Unexplainable Jesus Come to the Table Week 1 Elijah and Ezekiel and how they fit into Jewish beliefs about the Messiah These two prophets play a pre-eminent role in the coming of the Messiah. Elijah was believed to return prior to the arrival of the Messiah and Ezekiel speaks of the return of David, which also was linked to Messiah’s reign. Elijah’s ministry began in 875 BC and was transferred to Elisha 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 God back to earth to help the Jewish people. Because of the prophecy in Malachi 4:5, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet 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 John the Baptist 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 Moses. 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 Babylon along with Daniel 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 idolatry and sins. That judgment included the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Jeremiah 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 Jews believed that their Messiah would be a descendant of David, Luke intentionally gives us Joseph’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 Ezekiel 36 & 37, while Ezekiel 40-48 concern the rebuilding of the temple. The temple was rebuilt under Nehemiah 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 salvation 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 angel 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 song of Moses, the servant of God, 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.