• 2 months ago
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days. Hosea 3.4-5

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https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/video/hosea-3-israel-set-aside-israel-restored/
Transcript
00:00Good morning, friends. Welcome to The Bridge again. We're going to look today at Hosea
00:22and chapter 3. So if you want to find that in the Bible, there's just some word of prayer
00:41before we come to this subject. Lord, we thank you that we can meet in the name of Jesus.
00:45We thank you for your word, which is true. Pray that you'll bless the preaching and the
00:49hearing of your word and guide me by your Holy Spirit into all truth. May we learn something
00:54more about you and about your kingdom and about your purposes for your people. In Jesus'
01:00name. Amen. Going to look today at the subject of Hosea chapter 3, and we're looking at basically
01:08the theme of Israel being set aside and Israel being restored. And in the process, hopefully
01:14we can learn something about our own faith in Jesus, the Messiah. Just kind of prelude
01:20to this, I read a few verses from the book of Romans, chapter 9, where Paul says, in
01:26verse 1, I tell the truth in Christ, in Messiah, I'm not lying. My conscience also bearing
01:31me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart,
01:36for I can wish myself a curse from Christ and for my brethren, my countrymen, according
01:42to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
01:47the giving of the law, the service of God and the promises of whom are the fathers and
01:52from whom, according to the flesh, Messiah came, who is over all, eternally blessed God.
01:59Amen. And in chapter 10, verse 1, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
02:04is that they may be saved for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but
02:09not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking
02:13to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
02:18For Messiah, Christ, is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
02:25One of the issues we have as Bible-believing Christians is that we have to work out how
02:29do we relate to Israel and to the Jewish people. A unique relationship, if you like. We both
02:36have a belief in the same book, the Bible, at least the Old Testament, as we call it,
02:41or the Tanakh, as Jewish people call it. We have a belief in the coming of the Messiah.
02:46In our case, the Messiah has come. In the case of Judaism, the Messiah is yet to come.
02:51We have many things which would bring us together. We believe in the keeping of the commandments,
02:55the Ten Commandments, the law given to Moses, and we have many things which we agree totally
03:01with Jewish people on. We have one major thing which we disagree on, which is the identity
03:05of the Messiah. Unfortunately, the identity of the Messiah has caused Christians down through
03:10the ages to turn against the Jews, to do the opposite of what Paul said that we should do,
03:15and to persecute the Jewish people in the name of Jesus, and to make it difficult for Jewish
03:21people to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. There are some things which I'm going to talk
03:28about today which come from the book of Hosea, which illustrate this theme. Let's have a look
03:34at the book of Hosea and see what it tells us about Israel in its present condition and how
03:40we as believers in Jesus should relate to Israel and to the Messiah and to the Word of God. If you
03:48hear the previous time when I looked at the book of Hosea, I said that we looked at chapter 2,
03:54and particularly we looked at the theme in chapter 2 of Hosea where it speaks about the Valley of
03:59Achor being a door of hope. God bringing the people into the wilderness and speaking to them
04:04and giving them from the Valley of Achor, the place of desolation, opening up a door of hope
04:10in which they would enter into the vineyards which spoke, as I said, of fertility, of God
04:16giving life to his people. In the course of this I said that the book of Hosea is based upon the
04:25unusual story of the Prophet's unhappy marriage to Goma, a woman who he was told to marry,
04:33who was actually unfaithful to him, in fact was described as a harlot in the scripture. And we
04:41saw that this was actually a parable of God's relationship with his people Israel. Israel was
04:46chosen and loved, told to keep true and to be loyal to the Lord, to avoid idols and immorality,
04:53just as Goma was chosen to be a husband to Hosea, to be faithful and true to him,
04:59but instead she was disobedient and she played the harlot. And her unfaithfulness and adultery
05:06caused pain to Hosea. And so in the same way God is speaking that Israel's unfaithfulness
05:13and spiritual adultery going after other gods, which is recorded in the writings of the Hebrew
05:19Scriptures, causes pain to God because God wants his people to be faithful to him. And the same
05:27way we could say also that the professing church's unfaithfulness and spiritual adultery today causes
05:34pain to God. Both are actually provoking God to act in judgment against his people who identify
05:40with him outwardly but inwardly unfaithful to him. And reminded in the Scriptures it says that
05:47judgment begins with the household of God. And Hosea was a prophet who actually spoke about
05:51God's judgment coming upon his people. They've been idolatrous from the very beginning of the
05:56division of the kingdom of Israel. We read about in the Kings how the first king of the northern
06:02kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam, had set up calves and told the Israelites that they shouldn't go
06:08down to Jerusalem to worship but they should worship at these calves which he had set up,
06:12these bulls, and said that these are your gods which brought you out of Egypt. Totally blasphemous
06:18statement against what God had really done. And as a result of this there'd been continual trouble
06:23in the northern kingdom of Israel because of their unfaithfulness to God. They'd added things which
06:28were in the Torah. They'd taken away things which were also in the Torah and not done them. And we
06:35saw how this led to a time of trouble. And the time of trouble was represented by the children
06:40who were given to Hosea and Gomer, one called Jezreel, which means God scatters but also could
06:46mean God sows, and also speaks of the valley of Jezreel in the north of Israel where the final
06:52battle would take place of Armageddon, but also the battle which would take place which would
06:57lead to the removal of the northern kingdom of Israel to captivity under Assyria. And also they
07:06had a child called Lo-Ruhamah which means not mercy, and Lo-Ammi which meant they're not my
07:12people. And so it's a picture of God separating himself and acting as it were a kind of divorce,
07:19but it is a literal divorce, would you take. They would no longer be my wife,
07:23you would no longer be my people. And according to Deuteronomy, if the husband divorces his wife,
07:29he's not allowed to take her back again. That's against the law in Deuteronomy 24. So in Hosea,
07:38you see actually that God says he's going to divorce Israel, but also he's going to bring
07:42her back again. One of the great themes of Hosea is the divorce, the separation,
07:46but also the restoration, and God promising to bring his people back to himself. That they
07:53would no longer be Lo-Ammi, not my people, they'd be my people. No longer be Lo-Ruhamah,
07:58not mercy, they would have, God would have mercy upon them. And instead of scattering them,
08:03Jezreel, God would gather them and sow them in the valley of Jezreel in the place of fertility.
