In the first part of this series, we defined the Hebrew word yasha’, gave examples of its use and also examples from the book of Judges, and we ended it by noting the pattern that we get when we study the Scriptures.  In this part, I want to compare the Scriptural pattern with the life and ministry of Yeshua in the “Writings of the Way” (Heb. Ketuvim HaDerekh; aka, “New Testament”).

In the last article, we said that the Hebrew word yasha’ was used for both God and human “saviors” – the “Judges” – as well as meaning the following:

yasha’ (H3467) [pron. “yaw-shah'”] a prim. root; prop. to be open, wide, or free; i.e., (by impl.) to be safe; causat. to be free: – avenging, defend, deliver (-er). help, preserve, rescue, be safe, bring (having) salvation, save (-iour), get victory. (53)  

However, in the Greek, it needs to use two words instead:

  • Soter (G4990): Deliverer or Savior; and
  • Sōzō  (G4982): to save, i.e. deliver or protect (lit. or fig.): – heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole.

In addition to these two Greek words, there were five other Greek words that are translated by the King James Version as “save,” but they mean “but,” or “except,” and they are translated that way in the newer English translations.

Hebrew Behind the Greek

Also, we need to remember that behind the Koine Greek (aka, “Translation Greek”) of the “Writings of the Way” (Heb. Ketuvim HaDerekh), there is an older Hebrew text behind every Greek text.  So if we are going to properly interpret the disciples’ writings, then we need to use the Hebrew Scriptures to understand their writings.  And just as I pointed out in the last article, the pattern for the human saviors (Heb. yasha’), so we will see this same pattern in the life and ministry of Yeshua of Nazareth.

  • The first pattern we saw in the human saviors was that they were raised up by God. 
    For example,
    • In Acts 3, Shi’mon Petros (Peter) announces to the crowd there in Jerusalem, “It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’  For you first, GOD RAISED UP HIS SERVANT and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways'” (Acts 3:25-26).
    • in Acts 13, during Rav Sha’ul’s (Paul’s) first missionary journey, he stated in his statement in the congregation in Antioch Pisidia, “Of this man’s [David’s] seed has God according to His promise ‘RAISED UNTO ISRAEL A SAVIOR, YESHUA’” (Acts 13:23).

So as we can see, Yeshua was also raised up and sent by God.  But why was he sent?  Many people have been taught that Yeshua came to die for the forgiveness of sins and to reconcile us back to God, but this is not why Yeshua said why he had been sent.  In Luke 4, Yeshua tells a group of people the main reason why he had been sent:

I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, FOR I WAS SENT FOR THIS REASON. (Luke 4:43)

The reason why Yeshua was sent by God was to announce and teach the Kingdom of God.  The problem is that most people do not know or understand what this means.  In essence, Yeshua was sent for four reasons:

  • He was to announce and teach the kingdom of God, i.e., the beginning of the process of God’s redemption and the restoration of Israel – not as a nation – but as a restored Re-United Kingdom of Israel.  According to Norman Perrin’s book, Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus (Harper & Row, 1976), he writes,

The central aspect of the teaching of Jesus [Heb. Yeshua] was that concerning the Kingdom of God.  Of this there can be no doubt and today no scholar does, in fact, doubt it.  Jesus [Yeshua] appeared as one who proclaimed the Kingdom; all else in his message and ministry serves a function in relation to that proclamation and derives its meaning from it.  The challenge to discipleship, the ethical teaching, the disputes about oral tradition or ceremonial law, even the pronouncement of the forgiveness of sins and the welcoming of the outcast in the name of God – all of these are to be understood in context of the Kingdom proclamation… (52)

Therefore, we are to understand these other three aspects of his mission to be directly related to his mission to proclaim the Kingdom of God:

  • He was to prepare the way for God to begin this process.
  • He was to keep the promise that God had made with Abraham when He walked between the pieces in Genesis 15.
  • He was to correct some issues that the religious leaders had gotten wrong.

These are the four main reasons why Yeshua was sent by God.  His death and resurrection were both to open the way for the redemption and the restoration, and to keep God’s promise to Abraham.  This is confirmed by the disciple, John, in his gospel, about what happened after Yeshua raised Lazurus from the dead:

Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs.  If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that ONE MAN SHOULD DIE FOR THE PEOPLE, AND THAT THE WHOLE NATION SHOULD NOT PERISH.” (John 11: 47-50; emphasis added)

Most people stop at this verse, but what is really important is the commentary that John adds to this scene in the next three verses:

Now this he did not say ON HIS OWN INITIATIVE; but being high priest that year, HE PROPHESIED THAT YESHUA WAS GOING TO DIE FOR THE NATION, AND NOT FOR THE NATION ONLY, BUT THAT HE MIGHT ALSO GATHER TOGETHER INTO ONE THE CHILDREN OF GOD WHO ARE SCATTERED ABROAD.  SO FROM THAT DAY ON THEY PLANNED TOGETHER TO KILL HIM.  (John 11: 51-53; emphasis added)

There are three important things stated here that needs to be discussed:
1.  Caiaphas did not say these words “on his own initiative,” but as the “high priest that year, God was speaking through him [he was prophesying]. 
2.  God was telling the Sanhedrin that Yeshua was “going to die for the nation and people of Israel,” and that as a result of his death, he would then “gather together into one the children of God (the dispersed descendants of all the tribes of Israel, the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah) who are scattered abroad.

