Passover & Elijah: Ushering in the Great Redemption

ONE FOR ISRAEL

– March 26, 2021

Share on facebook

Share on twitter

Share on pinterest

Share on reddit

Share on whatsapp

Share on email

Share on print

It is a Passover tradition to have an extra place at the seder table for the prophet Elijah. I saw a Passover haiku (form of short poetry) which read:

On Passover we
Opened the door for Elijah
Now our cat is gone.

It’s a fun part of the celebration to expect Elijah at this time: we leave the door open, call his name, and prepare a place for him in expectation. Why? What has Elijah got to do with Passover? He came about 500 years after the Exodus from Egypt. The first Passover is thought to have happened over three thousand years ago, and Elijah was taken from the earth in 849 BC. How did he get mixed up in all of this?

Elijah ushers in the Great Redemption

Understanding Elijah’s part in Passover is impossible if we do not understand the Jewish concept of ‘geula’ or redemption (גאולה).

The theme of redemption is central to the Feast of Passover, as Israel was set free from slavery. However, both Jews and Christians can all agree that the feast prophetically points to another level of redemption to come. It lays down a pattern for the Ultimate Redemption.

Christians interpret this, by and large, to be the pivotal weekend when the Messiah redeemed us from sin by surrendering His life to be our Passover Lamb. Jewish people, on the other hand, look to the “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord”, when the Messiah will come to rule and reign.

But could it be that both are right?

Christians often think Jewish people are missing a trick or two in their expectation that the Messiah would come to crush their enemies, but that’s because Christians forget that that’s exactly what the Bible describes over and over again. The second coming of Jesus is woven all through the Old Testament—not just the book of Revelation. The reason Jewish people expect a mighty warrior is because that is what has been promised.

The Messiah is coming with a winnowing fork to sort the wheat from the chaff, and the future for the chaff is not looking good. All of us who love righteousness long for Him to come and put things right—to establish His kingdom rule and do away with wickedness. The only reason for delay is to extend the chance for the wicked to repent and be saved. Ismar Schorsch from the Jewish Theological Seminary puts it like this:

With the door ajar, we intone four verses that call upon God to visit those who have afflicted Jews with retribution. In the contemporary Seder, the moment lends itself to remembering the obscenity of the Holocaust… The impact of historical events on the mood of the Haggadah merely rendered what was implicit explicit. The original matrix had been set long before by the haftarah: a second redemption would right the wrongs of history.¹

And that’s what all creation is groaning for: wrong to be put right by our loving Creator.

Shabbat haGadol

On the Shabbat before Passover, the reading (the haftarah) comes from Malachi chapters 3 and 4. Schorsch explains that the choice of this haftarah from Malachi added a messianic undertone, bringing messianic anticipation to the celebration as well as the comfort of looking back on what God has done.

Passover looks back on God’s redemption of Israel when He delivered us from Egypt, but also forwards to the Great Redemption of the whole world which is yet to come.

Here’s how Malachi chapter 3 begins:

“Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. Suddenly He will come to His Temple—the Lord whom you seek—and the Messenger of the covenant—the One whom you desire—behold, He is coming.” (Malachi 3:1)

Guess who the messenger is who will come and prepare the way? Elijah. His identity is revealed at the end of the book.

“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of Adonai. He will turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and the hearts of children to their fathers—else I will come and strike the land with utter destruction.” (Malachi 4:5-6)

Jesus identified John the Baptist as fulfilling this prophecy (Matthew 11:14). John the Baptist indeed fulfilled the herald’s role, preparing the way for the Messiah, and John himself understood his role was that prophesied in Malachi, echoing the words about winnowing and burning away the chaff:

“As for me, I immerse you in water for repentance. But the One coming after me is mightier than I am; I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will immerse you in the Ruach ha-Kodesh [Holy Spirit] and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He shall clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn; but the chaff He shall burn up with inextinguishable fire.” (Matthew 3:11-12)

The fact that Jesus did not come bearing a winnowing fork disqualified him in the sight of many Jewish people, but as we know, much of Scripture carries both the “now” and the “not yet” at the same time.

Yes, John the Baptist was Elijah. Yes, Jesus is the Messiah who came 2000 years ago to bring redemption. But yes, there is more to come: Elijah will precede the second coming of the Messiah, who will usher in his kingdom rule and fulfil the longing of our hearts.

He will redeem all things to himself. His first coming did not involve the burning of chaff that John proclaimed, but his second will.

