Chapter 2: Genealogical and Converted Jews

The term “Jew” is a shortened form of Judean or Judahite. The Hebrew term is Yehudi, “of Judah.” The Greek term is Ioudeos, “Judean.”

The meaning of this term has changed over the years. The first time the Bible uses the term is found in 2 Kings 16:5, 6, which reads (NASB):

⁵ Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. ⁶ At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, and cleared the Judeans[“Jews” in KJV] out of Elath entirely; and the Arameans came to Elath, and have lived there to this day.

In the above passage, the king of Israel had become an ally with the king of Syria (Aram). Together they laid siege to Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. It was during this time that Syria and Israel drove the Jews (i.e., Judeans) from Elath. The passage shows clearly that Israel and Judah were not the same nation. Some years earlier, after the death of Solomon, the ten tribes of Israel had revolted from the rule of Solomon’s son and had formed their own nation called “Israel.”

Later (745-721 B.C.) the ten tribes of the House of Israel were taken captive by Assyria, and they never returned. The prophets spoke much about the House of Israel and its ultimate restoration, but we must keep in mind that they were speaking of the “lost” tribes of Israel, not the nation of Judah (“Jews”). This distinction is extremely important, because many Christians today are told that the Jews are Israel and that the prophecies regarding the restoration of Israel are being fulfilled by the Jews in the Israeli state. This is not the case, regardless of the fact that they call themselves “Israel.”

During the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, David, and Solomon, Judah was one of the tribes of Israel. The term Yehudi (“Jew”) during those days would have referred to a member of that tribe, most of whom were descendants of the patriarch by that name, Judah, the son of Jacob-Israel. But when the nation was divided, the term came to include the tribe of Benjamin that remained united with Judah. Thus, instead of the term being strictly a tribal name, it now became a national term that included Benjamin as well as the Levites who lived in Judah. The meaning thus broadened, and the prophets of the divided kingdom used the term with that broadened meaning.

After the House of Judah was taken to Babylon (604-586 B.C.), the term Yehudi could no longer be used strictly as a national term, for the nation had been destroyed. Thus, we find in the book of Esther that the term had taken on a more religious meaning. Esther 8:17 says,

¹⁷ And in each and every province, and in each and every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree arrived, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.

Obviously, those who “became Jews” were not lineal descendants of Judah, the patriarch, nor had they been citizens of the Kingdom of Judah. They were Persians or at least Persian subjects who converted to Judaism at that time.

Edom Forcibly Converted to Judaism: 126 B.C.

A few centuries later, the Maccabean Jews conquered their neighbors and forced them to either convert to Judaism or to face exile. Most of them chose to convert, and they too became Jews. This occurred primarily around 126 B.C. This is recorded by the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, ix, 1. Here we read:

“Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would be circumcised, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision and the rest of the Jews’ ways of living; at which time therefore, this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.”

Josephus was the first-century Jewish historian who initially fought against the Romans in the war that destroyed Jerusalem. He was himself a descendant of the Maccabees. He was well-acquainted with these things when he wrote of these things, because he was writing about his own family history. The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1903 edition, under “Edom,” affirms the Edomite absorption into Jewry, saying,

“Judas Maccabeus conquered their territory for a time (B.C. 163; Ant. Xii, 8 par. 1, 2). They were again subdued by John Hyrcanus (c. 125 B.C.) by whom they were forced to observe Jewish rites and laws (ib. 9, par. 1; xiv. 4, par. 4). They were then incorporated with the Jewish nation, and their country was called by the Greeks and Romans ‘Idumea’ (Mark iii. 8; Ptolemy, Geography v. 16). With Antipater began the Idumean dynasty that ruled over Judea till its conquest by the Romans. Immediately before the siege of Jerusalem 20,000 Idumeans, under the leadership of John, Simeon, Phinehas, and Jacob, appeared before Jerusalem to fight in behalf of the zealots who were besieged in the Temple (Josephus, B.J. iv. 4, par. 5).

“From this time the Idumeans ceased to be a separate people, though the name ‘Idumea’ still existed (in) the time of Jerome.”

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, edited by Dr. Cecil Roth and Dr. Geoffrey Wigoder (1970 edition), says under “Edom,” on page 587,

“The Edomites were conquered by John Hyrcanus who forcibly converted them to Judaism, and from then on they constituted a part of the Jewish people, Herod being one of their descendants. During Titus’ siege of Jerusalem, they marched in to reinforce the extreme elements, killing all they suspected of peace tendencies. Thereafter, they ceased to figure in Jewish history. The name in the Talmud is a synonym for an oppressive government, especially Rome; in the Middle Ages, it was applied to Christian Europe.”

