Epistle BeChukotei
Epistle BeChukotei
John 7:25-53
Joh 7:25 Therefore some of them of Yerushalayim said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?
Referring to Yeshua.
John, continued:
Joh 7:26 Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Messiah?
Joh 7:27 However we know where this man comes from, but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
That is, of course, a teaching of the oral law, written in the Talmud – and it is clearly not correct Biblically, because we know from scripture that:
Mic 5:1 Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Yisra’el with a rod on the cheek. Mic 5:2 But you, Beit-Lechem Efratah, being small among the clans of Yehudah, out of you one will come forth to me that is to be ruler in Yisra’el; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Mic 5:3 Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Yisra’el. Mic 5:4 He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of YHWH, in the majesty of the name of YHWH his Elohim: and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.
John, continued:
Joh 7:28 Yeshua therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.
Joh 7:29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
Joh 7:30 They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Joh 7:31 But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?“
When the False Messiah comes, he will give it his best shot – bread and circuses lures people in.
John, continued:
Joh 7:32 The Perushim heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief Kohanim and the Perushim sent officers to arrest him.
Joh 7:33 Then Yeshua said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me.
Joh 7:34 You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come.”
Joh 7:35 The Judeans therefore said among themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Diaspora among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
Joh 7:36 What is this word that he said, ‘You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come’?”
He will go to the throne room of YHWH Elohim, to be our advocate and high priest – a place none of those unrepentant false teachers will ever see except on the day of the Great White Throne Judgement, when they will be condemned.
John, continued:
Joh 7:37 Now on the last day of the feast, Hoshana Rabbah, Yeshua stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!
This it the 7th Day of Sukkot – the water pouring ceremony. It represents the prophecy of the River of Life coming from the Temple Mount during the Messianic Kingdom.
John, continued:
Joh 7:38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”
Joh 7:39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Ruach HaKodesh was not yet given, because Yeshua wasn’t yet glorified.
Joh 7:40 Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, “This is truly the prophet.”
The prophet spoken of by Moshe:
Deu 18:15 YHWH your Elohim will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen; Deu 18:16 according to all that you desired of YHWH your Elohim in Chorev in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of YHWH my Elohim, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die. Deu 18:17 YHWH said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken. Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. Deu 18:19 It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
John, continued:
Joh 7:41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “What, does the Messiah come out of the Galil?
Joh 7:42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Messiah comes of the seed of David, and from Beit-Lechem, the village where David was?“
It’s interesting that the common people knew from the Tanakh what the Pharisees above denied in their oral law!
John, continued:
Joh 7:43 So there arose a division in the multitude because of him.
Joh 7:44 Some of them would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him.
Joh 7:45 The officers therefore came to the chief Kohanim and Perushim, and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
Joh 7:46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”
Joh 7:47 The Perushim therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you?
Joh 7:48 Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Perushim?
Apparently the answer to that question is “yes,” but people kept their faith to themselves in fear of the politically appointed leaders. That doesn’t mean they could or did directly lie about their beliefs – but as long as no one asked them directly and in person, they could obfuscate or keep silent – and did, feeling that being on the inside was a strategic position that should be held onto as long as possible, for the benefit of other believers.
John, continued:
Joh 7:49 But this multitude that doesn’t know the Torah is accursed.”
Joh 7:50 Nakdimon (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,
Joh 7:51 “Does our Torah judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?”
From the inside, Nicodemus and others tried to direct the discussion and decisions of the leadership toward tolerance and safety for Yeshua and for his followers.
John, continued:
Joh 7:52 They answered him, “Are you also from the Galil? Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of the Galil.“
Joh 7:53 Everyone went to his own house.
It doesn’t say anywhere in the Tanakh that a prophet can’t arise out of Galil. There is such a thing as taking tradition and precedent too far. And it’s not exactly intellectually honest to say that no prophet ever arose out of Galil, because that territory used to be the northern nation of Israel – as opposed to the southern nation of Judah – during the monarchy. There were most certianly prophets from there, but it wasn’t called Galil and there is nothing in the oral law or talmud about prophets arising in Galil for that reason alone. Too much literalness is also a flaw when it comes to interpreting prophecies. Assyria, Persia, Babylon, Put, Cush, and so on – these places no longer exist by those names, but they are still very relevant for prophecy and the modern nations that occupy those territories are players in the last days scenario.
Next: Kollel BeChukotei.
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