All Hebrew boys were put in Jewish schools to become a Rabbi. There were essentially 3 stages to this education. We'll call them stage 1, stage 2, and stage 3. Stage one lasted until they were about 6 years old. At that time, they had to be able to memorize the book of Leviticus. Remember, they didnt have bibles like we do today. They had to memorize it based on their father's reciting it to them. If they could not pass this stage, they were told that they did not have what it took to be in ministry and that they should go make a living at their family's trade.
Stage two lasted from age 6 to 12, this was called the "School of the Disciple". At the end of this, they had to memorize the entire Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). First five books of the bible before puberty, that's some serious studying if you ask me. The second requirement to graduate the School of the Disciple was that they had to wow the teachers of the Law with their questions. Jesus was left by Mary in Jerusalem. When she gets back to get Him, what is He doing? Luke 2:46 46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. He was doing the very thing that would grant Him access to stage 3 of rabbi school.
Stage 3 lasted from age 12 to 30. At the end of all this, only the best of the best of the best graduated rabbi school as a rabbi. However, there was one more qualification that had to happen. The graduate had to be determined as having or not having something called SCHMEKA or authority. To have this classification, you would have to have two people bear witness to your SCHMEKA-ness. Jesus graduates from rabbi school. Fresh out of that you had to be baptized as an open sign that you had finished school as a rabbi. Jesus gets baptized by John. John says that He has authority and then another voice speaks up for Jesus after He is baptized securing His authority as a rabbi. God the Father opens up the sky, speaks of Jesus' authority, then the Holy Spirit comes on Him in the form of a dove.
The thing about being a Rabbi with authority, you could make up your own yoke or ways of interpreting Scripture and living. You could start your own rabbi school. You could do things the way that you thought were in line with Scripture. Now we are back to where we started. Grown men leaving everything to follow this guy who only said, "Follow me". Zebedee's whole work force quit on him with no notice.
What in the world is going on here? Jesus was doing then, the very same thing that He is doing today. Jesus is taking the very people that the world has told that they are not good enough and saying, "Yep, I want those guys and girls to be My disciples." He called several fishermen. To the Hebrew culture, fishermen were some of the dirtiest people because they were always touching dead stuff. Then, He called Levi (Later called Matthew). Matthew was a tax collector. For years, Levi had been stealing money from the fishermen and now Jesus is making them all get along. He's asking us the very same question as them back then. "Can you make peace with the one that has wronged you so many times for the case of the Kingdom of God?"
Lets look more at this yoke thing. After going 12 for 12 on gaining disciples, he is walking through a city and the pharisees catch a woman in the act of adultery. They want to test Jesus and do so by bringing this woman to Him. If you caught someone doing something like that, you were allowed to rough them up and strip them naked (not like you'd have to strip them if they were doing that). Therefore, they bring Jesus this woman possibly bloodied and naked. They ask Him what should be done to her. According to Leviticus, you had to stone someone that was guilty of adultery. Jesus consents to stoning her. Then, He exercises His SCHMEKA and says, that in His yoke, that you have to have not committed any sin to be able to stone her. All of the accusers drop their rocks and go away. If there are not two or more witnesses to her crime, a mistrial is declared. Jesus was still standing there, but He did not see the act taking place. JESUS IS BRILLIANT! He even asks her where her accusers are. She says that they are all gone. "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." He couldn't make her stop sinning, so He made her accusers vanish. That is the very same thing that He has done for us over and over and over again. No more do we, or anyone else have to be constantly hounded by the mistakes in our past. There will never be enough witnesses to condemn us. One witness could bring someone to trial, but it took 2 or 3 to condemn them. On judgement day, there will be a trial and all of our junk will be laid bare for all to see. However, who is the judge? The one that covered the sin to begin with. Satan's accusations are declared a mistrial because he doesn't have enough witnesses to get a conviction.
We know Jesus as God made flesh. Back then it was almost as if he was speaking to people that had never hear of God before. He said and is still saying, "Follow Me"! He wants to make you disciples to go into the world and take it back from the hands of Satan. Too many people are dying to hear the message that we carry. The message of the compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love and forgiveness God. So my question is this, will we Follow Him? Or will we continue to follow a denomination, Our own issues, Our view of God as a mean and vengeful deity that hates us when we do wrong but loves us again when we offer something to Him? That is not His way.
