Most everyone is familiar with the Christian idea of the Trinity, composed of the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.
But there is a trinity within Judaism, as well: the trinity I am thinking of is the relationship between God, Israel, and the Messiah.
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Christianity concentrates on the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the son, with the Holy Spirit being given to each individual who accepts Yeshua as their Messiah so that they can join that relationship. In Judaism, God doesn’t see the individual as much as he sees all individuals, collectively as one nation, Israel. The Messiah’s role in this relationship is as God’s High Priest to the nation, bringing them back into communion with God by re-establishing the kingdom of David, rebuilding the temple and thereby bringing back the sacrificial system so we can be forgiven of our sins, in accordance with the Torah.
The main difference between the Christian trinity and the Jewish trinity is how the relationship with God is formed: Christians see their relationship as a personal one with the Messiah, through whom they have a relationship with God. Judaism sees itself as having a national relationship with God where the Messiah serves everyone as High Priest and King.
The one thing they have in common is that they are both looking at this from a human-to-God order, meaning that even though God sends the Messiah, our relationship is from humans through the Messiah to God.
I see a third trinity, one which is not us to God, but from God’s down to us.
And this trinity doesn’t include the Messiah or the Holy Spirit, but simply God and humanity.
In Genesis 22:18, God told Abraham that the entire world would be blessed by his descendants. A couple of hundred years later (in Exodus 19:6), God gives his Torah to Moses (this is the ONLY place in the entire Bible where God dictates, directly, how he wants us to worship him and how to treat each other) and he tells Moses to teach it to the Israelites because they will be his (God’s) nation of priests.
So far, we have seen two parts of the trinity: God will bless the world through Abraham, and through Moses gives us his instructions on how to act and charges the nation of Israel to learn them and teach them to the world. Now for the third part.
In Deuteronomy 28, God promises the Israelites (and, consequently, the world) all the blessings they will receive when they follow the instructions in the Torah.
So, God chooses a man through whom all the world will be blessed, then gives that man’s descendants (the bringer of the blessings) the instructions for how to receive those blessings, charging them to be priests to the world. Finally, God tells us exactly what those blessings will be when we do as he says.
This, to me, is the ultimate trinity: (1) God’s promise to bless the world, (2) he gives his instructions to his chosen people to bring to the world, and (3) through obedience to those instructions we receive the blessings.
This is a little complicated, so let’s go over it one last time:
Christians see a trinity of God to Messiah to people, with the Holy Spirit acting as a means to communicate what God wants us to do. Jews see God and the nation of Israel, with the Messiah acting as an intermediary to bring that nation back into communion with God.
I see a trinity where God chooses a man whose descendants become a nation of priests to bring God’s instructions to the world in order for everyone who obeys them to be blessed.
The problem with my proposed trinity is that it never worked out that way, which is why God had to send the Messiah. He sent him first to the Jews to get them back on board, then allowed him to go to the rest of the world. After all, Yeshua (Jesus) is a descendant of Abraham and one of the Nation of Israel, which is who God promised would bless the world. Yeshua is the epitome of the Cohen HaGadol, the High Priest, to both Israel and the world; and what better blessings could there ever be than the one God sent with his Messiah- eternal peace and joy?
Three trinities, three different forms of relationship between God and humanity, and none of them able to be accomplished until God sent Messiah Yeshua. But, when all is said and done, all three result in the same end product: communion with God and eternal joy and peace.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to both my website and YouTube channel and check out the books I have written (I just finished my 4th book, which debunks the traditional lies about Yeshua) and “Like” my Messianic Moment Facebook page. I also have a Facebook discussion group called Just God’s Word which anyone can join.
And one more thing: I always welcome comments, even if you disagree.
That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