Thus, all historians—including Jewish historians—agree that Edom was absorbed into Jewry and ceased to exist under a separate name after 70 A.D. In fact, they were part of the most radical element in Judaism, the Zealots, whose actions incited Rome to destroy Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D. In later years, as we read above, the Jews began to call Rome and Christian Europe by the name of “Edom.” They obviously did not use the term literally, but as “a synonym for an oppressive government.” Even so, they seem to have done this in order to explain the many prophecies in the Old Testament about Edom in the latter days. The prophets treat Edom as being a latter-day enemy. Since the rabbis could not believe that their own nation might one day have to fulfill those prophecies, they spiritualized them and applied them to other people that they considered “enemies.”

The problem is that Edom was forcibly converted to the religion of Judaism and that this did not give them a personal relationship to the God of Israel. It only forced them to conform to the external rituals required of such “converts,” which did nothing to change their hearts. In fact, their tendency toward violence brought most of them into the ranks of the more radical Jews called “Zealots.” These were the terrorists in the first century A.D. They refused to recognize that God had given Judea into the hands of Rome in judgment for their sin. As we will show in our next chapter, these terrorists were defined in Jer. 24 as “evil figs.” God said in Jer. 24:9, 10 that He would destroy them.

The Zealots and Edomites were both violent groups and kindred spirits. They were even willing to kill peace-loving Jews to force their revolutions upon others. Ultimately, their revolt forced Rome into destroying Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D.

This same spirit of terrorism was revived in the early 1900’s largely through Vladimir Jabotinsky with his violent brand of Zionism. Once again, they were willing to assassinate more peace-loving Jews (and anyone else who stood in their way) to accomplish their purpose.

We showed in the book, The Struggle for the Birthright, that the radical Zionists of the 1940’s terrorized both the Palestinian population as well as the British who were attempting to keep the peace. The terrorist organizations of Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir—as recorded in their own biographies—were simply updated forms of Zealot-Edomite terrorism in the first century.

Zionists have a sordid history of killing anyone who proposes peace. For example, as early as 1924, Jacob de Haan, was assassinated by the Haganah, the Jewish agency in Palestine. Another rabbi to be persecuted was Amram Blau. The Jewish writer, G. Neuburger, wrote an article on May 26, 2000, saying,

“Rabbi Amram Blau was imprisoned in Jerusalem, not by the Ottoman authorities, not by the British, and not by the Arabs, but by the Zionists.”

Yitzhak Shamir (i.e., Itzhak Yizernitsky) was responsible for the assassination of Lord Moyne on Nov. 6, 1944. Moyne was Britain’s Minister for Middle East Affairs. Gerold Frank’s 1963 book, The Deed, says this on page 35:

“Explaining the nature of individual terrorism, Itzhak Yizernitsky, who as Shamir, the operations commander of the Stern group, planned the death of Moyne, once said: “A man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe one thing only—that by his act he will change the course of history.”

Shamir had sent two young assassins to do “the deed.” On page 36 Frank writes,

“Each made his way by different roads to the same conclusion: that Britain would not give up Palestine unless forced to; that freedom would be won only by fighting for it and that if it was to be won, Jewish zealots patterned after those who twenty centuries ago rose up against the might of Rome must now rise up against the might of Britain.”

Years later, Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated in 1994 by the same type of radical Jew. It is plain to see that the spirit of Edom yet operates in Jewry today, particularly in the Likud party, founded by Menachem Begin and currently (2004) headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The reasons for this radical behavior and how this fulfills the biblical prophecies of Edom are set forth in The Struggle for the Birthright.

We must also make it clear that any Jew or any Edomite who genuinely repents and turns to Jesus Christ is a new creature and will not be among those who are destined to fulfill the prophecies of Edom written in Obadiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Malachi, and elsewhere. In turning to Christ, they receive new identities in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Yet apart from Christ, they will continue to be identified with the first Adam and bound by the sins of their forefathers. Their generational spirit will continue to lead them in the carnal ways of violence and death.

The prophets tell us that the Edomite nation will be destroyed in the end (Obadiah 18). But this does not mean that individual Edomites will all be judged and destroyed. God has provided a way of escape for anyone who comes to Jesus Christ. Such people give up their old identity as Edomites in the flesh and are given a new identity in the Last Adam. This is true of all men, not just Edomites. In the end, there will be no Edomite left on the face of the earth. Some will die in the revolt, fighting Jesus Christ; others will see the truth, repent, and transfer their citizenship from Edom to the Kingdom of God.

