Nazarene Israelite Two House Congregation of Port Elizabeth

Freedom is a choice.

Throughout mankind’s history millions of people have lived and died in slavery – whether in slavery under mean, wicked despotic leaders/taskmasters; or in captivity to false beliefs and satanic deceptions; or bound by downward pulls of their own sinful nature. But no matter what the yoke of oppression is, the truth of Elohim’s word and way will ultimately loose the bonds of enslavement and lead to an abundant life.

Yes, Yahshua our Messiah, the word of Elohim offers us a way to obtain rest, as He told His disciples in Matthew 11: 28 - 30, saying: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. (30) For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Many very sincere people seek this rest by merely professing the name J*e*s*u*s*, calling him their ‘Lord’ and declaring their love for him. But the real Messiah and Savior expect more as He indicated in Luke 6: 46, saying: “And why do you call Me,‘ Master, Master,’ and do not do what I say?  In Matthew 7: 21 Yahshua discussing the same subject, adds: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Master, Master,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” YHVH used Moses to bring His chosen nation out of slavery in Egypt. In the same way Elohim has provided another deliver for the people whom He is at this time choosing from the lost ten tribes of Israel, to come out of the false religions and ways of the world, namely Yahshua the Messiah. He calls on individuals from the lost ten tribes, as well as a number or real gentiles to break free from their own enslavement to join the trailblazers of those who will help usher in a new way of life at Messiah’s return.

When Messiah was on earth He spoke to the Jews in the Temple and many came to believe in Him. We see from John 8: 31 & 32 that He told them what will really make them free, saying: “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; (32) and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” To fully understand the struggle against oppression and to understand how we may find the path to freedom from slavery, we need to back track to the dramatic account of the Exodus in the Scriptures. After the children of Jacob whose name YHVH changed to Israel, when he wrestled with YHVH and came to believe in Him, remained in Egypt for more than 400 years, they increased greatly and the land was filled with them. At that time a new king arose who did not know Joseph, and he started afflicting the Israelites with hard labor. The Israelites over many years built cities for the Pharaoh, but the more the Egyptians afflicted the Israelites, the more they multiplied and became a dread to the Egyptians. So the Egyptians compelled the Israelites to work even harder, and made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and all kinds of labors which they rigorously imposed on them. In addition the Egyptian king instituted a policy of killing all male babies to further degrade and destroy a whole generation of Israelites.

The Scriptures outline the Israelite’s way to freedom with Elohim appointing Moses as their leader. In fact it was in the writings of Moses, that Elohim revealed how He will bring a remnant of the house of Israel back to Him and their remaining brother the house of Judah, saying in Deuteronomy 18: 18 & 19: ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. (19) And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.’ YHVH spoke to Moses out of a burning bush in Exodus 3: 7 - 10, saying: “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. (8) So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them from the land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. (9) And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. (10) Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” Obviously, at that time the Egyptians did not know the Eternal Elohim of Israel. YHVH accordingly chose Moses and his brother Aaron to represent Him to Pharaoh, saying to Moses in Exodus 4: 15, “And you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do.” We see in Exodus 5: 1 Moses and Aaron saying to Pharaoh, “Thus says YHVH, the Elohim of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness.’” Pharaoh’s response demonstrates the all-too-familiar attitude of people who acknowledge no power higher than themselves in verse 2, saying: “Who is YHVH that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know YHVH, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” Pharaoh instinctively wanted to assert his supposedly divine authority, since as he thought in Egypt his word alone was law. He was answerable to no one but himself and he believed that no command from the Elohim of Israel would affect his course of action.

Throughout the past six thousand years leaders of nations and people have continued in an arrogance that placed them above the commandments of Elohim and the welfare of their people. Similar to the account of Israel’s deliverance from slavery, the Scriptures are full of examples of man’s egotistical obsessions. Dictators often harden their resolve when chastised by Elohim or their fellowman, to change their oppressive policies and attitudes. Mankind and their despotic leaders assume the right to force citizens to do whatever they require. It is as Rav Shaul wrote in Romans 8: 7, saying: ‘Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward Elohim; for it does not subject itself to the law of Elohim, for it is not even able to do so.’ We also know that most people tend to rebel against Elohim, when He provokes them with His authority. Pharaoh reacted in exactly the same way. Instead of letting the Israelites go, he made their work more difficult saying in Exodus 5: 9, “Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it that they may pay no attention to false words.” When the Israelites failed to meet the heightened demands of the Egyptians, the Egyptians made matters worse, until Elohim put an end to the Israelites ordeal.

