His Name
In Scripture, names are always prophetic. In addition, if we think about it, we ought to be able to see how, in a Word-created world, the sounds of words would have specific meanings. And indeed, as will be shown in Nazarene Scripture Commentary, the sounds of words contain important spiritual information which modern physicists and string-theorists are only just beginning to understand. (What they have learned is that specific resonances carry spiritual information, much like DNA carries genetic information.)
However, for our purposes here, let us consider that if names are always prophetic, and if the world was created through sound (or energetic resonance), and if the sounds of words have spiritual significance, then how important would the Name of our Creator be? Most Christians are unaware of the fact that the Creator’s true Name (YHWH) has been hidden (or substituted) almost 7,000 times in Scripture. This is strictly against the Third Commandment, which tells us: 7 "You shall not take the Name of YHWH your Elohim in vain, for YHWH will not hold him guiltless, who takes His Name in vain. [Exodus 20:7]
Although the classic English translation is not to take His Name in vain, in the Hebrew, the word ‘vain’ is actually Strong’s H#7723, “l’shavah.” This word does not translate into English directly, but the real meaning of this passage is actually somewhat more akin to: 7 "You shall not desolate the Name of YHWH your Elohim, for YHWH will not hold him guiltless, who desolates His Name. [Shemot (Exodus) 20:7]
If we study out the root of the word “l’ shavah,” we see that in addition to not taking His Name in vain, the commandment is not to desolate, not to cover over, not to disguise, not to substitute for, and not in any other manner hide His Name. While we certainly must be careful not to take His name in vain, YHWH tells us in many places that He wants His true Name made known in all the earth: 16 And indeed, for this purpose I have raised you up: that I may show My power in you, and that My Name may be declared in all the earth! [Shemot (Exodus) 9:16-17]
There are many places in Scripture where YHWH poetically emphasizes the incredible importance of loving Him, and knowing His true Name: 14 "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My Name. 15 He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 I will satisfy Him with long life, and show him My Salvation (Yeshua).” [Tehillim (Psalms) 91:14-16]
Since YHWH repeatedly tells us how much He wants people to know His true Name, it is surprising how few people know that His Name is not ‘LORD.’ In fact, the name ‘LORD’ actually translates as “Ba’al.” Research it out for yourself. [Do an internet search on “origin of the name Lord”]
Some Christians are shocked to learn that when they call on the name of ‘The LORD’, they are actually calling upon the name of the pagan deity, Ba’al. Christians find this fact very confusing, because they have received so many blessings by calling upon the name of ‘The LORD’ in the past. However, without condemnation or judgment, once we have learned that the name ‘LORD’ translates as Ba’al (both in ancient and modern Hebrew), then is it not superior just to use YHWH’s true Name, instead?
Having no zeal for the Hebrew tongue, Greeks will readily substitute foreign words for the original Hebrew terms. Therefore, the Greek-language term Christ (which is derived from Krishna) is readily substituted for the Hebrew word Messiah; and the Greek finds no problem with this practice. However, while Hellenists and their Christian descendants may find nothing wrong with considering pagan tongues the equivalent of Hebrew, Hebrews find this practice repulsive. We should remember, then, that the Nazarene authors of the New Covenant were definitely Hebrews; and the Hebrews traditionally kept a discreet distance from all others.
If names are not important, and if it is OK to call YHWH by the names of other deities (such as Ba’al), then why not simply call Him “Satan”?
That Christians do not intend to sin by calling upon the name of Ba’al, and that YHWH has overlooked their transgression in the past, it is not a good reason to continue breaking the Third Commandment. Once we know YHWH’s true Name, we should use it; for as we will see, YHWH does not hold them guiltless, who call Him LORD (or Ba’al).
