110 What is the meaning of the Sermon

What is the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount?

Yahshua the Messiah stated clearly in Matthew 15: 24 that His main purpose for coming to earth was to seek and gather only the lost sheep of the house of Israel and to save them (as per Luke 19: 10). So it is clear, even though He lived amongst His own people from the house of Judah, he did not come for them at all, since by the time He came to earth, as is in the most today, many were and are still loyal to YHVH and His Torah teachings. However, we should be aware of the fact that His death atoned for both the house of Judah and the lost sheep of the house of Israel, as witnessed in John 11: 49 - 52[1]. This means that, in order for the lost sheep of Israel to be lost, they had to initially belong to YHVH, but have since wondered from His fold. The fact that they were lost at the time Messiah came to earth, means that at one time they were part and parcel of the commonwealth of Israel, consisting of both the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Accordingly, if you are not from the house of Judah and if you do not have a Jewish background, and are trusting in Messiah for eternal life, you are from the other house of Israel or Ephraim (a collective name for the 10 returning tribes) or a grafted in Gentile, who became part of the Israel of Elohim, through faith in Messiah, provided you obey the covenantal promise to Abraham regarding circumcision and obedience to YHVH and His Torah teachings.

Yahshua the Messiah came looking for the lost sheep of the house of Israel as YHVH promised in Ezekiel 34: 11 – 15, as follows: ‘For thus says YHVH Elohim, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. (12) As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. (13) And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. (14) I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in good grazing ground, and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. (15) I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares YHVH Elohim.’ Therefore the sheep that hears His voice and is not from the house of Judah are mostly from the lost sheep of the house of Israel in fulfilment of this prophecy by Ezekiel. This understanding is supported and clarifies (YHVH)’s promise in Jeremiah 31: 31, where the Renewed Covenant will be made with both houses of Israel, when Messiah returns. Even so, there are those who would like to know where Yahshua the Messiah personally taught about the latter day restoration of the commonwealth of Israel. In fact the restoration of the kingdom of Israel was the overriding objective of His public ministry, that after His public immersion by Yochanan the Immerser at the very first occasion that He sat down to teach (as per the Hebraic custom), it was to proclaim the good news about the Kingdom restored to the two houses of Israel, as the Kingdom of Elohim on earth, as witnessed in Mark 1: 14 & 15, as follows: ‘And after Yochanan had been taken into custody, Yahshua came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of Elohim, (15) and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Elohim is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”’ Having received the entire Torah from the Father He came preaching the true gospel of the kingdom restored to wayward Israel, a message in total conflict with the evangel of living eternally in heaven with Messiah, preached by Christianity.

His message is the same one that YHVH preached through Abraham, that he and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob who would remain loyal to Him and His covenant, including to circumcise their children at eight days old, would dwell in the Promised Land eternally as Elohim’s people; and secondly that his wayward children through Jacob, who would eventually return to YHVH and His covenant through Abraham’s one seed Yahshua, would again inherit the same promise. But it also include His kingdom coming to earth to establish David’s earthly throne in Jerusalem forever, as Israel will rule the heathen through their King Messiah as confirmed in Micah 1: 1 – 7, in this way: ‘The word of YHVH which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem (we need to be mindful of the fact that Micah prophesied knowing that Samaria was once inhabited by the house of Israel and Jerusalem by the house of Judah). (2) Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth and all it contains, and let YHVH Elohim be a witness against you, YHVH from His holy temple. (3) For behold, YHVH is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. (4) The mountains will melt under Him, and the valleys will be split, like wax before the fire, like water poured down a steep place. (5) All this is for the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the rebellion of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? (6) For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, planting places for a vineyard. I will pour her stones down into the valley, and will lay bare her foundations. (7) All of her idols will be smashed, all of her earnings will be burned with fire, and all of her images I will make desolate, for she collected them from a harlot’s earnings, and to the earnings of a harlot they will return.’

