Shalom mishpocha (family)!

 
This week we read Moshe's final speech to the Israelites. This very prophetic parasha is a call to repentance, a return to His ancient paths.
 
 
 
Jeremiah 6:16 This is what YHWH says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it
Our great and mighty Elohim will bring us to repentance so that He can accomplish the restoration that He has promised. How will He accomplish this restoration of the whole house of Israel? We only have partial understanding to that question. There are many things that are still hidden from our eyes. These hidden things, the "secret things of YHWH", we can only know when He chooses to reveal them to us.
 
Devarim/Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to YHWH our Elohim, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this Torah.
 
 

We are encouraged to search the Scriptures and look for answers and revelation:

 
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of Elohim to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
 
Yet, we still need to understand the difference between what we can search out for ourselves and the "secret things that belong to YHWH our Elohim" which may only be hidden from us until the time is right. We are accountable for what has been revealed to us. For what reason? Devarim 29:29 tells us..."that we may do all the words of this Torah." Before Yeshua ascended to heaven, his disciples were still looking for those "secret things" about the kingdom:
 
Acts 1:6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Adonai, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
 
Yeshua answers by telling them the timing of the restoration is only known by the Father. Their duty was to be a faithful witness through the power of the Holy Spirit:
 
Acts 1:7 And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
 
Who will understand the details of the restoration of the Kingdom? Our Torah portion, Nitzavim, tells us there will be a certain generation...literally, a "last generation" that will understand the reasons for the judgments and the resulting turning to YHWH:
 
Devarim/Deuteronomy 29:22 "and the last generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which YHWH has laid on it...24 "All nations would say, 'Why has YHWH done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?' 25 "Then people would say: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of YHWH Elohim of their fathers...30:1 "Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where YHWH your Elohim drives you, 2 "and you return to YHWH your Elohim and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 "that YHWH your Elohim will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where YHWH your Elohim has scattered you. 4 "If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there YHWH your Elohim will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 "Then YHWH your Elohim will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 "And YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
 
Could we be this generation? I do not have the answer to this question, but we can gather more information about the condition of the world during the "end of days":
 
2 Peter 3:3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts
 
2 Timothy 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of Yah, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
 
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called Yah or that is worshiped, so that he sits as Yah in the temple of Yah, showing himself that he is Yah.
 
During this time before the return of the Messiah, the world will undergo various forms of tribulation called "the birth pangs":
 
Matthew 24:8 All these are the beginning of birth pangs.
 
The concept of "birth pangs", sometimes called "the time of Ya'acov's trouble" is seen throughout Scripture:
 
1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
 
Micah 5:3 Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel.
 
Mark 13:8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
 
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
 
Labor has a specific purpose. Something is ready to be birthed. After the fall of Adam and Eve, we were told that there would not be a birth without painful labor. I believe this is a prophecy pointed towards the restored children of Israel who will eventually be birthed through trials and tribulation.
 
Bereshith/Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.
 
We are now waiting for the "born again" experience of the whole, entire, nation of Israel. The prophet Isaiah speaks of a two stage process. Isaiah 66:7 tells of the birth of Messiah, but in verse 8, Zion (or Jerusalem) will go into labor and give birth to "her children". Our awesome Elohim not only spoke of giving us His Son, the Messiah, but also the eventual rebirth of a holy nation:
 
Isaiah 66:7 "Before she was in labor, she gave birth; Before her pain came, She delivered a male child. 8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children. 9 Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?" says YHWH. "Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?" says your Elohim.
 
When a child is born, labor can go on for hours, but then suddenly a child comes. Labor requires endurance:
 
Acts 14:22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of Yah."
 
The perfect picture of endurance was Yeshua who went through labor and tribulation of His own. Isaiah 53 speaks of His tremendous suffering:
 
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by Elohim, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His bruise there is healing for us.
 
And what "baby" was birthed as a result of His labor?
 
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the YHWH's will to crush Him and cause him to suffer, and though YHWH makes His life a guilt offering He will see His offspring and prolong his days, and the will of YHWH will prosper in his hand.
 
"His offspring", i.e., the restored children of Israel, the chosen nation. Just like a woman who is giving birth, Jerusalem will pass through the most intense moment just before giving birth and the resulting birth will be so glorious that it will cause all memory of the previous pain to pass away:
 
John 16:21 "A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
 
The new Jerusalem, the bride beautifully dressed for her husband, the restored people of Israel, will be presented to her husband:
 
Revelation 21:2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from Yah, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband.
 
Though Jerusalem must endure its labor, so much so that many will mourn over her, the end will be "rejoicing":
 
Isaiah 66:10 " Rejoice with Jerusalem, And be glad with her, all you who love her; Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; 11 That you may feed and be satisfied With the consolation of her bosom, That you may drink deeply and be delighted With the abundance of her glory."
 
The restored Jerusalem, in her rebirth, will be a "praise through all the earth"!
 
Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of YHWH, do not keep silent, 7 And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
 
For many years, we have understood the concept of being "born again". The rebirth of the nation of Israel is another step in our revelation of the "secret things" of YHWH. Ya'acov's family went down to Egypt. It was a period of pregnancy as the nation was growing within the "womb" of another nation. Now watch the "birth pangs":
 
Shemot/Exodus 2:23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to Elohim because of the bondage.
 

They "cried out" due to their intense birth pangs. The first plagues were additional pains. But they left Egypt and the parting of the Sea can be seen as the breaking of the waters and coming through the birth canal. And then the birthing allegory can be seen again in the 40 years that the Israelites spent in the desert before entering the Land of Israel....complete with its own set of birth pangs. Forty years in the womb of the desert, corresponding to the 40 weeks of pregnancy. Ahh...so much that our Father will yet reveal to us. His people must be "born again" as a nation, one new man, once again following painful "birth pangs". Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done!

 
 
Shabbat Shalom!
Ardelle