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Home , Ezekiel

Unexplainable Come to the Table Week 1

Elijah and Ezekiel and how they fit into Jewish beliefs about the Messiah

These two play a pre-eminent role in the coming of the Messiah. was believed to return prior to the arrival of the Messiah and Ezekiel speaks of the return of , which also was linked to Messiah’s reign.

Elijah’s ministry began in 875 BC and was transferred to in 848 BC. In 797 BC Elisha’s ministry ended. Elijah never died but was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Many Jewish legends speak of Elijah returning to and from the throne room of back to earth to help the Jewish people. Because of the prophecy in 4:5, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes,” the Jewish people believed that Elijah’s arrival would be widely known before the dawn of the Messiah. This helps explain Luke’s references to being “the Elijah who was to come,” and him coming “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” The message to the Jewish people is that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy and thus, Jesus is the anticipated Messiah.

When the Jewish people celebrate Passover today, they set a chair for Elijah at the table. They also open the front door in the middle of the celebration and call for him to come. The Jewish Passover calls for remembrance of God’s miraculous deliverance of His people from Egypt through . They are calling for Elijah to come as the predecessor for the Messiah, who will serve as the final deliverer of Israel from all of her enemies and her independence as a nation. Understanding this helps us see why the rulers of Jesus’ day were so worried about Him issuing a revolt against Rome and the people trying

2 to make Him king. The Messiah was to deliver Israel from all oppression and set up rule and reign politically and also religiously back to pure devotion to the God of Israel.

Ezekiel served as a prophet from 593 to 571 BC. He was exiled to along with and many other Israelites during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel served as the prophet to the exiled prisoners. The first 24 chapters of Ezekiel prophesy of God’s coming judgment upon the nation of Israel due to her and sins. That judgment included the destruction of and the temple. served as a contemporary to Ezekiel and prophesied within the city of Jerusalem until it was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians.

Ezekiel’s prophecies reassured the people of Israel that the temple would be rebuilt and that one of David’s descendants would again sit upon the throne in Jerusalem. A key verse in Ezekiel is 34:23-24 “And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.” Because the believed that their Messiah would be a descendant of David, Luke intentionally gives us ’s lineage so we can see how Jesus is one of David’s descendants.

Additional prophecies regarding the restoration of David’s descendant ruling in Israel are in & 37, while -48 concern the rebuilding of the temple. The temple was rebuilt under and greatly expanded under Herod the Great. Jesus prophesied multiple times about the destruction of Herod’s temple that occurred in AD 70 by the Romans. Since that time, there has not been a temple in Jerusalem. Devout Jews today believe that the Messiah will not come until the temple is rebuilt. Many consider the temple about which Ezekiel prophesied to be Messiah’s temple.

3 Week 2

Jewish Passover celebration, visit Come to the Table

God originally initiated the Passover in Exodus 11 & 12. The Passover was the final plague that God performed through Moses against Egypt in order to deliver His people from being slaves to Pharaoh. Moses gave the nation of Israel many parting instructions in the book of Deuteronomy. Part of these instructions included important words regarding prophecy in Deuteronomy 18. This included instructions on how to test prophets to determine if they were indeed sent by God or false prophets trying to delude the people. It also included a promise that there was a prophet who was to come who would be like Moses. In Jewish thought, this special prophet meant a new deliverer.

When we examine Jesus’ teachings and miracles, we see Him point back to Moses many times. Through Moses God miraculously provided bread in the wilderness. Jesus fed the 5000. God told Moses to lift up his staff so the people could be miraculously healed (Numbers 21). Jesus regularly healed people from various sicknesses and diseases. Moses warned Israel of coming disasters due to their disobedience toward God and Jesus warned of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the temple due to the people’s rejection of God’s plan of offered through Him. Moses struck the rock to provide water in the desert and Jesus referred to Himself as the Living Water. Moses was a shepherd and Jesus referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd. Over and over in both His speech and actions, Jesus reiterated the work and teaching of God through Moses.

