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DOWNLOAD "Without to Within" MP3 |
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| ...tear down this Temple |
Without to Within
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by haRold Smith
a citizen of the Commonwealth (Ephesians 2:19) 
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"So the Pharisees said to Him, 'What SIGN do you show us for doing these things?' Yeshua answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days it shall be raised.' The Pharisees then said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking about the temple of His Body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the Word that He had spoken." John 2:18-22
"Come, let us return to YHVH. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; on the third day HE WILL RESTORE US that we may live in His Presence. Let us know; let us press on to know YHVH; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:1-3
Christianity consistently creates problematic doctrine by yanking one verse out of context from the rest of all scripture in an attempt to make the words written support its own pre-conceived theology - instead of just reading the words for what they say and mean from the Hebraic perspective they were written in. In John 2:18-22 (click on highlighted words to view content)) the Greek word translated as the English "scripture" is graphe which means "a writing, thing written". The only scripture available at the time of this event was the Tanakh (OT). Just as Yeshua pointed to the scripture (or writings) concerning the "sign of Jonah" in Matthew 12:38-40; in similar manner, when asked what SIGN He would produce to verify His authority and right to cleanse the temple in the previous verses, the scripture Yeshua was quoting in this passage and the SIGN to which He was pointing about what His Father, YHVH, would do is written in Hosea 6:1-3 above. The only Word Yeshua speaks are what He has been taught of His Father, YHVH, which are contained in the Tanakh (John 7:16, John 8:28, John 14:23-24, John 12:49-50, John 14:10). The response of those Pharisees present to Yeshua's statement concerning the temple was not of disbelief, but one of wonderment over HOW such a thing could be done. Having diligently studied the Tanakh, they understood the sign He was referring to was the Restoration of the Kingdom spoken of from the scripture in Hosea and the Word He was speaking as that of His Father's.
There was a difference between the temple of YHVH which was the structure itself and the sanctuary of YHVH which was the dwelling place of His Presence. When Yeshua was accusing the Pharisaical authorities He said, "You have made My Fathers house into a den of thieves." By saying "My Father" they knew He was claiming Messianic authority over the temple, and so they said, "What sign do you show us seeing that you do these things?" and notice what He said: "Yeshua answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then the Pharisees said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the temple of His body." (John 2:13-21). They were looking at the physical structure (Hebrew miqdash - from Exodus 25:8 - trahslated as the English "sanctuary") of the temple; but when He said, "Destroy this temple" He used the Hebrew word mishkan which was the word used in Exodus 40:34 (translated as the English "tabernacle") to describe the place within the Holy of Holies where the Glory of YHVH's Presence would manifest like a cloud on the mercy seat between the cherubim after the blood was sprinkled - that was the mishkan. Yeshua was saying "I am the temple (mishkan) of YHVH." That Presence was what Yeshua said dwelt within Him. And was the same thing Paul said about the Body of Yeshua, "Know you not that you are the temple (mishkan) of YHVH?" (1Corinthians 3:16). To become a member of the body of the Messiah means to have the same Presence dwelling within us as did Yeshua. YHVH doesn't dwell in buildings but within His People. When you believe on, rely upon, trust in, embrace the Life of YHVH as exampled by the Life of Yeshua, you become the mishkan of YHVH. YHVH's ultimate goal has always been to dwell within His people (Jeremiah 31:31-33) and to put His Spirit within us. When you embrace the Life of Yeshua, you become the mishkan of YHVH. "So important is this mishkan (Hebrew for "place of residence") that we must constantly be building it - preparing it and making it fit for His rest. Anything that soils it or makes it inappropriate for His Presence must be jettisoned from our lives and repudiated as unbecoming a child of YHVH whose primary goal in life is to have on-going communion and friendship with the Creator" (Tim Hegg, Studies in Torah: Exodus, p. 158).
It is important to recognize how the very structure of our language subtly alters how we understand the text. Hebrew does not work like English or any of the Indo-European languages of which we are familiar. First, it has no vowels. Secondly, the structure of the Hebrew letters communicates a second level of meaning impossible to translate and, third, the syntax of Hebrew is strikingly different than other languages. Even though the only documents we have of the Messianic Writings (NT) are in Greek, they were still written by Hebrews out of a Hebrew mindset influenced through Hebrew culture from a purely Hebrew perspective addressing a Hebrew audience who understood the nuances of the Hebrew language. If we are going to truly understand what these Hebrews were trying to communicate, we must consider the perspective these words were written from and that involves a harkening back to the Tanakh. The English words, "I will raise..." are artificially inserted into all of the English translations of John 2:19. This phrase is actually taken from the single Greek word, egaro, which Strong's definition shows it meaning "to waken (transitively or intransitively), i.e. rouse (literally, from sleep, from sitting or lying, from disease, from death; or figuratively, from obscurity, inactivity, ruins, nonexistence)" and is translated in Mark 2:9 as simply "arise". There is no personalization connected to this or any other usage of it in the Messianic Writings (NT) except what is placed there by the translators. Thus, a more accurate translation of this phrase in English (as shown above) would be, "...it (the Temple) shall be raised" and is referring to the restoration of YHVH's Kingdom from without to within which is the Promise of Inheritance given to YHVH's Family of Israel - precisely what Yeshua said His Purpose was in being sent.
