From:  Messianic Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowsky" <robkon@bellsouth.net>
To:       heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject:      YATI NEWSLETTER FALL 1999 PART 1

                            YOUR ARMS TO ISRAEL
Proclaiming revival to all Israel from the Miami beach Israel revival!
PO BOX 414068  Miami Beach, Fl. 33141 305-868-8787
RESTORING THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID (AMOS 9:11)

Vol. 10 No. 2 http://www.teshuvah.com/yati/ Fall 1999

Your Arms To Israel is the international teaching outreach of Rabbi Moshe
Koniuchowsky & B'nai Yahshua Synagogue of Miami Beach, home of the
Miami Beach Israel Revival. Your Arms To Israel is published
quarterly by Rabbi & Rivkah Koniuchowsky. Rabbi Moshe is General
Secretary of The Messianic Israel Alliance.

The views expressed in Your Arms To Israel are solely those of Rabbi
Koniuchowsky, Yours Arms To Israel Revival and B'nai Yahshua
Synagogue. These views and doctrines do not necessarily represent the
views of the Messianic Israel Alliance, its member congregations, its
steering committee or any of its members.

                                    The Rabbi's Study:
                            THE OLIVE TREE MYSTERY!
               BY RABBI MOSHE JOSEPH KONIUCHOWSKY

                        PART 5 IN AN ONGOING SERIES ON
                        THE FULL RESTORATION OF ISRAEL!

*Parts one through four are readily available. All readers are encouraged
*wherever possible to study them, before delving into part five.
*Just e-mail us or write in and we will send them out to you immediately.
*Readers are invited to make as many copies as they wish, as long as they
*give proper credit to the author.

                                              Part 1 of 2

Zechariah the prophet for all Israel, the son of Barachiah was granted many
dreams, heavenly visions and interpretations by Almighty Yahweh.
There was one vision in particular that remained an unsolved mystery.
It is this unsolved mystery contained in Chapter 4 of Zechariah, that
continues to baffle all segments of the religious world to this day,
including the citizens of Yahshua's Kingdom.

Zechariah's dilemma is quite common in Yahshua's body, wherein a child of
Yahweh receives a sure vision or prophetic word, but is unable to grasp its
interpretation. Often the believer either falls short, or misunderstands the
word or vision, through a faulty reasoning process, or a particular
theological blind spot. Zechariah the prophet should have been able to
interpret this vision, but unlike Daniel he was not granted the gift of its
interpretation. He went to be gathered to his people Israel at death, with
the heavenly vision never having been revealed to him. As one studies the
text, it seems as if the angel of Yahweh teases him , by asking the same
rhetorical question several times. "Do you not know what these are?"

When reading Zechariah Chapter 4, one gets the impression that this heavenly
vision and its proper interpretation should be plain and simple. It should
be a theme or reality that Yahweh expects Zechariah to be familiar
with, since as fate would have it, he wrote much about the two
olive trees that he spotted in his heavenly vision. Why couldn't Zechariah,
a man full of the Ruach HaKodesh and wisdom, not be able to identify
two olive trees in heaven? Much of his earthly ministry and writings
were on the very subject of the two olive trees.

Zechariah 4 begins with the angel of Yahweh waking Zechariah up,
specifically to catch this vision and its understanding. In order for
Messianic Judaism and Christianity to begin to understand the eschatological
events that are taking place all around them in these last days, it seems
that they would need an angelic visitation along with an interpretation! The
sad fact is that most of the born again community, may never pick up on the
vital last days truth of the two olive trees of Zechariah 4. There is
certainly no record that this basic truth of the two olive trees, as it
relates to his people Israel, was ever revealed to him at a later time,
despite his being awakened out of his prophetic slumber to receive just such
an understanding.

