Will You Hate Elijah As They Hated Yeshua?

Last week I had a conversation with a long-time friend in Israel. We have known each other since 2009. During our conversation, he told me just how much I was hated by the brethren for constantly raising the calendar debate and questioning or causing those on the Hillel calendar to question their beliefs. Although I already know this, it is still hard to hear someone, an old friend, actually say it.

I want you all to turn on your own AI. I use Super Grok, which is from X AI. I also use ChatGPT for Work as an alternative. AI is similar to using Google to search for your subject or question. It searches multiple sites and summarizes their content for you. Depending on the sites it searches, it can give you false answers. You must be specific about where and who it can search as qualifying sources.

I asked Super Grok the following question:

The Covenant of Israel Messianic People: A Remnant Restored in the New Covenant<

Joseph F. Dumond

Sightedmoon.com – November 7, 2025

When we speak of the Covenant of Israel Messianic People, we are not naming a new sect or denomination. We are identifying the living remnant—the faithful of both houses of Israel—re-gathered under the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31–34: “Behold, the days come, says Yehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah… I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” This remnant is the heartbeat of the Two-House and Hebrew Roots movements today, a people who see themselves as the fulfillment of ancient prophecy, walking in the footsteps of Abraham, Moses, and Yeshua.

After Solomon’s death, the kingdom split into two houses: Judah in the south, whose descendants are the Jewish people we know today, and Israel—often called Ephraim—in the north, scattered among the nations in 722 BC as recorded in 2 Kings 17. The prophet Hosea foretold their reunion: “The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head.” That one head is Yeshua the Messiah, the fulfillment of the Davidic promise and the mediator of the New Covenant.

Yeshua sealed this covenant with His blood at the Last Supper, declaring, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood.” Messianic believers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, understand themselves to be this re-gathered people: Jews returning to Yeshua while honoring their covenant identity, and Ephraim—those from the nations, many of whom were once Christians—returning to the Torah, the Sabbaths, and the appointed times of Yehovah. They are one people under one law, as Numbers 15:15–16 declares: “One Torah shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.”

Messianic Judaism and the Hebrew Roots movement are two sides of the same coin. Messianic Judaism consists of ethnic Jews who maintain their covenant identity through Shabbat, kosher laws, and the biblical feasts, all while proclaiming Yeshua as their Messiah. The Hebrew Roots movement comprises Gentiles—and many who identify as returned Ephraimites—who embrace the Torah, the Sabbaths, and the Feasts as covenant duty, recognizing that they have been grafted into Israel through faith, as Paul teaches in Romans 11:17. Both affirm that Israel’s covenants are eternal, that the Church did not replace Israel, and that believers are called to live as one body under the New Covenant, with the Torah written on the heart by the Spirit.

Messianic Judaism emerged in the 19th–20th centuries as Jewish believers in Jesus sought to retain their heritage amid persecution. Early groups like the Hebrew Christian Alliance, founded in 1813, evolved into modern organizations that continue this legacy. The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC), for instance, defines Messianic Jews as "fully part of the Jewish people, sharing its history and covenantal responsibility," while united with the Church through Yeshua. They emphasize "covenant fidelity" to Torah in a New Covenant context, as outlined on their website umjc.org. Similarly, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA) focuses on evangelism among Jews, viewing adherents as "a light to the nations" from Israel outward, per Isaiah 49:6. Today, there are approximately 300,000 Messianic Jews worldwide, mostly in Israel, the U.S., and Russia, gathered in over 500 congregations. Groups like Jews for Jesus promote the New Covenant as God's promise to "write the law on hearts."

At the core of their practice is the calendar they follow: the rabbinic Hebrew calendar, established by Hillel II in the 4th century AD. This fixed, calculated system—based on mathematical cycles rather than direct moon sightings—ensures unity across the diaspora, determining the dates for Sabbaths, feasts, and holy days. These people keep the Sabbaths from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday and the seven annual Feasts of Leviticus 23.

They are the watchmen on the wall, sounding the alarm in these final years, warning of the curses for disobedience while calling all twelve tribes home before the restoration. They are not “Judaizing”; they are returning. As Zechariah 8:23 prophesies, “In those days… ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’

The Covenant of Israel Messianic People are that Jewish man with the Torah sleeve—and the ten men grasping it, walking together in the New Covenant, keeping the Hillel calendar, and preparing for the return of the King.

Why the Pharisees and Sadducees Hated Yeshua: A Threat to Their Power, Pride, and System

The hatred the Pharisees and Sadducees had for Yeshua was not born of minor disagreements over Sabbath rules or handwashing rituals. It was a deep, visceral rejection of a Man who exposed the very foundation of their religious and political world. They were the gatekeepers of first-century Judaism—the Pharisees as the champions of the people’s piety, the Sadducees as the aristocratic rulers of the Temple. Together, they held a fragile balance of power under Roman occupation. Then came Yeshua, speaking with authority they did not possess, healing without permission, forgiving sins without sacrifice, and drawing crowds that hung on His every word. He was not just a teacher—He was a threat.

Their hatred crystallized around three core issues: His claim to divine authority, His exposure of their hypocrisy, and His destabilization of their political survival. Each struck at the heart of who they were and what they controlled.

First, Yeshua claimed to be the Son of God, an assertion that shattered their monopoly on spiritual authority. When He told the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” the scribes erupted: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7, MKJV). When He declared, “I and the Father are one,” they picked up stones, crying, “We stone you for blasphemy, because You, being a man, make Yourself God” (John 10:30–33, MKJV). Even His cryptic promise, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” was twisted at His trial as evidence of madness or sedition (John 2:19). To them, this was not prophecy—it was blasphemy. He bypassed the priesthood, the sacrifices, the entire system they administered. As they feared in John 11:47–48, “If we let Him alone this way, all will believe on Him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

Second, Yeshua exposed their hypocrisy with surgical precision. The Pharisees had built a fence of oral traditions around the Torah—hundreds of extra laws meant to protect obedience but which often buried it. Yeshua tore that fence down. He healed on the Sabbath, asking, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?” (Matthew 12:12, MKJV), and then did it anyway. He ate with tax collectors and sinners, answering their outrage with, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13, MKJV). In the seven woes of Matthew 23, He called them “hypocrites” and “whitewashed tombs”—clean on the outside, full of dead men’s bones within. He condemned their tithing of mint and cumin while neglecting justice, mercy, and faith. In Matthew 15:6–9, He laid bare the root: “You have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition… In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” He was not reforming their system—He was dismantling it.

Third, Yeshua threatened their political survival. The Sadducees were Temple aristocrats, their wealth tied to the money-changers and animal sales Yeshua overturned in a whirlwind of cords and fury (John 2:15). The Pharisees, though more popular, still needed Roman tolerance to maintain influence. Yeshua’s massive following—“all the people were hanging on His words” (Luke 19:48)—terrified them. His prediction that “not one stone will be left upon another” in the Temple (Matthew 24:2) was not just prophecy; it was treason to men who declared, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15). Again, John 11:48 captures their panic: “If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” They chose self-preservation over truth.

At the deepest level, they hated Him because He was the Light<, and they loved darkness. As John 3:19–20 declares, “This is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light.” Yeshua exposed their pride, their greed, their fear of man over fear of God. They did not hate Him for breaking Sabbath—they hated Him because , and that truth cost them everything.

They crucified the Truth to protect their system.

And today? The same spirit rises against those who walk in Torah and Yeshua—because light still exposes darkness.