Meanwhile, books have been written attempting to prove that Turkey or China or other nations are modern Edom, in an effort to rewrite history and shift the focus from the Zionists to some other nation. Yet even The Jewish Encyclopedia itself (quoted earlier) states the truth in plain language. “The Idumeans [or Edomites] ceased to be a separate people” from the Jews about 125 or 126 B.C.

This is confirmed again by The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1925 edition, Vol. 5, p. 41, which says, “Edom is in modern Jewry.”

Edom was absorbed by the Jews and ceased to be a separate people in history. This fact of history is beyond dispute, and no historian has even made the attempt to refute it. It is so well-known to historians that it is incredible how few Christians know this or have incorporated it into their views of Bible prophecy. Only God could have blinded the Church so as to make them lose the entire nation of Edom!

Hence, the Jews—or some branch of them—became the only people remaining to fulfill Isaac’s blessing and the Zionist prophecies of Edom. These will be known by their character, manifested by their Zionistic methods. We would expect Edom’s Zionism to be fulfilled by violence, theft, and bloodshed. In contrast, we would expect the true, godly Zionism of Israel (Joseph) to be fulfilled by peace, righteousness, and justice that would be a blessing to all families of the earth (Gen. 12:3). This is the contrast between the old Jerusalem and the New, between carnal and spiritual, between counterfeit and genuine.

We may conclude, then, that the term “Jew” does not strictly apply to a racial group of people, even if the original stock were descendants of Judah, the patriarch. The meaning of the term came to be applied nationally as a citizen of the nation of Judah, and later to an adherent of the religion of Judaism, including converts from Persia, Edom, and many others over the years.

Today, there are hundreds of thousands of black Jews in New York City, Chicago, and other cities, as well as Japanese Jews who are racial Japanese, Chinese Jews who are racially Chinese, and so on—along with the so-called “white Jews” of Europe. It would be highly improbable that all these Jews came from the same racial stock. Through intermarriage, of course, it is possible that many may have a few genes from Abraham, but they are anything but a “pure race,” as many Christians today mistakenly believe.

The real question posed by this is whether or not a man can become “chosen” by converting to Judaism. Many Christians apparently believe so, because in their desire to attain a higher status with God, they have converted to Judaism. Did this conversion suddenly confer upon them a “chosen” status that they did not already enjoy under Christ? Or did such conversion graft them from the living Christ into a dead tree called Judaism?

The Chazars Voluntarily Convert to Judaism: 740 A.D.

The Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe have been identified by many Jewish historians as Turkish-Mongolian converts to Judaism in the eighth century. These were not converted forcibly, but their conversion was to a religion that had already rejected Jesus Christ. And so, while their conversion from paganism might be considered to be an improvement in their social life, it did not put them into a covenant relationship with God. The Old Covenant had already been made obsolete by the New Covenant (Heb. 8:13). Thus, the Chazars were grafted to the branch of a dead tree. Perhaps if Christians in those days had manifested the character of Jesus Christ to them, and the power of the Holy Spirit, they might have chosen to convert to Christ.

The entire story of their conversion is told in The Jewish Encyclopedia under the heading, Chazars. It is the first article in Volume IV in the 1903 edition. The article opens with the statement:

“CHAZARS: A people of Turkish origin whose life and history are interwoven with the very beginnings of the history of the Jews of Russia.”

Later in the article, it tells the story of their conversion,

“It was probably about that time that the chaghan of the Chazars and his grandees, together with a large number of his heathen people, embraced the Jewish religion. According to A. Harkavy (“Meassef Niddahim,” i.), the conversion took place in 620; according to others, in 740. King Joseph, in his letter to Hasdai ibn Shaprut (about 960), gives the following account of the conversion:

“Some centuries ago King Bulan reigned over the Chazars. To him God appeared in a dream and promised him might and glory. Encouraged by this dream, Bulan went by the road of Darian to the country of Ardebil, where he gained great victories [over the Arabs]. The Byzantine emperor and the calif of the Ishmaelites sent to him envoys with presents, and sages to convert him to their respective religions. Bulan invited also wise men of Israel, and proceeded to examine them all. As each of the champions believed his religion to be the best, Bulan separately questioned the Mohammedans and the Christians as to which of the other two religions they considered the better. When both gave preference to that of the Jews, that king perceived that it must be the true religion. He therefore adopted it” (see Harkavy, ‘Soobshchenija o Chazarakh,’ in ‘Yevreiskaya Biblioteka,’ vii, 153).