In Zechariah 4:2, he sees a seven branched menorah which he is able to
identify. The menorah light and its glow, stands for the glory or the
shekina of Yahweh among His people. Interestingly however he is not able to
identify the two olive trees in verse 3! In frustration he asks the angel
for the revelation of what the two olive trees are on each side of the
lampstand. In great shock and befuddlement, the angel responds to Zechariah
in verse 5, asking "Do you not know what these are?" The angel in essence
was asking, "Can't you make this identification inasmuch as your ministry
and your sacred writings are full of references to these two olive trees
that you now behold?" The heavenly realm itself was stunned by Zechariah's
inability to make this identification. His response in verse five was a
simple "no, my master. I cannot!" After receiving an immediate prophecy
concerning Zerubabael laying the cornerstone for the rebuilt temple under
the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, Zechariah's sense of failure must have
been acute. In Zechariah 4:11, he re-approaches the angel and changes the
subject from Zerubabel, back to the former troubling question that remained
unanswered. "What are these two olive trees?"

Part of Zechariah's failure to receive the understanding of this two
olive tree vision, lies in the fact that he asked the wrong question.
His question should have been who are these two olive trees, not what
are these two olive trees? Had he asked the correct question, no doubt
the teasing would have ended and a direct answer would have been
forthcoming. It was Zechariah's failure to use other Scriptures to
interpret his own Scriptures, that forced the angel to withhold this
vital information from him. In Zechariah 4:12, he tried for a third
time to get an answer from the angel of Yahweh, by rephrasing the
question. He asked the angel about the two olive branches proceeding
from the two olive trees, rather than the two trees themselves. What a
nice Yiddishe kop! The very oil flowing from the trees into the
branches and into the menorah, should have been a strong clue that
would have satisfied Zechariah's curiosity. Oil was and still is a
type of the anointing of the precious Ruach Hakodesh from Yahweh. The
oil flowed by being tied into the source, which was Yahweh's holy
presence, pictured beautifully in the menorah. Still he did not catch
on and in verse 13 of Zechariah 4, the angel again asked him the same
question for the third time. Once again Zechariah claimed no
understanding of this vision of the two olive trees standing in
heaven, one on each side of the menorah. One can only imagine
Zechariah's utter frustration at being ridiculed by the angel's
questioning and with his determination not to provide a detailed
answer.

Finally in an act of grace, the angel gave Zechariah a hint but does
not identify the two olive trees. He simply tells Zechariah that they
are the two anointed ones, or the two anointed witnesses, that are
anointed by heaven, to represent the Father's affairs in the earth.
The angel states "these are the two anointed ones, who stand before
the Master of all the earth." The Master of the earth is Yahshua, King
of Israel. His two witnesses do their job on the earth and when it is
done they stand in heaven, signaling that their task is completed. The
word "stand" is better understood as ceasing from a task of labor. It
is difficult to see an angel sent to reveal mysteries, teasing a
prophet anointed by Yahweh, unless the prophet was in some kind of
willful sin. The Word teaches that "to him that KNOWS TO DO GOOD and
does it not, to him it is sin." In Zechariah 4:14, the angel corrects
Zechariah's sinful heart, by reminding him that the two olive trees
are not things or objects, rather they are two individuals or anointed
ONES.

Zechariah the prophet is a type or a picture, of the literally
hundreds of millions of born again believers that have tremendous
insight, wisdom and revelation into some of the deepest mysteries of
our faith, but can't seem to get the leaven out, when it comes to the
eternality of who the two olive trees are standing continually in
Yahweh's presence, after laboring continually on the earth. In this
particular doctrinal area, despite Yahweh sending messenger after
messenger and teacher after teacher, there continue to be hundreds of
millions of believers, who seem unable to awaken from slumber into an
understanding of this most basic TRUTH OF SCRIPTURE.

