YAHSHUA – Page 5 – Light from the Word

Can You Tarry with Me Through the Night

The place- a garden; the occasion- YAHSHUA’S coming trial and death. After the Passover supper, they headed to the place where they customed to go- the Garden of Gethsemane. While He went a little further, leaving the apostles a stone’s throw, taking Peter, James and John with Him, He knelt down and prayed. This time, was not only to pray, but to agonize His last hours before He would be betrayed into the hands of the Jewish authorities and ultimately into the Romans’ hands. The Garden of Gethsemane was witnessing the suffering of Messiah on His way to deliver mankind from the hands and power of Satan. I just wonder if that was the same or approximate location of the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve first sinned. The first scene was the fall of men and a sentence given them and to the serpent. It was then that God gave Adam and Eve the promise of salvation, and to the serpent He uttered its destination saying, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all animals and above every living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot, and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel (Gen. 3:15). He began to be struck with terror and amazement and deeply troubled and depressed. He then said to them, My soul is exceedingly sad so that it almost kills Me! Remain here and keep awake and be watching, and going a little farther, He fell on the ground and kept praying, that if it were possible the [fatal] hour might pass from Him; He said, Abba, Father, everything is possible for You, Take away this cup from Me; yet, not what I will, but what You will (Mark 14:32-36). The disciples, not understanding the urgency of the moment, were overwhelmed with fatigue and fell asleep, leaving Him alone agonizing. Three times YAHSHUA woke them up to pray and warned them to watch and pray, but of no avail, until the time came for the betrayer to come with a band of guards from the Jewish authorities to arrest Him.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Satan was bruising YAHSHUA’S heel, while the disciples slept, powerlessly, for not remaining in prayer, as they were told. YAHSHUA’S words, “Abba, take away this cup from Me; yet, not my will, but what You will” shows the extent of temptation He was going through alone. That was the opportune time for Satan to come back to tempt Him. At the beginning of YAHSHUA’s ministry, He spent forty days and forty nights at the wilderness, and when at the end when He felt hungry, Satan came to tempt Him. According to Luke, Satan left YAHSHUA after he ended every temptation, until another more opportune and favorable time (4:13). The opportune and favorable time had come to Gethsemane Garden, when the devil showed up to tempt YAHSHUA once again, at the point of His weakness. YAHSHUA aware of it, warned the disciples to be in prayer. But when He returned to them three times, He found them sleeping. That’s when YAHSHUA asked a very solemn question worthy to consider: Have you not the strength to keep awake and watch with Me for one hour? Keep awake and watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:37-38). YAHSHUA continued agonizing, but the disciples continued sleeping, not taking into consideration the severity of the moment that YAHSHUA was going through. They heard the words YAHSHUA expressed to them; but their hearts were far from sharing the Savior’s pain in their lack of understanding. The third time when YAHSHUA found them sleeping instead of going back to praying, He then said, It is enough. The hour has come. The son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinful men; get up, let us be going! See My betrayer is at hand! (Mark 14:41).

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YAHSHUA, Like a Shepherd, Leads Us

(Ezekiel 34; John 10)

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” He meets all my physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. When our Shepherd makes us to lie down in green pastures, He is satisfying our physical and spiritual needs; when He leads us to the quiet waters, He is restoring our soul- emotions, intellect and will, after long days in our journey, facing problems and trials; when He leads us to the path of righteousness, He is sanctifying us. Through life’s journey, He is ever with us; when passing through the valley of death, which is our transition from earth to our heavenly home, He will be with us. The enemies of our soul will forever be defeated, when at our victory, our Shepherd will prepare us a table in their presence. He will anoint us with oil, granting us our position with Him as His children; He has raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together in the heavenly sphere in Messiah YAHSHUA (Eph. 2:6). He calls each one of us and chooses those who will listen to Him. He molds us to be more like Him in His process of sanctification. Every step that we take here on earth, must be a step closer to our Shepherd, no matter how hard and steep the road is, for He gives His sheep “hind’s feet” to be able to go to high places close to Him. He has equipped His sheep with all that they need to make the journey.

The closer that His sheep stays to Him, the more that they will be able to hear His voice. As He said, The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them and they follow Me (Jn. 10:27). That’s a close relationship with His sheep. Always guiding them with His staff, showing them the way, always teaching. The word, listening, in the gerund form, indicates to be paying attention to in a continuous form of the verb; showing an action to being a focus point. It is constant and progressive listening to the voice of their Shepherd. There is a special benefit for those who stay close to the Shepherd. They will not only hear His voice, but will be called His friends, because, He said, I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father (Jn. 15:15). YAHSHUA’S apostles had that position with Him. To them He interpreted the parables, bringing them to the light of understanding them. Psalm 25:14 says: The secret of the Lord have they who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its deep meaning.

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A Manger, a Crown of Thorns and a Cross

(Luke 2:7; Matt 27:29; John 19: 16-18)

But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; [yet] of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2).

The Manger

Before his death, Jacob prophesied of the tribe of Judah: The scepter of leadership shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh [the Messiah, the Peaceful One] comes to Whom it belongs, and to Him shall be the obedience of the people (Gen. 49:10). This prophecy was fulfilled many years later in the birth of our Savior, YAHSHUA. In those days it occurred that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole Roman empire should be registered; all the people were going to be registered, each to his own town; Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the town of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David ( Luke 2:1-3). That happened close to the time for Mary’s delivery. And while they were there, the time came for her delivery, and she gave birth to her Son, her Firstborn; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room or place for them in the inn (Luke 2:6-7). Was YAHSHUA laid in a manger where all kinds of animals were feeding as tradition tells us? In Micah 4:8 the idea is refuted, for the prophet gives us the exact location where Messiah was to be born and the type of manger He would be laid on: And you, O Tower of the Flock, the hill and stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, unto you the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the Daughter of Jerusalem. Messiah was to be born at the “Tower of the Flock”. This was a watch tower used by the shepherds in ancient times for the protection of their flock from enemies and wild beasts. It was also the place where chosen ewes were brought to give birth to their young ones; after their babies were born, they were wrapped in swaddling clothes for their protection. These were special lambs, chosen for temple sacrifices. Only these lambs would be feeding in that place. It is without a doubt that God chose this place many years earlier for His Son to be born; a significant picture of what was to come in the person of His Son, the Lamb of God.

After His birth, the perfect Lamb of God was wrapped in swaddling clothes and was laid in a manger at the “Tower of the Flock.” John the Baptist declared: There is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

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Do Not Weep

(Luke 7:11-16)

After a busy day teaching the multitude, YAHSHUA entered the city of Capernaum. From there, a Centurion’s servant was healed. Then He proceeded to a town called Nain. Nain was a small village in Galilee, located approximately four miles from Mount Tabor and twenty miles southwest of Capernaum. It was nestled in a beautiful region in Israel. Nain means beauty and pleasantness. The Mount Tabor carries a prominent role in the times of Joshua and Deborah. It is situated at the eastern end of Jezreel Valley, with the elevation at the summit of 1,886 feet high. It is a symbol of beauty according to Scripture in Jeremiah 46:18 and Psalms 89:12. As YAHSHUA enters that beautiful place, He is greeted with a funeral procession. Crying and sobs, hopelessness all in one tune reach His ears. A young man, the son of a widow, who depended solely on him for everything, lies cold in a coffin to the place where would not be seen no more. The crying of the widow moves YAHSHUA’S heart, and in a moment of hope, He says to her, Do not weep. Hope abounded in the heart of the widow, as she heard His voice. That was a voice of the Creator, comforting her with resurrection power. She had not heard that voice before perhaps, but the serenity and love echoing through His voice, she knew it was the voice of her Messiah, raising her from the ashes of sorrow and transporting her to the height of joy. Resurrection power took hold of her son and life entered him at the command of the One Who is the Resurrection and the Life!

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YAHSHUA, My Shepherd

(Palm 23; John 10)

When we read Psalm twenty-three we see the beautiful love the Shepherd has for His sheep. In the course of the sheep’s life, He makes sure that they are well provided, protected and cared for. He makes sure that the life of His sheep is provided all the way into eternity. This is what a true sheep says about her Shepherd: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack. He is to His sheep their Living Bread, the Manna that came from heaven. Although Israel ate manna in the desert, they died. But the Manna that our Shepherd offers, produces life that is everlasting. YAHSHUA assured Israel that Moses did not give them the Bread from heaven, but it is His Father Who gives the true heavenly Bread; for the Bread of God, said YAHSHUA, is He Who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world; I Am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry, and he who believes in and cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me will never thirst anymore (John 6:32-34). That’s the standing promise to the sheep who has accepted YAHSHUA’S invitation.

After a long day of wandering, the Shepherd makes His sheep to rest. He makes sure that they lie down in soft cool grass, from where they receive not only their rest, but also their nourishment. It is a time of reflection, a time of healing, a time to converse with the Shepherd and hear what He has to say. Oftentimes His sheep spend their energy on things that are of no spiritual values. Sometimes they wander away, far from Him and feel lost in the confusion of their mind. The Shepherd calls them to rest and makes them to do so. It can happen through any means He chooses to do: It can come through prolonged disease or any other ways that will cause them to hear His voice and obey Him. After a restful time in His Word, He then leads them beside the quiet waters. We can never appreciate the quiet waters without first laying down at His feet to be nourished with the bread of life. The quiet waters are the ministry of His Holy Spirit. He came to comfort, to teach, to convict, to guide, among many other things. Our soul is restored with His presence. Our Shepherd then leads us in the path of sanctification for the glory of His name. The paths to sanctification include the hard and fearful valley of death. This is a must for every sheep of YAHSHUA to go through with Him. Fear will not be present in the heart because His presence supplies all they need to overcome the dreadfulness of the valley. The Shepherd uses His rod and His staff to defend, protect and to comfort His sheep. His rod is His weapon against danger that rises against them; it is also the means of discipline when a sheep wanders away from Him. The staff conveys concern, compassion and comfort. Phillip Keller, a shepherd himself, defines the difference of the two: he says, “Whereas the rod conveys the concept of authority, power, of discipline and defense, the staff speaks of longsuffering and kindness.” The presence of our Shepherd is key in bringing peace to our heart. When we are near Him we experience His peace and nothing in the world can destroy it. Philip confirms: “In the course of time I came to realize that nothing so quieted and reassured the sheep as to see me in the field. The presence of their master and owner and protector put them at east as nothing else could do. Continuous conflict and jealousy within the flock can be a most detrimental thing. The sheep become edgy, tense, discontented, and restless. They lose weight and become irritable. But one point that always interested me very much was that whenever I came into view and my presence attracted their attention, the sheep quickly forgot their foolish rivalries and stopped their fighting. The shepherd’s presence made all the difference in their behavior.” – Philip Keller

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I have Called You My Friends

The word friend brings warmth to the heart that not even a fireplace in a cold winter could compete with it. It warms the soul of man with assurance and confidence in the person we consider a friend. A true friend overlooks many things for the sake of lasting friendship. But in spite of all that, there is no perfect friendship that will last a lifetime without disappointments and sometimes to the point of breaking the link of friendship chain. I am sure that all of us in one time or other have experienced betrayals in our relationship with a friend. King David testified of that in Psalm 55:12-14: For it is not an enemy who reproaches and taunts me- then I might bear it; not is it one who has hated me who insolently vaunts himself against me- then I might hide from him; but it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend;we had sweet fellowship together and used to walk to the house of God in company; and even my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me (Ps. 41:9) Prophetic of YAHSHUA’S experience at the time of His ordeal fulfilled in John 13: 18 in YAHSUA’S own words: …I know whom I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He who eats My bread with Me has raised up His heel against Me. YAHSHUA suffered the betrayal from one of His disciples, who were considered His friends. Judas, in spite of walking with YAHSHUA as His disciples, experiencing first-hand miracles and the supernatural for three years, had not set his heart to be His friend, because he hadn’t accepted Him as the Son of God. On one occasion, he criticized Mary for anointing YAHSHUA before His death. There was no room for anyone to do that, unless he was of the devil and was performing the deed of his father. As the son of perdition, He was available for Satan to enter him and perform the act of the betrayal of the Son of God. His heart was focused on doing that, even when there was the opportunity for him to repent at YAHSHUA’S warning.

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DNA – The Evidence of God’s Signature in Every Cell

God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in our image, after our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So, God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them; then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and while he slept, He took one of his ribs or a part of his side and closed up the flesh; and the rib or part of his side which the Lord God had taken from the man He built up and made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Then Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of a man (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7,21-23). When God created men, He perfected them with intelligence and wisdom. No one can comprehend the complicated manifold of His work. The human body, the heavens, all nature and every created living thing, have God’s signature on them. His, and His alone matches the manifold of wisdom manifested in all He created. “OH, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen (Rom.1:33a,36).

When created man and woman, God performed an act of perfect and wonderful creation. He focused on every detail of the body, visible and invisible. When He said, Let Us make mankind in our image, after our likeness… His words carried a very important meaning, not applied to the rest of His creation. Man was made to carry God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:27). In that, man was set apart from the animal world. King David in his psalm 139 says, … You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb; I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well; my frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depts of the earth; Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them; how precious and weighty also are Your thought to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! “Intricately and curiously wrought,” he could be referring to the DNA, the hereditary part of humans. It is there that information is stored as a code. It transmits genetic information. It determines each cell’s structure and function; located in the center of the cell, it is responsible for the control of the cells’ activities. We are truly “God’s intelligent design!” Amazingly, scientists have found proof of God in the DNA code. As Paul said, man is without excuses concerning the existence of God (Rom. 1). DNA expresses information from intelligence, and one like no one else’s “It is an instructional script.” The DNA’s code is very complex, compost of 3 billion letters, which are four chemicals called, adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. It is mind boggling; It is hard for men to grasp the complexity of God’s creation, for they are limited in their understanding concerning the deep wisdom and knowledge of God, since they are created and are not the Creator. DNA’S code is the evidence of God’s signature in every cell proving that He is the Creator of all living things. Paul asks the question: Who has known the mind of God and who has understood His thoughts, or who has been His counselor? (Rom. 11:34) All God’s creations – animal and plants alike have DNA, which is a long molecule containing their entire genetic code. Although the animals have will, emotion and intelligence, showing how smart they are in many things, they do not reflect the image of God. God does not require accountability from them, as Paul said, Creation was subjected to frailty, not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will off Him Who so subjected it- with the hope that nature itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children (Rom. 8: 20-21).

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I Am in the Same Place Where You Left Me

In their distress, men find a way to call on God, even if he does not believe in His existence. An Atheist found himself at the mercy of a bear, one day while walking in the forest; his first reaction was Oh my God! A minute earlier, his belief was, “I don’t believe in God.” How convenient it is for some people to use the name of God to release their stress, as if by magic God would come to them right at that moment. I am sure that happens sometimes to those who trust in Him. For He is ever so near to us. Nothing separates us from His love and care for us. But even for those of who love the Lord, we must understand that the Lord’s timing for all things is beyond our reasoning of space in time. All Knowing, our God knows the right time to answer our prayers.

When YAHSHUA was hanging on the cross, performing the work of redemption for the world, in His last hour on that cross, He left a cry to His Father that has been registered for us to grasp the meaning of: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Do you suppose He did not know why He had been rejected by the Father in those hours? Have you ever thought why He would cry that way? That, my friend, would be men’s cry in hell, where the presence of God is void. That happened when God made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all; that was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; to put Him to grief and to make Him sick; God made His life an offering for sin; in time to come He shall see His [spiritual] offspring (Isa. 53: 6b,10).

He travailed for our salvation in order to present us to His Father a blameless church, pure and sanctified by His Spirit. So, when He cried to His Father the separation between them, it was so that we would not be. However, He did not promise a perfect life on this earth; He promised to be with us to the end of time. He said, In the world you will have tribulation; be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33b). You and I well know when it happened. He deprived the world of its power over us; He conquered it for evermore so that would not hurt us. At Lazarus death, YAHSHUA suffered for us, when He wept at the circumstance; not that He could not bring life to Lazarus, but for the hopelessness of man confronting death at their cry. He saw then what He had to go through to redeem us from the power of death.

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In The Sixth Hour He Thirsts

(John 4)

The Samaritan story begins with rumors that YAHSHUA was baptizing more disciples than John. However, John denies that in verse two: Though YAHSHUA Himself did not baptize, but His disciples. We know for a fact that YAHSHUA had the authority to do so, being the Messiah, and the Prophet. But when He heard the rumor, He left Judea, and went back to Galilee. On the way to Galilee, it was necessary for Him to go through Samaria, about 30 miles distance. (v.4). There is a strong connotation of the word necessary, God’s hidden plan for the salvation of the Samaritans. Samaritans were Jewish people who intermarried with foreigners and adopted their religion. They were considered half-breed and were despised by the Jews and the world. They were the result of the time when Assyria carried the ten tribe captive and replaced them with people from several other places. They then intermarried with the Israelite’s population, resulting in a mix of all sorts of idolatrous religions. They were a rejected race, but still had knowledge of the Law and some history background of their ancestors. The Samaritans were visible to the Jews and vice-versa, perhaps in their way of dressing, etc. YAHSHUA, aware of that enmity between the two people, did not consider to isolate them from the plan of salvation, but proceeded to go through Samaria on His way to Galilee to fulfill God’s purpose.

He stops at a town called Sychar, which held historical meaning, for it was the tract of land Jacob gave to his son, Joseph and his well was there. Tired, as He was from His journey, He sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour (about noon). When He sat by their well, He was expressing to the Samaritans that He was the Living Water, the Living Water that satisfies their spiritual thirst. That divine appointment had to happen in space of history with the purpose to unite the two people as one in and through YAHSHUA also their Messiah. The point of contact was YAHSHUA’S thirst. He acknowledged to the Samaritan woman, when she came to fetch water, that He was thirsty and asked her for some water. There stood a woman who was also thirsty, spiritually thirsty and ready to drink the water YAHSHUA offered her. YAHSHUA was also thirsty physically thirsty. She could not satisfy His thirst due to the wall of enmity that separated the two of them, when she said, How is it that You being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman for a drink? – For the Jews have nothing to do with the Samaritans- (v. 7,9).

But YAHSHUA stood there offering her life apart from the wall that divided them. He was the Messiah that came to redeem them from their idolatry to satisfy their spiritual thirst. He did not respond to her remark, but contrary to that, He said, If you only had known and had recognized God’s gift and Who this is that is saying to you, give Me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water (v.10). From this point on the conversation changed its physical tune to the spiritual tune, when YAHSHUA revealed Who He was to the Samaritan woman.

The water the woman could give YAHSHUA was good to satisfy His physical thirst only for a while. The sixth hour when that event took place was of great significance in God’s plan for that day in the lives of the Samaritans. Later, in YAHSHUA’S ministry, it would be at the sixth hour that Jerusalem would experience total darkness for three hours, as YAHSHUA would hang crucified from nine in the morning until His death at three o’clock. For six hours He hung on the cross to liberate the Samaritans from their idolatrous ways to bring them to the true and only God, the One Who stood there asking the Samaritan woman for a drink of water. The Light of the world had reached the place where the people had been rejected; where darkness abounds. But God came for them, too. In an hour just right He touched the hearts of many of that community that was thirsty for the Truth. The Samaritans were also waiting for the Messiah. They had knowledge of that fact as the woman expressed to YAHSHUA: I know when Messiah is coming. He Who is called the Christ and when He arrives, He will tell us everything we need to know and make it clear to us. YAHSHUA then answered her: I Who now speak with you am He (vs. 25-26).

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The Importance of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal

(Deuteronomy 11:29-30)

Directed by Moses before he died, Israel was to set the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal, after they had reached the Promised Land. On that day, Moses set before Israel a blessing and a curse- the blessing if they obey the commandments of the Lord, and the curse if they did not obey the commandments of the Lord their God. He said, And when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal (Deut. 11:29-30). The people were to hear the blessings from Mount Gerizim, when they obeyed the law and the curse from Mount Ebal when they disobeyed God’s law. The significance of these mountains, in particularly the Mount Ebal is relevant to us today in its symbolic prophetic meaning. The late Dr. Francis A Schaeffer, an American theologian, philosopher, an apologetic and pastor, a thinker of his time, suggested that these two mountains represented two life styles: obedience and disobedience. Consequentially, the mountains were to remind the people that keeping God’s law was as if they lived on mount Gerizim. From there, God’s blessing would fall on Israel. But an altar was to be built on Ebal mountain when they sinned against God. Shechem, a city of long history, is found between these two mountains. There, the Patriarch Abraham built the first altar to the living God; Joseph, his great-grandson, sought for his brother in Shechem; his bones were buried there many years later after Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Jacob dug a well near the city and many years later, YAHSHUA providentially met a Samaritan woman there with a message of salvation. The Samaritans, after hearing what the woman had to say about YAHSHUA, said, Now we no longer believe just because of what you said; for we have heard Him ourselves and we know that He truly the Savior of the world, the Messiah. Many more believed Him, because of His personal message (John 4:42,41). The city of Shechem, was a silent witness of past history and of the spiritual meaning they carried, according to the words Moses spoke to Israel before they entered the Land.

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