QUESTIONS, CLARITY AND COMPASSION

Jersualem (before the Mosque)

A   number of questions have come to my mind recently. Here are a few of them for you if you care to join me in giving them some thought.  [Question #1]  Have you considered why it is that Yeshua has not returned in almost 2,000 years? Or why we should think that He would return now? There are reasons to think His return might be imminent. One of the most significant reasons is that after 1878 years Israel is now back in her land, a definite prerequisite for His return or… where would He come back to?  Jerusalem, right? The Word says that Yeshua will one glorious day take His stand on the earth – in Jerusalem! – as King! HalleluYah!!

[Question #2] Have you wondered just what is really behind all the conflict going on today about who Jerusalem should belong to and who has right to what land in Israel? I don't mean what you're hearing on the News, I mean what you think from what you know of the bible? This is not a new battle actually. It’s been going on for, oh several thousands of years, though it seems to have kicked up a notch lately with the U.N.’s recent vote regarding Israel’s right to her own land.  That there is such a battle to wrest that piece of real estate from Israel is enough to make one look up to see if our "redemption draweth neigh!!" (Luke 21:28). Perhaps we can bring some clarity to the issues going on in what really appears to be a most irrational situation.

What other nation, I ask you, does the U.N. attempt to exercise such authority over so as to  dictate the loss of a nations sovereignty over their own land? This isn't even really a legitimate issue. The whole thing is irrational  The only good decision the U.N. ever made on Israel’s behalf was to declare her a nation on May 14, 1948.  It’s been a battle ever since, beginning that very same week in May, 1948.  Which leads us to … 

[Question #3] Have you ever considered how irrational anti-Semitism is? Now it would seem we must call it anti-Zionism. Zion is the name David used to identify Jerusalem. Zionism is the belief that all Jews have the right to call Israel, and specifically Jerusalem, their home. The very basis for all these conflicts is because Satan is terrified that Jerusalem would be entirely in Jewish hands because it would mean Yeshua’s return and his (Satan’s) demise. It would mean that every word in the Bible will be proven to be true and he, the Liar and his deceptions, will be exposed and ultimately his power on the earth will be done away with.  Oh, yes, I almost forgot to add that he will find himself “hurled alive into the Lake of Fire” (See Revelation 19:20 Ampl.).  Satan, no doubt, never forgets that is his destiny,  so he’s attempting to instigating every challenge to God and His plan that he can.  Satan is so busy being deceiving he’s even deceived by his own deceptions so that he thinks he can still challenge God.  

[Question #4].  Is all that Middle Eastern conflict really only about territory? Are these really political issues or are we in a spiritual war?  In reality, it really is all about whether it is God’s territory or the devil’s, specifically the Temple Mount.   

[Question #5 – this is a deep one.]Did you know that the Temple Mount was supposedly once called Mount Moriah where Abraham, in obedience to God’s order to him, was about to sacrifice Isaac until God stopped him.  Abraham acted in what must have been an excruciatingly painful obedience to God by intending  to end the life of his son, even the son God had given to him. (See Genesis 22:1-12).  

As a result, might there have likely developed between God and Abraham a kind of  “sharing in the fellowship of His suffering” (Philippians 3:10) which Paul much later articulated?  Is there perhaps an insight here that God found in Abraham the heart of a father who would sacrifice his own son so as to remain in keeping with God’s sovereign plan, so that God seemingly considered Abraham worthy of being called His friend, a term that would hold deep meaning to Yaweh who called no other man His friend as He did Abraham.

Did He see in Abraham a man with whom He could one day fellowship (in heaven perhaps) who would know what it was to sacrifice his own son for God’s highest purposes?  What God did for generations, He often did, He said, for the sake of the Fathers, beginning with Abraham.  Was Abraham’s faithfulness to put even his most treasured son to death so that he remained in God’s will, a shadow of God’s own struggle to put His own Son to death for the sake of His ultimate will to restore mankind to Himself?   Mysterious as this is, it is worthy of a selah, and some significant meditation and pondering into the heart of God.  