“This account of the conversion was considered to be of a legendary nature. Harkavy, however (in ‘Bilbasov’ and ‘Yevreiskaya Biblioteka’), proved from Arabic and Slavonian sources that the religious disputation at the Chazarian court is a historical fact.”

The article in The Jewish Encyclopedia is complete with pictures of the Jewish Kingdom of Chazaria (or Khazaria, Gazaria), extending from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea and north to Poland. (See the photo above, taken from the 1903 edition.) The Ashkenazim comprise the majority of “white Jews” today. On the back cover of Arthur Koestler’s book, The Thirteenth Tribe, 1976 edition, we read:

“This book traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark Ages became converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Khan, but evidence indicatesthat the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western Jewry.”

Koestler himself was a Hungarian Jew who became a British citizen after World War II. Some dispute the extent of the Khazar tribe’s conversion to Judaism in terms of population figures, but again The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, under Chazars says,

“. . . it may be assumed that in the ninth century many Chazar heathens became Jews, owing to the religious zeal of King Obadiah. ‘Such a conversion in great masses,’ says Chwolson (ib. p. 58), ‘may have been the reason for the embassy of Christians from the land of the Chazars to the Byzantine emperor Michael. . . The Jewish population between the seventh and ninth centuries, must have been considerable.”

We merely point out what is said by Jewish writers to establish the simple fact that the Jews are not “the purest race in the world,” as many Christians have been taught. The fact is that Judaism includes people of all races, and all of these are commonly called “Jews.” Furthermore, the Israeli state also recognizes people of all races as Jews and has extended to them the right of automatic citizenship.

The Chazar branch of world Jewry is today called the Ashkenazim to distinguish them from the Sephardim, or “Spanish” Jews. The Sephardim are descended primarily from the Jews of Judah and Edom that were expelled from Palestine by the Romans. However, the Ashkenazim come originally from the area of southern Russia, and the bulk of Jewish immigrants to the Israeli state in the past century are Ashkenazim.

Many evangelical Christians today are expecting the nation of Russia to invade the Israeli state. This view of Ezekiel 38 and 39 seemed very plausible during the Cold War of the twentieth century. Prophecy teachers had a heyday, but it all fell apart in the end. Since then, the Soviet Union has not even been successful militarily in its tiny province of Chechnya. Theoretically, they could still throw nuclear missiles at the Israeli state, but Ezekiel describes an invasion involving actual people, not a nuclear strike from afar.

Furthermore, in 2003 the Israelis began to build a partitioning wall to protect themselves against suicide bombers from Palestinian territory. And yet Ezekiel 38:11 says about Gog and Magog,

¹¹ and you will say, I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls, and having no bars or gates.

Palestine was an unwalled place prior to the arrival of the Zionists. Only then did it become a land of barred gates and walls—probably the most insecure place on earth. The Jewish state has never been at rest since its inception in 1948, nor does anyone “live securely.” It cannot possibly fit the description of the Jewish state today. In fact, now it is building “the mother of all walls,” the longest wall since the Great Wall of China that was built over 2,000 years ago. Each passing day seems to bring Ezekiel’s prophecies into disrepute—unless, of course, there is a different fulfillment.

Is there a reason why the Russian “Ashkenazi” Jews are named for Ashkenaz, the nephew of Magog (Gen. 10:2, 3)? What if the Chazars—Russian Jews—are actually the physical descendants of Gog and Magog? What if the so-called “Russian invasion of Palestine” was fulfilled by Russian Jewish immigrants, rather than by Russian troops? What if the invasion has already been fulfilled by Zionists coming “to capture spoil and to seize plunder” (Ez. 38:12) by seizing land from the Palestinian people?

In an article published at the World Zionist Organization’s website, we read,

“It is now the accepted opinion among most scholars in the field that the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism was widespread, and not limited merely to the royal house and nobility. Ibn al-Faqiih, in fact, wrote, ‘All of the Khazars are Jews.’ Christian of Stavelot wrote in 864 that ‘all of them profess the Jewish faith in its entirety’.”

