The problem lies in our tendency to think there is a one-to-one correspondence between "Israel" and the Jews. But by definition the Jews are descendants of Yaaqov's son Yehudah, and thus are only one of twelve tribes of Israel. To some extent, the Levites and Benjamites were included in their identifiable heritage. But where are the other tribes?

Yarav'am (Jeroboam), the labor force overseer for King Shlomo's magnificent building projects, brought a complaint to his successor, Rehav'am (Rehoboam), about the burdensome workload he was imposing on the other tribes as Shlomo had. The elders concurred that he should indeed lighten their burdens. But instead, Rehav'am listened to his youthful peers, and promised to only make the workload heavier. So the oppressed northern tribes would not accept him as their king. (1 Malakhim/Kings 12) It even angered YHWH (HaShem), who was also displeased because, wise though he was, King Shlomo had many foreign wives and political alliances. This opened the door for idolatry to gain a foothold in Israel.

So YHWH sent the prophet Achiyah to Yarav'am. Achiyah tore a garment into twelve pieces, and told Yarav'am to take ten of them. Only two were left with Rehav'am.

Yarav'am was from the tribe of Ephraim. Thus "Ephraim" became a kind of shorthand for the northern ten tribes, and sometimes it was called the House of Yosef (Joseph), Ephraim's father. The Southern Kingdom was called Judah (Yehudah), from which we derive the term "Jew". The name Israel stayed with the Northern Kingdom, while Judah prevailed in carrying on David's throne. (1 Chron. 5:1-2) And now "the stick of Yosef was in the hands of Ephraim".

Ephraim's namesake was Yosef's son, but Yaaqov adopted him and gave him the right of being in the position of his own firstborn. (Genesis 48) Yaaqov specifically said, "Let my name be upon [Ephraim and his brother Menashe]." (48:16) This means he was given both the right to rule and a double portion of Yaaqov's inheritance, given so there could be someone to rescue his brothers in a time of calamity, as Yosef had already done, proving that his position was rightfully given. So the name Israel (as in v. 15) would first and foremost refer to these two tribes, but the whole Kingdom that was still called Israel was now synonymous with "Ephraim" in the language of the prophets.

YHWH promised to bless Yarav'am if he remained obedient. But Yarav'am was afraid that if his subjects kept going to Jerusalem for YHWH's feasts, they might again become loyal to his now-rival kingdom. So he set up alternative worship sites, and from there the idolatry grew worse. The Northern Kingdom also kept mixing religions, even dedicating altars "to YHWH and His Ashtoreth" (essentially a consort goddess)! Israel walked more and more "in the laws of the Gentiles" (2 Kings 17:8). "Ephraim mixed himself among the nations" (Hoshea 7:8; 8:8). They wanted to be just like the others, so they were taken from the Land and, with poetic justice, were sentenced to BECOME Gentiles! Only Yehudah was left. (17:18) Yehudah also eventually did some of the same things and was punished, but repented and returned to the Land, and has preserved for the world most of the original ways--the Torah, the festivals, and the Sabbath.

What Became of Ephraim?

YHWH said He would not call Ephraim (a.k.a. the House of Israel) His people anymore. (Hoshea 1:9) He scattered them and they ceased to be a nation, even forgetting they had once been Israelites.

Some citizens of the northern tribes did reject this compromise, and moved south to join the southern kingdom of Judah, but only a token remnant. To properly interpret Holy Scripture, we have to recognize the distinction the prophets made from that time on between Judah and Israel. They're not just poetic synonyms. Now Israel's rulers grew more and more evil. They kept mixing religions, even dedicating altars "to YHWH and His Ashtoreth (consort goddess)".

YHWH sent prophets to dramatize their true condition. Zechariah broke a rod to symbolize symbolize the end of the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And just as Hoshea's own wife was unfaithful, Israel had committed harlotry, so the Kingdom would be brought to an end. Through the names of the two illegitimate children of Hoshea's wife Gomer (probably born of her harlotry), YHWH laid out the two curses that would be the Northern Kingdom's specific punishment. The first was named Lo-Ruhamah—"no pity", because they had reached the point where He had to discipline, since "those whom YHWH loves He disciplines". They would have to undergo the curses laid out in D'varim that were to fall on anyone who forsook His covenant.

