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



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Christian Churches of God

No. 212E

Descendants of Abraham

Part V: Judah

(Edition 2.0 20070115-15-20070115-20070417)

This sequence of papers deals with the conversion of the sons of Abraham and their part in the coming Kingdom of God. Part V deals with the conversion of Judah.
Scripture tells us that a hardening came over the hearts of Judah and that in the Last Days they will turn and be converted so that Messiah might return to his own people and his own inheritance.
Christian Churches of God

PO Box 369, WODEN ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA

E-mail: secretary@ccg.org




(Copyright 2007 Reginald Scott and Wade Cox)

This paper may be freely copied and distributed provided it is copied in total with no alterations or deletions. The publisher’s name and address and the copyright notice must be included. No charge may be levied on recipients of distributed copies. Brief quotations may be embodied in critical articles and reviews without breaching copyright.


This paper is available from the World Wide Web page:
http://www.logon.org and http://www.ccg.org

Descendants of Abraham Part V: Judah


Introduction


It is a matter of Scripture that Judah will be converted in the Last Days and the hardening of their hearts will be removed.
A hardening came upon the hearts of Judah, and the Messiah had to be killed in accordance with prophecy. Judah had to be removed from Israel and the physical Temple destroyed because of their blindness on the first part and the Plan of God in relation to the Temple on the second part. The sequence was done in accordance with prophecy we see from Daniel regarding the Temple and as explained in the paper The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 13). The blindness that came upon Judah is detailed in the paper War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple (No. 298).
In the Last Days the blindness will be lifted and the Holy Spirit will be poured out on Judah so that they are converted and the Plan of God is implemented.
The sequence of the changes of Judah’s beliefs and the trials they have suffered when seen in context of Scripture and prophecy are recognisable as fitting into the overall structure. They need not have suffered as much outside of the Plan of God but they are a stiff-necked people and a hardness did come upon their hearts.
Soon they will repent and their eyes will be opened.
They still have a number of trials to endure (see the paper War of Hamon-Gog (No. 294)).
However, Judah will survive and they will overcome and be restored.
Their story is Scripture and Scripture cannot be broken (Jn. 10:34-35).
In the same way prophecy deals with the Church and with the other nations surrounding the Holy Land. The prophecies cover the Middle East, including Egypt, Persia, and the nations allied with, or placing themselves in league with, those nations.
There has always been a question of freedom and persecution for Jews. For an example of their handling we will turn to England.
The Jews in England

The year 2006, or 29/120, marked the 350th anniversary (equal to 7 Jubilees) of the decision by Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector to readmit the Jews to England. Their expulsion, lasting about 366 years, had been by edict of King Edward I enacted on All Saints’ Day in 1290. England was thus the first European country to formally expel the Jews following several hundred years of persecution.


