Chag Sameach Rosh Chodesh Kol Beit Yisra'el and may the grace and shalom (peace) of our Master Yah'shua (Jesus) be upon this assembly and all who are spiritually joining with this mishpachah (family) abroad! As we commence this sixth month many of you may also wish to join with us in commencing the Season of Teshuvah or Repentance, an approximately 40 day period in which we examine our actions over the last year in order to get right with Yahweh before the day of accounting at Yom Kippur which this year is in 38-39 days' time.

Today's message concerns the work of Yahweh in current events and we will be tying together one or two loose strings from previous sermons. The main passage we will be looking at today is the 24th chapter of Jeremiah in which Yahweh informs the Kingdom of Judah what is about to befall it and why:

"Yahweh showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then Yahweh said to me, 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' And I said, 'Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.'

"Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, the Elohim (God) of Israel: 'Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a lev (heart) to know Me, that I am Yahweh; and they shall be My people, and I will be their Elohim (God), for they shall return to Me with their whole lev (heart).

"'And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad' -- surely thus says Yahweh -- 'so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers'" (Jer.24:1-10, NKJV).

Those of you who still remember my seven-part sermon series, A Garden in the Mind, will I hope remember the fig tree and how, in Scripture, it represents the House of Judah. You will recall the story of the fig tree in the New Testament:

"Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, [Yah'shua/Jesus] was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Yah'shua (Jesus) said to it, 'Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.' And His talmidim (disciples) heard it.

"So they came to Jerusalem. And Yah'shua (Jesus) went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. Then He taught, saying to them, 'Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'' And the Torah-teachers (scribes) and chief cohenim (priests) heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching. When evening had come, He went out of the city.

"Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, said to Him, 'Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away'" (Mark 11:12-21, NKJV).

To better under stand why Yah'shua (Jesus) cursed the fig tree having said "let no one eat fruit from you ever again" after it had been noted that "it was not the season for figs", we need to go to Paul's counsel to Timothy:

"Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (2 Tim.4:2, NKJV).

If Yah'shua (Jesus) had been literally faulting the fig tree for not producing figs when clearly it was not the season for it to produce fruit at all, then one might raise eyebrows and accuse the Master of being guilty of having a supernatural bad temper because He was hungry. But He is not faulting the unproductivity of a species of plant at the wrong time of year - He's talking about something else, and specifically, He's using a particular fig tree as an illustration of the spiritual state of the House of Judah. Believers are supposed to be "ready" at all times, not just in the summer, or when we are young, or when it's convenient, but always. They're supposed to be faithful and obedient always. The House of Judah had not been so historically, and it was not faithful in Yah'shua's (Jesus') day either. Indeed, it would put Him to death as a common criminal. That is why He illustratively cursed a fig tree so that His talmidim (disicples) would vividly remember His condemnation.

This is not the only time we are shown the relationship between the fig tree and Judah. On another occasion Yah'shua (Jesus) told the following parable to His talmidim (disciples):

"A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?'" (Luke 13:6-7, NKJV).

Fruitfulness is a sign of the work of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in a human life, typically symbolised by trees, and where this is absent it is judged as worthless. Scripture says we are known by our fruits. (See my seven-part sermon series on Fruits). Every single living soul is able to be fruitful for Yahweh using the gifts that he or she has been given because it is a choice to trust and serve Him or not. Some of you may be familiar with Nick Vujicic, a well-known Australian Christian who has no arms and legs (he suffers from tetra-amelia syndrome) who has used his spiritual gift to reach thousands of people. Even the handicapped or 'functionally impaired' (to use the politically correct term) are able to be fruitful, because Yahweh is able to use anyone who is humble in spite of their weaknesses. So there is never an excuse to be fruitless.

The fig tree in the second passage is also the same as the baked clay pot described in the 19th chapter of Jeremiahwhich is shattered and irrepairable:

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Even so I will break this people (Judah) and this city (Jerusalem), as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. Thus I will do to this place,' says Yahweh, 'and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet" (Jer.19:11-13, NKJV).