Promises for Israel

Who can endure the day of His coming?
Or who can stand when He appears?
For He will be like a refiner’s fire,
and like soap for cleaning raw wool.
And He will sit as a smelter or a purifier of silver,
and He will cleanse the sons of Levi,
and purify them like gold or silver.
Then they will become for Adonai
those who present an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:2-3)

In this passage we see God making promises to Israel which have not yet come to pass. He promises to purify Israel, and that they will be pleasing to Him once again. He promises not to consume Israel in judgement, and also that they will be back in the land, being a blessing to the whole earth.

“All the nations will call you blessed. For you will be a land of delight.” (v.12)

“So they shall be Mine,”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“in the day I make My own special possession. So I will spare them, as one spares his son serving him.” (v.17)

Clearly, these things are still to come. At the moment, the nations rage and we are warned that eventually all will turn against Israel (Zechariah 12:3). Yet this promise to be globally recognized as a blessing will one day come to pass. We also see similar promises of redemption and transformation of Israel in relation to the world throughout the prophets, in Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah.

The beginnings of redemption

In Jewish expectation, the beginnings of the geula, the Messianic expectancy, will inevitably involve sufferings, troubles and wars for Israel… as well as the physical restoration to the land of Israel before the Messiah is to come. There is also the expectation of national salvation, a conviction that Paul the Apostle shared:

For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be ignorant of this mystery—lest you be wise in your own eyes—that a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer shall come out of Zion.
He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
And this is My covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.”

Concerning the Good News, they are hostile for your sake; but concerning chosenness, they are loved on account of the fathers— for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:25-29)

This certainty of God’s irrevocable promise to Israel still stands.

“For I am Adonai. I do not change, so you, children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you.” (Malachi 3:6-7)

When the people of Israel have regathered to their land, when Jerusalem calls out to their Messiah “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”, the Messiah will come. But not for the first time – He said He would return. And He will put all things right. Prepare the way of the Lord!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wGQnnFND_ws%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26enablejsapi%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%3A

Ismar Schorsch, Pesah: The Great Redemption, The Jewish Theological Seminary / בית המדרש ללימודי יהדות, April 23 2005

Photo by Artem Labunsky on Unsplash

Join our Passover outreach campaign!

Your support helps us bring this message to millions of Israelis searching for their Messiah.

Post Views:400

ONE FOR ISRAEL

ONE FOR ISRAEL is an initiative of native-born Israelis on the forefront of high-tech media evangelism, proclaiming salvation to Israel, raising up spiritual leaders through ONE FOR ISRAEL’s Bible College and equipping them with the tools they need to transform our communities.

Important Message for Christians at Passover!

Passover is a critical time. The Jewish world remembers the great redemption

“Let My People Go!” The Hebrew Might Surprise You…

The phrase, “Let my people go”, aside from evoking the dulcet tones

The Meaning of the Word Pesach

Passover (or Pesach, פסח to use the Hebrew word) was, in essence,

STAY CONNECTED WITH US Yes, I would like to receive your weekly newsletter email

The truth about Judah in Genesis 37

The Fatal Words

It certainly feels this way if you understand Hebrew. For instance, at the end of the story, when Tamar brings out Judah’s personal items, she says, “Discern, I pray thee” (הַכֶּר־נָ֔א). This expression, הַכֶּר־נָ֔א – discern, recognize, appears only twice in the entire Torah, and can you guess where it is first used? Right in the previous chapter, when the brothers bring Joseph’s coat to Jacob and say, “Discern please whether it be thy son’s coat”.

The confession

The deceiver was deceived! Judah’s heart was pierced by these words and by the realization of his own sin that came back to him in these words. The eyes of his heart were opened, he confessed and repented – and amazingly, all this can be seen in the Hebrew text. When Tamar dressed up as a prostitute to trap Judah, she was waiting “at the entrance to Eynaim”, a name that doesn’t mean anything in English. In Hebrew, however,Petach Eynaim means the Opening of the Eyes.

See the hidden messages of the Scriptures

Thus, the message of the story of Judah and Tamar can only be fully understood in Hebrew – or at least, with Hebrew. This is the story of Judah’s change of heart, of the opening of the eyes of his heart. Torah wants us to know that the Judah that comes to Egypt is a very different person from the Judah who sold his brother.