4 Think about it- Jesus could have done just about any miracle we could think of while He was here. He could have created some new animals, put some more stars in the sky, forged weapons from sand, anything and everything imaginable. But what were the miracles He performed? Echoes of Israel’s past in the wilderness. He was awakening the people to think back to Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 18- His miracles were the same miracles God had done through Moses. Jesus was the new deliverer- come not just to save Israel, but to redeem the world.

When God gave instructions for the Passover, it provided protection for His people Israel from the final plague He would inflict upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians for enslaving His people. In this tenth plague, the of death would sweep over every Egyptian household killing their firstborn son. The sons of Israel however, would be spared from this plague, if they followed God’s Passover instructions. They were to slaughter a lamb, spill out the lamb’s blood and collect it in a basin. Then they were to take a branch, dip it into the basin and blood and spread it over the doorframes of their houses, so the angel of death would “pass over” their home and spare their firstborn. They were to cook the meat of the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs. Every year they were to do this in the first month of the year, remembering how God had delivered them.

John the Baptist said of Jesus, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” in John 1:29, referring to Christ as the Passover Lamb- the deliverer from death and God’s judgment. At the very end of the canon of Scripture in Revelation 15:3, we see Moses cited as the first deliverer and Jesus as the final deliverer in these words, “And they sing the , the , and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are

5 your ways, O King of the nations!” All of the ordinances and teachings of the Passover point to Christ. For an excellent resource on this, I recommend the book Christ in the Passover by Ceil & Moishe Rosen. The Rosens walk you through the entire ceremony and liturgy of a traditional Passover Meal, highlighting all of the connections between this celebration and their connection to Jesus’ work and teachings.

To invite a Jewish missionary to come to your church and host a Passover Meal or seder, explaining the significance of each of the meal’s elements and how they point to Christ, visit JewsforJesus.org.

For fun Passover Seder recipes with video guides and traditional recipes, visit myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-recipes/.

6 Week 3

Sea of Galilee

Jesus spent the majority of His time on earth in Galilee. This area is in the northern part of Israel and included in hometown of Nazareth. We know from Luke 2 that his parents were devout observers of the Jewish Law and traveled annually to Jerusalem for the prescribed Passover Feast. The first nine chapters of Luke all tell of Jesus’ life and ministry within the region of Galilee. This section of Luke’s gospel spans all of Jesus’ earthly life except His few remaining weeks prior to his death and resurrection. Luke 10 begins with Jesus’ travel toward Jerusalem and the narrative shifts toward more teaching and prophecy by Jesus with less emphasis on His miracles. By the end of Luke 19, Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and remains there through the rest of the narrative.

Below is a photo taken along the edge of the Sea of Galilee where you can see the sloping and zig-zagged coastline. It is presumed that this is the spot where Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes in Luke 6 and Matthew 5.

7 Week 4

Feast of Ingathering along with the ties between Moses’s ministry and Jesus’

The Feast of Ingathering is also called the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles. The Hebrew name for this celebration is Sukkot. This is the great harvest feast of the year when the fruit is gathered and the rest of the wheat is gathered. It occurs in the fall season. It is a call to remember the forty years when God “tabernacled” with them in the desert under Moses. In celebration, the Jewish people travel to Jerusalem and built booths in which they would remain for the seven-day duration of the celebration. On the last day of the feast, a water ceremony is performed in which God is supplicated to send water upon Israel in blessing. It is at this ceremony that Jesus stood and declared Himself to be the One Who was able to supply the Living Water that God had so generously provided for Israel (see John 7:37-40).

Israel is a desert land. From late spring until fall there is little to no rain. After a long, hot and dry summer, the nation of Israel was to gather in anticipation of fall and God sending much needed rain upon the land. The two predominant themes highlighted in the Feast of Ingathering are God’s provision and presence. He provided water and blessing upon Israel, which they needed as an agrarian nation in order to produce abundant crops. They also celebrated the uniqueness of the God of Israel in that He chose to dwell among His people. This was the original purpose in God’s command to Moses to build the tabernacle- that He might dwell among them. “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” Exodus 25:8.

