Glad-U-See

"As regards the ten tribes there is this truth underlying the strange hypothesis that, as their persistent apostasy from the God of Israel and His worship had cut them off from his people, so the fulfillment of the Divine promises to them in the latter days (GUS: in the Resurrection) would imply, as it were, a second birth to make them once more Israel". An excerpt from The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, by Alfred Edersheim, Book 1 Chapter 1, footnote 76.

John 3:3 Yeshua answered him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he will not see the Kingdom of YHVH in Israel (IChr 28:5; 2Chr 13:8)".

Ezek 20:33-38 As I live, saith Adonai YHVH, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you. And I will bring you out from the nations, and will redeem you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith Adonai YHVH. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you again to the Yoke of the Covenant (Mat 11:29-30) and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the Land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am YHVH.

Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born again (return to the Yoke of the Covenant) when he is old (already a proselyte)? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb (a mikvah) to be born again?

Mikvah is a Hebrew word for a ritual bath. The act of immersion into a mikvah is called tevilah. Tevilah is an essential part of the process of identifying with the Messiah, as John confirmed: "I did not know him, but I came conducting tevilah, so that he might be revealed to Israel" (Joh 1:31).

John's Hebrew name is Yochanan ben Z'karyah HaMatbil (John, the son of Zechariah, the Attendant). A matbil is an attendant who attests to the validity of tevilah.

The word mikvah means a gathering of water ("Only a fountain or a pit wherein is a gathering of water shall be clean", Lev 11:36).

The mikvah is seen as a watery grave. This is why a mikvah is built directly into the ground, like the ancient mikvah at Masada. Romans Chapter Six notes, "Know ye not, that as many of us as did tevilah with Yeshua the Messiah did tevilah with a view to his death? Therefore we are buried with him in the mikvah with a view to his death; that like as the Messiah was raised up from the dead (born again, Act 13:33) by the glory of the Father; even so we also might walk in the newness of life (in the Resurrection). For if we (Israel) have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection". (Rom 6:3-5).

Rev 1:5 And from Yeshua the Messiah of Israel, the trustworthy witness, and the first to be born from among the dead (born again), and the ruler of the kings of the Land. Unto him that loved us, and freed us (the Greek word is "luo", Strong's #3089 - to unfasten) from our sins (our captors) with his own blood (his death).

The new birth is a process that begins when Israelites accept the work and words of their Messiah, and is brought to fruition when they are physically resurrected in the Land of Israel, under the rule of the Messiah, and yoked again to the Covenant. Entering a mikvah, presupposes the hope of that resurrection. Mikvah is the word for hope. Our hope is found while we are being gathered to Him, who is our Mikvah: "Oh YHVH, the Hope (Mikvah) of Israel" is the cry of the prophet Jeremiah in 17:13. The mikvah is the gathering for and the immersion in: the "Hope of the Resurrection" (Act 23:6; 24:15; 28:20).

As Nicodemus hinted, in verse 4, a mikvah is both a womb and a grave (the beginning and the end of the cycle of life). When the individual enters the waters, he is reentering the womb. When he emerges from the waters, he is born again (Act 13:33-34).

Joh 3:5 Yeshua answered, "this is Truth, this is Truth, I confirm unto thee, unless someone is born from water (enters a mikvah; only the nation of Israel was born from water) in the presence of a spirit (matbil; compare Act 5:32), he will not enter into the Kingdom of YHVH in Israel".

Tevilah is crossing over the Sea from Egypt (captivity) into the Wilderness where the Hebrews entered in the Covenant with YHVH, received the Torah, and learned to become a free nation. The phrase "to cross-over" comes from the Hebrew word abar (Strong's #5674). This is the root word for Hebrew; thus, being Hebrew means first and foremost "to cross-over", with the emphasis on passing into the covenant.

1Cor 10:1-2 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the Sea (“born from water”, Joh 3:5); and they all did tevilah by the hand of Moses in the cloud and in the Sea (Moses, like John, was a matbil to the fathers of the brethren in Corinth).

Joh 3:6 The thing born by the flesh is flesh (See Rom 9:8-12. A son who is "born by the flesh" is not regarded as a firstborn. It is referring to Israel as persona-non-grata, or Lo-Ammi: not my people, Hos 1:9. Hebraically, to be "flesh" is to be uncircumcised, Col 2:13); and the thing born by the spirit is spirit (See the paragraph called Two Laws in the chapter entitled "Under Law". To be "born by the spirit" is to be set apart for a specific purpose. To be born again is to restore the House of Israel from Lo-Ammi to Ammi: from not-my-people to my-people, Hos 1:10 & 2:23. As the Sidebar states, to be spirit is to be attested or to be conspicuous).

Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee Nicodemus, you must be born again.

Nicodemus (though he had not been born into the tribe of Judah) had been proselytized by the Pharisees, as evident in John 7:48-52: "Have any of the Sanhedrin believed in Yeshua? Or any of the Pharisees? But this crowd from Galilee (John 7:1-13), which doesn't know our established customs, is accursed"! Nicodemus, the same one who visited Yeshua previously, being one of them (the Galileans), said, "Our Torah doesn't judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he's doing, does it"? "You are not a Galilean any longer are you?" they responded. "because if you iInvestigate you will see that an interperter of the Torah will not arise from Galilee".

Joh 3:10 "You are the teacher from the ten tribes of Israel and you don't know these things?" Yeshua replied.

Nicodemus was called a "ruler of the Jews" in Joh 3:1, because he initially chose to fall in line with the Pharisees, in their acceptance of Oral Law. For all intents and purposes, at that moment, Nicodemus was still Lo Ammi.

The Israelites who would not become proselytes to a sect of Judaism that adhered to the Oral Law, were referred to as the Fearers. See Act 10:2; 13:16, etc.

Joh 3:8 The wind blows where it delights, allowing you to hear its whistle (see Zec 10:8-9 in the chapter entitled "Who Are the Redeemable?"), but do not know where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who has been converted by the spirit (see 1Pet 2:10 below).

Isa 11:2-3 Spirit YHVH shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YHVH; And he shall sense the spirit of the fear of YHVH.

1Pet 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Yeshua the Messiah, to the Chosen Ones who are living like aliens, scattered throughout the Dispersion.

Deu 30:3 Then YHVH thy Elohim will return Israel's captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, where YHVH thy Elohim hath scattered thee.

Jer 7:15 And I will sow you out of my sight, as I have sown all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim (Ephraim represents the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel).

Joh 11:51-52 Being high priest that year, he prophesied that Yeshua should die for the sake of the nation of Judah; and not for the sake of that nation only, but that also his death should gather together in one with Judah, the Children of Elohim (the ten tribes of Israel, Hos 1:10) who were scattered abroad. (How does his death accomplish this? See the end note for Act 26:17-23 below).

Act 9:15 But YHVH said unto Ananias, "Go thy way; for Shaul is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my Name in the presence of nations and kings, even the Children of Israel (see Gen 17:6; 35:11)".

Act 26:17-23 I selected you from out of the People, indeed, out from among the gentiles (for the definition of “gentile” see the chapter entitled "What Must I Do to Be Safe?") to whom I now send you, to open their eyes that they may return from darkness to light (return from exile, see Isa 9:1-3 below) and from the power of satan to Elohim (from the influence of their host nation. Satan is a Hebrew word that means an adversary or an enemy). That they may receive the release of sins (reparation and restoration, see Jer 31:18-19; 33:7-8) and a share among those who are sanctified (alluding to the tribe of Judah, Hos 11:12; Eph 2:11-14) by the faith that is in me ... that the gentiles should repent and return to Elohim, and do works worthy of repentance (Deu 6:24-25) ... to this day I stand and testify to both small and great, saying nothing else than what the prophets and Moses said would take place, in Deu 28-30, that the Messiah of Israel must suffer (die), in order to be the first to rise from the dead. Then he could proclaim light (Psa 43:3-4; Isa 9:1-3; Luk 2:27-32) to our People and to the so-called gentiles. (The Resurrection is the mechanism used to regather Judah and the pseudo-gentiles; and a Nation will be born again, in a twinkling of an eye, Isa 66:8).

1Pet 1:2-5 According to the foreknowledge of YHVH the Father (Deu 29:12-15), and set apart by spirit for obeying YHVH, who rededicated the Covenant by the sprinkling of the blood of Yeshua the Messiah (see Heb 9:15-22 in the chapter called "Old & New"). Favor and Shalom be multiplied unto you. Blessed be the Elohim and Father of Adoneinu Yeshua the Messiah in whom, in keeping with his abundant mercy and by means of the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah from the dead, we have been born again (from Lo-Ammi to Ammi in the Resurrection; see 1Pet 2:10 below) to a living expectation, that is, an expectation of an inheritance that will not be fore-closed, cannot be defiled, and yours throughout perpetuity, guarded by Heaven (a euphemism for YHVH) for you, faithfully protected by the power of Elohim for salvation (for the return of the Chosen Ones who are living like strangers, vs. 1) ready to be revealed, in the Last Time.

