Q&A – WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL? Part 2
Genesis 15:18 In the same day IAUE made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy
seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the
river Euphrates:
In our last post we
examined the fact that unto Peter was committed the gospel to the circumcision
(Jews); and unto Paul was committed the gospel to the uncircumcision
(Gentiles). The essence of their gospel
messages was not different. Their target audiences were different. The only difference in the messages was the
mystery of the gospel that was revealed initially unto Paul. Because the revelation of the mystery sent
Paul to a different target audience (the church had been preaching the gospel
exclusively to the Hebrews of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin for
approximately 25 years), Paul went to the leadership in Jerusalem and shared his
insight into the mystery to seek their consensus and blessing to continue to
take his gospel to the Gentiles.
We must ask ourselves the
question: Why was the early church preaching the gospel
exclusively to the Jews? Eleven of the original
apostles who spent more than three years at the side of Yahushua, being taught
of him, learning from him directly, were focused only on sharing the good news
with their fellow Jews. From a contemporary
perspective that would seem quite selfish, and undermining the purpose of the
gospel; but from their perspective, they were obeying the command of Yahushua
their Master. How is this?
Daniel prophesied that the
Messiah would come and would “confirm the
covenant for one week,” but would be cut off in the middle of the week. (Daniel 9:26-27).
This is a little known fact in the church, today. Yahushua’s 3½ year ministry was focused on
confirming the covenant of Abraham.
Literally, “confirming” (gavare) means to strengthen, to
demonstrate its prevailing power/authority. Messiah was strengthening in the
hearts of the people the accords of the Abrahamic covenant and its
reliability. He wasn’t preaching a “new
covenant.” Only at the end of his days
on earth, just prior to his death, burial and resurrection, did he express that
the bread and the wine of the Passover meal was representative of his body and his
blood of the New Covenant.
Remember, John preceded
Yahushua to prepare the way of the Messiah and to declare his appearance to all
Israel. His baptism was a baptism of
repentance, of turning one’s life from unrighteous living with a view to participation
in the righteous kingdom of Messiah. Exactly what kingdom was that?
Genesis 49:8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be
in the neck of thine enemies; thy
father's children shall bow down before thee.
9 Judah is a lion's whelp:
from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion,
and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be.
“Shiloh” was a prophetic
term for the Messiah. The promise of the
Messiah and his reign of peace and righteousness were guaranteed through the
tribe of Judah, and specifically through the bloodline of David. The children of Jacob/Israel would “bow down before” this Messiah of the
tribe of Judah. This is where the conundrum begins that is solved by the
mystery of the gospel. To the apostles
and disciples in Acts 2, the target audience of the gospel had to be the Jew…the
children of Jacob, specifically of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; (and, for
the record, those were the only Hebrews that had gathered in Jerusalem for the
feast of Pentecost). In their minds, it DID
NOT and COULD NOT apply to the ten tribes of the House of Israel.
Let’s pause and deal with
some history at this point.
When the Israelites
demanded to have a king, they were given Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin. After Saul came King David of the tribe of
Judah. The promise of the coming Messiah
was refreshed when David took the throne; and all of the Hebrew people KNEW
that unto David’s bloodline was promised the throne until the coming of the
eternal reign of the Messiah. After David, his son Solomon reigned; and after
Solomon, his son Rehoboam took the throne and ruled the people harshly and
stupidly, oppressing his people to obtain higher taxes from them. In retaliation against this oppression,
Jeroboam, of the tribe of Joseph’s son Ephraim, opposed the king and initiated
a rebellion that literally tore the kingdom of Israel in two. Ten tribes moved north of Jerusalem and set
up their own kingdom, calling their nation Israel. Those that remained in Jerusalem called their
nation, Judah. To record this event
was what I consider the saddest verses in the Scripture.
1 Kings 12:16 So when all Israel saw
that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David?
neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now
see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.
19 So Israel rebelled
against the house of David unto this day.