Two weeks until Passover

https://hebrew4christians.com/About_HFC/Site_News/site_news.html#loaded

Hebrew for Christians

https://hebrew4christians.com/About_HFC/Site_News/site_news.html#loaded

VAYIKRA

Special Shabbat: God’s Hidden Ways

By Julia BlumMarch 10, 2022No comments

Little Aleph

For the last two weeks, we have been watching the people of Israel building the Tabernacle. This sanctuary was to accompany the Jewish people throughout their long journey in the wilderness and was to be set up in the Land of Israel when they eventually arrived there. Finally, in the very last chapter of the book of Exodus, it is finished. And then—what happens next?

Then the cloud covered the tabernacle[1]. A thick cloud covered the newly built Sanctuary. Because of this cloud, Moshe himself was unable to enter the Sanctuary. Can you imagine? After all the effort which had gone into this building, it was covered by a cloud and seemed to be totally inaccessible and totally useless.

Of course, we all know now that it was God’s presence, not just a cloud! However, think of the moment when it first happened: how could they know exactly what this cloud was? Oh yes, I am certain that Moshe had faith, that he didn’t doubt or question God, but I am also quite sure that there were many there who were grumbling, wondering why in the world they had spent so much time building the very thing that now seemed to be so useless, so inaccessible.

We also have this choice: to recognize the presence of God, the hand of God, the voice of God—or to just see a cloud interfering with our plans, something that ‘just happened’ to us. In an amazing way, like everything in Torah, this choice is reflected by the very first word of the book – VaYikra. In the original Hebrew text, the word Vayikr^a has one specific feature: it’s written with a miniature aleph at the end. There are three sizes of letters in Torah – regular, oversized and miniature – and every time we see a letter of a different size, we should look for a profound explanation. So, why do we have this miniature aleph here?

Our sages have offered different explanations, but here is the one that I absolutely love. The Hebrew word “VaYikra” without the aleph would read “VaYiker,” which means, “and it happened”. There is a huge and truly ontological difference between the worldview based on Vayikra “and He called,” and the worldview based on VaYiker “and it happened”—between seeing just a cloud making the Mishkan inaccessible, and recognizing His very presence covering the Tabernacle. Our sages say that when the Red Sea split, all the seas in the world split at the same time—because the Lord always leaves us the choice to perceive His miracles as just some natural events. While we are here on this earth, everything, absolutely everything, can be seen as something that ‘just happened,’ as opposed to something that He called into being. However, faith knows that there is a little aleph beyond everything that ‘just happens’ —and it is this aleph that makes all the difference and reminds us of God’s hidden ways.

The Spiritual Topography

The book of VaYikra (Leviticus) is placed in the very center of the Torah: there are two books before, and two books after. There is so much action before Leviticus— all the wonderful events and stories of Genesis and Exodus, all the great narratives that make for such dramatic and colorful pictures in children’s Bibles. There is also some action after this book, in Numbers and in Deuteronomy, although the very tone of the stories of the last two books is completely different from the first two. However, here, in VaYikra, there is almost no narrative, and virtually no action—everything stands still here.

Rashi says: “Thirteen times in the Torah, God spoke to Moses and Aaron together, and corresponding to them were thirteen other occasions where God spoke only to Moses.” This is one of those times. Here God speaks to Moses only. I imagine when God first began speaking here, that Moses was confused, perplexed, even dismayed for a time. It’s not that he had never heard His voice before this book – by the time we enter this book, Moses is already a great and accomplished leader who knows very well the voice of the Lord and has done amazing things for Him and with Him. He had just led the people out of Egypt, received the Ten Commandments, completed building the Tabernacle, and I suppose, after all these activities, he was ready to just go on. I’m sure he expected the Lord to keep giving him some practical guidance and instructions: “Lord, what do you want me to do next? What do you want me to build for you? Where do you want us to go?” But there is no going or building in VaYikra. Instead, the Lord speaks of sacrifice.

Do you know that in Hebrew, the root karav ((קדב), from which the words lehakreev, to sacrifice, and korban, sacrifice, are formed, is the very same root that forms the word lehitkarev, to come near, to draw near, to come closer. Yes, it is that simple: if you want lehitkarev leElohim—to come closer to God—you have to learn lehakreev, to sacrifice. The entire book of Leviticus (VaYikra) is about that. And only when we learn to sacrifice, does the real closeness, the true intimacy with God, come.