08:09And I said that in Hosea chapter 2, it speaks about the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
08:16And we mentioned that the valley of Achor is the place which reminds us of a place of judgment.
08:22Joshua chapter 7, where a man called Achan disobeyed God and took garments,
08:29Babylonian garments, out of Jericho, hid them under his tent, and therefore brought trouble
08:35upon Israel. They'd lost the next battle, and after the battle of Jericho. And he was brought
08:41before the Lord, and they actually stoned him to death. And they set up a pillar over where he'd
08:46been stoned to death and called that the valley of Achor. And the implication of the praise the
08:53valley of Achor will become a door of hope is that out of this judgment, there will be a door
08:57of hope, something bringing hope. And I said that that relates to the cross, that God will bring
09:03his people to the cross, the place of desolation, the place where Jesus would take the punishment
09:07for the sin of the world. And that out of that place of judgment, God will bring a door of hope,
09:12a hope to those who repent and believe the gospel. It also says that God will give them vineyards.
09:18I said you don't get vineyards in a wilderness. So God would take you from the place of desolation,
09:23from the place of the wilderness, into a fruitful place, and they give you the fruit of the vineyard,
09:29which would be parallel to John 15, where we have Jesus as the vine dresser, and us as the branches,
09:36and Jesus pruning the branches of the vine so that we might bring forth good fruit to the Lord.
09:41So it's all a parallel, and everything in the Old Testament, much of the Old Testament actually
09:44speaks to us about things relating to the new covenant and to the life of the believer,
09:50producing good fruit through faith in Jesus the Messiah. Now chapter three, which we're going to
09:56look at today, speaks of this process continuing, also of Israel's separation from God and the
10:03promise of restoration in the latter days. And it speaks specifically to the situation of
10:10the Jewish people in dispersion in the present time, not believing in Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah,
10:17for the majority. It also has significant information to help us as believing Christians
10:23to relate to Jewish people and also to the old covenant scriptures themselves. So let's have
10:30a look at this passage, Hosea chapter three. It's a short chapter, but there's quite a lot in it.
10:35Not working. You'll have to do it.
10:45Okay. Then the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing
10:51adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and
10:56love the raisin cakes of the pagans. So I brought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and one
11:03and a half homers of barley. And I said to her, you should stay with me many days. You should not
11:08play the harlot, nor she will have a man. So too, I will be toward you. For the children of Israel
11:14shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without
11:19ephod or teraphim. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord, their God
11:24and David, their king. They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.
11:29Just a background to the first few verses there. What has happened in the narrative of the story,
11:34Gomer has again been unfaithful to Hosea, and he has, contrary to normal practice, brought her back
11:43again into his family, as it were. But he says that, go again, love a woman who is loved by a
11:52lover and is committing adultery. That's what she's been doing. And he compares this to the
11:56love of the Lord for the children of Israel. He says that they too have been following other gods,
12:03following the raisin cakes of the pagans. So what he does, he brings her back to himself,
12:10and he buys her back into his family, if you like. He says, you should stay with me many days.
12:16You should not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man. So too, I will be towards you.
12:22So he brings her back, but he doesn't bring her back into a complete marriage relationship.
12:29Otherwise, they will not have any sexual relations. He won't know her.
12:33He'll bring her back, but she will be, as it were, there before him, but not in a relationship with him.
12:41Also, she will not go play the harlot anymore. She won't be playing the harlot after other gods.
12:46So, as you can see, there's a parallel with this in what we're going to see what happens with Israel.
