What, on earth, is the Apostle Paul really saying in Galations 3:29?
December 4, 2009
Shalom alaychem,
[Note: Even though this blog write-up is not Temple related, on an obvious level, I believe that a correct understanding of Galations 3:29, specifically, is, quite, crucial in understanding who we, truly, are in Yahushua ha-Mashi-ach, and have, therefore, decided to do this particular blog, here. I trust that you will agree with me that it is important for the people of Elohim to, correctly, discern this important issue.
Mayan Viljoen]
Ever since the day I understood what the Apostle Paul meant by these words, I have desired to, somehow, somewhere, write about it, mainly, to just share my excitement about it all with as many people as possible. You see, as an Afrikaans boy, who was born in the old capital of South Africa, i.e. Pretoria (now Tswane), in 1962, I grew up in the classic "Christian" faith, which, pretty much, meant only one thing in those days . . . Yes, you've got it . . . the Dutch Reformed Church, combined with what was (and, I believe, to this day, in certain educational establishments of our country, still is) called, in Afrikaans, "'n Afrikaanse Christelike Hoer Onderwys opvoeding" (An Afrikaans Christian Higher Education).
The above is where I come from. If you are Afrikaans, and, especially, if you were born, in South Africa, any time before, approximately, 1970, you will be able to identify with my origins, in every way. If you think of yourself as Afrikaans, I (in the words of the Apostle Paul, in Phillipians 3:4(b)] am even more so. If you are not quite convinced, you can just, quickly, consider my surname, i.e. Viljoen, again, which should dispel any doubt, in double quick time.
Today, I do not see, or, even, think of myself as a "Christian", in the classical sense of the word, any longer. To get into the reasons why this is so, falls outside the scope of this write-up, and neither is it important, at all. All I know, today, all I want to know, is that I am a "believer" (with everything that this word implies, or should imply) in Yahushua, who is the promised Mashi-ach (Messiah) of Set-apart Scripture, full stop.
I was saved, somewhere, during the time, from my 21st to, approximately, my 25th year, as I, very slowly, came to realize who Yahushua (I knew Him then, still, only as Jesus) was, and what He has done for the world, at large, and, more specifically, for me. Even though I was now saved, and was known, and, moreover, thought of myself, as a "Christian", I had this nagging sense within me, which started off as nothing more than a slight sense of unease, every once in a while, that something was just not right, either with me, my religion or my relationship with the Messiah, but over the next 15 odd years of my life, grew to the full blown realization that I, simply, did not understand the crucial place of Elohim's first covenant people, i.e. the Jewish people, as a nation, in His big picture of salvation history, at all.
At the age of, about, 42 (I am 47 years old, today, in Dec. 2009) I began to read, and re-read Galations 3:28 - 29, as well as to mull it over and over in my head, until I knew these two scriptures, but especially verse 29, so well, that I was able to quote it, verbatum, at any time of the day or night, for that matter. Could it, possibly, simply, mean what I thought it meant? Could it?
I will, now, proceed to write down, for you, exactly, what I thought (during those days, mentioned above) the Apostle Paul was trying to communicate to his original audience, in the words of verse 29, specifically, i.e. the Almighty One (blessed be He) sees two kinds of people, namely Jews and non Jews. Paul is sying that the Jews are those who are "in" [belong to, put their trust in, accept the yoke (Heb. = ol) of] the Messiah, and the non Jews are, by, clear, implication, those who can not care less about the Messiah, His Kingdom and His desires for His creation. The above is exactly what I understood when I first read and mulled over the words of Galations 3:29.
I was extremely excited about it all, because the implications of this new revelation was, almost immediately, clear to me. Firstly, by this definition of a Jew (these days I call it Elohim's definition of a Jew, as opposed to, for example, the State of Israel's definition, which is, still, quite different) I realized that, as a blood bought child of Yahushua ha-Mashi-ach, I was, indeed, a Jew, just like every single other believer who, likewise, are, in Mashi-ach. I find it, almost, impossible, to explain, in words, just how awesome "this revelation" was for me, at that time, and to this very day.
Secondly, with this revelation, I, now, also realized that all the practises, as well as everything else (of which there are many more than my one example, below), which, up to this time, in my understanding, belonged to the Jews, only, belonged, as much (equally, if you like) to every single person on the face of the earth, who are in the Jewish Messiah, even Yahushua. This realization was, nothing less, than "mind blowing" to me. Some years back, as I was beginning to look into the "Torah" more deeply, I, once more, came across the passage in B'midbar (Numbers) 15:37-41.
