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FFOZ TV Review: Speaking in Parables

November 6, 2013 James Pyles Leave a comment

Episode 18: It may be surprising to many Christians that the use of parables was not unique to Jesus but was rather a Jewish literary art form that had been developed over centuries. Viewers will learn in episode eighteen that Jesus used parables not as riddles but stories to help clarify his points. Jesus’ parables attempted to make it easier for his listeners to grasp his words. Like the other rabbis of his day, Messiah used parables to serve as simple explanations and illustrations to help us understand his message about the kingdom.

-from the Introduction to FFOZ TV: The Promise of What is to Come
Episode 18: Speaking in Parables

The Lesson: The Mystery of Speaking in Parables

This is another First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) perspective on a common “attribute” of Jesus, in this case, how he taught using parables, that for me, revealed more about how Christians think than about the topic itself. I always assumed that the parables of Jesus were metaphors designed to communicate complex concepts and ideas in a simple manner. This is probably because in my previous career as a psychotherapist, using metaphors was a common method I employed to accomplish the same thing.

But apparently, it’s generally understood in the Church that Jesus used parables to confuse his listeners and to hide the truth from the Jewish people. He spoke in riddles in order to prevent the Jews from repenting and returning to God, which, if repentance had occurred, would have resulted in Israel entering the Messianic Age.

According to FFOZ teacher and author Toby Janicki, it’s easy to understand why modern Christians might get that idea:

His disciples approached him and said, “Why is it that you speak to them in parables?” He answered them and said, “Because to you it is given to know the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given. For to one who has, it will surely be given, and he will have extra, but for one who does not have, even what he does have will be taken away from him. That is why I speak to them in parables. For in their seeing they will not see, and in their hearing they will not hear, nor do they even understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Yeshayah that says,

‘Listen well, but you will not understand. Look closely, but you will not know. Fatten the heart of this nation, and make its ears heavy and seal its eyes, so that it will not see with its eyes or hear with its ears or understand with its heart or repent and be healed’.”

–Matthew 13:10-15 (DHE Gospels)

This seems to be another case of misunderstanding what appears to be a plain message because we are not approaching the words of the Master using a historical, cultural, and Rabbinic Jewish lens. Toby used to introduce himself in earlier episodes by saying he is a Gentile who is practicing Messianic Judaism, but in the past few episodes, he has described himself as a Gentile who studies Messianic Judaism. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that such a framework is truly required by Gentile Christians if we’re ever to get past our own cultural and historic misconceptions of the Gospels and hear and understand what Jesus is actually saying to his original audience and to us. Maybe we could use a few parables to get that message through our own “thick skulls.”

Toby said the way to understand Matthew 13:10-15 is to go to the section of the Book of Isaiah from which Jesus was quoting:

He said, “Go and say to this people, ‘Surely you will hear, but you do not comprehend; and surely you see, but you fail to know. This people is fattening its heart, hardening its ears, and sealing its eyes, lest it see with its eyes, hear with its ears, and understand with its heart, so that it will repent and be healed’.”

–Isaiah 6:9-10 (Stone Edition Tanakh)

Toby told his audience that the conjunction “but” as in “but you do not understand” would better be rendered as “and”. If we substituted the word “and” for “but” in the scripture from Isaiah 6, it would read more like God telling Isaiah that He wants the prophet to relate a message of repentance, but that the people are not going to listen to him.

Otherwise, it looks like God is saying, through Isaiah, that He wants the people to repent, but He also is making it impossible for them to hear the message and obey. Sort of a cosmic “bait and switch,” with God playing the role of the infinite trickster in relation to Israel. This is very reminiscent of how some Christians say God only gave the Torah (Law) to Israel to prove to them that it was impossible to obey, setting them up to understand why they needed grace and Jesus Christ in order to be saved; setting them up to realize that the Torah was never, ever meant to be a permanent lifestyle for the Jewish people, even though the Torah, Prophets, and Writings are replete with messages indicating that both the Torah and the Jewish people would forever exist before God.

Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9-10 in order to explain that he was like Isaiah, a prophet preaching repentance to an Israel that was already spiritually blind and deaf, unable to see or hear or understand in order to repent and be healed (although in a Jewish context, being healed wasn’t just individual salvation, but the healing and restoration of the entire nation of Israel).

We have arrived at the first clue:

Clue 1: Jesus did not use parables to blind eyes or deafen ears.

In fact, the opposite seems true. Jesus knew his audience was already spiritually blind and deaf, and maybe he thought using simple parables instead of complex theological arguments would make the message of repentance and restoration easier to understand.

But what exactly is a parable and who typically uses it as a teaching method? For the answer to that question, the scene shifts to Israel and FFOZ teacher and translator Aaron Eby.

Aaron said that parables were used long before Jesus as a common teaching tool by prophets and even by other Rabbis who were contemporaries of the Master. Aaron quotes Ezekiel 17:12 and the parable of the eagle that plucks off a treetop (watch the episode to hear Aaron’s explanation of the parable) to make his point.

Aaron related that the word for parable in Hebrew is mashal, and that the Sages often used a mashal to explain something that was highly conceptual and difficult to understand. Aaron, like Toby, told his listeners that a mashal was designed to make something easier to understand, not take a plain idea and turn it into a riddle. In fact, in the day of Jesus, it was completely normal and expected for a Rabbi to teach using parables, so the disciples and followers of Christ expected it.

We return to Toby in the studio and come to the second clue:

Clue 2: Parables were a common teaching device used to simplify complex concepts.

Toby takes us to another Gospel scripture to further explain why Jesus taught in parables:

With many parables like these, he spoke to them the word according to what they were able to hear. Other than with a parable, he did not speak to them. But when his disciples were with him and no one else was with him, he would explain everything to them.

–Mark 4:33-34 (DHE Gospels)

This still seems like Jesus is using parables to obscure the truth but explaining everything to his disciples privately, however Toby said we need to consider another perspective. One that, once I heard it, I realized I’d been taught before.

The Rabbis of that time taught using a dual teaching method. They taught the common people, the simple farmers and shepherds, using parables in order to make difficult theological issues better understood. However to the disciples who continually studied under their Rabbinic Master, the teacher would relate these same concepts in a more formal and legal manner, since they were better equipped, being the Master’s students, to understand in greater depth.

Clue 3: Jesus taught the common people as they were able to hear him.

Remember that Mark describes Christ’s use of parables as, “he spoke to them the word according to what they were able to hear.” He used parables because that’s what the people were able to hear. They wouldn’t have understood a more detailed and technical explanation in the same way the disciples understood.

What Did I Learn?

I had a basic understanding that parables were metaphors in the purpose of their use, but this episode presented parables and their nature in greater detail than I had access to previously. It’s also another example (for me) that God does not desire to hide information, to trick people, to be an agent of confusion, but rather, He wants us to understand, to trust, to believe, and to realize that a Sovereign God is a just and honest God. Sovereignty doesn’t mean God will pull a “bait and switch” just because He’s entitled to as Creator of the Universe.

