Fulfilling Torah Ministries

December 20, 2014 Shabbat Bible Study

©2014 Mark Pitrone and Fulfilling Torah Ministries

Year 2 Shabbat 38

Leviticus 17:1-16 – [No Prophet] – Psalm 82 – John 5:1-21

Links:

www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/jewish/Koshering-Meat.htm

 

Vayikra 17.1-9 – The prohibition against offerings anywhere except in the Tabernacle or in the Place in the Land where Yehovah shall put his Name, i.e.; the Temple in Jerusalem, is absolute. This is NOT a prohibition against slaughtering an animal for an honored guest or a celebration. The prefatory remarks on this passage in the Schottenstein’s Interlinear Chumash are salient (pg.118). As usual, I lean towards a “Yes” to the two interpretations – Ba’al haTurim’s interpretation, that the quick addition of this passage after the Yom Kippur service is to disabuse people of the notion that, in light of the killing outside the camp of Azazel’s goat, they can offer anywhere or to any Elohim they so chose, and Rashi’s interpretation that it refers specifically to animals that are consecrated as offerings. If there were a command to NOT eat animal flesh at all, except that which was offered in a peace offering, I would not go with Rashi at all, but there is no prohibition from eating clean flesh. So, it must be permitted to slaughter an animal away from the Tabernacle or Temple. I would guess that an animal that has a blemished appearance would be acceptable for food, but could not be consecrated as an offering to Yehovah.

If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before Yehovah. (Leviticus 1:3)

To kill an animal that is suitable for offering without bringing it to the Tabernacle or Temple was like [but not identical to] spilling innocent blood – it was like murder. If an Israelite did such a thing (i.e.; kill an innocent animal without offering it properly. To murder a man was not an excommunicable offense – murder carried a death sentence), they were to be excommunicated and put OUT of the camp so that Yehovah would walk with Israel. If there is any uncleanness in the camp (like a man guilty of innocent blood), Yehovah will not walk among us;

12 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad: 13 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: 14 For Yehovah Elohenu walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. (Devarim 23.12-14)

If you remember the debacle at Ai [Josh.7], Achan had hidden an idol from Yericho in his tent and Yhwh did not go out to battle with Israel. There was uncleanness in the camp and he would not walk with them, much less fight for them. All peace offerings were to be brought to the priests so the blood could be sprinkled and the fat offered in the proper manner.

No offerings were to be made to any other elohim – only to Yehovah. Remember when this Torah is being given – some time between the 40^th-50^th day after the transgression of the golden calf and the first Passover in the Wilderness (Moshe was in the mount during those 40-50 days and I thinkÀ he was getting the Toroth of Leviticus at that time). V.7 seems clear that any offering made anywhere other than at the Tabernacle was an offering to devils. This was the practice from the days of Noach, for the firstborn to offer unto Yehovah in their neighborhood, back yard or wherever it was convenient. They were to stop that practice forever. If any man, Israelite or mixed multitude, offered anywhere other than at the door of the Tabernacle, he was to be removed from the camp. He was tamei – defiled. His only way back into the camp, I think, was on Yom Kippur. He could not just mikvah and await the sunset to return to his place in the camp. I don’t think the unclean were sent completely away in the middle of the wilderness, but had to dwell outside the camp of the saints – like the lepers in 2Ki.7.3&4

3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate (outside the camp): and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

The man being cut off speaks to the physical being of the man. Excommunication’s purpose is always repentance and reconciliation. Ramban thinks that this cutting off means that the man will die an early death, not that he is eternally cut off from Yisrael. Yochanan tells us about a ‘sin unto death’ (there are probably more then one). This may be an instance of what he was talking about. The passage specifies that the MAN is cut off, not his soul. I infer that to mean his physical body, not his spirit, as well. Q&C

 

