Descendants of Abraham Part V: Judah (No. 212E)

The Just of the Nation of God

We know that the essence of Torah is the love of God and the love of man, as Geza Vermes restated above. Similarly, while speaking primarily to fellow Jews, R. Kushner sees the need for all of us to imbue everything in our daily lives with holiness in order to please God.

One of the fundamental teachings of Judaism is that the search for holiness, for the encounter with God, is not confined to the synagogue. Everything we do can be transformed into a Sinai experience, an encounter with the sacred. The goal of Judaism is not to teach us how to escape from the profane world to the cleansing presence of God, but to teach us how to bring God into the world, how to take the ordinary and make it holy. (op. cit., p. 49)
It is not a matter of washing our hands of this world because of its seemingly insoluble problems, or simply waiting for the promised Kingdom to come in order to have Messiah clean up the mess on the Earth and solve everything for us. There is a vital need to work in this world, right here and now, to make it a better place, as R. Kushner would attest.
But the danger of believing too fervently in a World to Come is that you may come to care less about the imperfections of this world. So what if there is rampant crime and disease? So what if widows and other poor people are taken advantage of by the rich and powerful? This world is only God’s waiting room. In Eternity, people will get what they deserve and the last shall be first. Almost universally, Jews reject that perspective. Our creed would seem to be that God so loved the world that He lavished upon it immense care in creating it, making it an orderly, beautiful, precious place. And if we love God, we should feel obliged to treat with love the world He loves so much … the reader of the Bible is told that the abstract concept of justice is meaningless unless it is translated into the lives of every citizen.” (ibid., pp. 44-45)
As the Rabbi would have it, there is a nobler way in which to make a personal and positive impact upon the world: through study and implementation of all that we have learned, at least as a place from which to start.

Judaism has always insisted that knowledge has the power not only to make people smart but to make them good. Having studied, we should commit ourselves to live differently as a result of what we have learned. And having resolved to live differently, we should then go forth to bless God’s world and sanctify it. (ibid., p.304)

While no one is good but God alone (Mk. 10:18), the New Testament Scriptures concur with R. Kushner by telling us that God so loved the world that He gave up to a violent death His only human-born Son (Jn. 3:16-17), who came not to condemn the world but ultimately to save it. This is quite a different concept John later gave at 1John 2:15 and which apparently contradicts the former text by telling us not to love the world. However, it can be explained simply as an injunction to hate the man-made and Satan-inspired systems (which are not of God, but are certainly allowed by Him to exist) of this world yet, at the same time, to love and care for other human beings as God Himself loves all His creation. Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) make the distinction in their definition of the Greek term for world, namely kosmos (SGD 2889):

5) the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family; or …

7) world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly

7a) the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ.

There has often been a certain high-principled idealism exhibited by the Jewish people. Speaking as an American Jew, Rabbi Kushner made this observation:

We tend not to vote for Jewish candidates, or for the most pro-Israel candidate. Jewish voters tend to support the candidate who seems most committed to making the world a better place.

In the early part of the twentieth century, many Jews were attracted to the Communist party not only because it replaced a cruel, viciously antisemitic czar in Russia, and certainly not because Jews are by nature revolutionaries, but because it promised to make the world better. When communism turned out to be a “god that failed,” when Stalin’s Russia turned out to be as brutal and as antisemitic as any czarist regime, they withdrew their loyalty. But they continued to look for a cause to follow, because they believed that the purpose of human beings on earth was to do for God the one thing He could not do for Himself, to crown His creation with goodness, and make this world, not some other far-off world, the Kingdom of God.” (op. cit., pp. 46-7)
That is obviously a very worthy view to hold, although it must be increasingly obvious that man alone will not be able to solve the multitude of problems this world faces. However, it demonstrates that Jews (among many others) often have a highly-developed sense of justice and empathy for their fellow man.

The claim that God needs us is not so much a statement about God as it is about us. We are called on to do something for God and for the world. We are important; we are empowered. The foundation story of Judaism [and all biblical Israel] teaches us these two lessons. It is our obligation to be a role model for all nations, showing them what the God-oriented life looks like, and it is our obligation to make God’s world complete by giving Him the one thing He cannot do for Himself, by freely choosing to do good. God depends on us to complete and sanctify His world, and we disappoint Him cosmically if we fail to respond to His challenge. (ibid., p. 48)

In the Mishnah, there is a saying attributed to Hillel, an older contemporary of Jesus/Yehoshua:

Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind (ha-beriyot) and bringing them near to the Torah (mAb 1,12).