This inheritance that "will not be fore-closed, cannot be defiled, and theirs throughout perpetuity", is the Land of Israel:

Gen 35:12 The Land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. And I will give the Land to your descendants after you.

Gen 48:4 He said to me, "I will make you fruitful and numerous; I will make many nations come from you, and I will give this Land as an eternal possession to your descendants to come".

Isa 60:19-21 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but YHVH shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy Elohim thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for YHVH shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy People also are all righteous (Deu 6:24-25); they shall inherit the Land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

Eze 37:21-22,25 And say unto them, "thus saith Adonai YHVH, behold, I will take the Children of Israel from among the gentiles (Hos 8:8), whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own Land, and I will make them One Nation in the Land upon the mountains of Israel; and one King shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations (Eph 2:16), neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all ... and they shall dwell in the Land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever; and my servant David shall be their prince forever".

Eze 47:13-14 Thus saith Adonai YHVH; this shall be the border, whereby ye shall inherit the Land according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions (1Chr 5:1-2). And ye shall inherit it, one as well as another; concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers; and this Land shall fall unto you for inheritance.

Heb 11:15-16 And truly, if they (Abraham, Sarah, and their seed Heb 11:12) had been remembering that land from whence they came from (Chaldea, Gen 11:31), they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a more propitious Land, and that is a heavenly desire (Jer 31:6-9); wherefore YHVH is not ashamed to be called their Elohim (Hos 2:23); for he hath prepared for them a City (Zion, Jer 31:6-14; Joe 3:17-21; Oba 17; Mic 3:12-4:2; Zep 3:14-20).

1Pet 1:18-19,23 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed (rescued) with perishable seed ... by traditions that have been handed down (the Oral Law); but with the precious blood of the Messiah of Israel (i.e., as a result of his death, 1Cor 15:17,36), as of a lamb without blemish and without spot ... Being born again (1Pet 2:10), not of perishable seed (the words of the Oral Law), but of imperishable seed, the written Word of YHVH, which lives and abides for ever (Mat 5:18; Luk 8:11; Heb 4:12).

1Pet 2:9a Ye are a chosen seed, a realm for the priests, a set-apart nation, a peculiar treasure…

Deu 7:6 For you Israel art set-apart nation unto YHVH thy Elohim. YHVH thy Elohim hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Deu 10:15 Only YHVH had a delight in Israel's fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

Exo 19:5-6 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you Israel shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the land is mine. And ye shall be unto me a realm for the priests, and a set-apart nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the Children of Israel.

1Pet 2:9b …that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness (exile) to his marvelous Light (Messiah).

Psa 23:4 (Targum Psalms) Yea, though I go into exile (into the valley of the shadow of death) I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.

Psa 43:3-4 Send out Thy Light and Thy Truth (the Messiah and the Torah, Psa 119:105,142; Joh 8:12; 14:6); let them lead me; let them bring me back unto Thy Set-Apart Mountain, and to Thy dwelling-places. Then will I return unto the altar of Elohim, unto Eloah, my exceeding joy; and praise Thee upon the harp, O Elohim, my Elohim.

Isa 9:1-3 Now the former (Assyria during the reign of Pekah, the 18th king of Israel, 2Kin 15:29) has lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali (in northern Israel), but the latter (Assyria during the reign of Hoshea, the last king of Israel, 2Kin 18:9-12) was more severe by the way of Yam Kinneret, beyond Jordan, in "Galilee of the Nations". The People that walked in darkness (the People who had been removed from the land of Israel and into exile) have seen a Great Light (the Messiah, Mat 4:12-16); they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death (the "land of the shadow of death" is wherever the People of Israel were exiled), upon them hath that Great Light shined. You have increased the nation and increased its joy.

Isa 49:6 He said, "Is it an insignificant thing that you, Messiah of Israel, should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob? And, in order to restore the preserved of Israel, I will also give thee for a light to the nations (where Israel has been sown) so that thou may be my Salvation unto the end of the earth".

Eze 34:11-12 For thus saith Adonai YHVH; Behold I, indeed I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

Hos 8:8 Israel is swallowed up (assimilated) and now shall they be among the gentiles as a vessel that has fallen short of its previous glory (Rom 3:23).