Vv.10-14 is the Torah of NOT eating blood. This is a codification of the prohibition against eating blood that was given to Noach in Gen.9. The life is in the blood and it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul of the transgressor. (Take that PETA!) This does not mean that blood of an animal NOT for atonement is OK to eat. It isn’t. The use of the term כל־דמ – chal-dam, ALL or ANY blood, in v.10 makes this plain. We are to ensure that ALL the blood is removed from the animal. If we kill our own animals, they are to be bled completely and their blood poured on the ground and COVERED – same as excrement – or Yehovah will not walk among us. Yehovah says that he will put everything else aside to deal with the man who eats blood. This is why I think the people in Num.11 sinned by eating quail without bleeding, cleaning and cooking it first;

31 And there went forth a wind from Yehovah, and brought quails from the sea, and let fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits upon the face of the earth. 32 And the people stood up all that day, and all night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread all abroad for themselves round about the camp. 33 And while the flesh yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of Yehovah was kindled against the people, and Yehovah smote the people with a very great plague. 34 And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted. (Num.11.31-34)

Looks to me like Yehovah set everything else aside to bring condemnation against those who ate in their lust for flesh. Num.11.4 says that the ones who lusted were the mixt multitude. And in the instance of eating blood, Yehovah is the one who cuts off the soul of that man from the people of Israel. Eating blood is SERIOUS business. It looks like there is no atonement for the sin of eating blood.

Vv.15-16 deal with a man who eats that which just dies or is torn by animals, which has already been forbidden in the Sinai covenant.

31 And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat flesh torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs. (Ex.22.31)

Yehovah forbad them to eat flesh that had been torn because he desired them to be set-apart unto him and to show it by being different from the surrounding people. But provision is made for the one who DOES eat this kind of flesh. He can do a mikvah, wash his clothes and then at evening offering time, he can return to the camp. Therefore, I don’t think clean animals killed by predators are made unclean thereby; this was something Yehovah wanted them to do to be set-apart, not because there was anything actually wrong with eating that flesh. Of course, the flesh would still have to be bled. Do you suppose this is what we do when we buy already slaughtered meat at a market? I think it COULD BE. Be safe with store-bought flesh – kosher it. Here is a link to a kosher koshering process;

www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/jewish/Koshering-Meat.htm Q&C

 

Psalm 82.1- – This is a psalm of Asaph. Remember that Asaph wrote in the time just after the return of Yehudah from Persia. V.1 speaks, I think, about rulers among men rather than gods, quite probably the priests of Yehovah and possibly the rulers of the Land as Yehudah returned. We know there is really only one Elohim and that is Yehovah, so the literal translation of elohim to gods may not be, probably isn’t, correct. If I am correct, and v.6 seems to show that Yehovah agrees with me, he could actually be talking about all of us, for 2Pe.2.9 says that we are a royal Priesthood in Moshiach Yeshua. I will proceed with the understanding that the word ‘gods’ means the political and religious leaders of the people – ‘lords’, as it were. And I will relate it to our present situation in HISstory.

Vv.2-5 – Have you ever wondered why there is no true justice in the world system? Asaph seems to be lamenting the lack of consideration for the poor and needy on the part of the people of Yehovah (and the ‘lords’ or ‘gods’ in particular). The leaders of the people are described in v.2 as ‘respecters of persons’, rather than keepers of Yehovah’s Torah. That is because they think of themselves, of holding and guarding their power by doing what is best for their political ‘benefactors’ (in today’s world, that means the ‘military-industrial complex’ and its lobbyists who provide the politicians with the millions of dollars it takes to run a political election campaign) rather than doing what is ultimately right for their people. It is not human government’s place to provide for the needy in society. That responsibility falls, rather, to the family of the needy first, and to the church/synagogue second. Only after those two resources prove to be inadequate to the task, does it fall to any other source (but it should never have to).

