The Translation of Israel

Posted : 9 Sep, 2012 06:30 AM

The Translation of Israel



The King James Version for II Samuel 3: 10 uses translate for the Hebrew word

abar, Strong's number 5674, rather than transfer as used by the New Revised Standard Version, the New American Standard Bible, and the American Standard Version. The New International Version (NIV), much used by the Corporate Christians, says "and transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and establish David�s throne over Israel and Judah from Dan to Beersheba.�



While we would think of translate as translating from one language to another, translate can also mean to transform.



II Samuel 3: 10 "To translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beer-sheba."



Dictionary definition of translated:



"1. To render in another language.

2. a To put into simpler terms; explain or interpret.

b. To express in different words; paraphrase.

3.To change from one form, function, or state to another; convert or transform.



1.

the rendering of something into another language or into one's own from another language.

2.

a version of such a rendering: a new translation of Plato.

3.

change or conversion to another form, appearance, etc.; transformation



Related Words for : translation: rendering, version, transformation..."



Just as the kingdom was "translated" from Saul to David, so ethnic Israel was "translated" or transformed into Israel reborn in Jesus Christ.



Saul, the first king of physical Israel, was replaced by God with David. In being replaced by God as the king, Saul represents physical Israel under the Old Covenant, under the entire Torah, the five books of Moses. David represents Israel reborn in Jesus Christ, which in David's time was the translation - or transformation - to come.



The Old Testament prophecy on the transformation of physical Israel to Israel reborn in Jesus Christ is shown even in II Kings. II Kings 21: 13 says "And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down."



The plummet refers to the judgment of the Lord. In Amos 7: 7-8 God uses the metaphor of the plumbline for his judgment on Israel for falling into false doctrines and false practices. "I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more." Amos 7: 8. In Isaiah 50: 1 God mentions the "bill of your mother's divorcement," meaning he had divorced physical Israel. In Jeremiah 3: 8 God says because of the backsliding and adultery of Israel he put her away and gave her a bill of divorce.



Then in the parable of the fig tree of that great thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke Christ says that "a certain man," meaning the Father, had a fig tree in his vineyard which was producing no figs, no fruit. The owner of the vineyard said to his dresser, who is Christ, to cut it down, But the dresser of the Father's vineyard said "Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it. And if it bear fruit, well: and if not,then after that thou shalt cut it down."



Christ as the dresser of physical Israel was to prune Israel down in the process of translating or transforming it into Israel reborn in him. Only a remnant of physical Israel (Romans 11: 5) was able to become so translated, and the majority was cut off (Romans 11: 20).



Jeremiah 18: 1-6 is a parable which describes this transformation of ethnic Israel into Israel reborn. In this parable of the potter, one lump of clay represents Israel, both before that transformation and after the transformation. The lump of clay, or Israel, was not replaced, it was changed in the hands of the potter who is Christ in this parable. A potter can easily understand how this parable works, because many potters have thrown a pot on the potter's wheel which the potter did not like, and then he took it off the wheel, put it on a table, mixed some dry clay with it and kneaded it again. Then the potter put the same lump back on the wheel and made a different pot out of the same lump. I have done this is the past when I was a potter.



Jeremiah 18: 1-6 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

2. Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels 4. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.



The first vessel that the potter made was ethnic Israel, which in this parable is seen to be marred. Then the potter made a second vessel, representing Israel reborn out of the lump which seemed good to the potter.



The Lord through Isaiah in Chapter 29 and verse 16 says he is going to do a marvellous work among this people, that is, with ethnic Israel. He is going to turn ethnic Israel upside down. Ethnic Israel then questions the Lord about this changing of them, turning them upside down, and the Lord says didn't I make you, like a potter makes a pot?



In fact, almost all of ethnic Israel rejected this turning of them upside down. John 1: 11 says He came unto his own, and his own received him not.



Isaiah 29: 13-16 says "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

14. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

15. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

16. Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?



