Rejection of the Messiah-Part 2

This past Sunday, we continued with Matthew 12 and the rejection of the Messiah, noting the following Scriptures:

1. Matthew 12:38-40 which speaks about the sign of the Resurrection. I read portions of Jonah chapter 2 and it is my belief that Jonah actually died and God resurrected him out of the belly of the great fish. I mentioned that Israel would see a total of three signs concerning resurrection. First, Lazarus was resurrected, (purposefully on the fourth day-John 11:1-46). Secondly, Yeshua's own Resurrection, (Matthew 28:1-10), and thirdly, the raising of the two witnesses during the Tribulation period, (Revelation 11:3-13).
2. Matthew 12:41-45 which includes Jesus' words of judgment. We noticed how many times that the phrase "this generation" occurs and were reminded by Arnold that this contextually is the unpardonable sin, (see last week's post). I then quoted from Arnold's manuscript MBS003:

"The point of this story is often missed. The Messiah closed the story with the point that what was true of the man was also true of that particular evil generation. When that generation began, it began with the preaching of John the Baptist. John’s ministry was to prepare the people for the reception of the Messiah. By means of the preaching of John, that generation was swept, and garnished. But now that the Messiah had come, they rejected Him on the basis of demon possession. The nation that was swept and garnished now remained empty on account of the rejection of the Messiahship of Yeshua. And because it remained empty, the last state of that generation was to be worse that the first.
When that generation began, it was under Roman domination. Nevertheless, it had a national entity. It had a semi-autonomous form of government in the Sanhedrin. Jerusalem stood in all its Herodian glory, and the religious worship system in the Temple remained intact. But later, as a result of the rejection and judgment in a.d. 70, the national entity of Israel ceased to exist. In the place of bondage, they were dispersed by the Roman armies. The Temple, the center of Judaism, was completely destroyed so that not one stone stood upon another. Eventually, the Jews were dispersed all over the world. So, indeed, the last state of that generation became worse than the first. They went from bondage to worldwide dispersion."
Fruchtenbaum, A. G. (1983). The Messianic Bible Study Collection (3:7). Tustin, Calif.: Ariel Ministries.

Next week, we'll look at some more relevent Scriptures before we turn our attention to The

Prerequisite to the Second Coming.

Be blessed,

Your Chrbrotherist

The Rejection of the Messiah

The class on 10/18/09 began with a question:
Can anyone tell me what will be the basis of the Second Coming of the Messiah?
We're not talking about the Rapture here, which carries with it no preconditions. The Rapture i s imminent, or could occur at any time. The Second Coming does have a major precondition attached to it, which must be met before the Messiah will return to establish His Kingdom.
First, however, we need to look at the rejection of the Messiah to get a proper perspective.
Before reading Scripture, I quoted Dr. Fruchtenbaum, (affectionately...Arnold), as "make sure there is no offense between me and Thee, (Acts 24:16)". Also, studying God's Holy Word requires spiritual discernment and the mind at enmity with God cannot discern the things of God, (1 Corinthians 2:14, Romans 8:7). Psalm 119:18 says, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold Wondrous things out of thy law."
Matthew 12:22-37 was discussed as the background text.
Earlier, we had talked about the 4 Messianic miracles that the rabbis taught well before Jesus was ever born. I've been waiting to discuss the second one, (the healing of a person with a dumb demon). As seen in verse 27, Judaism also had exorcists. One had to first establish communication with the demon in order to discover the demon's name. Only then could the demon be cast out. We see Jesus using this method in Luke 8:30, but with a dumb demon, it was considered impossible. However, when the Messiah came, He would be able to cast out even this kind! That's why they responded the way they did in verse 23.
Verse 24 gives us the Pharisaic response; because He didn't fit their preconceived idea of what and Who the Messiah was.
Yeshua's, (Jesus'), response is found in verses 25-29 and judgment pronounced in verses 30-37. We also discussed the fact that the "unpardonable sin" was a national sin that that generation had committed. It is not an individual sin and Arnold says the following:
"the content of the unpardonable sin was the national rejection of the Messiahship of Yeshua while He was physically present on the grounds that He was demon possessed." The judgment came 40 years later in 70AD with the Temple's destruction and the Jews' worldwide dispersion.
Next week we'll continue looking at various Scriptures surrounding this amazing event that completely changed the whole purpose of His miracles and His ministry.

John 1:1-18, The Word

One of the most fascinating things that I ever studied was the "Logos" of John 1:1-18. After reading many commentaries concerning how Jesus fulfilled the goals of Greek philosophy in the areas of both "reason" and "speech," Arnold, (Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum), reminded me that John was not a Greek philosopher, he was a Jewish fisherman and that what he really had in mind was first century Jewish theology that existed in Israel. The rabbis during that time used an Aramaic term that meant "word." It was the concept of memra that John used and there were six things that the rabbis taught concerning the memra:

1. The same, but distinct from God, (John 1:1)
2. The agent of Creation, (John 1:3)
3. The agent of salvation, (John 1:12)
4. The visible manifestation of God's presence, (John 1:14). That word is "skeinei" in the Greek, because the Greek's didn't have a "sh" sound for Shechinah, but they liked the concept of gods coming down from Mount Olympus and intermingling with men. So, it should be read, "And the Word became flesh, and "tabernacled" among us."
5. The agent of Revelation, (John 1:18)
6. The Seal of the Covenants, (John 1:17)

Arnold summarizes as follows: "John's introduction of verses 1-18 can be summarized in four points. First, the Word, the logos, the memra, finally came in visible form, in the form of flesh, in the form of a man. Secondly, unfortunately, the world in general did not know Him; it did not recognize the light that had arrived. Thirdly, even more tragically, His own people, the Jewish people, did not recognize Him either. However, fourthly, those individual Jews and Gentiles who did recognize Him are the ones who became the children of light; they are the ones who received spiritual salvation from Him, the agent of salvation."

In class, we also listened to Paul Wilbur perform "Day's of Elijah" at the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. What a blessing.

Hope to see more of you in the following weeks.

Chrbrotherist

George Haven

Feast of Tabernacles

During our last class, (10/04/09), we finished up with the fall feasts and concluded with the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. We learned about the three key symbols in the Jewish observance of the feast:

1. The booth or tabernacle
2. The lulav, consisting of myrtle, willow, and palm branches
3. The etrog or citron.

While studying this, a word study came to mind, so with my Logos Bible software, a search of the word, "branch" yielded a tremendous blessing. The following Scriptures were highlighted on the board:

Isaiah 4:2, 11:1 and following, 14:19, which speaks of Satan, and 60:21 and following.

Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15.

Zechariah 3:8 and of course:

John 15:1 and following.

We talked about the two key ceremonies:

1. The pouring out of the water ceremony followed by great rejoicing, (Jesus' response can be found in John 7:37-39).
2. The kindling of the lights ceremony, (His response can be found in John 8:12).

I know that I won't look at His words the same way again! What an incredible way to announce His Messiahship.

We also watched the live performance of Paul Wilbur, (10 years ago), in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles, called "Jerusalem Arise." Two songs were selected that were quite moving. I'll continue to play songs from this video as time permits.

Be blessed,

George Haven