The incredulous matter at hand is that this blindness, this veil,
remains not only upon this generation of saints, but existed upon all
the previous generations of great men and women of Elohim, as far back
as the time of Zechariah. Rav Shaul wrote in his epistle to the
Romans, that many who are Spirit-filled and who profess and claim to
be spiritually wise, have become doctrinal fools (Romans 1:22). How
did this happen? They have rejected the knowledge of the plainly
revealed word of Yahweh!! That is why hundreds of millions of born
again believers today, are continuing in the same sin as Zechariah.
The result of this lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6), is that Yahweh has
rejected hundreds of millions from the priesthood of overseeing the
restoration truth of these two olive trees. This does not mean that
believers who are blind as to the identity and mystery of the two
olive trees, have had their New Covenant priesthood removed! Yah
forbid! Rather they forfeit the prophetic anointing and covering in
this particular area, to others whose eyes have been opened and are
involved in researching this matter. They share in Zechariah's sin of
omission, because like Zechariah they are without excuse!

There are literally scores of prophecies found in many books of the
Bible that reveal the identity of the two olive trees, if one searches
out the confirmation. Proverbs 25:2, teaches us that it is Yahweh's
privilege and glory to conceal a matter, but it is the glory of kings
(priests) to search it out! It is a matter of studying to show oneself
approved. Lack of study and searching out a matter is slothfulness and
is looked at as a sin of omission by our loving Heavenly Father.

Yahweh spoke harshly to Zechariah through this teasing by the angel,
because Zechariah had missed one of Scripture's most basic truths. The
Father never ever does a momentous work of any kind in the earth,
without first confirming His truth by the mouth and writings of two or
more witnesses. Had Zechariah not been in this state of slumber, he
would have realized that he did not need to rely on the angelic
visitation, in order to identify the two olive trees in the vision.
Rather he would only have to search out the knowledge of other
Scriptures, to find the truth gloriously revealed to him. When Yahweh
confirms a matter through two or three witnesses, it is almost always
a simultaneous event. In other words, He confirms the exact identical
word or vision to others within the very same generation and not only
years later. It is now clear that Zechariah's sin was that he did not
consult the Scriptures, or writings of any of his contemporaries, to
discover the identity of the two olive trees. That is why the angel,
finding sin in this matter, refused to reveal the task and identity of
the two olive trees, who work in the earth and are represented in
Yahweh's presence. Zechariah rejected the knowledge that he could have
found elsewhere in Scripture, by one or more of his contemporaries.
Therefore in this particular area, Yahweh rejected him from being a
priest or having the anointing, to minister the truth revealed in the
vision. That priesthood would fall to others, who will be willing
through Scripture study, to identify and proclaim the understanding of
the two olive trees.

In Jeremiah 11 verse 16, Yahweh teaches us that He has named the olive
tree of His planting. The olive tree of His planting would be fair,
green and produce good fruit. Yahweh designed this tree of His
planting to be a single, unified voice, sounding out the message of
the Elohim of Israel. Apparently, the two olive trees evolved from the
one tree, that the Father had initially ordained to represent Him in
purity and in holiness. It was His perfect, expressed desire, that
this single olive tree would bear Him excellent polished fruit and
produce for Him Spirit-filled, Torah obedient, pagan rejecting
talmidim. Everything about this tree was perfect from the day that it
was designed by the Master architect. Yet in verse 17 of Jeremiah 11,
something went astray from its original design. Instead of the olive
tree being united and sounding out a single affirming plan and purpose
of the Elohim of Israel for His people Israel, division and evil set
in. The good, green, godly fruit of the original tree, turned against
Yahweh and against one another.

In verse 17 we find TWO OLIVE TREES committing and practicing great
evil. The tree no longer resembled love, brotherhood, unity, peace,
singleness of mind and purpose. It no longer accurately portrayed the
purity and holiness of its designer, to a lost world full of pagan
beggarly elements. For that evil and for that misrepresentation of the
perfection of Yahweh's planted olive tree, He determined to bring evil
upon it. The entire tree that had been planted in perfection, had
become totally leavened. In Jeremiah 11:17, Yahweh tells all with ears
to hears that the tree has divided and its branches will be cut off
because of the sin and wicked evil found in the two olive trees,
CALLED OR KNOWN AS THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL (TEN TRIBES) AND THE HOUSE OF
YEHUDAH (two tribes plus Levi). The single nation typified by the
image of the olive tree, had tragically split into TWO OLIVE TREES OR
TWO SEPARATE HOUSES.

