Lev. 19:36 Have right scales, right weights, a right ephah , and a right hin . I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of bondage.

Ezek. 45:10 Have right scales, and a right ephah , and a right bath.

Exod. 21:33 And when a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it, [34] the owner of the pit is to make it good, he is to give silver to their owner, and the dead is his.

Lev. 24:18 And he who smites a beast shall make it good, body for body.

Exod. 21:22b And when men strive.... [23] if there is injury, then you shall give, life for life.

Num. 35:31 And take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall certainly be put to death.

Because these rules of moral conduct have been given by Yahweh to man, we know that Yahweh must also abide by them.

Num. 23:19 El is not a man, to lie, neither the son of man, to repent! Has He said, and would He not do it? Has He spoken, and would He not make it good?

Gen. 2:9 And out of the ground Yahweh Elohim caused every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[Vs. 16] And Yahweh Elohim commanded the man saying, “ Eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall certainly die.”

Now if we will be honest with ourselves, Yahweh “dug a pit” in the very center of Eden; in the very center of Adam and Chava’s (Eve’s) home, and then told them not to fall in by accident. Of course He knew that Adam and Chava would fall into the pit, and this was all part of His plan to bring them to a point of willing submission. Notwithstanding, the pit was dug, and once Adam and Chava fell into it, Yahweh, by His own principles, was required to make it good. Remember, “ Life for life” is the guideline which He set forth, and his warning was that “ In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die .”

So what happened? Did Yahweh send His Son as a completely separate being or entity into the world so that this separate being would be tortured and die, thereby fulfilling the stipulations of Torah? Hardly! As a matter of fact, that would NOT fulfill the stipulations of Torah by any means, because it presents a MAJOR problem regarding the death of the innocent. Note well: we are NOT talking about substitutional ANIMAL sacrifice here (which IS found in the Torah), or of someone dying, completely of their own merit, to save the life of a friend, but of Yahweh executing the death penalty against an ordinary, innocent man for something which that man did not do. Let’s examine a few other guidelines which the Torah gives concerning the death of the innocent.

Ezek. 18:4 See, all beings are Mine, the being of the father as well as the being of the son is Mine. The being that is sinning, it shall die .

Ezek. 18:20 The being who sins shall die . The son shall not bear the crookedness of the father, nor the father bear the crookedness of the son . The righteousness of the righteous is upon himself; the wrongness of the wrong is upon himself.

Now to be clear, Yahweh is not “crooked” because He planted a tree of knowledge in the garden Eden. Yahweh is all righteous, all powerful, and all knowing, and in fact, there is no unrighteousness in Him at all (Psa. 92:15) . When Yahweh planted that tree, He did it for His purposes, and with an end result of good in mind, but in order to bring that good to pass, Yahweh must make it good and show pardon for transgression HIMSELF, and not by occasioning the death of a completely innocent, third human party.

Num 35:33. Do not profane the land where you are, for blood profanes the land, and the land is not pardoned for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of Him who shed it.

Did the Son of Yahweh come to earth completely of His own merit? No.

Jhn. 3:16 For Elohim so loved the world that HE SENT His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.

John makes it crystal clear that the Father SENT the Son. Now pause for a second and consider the ramifications of that statement and what this means to us today if the “Son” was not, actually, an aspect of the same “Father” who sent Him——if Yahshua was not the Elohim of the Tanakh, and if Yahweh was not the real Messiah.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I have just told my son that he must die for you, and because I am his father and he respects me (or possibly because I am in control), he has submitted to my decision and permitted ME to put him to death. My part in the “sacrificial procedure” has been in exact accordance with the type of Abraham and Isaac.

Question — Who has made more of a sacrifice: myself, who determined that my son must die, or my son, who gave up his life for you? My son made more of a sacrifice, of course.

Who are you going to be indebted to because of this sacrifice? You will be indebted to my son, of course. You will owe Him something which you cannot pay – namely your life.

Who are you going to love as a result? My son, quite naturally.

Who made out comparatively easy: myself or my son? Who lost His life and who is still living?

Jhn. 15:13 No one has greater love than this: that one should lay down HIS OWN LIFE for his friends.

What we know is that if I REALLY loved you, I would have died for you MYSELF . If I know that someone must die to save you, and I make somebody else be that someone, it is not love — it is selfishness! Love will not even THINK of putting some other innocent man to death, let alone do it. Take Yahshua’s trial and condemnation before Pontius Pilate, for example. Pilate knew that Yahshua was innocent—he said so himself, and then condemned Him to cruel flogging, excruciating pain, and a prolonged, torturous death from loss of blood and suffocation, knowing full well that he had done no wrong. As a result, who do we love: Pilate or the Messiah?

At the crucifixion, who was guilty or shedding innocent blood: Pilate or the Messiah? Pilate of course. In our hypothetical example, who is guilty: myself or my son? I am guilty beyond measure.