3 Honour widows that are widows indeed. 4 But if any widow have children or nephews, let them [Mark edit – that is; children and nephews] learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before Elohim. 5 Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in Elohim, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. 6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. 7 And these things give in charge, that they may be blameless. 8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. (1Tim.5.3-8)

Strong words from Rav Sha’ul, and absolutely in context, as he is addressing exactly what Asaph is in Ps.82, i.e.; justice for the poor and needy – widows indeed. A ‘widow indeed’ is one who has no children or other family members in the faith, and also who is trusting Elohim for her (or his) sustenance. The ‘widows indeed’ and orphans are our first order of business in the faith community. A believing widow or orphaned child of a believer should never have to depend on anyone outside the local congregation for his/her sustenance. When a believing widow or orphan is unable to care for him or herself, the local congregation should make provision. If the local congregation is unable to provide for them, the larger body of believers should have an agency of some sort to which the needy can resort. The LAST place the needy should have to go for sustenance is the government. And, if worldly government is the FIRST place a ‘believer’ goes, they show that they do not truly believe that Elohim can sustain them. Elohim will sustain you in your exigent circumstances, if you trust him to do so. I’ve ‘selah’d that enough, now.

We are to sustain the truly needy among us; THAT is HOW we deliver them from the wicked. ‘The wicked’ in our day means the government, for it is wicked in the extreme. It has no knowledge (da’ath) in the biblical sense of the word. It has neither a wish to understand, nor does it have the wisdom (chochma) to apply to understanding (binah) that would constitute biblical knowledge. Human government in today’s world is anti-Yehovah, anti-Torah, and anti-Moshiach; a perfect description of wickedness. In Asaph’s day, it was applied, as well, to the religious leadership who should have known Torah.

In v.6, Elohim says, “I have said, ye gods” referring to the religious leadership in the land in Asaph’s day. It is not said in a flattering sense. Yeshua used this scriptural quote in context in Jn.10

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. 29 Avi, which gave me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck out of my Avi’s hand. 30 I and Avinu are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Yeshua answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from Avi; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself Elohim. 34 Yeshua answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Elohims? 35 If he called them Elohims, unto whom the word of Elohim came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say ye of him, whom Avinu hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of Elohim? 37 If I do not the works of Avi, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that Avinu is in me, and I in him. 39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand (Jn.10.27-39)

Even though they are children of the Almighty, they will die like men because they have no knowledge of truth. Because they are ‘lords’, and covet that position more than right standing with Yehovah Elohenu, they are willing to ‘kill the messenger’ to protect their positions. The ‘lords’ of Yeshua’s day knew exactly what he meant by, “I and Avi are one.” He was the tzadik rebbe like Moshe that Yehovah had promised to send, the perfect melding of the Almighty’s aspects of Elohim’s understanding (binah) and Yehovah’s wisdom (chochma), and that meant their positions of power were in jeopardy. Their visceral response belied their spoken intent. Unless they would repent of that attitude, they would ‘die like men, and fall like one of the princes. [v.7]’

Whenever you see government or its media lackeys attempting to demonize or marginalize a political person, keep your eyes on that person to see if he truly believes what he says. He will show if he is honest in his positions by how he deals with the personal attacks. If he changes his position, he is just another wicked man. If he maintains his position as right, he is quite likely your best friend and their worst nightmare because he will NOT be controlled by them. By the same token, watch the government’s media lackeys for whom they least dislike and treat him/her like you would a ‘karet’, or ‘leper’.

Asaph ends by calling on Elohim’s judgment on the earth. Achim, we are on the verge of exactly that in America, and indeed in the world. WE need to apply 2Chron.7.14, for WE are to blame for the state of the world. We got too much like the world, too comfortable with the things OF the world. WE need to repent of our own callousness toward our achim, our own friendship with the world system. Remember the description of ‘wicked’ above; anti-Yehovah, anti-Torah and anti-Moshiach.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (II Chronicles 7:14)

That’s you and me, folks. And it’s NOT a one-time deal. It’s an attitude we need to adopt daily, hourly, even minutely in our personal lives. If we, the people who are called by Yehovah’s Name will turn from our own wickedness, Yehovah will THEN listen to us and fix what ails us, both personally and nationally. It is up to US, not the politicians in Washington, London, Moscow, Peking, Jerusalem or Tehran. It is up to us. It is up to YOU! Q&C

 

Yochanan 5.1-21 – What Feast of the Jews was this that Yeshua went up for? I don’t think this was a Feast of Yehovah. It could have been Purim or Hanukkah. Yeshua was in the habit of going up to J’lem for all the Feasts, so that he could ‘fulfill all righteousness’ (Mat.3.15). Because he went up to Beth-Khisda (or Beth Chesed – house of kindness), I infer that the Feast is Purim (I COULD be wrong … really!) for Yehovah was very kind to Israel in that day, because they turned to him en masse, as one body. Beth Khisda has 5 pools, showing its reflexion of Yehovah’s chesed; his grace, or loving-kindness.