I also saw again how in lacking a proper Jewish contextual, legal, historical, and cultural framework when we read the Apostolic Scriptures or any other part of the Bible, we will misunderstand, sometimes tremendously misunderstand, who Yeshua is, what he taught, and why he taught it. The Messianic “good news” will be tinted an alien shade of “Gentile,” resulting in a “Goyim-friendly” New Testament that is required to remove continual Jewish Torah covenant obligation so that it can be replaced with something newer and “better.”

As I said before, when Toby introduced himself as a Gentile who studies Messianic Judaism, it revealed something about me and how I approach my faith. I really do believe and accept the FFOZ premise that Messianic Judaism is a method by which non-Jewish believers can and must study in order to comprehend God, the Messiah, the Bible, our Jewish companions in the faith (and outside the faith), and ourselves better. Otherwise, we’re missing out on a great deal of understanding and truth.

I don’t think anyone intended this part of the episode to be adapted in this way, but I wonder if when Jesus (and Isaiah before him) said that “this nation, and make its ears heavy and seal its eyes, so that it will not see with its eyes or hear with its ears or understand with its heart or repent and be healed,” they realized these words could possibly be applied to much of the Christian church today?

Oh, one more thing. The top image on each of these FFOZ TV reviews is just a screenshot, not an embedded link to the video. The link to the video is just under the italicized introduction to the review as the title of episode, such as in today’s case, Episode 18: Speaking in Parables.

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FFOZ TV Review: Binding and Loosing

October 30, 2013 James Pyles 23 Comments

Episode 17: Over the years numerous explanations have been given for what Jesus meant when he talked about binding and loosing, not the least of which is that it refers to restraining demons. In episode seventeen viewers will discover that the context of Jesus’ words is that of a legal nature. When the Jewish background to the terms “bind” and “loose” is examined, Christians can get a clearer understanding of what Messiah was teaching about. Binding and loosing in actuality refers to legal rulings in regards to the Scriptures and not spiritual warfare.

-from the Introduction to FFOZ TV: The Promise of What is to Come
Episode 17: Binding and Loosing

The Lesson: The Mystery of Binding and Loosing

I haven’t given much thought to the traditional Christian understanding of the concepts of “binding” and “loosing” since I only looked at them from a Hebrew Roots/Messianic Jewish driven perspective, however, First Fruits of Zion author and teacher Toby Janicki started with the Christian viewpoint of these ideas. He described a prayer meeting he attended when he was young where the following passage from scripture was read:

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

–Matthew 18:18 (ESV)

Toby told his audience that immediately after this verse was read, the people began to pray, “We bind you Satan in the name of Jesus,” suggesting that Matthew 18:18 was a description of Jesus giving the disciples the power to “bind Satan.” I immediately thought of my recent commentary on John MacArthur as well as my conversation with my Pastor on the matter, and how both seem to take the point of view that people can’t really summon the power of the Holy Spirit to make any effective spiritual or physical changes in our world.

Toby brought up an interesting and useful point to this issue. If Jesus gave his disciples (i.e. “us”) the power to “bind Satan,” why would he give us the power to “loose” him as well? It doesn’t make sense.

Invoking “context is king,” Toby reads from the larger selection of scripture containing the key verse:

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

–Matthew 18:15-20 (ESV)

I’ve accused Christian Bible studies before about “cherry picking” specific verses in the Bible to create a particular picture or doctrine and Toby showed us how true this can be. He deconstructed this passage to show us what really seems to be happening here.

“If a brother sins against you” indicates that an infraction has occurred within the congregational body, committed by an individual.
The procedure of adjudicating the infraction is outlined in first the direct witness approaching the sinner, then with several witnesses, and finally the entire congregation.
If the sinner continues to refuse to repent through each stage of adjudication, the congregational leaders have the authority to remove the sinner from their midst.

It’s no coincidence that it requires two or three witnesses to perform this function:

A single witness shall not stand up against any man for any iniquity or for any error, regarding any sin that he may commit; according to two witnesses or according to three witnesses shall the matter be confirmed.

–Deuteronomy 19:15 (Stone Edition Tanakh)

The sequence of events described in Matthew 18:15-20 references a legal proceeding. If an infraction, error, or sin is committed, a set of legal steps is set in motion. First the individual who was offended may attempt to settle it privately, but if that isn’t effective, then two or three witnesses are brought in. Finally, if the matter cannot be settled, the entire congregation makes a decision to set the sinner out.

The two or three witnesses, according to Toby, are actually the authorities within the community who are acting as judges. Of three witnesses, at least two or all three must agree for any legal decision to be binding. This is how a Beit Din of Jewish Rabbinic court operates today. Jesus was giving his disciples the authority to make binding legal decisions for the Messianic community of “the Way.” This is also mirrored today in more than one Christian church system where the board of deacons, elders, or directors make authoritative decisions for the entire church.

Here we have the first clue:

Clue 1: Jesus’s words about “binding” and “loosing” occur in a legal context.

I was (again) struck by the fact that the church can (quite often) misunderstand the Bible in general and the New Testament writings in particular by ignoring the Jewish cultural, historical, and legal context of scripture. Even fundamentalist and literalist Christians will miss important and even critical details by failing to take the “Jewishness” of the Jewish scriptures (i.e. the Bible) into account.

The scene shifts to FFOZ teacher and translator Aaron Eby in Israel in search of our second clue. He takes us through a small vocabulary lesson about the Hebrew words for “loose” and “loosed” as well as “bind” and “bound.” The Hebrew words for “loose” and “loosed” are understood as “prohibit” and “prohibited.” The Hebrew words for “loose” and “loosed” correspond to “permit” and “permitted” (Aaron’s actual description is more detailed and you’ll have to watch the episode to get all the information).

For instance, an Israeli “No smoking” sign in Hebrew can be literally translated as “Smoking is bound” or “prohibited.” Aaron also tells us that in religious Judaism, a particular Rabbi can prohibit or “bind” a particular activity as well as “loose” or permit an activity. A Jewish person unfamiliar with the rulings on a specific topic can consult a Rabbinic sage and receive a judgment on whether it is bound or loosed (prohibited or permitted) but it is bound (prohibited) to go from Rabbi to Rabbi in search of a favorable legal opinion.

While Toby used the English Standard Version of the Bible (purposely) from which to quote scriptures, Aaron backs up his point by referencing the Delitzsch Hebrew Gospels to read from Matthew 16:19 (a scripture we looked at just last week):

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and all that you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and all that you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

Back with Toby in the studio, he reads from the DHE Gospels, as Aaron did, but quotes Matthew 18:18 again:

Amen, I say to you, all that you forbid on the earth will be forbidden in heaven and all that you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

If a matter is legally decided by two or three judges or authorities within the congregation on earth, then it will be supported by the Heavenly authority as well (which makes me wonder how all that works today with so many different and contradictory Christian and Jewish groups, each issuing authoritative legal rulings for their congregations…which one(s) does/do Heaven support?).

We now have the second clue for this program:

Clue 2: “Bind” and “Loose” are figures of speech in the Hebrew.

I probably would have said that “Bind” and “Loose” are legal terms in ancient and modern religious Judaism, but you get the idea.