Who is guilty of murder according to both Scriptural and secular standards? I am guilty again. According to secular standards I will serve time in prison – perhaps even a lifetime sentence. According to Scriptural standards the assembly is commanded to stone me with stones so that I DIE . This is the picture of reality with which we must contend.

If this were an accurate type of the antitype in the heavens, the blood of mankind would be placed entirely upon his own head. If this was an accurate reflection, Yahweh would not intervene by pulling us out of the pit, but instead would occasion the death of the only innocent man in all the world — the only man who had not fallen into the pit! Now that would be a real bummer because one man who is only a man has no power to save a world of lost sinners, even if he was an innocent man, and even if Yahweh called Him “His Son” . If this whole panorama was an accurate reflection of the heavenly antitype , we would be serving an unjust Elohim who made even more subjects die in order to make restitution for the “dead men” in His “pit”. That sort of system just doesn’t work, and under such circumstances, you, brother or sister, could well be next on His list of human offerings! I cannot be more clear about this. Satan is the one who causes men to die while he continues to live. Satan is the god of human (and specifically, child) sacrifice — NOT THE ALMIGHTY!!! In the type of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah, note well that it was NOT Isaac who was sacrificed , but Abraham (representative of the Heavenly Father) who DIED TO SELF , and Yahweh, who provided HIMSELF as the ultimate Lamb ( Gen. 22:8, Hebrew Text ). ¹

Many erroneously think that the phrase, “God helps those who help themselves” comes from the Bible, when in fact, it is Benjamin Franklin’s original words. Today, an increasing number are being hoodwinked by counter-missionaries into believing that this statement is founded on Scriptural principles. The Psalmist’s request of Yahweh, however, was that “ HE give us help from distress, for the help of man is naught. In Elohim we do mightily.” (Psa. 60:11,12a) “ For He delivers the needy when he cries, and the poor, who has no helper” (Psa. 72:12) “ For He Himself has said, ‘ I shall never leave you or forsake you,’ so that we boldly say, ‘ Yahweh is my helper ’” (Heb. 13:6) . David understood this and makes it clear that an ordinary man cannot redeem the soul of another human being.

Psa. 49:7 No man can redeem the soul of another, or give to Elohim a ransom for him; [8] for the redemption of their soul is priceless and it ceases forever, [9] that He (the Messiah) should still live for ever, (and) not see corruption.

For the camp which continues to insist that Yahshua was neither Elohim nor Yahweh, they provide outstanding evidence against themselves; evidence that their theology is based on core humanistic philosophy which is the teaching that man does not need Yahweh because he can save himself. Sadly, disastrously, those who lobby for such a teaching are deceived and deathly wrong.

There is only one Elohim in the heavens — “ Thus says Yahweh , the Sovereign of Yisrael, AND HIS REDEEMER, Yahweh of Hosts: ‘ I am ALEPH TAW (the Beginning and Ending); there is no elohim besides ME’” (Isa. 44:6) — and that one Elohim is just and good. Yahweh did not send us a separate entity, being, deity, or even a man labeled as “Elohim’s Son”. Yahweh came to earth Himself . A portion of Himself (the Word or Breath of His Mouth) came out from within Himself, was manifested in bodily form (the person of Yahshua of Nazareth), and thereby “made it good” at the stake.

Zech. 12:4a In that day declares Yahweh ..... [10b] they shall look on ME ( Yahweh ) whom they have pierced , and they shall mourn for Him as One mourns for His only Son.

Jhn. 19:19 And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the stake, and it was written:

sydhy h ] lm w yrxn h ucwh y

YAHSHUA HANOTZREI V’MELEK HAYAHUDIM

YAHSHUA THE NAZARENE AND KING OF THE JEWS

[Vs. 20b] And it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Roman .

The first letter of each Hebrew word in the inscription forms the acronym, Yahweh, revealing just who it was who paid the price of our sin on the stake. According to Origin, Justin Martyr and other church historians, Psalm 96:10 in the first century Jerusalem Hebrew manuscripts also read, “ Say among the nations, Yahweh reigns from the wood ” — a clear reference to the cruel impaling and power of Yahshua’s vicarious atonement on our behalf. ²    We are indeed indebted to Yahshua because He laid down His life, and we are indebted to Yahweh because that is who Yahshua really was; because Yahweh’s “body” is the “Son” who makes atonement for the sins of the world.³

CONCLUSION:

The Tanakh teaches us that Yahweh alone is "I AM", the Eternal, the Aleph Taw (Beginning and End), Yahweh alone is Creator who stretched out the earth and heavens BY HIMSELF, Yahweh alone is Judge and Torah-giver, Yahweh is Sovereign of Israel, Yahweh is the Lion of Judah, and Israel's Husband, and Yahweh is the One who would be pierced and mourned for as the YACHID or Singularly Begotten Son ( Zech 12:10 ). Then the Apostles and Yahshua come along and proclaim that Yahshua is the "I AM", that He pre-existed from eternity as the Aleph Taw, that He created everything by Himself, that He is Israel's Judge, Torah-giver, and Teacher, that He is the Lion of Judah, King of the Jews, and that HE is Israel's husband who is pierced as the YACHID Begotten Son and lays down His life for her sins. Now the only way this can possibly be reconciled with the Tanakh is if Yahshua is also Yahweh. But then what do you do with verses such as:

Deut. 6:4 Hear O Israel, Yahweh your Elohim, Yahweh is One (ECHAD).

