Gen. 2:16,17 A Declarative

The Universal Commandment, the UC, is first a declarative commandment. As soon as the prohibition clause is added, the whole becomes an imperative, (by extension).

This means it is one of three declarative commandments, with the first sentence of the Torah and with the first commandment of the ten. 

A declarative commandment can only be obeyed with perfect faith. 

For Adam to have heard this commandment as a declarative commandment may have been difficult. (There is difficulty hearing the other two as commandments.). Here the difficulty is in that rather than a commandment of obedience the UC seems to be a granting of permission, an authorization. Even as such a perfect faith will hear it as a declaration of truth which requires fulfillment, a fulfillment by Adam. As such, it constitutes a commandment to be obeyed. 

Baptism and The One Covenant

The Jordan River (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What does baptism have to do with the one eternal covenant of Israel's redemption and the blessing of the world?  When converts are made to Judaism or to Christianity they are baptized.  This would seem to signify, then, that baptism is related to the covenant, insofar as conversion is understood as entering into the covenant.  Baptism is also associated in the writings of the apostles with the great flood and with the passage of Israel through the Red Sea.

The Flood implicitly promised the one eternal covenant.  It was in this way that the rainbow and the salvation that took place through the Flood were a kind of preliminary covenant promise of the one eternal covenant, a kind of grace for grace.

Emergence from the Red Sea was an illustration of the promise of corporate resurrection for Israel.  It was the baptism of all twelve tribes, corporate Israel, in the sea and in the Jordan River which came in the merit of the Passover Lamb, representing the Lamb of G-d which takes away Adam's corporate sin.

This baptism of Israel, which was first in the sea, was a testimony which required correction in order to be a true testimony.  It was a testimony on the witness stand before all worlds which was falsified by the sin of the golden calf and the sin of the spies and which required rectification in order to show that it was a complete testimony only in following the Shekinah into the Land chosen by God.

Forty years later Israel repeated the baptism of the Red Sea in its crossing of the Jordan River.  This was the testimony of Israel's corporate repentance.  For this reason John/Yochanan baptized in the Jordan, and for this reason Jesus/Yehoshua was baptized of Yochanan in the Jordan, with all Jerusalem and Judah.  All of ths is represented in Solomon's brass sea.  See my website by this name, https://sites.google.com/site/thebrazensea/Home

A convert can be said to enter the word of G-d.  This can be said to be done through baptism, through Solomon's Brass Sea.  We will need to come to understand this well.  May this understanding be given to us, in accordance with 1 Yochanan/John 5:20.

7 Thunders

English: Mashiach Gul and Daniel Gul president of Afghan Jewish community in Palestine, 1917 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is the secret of the mystery of the seven thunders given to those who eat the word of G-d.  As Ezekiel and John are seen eating the word of G-d, so all who do the universal commandment of G-d are sustained by the manna of G-d.

The seven thunders come out of the roar of the angel.  This represents the roar of the LORD out of Jerusalem and Zion spoken of by Amos and by Joel.  The seven thunders are the same seven judgments  that come upon the nations but as they are heard by the people who the LORD is protecting, who are camped behind Him.  These are the 12 tribes of Israel sealed with the seal of Mashiach.  Know that the judgments in Egypt continue until Israel is fully established in Jerusalem and in the Holy Land as the Witness of the Truth of G-d.  We see, therefore, that the wilderness through which Israel passes is the wilderness of the nations.


1st Trumpet | judgment upon food - for the people of G-d, the lesson of manna.  The first attribute of the seal of Mashiach is faith.  G-d will provide for the sake of His service, not for the sake of a full barn.
2nd Trumpet | judgment upon trade - wilderness...  The wilderness itself is the judgment.  It is not a path through the nearby cities and trade centers.  It is the hidden place of sanctification, of separation to Hashem.  In the wilderness the garments of those sealed with the seal of Mashiach do not soil or wear out, nor do the feet become sore or swell.
3rd Trumpet | judgment upon water - the rock of eternal life, which follows Israel, that provides the Holy Spirit within, quenching all thirst with the power of open and secret miracles, the Shekinah of Regeneration Herself being the greatest mother of miracles.
4th Trumpet | judgment upon light -The Shekinah giving light within the camp and darkness without.  The darkness of sun, moon and stars signifies the darkness of all human intellect, which seeks the wisdom of Israel to devour it but cannot find it and in the end comes to the collective insanity of serving darkness and calling it light.  In that very hour all Israel will begin to understand.


