Who and What Is Jeshurun / Yeshurun

Who and what is Jeshurun / Yeshurun?

by Ben Gad

A few extracts from a manuscript titled ‘Royal Israel: The Messianic Kingdom’ regarding the concept Jeshurun and a few related issues. It was written from 2002 in the genre ‘Gospel fiction’ being future and such a difficult topic to convey. (The extracts may seemed to be repetative, but it is a core principle and spread over 300 A4 pages.)

From Part 1, Chapter One: Returning to the Land.

Very few Bible scholars expected the twelve tribes to ever be united under their banners again, not even after the miracle birth of the state of Israel in 1948, usually refusing to acknowledge the separate identities of the House of Judah and the House of Israel, but the Word is always accomplished and the Spirit has breathed life into the dead bones of Yisra’el to become the ‘Am Segulah,’ the redeemed people, to become ‘Yeshurun,’ as Moses prophetically described the tribes gathered under their banners: “Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was kingin Jeshurun, when the heads of the people andthe tribes of Israelweregathered.”(Deut.33:4-5)

The question the Apostles asked the resurrected Yeshua was finally answered; He has at last established “the kingdom of Yisra’el” and to the huge surprise of Christian and others, it is not the Jehovah Witness-type of heaven-on-earth paradise that still has to come, but a kingdom according to what the Jewish sages expected. The allegories concerning the “wolf and the lamb” and “the lion eating straw like an ox,” are now at last understood by all. But first the Jews and the world have suffered the deceptions of the great final false messiah.(Deut.33:26; Isa.11; Acts 1:6)

From Part 1, Chapter Three: The Wedding.

The change in perception and attitude towards the Jews and the nation of Israel started the day one became born-again – a spiritual birth into the Kingdom of Elohim and into IsraEl. Not into old Israel, nor into Judah, but into the ‘Am Segulah,’ the new, redeemed nation, fondly called ‘Yeshurun’. The rebirth of which the teachers of Israel, like Nicodemus and the later rabbis, had no understanding. (John 3:7)

It explained why it was only Messianics and ‘fundamentalist’ Christians, generally the born-again, evangelical type, who aligned them with and identified with national Israel. Our love and loyalty towards our beleaguered Jewish brethren in national Israel was unique and in total contrast to the international scorn and hatred that boiled for centuries, a Luciferian hatred that eventually reached a point where the rest of the world, actively or passively, condoned the ‘Final Solution,’ the total extermination of all Jews to create what the Hitler of Iran coined, ‘A World without Zionism.’ [i]

What the world did not know, or cared to believe, was that Zion was far greater than Zionism, that Shomer Yisra’El, He who keeps Zion, “neither slumbers, nor sleeps.” (Ps. 121:4)

The rebirth into the chosen, royal nation, into what Moses gave the prophetic pet name ‘Yeshurun,’ was a mystery that neither the world, nor we, could fully understand. Yeshurun was said to have the semantic meaning of ‘the upright,’ a people righteous in love and in deed, walking in the Way, but as we have discovered, it actually referred to Israel gathered under tribal banner to hear the Voice of YHVH. (Deu. 32:15, 33:5, 26; Isa. 44:2)

It was only near the end of the Church Agethat we slowly started to expect the miracle ingathering, the ‘nes kabetz,’ of ‘All IsraEl’ to become a nation elected as 1 Peter 2:9 so beautifully describes, “A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.” A holy nation elected and gathered for one purpose, “That we may proclaim the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

From Part 1, Chapter Four: Healing coming from the River of Life.

Only now, in this Age of Restoration, do Christian survivors of the Tribulation understand that the Great Distress was not about the defiant crowning and the power of the false Messiah, but about YHVH’s wrath, about the dismantling of evil, the destruction of the kingdom of darkness. Only now is it understood that the Tribulation was like the plagues on ancient Egypt, the expiry date of the Church Age, the Age of the Gentiles.

MountEbal’s curses have now been replaced by the blessings of MountGerizim. In fact something much better has happened; from a hill called Golgotha came redemption and from the parting of the Mount of Olives – like two new tablets of stone – Messiah’s application of Torah.(Deut.27:9, 30:20)

Only now is there comprehension for Messiah’s red garment with His return, having quenched the wrath of YHVH on the wickedness of the nations, ruling the wicked now with a rod of iron, enforcing the Sabbath, allowing the truth to set the captives free. (2 Sam. 23:6; Ps.2:9; Rev. 2:27, 19:15)

Only now is there some comprehension for the fact that the Tribulation was totally justified and a very necessary first step towards the restoration of the divine Kingdom. Just as it took ten plagues to free ancient Israel from Pharaoh’s power, so too did it require massive intervention to wrestle control from Satan’s children and to gather Yeshurun again and to bring peace and prosperity to the nations. All these things had to happen, “For it is written, as I live, said YHVH, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to Elohim.”(Isa. 45:23)

It is, however, doubtful if the four billion survivors from the nations will ever fully understand or accept it. They are still struggling to cope with the post-traumatic shock of having had their economies and their man-made kingdoms destroyed; their traditions and religions unmasked as lies and eternally abolished. They are still trying to cope with adjusting to the fact that the Elohim of Yisra’el is the only true G-D, having power over all of creation.