I can still remember what I thought, i.e. "I wish that I could wear these tzitzi-ot (tassels), but I can't, because it is a Jewish thing." Well, with my new understanding of, what I have come to call, Elohim's definition of a Jew, I understood, that, in His eyes, I, as well as any other, true, believer in Yahushua, was more than qualified to wear it. It greatly excited me, and today I wear these "tzitzi-ot" and pray that I will always, only, wear it worthily, i.e. in obedience to His command in B'midbar 15:37-41and for the glory of His exalted Name and Kingdom.
Well, I quickly found out that it is one thing to realize something, oneself, but quite another matter to expect it to be common knowledge out there, among other believers in Yahushua. By far the majority of the latter group were just, hopelessly, too used to the fact that they were "Christians", have always been and will always be, and that the Jewish people of our day, are nil else than the physical descendants of Ya-a-qov, full stop.
These believers will also, very quickly, remind you of many other categories of people, like the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., etc. In their minds any other re-classification of types of people, before Almighty Elohim, is absolute craziness (nonsense, if you like), even in the face of black on white evidence, exactly like that of Galations 3:29, which, clearly, states nil else (in my humble opinion) than what I have penned down in paragraph 7, above.
What follows is very subjective, but because it has everything to do with my ultimate assurance, these days, that I have, indeed, got the interpretation of Galations 3:29 straight (correct), I have decided to include this "happening", here, in this blog entry. You always have the choice to, simply, dismiss it, if it is of little or no value to you.
Look, the thing is like this, if by far the majority of Elohim's people are, simply, not willing to, even, consider, never mind being willing to, actually, transform traditionally held beliefs, in their lives, in the face of clear scriptural evidence, that they should do, just, that, it must, sooner or later, have an influence on "those who get things straight". ( . . . and as far as the latter is concerned, if we see or understand something from His Word, which the majority of the believing body, for one or other reason, does not see, yet, this is, on the earth, nothing to feel superior about, because He will, also, show the latter things, which He has not revealed to us, as yet.)
The majority view had an influence on me, to such an extent that I began to doubt if I understood Galations 3:29, correctly. No one knew this state of affairs, playing itself out in my mind, better than Elohim (blessed be He), Himself. This is exactly why, I believe, my wife, Celia, and I found ourselves in a real "palace" of a home, in the town of Stellenbosch, one afternoon. The kind, and, very much, saved, lady of the house, who was one of my Hebrew students, at that time, sat us down in one of the big lounges of her home, made us some tea, and we just started to speaking about scriptural matters.
Some time during this conversation our hostess, suddenly, said: "I had this dream . . ." I can still, clearly, remember what I thought when I heard these words, i.e. "Oh, boy, what am I going to hear, here?", because the truth is that I, simply, don't believe that every dream, we as the children of Elohim, dream, is of/from Him, something which I, subsequently realized, this lady, did believe. I can, confidently, tell you that this is a very popular belief, out there, in believing circles, but this is now, really, beside the point, here.
"In this dream", she said, "I heard a voice speaking to me." This voice, which she, almost immediately, took to be that of Elohim, Himself, began to relate all the scriptural history to her, from Avraham "avinu" (our father), and onwards. I thought to myself . . . "Surely this must be from the Almighty, surely?", but I, still, did not give her my undevided attention, maybe because I thought . . . "I am not really hearing anything, new, here.", even though I was, by this time, pretty convinced that this, particular, dream was, indeed, from above.
Suddenly she said . . . "And the Voice said to me, . . . I see only two kinds of people, Jews and non Jews." Maybe you can imagine how awake I was now, hearing these words. Then she said . . . "I started to argue with the Voice, no Lord, it can not be . . . What about the Christians, what about the Muslims, etc., etc." I was absolutely stunned. I could not believe what I was hearing.
After these, above mentioned, words, she just continued relating the rest of the dream to us, which was still more history, and the truth be told, I can not even remember one single detail of it.
After she had finished relating her dream, she said to us: "You know, I dreamt this exact same dream 4 (four) times, in close succession, and never again." On our way back home, thinking back on what I had heard, that afternoon, I still remarked to my wife, Celia . . ."I wonder how much she argued with the Voice, about the different kinds of people He sees, by the time she had dreamed this dream the 3rd, and, especially, the 4th time?"
I knew one thing for sure, however, . . . Even if 99 out of a 100 of Elohim's children, did not, or would not or could not believe what I, now, knew, for certain, with regard to this word in Galations 3:29, this fact would, now, never make me doubt, again, that I understood these words, of the Apostle Paul, correctly, from the very start.
Thank you for having taken the time to read this blog entry through.
How awesome is our Elohim, and how awesome is His Word!