12:53So, Goma's been unfaithful, and Israel's been unfaithful, but in this passage, they're brought
12:58back into some relationship with the Lord, but not into a total relationship. There's something
13:02missing. He doesn't know her as a husband. And this is as keen as a parallel with the present
13:08situation of the Jewish people in relation to God. They're brought back into some relationship
13:14with God. They are still the people of God in one sense, but they're not in the relationship
13:20of knowing the Lord personally, because that can only happen through knowing Yeshua, Jesus the
13:26Messiah. And they can only become, again, the wife of the Lord, the bride of Jehovah, if you like,
13:32through faith in Jesus the Messiah. And this is what the passage is going to tell us something
13:38about. So, you have Israel in unbelief, still believing in God, believing in the Torah,
13:45not going after idols in the time of the diaspora, but also not in a personal relationship with the
13:52Lord, not in a place to know God through redemption, but to be preserved as a people who will be
13:57brought back to the Lord at the end of days. Now, rabbinic teaching sees verse 4 as a picture of
14:06Israel in the present diaspora condition. Verse 4, the children of Israel shall abide many days
14:13without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.
14:21Concerning this verse, there was a rabbi called Rabbi David Kimche, who wrote in
14:26the 12th century. He said, these are the days of the present captivity in which we are in the
14:31power of the Gentiles and in the power of their kings and their princes, and we're without a
14:36sacrifice, without an image, without a sacrifice to God, without image to false gods, and without
14:42an ephod and without teraphim, without an ephod to God by means of which we could foretell the future
14:49as with the Urim and Thummim, and without teraphim to false gods.
14:53Now, this is actually quoted by a man called David Barron in a book called
15:03The Ancient Scriptures for the Modern Jew, which I have to confess I got a lot of the information
15:07which I'm sharing with you about Hosea from. David Barron said that this showed how the present
15:17period of what he called the interregnum between the first and second coming of the Messiah
15:22applies to the present condition of Israel in the dispersion. If you don't know who David Barron
15:28is, he was a early pioneer of the Hebrew Christian messianic movement, came to England as a refugee
15:34from Jewish persecution in Tsarist Russia in the 19th century, came from a religious Jewish family,
15:42he was very well taught in the scriptures, Hebrew scriptures, he arrived off a boat
15:49on the east coast of England, I think it was in Hull, and as he was staying in his lodging somebody
15:54gave him a copy of the New Testament. What did he do with the New Testament? He read it. What was
16:02the result of him reading the New Testament? He came to believe that Yeshua, Jesus, is the Messiah.
16:08He then wrote back a letter to his father in Russia and said that he had become a believer
16:13in Jesus the Messiah. His father sent him back a letter saying to my late son David
16:19and cut him off, said don't communicate with me anymore, as far as I'm concerned you're a
16:23mishamad, a traitor, don't have any communication with me because you believed in the God of the
16:28Gentiles, you've gone over to the other side as it were, and you're now an idol worshipper,
16:33worshipping that man Jesus. Very painful letter as you can imagine. Didn't put him off his faith
16:42and in fact at the end of his life he did have some reconciliation with his father as his father
16:46came to recognize that he hadn't become a Christian to stop being Jewish, he'd become
16:50more Jewish through believing in Jesus and he'd used his time to spread the gospel message to
16:55Jewish people, founding an organization called the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel which
17:00continues to this day in the form of the Messianic Testimony and he traveled extensively throughout
17:07Europe preaching the gospel to Jewish communities and to other members of the
17:13testimony. Also interestingly he attended the first Zionist congress in Basel in 1897
17:21saying that he saw the beginning of the dry bones of Israel coming together in preparation for the
17:28restoration of the Jewish state, quoting from Ezekiel chapter 37 about the dry bones.
17:34When he was there apparently some delegates wanted to throw him out because he was a Hebrew Christian
17:39and they said he shouldn't be at this congress. Theodor Herzl, who was the
17:43man convening it, objected to this and said that Baron could stay because he was a good Jew and he
17:50was believing in the restoration of Israel and in fact apparently Herzl went down and sat next to
17:55David Baron just to show his solidarity with him and no doubt David Baron
18:03shared with him something of the gospel. But he was a great man and he did a great deal to
18:09influence what has become the messianic movement, great studies on the scriptures
18:15including on this passage in Hebrews, sorry in Hosea. Okay let's go back to the
18:23text of Hosea. So in the text we read that it said that you'll be many days
18:28without these things, without certain things are going to be not there during a period of many days.
18:35Okay the word for Hebrew in many days is yamim rabim, so many days implies actually a long period,
18:41long indefinite period, embracing even centuries or millennia. And during this period the Jewish
18:47people are going to remain as a distinct people who for the majority will retain a faith in God
18:54based on Torah observance given by God but with the addition of Talmudic Judaism
19:00which is not inspired by God. And rabbinic Talmudic teaching would actually become a major
19:06barrier against Jewish people believing in Jesus as the Messiah along with anti-semitic teaching
19:13from the church. They got two actual barriers towards Jews believing in Jesus today, that's
19:17what the rabbis teach them about Jesus and what the church has historically done in persecuting
19:23the Jews, saying the Jews killed Jesus they're under a curse and we shall exclude them from our
19:28fellowship and have nothing to do with them and treat them as awful people even persecuting them.
