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1. In John 10:29 Yeshua says that his Father *gave* him the sheep. This proves he is not the Father. We have one person giving something to another person.
2. In John 10:29 Yeshua says his Father is greater than all. This again proves that Yeshua is not the Father. Yeshua is great, but his Father is greater. 3. The context before John 10:30, verses 25-29, show that Yeshua and the Father are ONE in keeping the sheep. Yeshua wasn't talking about being one and the same person as the Father, but one in purpose, goal, mind, etc. 4. The Greek word for one in John 10:30 is "hen." It is the neuter tense for one (eis) and means one in unity/purpose. The neuter tense never means one in number in the Greek NT. 5. When the Jews picked up stones to stone him for claiming to be God or a god (the Greek can be translated either way), whatever was in their minds doesn't prove what was in Yeshua's mind. All through the Gospel of John we see people misunderstanding Yeshua's words. We shouldn't take our lead from his accusers. We should base what we believe about Yeshua, upon what he said. 6. If people would keep reading, they would see that Yeshua attempts to answer their accusation by quoting Psalm 82:6, a scripture about lesser gods under Yahweh. In Psalm 82, Yahweh called lesser beings (some say judges; some say angels) gods or mighty ones. If Yeshua is Yahweh Elohim, why in the world does he quote Psalm 82:6 in his defense? Psalm 82 is not about Yahweh Elohim, it's about lesser elohim under Yahweh. 7. Yeshua is quoting Psalm 82:6 in John 10:34 as a scripture that cannot be broken. In Psalm 82:6, the same beings that are called "gods" are also called "sons of the most high." Yeshua was/is THE Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32). He's the most powerful elohim, second only to Yahweh. 8. If Yahweh called those beings "gods" back in Psalm 82, how is it blasphemy for Yeshua to say he is the Son of God? (John 10:36). That's Yeshua's point. The Father sanctified him and sent him into the world (this again proves he's not Yahweh the Father). Yeshua is greater than the gods of Psalm 82, but lesser than Yahweh Elohim, the Father. 9. Yeshua not only said he was the Son of God, but that the Father was in him and he in the Father (John 10:38). The Jews listening that day were only hearing with their natural ears. They weren't really concerned with his claims, so they tried to grab him again by force. 10. This passage has Yeshua saying "I am the Son of God," not that he is God. To be the Son of God immediately proves you are not the God that you are the Son of.
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You should never, ever accuse someone of something you know nothing about, and that hasn’t been verified by at least two trustworthy eyewitnesses. Absolutely never. A false rumor can get back around to the accused and damage them for life. People will believe something that sounds awful before they will believe something that sounds beautiful.
We are all real people with real feelings. Social media makes us forget that. It’s not here to give us a platform to belittle each other. Bullying isn’t just something that goes on with children. It happens in the adult world, and most of the time we deny it, and even worse, try to use the Scripture to justify it. Yuck. We have to make a conscious effort to be kind in everything we *type* not just everything we say. I’ve failed at this before, and have to remind myself of this often. It’s easy to get caught up in some kind of hype or mob rule or bandwagon, but it’s not of Yahweh. Thankfully we can ask Yahweh to forgive us, repent, and do better. Kindness is always best. Yeshua was a kind, gentle man. Yes, I know, I know... he got upset sometimes. People want to always bring up the one isolated time he did the whip thing in the temple. When Yeshua got upset, it was with religious people. He saved His strongest rebukes for those who appeared to be righteous, but were using their positions to lord over others. In all other cases, He exhibited gentleness. There is time for rebuke. There is time for chastisement. But for goodness sakes, let’s be slower to judgement and faster to mercy. A righteous person is harder on their self and easier on others. A self righteous person is easier on their self and harder on others. Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, not harshness. Rudeness and sarcasm didn’t make the list either. Those born of the Spirit have love and joy and patience. Those operating under the flesh do not. It’s so important. We can be right and still be a jerk. Yahweh isn’t looking for who will be a jerk for Him. He loves quietness, and slowness to wrath. After all, He is slow to anger Himself. ✌🏼 No one forced Yeshua to do what he did, in dying for our sin. “He submitted himself to death... bore the sin of many, and interceded for the rebels.” (Isaiah 53:12)
His sacrifice was a willing sacrifice. It was not easy. It was not a “walk in the park” as we say. At one point he even prayed that what he was about to suffer would pass him by. I don’t think this points to any unwillingness in him, but rather to his consciousness of what was about to take place. He clears this up by following in his prayer to the Father with: “Yet not as I will but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) What an amazing prayer. He knew it was about to get tough, but it was his Father’s will, and Yeshua submitted because he loved us. “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Yeshua was wounded, but not for his own sins. He had none. He was bruised, but it wasn’t because he broke the Sabbath, or stole from his neighbor, or committed adultery. The punishment for our peace fell on him. His stripes bring us healing. We would not have peace with the Father, had not Yeshua willingly submitted to die in our place. He died. He really died. Christians have said it so much, and cliched it so much that we forget its potency. He suffered and died. Not because he deserved it. He laid down his life for his friends. I was going back over Isaiah 53 this morning. It is powerful. If I had to pick only one text of Scripture to teach about Yeshua’s substitutionary, atoning death, it wouldn’t be in the New Testament. It would be Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12. One part that I’ve had a hard time with is 