Shabbat Zachor

We have another reminder of God’s hidden ways on this Shabbat. This Shabbat is again one of those Special Shabbatot that are referred to by a special name: “Shabbat Zachor”. Shabbat Zachor (“Sabbath [of] remembrance שבת זכור) is the Shabbat immediately preceding Purim. On this Shabbat, at the end of the Torah Portion, we read Deuteronomy 25:17-19: “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you went out of Egypt…“

Deuteronomy 25:17 describes an incident in Exodus 17:8-16, just after the children of Israel crossed the sea. On the third day of their travelling in the wilderness, the army of Amalek attacked them. Miraculously, the Jewish people defeated the Amalekites; however, what does that have to do with Purim, that happened almost a thousand years later, and what must we remember?

And here we are back again to that little aleph – to God’s hidden ways. Parashat Zachor is read on the Shabbat before Purim because the story of Purim actually began hundreds of years before Esther, with Saul and Agag. This was a hidden beginning: Haman was a descendent of Agag and a descendant of Amalek. Like his fathers, he was an enemy of the Jews and therefore wanted to entirely wipe out the Jewish nation. Mordecai had to destroy Agag’s descendant, Haman, because King Saul did not obey God and destroy Agag. Next time, we will talk more about Purim and its hidden beginning.

[1] Ex. 40:35

https://hebrew4christians.com/training/struggling-with-anger-at-god/

Intro to Vayikra

https://hebrew4christians.com/training/introduction-to-vayikra-leviticus/

Malakh Panav

Last time, we saw the people of Israel bringing excessively bountiful donations for the building of the Tabernacle. As one of the Midrashim says, “they came both men and women; that is to say, in their eagerness they pressed against each other. The men and women came as a huge throng when they brought their gifts…”^[1] We questioned how it could be that the same very people who had so recently expressed such terrible lack of faith in the story of Golden Calf, now seemed to be completely renewed, with their hearts soft, open and tender. What happened between the Golden Calf and the Tabernacle? What had changed the hearts of the people of Israel?

In order to find an answer, we have to understand what happened between these two episodes—we need to look for an answer in the previous Torah portion, Ki Tisa. Much happened during this portion, and we hear a lot about the Golden Calf, about Moses’ and God’s wrath, about broken tablets. All this happens in chapter 32. Then we enter the 33rd chapter, which describes events that happened right after that, right after the Golden Calf incident and the tablets broken by Moses. At the end of the previous chapter, we saw Moses interceding for the people and managing to convince God to forgive Israel. Already, at the beginning of this chapter, he receives God’s confirmation: Yes, He will allow Moses to continue his mission of leading the people of Israel into the Promised Land, the Land flowing with milk and honey. However, in His words we can still hear the echo of His recent wrath. While commanding Moses and Israel to depart for the Land, God says, “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”[2]

Well, this seems to be a definitive statement, completely clear and expected, completely fair after the terrible sin the people of Israel had committed. Actually, this is the very subject of this Torah portion—it’s all about this, about God’s holiness and how He and His presence cannot, by any means, dwell with a sinful people: I will not go up in your midst …

How great must be the reader’s surprise, however, when only several verses later we read, And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”[3] How could it possibly be? We know that He is not a man that He should change his mind,[4] so what can explain this seemingly contradictory and sudden change of His decision?

In most translations, these two seemingly contradictory verses from Exodus 33 are rendered with similar words: “I will not go up in your midst,”[5] and “I will go with you, and I will give you rest.”[6] But it’s not like this in Hebrew: in verse 3 God says, I will not go up in your midst, while in verse 14 He says: My face will go with you. If we recall that prior to this, the Lord promised to send His Angel: “And I will send My Angel before you,”[7] and “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared,”[8] then we arrive at the Angel of His Face—Malakh Panav. Who is this angel?

In full, this name occurs in only one place, in the book of Isaiah: “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence (Malach Panav) saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.”[9] However, there are several instances in the Hebrew Bible where we see this special Angel of God’s presence, who speaks in the name of God and delivers His message. This Angel speaks from the first person as if he was God; he stands before the people in the form of a man, and after meeting him, people realize that they have seen God, yet their lives have been spared. We see him in Genesis 18 talking to Abraham, in Genesis 22 stopping Abraham on Mount Moriah, and in Genesis 32 wrestling with Jacob at Peniel; in the book of Joshua, he is the commander of the Lord’s army who commissions Joshua to fight the battles for the Land; we see him talking to Gideon, and appearing before Samson’s parents. “The Angel of the LORD” carries out priestly duties of reconciliation. “The Angel of the LORD” even has authority to forgive sins.[10] And it’s him that we find here as well—God is sending the Angel of His Face to lead Israel!

