Why Hebrew?

When you are doing something that you feel is important, sometimes you also feel you are 'out there' and 'all alone', because you don't see anybody else doing what you are doing. You know, like the Lone Ranger of my youth (if you don't know about him, ask your parents/grandparents/great-grandparents, ok I really feel old now!). I feel that the Lord has pulled me in the direction of learning about the Hebrew/Jewish culture of the Biblical times, so that I can understand all of the scriptures more completely, and bring that fullness of the scriptures to His people, the New Testament Church. Recently, at TBC (The Benton Church) our associate Pastor Shawn made a reference in his sermon about the Symbol of the Lamb in Early Church, to the verse "The blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean" (Heb 9:13). I asked Pastor Shawn after our first service of the day, if he knew what the phrase '… and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those ceremonially unclean….' meant. No, he really didn't; after I explained the Mitzvot of the Red Heifer he was totally blown away and thrilled. He had never heard of it, or of the correlation and foreshadowing of Yeshua our Savior it represented. He asked me to relate all of this during his sermon for our second service of the day.

All this led to our Director of Church Ministries Lorna asking me to write up this information (condensed Readers Digest format – again, if you don't know what I am referring to, ask somebody old) to be added to the back of the bulletin next Sunday. This is awesome, I felt, as this would widen my outreach to a larger group of members of our church, and might spur others on to do the same. I also sent this information to somebody I really respect and admire; a Messianic Jew that I have recently met. Her response was so positive, that I almost wept (nay, I'll admit it here, I did cry). To have validation of something you feel so passionately about, by somebody you respect is paramount to your view of responsibility. And what is my responsibility? To 1) spread the word about the fullness of the scriptures, when read from the view of the culture of the Jews of the time; and 2) remind the church of the fact that the Abrahamic Covenant is, and will be, in effect. What, you might ask, about the 'New Covenant' we read about in the New Testament? (Heb 8:7-13) This very question came up in my Hebrew Culture class (last one meets this Tuesday evening at 7:00 pm at TBC).

The covenant mentioned in Hebrews Ch. 8 was a covenant of blood, that required daily and annual sacrifices of animals (Exodus 24:8, Heb 9:22). The book of Hebrews was written before the destruction of the second Temple (it would have talked about the Temple in a past tense rather than a present tense verbiage) yet the writer points out in Hebrews 9:22 '… without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness' with this covenant. The covenant that is being discussed here is called the Mosaic Covenant (it was mediated between The People of Israel and God by Moses) (Exodus 19:3-8) sealed by the blood of animals (Exodus 24: 3-8). The writer of Hebrews rightfully points out that with the sacrifice of Yeshua our Savior and His resurrection that The Lord God has instituted a New and Better Covenant (Hebrews 8: 13). Here the writer of Hebrews uses text from the Old Testament (well, they didn't have any other scriptures did they?) that prophesied about this new covenant.(Jer 31:31-34) He had already made the case for the fact that Yeshua is a New and Better High Priest than those serving in the Temple that day. (Heb 7: 15-22, Psalm 110:4) Therefore, yes the Mosaic Covenant is replaced with the New Covenant (Heb 8:13), but not the Abrahamic Covenant.

What is that one? The one where the Lord God himself swore to Abram (he was not yet Abraham) with a blood sacrifice (Gen 15: 7-21)
that He, the Lord, would give the land to Abrams' descendents, and told him all about when and how they would possess the land. This was odd, because as of that time, Abram was childless. In fact, earlier the Lord God had told Abram that He would make him into a great nation, that He would 'bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,' (Gen 12:2-3) and that his descendents would number as the stars in the sky (Gen 15:5-6) Now, as this Covenant is older, and made by the Lord God Himself, without the participation of Abram, it will never pass away. What does this mean? That the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the Jews) are still Gods Chosen People.

Now, don't just take my word for this! Just because a teacher says something, doesn't make it true, look to the source (Titus 2:1). Let's look to the scriptures written by a 'Jews Jew'. Paul wrote to the Romans "I ask then: Did God reject His people? By no means!" (Romans 11:1a) Paul went on to show that God always provides a remnant of believers (Rom 11:2-6), that the national unbelief was foreseen (vs. 7-10), this unbelief is the Gentile opportunity to be grafted onto the Olive Tree of Israel, thereby taking nourishment from the root of Judaism (the scriptures and teachings of the Old Testament) (vs. 17-22), those that were broken off, if they return (believe in Yeshua their Mashiach) they will be grafted back in (vs. 23-25), the Deliverer will come out of Zion and the Nation will be saved (vs. 25-29, Isaiah 59:20-21, 27:9). The idea that Christians now inherit the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in scripture (replacement theology – a subject for another class).

Why study Hebrew culture, chaverim? Let's let the writer of Hebrews finish this out "… as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. Just as you, who were at one time disobedient to God, have now received mercy as a result of your disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they many now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy on you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all." (Hebrews 11:28b-32)

Baruch HaShem