Chag sameach Rosh Chodesh kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah, a blessed New Year on this the first day of the first biblical month of Aviv. We begin every divine moed (appointment with Yahweh) with this salutation, this greeting, this hope of better things. We invoke our Heavenly Father's blessings as we wish blessings on each other. Do we not look forward to spring each year with such hope burning in our bosoms, as nature awakens after its long slumber, praying that mankind too will awaken to reason and decency? For in us all is the unquenchabe thirst for a return to Paradise in a world which on the surface seems incapable of receiving it.

Today is the Day of Birthdays, perhaps not our own, but certainly of the Saviour of the World, our One and Only Deliverer - our last hope for peace, prosperity and an abundance of overflowing goodness. For a reason not hard to understand, to be sure, the Enemy of our souls and changer of Yahweh's times and seasons (Dan.2:21), has caused Christendom to mark Christ's Birthday in the very heart of the deepest and darkest part of mid-winter when the days are shortest and the nights longest, on the actual birthday of one of the earliest antichrists, Nimrod, the 25th of December. We have been told from the pulpits that the Messiah was born at this dark time to supposedly give hope to those in the depths of darkness and despair. And though this may be a geographical truth for those who live in northern latitudes it is absolutely not an historical truth.

This was one of the first false claims of orthodox Christians I opposed as a new believer and wrote my first lengthy pamphlet on the subject thanks in large measure to a Victorian historical researcher called Alexander Hislop. Most informed evangelicals know He wasn't born on 25 December but they continue to do so because they don't want to 'rock the boat'. The Church I belonged to then was not happy and though they claimed this was not a doctrine essential to salvation it was apparently essential for fellowship as they felt it was necessary we follow a lie for the sake of solidarity with other Christians living the same lie. This was back in the late 1970's.

According to our calculations the Saviour was born on 6 April, 1 BC. In the years before we learned about the Creation Calendar we would celebrate the nativity on 6 April of each year. So you can imagine our surprise when we became Messianic around 1999 to discover that most messianics believed the Messiah was conceived at Hanukkah which occurs around the same time as Christmas and in so many ways is Christmas' pagan twin. So according to this theory Christ was supposedly born in the autumn (fall) - at or around the Feast of Tabernacles in the midst of the third season when dying begins. Both parties - those who champion Christmas and those who champion Sukkot (Tabernacles) - find symbols which appear to agree with their respective models. And yet the way Elohim (God) has actually done it has been to bring forth His Son in the Israelite lambing season, when new life is stirring, and a better and more hopeful symbolism ignites in the souls of men and women who have waited through a long and hard winter for the promise of New Life to be revealed.

If you want to know how evangelicals and messianics calculate their nativities take a look at our Messiah's Birthday website where you can study the scriptural mathematics for yourself. So here we are, part of a small minority of Messianic Evangelicals who celebrate the nativity in the spring when new life is bursting forth all around us. If my words appear unusually flowery today (and you'll forgive me that pun too, I hope, since Aviv is also known as the 'month of blossoms/flowers'), it is because I have been in deep and at times impassioned contemplation these last few days. As you get older and squarely face reality in ways that only the approach of death forces you to - more and more, if you're honest with yourself and not chasing delusions any longer, you find that all you want is total reality and absolute truth. And I have wanted that all my life, but never more so than now.

The New Year is a New Beginning in which we are again given the opportunity to get real and be true to ourselves and to one another. Three days ago I recommitted myself to Father Yahweh and the day after shaved my head as the Nazirites once did as an outward sign of dedication so I am approaching this first 'Day of Blossoms' in a completely new way personally. Interestingly, Yahweh has never commanded that we actually assemble to celebrate His Son's birth but neither does He forbid us from doing so. The expectation of the coming of a Saviour, a Deliverer, a Rescuer, runs consistently and penetratingly deep throughout all Tanakh or Old Testament Scripture. And it does so in our human story to give us hope and the possibility of working out a reconcilliation with our Creator following our own often ill-considered and foolish choices. For the natural inclination of man, alas, if we yield to the impulses of the flesh, is to rebel and live life selfishly and idolatrously. We are ever pressed by the fallen Adamaic nature to do things 'our way' as that Hollywood maffia man, Frank Sinatra, chimed with his luscious voice in that famous Christmas song. 'My way' has, alas, only brought us ruin. It's there, a persistent thorn in the flesh and is empowered if once we take our eyes off Christ.

