“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Most Christians and Jews are Woefully Ignorant about Yahweh’s Word
For those of you who are not well-versed in Judaism, Jewish sages are the great minds in Judaism over the centuries who have given us the Talmud, the Mishnah, and the Gemara. They contain the Oral Law (a.k.a., Halacha and the traditions of the Jews) that governs Judaism. If you have ever been to synagogue, you undoubtedly heard a rabbi preach from the Oral Law.
The Word of Yahweh is contained in the Torah (a.k.a., the Books of Moses and the Law), the Prophets, and the Writings. Collectively, Jewish people call them “the Tanach”. Christians refer to them as “the Old Testament”. The Word of Yahweh and the Oral Law are not the same thing. Yet, in the synagogues I’ve attended, rabbis have given only lip service to the Tanach. They start their worship service by delivering a Torah scroll to the rabbi, and after a few words from the Torah, he delivers a sermon from the Oral Law or something else.
Churchgoers who have never been to synagogue would be familiar with the routine, because preachers in most Christian churches do the same thing. They open their Bibles (some of them hold their Bibles high in the air for effect), and then, they tell stories that they made up or stories that some great Christian thinker made up. Few preachers that I’ve seen teach from the Bible in a systematic way, so most churchgoers don’t know much about what’s in it.
It’s no wonder that most Christians and Jews are woefully ignorant about Yahweh’s word. They don’t read Yahweh’s word much less study it, and they don’t hear much about it from preachers and rabbis. They rely on a few verses that they can remember, things they probably learned in Sunday School or the synagogue equivalent, and they think that’s all there is to it.
They are sadly mistaken. They may know how to talk a good game, but their ignorance is easy to spot.
In 2004, a group of us from the United States were invited to participate in The Herzliya Conference. It’s a summit held every year in Herzliya, Israel north of Tel Aviv at the Interdisciplinary Center. During the conference, issues related to Israel’s security and policy matters are discussed. In October 2004, we met for a planning session, and in December 2004, we met for The Herzliya Conference.
While we were in Israel in October for the planning session, we decided to spend some time in Jerusalem. I never turn down an opportunity to visit Jerusalem. It’s my favorite city in the world. I love it.
If I remember correctly, we were in Herzliya for the planning session for 2 days, Wednesday and Thursday. When the planning session ended, we went to Jerusalem and spent the weekend at the YMCA Three Arches Hotel. It’s a wonderful place in a great location.
In the United States, the weekend is Saturday and Sunday. In Israel, the weekend is Friday and Saturday. That’s a minor point, but it’s worth knowing especially if you plan to travel in Israel while you are there.
Since we were in Jerusalem on Saturday, we decided to go to The Jerusalem Great Synagogue on King George Street. It’s very close to the YMCA Three Arches Hotel.
There are many synagogues in Jerusalem, but there is only one Jerusalem Great Synagogue. The people at The Jerusalem Great Synagogue believe the Messiah will come to them when He arrives and seek their acceptance of Him before He begins His work. In essence, they think the Messiah will want them to authenticate Him for the people of Israel.
If they examined the Torah or the Tanach, they would know that the Messiah is Yahweh. He won’t seek anyone’s approval for anything. He doesn’t need their support or their acceptance of Him. His words and His works will speak for themselves. There will be no mistaking who He is. He can heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cause fire to fall from the sky, turn a few fish and a few loaves of bread into enough food to feed thousands of people, and destroy His enemies. People who see those kinds of things happening won’t need to be told who He is.
He is Yahweh. He is the great I AM.
We got to The Jerusalem Great Synagogue early. When we arrived, only the rabbi and a few synagogue leaders were there. The rabbi introduced himself to us, and then, he introduced us to a man from New York City who had “made Aliyah”.
“Making Aliyah” means Jewish people from the exile in the Diaspora are moving back to the Land of Israel, the Promised Land.
Everyone we met at The Jerusalem Great Synagogue was nice and friendly. It was as warm a welcome as I have ever experienced anywhere. The man from New York was a prominent member of The Jerusalem Great Synagogue. He had a front pew seat, and he asked us to sit with him. We accepted his invitation.
As the rabbi was walking up to the podium to start the service, Yahweh told me to leave. He didn’t tell me why. He just said, “Get up and leave,” so I did.
Since I was sitting in the front pew right beside the rabbi, I got up as inconspicuously as I could and made my way to the back of the synagogue and out the front door. That meant I had about an hour to kill before the service ended, so I decided to walk to the Old City. It’s very close to The Jerusalem Great Synagogue.
Every week in Jerusalem, there are 3 sabbaths: one for Muslims on Friday, one for Jews on Saturday, and one for Christians on Sunday. Many thousands of people are involved in sabbath activities each of those days. On Saturdays in the Old City of Jerusalem while Jewish people go to synagogue, Muslims and Christians are open for business. There was plenty for me to do.
After about an hour, I walked back to our hotel. As quickly as I got there, my group from The Jerusalem Great Synagogue arrived. They saw me walking up, and one of them said, “Neil, you won’t believe what happened. They asked Gary (a member of our group) to take the Torah scroll to the rabbi.”
At that instant, I understood why Yahweh told me to leave. If I had been there, they would have asked me to take the Torah scroll to the rabbi, and Yahweh did not want me to do it.
Most of my readers don’t know me personally. I look Jewish, and Snyder is a Jewish name. When I’m in Israel, no one ever asks me if I’m Jewish, and I never tell anyone in Israel that I am Jewish. Israeli Jews look at me, hear my name, and assume that I am Jewish.
They may be right. I may be Jewish. By that I mean that I may be a descendant of Judah, but I can’t prove it. Neither can anyone else who thinks he’s a Jew, because there is no DNA test for Jewishness.