Back to today. Contrary to what some have been told, even by President Bush, the two Gods, Israel’s and Islam’s, are not the same god.  A god who wants to destroy Israel is not the same God who has restored and blessed Israel, who keeps His promises to her and Who protects her as He evidently does.  God, has devoted a good bit of Scripture to Jerusalem, while Islam’s ‘holy’ book, to the contrary, doesn’t even mention Jerusalem. Supposedly Mohammed, Islam’s one prophet, had a "night vision" that he was flown to Jerusalem (though not mentioned by name) on his mule or donkey (I recently read that it might have been a unicorn) and from there to heaven for a visit, but in fact he was never even in Jerusalem.  That he was there is all a fabrication, but millions of Muslims believe the story to be true when it is not.   

So [Question #6] if something is not true, where does it have its origin and incentive?  The devil, of course.  Yeshua made this clear about Satan:  “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).  Well, that’s pretty evident, isn’t it? 

Jerusalem isn’t even mentioned in the Koran and for centuries after the establishment of Islam somewhere around 622 A.D.  Yet, when Mohammad’s armies advanced on the entire Arabian Peninsula as part of the conquering they were doing, in 638 the Muslims conquered Jerusalem. Fifty years later, in 688, they began the construction of the Dome of the Rock. In 692, they finished the building project and there it still stands. For many years there was relative quiet on the Temple Mount, but then again, there were only a limited number of Jews in Jerusalem until 1948 when the conflict began. Today, even though the Mount is in Jerusalem and Israel's legitimate land, Jews are not permitted by Islamic rule on the Mount where the remaining wall of their temple once stood and even attending the Great Synagogue in that area is a challenge. I could draw you more word pictures, but let’s just say that at this time in history, the battle to win entire control of the Mount, is smoldering and threatening to erupt into an explosion at any time. (Note incidentally, that Jerusalem is on the top of a mountain, it is not flat territory so it is literally a mountain top, e.g., a mount.)

  

So assuming that the challenge of whose land it is ultimately comes from the devil for his own purposes of keeping Yeshua from returning, then if the devil can take control of Jerusalem, then he can postpone, or perhaps in his mind even thwart Yeshua’s return altogether.  To thwart means to oppose successfully, prevent from accomplishing a purpose or a goal. From a global perspective, there is no goal or purpose more prophetically significant taking place on the earth today than whether Israel maintains her land, specifically Jerusalem, and imperatively, the area of the Temple Mount. 

That is what is being threatened presently by the UN which itself is under Islamic influence and which now is demanding that Israel has no right to her God-given territory. God said Jerusalem is one place on earth that is His and where He will one day establish His Kingdom upon the earth. Jerusalem is His!  And so satan wants it and, just as God can inspire men to godliness, Satan through his demons is able to ‘inspire’ men to deception and evil. 

[Question #7]. How shall we then pray? The psalmist Asaph sang this same concern out to the Lord in his day:   “O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant....” (Psalm 83:1-18 ESV). We would do well to sing (pray) these words ourselves now, that He not keep quiet, that He make His will and His peace known, that He would fight on Israel's behalf and thwart the covenants they have made against her.   There are so many Scriptures that we can pray on Israel's behalf. Take a new highlighter to indicate in your bible what you can be praying for Israel.

Notice that Asaph in his prayer sees Israel’s enemies as God’s enemies.  From a biblical perspective, any person or nation who comes against or hates or has feelings against against Israel, or for that matter, in regard to today’s issue is in agreement with the UN’s decision against Israel, is acting as an enemy of God.  This is not because we agree with every decision Israel makes. In simple terms, we love Israel because God loves Israel! And we pray that God leads her according to His will in all that concerns her. 

[Question #8]  How then as the people of God’s love are we to regard the Muslims in all this?  I wish to balance this article out with some words of clemency and compassion. There are millions of people in this world who have been under the doctrines of the devil in their religions who believe their religion is entirely of God. They have been made victims of deceit, and of lies. Who knows but God what we all, meaning you and I, would have believed if we lived under Islamic rule? I have met a number of 'Muslim Background Believers' as they identify themselves. Many of those people fully believed in Islam and Muhammad’s words until somehow Yeshua entered their lives in a profound way. Once they realized the truth of who He is, their lives changed immediately, including that they lost their hatred for Israel and found a love for her instead. In fact, the statistics are that literally millions – yes, millions, of Ishmael’s descendants are coming to know Yeshua in our time. Quite remarkable, wouldn’t you say? 