Revelation 8 v.13 I looked again and heard an eagle flying high overhead, crying out in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts that the three angels are about to sound!”

5th Trumpet | judgement upon government/kingdom - The rulers and government of the kingdom round about grew weaker and weaker, deeper and deeper into fear, but the kingdom and government lead by Moshe in obedience to HASHEM grew stronger and stronger.  And Moshe longed to see the day of Mashiach and saw it.
6th Trumpet | judgment upon war itself, upon violence itself and upon the last battle of the nations against G-d - Joshua demonstrated the victory of G-d and of Israel through faith in G-d by leading the 12 tribes into the Holy Land.  So it is also that by the Great Joshua, the Mashiach, the war of all nations against his people will come to nothing.
7th Trumpet | final judgment - There will only be one firstborn left standing when the vials are poured out,  Israel, the firstborn of G-d.

Acts 15 and the Seven Universal Laws

See other versions of this on Web Notes of Max Carl Kirk, The Great Assignment, YouVersion Bible (under Benjamin-ben-Nathan posts at Acts 15 reference points in NIV), etc.

INTRODUCTION

In Acts 15 we find that James/Yaakov makes a reverence to the seven universal laws, sometimes called the Noahide laws, although their true source can be found in the commandment that G-d gave to Adam in the garden.  At the Jerusalem Council James/Yaakov condenses his reference to these laws into the statement of four laws, or if read in a certain way into three laws.  In order to understand all of this it is essential to be completely clear about the context, the whole picture of how and why this occurred.  A brief overview of key points concerning this subject follows.

on Acts 15:1

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."  

 

This ought not be understood retroactively from the point of view of Christian theology 1500 to 2000 years later.  What it meant for gentiles to be saved to Jews who believed in Moses and Mashiach must be understood in distinction from its meaning during centuries of the development of christian theology.  The most important aspect of this issue is that salvation first and foremost to the Jewish people has always meant salvation of the nation, of all Israel, not primarily salvation of the individual.  Therefore, for a gentile to be saved they had to be grafted into the nation of Israel and included in the salvation of the nation.  


It seemed completely clear from Moses that this meant that gentile men would have to be circumcised.  Had something changed?  Paul and Barnabas were insisting that something had changed, not in the fact that individual gentiles had to be included in the salvation of Israel in order to be saved, but in how this was now accomplished.  If the reader sees these certain people who came down from Judea as being evil decievers (reading the text with the eyes of later gentile christian theology), the whole story of what was taking place here will be confusing and hardly credible.  


In fact, the Jerusalem council took both sides of this question very seriously and did not resolve the issue easily or superficially.  In truth, the profound nature of the resolution that the council came to will go unappreciated by all those who choose to simply think of Paul's side as the good christian side and the side of those who came down from Judea as the bad Judaizing side.  Only when it is fully understood how both sides represented distinct understandings and visions of Judaism will it be possible for the reader to clearly see the pivotal story for all ages taking place here in Acts 15.


The Contribution of The Messianic Pharisees
In verse 5 we are being told that representatives in Jerusalem itself of the same party, (though they were different people), as were referred to in verse 1began to engage in the debate with Paul and Barnabas about how gentiles who had come to faith in Yehoshua as the Messiah of Israel were to be included within the nation of Israel and the salvation of Israel.  When these Yehoshua-believing Pharisees stated that the gentiles who believed and were being converted needed to be circumcised and to begin to keep the whole Torah, they understood this to be because they were being saved through their faith in the Messiah Yehoshua.  


This was so because they believed the nation of Israel was saved and being saved through the Messiah Yehoshua.  Only when this is clear will Peter's answer to them, culminating here in verse11, be clear.


