(333) – THE TWO HOUSES 4

The first house of the god Jacob is the people of Israel. Isaiah, the prophet, says: “The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him. Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to get it” (Is. 2:2-5; Num. 12:7).

The second house is the Temple of Solomon: “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple” (Is. 6:1-4). Jehovah speaks about his house, saying: “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” (Is. 56:7; 37:1; 64:11).

The house of Jehovah is also the house of Moses: “He said, ‘Hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house’” (Num. 12:6-7). “Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus; who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house” (Heb. 3:1-2). The texts we have read prove that, with regard to the people of Israel, the house of Moses is the house of Jehovah.

The house of Moses and Jehovah was edified on the law: “Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to Jehovah. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Jehovah has spoken will we do, and be obedient. Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah has made with you concerning all these words’” (Ex. 24:4-8).

The house of Jesus Christ was edified on grace, that is, on benevolence, favor, mercy, and forgiveness. No one forces himself to do anything, only believes in Jesus Christ. This is why Paul said: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Titus 2:11). And Paul says: “For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). Paul is saying with it that all those under the law are controlled by sin, for the strength of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56). Sin is the termite that caused the house of Jehovah and of Moses to fall, for it is written: “For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law” (Rom. 5:13). “The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly” (Rom. 5:20). Christ, then, declared what was going to happen to the house of Jehovah and Moses: “Behold, your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:38). Nebuchadnezzar sent his armies, which burned the house of Jehovah and the city of Jerusalem with fire (2 Cor. 36:19). Then, according to the promise of Jehovah, seventy years later everything would be restored (Jer. 29:10). The fact came true because Cyrus, the Persian, destroyed Babylon and ordered the edification of the Temple, that is, the house of Jehovah, in 537 BC (2 Chr. 36:22-23). Twelve years later Nehemiah worked in the walls with a group (Neh. 2:1-18). The Temple, though, was destroyed the second time in 170 BC by Antiochus king of Syria. In 40 BC Herod Magnus overcomes Jerusalem and commands the reconstruction of the Temple for the second time, a work that lasted 46 years (John 2:20). Titus, a Roman general, destroyed the Temple in 70 DC for the third time. The Jews were put to flight from Jerusalem and from the Palestine and wandered without a country for 1948 years. Only the Wailing Wall of Temple, the house of Jehovah, remained. The two houses of Jehovah ceased to exist—the kingdom and the Temple.

The only house standing was the house of Jesus Christ, that is, the Church. There is one more detail: Moses edified his house, which is also the house of Jehovah. Moses did not edify the house of Jesus Christ. And Jesus did not edify the house of Jehovah and of Moses, only his own house. They are two different constructions, and one has nothing to do with the other. This is in Heb. 3:5-6.

The Jews do not believe in Christ, and therefore do not have a house to live. The Evangelicals want to edify the house of Moses, which is not the house of Jesus Christ. Then, edifying the house of Moses, they separate even more the Jews from the Messiah who is the Savior of the world.

 

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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