Another Coffee Break

OK, sorry ‘bout that. Sometimes those oldies from years gone by seem to run through my mind. Anyway, Good Mornin’ to ya! This is the best day of your life!
I’d really like to get this series finished. Della and I will be doing a considerable amount of traveling during the next month, and it’s likely I won’t have a lot of opportunity to do much posting until we return.
Della’s uncle, Jesse Evans, went home to be with the Lord in this past week so there’s a lot of family activity ongoing as preparations are made for the respective memorial services, etc.
Regner

There are a few folks who’ve suggested that I am a “Christian Zionist” – not understanding the term “Zionist.” The term “Zionism” really began in England a century or more ago referring to the intent and the (then) budding movement among members of the British government to see Israel restored to its God-covenanted homeland. But the term “Zionism” has far deeper roots than just the political or geographical concepts suggest. I’ll get back to this in a moment.
First of all, let me take a minute to explain some rules concerning Biblical prophecy.
As nearly any Hebrew scholar will tell you, there are not less than seven layers of interpretation to the Word of God. I won’t take the time today to lay out each of those layers, but suffice it to say that interpretation and understanding begins with the surface meaning of the words. Underneath the surface there are core meanings rooted in pictures that no single word or translation can possibly convey. In some instances, because the meanings have their roots in the Hebrew culture and thought processes, certain phrases tend to convey expressions that are totally lost in modern western thought.
Thus, attempts in our western society to interpret Scripture solely on the basis of our English translations (or Spanish, or German, or French, or whatever) of the Hebrew or Greek – those translations resulting in over-simplistic single words or phrases which fail to capture the essence of Hebrew thought – fail miserably, often leaving the reader with a poor interpretation of what the Holy Spirit is saying.
I have cited in the past, for example, my translation from the Song of Solomon which constitutes non-stop Hebrew metaphors from its opening passage to the very end of the Song. A recurring phrase which appears in the Song of Solomon (1:5), “I am black,” also appears in Jeremiah’s prophecy. It has nothing to do with the color of one’s skin. It is an expression of woe, of weariness, of spiritual exhaustion; and it is based in a fundamental understanding built into every single individual (whether they realize it or not) that because we are created in the image of God; that like Adam was, so are we in need of a counterpart – an “other self.”
The world has trivialized this into a search for “one’s soul-mate,” but the “soul-mate” concept misses completely the spiritual nature God invested in us and expressed in the Song of Solomon as “my sister, my spouse.” This phrase much more literally translates out of its metaphorical usage into “my counterpart, my other self,” – in other words, “my beloved!”
The expression, “I am black,” is rooted in the specific weariness that comes from a life-long and fruitless search for the husband or wife specifically designed by God to fulfill and complete you in such a way that you become a complete being. Eve completed Adam, but Adam also completed her. She was his beloved! He was her beloved!
When Jeremiah used this phrase, he was speaking on behalf of the Lord God, who was expressing His weariness in His search and crying out for the return of His beloved – that people whom He had created for Himself. They had left Him to bond with other gods and He was crying out through His prophets to return to Him.
When the Lord gave Della to me, He completed me. The “search” in my being for my counterpart (something which happens deep in one’s spirit, often well below any conscious level) ended with Della. She fulfills me, she completes me, she is what I am not, and I am what she is not. Together we are one: one whole being! She is a whole lot more than my “soul mate”: she is my counterpart, my other self, my beloved!
Anyway, I’ve said all that to say that to try and interpret prophetic utterances from Scripture based solely on the surface meaning is to completely miss the “hidden Manna” revealed in layer after layer after layer of the Word. None of these layers are exclusive to themselves, nor does any layer contradict or negate in any way the surface meaning.
I may be taking you around a 40-acre field in order to get to Psalm 83, but bear with me. This is a significant prophecy and it is important to lay proper foundations for understanding.
It is of prime importance to first remember that these prophecies – both Old and New Testaments – were given by Jews whose understanding was rooted in the seven-layers of God’s Word.
Secondly, let’s remember that they were (in nearly every instance) prophesying to a Jewish audience who knew exactly where they were coming from. Thus the prophecies were made specifically to the Jews. They were the first recipients of those prophecies and God was speaking directly to them, promising what He would do for them as a covenant-keeping God.
Here’s the catch. Saying that they were the first recipients is not the same as saying they were the only recipients. The prophet Joel made a very specific prophecy which Peter quoted on the Day of Pentecost. Peter applied the prophecy to 17 nationalities or groups of people who heard their languages being spoken by newly Spirit-baptized men and women.
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” (Joel 2:28-32)
When Peter was preaching to the multitudes on the Day of Pentecost – a multitude that included the aforementioned 17 nationalities (non-Jews) – he made the following amplification to Joel’s prophecy: “For the promise [of the Holy Spirit] is to and for you and your children, and to and for all that are far away, [even] to and for as many as the Lord our God invites and bids to come to Himself.” (Acts 2:39 – Amplified Version)
The NLT puts it like this: “This promise is to you, and to your children, even to the Gentiles and to people far in the future—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”
Regner