Peter is speaking directly to these Yehoshua-believing Pharisees, and to everyone else only indirectly, (verse 7).  His argument is that Israel, itself, is being saved and has been given the Spirit of Mashiach only through the unmerited grace of Adonu Yehoshua.  This point is the premise of Peter's argument and it is essential to understand clearly what this means in order to be able to understand clearly the conclusion of the argument he makes about the salvation of the gentiles based on this premise.  Salvation in this narrative of Acts 15 is represented by the gift and Presence of the Holy Ruach, the Holy Spirit as conveyed to Israel through the promise of Mashiach.  


Peter is saying that this Holy Presence is come to Israel through G-d's grace and not through Israel's success in perfectly observing the Torah.  In no way does Peter diminish the importance of observance of the Torah in Israel.  His argument is that since the Holy Presence is come to Israel through the promise of Mashiach through unmerited grace and not through success in perfect observance of the Torah, this same salvation of the gift of the Holy Presence is come to those gentiles seeking and believing in the salvation of Israel through the same grace.  It cannot be put upon the gentiles that they should seek to attain what is already given to Israel and to them by the mercy of grace through seeking to become perfect in Torah observance.  


Peter is implying that there is a great mystery here and that there is a great revelation to be understood through this mystery.  He is not demonizing one side or the other in this controversy.  For it is the argument on one side and on the other that creates the articulation of this wonderful mystery.  In the following verses the council of the Emissaries of Yehoshua the Mashiach will point the way toward the full revelation of this mystery of G-d's grace toward all the nations in the salvation of Israel.


It is essential to understand that James/Yaacov and all of those whom he spoke to were in agreement about the meaning of this prophecy from Amos — that it referred to the salvation of Israel that they were witnessing in their day, which would develop more and more, until All Israel was saved.  The vision of this salvation which was given to them has been somewhat concealed to us through history, but this concealment is also an aspect of the Divine Promise of Israel's redemption.  


The Gospel as Both Revelation and Concealment
This concealment of the orignial vision of the salvation of Israel given to the Emissaries of Mashiach was and is one of the keys of the Malchut/Kingdom which was given to Kefa/Peter and to the twelve talmudim/diciples of Yehoshua.  This key, this concealment of the "Apostolic" vision of Israel's salvation, is one of the keys to the fulfillment of the later part of this very prophecy of Amos: "that the rest of humankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name…"  


Understand:  "the rest of humankind," that is, after and through the rebuilding of the fallen succah/tabernacle/tent of David, the kingdom of David, through the promised Son of David, the Mashiach, over the House of Judah and the House of Israel, then "the rest of humankind," the Gentiles who bear my name, who are converted to faith in his name, may, as a result of hearing of this Good News of Israel and her Messiah, turn to seek the Lord.  


Therefore, since the first measure of this salvation of Israel, the gift of the Holy Ruach/Spirit was come through grace, the first measure of the blessing of all the families of the earth must also be understood to be already come through grace.  On the basis of this understanding, James/Yaacov will go on to give the full decision as to how to go forward toward the full revelation of the redemption of Israel and the salvation of all the world.


on Acts 15:13
The conclusion that James/Yaacov comes to must be studied with great care.  What was the understanding among those present about what the teachers of the Torah call the Noahide, or universal commandments?  This statement by James/Yaacov is undisputedly a reference to these Torah requirements, as understood by the Torah teachers, for righteous gentiles.  Gentiles who were thieves, murders, sexually immoral, propagators of idolatry, etc. were not sanctioned by the Torah as being welcome strangers and pilgrims in the Holy Land of Israel.  


For such iniquity G-d had removed the Canaanites from His Holy Land.  For gentiles who were dwelling in the Land who committed such crimes there also had to be some legal rulings for justice which was distinct from those by which the Torah ruled over the lives of the Jews.  The same applied to those gentiles who desired to live among the Jews in their communities in exile.  It is not about judging an individual's standing before G-d.  It is about the testimony of the word of G-d in Israel to the truth of the One true G-d, for the purpose of the salvation of the world.  This in itself is very significant, as it is the basis upon which Paul built his mission to the nations.  However, the way in which James/Yaakov chose to refer t the commandments required of the righteous gentiles was equally, if not even more significant.


