Symbiotic Economics: The end and the beginning
19/March/2008 09:36 Filed in: Weekly Column
Volume 10, Issue 12
PDF copy
Only In the Beginning, the beginning was not an end. As such we finally come to the end of this Symbiotic Economics series. This final chapter is far from what I envisioned at the onset and has definitely taken longer than I had originally outlined. Such is life, the endings take longer most of the time than the beginnings. Perhaps more appropriately, the seeds of the new beginning are planted in the soil of the end and just as in nature, sometimes it takes a long time for the seed to germinate to even produce a seedling, and again much longer to produce some mature fruit.
It is fitting, whether you consider yourself a religious person or not, that this ending comes at perhaps a unique week in history. Last Sunday, western Christianity celebrated Palm Sunday, or the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Again, according to church history, by this Friday (Good Friday) night he was dead, having been crucified. That crucifixion, a propitiatory sacrifice to fulfill the legal requirements of the Mosaic law, still needs to be the prime reason for the existence for that heretical Jewish sect of the Pharisees, which has become known as Christianity.
In 400 years of God’s silence after the completion of the Old Testament canon, or the Jewish Bible, there comes an ending of such a generally recognized importance, that it changed the marking of time. That is an ending, period. But if it just ended there, with a dead rabbi and prophet, Christianity would not exist. Whether you believe it or not, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead and was witnessed by many, well beyond his direct followers, before He ascended into Heaven to be with His eternally coexistent Father, and until He returns in judgement at the end of this present age. At that time, this then silent humble sheepish Lamb of God, returns in power to become the King of Creation. This King was what the Jewish people were looking for 2000 years ago, and still are waiting in anticipation.
As we stated last week, that Jewish blindness was caused by God, until such time that the Gentiles had been added or grafted into the eternal Olive tree that is spiritual Israel. That spiritual Olive tree is metaphysically speaking the oldest tree on earth, because it extends back to the institution of the Covenant of Grace, after humanities fall into sin in the Garden in Eden. That family tree begins with Adam and Eve, grows through Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thereafter, through David, Solomon, and his successors up to a virgin birth in that lineage through Joseph and Mary, having a totally human son Jesus, in Greek, or Yehoshua in Hebrew and the western alphabet, translated Joshua in English, all meaning Yahweh (God) is Salvation.
Putting all this into terms of succinct historic orthodox Reformation Christianity, Jesus became God’s sacrifice, bringing God’s righteous and holy judgement upon himself, instead of letting it fall upon me, and the rest of fallen humanity. Jesus died for my sins. But it does not end there, on the third day he rose from the dead for my justification as righteous in the totally legal sense, thereby adopting me as a child of God, and co-heir with Christ for eternity. That is the good news, we hear so little about in today’s world. That Good News, is celebrated this Sunday, generally called Easter, but more appropriately Resurrection Sunday.
Furthermore, this week in history is significant for the Jewish faith also, because on Friday is the Feast of Purim. This is one of two feasts in Judaism not commanded by God in the Torah. The other being the Festival of Lights or Chanukah. Purim however is found in the Bible in the book of Ester, while Chanukah took place during in the intra-testament period. However there is New Testament evidence that Jesus did celebrate this festival but it is not germane to this discussion.
Looking at this in the context of Sarah’s Talent last week we see, that on the day Christianity, in this truly unique year, says that Jesus was crucified for the sins of mankind, while the mantle of Ester enters into Jewish thought and speaks essentially the final words of Mordecai “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Ester 4:14b.
In last week’s episode, Sarah’s mum suggested that Sarah might find a good husband among the Christian community, this Friday timing exceeds mum’s idea by a magnitude unfathomable in ordinary or common means. Furthermore, that is a pretty heavy talent for Sarah or anyone to carry, but the point of historic Christianity, is that we don’t carry the burden, Jesus Christ carries it for us, past, present, and future. It is finished in time and space for eternity. A mystery for sure, but again it is defined in the grace of God alone, focusing upon that finished work upon the cross and the risen Savior.