Now if there’s one testimony that God is All Powerful and that He is Love, that would be it. I suggest reading a book entitled, “Ten Amazing Muslims Touched By God” by Faisal Malick. I’ve mentioned it before as I've read it several times as the stories in it are fascinating and they will soften your heart in the way Yeshua Himself reaches out to them so that you can/will pray also that He would bring truth to rescue Israel's enemies. It is my hope that when you pray for Israel's safety, you will also pray for    the Lord to make Himself known to Jews and to Muslims the world over. 

As a parting thought, I once had a little kind of mini vision of Abraham, it was that he loved each of his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, and Jacob and Esau and that he wept for the division between them. He longed for their sons and daughters who have come down through the generations to join him in heaven.  While we may stand against the ideology of Islam, let us have no hatred or animosity for the people, even for the most deceived of them. Perhaps they might be like Paul before he found the Lord on the road to Damascus, (today a Muslim city, btw) and turn to the Lord to be a mighty witness for Him.  If God loves them, so must we.  Amen.  

The Gospel of Mark Through Jewish Eyes - Part 2

Shalom, Folks. I hope you had a good week. Thanks for joining me and the others who are a part of this online class.   Some of this lesson might seem a bit on the heavy side as I lay a foundation for where I believe God is taking us as we study the Gospel of Mark through Jewish eyes. We are taking a look outside of Mark's gospel today to how the people he knew might be somewhat bewildered by our "church" today. But take heart, Yeshua has overcome the world, and we are living in a day when God is overcoming some  erroneous doctrines and restoring the truth of His Word where it is needed. And in contrast to some past periods of church history, a renewed sweet sense of His presence is available to us as has not always been there. 

When Yeshua walked the earth and taught God's people, He was largely bringing correction to misunderstandings of God that had come about through what some well-intentioned men had added to the Scriptures. Some of those intentions in time became sufficiently entrenched as religious doctrines so that   when Yeshua came to bring clarity to God's word, His teachings challenged their religious rules which also served to challenge their positions of power. This news isn't news to us, of course, but it's still significant to consider because it serves to make us aware that we too must be careful not to hold onto cherished ways of "doing church" that God may be seeking to better align with His word and His ways.

What John the Immerser said he was bringing was a message to prepare for the coming Messiah, and then Yeshua Himself, through His teachings and acts brought to Israel truth and revelation that also prepared God's people, those with ears to hear, for what Yeshua's atoning death and resurrection accomplished. Could it be that what God is doing today, bringing truth where it has been corrupted, and restoring correct understanding to misinterpreted Scripture is also preparation for the fulfillment of His final redemptive plan for mankind? New-found insights into places in God's Word  that were unclear or confusing before and now being understood that may have been misinterpreted or identified as something that wasn't what was happening at all. But now we have information to inform us of what was really being said. We will be talking about a number of these as we go on in our study. These are helping to readjust some of our concepts of the Father and His Son in "Spirit and in truth" by revealing truth where text has been added or misinterpreted. Happily, we are living in a time when our God is restoring  the power of the truth of His word and it is being manifested in our lives once again with healing, signs and wonders and changed lives. How exiting is all that?!

My mind just went to what Moses must have felt as 'The God of All There Is' Himself gave him unprecedented insights from creation forward that would impact not only Israel but the whole world! No wonder he was so exasperated and angry when he saw the people worshiping an insignificant golden calf after being with the Almighty Creator of the world! This gives me the expectation that for those of us who will spend time with God and let Him impart to us Who He truly is, the foolish things we once saw as "gold" and of value will fall away so that we can see that only He is worthy of worship and being adored.  But back to Mark.   

Remember, this is the first writing of the story of Yeshua and Mark had to decide what to say. The challenge was not what to include but what to leave out as there was so much to say. Each thing he chose to put in the story he obviously felt was more meaningful than some other things he didn't include, in order to build a true picture of Messiah Yeshua.  Try to give some thought to Mark's motivation for wanting his readers to know this or that about Yeshua as we go on for some added insight into the story. Mark as the shortest of the four gospels seems clipped in speech and brief, as if Yeshua's always in a hurry. Not so. Mark uses the term ‘Immediately’ often which means more like “and then this happened.”