To be able to encounter Messiah’s two house message in the Sermon on the Mount, it is necessary to interpret it from a Hebraic perspective, but also to understand that in the Hebraic Interpretation there are four levels of understanding and interpretation of each verse of the Scriptures. The four levels are ‘pashat’ (literal), ‘remez’ (hint), ‘drash’ (allegory or parable) and ‘sod’ (secret). An example of this was, where Rav Shaul spoke of the order of the physical resurrection, he spoke on a ‘sod’ level, in 1 Corinthians 15: 51, saying: ‘Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.’ Even though the concept of the resurrection of the dead was known superficially in the Tanach, it was never fully revealed. As opposed to the Hebraic understanding the Greco-Roman mind seeks to understand everything from the single approved method of understanding, namely Hermeneutics, named after the Greek god Hermes; whereby adherents are limited to a single understanding of the Scriptures. Those who refuse to accept their way of interpretation are labeled heretics. The reason most adherents of Christianity do not believe that Yahshua taught two-house restoration, is that they merely look at the Scriptures at face value, without considering the hints, allegories and secrets contained within the text. Sadly, Messianic Judaism is also still trapped in this way of thinking and cannot see the two-house truth present throughout the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation. Then again, like with the Oneness of Elohim, the two-house doctrine might be something that has to be revealed to us, before we will understand it, as Yahshua explained about the Oneness of Elohim in Luke 10: 21 – 24, saying: ‘At that very time He (Yahshua) rejoiced greatly in the Set-apart Spirit, and said, “I praise Thee, O Father, Adonai of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes, Yes, Father, for thus it was well pleasing in Thy sight. (22) All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (23) And turning to His disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, (24) for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.”’

If we are able to see and understand the greatest sermon our Rebbe Yahshua taught at the mystery level of understanding, it sheds new light on the beatitudes which could be very confusing. At the plain or ‘pashat’ level it seems that Messiah is not being consistent or coherent by sticking to a central theme. To some this sermon appears to be all over the place, addressing different statements about various topics. When limited to a single level of understanding the Sermon on the Mount limits the reader to see the beatitudes of the Messiah presented as a list of conditions under which a believer will be favored or blessed, whereas the greater truth of what Messiah is teaching is lost. When entering the deeper level of understanding Messiah’s sermon we will understand some of the kingdom truths that Messiah revealed only to His disciples (including us His modern day disciples), as He told them in Matthew 13: 11, 12 and the first part of verse 19, when they asked Him why He teaches people in parables, saying to them: “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. (12) For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. (19) When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” In Mark 1: 15 the first words that came out of Messiah’s mouth after His immersion, was the good news about the coming Kingdom of Elohim, since He the future King of Israel was right there. It would therefore be disturbing to discover that the Son of Elohim got sidetracked when delivering His first public sermon. But, the truth of the matter is that if the Sermon on the Mount is understood at the ‘sod’ level of interpretation, it is fully aligned with the priority of the kingdom promised to be restored to the commonwealth of Israel in the latter days. In fact, when this sermon is properly understood, the message of Yahshua’s Sermon on the Mount is turned into the prophesied Mount of Reversal by Yahshua. Yes, when clearly understood the Sermon on the Mount may be better described as the promised reversal of the curses of Hosea upon Ephraim (Israel).

The understanding that most of the latter day Christians dispersed into mainly the western nations of the world are in fact from the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who have been held in captivity by Esau (Rome) for almost 1800 years, only became known at the beginning of the twentieth century. The original nation of Israel ruled by King David, split in two after King Solomon died, because of idolatry, forming the two nations, known as Judah and Israel. During the years 721 – 718 BCE the nation of Israel (consisting of ten tribes) were invaded by the Assyrians, after which they were exiled. Over time they migrated northwest into what is known today as Europe, but they lost their identity, their culture and language. People throughout the world, but mainly those in the Western world would be amazed if they knew that they are part of the lost ten tribes of the Scriptural nation of Israel. Only a few today are aware of this vitally important fact and because many believe that they are nothing but Gentiles and are blinded to a great deal of what is written in the Scriptures about specifically the nation of Israel (and Judah). YHVH the Creator of the universe inspired Isaiah about two and a half thousand years ago, to quote Him in Isaiah 46: 9 & 10, saying: “Remember the former things long past, for I am Elohim, and there is no other; I am Elohim, and there is no one like Me, (10) Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’” But, what is the purpose that Elohim spoke about here? Reading from Psalm 33: 10 – 15, YHVH told us through King David, saying: ‘YHVH nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. (11) The counsel of YHVH stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation. (12) Blessed is the nation whose Elohim is YHVH, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. (13) YHVH looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; (14) From His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, (15) He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.’ YHVH created mankind for an incredible purpose, but even the wisest people on earth are totally unaware of His purpose for us. Why don’t these extremely intellectual and learned people understand the real meaning of what is happening in our world today? The reason for this is twofold, namely:

They have been deceived by Satan through the false education and religious systems of the world, which appeal to the vanity of their intellect, causing them to reject Scriptural knowledge that can only be understood by those who have the Set-part Spirit indwelling them; and
They have lost the key to understanding Scriptural prophesies, namely the identity of the lost ten tribes of Israel, and the other nations in the catastrophic events soon to occur.

