Anyone Thinking that Israel's Rebellion was Momentary Doesn't Know the History of Israel in the Bible

A man involved with the Jewish system of worship commented on EBF's X post:

"The Akedah isn’t a cryptic trailer for a future god-man dying under divine wrath. That’s reading the NT backward into the Torah.

Abraham was tested to offer up (ha’alehu) his son as an olah, yet Hashem Himself intervened to prevent the human death (Gen 22:12). The ram was sacrificed instead of Isaac, right there on Moriah. Abraham’s own words (“G-d will provide”) were fulfilled in that moment, not deferred for centuries.

This story actually rejects the surrounding pagan idea of human sacrifice to appease the gods. Torah hammers this repeatedly: it’s an abomination (Deut 18:10, Lev 18:21, 2 Kings 21:6, Jer 19:5). Animal offerings underscore life given for life, repentance, and covenant loyalty, not cosmic penal substitution by an incarnate deity.

Forcing every sacrifice into a “jc only” mold erases the plain meaning and the standalone power of the Sinai covenant.

The text doesn’t need later theology to make sense. It stands complete on its own terms."

EBF reply:

Unfortunately, this Scripture is true today as was true in the days of Isaiah:

Isaiah 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

The apostle Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) quoted Isaiah in the last chapter of Acts:

Acts 28:25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,

26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

X commenter responded:

Isaiah 6:9-10 speaks of a specific moment in our history when the people hardened their hearts against the prophets calls for justice, repentence, and fidelity to the Torah. Hashem warned through Isaiah that persistant rebellion would bring temporary spiritual dullness, so they would not quickly repent and avert the comming exile and judgement. This was never a permanent decree against the Jewish people, nor permision to abandon Sinai for a new path.

The same Isaiah who gave this warning also prophesied the ultimate reversal:

“The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped… They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our G-d.” (Isaiah 35:5-6)

“For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

“And all your children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children.” (Isaiah 54:13)

Pauls use in Acts 28 reflects one mans interpretation after rejection by some leaders in Rome. But the Tanakh does not end with rejection it ends with restoration, ingathering of the exiles, rebuilding of the Temple, universal peace, and the nations turning to the G-d of Israel through Israel, not instead of us (Zechariah 8:23, Isaiah 2:2-4, Micah 4:1-5).

The true Moshiach will fulfill what the prophets truly foretold. not replacement but completion of the one eternal covenent. No more idolatry, no more human sacrifice (an abomination see Deuteronomy 12:31, 18:10), The Akedah, the Temple service, and all the mitzvot stand complete in their own right as paths to closeness with Hashem through obedience, repentence, and mercy, not as “shadows” pointing elsewhere.

The true “salvation of G-d” is being sent to all who will hear: return to the Torah, love justice, pursue peace, and reconize the time of redemtion has come. The blindness is lifting. The exiles are already returning. Soon, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares” and “nation shall not lift up sword against nation” (Isaiah 2:4).

To my Jewish brothers and sisters: strenghten your hands in mitzvot. To the nations: come, let us walk in the light (Torah, Noahide laws) of the Lord togeather. The Kingdom is near not through crucifixion, but through teshuvah and Geulah.

Am Yisrael Chai. The Moshiach will arrive to finish the work.

EBF reply:

If you think it speaks of a specific moment in Israel's history then you do not know Israel's history.

Do you not know the history of the 40-year wilderness sojourn and the repeated murmurings and rebellion against the Lord's servants (Moses in particular)?

Or have you not read the history of the period of the Judges? Again and again, Israel would engage in idolatrous practices and the Lord would permit heathen kings and armies to rule over them until He raised up a judge as a deliverer.

Or perhaps you do not know the history of the period of the kings. Starting with Saul. And even with Solomon's marrying so many wives that introduced terrible false gods and idols into the kingdom.

And after the divided kingdom, all 20 kings of Israel in the north were wicked men who set up a false house of worship in Bethel until the point God judged them by allowing the Assyrians to overcome them and transplant them into other lands.

Judah had some good kings, but also had a few that were evil (Manassah for example). And after good king Josiah was killed, the last 3 or 4 kings were all ungodly. This coincided with the LORD's raising up Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians as an instrument of judgment (Jeremiah 25:9-12) that resulted in the walls of Jerusalem being torn down and the temple's burning as well as many killed and carried away into captivity.

No, Isaiah 6 was not just describing a temporary period of rebellion. It was describing the relationship between God and Israel over the course of their entire history.

Even before Paul's reference to it, Stephen was stoned for reminding the men of Israel about it:

Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

If you like I can also give you a rundown on the prophets who were killed (like the descendant of Jehoida the priest, named Zacharias, who was slain between the temple and the altar).

But to be fair, the history of the New Testament church is similar. Again and again throughout the Church Age churches went apostate. Until finally there was no remedy (just as Israel before them) and God finally ended His relationship with them by judging them (1 Peter 4:17).

Institutions like Israel and the corporate church were always the outward representation of God's kingdom on the earth. They were not the actuality of it. And so most of the people within them were not true men. Most Israelites in the time they represented God were not circumcised in heart (Deut. 10:16 compared to Romans 2:28,29) just as most of the Christians within the churches were never truly baptized by the Spirit. In the case of the Jews, they had the external circumcision of the flesh. And in the case of the Christians, they had the external washing of water in baptism.

This is why in the days of Elijah the Lord said that He had reserved 7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Baal. That is 7,000 men truly saved or circumcised in heart.

And it is why in the New Testament we read that many are called but few chosen (Matthew 22:14). Or that many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, and yet be rejected as Christ says I never knew you.

The problem of mistaking the outer relationship for the actual inner relationship was pretty much the same for Israel of old as for the church of the New Testament.