The commandment not to commit blaspheme against the Name of the Creator of heaven and earth, the G-d of Israel, usually heads, and is always included, in any list of the Noahide laws.  James/Yaakov, however, does not mention this commandment.  It cannot be that the Apostles/Emissaries of Yehoshua did not consider it to be essential.  Paul, in fact, requires obedience to this commandment explicitly in the congregations among the nations that he establishes, even turning certain individuals over to the satan in order that they might learn not to blaspheme.  


The Revelation entrusted to Yochanan/John also explicitly mentions blaspheme as one of the sins that G-d requires the gentiles to repent of.  In chapter 9 of the Revelation of Jesus/Yehoshua the Messiah we read:


And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.


Here a fuller list of the seven universal laws is given, as follows:

1. Idolatry — "the work of their hands...," through which they worshipped devils, and idols of gold and silver, etc.
2. Murder
3. Sorcery — This involves the use of curses and associates directly with using the name of G-d in vain and therefore with blaspheme.
4. Sexual Immorality
5. Theft
6. They did not repent.  This means that they did not seek righteousness and justice in their societies in the matters listed here.
7. Every one of the seven universal, or Noahide, laws is referenced or stated here except the dietary prohibition of not eating a living limb.  The direct narrative of judgment that we read about in this chapter is not resumed until chapter 16, and then it finally comes to a conclusion in chapter 19, where we read that, measure for measure the final remnant of the nations will be slain by the sword of the mouth of the Word of God and will be devoured by the creatures.                                                                        

That James/Yaacov does not mention the prohibition of blasphemy here in the context of the question of circumcision and conversion of the gentiles could be understood as being because he intended to say that there was no need to require the gentiles coming to faith in the Messiah of Israel and his salvation of Israel to abstain from blasphemy, as these were people who, individually and together, all called upon the name of the Lord.  In the same way, they would not be suspected at all of being thieves and robbers, nor of being rapists and murderers.  Even though this is so, because of his choice of words and the context within the Oral Torah, James'/Yaakov's reference to abstaining from "blood" can be seen as a possible allusion to abstaining from murder, or revenge killings, etc., even if it should be read more literally as a dietary rule and in association with the prohibition of eating things strangled.  


on The Dietary Element in the Seven Universal Laws
This overlap between prohibition agains violence and eating blood can already be seen at the source prohibition or commandment that James/Yaakov is pointing to.  This source commandment is the Noahide commandment not to eat a living limb torn from an animal.  Understood as a commandment against cruelty it is also a commandment against predatory violence.  In Torah mitzvot/commandments for Israel, the commandments regarding kosher slaughter go deeper and broader in speaking to this same concern.   


It is important to remember that after the Great Flood the specific reason for the giving of the dietary commandment to abstain from eating a limb torn from an animal was that it was only at that point that the eating of the flesh of animals became permitted.  The narrative at that point in Scripture draws a direct association between the law prohibiting murder and the law requiring courts of justice, on the one hand, and the dietary relation between human beings and animals, with people now being allowed to eat animal flesh, on the other hand.


The language that James/Yaakov chooses to use in framing the prohibitions he states suggests that he is concerned with there being a bridge and a dialogue between the Noahide expression of the commandments about regard for the soul being in the blood and the Torah commandments about this.  The Noahide commandment to establish courts of law is also not mentioned by James/Yaakov, as this commandment is being transposed into the Messianic community by this very council in Jerusalem at which he is giving the final word on these issues.

Revelation 9:20-21

Concerning the thought that Rabbi Jacob Emden may have looked at the messianism of Yehoshua and his immediate followers as a movement to bring the Noahide laws to the goyim – a clear reading of the sources will show that, with respect to the goyim and the galut it was this and more...  The concern at the core with this movement, (not with replacement theology), was and is about how the nations are to be held to account, even now in the present world, for keeping or not keeping the universal laws.  This can be seen by the study of many different texts, but perhaps most clearly from a clear understanding of Revelation 9:20-21:

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their magic arts, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

In this context, "magic arts", may be an allusion to the arts of the magicians in Egypt at the time of the Exodus.  The structure of the list suggests that both blasphemy and animal cruelty can be understood as sins included in sorcery, especially where it is used directly to oppose the redemption of Israel.

