Judah was Divorced

There is a false teaching in hebrew roots that only the northern kingdom of Israel was given a decree of divorce and sent away while Judah remains in covenant with the Father. The problem that this teaching brings is that it creates two paths to salvation after Yeshua arrives. One path says you can join covenant with Judah and the other path is you can join covenant through belief in Yeshua. This is contrary to many scriptures, however, and causes a lot of confusion among people, so much so, that many leave Yeshua in favor of the man-made religion that Yeshua came against in judgment.

Wedding Garments

Yeshua spoke in many parables to teach what the kingdom of heaven is like. One such parable that illustrates this is in Matthew:

Mat 22:2 “The reign of the heavens is like a man, a sovereign, who made a wedding feast for his son,

Mat 22:3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast. But they would not come.

Mat 22:4 “Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Say to those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle are slaughtered, and all is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’

Mat 22:5 “But they disregarded it and went their way – this one to his field, that one to his trade.

Mat 22:6 “And the rest, having seized his servants, insulted and killed them.

Mat 22:7 “But when the sovereign heard, he was wroth, and sent out his soldiers, destroyed those murderers, and set their city on fire.

Mat 22:8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast, indeed, is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.

Mat 22:9 ‘Therefore go into the street corners, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding feast.’

Mat 22:10 “And those servants went out into the street corners and gathered all whom they found, both wicked and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Mat 22:11 “And when the sovereign came in to view the guests, he saw there a man who had not put on a wedding garment,

Mat 22:12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not having a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.

Mat 22:13 “Then the sovereign said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him out into the outer darkness – there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Mat 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

In this parable there was a man without a wedding garment. This man came to the feast by improper means and expected to be part of the festivities, but instead he was thrown out in a harsh manner even though the invitation was wide open to people. If we look close at the parable, this was a wedding feast for the King's son. This is a clear reference to Yeshua as the son and the wedding feast was to His bride, spiritual Israel. The house of Judah as a whole does not accept Yeshua as messiah and instead they denigrate Him in their writings. The man without proper attire is anyone who doesn't accept Yeshua as messiah nor follows his word (torah). In revelation we see this:

Rev 7:13 And one of the elders responded, saying to me, “Who are these dressed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

Rev_7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

The robes are made white by the blood. The sacrifice of Yeshua is what purifies people from their sin and washes it away as foretold by the prophets. Without this washing there can be no proper wedding attire.

The Decree

So when did Judah get divorced and the covenant with them end? The decree went out in the book of Daniel:

Dan 9:24 “Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and for your set-apart city, to put an end to the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to cover crookedness, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Most Set-apart.

Dan 9:25 “Know, then, and understand: from the going forth of the command to restore and build Yerushalayim until Messiah the Prince is seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It shall be built again, with streets and a trench, but in times of affliction.

Dan 9:26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off and have naught. And the people of a coming prince shall destroy the city and the set-apart place. And the end of it is with a flood. And wastes are decreed, and fighting until the end.

Dan 9:27 “And he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. And in the middle of the week he shall put an end to slaughtering and meal offering. And on the wing of abominations he shall lay waste, even until the complete end and that which is decreed is poured out on the one who lays waste.”

A clear timeline was given for when the Messiah would come, what he would do, when he would die, and when Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed. Many attribute these verse to the future and end-time application, but this is not so. The people at the time of Yeshua were looking for the messiah because of this prophecy and it was so well known that even the samaritan woman at the well knew the timing (John 4:25). One of the works of the messiah was to confirm a covenant for a week and to put an end to the sacrifices. Most people believe this is the antimessiah doing this in the future with a 7 year treaty or another view is it is the Roman army who stops the offerings. But what is the covenant that is confirmed?

Jer 31:31 “See, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when I shall make a new covenant with the house of Yisra’ĕl and with the house of Yehuḏah,

Jer 31:32 not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Mitsrayim, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares יהוה.

Jer 31:33 “For this is the covenant I shall make with the house of Yisra’ĕl after those days, declares יהוה: I shall put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts. And I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.

Jer 31:34 “And no longer shall they teach, each one his neighbour, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know יהוה,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares יהוה. “For I shall forgive their crookedness, and remember their sin no more.”

Yeshua confirmed the new covenant. This wasn't the same covenant as the one at Sinai although it has the same term for obedience. How did Yeshua confirm this covenant?

Mat 26:28 “For this is My blood, that of the renewed covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Again, it is the blood that confirms the covenant just as it is the blood that makes the robes white. The forgiveness of sins is also one of the missions of the Messiah foretold in Daniel. So by Yeshua's death sins are forgiven, the old covenant is ended with Judah, and the new covenant is ratified. This is expanded further in Hebrews:

Heb 9:11 But Messiah, having become a High Priest of the coming good matters, through the greater and more perfect Tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

Heb 9:12 entered into the Most Set-apart Place once for all, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, having obtained everlasting redemption.