I’ll keep these comments short because we need to get right into today’s discussion. There are a large number of folks who’ve responded to this series of Coffee Breaks on Israel – both positively and negatively. A common thread appearing in the negative responses is predicated in a horrendous doctrine that began to spread throughout the “structured church” during the Dark Ages. There are two parts of this doctrine.
The first part of it alleges that the Jews crucified Jesus. That is scripturally inaccurate. Revelation 13:8 clearly states that Jesus was “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth.” He chose, of His own will, in agreement with Father and Holy Spirit, to go to the Cross even BEFORE Adam and Eve were created. Adam’s fall was no surprise to the Lord God. He knew it was going to happen before He breathed His first breath into him, and they [the Godhead] made preparation to redeem the human race. There was an appointed time in history (His Story] for that to take place.
Secondly, although the religious Jews were part of the scenario which led to Jesus’ crucifixion, they were pawns in an agenda created by Satan long before Jesus was born. The truth is that it was a religious spirit which crucified Jesus on the Cross. Sure, it was operating in the religious Jews, but it was also operating in Rome as well. To blame the Jews for Jesus’ death on the Cross is a deliberate distortion of history, and a deliberate twisting of the spiritual forces that were at work. One of these days I’ll do a series of Coffee Breaks on the Nephilim Agenda – a Satanic agenda that was at work to destroy the promised Redeemer as far back as the days of Noah.
The driving force behind this demonic doctrine is a virulent spirit of Anti-Semitism. The second part of the doctrine that says the Jews crucified Jesus also says that because the Jews departed from the Lord God and worshiped false idols, God canceled His Covenant with them; therefore, Jesus’ death on the Cross was designed to redeem “the world” and NOT the Jews! Anyone who believes that has become the victim of an extremely racist spirit. I won’t take the time today to dig into it, but let me just simplify it like this: ALL racism – whether the prejudice is against Blacks, Asians, Indians, Eskimos, Arabs or Jews (or any other racial group) is predicated and rooted in Anti-Semitism.
[Note: Anti-Semitism and racism of every ilk is – nothing more and nothing less – rooted in a spirit of hatred against God’s plan for the human race from the day He breathed His breath into Adam and initiated the process of creating a family for Himself – a family of beings who would be like Him, function like Him, love like Him, think like Him and speak like Him. It targets the Jews or Israel (or any other race or culture of people it chooses), blames them for the world’s ills (or society’s ills) instead of the true Enemy. It targets people and personalities instead of the evil spirits that drive them, creating a special class of people to lobby against.]
The corollary to this Anti-Semitic doctrine that God abandoned the Jews in favor of the Gentiles is the idea that the Gentiles are now “God’s chosen people” and the Jews have no claim to that status anymore. What a lie! What a perversion of the truth!
I take you back to some quotes from the last Coffee Break
Regner