The Three-Hundred-Eighth (The Big Picture)

Have you ever looked back on one of your previous works and been humbled by it?  It could be a work of art, a writing, something you constructed…anything, really…and you realize that at the point you made it you thought you were at the top of your game, so to speak.  In fact, at that moment, you probably were.  However, since then, you grew, both in maturity, skill, knowledge, and wisdom, and now you realize how much you didn’t know; what lack of skill you had back then.

This week’s topic came to me early in the week, and as I usually do, I looked at previous topics to see if it had been written about already.  There wasn’t really one, but I did come across a topic titled “A Complete Picture.”  It was mainly focused on eschatology, but the point was that we needed to make sure we’re looking at the whole picture of scripture instead of picking a verse here and a verse there to make a doctrine out of.

It's funny how the Holy Spirit can speak to you even through something you’ve written previously, isn’t it?  There were so many things in that writing that I no longer agree with, and at that time I thought I had the whole picture!  Well, at the risk of looking back on this week’s topic in five years and realizing I didn’t have the whole picture this week either, we’re going to go through what I now realize as the bigger picture that scripture tells us about.

Last week’s focus was on the isles, which in scripture is associated with a group of people not actively against YHWH, but not for Him either, that eventually receive His instruction and become His people.  This week we’ll open the aperture and talk about the overview of what’s in scripture and we’ll see how the isles fit into it along with the other people groups listed in the table of nations.  Hopefully, it can help give context to the detailed accounts you are reading as you go through scripture.

We’ve gone over some of these things here and there previously, so some of this will be familiar to you.  Other things, like the recently realized relation to the isles, will be new.  The goal is to put it all together in one coherent picture, and by doing that, give a better understanding of what it’s all about and why what’s in scripture is in there.

The first thing to realize is that the point of scripture is not, in fact, to talk about Israel.  A lot of people, myself included for the longest time, reduce it down to that, and that’s not what it’s about.  A focus on Israel is a very myopic view of things.  

From the beginning to the end, scripture is about everyone.  Yes, most of it is an account of the people of Israel and their experiences, struggles, and disobedience, but if you focus only on that you get confused about all these non-Israelites, even previously banned peoples like the Moabites, being added to YHWH’s people.  Why did things like this happen, seemingly contrary to a commandment given by YHWH?

To refresh your memory, the Ammonites and Moabites were banned from joining the congregation of YHWH, also called Israel, because of how they treated the Israelites during their journey through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 23:3-4).  However, later we see in scripture that not only did Ruth, a Moabite, get added as an Israelite (Ruth 1-4), she ended up in the lineage of our Messiah, Yeshua (Matthew 1:5).  I mean, there’s a whole book of scripture about a woman from a banned people joining Israel and she played an active role in King David’s lineage and, ultimately, Yeshua’s lineage!

Of course, you might say, this is just a perfect example of how someone can be an outsider of YHWH’s people and then turn to Him and become one of His people; a perfect example of people turning to Yeshua and being saved, right?  Remember the context of scripture, though.  These are all writings that for the longest time were maintained by the Israelites themselves.  There’s a lot of motivation there to rewrite history and remove such banned people from the record so an obvious violation of a commandment of YHWH is covered up and disappears.

In other words, this account, all four chapters of it, was maintained throughout thousands of years for a purpose.  Not only that, YHWH used this woman in His overall plan to have His Son redeem mankind.  That’s because it was never just about Israel.

Let’s go back to the beginning, thousands of years before Jacob was renamed to Israel.  As a reminder, when YHWH created everything, including Adam, and called it good, it was a place where He could have a close, personal relationship with mankind (Genesis 2:19-20, 3:8).  Even after sin, after mankind was barred from being in the garden with YHWH (Genesis 3:22-24), He still wanted that close relationship.  This was shown, in one example, by His interaction with Cain as He tried to steer him away from sin (Genesis 4:6-7).

Unfortunately, in general, mankind continued in rebellion against YHWH.  Even so, there were people that kept His commandments and maintained a personal relationship with Him (Genesis 5:24, 6:9, 26:5).  The majority of the world descended in to depravity, yet there remained some that resisted the sin crouching at the door that Cain succumbed to.

The wickedness that had spread resulted in judgment of those individuals by YHWH (Genesis 6:7).  This event in itself tells us that YHWH had given His standard of righteousness, His Torah, to man long before He gave it again to Israel at Mount Sinai, but there are plenty of other examples as well.  The Amorites, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Canaanites; these were all people that, by omission in scripture, had seemingly not been given YHWH’s Law.  Yet, they were all judged according to it (Genesis 15:16, 18:20, Leviticus 18:24-28).

How could this be?!  An Israel-centered view of scripture tells us that only Israel was given YHWH’s Law and therefore, only Israel will be judged against that Law.  It’s unjust of our just YHWH to impose judgment on those not required to follow His Law, but we see it happen over and over in scripture.

We, therefore, have to realize that an Israel-centered view of scripture is a false view of scripture.  It leads to inaccurate understandings of what’s actually going on and false doctrines.  We see people like Ruth, Naaman, and even the non-Israelites Yeshua had as disciples, as the exception rather than the rule.  We think that the only reason the non-Israelites were added to YHWH’s people is because the ethnic, blood-descendant Israelites rejected Yeshua.

The truth is that it was always about all of mankind and never just about saving Israel.  If you’re still not convinced, consider this: Even before the Israelites entered the promised land, YHWH knew they were never going to remain faithful to Him and keep His commandments.

