The Great Commitment to Kingdom Living by God’s Elect

by | Apr 27, 2021 | Blog

My daily Torah studies this morning brought me to the Cepher of Y’hoshua (aka Joshua), chapter 22.

By the end of my studies this morning, I was compelled to ask myself, what is the level of commitment I had to  walking and living Kingdom. You’ll soon see what I mean.
I found laid out before me one of the most heartwarming stories associated with the Hebrews’ conquest of Cana’an. All of the former residents of the land have either been destroyed, routed or marginalized to the point of being non-viable. And in wrapping up the business of the conquest, Y’hoshua releases the tribes of Re’uben, Gad and the half-tribe of M’nesheh to return to their inherited lands on the East-side of the Yarden, having successfully completed their commitment to fight side-by-side with the remaining tribes in their taking of Canaan.

Y’hoshua’s Admonishment and Counsel

In concluding their duties to the nation, Y’hoshua counsels the Gadites, Re’ubenites and half-tribe of M’nasheh to: (1) Love YHVH their Elohim; (2) Walk in YHVH’s Ways; (3) Keep YHVH’s commandments; (4) Cleave unto YHVH; and (5) Serve YHVH with their whole hearts and souls (22:5).
And as I read through these heartwarming verses, I couldn’t help but recognize that Y’hoshua was simply repeating Torah to these 3-returning tribes. For multiple times the Father through Moshe counseled the generation of Hebrew that would enter and conquer the Land of Canaan to commit themselves to these 5-basic elements to effectively walk in covenant relationship with the Almighty. And in their committing to these 5-elements, they would be manifesting Kingdom Living here on earth, uplifting and sanctifying the holy and righteous Name of YHVH in the process.
      • Deu. 6:5–“Thou shalt love YHVH thy Elohim with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all they might.”
      • Deu. 10:12–“And now Y’shrael, what doth YHVH thy Elohim require of thee, but to (1) fear YHVH thy Elohim, (2) walk in all His Ways, (3) Love Him, (4) serve YHVH thy Elohim with all thy heart and with all thy soul; (5) to keep the commandments of YHVH, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good” (Deu. 10:12-13).
      • Deu. 11:1–“Therefore thou shalt love YHVH thy Elohim, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments and His commandments, alway.”
      • Deu. 6:17–“Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of YHVH your Elohim, and His testimonies, and His statutes, which He hath commanded thee.”

The Key Component of Kingdom Living

What Y’hoshua was reiterating here to the heads of the 3-tribes returning to their homes East of the Yarden (aka Jordan River) was that they should see to it that their people commit to the lifestyle whereby YHVH their Elohim would remain the quintessential focus of their lives. In so doing, every aspect of their lives would be consumed with the Ways and Mind of Yah. In many ways this commencement ceremony was a foreshadow of the instruction that Yeshua our Master gave to those who climbed to the top of the mount to sit at His feet and receive the keys to the Kingdom. On that spiritually historic day, Master uttered what would be the key component to Kingdom Living when He instructed:
“Seek ye first the kingdom of Yah (i.e., Yah’s exclusive Way of Life for His Chosen Ones) AND His righteousness…” and by the chosen one doing this very thing, “…all these (aforementioned things, concerns, issues, etc.) shall be added unto you” (Mat. 6:33).

A Unique But Necessary Commitment For Yah’s Elect

Truly, this sort of commitment is unlike anything modern western civilization is familiar with. For it involves a casting off of the mindsets and ways of the world around Yah’s elect (without of course neglecting one’s responsibilities to earn a living and properly take care for one’s family mind you) and in exchange opening themselves to be completely led and even overshadowed by the Ways of the Eternal. Indeed, not an easy thing to do, especially for Yah’s would-be elect today. For the world about us is a consuming enterprise: it seeks to envelope and control every thought, perception; every action we take, and every hope we may have for the future. And what Yeshua was saying to His disciples (and by extension us today), as was His predecessor Y’hoshua, you need to turn everything over to Yah and walk in Kingdom where the Creator of the Universe becomes and remains your all-in-all.

What Yah Did For Yisra’el

Prior to this moment in the Cepher of Y’hoshua, Yah had brilliantly redeemed the ancients from the gods of the Mitzrayim and led them into the wilderness where He sought to prepare them to walk in an exclusive covenant relationship (aka Kingdom Living)n with Him, all while fulfilling the promises He made with their forefathers. But Yah had to prepare His people to receive  that which He had promised and for 40-years He shaped and molded a people unto Himself that would be worthy to possess the Land that He had for them:
“And thou shalt remember all the way which YHVH thy Elohim led thee these forty-years in the wilderness; to humble thee, and to prove thee; to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of YHVH doth man live” (Deu. 8:2-3).

Preparing a Generation for Kingdom Living

And once Abba had prepared a generation of people that were willing to walk in that covenant relationship with Him (aka Kingdom Living), He fought for His people and led them to undisputed victory and conquest of the Land of Promise. All of the Land’s previous tenets were either destroyed, exiled or made low so that Yah’s people would be in a safe place to walk in covenant with Him undeterred. And what we see articulated in this beautiful passage of Yah’s Holy Writ is the fulfillment of Yah’s promise to His people. It was then up to that generation who had taken possession of the Land in obedience to Elohim, to now avail themselves to a true relationship with their Elohim and walk in Kingdom.