Many were the evil empires that had to be destroyed for justice to prevail and allow for the healing of the nations to commence. A time to see Psalm 58:12 fulfilled, “Truly, the righteous are rewarded; Truly, there is an Elohim judging in the earth.” The cancer of evil first had to be totally removed from earth, as Job 18:18 said would happen and as Revelation 20:2-3 confirmed,“He [the Wicked] is driven from light into darkness and chased out of the world.”

The demonic masters and servants of Satan’s dark kingdom first had to perish, the Amaleks and Jezebels of this world first had to be killed like the prophet Samuel did with King Agag. (1 Sam.15:32)

Satan first had to be driven from earth, locked away for a millennium, much to the joy of the world’s righteous believers and the poor, who are no more victims of the sophisticated slavery of modern economies; no more victims of false religions, false traditions and self-indulgent backwardness.

No more is there a monastery or a holy cave on Patmos and nowhere are monks or other religious beggars to be found. From Rome to Rangoon and from Tibet to Tahiti have the nations been freed from seemingly pious pretenders who impoverished them. (2 Thes. 3:10-11)

India, the country with the largest population before the Tribulation, a massive 1.3 billion, serves as probably the most remarkable example. In a dream I had early in 2011, I saw the multi-storey house of a lady who had published ten million copies of a little soft cover book on the Messianic future of India and how the coming of Messiah would change that nation for the better.

From Part 1, Chapter Five: Our innate interest in the Future.

We all knew that there was a severe storm coming, but we also knew that the Messiah would come, just as He came strolling on the stormy waters of Yam Kinneret one night many centuries ago. That He will be the One to calm the waters, the one that would finally end Jacob’s Trouble.

The situation worsened as the struggle for survival in the Promised Land, which raged even from before 1947, entered its terminal phase. Many Jews, who thought it safer not to make aliyah, became victims elsewhere. In the dark days of the Tribulation the situation grew past desperation when the Islamic Alliance eventually marched on the Jewish state. It was like in the dark days of 1936-45, it was like the Warsaw Ghetto all over again. The Israelis were totally surrounded by their enemies and they had dug into pockets of resistance, prepared to fight to the last man, woman and child. They knew that they could not expect mercy or assistance from any source but heaven.

Concerned Messianic believers elsewhere in the world feared that they were about to witness Shoah II, another Holocaust, wondering if Israel would exercise the ‘Samson Option’ of nuclear retribution.

So we did all we could, which was to fast and pray, as Luke 21:35-36 teach, “At that time…be vigilant and pray steadfastly.”[ii]

Most were in desperate, life-threatening situations themselves, but having witnessed prophecy fulfilled on an unprecedented scale, knew that the Messiah’s Advent was due any moment. Not as Passover Lamb to deal with sin, but as Crown Prince to establish His dominion, to save His Bride, those who were waiting faithfully. (2 Cor.11:22-33; Heb.8:29)

It was the world’s unified hatred and commitment to exterminate the House of Judah, our Jewish brethren, which finally evoked the wrath of El Shaddai on the nations and His compassion towards ‘All IsraEl’. It was the proverbial final straw that ignited YHVH’s holy anger on a totally deserving mankind, the return of Messiah could be delayed no more.

The ‘tikun’ or restoration of Jacob could be postponed no more, the time of the Gentiles was up, the cup of their iniquities was full, the Church Age had come to its end, the Gathering of Yeshurun was due, the Kingdom of Messiah was due, it was time for Him to tread the grapes of YHVH’s wrath, which is why with the Second Advent His vesture was covered in the blood of the wicked. (Rev. 19:11-16)

It was as in the time of Moses and Joshua, “For it was of YHVH to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as YHVH had commanded Moses.”(Jos.11:20; Isa.59:17-20)

From Part 1, Chapter Six: Going on Air.

Though very vague, there used to be broad consensus in Church circles when it came to the issue of the Second Advent, but few, very few, were the theologians who believed the prophets when it came to the issue of a future Kingdom and especially a future Temple. Maybe it was because Rome has long ago declared any talk on the Millennium a heresy, for they failed to even consider the idea and totally ignored it, despite Yeshua teaching believers to pray to Our Father, Avinu: “Let Your Name be honored; let Your Kingdom come; let Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven…” (Mat. 6:9-10)

For many, many centuries a Messianic Kingdom on earth seemed like a total impossibility and did not fit into Rome’s Amillianist scheme of things, not even after modern Israel’s miracle emergence in 1947. But it had to come, for the prophet’s vision was of a future House of Elohim in a future city in a future Holy Land, populated by the miraculously re-gathered ‘Am Yisra’El,’ by ‘Yeshurun,’ the holy nation, the ‘Am Segulah’! It was not simply a symbolic ideal, nor was it a primitive dream of paradise, or ancient Chialism’s crude idea of heaven on earth.