[Note: Even though this blog write-up is not Temple related, on an obvious level, I believe that a correct understanding of Galations 3:29, specifically, is, quite, crucial in understanding who we, truly, are in Yahushua ha-Mashi-ach, and have, therefore, decided to do this particular blog, here. I trust that you will agree with me that it is important for the people of Elohim to, correctly, discern this important issue.
Mayan Viljoen]
Ever since the day I understood what the Apostle Paul meant by these words, I have desired to, somehow, somewhere, write about it, mainly, to just share my excitement about it all with as many people as possible. You see, as an Afrikaans boy, who was born in the old capital of South Africa, i.e. Pretoria (now Tswane), in 1962, I grew up in the classic "Christian" faith, which, pretty much, meant only one thing in those days . . . Yes, you've got it . . . the Dutch Reformed Church, combined with what was (and, I believe, to this day, in certain educational establishments of our country, still is) called, in Afrikaans, "'n Afrikaanse Christelike Hoer Onderwys opvoeding" (An Afrikaans Christian Higher Education).
The above is where I come from. If you are Afrikaans, and, especially, if you were born, in South Africa, any time before, approximately, 1970, you will be able to identify with my origins, in every way. If you think of yourself as Afrikaans, I (in the words of the Apostle Paul, in Phillipians 3:4(b)] am even more so. If you are not quite convinced, you can just, quickly, consider my surname, i.e. Viljoen, again, which should dispel any doubt, in double quick time.
Today, I do not see, or, even, think of myself as a "Christian", in the classical sense of the word, any longer. To get into the reasons why this is so, falls outside the scope of this write-up, and neither is it important, at all. All I know, today, all I want to know, is that I am a "believer" (with everything that this word implies, or should imply) in Yahushua, who is the promised Mashi-ach (Messiah) of Set-apart Scripture, full stop.
I was saved, somewhere, during the time, from my 21st to, approximately, my 25th year, as I, very slowly, came to realize who Yahushua (I knew Him then, still, only as Jesus) was, and what He has done for the world, at large, and, more specifically, for me. Even though I was now saved, and was known, and, moreover, thought of myself, as a "Christian", I had this nagging sense within me, which started off as nothing more than a slight sense of unease, every once in a while, that something was just not right, either with me, my religion or my relationship with the Messiah, but over the next 15 odd years of my life, grew to the full blown realization that I, simply, did not understand the crucial place of Elohim's first covenant people, i.e. the Jewish people, as a nation, in His big picture of salvation history, at all.
At the age of, about, 42 (I am 47 years old, today, in Dec. 2009) I began to read, and re-read Galations 3:28 - 29, as well as to mull it over and over in my head, until I knew these two scriptures, but especially verse 29, so well, that I was able to quote it, verbatum, at any time of the day or night, for that matter. Could it, possibly, simply, mean what I thought it meant? Could it?
I will, now, proceed to write down, for you, exactly, what I thought (during those days, mentioned above) the Apostle Paul was trying to communicate to his original audience, in the words of verse 29, specifically, i.e. the Almighty One (blessed be He) sees two kinds of people, namely Jews and non Jews. Paul is sying that the Jews are those who are "in" [belong to, put their trust in, accept the yoke (Heb. = ol) of] the Messiah, and the non Jews are, by, clear, implication, those who can not care less about the Messiah, His Kingdom and His desires for His creation. The above is exactly what I understood when I first read and mulled over the words of Galations 3:29.
I was extremely excited about it all, because the implications of this new revelation was, almost immediately, clear to me. Firstly, by this definition of a Jew (these days I call it Elohim's definition of a Jew, as opposed to, for example, the State of Israel's definition, which is, still, quite different) I realized that, as a blood bought child of Yahushua ha-Mashi-ach, I was, indeed, a Jew, just like every single other believer who, likewise, are, in Mashi-ach. I find it, almost, impossible, to explain, in words, just how awesome "this revelation" was for me, at that time, and to this very day.
Secondly, with this revelation, I, now, also realized that all the practises, as well as everything else (of which there are many more than my one example, below), which, up to this time, in my understanding, belonged to the Jews, only, belonged, as much (equally, if you like) to every single person on the face of the earth, who are in the Jewish Messiah, even Yahushua. This realization was, nothing less, than "mind blowing" to me. Some years back, as I was beginning to look into the "Torah" more deeply, I, once more, came across the passage in B'midbar (Numbers) 15:37-41.