Isa. 42:8 I am Yahweh: that is My Name, and my majesty I do not give/share with another.

Isa. 44:6 Thus says Yahweh....there are no deities beside ME." (Isa 44:6)

Jhn. 13:16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a Servant is not greater than His Master, nor is the One sent greater than He who sent him.

Jhn. 14:28 You heard that I said to you, "I am going away and I am coming to you." If you did love me, you would have rejoiced that I said, "I am going to the Father", for the Father is greater than I.

Again, the only way to reconcile Yahshua's professed identity with the Tanakh is to understand that He is NOT "another elohim " or a second Yahweh, and NOT a "second person of the godhead", but instead that He is the LITERAL bodily manifestation and LESSER ASPECT or DIMENSION of the same One who proclaims Himself as the Yahweh Elohim Echad or composite unity who is worshiped by His people Israel. And if Yahshua is a "lesser dimension", but not a "lesser deity", then that harmonizes, both with the Scriptures which require that He be Yahweh, and with those which require that the Son (BEN YAHWEH), in his fleshly occurrence, is "lesser than the Father (ABBA YAHWEH)".

The Father and Son are two aspects of the singular Almighty Being who identifies Himself by the Name, Yahweh. The Father is the immaterial, intangible aspect of that Being. The Son is the means by which the Father reveals Himself to mortal man, "who is the likeness of the invisible Elohim, the first-born of all creation... because in Him all the completeness was pleased to dwell.... for in Him dwells all the completeness of Yahweh bodily" (Col. 1:15-19, 2:9). The Son is the "form of Yahweh" which appears to men ( Num. 12:8 ). The Father is the aspect of Yahweh which no man can see and live ( Exod. 33:20 ); the same Yahweh of which John wrote: "No man hath seen the Father at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father He did declare." (Jhn. 1:18)

The Son was the aspect of Yahweh which appeared to Adam and Eve in the garden ( Gen. 3:8 ), to Abraham at the Terebinth trees of Mamre ( Gen. 18:1 ), to Isaac in Gerar ( Gen. 26:2 ), to Moses at Sinai ( Exod. 33:23 ), to Israel in the wilderness ( Deut. 31:15 ), and to Manoah and his wife in the time of the Judges ( Jdg. 13:22 ); which wrestled with Jacob at Peniel ( Gen. 32:28,30 ); and which went before Israel in the wilderness as the Messenger bearing the Name Yahweh ( Exod. 23:20,21 ); the same Yahweh who said, "I am Yahweh: that is My Name: my esteem I do not give to another." (Isa 42:8) The Son is also the aspect of Yahweh that was impaled on the stake to make atonement for our transgression of the Torah ( Psa. 22:16, Zech. 12:10 ); the same Yahweh who said, "I am Yahweh and beside me there is no Savior" (Isa. 45:2) , and of which Isaiah wrote: "Thus says Yahweh, the Sovereign of Yisrael, AND HIS REDEEMER, Yahweh of Hosts: 'I am Aleph Taw (the Beginning and Ending); there are no deities beside ME." (Isa 44:6) Sequentially, the Son will be the aspect of Yahweh which reigns on earth from Renewed Jerusalem in the Kingdom to come ( Isa. 24:23 ). And so I ask you with the writer of Proverbs:

Prov. 30:4 Who has ASCENDED TO HEAVEN AND CAME DOWN? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His Name, and what is His Son's Name? Surely you know it!

The Tanakh provides the answer:

2Sam. 22:7 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...... [10] And HE BOWED THE HEAVENS AND CAME DOWN, and thick darkness was under His feet. [11] And He rode upon a Cherub (Angel, Messenger), and flew, and was seen upon the wings of the wind.... [17] He sent from above; He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

Deut. 32:43 And when he again brings the Firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all the messengers of Elohim worship Him." (LXX and Aramaic Peshitta, quoted in Psa. 97:7 and Heb. 1:6)

Do you accept or reject the writings of the prophets and apostles?

Endnotes:

¹  ELOHIM YIREH LO HASEH or "Elohim provides Himself a Lamb." Stone Artscroll Mesorah p. 46

² Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol.1, Dialogue with Trypho, LXXI-LXXIII

³ 1Cor 11:27,29 in the Aramaic, in fact, reads (referring to the emblems of the Passover Seder) "Therefore whosoever shall eat of Yahweh's bread and drink of his cup unworthily shall be guilty of the blood and body of Yahweh.....[29] For he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks to his condemnation; for he does not discern Yahweh's body." —Lamsa Bible & Peshitta Interlinear