The Good Old Days
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, Isaiah 9:6-7a NASB
No end – The tiny nation of Israel, grown from the tiny tribes of the Hebrews, altered forever Man’s view of purpose and progress. When Israel emerged from Egypt, its view of time changed everything. Israel invented history.
“The Messianic expectation is the Golden Age in the future. But all the ancient peoples except Israel could tell only of a Golden Age in the past.”[1]
Consider Eliade’s analysis of ancient man. All non-Hebraic societies in the ancient world instituted rituals that deliberately recalled a primordial time when gods and men occupied the earth in spiritual harmony, a time when the world in its pristine form was saturated with the divine. Pagan rituals, from annual fertility cycles to thousands of years covering the world’s completion, are expressions of the myth of eternal return. They all look back to a time in the “Garden.” In this sense, the cycle removes any meaningful human decision. Everything comes around again, as Koheleth notes. “There is nothing new under the sun.” But Israel was the one exception to the rule. In Hebraic thought, human decisions either advance or retard divine purposes because the universe has direction. It is moving toward a goal, not simply repeating what has already been. The fulfillment of creation is in the future and the future will not be like the past. We are not trying to get back to the Garden. The story of the Garden does not describe our objective. It describes why we are in such a mess. It explains why the myth of eternal return is futile and pointless. The Garden is gone. Something else is before us. The Messianic Age is not to be found in Eden. Idolizing life in the Garden is precisely that—an idol.
“The ancient, primitive history of every people is regularly pictured in its imagination as a period of happiness and tranquility, as is pictured the period of childhood in the mind of every person whose childhood was not most unfortunate. Not so the ancient history of the people of Israel. Dark was the childhood of this people destined for tribulation. The Patriarchs were forced to move from country to country time after time because of severe famine in their homeland. While they were wandering in foreign lands, they suffered from the insolence and tyranny of the kings of those lands. . . . A short time after the death of the Patriarchs began the Egyptian bondage, with all its terrible oppressions. No nation on earth knew such sufferings in its early youth. Israelite history in its earliest time became a history of afflictions. The people of Israel did not have a glorious past, hence it was forced to direct its gaze toward a glorious future.”[2]
But Israel’s history did not move uniformly toward the Messianic Age. Actual events were a mix of progress toward the kingdom of God and terrible mistakes driving the nation away from God. The age of the prophets demonstrates just how rocky the road toward deliverance was. Time and again Israel relived its Egyptian experience. And each time the words of the Lord had to be adjusted to account for actual historical experience. Over centuries, “Political salvation and spiritual redemption of necessity were combined in the consciousness of this nation . . .”[3] The stage was set for a Messiah who would fulfill all the expectations at once. That Messiah has never arrived. All of this only means that the idea of the Messiah continues to evolve as men attempt to explain why the word of God given through the prophets has not been fulfilled.
Does this mean followers of YHVH give up hope? Not at all! But what it does mean is that the expectations concerning the fulfillment of YHVH’s promises change. Men read the promises differently depending on historical circumstances. Thoughts about the Messiah, and indeed, about God Himself, are different after the Holocaust than they were before that hideous demonstration of human depravity. The same shift occurred after the destruction of the Second Temple. It might even happen again. The lesson is this: our explanations of what God means and what He is doing are historically dependent. This we must never forget. We just don’t see the biggest picture. We never will. Hope resides in the conviction that God is doing something even if we can’t figure it out, personally or corporately.
Topical Index: hope, future, Messiah, Isaiah 9:6-7a
[1] Joseph Klausner, The Messianic Idea In Israel From Its Beginning To The Completion Of The Mishnab, p. 14.
[2]Ibid., p. 15.
[3] Joseph Klausner, The Messianic Idea In Israel From Its Beginning To The Completion Of The Mishnab, p. 16.
TRAVEL NOTE: For those of you who sent requests to me over the last few weeks while I was in Asia, I am sure there were some who did not get what they asked of me. I probably said, “Remind me when I get home.” Since I am now bothered by the fact that I might have overlooked you, please REMIND ME.
