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POSTED 01 JUNE, 2008
The Song of
Moses and God's Mission for His People
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
The emergence of a Messianic community that
advocates, or at the very least, is more highly
conscious of the promised restoration of Israel
and the Hebraic Roots of the faith, asks
questions that most as of today are not aware
of—much less prepared to answer. Non-Jewish
Believers, for example, entering into today's
Messianic movement and becoming Torah obedient,
are not supposed to become Messianic so that
they can feel “born again again.”
They are also not designed to fill a void in
people’s hearts that they feel has been missing
in their faith.
Being
spiritually regenerated can
only
be provided by the redeeming work of Yeshua the
Messiah! The promised restoration of God’s
people, rather, should give all people within
the maturing Messianic movement a vision and
focus for the future as we determine the mission
that God has for us as His people
as
originally given to Ancient Israel.[1]
As new Messianic Believers have been made aware of
the fact that they are all a part of the
Commonwealth of Israel (Ephesians 2:11-12) or
the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), too many do
not know the full ramifications of this reality
in their lives. What does it mean to actually be
“Israel”? For many, this answer is found in a
life of diligent Torah obedience. But is Torah
obedience to be an end to itself? The Torah is
more than just a listing of commandments
and principles by which to live; the Torah
contains key stories and foundational accounts
that are to mold God’s people for His service. I
would submit that only when we
know
what that service is to be, that we can be those
who are fully aware of what it means to be
“Israel.”
Many Messianics believe that we are living in
the end-times. Some think Yeshua will return
very soon, and others not so soon. Some think
that they can actually calculate the time of the
end, while others prefer to look at various
signs and events in the world. Not enough
consider a wider array of Biblical prophecies
and phenomena which define what
God’s people
are to be doing in the end-times—versus those of
the world. Surely, as the major theme of the
Last Days is, “Lord, is it at this time You are
restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6),
our Heavenly Father will be more concerned about
His people during this time, than the
rise of the beast or the false prophet. Few in
the emerging Messianic community today are aware
of the full ramifications of the following
prophecy:
“And they sang the song of Moses, the
bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,
saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, O
Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are
Your ways, King of the nations!’” (Revelation
15:3).
The Book of Revelation says that in the
end-times, the saints will be those who “sing[2]
the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the
song of the Lamb” (RSV). Certainly, we should
all agree that the Song of the Lamb represents
the proclamation of the gospel, and the
salvation that is available in Yeshua. This is
fairly obvious, as the saints are also those
“who keep the commandments of God and hold to
the testimony of Yeshua” (Revelation 12:17;
14:12). To “sing” the Song of the Lamb is simply
a poetic way of saying “proclaim the good news.”
What it means for the end-time saints to sing
the Song of Moses is actually much more
complicated. By no means is it a popular praise
song sung in today’s Messianic world! “Singing”
the Song of Moses means that
we are to embody
the mission and purpose as seen in the Song of
Moses. In order to do this, we must identify
what the Song of Moses actually is, interpret it
properly against its ancient context, and then
consider some of the specific things that are
involved with the restoration of all Israel. We
may find that the Song of Moses is much more
complicated than we originally thought, and that
it is going to challenge us both in our approach
to theology and in how we interact with
the world at large. We may not actually be
“singing” this song today in our approach to
Biblical faith.
End of sample excerpt.
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J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
[1]
For more specific
consideration of this subject matter, consult the books
When Will the
Messiah Return?
and
Israel in Future Prophecy: Is
There a Larger Restoration of the
Kingdom to Israel?
by J.K. McKee.
[2]
Grk.
adousin (adousin),
present active indicative or “sing,”
not necessarily “sang.”
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