I was wondering why Toby needed a third clue since it seemed to me the point was well made, but he continued by quoting from the Mishnah an example of a legal ruling about fruit grown in Israel, which needs to be tithed, or grown outside Israel, which does not need to be tithed. I’ll skip the details because you will want to watch this episode without knowing everything it teaches ahead of time.

Toby also referenced Acts 15 where the Messianic community exercised their authority to bind or loose in relation to the question of whether or not Gentiles could be allowed into the community without converting to Judaism. Should Gentiles by bound or prohibited from formal entry until they legally converted, or should they be loosed or permitted to join without such a conversion?

An examination of the Acts 15 process (and remember, Luke only recorded a small summary of what was assuredly a much longer and involved proceeding) illustrates the matter of deliberations by those who possessed the authority given them by the Master, and the ultimate decision was to loose the Gentiles from conversion and full Torah obligation, although they were bound to what we refer to as the “four essentials” in order to enter (as an interesting exercise, you can try reading Acts 15 and see if you can determine the actual authorities involved [two or more judges] in making the legal ruling about the Gentiles).

Toby didn’t put it into these terms, but the Council of Apostles and Elders in Acts 15 established halachah or a legal ruling about the procedure of Gentile admittance into “the Way.”

Clue 3: Examples from Rabbinic literature and the New Testament support the two previous clues and their conclusion.

Toby further references Isaiah 11:3-4 to establish that Messiah will also “bind” and “loose” during his reign as King and Judge, as well as Isaiah 2:3-4 to make a similar illustration.

At the end of the episode, Toby made a point of trying to “smooth things over” for whoever in his traditional Christian audience might be disappointed that they didn’t really have the power to “bind Satan” based on Matthew 18:18. He reminded everyone that elsewhere in scripture, Jesus gave the disciples the power to cast out demons, and in Revelation 20:1-2, Satan will be literally bound. I again thought of MacArthur and my Pastor, both of whom probably never believed that Christians have had the power to bind or cast out demons after the close of Biblical canon.

What Did I Learn?

I was again taken by the fact that without an understanding of the first century Jewish Rabbinic, legal, and religious context and comprehension of the words of Jesus, it is quite possible and likely that the Church misunderstands large portions of the Biblical text. This supports my ongoing discussion with my Pastor that we grossly misunderstand Paul in those sections of scripture where he seems to denigrate the Torah and call for its practice to be abolished or “put on hold” by Jewish and Gentile disciples (not that the Gentile disciples were ever “bound” to Torah in the manner the Jewish people were).

Without the Mishnah as well as a historical understanding of how Jesus’s immediate Jewish audience and the Jewish readers of Matthew’s gospel would have comprehended these words, we will fail to learn what Jesus (or any of his apostles or disciples) are trying to teach us today. We will anachronistically read the text and make it say what translates from the Greek to the English to support erroneous doctrine. We’ve seen over the majority of the Church’s supersessionistic history how making such errors has led to Christianity as a whole committing heinous atrocities, all in the “name of Christ.”

I also saw a minor but interesting point in Isaiah 2:3:

Many peoples will go and say, “Come, let us go up to the Mountain of Hashem, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths. (emph. mine)

Since the word “halachah” refers to a way of walking, this also seems to link up to learning the legally binding methods of behaving in worship and devotion to the God of Jacob. In Messianic days, we, the “many peoples” from the nations, will go up to the “Mountain of Hashem,” the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and learn the Torah of God from Messiah.

I’ve mentioned before that I believe the Acts 15 halachic decision binds Gentiles differently to the Torah than it does Jews, but it will be interesting to see how or if any of that changes once Messiah is ruling from the Throne of David in Jerusalem. I can’t wait to find out.

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FFOZ TV Review: Keys to the Kingdom

October 23, 2013 James Pyles 6 Comments

Episode 16: Jesus tells Peter that he gives him the keys to the kingdom of heaven. These words of Messiah have caused confusion and debate for almost two thousand years. Episode sixteen seeks to bring clarity to this controversy by examining the keys to the kingdom within their proper Jewish context. Viewers will discover that the keys to the kingdom are Jesus’ teachings about entering the kingdom and the revelation that he is the messiah. With these keys we can begin not only to prepare for the coming Messianic Era but we can begin walking in that kingdom right now.

-from the Introduction to FFOZ TV: The Promise of What is to Come
Episode 16: Keys to the Kingdom

The Lesson: The Mystery of The Keys to the Kingdom

Like many people addressing a large audience, First Fruits of Zion teacher and author Toby Janicki starts out with a joke. Actually, in this case, he starts out by describing a joke: the classic joke we see in many comics of a person who has just died standing at the gates of Heaven waiting for “Saint Peter” to use his keys to open up the gates…or not.

Interestingly enough, and you may already know this, the basis for this type of joke is actually in scripture:

And I also say to you that you are Petros, and upon this rock I will build my community, and the gates of she’ol will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and all that you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven and all that you will permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

–Matthew 16:18-19 (DHE Gospels)

Before going on to discover what the “Kings of the Kingdom” are, Toby tells us why Jesus gave them to Peter.

Shim’on Petros answered and said, “You are the Mashiach, the son of the living God!”

–Matthew 16:16 (DHE Gospels)

It was because Peter was the one who correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah that Jesus gave Peter the Keys to the Kingdom. But what are these keys or for that matter, what is The Kingdom of Heaven?

Toby has told us in more than one prior episode that the phrases “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God” really mean the Messianic Age, the period of time when Messiah will rule, not only in Israel, but over the whole world. This is also our first clue.

Clue 1: Kingdom of Heaven does not mean “Heaven.”

The scene quickly shifts to teacher and translator Aaron Eby in Israel who tells us about the word “Heaven” in Hebrew: Shamayim. It took me a few moments to realize that this segment has been in a previous episode of FFOZ TV. Aaron gave us this “word study” before. I can only guess that someone at FFOZ made the decision that repurposing the “Shamayim segment” fit the requirements for this episode as well as a past one, or something else happened that prevented a unique segment of Aaron teaching from Israel to be videotaped.

The folks at FFOZ may also not be assuming everyone will be watching the episodes in order, and so all of the material that for me seems repeated or that comes across as a review, will be completely fresh and new to others. If Aaron’s teaching on “Shamayim” meaning “Heaven” and “Malkhut Shamayim” meaning “Kingdom of Heaven” is unfamiliar to you, watch the episode to get all of the details.

Back in the studio with Toby, we continue to get a review of the meaning of Kingdom of Heaven meaning God’s reign on earth, as opposed to Heaven as God’s supernatural realm or the court of Heaven.

So if the Keys to the Kingdom mean the keys to the Messianic Age, is it possible to be “locked out,” so to speak and to need a set of keys in some sense in order to gain entry? In previous episodes such as Seek First the Kingdom, Toby certainly gave the impression that even those people who are saved by grace can be locked out of entrance to the Kingdom, though I still don’t quite understand how that would work.

