God Gave Laws That Weren't Good?

[JoeMo]

I have been reading through the prophets for Sabbath Bible study; and I ran across the following verses:

"Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries, because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their parents’ idols.  So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live;" (Ezek. 20:23-25)

The context of these verses is God putting increasing pressure on Israel to obey His statutes, get rid of their idols, and honor His Sabbaths.

I infer from these verses that God gave laws to the Israelites that were increasingly difficult if not impossible to keep.  Peter seems to echo this concern in Acts 15:10-11:

"Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?  No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

At first, I was kind of offended that God would do this.  Then, after thinking about it, I can see why God might do this.  Was God trying to show the Israelites that it was impossible to please God by their own efforts; and to encourage them to throw themselves at the feet of their Creator (and only Him); and rely solely on Him and His mercy and forgiveness for their well-being and salvation?

[Ron Amnsn]

The idea that God would give the Israelites bad laws would be rather disturbing.  But I don't think that is what is being said in Ezekiel 20:25.  The NKJV translates that verse as "Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good" and the NIV translates it as "I also gave them over to statutes that were not good," which matches the context of a people that continued to choose to not follow God's laws.

Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian captivity, through which God subjected the Israelites to the laws of the Babylonians.  And before that the evil kings of Israel had subjected the Israelites to statutes and customs that were not good.

But even if the NKJV and NIV missed the meaning of the passage, and Ezekiel actually intended to write that God himself authored bad laws and gave them to Israel to obey, we wouldn't find those "bad laws" in the Books of Moses because the Books of Moses contain God's good laws by which a person shall live-- the laws that Ezekiel 20 says the Israelites had disobeyed and rejected.

A few verses earlier in Ezekiel 20 God had specifically distinguished between God own laws and man-made laws:
18 “And I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’ 21 But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

Verses 26-32, immediately following verse 25, give examples of the kind of "other statutes that were not good" -- customs regarding idol worship.

The Old Testament does not teach a religion whereby the Israelites were supposed to please God by their own efforts.  The Israelites did not even receive the written law until after they had already been redeemed (from Egypt).  God's grace and the atoning  sacrifice of Messiah are embedded within the religion that God gave to the Israelites through Moses, which also provides regular opportunities for God's people to rely solely on God and his mercy.

In Acts 15:10-11 Peter speaks of the man-made laws and Jewish customs as the "yoke" that is unbearable.  That can be shown from the full context of Acts 15.

[phkrause]

Also Ron, in the CJB, it translates like this: .I also gave them laws which did them no good and rulings by which they did not live;

We need to read before and after, it puts it in better context also!!

[JoeMo]

3 hours ago, Ron Amnsn said:

But even if the NKJV and NIV missed the meaning of the passage, and Ezekiel actually intended to write that God himself authored bad laws and gave them to Israel to obey, we wouldn't find those "bad laws" in the Books of Moses because the Books of Moses contain God's good laws by which a person shall live

It is obvious to me that God didn't intend for people under the New Covenant to follow all of the laws written in the Torah.  Paul makes a very clear statement concerning one of those laws - circumcision:

"Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.  Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.  You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." (Gal.5:2-4).

 In Acts 15:, the apostles themselves told us what laws would apply to Gentiles:

" It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:  You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things." (Acts 15:28-29)

I'm sure that their beliefs and convictions grew as they followed the leadings of the Holy Spirit and matured in the teachings of their new-found faith.

Jesus wants us to depend totally on Him for salvation; not a set of over 660 rules found in the Torah.  Our good works are the result of the grace received from leaning totally on Him.  Our obedience is not a prerequisite of our faith in Jesus, it is the result.

[Gustave]

What JoeMo said is accurate. God did give some laws (not because they were good) but to stump bust a specific stubborn  group of people. 

Isaiah 28, 20 explains the reason this was done this way was so that the Jews would be "broken" - because they needed to be "broken". This is why the "moral" or "natural laws" engrained on all people were carried over to the "New Covenant" while the ceremonial type of laws (those laws intended to break down a stubborn people) were nailed to the cross and put to death.

 

"But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken".

 

[stinsonmarri]

On 4/13/2019 at 11:00 AM, JoeMo said:

"Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?  No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Those were the sacrificial laws and only these laws were done away with:

 And HE shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Dan 9:27 

These are what are called the mosaic laws! However, the Protestants including the SDA include the Holy Convocations Days which is not accurate at all. These Holy Days of Set Time belong to YAHWEH!