Friends of ours in the UK and in many parts of the USA and Europe are already enjoying proper spring weather. Here, further north, we are still emerging from winter, but we see and sense that warmer times are coming. The seasons have been given us by Yahweh, I am convinced, to teach us about ourselves and the consequences of doing things our own way, messing up, and showing us a way out, until our desire to sin stops altogether. One of the hardest things in my view about life down here is as acknowledged sinners trying to make community on earth, for we were designed for that. Accordingly Satan has sought to sabbotage all such efforts. We need - and crave - companionship and for Adam that came in the person of Eve made from his very own substance.

Our first experience of companionship is as children growing up in families. We grow up, most of us, with parents, siblings, relatives and friends. Life revolves around them and it is not long at all, when we enter our mid teens, before the quest for spouses fully ocupies our passions, for marriage holds the greatest possibilities for man. The whole Bible story, the Scripture Narrative, from Genesis to Revelation, is the story of marriage, family, nations and world community. We are driven to build these because we know deep down that nothing else can truly satisfy our reason for existing. At the same time all of these contain within them the greatest seeds for potential disaster too because human beings are fallen and selfish. This Great Story warns us, then, to not try and attempt the community-building project without our Maker at the helm. Like two strands in a rope, man's endeavours can only succeed with Elohim (God) closely entwined around his life. Without Him, it doesn't work, because a single stranded cord is too weak to last very long before snapping. We just mess up again and again when we try to do things 'our own way'.

Does not the history of the world furnish us with enough evidence that this is true, even in the story of the "threescore-and-ten" (70) years of an average human life, the number that sobers, if not terrifies, those like myself who suddenly find they have clocked up that score and need to prepare to move out of this sphere which we were born into and have struggled so hard to live in and 'pay it forward' to our children? We can forget the past as we live life to the fullest in our youth but when you get old and infirm sometimes your only companionship is your memories. Will you be happy with yours? Or will you look back with perpetual regret? We choose that outcome too. Yet there is always a future and we can choose whether we are going to spend it with those whom we love, and especially with the One who died for us on Calvary's cross to win eternal life, love, peace and reconciliation for us, without which we have no possibility of these very things we crave the most?

On the surface of it, life does look awfully random, like the casting of dice. This last week I have been thinking a lot about my favourite classical composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, whose musical brilliance, it is agreed by many, is unsurpassed. Yet his life was filled with frustration - his idealism dashed by events. His loss of hearing. The failure of the French Revolution to deliver its promise of paradise, the Republic turning into yet another Empire, rather like our own experience politically. He was frustrated by all the manmade social conventions that destroyed all his hopes at ever marrying, and his dependence economically, like Mozart and composers generally, on the whims of the aristocracy who financed his musical career. Though Beethoven professed a belief in God (Elohim), he did not show much in the way of being a spiritual overcomer and was dogged by a bad temper all his life. Mozart was captured by the Masons and Beethoven's last (choral) symphony betrayed his strong humanist leanings, its celebration of man being adopted as the National Anthem of the very French Revolution-driven by today's failing and increasingly autocratic European Union. Like so many, he misplaced his identity in human philoosphers rather than Christ. Philosophy has its place but cannot save, and certainly not a liberal, secular one. Indeed, with the failure of socialism and classwical liberal democracy in our own time we are now witnessing a return to fascism as these are the only systems man has been able to devise. Fascism and communism, riding the back of liberalism, have fused together into the perfect antichrist system.

Our hope is in Christ. Humanity's hope was kindled mightily upon the birth of our Deliverer in this spring season a little over 2,000 years ago. Though Yah'shua's (Jesus') actual birth date is not technically for another two weeks, at Pesach or Passover, and since we are not commanded to celebrate it in the divine calendar, I think most believers (the Jehovah's Witnesses and some of the more radical messianics excepted) who have met the Risen Lord and tasted of the New Life, feel very drawn to honouring His arrival into this world in some way. I know I do, and always have, even though I have been turned off by all the commercialism and pagan elements of Christmas since I was a boy, long before I met the Resurrected Saviour in 1977. If the Gospel Narratives celebrate the arrival of the Saviour into the world with such a fanfare, and if we are a part of that narrative as we're supposed to be, then how can we make that narrative real in our worship and a part of our physical reality?

