Epistle Shoftim

Epistle Shoftim

John chapter 17

Joh 17:1 Yeshua said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;

Joh 17:2  even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

Joh 17:3  This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true Elohim, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah.

The way we “know” Elohim is to study scripture and the way we “love” Elohim is by obeying what we hav read and not being like the rest of the world.  This is how our eternal life is demonstrated to everyone.

1Jo 5:1  Whoever believes that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of Elohim. Whoever loves the father also loves the child who is born of him.   1Jo 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of Elohim, when we love Elohim and keep his mitzvot.   1Jo 5:3  For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep his mitzvot. His mitzvot are not grievous.   1Jo 5:4  For whatever is born of Elohim overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.

John, continued:

Joh 17:4  I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

Joh 17:5  Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

Joh 17:6  I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.

Elohim’s Word is the Torah – indeed, all of the teachings and commandments of the Tanakh. These words were written some 200 years before there even was such a thing as the “new testament.”

John, continued:

Joh 17:7  Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

Joh 17:8  for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

Joh 17:9  I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

Joh 17:10  All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

Joh 17:11  I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Referring, of course, to Judas Iscariot.  If he has not played this part, somebody else would have.  He freely chose his course of action, and is therefore condemned.  The fact that scripture is fulfulled does not take away anyone’s free will.

John, continued:

Joh 17:13  But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

Joh 17:14  I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Joh 17:15  I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

This is not a blanket promise that believers will always be protected physically from persecution and execution for their faith.  Indeed, in the Tribulation many millions will be martyred for their faith, and we will all have difficulties and be rejected by the world during the birth pangs.  By keeping us “from the evil one” he simply promises that if we truly have faith, we will not be swayed by any trail or tribulation that is thrown at us – we will win the victory of the spirit and rise again to eternal life.

John, continued:

Joh 17:16  They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

Psa 119:142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Your Torah is truth.   Psa 119:143  Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your mitzvot are my delight.

John, continued:

Joh 17:18  As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.

Joh 17:19  For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Joh 17:20  Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,

Joh 17:21  that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

Joh 17:22  The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

Joh 17:23  I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

Joh 17:24  Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Yeshua refers here to the Parousia, when Obedient Believers will spend the 7 days (representing years) of the Wedding Feast with Yeshua in Heaven, while Elohim’s wrath is poured out on the earth during the Tribulation.

John, continued:

Joh 17:25  Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

Joh 17:26  I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

This is the mystery of the Bride of Messiah, who is one with her Husband and Adonai.

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