53:10. “Yet YHWH was pleased to crush him.” Yahweh was pleased to crush the suffering servant? I have to admit that makes me cringe a little. But knowing the totality of Scripture helps at this point. Yahweh is holy. We are not. There was a man who came up to even Yeshua once and began the conversation by saying “Good Master.” Yeshua, in humility, said: “Why do you call me good? There’s none good but One, the Almighty.” (Matthew 19:17) The prophet Isaiah, perhaps the holiest man in Israel at the time of his prophecy, said in the presence of Yahweh that he was ruined, and a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5). Yahweh is holy, and therefore must punish sin. Yahweh wasn’t pleased to crush Yeshua (the Servant) because Yeshua was such a sinner. He was pleased to crush him because he was willing to suffer for the sins of the sheep. (Isaiah 53:6) In crushing Yeshua, he was crushing sin. Paul put it like this: “He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of the Almighty in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) The bad news is that we are transgressors. All we like sheep have gone astray. If Yahweh kept track of iniquities, who could stand? If He dealt with us as we deserve, we would get eternal destruction. But He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve. He forgives us, because He dealt with our sins by sending His Son to live perfectly according to the law, and then die for our sins as an unblemished sacrifice. This is the Gospel. All else pales in comparison. Nothing else would even matter if our sin problem was not dealt with. Because of Yeshua’s obedience to the law, and submission unto death, Yahweh resurrected him to immortality, never to die again. He was delivered up for our trespasses, and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:25) This was Yeshua’s vindication. His resurrection proved that he had not died because of his own sins. His resurrection is just as much a part of the Gospel as his life and death. When the Apostles preached in the book of Acts, they didn’t just preach about his death, they always finished their preaching with his resurrection. Yeshua was raised to immortality, and later he ascended to the right hand of Yahweh (Acts 2:33; 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 10:12). He is Yahweh’s right hand man. He is Yahweh’s priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:9-10; 7:17, 21-22). He serves as a priest for us, in the heavens; in the heavenly Tabernacle. He’s obtained a superior ministry than the Levite priests. He is the mediator of a better covenant. (Hebrews 8:6). Give thanks to Yahweh. Yahweh loves us so much that He sent his Son to live for us, die for us, be raised for us, and then be our high priest in the heavens. It all goes back to Yahweh the Father. He made all this happen, and He did it through His Son. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about a great Elder in the faith: Orlando Smith.
Brother Orlando was the first man to teach me about the tassels (Numbers 15:37-41), back in 1998. I was sitting in my in-law’s living room, and he had these strings hanging from his clothes. I didn’t know what they were. I asked. He explained. I tied my first set that night. Me and my father-in-law even wrote a song together about the ribband of blue. I still sing it today. Orlando was a dedicated man of YHWH. He was quiet. He talked slowly. He was old when I met him. He studied a lot. He would sit in the living room there and study all day long. Sometimes he’d nod off, then he’d wake up and start studying again. Orlando had calloused knees from kneeling down often to pray. He would always get on his knees to pray. He said it was a way to humble ourselves before the Almighty. He had two silver trumpets that he would blow at the same time. A Tennessee newspaper once took a picture of him on top of his house, blowing both trumpets. The county was trying to get him to move some trucks out of his yard that had been there “forever.” He didn’t believe he needed to. He was blowing the trumpets in defiance of local government persecution, lol. Orlando meant business. Orlando wore a hat all the time, but with the bill cut off. Most of the time his hat would have the Sacred Name on it, in Aramaic or Paleo script. Once though it was a Philadelphia Eagles hat. I never asked him why. It’s possible he didn’t even know that was a football team. He mightta’ thought it stood for the scripture about eagles wings. Orlando wore an untrimmed beard, solid white. He also didn’t trim the hair on the temples of his head. That’s how he understood Leviticus 19:27. One time I saw him walk in the house and his beard was crooked. I said, “Brother Orlando! Your beard!” He responded that he had gotten a new shirt with the Tetragrammaton on it. With his long, untrimmed beard you couldn’t see the writing. He had trimmed his beard so people could see the Name on his shirt. He trimmed it crooked. 😃 I was at a Feast of Tabernacles up in Pennsylvania about 15 years ago, and brother Orlando was there. They had a huge congregational sukkah; the biggest I’ve ever seen. One night it started to rain. I said, “Brother Orlando, we’re going to go inside or get in the van. C’mon with us.” He said he’d be fine. He reached down in his sleeping bag, pulled out a plastic sheet, and pulled it over his head. I watched him lay there under that sukkah with the rain drops hitting him right in his face on the plastic. Orlando told me that when he prayed, he always asked Yahweh to enlarge the borders of his heart, so that all the commandments could fit there. He didn’t want to neglect anything in Torah. I believe he was a man after Yahweh’s own heart. Brother Orlando died somewhere in his 80’s. I wasn’t there. I didn’t attend his funeral. I don’t even know if he had a funeral. I don’t think he would care either way. He wasn’t well known on this planet, and he never tried to make a name for himself. His reward will be great in the Kingdom. He’s in the book of remembrance, because he feared Yahweh, and had a high regard for His name. He will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Rest in peace wise Elder. You made a huge impact on me. I still think about you most every day. |
AuthorBlog by Matthew Janzen. Lover of Yahweh, Yeshua, my wife and 5 children. All else is commentary. Archives
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