I suppose, in a way, Yah'shua's (Jesus) birth is a part of our own New Birth. And I wonder, for myself, whether Aviv 1 falling on the Roman 30 March this year, which also happens where I live also to be the first official day of spring, was also the very day I was born again in Oxford, England (30 March 1977), exactly 48 years ago today? I realise this is a very personal thing, for you were all born-again at different times of the year, and some of you gradually over a period of time and not necessarily on a particular day. And next year Aviv 1 is unlikely to be on the same Roman day as it is this year. Nevertheless for once I am in agreement with Rabbi David Cahn, former chaplain to the White House and prominent Messianic Jew, who acknowledges that the Saviour was born in the spring. I always felt there was something special about 6 April, the Roman day of the actucal nativity (using the modern Gregorian Calendar), and I still feel that today, only now we are properly callibrated with the biblical calendar. There is something special about this time - something very, very special - I feel it in my bones. And whilst you are none of you obliged to celebrate the nativity today as a divinely ordained moed, we as a spiritual community typically do so now. We commemorate the First Advent of the Saviour of the world as we await His Second, which does come in the autumn (fall), one which we also sense is now very, very close, but not quite yet.

Three different festivals are closely packed together in the spring, all occuring within the short space of a week to 8 days. These three divine moedim or congregational appointments with Yahweh are not optional for Israelites (Messianic or pre-Messianic) are Pesach (Passover), Chag haMatzah (The Feast of Unleavened Bread) and Yom haBikkurim, the Day of Firstfruits or the biblical Resurrection Day. This Christendom celebrates as the paganised 'Easter' on another day quite close by to the actual Resurrection Day. 'Easter', with all its false symbolism of chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies, nevertheless contains important things from the actual Bible Story that really need to be carefully examined each year without mixing the Nativity Story into it all as it's too much for most to take in. These three festivals have come, over time, to collectively be called the 'Passover Season' which in the New Testament record are even referred to as just 'Passover' which has caused a certain amount of confusion among messianics.

"I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Yah'shua (Jesus). Worship Elohim (God)! For the testimony of Yah'shua (Jesus) is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev.19:10, NIV).

Each year in my ministry I have given over my preaching and teaching to a particular theme which you will find heading each year's sermons and talks. This title I have got each spring. Last year's sermons (the year I retired because of chronic illess) were collectively called 'Eden-Astara' because that was the year Father started giving me a deeper understanding of the way the Holy City or New Jerusalem will function in practice during the Millennium which ended with a complete rewrite and expansion of the very imporant 7-part series, Reconstructing the Johanning Community. If you are new to this work and want to underdstand us better, particularly the meatier doctrines, please took a look at our Johannine Community website which also includes our very important recent series on John's Book of Revelation that really covers in some depth all that we believe in. We are a latter-day restoration of the Johannine Community of the first believers led by the belovèd John, the last of the surviving apostles.

The year before the Eden-Astara series, the annual sermon series was called Qehillah which many messsianic friends will recognise as the Hebrew word for 'Congregation', 'Assembly' or 'Fellowship' (equivalent to the Roman concept of 'church'). This word denotes both Yahweh's people when they are gathered together for worship as well as when they assemble on those set-apart days specifically commanded by Him such as the 50 yearly (Jubilee), 7 yearly (Sabbatical) and seven annual festivals, the new moons such as today's, and the sabbaths, at which times Yahweh promises to be present in a special way for those who are obedient and respect the times and seasons He has ordained...which satan is so desperate the change to create confusion in the Body of Christ (Dan.2:21). And though we can, of course, spontaneously assemble with Heavenly Father privately or in groups for prayer, study and worship at any other time too, 24/7, these specific divine moedim or appointments are special and are not optional for His covenant people. And if we will listen, we shall receive the renewing of our spiritual foundations communally and individually...for remember 4 of the annual festivals are communal (the summer and autumn/fall ones) and three are for us as individuals (the spring ones that start in two weeks) even though we meet for these as a spiritual community too. All of this is in preparation for that Great Day when heaven and earth fully come together as one reality when Christ returns with the Holy City or New Jerusalem so that we will be ready to go out and meet, and then escort Him back to earth, when He returns (not the counterfeit, man-made escapist non-event known popularly the 'rapture').

So each year, and sometimes groups of years, have had a special theme given to me. The year before Qehillah was Mesho'ah which means 'Desolation', a reminder that both as individuals and communities we pass through various desolations that are supposed to bring us to repentance, which also traditionally has a season of it's own before and during the autumn festivals leading to Yom haKippurim (better known as Yom Kippur), the Day of [Collective] Atonements also known as the Day of Judgment. And as we know, just before Christ returns, the world will go through yet another desolation known popularly as the 'Great Tribulation' before the good times arrive to last a thousand years.