In regard to Christian of Stavelot (above), this is a quotation from his Expositio in Matthaeum Evangelistam, that is, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, which he wrote in the year 864, over a century after the Khazars began to convert to Judaism. A more complete quotation is as follows:

“At the present time we know of no nation in the world where Christians do not live. For in the lands of Gog and Magog who are a Hunnish race and call themselves Gazari [i.e., Khazars] there is one tribe, a very belligerent one—Alexander enclosed them and they escaped—and all of them profess the Jewish faith. The Bulgars, however, who are of the same race, are now becoming Christians.”

These last two quotations come from the website of The American Center of Khazar Studies: khazaria.com. They make the point that “Judaism has always welcomed converts like the Khazars into the Jewish fold as equals.” It then lists the passages in the Bible and from the Talmud where converts are welcomed. Then it ends with the statement, “Nevertheless, there are many who distort history to attempt to deny the Jewishness of the Khazars.”

We do not dispute the Jewishness of the Khazars insofar as man’s definition of a Jew is concerned. Our dispute, as we will see shortly, is whether a physically circumcised adherent of the Old Covenant is a Jew in the eyes of God, or if a true Jew is a follower of Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant.

If these Khazars “in the lands of Gog and Magog” had converted to Jesus Christ, they would have given up their old fleshly identity as Gog and Magog for a new identity in Christ. Then we would welcome them into the Kingdom of God as warmly as Judaism has welcomed them into the Jewish fold. But they did not convert to Jesus Christ. Therefore, from a New Covenant perspective, we must conclude that they are still the prophetic Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38 and 39. Conversion to Judaism does not change their fleshly status, nor does it make them “chosen.” If the nation of Kenya or China were to convert to Judaism, that would not give them a God-given right to immigrate to Palestine and displace the Palestinians.

Further, Ezekiel 38:6 says that others would come with Gog and Magog to invade the mountains [land, not people] of Israel:

⁶ Gomer with all its troops, Beth-togarmah[“House of Togarmah”] from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.

Genesis 10 does not list for us the sons of Togarmah, and so they appeared to be lost from history. But then just as suddenly they reappeared in 760 A.D. in a letter written to a prominent Jewish diplomat in Cordova, Spain. Togarmah was the father of the Chazars. According to the letter that King Joseph of the Khazars wrote to Hasdai ibn Shaprut, quoted by Koestler in The Thirteenth Tribe, p. 72,

“Joseph then proceeds to provide a genealogy of his people. Though a fierce Jewish nationalist, proud of wielding the ‘Sceptre of Judah’, he cannot, and does not, claim for them Semitic descent; he traces their ancestry not to Shem, but to Noah’s third son, Japheth; or more precisely to Japheth’s grandson, Togarma, the ancestor of all Turkish tribes. ‘We have found in the family registers of our fathers,’ Joseph asserts boldly, ‘that Togarma had ten sons, and the names of their offspring are as follows: Uigur, Dursu, Avars, Huns, Basilii, Tarniakh, Khazars, Zagora, Bulgars, Sabir. We are the sons of Khazar, the seventh.’. . .”

Christians ought to take a new look at their theory of the Russian invasion of Israel. If King Joseph’s records were accurate, it would indicate that the Russian Jews are the ones who were to invade Palestine. Did this invasion of Gog and Magog succeed only because they were able to masquerade as Israelites fulfilling Bible prophecy?

Such a suggestion may be shocking to those who have been taught never to suggest anything detrimental about Jews. But much of the history of the Chazars has been written by Jewish authors and is available for anyone to read—if people actually do read. But my question is this: If it is so bad to suggest that Zionist Jews from Russia might be the ones actually fulfilling the prophecies of Palestine’s invasion by Gog and Magog, is it not equally bad to suggest the same of the Russian people? Should we hold Russians and Jews to different moral standards? American Christians have bashed Russians for the past century. Now that the Soviet Union has collapsed and is incapable of invading the land of Israel even they wanted to do so, it is time to re-evaluate that entire line of thinking.

And what about the Sephardim, who conquered and absorbed Edom? They are the only ones who can fulfill the end-time prophecies of Edom. If the patriarch Jacob-Israel pretended to be Esau in order to obtain the birthright (Gen. 27), did God then allow Esau-Edom to pretend to be Jacob-Israel to reclaim that birthright in 1948?

Does this explain why the Jews have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah even half a century after they laid claim to Palestine—even though prophecy teachers assured the Church that they would do so within seven years of their declaration of independence (May 14, 1948)? Why do they yet reject Jesus Christ?

