What About Worship Of Messiah?

ANSWER:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.  He was in the beginning with Elohim.  All came to be through Him, and without Him not even one came to be that came to be.  In Him was LIFE, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."  (John 1:1-5)

Today the darkness is trying to overcome the light by telling us that Messiah ought not to be worshipped; that Messiah is not equal with Yahweh, that he was not born of a virgin, that He was no different than any other Davidic king. They tell us that He was merely a prophet who gained understanding; a man who was born, lived and died, just like the millions of other people who make up humanity. 

The danger arises because these teachings can actually appear to be correct, and that is why they are spreading so fastly amongst the talmidim (believers). The reasoning used by those who propogate them can even sound logical and good, and because they are falshoods, they creep in unawares. Because of this, we must endeavor to study The Word, that we be not deceived. Our studies in this matter have led us to a conclusion which, although not parallel with traditional thought, is supported by the Scriptures, and by them is shown to be true.   Our conclusion is that Yahshua in fact is Yahweh. This is supported by a pashat or literal interpretation of His statement that "He and the Father are one." Thus, it goes to stand that His appearance upon the earth was a manifestation of YHWH and the instruction of YHWH (Torah) in physical form. Consequently, we find worship of Messiah to not be a questionable thing, but a command. Here is why.

Messiah said that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father.  When this is carried on by replacing merely the verbs, we come to the conclusion that if we have loved Him, we have loved the Father.  Carried on one step further, if we accept and serve Him, we have accepted and served the Father; and again, if we have worshipped him, we have worshipped the Father as well.  Messiah also told us that if we know him, we know the Father, and the same may be carried over to worship.  As a matter of fact, in middle eastern covenant terminology, the word "know" speaks of loyalty and fidelity, so when we know Messiah (and ultimately know Yahweh), we are being loyal to him, and this is accomplished through our worship and esteem of Him.  If everything which we do to Yahshua is actually done to Yahweh, then this points to the concept that Moshiach was a manifestation of Elohim in fleshly form.

"In my distress I called upon Yahweh, and to my Elohim I cried.  And from His Temple He heard my voice, and my cry was in His ears......And He bowed the heavens and came down, and thick darkness was under His feet.  And He rode upon a Cherub, and flew, and was seen upon the wings of the wind....He sent from above, He took Me, He drew me out of many waters."  (2 Samuel 22:7,10,11,17)

When the Word came down, it was YHWH who dwelt among us.  This is the Messianic message in a nutshell; the message which Messiah gave to us when He came to earth, and this is why He was rejected by many in First Century Judaism because He did not fill their expectation of a Messiah who was just an ordinary man and nothing more. Because Yahshua was Elohim in the flesh (and because He proclaimed it aloud), he did not fulfil their expectations.  As a result, they accused Him of blasphemy, and did not accept Him for what He was (and still is), even as many are doing today. He continues to be rejected today because He still does not fit humanities' preconceived ideals of what the Messiah should be, and never will.  

Messiah said that the servant is not greater than the Master, nor the one sent greater than he who sent Him.  The attribute of not being greater than Yahweh references being equal with him, and therefore, and because this was not what many expected to find in the Messiah, they turned against the annointed one of Yisrael, and He willingly offered up Himself as an atonement offering for our sins, in accordance with the eternal plan.

All throughout the Tanakh we find evidence of Messiah's preexistance and role in creation, when Yahweh said "Let US make man in OUR image", and very many other such instances.  Special note must be taken to the Hebrew Elohim which is plural, in comparison to the singular El and Eloah, which literally mean mighty one.  In the process of translating such words to a generic "god", we have lost much evidence as to Messiah's preexistence and equality with YHWH.

Another thought to consider is that there are numerous cases in the later writings of individuals who bowed and worshiped Messiah.  Because Messiah did not reprove them for such actions (as did Paul and others when worshipped by men), we are lead to the conclusion that such is acceptable and commanded for us as well.

So where does the confusion spring from?  First of all, there are numerous sources which participate in muddying up the water, but #1 is where chr-stian tradition has seperated Yahshua from Yahweh, therefore creating 2 mighty ones (gods as they term it, thereby making it all the more confusing) which are worshipped, instead of one Mighty One as presented to us in the Torah and the newer writings when they are correctly understood.