And YAHWEH spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them, The Appointed Times of YAHWEH which you shall proclaim as Holy Gatherings (Holy Convocations), shall be these: These are My Appointed Times: Lev 23:1, 2 TS2009

These days are found in Gen 1:14 which also include the weekly Sabbath. They are not Sabbaths nor were any of them called the Sabbath. However, the Day of Atonement was called our sabbath and the instructions given were totally different from YAHWEH'S Sabbath. You will find many will claim that the Blowing of the Trumpet was a Sabbath. It was not it was called "shabbâthôn," this word in ancient Hebrew language means a special occasion. The word in Hebrew "Shabbath," is a noun and YAHWEH would have used that word. Where I become sad is that so many tried hid the truth to keep others from knowing it. I feel everyone should know the truth! Why hide it? If you don't want to obey that's your choice. But the old saying, "misery loves company." They don't want to do it and they choose for others, keeping them from making their own choice! How sad this world has become!

Blessings!

[stinsonmarri]

On 4/13/2019 at 2:54 PM, Ron Amnsn said:

The idea that God would give the Israelites bad laws would be rather disturbing.  But I don't think that is what is being said in Ezekiel 20:25.  The NKJV translates that verse as "Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good" and the NIV translates it as "I also gave them over to statutes that were not good," which matches the context of a people that continued to choose to not follow God's laws.

Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian captivity, through which God subjected the Israelites to the laws of the Babylonians.  And before that the evil kings of Israel had subjected the Israelites to statutes and customs that were not good.

But even if the NKJV and NIV missed the meaning of the passage, and Ezekiel actually intended to write that God himself authored bad laws and gave them to Israel to obey, we wouldn't find those "bad laws" in the Books of Moses because the Books of Moses contain God's good laws by which a person shall live-- the laws that Ezekiel 20 says the Israelites had disobeyed and rejected.

A few verses earlier in Ezekiel 20 God had specifically distinguished between God own laws and man-made laws:
18 “And I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’ 21 But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

Verses 26-32, immediately following verse 25, give examples of the kind of "other statutes that were not good" -- customs regarding idol worship.

The Old Testament does not teach a religion whereby the Israelites were supposed to please God by their own efforts.  The Israelites did not even receive the written law until after they had already been redeemed (from Egypt).  God's grace and the atoning  sacrifice of Messiah are embedded within the religion that God gave to the Israelites through Moses, which also provides regular opportunities for God's people to rely solely on God and his mercy.

In Acts 15:10-11 Peter speaks of the man-made laws and Jewish customs as the "yoke" that is unbearable.  That can be shown from the full context of Acts 15.

This problem and laws came from the Babylonian exile. These laws were created from the sect called the Pharisees that YAHSHUA had to constantly contend with. After the destruction of the Temple, in later centuries many of the Pharisees return little by little. The Sadducees, the priests (YAHSHUA  had to deal with as well, but not as much as the lawyers called the Pharisees.) were no longer needed and the Levites died out! That is why people today should not believe in those who called themselves Kohanim. They claimed their bloodline is from Aaron, which is not true historically and Biblically. 

When the Romans destroyed the Temple, it was the Hebrew nobles, priest, and Pharisees that were taken and placed into slavery. These are the ones that incited the people to revolt. Many Hebrews where they were disperse were forced to become Catholic or Muslim, very few kept their faith. The Pharisees was a sect and not related by blood and some escaped to Egypt before the war. Hadrian became emperor many of them slowly returned to Israel and Jerusalem and begin to formulate. They formed a new Rabbinical religion called Judaic that spread with many of the old teaching and doctrines that had already changed in Babylon before the time of the Maccabees. The problem was they had to deal with the Sadducees now the priest bloodline was gone and they could openly claim the Talmud and their practices. Those who were sent to Europe became associated with the German people around the Rhine River.

Again, they became rich merchants but they remain cut off from the German people. More and more over the centuries, they would marry among themselves first, and later their youth would marry the Germans. Like the Catholic, the female German would adopt the belief and raise the children and now they were called Jews. These communes begin to spread all over Europe.