Elohim intervened powerfully with ten supernatural plagues, demonstrating His condemnation of their oppression, and slavery. Miracle by miracle Elohim demonstrated His power over the supposed gods of the Egyptians; the Nile, the frogs, cattle and insects. In addition He made the sun, a symbol of the god-man Pharaoh, disappear in a thick darkness for three days. This caused Pharaoh to waver: After the locusts destroyed Egypt’s crops, he pleaded with Moses in Exodus 10: 16 & 17, saying:“ I have sinned against YHVH your Elohim and against you. (17) Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and make supplication to YHVH your Elohim, that He would only remove this death from me.” But he changed his mind soon after the plague was stopped by Elohim. His arrogance kept him in contempt of any power greater than the Egyptian kingdom. Again and again he hardened his heart after each of the previous nine plagues. So in the tenth and final plague, Elohim permanently separated and protected His people Israel, by means of the blood of sacrificial lambs, which they had to put on the doorposts and lintels of the doorways to their households. Elohim passed over the Israelites and spared them from death, whilst killing all the firstborn in Egypt, as recorded in Exodus 12: 29, in this way: ‘Now it came about at midnight that YHVH struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle.’ Israel’s deliverance from Egypt depicted the long term solution to captivity, oppression and slavery; the sacrifice of Messiah our Passover, who was sacrificed to:

1.  redeem back the portion of land that the House of Israel lost in the Promised Land, because of Idolatry;

2. save the remnant of Israelites who will be born again as Spiritual children of Elohim from the second death, who are bowing the knee before Yahshua at this time and before He starts ruling from Jerusalem, at His return; and

3. to pay for the sins of those in the second resurrection, provided they all bow the knee before Him after being re-educated during the Great White Throne Judgment period. Those who will ultimately refuse to bow before Him, will simply be burnt to ashes, as per Malachi 4: 1[1]

Egypt did not come under the protection of the Passover blood. Their heir apparent to the throne of Egypt died, with many other Egyptian first-born children, because of Pharaoh’s arrogance. Elohim led Israel through the Red Sea, removing them from Egyptian slavery by destroying Pharaoh’s army as recorded in Exodus 14. After crossing the sea, Israel again went through 40 years of wandering, revealing the greatest obstacle to true freedom, namely: obedience to Elohim’s covenant based on living according to His teachings and love. We see Stephen’s witness to this in Acts 7: 37 – 39, saying: “This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘ELOHIM SHALL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN.’  (38) This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you. (39) And our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.’ We read a further witness about what happened to the ancient Israelites from Hebrews 3: 19, as follows: ‘And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.’ The tragic lesson of ancient Israel is an example of human nature’s primary problem, and teaches one of the most profound lessons in the history of mankind.

Even though Elohim gave the Israelites physical freedom and protection, they did not lose their selfishness, lust and spiritual blindness, which enslaved their minds in Egypt. They insisted in choosing their own gods and writing their own rules according to which they lived. Israel like the rest of mankind enslaved itself when they rejected Elohim’s teachings and way of life. Continuing in Acts 7: 41 – 42 Stephen informs us about this, saying: “And at that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. (42) But Elohim turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISREAL?“ By the year 587 BCE YHVH expelled both the house of Israel and the house of Judah from the Promised Land, through the Assyrians and the Babylonians. But, the account of the Exodus is equally pertinent to our time. Believe it or not, the twentieth century was more barbaric than in the days of Moses. Only 75 – 80 years ago Adolf Hitler plunged the world into the most deadliest and destructive war in history. He came close to his intention and almost succeeded in killing all the Jews in Europe. During the last century six million Jews and millions of Russians, Armenians, Cambodians, Ugandans, Rwandans, and Chinese illustrate that brutality and barbarity are alive and thriving in our age. These poor people endured every bit as real as, the Scriptural account of Israel’s slavery. The world prides itself on its enlightenment compared to the religion of the Egyptians. Most people do not any longer worship animals, insects, rivers, stars and planets. Instead the objects that modern man worships are materialism, money, sensual and other pleasures. These are as enslaving to our human minds as any ancient pagan god was.

The astonishing scientific and technical progress added to widespread prosperity in parts of the world in recent years, covers the enormous suffering in other parts of our world. The mixture of progress and misery is as deceptive to mankind as it was in ancient Egypt. But we as believers are suitably warned by Rav Shaul in Galatians 6: 7- 10, in this way: ’Do not be deceived, Elohim is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. (8) For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. (9) And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.  (10) So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.’Like our world today, Egypt was corrupt to the core and eventually felt the consequences of its corruption when Elohim almost destroyed its society to free His people from enslavement. Human beings are short sighted and because we do not immediately feel the consequences of our actions, we think we can do as we please as long as we like. We don’t understand how such thinking leads to enslavement and eventually its consequences. By rebelling against Elohim’s laws and purpose for marriage, the divorce rate in most western nations is close to 50 percent. Enslaved to their own desires, feelings and emotions, most married couples cannot sustain long term loving relationships.

