Page 95 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

your heart.

There are numerous difficulties with applying this instruction literally. How do you bind something
physically that exists as a concept? Can you pick up a handful of kindness? Can you measure out
truth with a scale? And how is a person to write these things on the tablet of their heart? It is only
because a literal interpretation is impossible that we do not find some foolish person attempting to
form a tradition based upon a literal application of Solomon’s words.

The descendants of Israel have frequently failed to apprehend correctly the meaning of the
Scriptures. If this were not so, would they have crucified the Lord of glory? Through a
misapprehension of Yahweh’s words, Jewish rabbis have developed a tradition of constructing small
leather boxes, placing fragments of the Torah in them, and wearing them on their bodies. Not being
guided by the Holy Spirit to this tradition, they have been under the influence of Satan, the great
deceiver. Being spiritually blind, they have established precepts and practices relating to the wearing
of tefillin that testify of having given themselves over to rebellion in both thought and action.

To identify these symbols of rebellion we must first understand the significance of numbers in
Scripture. Numbers are used by Yahweh as a means of conveying spiritual truth. Numbers have
divine associations to them. At the mention of certain numbers (7, 12, 40, 666, for example) many
Christians would immediately recognize their Scriptural significance. They would be able to cite a
variety of instances where these numbers occur in the Bible. Oftentimes, the first appearance of a
number in the Bible provides us with a clue as to the number’s spiritual meaning. We find this to be
the case with the first occurrence of the number 13 in Scripture.

E.W. Bullinger, in his insightful book Number in Scripture, shares the following regarding the
Biblical significance of the number 13.

As to the significance of thirteen, all are aware that it has come down to us as a number of ill-omen.
Many superstitions cluster around it, and various explanations are current concerning them.

Unfortunately, those who go backwards to find a reason seldom go back far enough. The popular
explanations do not, so far as we are aware, go further back than the Apostles. But we must go back
to the first occurrence of the number thirteen in order to discover the key to its significance. It
occurs first in Gen 14:4, where we read "Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and the thirteenth
year they REBELLED."

Hence every occurrence of the number thirteen, and likewise of every multiple of it, stamps that with
which it stands in connection with rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration,
revolution, or some kindred idea.
[End Excerpt]

Do not the words “rebellion, apostasy, defection, and corruption” describe apostate Judaism?
Yahshua spoke a parable to the Jews which revealed their evil heart in seeking to kill Him. He spoke
of a landowner renting out a vineyard to some caretakers. At the harvest time, the landowner sent
his servants to receive his produce. The caretakers beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. He
then sent a larger group of servants, and they were treated similarly. Finally, the landowner sent his