Even after their division into two houses, Yahweh would further the
discipline by cutting off ALL THE BRANCHES of both trees via fire.
Fire is symbolic of His wrath and indignation. This prophetic truth
was clearly outlined by Jeremiah and Ezekial, who were both major
prophetic contemporaries of Zechariah. Thus Yahweh provided Zechariah
the understanding from Scripture. Scripture, Scripture, Scripture!
Instead of looking to Scripture, Zechariah looked towards the skies
for a rhema word from an angel. Sound familiar? Today as in the past
2500 years since Zechariah, born again believers are looking to
emotion, logic, human teachers, rabbis, steering committees and web
sites, before they make up their minds about the two olive trees of
ISRAEL. Yahweh planted one Israel that became two nations through
division and eventually both nations were laid bare before all the
nations, as branches both natural and unnatural or cultivated and
uncultivated were cut off.

How ironic it is, that so much of Zechariah's very own writings were
talking about some aspect of the two houses of Israel, Ephraim and
Judah. He just could not seem to identify the olive trees in the
heavenly vision, the very thing that he was writing about and that was
so very familiar to him. Zechariah 11:14 is a perfect example. There
he described the broken brotherhood between the two olive trees, by
literally taking his staff called Unity and breaking it in two, to
display to his people the ongoing broken brotherhood between Israel
(Ephraim) and Judah. Notice how they were still two separate olive
tree nations, even after the Jewish return from Babylonian captivity.
This Scripture along with others, conclusively proves once and for all
that both houses or all 12 tribes of Israel, were never fully
reconstituted at the time of the return of the Jewish exiles from
Babylon, that had occurred just prior to Zechariah's ministry. (The
two houses also could not possibly have been reunited in any manner
during the return of Jewish Israel to Torah during the reign of
Josiah. Josiah's reign predated the Babylonian exile by 100 years and
Zechariah clearly reveals that the brotherhood was still broken well
over a hundred years after that very same exile had ended!)

Messianic Judaism and much of the church world, continue to walk in
self imposed slumber, despite the abundant evidence of prophetic
writings and prophetic messengers with Scripture as their sword of the
Ruach, declaring to them what the Scriptures have declared concerning
Israel's glorious two house restoration back into A SINGLE OLIVE TREE!
I have had Messianic Jewish leaders admit to me that the two houses
are being reconciled to each other through Yahshua. One prominent
Messianic Jewish leader has gone so far as to say "by physical
definition you are right. There are three groups. Jews, Ephraimites
and non-Israelites. This needs to be emphasized." Then in his shocking
conclusion, this well known Messianic Jewish leader stated "so what?"
"So what?" If Israel is the restoration of both olive trees, then our
people are literally the largest nation on this entire planet, which
is exactly what Yahweh said would happen through His covenants. That
fact establishes Him as the ultimate covenant keeper, despite all
logic and against all odds! Furthermore the understanding of the two
olive trees, will force the redefinition of the size of the land of
Israel into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, extending
into Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. We will soon need all that land! This
last generation must be diligent to walk out of the slumber of
Zechariah and much of the religious world and into the glorious light
of the long awaited final restoration of all Israel (Jewish and
non-Jewish Israel).