The name of Gomer's next son, Lo-Ammi, means "not a people". In other words, there would be many descendants of the northern tribes, but they would no longer be considered one nation. They would be cut off from their roots and be dispersed. They would forget that they had ever had any connection to Judah.

By 722 B.C., YHWH had had enough. He used the Assyrians to carry these Israelites away into exile and resettle them elsewhere. Others had fled when they saw the Assyrians coming. They all assimilated with the nations into which they relocated, and most eventually lost their identity completely. That would help explain why Abraham's descendants can't be counted! Nobody knows who most of them are anymore! From a human standpoint, that is... But YHWH never forgot. He said not a kernel of Ephraim would fall to the ground. (Amos 9) He knows where each of the descendants of the Northern tribes is today.

But that's still not the whole story…

Just after the vision of the dry bones, Ezekiel used two sticks to depict Judah and Joseph again being made one in YHWH's hand--a reversal of Zechariah's broken stick. It's a prophecy that one day, somehow, the scattered tribes of Israel would be reunited with Judah.

Yaaqov had prophesied that Ephraim's descendants would become "the fullness of the Gentiles". (Gen. 48:19) People like Yair Davidy, Stephen Collins, and John Hulley have traced the paths of some of them in great detail.

B'reshith (Genesis) suggests that the preponderance ended up mingling with the descendants of Yafeth, a special blessing Noach had given to this son. (9:27) Certain sons of Yafeth are in particular called the ancestors of the "Gentiles who spread out to their coastlands". (10:5) This terminology about the coastlands waiting for YHWH's instruction (Torah) pervades the Tanakh. (e.g., Yeshayahu/ Isaiah 42:4) But YHWH promised Avraham that every family of the earth would "be blessed" through his descendants. (28:14)

Hoshea named his third son Yizre'el ("Elohim will sow" or "scatter"). He did indeed scatter the Northern Kingdom like seeds. But a sown seed is hidden in the ground for the very purpose of later showing up again to bear much fruit. This way, every nation could glean the leftover benefits of Israel's fruitfulness. Amos said YHWH would sift these tribes among all the nations, yet He would not lose track of one kernel. (9:9) "Joseph" would one day, somehow, be reunited with Yehudah. (Ezek. 37:15ff)

In Jeremiah 31, Ephraim slaps his thigh. He'd thought he was an upright man until it was pointed out that he was really still doing many pagan things. This narrows our identification of Ephraim to apparent "Gentiles" who see themselves as obeying "G-d", yet don't generally realize that they are doing it the wrong way. When Ephraim recognizes his error and repents, YHWH says, "Isn't Ephraim (after all) a precious son to Me?"

The prophets repeat this theme over and over so often that within the scope of this short article we cannot cite every reference. But once you see this, it shows up everywhere.

So it is clear that a large group of people whom everyone has thought of as Gentiles needs to return to the covenant of Israel, having always unwittingly preserved that Israelite seed in them.

That is why so many, though having recognized Israel's Elohim to a limited extent, are pointing to Scripture after Scripture and finally recognizing that their churches just do not line up with it. So in whatever way they can, they're returning to the practices actually mandated by Scripture, forsaking paganism wherever they find it, taking on the Sabbath and the other festivals that are actually found in Scripture, and even learning Hebrew!

It is because we are not mere Noachides. We are Hebrews, just not Jews.

I am your Brother Joseph!

Each tribe has a place and is ordained for a particular task. "Each of the descendants of Israel shall set up camp by his own standard with the insignia of his father's house." (BaMidbar/Numbers 2:2) Yehudah led the way, but there were other flags, though the whole camp was in unity. Recognizing this is enabling us to take our place as part of Israel, no longer envying Yehudah. (Yeshayahu 11:13)

That is why we do not just take the easy route and convert to Judaism. If we become Jews, who will do Yosef's job?