There is controversy as to whether this Mark is the John Mark of Acts or not. If so, then the believers would have been meeting in his home under his mother's hospitality, and so as a young man he would have seen or been a part of much of what the virgin church was experiencing, including when Peter came to the door after being put in jail and Rhoda thought it was Peter's ghost and not Peter himself at the door (Acts 12:12-16).  If he is that Mark, he would also have been the cousin of Barnabas who, being a Levite might mean that Mark also was a Levite and possibly came from a family of temple-serving priests (Acts 4:36). (There's so much in between the lines I wish we knew.)  Barnabas brought John Mark, now called just Mark, along on a mission trip with Paul (Colossians 4:10), only to have a falling out with Paul about Mark's behavior in some way, though later Paul asked for him to come to him saying that Mark "is useful to me in ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). Evidently forgiveness for whatever happened put it behind them both. And we know that Mark traveled with Peter as well and heard all his stories which information, it is thought by scholars, is what Mark likely based a good bit of his gospel upon.

The sentence structure in Mark occasionally uses some Latin phraseology, “gospel” being one of them meaning good news, but the writing is more Hebrew in phrases and sentence structure, making Mark’s gospel undeniably Hebrew.  Even though Mark may have been addressing some Gentiles, he tells the story the way he heard it from Peter, and Peter certainly spoke as a Jew, telling the story of the Jewish Messiah to other Jews.  Keep in mind that Mark and the first century Jewish followers of Yeshua had every reason to believe that all who would come to the Lord – Jew or non-Jew – would see that Yeshua was the perfect embodiment of the Word of God given to Moses and the prophets, as there was nothing in Yeshua contrary to those teachings.  He fulfilled every Biblical prophecy pertaining to His life and lived His life as the quintessential Jew in every way.  The believers would have unquestionably thought, of course Yeshua would always be regarded as the fulfillment of the teachings God gave to Moses!  How could it be otherwise? 

These very teachings, known as the Torah defined for Israel how to live the highest quality of life on earth, free from selfishness and all that comes about as a result of it; free from the guilt of sin, and a way to live under the protection and provision of God. It also told of how this One God created the world - a good thing to know - so there is to be no worship of any other (false) gods. No other nation had anything close to this way of life.  So of course those early believers in Yeshua would expect nothing different of anyone who would come to trust in Israel’s Messiah.  As we read through Mark, consider that all that Yeshua lived out in what He said and did, to the very moment of the end of His life as a Man, was in the context of fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures.

How ironic it is then that within a few hundred years almost all that was Hebrew or Jewish, including Scripture, was removed by its leaders from the church.  The Reformation of the church certainly did what it's name implies, it reformed many wrong doctrines and did away with many heretical practices, but it was just that, a reforming of church ways; it was not the Restoration that Peter said must take place before Yeshua's return. To quote Peter again as it continues to be a foundational verse for this study, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21). It is those things we're in search of today and in this study!   

Please note also that there is not one place throughout the entire Tenakh, the Old Testament, where the Torah is referred to as "the law." Rather, the Hebrew words used are more along the lines of teachings or instructions. The Hebrews did not regard the Torah as "you better keep these or else..." but rather as instructions on how to live the best way of life according to all God had taught them. We will talk more later about this when we come to Yeshua's relationship with the Pharisees, but keep in minds that how we may read the word "law" in our English bibles does not present us with an accurate picture of Israel's relationship with YHVH. Think of the teachings also not so much as being Jewish but Godish!  Because it is God who gave Israel their entire way of life through the Torah which Yeshua embodied.

Some of this may be foreign to those who have been raised in the church that has been so alienated from Yeshua’s life as a Hebrew because anti-Hebrew misinterpretations became entrenched rather early on in the church. Even that word church is a misinterpretation of another word, ekklesia which is actually a Greek word, having to do with those who are called out for a purpose. Believers are certainly 'called out' of the worldliness around us. Though we are 'in' the world, we are not to be 'of' the world. You already knew that, right? In meeting together, the ekklesia formed a Kehilla, a Hebrew word having to do with a congregation meeting together in meaningful relationships. Messianic congregations in Israel today are still identified as Kehillote (plural for kehilla).  The term doesn’t have to do with a building, but even so, coming together still had to take place somewhere. Somehow though the word "church" brings up in each of our minds a number of connotations that would not have been familiar to our first century Hebrew brothers and sisters. 