It was totally different in Russia ever since the Babylonian, Greek, and Persian dominance many Hebrews did not return to Israel. The Hebrews were merchants and formed communes in Turkey and again married and intermingle with caucasian people of various tribes spreading to Crimea, Georgia and other countries eventually they migrated into Russia as well. This is when the Kingdom of Khazar joined into the belief. Understand that the belief of the Pharisees came out of the Babylonian captivity and this belief spread with the Pharisees everywhere. Only in Israel did it have difficulties because many of the priestly tribe returned to Israel. Once, the Levitical tribe disappeared and the other tribes intermarried and like the Bible stated that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem. This became a reality, also the curse upon the Hebrew happen as well. When Rome came on the scene the Hebrews were spread all over the world and they mixed Hellenization of the Greek in with their belief system. The Sadducees oppose Greece that is why the Maccabees wars became very important. They were the priest, but they also did not practice all the truth themselves, however they clash with the Pharisees. They only united together to killed YAHSHUA who was a thorn in both of their sides. Eventually, as Noah prophesied, the Ashkenazi, Gomer son became the dominant one and the Hebrews bloodline because of the curse became lost!

They refused to walk in the Statutes and Commandments of YAHWEH and to present the truth to the children of Japheth and Shem seed became lost forever! Gen 9:27; Deut 28:15-68

Blessings!

[JoeMo]

Marri,

You are a wealth of information that I have never heard before.  I intend to "fact-check" you - not because I have reason to disbelieve you; but because I am sure there is even more to the story than you said in your post.

[stinsonmarri]

On 4/16/2019 at 1:25 PM, JoeMo said:

Marri,

You are a wealth of information that I have never heard before.  I intend to "fact-check" you - not because I have reason to disbelieve you; but because I am sure there is even more to the story than you said in your post.

The most important thing that I want all to when I present the evidence that I give, is to please check it out yourself!

Here is some source I will aid you with. Let's start with the Bible:

 ELOHIYM shall enlarge* Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. Gen 9:27

*This word is not what actually means, please look it up!

Blessings for Obedience is the subtitle of Deut 28:1-14 I would suggest all to read it. Then the subtitle for Deut 15-68 is Curses for Disobedience. Also:

Then answered all the people, and said, HIS BLOOD be on us, and on our children. Matt 27:25

Here are historical facts:

The majority of Ashkenazi Jews are descended from prehistoric European women, according to study published today (October n Nature Communications. While the Jewish religion began in the Near East, and the Ashkenazi Jews were believed to have origins in the early indigenous tribes of this region, new evidence from mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on exclusively from mother to child, suggests that female ancestors of most modern Ashkenazi Jews converted to Judaism in the north Mediterranean around 2,000 years ago and later in west and central Europe.

The new findings contradict previous assertions that Ashkenazi mitochondrial lineages originated in the Near East, or from mass conversions to Judaism in the Khazar kingdom, an empire in the north Caucasus region between Europe and Asia lasting from the 7th century to the 11th century whose leaders adopted Judaism. “We found that most of the maternal lineages don’t trace to the north Caucasus, which would be a proxy for the Khazarians, or to the Near East, but most of them emanate from Europe,” said co-author Martin Richards, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Huddersfield in the U.K. 2019 THE SCIENTIST

The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia, many of whom converted to Judaism. The name 'Khazar' seems to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering" ('gezer' in modern Turkish). In the 7th century CE, they founded an independent Khaganate in the Northern Caucasus along the Caspian Sea, where over time Judaism became the state religion. At their height, they and their tributaries controlled much of what is today southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, large portions of the Caucasus (including Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), and the Crimea. Wikipedia Selection for schools (UK)

"Khazar, an ancient Turkic-speaking people who ruled a large and powerful state in

the steppes North of the Caucasus Mountains from the 7th century to their demise in the mid-11th century A. D. ...In the 8th Century it's political and religious head...as well as the greater part of the Khazar nobility abandoned paganism and converted to Judaism...(The Khazars are believed to be the ancestors of most Russian and Eastern European Jews)." Encyclopedia Americana

 "A Brief History of the Terms for Jew" in the 1980 Jewish Almanac is the following:

"STRICTLY SPEAKING IT IS INCORRECT TO CALL AN ANCIENT ISRAELITE A ‘JEW’ OR TO CALL A CONTEMPORARY JEW AN ISRAELITE OR A HEBREW." (1980 Jewish Almanac, p. 3).