Heb 9:15 And because of this He is the Mediator of a renewed covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.

Heb 9:16 For where a covenant is, it is necessary for the death of the covenanted one to be established.

Heb 9:17 For a covenant over those dead is firm, since it is never valid while the covenanted one is living

Heb 9:24 For Messiah has not entered into a Set-apart Place made by hand – figures of the true – but into the heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Elohim on our behalf,

Heb 9:25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the Set-apart Place year by year with blood not his own.

Heb 9:26 For if so, He would have had to suffer often, since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the offering of Himself.

Heb 9:27 And as it awaits men to die once, and after this the judgment,

Heb 9:28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to those waiting for Him, unto deliverance.

At Yeshua's death the old covenant with Judah ended. Over the next 40 years the yom kippur sacrifice was not accepted according to talmud and their tradition. Between 67-70ad the temple was destroyed and Jerusalem laid waste with over a million dead. Many were taken into captivity also. This was the actual "get" where they were ended just as the northern kingdom was ended by Assyria.

The Kingship

Gen 49:10  “The sceptre shall not turn aside from Yehuḏah, nor an Inscriber from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him is the obedience of peoples. 

Shiloh is a term for the messiah in both christian and jewish literature. Many in the hebrew roots believe that Judah still has authority over them and they elevate their bloodline above others. Clear back at the beginning, this messianic prophecy shows that Judah’s rule was time sensitive until messiah Yeshua came to take over the kingship for all time.

Dan 7:13  “I was looking in the night visions and saw One like the Son of Enosh (adam), coming with the clouds of the heavens! And He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.

Dan 7:14  “And to Him was given ruler ship and preciousness and a reign, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His rule is an everlasting rule which shall not pass away, and His reign that which shall not be destroyed.

Here in Daniel we see a term that Yeshua used often about himself, “The son of man”. This is referencing a heavenly figure who is given an unending kingship. The term is only found here in this passage and in the book of Enoch which prophetically foreshadows the messiah and revealed more fully here:

Rev 1:13  and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Aḏam, dressed in a robe down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

And here:

Rev 19:11  And I saw the heaven opened, and there was a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Trustworthy and True, and in righteousness He judges and fights.

Rev 19:12  And His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns, having a Name that had been written, which no one had perceived except Himself Rev 19:13  and having been dressed in a robe dipped in blood – and His Name is called: The Word of יהוה.

Rev 19:14  And the armies in the heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 

Rev 19:15  And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations. And He shall shepherd them with a rod of iron. And He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Ěl Shaddai. 

Rev 19:16  And on His robe and on His thigh^d He has a name written: SOVEREIGN OF SOVEREIGNS AND MASTER OF MASTERS.

The State of Israel

Next we should look at Judaism and the current state of Israel and dispel the notion that they are being regathered and are in covenantal obedience as an example to all. Let's start with those who deny Yeshua:

Joh 3:36 “He who believes in the Son possesses everlasting life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of Elohim remains on him.”

Joh 6:40 “And this is the desire of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should possess everlasting life. And I shall raise him up in the last day.”

1Jn 2:22 Who is the liar, except the one denying that יהושע is the Messiah? This is the anti-messiah, the one denying the Father and the Son.

1Jn 2:23 No one denying the Son has the Father. The one confessing the Son has the Father as well.

2Jn_1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Mat 3:8 “Bear, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance,

Mat 3:9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Aḇraham as father.’ For I say to you that Elohim is able to raise up children to Aḇraham from these stones.

Mat 3:10 “And the axe is already laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, then, which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Joh 5:38 “And you do not have His Word staying in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent.

Joh 5:39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think you possess everlasting life in them. And these are the ones that bear witness of Me.

Joh 5:40 “But you do not desire to come to Me in order to possess life.

Luk 19:43 “Because days shall come upon you when your enemies shall build a rampart around you, and surround you and press you on all sides,

Luk 19:44 and dash you to the ground, and your children within you. And they shall not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

For nearly 1900 years Judah was not a kingdom and was left devastated. The reasons given for this is for them breaking the Sinai covenant repeatedly and profaned His name. They missed the prophesied messiah and rejected Him because of corrupt leadership and Him not meeting their expectations:

Mat 27:24  And when Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but rather an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this Righteous One. You shall see to it.” 

Mat 27:25  And all the people answering, said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

So now that Judah has returned back to the land in part we need to see if it fulfills prophecy and how it relates to covenant since they were divorced.

Deu 30:1  “And it shall be, when all these words come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you shall bring them back to your heart among all the nations where יהוה your Elohim drives you, 

Deu 30:2  and shall turn back to יהוה your Elohim and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your being, you and your children,

Deu 30:3  then יהוה your Elohim shall turn back your captivity, and shall have compassion on you, and He shall turn back and gather you from all the peoples where יהוה your Elohim has scattered you. 