This charge of hardness against repentance – again, in this context – being hardness against repentance for the sin of not allowing Israel to be free of her captivity, comes in the story at a point that is designed to be parallel to the point between the plague of hail and the plague of locusts, when the hardness of Pharaoh's heart was sealed as enmity toward G-d.  And here the form that the hardness of enmity toward G-d takes is a refusal to repent of disobedience to the seven universal laws.  The message can be heard in this that were the nations to repent and obey these laws they would, thereby, be letting Israel go...

There is much more to this, but as this reference to the Noahide laws is not a passage often referred to or one that has been clearly understood in general discourse.

The 7 Noahide Commandments can be understood as saying to the nations, "Do not repeat the original sin".  Accepting this can lead to an embrace of these commandments as universal commandments.  I would ask how it could be made meaningful to the contemporary Western mind to say, "Do not repeat the original sin".  Here is an example of how this  might be done:

1. Do not think or act without fear, as if you alone or you together as human beings were in essence the only thing that exists or even had the highest intelligence.
2. Do not speak aggressively to defame the one who is able to command you to be humble and restrain yourselves and know that you are not able to judge or govern all things.
3. Do not harden your heart and choose to nurture your own arrogance rather than to nurture the life of another person, whose soul is from the source of your soul, so that you do violence to them by any means and they perish.
4. Do not take advantage of the disadvantage of others in the prison of this world, where all are under the sentence of death and are vulnerable to varying conditions of distress and changing needs for guardedness.
5. Do not make commitments to conspire to intimacies that are outside the boundaries of the corporate nature of Humanity into which every human being is born and which is the source of their life and health.
6. Do not create or participate in economies of gluttony on any scale which create forces of cruelty to all creatures, forces which feed upon themselves until their mouths drip eventually even with the blood of the living.

7.  Establish courts of sincerity where restorative justice is pursued in the fear of the Supreme Judge, seeking for all human society to find Him and know Him through the practice of those laws that would teach the way of repentance from the original human sin of spiritual arrogance.  Practice Biblical Restorative Justice, seeking eye to eye justice in all the earth.

General Observations: Noahide Laws

Image license Creative Commons

1. Messianic Noahide - began to exist in first century after coming of the Messiah of Israel who was concealed by the very light through which he was revealed.

• The Messianic Noahide has a unique relationship with both Jewish courts and Gentile courts.  This does not arise through the messianic profession of faith, which is a profession of faith in a concealed messiah.  It arises by virtue of faithfulness to the Noahide laws as defined by Jewish courts.
• Messianic Noahides are accountable to one another and to their elders as connecting to the Jerusalem assembly as recorded in The Book of the Acts of the Emissaries/Apostles.

2. Regarding the Noahide covenant

• the Noahide covenant is not a Torah covenant, not a grace covenant, not a redemption covenant, although it is an adjunct to all of these - even as each of these three are an aspect of the other three.  The Noahide covenant is still a covenant of judgment, but of mitigated judgment.  This mitigation is unconditional.  Even if the children of Noah do not repent and turn to seek the Creator where He may be found - He will reveal Himself in His chosen place and in His chosen way - still, even if they do not do this, the Creator guarantees in this covenant with Noah that He will not finish the destruction of the world by water.  In other words, He will not erase Noah's virtue, according to which eight souls were preserved along with representatives of all species.  This in itself does not guarantee complete grace for Adam, nor complete redemption, nor the blessing of the gift of Torah.  It only guarantees that the possibility of the re-creation of Adam through the redemption of the children of Noah will remain at the time of the end of the world.
• for Messianic Noahides, observance can only be "prophetic" = observance speaks of a greater relationship with Torah Israel to be realized when Mashiach is fully revealed.
• all the negative formulations are understood also as re-framed into their positive formulations
• no idolatry, no blaspheme, have to have ultimate realization in the gentile confession of the redemption announced in the first commandment to Israel.  And as that redemption is ultimately realized in Mashiach for eternity, this Messianic redemption of Israel also must ultimately be confessed if all idolatry and all blaspheme is to be excluded.