This year's theme, which for me could well be my last (I don't know, though I am acutely aware I don't have much time left), is called The Remnant Bride - not the whole Bride of Christ, which consists of all the faithful, Torah-obedient born-again believers from all generations, past, present and future - but specifically those of the saved and true who are the last generation on the earth who will greet the Saviour when He returns at Yom Teruah, the 'Day of Trumpets' also known as the 'Day of Shouting'. And that Bride has an unusual - and for me unexpected - name, namely THARBIS or ADONIAH. I have spoken to you of her before [1] but today I am called to say much more. Who is, or was, she? And why is she at all relevant to us? Because you will not find that name in Scripture, only in the secular records and histories of ancient Israel.

Tharbis was one of the four important women of the First Exodus under Moses, three of whom you know well: Miriam, Zipporah and Rahab, all of whom are types of the allegorical Bride of Christ. In case you're wondering, 'Tharbis' is an Ethiopian name. She was a Cushite princess of the Kingdom of Kush in modern day Sudan, whose chief city was known, first, as Saba, and latterly as Meroë. Given the Hebrew name Adoniah, she was the little known, practically forgotten, first of Moses' two wives, who has been well hidden to our own day, and that for a reason which I hope you'll undestand by the time we have finished today. All Jews and Christians know of Moses' second wife, Zipporah, a woman of the land of Midian, and their two sons though precious little is said about them too. The return of Tharbis to Moses during the Exodus sparked the events of the 12th chapter of the Book of Numbers. She is mentioned, unnamed in chapter 12, verse 1, a woman of mystery.

The story begins sometime during the first forty-year period of Moses' (or Moshe as he is called in Hebrew) life, during the time before he fled to Midian and was exiled there for 40 years. The Judean historian Josephus records that, as a general of Egypt, Moses, then aged 27, was sent with an army to turn back an Ethiopian incursion into Egypt. Having done that in a decisive battle, he took the offensive, gaining victory after victory. Finally, he laid siege to their royal city, Saba, also known as Meroë. Because Saba/Meroë was highly fortified and situated on an island, known as the Island of Meroë (itself an important symbol of the Final Gathering of the Last Exodus), it was nearly impregnable, and this obviously worried Moses. However, before a potentially exhausting and expensive long siege could reduce both morale and his army's strength, the Ethiopians offered him a deal. And this is how Tharbis enters the Bible Story at Numbers 12:1.

This is the way Josephus, who was a reliable historian like our Luke of Gospel and Book of Acts fame, describes it this way:

"Tharbis was the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians (King Kikanos): she happened to see Moses as he led the army near the walls, and fought with great courage; and admiring the subtlety of his undertakings, and believing him to be the author of the Egyptians' success, she fell deeply in love with him; and upon the prevalence of that passion, sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with him about their marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer, on condition she would procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the assurance of an oath to take her to his wife; and that when he had once taken possession of the city, he would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to Elohim (God), and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land."

Several years later, as we all know, Moses fled from Egypt after killing the Egyptian taskmaster. He was a fugitive, a wanted man. His Ethiopian wife, no longer in favour among the Egyptians as a result, likely returned to her native land. Forty years passed while Moses led Jethro's flocks, during which he took Zipporah as his second wife and fathered two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. Then, after the Pharaoh's death, Yahweh called Moses to be His navi (prophet) and sent him back to Egypt.

It is amazing, isn't it, how a little bit of history can illuminate key Bible passages that otherwise have no apparent explanation. We have seen this time and time again in our Scripture studies over the years, and most recently in particularly in our study of the Book of Revelation. Anyway, the subsequent events, which we shall be celebrating at Pesach (Passover) in two weeks' time - namely Moses' demands of Pharaoh to set his people free, the 10 plagues, the Exodus, and the Red Sea (Yam Suph) crossing, obviously did not occur in a vacuum. Word of Egypt's devastation and humiliation spread rapidly through the surrounding countries. Likewise, some years earlier when Moses was a strapping young 27 year-old Egyptian Prince, news would quickly have reached Ethiopia that their conqueror, Moses, was alive and leading a new army of Israelites. It is not therefore improbable that his Ethiopian wife, now almost certainly upwards of her mid-fifties, returned to Egypt to rejoin her husband. Evidently, arriving after the Israelites had already entered the wilderness, she followed their trail until she finally caught up with them at Hazeroth, and proclaimed herself to be Moses' wife.

Now you can imagine, I am sure, what a surprise and furor that caused! We see in Numbers 12 that it got Aaron and Miriam into deep trouble with Yahweh because they criticised Moses for a supposed sin he hadn't actually committed long before he was reawakened to his Faith at the Burning Bush. And even if it had been a sin, which it wasn't, Yahweh had obviously 'forgiven' him of it since this ex-Egyptian Prince was now clearly acting as a bona fide Navi (Prophet) of Israel and servant of El Elyon, the Most High God, with all the signs necessary to prove it. It was not, in any case, unusual in those days, to take wives as an act of political strategy, and royal families today were still doing it until recent times likes the Hapsburgs of Austria or Britain's own Windsors. The kings of Judah and Israel like David and Solomon, clearly did this, and though Solomon went to excess and additionally broke the covenant by marrying pagan women, not to mention marrying to excess, David did not (except in the case of Bathesheba in which he committed adultery and muder) and was commended by Yahweh, even if his first wife, Michal, did not remain true.