Grace and Peace be with you Always.
Stage two lasted from age 6 to 12, this was called the "School of the Disciple". At the end of this, they had to memorize the entire Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). First five books of the bible before puberty, that's some serious studying if you ask me. The second requirement to graduate the School of the Disciple was that they had to wow the teachers of the Law with their questions. Jesus was left by Mary in Jerusalem. When she gets back to get Him, what is He doing? Luke 2:46 46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. He was doing the very thing that would grant Him access to stage 3 of rabbi school.
Stage 3 lasted from age 12 to 30. At the end of all this, only the best of the best of the best graduated rabbi school as a rabbi. However, there was one more qualification that had to happen. The graduate had to be determined as having or not having something called SCHMEKA or authority. To have this classification, you would have to have two people bear witness to your SCHMEKA-ness. Jesus graduates from rabbi school. Fresh out of that you had to be baptized as an open sign that you had finished school as a rabbi. Jesus gets baptized by John. John says that He has authority and then another voice speaks up for Jesus after He is baptized securing His authority as a rabbi. God the Father opens up the sky, speaks of Jesus' authority, then the Holy Spirit comes on Him in the form of a dove.
The thing about being a Rabbi with authority, you could make up your own yoke or ways of interpreting Scripture and living. You could start your own rabbi school. You could do things the way that you thought were in line with Scripture. Now we are back to where we started. Grown men leaving everything to follow this guy who only said, "Follow me". Zebedee's whole work force quit on him with no notice.
What in the world is going on here? Jesus was doing then, the very same thing that He is doing today. Jesus is taking the very people that the world has told that they are not good enough and saying, "Yep, I want those guys and girls to be My disciples." He called several fishermen. To the Hebrew culture, fishermen were some of the dirtiest people because they were always touching dead stuff. Then, He called Levi (Later called Matthew). Matthew was a tax collector. For years, Levi had been stealing money from the fishermen and now Jesus is making them all get along. He's asking us the very same question as them back then. "Can you make peace with the one that has wronged you so many times for the case of the Kingdom of God?"
Lets look more at this yoke thing. After going 12 for 12 on gaining disciples, he is walking through a city and the pharisees catch a woman in the act of adultery. They want to test Jesus and do so by bringing this woman to Him. If you caught someone doing something like that, you were allowed to rough them up and strip them naked (not like you'd have to strip them if they were doing that). Therefore, they bring Jesus this woman possibly bloodied and naked. They ask Him what should be done to her. According to Leviticus, you had to stone someone that was guilty of adultery. Jesus consents to stoning her. Then, He exercises His SCHMEKA and says, that in His yoke, that you have to have not committed any sin to be able to stone her. All of the accusers drop their rocks and go away. If there are not two or more witnesses to her crime, a mistrial is declared. Jesus was still standing there, but He did not see the act taking place. JESUS IS BRILLIANT! He even asks her where her accusers are. She says that they are all gone. "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." He couldn't make her stop sinning, so He made her accusers vanish. That is the very same thing that He has done for us over and over and over again. No more do we, or anyone else have to be constantly hounded by the mistakes in our past. There will never be enough witnesses to condemn us. One witness could bring someone to trial, but it took 2 or 3 to condemn them. On judgement day, there will be a trial and all of our junk will be laid bare for all to see. However, who is the judge? The one that covered the sin to begin with. Satan's accusations are declared a mistrial because he doesn't have enough witnesses to get a conviction.
We know Jesus as God made flesh. Back then it was almost as if he was speaking to people that had never hear of God before. He said and is still saying, "Follow Me"! He wants to make you disciples to go into the world and take it back from the hands of Satan. Too many people are dying to hear the message that we carry. The message of the compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love and forgiveness God. So my question is this, will we Follow Him? Or will we continue to follow a denomination, Our own issues, Our view of God as a mean and vengeful deity that hates us when we do wrong but loves us again when we offer something to Him? That is not His way.
Grace and Peace be with you Always.
Do you have some kind of biblical reference for this information?
ReplyDeleteI have given all the information that I have. I have conferred with a Jewish rabbi to confirm this information.
Delete