Understanding that many of the lost sheep of the house of Israel are to be found amongst the latter-day nations/Gentiles/goyim are mostly the former house of Israel, we see in Matthew 5: 1 that Yahshua’s audience at the Sermon on the Mount is the large crowds of Israel, a type of masses of Ephraimites, scattered into the nations and who literally became ‘the fullness of the nations’. Messiah seated Himself (like all Rabbis of His time did) and His disciples drew near as the leading representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel (as per Matthew 19: 28), while the crowds sat at a distance, as the lost ten tribes of Israel currently sittings in the nations. We commence reading from Matthew 5: 3, in this way: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Verses 3 – 6 of Matthew 5 are direct reversals of the three curses upon the house of Israel found in Hosea chapter 1. Yahshua the Messiah arrived in the north of Israel for His first public appearance as Teacher, soon after being immersed by Yochanan, and immediately got down to Kingdom business. In this His very first public sermon, He immediately started the reversal process of the three curses that the prophet Hosea pronounced over the house of Israel, represented by the crowds of Israel still ‘Far off’ in the nations, who have by then become ‘the fullness of the nations’. In Hosea 1: 9 YHVH declared the house of Israel, not My people ‘Lo-ami’, also adding that He is not their Elohim any longer. Now, from the history of Israel, we know that this happened because of their departure from Elohim’s Torah and more specifically His Set-apart Days. YHVH is saying to the house of Israel here, that they are not His people any longer and will therefore not inherit eternal life in His promised millennial Kingdom. As a result of this curse in Hosea, the house of Israel will not be a kingdom people and will lack the Set-apart Spirit so necessary to get into the Kingdom of Elohim. However, the first beatitude spoken by Yahshua in Matthew 5: 3 is placing a blessing on these same people who have become ‘poor in spirit’, saying: ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’ The blessed (transliterated as ‘ashrei’ in Hebrew) or favored people were those who had been previously declared as un-favored because they were poor or void of the Set-apart Spirit. Messiah now invites these people who were called ‘not My people’ who could no longer enter His everlasting Kingdom, to become the renewed people of the King, since He has arrived to specifically collect and re-gather them to become reconciled to Elohim and will once again enter the earthly kingdom of Messiah. At the ‘sod’ level we have here the reversal of the ‘not My people’ of Hosea 1: 9 to become ‘My people’ through Messiah once again. Yahshua clearly told the Pharisees in John 10: 9 & 10, saying: “I am the door (to return to YHVH and His Torah); if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (10) The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they (the lost sheep of the house of Israel – His other sheep mentioned in verse 16) might have (eternal) life, and might have it abundantly.’ When Ephraim become Yahshua’s disciples after YHVH calls them out of the false religions of the world, they show their willingness to re-enter the Kingdom inheritance once again, after being healed from being those who were poor in spirit and the Sermon on the Mount became Set-apart ground for all those returning.

Let’s now move on to the second part of the reversal that we have by returning to YHVH and His Torah through the righteousness of Yahshua as He also witnessed in Matthew 5: 6, saying: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Those who are returning to YHVH through Yahshua who live according to the Spirit will receive eternal life as witnessed in Romans 8: 3 , 4, 11, 16 & 17, in this way: ‘For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, Elohim did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, (4) in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (11) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Yahshua from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Messiah Yahshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. (16) The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of Elohim, (17) and if children, heirs also, heirs of Elohim and fellow heirs with Messiah, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.’ For us from the house of Israel to be regarded as righteous before Elohim, we have to come to Him through the blood of Messiah, as also prophesied in Jeremiah 33: 14 – 16, as follows: ‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares YHVH, ‘when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. (15) In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. (16) In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: YHVH is our righteousness.’ This is then the second part of the reversal of the curse of ‘not My people’, whereby we truly are able to become the people of Elohim, as Rav Kepha also witness in 1 Peter 2: 9 and the first part of verse 10, saying: ‘But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR Elohim’s OWN POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (10) for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF ELOHIM.’ Those returnees from the house of Israel who hunger and thirst enough to take the first step as the ones who are ‘far off’ to be immersed in the name of Yahshua the Messiah for the forgiveness of their past lawlessness, have their curse reversed when they are given a portion of Elohim’s Set-apart Spirit at the laying on of hands by a teaching elder of the congregation.