Since most Christians never learn Hebrew, most of them never learn that the name LORD means Ba’al, they are also typically ignorant of the fact that the name Asherah means Easter. However, most of those that do learn the difference usually still [call Him LORD anyway, or] ‘hop between two opinions’, calling Him both YHWH and LORD, in an attempt to simultaneously please Him, and man:
1 And Eliyahu came to all the people, and said, "How long will you keep hopping between two opinions? If YHWH is Elohim, follow Him; but if The LORD, (then) follow him!" But the people answered him not a word. [1st Kings 18:20-21]
22 Then Eliyahu said to the people, "I alone am left a prophet of YHWH; but The LORD's prophets are four hundred and fifty men! 23 Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. 24 Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of YHWH; and the Elohim who answers by fire, He is Elohim.” So all the people answered and said, "It is well spoken.” 25 Now Eliyahu said to the prophets of The LORD, "Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your Elohim, but put no fire under it.” 26 So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of The LORD from morning even till noon, saying, "O LORD, hear us!" But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. [1st Kings 18:22-26]
The “Christ” In Hindu religious literature, Krishna is a human incarnation of their god (Vishnu). On the eve of battle, Krishna tells a young man (Arjuna) not to be reluctant about killing his brothers and family, but to do his duty as a warrior, and to kill them without regret. Any scholar can tell you that the reason the Greeks called Yahshua Christ instead of Messiah is that the term ‘Christ’ is allegedly the Greek equivalent [cristos] of the Hebrew term ‘Messiah’[anointed]. Since Krishna was also supposed to be a physical incarnation of a supreme deity (Vishnu), scholars suggest that the terms Messiah and Christ are equivalents.
However, in a world where words and their sounds have specific meaning, and in a world where the worship of foreign elohim (gods) is prohibited, it should not be too difficult to see that there is a difficulty with calling the Hebrew Messiah the Christ (i.e., Krishna).
However well one might intend it, at least in terms of spiritually bounded harmonics, to call Yahshua the Christ is to equate Him with Krishna, the Hindu war god who encouraged young men to do their sacred duty, and to kill their brothers and family members in war, without regret. It should also not be impossible to draw spiritual parallels to the Christians, who did what they felt was their sacred duty, and killed their Jewish brothers and sisters (and others of the Israelite family) without regret. The Christian soldiers marched onward to war in
persecutions, pogroms, Inquisitions and Crusades. The death toll among the Jews (and the Nazarenes, both Jewish and Ephraimite) ultimately reached into the millions.
People are creatures of habit. Once they get comfortable with a certain name, they do not like to change, be they right, wrong, or indifferent.
In answering Eliyahu by fire, YHWH showed the Ephraimites who was Elohim. However, since living beings are creatures of habit, the Ephraimites kept on calling Him LORD. It is therefore not surprising that modern-day Christians should also call Him ‘LORD’, as their Ephraimite fore-fathers did the same:
What can we say about this?
We know from Genesis One that living beings reproduce after their own kinds. We also know that Joseph and Asenath’s children were hybrids; and that Asenath’s pagan priestly genetics [she was the daughter of the Egyptian High Priest] led the Ephraimites to want to be spiritual, but in other than Hebraic ways . To extend the analogy further, we can also surmise that Ephraim’s sin in leaving the Covenant was not altogether his own fault. Ephraim did sin, but Ephraim was also a hybrid child. Because his mother Asenath and her Egyptian priestly genetics essentially gave Ephraim’s multi-racial children a genetic predisposition to stray from the Covenant.
YHWH allowed Joseph to be sent into Egypt so that he would marry Asenath ; thereby ensuring that Ephraim would sin and be spread to the four corners of the earth). This would give all of Adam’s fallen children the opportunity to take hold of Yahshua.
We also know that Jeroboam’s Ephraim wanted to modify the Torah to suit their own pleasure, and still have it reckoned as the true worship, simply because they wished it to be so. It is not therefore very surprising that the Christians also refuse to obey Elohim’s Laws. They want to worship in their own way, rather than obey, and call Him what they want. That is Christianity, in a nutshell.
What YHWH is trying to fashion from his dusty lump of clay, then, is a bride who listens intently for the sound of His voice, and who keeps His Covenant in a heart of perfect love, no matter what it may cost her. However, YHWH knows that dusty old mankind is still a little dull around the edges, and is only able to learn just-so-quickly. Therefore, He has been giving her everything she needs to grow, in stages, as if He has been raising her up from her childhood.