But in this case, that’s not what Toby’s talking about. The Keys to the Messianic Age, the keys that Jesus gave Peter, was the power and authority to pass on the teachings of Jesus to others, including subsequent generations. This dovetails into the central message of Jesus which is “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” and the core teachings of a number of other recent FFOZ TV episodes. You won’t really understand a lot of what Toby teaches unless you’ve seen those shows.

Up until now, I experienced almost everything in the episode as repeated information or a quick review of what has been taught before, but with the second clue, the show took on a very different direction.

Clue 2: The Key of David.

The key of what?

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:

‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. (emph. mine)

–Revelation 3:7-8 (NASB)

I’ve read the Book of Revelation just recently, but I never picked up on the key of David and certainly never made the connection to the Keys of the Kingdom. As Toby was talking, I thought again about where these connections in scripture come from. How do Toby and the other teachers at FFOZ arrive at some of their conclusions and associations? It would be helpful to have that information on tap, especially in order to study more in-depth.

But this isn’t enough to understand what these keys are supposed to be, especially relative to the second clue. To drill down further, Toby says we need to consult the ancient Jewish sages, something most Christians aren’t comfortable in doing. On the other hand, this is the third and final clue:

Clue 3: The traditional Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 22:22.

But what does this scripture say?

I will place the key to the House of David on his shoulder; he will open and no one will close, he will close and no one will open.

–Isaiah 22:22 (Stone Edition Tanakh)

So in Revelation 3:7-8, Jesus is quoting what Isaiah had to say about the Messiah and the Keys of David. In my Tanakh, there’s a note about this verse that simply says, “i.e. the affairs of the royal house will be arranged through him.” However, Toby cites a thousand-year old Jewish commentary (which he doesn’t specifically name, unfortunately) that reveals other details:

A teacher opens a discussion of scripture to fulfill that which is said in Isaiah 22:22.

This is interpreted to mean that the keys of the House of David are actually the power to teach God’s Word with authority, something that Jesus did and it was noticed more than once:

When Yeshua finished saying these words, the crowd was astonished by his teaching, for he was teaching them as a man of authority, and not like the scholars.

–Matthew 7:28-29 (DHE Gospels)

Apparently, it was Jesus’s desire to pass that authority along to one of his disciples, Peter. That actually makes sense. In first century Judaism, the primary job of a disciple was to memorize the teachings of his Master in order to pass them along to the next generation and beyond. This job was specifically given to Peter, although all of the Master’s disciples would share in the responsibility.

How did Peter fulfill this task and wield the Keys of the Kingdom?

The most noteworthy answer is that Peter’s disciple John Mark wrote down everything Peter had to say about the teachings of Jesus. This is what comes down to us as the Gospel of Mark, which some Christian scholars say was the first Gospel written and the source for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Peter also used the Keys in other important ways:

To be the first to preach the Gospel to Jews (Acts 2).
To be the first to preach the Gospel to Gentiles (Acts 10).
To participate in making important decisions for the body of believers (Acts 15).

Peter isn’t a gatekeeper passing in or locking out people from the Messianic Age. He was the first one responsible for passing on the teachings of Jesus. He was given power and authority to perform this task by receiving the Keys of the Kingdom from Jesus. It’s a task, Toby tells us, that all of us as believers must share; to learn, memorize, and teach what Jesus taught. Through the Holy Spirit, we too have been given power and authority…and responsibility.

What Did I Learn?

Pretty much everything from the second clue on was news to me. I’d have never made the association between Matthew 16:18-19, Revelation 3:7-8, and Isaiah 22:22. I also wouldn’t have known about the traditional Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 22:22 that folds back into what Jesus said to Peter and then later to John in Revelation.

I never thought of Peter as the major player in the New Testament much beyond the Gospels. Paul figures so prominently in so much of the Apostolic Scriptures, that the other apostles and disciples almost pale by comparison. Pretty much after his involvement in Acts 10 and Acts 15, Peter fades from the scene and Paul dominates the “passing on” of the teachings of Jesus, acting very much like he is the one to possess the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Also, Paul’s rebuke of Peter recorded in Galatians 2:11-21 seems to even elevate Paul above Peter, at least in terms of an understanding of how the Gentiles were to integrate into the Jewish religious movement of “the Way.”

Toby showed me how important Peter’s early contributions were in setting the stage for everything that followed.

Something else was made apparent to me (though of course, I always suspected it) in this episode as evidenced by the third clue. In using the traditional Rabbinic Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 22:22 (as opposed to the plain reading of the verse), part of what I think FFOZ is saying is that, in order to understand the Jewish perspective on the teachings of Jesus, the New Testament, as well as the rest of scripture, we have to be willing not only to look through that Jewish lens and accept what we see as accurate, we also must be willing to accept the whole of Judaism as a valid perspective in a Christian understanding of the Bible.

I know that would probably get the attention of my Pastor, and not in a positive way. He has a deep respect for the place of the Jewish people in history, prophesy, and in the future age of Messiah and beyond, but not necessarily modern Judaism with layer upon layer of Rabbinic custom, interpretation, and practice that seem, from his Christian point of view, to stray far and wide away from the text of the Bible. He believes the actual scriptures are the final authority as we can understand them through accepted exegesis, but factoring in traditional Judaism and it’s interpretation of that text by the Rabbis may be too far for him, and many Fundamentalists and Evangelicals to go.

I am drawn to and even fascinated by the Rabbinic sages and find many of their commentaries to be compelling guides to understanding God and a life of Holiness, but I will also be the first to urge caution in accepting all Rabbinic commentary as being unerring in its understanding and presentation of God and human beings.

It has been said to me before not to seek Christianity and not to seek Judaism, but to seek an encounter with God. It is with God that all truth resides. It is because human beings see so imperfectly that we require various lenses in order to examine God’s truth and God’s Word. I very much enjoy and appreciate looking through a Jewish lens in order to view Messiah better, but I will still use critical judgment in examining anyone’s commentary on Messiah and God, including the revered Jewish sages.

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FFOZ TV Review: Thy Kingdom Come

October 16, 2013 James Pyles 9 Comments

Episode 15: Every day Christians around the world pray the Lord’s Prayer which includes the line “thy kingdom come.” But what are we praying for when asking for his kingdom to come? In episode fifteen viewers will learn that the entire Lord’s Prayer is about the promises of the coming kingdom, the Messianic Era. Prayers for daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from evil all find their context in the coming kingdom of God. By teaching his disciples this prayer, Jesus instructs all his followers to take hold of this future today.

-from the Introduction to FFOZ TV: The Promise of What is to Come
Episode 15: Thy Kingdom Come

The Lesson: The Mystery of Thy Kingdom Come

First Fruits of Zion teachers Toby Janicki and Aaron Eby have been spending a number of recent episodes focusing on different aspects of “the Kingdom of God” which is defined as the Messianic Age. Today’s episode drills down into what most Christians call “the Lord’s Prayer” and examines the phrase “Thy Kingdom Come.” We all think we know what that means from a Church context, but when Messiah’s disciples asked him how they should pray and he taught them this prayer, what did “Thy Kingdom Come” sound like to first century Israeli Jewish ears? That’s what this lesson proposes to answer.

