This episode will examine whether or not we are under a new covenant, as well as the importance of actual lineage as concerns the True Hebrew Israelites.
TO DOWNLOAD THE AUDIO FOR THIS PRESENTATION, OR TO LISTEN BY PHONE, CLICK BELOW:
Other Videos in this Series:
View Transcript
Given the long list of preceding curses mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 28, one might ask, “How are these curses still with the people of Israel today if the covenant was done away with? Aren’t we under a new covenant?” Well the fact is, the covenant, despite what many believe, is olam, which is Hebrew for of “long duration,” or what is generally translated as “everlasting,” meaning it is still in force today. For as Yah said to Abraham:
7“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your Elohim and the Elohim of your descendants after you.”
—Genesis 17
Moses actually said this much to the people of Israel following the address that included the long list of curses:
9“Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do.10All of you — tribal leaders, elders, officers, all the men of Israel — are standing today in the presence of Yah your Elohim.
11Your little ones and your wives are with you, as well as the foreigners living among you who chop your wood and carry your water.
12You are standing here today to enter into the covenant of Yah your Elohim. Yah is making this covenant, including the curses.
13By entering into the covenant today, he will establish you as his people and confirm that he is your Elohim, just as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14“But you are not the only ones with whom I am making this covenant with its curses.
15I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of Yah our Elohim, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.
—Deuteronomy 29
You see, the covenant did not only involve the children of Israel who were alive at the time of its establishment; it also involved their many descendants, reaching right down to our time. And it is because our ancestors broke this covenant that the curses mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 28 have persisted to this day. And it is the reason the children of Israel were scattered among the nations. But let’s take a closer look at the cause of these curses and our being scattered abroad.
24The people refused to enter the pleasant land, for they wouldn’t believe his promise to care for them.25Instead, they grumbled in their tents and refused to obey Yah.
26Therefore, he solemnly swore that he would kill them in the wilderness,
27that he would scatter their descendants among the nations, exiling them to distant lands.
28Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor; they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead!
29They angered Yah with all these things, so a plague broke out among them.
30But Phinehas had the courage to intervene, and the plague was stopped.
31So he has been regarded as a righteous man ever since that time.
32At Meribah, too, they angered Yah, causing Moses serious trouble.
33They made Moses angry, and he spoke foolishly.
34Israel failed to destroy the nations in the land, as Yah had commanded them.
35Instead, they mingled among the pagans and adopted their evil customs.
36They worshiped their idols, which led to their downfall.
—Psalm 106
Are we not doing this very same thing today! We are not to do as the heathen nations do, as it is written:
30do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their deities. . . .
—Deuteronomy 12
. . . and in 2 Kings we read:
15They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they despised all his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols, so they became worthless themselves. They followed the example of the nations around them, disobeying Yah’s command not to imitate them.
—2 Kings 17
Again, we are not to be like the heathen nations. We are to be a peculiar treasure to him. But getting back to Psalm 106:
37They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.38They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters. By sacrificing them to the idols of Canaan, they polluted the land with murder.
39They defiled themselves by their evil deeds, and their love of idols was adultery in Yah’s sight.
40That is why Yah’s anger burned against his people, and he abhorred his own special possession.
41He handed them over to pagan nations, and they were ruled by those who hated them.
42Their enemies crushed them and brought them under their cruel power.
43Again and again he rescued them, but they chose to rebel against him, and they were finally destroyed by their sin.
44Even so, he pitied them in their distress and listened to their cries.
45He remembered his covenant with them and relented because of his unfailing love.
46He even caused their captors to treat them with kindness.
—Psalm 106
Yah has an “unfailing love” for Israel. He even knows that our exile will result in a remnant among us turning back to him:
8“But I will let a few of my people escape destruction, and they will be scattered among the nations of the world.9Then when they are exiled among the nations, they will remember me. They will recognize how hurt I am by their unfaithful hearts and lustful eyes that long for their idols. Then at last they will hate themselves for all their detestable sins.