The Israelites were called a stiff-necked people multiple times, and YHWH almost wiped them out multiple times because of their transgression of His commandments.  Not only was their continued rebellion accurately prophesied (Deuteronomy 31:16-22), the judgments for their rebellion were baked into His curses for disobedience and carried out exactly as He warned they would be (Deuteronomy 28:15-68).  Not only that, the Song of Moses was given to him by YHWH as a result of Him knowing they would never remain faithful to Him (Deuteronomy 32:1-43).

You have to ask yourself then, why?  He knew they would rebel, and He knew the ultimate outcome of His people was that He would divorce them (Jeremiah 3:8-11).  Take note of those verses, by the way, because it states that the faithless northern kingdom of Ephraim/Israel was more righteous than the kingdom of Judah, who He had not yet divorced at the time Jeremiah gave that prophecy.

What that means is the end for the kingdom of Judah was going to be divorce from YHWH as well, and as we saw in the curses, what that process looks like in the physical realm is defined in scripture.  Why did YHWH even pick a people, then?  Why not just continue with the Enochs, Noahs, and Abrahams instead of defining a people?

There’s actually many answers to this question, and every answer is a part of the overall picture.  YHWH needed to re-establish His Law among mankind because it had become forgotten, and He needed a people that would maintain it, passing it down generation after generation.  His Law not only defined righteousness so man could know the standard by which to live, it made it possible to identify YHWH’s Son, whose defining characteristic was living righteously.

YHWH needed to have key markers that were identified in a way that would show who His Son would be and what His role would be in creation.  Following His Law was one aspect of YHWH’s role, but He also was to be the King as well as the High Priest as well as the redeemer through His blood of sacrifice.  The only way to show all these things was to have a kingly lineage from which He could descend, a priestly order which would define that role, and a sacrificial system which would show that aspect of His purpose.

YHWH also needed a way to show what He would do for those that will be faithful and obedient to Him (and, on the flip side, disobedient and unfaithful to Him).  He needed a people that could show how He can work His power in the world for His people, how He can provide for His people, how He can lead His people, how He can bless His people, etc.  By choosing a people, He was not only able to show this, but the people themselves would keep a record of it so that generation after generation could see what it means to be a faithful and obedient believer in YHWH.  

There are likely other, more specific reasons for choosing a people that He knew would continue to rebel against Him, but these are the big picture ones.  Even by choosing a people that was mainly defined by blood-relation though, YHWH kept all of mankind in the picture.  The mixed multitude joined them in the Exodus and were called Israelites, sojourners would join them over time and follow YHWH’s Laws just the same, with their children becoming Israelites no different than the direct descendants of Jacob.  The number of nations defined in Genesis 10 as the entirety of mankind, seventy, is the same number of descendants of Israel that entered Egypt centuries before the Exodus (Exodus 1:5), so there’s even a connection there.

All mankind was in the plan from the beginning, and part of what YHWH was showing with Israel was that He still wanted to dwell with man.  One of the first things that happened in the Exodus was YHWH’s presence joining the people to guide them, and ultimately, He gave them a way to make a space where He could dwell with them (Exodus 25:8).  He gave them a Holy of Holies for His presence.

Choosing Israel was always pointing to the Man who would be called Israel, Yeshua (Isaiah 49).  He became The Israel, and in Him all mankind can be Israel, YHWH’s people.  Once that purpose had been fulfilled, the kingdom of Judah was divorced identically to how the northern kingdom of Ephraim/Israel was divorced (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, Revelation 4-19), resulting in the only way of becoming YHWH’s people is by being a believer in His Son, Yeshua.  The Song of Moses is mirrored in the prophecy of this event, showing the connection between the judgment on Jerusalem and the rebellion of the apostate Israel (Revelation 15:1-4).

From the beginning, the isles were waiting for YHWH’s Law (Isaiah 42:4, 51:4-5).  From the beginning, the remnant of YHWH’s people would be gathered from the isles (Isaiah 11:11-12, Jeremiah 31:10).  YHWH’s people have always been among all mankind, not just among Israel, and scripture proves that.

The ultimate end, as defined by scripture, is the restoration of the conditions that existed in the garden YHWH originally created.  YHWH will dwell with man (Revelation 21:3).  Man will have access to the trees of life (Revelation 22:2-3).  The requirement through which this access is granted is doing YHWH’s commandments (Revelation 22:14), the same requirement that existed in the garden.

What that looks like, I don’t know yet.  There are some that believe it’s already here, but at this point in my studies, I have not come to that conclusion.  Right now, I still believe there will be a point in the future where we will actually be able to see YHWH and physically walk with Him and His Son.

I hope this “big picture” view of scripture has helped you to better understand what it’s all about; what YHWH’s plan was always about.  It was certainly eye-opening to me once He led me to it!  I pray it can help you in your studies, and help you develop a closer and more personal relationship with our Father, YHWH.

Have a great week!  Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!  

-Rob and Sara Gene

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The Gospel

We are born sinful as a result of Adam and Eve's sin (Genesis 2:17, 3:6, 1 John 1:8)

The consequence of sin, which is unavoidable through our own works, is death (Romans 6:23)

Yeshua, the Son of YHWH, lived sinless and was put to death (Hebrews 4:15)

His death, therefore, cleanses us of sin that would have required our death

(2 Corinthians 5:21)

He rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4)

Because of His resurrection, we are confident in our future resurrection and eternal life

(1 Corinthians 15:17-18, John 3:16)