Its interesting that Acts 17: 6 records that in Thessalonica when Paul and his friends were preaching,some Jews complained that Paul and others had turned the world upside down. The transformation of ethnic Israel into Israel reborn in Christ, had in the minds of many Jews, turned the world upside down. They wanted to stick with the way things were before the world was turned upside down.



Most Jews wanted to stick to the Old Covenant as Agar "....is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children."(Galatians 4: 25) They wanted to stick to the entire Torah, including the ceremonial law.



The moral law, which is also in the Torah, represents the righteousness of God, and cannot be done away with. But in the translation of Israel, the moral law is placed in the hearts of those reborn in Christ (Hebrews 8: 10, 10: 16), so that for those who live in the Spirit, with the righteousness of Christ attributed to them and who are led by the Spirit to follow the moral law, there is no condemnation (Romans 8: 1, Galatians 5: 16). Under the New Covenant, one does not achieve his own righteousness (Romans 9: 31-32) by his own power, as the Pharisees taught they could do. "Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, For they stumbled at that stumbling stone." Romans 9: 32



"For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Romans 10: 2-4



"But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." I Corinthians 1: 23



Lets go back to the thread about the translation of physical Israel into Israel reborn in Christ.. Acts 17: l-2,5-6 says "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:

2. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.....5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

6. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;"



At one time in the First Century, Paul and his followers had a stronger light to shine into the darkness of the world than did the Christians at Jerusalem, who were to some extent unable to completely throw off the bondage to the Old Covenant. In Acts 17: 1-6 Paul and his friends were turning the world upside down - in the eyes of the Jews who wanted to remain under the Old Covenant. And in turning the world upside down Paul was fulfilling II Kings 21: 13, Isaiah 29: 14-16 and Jeremiah 18: 1-6. Then, in Acts 21: 31 the Jews tried to kill Paul, because as James said to him in Acts 21: 21 "And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs."



Without that translation or transformation of physical Israel into Israel reborn in Christ as a spiritual house (I Peter 2; 5), there can be no transformation and renewing of one's mind (Romans 12: 2). Without that turning of things upside down, there can be no rebirth in Christ (John 3; 1-6) and no mind which was in Christ Jesus in us (Philippians 2: 5). And - there can be no salvation without that transformation of physical Israel into Israel reborn in Christ, for after Christ all must be born again in him in order to enter into the kingdom of God (John 3; 3).



In addition, without the translation of Israel, there can be no seed of God capable of creating, by Christ and the Spirit, other seed of God. For the seed of God, following the transformation,

according to Galatians 3: 16-29, are all those who are in Christ. All in Christ are the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3: 29. Paul's teaching in Galatians 3: 16 through 3: 28 shows that the physical seed from Abraham passed down through the generations as Abraham's DNA is no longer, under the New Covenant, sufficient to place a person in the kingdom of God and for salvation. Abraham's physical seed was a kind of shadow (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 17) which pointed to the substance which was the spiritual seed, by faith, from Abraham. Just as most people from the age of about 17 to 40

or so are capable of reproducing themselves, so are the spiritual seed of God able to create new spiritual seed of God through speaking and writing the Word by the Spirit.



"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." Hebrews 10: 1



"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ..... Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, touch not; taste not; handle not;

Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?" Colossians 2: 16-17, 20-22.



The teachings of the New Testament that the ordinances of the ceremonial part of Torah, the Law, were merely a shadow of the substance which was to come and were done away with as commandments at the Cross is very important for an understanding of that transformation of physical Israel. After the translation of physical Israel into a Remnant reborn in Christ Jesus, the shadows were fulfilled and cannot be continued under the New Covenant, as the Pharisees in Acts 15 tried to impose on the Gentile Christians. Acts 15: 5 indicates that the "Christian' Pharisees wanted the Gentile Christians to observe more than just circumcision, but to keep the Law of Moses.



This was an example of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16: 6), which was not totally purged out of the Jerusalem Christian group. Paul in I Corinthians 5: 7 says "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened." The leaven of the Pharisees exists now in the corporate churches, as a stimulus to return to the shadows.

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