Their readmission came about mainly through the efforts of one man, Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam. In 1655 he presented a petition to the Council of State in England asking that the Jews be granted freedom of trade, freedom of religion – including their own synagogues and cemeteries, and the right to operate under Mosaic Law – and calling for the revocation of all anti-Jewish laws. However, no decision was made by the committee formed to look at the question of their readmission. Most of the members of that committee of judges, merchants and clergymen were in fact opposed to the idea, but Cromwell himself gave permission in 1656. Cromwell and his Puritans had also sensibly supported an earlier parliamentary ban on the celebration of Christmas, Saints’ days and other non-biblical holy days.
It was noted that the ban by Edward was by royal prerogative only and not by any Act of Parliament, hence there was no actual law of expulsion to revoke. It wasn’t until over 200 years later in 1858, however, that Jews in Britain received full and equal rights as citizens. Cromwell, who died in 1658, sought to readmit the Jews for a number of reasons. Many of his fellow Puritans had a sincere interest in the Hebrew language and literature and felt a certain sympathy for the ‘people of the Old Testament’, while for others it was a matter of political expediency. The primary reason was apparently for straightforward commercial advantage, as there was a lucrative trade operating between Holland and England at the time and the Jews were recognised as master traders and merchants who could facilitate that trade. Lucien Wolf, founder of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Society, wrote early in the 20th century on what he considered was the motive for readmission: “It was really the deficiency of bullion in the country which, as early as 1643 … suggested to Cromwell the desirability of settling Jewish merchants in London.”
And settle they did, in ever-growing numbers. Expelled earlier from Spain and Portugal during the Catholic Inquisition, the Jews had set up business in Amsterdam and had been instrumental in making the city one of the busiest ports in the world at that time. Following Cromwell’s decision many of these Sephardi and other Jews began moving to England and reintroducing some aspects of Torah-observance to Britain. Someone who visited the Sephardi Synagogue in Creechurch Lane, London in 1662 was told: “One year in Oliver’s time, they did build booths on the other side of the Thames and keep the Feast of Tabernacles in them.” In October 1663, the famous diarist Samuel Pepys also visited this Sephardi Synagogue, the immediate successor of which, Bevis Marks, remains the oldest in Britain today.
Since their formal readmission, the Jews have become fully integrated into British society and have proven themselves loyal servants of the Crown and an invaluable asset to the country in a great number of ways. Today there are about 300,000 Jews in the UK, out of an estimated 13-14 million scattered throughout the world. There are more Jews in the USA than in Israel and the US and British Commonwealth is the true home for the majority of Judah today. In that sense the Jews are being reunited with Israel and the nation called Israel is really a section of the Commonwealth. It is ironic that Israel and Australia are grouped together in the same division of the world by the Rome agreements.

In The Times (London) of 1 June 2002, Rabbi Jonathan Romain wrote an article entitled ‘Pariahs, heroes and a loyal people: how England’s monarchs saw their Jewish subjects’, part of which reads as follows.



When the late Princess Margaret visited Maidenhead Synagogue ten years ago - the first Jewish worship she had attended - she admitted afterwards that what had amazed her most was not the Hebrew or the rituals, but the discovery that Jews recited a Prayer for the Royal Family at every Sabbath service. …
It is not just the present Queen for whom the Jews have prayed; it has been a long-standing tradition to ask for God’s blessing on the monarch as the symbol of national stability, although, frankly, some kings and queens have deserved it less than others.
The relationship between the Crown and the Jews started with William I, when a settled community was established here after he brought across Jews from Normandy to help colonise his new kingdom. They were seen as a trustworthy element in an otherwise unstable population, with Anglo-Saxons wishing to be rid of him and his own nobles vying for power. Their relations with William II were even more cordial and he even jested that he would consider converting to Judaism if they could out-debate his bishops - much to the horror of the latter, although it was never put to the test.
As newcomers to the country, the Jews … were formally declared to be “the chattels” of the Crown, responsible directly to the Throne and belonging to it. This definition held many advantages, giving Jews rights of residence and protection. …
Subsequent kings abused this special power, levying punitive taxes on the Jews … For her part, Elizabeth II has treated her Jewish subjects as they would wish: exactly the same as everyone else. …
Most Jews would be delighted to see a multi-faith element to any future coronations, with Orthodox and Progressive rabbis participating alongside other religious leaders, but for now they are more than happy to join in the acclaims of ‘Long live the Queen’ (emphasis added).
Such dedication and respect for the Monarchy is rarely to be seen among the most loyal of her other subjects, Christian or otherwise. Perhaps unknowingly, the Jews are actually praying for their own kin, as it has been proven that members of the present Royal Family are direct descendants of King David of Israel and are therefore of the tribe of Judah. See the paper From David and the Exilarchs to the House of Windsor (No. 67) and the Sabbath Message 16/4/27/120 at:

http://www.ccg.org/_domain/ccg.org/Sabbath/2004/S_07_03_04.htm
Many royals know this fact, as there is a genealogical table in Windsor Castle actually showing their descent from King David. Queen Victoria (reigned 1837-1901) was fully aware that she occupied the throne of David. The majority of the subjects of the Crown, however, remain in ignorance to this day.
As a point of interest, the present Queen, Elizabeth II, began her reign in February 1952, so that the year 1977 was her official jubilee (albeit a silver one, i.e. a half jubilee). Her silver jubilee coincided with the true year of Jubilee. The first year of the new jubilee in 1978 was the beginning of the true 120th Jubilee of God’s Calendar.
David’s everlasting throne

Both kings David and Solomon were told that the throne they had been given would be everlasting (2Sam. 7:13,16; Jer. 33:17).