Historically, Christian tradition has mainly understood this Angel to be the pre-incarnate Jesus. On the other hand, Rabbinic Judaism has given this Angel a Judeo-Greek name, “Metatron” מֵטַטְרוֹן (Metatron), meaning “the one next to the throne” (compiled from two Greek words μετὰ (meta) and θρóνος (thronos). The Jewish sages explain: “This is [the angel] Metatron, whose name is like the name of his Master: The numerical value of מֵטַטְרוֹן [314] equals that of שַׁדַּי [314]”[11]. The important fact is, however, that whatever we think about this Angel of the Lord, him leading Israel became a game-changer, as we would say today. His presence completely changed the hearts of the people of Israel! Only his presence can explain the amazing transformation that we witness between the Torah Portions Ki Tisa and Vayakhel, when the people who just recently showed such terrible lack of faith, were completely renewed and changed. Only his presence can explain that amazing transformation from the Golden Calf to Mishkan – and I believe that this is one of the most profound and most overlooked mysteries of Israel.

I cannot finish this article about Malach Panav without saying one last thing: this amazing promise of His Presence was given to Israel, in the first place! The special Angel was sent with His people, and ever since His Presence has been going with Israel! Do you realize what that actually means? Throughout all these centuries, through all the pain and suffering we endured – the pogroms, ghettos, concentration camps, all those horrible periods of complete loneliness and misery, when to everyone, including ourselves, we seemed to be utterly abandoned – in reality, we were not alone, the Lord has been walking with us! In all their affliction, He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence (Malach Panav) saved them.

[1] Tanchuma, P’kudei 11:2

[11] Sanh. 38b

What went wrong 2

A great deception

You have hidden their heart from understanding… You will not exalt them.

Job 17:4

Now also many nations have gathered against you, who say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.” But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD, nor do they understand His counsel…

Mic. 4:11-12

Many years ago, I wrote my first book about the book of Job and Job’s comforters. It was only after writing this book that I realized, to my horror, that the suffering of Israel during the first centuries after Jesus, had really helped the Church find a theological basis for her hatred and contempt. No, of course, the suffering was not the reason for this hatred: as we saw last time, already by the second century Christians had been deceived into thinking that they were to take Israel’s place. However, the sufferings of Israel were very “convenient” for this new doctrine – in Israel’s troubles and misery, early Christianity found the evidence and confirmation that Israel was rejected by God, and now the Church, the “true Israel” would be in the place of the “chosen people”.

One of Satan’s great desires and great achievements from the very beginning of Christianity has been to plant in the minds of Christians a connection between Israel’s spiritual condition and the suffering she is going through—we are going through. This great lie has to be broken. Psalm 69 says, “O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You” – but two verses later it says, “Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Shame has covered my face.”[1] Nobody is saying, and least of all I, that Israel is a godly nation: “my sins are not hidden from You,” but the connection between Israel’s spiritual condition and all the suffering she has gone through, has to be broken down.

If you remember the book of Job you would probably realize that there we have the same scenario: Satan, who started with trying (unsuccessfully) to slander Job before God, ended up slandering him before his friends – and this time he was very successful. He convinced them of the connection between Job’s spiritual condition and the suffering he was going through. As for Israel, Satan knows perfectly well he could not slander her before God because he simply would not succeed, so he set about working hard to slander Israel before the people. It is quite clear as we look through history, that he has been highly successful in that. Last time, we spoke about Justin Martyr and his famous treatise, “Dialogue with Trypho” (and I remind you that Justin lived in the second century, less than a century after Jesus). In this treatise, we already see very clearly, maybe for the first time, the beginning of Replacement Theology: “For the true spiritual Israel and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ” (Dial. 11). “Along with Abraham we shall receive inheritance for an endless eternity” (D.119). Everything – the Holy Land, eternity, God himself – is now ours, not yours. And the suffering of Israel in the first two centuries, the sufferings Christians were not responsible for, turned out to be very ‘handy’ for this doctrine: Justin declared that all the sufferings of the Jewish people were the righteous punishment of God for the death of Christ. When speaking of the expulsion of Jewish people from Jerusalem, the devastation of the Land, and the burned Jewish towns, he didn’t hesitate to call all these afflictions “the just punishments” of the murderers. There have been endless voices in the history of Christianity saying basically the same thing: “The events of divine justice pursue the Jews for the crimes which they committed against Christ.”[2]