“What portion have we in
David” is
equated with the “inheritance in the son of Jesse.”
This specifically refers to the promise of Messiah coming through the
bloodline of the house of David. This
promise and this hope of the coming great kingdom of IAUE’s Messiah was
denounced and rejected by ten tribes.
They refused to be of the children of Jacob who would bow down to Judah (See Genesis 49:8-10, above).
Despite the fact that
Jeroboam immediately set up golden calf worship as the national religion of the
northern kingdom of Israel, IAUE persisted over the next 200 years in sending
His prophets to the kings and the peoples of Israel to preach repentance and
judgment to them. The people were also reminded of the feast days in Jerusalem
and were invited to attend; but they would have nothing more to do with
IAUE. Their persistence in their
faithless behavior and their worship of pagan gods forced the hand of IAUE.
Jeremiah 3:6 IAUE said also unto
me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel
hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree,
and there hath played the harlot.
7 And I said after she had
done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her
treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 And I saw, when for all
the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her
treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
In this chapter, Israel is
five times called “backsliding Israel,” and Judah is four times called “treacherous
Judah.” Backsliding Israel, the ten
tribes of the House of Israel, were divorced from IAUE. They were “put away.” No longer would they be recognized as His
people. No longer would they be the wife
of IAUE. As a result, IAUE raised up Assyria
to destroy them (circa 722 B.C.), and to scatter them among the nations,
forcing them to marry peoples of other nationalities and ethnicities. This was a tactic of Assria to prevent the
rise of a nationalistic fervor that would fuel rebellion and resistance among
the peoples they conquered. At the time
of Acts 2, there were reportedly millions of these half-breed Hebrews in the
outlying areas of Palestine; but they knew they could not come to Jerusalem to
worship IAUE; and the Jews knew the ten tribes were eternally defiled and no longer
to be considered their brethren.
Animosity and hatred ran
rampant between the Jews and these half-breeds; so when the birth of the church
age began in Acts 2, none of the apostles even considered that the gospel was a
message to be preached to the divorced tribes of Israel. They had become aliens to the covenants of
Elohim. These were people who knew the
Torah. They knew the law of divorce.
Deuteronomy 24:1 When a man hath taken a
wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes,
because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of
divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
2 And when she is departed
out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
3 And if the latter
husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her
hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which
took her to be his wife;
4 Her former husband,
which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is
defiled; for that is abomination before IAUE: and thou shalt not cause the land
to sin, which IAUE they Elohim giveth thee for an inheritance.
The ten tribes of Israel
had been given a writ of divorcement from IAUE.
He put her away because of her adultery; and she continued to play the
harlot with other gods. She could not
come back to her original husband. It was the law. Israel had become a
stranger. The faithless tribes had been
scattered among the nations. They could
not come home.
Judah was also unfaithful,
but they had not rejected IAUE altogether; nor had they forsaken His promise in
David of the coming Messiah. For their
rebellion, He raised up the Babylonians to destroy their nation and to take
them captive for 70 years; but THEY CAME BACK TO JERUSALEM. They restored the walls of Jerusalem. They rebuilt the temple. They found the scrolls and publicly read the
Torah; and they repented of their unfaithful behavior. Consequently, some 500+ years later, when
John came baptizing with the baptism of repentance and preparing the way for
his cousin, Yahushua the Messiah; the Jews sensed that the Kingdom of Heaven
was at hand. In fact, that was John’s
message: Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” That is also what Yahushua began to preach;
and it is what he told his disciples to proclaim after he was ascended to His
Father, and the Holy Spirit was sent to them.
It was absolutely logical
to the apostles and disciples that this was the time of preparation of the soon
coming kingdom of their Messiah; and that their mission was to preach the
gospel to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin only, to get them to recognize their
Messiah and to prepare their hearts unto obedience to their King. This was going to be THEIR kingdom…not the
kingdom of the divorced tribes of Israel.
…but Paul had a
revelation! He had a mystery revealed to
him…and it changed the world.
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