The Legacy of Jacob - Moriel Ministries

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Feature Article – Continued the way Jesus asks for mercy on the Jews (Gen. 37:26). They said, “Let His blood be on us and our children” (Mt. 27:25), and Jesus says, “Father, forgive them” (Lk. 23:34). “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, (Genesis 49:10a) Over and over the Talmudic literature tells us that “Shiloh” is the Messiah; Judaism understands it that way. “Thus says the LORD, ‘Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.’” (Jeremiah 22:30) King David was from which tribe Judah. In Samuel it is promised to David that he shall never lack somebody to be on the throne of David (2 Sam. 7:16). Judaism has a big problem explaining how God is keeping this promise today. (Anglo-Israelism actually tries to say the throne of David is the royal throne of Great Britain and the monarchy. This came about when there was a Jewish prime minister; that is when this whole thing got going in the last century.) There was always some kind of Davidic line, even when it got interrupted during the Captivity. The Hasmoneans, who were the descendants of the Maccabees tried to make the High Priest John Hyricanus the king. But the king needed to be a descendant of David, priests the descendants of Aaron. The last person who by any claim could be a descendant of David had to end in the reign of Herod the Great. Herod’s mother was a Moabitess and he was some kind of convert to Judaism, but culturally he was basically a Roman rather than a Jew. “The scepter shall not depart from Judah…until Shiloh comes.” Well, the scepter did depart from Judah—Shiloh had to come. The Messiah had to come before the end of the Davidic lineage. God promised David he would always have a descendant on the throne. Is there one No, unless in the heavenlies Jesus is reigning on the throne of David as the New Testament says (Heb. 8:12; 12:2). Either Shiloh—the Messiah—has come and is reigning on the throne of David spiritually (and He will reign again in the Millennium), or else the Bible is wrong and God has broken His promise. This is one of the passages where the Talmudic literature and the rabbinic commentaries go to great length to get around. They have a big problem, but we know there is a Lion of Judah, and He is on the throne of David right now, and the house of David will be restored to Jerusalem and Jesus will reign there. The Tribes Reuben, in Genesis 39:3-4 is the firstborn of Leah, but he gets last preference; the favored place goes to Joseph, the priestly privilege to Levi, the kingly right to Judah. He is “uncontrollable as water” which undoubtedly relates to his sin with Bilhah (Gen. 35:22). This is exactly what happened. The firstborn did not get the kingship, the favor, or the priestly lineage. “The first shall be last” (Mt. 19:30). Simeon and Levi are the second and third sons of Leah. They killed repentant men near Shechem (Gen. 34), so they got no inheritance. The Levites were given none and the Simeonites were swallowed up by Judah: “I will disperse them in Jacob” (Gen. 49:7). Historically, that is what happened. It was literally and actually fulfilled just as predicted. The problem was that they killed men after the men repented. (When we find Christians holding grudges and not forgiving people who have genuinely repented, that is going to hurt them more than it is the people they are not forgiving.) Judah is the fourth of Leah. Judah received praise and “Yehuda” has to do with that. He had birthrights and exceptional dignity, holding the kingship and the line of David before the scepter departed when Shiloh came. (This is referenced in Ezekiel 21:27.) Then there is Zebulon, the fifth by Leah, who “will dwell as the seashore” (Gen. 49:13). Jacob mentions the Sidonians, and in Judges 5 we see this later being fulfilled in the Song of Deborah in the struggle against Sisera. Issachar is the sixth son of Leah and he is a “chamor”—a donkey: “a strong donkey” (Gen. 49:14). He is strong and stubborn, but submits to the yoke: “He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens” (Gen. 49:15). He is too lazy not to. He submitted to Canaanite invaders rather than fight; that was Issachar. Then there was Dan, the first son of Bilhah, a snake of poison causing terror (Gen. 49:16-18). Then there is Gad, the first son of Zilpah, Leah’s maid. Jewish lineage was not just Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through their wives Leah and Rachel. The idea was of one having Levirate marriage or surrogate motherhood. God was not simply interested in physical lineage; He was interested in faith for all descendants of Abraham. Gad is a troop or military company meaning a mighty military company that trusts in the Lord. Asher is the second son of Zilpah relating to wheat, wine and oil. Naphtali was the second son of Bilhah and “gives beautiful (or “godly”) words” (Gen. 49:21), as we see in Judges 5:18 in the character of “those who love not their lives unto death” (Rev. 12:11). Then there is Joseph, the first son of Rachel, who is “a fruitful bough” (Gen. 49:22) and, like “Ephraim,” means “doubly fruitful.” “Joseph” means “God shall add or be added.” He has the characteristics of Jesus, a bubbling fountain that is a fountain of life. In verse 22 He is the Living Water; in verse 23 His words are like arrows; in verse 24 he is the Shepherd; in verse 25 He is helped by the Father—“El Shaddai.” And other things associated with Jesus happen to him. The things that happen to Joseph are played out in Jesus. Again, the early church saw Benjamin as being fulfilled in Paul (Gen. 49:27). Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, as it is hinted at, did not cross the Jordan. They wanted God’s blessing here. The tribes existed even after the ten northern tribes went into captivity. Application of the Tribes’ Characteristics Believers come in the characteristics of those tribes. There are believers who come in the characteristics of Joseph. Some people are so much like Jesus they are models for the rest of us. When we see Christians like that, their brothers do not like them. One reason why godly people are not very popular in the Church is because they are seen as wimps, which they are not, but when I see someone more like Jesus than I am, I get convicted. There are believers like Benjamin: they do not begin well, but they end well. There are believers like the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh: they want a good, comfortable life here and now in this world; they do not want to cross the Jordan and go to war, not realizing they are going to have to cross the Jordan and go to war anyway, but losing the blessing that they could have had if they did not want an easy ticket. There are so many believers who want an easy ticket. These sons of Jacob teach about us. Jacob knew his sons. He was able to predict what they would be like—not just the Jews, but the other twelve elders, those descended from the Apostles in Revelation 4. It is interesting what happens when we put together the names of these sons in Hebrew. Dan was left out because Dan worshiped the golden calf and acted in a judgment that was not of God, which is made up for because of Joseph having two sons to make the same twelve. “Judge not, lest you be judged” (Mt. 7:1). “Judah”—“a confessor or praiser of God.” “Reuben”—“looking at the son.” “Gad”—“accompany.” “Asher”—“blessed.” “Naphtali”—“striving with or wrestling with.” “Manasseh”—“forgetfulness.” “Simeon”—“hearing or obeying.” “Levi”—“clinging to or joining to.” “Issachar”—“reward.” “Zebulun”—“the home of the growing place.” “Joseph”—“shall be added.” “Benjamin”—“the son of the right hand.” One of the differences between Hellenistic hermeneutics and Jewish hermeneutics is that Hellenistic hermeneutics has “a this or a that”; in biblical Jewish hermeneutics (not rabbinic), it can be both. Revelation 14 describes the character of these people. No matter what they are in terms of organization and anthropology, it describes the character and nature of these people: a company of praisers of God who are looking at the Son who are blessed by Him and striving with forgetfulness. The Jewish people have forgotten the covenant. They are “hearing and obeying” in the character of Simeon, clinging to 14 Moriel Quarterly • March 2012
the promised reward of an eternal home that shall be added to them by the Son of God’s own Right Hand. Somehow it describes the character of this 144,000. The Hebrew names describe their character as a corporate unit. The End from the Beginning All kinds of books will tell you “this,” “that” and “the other thing”; I am not telling anything beyond what I have told here: the key is in Genesis 49. “Seal these things up until the time of the end” (Dan. 12:4). At the appropriate time, the Holy Spirit will show exactly what these things mean, but so far I know what the Holy Spirit is saying. Look at Jacob, look at Genesis 49, forget about the Christian commentaries, go back to Genesis. What does it say in the Tanakh “God declares the end from the beginning” (Is. 46:10). Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Notice it is “from ancient times” He declares things which are not yet. He declares the end from the beginning. Think of the Bible as a loaf of bread that has not been cut; it looks the same on both ends, does it not Genesis and Revelation go together. There are the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve signs in Genesis 49 and what do we have in Revelation 6 The blood of Abel calls out for justice. And the blood of the martyrs calls out for justice in Revelation 6:9-11. There is the woman in the sky in Joseph’s vision in Genesis and what do we have in Revelation 12 He declares the end from the beginning. The creation and the new creation mutually illuminate each other between John and Genesis; so does the creation and the re-creation in Revelation. Genesis is “creation,” John is “new creation,” but Revelation is “recreation.” The key is in Genesis. The whole Bible is in the Book of Genesis. The entire history of the Jews and the history of the Church is tied up in Genesis 49 in some way. “He declares the end from the beginning.” It all depends on this one