|
John 3:3
Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Looking for meaning in the concept of a formerly ostracized now-declared-clean leper, let's follow the path of his rehabilitation in the presence of the Almighty and amidst the community of Israel. One of the last stages is a tevilah טבילה, or an immersion, commonly called in Greek: baptismo. Our sages have always understood ritual immersion as an illustration of being born-again. They say that people "immerse in order to emerge a born-again new creature in God" (Yevamot 47b and 48b). The whole idea illustrates returning into the maternal waters in order to be reborn. In a sense, this pronounced clean leper now shaved from head to toe looked like a new-born baby and was going to immerse in baptismal waters of rebirth (Leviticus 14:9). He was one who was alive, who went though some form of death, was healed of this death, and was now going to be reborn as a new/renewed creature. In ancient Israel, the idea of the born-again ritual immersion was used as a mode of proselityzation, for people desiring to become Jewish. The idea is that as they totally immersed, it was as though they died. They went in the water as pagan Gentiles, they died and were reborn as new "members of the commonwealth of Israel" (Ephesians 2:12).In a sense again, he who was alive died and was reborn a new/renewed creature. When Yeshua therefore tells Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3), the Master actually tells the great teacher of Israel that unless he goes through a procedure of conversion to Judaism, he cannot be a part of the Kingdom of God. That explains the shocked teacher’s answer, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? (John 3:4)" By this he meant, "How can I convert to Judaism if I am already Jewish?" To which Rabbi Yeshua wisely answers, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:5-6), or in other words, “It is not enough to be well bred; you must also have an immersion of repentance from sin!” This was the reoccurring theme in both John the Immerser and Yeshua’s teaching (Matthew 3:9–11). Saved and redeemed Israel went through rebirth through a national /immersion. Both the converted pagan proselyte and the leper enter the community of Israel through rebirth/immersion. What does this teach us? All of us share the fate of the leper. We are all lepers in his sight and we all need healing and rebirth through immersion. That's what Yeshua told Nicodemus. The master sent us into all the world to make disciples of all nations by immersing them (Matthew 28:19:20). Reborn that we are, may we remember each day to also immerse in his renewing words that we may continue in the new life he died to give us. P. Gabriel Lumbroso www.thelumbrosos.com For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.
0 Comments
1 Corinthians 10:2 All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. The Children of Israel could have left Egypt, traveled directly northeastward and be in Canaan in less than a few weeks. Instead, Hashem had them make a small detour crossing the Red Sea by the Gulf of Aqaba. Were the reasons given for this detour (Exodus 13:17-18) the only real purposes? The Israelites had just spent several generations in Egypt. They needed to be cleansed from idolatry and Egyptian culture. They needed to be reborn into Hashem’s people, and into the culture of the Kingdom of Hashem. This is where the idea of ‘born-again’ came from: from two tractates written by Jewish sages that say that total immersion into water (baptism) is like being born again. We go into a water and stop breathing which is like being in a grave where we do not have breath anymore, and we come out resurrected a new person. The sages mention the ‘born-again’ idea mostly in regards to converts to Judaism (Yevamot 47b and 48b). They immerse in order to emerge a born-again new creature in God. This is what God had in mind in this nation-wide immersion through the Red-Sea (1 Corinthians 10:2). When Yeshua told Nicodemus that he needed to be reborn, the modern-day ‘born-again’ Christian movement did not exist, so Yeshua was using the term according to its Talmudic value, and this is why Nicodemus answered the Master accordingly. What Nicodemus said in essence was “Why do I need to convert when I am already Jewish?” To which Yeshua basically answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6). In other words, the Master reiterated John the Immerser’s message that biological descent into God’s family was not enough, but repentance into a new creature for Hashem was also needed (Matthew 3:9). The Israelites crossing the Red Sea were already Israelites, but they needed to also be baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2). Yeshua continued answering Nicodemus with, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8). Just like the wind cannot be seen and is only perceived though its effects, so we are. The virtues of the new life that we now live, its positive influences on others, and its reflection of Hashem, are the only testimony given to others of our rebirth. As we claim to have been reborn, as we claim to have been immersed unto Yeshua, let the effects of our rebirth be felt by others. May we live and walk in the newness of life that He has given us to be God’s children, and as the healing reflection of His spirit on our poor world. Matthew 25:13