This you will remember from my sermon, Jacob's Trouble: The Final Coundown Has Begun, is in sharp contrast to Ephraim or Joseph who is likened to soft clay that will be remade because he is still maleable, whereas Judah is not. Taboo though such a thought still is amongst Jews and Messianics (you're likely to be accused of 'antisemitism' if you do...which would make the Bible antisemitic if it's true), the Scriptures make it abundantly clear that Judah's rôle as an independent Kingdom is permanently over - you cannot reassemble or 'renew' a shattered clay jar - you can only work with soft clay. This is one reason why the modern Republic of Israel, founded by Jews, cannot be biblical Israel restored. The Kingdom now belongs to the House of Joseph now that Messiah has come.

Remember also, as Paul witnessed, that not all those who are biological descendants of the 12 Tribes are true Israelites accepted by Yahweh:

"But it is not that the word of Elohim (God) has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called.' That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of Elohim (God); but the children of the promise are counted as the seed" (Rom.9:6-8, NKJV).

Our qualifications are spiritual, not genetic. They are based on "the promise", which is to those who trust and obey. Accordingly there will continue to be no understandings of current events in the Middle East until this emet (truth) is recognised. I urge everyone to study my seven-part sermon series called Jacob's Trouble to get properly scripturally oriented! Until you do, you will miss all the spiritual markers in the current state of the world.

The fig-tree represents the House of Judah and the fig itself represents the principle of obedience.In today's passage of Scritures our attention is drawn to two baskets of figs, one containing good figs and the other rotten or bad figs. In my sermon 11 years ago I pointed out:

"The good figs represent the good deeds of the good Judahites, and the evil figs the evil deeds of the evil Judahites. The Judahite people were not a very loving people, nor were they a very wise people. They were, however, a people in whom could be planted the principle of simple obedience. Hence the fig-tree was an exact type of Judah! And this is why, incidentally, Judah has not been called to be the head of Israel, but Joseph-Ephraim, for obedience is not the chief virtue, but the foundational virtue that is supposed to lead to wisdom and love. It is for this reason that the Messianic Jewish movement is not called to be the head of Messianic Israel which it is strongly and forcibly trying to claim for itself. It's rôle is to teach Ephraim obedience to Torah (its simultaneous strength and weakness), but it is Ephraim's rôle to lead the House of Yahweh on earth by teaching and exemplifying love. That is why we are not Messianic Jews but Messianic Israelites, and the difference is important" [1].

Amongst Messianic Israelites it is common to speak of the reunification of the two Houses of Judah and Ephraim as prophesied by Ezekiel in the 37th chapter:

"Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 'As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: 'For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.' Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions. 'Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

"And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these?'-- say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh-Elohim: 'Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.'' And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. Then say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh-Elohim: 'Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their Elohim (God).

"'David My servant (Yah'shua/Jesus) shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a b'rit (covenant) of shalom (peace) with them, and it shall be an everlasting b'rit (covenant) with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their Elohim (God), and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, Yahweh, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore''" (Ezek 37:15-28, NKJV).

This important prophecy forsees a time when all twelve tribes of Israel - ten-tribed Israel under the headship of Jospeh-Ephraim and two-tribed Judah - will be united under King Yah'shua (Jesus), the "son of David" (Mark 12:35) - and Torah-obedient. It has not been fulfilled yet and won't be until further repentence has occurred in the scattered tribes and they eventually separate into distinct tribal units. The separation and coalescence will take place right before the Great Tribulation and their assembly into the Twelve Cities of Refuge. What's even more important to understand at this stage is what these two groupings of the 12 Tribes - Ephraim and Judah - represent in the spiritual realm! For Judah represents obedience and Torah (when they are being "good figs") and Ephraim represents the ahavah (love) of Messiah which is why Joseph of Egypt is the messianic figure rescuing his lost 11 brothers from spiritual starvation.

