Page 40 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

The Chaldeans/Babylonians worshiped the heavenly host; the sun, moon, planets, and stars. I can
imagine Satan engaging in deceit as he persuaded the Jews that they were in some manner honoring
their forebears by returning to the more ancient faith of Abraham and his ancestors, returning to the
worship of the heavenly host. This overt worship of the lights in the heavens and the deities they
represented was commonplace in the Israelites pre-captivity history.

II Kings 17:16-19
And they forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God and made for themselves molten
images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served
Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination
and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of Yahweh, provoking Him. So
Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe
of Judah. Also Judah did not keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the
customs which Israel had introduced.

After the captivity, the idolatry of the Hebrews obtained a more hidden nature. Instead of engaging
in visible worship of Baal, Ashtoreth, Molech, Chemosh, Remphan/Saturn, and all the host of
heaven, they began to introduce heretical elements of the worship of these gods into the worship of
Yahweh. The rabbis through the Oral Torah, the Talmud, Midrash, and Kabbalistic writings, brought
forth interpretations of the Bible/Tanakh that defiled the worship of Yahweh until it became the
worship of Satan.

As an example of the sophistry employed by the rabbis, we find in the Talmud that the candlestick
which stood in the Tabernacle of Moses and in the Temple of Solomon, has been re-interpreted to
be symbolic of the seven visible planets. (From antiquity, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn have been recognized as seven celestial lights that differed from the stars in their
motions. The five planets mentioned in this list are the only planets visible to the unaided eye.)

In the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 15:7) the seven lamps of the Menorah are compared to the seven
planets listed above. The Talmud goes much further in commenting on the symbolism of the lights
of the Menorah and the planets associated with them. In Tractate Shabbat 156a we find the
following commentary.

R. Hanina said to then, [his disciples]: Go out and tell the son of Levi, Not the constellation of the
day but that of the hour is the determining influence. He who is born under the constellation of the
sun will be a distinguished man: he will eat and drink of his own and his secrets will lie uncovered;
if a thief, he will have no success. He who is born under Venus will be wealthy and unchaste
[immoral]. What is the reason? Because fire was created therein. He who is born under Mercury
will be of a retentive memory and wise. What is the reason? Because it [Mercury] is the sun's scribe.
He who is born under the Moon will be a man to suffer evil, building and demolishing, demolishing
and building. eating and drinking that which is not his and his secrets will remain hidden: if a thief,
he will be successful. He who is born under Saturn will be a man whose plans will be frustrated.
Others say: All [nefarious] designs against him will be frustrated. He who is born under Zedek
[Jupiter] will be a right-doing man [zadkan] R. Nahman b. Isaac observed: Right-doing in good
deeds. He who is born under Mars will be a shedder of blood. R. Ashi observed: Either a surgeon,