Not every aspect of our halachah looks exactly like that done by Yehudah. Our pe'oth are not usually so pronounced or defined in the same way. We eat kosher, but some of us have no qualms about eating milk and meat together, though of course you will never find us boiling a kid in its own mother's milk! (That part is actually in the Torah.) We respect the rulings you have made binding for your tribe, and recognize your far better command of the Hebrew language, but we must always remember that many of them are just that--interpretations. Torah has many facets, and we can't all highlight the same ones, and as each of us brings his perspective on the Torah, we will all benefit.

Ovadyah 18 says that the House of Yosef will play a crucial in the avenging of Yehudah's enemies. So is it any wonder that when most of the world illogically raves about human rights for terrorists, millions are also coming out in support of the state of Israel, and doing so joyfully and eagerly? Most of them do not realize that it is because they, too, are meant to be a part of Israel. At a crucial point of need, when the command is given from above, we will come to your aid. YHWH is answering your many prayers to restore the exiles of the whole House of Israel--though possibly in a way you never expected!

But the New Covenant of Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) 31 "with the House of Israel and the House of Yehudah" cannot be fully in effect until the two houses of Israel are back together. As the firstfruits of the "lost tribes", at present we must be occupied with letting the rest of them know who they are so that we can again be a people (a house of Joseph) ready to unite with the other house--yours. Then Yehudah can walk with the House of Israel. (Yirmiyahu 3:18)

Until then, Shalom, be blessed, and may our renewed observance only serve to goad you, too, to a bit of jealousy, away from learning the ways of the Gentiles, and back to being true, unmixed Israel, the set-apart people among whom YHWH can make His dwelling.

Part 2:

Who Paid for Our Return Ticket?

That is a very fair question. This was a very serious offense against YHWH, and we do not take it lightly. We know that Israel is our spiritual home, and we cannot truly fit or belong anywhere else, yet we are too impoverished by the multitude of our spiritual adulteries to presume to come on our own merits. But He did make provision.

According to the Torah, if someone loses his connection with his inheritance, and is too poor to buy it back, a relative can buy it back for him:

"If your brother has become poor and has sold away some of his property, then his kinsman who can redeem it should redeem whatever his brother sold." (VaYiqra/Leviticus 25:25)

The Southern Kingdom of Yehudah has returned to the land of its rightful heritage, having lost it only temporarily because of a particular transgression. But the Northern Kingdom, which forfeited any rights at all by forsaking the covenant altogether, must have their place in YHWH's economy purchased back if it is to legally and rightfully be theirs again.

Only someone who has his feet solidly on firm ground can rescue someone who is sinking in quicksand. The kinsman-redeemer for the lost tribes would thus have to be someone who was still firmly within the covenant. Hoshea 12:1 says Yehudah is in that position, so that relative would have to come from Yehudah. But who would--or could--do that?

Jewish tradition, based squarely on the prophets, says that it is the mashiach (messiah) who is responsible to bring the lost tribes back to their inheritance. The messiah has to be the descendant of David (Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah 33:15), and thus is from the tribe of Yehudah. Yeshayahu/Isaiah 49:6 says it is not enough for him merely "to raise up [or bring back from the dead] the tribes of Yaaqov and the faithfully-guarded ones of Israel". He was given other privileges as well, but this verse tells us that his chief role would be to "resuscitate" those from the tribes that YHWH promised to scatter, but not lose even one of them. (Amos 9) His eye is always on them; this is why they are "faithfully guarded". (Yirmiyahu 16:14)

The prophet Daniel gave the time frame for when this would occur: "Know and act wisely: From the issuing of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Mashiach the prince, [there will be] seven weeks, then sixty-two weeks... Then after the sixty-two weeks Mashiach the prince will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the coming prince will make the city and the sanctuary [into] ruins..." (9:25-26)

So he has to come before the Temple and the holy city are again destroyed. That places us before 70 C.E. The term "weeks" here can also mean "sets of seven years". 69 (7+62) sets of seven totals 483 years. This Messiah, therefore, had to come 483 years after this word was issued. So when was it issued?