In his comment on Isaiah 60:3,6f., Geza Vermes states:

Here the coming of the Kingdom entails an element of mystery: the salvation of Israel is presented as a magnet attracting the rest of mankind to God (ibid., pp. 123-4).

Salvation to the Jews first

Again we see the pre-eminent position in God’s grand scheme given to Judah. Salvation was open to them first, beginning with the 42-plus years from the preaching of John the Baptist until the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Paul reiterated this fact.

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." (RSV)
Judah was thus given ‘first refusal’ on the truth and salvation through Jesus the Messiah; however, pre-eminence was to prove a two-edged sword, in that it meant Judah would also be the first to be punished for rebellion such as, for example, at the time of the destruction of the Temple and in the Holocaust centuries later. The rest of Israel may yet have to experience their own punishment.
Romans 2:9-13, 17-29 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality. ¹² All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified…. ¹⁷ But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your relation to God ¹⁸ and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed in the law, ¹⁹ and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth-- ²¹ you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? ²² You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴ For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." ²⁵ Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. ²⁶ So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. ²⁸ For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. ²⁹ He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God. (RSV)
When Paul spoke about the true circumcision (i.e. of the heart) required of all people, not just the Jews, he was echoing Jeremiah’s words.
Jeremiah 4:3-4 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. ⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings." (RSV)
Similarly, Yehoshua restated Jeremiah’s words when he gave the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3ff., which speaks of the seed or the word of God being broadcast or distributed abroad and whether or not it finds root in fertile ground. The call is going out at present, and it is up to individuals within Judah to allow those words to take root in their hearts and minds and to respond to that call.
It seems that when we scratch the skin of a self-confessed atheistic or agnostic Jew we find not too far below the surface a rather spiritual person who might readily respond to God’s calling of him or her. Rabbi Kushner gave a hint of the latent spirituality in many secular Jews.

... Israel is not a new, forty-year old country, but is in fact one of the oldest countries in the world …

That explains why Jews were moved to tears in June 1967 when the Old City of Jerusalem, the Western Wall of the Temple, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and other biblical sites became part of Israel. It connected them to their biblical origins, and even non-religious Jews were thrilled by that. Within two months of the end of the Six-Day War, fully half the population of Israel, most of them non-religious Jews, had come to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall. (Kushner, ibid., pp. 252-3)
Like all of God’s children, they undoubtedly have a strong innate desire ‘to find their way back home’ to Him. They are ‘prodigal sons’… as are we all. And while it is noble and right to have a strong connection with the physical land of Israel, there remains the more vital connection we are required to have with spiritual Israel.
R. Kushner in To Life! explains how (mainstream) Christianity and Judaism can learn valuable lessons from each other.

Christianity needs Judaism to remind it of what pure, uncompromised ethical monotheism looks like. … Christianity needs the example of the Jewish community actually striving to do what the Torah calls upon us to do.

But Judaism needs Christianity to remind us that the word of God is not meant to be kept for ourselves alone. We are called on not merely to live by God’s ways, but to do it in such a manner that the world will be persuaded to turn to God. (ibid., p. 290)
In point of fact, the Christian Churches of God bring together those vital strands of religious belief and practice, by being both Torah-observant and by promulgating God’s ways as widely as possible with the ultimate aim of encouraging the whole world to turn to Him.
Awaiting Judah

The elect cannot be sealed, and the world in general cannot be saved, until a certain number from the tribe of Judah are brought into God’s true Church. It has already been decided that a full 12,000 people from the tribe of Judah will be inducted into the central core of God’s chosen or elect, numbering 144,000 in total (Rev. 7:3-5).

The Great Multitude of the First Resurrection (Rev. ch. 7) is to consist of members of all tribes and nations of the Earth. We know that forgiveness from God is available at any time and not just on a specific day of the year such as Yom Kippur, provided that repentance is genuine. This has been demonstrated many times throughout the history of Israel and Judah.