What we have amongst believers is the absurd antagonism of Ephraim vs. Judah, or "all you need is love" vs. "all you need is law", or Grace vs. Torah. What tribe you belong to - whether you are 'Christian' or 'Messianic' is not nearly as important as to whether you are full of the ahavah (love) of Elohim (God) and whether you are obedient to Him. This childish yet damaging warfare between Evangelicals and Messianics has to end, where Evangelicals accuse Messianics of being 'legalistic' for being Torah-obedient and Messianics accuse Evangelicals of being 'pagan' and therefore 'unsaved'. It is high time that both got on their knees and recongised that they need each other, and are not whole or complete without each other. Evangelicals are often repulsed by the cold, loveless, judgmental and arrogant spirit of many messianics, and messianics are repelled by the wishy-washy lawlessness of many Evangelicals. Nevertheless messianics need grace and evangelicals need Torah - they are both starving in their own right.

What, then, has this to do with the current crisis in the Middle East? A great deal. You will recall my vision of the split earth. I can tell you that whilst we can expect major geological splits in the earth to come that its primary meaning - at least for now - is symbolic. The whole world is splitting or dividing but it is anot along the lines most suppose. In the minds of both evangelicals and messianics who subscribe to the false teaching of Zionism, the 'split' is Israelis vs. Arabs/Iranians and which nations align with who. Thus when America aligns with the Republic of Israel they become 'good guys' and when Russia and China align with the Arabs/Iranians they become the 'bad guys'. This hopelessly over-simplistic, deceptive and naïve dichotomy is being destroyed by the revelations of what is really going on in the Middle East as America apparently aligns itself with both Israel and Israel's enemy Al Quaida (created by the American CIA) fighting the Assad government in Syria. And you will remember that Al Qaida and the Israelis are mortal enemies.

So what is this war in Syria really about, and why are the élite puppet presidents and prime ministers of the USA, UK and elsewhere so hell-bent on its destruction? These 10 facts will make that very plain indeed:

• 1. Syria does not have a Rothschild Central Bank;
• 2. Syria does not owe money to the Central Bank or IMF;
• 3. Syria has free healthcare and education;
• 4. Syria has a strong middle class;
• 5. Syria does not have GMO's, and prohibits its import;
• 6. Syria is the last secular state in the Middle East;
• 7. Syria has a strong cultural and national identity;
• 8. Syria has a strong army and its generals are not educated at West Point;
• 9. Syria has its own oil and natural gas; and
• 10. Syria is a sovereign state and the majority of its citizens support President Assad.

The truth is that the actual divisions are not between Israeli and anti-Israeli camps, or between the West and 'terrorists', and never were. The true divisions are between good and evil, beween godliness and godlessness, between emet (truth) and lies, between peace and violence, between belief and unbelief, between Messiah and anti-Messiah, between Torah and anti-Torah, between true Israel and false Israel, between good Judahites and bad Judahites, between good Ephraimites and bas Ephraimites, between good figs and bad figs, between good Arabs and bad Arabs, between good Americans and bad Americans, between good liberals and bad liberals, between good conservatives and bad conservatives, between good Messianics and bad Messianics, between good Christians and bad Christians, and so on. This is what is really going on and those who maintain false dichotomies based on Zionism and anti-Zionism are heavily deceived, in the same way as those who are focussed on the West vs. Russia and China. These divisions are of human and demonic invention and are not remotely based on the way Heaven operates.

Many of you remain confused between the concepts of 'Jew', 'Judahite', 'Israeli' and 'Israelite'. This is what Satan desired from the beginning so that you would equate modern Jew with biblical Judahite and the modern Israeli with the biblical Israelite...in either or both covenants. This is where so much confusion arises. The false dichotomies I have spoken of will break down as the awakening third of humanity finally starts to see what reality is. Until people start judging according to the inner condition of man - whether he be saved or lost - and stop judging by skin-colour, political allegience, or religious labels, they will get lost in the quagmire that is the modern sin-soaked world.

There is a division occurring in every land and in every people along spiritual lines, not nationalist or religious. This division is essentially of two categories:

• 1. Between authentic believers (messianic and evangelical) who have been born again, and false unregenerated ones - the sheep and the goats (Mt.25:33);
• 2. Between non-believers (those who neither know Yah'shua/Jesus nor Torah) but who live the latter ethically and morally according to their consciences, not comprehending its source, even as Paul taught: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the Torah (Law), do by nature the things contained in the Torah (Law), these, having not the Torah (Law), are a Torah (Law) unto themselves: which shew the work of the Torah (Law) written in their levim (hearts), their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another" (Rom 2:14-15, KJV).