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| ...and in three days it shall be raised. |
Since the time of the separation from echad in YHVH with Adam until Yeshua's Resurrection, the tabernacle in the wilderness and the subsequent temple in Jerusalem had been the place where YHVH resided. The Family always had access to His Presence but it was from without - apart from being echad with the Father of the Family of Israel as it had been in the Garden. What was primarily lost in gan edan (Hebrew for "edan garden") by Adam's disobedience was not the ability to come into YHVH's Presence. Scripture tells us that Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Moses and King David all had access to YHVH's Presence and hearing His Voice immediately after leaving the Garden. This has always been accomplished through adherence to the Protocol of Light, keeping the Ten Words of YHVH and the temporary atonement made by the High Priest once a year for the sins of the fathers (the corruption of the Blood) handed down to the family. To obtain eternal life is to abide in the Presence of the Eternal One (Mark 10:17-19). What was lost was a forfeiture of inheritance to the right of co-ownership of the Kingdom as the firstborn son of the family - the loss of echad, the shared image, being One in agreement with the Father. That inheritance was not sold or given away to a fictional "Satan" - it was simply relinquished; thus creating a void in the rightful passage of ownership to the Kingdom. That the adversary was able to fill the void left by that relinquishment and possess it did not usurp YHVH's ownership - mere possession is not ownership. Hence, in Exodus 19:5 YHVH proclaims "the earth is mine". YHVH created it and, while obligated to honor the actions of his son, Adam, that subjected His creation to futility - He was still the legal, rightful owner of a possession in need of reclamation.
From without to within. The Resurrection of Yeshua restored the relationship of echad to the family of YHVH first vested in the first son, the Hebrew Adam in the Garden but lost in the Separation. This is the reason Yeshua was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel because the restoration of the inheritance of YHVH's Kingdom had to first be re-established within His Own Family of Israel before it could be offered to all nations. What was extended to other nations was the opportunity to be in a behavioral relationship covenant with the Holy One of Israel - not some universal "god". The sin Yeshua was sent to expunge was not individual sin so that you and I could just do what we want, but the generational sin of disobedience to YHVH's Word that kept the family separated from being echad with the Father. Yeshua's comment about the Temple was in reference to the fulfillment of the Restoration of YHVH's Kingdom which is His Purpose for being sent and the reason for His Resurrection - to establish a new place of residency for His Father within His Communal Body.
| "And they were all filled with THE BREATH OF LIFE and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Hebrews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own dialect." Acts 2:4-6 |
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| ...from without to within |
There are only two possible explanations for this deliberate misreading of the text. First, theological predispositions are applied to the text regardless of what it actually says - following the approach of the early church fathers that rejected the Torah (containing the dietary instructions) in order to drive a wedge between Christianity and anything Hebraic. Or secondly, we have heard these doctrines for so long that we no longer question them - nor do we care to question them because we really just don't want to change what we eat or how we behave. Just As Yeshua became echad with YHVH by manifesting His Name, so are those who are called to follow in His Example to do the same. The Body of Yeshua is now the Temple in which the Name of YHVH abides. To be a member of the Body of Yeshua, of which He is the Head, is to be in a behavioral covenant relationship with YHVH's Spirit in this earthly realm. To BE Yeshua is to bear witness to the Truth of the Words of YHVH by living those Words. YHVH has changed His residency. He has a new abode - but His Words remain the same.
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Without to Within, a discussion
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"Yeshua answered,
'My kingdom is not of this world"
If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Pharisees. But my kingdom is not from the world.' Then Pilate said to him, 'So you are a king?' Yeshua answered, 'You say that I am a king.
For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world - to bear witness to the Truth.
Everyone who is of the Truth listens to my voice'." John 18:36-37 | |
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The Temple Series
Part One: Without to Within Part Two: the Dividing Wall Part Three: the 613 Part Four: the Elevation Part Five: the Circumcision |
Please feel free to email me at harold@hethathasanear.com. While not claiming to have all
the answers, it would be an honor to partake with you of what Spirit is uncovering.
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