The Saga of the Jews Part 2

THE OBSTINACY OF ONAN - Can there be any father on this whole earth who will call his new born baby "headstrong"? and "Stubborn"? Only God select a man's name for His purpose.

After this, Onan  (the strong, stubborn) refused to obey the law. 

Gen 38:8  Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother."

Gen 38:9  But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.

Gen 38:10  And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.

He was punished as a direct result of his refusal to honor his dead brother and sister-in-law. He too was killed by God.

 אונן  'ônân, Onan, “strong, stubborn”

About 65 years later ( year 135 AD), the strong – willed Jewish people never learned their lesson and instead hardened their hearts in Yeshua the Moschiach. 

Instead of seeking Yeshua they followed an impostor moshiach in the name of Bar Kochba. 

To them Yeshua is the impostor, pretending to be sent by Hashem (Lord God). 

In AD 135, the Roman Emperor Hadrian made a final destruction of them in their own land.

Hosea prophesied about his stubbornness

Hos 4:16  Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the LORD now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?

Broad pasture – the European diaspora. If a person is stubborn against the truth then it follows that the person is following the way of falsehood.

The prophecy of Ezekiel was fulfilled too

 Eze 15:7  And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, (figuratively the death of Er) and another fire shall devour them (figuratively the death of Onan) ;and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them.

Notice that Er and Onan were killed in the land of Canaan.

Num 26:19  The sons of Judah were Er and Onan; and Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

Why is this passage important? 

That is because the Jewish people have been totally destroyed twice in their own land, the Land of Canaan (the country of Israel today). 

There is no passage in the Bible that has lesser significance in meaning.

The first destruction occurred in AD 70 by General Titus and the second in AD 135 by Emperor Hadrian. 

The Babylon incident should not be included here because it was categorized as ‘captivity’ rather than cutting off of a nation.

This second destruction of the Jewish people caused them to be dispersed in all the regions of the world, particularly in Europe– a place of Chezib.  A place where God said

they will live in idolatry, lies and falsehood. Without the Lord Yeshua, the people will live in total falsehood. The Jewish nation refused Yeshua’s offered rest.

The Jewish nation has been in Diaspora when it bore Shelah (the Jewish people today around the world).

Gen 38:5  Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib (falsehood) when she bore him.

שׁלה  shēlâh, Shelah, “request, petition, rest.” כזיב  k^ezîyb Kezib, “falsehood.”

The Jewish Prophet Isaiah has been telling them of their refusal to this rest in the Messiah. Instead of listening to their prophets they cling to all falsehood while in the Diaspora (dispersion).

Isa 28:11  For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this (Jewish) people,

Isa 28:12  to whom he has said, "This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is the refreshing"; yet they would not hear.

Isa 28:13  And the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Isa 28:14  Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem!

Isa 28:15  Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter";

Deu 28:64  "And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, (falsehood) which neither you nor your fathers have known.

Peter said that this rest (spiritual Shabbat) is the refreshing they all envisioned from the beginning. The one they’ve been longing for.

Act 3:18  But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Moschiach (Christ) would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

Act 3:19  Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,

Act 3:20  that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Moschiach appointed for you, Yeshua,

Act 3:21  whom heaven must receive until the time for the  restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Act 3:22  Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

Act 3:23  And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.

Recall what Joshua said:

Jos 1:13  "Remember the word that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, 'The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.'

Note that Joshua did not say “The Lord your God has given you rest”.

Until now the Jewish people did not attain that rest.

The European Diaspora presently is a dispensation of Kezib (falsehood).There is no rest or peace in Kezib for a Jewish soul apart from Yeshua.

Hebrew 4:5  And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest."

Hebrew 4:6  Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,

Hebrew 4:7  again he appoints a certain day, "Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

Hebrew 4:8  For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

Heb 4:9  So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

Shelah – European Jewry

Why is it that the descendants of the Jewish people who are born outside the land of Canaan called Shelah (petitioned)? Shelah means both petitioned and rest.

When God destroyed Israel in AD70 and in AD 135, that would have ended the existence of the nation of Israel. God gave His reason to retract this indictment.

