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“What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” “Who is my neighbor?” At first these questions seem contradictory. Some even accuse the questioners of attempting to entrap Yeshua. However, honest seekers of truth regularly challenged rabbis with tough questions, as did Abraham, Moses and others.
Yeshua’s response in each case is a little different. In Luke, Yeshua encourages the young lawyer to answer his own question while in Matthew, Yeshua challenges the lawyer’s addressing him as “teacher” by stating that only God is good, echoing the lawyer challenges in Matthew 22 and Mark 12 and admonishes the lawyer to enter life, i.e. life in the world to come.
Yeshua quotes Lev. 18:15, “Do this and live.” Was Yeshua advocating Torah obedience as a means of salvation on the Day of the Lord? Does this contradict John 3:16? If we believe in Yeshua and do nothing, then we don’t really believe. Belief must be put into action to be a valid belief. Obedience is the fruit of belief. James said, “faith without works is dead.”
Yeshua draws a faith/belief parallel between His future being “lifted up” on a crucifixion stake and the Torah’s account of the bronze serpent on the pole (Num. 21:6-9). After the people rose up and complained against Moses, God sent snakes to bite the people and a number of people died from the bites so the people pleaded with Moses to intercede with God. God’s answer to their request was to tell Moses to put up a bronze serpent. God told the people that if they were bitten by a snake, to look at the bronze serpent and live. God didn’t take the snakes away but instead he provided a provision for the people to act in faith and survive the snake bite.
In the same way, Yeshua’s solution for a world poisoned with darkness, which is ignorance of or rebellion against God’s plan was to be lifted up on a stake and those of us who have been “bitten” by the snake of this world can look upon Him and live.
Yeshua tells us “eternal life” is to “know You the only true God and Yeshua, the anointed whom You have sent” (John 17:3)
Other religions such as Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism and even Animism have hints of God’s statutes and judgements embedded in them, such as loving your neighbor as yourself but they are not completely connected to their true judge Yeshua.
Moses made a similar comment in Ex. 33:12-13 when he says, “… let me know Your ways that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight.” We can’t really know God without knowing and practicing His ways.
What judgement did Yeshua bring into the world? Simply being the true light and representation of who God is and what God wants. That simple act was profound because Yeshua’s coming drew an obviously line of what is right and wrong.
God tells Moses in Lev. 18:2-5 that loving Him and “walking in His statutes” instead of the statues of the world will give us life.
Ezek. 20:1-17 expands on this point profoundly. Much of the chapter reiterates the story of the Exodus and how profoundly that effected the nations around them. But after the Israelites entered the land and refused to cast away the idols, they transformed God’s name, which had been a name of fear and trembling to Rahab and her fellow Jerichoites, into a byword. The actions of our ancestors in Israel, even if they claimed to superficially “believe” in God, actually were a desecration of His name.
For example, Israel complained about water and then God lead them to bitter water at Meribah. They lamented for quail, God gave them the quail and it killed them.
Nehemiah 9 is the “contract with Israel” after the exiles returned from Babylon. A large part of this contract is addressed to the priests, Levites and people, just as the parable that Yeshua gave about the Good Samaritan targets the same groups. This contract came into being 3 days after the end of Sukkot.
How do we “agape” God with all of our heart, soul and strength (Deut 6:4–5; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27)? The spirit of God is integral to the New Covenant because He writes the Laws of God on our hearts (Jer. 31:31–34).
Israel’s historical cycles of obedience to disobedience and then depravity and turning around again are lessons to us.
The children of Israel had forgotten how bad Egypt really was, how badly they were enslaved. They then asked for a king when they got David, Solomon and into monarchy from there. They wanted what the world wanted and the desire to be like the world lead then directly into slavery in Rome.
Yeshua’s coming to earth and bringing His light to the world showed that most people love the darkness more than the light because there’s a certain comfort to the misery of darkness. It takes faith to reach out for the light and then time in the light helps us realize that light was better all along and the deceptive comfort of darkness was very miserable.
Where is the darkness going to hide from God when He comes? Nowhere. Darkness can not withstand the light. It can not stop the progress of the light. The truth fills everything. The lie can’t hide anymore.
God’s mercy is that He doesn’t want us to live in darkness.
Speaker: Jeff. Summary: Tammy.