2Samuel 7:12-17 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men; 15 but I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.'" 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. (RSV)
It could be inferred from some Scriptures that total obedience to God and His Laws was required for the promise to remain in force regarding the physical throne of Israel (e.g. 1Kgs. 2:1-4; 2Chr. 6:16; Ps. 132:11-12). However, verse 45 of 1Kings 2 suggests the throne would be established forever from its inception, irrespective of obedience by the kings (and queens) who would ascend it.
In verse 14 of 2Samuel 7 above, it appears that Solomon and the kings after him would be chastised severely for their sins, but the promise regarding the continuity of the royal line on Israel’s throne would never be revoked.
1Kings 2:1-4,45 When David's time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, 2 "I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, 3 and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; 4 that the LORD may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.' … 45 But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever." (RSV)
And again in the Psalms:

Psalm 89:35-37 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. 36 His line shall endure for ever, his throne as long as the sun before me. 37 Like the moon it shall be established for ever; it shall stand firm while the skies endure." (RSV)


An analogy can be made between the throne of David and God’s Laws. The latter have not been repealed for the last two thousand years since the death of Messiah, only to become enforceable, as Scripture unequivocally indicates they will, in the coming Kingdom of God. Neither has the physical throne of David disappeared for 2600 years or so (i.e. since the captivity of Judah in 586 BCE), only to reappear when Messiah comes to take up his kingship. Rather, both the royal line on the throne and God’s royal Law have been in continuous operation from their inception.
Jeremiah 33:14-26 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.' 17 "For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn cereal offerings, and to make sacrifices for ever." 19 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 20 "Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, 21 then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son [or sons] to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. 22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me." 23 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 24 "Have you not observed what these people are saying, 'The LORD has rejected the two families which he chose'? Thus they have despised my people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight. 25 Thus says the LORD: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the ordinances of heaven and earth, 26 then I will reject the descendantsof Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his descendants to rule over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes, and will have mercy upon them." (RSV)
In anticipation of widespread scepticism, God offers a challenge in verses 20 and 21. Day and night have come at their appointed time with absolute certainty since the Earth was renewed, hence God’s covenant concerning them has never been broken – and neither has His covenant of putting an unbroken line of David’s descendants on the throne of Israel (cf. vv. 25-26). The Levitical priesthood mentioned is now (since the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem) the elect among the Churches of God, who have performed the continuous spiritual service since the Holy Spirit was given in the new era. The elect in fact are of the superior Melchisedek priesthood, of which the Levitical was only a temporary subset. We see also that the Levitical priesthood is never referred to as royal, unlike that of Melchisedek (1Pet. 2:9). The Law of God is similarly called royal (Jas. 2:8).
Royal obligations

This royal aspect brings with it certain privileges as well as duties, in the same way that the present Royal Family has obligations to the United Kingdom and the entire Commonwealth, which currently consists of about 54 nations and is undoubtedly the Ephraimite company of nations spoken of in Genesis 48:19.


If there are any ‘privileges’ of royalty they are ones associated with selfless dedication and service to the nation, of noblesse oblige, which the present Queen in particular has consistently demonstrated. She was born to a job she never wished for and which is thankless at the best of times, as alluded to in a recently-released film The Queen, starring Helen Mirren in the title role.
The Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Professor Jonathan Sacks, had something to say about things ‘royal’ from a biblical perspective.

The Bible suggests that royalty isn’t about privilege and wealth, splendour and palaces. It’s moral courage. Moses, in discovering that he is the child of slaves, finds greatness. It’s not power that matters, but the fight for justice and freedom. Had Moses been an Egyptian prince, he would have been eminently forgettable. Only by being true to his people and to God did he become a hero.