As I finished writing these words, and email chimed into my inbox. A prayer request in a very difficult situation contained words of Psalm 37:3 and is also quite appropriate here: Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Many translations do not contain “LORD” in capital letters meaning God alone, or the “His” but both are very appropriate in the context of both situations.
Before we continue I would like to introduce a couple of terms that will be expanded upon as we continue. In the context of Sarah’s talent given by God, for the uniting of Jew and Gentile, Sarah is not called to be a Christian, which is probably difficult for both Jews and Christians to understand. Nor is Sarah called to become a Messianic Jew. Sarah is being called to become a term we will call “Completed Jew.” Therefore, Sarah need not renounce her Jewish faith and traditions, but rather accept that a Jewish Messiah has come, completing and fulfilling all Old Testament and Jewish Bible prophesies.
In like manner Sarah’s other half of the equation is not called to become Jewish, or to renounce his Christian heritage, but to understand that he has been grafted in as a wild olive branch into the eternal Olive tree of Spiritual Israel. As we stated earlier this has it’s roots in God’s covenant of grace which began in Eden’s Garden. Sarah’s husband has become therefore a “Completed Gentile.” In essence the two have become the first fruits in a symbolic way of the unification of God’s people, or a distinct righteous Metis.
In November, the Symbiosis Economic chapters began with “The Day that Religion Died” and was followed by “Dry Bones Valley.” Both of these articles loosely use as a basis Ezekiel 37, as a latter day prophesy for not only the rebuilding of the Jewish state of Israel in the Holy Land after World War II, but also a possible relationship of Dry Bones being the current operating structure of the Christian church. As in the Ezekiel 37 passage, this bringing Dry Bones to life is really a work of the LORD. This means simply that humans must watch this work of God in humility and awe, not in self indulgent euphoria. We will not be able to hold a festival to the God who brought us out of Egypt, as did the liberated nation of Israel while Aaron was in charge and Moses was on the mountain receiving the ten commandments.
What I noticed lately when I looked at this Ezekiel 37 passage was that it follows quite a similar context of Paul’s reuniting of the wild olive tree of the Gentiles with the natural tree of Israel in Romans 11:13-27. This Romans’ passage also being the basis for Sarah’s Talent last week, which find a similar unifying passage in the “these bones are the whole house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 37:11)
The Ezekiel passage continues in verses 15-17 as the wood symbolism of two sticks united. The one stick (not signified as the first stick) is for the house of Judah, “For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.” The other stick, “For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.” They are joined in Ezekiel’s hand and become one stick in verse 17. Notice the added modifier with Ephraim, that is not present with Judah’s stick, “and for all the house of Israel.”
We must look at this in the context of what Ezekiel saw, however we are too quick to overlook. At best we may look at this and say the northern half of Israel is reunited with the southern portion, what’s the big deal? To Ezekiel, the stick of Ephraim represented the first metis people, part Jew, part Gentile, to put it kindly. The first Goyim are represent in Ephraim and this stick.
The Lord God, then repeats the same scenario, so that Ezekiel will correctly answer when people proclaim. “Zeek, you crusty old prophet, you must have slipped a gear, even the Almighty would never make a mistake like that, you have got to be kidding us. Judah and Ephraim one people, it will never happen! Oy vay!”
Now read verses 37:21-28 in the context of what has just transpired and the context of Romans 11, one Olive Tree of Sarah’s Talent.
“Then say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
“David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
While they might not like it, I believe most Jewish rabbis will find this exegesis easier to comprehend than most modern evangelicals. Simply because most evangelicals really do not hold a single covenant of grace concept for all of (spiritual) Israel. While most of the Christian support from Israel comes from the Christian right, it really is just another divergent anti-Semitic, attempt at replacement theology. Classical Dispensationalism as I understand it, teaches, that “true Christians” will be Raptured out, before The Great Tribulation, leaving Jews on earth to come to Christ during that period of judgement of the earth before the end of this current age. Furthermore, during the 1000 year reign of Christ, Christians will be in heaven enjoying eternity, while Jews are on earth working out their salvation through the Mosaic sacrificial system.