19:35Right against what Jesus said, right against what Paul said in Romans, total opposite. So this would
19:41be the condition during this time but at the time of the end there'll be a physical restoration of
19:46the Jewish people to the land of Israel and a spiritual restoration to the Lord. Now on this
19:53subject one has to say it's not correct to say that the church has replaced Israel but I've done
19:57a little pamphlet here which is on the table called Is the Church the New Israel? Although it
20:04is correct to say that the new covenant through the Messiah Jesus as revealed in Jeremiah 31,
20:12Matthew 26 in the breaking bread as we've just read and in Hebrews chapter 8 has replaced the
20:18former covenant made through Moses as the way for people today both Jewish and Gentile to come to
20:25know the Lord. So the church hasn't replaced Israel, Israel remains a people before the Lord
20:31but the church, the true church has replaced the way in which we can come to know God
20:36through the new covenant. You don't come to know God through going to the synagogue
20:41and trying to keep the law of Moses, you come to know God today through repentance and faith
20:46in Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah and the new covenant.
20:52And Jesus, Yeshua also spoke about the future for Israel. Jesus prophesied the coming dispersion of
21:00the Jewish people. He also indicates they're going to remain an identifiable people through
21:05the long years of the diaspora to be restored at the time when they recognize him as the Messiah.
21:12Matthew 23, it is though Jerusalem, Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who
21:17are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her under her
21:22chicks under her wings but you were not willing. See your house is left you desolate for I say to
21:29me you you shall see me no more till you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
21:35Speaking there about the desolation of Jerusalem which is going to come with the destruction of
21:39the temple and the dispersion of the Jewish people and he says your house has left you desolate.
21:44You're going to see me no more. A lot of the church would actually like to stop that sentence
21:48there. You will see me no more finished. God's finished with the Jews but he doesn't say that.
21:53He says you will see me no more until you say baruch haba b'shem Adonai, blessed is he who
21:59comes in the name of the Lord which is actually the traditional greeting of the Jewish people
22:04for the coming of the Messiah. So Jesus is saying if they're going to say that at the end of days
22:08they've got to be preserved during this time of the dispersion as an identifiable people. Can you
22:13see that? And in the next verse in Luke chapter 21 he says something similar he says in verse 23
22:22there'll be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people and they will be tore full by
22:27the edge of the sword they'll be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem be trampled by the
22:32Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Okay and you got that word until.
22:38It's going to be a time of wrath of desolation of dispersion being led away captive into all
22:45nations speaking of the dispersion of the Jewish people to the nations which has happened in our
22:49time. We've seen Jewish people spread to the east, the west, the north, the south in all nations
22:57and he says they're gonna this will be Jerusalem is going to be trampled or ruled by the Gentiles
23:01until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. So there's going to be some time in which God's
23:07going to reverse this process bring the people back to the land bring them back to the Lord
23:12and bring Jerusalem back under the control of the Lord. It's not there yet by the way but it's on
23:17its way. Note the use of the word until implies a preservation of the Jewish people until the time
23:24of the end when God will begin to reveal Yeshua to them and it's all that is in the context of the
23:31second coming of Jesus. Now during this time Israel is going to be without these things.
23:40Let me say you've got three couplets if you like. They're going to be without
23:45Melech or Tzar, king and prince. The Melech is the king of God's appointment.
23:53The Tzar could be a prince of their own choice. They're going to be without the Zebach and the
23:58Matzevah, the sacrifice and the standing pillar. The sacrifice is the sacrifice appointed by God
24:06primarily for covering sin for atonement. The standing pillar is used for idolatrous use in
24:15worship of other gods. They're going to be without the ephod or the teraphim.
24:21The ephod on the high priest's garment is for the discerning of the will of God.
24:25The teraphim are the pagan idols which are used speaking oracles which are used to try and discern
24:31the will of God by the heathen. So we've got three couplets there. One which is positive,
24:36one which is negative. You see that? And during this period there's going to be a condition of
24:44how Israel is going to exist during this time.
24:48And you have the positive and the negative. Now if you think about it, all the positive things are
24:53going to be fulfilled in Yeshua and we'll see how Jesus actually fulfills the positive side of what
25:00God is offering. The negative applied to going away from God, worshiping other idols. Now for
25:09the most part what the Bible and what history shows us is that during the time of the dispersion
25:14Jewish people, for the most part, have not come to believe in Jesus and for the most part have
25:20also not gone into the kind of idolatry which was prevalent at the time of Hosea.
25:28So let's have a look at a bit more what we can learn about these things. The melech or the zaar.