"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour!" The Biblical calendar is a lunar calendar adjusted with the sun and the seasons. Because of a Scripture in Colossians, some deduct that we are not to attach importance to certain calendar dates (Colossians 2:16), but we need to remember that the people that Paul chided for calendar observances where pagans. Paul himself observed Sabbaths, Passovers, Jewish festival, and the Yom Kippur fast which all were calendar base dates. God has asked that we ‘sanctify’ the New Moon (Exodus 12:2), meaning to set it apart. Setting apart the New Moon gets us all in sync celebrating festivals all at the same time. The Hebrew word used for Levitical Festival in Leviticus is ‘Mo’ed’: ‘appointed times’, appointment’. At these times we have a ‘date’ with the Creator; would we want to miss it? Because of our undue independent nature, even something as simple as coordinating ourselves together with God has been a major issue over the centuries. A cloudy night could mess up the whole thing up. Also, with Jews living more and more outside of Israel, it became more and more difficult to synchronize everybody. To top it all, in the fourth century C.E., the Roman government desiring to stop the believers from observing Passover officially forbade the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem from convening and determining the New Moon. This had the desired effect of leaving everyone to their own devices creating division and chaos until today. As a result, the method of determining the moon by sighting fell in disuse and Jewish leadership started to do it through astronomical calculation. This is how the Hillel ll calendar was born. Until Yeshua returns and re-organizes the whole thing, it needs to suffice. Days are important. There was a particular day when the door of the ark was shut, a determined day for the Children of Israel to put blood on their doorpost and for them to leave Egypt. In these cases, a calendar fluke would have had disastrous consequences. The Master followed the calendar dates of Passover scrupulously in His death and resurrection. The Sabbath also is a set day with particulars if not, how do intend to fulfill Yeshua’s injunction, “Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20)? Even now a day is coming, a day which is the culmination of all of our calendar dates, a day which has been foreseen and predicted by all patriarchs and prophet. We are told that the only people who do not know that day are the ones living in the night of ignorance, but that those who live in the light of knowledge should know (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6). That day is a very special day. As the arrival of the day for the children of Israel to leave Egypt was punctuated by signs and plagues, so will the Day be of Yeshua’s return to avenge His people and judge the whole world. These signs will not be esoteric or mystical, they will be real and tangible, so that everyone will be able to recognize them. May we be ever faithful to study and obey the Word which gives us the light to know that Day! Romans 11:15
For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? Israel could have gone from Goshen Egypt to Israel without any Red Sea crossing. Had they walked straight North-East, they would have been back Home in a few days and the whole ordeal was over. But this wasn’t God’s plan. Not only God needed to bait pharaoh’s army into the Red Sea, but Israel needed to go through a cultural renewal before entering their restored independent lives as the people of God. Part of the program was for Israel, and for the ‘mixed multitude’ from the nations following them to go through a rebirth process (Exodus 12:38). They needed to get ‘baptized’ clean from their old Egyptian lives and ways into their new identity. For the Israelites it meant to be cleansed from ‘Egypt’, but it meant literal conversion for the strangers with them. The process would be repeated forty years later when the second desert generation crossed the Jordan (Joshua 3). In Judaism the main staple of conversion is immersion in water. In keeping with Jewish ideas, Paul mentions the crossing of the Red Sea as a baptism (Rabbi Kaplan: The Waters of Eden; 1 Corinthians 10:1-2). This was the gist of the conversation between Yeshua and Nicodemus. Just as the Priests and Levites did with John the Immerser, Nicodemus boasted that being already Jewish he didn’t need the conversion rebirth of immersion, but just like John answered the Jerusalem visitors Yeshua told Nicodemus that he still needed to be reborn (Matthew 3:9-11; John 