I can still remember what I thought, i.e. "I wish that I could wear these tzitzi-ot (tassels), but I can't, because it is a Jewish thing." Well, with my new understanding of, what I have come to call, Elohim's definition of a Jew, I understood, that, in His eyes, I, as well as any other, true, believer in Yahushua, was more than qualified to wear it. It greatly excited me, and today I wear these "tzitzi-ot" and pray that I will always, only, wear it worthily, i.e. in obedience to His command in B'midbar 15:37-41and for the glory of His exalted Name and Kingdom.
Well, I quickly found out that it is one thing to realize something, oneself, but quite another matter to expect it to be common knowledge out there, among other believers in Yahushua. By far the majority of the latter group were just, hopelessly, too used to the fact that they were "Christians", have always been and will always be, and that the Jewish people of our day, are nil else than the physical descendants of Ya-a-qov, full stop.
These believers will also, very quickly, remind you of many other categories of people, like the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., etc. In their minds any other re-classification of types of people, before Almighty Elohim, is absolute craziness (nonsense, if you like), even in the face of black on white evidence, exactly like that of Galations 3:29, which, clearly, states nil else (in my humble opinion) than what I have penned down in paragraph 7, above.
What follows is very subjective, but because it has everything to do with my ultimate assurance, these days, that I have, indeed, got the interpretation of Galations 3:29 straight (correct), I have decided to include this "happening", here, in this blog entry. You always have the choice to, simply, dismiss it, if it is of little or no value to you.
Look, the thing is like this, if by far the majority of Elohim's people are, simply, not willing to, even, consider, never mind being willing to, actually, transform traditionally held beliefs, in their lives, in the face of clear scriptural evidence, that they should do, just, that, it must, sooner or later, have an influence on "those who get things straight". ( . . . and as far as the latter is concerned, if we see or understand something from His Word, which the majority of the believing body, for one or other reason, does not see, yet, this is, on the earth, nothing to feel superior about, because He will, also, show the latter things, which He has not revealed to us, as yet.)
The majority view had an influence on me, to such an extent that I began to doubt if I understood Galations 3:29, correctly. No one knew this state of affairs, playing itself out in my mind, better than Elohim (blessed be He), Himself. This is exactly why, I believe, my wife, Celia, and I found ourselves in a real "palace" of a home, in the town of Stellenbosch, one afternoon. The kind, and, very much, saved, lady of the house, who was one of my Hebrew students, at that time, sat us down in one of the big lounges of her home, made us some tea, and we just started to speaking about scriptural matters.
Some time during this conversation our hostess, suddenly, said: "I had this dream . . ." I can still, clearly, remember what I thought when I heard these words, i.e. "Oh, boy, what am I going to hear, here?", because the truth is that I, simply, don't believe that every dream, we as the children of Elohim, dream, is of/from Him, something which I, subsequently realized, this lady, did believe. I can, confidently, tell you that this is a very popular belief, out there, in believing circles, but this is now, really, beside the point, here.
"In this dream", she said, "I heard a voice speaking to me." This voice, which she, almost immediately, took to be that of Elohim, Himself, began to relate all the scriptural history to her, from Avraham "avinu" (our father), and onwards. I thought to myself . . . "Surely this must be from the Almighty, surely?", but I, still, did not give her my undevided attention, maybe because I thought . . . "I am not really hearing anything, new, here.", even though I was, by this time, pretty convinced that this, particular, dream was, indeed, from above.
Suddenly she said . . . "And the Voice said to me, . . . I see only two kinds of people, Jews and non Jews." Maybe you can imagine how awake I was now, hearing these words. Then she said . . . "I started to argue with the Voice, no Lord, it can not be . . . What about the Christians, what about the Muslims, etc., etc." I was absolutely stunned. I could not believe what I was hearing.
After these, above mentioned, words, she just continued relating the rest of the dream to us, which was still more history, and the truth be told, I can not even remember one single detail of it.
After she had finished relating her dream, she said to us: "You know, I dreamt this exact same dream 4 (four) times, in close succession, and never again." On our way back home, thinking back on what I had heard, that afternoon, I still remarked to my wife, Celia . . ."I wonder how much she argued with the Voice, about the different kinds of people He sees, by the time she had dreamed this dream the 3rd, and, especially, the 4th time?"
I knew one thing for sure, however, . . . Even if 99 out of a 100 of Elohim's children, did not, or would not or could not believe what I, now, knew, for certain, with regard to this word in Galations 3:29, this fact would, now, never make me doubt, again, that I understood these words, of the Apostle Paul, correctly, from the very start.
Thank you for having taken the time to read this blog entry through.
How awesome is our Elohim, and how awesome is His Word!
Posted by Mayan Viljoen. Posted In : Miscellaneous