25:36The melech is the king of God's appointment. If you go into the books of kings and
25:41you see that there are kings who are of the line of David, who are appointed by God and are
25:47legitimate. We're told also that the Messiah is going to come out of the line of David. So there's
25:52a connection between the kings of the line of David and the coming of the Messiah. The word zaar
26:00means prince. It's not always negative actually. It's used in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 of the
26:07Messiah being the zaar shalom, the prince of peace. But it also has the idea of a zaar, the prince who
26:13is of your own choice, the prince who is not set up by God. And it can be positive but here it
26:19implies a negative, a ruler not chosen in the will of God, as was the case in all the kings of the
26:25northern kingdom who were not in the will of God and were illegitimate in the eyes of the Lord.
26:30We go through, Hosea then promised through his prophecy in chapter 10, prophesied the end of the
26:34northern kings and its kingdom. And the last king of the Samaritan kingdom was overthrown in 721 BC.
26:44Jeremiah also prophesied the end of the kings of Judah some 150 years later. Jeremiah 22 verse 28
26:53to 29. The southern kingdom of Judah had the legitimate kings, the line of David, who were
26:58appointed by God, but they were also going to be removed because of their unfaithfulness to God.
27:04And Judah too would be overthrown and taken into captivity in Babylon,
27:08but would return from Babylon again to restore the kingdom in one sense, but not with the king,
27:14so that there'll be the Jewish people in the kingdom again. So, the king of Judah
27:20so that there'll be the Jewish people back in the land in preparation for the coming of the
27:25king of kings, who is Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. But basically, the end of the line of David would
27:32happen. It's also prophesied in the book of Ezekiel. We go to Ezekiel chapter 21 verse 25.
27:40Ezekiel 21 verse 25, it's prophecy concerning the end of the line of David,
27:46thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, when iniquity shall have an end,
27:51thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem, take off the crown. This shall not be the same,
27:57exalt him that is low, abase him who is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it,
28:03and it shall be no more until he come who's right it is, and I will give it to him.
28:08There's a prophecy speaking about the end of the line of the kings of Israel.
28:13And they'll be taking the diadem, the crown will be taken off their head, and the
28:20high ones will be abased, and the low ones will be exalted. Gobbled crude and process of
28:25overturning. I will overturn, overturn, overturn. You can see that happens in the histories of
28:31the people of Israel and Judah. Says we'll overturn until he come who's right it is,
28:38and I will give it to him. So there's an interesting question, who is the he who is
28:43coming who's right it is? You look in Hebrew, the Hebrew for he who's right it is, is Asher Lo,
28:52Asher Lo, has a connection to the title Shiloh, which is one of the titles of the Messiah. So
28:59he's saying there's going to be this overturning until the one comes who has the right to it,
29:02who is actually the Messiah, who's going to be Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah.
29:09So Shiloh, picture of the Messiah, prophecy in the book of Genesis chapter 49, the scepter
29:17shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come, to him
29:23shall the gathering of the people be. Shiloh is a picture of the Messiah. So this is saying
29:28they're going to be an overturning of the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah, until the coming
29:32of the Messiah. And when the Messiah comes, he's going to have the right to the kingdom.
29:39So Yeshua, Jesus is the one who has the right to be king. And you see that when you come to the
29:43New Testament. First two chapters of New Testament about the birth of Jesus, you have the wise men
29:50coming to Herod and saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? We've seen his star
29:56in the east and have come to worship him. Somehow they understand that this one who's coming is
30:00the king of the Jews. How did they get that information? I guess only God could give it to
30:06them. We have Jesus before the Pontius Pilate in Matthew 27. Jesus stood before the governor and
30:13the governor asked him saying, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said to him, it is as you say.
30:20And as a result, Pilate puts the notice on the cross. They put up over his head,
30:27the accusation written against him. This is Jesus, the king of the Jews,
30:31strange kind of king who gets up on the cross. But that's also part of the story. Jesus would
30:36come as the king of the Jews and be rejected the first time and end up on the cross in order that
30:41he might be the redeemer to redeem us from our sins. And we see that although he was despised
30:47and rejected, there were also those who believed in him and who followed him. In the count of the
30:52triumphal entry, we have in Matthew's gospel, it says the next day, a great multitude that had come
30:58to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took palm branches, put branches of
31:04palm trees and went out to meet him and cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of
31:09the Lord, the king of Israel. So as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, we had a great crowd of people who were
31:15believing in him and following him. Not all the Jews rejected Jesus. Many Jews believed in Jesus.
31:20You can see that in the account. And they hailed him as the Messiah and said, blessed is he who
31:26comes in the name of the Lord. That's the greeting for the coming of the Messiah. And they called him
31:30the king of Israel. So Jesus was coming as the king into his people. Read in Luke's gospel when
31:38this happened that the Pharisees said to Jesus, rebuke your disciples when they heard these words,
31:44because they recognized they were the greeting for the coming of the Messiah.
31:47What did Jesus say? If they were silent, the very stones themselves would cry out,
31:51because Jesus is the Messiah. And he was coming into Jerusalem as the Messiah
31:56and as the rightful king of Israel, only to be despised and rejected and go to the cross.
32:03And he was rejected in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53.
