Note: If you are not yet aware of who true Israel is in the world and who the Gentiles are, it is recommended to read through my (Scattered) Hebrew series before reading through this article for optimal insight and understanding
This article is meant for those that have already come to the truth of who the Gentiles truly are and who Israel truly is (or at least who Judah is). You will find that there are many paths of understanding even with this new knowledge as it’s already spreading so I thought I’d write an article regarding this. Let’s take a look at some biblical fundamentals first. The Bible is broken into two general portions, the Old Testament and the New Testament so what exactly does testament mean? A simple google search of the word testament will tell you it is a set of laws or contract, also considered a covenant and it is binding between the multiple parties involved. In both testaments or covenants, the initial parties are the same. One party is God, the Creator of everything we know and the other is His Chosen family among humanity, Israel. We know this because it clearly states it all through the Bible:
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord: "Israel is My son, My firstborn. 23 So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn." '
-Exodus 4:22, 23
And in Exodus 19 God again states to Moses:
And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
-Exodus 19:3–6
But this covenant with the Hebrews is initiated from God to Abram:
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
"Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father's house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
-Genesis 12:1–3
And again here God spoke to Abram establishing the Covenant/Contract:
On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:
"To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates - 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
-Genesis 15:18–21
So it is very clear that the first Covenant (or Contract) is made with Abram/Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrews but Abram had his servant that was close to him, his firstborn son Ishmael and eventually Isaac so what line did the blessing of the Covenant flow and what line was the Covenant associated with?
17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!"
19 Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year." 22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
-Genesis 17:17–22
So we see that even though both Ishmael and Isaac would receive blessings and both would become great nations, it is through Isaac that God makes the everlasting Covenant. This is also why God is constantly referred to as the God of Israel or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because this line was the lineage chosen for the Covenant of God. This Covenant was based on obedience, if Israel obeyed the (Mosaic or Old) Law God gave them, they would live and flourish:
"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God…
-Deuteronomy 28:1, 2
All these laws God gave them are clearly recorded within the Old Testament and specifically in the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible). But unfortunately Israel did not obey the laws of God, they sinned against the Law and did not heed the warnings God gave and Israel fell away from YHWH. In doing so they cursed themselves and are cursed even still today when I write this (although the curses are now very close to ending). When Israel broke the Covenant with God, they condemned themselves, for the Law that was given to save Israel was now being used to imprison them. Satan manipulated the laws of God to condemn God’s Chosen family of Israel.
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, "You must not covet." 8 But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.9 At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life,10 and I died. So I discovered that the law's commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.
13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God's good commands for its own evil purposes.
-Romans 7:7–13
This is why a new Covenant was necessary, because the Covenant God made with Israel was now being used against them. There was fault in the Covenant, not in the Law itself but in one of the parties involved, Israel.
It is for this reason that a new Covenant (or Contract) to redeem humans to God was necessary. In fact, the existence alone of a second Covenant/Contract is proof itself that there was fault found in the first Contract and the fault was that Israel’s sin brought death under the old Contract.
Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
-Acts 13:38, 39
Here this Israelite is speaking of the difference between the old Contract (or the first Covenant) and the second (new) Contract which says salvation is through believing in Yeshua, the One who completely fulfilled the first Contract (but still tasted death unjustly). So it is very clear that attempting to be right in God’s sight through the first Contract, by keeping the laws is dangerous because we constantly fail this daily. This is why it was written to warn against this thinking:
What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God's standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
"I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced."
-Romans 9:30–33
So notice that the ones who were susceptible to this stumbling Stone was the Jews and even in the warning God gave in itself, He states that the Stone was even placed in Jerusalem implying that the Jews would specifically be vulnerable to stumbling over this Stone. The Gentiles (Europeans are considered Gentiles, I go over this in the House of Judah article and the Conclusion article of my Hebrew series) were not vulnerable to tripping over this stumbling Stone but why?