Toby adds what I considered a little “tongue-in-cheek” (but I’m probably mistaken here) when introducing this subject by saying, “why didn’t Jesus just tell his disciples to pray from their heart?” This could be addressing the distaste most Evangelicals have for liturgical prayer, as if it is dry and spiritless. And yet, it certainly seems like Jesus did teach liturgical prayer to his disciples, and by inference, to us. But more on that in a bit.

Toby refers to the Sermon on the Mount as a description of what it will be like to live in the Messianic Era. Since the Lord’s Prayer is in the portion of scripture that contains the sermon, that must mean, from FFOZ’s point of view, that the Lord’s Prayer also addresses the Kingdom, perhaps more than just by saying “Thy Kingdom Come.”

Therefore, this is what you should pray:

“Our Father, who is in heaven,
may your name be sanctified.
May your Kingdom come;
as your will is done in heaven,
may it also be done on earth.
Give us the bread that is our allotment today,
and pardon us our debts,
as we also have pardoned those indebted to us.
And do not bring us into the hands of testing,
but rescue us from what is evil.

–Matthew 6:9-13 (DHE Gospels)

A lot of this episode retraced material about the “Kingdom of Heaven” and the “Kingdom of God” actually being the same thing as the “Messianic Age” and not literally about going to Heaven where God lives or any sort of “afterlife.” The Messianic Era is a span of future time, not a place (although I suppose you could say that it takes place all over the Earth). Toby quotes Isaiah 11:6-7, 10 to tell the audience that it will be a time of absolute peace all over our world. And then he gives us the first clue:

Clue 1: The Kingdom is the Messianic Era.

That’s not much of a clue since this information has been provided to the audience (assuming they’re watching all of these episodes in order) a number of times before. Nevertheless, Toby is building up to something. Part of what he’s saying is that “Thy Kingdom Come” was a Jewish phrase long before it was identified as a Christian phrase. To more completely establish this point and to define the Hebrew word “Malkhut” (Kingdom) for us, the scene shifts to Aaron Eby in Israel.

Aaron introduces the Siddur or Jewish Prayerbook to his Christian audience and says that “Thy Kingdom Come” and similar phrases are very common in Jewish prayers. Many of the prayers in the Siddur quote directly from scripture, but others are quite old and date back to the time of Jesus and earlier.

Before getting to the meat of the matter, Aaron gives his viewers a small lesson on Jewish prayer and the use of the Siddur. He then quotes from such prayers as Kaddish and Aleinu to show parallel passages between the prayers in the Siddur and the different sentences and phrases in the Lord’s Prayer. Aaron attempts to establish the “Jewishness” of the Lord’s Prayer and at least implies the prayers in the Siddur we have today that use similar language to the Lord’s Prayer also date back to the time of Jesus or prior in history.

That actually would have been a good piece of information to nail down more definitely by showing when each of the prayers that contain such language were written (if known). Were the Jews who contributed to those prayers contemporaries of Jesus, did they pre-date him, or did the live many centuries afterward. It would help to know if Jesus was mining liturgical language of the normalized Judaisms of his day or if a much later Judaism could be accused of “borrowing” Jesus words from history (and I encourage you to watch the episode to see the complete explanation Aaron offers).

Returning to Toby in the studio, we are presented with the second clue:

Clue 2: “Thy Kingdom Come” is a common sentiment in Jewish Liturgy.

Toby also said that Jesus was “drawing from the well of liturgical prayers of the Judaism of his day,” echoing Aaron’s statements. If true (and I don’t doubt it), then by doing so, Jesus was saying that there was nothing wrong with incorporating normative Jewish liturgy and practices into the worship of God for his Jewish disciples. That begs the question about modern Messianic Jews incorporating today’s practices from the different streams of 21st century Judaism as disciples of Messiah in their worship and if this is acceptable. Another discussion I sometimes have with my Pastor. Jewish liturgy and tradition being used to teach Jewish and Biblical views of God’s Kingdom, Imagine that.

Toby re-reads the Lord’s Prayer, this time from the ESV Bible translation, and asks the question, if a single phrase in the prayer speaks of the Kingdom to Come, what about the rest of the prayer? He tells us that it is his understanding that the Lord’s Prayer speaks of both a believer’s present needs and life, and also addresses the future Messianic Age.

As far as God’s provision goes in “give us this day our daily bread,” Toby quotes from Leviticus 26:5, Ezekiel 34:29, and Joel 2:24-26 to show how each of these prophets foretell of God’s perfect provision in the Messianic Era. Of all that Messiah will accomplish, he will eliminate famine and hunger worldwide, giving each of us our “daily allotment of bread.”

“Forgiveness of debts (sins)” also happens in the Messianic Age according to Jeremiah 31:34 and the following:

I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.

–Jeremiah 33:8 (NASB)

“Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil” is also an indicator of the Messianic Era, since we are given a new heart and a new spirit that we might not sin against God or human beings.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

–Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NASB)

What Toby doesn’t mention is that this specific scripture also establishes that in the Messianic Age, the Spirit within us (or at least the Jewish audience presupposed by Ezekiel) will cause us (them) to “walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” It’s hard to not to read “Torah” into “statutes” and “ordinances,” and echos another recent FFOZ TV episode.

And our third and final clue is:

Clue 3: The Lord’s Prayer is all about the Messianic Age.

Boaz appears on camera at the end of the episode and introduces next week’s topic: the “Keys of the Kingdom”. It seemed to me that after a standard thirty-minute episode, there should have been something more.

What Did I Learn?

I hadn’t really given much thought about the tie-in between the Lord’s Prayer and the Messianic Age. I suppose, like so many other Christians, I believed I completely understood what Jesus was saying and didn’t feel it necessary to dig any deeper. But again, I’ve been shown that the Bible contains a greater depth and mystery than seems obvious by just a surface reading, especially in English.

I have to admit to not being as “compelled” by this episode as I have by some of the past shows, maybe because so much of the material seemed like a review rather than fresh information. The main thrust of the message seemed to be a simple “the Lord’s Prayer is Jewish and not Christian, and here’s how we prove it.” It’s another brick inserted in the overall structure Toby and Aaron have been trying to construct for their traditionally Christian viewers in an attempt to make Messianic Judaism more accessible and even palatable.

I got more out of the further descriptions of the Messianic Era from the Old Testament (Tanakh) scriptures, since this contributes to my investigation of what the Messianic Age looks like when viewed only from the Tanakh. Capturing that view is critical for me in understanding how or if the Tanakh’s portrait of Moshiach matches up to the New Testament’s, particularly the fundamentalist and evangelical Christian interpretations of the apostolic writings. FFOZ is one of the few places I can turn to in order to realize a Jewish perspective on both the Tanakh and the later writings. If they can’t be reconciled, then either our interpretations are flawed or something more dire has happened.

I will review another episode next week.