32:08And he would be crucified to die as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. But as we've seen already
32:13in the passage in Matthew's gospel 23, he's going to return again and then he will be greeted
32:18with that greeting, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
32:22as the people of Israel look to Jesus as the coming Messiah.
32:27So what does this say about Israel's present condition? Israel, after Jesus has come,
32:33and Jesus says, your house is left to you desolate. The temple was first spiritually,
32:38then physically desolate. And the Jewish people were scattered throughout the nations.
32:43Jerusalem was trodden down with the Gentiles. Dispersion to the nations in bondage to Gentile
32:48kings. There's now no king of the line of David. And in fact, no king of the line of David can come
32:55because the genealogical records have been destroyed and lost. And there's no one who
32:58can prove that they are of the line of David. There's no tribe of Judah, nor separate Davidic
33:07family. So Israel is without king or prince in the dispersion. And today, even as Israel is back
33:14in the land, they don't have a king. They have a prime minister and a president, but they don't
33:19really qualify as the Melech, or even the Tsar according to scriptures, they're not permanent.
33:25But there's a time coming according to scripture when the king will come, when the kingdom will be
33:29restored to Israel. Jesus spoke about that in Acts chapter one, and he would restore the kingdom to
33:36Israel. And he would come as the king of kings and the king of Israel. So he's the one who has
33:42the right to be the king. So the answer to the being without a king, unless you have Jesus,
33:49you don't have the king. But if you have Jesus, you do have the rightful king. Okay, let's move
33:54on to the next little parallel. But they're being without sacrifice or without image. Two words in
34:03Hebrew, Zebach is sacrifice. It's the legitimate sacrifice which is ordained by God. You have
34:10examples of the legitimate sacrifice in the Hebrew scriptures. You have the Passover lamb who
34:14sacrificed to remember the night of the Passover, Exodus chapter 12. You have the sacrificial
34:20offerings in Leviticus chapter one to nine. And above all, you have the Yom Kippur sacrifice,
34:26the Day of Atonement sacrifice in Leviticus 16, which is used to cover the sins of Israel.
34:32Leviticus 16, they're told to take two goats, one for the Lord to be killed as an atoning sacrifice
34:38in the Holy of Holies in the temple, and the second one to be sent into the wilderness,
34:42bearing away the sins of the people. All these sacrifices involve the shedding of blood.
34:49Life of the flesh is in the blood, it says in Leviticus 20, 17, given it to you upon the altar
34:54to make atonement for your souls. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. The death of
34:59the animal, the innocent for the guilty. And it becomes a type of Jesus' death for us, for our
35:05sins. Now, all of these sacrifices are absent in modern Judaism. They don't happen. You don't have
35:11a Passover lamb sacrificed at Passover. You just have the shank bone of the lamb, which is put on
35:16the Seder dish. But it's a reminder that there once was a sacrifice, but there is no longer today.
35:22You don't offer any sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. You go to the synagogue on the Day
35:26of Atonement day, they will recite the verses from the Torah, which speak about the sacrifice,
35:32but they won't actually commit the sacrifice because it can only be done in the place where
35:36the temple once stood. And of course, Jesus is the final sacrifice. He's the one who makes it
35:43possible for us to come to God through faith in Him. And when you look in the Torah, you find that
35:49the shedding of blood is required by God. Read in Exodus chapter 24, it says,
35:56Moses took half the blood and put it on the basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
36:01Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And he said,
36:05all that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient. And God took, Moses took the blood,
36:09sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has
36:13made with you according to all these words. Exodus 24. So as God, Moses read the covenant,
36:20books of the covenant to the people, he offered, he made the sacrifice blood and he sprinkled the
36:27blood upon the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant. You see that every covenant in
36:32the Old Testament is sealed with blood. Hebrews tells us, according to the law, all more things,
36:38almost all things are purified with blood, without the shedding of blood,
36:42there is no remission. So blood has to be shed in order to enter into the covenant,
36:49sacrifice to atone for sins. Does that mean that God is bloodthirsty?
36:54No. The shedding of blood is actually essential because God is holy and we're not. There has to
36:59be something which covers the gap between our unholiness and his holiness. And what he requires
37:05is the death of one who is innocent to cover the sin of those who are guilty. So the animal is
37:12innocent, it dies, sheds its blood in order that the guilty may be forgiven. That's the whole point
37:19of the Yom Kippur sacrifice. Priest confesses the sins of the people over the head of the goat
37:25and sacrifices it as an atonement, atoning sacrifice for the sin of the people. Has to
37:31die. Shedding of blood means death. You see how that relates to Jesus. Jesus had to die. He had
37:38to literally die and shed his blood in order to redeem us. And when we look at the New Testament,
37:46we see the verse which you've already read today concerning the new covenant, Matthew 26.
37:54As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said,
37:59take eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink
38:04from it all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission
38:08of sins. So the sacrifice of blood is for the remission of sins, it's through the blood of Jesus.