Though the way it was done may seem strange in our 21st century Western culture, Moses' marriage to Tharbis was legitimate and scriptural. Not only that, but she clearly loved him and, we hope, he loved her. Now Aaron and Miriam's problem was they had a superior, judgmental and perhaps even racist attitude toward Moses and Tharbis, who was a black African lady, the Israelies largely being an olive skin-coloured people, and it's very clear from Scripture that Yahweh did not like their attitude at all, for it was His prerogative to judge His servant Moses; and He judged Moses as being without sin in the matters which his sister and brother were unrighteously accusing him of. Tharbis was his legitimate wife, as was Zipporah, and they had better like it and stand down, was the message we are to take away from this incident. Whom Elohim (God) has brought together in holy matrimony, man may not separate, whether the instrument of separation be an individual or a state institution (Mt.19:6).

As for Zipporah, she, too, might not have been happy to find out Moses had an Ethiopian wife had she not been told beforehand, though I cannot believe Moses hadn't told her of his life in Egypt in great detail. Besides, plural marriage was quite normal in those days and indeed the only reason Israel multiplied so prodigiously at that time was because of that biblically-sanctioned practice. The Bible does not, in any case, give Zipporah's reaction so it would be unfair to her for me to speculate and so perhaps unintentionally prejudice your minds. Exodus 18:1-3 shows that Zipporah, though she did not participate in the Exodus from Egypt, also rejoined Moses under similar circumstances, but this time at Sinai, so she was probably already there when all the events occurred in Numbers 12 and she got to meet her co-wife for the first time. This means that when Moses was sent back to Egypt by Yahweh she, like Tharbis, remained at home, and waited until she was called.

Was Moses surprised by Tharbis' reappearing after so much time, having patiently waited for her husband for over 40 years? Did Moses even know if she was still alive? Again, we don't know what happened in the intermittant years because Josephus doesn't ninform us. We also don't know if Moses was a batchelor when he married Tharbis (he could well have been married to an Egyptian Princess who chose not to follow him into the wilderness during the Exodus) and we don't know if he maintained contact with Tharbis as a Prince of Egypt after his fall from favour and self-imposed exile. Meroë would have been located in a distant province on the edge of the Egyptian Empire at that time. One would like to think that he did have some sort of contact but we can't know. At any rate he did not apparently marry again until he met Zipporah in his Midianite Exile so I personally do not believe Tharbis was abandoned. That would be out of character for Moses who was a good, honourable and decent man, and if he loved her, as she loved him, he would returned to her if Pharaoh had allowed him to which he wouldn't have done since there was not a price on his head.

Now I know that this story, though pieced together from the sparse historical evidence that remains of those times, is intruiging. You might even wonder why it should suddenly have any importance to us today. Hopefully some of the symbolism will already have given you some clues. Yet this is what Yahweh has very definitely put in my heart for this critical moment in our own history what with a vicious war in the Ukraine still being fought that is only now showing signs of slowly coming to an end, vicious wars in the Middle East are threatening to expand and go global, imminent economic collapse as prophesied for some time now has started with soaring inflation, the imminent final gathering of the end-time elect and their separation from the world prior to the return of Messiah, is surely nearer, so I think you will see something interesting and important now in the Tharbis story.

If nothing else, I want you to realise and understand that Yahweh leaves none of His faithful talmidim (disciples) behind, even though He may appear to. And Tharbis, who was herself separated from her husband Moses whom she dearly loved, had apparently been out in the wilderness of Cush a long time, apparently forgotten for 40 or more years after Moses fled Egypt, but not actually forgotten. And do you know what? This African woman Tharbis possessed a character trait that is essential for the success of the Remnant in its calling. Unable to return to Egypt for 40 years after Moses fell out of favour with Pharaoh, and having waited for 40 years presumably not knowing what had happened to her husband, she not only remained faithful and true to her marriage covenant and love for him but she took the initiative and decided that now was the time to return home to her belovèd. Whether by prior agreement with Moses or by means of a personal revelation of Yahweh to her, she went out to him nonetheless. In that respect she is rightly identified with the same spirit possessed by the seven women of Isaiah 4:1-2 who break the social conventions and boldly ask the man with a shem tov or honourable name if he will have them:

"In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, 'We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!' In that day the [Millennial] Branch of Yahweh will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel" (Is.4:1-2, NIV).