445 B.C.E. was the 20th year of Artaxerxes, the year Nechemyah 2 says that the king allowed Nechemyah to go rebuild Jerusalem in the month of Nisan. More precisely it can probably be dated to the new moon of Nisan. So we need to calculate 483 years from then. That would appear to come out at 38 C.E., but there is another factor. Prior to 701 B.C.E. (when calendars around the world all had to be recalculated due to a major planetary passby that changed the length of an earth-year to 365.24 days) a year was exactly 360 days long. (That is why a circle has 360 degrees.) In the 19th century, Sir Robert Anderson (in The Coming Prince) recognized that a prophetic year was also 360 days even after this point. Thus, we are speaking of 173,880 days. This translates to 476.07 years the way we count them today, or 476 years and 25 days.

Using this measure, and taking into account lunar cycles and intercalary years as measured prior to 360 C.E., Anderson calculated that this 483-year period ended on the 10th of Nisan, in 32 C.E. Nisan (Aviv) 10 was the same day Moshe Rabbeynu was told to command Israel to select the Passover lamb. It is four days before Pesach. That is the very day on which one who did claim to be the Messiah (and appears to be the only claimant in that time frame who can be given serious consideration) wept upon seeing Jerusalem, saying, "If only you had known--you indeed--at least on this, your day, the things that could lead to your peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes... Your enemies will raise up a siege-ramp against you, and lay you even with the ground... because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." He was alluding to the very ruination that Daniel had predicted! "This, your day" was the day he should have been recognized as Messiah, but was not (by the high priest and Sanhedrin, etc.--the ones who counted).

Strangely, he was recognized as the Messiah by millions who have very little inkling of what it means to be the Messiah! For one thing, almost every one of them is unaware of his role as defined above in Yeshayahu 49. Why?

We submit that it was because those were the ones who were the "lost sheep of the House of Israel" that he said his job was to search out. (See Matithyahu 15:24 in the collection known as the Renewed Covenant.) And because they were not yet gathered, the Messianic Kingdom could not yet come to Yehudah either.

Many Jews--even Orthodox--are now reconsidering his claims and seeing that he is not what Christians have made him out to be. They are admitting that he may be at least one in a series of messiahs. But of course they are not becoming Christians. There is a third option. That is why we ask you not to not to discount our claim to be Israel if we, who were once Christians but are no longer, do not reject Y'shua hook, line, and sinker as we return to Torah. One of his most prominent spokesmen of the second generation declared that the message about Y'shua was "for the Jew first", and that alone would make him warrant your consideration, though that, by his own description, was not his focus. But for the House of Israel he is not a marginal figure, but an indispensable aspect of our t'shuvah.

We have indeed left behind the idolatrous worship of Y'shua, but we are also careful to guard against throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There is a big difference between believing that he was the Messiah and being part of the pagan mixture that the church has become after two millennia of accretions added to and misunderstandings of what he said. If we can strip them all away and see him in his original form, the resulting picture may be very different. The "Jesus Christ" of Christianity is a sadly distorted caricature of the real Jewish Y'shua. Everything said here both can and should be understood only within the parameters and framework of the "Shema". In fact, he was so concerned for the purity of YHWH's sanctuary that he angered the powers that were in control there to the point of their putting a price on his head--even though he knew this would mean he was likely to be killed before he ever got to take the throne.

The day he wept over Jerusalem's failure was the very day Moshe had said to select the lamb. That should tell us something about how important the Torah was to him. If you read the accounts of his life, especially the one written by Yochanan (John), you will find that almost every significant event in his life fell on one of the Moadim. There is even a growing body of evidence that he was born on Sukkoth. He made it very clear that he would have no respect for anyone who tried to deny the importance of even one letter of the Torah. (Matithyahu/Matthew 5:17-19) So clearly he has been misrepresented, and to leave him off the list of possible messiahs for that reason would be to do yourself the greatest disservice.