The premise was very simple: if the people of Israel are suffering so horribly, it means that God Himself has punished and rejected them, and therefore they deserve nothing but contempt from those who have rightfully taken their place. Accordingly, the more terrible the troubles and trials that beset Israel were, the more justified the Church became in her own eyes. It is no coincidence that the break of the new religion with its Jewish roots became more distinct with each new distress: particularly in 70 C.E. with the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, and the years of 132-135 C.E. with the Bar-Kochba revolt and the Roman repressions that followed. Every time things were going badly for Israel, the Church celebrated. In these new and ever-increasing troubles, again and again, Christianity saw confirmation that God had in fact rejected His people. Moreover, at some point, the Church did not trust anyone else to be the instrument of “God’s punishment,” but always made sure herself that the right and just punishment for the Jews would be carried out: “they persecute him whom thou hast smitten.” [3]

The history of Christian/Jewish relations since then is well known: this is a history of hatred, of anti-Semitism, sometimes relatively quiet, sometimes extremely bloody— from touch all that he has[4] to touch his bone and his flesh[5]— it has been a history of endless accusations. If God still loves you, why doesn’t He help you? Where is your God? He doesn’t come to help you or save you, therefore, He has rejected you, and all your sufferings are His punishment for your grave sins. This is more or less the logic of these accusations—the logic of the Accuser.

Does it remind you of something? He trusts in God. Let Him deliver him. I wrote a book about this, and the title of the book is, If you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross. Two thousand years ago, people were saying this to Jesus, but He did not come down from the Cross—precisely because He was the Son of God. Ever since then, people have been saying this to Israel – not exactly in those words, but the message is the same. And for me, it is the great enigma and the great success of Satan – that Christians, who should know better than anyone else that “being forsaken by God in suffering” does not always mean rejection and punishment, could be so terribly deceived when it comes to Israel. Nobody from those believing the Bible would argue with the basic statement that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and no mature believer would judge the measure of God’s love to somebody by the circumstances he is going through. But when it comes to Israel, most Christians sincerely believe that this is the case—that we can judge and make conclusions concerning the love of God on the grounds of the things which are seen—and that in this case, His thoughts are exactly like their thoughts. They make their conclusions based on the visible history and are convinced that this is exactly what God thinks and feels about Israel. However, His thoughts, indeed, are not our thoughts, and those who love God seek to know His thoughts. The title of these posts is, “What went wrong?” and I am extremely grateful for the millions of Christians who ask this question today and who sincerely seek to know God’s heart and God’s thoughts regarding Israel.

[1] Ps. 69:5,7

[2] Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, HE Book 2, ch.6.

[3] Ps. 69:26

[4] Job 1:11

[5] Job 2:5

What went wrong 1

A few weeks ago, there was a question in the comments: “How would you describe, ‘what went wrong’ between Jews and Christians? There were many historical events, but what do you see as the most fundamental ‘flaw’ that resulted in such separation between the two?” Probably, everyone would agree that this is a very serious and very complicated question, and in the past, I spent years trying to answer it! When I started to think about my response here, I realized that even in its shortest version, it would still be a very long answer. Therefore, I have decided to publish my answer in this post (there will be two posts, actually). We will pause our Acts series for a couple of weeks in order to discuss this painful and very emotional topic.

So, what exactly went wrong? Why did everything turn out in such a way that His people became hated, despised and persecuted by Christians? One would expect those who love Jesus, to also love everything connected with His earthly life – first and foremost His people, the ones among whom He lived and whom He loved – so why didn’t that happen? What is the reason for this seemingly inexplicable hatred of those who later became the followers of Jesus, towards those to whom He initially revealed Himself?

I will have to use some Hebrew for my response. You remember the story of Noah and his sons found at the end of Genesis chapter nine:

… he planted a vineyard. ²¹Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. ²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.[1]

When he awoke, Noah pronounced the curse and the blessings on his sons. The blessing for Japheth sounds like this: “may God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem”[2]

It is a very important verse because in a sense it became a ”theological” basis for the replacement theology of the Church – the teaching that the Christian Church replaced national Israel regarding the plans, purpose, and promises of God. Already in the 2^nd century CE, the apologist and theologian Justin Martyr, in his treatise “Dialogue with Trypho,” sees the “biblical” foundation for such a doctrine in this verse. Commenting on this story of Noah and his sons, he points out this verse as a prophetic word about how, in the future, the Gentile nations —Japheth, according to his understanding—that received Christianity, would seize the tents of Shem, i.e. Israel.