Freud [author of Moses and Monotheism, in which he tried to prove that Moses was actually an Egyptian] … failed to see that he had come face to face with one of the most powerful moral truths the Bible ever taught. Those whom the world despises, God loves. A child of slaves can be greater than a prince.
God’s standards are not power and privilege. They are about recognising God’s image in the weak, the powerless, the afflicted, the suffering, and fighting for their cause. … the story of Moses is one of the great narratives of hope in the literature of mankind (The Times (London), 23 June 2001).
Judah’s pre-eminence

As mentioned earlier, the Jews have made an enormous contribution to the UK and most other countries as well. They have been pioneers in virtually every field, from science and medicine (since the mid-1800s, about 25% of the world’s scientists have been Jewish), to invention and commerce, and to the law, art and music (both as composers and performers). They possess natural intelligence and great energy which, for instance, has helped them to literally make ‘the desert bloom as a rose’ in the State of Israel, in marked contrast with many of its neighbouring states. From an objective and unprejudiced viewpoint we see that the Jews, who together account for only about 0.23% of the world’s population, must surely rank as the most talented and productive group of people, bar none. They thereby invite envy if not outright hatred from less-energetic and less-creative peoples.


However, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, in his book To Life! A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking (Warner Books, NY, 1993), had this to say about the Jews who, as a result of their accomplishments, might consider themselves to be superior to other people:

What does it mean for us as Jews to consider ourselves a “chosen people”? It certainly does not mean that we think we are better than other people, either individually or collectively. I was a congregational rabbi for thirty years, dealing professionally with Jewish families, and if there is one thing I know beyond the shadow of a doubt, it is that Jews are just as flawed, just as average, just as imperfect as anyone else. There is no claim of Jewish biological superiority … We have no way of knowing how many of today’s Jews are the pure biological descendants of Abraham and Sarah, though we are all their spiritual descendants. …


But it is a historical fact that the Jews, and no one else, gave the world the Bible … God, for reasons of His own, chose to make the Jewish people the instrument of His self-revelation to the world (p. 32).
The fact is that only about a third of Jews are actually even Semitic let alone Jews. The origin of the Jews are detailed in the paper Genetic Origin of the Nations (No. 265) 2nd edition.
Judaism is a religion now and not a single people.
The key there is that God chose, as He is the Master Potter who fashions and selects human vessels for use according to His will (Isa. 64:8), and it is no one’s right to question that or be envious toward those whom He has chosen. They should be and will be praised.
Judah’s pre-eminence and pioneering spirit were demonstrated in former times by the fact that they were required to march in the vanguard of the armies of Israel (Num. 2:2-3,9), and were the first to move out of the camp following the Ark of the Covenant. Their ensign or standard was a young lion (cf. Gen. 49:9). Messiah is referred to as a Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and is himself set in the vanguard of spiritual Israel.

During the wars of conquest and possession in the Promised Land, Judah uniquely was given its inheritance in the territory which that tribe had conquered (Jos. 14:6-15; 15:13-17). The reason for this is contained in verses 8,9 and 14, and was essentially because Caleb the son of Jephunneh (of the tribe of Judah) had “wholly followed the Lord God”, as noted also in the Book of Numbers.

Numbers 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. (RSV)
Even though Joshua the Ephraimite was also loyal and apparently had the right spirit, his descendants were not to possess the land on a continuous basis, as were the generations of Caleb, the representative of the tribe of Judah.
It is estimated that Judah actually occupied one-third of the entire western side of the Jordan once all the tribes had been settled in their respective areas. The tribe of Simeon also came to be incorporated or enfolded into Judah’s territory (Jos. 19:9), although it retained a separate identity. Just as the term Joseph most often applies to the combined tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, it appears that when Judah is spoken of in Deuteronomy 33 it includes Simeon, as this tribe is included with Judah in their inheritance and was scattered amongst Israel. (cf. Jos. 19:1; Jdg. 1:3). There was also the close historical relationship between Simeon and Levi (Gen. 49:5), so there is a great deal of interconnection between the tribes. The name Judah means praised (SHD 3063), and perhaps suggests that this tribe will one day be praised by its brother tribes and the rest of the world as having been a vital instrument of God’s salvation, quite apart from Judah having provided the Messiah through King David.
Judah’s enemies