That means that later period Old Testament prophesy concerning the Jewish sacrificial system are, if practiced at all, truly only symbolic. Christ died once in real history for the sins of all mankind. This has finished, completed, fulfilled prophesy, completely satisfying the Mosaic Law’s requirement for the shedding of blood forever. The Law’s sacrificial blood only covered human sin. The blood shed by Jesus, as Christ, washes and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
Messianic Jews, as they now exist, are caught between evangelicalism and rabbinical teaching, many times the leaders picking portions that seem most consistent from divergent streams of religious thought. In one extreme, the Mosaic Torah is replaced or added too with a New Testament law of “Thou shall nots.” similar to evangelical piety. On the other extreme, there is an attempt to bring just Jewish rituals into a church setting, losing the wealth of Jewish tradition in order to survive in a Gentile church. Most churches and denominations not knowing or caring about the Jews in any sense.
God’s one covenant of grace, through faith, begins in Genesis 3 and continues throughout eternity. The central focus of that covenant is the legal propitiatory sacrifice on the cross of Jesus Christ for the sins of mankind, Jew and Gentile, and his bodily resurrection three days later, celebrated in western Christianity this coming Resurrection Sunday March 23rd. He was crucified for my transgressions and in His resurrection I am healed, or justified as sinless and adopted as a child of God now and forever. This is essentially the historic orthodox Reformation and Roman Catholic view of this one covenant.
This is the context by which Sarah’s Talent will make her a Completed Jew, and by which I am a Completed Gentile. All that is left is the anticipation of the reality of seeing wild olives grafted into the Olive Tree of Spiritual Israel. Similarly seeing how the stick of Judah and Ephraim again become one. All of God’s people, Gentile and Jew, will end this present life and enter into that new reality, either in this world or the next. However the grace of God calls you, and you allow yourself to be used by God for His Glory, will only determine the stage of our life of ending and this beginning. For the eternal state will be, as this fallen state should be, new every morning.
So we have come to the end of this Symbiotic Economics journey. A process that contrasts the metis of God’s people as opposed to the chaos of other worldviews. It is quite that simple, and that mystery you shall only learn from the specific revelation of God through His word, fore ordained before the world was formed.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its bud,
As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah 61:10,11
PDF copy
Only In the Beginning, the beginning was not an end. As such we finally come to the end of this Symbiotic Economics series. This final chapter is far from what I envisioned at the onset and has definitely taken longer than I had originally outlined. Such is life, the endings take longer most of the time than the beginnings. Perhaps more appropriately, the seeds of the new beginning are planted in the soil of the end and just as in nature, sometimes it takes a long time for the seed to germinate to even produce a seedling, and again much longer to produce some mature fruit.
It is fitting, whether you consider yourself a religious person or not, that this ending comes at perhaps a unique week in history. Last Sunday, western Christianity celebrated Palm Sunday, or the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Again, according to church history, by this Friday (Good Friday) night he was dead, having been crucified. That crucifixion, a propitiatory sacrifice to fulfill the legal requirements of the Mosaic law, still needs to be the prime reason for the existence for that heretical Jewish sect of the Pharisees, which has become known as Christianity.
In 400 years of God’s silence after the completion of the Old Testament canon, or the Jewish Bible, there comes an ending of such a generally recognized importance, that it changed the marking of time. That is an ending, period. But if it just ended there, with a dead rabbi and prophet, Christianity would not exist. Whether you believe it or not, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead and was witnessed by many, well beyond his direct followers, before He ascended into Heaven to be with His eternally coexistent Father, and until He returns in judgement at the end of this present age. At that time, this then silent humble sheepish Lamb of God, returns in power to become the King of Creation. This King was what the Jewish people were looking for 2000 years ago, and still are waiting in anticipation.
As we stated last week, that Jewish blindness was caused by God, until such time that the Gentiles had been added or grafted into the eternal Olive tree that is spiritual Israel. That spiritual Olive tree is metaphysically speaking the oldest tree on earth, because it extends back to the institution of the Covenant of Grace, after humanities fall into sin in the Garden in Eden. That family tree begins with Adam and Eve, grows through Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thereafter, through David, Solomon, and his successors up to a virgin birth in that lineage through Joseph and Mary, having a totally human son Jesus, in Greek, or Yehoshua in Hebrew and the western alphabet, translated Joshua in English, all meaning Yahweh (God) is Salvation.