Let us ponder this verse together. I will need some Hebrew here. Don’t worry, for those who are not familiar with Hebrew at all, I will explain in details what we see here. This is the original of this verse:

יַ֤פְתְּ אֱלֹהִים֙ לְיֶ֔פֶת וְיִשְׁכֹּ֖ן בְּאָֽהֳלֵי־שֵׁ֑ם וִיהִ֥י כְנַ֖עַן עֶ֥בֶד לָֽמוֹ׃

The verb יַפְתְּ “in the beginning,” which sounds and is spelled exactly like the name of Japheth, means “spread,” “enlarge”. The crucial question, in my humble opinion, is this: what do you think God meant here, that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem together with Shem – or instead of Shem? I am convinced that this verse in no way assumed a banishment of Shem. However, by the time Justin Martyr arrived on the scene, the Greek and Roman Christians had already accused the Jewish people of the killing of God, and Christians had already started to believe that they had taken the place of Israel! In Justin Martyr’s treatise, we find the “biblical proof” of this belief. The conclusion of a conversation between Justin and Trypho, a Jew, can be briefly summarized in the following manner: Christians now take the place of Israel, the Church is the embodiment of the true people of God, the “new Israel,” while the Jewish people are to be looked upon as an apostate nation, stripped of their election and punished for the sin of not accepting the Messiah! God has rejected Israel as “Christ-killers,” and from now on, their place is to be occupied by the Christians! Japheth will dwell in the tents of Shem – instead of Shem!

This calls to mind the children’s fable about a fox and a hare: the fox had a hut made from ice, and the hare had a little straw house. Spring comes, the fox’s ice hut melts and the hare takes him in, only to find that the fox kicks him out and takes his home. This is more or less what happened with Israel and Christianity, and as we’ve just seen, as rapidly as the second century, at that. However, this is not the end of the story and the end of my response. There is something else I want to show you.

At some point, I decided to check the verb יַפְתְּ in the dictionary. And, as happens so often with Hebrew, I was absolutely overwhelmed with what I found:

יַפְתְּ 1. to be spacious, be open, be wide

(Qal) to be spacious or open or wide
(Hiphil) to make spacious, make open
to be simple, entice, deceive, persuade
(Qal)
to be open-minded, be simple, be naive
to be enticed, be deceived
(Niphal) to be deceived, be gullible
(Piel)
to persuade, seduce
to deceive
(Pual)
to be persuaded

I would like to explain why I was so excited. As some of you probably know, Biblical Hebrew is primarily a verbal language, and the verbs are derived from the roots. Roots are three-consonant groups that comprise the “essence” of a word’s meaning. Most of the verbs in Hebrew are formed from this three-consonant root by changing vowels and adding different prefixes and suffixes, thus forming different stems. Depending on their stem (binyan), verbs from the same root can have very different meanings. Nevertheless, being derived from the very same root, they all have something in common, they all relate to the very same “essence”. Therefore, all of a sudden, I realized that through the very same verses that were used by the Church “to justify” the exclusion of Israel, God is speaking about the danger of being “deceived”, “seduced”. Japheth – millions of Christians throughout history, who sincerely believed that they were to live in the tents of Shem, instead of Shem – were deceived, persuaded, and seduced to believe so, and the Lord knew that from the very beginning. The original meaning of this verse did not assume an eviction of Shem from his tents, any more than the hare would assume that in letting in the homeless fox, he would soon find himself out on the street. The interpretation of Justin Martyr, however, only served to legitimize the process of Israel’s exclusion from the plan and blessings of God, which at that time was already moving ahead at full speed.

It is understandable that in the framework of this doctrine, the sufferings of Israel came in very handy. I can’t finish my response without saying a few words about the attitude of Christians to the suffering of Israel. Next time, we are going to talk about this “additional proof of Israel’s rejection and downfall” that for centuries had been seen as an especially weighty argument in favor of the just rights of Christianity to take her place.

[1] Gen. 9:20-23

[2] Gen. 9:27

I would like to remind you, dear friends, that we offer wonderful courses and invite you to study