Jer 8:13  I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

Deu 32:26  I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,"

Deu 32:27  had I not feared provocation by the enemy (nations),  lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say, "Our hand is triumphant, it was not the LORD who did all this."'

In the text above God said that the enemies of Israel might misunderstand it if He totally exterminates the Jews – His own created chosen people. In fact the Jewish nation would have been totally wiped out during the wilderness incident after the exodus from Egypt for their hard headedness and utter disobedience. This is written by the Prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 20:13  But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

Ezekiel 20:14  But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out..

“For the sake of His name” was the reason why God did not fully consume Israel in that episode. Now He gives us one reason why despite Israel’s being cut off as a nation He still withhold her total destruction – that is He feared the enemies of Israel might misunderstand it. However, there is another reason – Habakkuk’s petition. The prophet saw the destruction coming to the nation of Israel many hundreds of years ahead by way of a vision given to him by God. He saw the destruction of a Righteous Person hundreds of years before it happened and the ensuing sweeping judgment to the Jewish people as a result.

Hab 1:2  O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?

Hab 1:3  Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.

Hab 1:4  So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

God has a sobering reply.

         

Hab 1:5  Behold ye among the heathen…

The prophet Habakkuk was shown of the Jewish people’s impending dispersions to all nations (mostly in Europe) where they would see themselves living among the gentiles and be trapped with the gentile ways. Habakkuk wrote this about 600 years before it actually happened in AD 70 and AD 135. Moreover, the name of the Holy One of Israel (Yeshua) will be greatly known among the gentiles beyond the confines of the land of Israel.

Mal 1:5  And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD (Yeshua) will be magnified and worshipped beyond the border of Israel.

Israel, on the other hand has kept defiling His holy name during these times.

Below are some Talmudic passages that denigrate Christ: 

Sanhedrin, 67a ~ Jesus is referred to as the illegitimate son of Pandira, a Roman soldier.

Sanhedrin 106a . Says Jesus’ mother was a whore

Sanhedrin 43a ~ Says Jesus (”Yeshu” / Yeshu “the Nazarene”) was executed because he practiced sorcery.
Gittin 57a ~ States that Jesus is being boiled in “hot excrement.”

Sanhedrin 43a . Jesus deserved execution: “On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu was hanged…Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defense could be made? Was he not a Mesith (enticer)?”

Schabbath, 104b ~ (Jesus) Called a fool and no one pays attention to fools.

Sanhedrin, 107b. ~ (Jesus) Seduced, corrupted and destroyed Israel.

Abhodah Zarah (78c) — Festivals of followers of Jesus regarded as idolatry.

Kallah, 1b. (18b) ~ Illegitimate son and conceived during menstruation..

Sanhedrin 105ab ~ “Jesus fornicated with his jackass.

Gittin 57a ~ Jesus is in hell and is being punished by being boiled in semen. Christians are boiled in dung. (http://fortheloveoftruth.wordpress.com/)

Notwithstanding they have been forewarned even by their father David: - to attached to the Son lest His fury will go forth against them:

Psa 2:2  The kings⁴⁴²⁸ of the earth⁷⁷⁶ set themselves,³³²⁰ and the (Jewish) rulers⁷³³⁶ take counsel³²⁴⁵ together,³¹⁶² against⁵⁹²¹ the LORD,³⁰⁶⁸ and against⁵⁹²¹ his Moschiach,⁴⁸⁹⁹ saying,

Psa 2:3  Let us break their bands asunder,^{5423, (853), 4147} and cast away⁷⁹⁹³ their connection⁵⁶⁸⁸ from⁴⁴⁸⁰ us.