Two things the Remnant must absolutely have, amongst many other character traits, is faithfulness in waiting and the courage to act out ones convictions when called upon to act. There is nothing idle or slovenly about Father's Bride: she is true and she is proactive. She initiates action. And she is willing to deny prejudice and man-made conventions, as we must be too as the aspiring allegorical Bride of Messiah. Know this also in the context of the Final Gathering that we have been preparing for now for so long: know that Elohim (God) works to prepare His servants in the necessary way to bring about His purposes. Moses was a great man, but only because Yahweh Himself forged him both in the royal household of Pharaoh and in the wild desert of Midian to burn away the carnal man and to prepare him to lead Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. But not just Moses - so too were his wives, even if Zipporah (whose name means 'little bird' or 'swallow') was, as we know, a bit of a complainer. Nevertheless she was ultimately obedient and circumcised their sons even though she was none to happy about doing so (Ex.4:24-25). She was a fiery one to be sure with a force similar to the passion and faithful determination of Tharbis.

Father has been showing me these past few days that the Remnant Bride consists of many, and at face value, contrary yet interesting people. The Bride has to be fashioned in the wilderness like Moses and his two wives. Did not Father chasten his Cohen Gadol (High priest), Aaron, when he stepped out of line? Was he not weak in allowing Israel to worship a golden calf when Moses appeared lost on Mount Sinai? Yet Yahweh forgave him. And after he had chided him for clearly disapproving of Moses' first wife and lusting after his authority, as also did Moses' own sister Miriam and for coveting his office and criticising Tharbis, Yahweh gave her leprosy for a while and sent her into the wilderness as an outcast for a season to be separate from Israel in her uncleanness while she repented. So if you have had, or are having, desert-like experiences, know it might be for your own good. There, in the Sinai wilderness, Miriam (Mary in English - compare her with the three Mary's in the New Testament) she had to take a close look into her own heart and repent, before Yahweh would heal her and restore her into His favour, and bring her back into fellowship, like Aaron. And so Father chastens us in our acts of rebellion until we see sense and make teshuvah - repent, change direction, do an about-face. The allegorical Bride, the Messianic Bride, too has to be prepared, and it's no vicarage tea party. She is no more 'ready made' in the last generation than in any other generation previously. We must all be refined and polished through affliction.

So these are some of the reasons Yahweh has called my attention to Tharbis and led me to today talk to you about her again as well us to point out that she symbolically represents some of the prejudices that the Body of Christ has yet to fully overcome - the prejudice of Tharbis being black, the prejudice (if not outright hostility) to plural marriage (and by the way, many try to fudge the issue by claiming Tharbis and Zipporah were one and the same person which clearly makes no sense and unjustifiably mitigates against Josephus, like Luke, as a good historian), and - I dare say - a whole host of other prejudices too, not least the persistent hostility of Evangelicals to Torah-obedience which we shall be talking more of in our study of the very interesting events of Acts 15.

If you have been propaganised into believing Tharbis and Zipporah were one and the same person let me share some important information with you. People have their motives for wanting to believe that but it's simply not true. Though attempts have been made to associate the word 'Cushite' with something else, all the ancient sources clearly understood 'Cushite' and 'Ethiopian' to be synonymous. Zipporah was not an Ethiopian as her very name testifies. For like American Indians who are commonly named after animals (remember she was called 'Little Bird'), Midianites, unlike Ethiopians, were named in a similar way. If you look in Judges 6-8, you will find Midianite chiefs whose names meant 'Raven' and 'Wolf'. Better than that line of evidence, though, is the Greek translation of the Tanakh or Old Testament known as the Septuagint (LXX), authoried by the Israel's elders. That translation was not only used by Greek-speaking Jews throughout the Diaspora but is the version quoted in the Greek version of the New Testament that we use and was the one quoted by the apostles when amongst Greek-speakers. It is still used by the Eastern (Greek) Orthodox Church today. Here's my copy (I have two) which reads:

"Now Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he married: for he married an ETHIOPIAN woman" (Num.12:1, LXX [2])