Yeshua comes upon a man who’s been at the pool for it’s miraculous healing for 38 years. He’s in bad enough shape after all this time that he needs someone to help him into the pool when the angel stirs up its healing properties. Yeshua can see the man is in earnest about being healed and his knowledge that he can do nothing to heal himself – he literally needs a miracle, and he goes to put himself in the way of the recurring miracle, if he can. He is already exercising all the faith he knows to exercise. But he needs help, which is not readily forthcoming. So Yeshua asks him if he would be made whole, and he says “YES!” (I think he implies, “if I could get the help I need to get to the pool when the angel stirs the water, I would already BE whole! Are you going to help me? Let’s get over there now, so we can be ready!”) But Yeshua did him one better. He said, “Stand up! Take your bed and walk!” and he did so immediately. He didn’t think about it being Shabbat. He just followed orders from the man who made him every whit whole by a Word from his mouth. I’d call that a rational response to being made whole of a 38-year infirmity.

But the ‘Jews’ were not always rational. As I always do, I want to qualify Yochanan’s use of the term Jew. It doesn’t mean the average, rank-and-file member of the Temple/Synagogue, but ALWAYS refers to the political leadership of the religion. They obviously had not been to the Beth-Khisda pool any time in the last 38 years, or they’d have recognized him. They accosted him for breaking a man-made rule dealing with stuff folks are forbidden to do on Shabbat, like carry any burden whatever. I can only imagine them seeing me carry a Bible that would choke a horse into the fellowship. I’d smack them upside the head with it, except that it’s heavy enough to break a neck. He answered them in as respectful a manner as he could, “The guy who made me whole from my 38-year infirmity with a Word from his mouth also told me to take up my bed and walk. I figured it was the least I could do to obey him.” (OK, I embellished that just a tad.) When the Jews asked him who had dared to heal him on the Shabbat (Oh! FORFEND!), he didn’t know, and there was such a crowd at this Feast time, that he couldn’t see Yeshua. Later, when Yeshua found him to warn him against sinning unless something worse come upon him, the guy went to the Jews and told them it was Yeshua.

THAT really ticked them off, and they started trying figure out how to kill him within the legal parameters of the day. So, they confronted him about healing on Shabbat, saying that he’d broken it. Look at AENT, note 53 on pg.246.

When Yeshua refers to his Abba, I think he refers to the Almighty Ain Sof, he who is unknowable. He said, “Avi has never ceased working from the day of creation to now, and I work in the same way.” Yehovah has never ceased his creative work, even when it says he rested. If he were NOT creating constantly, everything would cease to exist. The same Word that created ‘ex nihilo’ in Gen.1, sustains the creation until the day of dissolution 1000 years + from now. The day Yehovah ceases to speak is the day everything dissolves into absolute nothingness, from which he can recreate brand new and perfect – a tamim or perfect world in which tzedakah, or righteousness dwells. Perhaps these Jews had never heard of ‘sod’.

When Yeshua said that both he and Abba work to now, he was making claim to equality with Ain Sof, and they knew it. This made them all the crazier, since what he said was blasphemy for any other than Yehovah Elohim, and they were ready to kill him on the spot. When he asked what good work they were killing him for, they said, “because you make yourself equal to Elohim.” He does not deny their accusation. He even did them one better by saying that, as Avinu will raise the dead in the resurrection (some of these Jews were no doubt Sadducees), so Yeshua, the Son, will quicken whom he wills, and it makes no difference the day of the week or the traditional fences the Jews had constructed around Torah. The healing of the man at Beth-Khisda was just one instance of how he would present his bona fides and prove whom he is. Q&C

 

Follows my study of John 5 from various portions of my study in The Life of Yeshua haMoshiach – an Hebraic Perspective, as I shared partially on TTRT.