8 John picks up on this idea in his gospel. In John 1:14, the gospel writer says that God became flesh in Christ and “dwelt among us.” He is using the same word picture as God dwelling in the tabernacle among His people Israel. This feast is a time of great joy and celebration. It is also a reminder of one’s deep dependence upon God while at the same time rejoicing that God chooses to be with His people! For more on this feast, I recommend Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles by David Brickner.

To view pictures of ancient and modern- day Sukkot Celebrations along with both traditional and more modern-day recipes, visit myjewishlearning.com/?s=Sukkot

9 Week 5

Jesus’ references to Herod, the temple, and towers

One of the things that both Christians and non-Christians repeatedly wrestle with in their minds is trying to make sense of the following: If there is a good God who is in charge of the world, then why do bad things happen? I have been presented with this question countless times as it seems impossible to rectify both truths. Is God not able to stop evil or does He not care enough to do so? Why does He allow it to continue or more often than not, the real question is, why did God allow something bad to happen to me?

In first century Jewish thought, when bad things happened to people, they presumed it was due to some sort of punishment upon the recipient of the tragedy. Even ’s friends, assumed by many scholars to be the oldest book of the Bible, suggested that Job must have done something to invoke God’s wrath against him. When Job insisted his innocence, they didn’t believe him. Jesus makes an interesting statement in Luke 13, regarding tragedy. “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you all likewise will perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them; do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2b-5.)

Twice, Jesus says that tragedy, whether intentionally human inflicted as in the case of the Galileans who were killed by Pilate, or unaccounted accidental tragedy as in the case of the collapse of the tower of Siloam are not

10 necessarily attributable to the culpability of the recipient. In other words, Jesus implies that these tragedies are a natural part of life on this planet. They should not take us by surprise nor leave us scratching our heads until we can come up with a logical reason as to why they happened. Tragedy, whether a random accident, or unjust circumstances or victimization performed by one human upon another, are part of life here. To overly concern ourselves with the here and now is to miss the point. Our ultimate concern should be, and Jesus also emphasizes this twice, is if we have repented before we perish. Will our hearts be right with God because we have accepted Jesus’ payment for our sins through His death and resurrection, so that we have a place in heaven. Earth will remain a place of injustice and tragedy. Heaven is the place when all tragedy ends.

Jesus’ answer to their question regarding the reason for two current tragedies that had recently befallen the people of Israel attempted “to reinforce the point that His hearers should not waste time seeking to fathom the exigencies of (apparently capricious) events. Rather, they- as sinners themselves- should repent before God and be prepared for the eternity that looms after this unpredictable and often tragic existence. ‘The issue is not when death will happen or why, but avoiding a terminal fate with even greater consequences,’” (Rydelnik, & Vanlaningham, Michael. The Moody Bible Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2014,) 1580.

What is important to note is the surrounding teaching and actions Jesus performs in light of His apparent lack of concern over tragedy. Jesus refutes this assumption that might be possible deduced based upon His statements in Luke 13:1-3. In the rest of the narrative we see Jesus’ compassion toward the woman suffering from a long-term affliction (Luke 13:10-17), the promise of the greatness and pervasiveness of His kingdom that He is in the process of bringing to our tragic existence

11 (Luke 13:18-21), the urgency of following Him to that one may be part of His Kingdom and escape eternal punishment after death (Luke 13:22-30, and ultimately His demonstrative lament over those who will not repent and escape the greatest tragedy- eternal punishment (Luke 13:31-35). When we view Jesus’ words and actions throughout the rest of Luke 13, it is impossible to view Jesus’ response to tragedy and either flippant or uncaring. Rather, what we see is His attempt to alleviate us from the distraction and disillusionment that come from tragedy and to fix our eyes on His Kingdom that is coming, when all tragedy will end.

At the end of Chapter 13, Jesus refers to Herod as “a fox.” This was far from a compliment. “Foxes were predators and scavengers, hence could prey on hens then they had the opportunity. Ancient stories feature their cunning and their activity as predators more than any other strength; though ancient stories regularly portray them as predators, they sometimes emphasize that they (and even wolves) are inferior in power to lions, the most powerful predators,” (Keener, p.217). When we see Jesus later referring to His desire to gather Jerusalem’s children under His wings as a hen gathers her chicks in order to protect them, we can imply His deeper meaning in the fox reference. Herod is preying upon the people of Israel and while his cunning and craftiness appear to be unstoppable, Jesus, the Lion of Judah, is not fazed by his deceit.