Yahshua the Messiah continued His sermon in Matthew 5: 4, saying: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Those who have studied the book of Hosea, will realize that this correlates with Hosea 1: 6, in this way: ‘Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And YHVH said to him, “Name her Lo-ruchamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.” Lo-ruchamah (no compassion) joins Lo-ami (not my people) as Hosea’s two children. The point is they are family, together with Hosea and their mother Gomer a practicing Israelite whore – who are paid for her (religious) services[2]. Obviously Hosea had to deal with an abundance of curses because of marrying a harlot, yet his household was symbolic of what Father YHVH was doing to the house of Israel. The ‘Lo-ruchamah’ curse was the second that needed reversal, since no matter where the house of Israel would find themselves in the world, they would be under the curse of ‘no compassion’ leading to no further forgiveness, since they would persist in playing the harlot with the whore described in Revelation 17: 5. However, the blessings that Yahshua announced in the Renewed Covenant are to effectively reverse the curses placed upon the house of Israel, when YHVH divorced them many years earlier because of religious harlotry or idolatry (as per Jeremiah 3: 8). According to Torah a bride cannot remarry her husband whom he divorced after she had marital relations with another man, as long as she lives. Therefore in order to reverse the Hosea 1 curses, Messiah chose to free His unfaithful wife from her curses, by dying in her place as a whore, and rising again three days and three nights later, to betroth her at immersion and to remarry her at His return from heaven as her glorified kinsman redeemer. Matthew 5: 4 when understood on the ‘sod’ level, sees the children of Israel represented by the crowds seated to hear Messiah’s Sermon on the Mount, as those returning disciples, who have mourned because of their ‘no forgiveness status’. Only in and through Messiah can the multitudes of Israel receive forgiveness and the resulting comfort. The reversal of the ‘Lo-ruchamah’ curse is for those individuals from the former wayward house of Israel, who are now making teshuvah and returning one by one to Father YHVH through Yahshua. The first step towards Israel’s return to a comfort status is mourning over the lost condition of both Spirituality and as a scattered nation dispersed throughout the nations of the world.

Yahshua continues in Matthew 5: 5, saying: “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.” The word earth in Hebrew is transliterated as ‘eretz’ as in ‘eretz Yisrael’ the land promised to our fathers in the faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Whenever the word ‘eretz’ is used in Hebrew, it refers to a specific Land from where the kingdom of Israel will be administered – the land or more specifically the prize to be inherited with our fathers in the faith, as King David also prophesied in Psalm 37: 11, saying: ‘But the humble will inherit the land, and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.’ From a Greco-Roman understanding, this would be understood to mean that a meek disciple inherits the whole earth. But, as disciples of the Scriptures we understand that Messiah’s reign will be administered from a specific land, namely the Promised Land located at the mid-point of the earth. Yahshua was addressing those from the lost sheep of the house of Israel who have taken the initial steps of teshuvah, and are destined to re-inherit the Promised Land together with the house of Judah. We see a prophecy from Zechariah 13: 1 & 2 that those who will live eternally will have cleansed Jerusalem in an undefiled ‘eretz Yisrael ‘and will obviously be citizens of the Promised Land. The pronouncement in Hosea 1: 4 & 5 where YHVH commanded Hosea to name his first born son ‘Jezreel’ meaning ‘scattered into the nations of the world’, because at that time the house of Israel was soon to be removed from ‘eretz Yisrael’ by sending the house of Israel into captivity by the Assyrians between 718 – 721BCE. So the curse of the house of Israel would be to be scattered into the nations of the world. However, as we study the Mount of Reversal sermon, we find that each verse begins with a new topic or independent blessing, but on the deeper ‘sod’ level, all deal with the same underlying theme; being the acceptance and restoration of the crowds or multitude of people listening to Messiah, being a type of the house of Israel who became a multitude of people or ‘melo hagoyim’ as YHVH promised our father Abraham. The removal of the Jezreel’ curse from the house of Israel will enable them to make ‘aliyah’ and return to ‘eretz Yisrael’, as they express their newly found meekness through repentance and sanctification. We are at this time at the beginning of being favored, meek and repentant Nazarene Israelites, who will soon be able to re-enter and dwell in the Promised Land, when Messiah comes to rule the world from Jerusalem. The blessing in Matthew 5: 5 confirms that the curse of scattered Israel (Jezreel) will be reversed and ‘the meek or humble will inherit the land’ once again, since our kinsman redeemer bought back the portion of the Promised Land which we lost due to idolatry, which YHVH sees as harlotry.