Psa 2:4  He that sitteth³⁴²⁷ in the heavens⁸⁰⁶⁴ shall laugh:⁷⁸³² the Lord¹³⁶ shall have them (obstinate Jews) in derision.³⁹³²

Psa 2:5  Then²²⁷ shall he speak¹⁶⁹⁶ unto⁴¹³ them in his wrath,⁶³⁹ and vex⁹²⁶ them in his sore displeasure.²⁷⁴⁰

Psa 2:6  Yet have I⁵⁸⁹ set⁵²⁵⁸ my king⁴⁴²⁸ upon⁵⁹²¹ my holy⁶⁹⁴⁴ hill²⁰²² of Zion.⁶⁷²⁶

Psa 2:7  I will declare^{5608, 413} the decree:²⁷⁰⁶ the LORD³⁰⁶⁸ hath said⁵⁵⁹ unto⁴¹³ me, Thou⁸⁵⁹ art my Son;¹¹²¹ this day³¹¹⁷ have I⁵⁸⁹ begotten³²⁰⁵ thee.

Psa 2:8  Ask⁷⁵⁹² of⁴⁴⁸⁰ me, and I shall give⁵⁴¹⁴ thee the heathen¹⁴⁷¹ for thine inheritance,⁵¹⁵⁹ and the uttermost parts⁶⁵⁷ of the earth⁷⁷⁶ for thy possession.²⁷²

Psa 2:9  Thou shalt break⁷⁴⁸⁹ them with a rod⁷⁶²⁶ of iron;¹²⁷⁰ thou shalt dash them in pieces⁵³¹⁰ like a potter's³³³⁵ vessel.³⁶²⁷ 

Psa 2:12  Attach⁵⁴⁰¹ in the Son,¹²⁴⁸ lest⁶⁴³⁵ he be angry,⁵⁹⁹ and ye perish⁶ from the way,¹⁸⁷⁰ when³⁵⁸⁸ his wrath⁶³⁹ is kindled¹¹⁹⁷ but a little.⁴⁵⁹² Blessed⁸³⁵ are all³⁶⁰⁵ they that put their trust²⁶²⁰ in the Son.

 

Then God proceeded to show Habakkuk how this great Diaspora would transpire. 

It will begin with the siege of the Roman armies… (Here depicted as Chaldeans for the purpose of concealment)… we know that it was the Roman emperors who impute their power to their god. 

Emperor Hadrian ordered a gigantic statue of Jupiter, his most revered god to be erected in Jerusalem's temple, as a symbol of the unity of all men.

The scene below is AD70. Habakkuk was prophesying in about 600 BC.

Hab 1:6  For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

Hab 1:7  They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

Hab 1:11  Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.

Habakkuk argues that God knows all events before it happens. 

So why in the first place God allow his wicked countrymen to prevail against this ‘Righteous One’ and incur this irreversible wrath? 

And why God allowed him to see the wicked “foreign soldiers” destroying the more righteous “Jewish people” of which God seems to be callous about it?

The Petition of Habakkuk not to destroy them all, helped.

Hab 1:12  Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

Hab 1:13  You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and are silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

The petition of Habakkuk was granted. The Jews were granted reprieve from total annihilation. 

That is the reason why we still see Jewish people today. 

Of course the overarching reason is that God has His future plan for the Jewish people and that He does not forget His covenant to Abraham to bless this nation.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE LIFE OF THE JEWS TODAY

That latter blessing has begun when small groups of Jewish people recognized Yeshua as the Holy One of Israel – the Moschiach. 

These groups are known today as the messianic believers who found the true rest while they were in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Thus Shelah is also called rest.

Gen 38:12  In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

In the course of time the covenant of God that Moses gave to the children of Israel died in the hearts of the Jewish people. None of them kept the covenant of Moses.

Yeshua said

Joh 5:45  Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

Joh 5:46  If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

Joh 5:47  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

Joh 7:19  Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?"

For the Scripture says,

Deu 18:15  "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him you shall listen—

Act 3:22  Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

Act 3:23  And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.'

The American Evangelicals – helpers and friends of the Jews

When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

תמנה  tîmnâh, Timnah, “counted or assigned.”

               Hirah means “a splendor”.  

The American Evangelicals has been assigned from eternity to be the bearer of light to the elect Jewish remnant.

 

There is nothing more splendid friend of the Jews other than the American Evangelicals who are in the forefront of helping the Jews.