Up until this point in history, Christianity has not needed to know anything about the need to fulfill the Marital Covenant, as the Christians have been busily spreading their version of the Good News outward, and making disciples in all nations. However, now that Ephraim’s Exile is nearing its end (of which we will speak in the next chapter), [some] Christians are finally beginning to realize that there is more to being a follower of the Messiah than just loving Him in a purely idealized, intellectual sense. Rather, one must also learn to walk just as He walked; and do as He did.
Before mankind was able to accept the true Good News, mankind was only able to accept the Christian variation. Fallen Adam was so far fallen that he was not ready to accept the whole truth. And while Christianity is not the end-goal of the belief in Yahshua, let us give Christianity its due. While the Christians did persecute the Jews, and while they exterminated the Nazarenes, they also brought great advancements to the world. Even their religion of intellectual-only love wrought a dramatic civilizing effect upon all of man’s prior corruptions.
Apart from their barbarous acts against the Jews, the Christians (and even the Catholic Christians, to some extent) helped bring civilization to the world. For example, they stopped pagan earth-worshippers (such as the Druids) from sacrificing their children at human-life-sacrifice sites such as Stonehenge. After Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire, instead of burning their children to demons in bone-fires (bonfires), the Roman citizens were now encouraged to come inside of the Catholic Churches, where they could simply burn candles to their demons (who had been turned into figurines, and canonized by the Pope): Hence the children lived.
From a Torah perspective, Christianity was just one desolating abomination after another. However, from an objective point of view, the Christians (and even the Catholic Christians) brought a great deal of advancement to the world. Even though the Pope would claim to be Elohim’s representative on earth, the world was made into a much better place than before.
What the Scripture will show us, time and again, is that the New Covenant had to be easy to misunderstand, because certain misperceptions had to exist for the two thousand years it would take for the Christians to spread their modified version of the Good News to the ends of the earth.
There must be a separation between the remnant that desires to come all the way back to the Marital Covenant and the Land of Israel and the masses of Christendom, who do not. A number of prophecies specify that this final phase of the Re-gathering process began in-or-about 1996 CE.
[When Israel sinned against YHWH by not keeping His Commandments and worshiping other Gods,] Ezekiel was told to lie on his left side for 390 days; each day symbolizing a year that Ephraim was to remain in exile, outside of the Land of Israel: 4 "Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the House of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 5 For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days: three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the House of Israel (or Ephraim). [Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 4:4-5]
Israel was to remain in exile 390 years, but there was a catch: Leviticus tells us that those who do not perform [keep] all His commandments after being punished will have their time of punishment multiplied seven-fold:
14 “But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My Covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. 18 And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you (even) seven times more, for your sins. [Vayiqra (Leviticus) 26:14-15, 18]
If the Assyrians began invading around 734 BCE, then 390 years later brought us to 344 BCE. Ephraim [Northern Tribes] apparently did not begin keeping all the Commandments at that time; and therefore his punishment was multiplied out seven times more. Seven times 390 years of punishment is 2730 years of punishment. Therefore, 734 BCE plus 2730 more years brings us to 1996 CE. If this calculation is correct, we should be able to see the nascent beginnings of an Ephraimite movement at this time; and this is in fact what we do see. While it was established a few decades prior to 1996, the Ephraimite movement [Hebrew Roots Awakening] began to flourish in and- around the mid-to-late 1990’s. This phenomenon can only be explained by Scripture Prophecy.
The Book of Hosea speaks primarily of Ephraim. Therefore, speaking of the Lost Ephraimites, Hosea prophesies: 2 After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. [Hosea 6:2]
Kefa (Peter) tells us not to forget that a prophetic day with YHWH is equal to a thousand years:
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with YHWH, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [Kefa Bet (2nd Peter) 3:8]
Confirmation
Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply: A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” [Breisheet (Genesis) 35:9-12]
While there has been much genetic immigration and emigration, the Jews of today’s time are essentially the direct prophetic descendants of the Jews of Yahshua’s time. Therefore, when verse eleven speaks of a nation and a company of nations that descend from Ya’akov, we can assume that the singular nation that is spoken of is the Jewish nation; but who is the company of nations?