I'm not saying any of this is bad, or that there aren't legitimate ways we are to adapt to the cultures in which we now live, or that anything 'modern' is against the will of God. Of course not, but you may agree that on the whole we do not look like the Book of Acts in terms of spiritual commitment and overarching love for Yeshua. Not yet anyway.  But if we are to give any thought to what God might want to restore to His people, consider that the pristine kehillot would not have even had a clue of what would come about among believers in Yeshua. They would not have envisioned one pastor as a leader who would be the only person who speaks at meetings (even Paul had dialogs, not monologs).  The early believers would not have imagined rows of pews where believers sit silently and passively without anyone contributing insights or revelations, prophetic words of the intentions or affirmations from God or encouragement of the Holy Spirit, or where there would be no messages in tongues with interpretations to reveal God's heart on specific issues - all of which was normal in meetings among the believers. Nor could they have imagined that the power of the Spirit to bring healing would be rare and deliverance from demons just about non-existent. Worship bands of professional musicians, not to mention ear-blasting sound systems, would have confounded them, and certainly, God help us, they would never have even conceived of the Feasts of the Lord having been considered heresy and replaced by two pagan-influenced holidays called Easter and Christmas. Add to all this that it would have been incomprehensible to them that their sacred day of Shabbat would be changed to  when the Roman sun god was worshiped, a day called sun-day, mixing worship of Yeshua and this false god together - thus violating two commandments to keep the Sabbath on the eighth day and to never worship a false god.

Can you see why God, who could envision what would happen, would speak prophetically through Peter and say to Israel, "Yeshua is withheld in heaven until the restoration of all things as spoken by the prophets from the beginning" (Acts 3:21)?  I believe we are in that day or restoration.  Israel is God's prophetic time piece and prophesies are being fulfilled regarding Israel more now than ever before. Not the least of which is the restoration we are talking about.  

When man seeks to bring about the Kingdom of God by their own efforts and ideas, it will eventually become what human kingdoms are made of and not of the spiritual power and merciful grace of God. It inevitably becomes more earthly than heavenly. On the other hand, no one could have imagined or accomplished what God did by the power of His Holy Spirit in the early church. Indeed, they would not even have had the vocabulary to describe what unfolded. I suspect the same thing is true of the work that God will do in His people who will yield to Him as He prepares us for Yeshua's return,which is to say, the move toward the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God on the restored earth. As we go through this study, it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will bring truths to us that will bring us to deeper truths and consequently to a deeper trust in and love for Him.

Only God can bring about what is fully "of" Him.  We say, Lord, do by Your Spirit what needs to be done in our lives to make us one with You and instruments of glory.  Amen.
 
Till next week ,chaverim (friends, pronounced ha-ver-eem),
Lonnie 

This article may be shared but must include:  Shared with permission by Lonnie Lane, at Lonnielane.com, August 2016. 

SEEING THE BIBLE THROUGH JEWISH EYES

Looking at the Good News through Jewish eyes, opens up a whole gamut of new interpretations of what Yeshua said and did, as fulfillment of Torah down to the least detail of His life. The original stories all originated in a Hebrew context, in a Hebrew culture. Me and the Israeli flag here is just a small symbol that what God set in place thousands of years ago still flies as a banner of the fullness of His intentions to redeem the earth. He does so by fulfilling every prophetic word in both the New and Older Bibles. So it is important that we understand just what was being said, wouldn't you think?

So we have a bit of a problem here. Our English translations are based on a translation and even yet a previous translations of that one and in the process, some misperceptions of what God intended have arisen.  Words in Hebrew often have various meanings. For instance, Bayt  can mean house, family, synagogue, school or just a building. Translators much choose one word out of several available and in doing so, often lose a wider and deeper message that is meant in Hebrew.  The results of some of these choices of words has led to misrepresentations even of God Himself as we will see.  

True meanings do not have to be a mystery to you. You can google the Hebrew meaning of almost any word and find it’s true significance.  Or go to “Ask.com” and ask there.  You can also look up the meanings of words in various study materials available [1] and see for yourself what the wider significance of what might catch your interest could be.  