TAMAR the upright – the Messianic Judaism/ Hebraic Christianity

Gen 38:13  And when Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,"

תמר  tāmār, Tamar, “palm.” from an unused root meaning to be erect; to be upright; a palm tree

The erect palm or upright tree symbolizes the upright messianic Judaism or Hebraic Christianity. The interaction of a Jew to a messianic theology and belief in Yeshua relegates him, in the eyes of the Jewish community to a status of a ‘prostitute’, an impure person. However, the word prostitute here in the story of Judah is actually קדשׁה  q^edêshâh - which means one consecrated. A messianic Jew is one who is consecrated to Yeshua.

Gen 38:14  she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.

Gen 38:15  When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

Gen 38:16  He turned to her at the roadside and said, "Come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?"

Gen 38:17  He answered, "I will send you a young goat from the flock."

Tamar asked for a Pledge

Tamar asked for an ‘Eravon’, the pledge. This is a legal term in Hebrew. 

What she did was to demand Judah of this Eravon. 

The signet, cord and staff become the Eravon – the pawned or loan items which cannot be reclaim from her unless paid. Also, if there be a co-maker to this transaction; 

it would make the co-maker on that loan to become obligated to pay should the borrower default.

And she said, "If you give me a pledge, until you send it--"

Gen 38:18  He said, "What pledge shall I give you?" She replied, "Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand." So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him.

Gen 38:19  Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.

Gen 38:20  When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to take back the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her.

She took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah

Petach Enaim, The Place of Door of the Eyes

ENAIM- e-na'-im (`enayim, "double fountain")

Ptach Enaim also means = THE place where the eyes are open

Petach (an opportune opening)  + Enaim from ayin (an eye = eyesight plus favor or presence plus regard)  

Heb. the door (opening) of eyes, or of Enajim, Some think ainayim means “the two fountains,” or “double fountain;” TSK

The present significance

The petach enayim is the place where the first gospel preached to the Jewish people occurred and where the Jewish people received it with joy and has opened their understanding of Yeshua.

This is probably New York City today. Dr. Mitch Glaser, President, Chosen People Ministries wrote:

Our present growth is built upon the strong foundation established by the founders of Chosen People Ministries. In 1892, Rabbi Leopold Cohn, a recent immigrant to New York City from Hungary, was walking on the Lower East Side of Manhattan among thousands of other new Jewish immigrants when he heard a Jewish preacher proclaiming the Gospel in the Yiddish language. Rabbi Cohn stopped to speak with this man and eventually gave his heart to the Messiah. After receiving his theological training and leading his wife, Rose, to the Lord, Rabbi Cohn established the Brownsville Mission to the Jews. From these humble beginnings, Chosen People Ministries now serves the Jewish people all over the world.

Covered herself with a veil - would mean the first messianic strategy. Tactfulness, prudence and sensitivity are important elements employed at the first.

Gen 38:21  And he asked the men of the place, "Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim at the roadside?" And they said, "No cult prostitute has been here."

The roadside; Hebrew derek  the road, figurative of the way of salvation in Yeshua. Some translations say at the crossroad – which means two intersecting roads. At this age there are two lean pathways leading to the road traveled by a Jewish believer. One road is called Hebraic Christianity; the other is called Messianic Judaism.

Gen 38:22  So he returned to Judah and said, "I have not found her. Also, the men of the place said, 'No cult prostitute has been

here.'"

Messianism is the theology Yeshua taught to the first Jewish disciples and then to the rest of the Jews but the majority of the Jews were unwilling to receive the Gospel of the covenant. (Er was unable to bear a progeny with Tamar). The unbelieving Jews call it harlotry of the highest kind. The men of the place - who have knowledge of their community confirmed that there was no harlotry on that certain road.

Gen 38:23  And Judah replied, "Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her."

Gen 38:24  About three months later Judah was told, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality." And Judah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned."

 Gen 38:25  As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant." And she said, "Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff."

Gen 38:26  Then Judah identified them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not know her again. 


continue reading - The Saga of the Jews Part 3