Luke opens chapter 13 with a discussion on current events surrounding the people of Israel and how suffering is part of our human existence. Luke concludes with Jesus teaching of His promise to rescue us from our tragic, yet temporary life on earth, to an eternal existence with Him where He will rule and reign and there will ultimately be an end to all injustice.

12 Week 6

A modern-day picture of the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem

The double arches in this photo represent the Eastern Gate. Just beyond them to the left you can see the top of the Dome of the Rock, the Islamic Mosque that is currently set up within the walls of Jerusalem. In front of the old eastern gate, you can see several white-washed structures. These are tombs as this area currently is a graveyard. This photo was taken while standing on the Mount of Olives. Based upon Biblical prophecy, Jesus will return to earth upon the Mount of Olives. According to Jewish belief and Old Testament prophecy, the Shekinah of God will return through the Eastern Gate, and take up residence within the temple of Jerusalem.

Jewish Law forbade from coming into any form of contact with the dead. Not even their shadow could cover a dead body without them becoming undefiled. I find it humorous to think of a graveyard preventing

13 Jesus from entering Jerusalem or the Lord of Hosts- the Almighty God- from being unable to enter through a sealed wall! I don’t think He will be deterred!

What is most fascinating about the whole thing is that clearly God’s enemies are aware of His future prophecies. They know that this is how Jesus is to return and that He is prophet, and king! However, in the futility of their thinking, they think that Jesus will remain unable to return without being undefiled. Certainly, the One who spoke the world into existence, Who created something from nothing, and Who holds all of heaven and earth in His hands cannot and will not be unable to fulfill His plans due to the rebellion of man. Jesus’ rule and reign are certain and nothing can stop Him!

14 Week 7

Daniel’s Prophecies

Daniel was a contemporary to Ezekiel and Jeremiah. He was exiled by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and taken to serve in his court. The Babylonians eventually destroyed Jerusalem completely, desecrating and destroying the temple. They held Israel captive for seventy years, before they were defeated by the Persians and Cyrus, King of Persia, allowed many Jews to return to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild the temple. We read of this reconstruction in and Nehemiah. During the time of the Babylonians, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah were all being warned of the impending destruction upon Jerusalem and both Daniel and Ezekiel were given visions regarding days to come.

There are many different views as to which time period or periods Jesus in referring in Luke 21, and the varying views are beyond the scope of this study. One thing upon which all scholars agree, and which is especially important for us to understand, is that Jesus makes it clear that He believes the prophecies of the Old Testament will certainly come to pass. We may not understand how and in what timeline completely and hold varying views about it, but we should all rest with certainty in Jesus’ emphasis that God’s plans which were foretold thousands of years priors by His prophets remain unthwarted. His ultimate plan for the redemption of humanity, punishment for sin and evil, the return of His Son, and the final and complete establishment of His kingdom will without a doubt come to pass. Jesus’ vagueness over the events seem to emphasize His concern that His hearers are to rest in the certainty of God’s sovereignty over the exactness of the timeline.

15 In fact, as Jesus closes His teaching, He will continually emphasize the intentional lack of disclosure regarding His return. Just as a continual exercise in trying to make sense of tragedy upon earth will disillusion and distract us from the work we are to be doing in spreading the gospel and building the kingdom, so will an over-emphasis on trying to put together an exact timeline on eschatological events. Jesus repeatedly taught that the kingdom and the work are right in front of us and we must concern ourselves with the work at our fingertips. Jesus warned, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble,“ (Matthew 6:34). In speaking of His return, He also said, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36).

Jesus’ prophecies regarding future events were to point us to the truth that God’s promises were as good as done and we could rejoice in the certainty of His sovereignty.

16 ERICAWIGGENHORN.COM