The western world’s addiction to alcohol, irresponsible sex and divorce is a leading cause for growing poverty among especially women and children. Slavery to promiscuity has led to the abortion of millions of babies and sexually transmitted diseases account for a large percentage of the commonly reported diseases in the western world.  Millions are affected by incurable sexual diseases costing tax-payers more and more every year. The illegal drug industry is so big that it generates billions of dollars annually and has become too valuable in some countries to be stopped by the authorities. Addiction to violence, drugs and entertainment holds most Westerners captive. Prisons cannot be erected quick enough and millions are spent on inmates, law enforcement and the legal system. More and more people are also becoming addicted to gambling, resulting in poverty, broken homes and all that goes with it. The world is in a mess which only YHVH is able to fix. The problem is that nobody believes in what Moses wrote in the first five books of the Scriptures any longer. One reason for this is that most Christian churches teach that J*e*s*u*s* either fulfilled Torah for them, or that He abolished Torah, so they need not keep it any longer. But, in reality Yahshua the real Messiah said just the opposite in John 5: 46 – 47, in this way:  “For if you believed Moses you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.  (47) But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” YHVH used Moses to define righteous behavior for all time.

Yahshua and Moses both championed Elohim’s way of life. Yahshua came to show us how to follow Elohim’s will and way. In fact He offered to live within us, saying in John 14: 23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.” Rav Yaa’cov spoke about the Torah given at Mount Sinai as a way to freedom, in James 1: 25, saying: ‘But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does.’ Rav Shaul also wrote in support of Torah in Romans 7: 12 – 14, saying: ‘So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (13) Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. (14) For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold in bondage to sin.’  Elohim’s Law is Spiritual in nature, as is Elohim also, as is confirmed in John 4: 24, in this way: “Elohim is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Yahshua our Messiah came specifically to bring us from the lost ten tribes back to the faith of our fathers into which He was born. Even though the whole world is presently blinded to Elohim’s will and way, there are even today Torah observant Jews who worship Elohim the way that He prescribed at Mount Sinai. They know and obey Torah to the best of their ability. It is also because they know Torah, that they are fully aware when they sin and are able to return to YHVH in repentance, at which time He forgives them (as He says through Ezekiel 18: 23)[2]. They like us whom YHVH is calling back to follow the perfect example of how He wants us to worship Him, namely Yahshua, are forgiven our sins if we confess it before Him, asking forgiveness as Rav Yochanan wrote in first John 1: 9, saying: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The problem with those of us who come from Christianity, is that even though we always had access to the same Scriptures the Jews had, we were too deceived by Satan (as witnessed in Revelation 12: 9)[3]to know what sin is, since we did not care about Torah at that time. It was for that very reason that Yahshua came to bring us back to the covenant relationship our forebears made with YHVH at Mount Sinai.

Our carnal desires and motivations imprison us the same way the Egyptians held the Israelites captive, as Rav Shaul wrote in Romans 6: 16, saying: ‘Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness.’ The way out of this dead end situation – the inevitable bondage, slavery and oppression of the evil in us, is through the death of Messiah, as Rav Shaul whom Yahshua specially trained to bring us from the dominion of Satan to the light of Elohim, wrote in Romans 6: 3 – 6,saying: ‘Or do you not know that all of us who have been immersed into Messiah Yahshua have been immersed into His death? (4) Therefore we have been buried with Him through immersion into death, in order that as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.’

Messiah explained that the way of life Elohim gave Israel under Moses is the way everyone should live. He told the young man who asked Him how he could enter eternal life in Matthew 19: 16, saying in verses 17 - 19: “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”(18) He said to Him, “Which ones?” And Yahshua said, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; (19) HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER;  and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGBOR AS YOURSELF.” Elohim’s way of life is possible for us who were scattered throughout the world because of idolatry, and are now returning to YHVH through Messiah, because it is again possible for Him to dwell in us, which gives us freedom, after repentance and immersion, from sin. Elohim’s Torah is then ‘fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit,’ as Rav Shaul wrote in Romans 8: 4. Mankind’s struggle to get rid of oppression is a major theme of the Scriptures. The Exodus is perhaps the most celebrated such event, changing the course of the history of the world. The Exodus account reverberates with people everywhere because people grow tired of oppression and suffering and want to live free.

But the captivity, oppression and slavery that grasp the minds of others, do not have a hold on us. Elohim called His people out of the clutches of the false and dangerous religions of the world in Revelation 18: 4, saying:“ Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that, you may not receive of her plagues.’ Freedom is a choice; we may answer Elohim’s call, or remain part of the false religions and ways of the world.  As Moses led ancient Israel out of Egypt, Messiah our Passover will come and deliver a remnant of both houses of Israel,leading us into the Kingdom of Elohim when it comes to earth, as it is now in heaven. This is the wonderful news Yahshua came to preach when He came the first time in Mark 1: 14 & 15, in this way: “And after John had been taken into custody, Yahshua came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of Elohim, (15) and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Elohim is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” When Messiah returns one day on the Feast of Trumpets, He will actually usher in the Kingdom of Elohim with His saints ruling under Him, as we read from Revelation 20: 6, as follows: “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of Elohim and of Messiah and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” A second witness giving more details about where these priests will rule is given in Revelation 5: 10, in this way: “And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our Elohim; and they will reign on earth.” Think about it!

 

[1]Malachi 4: 1, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, “says YHVH of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

[2]Ezekiel 18: 23, “Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares YHVH Elohim, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?”

[3]Revelation 12: 9, ‘And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.’