By David R. Parsons, ICEJ Senior Vice President & Spokesman

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.” (Zechariah 8:23 / AKJV)

The theme for this year’s Feast of Tabernacles is “Ten From Every Nation,” which is drawn from Zechariah 8:23. This passage speaks to us on several levels and has many applications. For instance, it easily lends itself to the increasingly prevalent practice of Gentile Christians exploring the Hebraic roots of our faith, which is a very rich topic for exploration.

For many Evangelicals, there is a hunger to understand Jesus and his teachings in their authentic Hebraic context. In a March 2008 cover feature on “10 Ideas that are changing the world,” Time magazine listed one such trend as “Re-Judaizing Jesus,” noting how scholars have started to reread the Gospels through the eyes of a Jewish Jesus. Even in leading universities here in Israel, there is much interest and curiosity in rediscovering the historic Jesus in his original Israelite setting and culture.

For ordinary Christians as well, many are finding there is much “fatness” in these roots, as the Apostle Paul put it in Romans 11:17. Delving into the Jewishness of Jesus and the Hebraic culture behind the entire Bible – both Old and New Testaments – can enrich our devotional walk with the Lord and greatly enlighten our understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

Others see it more specifically as a prophetic vision of Gentiles learning Torah from rabbis, which also is a growing trend today. In fact, there are now many Orthodox Jewish rabbis who are eager to give Torah lessons to Gentile Christians. They even view this verse as foretelling of a time when masses of Gentiles will convert to either Judaism or the Noahide laws in the last days. They reach this conclusion by linking this verse to Zechariah 14:16, where the prophet envisions all the nations coming up to Jerusalem one day to worship the Lord and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Thus, they believe these mass conversions of Gentiles will take place during Succot.

For this and other reasons, there is a need for caution, as often these Torah lessons for Christians are more Talmudic lessons and the Talmud is a very complex and somewhat closed world to the average Christian. Now it is clear from the Gospels that Jesus was very familiar with the Talmud and followed its style of teaching through parables. But for us today, it takes a true scholar wholly devoted to Jesus to wade into the Talmud and bring out the treasures we can certainly benefit from, while leaving behind that which might undermine our faith in Christ. For me, one such Christian scholar par excellence was the late Dr. Dwight Pryor, and there are many others today, such as Dr. Brad Young and Dr. Steven Notley. Plus, there are now many Messianic Jewish teachers who are quite adept at explaining the original meaning and context of important passages from the Biblical Hebrew.

Suffice to say that as Christians are drawn closer to Israel and the Jewish people and inevitably encounter Rabbinic Judaism, there are many detours and slippery slopes we must be aware of and avoid. Therefore, when we as Gentiles grasp the skirt of a Jew, it pays to grab hold of the right Jew! Surely, there is no better story in the Bible which depicts this truth more than the woman with the issue of blood, who touched the hem of the garment of Jesus and was healed (Matthew 9:20-22).

In line with that thought, this year’s Feast theme more precisely speaks of a time when the Lord will raise up a righteous remnant in every Gentile nation and language group who have been drawn to the light of the saving knowledge of the one true God through the Jewish people, and in particular through one very special Jew – Jesus the Messiah. He was the One who would teach the nations the law and ways of God (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2). It was not enough that the promised Messiah would redeem Jacob only, but He also would be a light to the Gentiles, taking God’s salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).

Remarkably, this Messianic mission has been and is still being fulfilled by none other than Jesus and His followers. He delivered the message of the Gospel in word and deed, and gave us the Great Commission to take these redemptive truths to the ends of the earth. This has been taking place for centuries to varying effects, but only in modern times – with the aid of global means of travel and communication – is it reaching every nation and language group on earth. And only in modern times are the nations able to ascend to a Jerusalem back in Jewish hands.

The Righteous Remnant
In the Bible, the figure of ten men – as referenced in Zechariah 8:23 – clearly relates to the concept of a “righteous remnant.” This idea goes back to Genesis 18 and the story of the Patriarch Abraham, when he was informed by the Lord about the coming destruction of Sodom, where his nephew Lot lived. So, Abraham pleaded for the Lord to spare the city if He could find 50 righteous there, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20 and finally 10 righteous men.

From this story, the Jewish people developed the notion of needing a minyan of ten righteous men in order to offer collective prayers to the Lord in the synagogue. No doubt, those hearing Zechariah utter this prophetic word understood the “ten men from every language of the nations” in this light.

The entire eighth chapter of Zechariah is full of good and comforting words concerning the restoration of Israel and Jerusalem in the last days. Of course, Zechariah was sent by the Lord to restore a prophetic flow to the nation at a similar time of Jewish return to the Land of Israel and to Jerusalem, namely from exile in Babylon. But here, there is an added phenomenon of Gentiles from the nations speaking to each other about making mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship and pray to the Lord.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities; The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also.” Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.’  (Zechariah 8:20-22 / NKJV)

This indeed mirrors the same prophet’s vision in Zechariah 14:16 that the nations will one day come to Jerusalem each year to worship the Lord of hosts and keep the Feast of Tabernacles. It is a vision that is finally starting to find fulfilment today, and what Zechariah chapter 8 adds is that God is beckoning for a righteous remnant of at least ten people from every nation and language group to ascend to Jerusalem to seek the Lord on behalf of their people.

God has always had a righteous remnant in the earth. Even in the days of great apostasy during the time of Elijah, the Lord assured him that he still had a righteous remnant of 7,000 who had not bowed their knee to Baal. The way Paul describes this in Romans 11:2-5, it is as if God is boasting about this small but faithful band of righteous servants left in Israel, just as He rejoices over the righteous remnant He has preserved for Himself in our day.

The biblical concept of a righteous remnant will prove to be an increasingly important one here in the end times. Zechariah foresees this righteous remnant among the Gentiles recognising and aligning themselves fully with God’s prophetic purposes for Israel in these days. We need to be positioning our churches and ministries to understand and uphold the prophetic significance of the restoration of Israel, of respecting the biblical feasts, and of the universal calling of Jerusalem as a “house of prayer” for all nations and the soon-to-be throne of Jesus – the “Son of David.”

We will explore these biblical truths further as we prepare for this year’s Feast of Tabernacles. But please start preparing even now to make sure there will be a righteous remnant of at least ten Christians representing your nation and language group at this year’s Feast 2025.

Find out more at:  feast.icej.org

Photo: ICEJ – Christians from every nation have been coming up to Jerusalem for the Feast since 1980.