 

Yochanan 5:1-47 – 72). Second Passover –

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Yeshua went up to Jerusalem.

Yochanan tells of a feast of the Jews, but doesn’t name it. I don’t know where the chronology comes from here. The Thompson Reference System says [erroneously] that this is Yehovah’s second passover in Jerusalem after his ministry began. This will mark the end of his year of popularity, I think. I also think it more likely Purim or Hanukkah. Thompson’s seems to follow Mark’s gospel for chronology.

 

            73). Man at the pool healed –

Yochanan 5.2-9

2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Yeshua saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Yeshua saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath.

The pool of Bethesda had 5 porches, speaking to the grace of Elohim healing the sick. Thompson’s Archeological Supplement has:

“The only record indicating its location places it near the Sheep Gate, in the northeast part of the city. The Medeba map (fifth century) located the pool in this section, which is known as Bezetha. In 1888 repairs were being made on St. Ann’s Church in this northeast section of Jerusalem when what seemed to be a large reservoir was located. Conrad Schick organized an expedition and uncovered the entire area down to the Roman level, revealing two large pools with five porches and numerous fragments of columns and capitals, all in Roman style, but evidently somewhat later than the time of Moshiach. There were steep, winding steps leading down to the pools and, on a prominent wall of one of the porches, a faded fresco showed an angel in the act of troubling the waters. So according to the tradition of the early assembly, this was Bethesda.”

Mat. Henry’s commentary says,

“Shall we, who perhaps for many years have scarcely known what it has been to be a day sick, complain of one wearisome night, when many others, better than we, have scarcely known what it has been to be a day well?”

Good question.

Put yourself in this guy’s shoes for a minute. You’ve been infirm for 38 years. And you spend most of your days at this miraculous spa hoping to get in the water when it is troubled. Do you think this happened every few minutes? Once a day? Or just once in a while? There is no indication that the troubling of the water was a regular occurrence. So you have to be ready to jump in, but you can’t jump. You have a hard enough time dragging yourself toward the pool, much less lowering yourself down the steps, which were steep and winding, to get in the pool. And no one will help you because they are all there for the same purpose, to get a healing. If someone helps you into the water, how will he get healed? Only one healing per troubling, and if he can get there first you are going to have to wait ‘til next time. Sorry, luck of the draw, bud.

            That’s what this guy dealt with for 38 years. When Yeshua asks if he’d like to be made well, he says in effect, ‘If you’ll hang around and help me into the water next time it’s troubled, I’d be much obliged.’ Yeshua does him one better. He says the same thing he said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up thy bed and walk.” And the guy obeys immediately, not caring what day it is.

            Here is a major no-no as far as the Jews, the political leaders of the Hebrew religion, are concerned. Yeshua has just healed on the Sabbath and told the healed man to carry away his bed. You could get in a lot of trouble with the religious authorities if you broke the Sabbath traditions. Remember that the Sabbath was set aside to rest from our professional labors and acknowledge Y’hovah’s gift and authority one day a week. Do you suppose the man who’d been healed was worshipping Y’hovah as he walked home? Shake your heads in the vertical. Do you think the Pharisees cared? Shake your heads in the horizontal. Q&C

 

            75). Discourse on the Sabbath – Mat.12.1-8, Mk.2.23-28, Lk.6.1-5, Yochanan5.10-16

10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, it is the Sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. 11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? 13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Yeshua had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Yeshua findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. 15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Yeshua, which had made him whole. 16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Yeshua, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.

Do you remember the flock of swine that rushed headlong into the sea? Same problem comes up here, but for a different reason. The swineherds were losing money, the Pharisees were jealous for the common folk to keep the law according to the scribes and Pharisees. They accused Yeshua of breaking Sabbath. But in this case, who was really breaking Sabbath? Yeshua is about to tell them.