Understanding the words of Yeshua, and then of Paul, from a Hebrew perspective, clears up a lot of confusing verses that, if truth be told, make little sense to us and seem a bit mysterious.  The fact is, the original gospel was communicated in Hebrew, and spoken in terms that would have been familiar to Hebrew speakers that don’t translate well. Translators sought to present the text word by word, but the problem was that there are many Hebrew idioms which word-by-word translations make Yeshua sound, well, weird.  Imagine trying to translate some of our own English idioms literally – such as “It’s killing me,” or “Eat your heart out,” or "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse” or “it’s raining cats and dogs.” What might translators think those statements, if taken literally, would seem to indicate about the culture?  You get the idea.   

The entire New Testament can really only fully be understood when we see it as coming from a Hebrew perspective.  Both the OT and the NT are highly Hebraic. Even where parts of the NT was expressed in Greek, the background is entirely Hebrew.   Take a look at how Hebrew the bible really is: 

The OT comprises approximately 78% of the entire Biblical text, more than ¾. The NT comprises only 22%.  When we add the highly Hebraic portions of the original bible material in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts 1:!-15:35, which is approximately 43% of the NT, to the OT, the percentage of biblical material originally written in Hebrew rises to 88%.  Or 87% if we leave out the portions of Ezra and Daniel, less than 1% of the OT, composed in Aramaic.  There are 176 OT quotations in the New Testament writings (14 OT quotations from John and 162 from Acts 15:36 to the end of the NT). To sum it up, originally the percentage of the Bible that was composed in Hebrew rises to over 90%.[2]

The assumption that the entire NT was originally communicated in Greek has led to considerable misunderstandings.  But today, scholars and pastors alike are realizing that the key to fully understand what Yeshua is saying is that Israel is that key.  Greek doesn’t get us to the true Hebrew meanings. Happily, there is quite a shift today to the study of Hebrew history and culture which is providing great insights into what the Brit Hadashah, the New Covenant, has to say.  

The gospel, like everything else, is explained in words.They define how we see everything. Our primary concern in our relationship with God is with “salvation,” isn’t it?  In Hebrew there are many synonyms for “salvation.”  The word salvation itself is little used. Only 7 times actually.  Other words express it even more powerfully, such as  “Righteousness,” one of the synonyms for “salvation.”  Zion is called “The city of righteousness" (Isaiah. 1:10).  When we are aware that the devil is behind all the persecution against Israel, and specifically against “Zionism” (which under Arab influence  regards Zionism as a hate crime according to the UN!), we can see why the enemy of God keeps trying to do away with Zion, "the city of righteousness.”  

Zion is a synonym for Jerusalem, just as righteousness is a synonym for salvation; they go together as is God's apparent intention. And the devil wants to destroy both. All that God has promised and His call for righteousness has its roots in Zion. Consider how much of the bible is centered around what took place in or around Jerusalem. Even the place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac was the location of where Jerusalem would one day stand.  As we know, God's word is immutable and the ultimate establishment of Zion in righteousness means the devil's demise, which is why he works so hard to 'inspire' antagonism against her. 

We must be careful to stand with Israel for the reason that God’s name and His calling is upon her.  Stand with Israel and you stand with God.  We are told to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they will prosper who love her” (Psalm 122:6).  That doesn’t mean to pray for peace with her Arab neighbors or in the eyes of the world; it means to pray for peace with God to come to every Israeli for each one to realize that the church’s persecution of Israel which has taken place, as has been inspired by the devil, is NOT the heart of God toward Israel or the Jews. The church is to make Israel, whether they are living in the land or elsewhere, jealous of their relationship with Israel's own God. And thank God, that’s  beginning to happen. Will you take a few moments each day to be one of those who pray for her?  How about now?

When we see the word righteousness, read it as also meaning salvation. .Jesus exhorts his disciples to “seek first the kingdom of heaven and His (God’s) righteousness” (Matt 6:33). Those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed" (Matt 5:6), literally, "Of such people the Kingdom is made up." (See Matthew 12:18; Isaiah 42:1). Notice the change in your thinking if you replace “Salvation” where “righteousness” is mentioned. This brings up another point of concern. We have an erroneous idea, many of us, that we say a prayer and we  are “saved.” That a one time verbal expression brings us salvation that seals us in. Period.  But when we think of "seeking righteousness" we realize that it is a life-long   sanctification process. it is a situation-by-situation decision to walk with God regardless of what it is or costs us; it is a way of life, not a one-time recitation.  