There's a second less-known reason why the Zipporah-Ethiopian thesis has gained traction amongst Protestant Evangelicals and many Messianics and that is their close links to Zionism and all things 'Jewish'. There is a Rabbinic/Talmudic tradition that the word 'Cushite' means 'fair of apperance' (i.e. light-skinned). Where did they get this supposed 'etymology' from? Not from linguistics but from the inordinate attachment non-messianic (and unfortunately many messianic) Jews have to the occult Kaballah and its fascination with Gematria. By counting up the value of the letters of the word 'cushite' they discovered that the Hebrew for 'fair of appearance' has the same numeric value as 'cushite'. In other words, this is a conclusion based on mere superstition. Add to this the allergic reaction (hostility) that Western 'Roman' Christians have to plural marriage since the Byzantine Emperor Justinian banned it, followed by the European Ashkenazi Jews later, and add to that some of the more outlandish ideas of liberals out to discredit the Bible and Christianity who have tried desperately to associate either the Cassites (who lived east of Babylonia) or the Kusi or northern Arabia with the Cushites, and you have the sources of the prejudice against Ethiopians. Little wonder we have the cultic Black Israelite backlash against this sort of prejudice at the marginalisation of Africans when as I have pointed out in my Beyond the Rivers series of sermons given to our brethren in Kenya, some very prominent Africans are an important part of the Bible Story of which Tharbis is one and the Ethiopian court official is another (Acts 8:27-40).

So hear this, and hear it well: there will be no revival leading to the Final Gathering so long as believers cling to their denominational prejudices and errors. Remember, Tharbis was Ethiopian royalty as Moses had been Egyptian, and that counts for something, not because we are snobbish or anything like that but because of the discipline required of those who serve honourably as rulers which is what true royalty in Yahweh's Kingdom is all about. For Moses that spiritual royalty was his meekness or humility as we learn in the Numbers 12 incident (Num.12:3). Moses was raised in the royal household of Egypt for a reason - to be given the best education that was available at the time to equip him to write the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible), be a good administrator over a whole nation, and to prepare him for his mission to rescue Israel from captivity and take the people to the Promised Land. His royal training would have supplied him with the necessary practical skills to accomplish this. And Tharbis was raised in the royal household of Ethiopia for similar reasons which you would expect of the kind of companion Moses would need as a leader...and for the added reason that she was also called to be the first wife of Moses. Ziporah was for sure a special woman in her own right but all she knew was how to be a shepherd. We may assume with some justification that Tharbis was considerably older and maturer than Zipporah too.

Additionally, Tharbis is a picture of the journey the wives of the end time firstborn leaders must sometimes travel, beginning in the premortal life and ending, finally, on the resurrected earth viå mortality, disembodiment at death and resurrection. All earlier unions are disrupted by incarnation (spirits taking on physical flesh) on the earth. Tharbis, as I mentioned, must have been in her 50's or 60's when she finally found her 'home' again, her man, her husband, her prince, Moses. What an amazing lady if what I am saying is true! Many of us must also wait a long time before we are reunited with our heaven-made spouses albeit 'late in the day'. I believe many will be 'found' in this way in the Final Gathering which is starting now, reminding me of a couple of our own people who have since passed on, the Mjølsviks from Norway, who lived with us for a number of years, the retired pastor and pastress of one of our congregations in Bergen, Norway. They too found each other in old age and married even though their families were opposed to it. Yet they were made for each other. Better late than never, don't you think?

And as is true in the prophetic narratives of the Bible, we see an echo of Tharbis' story in that of another Ethiopian lady, the Queen of Sheba, whom tradition names as Makeda, who traveled far to learn from the wisdom of Solomon and who, according to tradition, like the tradition of Tharbis, married Solomon. She returned to Ethiopia carrying his child known to history as Menilek I, which is why the seed of Israel is in Ethiopia and has spread throughout mostly eastern and southern Africa. Do you know where the Kingdom of Sheba was believed to have been located? What is now called Yemen. And what is happening in Yemen right now that has made it headline news following American attacks on the Houthis? Coincidence? We shall see. Now we don't know if Tharbis became pregnant through her husband Moses but it's not impossible. If so, then 40 years later, you would expect to find the seed of Israel in her part of the world too in what is now the Sudan. Of course, if she had a son, he would have been an adult and with his own family, and possibly even have had grandchildren, by the time she rejoined her husband in the Exodus. And so it is she symbolically joins us in the Last Exodus.

