Story #2

Rom 11:25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”

Amazing, Bret and I were honored to be a part of this promise.  One of the scribes in the Jewish quarter where we bought the Torah scroll, came up to us and asked if we were Messianic and what did we want with a Torah scroll.  We told him we for sure believe that Yeshua is the Messiah that scripture speaks about.  Well imagine our surprise when this orthodox Jew told us he used to be a Catholic Priest in Mexico but has come to the knowledge of the truth.  He asked if he could have an hour of our time to share it with us.

Of course Bret and I ...AGAIN, could not believe what our Father had planned for us on this trip!  We readily agreed to this conversation and we hung out until the shop closed so we could spend time hearing what "H" was going to say to us.

He began with a philosophical overview about truth versus lies and who would actually hold that truth.  (He meant the answer to be the Jews).  But he was not prepared for our rebuttal. In fact, coming to him on his terms and speaking philosophically, I told him that if YHVH wrote down the way to serve Him and we then asked Bret (sorry Honey, for using you as the guinea pig) began stating all kinds of rules around one of those commands.....then if we obey Bret's rules, who are we actually following, YHVH or Bret?

Of course this led to explicit examples pointing to his kippah, the arm bands, the tefillim, mezuzahs,, how far you can walk on Sabbath, the Feasts, and on and on and on and on.  Our hour turned into 2.5 hrs and "H" asked if we could come back the next evening.

WOW!!!!! Did that really just happen?  Did we just sit with an orthodox Jew and did he allow us to disagree with him, even charging him with a complete misunderstanding of the text.....and the poor guy wanted to sign up for more?  What are you up to Father?  Can we be any more blessed on this trip, thinking we had just experienced some incredible favor but then to find it was only the beginning?

Needless to say, we agreed wholeheartedly to return the next evening but this time, we would bring our Bible and he would bring his.

We came armed for battle.......and this was what happened.

"H" did NOT bring his Tanak (jewish bible) so that he could verify or read what we were reading in Hebrew.  That in itself was incredibly telling about his faith.  He is following Talmud traditions, the doctrines of men just like he did while in the Catholic church. So I started by showing him that Aaron’s two sons changed only slightly, the incense ingredients, (“strange fire”) and they were incinerated for doing so.  I got him to agree that we cannot change what YHVH instructed.  I went from there to all the scriptures that say we are not to “add” or “take away” and he agreed with those.  I then showed him many things that are not in the Bible and why we do not keep the Feasts.  We read the very explicit instructions and he wanted to ignore them to continue saying we should keep feasts even though he had already confirmed the other previous subject matters.  Although he cannot tell us what specific instructions of the Feasts he is actually keeping since they revolve around the Temple and Levitical system/sacrificing. 

We moved from there to Yeshua.  I showed him that Isaiah 53 could not be a human, Isaiah’s son, Hezekiah’s son, the nation of Israel or any other man because Ezek 18 reminds us that no man dies for the sins of another, only his own sin.  Therefore, the suffering servant of Isa. 53 is God.  I showed him Isa 7 and 9 that calls him “Immanuel (GOD with us), “Almighty God, Everlasting Father”.  I brought out the point that He was pierced and then showed him Zechariah’s words confirming the “piercing”.  YHVH calls it “Me” who was pierced and also “Him” who was pierced and that he was a firstborn son.  That took us to Psalm 2, about the Son, then Daniel 7 then Daniel 2 all confirming the inheritance and the "dashing to pieces like pottery" of the other kingdoms.   AS well as the “son of man” coming on the clouds which is a description used ONLY for  YHVH.  All these passages confirming the details of the Messiah and the fact that Daniel 2 and Daniel 9 tell us He came before the Temple was destroyed during the Roman Empire in the 1st century.

He listened, he wanted to disagree but really could not at that point.  I think as a Catholic, he realized (after we pointed it out) that he followed man’s doctrinal nonsense and he has simply exchanged that for the doctrinal nonsense of rabbis in Judaism.   He stated that he wanted to continue this conversation by phone.  My thoughts are that he will go to a rabbi and get some excuses.  What he does not realize is that I argue this ALL THE TIME, every single week almost with Jews online.  I’ve heard all the excuses and the twisting of scriptures, as well as the complete denial of clear messianic verses.  

But, we will be faithful to stay engaged as long as he will listen.  What is very apparent is that YHVH is turning His attention back to the firstborn.....one more sign of the times we are living in for sure.