 "KHAZARS, A NON-SEMITIC, Asiatic, Mongolian tribal nation who emigrated into Eastern Europe about the first century, who were converted as an entire nation to Judaism in the seventh century by the expanding Russian nation which absorbed the entire Khazar population, and who account for the presence in Eastern Europe of the great numbers of Yiddish-speaking Jews in Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Galatia, Bessarabia and Rumania." The Jewish Encyclopedia

However, his successor Nabonidus was defeated by the Persian king Cyrus the Great (539), who allowed the exiled Jews to return home (texts). But many of them preferred to stay in wealthy Babylonia and refused to go home. This was the beginning of the Jewish community of Iraq and Iran, which existed until very recently.

A second impulse for the Jews to go abroad was the foundation of Alexandria in Egypt by Alexander the Great (331 BCE). Under the next Egyptian kings, the Ptolemies, Jewish mercenaries and merchants settled in the capital of the country along the Nile. Several other communities in the Ptolemaean empire are known: e.g., at Pelusium, Leontopolis, and Cyrene. According to Philo, a Jewish author from the early first century CE, about a million Jews were living in Egypt.

They spoke Greek; therefore, the Bible was translated (the Septuagint). In many diasporic communities, this text was to become more authoritative than the Hebrew text.

Judaea was a province of the Ptolemaic Empire until 200; in that year, the Seleucid kings of Syria conquered the land of Israel. During the next generation, we find Jews in several towns in the Seleucid Empire: e.g., Tyre, Sidon, Damascus, and Antioch.

The Jews were now part of a larger world, and it comes as no surprise to read about a community in Rome in the 160s. Diaspora; Livius.org  Articles on ancient history.

This is just a few sources, there are many and it would do all good to check out history it is important.

Blessings!

 

[R. G. White]

On 4/13/2019 at 12:54 PM, Ron Amnsn said:

The idea that God would give the Israelites bad laws would be rather disturbing.  But I don't think that is what is being said in Ezekiel 20:25.  The NKJV translates that verse as "Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good" and the NIV translates it as "I also gave them over to statutes that were not good," which matches the context of a people that continued to choose to not follow God's laws.

Ezekiel lived during the Babylonian captivity, through which God subjected the Israelites to the laws of the Babylonians.  And before that the evil kings of Israel had subjected the Israelites to statutes and customs that were not good.

 

I believe you are spot on. All of the laws that God gave Israel through Moses were good laws, and for their benefit. It is because the Jews had corrupted those laws, and turned the ceremonies that should have taught them the gospel into an end in themselves (i.e. righteousness by works) that God could do no more for mankind through those channels, and the whole system had to be swept away. Circumcision itself had become a means of national exclusiveness and aggrandizement.

God may change His methods, and thus His laws, according to changing circumstances, but everything He gives us is good, and His moral law (as a transcript of His character) never changes.

[Ron Amnsn]

On 4/15/2019 at 4:16 PM, stinsonmarri said:

the Levites died out!

How do we know that the Levites died out?

What you say seems to contradict the Word of God in Jeremiah 33, where verse 18 says "the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever." 

Many will tell me that prophecy was conditional. It was, and in the next few verses the Lord himself specifies the conditions: "If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers."

Many people don't know where to find God's covenant with the day and night. It's found in the last verse of Genesis 8.  That covenant will not be broken while the earth remains, so God's covenant with David and with the Levitical priests will not be broken while day and night are still happening and while the earth remains.

We know from Luke 1:32 that Yeshua himself will be given the throne of David at some point in the future.

And we know from Isaiah 66:21 that there will be Priests and Levites in conjunction with the new heaven and the new earth.

You see, God gave a promise to Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, a covenant of an eternal or perpetual priesthood for himself and his descendants.  Phinehas and his descendants are Levites.

[JoeMo]

On 4/27/2019 at 5:32 PM, R. G. White said:

God could do no more for mankind through those channels, and the whole system had to be swept away.

