2010

One of the primary transitions that most Christians face when they become Messianic is their relationship with the Torah. The first five books of the Bible are the Law of Moses. Not only has the Old Testament been relegated to ancient history by the Church, but the Law of Moses is singled out for distinction as to what not to believe in the Christian faith. Churchmen have taught for years that Christians no longer follow the Torah and its commandments. Instead, Christ has come and they now only follow Church teachings.

In my former career working as an engineer, a management book entitled What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School was published. It stirred up a lot of attention in the business world as most of the professionals did not attend Harvard Business School. It was a kind of vindication for those with a less academic pedigree stressing common sense and real world experience. It also stressed a new awareness of how successful businesses operate and put the accepted stodgy standard of business on notice. I benefitted from that book and implemented many of the principles in my own secular career.

The modern Messianic Movement is filled with a wide spectrum of believers in Messiah Yeshua. It is truly a multi-national group with many diverse Jewish and Christian backgrounds. It is not surprising to find ex-Catholics sitting side by side with the staunchest of ex-Protestants and a place where Jews by birth (secular and religious) join with the same assembly. The common ground for this assembly is not ethnicity or culture but a shared belief in the God of Israel and Messiah Yeshua. ...

In Part I of this article, we looked at the first 16 specific expectations concerning the coming of the Messiah. It turns out that the Israelites had many expectations about the coming of the Messiah based on Scriptural prophecies. Yeshua came to fulfill the prophecies, although He did not fulfill all the prophecies regarding the Messiah’s return. Also, He did NOT meet all of their expectations because He completed some prophecies in ways they never imagined. Even the disciples who believed in Him were amazed how Yeshua fulfilled some of the prophecies. John, the writer of the Gospel, explained that the Holy Spirit later revealed what really happened and why.

There is an old Jewish explanation about the coming of the Messiah. It goes something like this: The Messiah should have come in the year 4,000, but because of the sin of Israel, He delayed His coming. The religious Jews expected the Messiah to come at about the Biblical year 4,000. They based this on the creation sequence equating one day as a thousand years. At the end of the fourth day and beginning with the fifth day God made living creatures. The Messiah was to make us new creatures! I have always taught that the Messiah came in the year 4,000 but, because of the sins of Israel, we were blind to His coming.

Eighteen months ago, Barack Obama became the President of the United States. During his campaign, Obama pledged to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons and continue support for Israel. However, upon his entering office, the President began to embrace the Muslim nations by apology and appeasement. He also began to show some daylight between the United States and Israel. This new approach was supposedly intended to open the dialogue toward peaceful ends with Israel and others. President Obama tried to put all relevant history behind him (9/11, etc.) in an attempt to move forward in a positive way. With specific regard to Iran, President Obama suspended all efforts to gain more sanctions against Iran for a period of one year. He set a deadline for Iran of January 31, 2010 to respond in a positive manner. He then traveled to several Muslim nations giving a “new policy" speech in Cairo, Egypt denying that the United States was a Christian nation and stating that Israel would be held accountable for misdeeds.

I don’t normally offer any political commentary in my articles and public teaching; I try to stay focused on Scripture and its lessons. On several occasions I have addressed issues concerning modern Israel, linking them with Bible prophecy. In this article I would like to point out a political issue now happening in the United States that is slowly coming to worldwide attention. More than that, it illustrates the principles of a Biblical concept that we need to clearly understand.

At the time of this writing it is May of 2010, and we are about to complete God’s instruction of counting of the Omer begun in mid-April with the Feast of First Fruits. On Sunday, May 23, we will count the fiftieth day (the day after seven complete Sabbaths) and observe the feast day called Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. What significance is there for us today about this one-day festival? Does it have future significance? There is much we can learn from the command to count the Omer to the celebration of the day itself, as we shall see ahead.

As world events seem to be becoming more violent, financially desperate, and lawless, and with the Earth groaning with increases in tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, many may be wondering if the world they know is coming to an end. Different civilizations have different traditions and myths regarding the end of the world. The Mayans developed a calendar that ran for thousands of years and it culminates cataclysmically in 2012. Anyone who believes in some form of apocalypse knows that the earth is not going be a safe place during any such event. People will hope there is a magic button that will save them from end-time events so no disaster happens to them. In fact, there are many that think such a button actually exists.

In last month’s YAVOH, February 2010, we examined the prophecy of Daniel’s 70 weeks. Instead of rendering the word “shavuim” as the number “sevens” as many do, we considered the possibility of it being a reference to the Feast of Weeks, thus “weeks.” “Shavuim” is the masculine gender for the word we use for the holy day “Shavuot.” We also looked at the entire prophecy as counting backward from the Messianic kingdom and laying out a sequence of events leading up to the kingdom. To quickly review, the entire prophecy illustrates the last seventy years leading up to the kingdom by counting the annual observance of Shavuot as years.

The year 2010 is now upon us. While the world is still recovering from 2009 and the hype for 2012 has just started, I have a whole different perspective of the future. Let me come right to the point of this article. There is a set of seven years before us that seems to fit so many end-time concepts that must be considered very seriously. I am referring to the set of seven years beginning now through 2016. Are these the seven years that lead us to Jerusalem and Messiah’s kingdom?

The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.

For the past 62 years there has been conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Israel's neighbors. This conflict has at times erupted into open warfare beginning with Israel's war of independence, which the Palestinians call “the catastrophe.”