guy, Jacob. Why Choose Jacob Of all the great people in the world, of all the great men in the Bible, why does God take a schemer, a con-artist, a manipulator, a “shrewdy,” and hinge His entire plan of salvation and history for the world on this one guy Why, of all the fine people in this country, who were born in this country, who could be standing up here giving a much better performance than I can, does God pick up a drug addict from the streets of New York and bring him to England Who can answer those questions The only way I can even begin to understand it is that losers have nothing to brag about except God’s grace. And the Jews as a nation and a people are a nation of losers. They have lost everything but one thing: the promise of God. That is the one thing they have not lost. They lost their children and they have lost their hope. Go to Israel. Zionism was their dream. Today they get a visa to leave Israel to go to the United States or something. The Russians go there because they cannot get a visa to go to the United States or Canada. Everything the Jews try turns to garbage. The 19 th -century center of culture and science was Germany, but who was at its center German Jews. For better or worse, Karl Marx was a German Jew, Sigmund Freud was a German Jew, the scientist Steinmetz was a German Jew. They thought they had it made, that they were the intellectuals and molders of modern science. Everybody was following their ideas, but it turned against them. They lost everything. Hitler came along and actually said, “There are only two kinds of superior races: Jews and Germans. We’re going to find out who is going to come out on top.” The Jews lost everything in the Holocaust, so they go to Israel, and now they are going to lose that. They are losing the land, they have lost their hope, they have lost their idealism. The Antichrist will enter that country and be proclaimed the Messiah and they will be misled and betrayed by their own rabbis. They lose everything except the promise of God. God’s redemptive plan for the salvation of the world and the future of the Church is bound up with this prophetic and redemptive plan for the salvation of the nation of Israel. Why would He choose a nation like that, a little nation What do they have to brag about Maybe that is why. There is so little. Even in the days of David and Solomon they were never a great power, they were only a regional power. They were never a great world power like Rome or Babylon or Persia. (They will be in the Millennium.) Intellectuals It was not the Jews but the Greeks who were the intellectuals of the ancient world. They were nothing compared to the great powers. Yet God takes the insignificant things and that is what He uses. What happens to the Jews happens to us. Heads and tails are the Church and Israel. We can distinguish between heads and tails but we cannot separate them. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; (1 Corinthians 1:26) God did not choose the Jews because they were the greatest nation; He chose them because they were the least. And He did not choose us because we were the greatest of people, He chose me because I was a drug addict in New York. I did not have anything. Most of my friends are dead from dope. It Will Be Fulfilled God’s whole working in Jacob’s life pointed to this one chapter, Genesis 49, and then He ends it. Genesis 49, Revelation 7—it is going to happen. That prophecy will be fulfilled. A time is going to come in some way when His purpose for the Jews to be lights to the nations is going to happen. Ben-Gurion said the Jews must be lights to the nations, that they must have a model of socialism in their economy and government that the Gentiles will want to imitate. But a time will come when they are going to be lights to the nations, when they have the light of their Messiah. They lost it all except the promise. If God can break His promise to Jacob, give me one good reason He has to keep His promise to the Church. Before Jesus comes, the sons of Jacob are going to proclaim Jesus to the nations. Before Jesus comes, the Church is going to be in very serious trouble. God is going to revive it, but do we know who is going to revive it For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead (Romans 11:15) For who For the Church. I do not know what to make out of it, but I am telling you, Genesis 49 has always been fulfilled, and Genesis 49 is going to be fulfilled. The Jews have lost everything, but they have not lost the promise of God. God bless, James Jacob Prasch ††† Feature Article – Continued GodlyConferences www.radiofreechurch.com/home About Godly Conferences: This website provides information about upcoming and ongoing Christian Conferences focused on expounding and teaching the Word of God. For each conference listed, we provide a schedule, information on the speakers present at the conference, and links to the conference’s live internet broadcast (when available). March 2012 • Moriel Quarterly 15
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The Legacy of Jacob - Moriel Ministries

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