Why have the Israeli Jews never been “at rest,” as Ezekiel describes true Israel? They have always claimed to be under siege. They have made the security issue paramount in everything they do. Why are the Israeli Jews building a great wall for their protection, contrary to Ezekiel’s prophecy?

Perhaps the Church has mistakenly identified the Jews as Israel. Perhaps, like Isaac, the Christians have been blinded so that God could rectify the wrong done to Esau many centuries ago. Perhaps it was in the plan of God that Jacob would have to give back the birthright to Esau for a time in order to fulfill Isaac’s prophecy in Gen. 27:40.

It is our contention that the Israeli state, though it is called “Israel,” is not the fulfillment of the regathering of the lost tribes of the house of Israel. Instead, it is a regathering of the bad figs for judgment to fulfill Luke 19:27. Their lack of repentance and refusal to this day to accept Jesus as the Messiah fulfills Jesus’ curse on the fig tree in Matt. 21:19, where He said that no fruit would ever grow on that tree again.

Zionism itself has a triple fulfillment. It fulfills the desire of the bad figs to return to the land where they had been displaced by the Romans in the first century. Second, it fulfills the aspirations of Esau, who desired to inherit that land (Mal. 1:4). Third, it fulfilled the desire of Gog and Magog to rob and plunder the Palestinians, as described in Ezekiel 38:12. The bad figs, Edom, and Gog all converged in Judaism over the centuries in order that all their fleshly aspirations might find their highest expression in a single modern ideology—Zionism.

What Should Christians Do?

The true servants of God, Jesus’ disciples, the Church, was blinded so that they would support the Zionists, for Isaiah 42:19 says,

¹⁹ Who is blind but My servant, or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, or so blind as the servant of the Lord?

Even as a deceitful Jacob tricked his blind father, Isaac, into giving him the blessing, so also now has God blinded “Isaac” once again to reverse the blessing. God has blinded His servants in modern times to do justice to Esau. The blindness served to return both the Dominion Mandate and the Fruitfulness Mandate to Esau for a time, so that Esau could bring no charges against God or true Jacob-Israel.

Yes, it was always the divine plan that Esau would serve Jacob. But a man is not crowned except he strive lawfully (2 Tim. 2:5). Jacob did not strive lawfully. He bore a false witness to his father and put a stumblingblock before the blind (Lev. 19:14). He should have let God work it out in His wisdom.

Perhaps Jacob simply did not understand what Moses later knew about the laws of inheritance. God revealed to Moses that the oldest son who is “hated” could not be disinherited without cause (Deut. 21:15-17). God said in Mal. 1:2, 3 that He loved Jacob and hated Esau.” This was not an emotional “hatred” as we think of it. Prov. 13:24 says,

²⁴ He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

Hebrews 12:5-11 explains this, saying that God disciplines His children, and if not, then they are illegitimate. This principle was then explained and illustrated in terms of Esau in verses 15-18. It shows that Esau was a hated and “illegitimate” son, one who seems to be a believer, but who was born, as it were, “out of wedlock.” God did not discipline Esau to correct him; but God did discipline Jacob, whom He loved.

God intended to disinherit Esau, but His own law shows that He intended to wait until Esau proved himself to be unworthy of receiving the birthright and the Kingdom. Jacob’s impatience and his ignorance of the law of the hated son motivated him to try to keep God (and Isaac) from making a big “mistake.” So in 1948 God caused the birthright to be returned to Esau. Esau’s violent behavior and continued rejection of Jesus Christ has proven the Zionists to be unworthy of receiving the Kingdom. They are not worthy to rule with the Dominion Mandate of Judah, nor are they worthy to be “manifested sons” (Rom. 8:19) that have the Fruitfulness Mandate of Joseph.

The time is now approaching, then, when God will fulfill His word, taking the Kingdom of God from them, in order to give it those who will indeed produce the good fruits of the Kingdom (Matt. 21:43).

What should the Church do? Prepare for the manifestation of the sons of God. Search the Scriptures and pray that all of our eyes will be opened to the truth of the word. When their eyes are opened, it will give the Church a whole new view of Bible prophecy. No longer will they feel it necessary to support violence, theft, and murder, during this present time when the Kingdom of God is being claimed or taken by violence and force (Matt. 11:12). The time has come to support the real Jews, not merely those who say they are Jews (Rev. 3:9). The time has come to support Israel, not its Zionist counterfeit. The time has come to support Jesus Christ—not His enemies who hate Him and do not want Him to reign over them (Luke 19:14; 27).