The Kingdom Of Heaven And The Kingdoms Of Men
Psalm 19. The Torah, or the Law, is a perfect picture of the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness required of Elohim to be part of it. The Torah and the prophets are a prophetic foreshadowing of the Kingdom of Elohim to come, which will fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea, and also of Yeshua, the Messianic King of that Kingdom.
The Torah defines what is acceptable and what is not acceptable to Elohim as our creator and giver of life. The Torah is truth, and compares or reveals what is of the Kingdom of Elohim, and what is of the kingdoms of men as idolatrous worship and of satan.
The Torah makes known to us the difference between eating of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and the consequences. Because man's religious systems are eating from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, their doctrines and teachings are saying that “good is evil and evil is good.” Scripture also tells us that because of that, “truth has fallen in the streets.”
Christianity tells us that grace came in Jesus Christ and that Torah, or the Law, has finished. They say that their “New Testament” negates and removes most of the “Old Testament.” Christianity also believes that the Torah and the Commandments are for the Jews and not for the Gentiles. Many say that Christianity replaces Israel, or that Christianity is spiritual Israel, or that Christianity is the Kingdom of God here on earth.
The Torah, the writings of Moses, just like Revelation, the writings of the apostle John, are full of mysteries, hard sayings, types and shadows and strange instructions. And because of this, the first five books and the last book of their Bible is largely ignored. Christianity has misunderstood the metaphors and assigned the truths of Torah to the dustbin of ancient history as a story of the failure of a nation called Israel. Consequently Torah, the instructions or teachings of God, are of little use or of no relevance today and so they believe that God has raised up Christianity and the New Testament in its place. But that is a complete contradiction to Scripture.
The Mysteries Of The “Old” Revealed In The “New.”
The truth is that the “Old” is never old, but is truly the truth that is required of all generations. Torah foretells the eternal truth and it was followed by Moses and Israel to the letter. They understood its importance, and death and banishment was the result if disobeyed. Nothing has changed, the penalties are still the same. Being part of His Kingdom and the first resurrection are at stake.
Yeshua and the apostles are the masters of revealing and unraveling the mysteries of the Torah and the prophets. And in keeping with the words of the prophet Isaiah, Yeshua’s method of revealing many mysteries and truths of Torah teaching is doing so in parables and hard sayings which many found offensive. But those who want to remain blind and closed off from discussing such things will not have their ears or eyes opened to the truth of the Word. People are in the dark because they choose to be in the darkness of unbelief.
Matthew 13:10-17:
"10 Then the disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 He replied, “You have been given the opportunity to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not. 12 For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13 For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. 14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
‘You will listen carefully yet will never understand,
you will look closely yet will never comprehend.
15 For the heart of this people has become dull;
they are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes,
so that they would not see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 “But your eyes are blessed because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
Yeshua says because they love their doctrines of blindness, 'I am unable to heal them.' Therefore their stubborn, uncircumcised hearts and minds will be given their just reward at the second resurrection at the hands of the Torah they rejected.
Matthew 15:7-9 says:
"7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said,
8 ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me,
9 and they worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
James 2:10-12, 24:
"10 For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the Law. 12 Speak and act as those who will be judged according to the Law that gives freedom. 24 You see that a person is proved righteous by works and not by faith alone."
Break one commandment or ten, the penalty is the same.
Yeshua is the Word, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) Yeshua lived by every word that came from the Father. Yeshua was the Living Word. He was Torah personified. That is Him revealed and lived it out to the full. (Matthew 5:17) Yeshua never kept the Word, the Commandments and the Torah so we don’t have to. He lived Torah out perfectly so we could be saved from our sins of breaking Torah and to show us how to live the righteous life.
We are to walk as He walked. We are to keep all the Commandments in the power of the Ruach as He did. It is a demonstration of our love and obedience to the Father. It is a demonstration of 'not my will, but Yours be done.'
John 14:21-26:
21 The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.” 22 ‘Adonai’, Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?’ 23 Yeshua replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. 24 The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. 25 “I have spoken these things while staying with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you."
John 15:9-11:
9 “Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. 12 My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you."
Revelation 12:17; 14:12:
"... those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Yeshua."
12 This requires the steadfast endurance of the saints – those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Yeshua."
1 John 2:1-6:
1 (My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. ) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua Messiah the Righteous One, 2 and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.
3 Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments. 4 The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. 5 But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him. 6 The one who says he abides in God ought himself to walk just as Yeshua walked."
1 John 3:22-24:
22 Whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him. 23 Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Yeshua the Messiah and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment. 24 And the person who keeps his commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Ruach he has given us.
2 John 1:4-6:
4 I rejoiced greatly because I have found some of your children living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 But now I ask you, lady (not as if I were writing a new commandment to you, but the one we have had from the beginning), that we love one another. 6 (Now this is love: that we walk according to his commandments.) This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning; that you walk in love."
"On these two greatest commandments to love hang all the Law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40).