Now I mentioned to you that Tharbis also had a Hebrew name, Adoniah, which presumably she either received when she joined the Exodus, or maybe Moses might have given it to her privately when they were married 40 or so years previously, just as we give our wives and children Hebrew names in this ministry, just as Father gave me one (Lev-Tsiyon/Heart of Zion) when he called me to this work. A name in those days was never given randomly or just because it sounded nice or because it was a relative's name (though the latter did happen). Do you know what Tharbis' Hebrew name means? It means My Master (Adon, Lord) is Yah[weh], a compound of Adonai (meaning Master or Lord) and Yah (pronounced 'iah'), the abbreviated form of Father's Name, Yahweh. What that tells me is that Tharbis became a believer and was renamed to signal her transition from pagan idolatry. Yet she was no pagan during the Exodus. She was a convert from paganism as are so many of the strong men and women who will joining the Last Exodus as it gets underway. Zipporah was a Midianite, a Semite, a descendant through Abraham and his plural wife, Keturah, whom he married in his old age. What this tells me further is that the Remnant of the Second or Last Exodus will not only be related to Abraham by his other wives too, and not just Sarah and Hagar, but also be converts from pagan royalty, and by 'royalty' I mean one who is of noble character.

This, then, is the 'Year of Tharbis' - of Adoniah - who is a mataphor for the Remnant Bride of the Final Exodus and Gathering. I have no doubt I will have more to say about her over the coming year. Having thus 'primed' you, as it were, we need now to return to the main reason we are assembled today - to celebrate the Saviour's Birth with a renewed vision of the Last Exodus very firmly nearby at the back of our minds. Who will join with us? We have done the 'difficult' already in getting the end-time message out over the past 40 or so years and paid a high price to do that - the sacrifices have been great. But now it is time to do the 'impossible' - that is to say, impossible for man but no problem for Elohim (God). All is that required of us is the exercise of unswerving faith and commitment. Then all kinds of people will start 'appearing' apparently out of nowhere, miracles will start happening, and Yahweh will do His work through those willing to submit. It is time for us to leave 'Midian' bringing 'Gershom', Moses' son, whose name means 'a foreigner (ger) there (sham' because so many of the Last Generation will have been raised as exiles from their native lands. But 'Gershom' also means a 'sprout' for that is what the Last Generation currently consists of - young sprouts yet to grow into full maturity. That will final growth happen during the Final Exodus. There they will become mature men and women of faith, Yahweh's own - His allegorical Tharbis's, Zipporahs, Miriams, Rahabs, Ruths, Shebahs, Deborahs, Asenaths, Sarahs, Rebekahs, Rachels, Leahs, Abigails, Hannahs, Marys and so many others. Think on these things as we approach Pesach (Passover) in two weeks' time...

We started with the Saviour and we shall end with Him, as He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega, the Alef and Taw (Rev.1:8,11; 21:6; 22:13). Because we aren't under the pressure of the counterfeit 'Christmas' season, we don't have to worry or be concerned about the various pagan items of worship like evergreen trees, Yule logs, kissing under the mistletoe, the exchanging of presents, the eating or pork (in some countries), Santa Claus and Krampus, and so forth. We let that die off in our various winters. We start the year fresh and pristine. Believers of all traditions have been celebrating Messiah's birth now for one-and-a-half millennia and at the very least many have come to Christ through this celebration, and for that we rejoice as it is an opportunity to witness in an increasingly paganised West where believers are but a minority and the unschooled have never even heard the Gospel story. I think we can still do that in December (or January if you're Eastern Orthodox) so long as we don't assemble for Christmas services or imitate the ways of the heathen as Jeremiah warns (Jer.10:2-5). We can therefore say with that navi (prophet):

"Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Yahweh
(You are great, and Your Name is great in might),
Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?
For this is Your rightful due.
For among all the wise men of the nations,
And in all their kingdoms,
There is none like You" (Jer.10:6-7, NKJV).

For the same reasons it is acceptable to witness of Christ during the Christmas times and not because it is a commandment, I believe it is not only permissible but also desirable that we honour the birth of Christ today for the sake of witness. It is likewise an opportunity to underscore some key doctrines like the Incarnation and Virgin Birth which are key parts of the Messianic Narrative that need telling at least once a year, preferably more often. This has been one of my longer sermons, like 'old times', but I assure you there won't be many more of these as I can't manage them any more. But I have felt it necessary to do this to set the tone for what is going to be a very important year ahead of us. May the Father of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) bless you on this the time of His entry into the world as we ready ourselves for huge changes. Be at peace. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] See Second Exodus Lineup: IV. Yahweh's Exodus Women
[2] The Orthodox Study Bible (St.Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology: 2008), p.177. The same rendition is found in the KJV (King James Version), RSTNE (Restoration Scriptures True name Edition), ATS (Aleph-Tav Scriptures), CJB (Complete Jewish Bible), Tyndale, Smith & Godspeed, Moffat, Newbury, Latin Vulgate, Geneva and some other versions/translations. Otherwise 'Cushite' is used.