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FFOZ TV Review: Seek First the Kingdom

October 9, 2013 James Pyles 6 Comments

Episode 14: For Christians, nothing should be more important than seeking first the kingdom. Episode fourteen will take a deeper look at what it means to “Seek first the kingdom of God” from a Jewish perspective. Viewers will learn that the kingdom of God is the Messianic Era. To seek first the kingdom is to obey the teachings of Jesus and do the will of God while always leaning on God’s grace. The Sermon on the Mount is the long answer to what it means to seek to enter his kingdom.

-from the Introduction to FFOZ TV: The Promise of What is to Come
Episode 14: Seek First the Kingdom

The Lesson: The Mystery of Seeking First the Kingdom of God

What is it to seek first the Kingdom of God? We’ve learned from previous episodes of this program, that the Kingdom of God is actually the Messianic Era, not “going to Heaven.” It’s the Kingdom that Jesus will establish upon his second advent into our world, where he will rule and reign over Israel as her King, and as King of all the nations of the Earth.

But let’s take a closer look at an important saying of the Master from Matthew 6:31-34 using the Delitzsch Hebrew Gospels translation to begin to address this mystery:

Therefore, do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For the Gentiles request all of these. Does your Father who is in heaven not know that you need all these? But seek first the kingdom of God and his tzedakah, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry for itself. It is sufficient for trouble to come at its time.

As always, First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) teacher and author Toby Janicki tells his audience that we may be led into error if we do not look at these scriptures from the original linguistic, historical, and cultural context, the context of the audience for whom Matthew wrote his gospel, the context of the audience of Jesus and his Sermon on the Mount. This is the lynchpin that holds together FFOZ’s interpretation of the New Testament and folds it into the overall Jewish context of the entire Bible.

Toby says that Jesus is telling us we are not to focus on our immediate, material needs, but rather to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Toby summarizes the Kingdom using material presented in previous episodes:

The Kingdom of God is Messiah’s rule over the earth upon his second coming.
The exiles of Israel, the Jewish people, will be regathered to their nation.
God will defeat all of Israel’s enemies.
Messiah establishes a rule of peace over all the Earth.
The Torah will go forth from Zion.
Everyone will be filled with the Knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit.

I immediately thought of my conversation with my Pastor last week. Part of our discussion included a quick summary of the Book of Revelation, and I noticed that Toby didn’t touch on the “rapture of the Church” to Heaven with Jesus for the seven years of tribulation. I suppose that will be a topic for another time, although previously, Toby mentioned that “the Church” would be raptured with Jesus to Jerusalem. I suppose that means “the Church” won’t be “off planet” for the seven years of woe and judgment, but that’s a topic for another time.

Toby said that the Sermon of the Mount is the overall context for today’s lesson and that Matthew 5:20 is the key to understanding the Sermon. It functions like a thesis statement, and not correctly understanding this single verse will lead to misunderstanding the entire sermon.

I found this terrifically compelling, because Pastor and I got “hung up” on this very verse last week. I was presenting my understanding of the terms “abolish” and “fulfill” we encounter in Matthew 5:17-19 based on the previous episode of the show: The Torah is Not Canceled (see my review of that episode for more details).

However, verse 20, as I mentioned, was a problem:

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The context of verses 17-19 discuss the Torah and how Messiah did not come to disobey (abolish) the Torah, but to obey (fulfill) it. Pastor says that “fulfill” can’t possibly mean “obey” in context because of verse 20. No amount of obedience of the mitzvot can lead to saving righteousness. The only answer I had to give was that Jesus was contrasting Torah obedience with faith, essentially saying that the scribes and Pharisees were depending on what they did to save them, and, as important as obedience is relative to Jews and the Torah, it’s only faith that saves. I was trying to pull a rabbit out of my hat, so to speak, thinking “theologically” on the fly.

So I was hoping that Toby was going to offer a link from verse 20 back to verses 17-19 and give me a more “fleshed out” explanation. What ultimately happened was unexpected.

Toby forged a direct connection between Matthew 5:20 and Matthew 6:33

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

–Matthew 5:20

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

–Matthew 6:33

As I’ve said in the past, it would be helpful to know the source for making such connections in the Bible. A bibliography for each episode would enhance my ability to understand. But we have arrived at our first clue:

Clue 1: Make it your top priority to enter the Messianic Era.

But there’s another part to all of this. While we can grasp the meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven, what does “righteousness” mean in these contexts? Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and his righteousness. You might think you know what “righteousness” is, but remember, this show is all about presenting familiar parts of the Bible as seen through the historical, cultural, and linguistic lens of first century Judaism. What does “righteousness” look like when you put those glasses on?

To learn the answer, the scene shifts to FFOZ teacher and translator Aaron Eby in Israel. Aaron teaches us (and I apologize for the poor spelling of the transliterations) that “righteousness” can be mapped back to two Hebrew words: “Tzeddik” and “Tzadakah”. “Tzeddik” gives us the sense of “justice,” “correctness,” “equitability,” and “uprightness.” It’s an abstract concept and is more about being righteous. “Tzadakah,” on the other hand, is a more “hands on” term, according to Aaron. It’s more about doing right things, doing the correct thing, and doing righteousness rather than being righteous.

It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us. (emph. mine)

–Deuteronomy 6:25 (NASB)

Aaron explains that the word “righteousness” or “tzedakah” used in this verse speaks of doing the correct thing, which here is performing particular Torah mitzvot. The concept of righteousness and doing right are completely fused. One cannot be righteous without doing righteousness. This should remind most Christians of the following:

But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

–James 2:18-24 (NASB)

Over time, the meaning of the word “tzedakah” has changed. It is commonly thought of today as specifically giving to charity, but Aaron says that it did not lose its previous meaning in taking on a more modern way of being understood. The underlying concept of the word is doing kindness to others, kind treatment of others. When God shows us His righteousness, he is being kind to us. When we show others righteousness, we are doing good things for them. Although Aaron and Toby didn’t say this specifically, I think we can link tzedakah back to being a tzeddik (a righteous one). You cannot be righteous without doing righteousness. Let’s look at Matthew 5:20 again.

For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. (emph. mine)

So, given all that we’ve learned up to this point, are Aaron and Toby telling us that entering the Messianic Era, the Kingdom of God, is dependent on how much kindness we do for other human beings? But how can we be more “righteous” than the scribes and the Pharisees, who set the bar pretty high?

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

–Matthew 23:23 (NASB)

While the scribes and the Pharisees were all about doing “righteousness,” that is, acts of kindness and justice (the two can’t be separated in our understanding of tzedakah) toward others, still, they had problems, and these were problems Jesus brought to light. They were hypocritical (or some of them were). They taught righteousness but didn’t do righteousness. This is why Jesus told his disciples to do what the Pharisees taught but not to emulate their actual behavior (Matthew 23:1-3). There was nothing wrong with the teaching of righteousness of the Pharisees, but in many cases, they didn’t “walk the walk”. Jesus seems to be telling his disciples (and us) that our righteous deeds must exceed those of the Pharisees if we are to enter into the Kingdom of God.

Let’s refactor the two scriptures that Toby says are key to our understanding of today’s mystery:

For I say to you that unless your good deeds surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

–Matthew 5:20 (NASB)

But seek first His kingdom and His good deeds, and all these things will be added to you.