The 5-Essential Elements for Walking in Kingdom

So Y’hoshua reiterates the instructions to the 3-tribes that Moshe gave to the entire nation (and I repeat here):  to 1) Love YHVH their Elohim; (2) Walk in YHVH’s Ways; (3) Keep YHVH’s commandments; (4) Cleave unto Him; and (5) Serve Him with all their hearts and all their souls (22:5).  And although not readily apparent to the so-called New Testament Church of today, Yah is calling His elect to the same lifestyle–the same way of life: Kingdom Living. What we saw manifested in this passage of Y’hoshua 22 was a foreshadow of the realities of Kingdom Living (Malchut Elohim) that Master introduced and highlighted in His teaching on the Keys to the Kingdom. That teaching is part of the famously named Olivet Discourse or Sermon on the Mount. And in that teaching, Master Yeshua essentially repeated, but in a very succinct way, the very thing that His forerunner Y’hoshua stated to His people some 1,500 or so years previously, that Yah’s people simply seek after the Eternal’s Kingdom (i.e., Yah’s Way of Life–to Love Yah;  to cleave to Yah; to serve Yah with all their hearts and all their souls) and to seek after the Creator’s righteousness (i.e., to walk in Yah’s Torah which when done causes the Child of Yah to walk in Yah’s righteousness). And Yeshua’s reiteration of Y’hoshua’s admonishment to the ancients went even to the point of what comes to those who hearken to this instruction, as Yeshua also mentioned to His disciples: “and all these things shall be added unto you.” Moshe told the people that if they simply entered into the lifestyle and covenant relationship (that is, enter into Kingdom Living), that by doing these 5-things which can be summed up as diligently seeking after Yah with their whole being, then Yah would take care of all the cares of their lives.
  • Mercy would be shown unto them (Exo. 20:6);
  • Their families would multiply (Deu. 30:16);
  • Rain would water their crops in their appointed season (Deu. 11:13-14);
  • Their cattle and crops would flourish and exist in excellent healthy (Deu. 11:14-15) ;
  • And of course they would receive all the blessings that Moshe outlined to the nation in Deuteronomy 28:1-14.

The Seromon on the Mount Connetion

This is essentially what Master said to His disciples in His so-called Sermon on the Mount: If they but seek the Kingdom and righteousness of YHVH, then everything in their earthly lives would be taken care of (Mat. 6:33).
Beloved, are we heeding the call that Y’hoshua and Yeshua gave to their respective people to enter into Kingdom Living, which is walking in full, uncompromising covenant relationship with the Eternal? If not, what then are we doing? For if we are not responding to Yeshua’s and Y’hoshua’s calls to enter into steadfast Kingdom Living, we are by and large cutting ourselves off from Yah’s tremendous blessings; His protective oversight and prosperity (both physical and spiritual); and abundant joy and peace. Furthermore, by our not entering and walking in Kingdom, we effectively close and lock the door to our having any true and substantive relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

Call to Spiritual Action

Hear me on this one thing my brothers and sisters in the True Faith once delivered: Walking in Kingdom is not a superfluous, pie-in-the sky concept that super-spiritual Pentecostals and their like have been known from time-to-time to throw out there for the world to see. Kingdom Living is real. And as my beloved brother and dear friend in the Faith, Messianic teacher and webcaster Robert Bills has on a number of occasions mentioned in his teachings: The realm of the Spirit (which is what Kingdom Living is primarily based in and on) is a far greater reality than this physical realm we currently dwell in (highpursuitministry.com; The Way of Spirit and Truth podcast and webcast). Thus Kingdom Living is in the here and now, contrary to the beliefs and teachings of a great many Messianics who place Kingdom Living only in the timeframe of the coming Messianic Millennial Kingdom. Y’shua emphatically told His disciples that the Kingdom of Yah was already manifested in their midst and that the Kingdom of Yah was in fact, within them, as it is today, in each of us who are Yah’s elect. For we have to live Kingdom in the here and now in its glorious spiritual form (by obediently walking in Yah’s Ways) before we can receive the coming Millennial Kingdom. Let us to commit to walking and living Kingdom right here and right now. Without waivering; without forethought. Let’s get our individual and collective spiritual acts together and start walking and living Kingdom while we still can. And in our walking and living Kingdom each and every day of our lives, let the world know through our obedience and proclaiming of the Name of YHVH, that we are in fact hardcore, died-in-the-wool, card-carrying, covenant-keeping, Yah-loving, brethren-loving, Torah-honoring citizens of the Kingdom (of the Malchut Elohim). Halleluyah!
Have a blessed and overcoming day in Mashiyiach. Shalom–Shalom!
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Many of us view covenant as an exclusive club or culture that belongs to God’s elect and those who find themselves outside of covenant are doomed to be outside of God’s blessings and provision. But the truth of the matter is that God operates in ways that are often foreign to us and that defy how we believe God should operate. In today’s Torah Reading discussion, we discuss the in’s and out’s of covenant and how God’s justice and mercy define how He will interact with those who are in covenant versus those who are outside covenant.

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● Trusting Faith
● Respect
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● Responsibility
● Honor
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● Promise
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The circumcised heart of an individual—contrite and broken and humble in spirit—is the one thing that captures Yah’s attention and places him or her in contention for being chosen as His friend and ultimately His child. If our heart ain’t right, we ain’t going to be chosen to enter into an obedient covenant relationship with Yehovah, much less a friend or child of His.

Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you:
3 Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD your God.
4 And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.
5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents.
7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given possession in Bashan: but unto the other half thereof gave Joshua among their brethren on this side Jordan westward. And when Joshua sent them away also unto their tents, then he blessed them,
8 And he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.
9 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go unto the country of Gilead, to the land of their possession, whereof they were possessed, according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses. (Jos 22:1-9 KJV)