—Ezekiel 6
20In that day the remnant left in Israel, the survivors in the house of Jacob, will no longer depend on allies who seek to destroy them. But they will faithfully trust Yah, the Pure One of Israel.21A remnant will return; yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty Elohim.
22But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant of them will return. Yah has rightly decided to destroy his people.
23Yes, Yah, Yah of Heaven’s Armies, has already decided to destroy the entire land.
—Isaiah 10
All this being said, many claim that Yah no longer cares about anyone being actual descendants of Israel nowadays; that if you have an abiding faith in Yeshua and keep his commandments, that is all that is required to be a part of “Israel.” Well that would nullify the term “descendant.” And there are many genealogies in the Scriptures and Messianic Writings that show how much Yah does consider actual lineage.
Even the 144,000 are comprised of 12,000 from each tribe. If lineage and true descent from Israel does not matter, then why all this talk of a remnant of those people returning? As for gentile lineage, while he cares nothing for the nations:
15 No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. . . . 17The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing — mere emptiness and froth.
—Isaiah 40
. . . Believing Gentiles, however, are quite another matter. In the book of Psalms we read:
4I will count Egypt and Babylon among those who know me — also Philistia and Tyre, and even distant Ethiopia. They have all become citizens of Jerusalem!5Regarding Jerusalem it will be said, “Everyone enjoys the rights of citizenship there.” And the Most High will personally bless this city.
6When Yah registers the nations, he will say, “They have all become citizens of Jerusalem.”
—Psalm 87
Yeshua himself adds to this equation. When dealing with a believing Roman Officer, a Gentile, we read this account in the book of Matthew:
5When Yeshua returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him,6“Master, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”
7Yeshua said, “I will come and heal him.”
8But the officer said, “Master, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed.
9I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”
10When Yeshua heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!
11And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world — from east and west — and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven.
12But many Israelites — those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13Then Yeshua said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.
—Matthew 8
Yeshua says the Kingdom was prepared for Israel, but that believing Gentiles will experience it. This is crucial to understand. Israel is Israel and the Gentile nations are the Gentile nations; they are not one and the same. But even Gentiles will enjoy and experience the Kingdom, while many Israelites will not.
You see, being a true descendant of Israel does not mean one is automatically granted entrance into the Kingdom. Many Israelites will be cast into outer darkness for the very reasons our ancestors brought this curse on us. That said, being a true descendant of Israel is vastly important, and Yah says that some of us will come to appreciate this heritage:
1“But now, listen to me, Jacob my servant, Israel my chosen one.2Yah who made you and helps you says: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, O dear Israel, my chosen one.
3For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.
4They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.
5Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to Yah.’ Others will say, ‘I am a descendant of Jacob.’ Some will write Yah’s name on their hands and will name themselves by the name of Israel.”
—Isaiah 44
The truth is many of the true children of Israel do not know the value of their lineage. But even if all of them did know the value, only a small remnant will keep Yah’s commandments, loving him with all their hearts, minds, souls, and strengths, and their neighbors as themselves, while having all faith in Yeshua.
14But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.
—Matthew 7
22Yeshua went through the towns and villages, teaching as he went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem.23Someone asked him, “Master, will only a few be saved?” He replied,
24“Work hard to enter the narrow door to Elohim’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.
25When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Master, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
26Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
27And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil.’
28 “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of Elohim, but you will be thrown out.
29And people will come from all over the world — from east and west, north and south — to take their places in the Kingdom of Elohim.
30And note this: Some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be least important then.”
—Luke 13
Keywords: Last Days, End Times Prophecy, Black Hebrews, End of the Age, Scattered Abroad, Diaspora, New Covenant, Old Covenant, House of Jacob, Children of Israel, House of Judah, Yehudim, Yisrael, Yacob
Feedback Form