"But", you may say, "he didn't bring back the lost tribes, so by your very own definition, how could he be the Messiah?" Didn't he? Let's take a closer look...

The Messiah's Role

On the 40th day of the Counting of the Omer, Y'shua's disciples asked him if this was the time he was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. (Acts 1:6) Their expectation must have been heightening as he was already climbing the Mount of Olives. They knew the kingdom would begin when Messiah's feet touched that very mountain. (Zech. 14:4)

What he said in reply has often been taken as a denial of that goal, but after three and a half years of teaching them about the Kingdom of Heaven, this is what was foremost in their minds. So maybe we have not understood his mission the same way his first followers did.

His reply was, "It is not for you to know the times and seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you will receive power after the spirit of holiness has come upon you [as it did ten days later, on Shavuoth], and you will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem, all Judea, and Samaria, and to the farthest extremities of the earth."

One of Y'shua's most famous analogies is about the prodigal son's father, who had another son [representing Yehudah] still at home, looking expectantly for his other son to return. Though YHWH had forsaken Ephraim "for a moment", His heart longed to have His "firstborn" back! When He said He had other sheep that were "not of this flock" (Judah), He was echoing Ezekiel's prophecy that there would be one shepherd for both Yehudah and Israel. (34:23) The New Testament can only be properly understood in light of these promises to regather Ephraim.

Jacob had prophesied that Ephraim would "grow into a multitude in the midst of the land." In Hebrew, it really says they would "multiply like fishes". Fish multiply on land? The only time we ever see this idea again is when Y'shua multiplies the loaves and fishes, near the landlocked Sea of Galilee, and there were 12 basketfuls left over (enough for all 12 tribes)! When He spoke of going as "fishers of men", this was not a new idea; He was alluding to a specific prophecy: "'Behold, the days are coming', declares YHWH, when it will no longer be said, 'As YHWH lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of Egypt', but rather, 'As YHWH lives, who brought the descendants of Israel from all the lands to which He had driven them.... I will send for many fishermen, and they will fish them out...for My eyes are on all their journeyings..." (Jeremiah 16:16)

So Y'shua never denied that He had come to restore the kingdom to Israel. Far from it. All He did was to turn his disciples' focus toward what turns out to have just been the first step--finding the subjects of the northern Kingdom--His long-lost relatives--and again making them into people worthy to be its citizens. He was sending them out with a dragnet to draw Ephraim back to the covenant they once forsook. For He was that Kinsman Redeemer for the prodigal tribes.

A New Look at the New Testament
(through Hebrew glasses)

Hoshea said, "In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people', they shall be called 'Sons of the Living Elohim.'" (Hos. 1:10) "Sons of Elohim" is exactly how Y'shua's followers were described by Y'shua's closest friend. (John 1:12; 1 John 3:2) So this "called-out community" which was perverted (but not completely) is where we have to look for Ephraim today.

Another of his prominent spokesman, Paul, said all of creation was eager for the time when it would be revealed who these "sons of Elohim" are. (Rom. 8:19) Don't throw Paul out with the bathwater either. He was a Pharisee (P'rush, from which rabbinic Judaism derives) and continued to call himself that long after he started following Y'shua. (Acts 23:6) Many years later he claimed to have done nothing contrary to Israelite custom (Acts 28:17), and he went to great expense to enable some others to fulfill a particular commandment when some were calling his loyalty into question. (Acts 21) While he spoke often of "grace", it was because his focus was on those who were in exile, needing grace as much as someone unable to pay the rent on the day it is due. But he would never dispute the fact that there had to eventually be some payment!

In a definitive meeting at Jerusalem (Acts 15), the leaders of Y'shua's community laid down only four ground-rules so that (unlike Shlomo and Rehav'am) they would not be laying an oppressive burden on the other tribes. The bare basics of kashrut and niddah and the forsaking of idolatry and sexual immorality were the first requirement, so that they could all eat at the same table with Yehudah.