This was also stated by Rabbinic writers centuries later.  For example, in the online article, “A Chillul Hashem,” by Rabbi Zushe Silberstein, a member of the executive of the Montreal branch of the Rabbinical Council of Canada, writes in rebuttal against a resolution passed by the Rabbinical Council of America in 1996, against “the belief that Moshiach ben David [Messiah son of David] will begin his Messianic mission only to experience death, burial and resurrection before completing it.”  This resolution was passed against the Lubavitch [ultra-Orthodox Jewish movement] “Belief in a Resurrected Mashiach [Messiah]” concerning the death and expected resurrection of the Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 5, 1902 – June 12, 1994), and in reference to Professor David Berger’s article.  Rabbi Silberstein argues instead that the belief in a resurrected Messiah is an intricate part of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, and he cites the following rabbinical references:

The Gemara Sanhedrin (98b), speaks of the coming of Mashiach (Messiah) in two ways: “If he is of the living…if of the dead.”  Rashi brings two opinions on this Gemara, one of them stating clearly that Mashiach [Messiah] will rise from the dead.  In the Zohar, Balak 203b, it says that at first a living Mashiach [Messiah] will be revealed, he will die, he will be revived [resurrected] and then he will take us out of exile.  The Baal Ha-Tanya discusses this possibility extensively in his Sefer Hamamarim 5568 p. 283.  Arbarbanel, in his Sefer Yeshuos Meshicho p.104, says that Moshiach will die because of the sins of his generation and then be resurrected and usher in the ultimate Geula…” (The Jewish Press, Friday, July 5, 1996 p. 50)

And there are other sources that Rabbi Silberstein cites.  He is not a Messianic believer in Yeshua, but he is a man of integrity, who does not believe in falsifying the beliefs of traditional Rabbinic Judaism, even when it may not be convenient or comfortable to admit them.  And I deeply appreciate and respect his decision to maintain that integrity here.  However, I did find the following statement about Christianity truly enlightening and spoke volumes about the true problem with it from a Rabbinic perspective:

The concern that the present teachings of Lubavitch [Judaism] on Mashiach [Messiah] will make the job of Christian missionaries easier – thus your ill-fated decision – is unfounded and unacceptable.  Judaism’s refutation of Christian messianic claims, is not, I repeat, NOT BECAUSE J… DIED, it is refuted BECAUSE J… ADVOCATED THE RENEGING OF JUDAISM.  HE ENCOURAGED JEWS TO BE LESS OBSERVANT OF TORAH AND MITZVOT, IN DIRECT CONTRAST TO THE MAIN TASK OF THE MESSIAH.  To say that we must reject a fundamental tenet of Judaism because it has been used as one the arguments in Vikouchim held by the Rambam and others in specific settings, is intellectually dishonest and contrary to Halacha as cited above. 

 Mainstream Rabbinic Jews do not believe in Yeshua not because he died, which is what we are told most often, but because they falsely believe that he “advocated the reneging of Judaism.  He encourages Jews to be less observant of Torah and mitzvot (commandments),” which is absolutely not true.  The ones who reneged on Judaism, and encouraged Jews to be less observant of Torah and the commandments was not Yeshua was the Gentile believers, who were being called “Christians” by the surrounding unbelievers, who broke away from Israel and the Jewish people and created their own syncretic religion, called Christianity, near the beginning of the second century, C.E.  Today, it is still common among Christians for them to say that “Jesus died to do away with the law,” that “the law has been abolished, done away, or annulled,” or that “the law was for the Jews, and it is not for Christians.”  However, the Christian perspective and beliefs about the Torah (Law) is based on misinterpretations, misunderstandings, false innuendos, and just plain errors, so that this slanderous lie is still being propagated by both Christians and Rabbinical Jews.

3.  It was from that day on that they planned how to kill him in obedience to the instructions that God spoke through the high priest, Caiaphas.  So why should the Jewish people have been blamed for the death of Yeshua for almost two millennia when John makes it clear here in John 11, they were obeying God by doing so?  The death of Yeshua was required to open the way for God’s ultimate plan of bringing restoration to the whole House of Israel, i.e., all of the descendants of the sons of Jacob in fulfillment of the writings of the Torah and the prophets.  

  • The second pattern was that the human saviors were anointed by the Spirit of God.
    There are two accounts of Yeshua being anointed by the Spirit of God in the Gospels.  The first is in the book of Mattityahu (Matthew).
    • “And after being baptized (immersed in water), Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw THE SPIRIT OF GOD DESCENDING AS A DOVE, AND COMING UPON HIM, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17, NASB; emphasis added)

    The next account is in the book of Luke.