 

            74). Discourse on Yeshua’s divinity –

Jn.5.17-24

17 But Yeshua answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that Elohim was his Father, making himself equal with Elohim. 19 Then answered Yeshua and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth Avinu do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For Avinu loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21 For as Avinu raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 22 For Avinu judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 23 That all should honour the Son, even as they honour Avinu. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not Avinu which hath sent him. 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

In vv.17-18 we see the Jews really getting worked up over Yeshua’s claim to be Elohim. They knew what he was saying, and they would have been righteously angry if they were dealing with MY claim to be Elohim. But this was Yeshua and he was performing miracles that should have told them exactly who he was, if only they knew the scriptures like they said, or thought, they did. Messianic passages abound in the OT (Is.61.1-2a.) Even Yochanan the Immerser needed some proof as to Yeshua true identity (Lk.7.19-20), but he knew the scriptures and was comforted in them (Lk.7.21-23). Yeshua knew that Yochanan would understand that every miracle he performed was not to cause an end of suffering or hardship or infirmity, but for the purpose of confirming to the Jews, the political leadership of the religion, [the people had already figured it out] that he was who he claimed to be; Yeshua haMoshiach, the Son of Elohim. The very miracles he was doing, causing the paralytic to walk in this case, all taken together (i.e., comparing scripture with scripture and verifying experience with objective truth) should have caused them no end of rejoicing that their Moshiach had come and that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand. Instead they wanted strict adherence to the oral law that gave no life, but only knowledge of sin and death.

            “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Avinu rested from his creative work on the 7th day, not all his work. After all, Elohim still had to maintain the creation. The strict adherence to the letter of the law that the Pharisees wanted would have made them Elohim’s judges. By that I mean, if Elohim were being judged by their standard, absolutely no work on the Sabbath, they would have stoned him, as well. In fact, that is what they were attempting to do right then, for the whole creation was physically manufactured by the word of the person they wanted to stone for blasphemy and Sabbath-breaking (Ex.31.14ff).

            V.19 ‘What the Son sees Avinu doing the Son does also (Mark paraphrase).’ The whole universe was all Yehovah Yeshua’s effort. Without him was not anything made that was made. How should we do things? Should we do everything on our own; cowboy our way through as lone wolves, or should we get help or counsel as we can. That is how the Body of Moshiach is supposed to work, each helping the other to bring glory to Elohim.

1Cor.12 says that each part of the body is as important as every other part of the body. If the ear gets jealous because it’s not the eye, the body will not work as it’s designed to. If the foot gets offended because the hand is getting all the good stuff to do and goes on strike, how will the hand get to the appointed place to do its good stuff? It’s the same thing with each of us. If I get jealous of Doc because he can make teeth and I can’t, and I therefore leave the fellowship of us saints, the whole body will suffer because it is left without my gifts and abilities. Our gifts were not given to us for our personal enjoyment, but for the common good of the Body of Moshiach. All that and much more can be seen with just a cursory glance at 1Cor.12. The body of Moshiach is designed to work as a unit to fulfill its purpose in doing the will of Avinu. Q&C

 

            Avinu shows the Son all that he (Avinu) plans to do and the Son executes that plan (v.20). ‘Himself’ speaks of Avinu in this case. Had Yeshua meant the Son here he’d have used the word ‘he’ not ‘himself’ in this construction. You may remember the use of this ‘himself’ in the movie, “The Quiet Man” (a great movie, by the way). As late as 1950 this was still an accepted usage when referring to a third person in your speech. Webster’s has

HIMSELF’, pron. In the nominative or objective case. [him and self.] 1. He; but himself is more emphatical, or more expressive of distinct personality than he. With shame remembers, while himself was one. Of the same herd, himself the same had done.

