Also the foreigners...

Following is an excerpt from the Friday study of Bill Bullock Sr., aka the rabbi's son, for Torah portion Vayalech . You can find that study under the Rabbi's Son Torah Studies Archives - Book V- Devarim - Wk 52 Vayalech. This kind of puts a foundational understanding of Bill Bullock Sr.'s teachings and his website RegionsChristianCenter.org from which I will be sharing a lot. Hope these excerpts touch you as they have touched me,

In today’s Haftarah [Isaiah 55:6 - 56:8] the Holy One speaks through Ha-navi Yeshayahu [the prophet Isaiah] the mystery of His end-days plan for the restoration of His People - and the inclusion of “foreigners” in His covenant.  According to this prophecy in the last days a call will go out to all mankind – to every ‘son of man’ - to “Maintain justice, and do what is right”. This, of course, simply means to return to the Torah lifestyle.  This end-times call will be heeded not only by Jews but by “foreigners” and “eunuchs” as well.  Isaiah 56:1-8 therefore says:

Thus says the Holy One, Keep [sh’mar] justice, and do [asah] righteousness; 

for my yeshu`ah is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; 

who keeps the Shabbat from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

Neither let the foreigner who has joined himself to the Holy One,

 speak, saying, the Holy One will surely separate me from his people;

* * *

Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Holy One, to minister to him, 

and to love the name of the Holy One, to be his servants, 

everyone who keeps the Shabbat from profaning it,

 and holds fast my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, 

and make them joyful in my house of prayer: 

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; 

for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

The Holy One GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Yisra'el, says,

‘Yet will I gather [others] to him, besides his own who are gathered.’

These persons, though classified by Yeshayahu as ‘foreigners’, would:

1. “bind themselves” unto the Holy One, the God of Israel; 
2. “serve” Him out of passionate love for His Name, His revealed character, and His personality; 
3. bow and prostrate themselves before His throne, in sincere adoration of Him;
4. keep with joy and delight, as a peculiar treasure, His glorious Sabbath [the 7th day]; and would
5. “hold fast to His covenant” – namely, the covenant at Sinai – TORAH.

I was stunned. Passionate, Sabbath-observant, Torah-Covenant submissive non-Hebrews?  Blessed by the Holy One in wonderful ways?  In the end-times?  It absolutely boggled my mind. I had no grid for it.  I racked my brain. I had heard of “Jews for Jesus’, of course.   But I had never heard of any group of  “Gentiles for Torah’, or ‘Heathens for Sabbath-honoring’, or anything of the kind. All my friends from the Christian world were all 100% convinced the Torah was a ‘superseded covenant’ and that the Sabbath was of symbolic, typographic relevance only – some kind of ‘picture’ of spiritual ‘rest’, or of heaven, or something.  If there was anything they were fanatic about, it was that.  That, to them, had become the substance of their ‘good news’. They were all convinced that a relationship with God revolved around signing a decision card, attending and supporting whatever ‘local church’ had the most charismatic preacher, played their favorite kind of music, offered the most entertaining programs, especially for children, youth, singles, and young marrieds, etc., and then going to see Peter, Paul, and Mary in Heaven when you die. So Isaiah 56 really rattled my cage.

Was it possible, in light of what I was reading that very important day, that these ‘good people’ . . . were, well . . . er . . . wrong?  Was it possible that they and those like them had for centuries been completely misreading the writings of the man they called ‘Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles’, and had, in so doing, completely missed the Divine Bridegroom’s Redemptive and Restorative ‘end-game’ plan for the latter days?

You have to understand. This was 1995. In all the churches and church conferences I had attended I had never seen – or even heard any gossip about - any gentiles becoming Torah-submissive or Sabbath-honoring.  But on that very special April morning, in that Oklahoma City Hotel Lobby, as I read Isaiah 56 with my spiritual eyes wide open, I became convinced that such a people would in fact exist – and soon – if they did not already.   And that day, right there in the shadow of the smoldering debris of the Murrah Federal Building, I made a commitment to Creator and to myself that I would locate and bless their company – no matter how much ‘Church-ianity’ – and how many pastor-friends - I had to shed to do so.  I desperately wanted, you see, to help these foreigners about whom Yeshayahu was prophesying learn the way to the Holy One’s holy mountain.  I desperately wanted to help these foreigners find delight in the Creator of the Universe’s house of prayer.  I hungered to have these foreigners grasp what it means to have their ‘burnt offerings’ and ‘sacrifices’ accepted on His Altar – the real one in Heaven, the one after which the one on earth, in the Mish’kan and Temple, had been modeled.  

It was largely out of the revelation I received on that April day in Oklahoma City that the Rabbi’s son studies was born. I resigned all my wood, hay, and stubble activities I had theretofore considered ‘ministries’. I began to explore with passion the instructions of the Creator regarding the commemoration of the 7th day Sabbath.  I began to pour more and more of my time and spiritual energy into the study – and teaching of my family - of the ancient pathways of Torah.  And somewhere along those ancient pathways I began the gradual process of finally becoming who I was created to be.  And so I say to you Beloved - if you have been hearing the shofar blowing in this season, and it is piercing your soul - arise!  Shake off the dust of religion, and return to the God of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov, and the ancient pathways of His Torah. Delight in the Sabbath of the Great King.  Hold fast to His covenant.  And make His Holy Mountain your first priority destination. There is plenty of room on that Mountain. Yes, even for foreigners!

So, what are your thoughts on this?