far as I can see Yeshua is the only historical person who could possibly fulfill this prophecy. This prophecy cannot be fulfilled by anyone in the future or today because it is already a past event. This event is 2,000 years old.
We also know from John chapter 1 that the rabbis of that day also knew the Messiah was due because they could do the math, rabbis are very good with math and are very intelligent people. So they also knew it was time for the Messiah to arrive.
Yochanan (John) 1:19-20
19 Now this is the testimony of Yochanan, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 He [John the immerser] confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”
The reason he confessed that he was not the Messiah was that they were asking him, ‘We know the Messiah has to come around this time, so who are you?’
Now, if the rabbis understood that the Messiah was supposed to come in the year 26 CE back then, why do the rabbis still look for a future Messiah to come? Except that they have been blinded to Yeshua and therefore they cannot receive Him as their Messiah yet and will not be able to receive Him until after Armageddon.
Well, sometimes people ask why it is that we have these tremendously smart brothers, these tremendously intelligent people, and yet they cannot understand who Yeshua is. How can they read the prophecies all the time and not get that this is who Yeshua is? The sad fact is that it is basically because of pride and that they have fallen prey to the oldest lie in the world, from the Tempter, Satan.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 3:5
5 “For Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.”
This is the problem. When we try to serve Elohim with our thinking as opposed to serving Him through our hearing, things go astray. Because what happens is that Elohim wants us to “Hear and obey, o Israel”. He wants us to die to our own flesh, die to our own selves, and fall on His Son. To fall on the stone and be broken, so that once we are broken we can then abide in Yeshua. And Him in us and us in Him, and Him in the Father and the Father in Him. Thus restoring the connection that was lost in the Garden of Eden. So many things in life are remedied if we will just die to ourselves, and be buried into His immersion, and be raised into His death. And then we will let His Spirit lead and guide us in all things.
But they do not want to do that because they are not of that understanding yet. So they are still trying to do things through their intellect instead of trying to do things through their hearing and hearing in their hearts. And that is sad, but that is where we are at. This is why the apostle Shaul (Paul) says the following.
Romim (Romans) 10:1-3
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to Elohim for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for Elohim, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of Elohim’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of Elohim.
This is the difficult and sad part. Father willing, we hope to do a second part to this study. It is amazing how many parallels there are. Because their theology tells them to establish a kingdom for their coming anti-messiah figure. Just like we are to use our minas to build a kingdom for Yeshua, they are attempting to use their minas (so to speak) to build the anti-messiah’s kingdom, even though they do not know who the messiah is yet. It is amazing their dedication; it is amazing the intelligence they use in these things. But because they are going by their thinking instead of by their spiritual hearing, they cannot get it right, they get it all wrong.
It becomes dangerous for us because we take a look at the events in the news and the world situation today. Now, most Jews are very good people, very nice people. But many people believe that there is a certain sect of the Chabad and also the Sabbatean Francis Jews who are causing a lot of trouble in the news, so to speak. We can see that our Orthodox brethren want to recover us. And a lot of the things that are going on now are because they are trying to separate us from Yeshua. They know who we are, they have known who we are for thousands of years. They have known who we are since we left because these things are recorded in the Talmud. And so that is what they see.
They see that Ephraim left out the north gate, so to speak, with their golden calves, and now they are expecting us to drop Yeshua as if He was a golden calf before we can come back in the same way. What they do not understand is it is a totally different deal now. They do not understand what is going on. And things are going to get difficult for us, but it is a blessing in disguise. Because what it causes us to do is it forces us to come together and be the kind of people that Yeshua wants us to be. Those of us who care to use our minas effectively to build Yeshua’s Kingdom, and not the anti-messiah’s kingdom that we see being established in the news today, well we know that difficult times are coming.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:23
23 [Yeshua says] “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.”
He would not write about these things except that we know these days are coming.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:24-25
24 “For false messiahs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
25 See, I have told you beforehand.”
You and your family are a target!
Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:26
26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.”
They want this Mashiach ben Yosef character or any whatever messiah character they can find.
Mattityahu (Matthew) 24:27-28
27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles [vultures] will be gathered together.”
So we know difficult times are coming. We know the deceptions are coming. And what we need to do is to be aware of who Mashiach ben Yosef is and not to fall prey to the rabbinic myths that surround him. I hope this study is helpful to someone.
Shalom.