The NIV has ‘he’ here. If ‘he’ is substituted for ‘himself’ it refers back to the last word that is male third person singular, or Son. That could be confusing, so the AV translators who understood English usage decided to use ‘himself’, to specify that the speaker meant a third person other than his own self and the hearer. This is just another proof that Yeshua and Avinu are one Spirit, but different, as relating to Yeshua’s human flesh.

            The Abba of our Y’hovah Yeshua haMoshiach had shown his Son all that himself had wanted him to reveal to this point and Yeshua had done so. It seems by this passage that Elohim was authorizing the steps to be taken by Yeshua as the time became right, that Yeshua knew the plan, but was awaiting his Father’s OK to implement it.

            Yeshua had yet to raise the dead, but that would come shortly. Avinu had yet to authorize that part of the plan. When he did Yeshua would raise a few from the dead to illustrate his ministry of making us who trust him spiritually alive. He would give the breath of life back to some who had died to show how he would quicken the spirits of men and empower them by the breath of his Ruach haKodesh (Acts 2.2), and will quicken the bodies of those same men in the life to come.

            All judgment is committed to the Son for the purpose of giving honor to the Son (Gen.32.29, Ex.6.3, 9.16, 20.7, 23.20-23, Lev.19.12, 22.32, De.28.58, 2Sam.7.26, 1Ki.8.18-19, 29, 9.3, 7, 11.36, 2Ki.23.21-27, Ps.8.1, 89.24, Is.42.8, 48.11, 52.5-6, 57.15, 65.1, Jer.7.10-14, 30, 14.14-15, 23.25-27, Ez.20.9, 36.23, 39.7, Dan.2.20, Mat.24.5, Mal.1.11, 4.2, Mat.18.5, 20, Mk.9.39-41, Jn.16.23-27, Rom.9.17, Is.9.6, Mat.12.16-21, [Mat.1.21, 25, Lk.1.31, 2.21; Yeshua’s name all in caps, denotes the covenant name of Elohim], Acts.3.16, 4.12, Heb.1.4, Phil.2.9-11, Eph.1.21, Rev.19.16, 12, Neh.9.5). Reread the verses in bold type.

12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4.12)

3 Who being the brightness of glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. (Heb.1.3-4)

9 Wherefore Elohim also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, of in heaven, and in earth, and under the earth; 11 And every tongue should confess that Yeshua haMoshiach is Yehovah, to the glory of Elohim Avinu. (Phil.2.9-11)

20 Which he wrought in Moshiach, when he raised him from the dead, and set at his own right hand in the heavenlies, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all under his feet, and gave him the head over all to the assembly, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Eph.1.20-23)

But the Son is also called the Word of Elohim in Yochanan 1.1-14, that Word whose name is exalted above every name. When he says above ‘every name’, he means it. In Rev.19.12 his name is so wonderful that it can’t be known by any but he himself. Is there anything that can be greater or more holy than the name of Yehovah Yeshua? In Ps.138.2 David says,

“I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

Is there any name of Elohim that is left out in that verse? Even the one that no man can know but he himself? Elohim exalts his Word above his very own name because without his Word we would have nothing by which to know his name. Just to give you an idea of what man does to the Word of Elohim, here’s that same verse in the NIV:

Psalm 138:2 I will bow down toward your holy temple

                         and will praise your name

                         for your love and your faithfulness,

                         for you have exalted above all things

                         your name and your word.

If you did to Elohim’s Word what they did to Elohim’s Word, you would ‘fix’ that verse as well. To translate it literally would be to condemn yourself. NIV-ers have placed Elohim’s Word on a par with his name, but not above it, as Elohim has. They have exalted themselves above Elohim, thereby, knowing better than he exactly what he meant. They have an extremely low view of scripture, or they would not ‘correct’ it so often. Cf. Ps.19, esp.v.7-11. Without his Word we would have no barometer for our conduct or yardstick to measure our growth into the image of Moshiach. Isn’t it amazing that Elohim holds the book you hold in your hand in greater esteem than his very name? It is too wonderful [sod] for me. Q&C

End of Shabbat Bible Study

 

 

℘ An italicized I think denotes an educated guess. I COULD be wrong …, but I doubt it.