As we studied last week, we all can begin to understand how the division and confusion began. Unless you seriously look at all the pertinent verses on this subject, you will only have a partial understanding, which means you will not be right but wrong most of the time. We also must contend against 100’s of years of traditions and Satan’s relentless pursuit of destroying the ‘church’ of Jesus Christ.
Let us look once again into the name, meaning or designation of the word Jew. Jew only refers historically to those of the tribe of Judah. The word Jew first appears in the Old Testament in Esther, once in Jeremiah, and once in Zechariah. To better understand how this all ties together, we must go back to the sons of Noah. We studied this earlier, so we will just review in this context. All the families, tribes, and nations on the earth came from these three sons. Gen 10:1 Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Geesisn 10:1 Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Of these three, we know that Ham was evil. From Ham we find Cush, Put, and Nimrod. From Nimrod we see they continued evil in his building of Babel, which is in Babylon.
Genesis 10:2 The sons of Japheth were Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.
10:3 The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.
From all of these sons mentioned, we find a two that continue on in history, Magog and Ashkenaz. Gog and Magog not only are in the history of Israel, but are still seen in some ritual celebrations in England. The one that is important in our study is Ashkenaz.
But, first we need to reconfirm that only the sons of Shem are in God’s line to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the Messiah. All the other sons of Shem’s brothers serve idols and are the enemies of God and His people.
Genesis 10:20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, by their nations.
10:21 Also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, and the older brother of Japheth, children were born.
The word Hebrew comes for the name of Eber. Out of Shem’s lineage we find Peleg, Terah, and Abram. While Noah was a righteous man, he did not raise three righteous sons. There are numerous examples of godly fathers having godless sons. There is only one clear example of a godly father being recognized by God as raising godly sons.
While this should bring into our consciousness is that it is a very hard, challenging task for fathers to raise godly children. While it is hard and rare, it is not impossible.
Ezekiel 44:15 "But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood," declares the Lord GOD.
44:16 "They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and keep My charge.
44:17 "It shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house.
44:18 "Linen turbans shall be on their heads and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat.
44:19 "When they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.
44:20 "Also they shall not shave their heads, yet they shall not let their locks grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads.
44:21 "Nor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner court.
44:22 "And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman but shall take virgins from the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.
44:23 "Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
Why, do you ask, do we need to discuss fatherhood in this study?
First, so we don’t look at Noah and his sons as the exception to the rule. Only Shem and his sons, not all of his sons, continued in the line of the Messiah.
Second, sons are either godly or ungodly, righteous or unrighteous. There are no almost good enough sons. We need to fully understand this as it will continue to be revealed in our study.
Third, only God identifies who is godly or righteous, not man.
Next Saturday we will try to identify why Jesus warns us in Revelation 3.
Revelation 3:9 'Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.
More next Saturday.