I believe there are many words in Scripture that the body needs to understand how to biblically define. And it all starts with going back to the original words used, and letting Scripture define them for us.
There is a lot more that goes into understanding what “Israel” means than what most believers are really up for investigating. If the enemy is able to confuse you on this topic, he will be able to hijack your identity so that you don’t know who you really are. Identity is the root of who we are as Yahuah’s people.
Unfortunately, the enemy has had his claws in this perspective for thousands of years, and we are at a point in time where people are waking up and assessing the damage that has been done. This misunderstanding on who Israel is has devastated the body’s understanding of who the God they say they love is and what our Messiah came to fulfill and teach.
Through false teachers, the enemy has deceived people into believing that Israel and the Church are two separate groups of people with two separate promises. Christianity has taught us that the church is going to be “raptured” and the “unbelieving Jews” are going to stay and get dealt with. We have been taught that the we are under grace, so obedience is no longer necessary because it is “putting ourselves under the law.”
The bottom line was laid out clearly by Paul in Romans 11. You are either a natural branch or a wild branch. You are either Yah’s covenant people through Abrahamic bloodline, or you are a Gentile believer who wants to follow the Elohim of Israel, which at that point you become grafted in to the olive tree (which is symbolic to ‘Israel’). Since the exodus out of Egypt, Israel has always been a mixed multitude. The Yahudim (Jews) only represent one tribe—let’s not forget that.
But if you want to be grafted in and follow the one and true living Elohim, there is a covenant you must enter into with Him. And it’s that you keep His commandments—our Messiah never taught anything different.
Numbers 15:16 – “One law (torah) and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourns with you.”
We see instances all throughout Scripture where Gentiles in the Old Testament were able to be grafted into covenant with Yah. There was never a different command or promise given to Gentiles who wanted to serve and follow Him.
Why would that be any different today? We serve a God who does not change (Malachi 3:6).
They are our wedding vows, and breaking them is likened to spiritual adultery. This is why you always see Yahuah indicting His people for “whoring after other gods,” or “playing the harlot,” etc.
All throughout the Old Testament, we see an issue with Yah’s people failing to keep their end of the covenant agreement. So, what happened?
Yahuah ended up divorcing the northern kingdom of Israel.
Jeremiah 3:8 – “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce...”
Israel was cut off.
Yahuah broke off her branches.
He divorced His people.
We know that Judah became even more treacherous than Israel, but Yah had to preserve the tribe of Judah because that was the tribal lineage that would give birth to our Messiah.
Jeremiah 5:10 – “Go up upon her walls and destroy, but make not a full end; take away her branches, for they are not Yahuah’s.”
Jeremiah 11:16 – “Yahuah called your name a ‘green olive tree,’ fair and of good fruit; with the noise of a great tumult he kindled fire upon it, and the branches are broken.”
Understanding what this means is crucial to understanding Yah’s plan of redemption and the purpose of our Messiah.
See, here’s the thing with divorce. According to the Father’s very own torah, once you send someone a certificate of divorce, they cannot return to their husband (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). The only thing according to Scripture, that can renew the covenant and restore the marriage, is death. See Romans 7:2 and 1 Corinthians 7:39.
Our Messiah was sent to us to die, to restore this broken covenant.
Death had to happen to bring restoration.
John 4:24 tells us that Yahuah is a spirit. His eternal spirit cannot die, so this is why His Word had to become flesh, so that He could die for us. This brought us the new covenant prophesied about in Jeremiah 31, in which the new covenant would write the Father’s torah on our hearts, so that we could have a new spirit to give us a renewed mind and heart through the power of the Ruach (Holy Spirit) to walk in His ways and overcome sin. That’s what it means do be “under grace.”
Yahusha was sent to restore us because of our continued commandment-breaking that led to divorce. THAT is the restoration He came to bring. Understanding this helps us to grasp why it is a complete insult to the spirit of grace for people to believe and teach that our Messiah came to do away with the Father’s torah. That teaching is absolute hypocrisy and blasphemy. He was not sent here for us to continue in our transgressions. He was sent here to give us a deeper love for Yahuah’s Word.
The majority of Christians today have NO IDEA who our Messiah really is. This is a salvation issue. It’s a salvation issue because “rejecting” the Messiah has everything to do with rejecting the Word. Many Christians today reject the Word because they actually don’t know it, even though they’ve been taught to believe they do.
I know how much the Scriptures have been twisted, to the point that without an understanding of prophecy, it is easy to be convinced that what I am saying goes against the Scripture. But I’m here to tell you that most don’t know how deep the deception is because they’ve been blinded by false teaching. If you believe that the “new covenant” came to bring freedom from obedience to the Father’s commandments, you are following a false Messiah and the enemy has you exactly where he wants you.
Yahusha is the vine—WE are the branches.
If you don’t understand why the branches were broken off to begin with, how will you understand what to do to make sure that same fate doesn’t happen to you?
“For if Elohim did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.” Romans 11:21
The church never has and never will “replace” Israel.
You either become a part of Israel, or you don’t.
With love,
Stephanie