There is a DNA test for descendants of Aaron, though. They are called “the Kohanim”. They are the high-priestly class from which the High Priest is supposed to be appointed.
Moses and Aaron were brothers. They were descendants of Levi, but only Aaron’s descendants are the Kohanim. The other descendants of Levi are called “Levites”. They sang Psalms during Temple services, did construction and maintenance work in the Temple, served as guards, and performed other duties that needed to be done.
I wonder how many rabbis today are descendants of Levi. I also wonder how many of them are descendants Aaron. My guess is that not many rabbis can tell you who they descended from. They were “called to the ministry”, so to speak, just like Christian preachers.
Who called them, and what were they called to do? I’ll say this: Anyone called by Yahweh has heard His voice in some way, and Yahweh calls people to serve Him. About that there can be no doubt. So, if a rabbi or a preacher tells you that Yahweh doesn’t speak to people directly today, you know for a fact that he was not called by Yahweh.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” (John 10: 27-28)
You should see the surprised looks on most Jewish people’s faces when you tell them that Moses was a Levite, not a Jew; that Abraham was a Hebrew, not a Jew; that Isaac was a Hebrew, not a Jew; that Jacob was a Hebrew, not a Jew; and that Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, not just the Children of Judah.
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are faith-based religions. Lineage doesn’t mean too much, but to Yahweh, it matters a lot.
If you doubt that, consider what happened when King David, a Jew, sent a group of men to Kiriath-Yearim (today’s Abu Ghosh) to get the Ark of the Covenant and bring it back to Jerusalem. One man, Uzzah, made the mistake of touching the Ark, and he died on the spot. See 2 Samuel 6: 1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13: 9-12.
Uzzah did not belong to the Kohanim. He probably wasn’t a Levite, either. Only the High Priest was allowed to get near the Ark once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. When the Children of Israel moved the Ark from place to place in the wilderness, only the Kohanim were allowed to get near the Ark. See Numbers 4: 5-15.
Yahweh told Moses what would happen if anyone touched the Ark, and He meant it. This is how one person explained why touching the Ark of the Covenant or even getting too close to it was hazardous to a person’s health:
The Ark of the Covenant was an embodiment of God’s presence with the Israelites. The atonement cover (or “mercy seat”) that covered the ark was God’s throne (2 Sam 6:2) and God’s presence was above it (Lev 16:2); it was also the place where God met Moses and gave him commands (Ex 25:22). If someone approached the ark, they would effectively be in God’s presence – a sinner standing before a holy God who does not tolerate evil (Ps 5:4-6) – and would die as a result of their sins. For this reason, God had given the Israelites many rules concerning the Ark of the Covenant. It was to be kept in the Most Holy Place in the temple, hidden from view by a curtain (Ex 26:33). Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place, and then only after he had undergone ceremonial cleansing, made sacrifices to atone for his sins and the nation’s sins, and burned incense to conceal the atonement cover (Lev 16). When the ark was moved, it was covered with at least 3 layers of cloth by the priests to protect others from seeing it (Num 4:5-6, 15, 18-20); the priests/Levites carried it and everyone else had to stay about a thousand yards away (Josh 3:4). These laws enforced the concept of God’s holiness: sinful people couldn’t be in his presence, not even the high priest.
I can tell you one thing for sure. If I ever see the Ark of the Covenant, I won’t touch it unless Yahweh gives me specific instructions that include touching the Ark.
Someone who knows me well is going to say, “Neil, you can touch the Ark, because Yahweh is your righteousness. He sacrificed Himself to redeem and save you, and He imputed His righteousness to you and declared you clean.”
All of that is true, but I still won’t touch the Ark unless Yahweh tells me to.
So, why did Yahweh not want me to hand the Torah scroll to the rabbi at The Jerusalem Great Synagogue? I think the day is coming when Yahweh will instruct me to go to The Jerusalem Great Synagogue and tell the rabbi who Yahweh is by Name. He may even tell me to do it during a synagogue service. If He does, I will.
If you know anything about Judaism and especially ultra-Orthodox Jews, you know how controversial saying “Yahweh” can be. In fact, it’s potentially dangerous. According to the Oral Law, saying Yahweh’s Name is the definition of “blasphemy”, and the penalty for saying Yahweh’s Name is death. See Sanhedrin 7: 5.
That doesn’t matter to me. When I’m in Israel, I talk about Yahweh all the time by Name. It bothers almost no one except ultra-Orthodox Jews. I even talk about Yahweh by Name when I’m conversing with ultra-Orthodox Jews unless I’m in Mea She’arim, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood near the Old City of Jerusalem. In Mea She’arim, I don’t talk with anyone about anything. I just walk through it as quickly as I can. Many Israeli Jewish women won’t even walk through Mea She’arim. They know that it’s too dangerous for them because of the way they dress. Most of them don’t dress immodestly, but they don’t dress according to ultra-Orthodox Jewish standards, either. That can lead to a physical attack.
Here’s a word of advice and caution: If you don’t know all the rules in the Oral Law and if you aren’t willing to accept all the rules, you had better avoid Mea She’arim. Almost all the rules are man-made. Very few of them came from the Word of Yahweh, but they are enforced.
By the way, the Messiah was convicted of blasphemy during His trial before the Sanhedrin, and He was sentenced to death. He simply said “Yahweh”, and for that, He was crucified. You won’t learn that from the New Testament unless you know something about the Oral Law. It’s in the New Testament, but you will never see it.
Then the high priest [Caiaphas] tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They answered, “He deserves death!” (Matthew 26: 65-66)
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
