Samson, Elijah and John the Baptizer walk into a prophecy…. It’s no joke. Torah reading נָשֹׂא Nasso (“take up” or “carry,” Numbers 4:21-7:89) helps us see how these three were each witnesses, forerunners who prepared the way for someone greater who came after them. In Yokhanan’s case, he was preparing the hearts of the people to receive Heaven’s greatest gift, Yeshua (Jesus) the Mashiakh (Christ), the Son of God.
What does Chanukah (Festival of Dedication) have to do with believers in Yeshua (Jesus)? It’s in the Bible, and Yeshua celebrated it. In doing so, He gave one of the most startling teachings about Himself (John 10:22-38). As well as a remembrance of the perils of giving up God’s words to fit in or save one’s neck, Chanukah is a memorial of the great miracle of the conception of the Messiah — Immanuel (God With Us) — through Miriam (Mary) (Luke 1; 1Chronicles 24; Haggai 2).
The Apostle John tells us that John the Baptist was the first one who proclaimed the primary purpose of Yeshua’s mission. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (Jn. 1:29, 36) But this Lamb did not show up the way the experts wanted and when Yeshua refused to fulfill the violent desires of the religious experts, they inflicted grave violence on Yeshua, but Yeshua expected that, and so did John the Baptist, even though he didn’t live to see it.
This passage has three seemingly distinct teachings — parable of the shrewd manager, whether the Law and Prophets stopped with Yokhanan the Baptizer and a “one-liner” on divorce — but all of them as well as the parable that follows of the rich man and Lazar deal with one topic: God as Master or wealth as Master.
Deep trust in the God of Israel by those new to that trust and separated from God by their former lives is the thread weaved through the accounts of the healing of the Capernaum centurion’s servant, the raising of the Nain widow’s only son, Yokhanan’s message of repentance and the woman who anointed Yeshua with her tears and expensive ointment.
The phrase similar to “baptism for repentance for forgiveness of sin” is repeated several times in the Gospels and by Peter in the temple on Shavu’ot (Pentecost). This is not a “warm and fuzzy” message we receive from Yokhanan (John the Baptist). However this isn’t God’s way of finding people inconvenient but a call to true repentance and to become true sons of God.
We are continuing our study of the seven “oracles” with the Benediction of Zacharias after the dedication of John the Baptist and the Psalm of Simon at Yeshua’s dedication.