Just as spiritual Israel, the true Unitarian Law-keeping Church of God, has suffered intense persecution over the centuries, so too Judah, as the most readily-identifiable part of physical Israel, has suffered horribly. On several infamous occasions Judah has even been the target for attempted annihilation by its enemies: once by the Amalekite Haman, whose plan was thwarted by Esther and Mordecai (Est. 3-9), but even then the Jews had to fight for their lives; and secondly, in the 20th century, with the anti-Jewish pogroms in both Tsarist and Communist Russia, along with the mass extermination in Hitler’s Germany and its occupied (and often complicit) territories in Europe.


More recently, we have seen the unequivocal call by President Ahmadinejad of Iran for the extermination of the State of Israel (and presumably all the Jews with it), as if this would somehow solve the chronic and intractable problems in the Middle East. It is a call which conveniently overlooks the fact that the most vicious wars in that region have been fought (and continue to be fought) between so-called Muslim brothers, such as Iraq and Iran in the 1980s, and more recently between the differing sects of Islam, namely Shia and Sunni, within modern Iraq.
The origins of these people and the determinations of what is to happen to them is dealt with in the other papers in the series dealing with those countries. Much of the conflict is between sons of Shem and between Elam and Ishmael and Keturah as well as Judah. Iran is dealt with in Sons of Shem: Part I (No. 212A) and in the papers concerning the coming of the Messiah and also World War III.
On the Middle East question, it is worth reading what Rabbi Sacks wrote in The Times (London) of 7 September 2001 regarding the permanent and often violent friction between the Jews and the sons of Ishmael, all descendants of the Patriarch Abraham:

We are both the same race, both Semites. It is purely a political matter. We have to co-exist. Islam is closer to Jewry than Christianity. If Jews and Christians can live together, there’s no reason why Jews and Muslims can’t. Israel is not going to go away. Palestine is not going to go away. And shared tears do bring people closer together. Jews are not optimists, but we never give up hope for Israel.


Professor Sacks said in a subsequent article:

It is not that religion is intolerant. Rather, we must learn the hard way that religion must never have recourse to power.


Nowhere is this told more dramatically than in the story of Elijah. He had come to the mountain fresh from a decisive and bloody victory over the prophets of Baal. God asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” The prophet replied, “I have been very zealous for Your sake.” He then witnessed a whirlwind, an earthquake and a fire. But “the Lord was not in” the wind or the earthquake or the fire. Then came the “still small voice” that was the voice of God.
The zealot believes that God is power. That is why zealots must learn. whether through a vision or a tragedy of history, that God lives in the still small voice of reason, compassion and peace (The Times, 20 April 2002).
Words of wisdom, and therefore almost certainly bound not to be heeded in this age at least (and without divine help) for “the way of peace they know not” (Isa. 59:8), as evidenced by man’s entire history, not just that of the chronically troubled Middle East.
However, when Christ gets here he most certainly will take power and enforce a religion and one that is not kept on this planet at present except for a very few people who are persecuted for that faith.
It may seem to many that the Jews remain insular and aloof, if not arrogant, and that they thereby invite persecution upon themselves. Under the headline “The Burning Question”, the Russian author and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that the Jews were unique in never assimilating with another nation in 2,000 years of history, adding that this was their most striking and admirable characteristic (The Times, 20 June 2001). It is certain that God arranged the separateness of the Jews that way for a number of reasons; however, it has also allowed them to be singled out from much of the rest of the population, as on the occasions mentioned.
However, they have absorbed a number of people and their diverse DNA structure proves that fact.
The fact is that only very few people are actual Jews of those claiming Judaism and when they cease to practise the religion they are simply Gentiles within Judah claiming protection under the Laws of God.

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