This is an important emet (truth) to understand and embrace because it will bring you shalom (peace) and grace. Who are the 'non-believers' who currently claim no allegiance to Yahweh or Yah'shua (Jesus) but who may claim to be atheists, agnostics or the followers of other religions? These are they who are predestined or foreordained to salvation, like myself here and doubtless many of you, who were once atheists or who once belonged to other faiths but who in their heart of hearts loved all that is the substance of our Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus) and not the false versions of Him we had been taught which caused us to originally reject Him in name.

Let us take the Israeli Republic as an illustration. We start with Jews, of whom the vast majority (90-94%) are actually the descendants of Ashkenaz with no connection to Abraham at all. But this is not important in terms of who Yahweh favours and who He does not. There are Messianic Jews both true and false, regenerated and unregenerated, the one group knowing Yah'shua (Jesus) [2] and the other only claiming to know Him. They are to be split, divided, or separated. There are religious, non-Messianic Jews, or Orthodox, Conservative, and other sectaries, who are good and evil, the good who will one day embrace Messiah. There are the non-religious or secular Jews, who are good and evil, the good who will one day embrace Messiah. There are Muslims, of every type, including Druze, the good and the evil, the good who will one day embrace Messiah. And so on. This is how the division is to be made. These are the divisions that are happening. And they are happening in every nation!

The Israeli State will collapse at some point in the very near future, both from within and from without, and this will be the proof that it never was biblical Israel-restored. I believe this will happen before 2018. As to why I believe this, you can figure that out from today's passage about the good and bad figs. What will replace it, or even indeed our current nations and they way they are set up, I do not know, because I have not been told, but the élite - who are being exposed now by the alternative media - will defeated. There is to be no rapture any time soon or any time in the future, and we have not entered into the Great Tribulation nor are we about do even though world events deceptively look as though we are about to. Yah'shua (Jesus) is not returning in the next few weeks, months or even years. I have said this a hundred times but it bears repeating as events confirm this assertion. Hopefully many of you will remember my words as events play out.

What of Syria? The Illuminist maffia will not cease trying to start a major war there until they are decisively defeated, and that will be soon. How and on what time scale I do not know. I wish I could bring happy news for the Syrian people but when I asked Yahweh about it, He showed me a vision two days ago of a man holding an empty glass and pressing it to his lips in search of refreshment, but found none. I fear the suffering will continue there a while as it has in every country the élite have intervened in or invaded, bringing to pass the satanic dream of fascism and communism of endless war and perpetual revolution. Just look at Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Libya to see what I mean. So please keep praying for the world, for those suffering in war zones, campaign politically to stop the slaughter, castigate our corrupt and evil governments, and speak out the emet (truth). Spread the word online if you can't do anything else.

The present order is about to change. What will be replacing it, in the interregnum before Yah'shua (Jesus) returns, I will talk about another time soon. We haven't even dealt with Nibiru, or Comet ISON (which is four times the diameter of earth, incidentally, and may just be a cover-up for Nibiru), with fake 'aliens', UFOs, fake 'raptures', the replacement New Age religion, and other matters. Truly a lot is happening simultaneously as we await financial collapse and physical cosmic disruptions. We have much to prepare for.

A final word for you watchmen out there. Keep one eye on Canada and on 'Radio Canada' that was recently renamed 'ICI', the French for 'here', and the silver market. This was something He showed me a couple of days ago in a vision.

I suppose my main message today is: adjust your spiritual eyesight and learn to judge not "according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24, NKJV) when it comes to people being good or bad, saved or unsaved, Israelite or non-Israelite. Wrong distinctions are a major impediment to spiritual growth and blessings from Yahweh, and will cause many to miss the mark and fall in the current global crisis.

I pray Yahweh blesses your Rosh Chodesh meditations and worship as we seek further prophetic devarim (words) from the Father for ourselves, our families and our congregations. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] A Garden in the Mind - Part 5: The Fig Tree
[2] Usually known amongst themselves as Yeshua, the Aramaic version of His Name