38:17In the book of Hebrews, he tells us a bit more about this. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 11.
38:24But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle
38:28not made with hands that is not of this creation not with the blood of goats and calves not but
38:33with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption
38:39for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for
38:43the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit
38:48offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God
38:54for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption
38:58of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise
39:03of eternal inheritance so Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death by means
39:10of shedding his blood for the redemption of transgressions that those who are called may
39:15receive the promise of eternal inheritance colossians 1 says he has delivered us from
39:21the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his son son of his love in whom we
39:26have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins you only have forgiveness of sins through
39:32the blood of Jesus that's why you had to die and you have to repent and believe that Christ died
39:37for your sins now the problem for Judaism is it's today without that sacrifice when the temple was
39:48destroyed it did create a problem for Judaism they no longer had a place to offer the sacrifices
39:53particularly the yom kippur the day of atonement sacrifice and the story is told that a man called
40:01rabbi yohanan ben zakai and rabbi yoshua were walking by the ruins of the temple and rabbi
40:08joshua said woe to us that the place where the atonement for the sins of israel was made has been
40:14destroyed okay so recognizes the problem the temple has been destroyed we can't make atonement for our
40:19sins anymore rabbi yohanan ben zakai replied do not be grieved my son do you not know that we have
40:25a means of making atonement that is as good as this what is it acts of loving kindness as just
40:31said i desire hesed loving kindness and not sacrifice can you see what's happened there
40:38they've changed the rules if you like no longer do we cry the shedding of blood we can now
40:43achieve salvation redemption atonement through acts of kindness through good deeds
40:49and after the destruction of the temple this man rabbi yohanan ben zakai established an academy
40:54at a place called yavneh where he set up to preserve judaism without sacrifices without
41:00priesthood and without a temple and he said in effect the good deeds have replaced the sacrifices
41:06of the torah as the means of gaining atonement for sin now it's interesting that jewish critics
41:12of christianity say that paul changed the torah he changed the rules so that we have a different
41:19method now but if you look at this actually the rabbis have changed the torah as well and they
41:25made a big change which actually leaves out the need for the blood of atonement leaves out the
41:31need for jesus and in fact they've set up a new religion and i found a jewish commentator even
41:37says this i found this on the internet rabban yohanan ben rabberian says judaism did not
41:48disappear with the destruction of the temple what it did was transform itself from a religion
41:53centered around the temple priesthood and sacrifice it became a religion centered around
41:58torah study prayer atonement in the synagogue and deeds of kindness from historical point of view
42:04it is accurate to say that the biblical and rabbinic judaism are two different though of
42:09course related religions was rabbi yohanan ben zakai more than anyone else who made this possible
42:15see that he says they're two different religions is that interesting related but different
42:22you could say that's the same about christianity is related but different and which one is the
42:29truth today orthodox jews zealously keep the aspects of the torah which are possible to keep
42:35kosher food sabbath observance ritual purity festivals and holy days but this doesn't ask
42:41the question about why god has permitted for nearly 2 000 years to pass since the keeping of
42:46so many aspects of the torah particularly the sacrificial system have been impossible
42:50there's no appointed sacrifice no just just trust in prayer and fasting and repentance to cover sins
43:00as josea says they're without sacrifice they're also without the image the matzah
43:05the pillar or the monument which is used as the standing image devoted to idolatrous use
43:11and by and large since the babylonian captivity and in the diaspora today
43:17israel has kept away from idolatrous worship
43:21okay let's look at the last couplet they're without ephod or teraphim
43:29so what is the ephod you've got the high priest garment there on his chest you've got the
43:34ephod by which you can discern what is called the urim and the thummim according to numbers
43:40chapter 27 it says he that's the high priest shall stand if he shall stand before eleazar the
43:45priest who shall inquire before the lord for him by the judgment of the urim and his word at his
43:51word they shall go out and at his word they shall come in he and all the children of israel with him
43:56all the congregation now we're not actually sure how this worked but there appeared to be some
44:02means by which they could discern the will of god through the breastplate on the high priest
44:07through what is called the urim and the thummim some ways of discerning god's will
44:12which speaks to us somehow of the prophetic word of god being revealed that god could reveal to
44:17them direction how they should live how they should behave now i say we don't know exactly
44:22how this worked but it's applied in the scriptures there they would discern the will of god
44:29and it speaks to us also of the prophetic office if you put all these things together you've got
44:34the messiah as the priest the prophet and the king all fulfilled in jesus the messiah
44:42without him you've got a long silence long period of prophetic silence
44:47in which the warnings of the prophets have been fulfilled but no further prophetic word is given
44:52from the lord apart from through yeshua jesus the messiah they're also going to be without
44:59terrafim there's a picture of the terrafim they're the speaking oracles of the heathen
45:05the idols the household gods which are used in paganism and the according to research we've