After Yahshua our Messiah reversed the three curses that YHVH placed on the house of Israel, through the prophet Hosea, He had to seal it with more than one Scriptural witness in accordance with Deuteronomy 19: 15. Messiah’s pronouncements in Matthew 5: 7, 8 & 9 served as affirmation of the 2nd and 3rd witnesses and reversal of the curses of Hosea 1. Matthew 5: 7 the second witness, serves as confirmation of the reversal of the Hosea 1: 6 (Lo-ruchamah) curse, Matthew 5: 8 is affirmation of the reversal of the Hosea 1: 4 & 5 (Jezreel) curse, as all Elohim’s born-again from the dead children will live in millennial bliss and celebrate the Feasts in Jerusalem once again, in the presence of King Messiah. “Blessed are the pure in heart (blood cleansed disciples of Yahshua), for they shall see Elohim (meaning Yahshua when He returns to rule them from Jerusalem).” In Isaiah 30: 20 Isaiah declares that YHVH will no longer hide His face from His people those who long for Him, saying: ‘Although YHVH has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.’ This together with Matthew 5: 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of Elohim”, reverses the ‘Lo-ami’ curse of Hosea 1: 9. The house of Israel became servants of the devil through their disobedience of Torah. Their wickedness became so great that YHVH scattered them into the world, outside of His care and they eventually became children of Satan, as was confirmed when Yahshua first appointed Rav Shaul to bring those Israelites who became like Gentiles back in Acts 26: 18, saying to him: ‘To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to Elohim, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’ In fact Hosea 1: 10 & 11 is a prophesy about Messiah’s sermon on the Mount, where He reversed the curses of Hosea 1: 4 & 5, 6 and 9, in this way: ‘Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and it will come about that, in the place where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” it will be said to them, “You are the sons of the Living Elohim.” (11) And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and they will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.’ Matthew 5: 9 is a literal fulfilment of Hosea 1: 10.

In direct correlation to the promised reversal the Sermon on the Mount becomes the long awaited promised Mount of Reversal. YHVH takes the house of Israel who became the children of darkness, and brings them back to the Promised Land as He promised our Father Abraham right at the beginning of the Scriptures in Genesis. The peacemakers spoken about here are still being called to bring peace between the house of Judah and the house of Israel, and between YHVH and His lost people as Rav Shaul confirmed in 2 Corinthians 5: 18 – 20, saying: ‘Now all these things are from Elohim, who reconciled us to Himself through Messiah, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, (19) namely, that Elohim was in Messiah reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.’ The term ‘sand of the sea’ is a direct reference to the promise of physical multiplication given to our fathers in the faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Rav Shaul confirms this term as referring to Israel’s physical non-Jewish multitudes in Romans 9: 26 & 27, saying: “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING ELOHIM.” (27) And Isaiah cries our concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE AS THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED.” We may therefore view the Mount of Olives sermon as the Mount of Reversal, where the house of Israel is called to return to YHVH and together with the house of Judah becomes the Bride of Messiah once again. This ‘sod’ understanding emphasizes the understanding that the disciples of Messiah throughout the ages are the Renewed Covenant people who will ultimately join their Torah observant Jewish Brothers as the bride of Messiah at His return, as Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 31: 31 – 33. In Hosea 2 YHVH recommits Himself as the bridegroom of the reunited commonwealth of Israel in Hosea 2: 19 & 20, saying: “And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion, (20) and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know YHVH.’

Very few people are aware that in the same way YHVH lifted the threefold curse of Hosea through Yahshua our Messiah, Yahshua also lifted the threefold curse that He placed on Kepha for denying Him three times. Rav Kepha as a type of the house of Israel was the very first to experience freedom from the curses placed on the house of Israel, after which Yahshua commanded him to teach and strengthen the brethren, this time as a type of us who are responsible to assist the brethren to return to YHVH through Messiah. We see from John 21 that Yahshua personally reversed the curses He placed on Rav Kepha for denying Him three times after His arrest the night before His trial and impalement. Yahshua removes the ‘Lo-ruchamah’ curse from Kepha in the last part of John 21: 15, saying: “Tend (meaning to have pastoral compassion on) My lambs (the little children).” Next in John 21: 16 Yahshua removes the ‘Lo-ami’ curse from Kepha, by saying to him: “Shepherd My (Ami) sheep.” Finally in John 21: 17 Yahshua removes the ‘Jezreel’ curse from Kepha, saying to him: “Tend My sheep (the sons of Elohim).” In these three statements Yahshua tells Rav Kepha to have the same forgiveness and compassion for His Israelite brethren by reversing the curses upon all returning Israelites through the good news of the coming Kingdom of Elohim and declaring the Master’s forgiveness and love to them. What a great Elohim do we have? Halleluyah!

[1][1] John 11: 49 – 52: ‘But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.” Now this he did not say on his own initiative; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Yahshua was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation (the house of Judah) only, but that He might also gather together into one the children (the house of Israel) of Elohim who are scattered abroad.’

[2] We see a reference to this religious whore in Revelation 17: 5, as follows: ‘And upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’