3:1-21). Judaism teaches that when the ‘mixed multitude’ crossed the Red Sea with Israel, they became Children of Abraham, they became Israelite. It is interesting because the whole time in the desert no circumcision (and important part of conversion to Judaism) was performed. They just had a mass circumcision just before they entered the land (Joshua 5:2-8). Another important event is Amalek intercepting Israel (Deuteronomy 25:18). It seems that the descendants of Esau always intercept Israel returning home. It happened before with Jacob (Genesis 32:6), then during the Exodus, and it is happening again today. The first time peace was reached (Genesis 33), the second time God ordered the destruction of Amalek (Deuteronomy 25:19; 1 Samuel 15:1-3). What will it be this time? The Yeshua believing world needs to know that as believers in the Jewish Messiah, as true born again people, they share the fate of Israel just like the ‘mixed multitude’ of the Exodus. The Children of Esau are intercepting trying to annihilate Israel. They have done so from the on start in 1948. Can Israel count on the ‘mixed multitude’ with them fight at their side? This is not just Israel’s fight; the future of all believers is at stake (Romans 11:15). “He that stands idle while the rights of others are being violated will very soon become victim to these same evil forces” (Personal narration of famous quote). Matthew 18:21-22
"Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? … Yeshua said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. As they were leaving Egypt, God gave Israel commands concerning their lives in their Land. One of them was to celebrate the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:19). If this command was already given in Exodus and in Leviticus twenty-three, why is it repeated in Numbers (Numbers 9:1-5)? The distance from Mount Horeb to the borders of Israel is not that great so technically at the times of Numbers, the Children of Israel should already have been in the Land. The problem was that they were delayed at least three months by the Golden Calf’s incident. The Bible is a Book of second chances. We may orchestrate the most elaborate fail-safe plans but life has a habit of throwing curve-balls at us. In spite of our loftiest dreams and ideals, at the end of the day, we have to deal with the reality on the ground, and it seems that God knows it. In Numbers nine we also have the case of a family who would miss the precious Passover celebration because of a death in their family. In that case the Father gives them the chance to celebrate Passover on the following month. This case foreshadowed Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The two men cared for the Master’s body on the night of Passover 2,000 years ago so they were ritually unfit to celebrate the Holy day that year. It was a traditional belief with the early Jerusalem believers that the two men reclined at the Passover table this year on the second month of the year for what is called: Pesach Sheni: The Second Passover. It takes maturity and godliness to not be frustrated at the way things are compared to the way they should be. I have a good friend who when things do not work out the way he had dreamed always says, ‘It is what it is!” I think sometimes that our perfect Creator God looks at us with empathy and says, “It is what it is”, and then, tries to give us a second chance. He tells us that we can celebrate the Passover in the desert instead of in the Land, or that we can celebrate it on the second month if reality kept us from doing it on the first. The whole idea of redemption and atonement is in fact about second chances. Again we stand in awe at the perfect Almighty God Creator of the universe as He bends to the bare facts of our lives on earth. He proposes and offers the great ideals of His Torah with the full knowledge of our imperfectness towards it and says (in a manner of speech), ‘It is what it is’. How much more then should we be able to bear with each other’s imperfection. How much patience and forgiveness and bending ability the Father has for each one of us should be the standard of ours towards others. It is the novice who forgets about his own imperfections looks at others condescendingly wondering how come they don’t toe the line better. The seasoned mature elder knows life, that “It is what it is” and deals with it not according to his lofty dreams but according to the realities on the ground. May we learn from the great Father who loves us so and give second (and more) chances to people as He also gave us. |
Thanks for thinking of us... even a tiny donation is a blessing to us...
Order our new CD at: http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html
Also available on itune. 
Our 'UNDER THE FIG TREE' atL:
http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html 
Check our original judaica and other jewelery at:
http://www.thelumbrosos.com/shop.html Archives
May 2013
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed