Passages for Chukat: Numbers 19:1-22:1, Judges 11:1-33,
John 3:10-21, 1 Corinthians 10:1-9
Numbers 21:4-9 (JPS 1917)
"And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass
the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became impatient because
of the way.
And the people spoke against God, and against
Moses: 'Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loatheth
this light bread.'
And the LORD sent fiery serpents among
the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
And the people came
to Moses, and said: 'We have sinned, because we have spoken against
the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that He take away the
serpents from us.' And Moses prayed for the people.
And the LORD said
unto Moses: 'Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and
it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth
it, shall live.'
And Moses made
a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to
pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the
serpent of brass, he lived."
1 Corinthians 10:1, 9
"For, brothers, I don't want you to miss the
significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided
by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea, And let
us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed
by snakes."
John 3:13-15a
"No one has gone up into heaven; there is
only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. Just as
Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life."
Yeshua said, No one has gone up into heaven;"
If Yeshua was only a man, who went up to heaven
because he fulfilled the Torah, then that implies that there is not
a need for a Messiah, because it would mean, first, that a man could
live a life without sin through his knowledge of Torah! I will repeat
this statement, if Yeshua was only a man, who went up to heaven
because he fulfilled the Torah, then that implies that there is not
a need for a Messiah! In other words, if a man could fulfill Torah
by himself, it would imply that he could have eternal life through his
own works; it would mean that the coming of the Messiah would not be
necessary!
A person cannot follow Torah if they do not understand
it!
It is clear that the age of reckoning for a Jewish boy is at Bar
Mitzvah, around 12 to 13 years old. That implies that not until a
boy has studied Torah will he have been able to know to follow it.
In other words, someone can not truly follow something unless they understand
it.
Now, it is true to expect that a Jewish boy should
be guided by his parents, in order that he should follow Torah, i.e.
not sin, even before he knows Torah in his heart. As parents we are
admonished to train up a child in the way he should go (Proverbs 22:6).
Thus, Rav Shaul (the Apostle Paul) says, in Romans 3:1,2, "Then what
advantage has the Jew? What is the value of being circumcised? Much
in every way! In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very
words of God."
Romans 3:9-12 "So are we Jews better off? Not entirely;
for I have already made the charge that all people, Jews and Gentiles
alike, are controlled by sin. As the Torah puts it, there is no one
righteous, not even one! ΠNo one understands, no one seeks God, all
have turned away,..."
So, let's return to Yeshua's statement, "No one
has gone up into heaven;" Isn't that the same as saying, All
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)?
Perhaps now is a good time to interject a short discussion
about Mashiach. If we approach the discussion by defining the concept
based upon prevalent Jewish thought, then we will never discover the
truth!
In his message last Shabbat, titled Raising
the Bar of Our Devotion to Yeshua, David Rudolph pointed out
about how the Hasidic community has embraced rabbi Menachem Schneerson
as their Messiah; but in order to do so they must begin with their belief
first and then fill in the blanks or holes through a subjective use
of Scripture. Yet, they believe rabbi Schneerson is the Messiah and
they try to support their faith with Scripture, not necessarily neo-modern
philosophy.
Here's my point: prevalent Jewish thought would have
you believe, first, that the Messiah will be a great Military leader.
That automatically rules out rabbi Schneerson, but that thinking also
rules out Yeshua! Yet, that doesn't stop the Hasidim from still believing
that rabbi Schneerson is Mashiach, nor does it keep us from believing
that Yeshua is the Mashiach either.
Rabbi Menachem Schneerson was born in Nikolaev, Russia!
Scripture doesn't say anything about the Messiah being born in Russia!
But it does say that the Messiah will be born in Ephrata of Judea (Micah
5:2)! We have a great testimony of witnesses that say that Yeshua was
born in Bethlehem Ephrata!
Yeshua fulfilled Torah even before he was born!
How could that be? "there is only one who has come down from Heaven,
the Son of Man." (John 3:13b).
Let's put this into perspective: In 1 Corinthians
10:9, Rav Shaul says, "And let us not put the Messiah to the test,
as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes."
Rav Shaul sets the standard for how we should orient
our thinking. In effect, he is saying that our forefathers put Yeshua
to the test. He could easily have written, "put God to
the test", but he didn't.
Taking this perspective, then, and returning to John
3:13-15, Yeshua says, "No one has gone up into heaven; there is only
one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. Just as Moshe lifted
up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so
that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life."
Who, then, is this Yeshua? He is the same
person that Rav Shaul ascribes to being put to the test by our forefathers!
He is NOT the man who became GOD. He
is God (Elohim).
He alone fulfilled Torah.
He was born in Israel (He came and
lived among us as a man - John 1:14). His mother was a virgin
(Isaiah 7:14). He died at the hands of the Torah teachers of
his day (Acts 2:14-39, 3:11-26, 4:5-12). He was raised again
to life after being truly dead for three days (Psalms 16:8-11; Acts
2:24-28; 3:15).
Yeshua is Elohim. He is alive.
Put your trust in Him and He will raise you up from the
dead (Acts 2:38-39, 4:12; John 3:1-15)!
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