We know we're getting closer as Israel, the fig tree, is budding. This fig tree was cursed and withered, but it is brought to life again when God's chosen people finally begin to accept him. The The gospel was preached "to the Jews first, and then to the Greeks;" but also, "the first will become last and the last first," therefore, Jews are the last to receive the gospel by design, but when they do receive the gospel, then that's the end.
Okay! This is a further reply to Jonathan but all and any can glean from it what you will.
In Genesis 48:19 we hear the blessing/prophecy regarding Ephraim (which is later used as an AKA to describe the House of Israel in the North). In this passage we read how he shall become “a multitude of nations” (in Hebrew the Melo' ha'Goyim), but when the Rabbis translated thi passage to the Greek (in the LXX) they used the same words used by Paul which are translated “fulness of the gentiles”. So first see the word studies and then I will make my point.
Melo’ #H4393: is a masculine noun which literally means “
fullness” or “
that which fills” but it can also mean completeness (the verb form ‘mala’ means to accomplish or to be amassed together)
Ha’ is the standard definite article which is usually interpreted ‘the’, ‘of the’, or ‘a’! For example:
Baruch ’
Ha’Shem Adonai Y’shua
Ha’Moschiach Tzeddkenu means Blessed be
the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Righteousness. This article, just like in English
always refers to the noun which in Hebrew precedes it (which in this Scripture is goyim) which in our English follows it (we say “the gentiles or nations” they say “gentiles the, or nations the”).
A second feature, taken from Genesius Hebrew Grammar, reveals that in Hebrew when the definite article is used it automatically implies we do
not know precisely who the person, or which object, being described is! It would be like if I said “
Go and pick the apple of your choice from my orchard.” I couldn’t possibly know which apple you would pick but that you would pick one would be without doubt. So when we say Ha’Shem (the Name) we cannot be sure which Name is being referred to. In this case the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) may be the name, but exactly how is it correctly pronounced…no one really knows!
Now as for
‘Goyim’ (#H1471), it is the plural of “goy” which refers to all non-Hebrews. Though as “people” it may include the physical descendants of Abraham, it more so refers to the heathen who knew not God. In all fairness it can be used to refer to “
the nations” but again meaning the world apart from Jacob’s tribes (hence Goyim). The cognate root of the word is “ga-ah’ which means to have grown up, to be exalted in triumph, or to be lifted.
So, in my opinion, Paul’s phrase “
pleroma ton ethon”, in the Greek, spoke directly to the learned Rabbis of the diaspora, and is a reference to the LXX translation of
Genesis 48:19, which in classical Greek says ‘
plethos ethnon’. So now break for a moment and read this passage.
So Paul is actually saying when the Melo' ha'Goyim come in, the "fullness of the gentiles" is a furtherance of the Old Latin which literally says “a full number of Gentiles” but these missed this important gem.
When sharing this, the question is usually asked, “
Brother Paul,
are you saying that the fullness of the gentile (as the offspring of the Ephraimite/ Israelites)
are presently being saved?” Yes! That is exactly what I am saying, and I am saying that it is one of the intentions of Messiah having come to earth. As the gentiles are coming in, these still lost sheep of the House of Israel that were mixed in when Assyria scattered them to the four corners of the Empire and after a couple of hundred years they bacame enculturated or sown in among the Gentiles:
Hosea 7:8a -
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people (the goyim)…
Hosea 8:8 -
Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
So no we see a whole new depth of meaning to Romans 11 where Paul tells us
“
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. 23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?”\
So fr
om these,,,the natural olive tree (the remnant of Judah), the branches that were broken off (Israel sown in among the gentiles) and the wild olive tree being grafted in, He creates the people who were not a people (the church). So as the gentiles of Faith are coming in to the body of Christ, they are bringing in the lost sheep of the House of Israel who have become the Melo' ha'Goyim. Many of the Melo' ha'Goyim are literally IN the gentiles of faith (genetically speaking).
This is why the great co-mission is so very important while He is not physically here. Not only do we gentiles need to be saved as well but the Melo' ha'Goyim (the lost sheep) need to be brought back in to the fold. Amen?