Putting all this into terms of succinct historic orthodox Reformation Christianity, Jesus became God’s sacrifice, bringing God’s righteous and holy judgement upon himself, instead of letting it fall upon me, and the rest of fallen humanity. Jesus died for my sins. But it does not end there, on the third day he rose from the dead for my justification as righteous in the totally legal sense, thereby adopting me as a child of God, and co-heir with Christ for eternity. That is the good news, we hear so little about in today’s world. That Good News, is celebrated this Sunday, generally called Easter, but more appropriately Resurrection Sunday.
Furthermore, this week in history is significant for the Jewish faith also, because on Friday is the Feast of Purim. This is one of two feasts in Judaism not commanded by God in the Torah. The other being the Festival of Lights or Chanukah. Purim however is found in the Bible in the book of Ester, while Chanukah took place during in the intra-testament period. However there is New Testament evidence that Jesus did celebrate this festival but it is not germane to this discussion.
Looking at this in the context of Sarah’s Talent last week we see, that on the day Christianity, in this truly unique year, says that Jesus was crucified for the sins of mankind, while the mantle of Ester enters into Jewish thought and speaks essentially the final words of Mordecai “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Ester 4:14b.
In last week’s episode, Sarah’s mum suggested that Sarah might find a good husband among the Christian community, this Friday timing exceeds mum’s idea by a magnitude unfathomable in ordinary or common means. Furthermore, that is a pretty heavy talent for Sarah or anyone to carry, but the point of historic Christianity, is that we don’t carry the burden, Jesus Christ carries it for us, past, present, and future. It is finished in time and space for eternity. A mystery for sure, but again it is defined in the grace of God alone, focusing upon that finished work upon the cross and the risen Savior.
As I finished writing these words, and email chimed into my inbox. A prayer request in a very difficult situation contained words of Psalm 37:3 and is also quite appropriate here: Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Many translations do not contain “LORD” in capital letters meaning God alone, or the “His” but both are very appropriate in the context of both situations.
Before we continue I would like to introduce a couple of terms that will be expanded upon as we continue. In the context of Sarah’s talent given by God, for the uniting of Jew and Gentile, Sarah is not called to be a Christian, which is probably difficult for both Jews and Christians to understand. Nor is Sarah called to become a Messianic Jew. Sarah is being called to become a term we will call “Completed Jew.” Therefore, Sarah need not renounce her Jewish faith and traditions, but rather accept that a Jewish Messiah has come, completing and fulfilling all Old Testament and Jewish Bible prophesies.
In like manner Sarah’s other half of the equation is not called to become Jewish, or to renounce his Christian heritage, but to understand that he has been grafted in as a wild olive branch into the eternal Olive tree of Spiritual Israel. As we stated earlier this has it’s roots in God’s covenant of grace which began in Eden’s Garden. Sarah’s husband has become therefore a “Completed Gentile.” In essence the two have become the first fruits in a symbolic way of the unification of God’s people, or a distinct righteous Metis.
In November, the Symbiosis Economic chapters began with “The Day that Religion Died” and was followed by “Dry Bones Valley.” Both of these articles loosely use as a basis Ezekiel 37, as a latter day prophesy for not only the rebuilding of the Jewish state of Israel in the Holy Land after World War II, but also a possible relationship of Dry Bones being the current operating structure of the Christian church. As in the Ezekiel 37 passage, this bringing Dry Bones to life is really a work of the LORD. This means simply that humans must watch this work of God in humility and awe, not in self indulgent euphoria. We will not be able to hold a festival to the God who brought us out of Egypt, as did the liberated nation of Israel while Aaron was in charge and Moses was on the mountain receiving the ten commandments.
