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From Eliyahu

Consider this:

We, Israel, have a long history of being a contentious and rebellious people. While slaves in Egypt many of Israel objected when Moses followed the battle plan of YHWH to set His people free. Moses took the message of YHWH to Pharaoh, only to have Pharaoh put harsher burdens upon those slaves, greatly increasing their labors.  They blamed Moses:

The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble, when it was said, “You shall not diminish anything from your daily quota of bricks!” They met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came out from Pharaoh: and they said to them, “May YHWH look at you, and judge, because you have made us a stench to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”  Exodus 5:19-21

This is quite a wonder! These Israelite slaves had been praying for deliverance for centuries, and when the right time came for YHWH to actually send His man to them, to set them free, they didn't like how the enemy responded to the challenge, bringing trouble on them. Was it not entirely predictable that Pharaoh would retaliate? Apparently those Israelites had their own idea of what deliverance from bondage in Egypt should look like. In their version Pharaoh would not get mad at them. The deliverance from bondage would cost them nothing. God would just do it all, and poof! They are transported to the Promised Land and a life of milk and honey! So instead of blaming the enemy who inflicted the pain, they blamed Yah's man, for doing what YHWH told him to do in this 1st phase of the deliverance battle! They were so rebellious in their attack on Moses they even called down a supposed judgment from YHWH against Moses because this deliverance wasn't going the way they thought it should! Had not YHWH kindly overlooked their nasty attitude and faithlessness, and sovereignly brought them out anyway, Israel never would have gotten out of Egypt. As it is, while that generation of Israel was carried "on eagle's wings" as far as the border of the Promised Land, once there, they again did not like the Divine Plan. They refused to enter in. Yes, there was a very small faithful remnant who urged obedience to the Divine Plan, but the faithless majority won the day. What they "won" was forty years of wandering and dying in the wilderness because of their unbelief.  

During the generations of the Judges there were times when the Remnant won the day, and Israel acted in faith and obedience. However, that was the exception. Most of the time the majority of Israel "did what was right in their own eyes" with little concern for the Divine Will. Even when seeking a king, they were not looking for Yah's choice. They wanted a king "like all the nations." They were pleased with what they got.

Saul [was] a choice and handsome man, and there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of Israel; from his shoulders and up he was taller than any of the people.  1 Samuel 9:2 NASB

Saul was exceptionally tall, handsome, and charismatic. The type of person who is immediately very impressive. If you were going to hold an election for king among that soulish people, Saul would win, and did win, hands down. The only problem? Same problem that goes wrong with so many elections today. Saul looked good, sounded good, was very persuasive - but on the inside was self-willed, rebellious, and actually a profane man who was only out for his own interests. Predictably, from a spiritual standpoint, the reign of Saul was a disaster for Israel.

Fortunately, YHWH had anointed another, to become king after Saul's inevitable passing. Of course I am speaking of the "man after God's own heart" King David. Though anointed by YHWH as king, the majority of the nation opposed David as king, and made war on him. Yes, I'm talking about the tribes of Israel warring against Elohim's anointed king! Only after a bloody civil war within the nation, was David finally put into the position that YHWH had ordained for him. Had YHWH not fought David's battles and defeated the faithless majority, that nation would have never allowed David to take the throne as YHWH's anointed ruler of Israel. Once enthroned over all Israel, David held the record as the greatest king of Israel ever, for a thousand years, all the way up to the coming of his royal descendant, the Messiah, Yeshua.

True to form, when the Messiah finally came, the leaders of Israel rejected Him, as they had rejected Moses, David, and even all of the prophets. As the righteous Stephen said to the ruling council of Israel in the 1st Century:

You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. You received the Torah as it was ordained by angels, and didn't keep it! Acts 7:51-53

An interesting fact in the case of Moses, David, and the Messiah, is that the rebel faction, in each case, was far larger than the faithful remnant of Israel. Despite the larger size of the rebel faction, it was always the faithful remnant in support of God's man who stood in harmony and faith with the Divine Plan and the Divine Authority - being the true Israel. As the world looks at the 1st Century Judeans, they see the faithful followers of the Messiah -- the Nazarenes -- as a sect, a schism, from the mainstream Judeans. However, from the exalted viewpoint of YHWH, it was the mainstream Judeans who had broken off from the Covenant, from the Torah, and from fidelity to the Elohim they claimed to serve! With their refusal to accept His anointed Messiah as King, their apostasy was complete. That mainstream majority were the faction, the schism, broken away from True Israel! Remnant Israel went on under Messiah, even as the old apostate order received the terrible judgment upon them that they deserved.

This true story of the Great Judaic Schism is the historically precise and correct backdrop for the book of Acts and the so-called New Testament, compared with the false and self-serving narrative handed down to us from the Gentile Roman Church. This is a real eye-opener that totally changes the entire end-time picture for believers today. If you don't know this, you are still largely in darkness, so far as your view of Messiah and the early believers is concerned.

Why all of these conflicts, rebellions and schisms in the history of God's people? The brother of Messiah, James, tells us:

Where do wars and conflicts among you come from? Don't they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don't have. You kill, covet, and can't obtain. You fight and make war. You don't have, because you don't ask. You ask, and don't receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures. You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim. James 4:1-4

So many believers, especially in times of restraint such as this time of Covid-19, are so enslaved to their own desires and pleasures, that their inner fight with the Spirit breaks out into an actual fight against Spirit-led leaders, who like good parents, tell them "No!" They don't want to hear "No!" They refuse to accept "No!" from YHWH, even though "No!" to the flesh nature is a central message of Scripture. Their own desires and pleasures have become their god, and they will not accept "No!" from the True God. Any discomfort to their flesh-man, any denial of the things they lust after and covet, and they rebel. The real reason for factions is to tame God, by creating a climate tolerant of their rebellion. They want a god who will give them what they want, no matter why they want it or how they go about obtaining it. In short, they want the world - and they want to bring the world into the Assembly. To that, I say "No!" because Messiah says "No!"

So there are fights, there are conflicts, there are factions, there are schisms. Before the remnant nation can emerge, it is inevitable that the wars of Elohim must first be fought among His people, to secure the high ground for the Kingdom. The history of Moses, David, and Messiah all give us the same story, the story of rebellion against "No!"  - Israel must be a holy nation - and holiness is maintained by listening to, and obeying every "No!" that proceeds from the mouth of God. This rebellion is often framed as being "freedom" - but it is really just a refusal to restrain the fallen sin nature.    

This brings us to tonight's premier of our latest re-mastered edition of "The Great Judean Schism." This historical backdrop is absolutely essential to understand where and how everything YHWH had planned for Israel seems to have gone sideways in the 1st Century - and how all of that effects us today.

Join us for our live meeting to be aired tonight, at tsiyon.net, at 8 pm cst. Invite your friends to register free of charge and join us for this special meeting. Each of these "Restoring The Assembly" videos, all together, present the trail of breadcrumbs that can lead us back to the authentic Assembly established by Messiah in the 1st Century. 

Blessings and good health to you!

P.S. - Unrest and riots are not a new thing. That same spirit of rebellion plagued Judea in the 1st century. Many were so caught up and distracted by demonic power-struggles and rebellion against Rome that they failed to see that the God they claimed to worship had sent them the Messiah of Israel. Not only did they miss Him, they even plotted His death. That changed everything. Don't miss tonight's premier of this re-mastered presentation of "The Great Judaic Schism"