Luk 2:27-32 The parents brought in the child Yeshua, to do for him after the custom of the Torah (Lev 12:2-3; Num 18:15-16). Then Simeon took him up in his arms, and blessed YHVH, and said, YHVH, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation (Your Yeshuah), who thou hast prepared before the face of all the People, a Light who will reveal the gentiles, even the disclosure of thy People Israel.

Luk 15:8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver (the ten tribes of Israel), if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle (the Great Light of Isa 9:1-3 and Luk 2:27-32, as we read above), and sweep the house (the nations), and seek diligently till she find it?

1Pet 2:10 Who in time past were not a people (in Hebrew, the phrase "not a people" is Lo Ammi), but are now the People of Elohim, who were without mercy (in Hebrew, the phrase "without mercy" is Lo Ruhamah), but now have obtained mercy (in Hebrew, the phrase "having obtained mercy" is Ruhamah).

Hos 1:6,9 And Hosea’s wife conceived again, and bare a daughter. And Elohim said unto him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy upon the House of Israel; but I will utterly take them away” ... then said Elohim, “Call his name Lo-Ammi; for ye are Not My People, and I will not be your Elohim”.

Hos 2:1,23 Say ye unto your brother Ammi and to your sister Ruhamah ... I will have mercy upon her (Ruhamah) that had not obtained mercy (Lo Ruhamah); and I will say to them which were Not My People (Lo Ammi) thou art My People (Ammi); and they shall say, thou art our Elohim.

Rom 9:24-26 Even all Israel, whom he hath invited, not out of the Judeans only, but also out of the gentiles, because as he says also in Hosea 2:23: And I will sow her (repatriate Israel, Hos 1:6-7) unto me in the Land; and I will have compassion upon her (Ruhamah) that had not obtained compassion (Lo Ruhamah); and I will say to them that were Not My People (Lo Ammi), "Thou art My People (Ammi)"; and Ammi shall say, "Thou art my Elohim". And, as he also said in Hosea 1:10: And it shall come to pass that, instead of that which was said unto them, "Ye are Not My People (Lo Ammi)", it shall be said unto them, "Ye are the Sons of the living El".

Luk 15:11-13a A certain man had two sons (Judah and Ephraim). And the younger of them (Ephraim) said to his father, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me”. And he divided unto both sons their inheritance (1Kin 11:31-32). And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country

Isa 43:6 I will say to the north give up; and to the south, keep not back; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.

Jer 31:10 Hear the Word of YHVH, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

Dan 9:7 YHVH, righteousness belongs unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

Eph 2:13 But now in Messiah Yeshua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood (kinship) of the Messiah.

Luk 15:13b-15a …and there scattered abroad his goods (his seed, Hos 1:10) with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land (Amo 8:11) and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country:

Hos 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the nations.

Luk 15:15b-17a …and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he desired to fill his belly with the bean pods that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself...

Jer 31:18-19 I have surely heard Ephraim consoling himself thus, “Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; bring me back to you, even I shall be returned; for thou art YHVH my Elohim. Surely after that I turned, I regretted, and after that I came to know myself, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth”.

Hos 6:1 Come, and let us (Ephraim) return unto YHVH; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

Luk 15:17b-20a ... he said, “How many employees of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 'Father, I have sinned before Heaven, and in sight of thee (what was his sin? It was his desire to disenfranchise himself from his father, his home, and his responsibilities), and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me as one of thy employees'”. And he arose and returned to his father.

Hos 3:5 Afterward shall the Children of Israel return, and seek YHVH their Elohim and David their king; and shall fear YHVH and his goodness in the latter days.

Hos 14:1 O Israel, return unto YHVH thy Elohim; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Luk 15:20b-24 But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran to meet him (1The 4:17; Mal 3:7), and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son”. But the father said to his servants, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it and let us eat, and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again (born again) that is to say, he was lost and is found (born again)".

Rom 11:15 For if the casting away of them (House of Israel) restored order, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead (new birth).

Luk 15:25-32 Now his elder son (Judah) was in the field (in the Land), and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, “Thy brother is come and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound". (Note: "returning home safe and sound" is the definition of salvation). And he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf”. And he said unto him, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad; for this thy brother was dead and is alive again (born again) that is to say, he was lost and is found (born again)”.

What does it mean to be Born Again? It is the disclosure of individual Israelites (whose ancestors had assimilated into the gentile world) thus revealing their true heredity, and restoring their status (from Lo-Ammi to Ammi) at the Resurrection (foreshadowed in the mikvah). It is collectively returning them to: YHVH, their brother Judah, the Torah, the Covenant, and the Land of Israel.