Yahweh allowed this heavy slumber to be widespread for 500 years from
the days of Zechariah, until the time of Yahshua and Rav Shaul. It was
Rav Shaul who would be ordained and destined by the Holy One Of
Israel, to reintroduce the two olive trees standing before the Master
of all the earth and the Master of the heavens, to many born again
believers. It is no small wonder that Rav Shaul's writings are the
most attacked and misunderstood in all of Scripture, since he was
assigned the priestly task to reintroduce the answer to Zechariah's
question, asked in Zechariah Chapter four. As we will see soon, Rav
Shaul did a marvelous job of answering the "who is Israel" question,
with his own anointed brand of olive tree theology. He delivered the
answer to Zechariah's question to all those in these last days with
ears ready to hear and eyes ready to see. Understanding Rav Shaul's
olive tree theology is crucial for you, your family, your
congregation, your ministry, your children and your nation. We need to
comprehend The Father's vision for all Israel as revealed in
Scripture. We need to labor on behalf of all Israel, not just the
segment of Israel that is readily identifiable! To understand Rav
Shaul's olive tree parable, we need to remember that Scripture always
interprets Scripture.

Since Yahweh's olive tree contains both houses of Israel according to
Jeremiah 11, then so must Rav Shaul's. We find that to be exactly the
case in Romans chapter 11. In verse one, the Word teaches that the
olive tree parable about to be taught, refers to all Israelites. It is
the full declaration of the mystery of Yahweh's dealing with all
Israel, which since 921 BCE includes two divides houses. Verses 7-13
of Romans 11, teach that the fall of Israel which includes both houses
according to Jeremiah 11:16-17, has led to great spiritual riches and
blessings for those non-Israelites believers. Rav Shaul began to
unravel the true mystery that Zechariah never solved. It was Rav
Shaul's responsibility to bring forth the Gospel to the
non-Israelites, as well as to all Israel. In verse 13 of Romans 11, he
reaffirmed his calling and his commission. If the temporary casting
away of Israel has brought life to the non-Israelite world, how much
more life and glory will Israel's full national restoration bring? In
order to arrive at a biblically sound conclusion and the unveiling of
the mystery of the olive tree of Israel, we must lay down a truthful
premise based on Scripture and not man's perversion of it. If we allow
Scripture to instruct us as to the identity of the original olive
tree, then the revelation of its future restoration will also be
glorious. We will then have the privilege of understanding what
Zechariah should have but did not. The olive tree of Israel spoken of
by Rav Shaul as he referred back to Jeremiah 11, is all Israel, both
scattered and dispersed houses. James 1:1, John 10:16 and John
11:49-52 confirm this definition of Israel. This olive tree is not a
Jewish olive tree. Rav Shaul never even once hinted at the myth that
the olive tree he was portraying by parable is Jewish. To teach that
the olive tree of Israel is a Jewish olive tree, would be to ignore
the revelation of Scripture as outlined by Jeremiah and Zechariah,
even though Zechariah didn' t understand the heavenly vision. Even the
two cherubim hovering over the mercy seat in the tabernacle were made
of olive tree wood, symbolizing the two fold witness of both houses of
Israel in First Kings 6:23.

For two millennia, the falsehood that the olive tree of Romans chapter
11 is Jewish and that the branches that are grafted in are gentiles,
is false, shortsighted, inaccurate and a classic case of isegesis in
its worst form, causing millions to misinterpret Scripture!! While it
may behoove both Christianity and Messianic Judaism to teach that this
olive tree is a Jewish one, it does not benefit the growth of the
Kingdom and neither does it allow us to finally and fully comprehend
the mystery of the two olive trees of Zechariah chapter four.
Christianity would love you and I to consider the olive tree in Romans
11 Jewish, so that they can prove that they are the New Israel, having
replaced the old Israel (the Jews). This perversion of Yahweh 's olive
tree lends itself to fuel the nefarious flames of church sponsored
replacement theology. There is no such thing as a New Israel and
neither is there any such thing as an old Israel. There is one Israel
period! Since 921 BCE this people has been made up of two different
houses, with two different purposes on the earth!

