Why does Yahweh love volunteerism? And if we want to be Yeshua’s bride, why do we need to actively volunteer to further the Great Commission as best we can? To answer these questions, let us look at the nature of man, and the nature of families.
When an infant is born, he needs others to meet his needs. When he wants something, all he does is cry, and it is up to his parents and caretakers to figure out what he needs. But this is a temporary phase.
As a child grows out of diapers, he slowly learns how to take care of himself. Once he can bathe and dress himself, these are his responsibilities. He must also learn to pick up after himself (whether he wants to or not).
As a child continues to mature, he becomes capable of giving back to his family. Because mankind is inherently selfish, children often resist responsibility, but it is essential that they learn to give to their families and society. In some schools of psychological thought, the desire to make a contribution to society is seen as one of the key measurements of maturity.
Unless we are called to the celibate path, with adulthood comes the desire to take a wife, and start a family of one’s own. However, for this to work, both a man and his wife must be mature enough to give to each other at least as much as they receive, or their marriage will not work. Further, once they start having children, they need to be happy to give much more than they receive, for young children will be net takers of time, money, energy, and love.
As adults, it is important to realize that it is a blessing to be able to give.
Ma’asei (Acts) 20:35
35 “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Adon Yeshua, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
If we do not learn this lesson, then something is seriously wrong. We were not created to be independent human beings. Rather, we were created to live as part of a Torah-obedient nation.
Our flesh may fight it at times, but the truth is that we are very blessed if we can now give back to our parents and society. Our own children will see an example of respect that speaks louder than words, and this will influence how they in turn treat us. It will also allow our parents (their grandparents) to provide guidance and counsel to the rest of the community, sitting as “elders in the gate,” as it were.
So why do we need elders? Yahweh does not only enter into covenant with us as individuals, He enters into covenant with us as a nation. We have seen how Yeshua calls us not only into individual relationship with Him—He also calls us to build Him a nation while He is away. So let us lay aside the things that prevent us from building that nation.
Ivrim (Hebrews) 12:1
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…
Since Yeshua calls us to be a nation, and an extended family, let us do the things any nation (and any extended family) must do. And let us do these things according to His word.
Scripture speaks of three primary offices: the kingship (government), the priesthood, and the prophet. While both Nazarene Israel and Babylonian Christianity have priesthoods, there are some major differences.
As we saw earlier, Yeshua established a set-apart priesthood for the Melchizedekian order. This is to serve as Israel’s priesthood while we are in the dispersion. Even though we will not reside in a physical homeland again until after Armageddon, He wants His nation to be unified, and stand together as one new man. He wants a single body (rather than multiple bodies).
We also saw that the Babylonian church seeks to destroy Yeshua’s priesthood by providing an unlimited number of substitutes. All of these substitute priesthoods disobey the principles we have learned about in Scripture. That is, all of these priesthoods are based on lies.
One of the telltale trademarks of Babylonian Christianity is that it has to achieve unity by suppressing knowledge. Catholicism (on the left end of the spectrum) has unity, but only because the people are taught not to read for themselves. Then in Messianism (on the right end of the spectrum) the people know all about organization, tithes, and leadership, but they don’t obey what they know (so it is a rebellion similar to Korah’s in Numbers 16).
| Catholic | Protestant | Independent | Messianic |
| ++ Unity | + Unity | – Unity | – – Unity |
| – – Study | – Study | + Study | ++ Study |
On the left end of the spectrum, the Catholics are willing to unify, appoint leadership, and tithe (which are all part of the true Great Commission). However, they keep the wrong feast days, and devalue the land of Israel. On the other end of the spectrum, some Messianics keep the correct feast days, and they value the land of Israel. However, they neglect the Great Commission.
| Catholic | Protestant | Independent | Messianic |
| ++ Unity | + Unity | – Unity | – – Unity |
| ++ Lead | + Lead | – Lead | – – Lead |
| ++ Tithing | + Tithing | – Tithing | – – Tithing |
| – – Feasts | – Feasts | + Feasts | ++ Feasts |
| – – Land | – Land | + Land | ++ Land |
In Revelation and the End Times we talk about the flight of the bride. Having left the land, she has to pass through many stages before she returns back home to the land of Israel, and be reunited with her Husband.
We have seen that when the Nazarenes still lived in the land, they organized as a single body, with apostolic leadership. They learned Torah, and kept it. However, when they went into the dispersion it was as if sheep had to visit a series of Babylonian pastures (Catholic, Protestant, Messianic, etc.). Each pasture brings her a little more knowledge, but also gives her more freedom to disobey. However, the disobedience has to go before she can come back to the original faith.
In the Levitical order, anyone who challenges the leadership, or who fails to pay his tithes, dies on the word of two or three witnesses.
Ivrim (Hebrews) 10:26-29
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected the Torah of Moshe dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of Elohim underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
In contrast, in the Melchizedekian order, there are no punishments for nonperformance. We can sit and learn without lifting a finger. We don’t have to give anything for the Great Commission, and Yahweh still loves us, as He is a merciful and loving Father. However, that does not mean we qualify as His bride.
When we raise children, we don’t just want them to clean their rooms and help out around the home because we tell them to. Rather, we want them to volunteer to help out around the home because they love us, and want to do their part. And in just the same way, Yahweh does not want us to tithe, organize, and support leadership under penalty of death. Rather, He wants us to know that He loved us first, and sent His Son to die for us while we were still sinners, so that we might learn to love Him back, and obey Him, even in a volunteer environment.
Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 4:19
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
As we grow in knowledge (from Catholicism to Nazarene Israel), we should also grow in love. Hopefully we become eager to grow into spiritual adults that shoulder the difficult adult burdens of giving, taking care of others, and helping Yeshua’s people develop the same kind of eager, giving love that He shows us.
Many are called, yet few are chosen. That is because few ever volunteer (and He chooses the volunteers). Yahweh is looking for those volunteers, who not only do what they must, but who are eager to do all they can for Him and His Son.
Qorintim Bet (2 Corinthians) 9:6-8
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for Elohim loves a cheerful giver.
8 And Elohim is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
It is not the legalistic performance of the Torah that Yahweh wants to see. Rather, He longs to see fruit of a heart that earnestly loves His Son more than it loves life in the world. Whether we are called to priesthood, to eldership, or to help as congregational elders and servants, let us be the kind of people He wants to take as a bride for His Son.