Consider  the Hebrew word “judgment” or “justice” which  can also mean “salvation. A judge declares, with the bang of a gavel,whether a person is “Not guilty” as well as “Guilty.” In the same way, the verb “judge” often means “save” or even “rescue.”  When David is in trouble he cries out, “Judge me, O God.”  (Psalm 43:1). He's calling for rescue according to how he's sought to live before God. The judges of the OT were saviors or deliverers of the people, not judges in the modern sense of the word which we often think of as those who bring sentence to people who have violated the law.   

For one thing, as hopefully you are aware, the English usage of the word “law” for the “teachings” or “Instructions” in the Torah (books of Moses), is not found in all of the OT.  There is no Hebrew idea of “law” in all of Torah.  To think of the word as “law” is to make us think of God as Judge just waiting for someone to make a mistake.  How misjudged the Judge has been!   And to take it further, many think that Jesus came to save us from the wrath of Israel's God whose main activity is to always be looking for our mistakes. But.... 

Didn’t Yeshua say He came not to “judge’ the world but to save it. Not to condemn, to bring accusation, but to reveal forgiveness in the heart of His Father.  Isn’t He the exact representation according to Hebrew 1:3 of God the Father, "being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person"?  Could God be an angry wrathful God and Yeshua represent Him as gentle, compassionate, merciful and a God of covenant love and, yes, salvation?  This inconsistency has its roots in the translations that are now being rectified, thank God.

God is called “the Judge” (Judges 11:27; Is 33:22) or “the judge of all the earth” (Gen 18:25; Psalm 94:2).  “Righteousness and Judgment” are the foundations of His throne” (Psalm 89:14).  Rachel named the son that Bilhah bore Jacob “Dan” meaning “He judged” because she said, “God has judged me” (Gen 30:6), meaning God has decided in her favor, He has acted on her behalf.  Over and over the Prophet Isaiah uses judgment as a synonym for salvation and righteousness interchangeably: “Therefore judgment is far from us and righteousness does not reach us. We look for judgment but there is none. For salvation, but it is far from us…. Judgment is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance” (Isaiah 59:9, 11, 14). It is judgement on their behalf that he was longing for.

Jesus promised his disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28, Luke 22:30).  Are the disciples at some future time to sit as judges meting out punishment to members of the tribes of Israel?  No, they are to be meting out deliverance as saviors. We look forward to, as the Bible describes, “the city of salvation” – Jerusalem – as the city to which the tribes of Israel will go up, and there thrones (plural) of judgment (i.e. salvation) will be set up when Yeshua returns to establish the Kingdom – “in Zion!” 

Judgment  is not always a synonym for salvation in the bible.  It can mean “destruction “or damnation.  Summing this up, we must be aware that the text is a translation from Hebrew words and concepts which may not exist in English.  Knowing this, we can decide on the basis of context which meaning of “judgment,” for instance, is meant. (See Acts 3:22, 23 and Deut.18:15, 18, 19). Make this a study of your own and see if it adjusts your understanding of how you see God. Knowing this can impact how we have unconsciously interpreted His character and nature and His ‘doings’ among men, and even in your own life. We might need to reevaluate when we see God as harsh and demanding toward Israel when when really He was Israel’s savior all along – and still is.     

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[1]  For helpful study helps, The standard look-up of definitions is the Strongs Concordance in which you can look up words in English and follow the number listed either in Hebrew (OT) or Greek (NT), even though it is somewhat cumbersome.  The best tool I have found for finding immediate definitions is the NASB Key Word Hebrew-Greek Study Bible. (It may possibly be available in NKJV.) It also has very insightful footnotes.  The One New Man Bible: Revealing Jewish Roots and Power has good footnotes and a Glossary that is extremely helpful.  And The Complete Jewish Bible, presents the Scriptures with Jewish insights and a very valuable Introduction that clears up many of the misunderstandings that English translations lean toward.   

[2]  See Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus: New Insights from a Hebraic Perspective by David Biven and Roy Blizzard, Jr.