2Kings 22:18-19 But as to the king [Josiah] of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words which you have heard, ¹⁹ because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have rent your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the LORD. (RSV)

2Chronicles 20:3,18-21 Then Jehosh'aphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah…. ¹⁸ Then Jehosh'aphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. ¹⁹ And the Levites, of the Ko'hathites and the Kor'ahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. ²⁰ And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Teko'a; and as they went out, Jehosh'aphat stood and said, "Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed." ²¹ And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy array, as they went before the army, and say, "Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures for ever." (RSV)
A prophet of Judah was once used by God to warn Israel’s king of impending disaster (1Kgs. 13:1-3). Yet, even today, when God calls Judah to return to Him through Yehoshua the Messiah, He doesn’t want to see His prophets, those bringing the message of the recall to God, ignored, abused or even murdered as happened on numerous occasions in the past.
2Chronicles 24:18-21 And they forsook the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Ashe'rim and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guilt. ¹⁹ Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the LORD; these testified against them, but they would not give heed. ²⁰ Then the Spirit of God took possession of Zechari'ah the son of Jehoi'ada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, "Thus says God, `Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'" ²¹ But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD. (RSV)
Little was to change in subsequent years, as when Stephen made the truth known to Jews from many parts of the Near and Middle East in the first century CE (Acts 6:5-7:60). He too was stoned to death for his efforts; and a certain Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus was consenting to his death (Acts 8:1), although this led inexorably to Saul’s belief in Jesus/Yehoshua as the Messiah and to his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus. Saul repented and was baptised and renamed Paul. God is not mocked. And He eventually deals with all people’s games and their refusal to acknowledge Him or listen to His servants; but in His own time He will deal with each person to their own good.
It is perhaps appropriate that Second Chronicles is the last book in the Jewish Tanakh, as it contains pertinent messages for these Last Days of the present age. And, as so often before, Judah may be required to set the example and march in the vanguard, this time in the much more-important campaign to deliver the true message of salvation to all. Judah’s renowned advocacy skills could be useful also in persuading the rest of Israel to return to God, as they tried to do before with limited success (see 2Chronicles 29 and 30). A more successful campaign had been implemented by King Asa of Judah.
2Chronicles 15:1-9 The Spirit of God came upon Azari'ah the son of Oded, ² and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, "Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you, while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law; ⁴ but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. ⁵ In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. ⁶ They were broken in pieces, nation against nation and city against city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress. ⁷ But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your wrk shall be rewarded." ⁸ When Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azari'ah the son of Oded, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the hill country of E'phraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD. ⁹ And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from E'phraim, Manas'seh, and Simeon who were sojourning with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. (RSV)
Similarly, King Jehoshaphat of Judah finally saw the need to teach and implement the Laws of God throughout Israel as an essential part of any restoration process.
2Chronicles 17:6-10 His heart was courageous in the ways of the LORD; and furthermore he took the high places and the Ashe'rim out of Judah. ⁷ In the third year of his reign he sent his princes, Ben-hail, Obadi'ah, Zechari'ah, Nethan'el, and Micai'ah, to teach in the cities of Judah; ⁸ and with them the Levites, Shemai'ah, Nethani'ah, Zebadi'ah, As'ahel, Shemi'ramoth, Jehon'athan, Adoni'jah, Tobi'jah, and Tobadoni'jah; and with these Levites, the priests Eli'shama and Jeho'ram. ⁹ And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of the LORD with them; they went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people. ¹⁰ And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, and they made no war against Jehosh'aphat. (RSV)
Jehoshaphat later set judges in all Judah to administer righteous judgment and thereby true justice for all.

