I think I have mentioned this before. I am a live-in caregiver for my aunt, my dad’s sister. I love her dearly, but anyone who has done this job knows it comes with many challenges. A group of ladies meet here every friday for “bible study”. This is actually a misnomer as we do not actually study the bible. We get books and read them chapter by chapter and gather from week to week to discuss the material in the books.
We are presently reading Philip Yancy’s The Jesus You Never Knew. Throughout my time with my aunt, I have participated in these studies and have formed some interesting friendships with these lovely ladies. I appreciate that the ladies who come allow me to interject an ‘Hebraic’ understanding and yet I do not see that it has made much of an impact.
Case in point is the chapter we went through today. Chapter 9 titled: Death: the final week, dealing with the week just preceding Yeshua’s death on the stake. Sometimes, it is such a struggle. I mean the writing is from a totally ‘christian’ perspective without so much as a shred of context that has anything to do with why or how the events unfolded as they did.
There are speculation and opinion and statements made that cram the events into a “christian” paradigm which did not exist until the 4th century. Until that time followers of Yeshua were known as followers of The Way - a sect of Judaism that was recognized as Judaism. Now, there were leaders who didn’t like The Way, but never was there a question that those who believed that Yeshua was their Messiah were anything but Jewish in their practice and belief. Similarly today, we have Baptists and Methodists and Pentecostals, and although they have differences in the way they practice their belief, not one of these groups would state that the others were not christian.
I commented that the waving of palm branches at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was not, nor has it ever been a Pesach tradition. It was customarily done at the Feast of Tabernacles and is laid out in Lev. 23:40. The people waving branches just before Yeshua’s death were under the impression that the kingdom of YHVH was being ushered in and Yeshua was the Messiah/King/Anointed One who was to rule; the time when YHVH would once again “tabernacle” among His people, a thoroughly “Jewish” concept!
Uncomfortable silence. Furtive glances back and forth. Here she goes again. One of the women said she did not know this and thought it was interesting. One wondered why the author would come from any other perspective than a christian one since he was a christian writing to christians. I open my mouth again. Why would you not want to see these events in the light of their original context instead of trying to force it into a paradigm established three to four hundred years after the fact?!?!
All the doors are shut, now. You can just hear the wheels turning - I like it the way I like it and am NOT going to listen to this. I am familiar with this place. I know that the Father uses me in a way that provides people with an opportunity to do the right thing.
Years ago, I was led to put together a challenge to a large Denver area school district. It dealt with the psychological teaching methods being used which had been proven to be damaging to the adults subjected to them let alone foisting them onto unsuspecting children. In the car on my way to the hearing, I heard the Ruach say, “This isn’t going to change anything.” In my calm and gentle way - NOT - I pounded on the steering wheel and asked rather rudely, “Then what am I doing it for?” The answer I got was to forever change the issue I had with the way Abba has chosen to use me. He said, “Because they will not ever be able to say again - I didn’t know.” From this point forward, they are not being led down the proverbial primrose path without knowledge. They now know that what they are doing is causing damage and they will be held accountable for their participation, if not by the “law”, most certainly by YHVH. The end result of this encounter was a letter from the district stating that they understood the potential risks but were not going to change anything because what they were doing was not against the law.
I will continue to allow the Father to speak through me, even though it means uncomfortable silences and eye rolling and even rejection. I remember how hard it was to come to terms with the fact that a lot of what I believed was a lie, but it never occurred to me to reject Truth to stay in the lie. This is what I struggle with: when the agenda of a school district is more important than the children’s lives, when your comfort level in what you currently believe is more important than the Truth. . .
We are presently reading Philip Yancy’s The Jesus You Never Knew. Throughout my time with my aunt, I have participated in these studies and have formed some interesting friendships with these lovely ladies. I appreciate that the ladies who come allow me to interject an ‘Hebraic’ understanding and yet I do not see that it has made much of an impact.
Case in point is the chapter we went through today. Chapter 9 titled: Death: the final week, dealing with the week just preceding Yeshua’s death on the stake. Sometimes, it is such a struggle. I mean the writing is from a totally ‘christian’ perspective without so much as a shred of context that has anything to do with why or how the events unfolded as they did.
There are speculation and opinion and statements made that cram the events into a “christian” paradigm which did not exist until the 4th century. Until that time followers of Yeshua were known as followers of The Way - a sect of Judaism that was recognized as Judaism. Now, there were leaders who didn’t like The Way, but never was there a question that those who believed that Yeshua was their Messiah were anything but Jewish in their practice and belief. Similarly today, we have Baptists and Methodists and Pentecostals, and although they have differences in the way they practice their belief, not one of these groups would state that the others were not christian.
I commented that the waving of palm branches at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was not, nor has it ever been a Pesach tradition. It was customarily done at the Feast of Tabernacles and is laid out in Lev. 23:40. The people waving branches just before Yeshua’s death were under the impression that the kingdom of YHVH was being ushered in and Yeshua was the Messiah/King/Anointed One who was to rule; the time when YHVH would once again “tabernacle” among His people, a thoroughly “Jewish” concept!
Uncomfortable silence. Furtive glances back and forth. Here she goes again. One of the women said she did not know this and thought it was interesting. One wondered why the author would come from any other perspective than a christian one since he was a christian writing to christians. I open my mouth again. Why would you not want to see these events in the light of their original context instead of trying to force it into a paradigm established three to four hundred years after the fact?!?!
All the doors are shut, now. You can just hear the wheels turning - I like it the way I like it and am NOT going to listen to this. I am familiar with this place. I know that the Father uses me in a way that provides people with an opportunity to do the right thing.
Years ago, I was led to put together a challenge to a large Denver area school district. It dealt with the psychological teaching methods being used which had been proven to be damaging to the adults subjected to them let alone foisting them onto unsuspecting children. In the car on my way to the hearing, I heard the Ruach say, “This isn’t going to change anything.” In my calm and gentle way - NOT - I pounded on the steering wheel and asked rather rudely, “Then what am I doing it for?” The answer I got was to forever change the issue I had with the way Abba has chosen to use me. He said, “Because they will not ever be able to say again - I didn’t know.” From this point forward, they are not being led down the proverbial primrose path without knowledge. They now know that what they are doing is causing damage and they will be held accountable for their participation, if not by the “law”, most certainly by YHVH. The end result of this encounter was a letter from the district stating that they understood the potential risks but were not going to change anything because what they were doing was not against the law.
I will continue to allow the Father to speak through me, even though it means uncomfortable silences and eye rolling and even rejection. I remember how hard it was to come to terms with the fact that a lot of what I believed was a lie, but it never occurred to me to reject Truth to stay in the lie. This is what I struggle with: when the agenda of a school district is more important than the children’s lives, when your comfort level in what you currently believe is more important than the Truth. . .
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