Mysteries

Letter 153 (More Mysteries) 21/06/02

This week I would like to develop the theme I touched upon last week. In the past, as well as more recently, I have come across believers (Christians) who tend to make statements such as: “I am a Gentile, I do not feel in any way that I’m of the natural seed of Israel, but in Jesus I have all the promises that belong to Israel”. It is nice to claim positive promises, but would these assertors be so quick to make them had they considered the responsibilities that go along with being a chosen First Born nation? Yes, formally you were goy’im, that is, those identified with the nations, but now you are brought into the commonwealth (national identity) of Israel (ref. Eph. 2:12). Was not the “fullness of the Goy’im” promised to Ephraim? How about identifying with that promise? Does the mystery of the blindness of Israel have something to do with ignorance of one’s natural heritage? You may also ask, is Menashe’s name (“forgetfulness”) not prophetic of the destiny of the people connected to the promised blessings (Gen. 48:19)?

As we know, the writers of the New Testament had no other Scriptures but the Tanach (Old Testament) upon which to base their revelation and teaching of the mystery of the Gospel (Eph. 6:19). Most of their audience had no understanding whatsoever of the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Septuagint (the first translation of the O.T. into a foreign - Greek – language), let alone personally own a scroll. Guttenberg press did not exist at the time, nor did the Gideons or the Bible Society to distribute copies of YHVH’s Word. This is probably the reason why Paul writes, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in the Messiah. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able” (1 Cor. 3:1-2). Before stating the above Paul says: “However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory” (1 Cor.2:6-7). He then tops it off by stating that the apostles should be regarded as servants of the Messiah, and stewards of the mysteries of Elohim (ref. 1 Cor. 4:1).

Let me emphasize again: the apostles’ understanding of the fifteen or so mysteries that they wrote about were based on the Tanach. Yeshua also spoke of these mysteries, although in parable form. One of those mysteries is found in Paul’s address to the “former Gentiles” or “wild olive branches” who used to be “far off, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants” (ref. Rom 11:25 Eph 2:12). Who are those who are described as being “far off”?

“Thus says YHVH - Elohim: ‘Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles (or Nations - (Goy’im), and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone"' (Eze. 11:16). Who was YHVH addressing through the prophet Ezekiel?

"O Adon, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You”(Dan. 9:7). Who is the Prophet Daniel addressing, defining their location as being “far off”

"Therefore say, `Thus says YHVH -Elohim: "I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.' And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God” (Eze 11:17-20). This sounds like a promise to a people who is “not His people”, and whose God “He is not”. Strangely enough, these very prophecies, regarding the destiny of Israel, are found in Hosea. YHVH said to Israel (and not to Judah): "Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, `You are not My people,' There it shall be said to them, `You are sons of the living God'” (Hos. 9-10; Rom 8:19).

YHVH opens up His dissertation, in Ezekiel 11:15 by addressing the ones who are “far off”. "Son of man, your brethren, your relatives, your countrymen, and all the house of Israel in its entirety, are those about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, `Get far off from YHVH; this land has been given to us as a possession.’”
Doesn’t that sound familiar, as even today some from Judah (mostly Messianic) are still saying to the repentant and restored returnees of Ephraim those very words?
Are we dealing here with a mystery of blindness on both sides of the family?
Is it possible that Ephraim’s prophetic destiny is more than just fruitfulness (in the quantitative sense of the word)? Is it possible that the blessing of becoming the “m’lo ha-goy’im” – “fullness of the gentiles” (or nations, in Gen.48:19), may also mean the “fullness of heathenism”? Israel (Ephraim) always followed idols, and was declared by YHVH a harlot, an adulteress and an idolater; one who loved the ways of the nations. Thus YHVH gave Israel over to becoming the ‘fullness’ of that very desire, but not forever… only until their iniquity would become mature and full. Are we touching here upon another mystery - the mystery of iniquity (2 Thes. 2:7, Eph. 2:1-3)? But, then, as a testimony of YHVH’s faithfulness, mercies and love, He literally raises up iniquitous Israel from her grave of sin and death, right in the midst of those heathen nations, and calls her/them “sons of the living God”, implementing His prophetic word to them exactly as promised (Hos. 1:10-11, being another mystery). It is hard to imagine YHVH calling this harlot wife of His a “virgin” (Jer. 31:21), but nevertheless He does. This too may constitute a mystery – a double one: the “mystery of our change” (1 Cor.15:51-53), and the “mystery of the faith” (1 Tim 3:9). The prophet Hosea concludes his writing with the following note: “Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of YHVH are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumbles in them” (Hos. 14:9).

"The secret things belong to YHVH - Elohim, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Torah” (Deut. 29:29). “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your Torah
(Psa 119:18)!