The purpose of Royal IsraEl and of the Mikdash is to mirror the heavenly kingdom and to teach both Yisra’el and the nations, but it is also about restoring the NAME, for Am Yisra’el will never again avoid or dishonor the NAME. “That all the peoples of the earth may know Your Name, to fear You, as Your people Israel do, and that they may know that this House which I have built is called by Your Name.”(Eze. 43:7; 1 Kings 8:43)

From Part 2, Chapter One: My first copy of the AMV.

On the inside my SFL Bible was covered with hundreds of hardly eligible notes and verses marked in a large variety of colors. It was the result of having read the Word over and over, having pondered long hours on it and having studied it again and again, for the more one studies the Word, the more the appreciation for its immense depth and intricacy. The Word is like a Persian carpet with many beautiful patterns that have to be admired in its totality. It is grace alone that brings us to understand that it’s the Living Word, the miracle of Life itself.

Though it was aimed at the emerging Charismatic Movement of that time, that particular Nelson’s Study Bible – a New King James Version published in 1991 and again in 2006 – carried some lot of the seed for the Messianic Awakening. It had, for example, a map of the Temple as described by Ezekiel in chapters 40-44, and also the redistribution of the twelve tribes in chapters 47-48, which triggered my search into the Messianic Millennium.

While the majority of Evangelical pastors recognized the special ‘Romans 9 to 11 destiny’ of the Jews based on YHVH’s ancient covenants with their patriarchs, very few ever contemplated the physical restoration of all IsraEl. Very few ever examined the issue of unification, of the two Houses becoming one, of the ten lost tribes and Judah being re-united.

Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors loved preaching from Ezekiel’s ‘Dry Bones’ prophecy whenever they wished to raise enthusiasm for spiritual ‘revival,’ ignoring the fact that it talks about reviving the House of IsraEl back into the ‘Land of ImmanuEl.’ Not only reviving, but joining Judah to become Yeshurun, restoring them to a covenant of peace, with Torah written on their hearts, back into ‘Beit Elohim,’ the House of the Almighty. Aspects of that prophecy were fulfilled in the days of Nehemiah, but that was only a shadow what was to come and most Jewish teachers, when talking about the ‘Days of Nehemiah,’ expected a similar miracle restoration of ‘Am Yisra’el’ to the Land, marked by repentance and a keen willingness to obey Torah. (Ezek.37:1-28) [iii]

As said, much of the misconceptions in the Church stemmed from evolutionist Replacement theology (supersessionism); the common notion that the Church has replaced the ‘primitive sinful Jews’ and was divinely elected to do so, being totally ignorant of the Church’s true condition.(Mal. 1:2-3; Rom. 9:13)

Evangelical Christians were not the only ones confused on this issue. Unification did not mean that Jews must become Christians, or that Christians should become Jews, for unity does not mean uniformity. It meant that both groups must be grafted into a new holy nation; must be poured like new wine into a new wineskin, the holy nation we now see being gathered in Royal IsraEl.(Luke 5:37-38; Ex. 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9)

Dozens of prophecies about the restoration of all Israel were either missed or ignored, including the fourteen verses directly preceding the spiritual revival of the ‘Dry Bones’ prophecy. Similar to prophesies in for example, Isaiah 52 and 59 and Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel chapter 36 deals with ‘The Renewal of Israel’ and clearly states that it is preceded by the restoration of ‘the NAME,’ “I do not do this for your sake o house of IsraEl, but for My Name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great Name which has been profaned”(Isa.52:6, 59:19-31; Jer. 31:31-33; Eze. 36:22-23; Ps. 102:10)

Only AFTER the restoration of ‘the NAME,’ as per Deuteronomy 12:5, follows the message of Ezekiel 36, which in a Messianic context gained far deeper meaning: “I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will keep My judgments and do them.”(Eze. 36:25-27)

From Part 2, Chapter Two: The walk of old Friends.

It was the start of another attempt to fulfill the Luciferian dream to destroy Israel, but it was eventually thwarted by a series of apocalyptic catastrophes that befell the nations like the Ten Plagues of Exodus. It was the world’s unspoken approval of the ‘final solution’ that finally ignited YHVH’s wrath on the nations, resulting in the Great Tribulation.

It was not only Jews who suffered one last time; Messianics and other Sabbath-keepers, plus evangelical Christians, all who refused to worship the ‘Cosmic Christ’ and bow to ‘666,’ to take the ‘Mark of the Beast,’ shared in their suffering and eventually forged the headstrong parties into united repentance and prayer.