–Matthew 6:33 (NASB)

Returning to Toby in the studio, we have arrived at our second clue:

Clue 2: Righteousness = Acts of the Law; Good Deeds of God’s Torah.

Toby says that if Jesus has to give this instruction, it begs the question of whether or not some disciples of the Master will not enter the Messianic Era. He offers the following as an answer:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

–Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)

Toby’s coming really close to saying that all disciples of Jesus who do not practice the Torah mitzvot, or at least those that command acts of kindness and charity to others, will not enter into the Messianic Era. In other words, they “practice lawlessness.” However, Toby was quick to point out that this isn’t a matter of salvation. Even if you do no acts of kindness, you can still be saved by the grace of Jesus Christ through faith (though if you have faith, then why aren’t you performing tzadakah?). But this brings up a critical question. How can you be saved but not enter the Messianic Age? Where will you be if you’re not there?

Oh, and this is the third and final clue:

Clue 3: Not everyone will enter the Messianic Era.

Toby again tells us that not entering the Kingdom and not performing acts of kindness and charity to others does not negate the free gift of grace through Christ. But the Messianic Era is a span of historical time in which all those resurrected and all those who are born in it are in that Era. How can you not enter a span of history unless you’re dead…but if you’re saved, you’re not dead?

What Did I Learn?

Linking last week’s review to today’s, let’s have another look at a key passage of scripture:

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

–Matthew 5:17-20 (NASB)

Here I see that, at least from FFOZ’s point of view, my response on verse 20 was wrong. Putting all this in one basket, the FFOZ perspective is that Jesus, having been criticized and accused of not living out and teaching the Torah correctly by the scribes and Pharisees, uses this opportunity to clarify his position. He has not come to abolish (disobey) the Torah, but rather to fulfill (obey) the Torah. Any Jew (his intended audience in this context was Jewish) who annuls even the least of the mitzvot (in contrast to Jesus who says he doesn’t) will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven (the Messianic Age). Anyone who keeps and teaches the Torah mitzvot will be called great in the Kingdom (and since Jesus was the only person who kept the mitzvot perfectly, this implies that he will be the very greatest in the Kingdom).

(I should note at this point, that Aaron chose to interpret the term “righteousness” we see in Matthew 5 and 6 as “tzedakah” rather than “tzeddik.” If it could be either/or, it would be helpful to understand on what basis “tzedakah” was selected over “tzeddik” … on the other hand, as I mentioned above, can we really separate these two words … can one be a tzeddik without performing tzedakah?)

Continuing to address his audience and building on what he’s just said, Jesus instructs that unless their good deeds according to the performance of the Torah mitzvot, exceed those of the scribes and Pharisees (who later Jesus accuses of teaching well but not performing well), then they will not merit entering the Kingdom of Heaven (the Messianic Age).

On the one hand, a person who annuls the least of the mitzvot and teaches others to annul them will be in the Kingdom of Heaven but will be least there, and on the other hand, unless a person’s performance of the mitzvot related to good deeds does not exceed the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, they will not enter the Kingdom at all, not even as the least.

I think this needs some clarification. I know my Pastor would not likely be convinced by this argument. For him, righteousness is a state of being (being a tzeddik, which no one achieves without faith in Christ) that no person can earn regardless of what they do. He would call this “salvation by works,” even though Toby is saying that it’s actually admission into the Messianic Kingdom for the already saved. Salvation isn’t earned but admission to the Messianic Kingdom apparently is.

I will admit to being confused by this one for the reasons I’ve already stated. However, like other episodes of this program, complete ideas are expressed not in one episode, but in connecting many episodes together to form the total message. Hopefully, that’s what’s happening here.

FFOZ President and Founder Boaz Michael, as always, came on camera at the very end of the episode to announce that next week’s show would address “the Lord’s Prayer.” Maybe the part that says, thy Kingdom come, they will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven” will be used to help clarify today’s commentary on the Mystery of Seeking First the Kingdom of God.

I will review another episode next week.

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FFOZ TV Review: The Torah Is Not Canceled

October 2, 2013 James Pyles 25 Comments

Episode 13: It is commonly taught that Jesus came to cancel the law but Jesus tells his disciples “I did not come to abolish the law.” Episode thirteen will revolutionize the viewer’s understanding of the law by learning that the law was given for Godly instruction. They will discover that not only has the law of God not been done away with but the prophets tell us that it will be observed even in the Messianic Era. It will also be taught that the law has different applications for different people, with some commandments only being applicable to Jewish people.

-from the Introduction to FFOZ TV: The Promise of What is to Come
Episode 13: The Torah Is Not Canceled

The Lesson: The Mystery of Jesus and the Torah

In this episode, First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) teachers Toby Janicki and Aaron Eby take on one of the major misconceptions of Christian doctrine, that the death of Jesus canceled the Torah and invalidated the Law. Toby calls this “The Mystery of the Torah is not Canceled,” but I prefer the other expression he used: “The Mystery of Jesus and the Torah.”

The core to this episode is a scripture that practically everyone in the Hebrew Roots and Messianic Jewish movements is keenly aware of:

Do not imagine that I have come to violate the Torah or the words of the prophets. I have not come to violate but to fulfill. For, amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one yod or one thorn will pass away from the Torah until all has been established.

–Matthew 5:17-18 (DHE Gospels)

These verses are part of what is called the Sermon on the Mount, which is thought of in Christianity as the core of Jesus’s moral teachings.

Toby tells his audience that a closer analysis of Matthew 5:17 will help us get to our first clue in solving today’s mystery.

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

–Matthew 5:17 (NASB)

According to Toby, Jesus had been criticized by the Jewish religious authorities, saying that he was not teaching and living by the Torah correctly. Jesus was taking this opportunity to explain his intent as a teacher. The phrase “I have come” has the sense in the Hebrew of purpose and intention. Toby tells us that in this section of his sermon, Jesus isn’t explaining his role as Messiah in relationship to the Torah, but his intention and purpose in teaching the Torah. He wants to clear up any misunderstanding about what he’s teaching, not explain how he is going to impact Torah obedience in Israel as the coming Messiah.

But we have to have a proper understanding of the terms “abolish” and “fulfill” in order to understand Jesus’s words. While Christians have to take at face value the verse saying that Jesus didn’t come to “abolish” the Law, that is, to destroy, discard, overturn, or annul, they often interpret “fulfill” as abolish, since the net effect in Christian thinking is that Jesus “nailed the Law to the cross.”

But within a first century Jewish Rabbinic context, how are the words “abolish” and “fulfill” understood?

Rabbi Jonathan would say: Whoever fulfills the Torah in poverty, will ultimately fulfill it in wealth; and whoever abolishes the Torah in wealth, will ultimately abolish it in poverty. (emph. mine)

-Pirkei Avot 4:9

Pirkei Avot is also called Ethics of Our Fathers, and is a collection of ancient Rabbinic teachings compiled from 200 years before Jesus’s birth until 200 years after his resurrection.