Much of Messianic Judaism as well, benefits from the widespread
proliferation of the false teaching that the olive tree is Jewish.
This teaching supposedly proves that gentiles are lucky to even be
grafted in. The attitude is that, even though you are grafted in as a
gentile, you never will be a Jew like me! You will never be a natural
branch, just a wild gentile branch who hangs on to MY TREE. This
faulty understanding of the tree as a Jewish tree, lends itself to
pride, arrogance and a false sense of superiority over those who are
just hanging out in "MY JEWISH TREE!" Scripture refers to this
behavior as the vexation of brother Ephraim! This rejection of the two
house divine revelation of the parable of Romans 11, is the error that
has manifested itself in such abominations as associate memberships
for non-Jewish believers, the condemnation of non-Jewish leadership in
Messianic Jewish pulpits (I thought it was Yahshua's pulpit), as well
as the withholding of the fullness of the Spirit and mitzvot of Torah
from non-Jewish Israelites. Multitudes of non-Jewish believers from
Ephraim who have begged to be allowed to celebrate all of Torah, not
just the man made so called "Noachide Laws", have been turned away
from Torah and the corresponding blessings contained in it. This is
the result of the myth that the olive tree is originally Jewish, as
opposed to the truth that it is composed of both Jewish and non-Jewish
Israelites!! These aforementioned injustices are just the tip of the
iceberg. Massive damage has resulted throughout most of the body of
Messiah due in great part to dullness of heart regarding the true
identity of Israel's olive tree. To falsely proclaim that non-Jewish
believers are presently being grafted into a Jewish olive tree,
intimates that they are something less than who they are in truth,
which is a people who have been telling the world about the "The Root
Of Israel" (Yahshua), for the last nineteen hundred years (*Batya
Wootten. Who Is Israel p. 145). Therefore, if we are indebted to the
Jews for upholding and preserving Torah, we must be equally indebted
to Ephraim/Israel, who has been faithfully proclaiming the gospel as
well. We are indebted to all Israel. The Father did not use rabbinical
traditional Judaism to preserve Israel's New Covenant, but has trusted
Ephraim with that task. So we are indebted to both houses!!

The olive tree therefore, is all Israelites (Ephraim and Judah).The
non-Israelites are Gerim (strangers) dwelling in Israel through
Messiah Yahshua and they are the ones who have received a reprieve and
a new life in the olive tree of Israel, because branches from both
houses were cut off (Jeremiah 11:17), to make room for them! Yahweh
discovered evil in both houses and determined to cut off branches from
both houses, with great tumult and fire. Verses 11-16 in Romans 11,
talks about the glory of Israel' s Elohim coming upon non-Israelites
or true gentiles in the earth, because of the stumbling of both houses
(Isaiah 8:14) and subsequently being broken off. Starting in verse 16
of Romans 11, Rav Shaul begins to unravel the mystery of the olive
tree of Israel and Zechariah's chapter four dilemma, by stating that
since the Root is holy then all the branches are holy. The rest of the
chapter deals with Israel and not the nations!

The Root of the olive tree is Yahshua since according to Revelation
22:16, He is both the Root and the Offspring of David. The firstfruits
are saved Israelites. In verse 17 of Romans 11, Rav Shaul calls the
non-Jewish believers at Rome wild olive branches. Notice that gentiles
or non-Israelites are not olive branches at all! Rather they are
branches of a different tree all together. The believers at Rome were
in fact the re-gathered lost sheep of the House of Israel a.k.a.
Ephraim, whom Yahshua specifically stated that He came for in Matthew
15:24! Therefore Paul had no problem calling them wild or uncultivated
olive branches. Despite their uncultivated status, their status as
Israelite olive branches never changed. This is a paramount truth of
Scripture. Regardless of where an Israelite lives, or what he or she
believes, he or she is still an Israelite (traditional rabbinical
Judaism teaches the same principal for traditional Jews).

                                        END OF PART I

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