YHVH Has entrusted his people to occupy the territory until His return. The just shall live by faith and not by sight. To be in the world but not of it. What task we have to uphold. The children shall be singing and dancing in the streets of Jerusalem once again, and everyone shall no of the Lord. His kingdom is set up and completed then He returns. I understand biblical hope must be grounded in biblical precepts. Abraham hoped against hope and it was imputed to him as righteousness when he believed in God’s promises. Should I add that the promises were Covenant based. Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. David Levine wrote a book titled in that day it is a wonderfully inspired work. Every chapter begins with a statement from the Lord then but chapter unfolds that promise to future events. And I understand rabbi David Levine from Florida quite a following from this work. I’ve been led to share it with others and they were encouraged. Shalom do all the Sabbath is coming it is a hope of our future shabbat shalom is a wonderful picture of the future ahead of us. Hallelujah. B. B.
Weeeeell, my mama always told me that you don’t get the next lesson until you learn the last one. We seem to be stuck in a few here… Buuuuut, given the spiraling nature of time, historically speaking, that Garden DOES come back around again, new and improved. This time around, though, there will be a permanent Throne installed in the middle, so it won’t need a sun, and a few other things will be very different, too. We will get that Tree of Life back, but this time we are told, there will be a River of the stuff flowing right through the middle of it, too, and its leaves “will be for the healing of the nations”.
The prophecies of the Messiah have been PARTIALLY fulfilled (first advent), I guess you forgot to mention, and the judgment of the Messiah has always been promised at the END of the age (second advent), so that is still on track. At some point, the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation do come into play here, and, seeing as we all pretty much can tell that we are standing and looking “here (in the words of Sam McGee talking to Frodo Baggins after the ring got destroyed) at the end of all things” the prophecies concerning the end of the age are pretty much meant for us. Are we interested in our part of them? If that means that I have a part to play in their fulfillment so that the rest of the (or, second) coming of Messiah can occur, then count me in!
Hello Skip and Others,
Of late, I have been entertaining two thoughts concerning the Messiah. I believe Yeshua to be the Messiah because I was taught that in the same way that I was taught who the first US President was and other “concrete” facts of history. When I hear a musical work like Handel’s Messiah, I am settled within as the story moves along in music to realize Yeshua is the King of King and Lord of Lords reigning forever with YHVH. I trust Nakdimon and Yosef of Aramatayin were contemporaries of Yeshua who did come to recognize him to be the Messiah, and that nature was used immediately following Yeshua’s passing as recorded in Matthew’s account to testify to Yeshua being the Messiah and Lamb of YHVH that takes away the sin of humanity!
It may be a “operation of YHVH” that my belief structure is within as suggested by those who adhere to a “Messianic secret” paradigm, or as you imply, YHVH working in His higher way above that which we may know.
Refreshing Shabbat to You,
David Russell
Hello folks at God’s table I’ve been thinking about this word today. The good old days for our family we help we were called as a family reading the scriptures together praying together doing Hands-On work together wow how things have changed. Getting married one then another then another, then our children getting married, then our children having kids. What has happened did we get comfortable? Did the signs and miracles and the touch of his presence fade dim? My brother-in-law who led the pack founded a congregation Beth Shalom in the Northeast we were on fire for God my father wrote a book from Abraham to me great resource all sold out it was a story of my cousin Brian brought up as a Jewish believer my brother-in-law was Jewish before marrying my sister they both found the Lord. The call was to unite Jewish beliefs two Christian beliefs thus a Messianic congregation. How exciting then the one new man of Ephesians Blended in not so much Jewish but biblical wow not the focus of a people group but the Lorde of that group. Today seems like the call has reignited everything is under the microscope for me what am I doing why am I doing it who is involved? To sum it up the church is waking up. Rediscovering biblical Covenants rediscovering relationships but yet the leaders are leading their flocks sometimes blind leading blind yet with rediscovering the faith we must rethink ReDiscover what it’s all about for ourselves. Pastors have realigned 30 years of preaching and starting over amazing as I open my eyes we here on this site are right in the middle of it. The good old days have returned we need to hold one another up in prayer as God leads us into Ministry has Paul himself as asked pray for me that I’m a minister with boldness and be led by the spirit who guides all men. One of my key terms that says it all is,. Fire fire fire the fire is spreading Catch the Fire. Amen I apologize for the long post but when we talk about our past difficult to leave some things out. Pain heartache motorcycle accident car accident another car accident severe back injury. All for the love of God why do persecutions come count it all joy it’s for the word sake Hallelujah. B. B. Shalom
Shalom I’m meeting with a pastor this afternoon at 1 o’clock Eastern Standard Time pray for the day as a whole no matter what time zone you are in thank you I have said in the past do not covet your neighbor’s Goods. But I covet your prayers thank you very very much?