45:11found out that the pagans used to try to use these household gods to discern the will of the gods or
45:17so which way they should go and one of the famous stories about the terrafim you'll find in genesis
45:23chapter 31 where rachel stole the terrafim of laban the household gods and hid her under a
45:33self when she was in the way of women which i think means she was menstruating and said don't
45:38look under me because that's how it is but that's where the the terrafim were hidden when laban came
45:43to find them according to one rabbi uh abban ezra he says that laban uh she stole these things that
45:51laban might not be able to discover the direction of their flight by means of these oracles whether
45:57that's the case or not is interesting but there is a tradition that somehow you could discern
46:02things from god through using these terrafim and they're associated with israel's apostasy
46:08and worship of false gods in judges chapter 17 and 18 and as i condemns israel for using them
46:15now zaar 18 he says zaar 8 verse 19 when they say to you seek those who are mediums and wizards who
46:22whisper and mutter should not a people seek their god should they seek the dead on behalf of the
46:27living to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word it is because
46:32there is no light in them so
46:39jose is saying that these are going to be missing in israel and by and large since the
46:44babylonian captivity idolatry using these house kind of household gods has not been ever part of
46:50israelite worship they have kept faith in one god through rabbinic judaism they've kept an identity
46:57separate from the gentiles they kept the torah as far as they could they've upheld moral and family
47:02values many ways a great achievement and although i'm somebody's being a bit critical of rabbinic
47:09judaism one has to say that the preservation of the jewish people down through the ages
47:13has been because of the influence of judaism of the torah on the people keeping them together
47:20as a people and often keeping them together under situations of intense persecution and
47:27terrible things being done sadly often in the name of jesus the messiah who's the one they
47:32should be believing in to get the answer to all these things but they preserved israel
47:38uh and the jewish people in very trying circumstances
47:43and because of the false witness of the church the majority of jewish people are alienated from
47:48jesus and the new testament and many will not read the new testament will not enter into a
47:54church building and or even read one of our pamphlets as we give it to them and that's
48:01probably the greatest tragedy in the history of the church because yeshua is the jewish messiah
48:07and he's the one to whom who came our salvation comes from the jewish people
48:12we should return it to them instead the church has done the opposite but he's the one who's
48:18fulfilled and will fulfill the positive side of all these three couplets he's the rightful kingdom
48:23rightful king he's the true and the final sacrifice he's the one who mediates the new
48:28covenant and the word of god to us by the holy spirit and so we should pray for israel to be
48:34saved he fulfills all of the positives he's the prophet the priest and the king he's a prophet
48:42like unto moses who brings us the living word of god to direct our lives see deuteronomy 18
48:48and acts chapter 3 verse 18 to 26 he's our great high priest who's offered himself as his final
48:54sacrifice for sin hebrews chapter 9 and he's our coming king to take up his role as king of the
49:01jews reigning from jerusalem in the coming time of restoration of all things at his second coming
49:07see zechariah 14 and also revelation 19 to 20 and he's the one who brings us whether we're
49:14jewish or gentile to the god of abraham isaac and jacob the true god the creator who's revealed in
49:20the torah and in the prophets and the writings of the tanakh and who's made manifest in the pages
49:27of the new covenant and so we conclude with the promise of restoration
49:36hosea chapter 3 ends with the verse afterward the children of israel shall return and seek
49:40the lord their god and david their king they shall fear the lord and his goodness in the latter days
49:46promise that there's going to be a restoration read on in chapter 5 and 6 is the fascinating
49:51word about this which i will share with you another time but many passages in the old
49:56testament and new testament speak about a restoration of israel in the latter days
50:01i believe we're in the latter days so we should look to the return of
50:05yeshua and the return of his people to yeshua sadly these prophecies speak about a time of
50:11trouble jeremiah 30 in particular zechariah 12 to 14 daniel 12 time of trouble in which the valley
50:21will become the door of hope as they look to yeshua jesus the messiah and welcome him as the
50:27coming messiah and we look forward with jewish people to the millennial kingdom when the messiah
50:33returns comes as king of priest and prophet reigning as king of israel from jerusalem in
50:39the messianic kingdom and so we say baruch haba b'shem adonai blessed is he who comes in the
50:45name of the lord come lord jesus maranatha jesus is coming he is the messiah he's the savior he's
50:53the one who wants to bring life to both jew and gentile that we might be united in him and know
51:00the truth concerning god and know the lord that's what's on offer in the new covenant
51:06praise god all these passages in the old testament point us to
51:10that great event of the first and second coming of jesus the messiah amen let's just have a word
51:17of prayer as we come to the end lord we thank you for your word we thank you for the truth
51:22of the scriptures we do pray for the people of israel and the jewish people in this neighborhood
51:28lord open their eyes to the truth that yeshua is the messiah and help them to understand and
51:33lord we confess before you the bad witness that the church has made down through the centuries
51:38which has put jewish people off but many people off including muslims off as well and lord we
51:44just pray that you would have mercy upon the professing church and in these last days turn
51:49them back to understand the place of israel and your love for your people israel and the need to
51:57bring the good news of the gospel to your people israel we pray this in jesus name amen amen praise
52:05the lord