The Ancient History of Followers of The Way

In the long Israelite / Jewish tradition, history plays an important part. When we begin to follow the ways of YHWH, we enter a long 4,000 year-old story, and become integral players in the epic. It is essential to know where we have come from, so that we will better be informed on who we are, and where we are ultimately heading to.

Your history gives you your identity. Knowing the joys and the pains that we have endured, both as Jews and as Followers of the Way, have a profound impact on us. It is not only beliefs that shape a community, but its history as well. You have to understand what events moulded your community. You have to know what contributed to forming your community’s opinions, and what shaped their emotions.

If there is one feeling we should experience at reading our history as Followers of the Way, it should be sadness at a litany of injustice. That Christians usurped our history, and derided us for the poverty of our faith, and that our fellow Jews pronounced a curse upon us, and expelled us from the people that we loved – and still do.

Let us not look back at our history with anger, however, but rather with faith in the power of YHWH to heal the past, and rescue us from the injustices of centuries long gone. Knowing our history, we can better look forward to our future with hope – to the resurrection of our memory, and the fulfilment of the Reign of our God.