The Muslim nations do not qualify, in that they descend from Ishmael (and not Israel). Therefore, the only reasonable candidates are the Protestant Christian nations, from whom the Ephraimites are now (not coincidentally) beginning to emerge. Notice that this also makes sense. Despite Muslim claims to the contrary, the Christians are the only other people on Planet Earth who worship the same Elohim, and who read the same book. That there has been fighting between Judah and Ephraim is easily ascribed to the fighting that has always existed between the Two Houses (since ancient times).
At the human level, Judah sold Joseph (Ephraim’s father) Into slavery [in Egypt]. At the level of Divine Providence, However, YHWH had Judah send Joseph into Egypt ahead of his brothers, so that life could be preserved, by means of a great deliverance: 5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for Elohim sent me before you to preserve life…. 7 And Elohim sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth; and to save your lives by a great deliverance. [Breisheet (Genesis) 45:5, 7]
Joseph’s great deliverance is a prophetic shadow of Yahshua, the blessing that would be given to Joseph’s multi-racial children so that they could provide for all the people of the world; as well as the Jews and the Nation of Israel. It also tells us why America’s Protestant (Ephraimite) Christians are basically the only friends that the modern-day State of Israel has. As galling as the Jews may find the fact, Ephraim will be welcomed home to the Land of Israel by a rejoicing and dancing Father, whose shouts of merriment will be heard above His elder son’s protests.
On the one hand, everyone needs Salvation in Messiah Yahshua. On the other hand, however, the lost and scattered Ephraimites needed Yahshua far more desperately than the Jews did. This is why Yeshua tells us that He was only sent for the House of Ephraim (or Israel) on His first trip, because Joseph’s pluralistic children were much more in need of His help: 24 And answering, (Yahshua) said, “I was not sent (at this time), except to call) the lost sheep of the House of Israel(back to the Covenant).” [Mattithyahu (Matthew) 15:24]
Yahshua tells us that His sheep will hear His voice, and will rejoin their brothers (the Jews):
14 I am the Good Shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold (lost ten tribes/Ephriam); them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock, and one Shepherd. [Yochanan (John) 10:14-16]
What about the Jews?
Shaul tells Ephraim that Judah will be grafted back in to her own Root (i.e. she will accept Yahshua) as soon as Ephraim has spread the Good News to the ends of the earth: 25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this secret, lest you should be wise in your own estimation: that blindness in part has happened to Israel (meaning both Houses here) until the fullness of the Gentiles (Ephraim) has come in. 26 And so all Israel (meaning both Houses) shall be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away iniquity from Jacob (quoting Isaiah 59:20); 27 “For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins (quoting Isaiah 27:9).” [Romayah (Romans) 11:25-27]
Both Houses were to be blinded for a time. Ephraim would know Yahshua (or ‘Jesus’), but would not know the Torah. This would allow them to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth much faster than the Nazarenes would have been able to spread it. Judah, conversely, would be blind to Yahshua, because they were to remain focused on the Torah, so that Ephraim would have an Inheritance to come back to.
However, neither the Christian nor the Orthodox track would be sufficient to gain one entrance into the Kingdom. The people Satan is really out to get are those who both have the Testimony of Yahshua, and keep the necessary Commandments: 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring; (those) who keep the Commandments of Elohim and have the Testimony ofYeshua [Yahshua] Messiah. [Manifestation (Revelation) 12:17]
[This combination of having the Testimony of Yahshua and keeping the Commandments is mentioned no less than nine times in the Book of Revelation.]
The Prophets also speak to the need to both keep the Torah, and to believe on Yahshua:
20 To the Torah and to the Testimony (of Yahshua)! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them. [Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 8:20]
The worship of the Two Houses, then, is curious. Ephraim is like a woman who insists she loves her Husband, but does not want to do what He asks. Conversely, Judah more-or-less does what Yahshua asks; but she uses her partial obedience to His Instructions as an excuse to lock Him out of her house. Both of these expect to be taken in marriage.
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