What I noticed lately when I looked at this Ezekiel 37 passage was that it follows quite a similar context of Paul’s reuniting of the wild olive tree of the Gentiles with the natural tree of Israel in Romans 11:13-27. This Romans’ passage also being the basis for Sarah’s Talent last week, which find a similar unifying passage in the “these bones are the whole house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 37:11)
The Ezekiel passage continues in verses 15-17 as the wood symbolism of two sticks united. The one stick (not signified as the first stick) is for the house of Judah, “For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.” The other stick, “For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.” They are joined in Ezekiel’s hand and become one stick in verse 17. Notice the added modifier with Ephraim, that is not present with Judah’s stick, “and for all the house of Israel.”
We must look at this in the context of what Ezekiel saw, however we are too quick to overlook. At best we may look at this and say the northern half of Israel is reunited with the southern portion, what’s the big deal? To Ezekiel, the stick of Ephraim represented the first metis people, part Jew, part Gentile, to put it kindly. The first Goyim are represent in Ephraim and this stick.
The Lord God, then repeats the same scenario, so that Ezekiel will correctly answer when people proclaim. “Zeek, you crusty old prophet, you must have slipped a gear, even the Almighty would never make a mistake like that, you have got to be kidding us. Judah and Ephraim one people, it will never happen! Oy vay!”
Now read verses 37:21-28 in the context of what has just transpired and the context of Romans 11, one Olive Tree of Sarah’s Talent.
“Then say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
“David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
While they might not like it, I believe most Jewish rabbis will find this exegesis easier to comprehend than most modern evangelicals. Simply because most evangelicals really do not hold a single covenant of grace concept for all of (spiritual) Israel. While most of the Christian support from Israel comes from the Christian right, it really is just another divergent anti-Semitic, attempt at replacement theology. Classical Dispensationalism as I understand it, teaches, that “true Christians” will be Raptured out, before The Great Tribulation, leaving Jews on earth to come to Christ during that period of judgement of the earth before the end of this current age. Furthermore, during the 1000 year reign of Christ, Christians will be in heaven enjoying eternity, while Jews are on earth working out their salvation through the Mosaic sacrificial system.
That means that later period Old Testament prophesy concerning the Jewish sacrificial system are, if practiced at all, truly only symbolic. Christ died once in real history for the sins of all mankind. This has finished, completed, fulfilled prophesy, completely satisfying the Mosaic Law’s requirement for the shedding of blood forever. The Law’s sacrificial blood only covered human sin. The blood shed by Jesus, as Christ, washes and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
Messianic Jews, as they now exist, are caught between evangelicalism and rabbinical teaching, many times the leaders picking portions that seem most consistent from divergent streams of religious thought. In one extreme, the Mosaic Torah is replaced or added too with a New Testament law of “Thou shall nots.” similar to evangelical piety. On the other extreme, there is an attempt to bring just Jewish rituals into a church setting, losing the wealth of Jewish tradition in order to survive in a Gentile church. Most churches and denominations not knowing or caring about the Jews in any sense.
God’s one covenant of grace, through faith, begins in Genesis 3 and continues throughout eternity. The central focus of that covenant is the legal propitiatory sacrifice on the cross of Jesus Christ for the sins of mankind, Jew and Gentile, and his bodily resurrection three days later, celebrated in western Christianity this coming Resurrection Sunday March 23rd. He was crucified for my transgressions and in His resurrection I am healed, or justified as sinless and adopted as a child of God now and forever. This is essentially the historic orthodox Reformation and Roman Catholic view of this one covenant.
This is the context by which Sarah’s Talent will make her a Completed Jew, and by which I am a Completed Gentile. All that is left is the anticipation of the reality of seeing wild olives grafted into the Olive Tree of Spiritual Israel. Similarly seeing how the stick of Judah and Ephraim again become one. All of God’s people, Gentile and Jew, will end this present life and enter into that new reality, either in this world or the next. However the grace of God calls you, and you allow yourself to be used by God for His Glory, will only determine the stage of our life of ending and this beginning. For the eternal state will be, as this fallen state should be, new every morning.
So we have come to the end of this Symbiotic Economics journey. A process that contrasts the metis of God’s people as opposed to the chaos of other worldviews. It is quite that simple, and that mystery you shall only learn from the specific revelation of God through His word, fore ordained before the world was formed.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its bud,
As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah 61:10,11