    • “Now it came about when all the people were baptized (immersed in water), that Jesus (Heb. Yeshua) also was baptized (immersed in water), and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and THE HOLY SPIRIT DESCENDED UPON HIM IN BODILY FORM LIKE A DOVE, and a voice came out of heaven, “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee (You) I am well-pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22, NASB; emphasis added)
  • The third pattern was that God worked in and through the chosen human savior to deliver the people.  For this pattern, we have a number of statements made by Yeshua himself from the book of Yochanan (John):
    • John 5:9 – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, THE SON CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF, but what he sees the Father do: for whatever He does, the Son also does.”
    • John 5:24 – “Verily, verily, he that hears my word, and BELIEVES HIM WHO SENT ME, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life.”
    • John 5:30 – “I CAN OF MY OWN SELF DO NOTHING: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I SEEK NOT MY OWN WILL, but the will of the Father which sent me.”
    • John 7:16 – “MY DOCTRINE [Teaching] IS NOT MINE, but his that sent me.”
    • John 7:17-18 – If any man will do HIS WILL, he shall know of the doctrine [teaching], whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.  He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory: but he that seeks His glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.”
    • John 8:26 – “I have many things to say and to judge of you: but HE THAT SENT ME IS TRUE; and I speak to the world those things WHICH I HAVE HEARD OF HIM.”
    • John 8:28 – “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am he, and that I DO NOTHING OF MYSELF; but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things.”
    • John 12:49 – “FOR I HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF MYSELF; but the Father which sent me, HE GAVE ME A COMMANDMENT, WHAT I SHOULD SAY, AND WHAT I SHOULD SPEAK.”
    • John 14:10 – “Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?  The words that I speak to you I SPEAK NOT OF MYSELF: but the Father that dwells in me, HE DOES THE WORKS.“

Rebbe Yeshua makes it quite clear that none of the doctrines (teachings), words, or miracles were his, but it was the Father who was working in and through him who had sent him.  So how could his words, teachings, or miracles prove his deity when he denied that any of it was his, but it all came from the Father?  The only thing that he claimed was that he shared great intimacy with the Father: “the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”  Obviously, intimacy is not the same thing as “sameness.”

Also, we have the testimonies from the disciples themselves:

    • Acts 2:22 – “You men of Israel, hear these words; Yeshua of Nazareth, A MAN APPROVED OF GOD among you by miracles and wonders and signs, WHICH GOD DID BY HIM in the midst of you, as you yourselves know” – Shi’mon Petros (Peter).
    • Acts 10:38 – “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how GOD ANOINTED HIM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND POWER, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; FOR GOD WAS WITH HIM.”  

So here we can see that the Rebbe Yeshua has fulfilled three of the patterns of the yasha’ from the book of Judges.  However, has the Rebbe Yeshua fulfilled all the prophecies of him being Israel’s yasha’?  No, he has not.  He fulfilled all that God wanted him to do with his first coming, but in the second coming, he will fulfill his role of being the physical deliverer of Israel.  In Isaiah 63, we read, 

    • Who is this who comes from Edom, with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah.  This One who is majestic in His apparel; Marching in the greatness of His strength?  “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”  Why is your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?  “I have trodden the wine trough alone, and from the peoples there was no man to help Me.  I also trod them in Mine anger, and trampled them in My wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled [soaked] on My garments, and I stained all My raiment.  For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption has come.  And I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought salvation to Me; and My wrath upheld Me.  And I trod down the peoples in My anger, and made them drunk in My wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.” (Isaiah 63:1-6)

This scene describes his second coming as he returns to do battle with the nations in defense of Israel and the Jewish people.  Once the world’s military forces have been defeated, he will then ascend his promised throne over Israel and the nations, and then he will judge those nations that had come up against Israel.

  • The fourth pattern was that they ruled over the people of Israel for a designated time period.
    Yeshua will fulfill this fourth pattern once he returns, defeats the world’s military, and then rules and reigns over the Messianic Kingdom for 1,000 years.
  • He will then enter into a covenant of peace (Heb. B’rit Shalom) with the newly re-United Kingdom of Israel.  For example, in Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel prophesies,

And My servant David [Messiah Yeshua] will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will all walk in My ordinances, and keep My statutes, and observe them.  And they shall live in the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live in it, they, and their sons, and their sons’ sons forever; and David My servant [Messiah Yeshua] shall be their prince forever. AND I WILL MAKE A COVENANT OF PEACE WITH THEM.  And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever.  My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.  (Ezekiel 37:24-28; emphasis added)

We have a lot to look forward to.  The return of God and His chosen Messiah Yeshua, the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom, and another covenant, a covenant of peace.  And if there’s another covenant, then there is also more Bible coming.  So although we have what has been done so far, but in the spectrum of eternity, we have more Bible to come!  

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