Messiah said that He and the Father were one, a statement which was in perfect accordance with the famous Shema passage which says, "Hear O Yisrael, Yahweh our Elohim (notice the plurality of the word) is ONE."  So in reality, the two are not seperate identities any more than Yahweh and the Ruach HaKodesh (Set Apart Spirit) are seperate identities.  Because Yahweh is a spirit, He is obviously not a human, and yet we continue to think of him in human terms through the understanding of a masculine Elohim; such as depicted by the phrase, "Yahweh the Father", etc.  Continuing on, we find that Messiah was conceived OF the Ruach, and in the physical portrayal of this, He was born OF Miriam.  The meaning of the word "OF" carries through with the same meaning (i.e. that Messiah is conceived of and born of the Ruach, as pictured in Miriam.    And once again this is pictured at Messiah's baptism where the Ruach set apart spirit descended in the form of a dove and Yahweh said, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased", and "This day have I begotten thee",  thus picturing the conception in the spiritual realm once again.  Considering that there is Elohim the Father (Yahweh) and Elohim the Son (Yahshua), there is of necessity an "Elohim the Mother", and this allegorical picture is filled by the Ruach.  Paul however reminded us that such things are remez (allegory), and not to be taken literally, during his discussion of marriage.  He first revealed that the secret of  which He spoke was Messiah and the assembly.  But notice that He then returned the the physical picture, in order to clarify the relationship of the physical and spiritual which He was bringing to light.  Considering that the things on earth are pictures of the things in heaven as presented in Hebrews, the same is the case with Marriage in comparison to Elohim.  Just as a husband, wife, and family are one unit, so Yahweh, the Ruach, and the Son are one unit.  And if foresay the unit is disunited, it is unrighteous, for which reason Malachai speaks of Yahweh turning the hearts of the Fathers to the children and the children to the fathers lest YHWH strike the earth with utter distruction.  And the prophets have warned us that we deal not treacherously with the wife of our youth.  Because there is no unrighteousness in Elohim, a separation or division between his attributes cannot occurr.  So considering that these three are in reality only three attributes of the ONE which cannot be separated, as taught in the Scriptures, when we worship and esteem one, we are worshipping and esteeming the others as well.

The same concept is hidden throughout the Hebrew language as well.  To start at the beginning, the first two letters of the Hebrew aleph-beit (alphabet) are a (aleph) and b  (beit), thus accounting for it's name.  Because the Hebrew language is written from right to left, these two letters appear as follows when written in order:  ba.  This spells the Hebrew word 'av', meaning father, and is representative of the truth that Yahweh is the beginning of all things.  Continuing on, the Hebrew }b (ben), which also contains a beit (b), means son.  When ba (av / father) and }b (ben / son) are combined so that they share the same beit, the word }ba (ehvhen) is formed, which means stone.  "See, I lay in Tsyion a stone that causes men to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall,and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."  (Romans 9:31,-33)   Considering this, we find the cornerstone over which men often stumble is the oneness and equality of the Father and Son.

Next we find that two unique and similar Hebrew verbs are used throughout the creation account; these being arb (bara / to create), and anb (bana / to build).  Bara however, is only applied to Yahweh's ability to create, for it means to make something out of nothing.  The attributes of Yahshua, the great Creator and Builder, are embodied both in arb (bara) and anb (bana) in an amazing way.  While }b (ben) is Hebrew for son, the Aramaic form, nb (bar), is also used frequently throughout the Scriptures.  When we distance the a (aleph) from the first two letters of either word, we see the following picture emerging:

rb  = bar = Son

nb = ben = Son

arb = bara = Create

anb = bana = Build

a rb = bar a = Son (of) a

a nb = ben a = Son (of) a

As already discussed, the a (aleph) of the Hebew represents the Father, being Yahweh.  Therefore in both bara and bana we see the hidden message that the Creator is the Son of Yahweh, which is obviously Yahshua, thereby revealing the truth of Yahshua's existance at and participation in the Creation of the World.  Abraham was certainly aware of this truth, "....for He was looking forward to the city with foundations (i.e. cornerstones), whose architect and builder is Elohim." (Heb. 11:1).

In closing we will examine Genesis 1:1 in the Hebrew.  The first word is tycarb (bereshith) , meaning "In the beginning", and the second is bara, meaning "create", or "He Created").  It is also interesting to note that the first three letters of bereshith (tycarb) spell arb (bara), which gives us a clue about what to look for.  In light of the hidden meaning of bara as "Son of a", we can read these two words as "In the beginning [was] the Son of a", or "In the beginning was the son of Yahweh". Yochannan must certainly have seen this when he opened his account of the Good News with "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1)

Scripture clarifies that worship of Messiah is a command in Philippians 2:5-11 where it is summed up pretty well.    "...Messiah Yahshua....being in the form of Elohim thought it not robbery to be equal with Elohim, and yet emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and came in the likeness of men.....and became obedient unto death......Elohim therefore has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every other name, that at the name of Yahshua every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Messiah is Master to the esteem of Elohim the Father."

I am currently working on a series of studies which discuss Messiah's relationship to Yahweh, the Torah, and the Brit Chadasha (Renewed covenant).  Much of this will be covered there in a slightly more detailed form.  In the meantime, this will hopefully suffice in answering the question.

Baruch Haba BaShem YHWH.

--Matthew Coover, 9/12/2003