I don't think God had to do any revisions to His plan of salvation because what He had planned didn't work out.  I believe God is totally transcendent of time; and had the entire plan of salvation worked out before creation; and everything is working out just as planned.  I believe part of that plan was to prove to mankind that it was impossible for them to meet His standards; so that we would realize our only hope for salvation was a Savior; and give ourselves to Jesus unconditionally and freely.  God knew all of the details of history before it ever happened; and already had plans in place for every possible contingency.  God is never unexpectedly surprised, impressed, or disappointed.  His awesome displays of power - sometimes in anger -  can also be viewed as renewed opportunities for salvation.  Although Paul tells us that it is God's kindness that draws us to salvation, we are warned elsewhere not to mistake His kindness and patience; thinking He is ignoring our indiscretions.

[R. G. White]

23 minutes ago, JoeMo said:

I don't think God had to do any revisions to His plan of salvation because what He had planned didn't work out.  I believe God is totally transcendent of time; and had the entire plan of salvation worked out before creation; and everything is working out just as planned.  I believe part of that plan was to prove to mankind that it was impossible for them to meet His standards; so that we would realize our only hope for salvation was a Savior; and give ourselves to Jesus unconditionally and freely.  God knew all of the details of history before it ever happened; and already had plans in place for every possible contingency.  God is never unexpectedly surprised, impressed, or disappointed.  His awesome displays of power - sometimes in anger -  can also be viewed as renewed opportunities for salvation.  Although Paul tells us that it is God's kindness that draws us to salvation, we are warned elsewhere not to mistake His kindness and patience; thinking He is ignoring our indiscretions.

Of course I agree. However, God's ways are far too unsearchable and complex for us to sum them all up in one simple statement. Thus, it is no violation to speak of revealed details in the human terms in which they are related to us.

There is no doubt that the purpose of the Old Covenant -- obey and live -- was to let the people see the depth of their own sinfulness, and their inability to keep God's moral law apart from divine grace. This, however, was obviously not the purpose of the ceremonial law, which is the one system that has been set aside. The fact that God made this change in His law in response to changing conditions does not imply that He failed to foresee those changes. It's not that the ceremonial law didn't work. It just wasn't any longer going to be able to do any good. In other words, God gave Israel His good ceremonial law, planning to abolish it once it had outlived its usefulness.

I love your observations about opportunities for salvation. He does all He can for every one of us, but we must not overlook the dangers of hardening ourselves by refusing to repent. Eventually, He may not be able to do anything more for us. Yet He will have tried as long as possible, as if He could not foresee the end result. That is the greatness of our God.

Edited April 29, 2019 by R. G. White
further explanation

[R. G. White]

I've thought of an illustration for my point about the ceremonial law.

Was it a good thing that Moses made a bronze serpent for the children of Israel? Yes, God told him to do it. The bronze serpent did a lot of good. It became the means, through people looking at it, of saving many lives. It illustrated how we can be saved from the sting of sin just by looking to Jesus on the cross. (See John 3:14-15.) Yet II Kings 18 says that the people of Israel eventually gave the bronze serpent a name -- Nehushtan -- and began to worship it as an idol. King Hezekiah had to destroy it as a part of his necessary reforms.

When God told Moses to make the bronze serpent, did He foresee that Israel would someday turn it into an idol? Yes, but He decided it was worth it. The same thing happened to the ceremonial system of law, with its annual feasts. The Jews made it an idol, so Christianity rightly abolished it.

[JoeMo]

2 hours ago, R. G. White said:

This, however, was obviously not the purpose of the ceremonial law, which is the one system that has been set aside. The fact that God made this change in His law in response to changing conditions does not imply that He failed to foresee those changes. It's not that the ceremonial law didn't work. It just wasn't any longer going to be able to do any good. In other words, God gave Israel His good ceremonial law, planning to abolish it once it had outlived its usefulness.

I'm not so sure the ceremonial law was completely abolished.  Maybe it was just suspended until the Temple in Ezekiel's vision is completed. Zechariah 14 says we will keep the Feast of Tabernacles (throughout the millennium, at least); and that those who refuse will be punished with drought.  I'd imagine this feast will be a great party for all of God's people.  We will be keeping them as celebrations of salvation fulfilled rather than a ritual that most Israelites never had a clue as to what it pointed to.  We have a clue, because the spring festivals (which pointed to Christ's first coming)  were fulfilled in real time during Jesus' first coming; and the fall festivals will be fulfilled at His second coming.

Keep in mind that the very One who instituted the annual festivals is the One who will be ruling the universe at that time; and 144,000 faithful Israelites will be His personal entourage.