Here we see how the early Sages defined the use of fulfill and abolish in relation to the Torah (the word “neglect” was in place of the word “abolish” in the quote of Pirkei Avot 4:9 I copied from a Chabad email newsletter). I bolded some of the words in the above quoted phrase so you could better see Toby’s point.

To “abolish” in this context, means to disobey Torah.
To “fulfill” in this context, means to obey Torah.

Jesus is saying that in his teaching and his life, he did not come, that is, it was not his intention and purpose as a teacher, to disobey the Torah, but rather, to obey the Torah. Let’s look at Matthew 5:17 again but in a modified form.

Do not think that I came to disobey the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to disobey but to obey. (emph. mine)

A rather startling change of meaning, don’t you think? Now we have the first clue we need to solve the mystery:

Clue 1: Jesus came to obey and teach the Law.

But exactly what is “the Law” and why does Christianity see it so negatively? To get the answer, the scene shifts to FFOZ teacher and translator Aaron Eby in Israel.

What is the Torah? Most often, we think of it as the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And while the Torah does contain many laws for Jews living in the Land of Israel and diaspora, as well as Jewish ethical and moral conduct, it also contains the story of Creation, the calling of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the astonishing redemption of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Aaron teaches us that Torah means something like “guidance,” “teaching,” or “instruction.” The root word in Hebrew is an archery term implying something that is cast, thrown, or shot with aiming or guidance, like one might shoot an arrow at a target. In this sense the Torah can be any spiritual or Biblical teaching directing someone toward righteousness. To differentiate this broader meaning from the first five books of the Bible, we call those five books the Torah of Moses.

The main point of Aaron’s teaching is rather straightforward. Torah doesn’t mean “law,” it means teaching, instruction, and guidance, in a spiritual or moral sense. It doesn’t have to refer only to the “mechanics” of the legal parts of the Torah of Moses. He also explains what a “jot” and a “tittle” or “thorn” is which illuminates how Jesus used those terms in Matthew 5:18. Jesus was saying that he did not intend to abolish or disobey even the smallest detail of the Torah until heaven and earth passed away.

Returning to Toby, we have our second clue:

Clue 2: Torah is God’s Instruction.

Toby takes the lesson one step further and describes the future role and function of the Torah in the Messianic Era. To understand how this works, we must turn to Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Here, Toby interprets this scripture about the New Covenant in the same way I’ve been doing on this blog for quite some time. On the surface, the prophet is saying that there will be a new covenant and that it will be different from the old covenant, but what exactly will be different. Grace instead of Law? That’s not what scripture says. Let’s drill down into verse 33:

I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (emph. mine)

I substituted the word “Torah” for “Law” since that’s how it’s rendered in the Hebrew. Remember, the New Covenant is made with Judah and Israel, not with the church or the nations. God still expects the Jewish people to obey the Torah, His guidance and instruction, but it will be written internally and will be part of the fiber of their being, rather than being written externally. My understanding is that it will be second nature for the Jewish people to live a lifestyle in obedience to God, rather than struggling between the good and evil inclinations.

We saw in the FFOZ TV show None Greater Than John that verse 34 refers to the state of the people of God during the Messianic Era. We will all know God, from the greatest to the least of us, as prophets, with an overabundance of the Spirit of God upon us.

This is the Messianic Era, when the Jewish exiles are returned to their Land, the Land of Israel, all of Israel’s enemies are finally defeated forever, and King Messiah establishes world peace. In those days, all Jews will obey Torah and even the Gentiles of the nations will go up to Jerusalem to learn:

And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

–Isaiah 2:3 (NASB)

Here we have the third and final clue:

Clue 3: The Torah will be obeyed in the Messianic Era

But this brings up the subject about the relationship of the Torah to the non-Jewish people. I thought that the topic would be ignored as in past episodes, but Toby briefly touches on it by saying that the Torah has different applications to Jewish and non-Jewish people. Most (non-Messianic) Jews would probably say the Torah has little to no application to the goyim at all, but Messianic Judaism sometimes has a unique perspective regarding non-Jews and particularly Christians.

At the end of the episode, FFOZ Founder and President Boaz Michael comes on camera and refers to the Torah as “God’s loving instruction.” He says that both Jews and Gentiles need to study the Torah and discover how it applies to our lives, also implying that there are different applications of the Torah to Jewish and non-Jewish people.

What Did I Learn?

I gained a greater appreciation of the Rabbinic use of the terms “fulfill” and “abolish,” although I’d heard something similar in the past. I was also reminded of a discussion I had with my Pastor last week on this very topic: will there be distinctions between Jews and Gentiles in the Messianic Era and will there be any such thing as “Torah” in those days? He says “no” and I say “yes.” I don’t think the Torah ceases as we understand it today until “all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). The question is, when is everything that must be accomplished actually accomplished? If not even the smallest detail of the Torah pass away until heaven and earth pass away, then the only possible answer is that the Torah passes away only when there is a new heaven and earth.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…

–Revelation 21:1-3 (NASB)

When the Messianic Age is established, the Torah will still be in effect upon Israel, that is the Jewish people. There will be some applications for non-Jewish believers, but Toby was deliberately vague in this area. Only after everything has been accomplished, evil has finally been defeated, and a new heaven and earth have been established, that the Torah, as we understand it, will pass away.

But as I was watching this episode and reflecting on my conversation with Pastor last week, I was reminded of a question he asked me. There are several Jewish people who attend my church. None of them are “Messianic,” and would be better called “Hebrew Christians,” people of Jewish ethnic and family lineage but those who practice a traditional Christianity. In other words, they likely believe the law is abolished in the sense of being permanently destroyed.

Pastor asked me if I thought they are obligated to the Torah. My principles say “yes,” but I was suddenly confronted with the reality of my words. Could I go up to any of these individuals unbidden, and tell them to their face that they should be performing the mitzvot, not as a matter of salvation or justification, but out of covenant obedience? Probably not (not unless they asked, of course…). It would be like going up to a Jewish person driving to shul on Shabbos and telling them they shouldn’t drive but walk instead. Who am I, the religious police? On the other hand, if the Torah is incumbent upon all the Jewish people now and will be even into the Messianic Age…what are the consequences to a Jew for abandoning the Torah, even at the behest of the Christian church?

Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

–Matthew 5:19 (NASB)

I believe that Jewish people are currently obligated to perform the mitzvot, but that doesn’t mean I must forcibly impose my beliefs upon them. Every person negotiates their own relationship with God. Every Jew must discover who they are as a Jew in relation to Hashem. I can only pray that all Jewish people everywhere return to the Torah and thus bring the Messiah that much closer to bringing his rule and reign fully into our world. For when he returns, as Toby and Aaron teach, the Torah will be established in Israel and will go forth into the nations from Zion.

When G‑d made the world He gave each creature, each nation and each individual a role and a meaning.
When each plays its part there is harmony.
When the lines become too blurred, there is acrimony.

-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
“Distinctions”
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
Chabad.org

I will review another episode next week.

"When you awake in the morning, learn something to inspire you and mediate upon it, then plunge forward full of light with which to illuminate the darkness." -Rabbi Tzvi Freeman