Yeshua Explains The Torah
Yeshua’s great commission was to walk or live out the Torah and to teach the truths of the Torah to all peoples. When the Torah tells us to do things that don’t make sense, then we need to see what Yeshua and the apostles have to say about them. But, be careful, for Yeshua may just reveal the truth in a parable that needs the guidance of the Ruach to understand it. And we just may not like it!
Leviticus 19:19 says,
“You must keep My statutes. You are not to crossbreed different kinds of animals. You are not to sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor are you to wear a garment woven of two kinds of material.”
Deuteronomy 22:9-11. The Torah instructed Moses and the nation of Israel that they were not to wear clothes of mixed fibres, or sow their fields with mixed seed, or plough their land with an ox and a donkey together. What is Y’Hovah wanting to impress upon us with these forbidden practices? What is the hidden warnings in these injunctions? If everything in the Torah is about defining the Kingdom of Elohim and our part in it, then we need to know what Elohim is saying in these very cryptic verses.
Mark 4:26-29. Only Mark mentions this parable about the Kingdom of Elohim. He refers to someone sowing the seed, the growth of the seed, and then its harvesting. The emphasis is not so much on the sower as it is on the mysterious nature of its growth. It seems Yeshua is making the point that when it comes to Kingdom truth and eternal results, it not only depends on the purity of the seed, but on the power and work of the Ruach in producing a harvest fit for the Kingdom. Man's efforts and brilliance won’t achieve the objective. Only Y’Hovah can produce the results we look for, and only as we do it according to His instructions. The soil we sow into has to be Kingdom soil for Him to produce Kingdom results. We may sow seed into lots of other inferior soils, but they will not produce the results.
Matthew 13:1-23. The right seed in the right soil alone will bring forth fruit unto eternal life.
There are many soil types in the hearts of those who make up the ones called into His Kingdom. The good seed is sown, but then it is mixed with all kinds of other interests, beliefs and lifestyles. This renders them unfit for the Kingdom and its purposes. We must give the true seed of the Kingdom first priority, and to be of more importance than anything else in our life. We must hear the Word, understand the Word, and follow it; or lose all.
But we need to look at Yeshua’s next parable to get a good idea of what is meant by mixed seed, and what it means to be sown into the fields that Y’Hovah wants sown.
Matthew 13:24-30. This is a very telling parable. Multitudes of religious systems, denominations and teachers of men's traditions and false doctrines firmly believe they are sowers of the good seed into peoples' lives and preparing them for the Kingdom.
But Yeshua is saying the true seed of the wheat are His sons He has sown into His Kingdom, and the poisonous weeds are the sons of the evil one, the devil. The word translated as “weeds” is “darnel”. Darnel is a poisonous rye grass. It looks exactly like wheat, and is nearly impossible to tell the difference from wheat. It is only as it is fully ripened that it then goes into a dark reddish (or even black) colour that it can be distinguished. If it is eaten it will make you very sick and can even kill you.
Teachers of false doctrine and their traditions are being sown into the Kingdom as truth. But the day is coming when the mixed seed being sown in the fields of Kingdom promise will be ready for harvest. The poisonous weeds of false teachers and people will be reaped out of it and burnt in the judgement fires of Y’Hovah’s wrath, but the Wheat that is of the Messiah’s message and true to the Torah will be brought into the barn of His Kingdom.
Mark 7:5-13. That’s planting mixed seed.
The traditions of men are only going to produce human fodder for the fires of Elohim's judgement. (Revelation 14:9-12.)
1 John 2:15-17. If we love the ways of the world, the things of the world, the treasures of the world, the ambitions and priorities of the world and the religious systems of the world, then the love of the Father is not in us. The love of the world and the love of the Father is mixed seed. You love the One and hate the other. Anything we put ahead of doing what the Father wants is not according to His will and is called idolatry.
Matthew 6:19-24, 31-33. You can’t serve God and wealth, or work, or possessions.
What kind of seed is in our bag? Seed is what we sow and for what purpose we sow it. Are we sowing into our treasures on earth, or into our treasures in heaven? Some leaders are enriching themselves at the peoples' expense and calling it Kingdom sowing. Great will be their fall.
Don’t serve money, that is wealth and possessions.
Use it wisely and walk in faith, serving Elohim and His Kingdom first, using our money to serve His purposes as well as sustain our lives and those around us.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15. Paul is making the same point as Yeshua. When it comes to attitude and trust, when it comes to what we do with money and how we sow it, it can also be very mixed seed. We sow either the seed of greed and selfishness, or trust and generosity.
Luke 12:15-21. Y’Hovah had blessed the man with a very good year, an abundance of blessing had come his way. But he was greedy and selfish. So Yeshua said, be rich toward God, and don’t just store up treasure for yourself. That’s the mixed seed of greed. Don’t use your fields (that is your time, your work, your service) for unrighteous or selfish gain. Be generous in Kingdom and in kedoshim giving. That’s putting faith and trust in Heaven's storehouse.