2Chronicles 19:4-11 Jehosh'aphat dwelt at Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill country of E'phraim, and brought them back to the LORD, the God of their fathers. ⁵ He appointed judges in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, ⁶ and said to the judges, "Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the LORD; he is with you in giving judgment. ⁷ Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed what you do, for there is no perversion of justice with the LORD our God, or partiality, or taking bribes." ⁸ Moreover in Jerusalem Jehosh'aphat appointed certain Levites and priests and heads of families of Israel, to give judgment for the LORD and to decide disputed cases. They had their seat at Jerusalem. ⁹ And he charged them: "Thus you shall do in the fear of the LORD, in faithfulness, an with your whole heart: ¹⁰ whenever a case comes to you from your brethren who live in their cities, concerning bloodshed, law or commandment, statutes or ordinances, then you shall instruct them, that they may not incur guilt before the LORD and wrath may not come upon you and your brethren. Thus you shall do, and you will not incur guilt. ¹¹ And behold, Amari'ah the chief priest is over you in all matters of the LORD; and Zebadi'ah the son of Ish'mael, the governor of the house of Judah, in all the king's matters; and the Levites will serve you as officers. Deal courageously, and may the LORD be with the upright!" (RSV)

Thus the restoration must be according to the Laws of God.
The overall mission of Yehoshua the Messiah was put very succinctly by Geza Vermes.

For the magnetic appeal of the teaching and example of Jesus holds out hope and guidance to those outside of the fold of organized religion, the stray sheep of mankind, who yearn for a world of mercy, justice and peace lived in as children of God (The Religion of Jesus the Jew, op. cit., p. 215).

The writer of Chronicles noted that all Israel, including Judah, was directionless and lacking a shepherd or guide, and the fact that the prophet Micah “saw” this hints at a prophetic significance for today.

2Chronicles 18:16a And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd; (RSV)

This was echoed later by Yehoshua/Jesus, who saw that Judah was a lost nation:

Matthew 9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (RSV)

However, at his next Advent, Messiah will come as the Redeemer from enslavement to sin as a result of rebellion to God.

Isaiah 59:20 "And he will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the LORD. (RSV)

Of vital importance though, is the fact that if we wait until Messiah makes his appearance upon the Earth before we finally commit to recognising and acclaiming him as the expected Anointed One, it will be rather too late for us to be included in the First (and greater) Resurrection. Which is why Christ says there will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mat. 8:11-12), as those who didn’t accept him in the period between his two Advents will be distraught at having ‘missed the boat’ through their indecision, disbelief or lack of a repentant attitude when they knew the Truth and where to find it, or smugly imagined themselves to be sons of Abraham by heritage and thus with one foot in the Kingdom already. We are told that the proud or haughty of Judah will be removed, including the Rabbis and the Zionists teaching untruths (Zeph. 3:11), and the Jews will be converted in spite of their unbiblical traditions. These aspects are also covered in the paper Measuring the Temple (No. 137).
It will be easy enough to accept the King-Messiah as the Anointed One when we are standing before him, not without some trepidation perhaps. But it is when he is out of sight right now that we are expected to believe the reports about him and to walk by faith. We don’t need faith to believe in someone or something that is in front of us.
Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple is arguably the most beautiful and moving in the entire Bible (1Kgs. 8:22-53; 2Chr. 6:12-42). Of particular note is the verse: “whenever they call upon you”, presumably with a genuine desire to return to God instead of merely going through the motions of religiosity, that is, with a heart far from God (Isa. 29:13; Mat. 15:8). Refer to the paper Rule of the Kings Part III: Solomon and the Key of David (No. 282C) for the full text of Solomon’s Temple prayer and the fact of its application to the Gentiles as well as to Israel.
Just as God listened and heeded Solomon’s prayer, we are reminded that He sees all and rewards accordingly.

2Chronicles 16:9a For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show his might in behalf of those whose heart is blameless toward him. (RSV)

He is also in a state of readiness to listen to heartfelt prayer, and is willing to act upon it.

Jeremiah 29:12-14 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, ¹⁴ I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (RSV)

A particularly relevant part of the Amidah Prayer may be worth remembering here also.

5. For Repentance: Bring us back, O our Father, to Your Instruction;

draw us near, O our King, to Your service;

and cause us to return to You in perfect repentance. Blessed are You, O Lord, who delights in repentance.
6. For Forgiveness : Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned;

pardon us, O our King, for we have transgressed; for You pardon and forgive.

Blessed are You, O Lord, who is merciful and always ready to forgive.
To you who have given mankind so much already: God can certainly use your undoubted talents in His work for the salvation of the world. You are encouraged to take up your position in the vanguard of Israel’s return to the Promised Land and to God’s favour.
The world awaits you, Judah. You have to be prepared so that Messiah can return to His own tribe and people in due process.

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