The initial prophecy of regathering is premised on the state of being in repentance and obedience. Lets ask some questions in regards to their condition now:

- Does Israel accept Yeshua as messiah or outlaw preaching?

- Did they repent of their wicked sayings in the Talmud of Yeshua?

- What has changed in their condition the past 2000 years?

- Are they kind to their neighbors (Palestinians)?

- Why is tel aviv allowed to be the gay capital of the world?

- Are they more righteous than the past Pharisees?

The list can go on and on, but these are a few good points to start on. Some teachers say that Judah can return in unbelief and that in time they will believe again. I hope that is true, but are we really fulfilling the scriptures today or is this purely a work of the flesh and man’s own vain efforts to make his own righteousness?

Objections

A parable of the prodigal son returning is often used in hebrew roots to explain that the northern kingdom will return to covenant while Judah is still in the house. This does make sense if you believe Judah never got divorced, but since I believe they did, what does this parable mean? Here is the starting context of the discourse:

Luk 15:1  Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming to Him to hear Him. 

Luk 15:2  And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, saying, “This One receives sinners and eats with them.” 

Luk 15:3  And He spoke this parable to them, saying, 

Luk 15:4  “What man among you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

Yeshua is teaching about a sinner returning to obedience. The parable of the prodigal son is the same. It tells of a son who uses his inheritance or blessing and then goes and wastes it on unbridled living. He then becomes poor and returns to the Father in humility just as a sinner does when he repents and the Father rejoices. This parable is echoed in other similar stories such as those working in the vineyard and all receiving the same wage at the end of the day. This explanation fits both the context and the other teachings on repentance than that of Judah staying in the house faithful when it has been written:

Jer 3:8  “And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Yisra’ěl had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Yehuḏah did not fear, but went and committed whoring too. 

Jer 3:9  “And it came to be, through her frivolous whoring, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and wood. 

Jer 3:10  “And yet for all this her treacherous sister Yehuḏah has not turned to Me with all her heart, but falsely,” declares יהוה. 

Jer 3:11  And יהוה said to me, “Backsliding Yisra’ěl has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Yehuḏah.

The next objection is along the same lines:

Mat 15:24  And He answering, said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Yisra’ěl.

Upon first glance it appears that Yeshua could have only been sent to the northern kingdom because the southern kingdom was in proper standing within the covenant. If we step back and look at the context again it shows us He is talking to a gentile:

Mat 15:22  And see, a woman of Kena‛an came from those borders and cried out to Him, saying, “Have compassion on me, O Master, Son of Dawiḏ! My daughter is badly demon-possessed.”

Mat 15:26  And He answering, said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” 

Mat 15:27  But she said, “Yes Master, for even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

This was a woman of cannon and a “dog” who is outside of covenant. Yeshua is saying that what he has is meant for Israel at a whole. When we look at the references for “House of Israel” in scripture it is pointing to both houses as one in all of the torah and in several other passages throughout scripture encompassing everyone and is a better fit for what Yeshua meant. Another proof is this passage:

Mat 10:5  יהושע sent these twelve out, having commanded them, saying, “Do not go into the way of the nations, and do not enter a city of the Shomeronim, 

Mat 10:6  but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Yisra’ěl. 

Samaria was formerly the capital city of the northern kingdom, yet Yeshua said don’t go there but go to the house of Israel. If this was where the northern tribe was formerly then isn’t he contradicting himself? I think the better explanation is that the term “House of Israel” was being referred to the Jews at that time as well as those who knew they were of Israel. This makes sense when this message is given:

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Messiah, for it is the power of Elohim for deliverance to everyone who believes, to the Yehuḏi first and also to the Greek. 

Further evidence can be found in the book of Jeremiah who was a prophet to Judah:

Jer 50:6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

We see that it is the leadership that causes sheep to be lost. Yeshua repeatedly came against the Pharisees and Sadducees and accused them of leading people away (Those of Judah).

Mat 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you go about the land and the sea to win one convert, and when he is won, you make him a son of Gehenna twofold more than yourselves.

When we look at the history of Judah being judged in 70ad and losing the land as their inheritance, as well as Yeshua constantly coming against the leadership saying they will not enter into the kingdom, then it gives us a clear picture that Judah was not the faithful brother in the house and that Yeshua came for them also.

Conclusion

Both houses of Israel received a divorce decree and expulsion from the land for their idolatry and disobedience. This officially ended the old covenant of mount Sinai with both of these people groups. Yeshua came to pay for the sin of the adulterous woman and to offer his righteous blood and to ratify a New Covenant with both houses. This new covenant is predicated upon them accepting His sacrifice, the forgiveness of their sins through it, and for them to have a heart to obey the instructions of the Father. There is only one path to the Father, not two:

Joh 14:6 Yeshua said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 

1Jn 2:23  No one denying the Son has the Father. The one confessing the Son has the Father as well.