Rabbi’s Reflections – Friday, September 25, 2020
(Early) Shabbat Shalom,
Chag HaSukkot Hazeh!!! Mikra Kodesh!!! This Sukkot holiday!!! A holy convocation!!! Come at noon on Sunday and us help decorate the Sukkah. This is fun for the whole family. We will hang fruit and wrap it with lights. Sukkot begins next Friday night (always exactly 2 weeks after Rosh Hashanah). Please come. Many hands make lite work. (I’ve heard that somewhere before.)
_____________
In John 4, the disciples had gone to buy food. While they were gone, Yeshua ministered to the Samaritan woman. When they returned they offered Him food, but he refused. Then… John 4:34 Yeshua tells them, “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” The quote doesn’t end there, but I want to deal with just that much first. Doing God’s will on earth is a lifetime mission for us all. It’s in the Lord’s prayer. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
But man is the obstacle. Everything in creation does the will of God except the one whom God created to have free will. That “free will” when properly directed does the will of the Father. Yeshua is our example in this.
Part of the discourse that follows in John 4 is an admonition from Yeshua to see the harvest is ripe and to have both the sower of seed and the reaper of the harvest celebrate together. Yeshua is referring to a prophesy from Amos 9:13a “Behold, days are soon coming” —it is a declaration of Adonai — “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the one treading grapes, the one sowing seed.”
Yeshua is telling His disciples in John 4 that they are the reapers who did not plant. Those who planted were the ancient Israelites. They received the Torah and through them (us), God gave it to the world. These are the plowmen, who broke up the fallow ground.
The reapers are believers who have harvested souls for 2,000 years. Now Yeshua prophesies of a day… John 4:36 “The reaper receives a reward and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have worked hard, and you have joined in their work.”
The modern reality of Yeshua’s words is here today. Jewish and non-Jewish people are joined together; the sower has overtaken (caught up to) the reaper. Now both have a calling from God to rejoice and continue in the harvest. The times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, now is the time for Jews and Gentiles to complete the work of the kingdom together.
Week 39
Memory Verse: James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
191 9/21 Monday: Acts 10-11
192 9/22 Tuesday: Acts 12
193 9/23 Wednesday: Acts 13-14
194 9/24 Thursday: James 1-2
* 195 9/25 Friday: James 3-5
Question of the Day: Jacob (James) 1:1 Where do quarrels and conflicts among you come from?
Answer: Side note: The book of Jacob was renamed James when brought forward from the Hebrew “Ya’akov” into English. But let’s answer the question. The Bible describes the “quarrels and conflicts” as Jacob 4:2b You fight and you wage war.
I know people (not just one) who live in offense. Many quarrels and conflicts come out of offense. John Bevere calls offense “The Bait of Satan.” He even wrote a book by the same title. It’s called “bait” because offense is always available. We “take the bait” when we become offended.
Offense is always a choice. Quite often offense is connected to pride. “I deserve to be treated better than I have been treated” would be a thought by someone who has taken the bait.
The solution? Eyes on Him. Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us run with endurance the race set before us, 2 focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
The only One Who has a legitimate right to be offended is Yeshua, and He is not offended.
Philippians 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves, which also was in Messiah Yeshua, 6 Who, though existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped. 7 But He emptied Himself— taking on the form of a slave, becoming the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man. 8 He humbled Himself— becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Shabbat Shalom (again).