[JoeMo]

Maybe I shouldn't have said anything about some of God's Laws being bad.  Just because they have proven nearly impossible to consistently keep by any human besides Jesus doesn't make them bad.  His ways are so much higher than ours, who am I to question them?

I repent, Father.

[R. G. White]

19 minutes ago, JoeMo said:

I'm not so sure the ceremonial law was completely abolished.  Maybe it was just suspended until the Temple in Ezekiel's vision is completed. Zechariah 14 says we will keep the Feast of Tabernacles (throughout the millennium, at least); and that those who refuse will be punished with drought.  I'd imagine this feast will be a great party for all of God's people.  We will be keeping them as celebrations of salvation fulfilled rather than a ritual that most Israelites never had a clue as to what it pointed to.  We have a clue, because the spring festivals (which pointed to Christ's first coming)  were fulfilled in real time during Jesus' first coming; and the fall festivals will be fulfilled at His second coming.

Keep in mind that the very One who instituted the annual festivals is the One who will be ruling the universe at that time; and 144,000 faithful Israelites will be His personal entourage.

I'm sure. The same Spirit who inspired Zechariah also inspired Paul with even greater light. You seem to be describing the fulfillment of the old Feast of Tabernacles, which we can be sure will indeed take place. Praise God! But the annual feasts, with their animal sacrifices, are done.

[stinsonmarri]

22 hours ago, Ron Amnsn said:

How do we know that the Levites died out?

What you say seems to contradict the Word of God in Jeremiah 33, where verse 18 says "the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever." 

Many will tell me that prophecy was conditional. It was, and in the next few verses the Lord himself specifies the conditions: "If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers."

Many people don't know where to find God's covenant with the day and night. It's found in the last verse of Genesis 8.  That covenant will not be broken while the earth remains, so God's covenant with David and with the Levitical priests will not be broken while day and night are still happening and while the earth remains.

We know from Luke 1:32 that Yeshua himself will be given the throne of David at some point in the future.

And we know from Isaiah 66:21 that there will be Priests and Levites in conjunction with the new heaven and the new earth.

You see, God gave a promise to Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, a covenant of an eternal or perpetual priesthood for himself and his descendants.  Phinehas and his descendants are Levites.

R. G.: The Scriptures you provide about the day and night is the Covenant or Command HE made in Creation:

then ELOHIYM said, Let light be! And there was light. And ELOHIYM called the light, Day. And He called the darkness, Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, day one. Gen 1:3, 5

YAHWEH was letting the children of IsraEL know that HIS Commands are kept when HE said let there be light and night and day has remained ever since. The planets, sun, moon and the stars all are under HIS Law and they do their function respectfully, never changing. The sun comes up in the east and goes down in the west. The moon since the flood rotates around the earth every 29-30 days. YAHWEH Calendar is a Lunar/Solar Calendar found in Gen 1:14. This Catholic Calendar called the Gregorian Calendar months (this word means moon), are six months behind of the correct set time Commanded by YAHWEH!

If you read the next Chapter, you would know that IsraEL was heading for destruction. YAHWEH had not given up on them, just like HE gave the Canaanites time, then moved then off HIS special land and gave it to IsraEL. When YAHSHUA came and they crucified HIM, their time was ending. AD 70 the Temple was destroyed. The Levites had changed their tribal name to Sadducees and made a mockery of the sacrificial services. These sacrifices if kept would have prepared them to realize that YAHSHUA was THE SON  of THE MOST HIGH! They didn't and the Temple was destroyed and they became obsolete. The nation as a whole left the truth, the Pharisees became powerful and formed a false religion called Judaite. Noah prophesied that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem. YAHWEH warned IsraEL that a curse would come upon them and it did. The Hebrews are gone and Japheth children, the Ashkenazi who are German has adopted the false religion. DNA does not lie, the children of Shem are all gone. You can trace some Middle Eastern blood but from who! You can trace Ham's and Japhet descendants but not Shem! The blood says the Middle East but you cannot trace Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. The Chaldeans are gone where Abraham came from, Eber is gone also Assyrian, Lud, the true Syrians, and Elamites. They were taken over by the Aryan people known as Media and Persia. Iran means Aryan and the Persians were one of there tribes!

Finally, you have the Afroasiatic languages and the Semitic language comes under this group! After all, it is an Afrikan language that the Phonecians grandson under Canaan started so is our alphabet!

Blessings!