If you look throughout the scriptures, you’ll see all kinds of evidence that points to many Nations in the surrounding areas of Israel were already aware of the God of the Hebrews. God calls Jonah to go condemn the Syrians of Nineveh. But why would YHWH condemn a people outside of Israel for sinning against Him unless they had already known they shouldn’t have been doing those things? And when Jonah came with God’s message, they believed him and pleaded with God which they could not have done unless they had faith in YHWH. In King David’s army, there were many different Hamitic (African) peoples from various Hamitic clans. Ham was the father of Africa so we know that African Nations knew of the God of Israel as well. In Acts, we even see an Ethiopian eunuch who had Hebrew doctrine that he was studying already in his possession. We know that Egypt and Babylon knew of the God of Israel through the Hebrew captivity when they stayed among these Nations. There was also the magi that came from the East to worship Yeshua/Jesus as a baby by following His star but how would they have known what that star meant unless they knew of and understood the Hebrew prophecies of Messiah? So my point in bringing up all these situations in which other Nations knew of the God of the Hebrews is that this is why it was such a big deal to the Jews in the New Testament when they saw the Holy Spirit come upon the Gentiles. The Gentiles/Europeans/Greeks had never known the God of the Hebrews, they were the last to learn of YHWH and were not exposed to the Law so this is why they did not stumble over the great stumbling Stone and this explains why the Jews did and are vulnerable to it even still today. You see small pockets of Judah awakening among the Israelite (aka African) diaspora around the world today and even as we are awakening, some of us are continuing to stumble over the Cornerstone by trying to keep the old Contract outside of the Holy Spirit. The old Law that demands being circumcised, wearing fringes, abstaining from unclean foods and the rest of the hundreds of laws that are all part of the same Contract, the same initial Covenant that God gave to us and that we failed. To continue under the Law of the old Contract is to deny the new Contract through Yeshua, you can only be bound to one Contract at a time.
Now, dear brothers and sisters - you who are familiar with the law - don't you know that the law applies only while a person is living? 2 For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. 3 So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.
4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead.
-Romans 7:1–4
And this is exactly what is written in the book of Hebrews explaining the fault of the first Contract:
If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But when God found fault with the people, he said:
"The day is coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah.
9 This covenant will not be like the one
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant,
so I turned my back on them, says the Lord.
10 But this is the new covenant I will make
with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
-Hebrews 8:7–10
So it is clear that Israel failed the old Contract and therefore, a perfect Redeemer that perfectly upheld the old Contract was necessary and the new Contract says we are made right with God through Yeshua because He is that perfect Redeemer. Now notice a few things here, we see that just as the first Contract was given to Israel, the second Contract also is with Israel. This is consistent with Israel being God’s firstborn as a Nation of the Earth just as Paul mentions that condemnation and salvation both go out to the Jew first and also the Gentile. So even the salvation through Yeshua (the second Contract) went out to Israel first but does that mean that only Israel can be saved then? No, because then what was the point of the Jews (and Paul specifically) preaching to the Gentiles?
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. 45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us:
'I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.' "
48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
-Acts 13:44–48
So it is again clear that salvation through Yeshua (the second Contract between God and Israel) went out to everyone. To the Jew first and then the Gentile as the Gentiles have been grafted on to Israel who hold the Covenants.
Paul also explains that some choose to designate worship on a certain day while others feel everyday is just as holy as the next. But what was the lunar calendar the Hebrews were using at this time in Jerusalem? Some lunar calendars differ from one another and therefore, some Israelites may have been keeping the Sabbath on different days according to the calendar they were keeping. Much like we see today actually as Acts replays itself in real time as the Israelites continue to awaken. Yeshua said Himself that He is Lord even over the Sabbath, He is the only One that kept all the hundreds of Laws in the old Contract completely and satisfied this Contract with God for us. Yeshua accomplished this for us, He did what we could not, this is why we now receive salvation through believing in Him. Each Contract requires a blood sacrifice as a violation to it and if you break one law of a Contract, you have broken all of it. This is why we are made right with God through faith in Yeshua. So if we are all one spiritual family under God and under the salvation through Yeshua, does it really matter whether you are of Israel or Hamitic or Gentile? The true question is this: how can we say it doesn’t matter what family of the Earth you come from as it does in Colossians and Galatians and simultaneously say that God has made a distinction in His chosen people Israel? While some may assume this as hypocrisy, it really isn’t and here’s why. These passages are speaking in terms of salvation of the souls of humans in the incorruptible realm (spiritual world). Remember all the Heavenly angels who also are there in Heaven and even so, they still have a hierarchy as some are deemed archangels (Prince Angels). That means some angels hold a higher position than others even within the realm of the incorruptible.
But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.
-Daniel 10:13
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise though because Yeshua Himself said that the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than John the Baptist. This again implies a hierarchy in Heaven. Think about how we are to love all people as commanded under the law of the new Contract (as is consistent in the old Contract). Say a married person does their best to love all other humans in their worship to God. Even though they may love all others, there is still a special distinction in their love with their spouse and this is actually the exact relationship we see between Yeshua and Israel.
Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
10 So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone - like jasper as clear as crystal. 12 The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. 13 There were three gates on each side - east, north, south, and west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
-Revelation 21:9–14
So we know that the Lamb is the One that was slaughtered and resurrected, that is Yeshua. But if Israel no longer means anything or if Israel was replaced with the church, then why is the city of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah being presented? Why are the names of the 12 tribes of Israel the only names on the gates of the City? And of this Holy City being presented to Yeshua, why then would the names of the twelve apostles (all of which were Jews) be on the foundation stones? So even under the new Contract, there is still a distinction made that Israel is still God’s Chosen of the Earth, this is why it is written of Israel:
It is the Lord who provides the sun to light the day
and the moon and stars to light the night,
and who stirs the sea into roaring waves.
His name is the Lord of Heaven's Armies,
and this is what he says:
36 "I am as likely to reject my people Israel
as I am to abolish the laws of nature!"
37 This is what the Lord says:
"Just as the heavens cannot be measured
and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored,
so I will not consider casting them away
for the evil they have done.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
-Jeremiah 31:35–37
It is clear Israel is the bride of the Lamb even under the new Contract. But what does the new Contract say and is there still a law to abide by? Yes and this is the new Law Yeshua gave to the disciples:
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
-John 13:34
And this is consistent with what He said was the most important commandment when a lawyer tried testing Him.
36 "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"
37 Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."
-Matthew 22:36–40
So all the law under the old Contract is summed up in love, this also explains why these two commandments fulfill the law and we actually see these in the ten commandments themselves. The first four as a representation of how to love God, the next six perfect examples in loving one another. So we even saw this coming in the old Contract as well before we had the perfect example of Yeshua to learn from.
7 "Do not detest the Edomites or the Egyptians, because the Edomites are your relatives and you lived as foreigners among the Egyptians.
-Deuteronomy 23:7
So there is no excuse not to relentlessly love one another because it is very clear that we are commanded (in both Contracts actually) to love one another just as Yeshua has loved us. Judah, if you want to keep the Sabbath, then you do well but don’t judge others for not keeping it outside of our people Israel. If you do your best to eat according to the order of the God of the Hebrews, then you do well again as we will keep the Law of the Most High when we return into our land and come out of this captivity. However keep in mind our new Covenant Yeshua is the only One that was able to completely keep the first Covenant. Manage your eating however way you are led by the Holy Spirit according to how you worship God but you should not judge others outside of Israel by their eating habits, the Law in its entirety pertains only to Israel according to their governing in the world to come. Notice that in Acts 15, the Gentiles were not given the Law of the old Contract to follow but they were given the Noahide Law (see Jubilees 7) in the Jerusalem decree of Acts 15. We must look to the law of the new Contract and shed the veil that Paul warned us about brothers and sisters.
We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. 14 But the people's minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. 15 Yes, even today when they read Moses' writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.
-2 Corinthians 3:13–15
So since we are under the Contract of Love and now find salvation through Yeshua rather than through the Law, is there any reason to hold on to traditions of festivities? Yes, it is important to remember and commemorate the feasts of our ancestors as best we can and as best we know how even in our captivity. This way, we insure the children of Israel are well acquainted with what our God has done for us throughout the ages and it is a sign of distinction among the world as we keep the festivities (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Purim, Feast of Tabernacles…etc) of our fathers. This way it is also an example to the Gentiles as Israel is called to be on how to live for God in the order He has set before us. Pray and ask for guidance on this according to His Spirit my people.
As for me, I will praise him in the land of my captivity
In the Daughter of Babylon, Judah holds on to Juneteenth each year. We should hold on even more so to the Feasts of our Hebrew Israelite heritage that YHWH gave to us. As the Most High continues to pour out His Spirit on the whole House of Israel.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
- Romans 3:27–31
Note: I brought up the passage earlier that God has written on the hearts and minds of Israel how to please Him but Israel is not a Nation yet and we certainly are not back in our home land as of yet. It is very possible that once we are a Nation in our own land again, we may be led to follow some of the old traditions of wearing fringes, abstaining from certain foods, not cutting our beards…etc. Ezekiel’s Temple (still to come) in chapters 40–48 reveal we will give offerings again and keep the feasts our God has given to us when we return to our land. The Saints are to keep the commandments and the faith in Yeshua, the only begotten Son of YHWH and living a life of peace and love with others.