Eating with Gentiles was a taboo in that era which took the "fence around Torah" a little too far, since it was screening out the returning lost tribes as well as the truly unclean Gentiles. But aside from the fact that today's Christians do not even keep all of these few rules, they have also ignored the very next qualifying statement: "because Moshe is taught every Shabbat in every city's synagogue"! In other words, they were saying, "Go there and learn the rest little by little--at a pace that is not burdensome to you!"

Another of Y'shua's closest friends, Kefa (usually called Peter in English), warned that Paul's letters should not be taken lightly. He admitted that in them "there are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist [wrest] ...to their own ruin." (1 Peter 3:16) That is the story of the last 2,000 years in a nutshell. But his main point is to vindicate Paul; there had to be something straight to start with in order for it to have been twisted.

Yaaqov (often called James), Y'shua's own younger brother and the leader of the community of his followers in Jerusalem, wrote his letter partly to set parameters for how Paul's writings were to be understood--to clarify what they could not mean, to preclude them being taken in the direction that they nonetheless ended up being taken in, once Emperor Constantine co-opted the once-persecuted community for his political purposes.

James came right out and said what Paul only alluded to (though very clearly once you know what to look for): he came right out and addressed his letter directly to "the twelve tribes in the dispersion"! This gives a very different angle from how the "New Testament" is usually described, often in inadvertently anti-Semitic terms. only what no longer fit would be revised; everything else remained in effect exactly as before.

Y'shua announced the night before his Passover-day death that he had renewed the covenant with his followers, who at that time were mostly or all Jewish. (Matt. 26:28) But the "letter to the Hebrews" states,

"He [Y'shua] is the mediator of the new covenant, so that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called might receive the promise of an eternal inheritance." (9:15)

Ezekiel had declared that the Northern Kingdom's punishment would last 390 years. (4:4-5) Jeremiah 16, which described in glowing terms how YHWH would go out seeking His lost sheep, went on to say, "But neither is their guilt hidden from My eyes, so FIRST I will recompense their iniquity and their sin DOUBLE, for they have defiled my land [with idols]." The double of 390 is 780 years. By the 360-day year mentioned above, beginning from the final deportation by Assyria in 722 B.C.E., this comes out to about 46 C.E.-right about the time Paul turned his focus toward the "Gentiles"!

But why did Paul, who was sent to the Gentiles, always begin his search for responsive Gentiles in the local synagogue? Because some of those "Gentiles" were "waiting for His Torah." (Isaiah 42:4) The "seed of Jacob" in them was now germinating and drawing them back to their roots! They had taken the first step to return and also to reunite with their brother, Judah. So YHWH said to declare to these "far-off coastlands" that He who scattered ISRAEL would regather it like a shepherd. (Jer. 31:10)

If Ephraim's seed had mixed with all nations, then, even if they know little about his Hebraic nature, the people who are most serious about following Y'shua may be "Gentiles" only in this secondary sense. Indeed, Paul calls his protégés "FORMER Gentiles"! (1 Cor. 12:2; Eph. 2:11) 2 Chronicles 6:36 and Daniel 9:7 are where Paul drew the concept here of "those who were far off" as contrasted with those who were near--both of which were descriptions of Israelites in particular.

Kefa describes the recipients of his letter as those "who in time past were 'Not a people' ... who had 'not received mercy' but who have now received mercy."(1 Peter 2:10) What can this be but an allusion to Hoshea chapter 1? He was declaring by this that the time of judgment was indeed up!