I find it interesting that for so many generations the Golden age was considered something of the past according today’s word, and the current generation was of the interest to recreate that past as stated through pagan rituals. While the Hebraic perspective is that this will come about based on the actions of the people fulfilling the purposes of Hashem here and now. I find it interesting because I believe my generation, (millennials) have a different concept driven into their minds, one that believes that they are the Golden generation. The future is theirs and the past was meant to bring them to this place of self-indulgence. I am seeking Hashem in an environment of individuals my age who have an approach to life that almost suggests He isn’t needed. I look forward to the lessons that will be learned from this paradigm that currently saturates the youth, for some of our biggest discoveries in history came from places that were quite the opposite.
Hi Bret and Michael, I find both your comments quite intriguing because they are quite different from each other. Bret, you seem to suggest middle-aged believers catching “the fire” waking to the “one new man” or fresh paradigm that endorses the Hebraic perspective; maybe so where you live. In my life experience, I find middle-aged believers content with what they were trained up with, replacement theology and the Sacraments or Evangelicalism; I find sons and daughters of those middle-agers leaving “church”, my son and daughter, nieces and nephews, youngest brother, most their peers were unchurched. They don’t “need it” because it’s “foreign, unfamiliar” not of their 7-day experience. Sunday morning may be sleeping in, the news shows, AAU Activities, etc. We may do well to read the classics, but if not urged in that way, then, who needs it? Same story for most our young. In away the church has brought on its own ilk. It expects the outside to conform to it, and what it has become. Most of us here I would dare say are fed up with the conventional church. I am! Maybe it needs a “bottom” so as to begin again, this time under YHVH’s perview!
David
Hello David apologize for getting back so late. Let the truth be told Jeremiah 6:16 talks about returning to the ancient pathways this theme is Israel Falling Away in part what God is calling them to return to the truth does this sound familiar? For me it’s all about family. Family roots family traditions and family togetherness. Old Testament roots is what I I have always longed for or I was taught it when I was young but now that I am older I am returning full force the path is straight and narrow and few there are that will find it. But I will help those find it who are willing and eager. The Israeli connection is so very important all the prophecies are to Israel the church has tried to replace but that was prophesied also staying on track with the ones who believe like you do listening only to sermons that are in line. For quite a few years now everything falls into line with the shift. Before the New Testament was written or even thought about we we’re giving scriptures such as all scripture is inspired by God and it’s good for teaching in righteousness, rebuking and so on referring to the Old Testament we would not have the new if it wasn’t for the old people find this interesting but when they look for themselves they find it is true hope this has been helpful for you hey amen
From TW
The lesson is this: our explanations of what God means and what He is doing are historically dependent. This we must never forget. We just don’t see the biggest picture. We never will. Hope resides in the conviction that God is doing something even if we can’t figure it out, personally or corporately.
I understand that every person’s expectation of God and what He will do for them changes over the centuries and even day by day but what does it matter what people THINK? Jews have been thinking for four thousand years what the Messiah will bring and it is all over the map. No doubt, for some of them, their hope is confused, faint and waning.
But for the believer in Yeshua as the Messiah, our belief is not a faint hope but a firm expectation. We DO see the big picture, just not the details. We know that we will die but we confidently know that we will rise again in the same manner as Yeshua. It has been physically demonstrated for us. We have the record of eyewitnesses. That is a whole lot more than “something” in fact I think that is everything.
My, my my, I am so very glad to have found Yeshua to be the way back to the garden and shown me the way to live from eternity… Link Removed