Once Y'shua had done the work that merited our ransom "in the fullness of time", it was only a matter of informing the scattered Israelites that they could come back home. That's what He sent His apostles to do--to tell them the kingdom had a king again! Unlike Rehoboam, THIS king from Yehudah would NOT to lay too heavy a burden on the other tribes. (Matt. 11:30). He would instead serve His people--so this time Ephraim (still in exile) would accept him as king, and the heir to David's throne would be reunited with his kingdom! That IS great news! And they responded! Before long, they were celebrating because many were "returning to YHWH from among the Gentiles". (Acts 15:19) To return to YHWH, you have to have known Him at one time. "Among the Gentiles" is the specific wording in another prophecy. (Hosea 7:8; 8:8; 9:17)

It was not a haphazard, shotgun approach aiming at all Gentiles anywhere. Ephraim was in higher concentrations in certain areas than in others. At one point some of the Northern tribes, escaping Assyria, had settled in Bithynia, so Paul expected to find them still there. (Acts 16) But by this time they had moved across the Bosporus Strait--right where Macedonia is. So that's where he was sent.

In the process of seeking them out, of course, others heard the message and were permitted to join YHWH's people. (Indeed, that was probably the main reason that Yosef's descendants, like their ancestor, were scattered among the Gentiles.) But this extension was more of an "afterthought" (Yeshayahu 49:6). However, as the percentage of Jews in Y'shua's community grew smaller, what later came to be known as the church began to see this exception as the rule. The focus on bringing Israel back to the covenant they had abandoned was lost in the push to spread what was turning out to be a new religion instead.

Many took advantage of the grace period for personal ends rather than seeing it as time bought so we could get our house in order while still in exile. Eventually the official church forsook the Torah again. Until A.D. 196 Y'shua's resurrection had been commemorated on the Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest, which is when it actually took place. But the Gentile majority didn't use this calendar, and wanted it on a date that made sense to them. In a meeting to which no Jews were invited, they decided it was now always to be on the pagan feast of Ishtar (from which the name "Easter" is derived). The Jews who believed in Y'shua were mortified: "YHWH Himself gave us the date for Passover! How can anyone change it?!"

But this truth was ignored, and after that it was an easy step to leave Passover behind altogether. By Constantine's time, anyone caught celebrating the Resurrection on the proper date was excommunicated! One pope even boasted changing the Sabbath to Sunday was evidence of the level of authority "Christ" had given him. YHWH's two peoples each ignored half of their inheritance. To both, you were either Christian or Jewish. Those who both subscribed to Y'shua and kept the Torah became a very lonely lot. As he had predicted, those who persecuted them thought they were doing YHWH a favor. (Yochanan 16:2) Eventually all who wished to be part of the institutional church had to cut all ties to their Hebraic roots.

So the two houses became separated once again, and the coming of the kingdom was delayed. The punishment of 390 was lengthened to seven times the original, or 2,730 years (based on Leviticus 26:18, which says that if they would still not obey, YHWH would increase the sentence seven times). But this brings us right up to the present.

And indeed there is a promise for this time: "After all these things... you will bring [My commandments] back to mind among all the nations into which YHWH your Elohim has cast you out, and ...return to YHWH ...and obey His voice ...with all your heart and all your soul. At that time YHWH will recover those who were taken away ...and withdraw and assemble you from all the nations into which YHWH your Elohim has dispersed you... YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart... so that you will love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and all your soul... You will turn back and listen to YHWH's voice, and carry out all His commands." (Deut. 30:1-8)

So the sentence, though lengthened, is again up, and it is time for Israel to become a "people"--His unified group--once again.

Paul told those whose ancestors had decided to become Gentiles rather than remain Israelites,

"In Messiah Yahshua you who were once far off [a phrase Daniel used to mean part of Israel] have been brought near by blood, since he is our peace, who has made both one, having broken down the barrier... so as to create in himself one new man from the two...and completely restore both of them to favor..." (Ephesians 2:13-16)

So, though we strive to leave all paganism behind, no longer walking like Gentiles (4:17), we cannot ignore the significance of Y'shua. In the words of a southern American idiom, "You've gotta dance with the one who brung ya!" To "throw the baby out with the bathwater" would be the epitome of ungratefulness for the irreplaceable part he played in giving us a bridge by which to come back into covenant.