Tag Archives: Luke

Is your table an altar?

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Luke 24:30, He sat at the table. (See also vv. 41–43; John 21:12–13). In Bible times, when a covenant of friendship had been broken, as had occurred when the disciples forsook Yeshua prior to his apprehension, the broken relationship would be restored by eating together. After his resurrection, Yeshua had at least three meals with his disciples in order to renew loving covenantal relationship with them (Manners and Customs, pp. 78–79).

Young Hispanic Family Saying Prayers Before Meal At Home

In Hebraic thought, one’s table is a sort of sacred altar where familial and spiritual communion occurs. You don’t just break bread with anyone—only your close friends. Additionally, when a prayer of thanksgiving is made over a meal, YHVH’s Presence is invoked making the meal a sort of spiritual act where heaven and earth commune together.

This is one reason why the Passover seder meal is of such serious significance. Only those of one’s spiritual family are to gather together at the seder where together they meet with Elohim. Furthermore, this is why Paul states in 1 Cor 5:9–11,

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.  (emphasis added)

 

The Secular Judge and the Persistent Widow—An Encouraging Story

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Luke 18:2, A judge. In this parable of the Persistent Widow and the Unjust Judge, Yeshua is using a Hebraic form of reasoning or argument called kol v’khomer where a point is made from a lesser weight to heavier weight. In other words, if premise A is correct, then how much more so is premise B correct?

Giudice - graffiti

In the Jewish religious thinking of the first century, this is one of the seven laws of biblical interpretation of Hillel the Great (ca. 32 b.c. to A.D. 7) who was one of the greatest Jewish religious leaders of Yeshua’s day. In this parable, Yeshua is making the point that if an ungodly, secular judge who cares little about the needs of a widow will grant her wishes because of her persistent pleas for justice against her enemies, how much more will Elohim hear and answer the prayers of his elect saints who have faith in him and cry out to him continually to avenge them of their enemies.

A day of judgment is coming when the scales of justice will be balanced in favor of the saints of the Most High Elohim, the Just Judge of the universe. Certainly Elohim presently attends to the needs of his servants and gives them victory over their enemies in many small ways. But many believers are still suffering greatly at the hands of the wicked who don’t fear Elohim. However, the day is coming when YHVH will move with a mighty hand and universally avenge his servants of all their enemies small and great. Until then, the righteous martyrs continue to cry out asking Elohim, “How long, O YHVH, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10). His answer to them is to wait just a little longer (verse 11), for the great day of YHVH’s wrath, the wrath of the Lamb, which is coming upon the wicked (verse 17) is coming soon. Until then, YHVH promises to never leave nor forsake his servants (Heb 13:5), so be strong in him!

 

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man Explained

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Luke 16:19–31, The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. This, and the other parables of Yeshua, are known as aggadah (also haggadah)—a very popular literary style during the second temple period whereby Jewish sages taught moralistic principles to their pupils. It was similar to our modern Aesop’s fables. This genre of literature included ethical and moral teaching, theological speculation, legends, folklore, poetry, prayers, historical information, interpreting of dreams, and expressions of messianic faith and longings. Aggadic literature, though instructive, did not contain legally binding theological and doctrinal dictums. Aggadic literature is to be contrasted with the legally binding halachic literature of the same period. Aggadic literature made use of parable, satire, metaphor, personification, and poetry. Aggadah was not systematic philosophy, but dealt in its own way with basic theological and moral problems.

Lazarus & Rich Man 1

The purpose of aggadic literature was not to convey point-by-point doctrinal truths, but to teach a moral. Most Christian teachers have used the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man as a theological basis for the doctrine of the immortality of the soul (an exegetical leap that cannot be substantiated when one understands the nature of aggadic literature) and have missed the true meaning of Yeshua’s teaching. He is not making a theologically statement or halachic declaration on the state of the dead. What then is the point of his teaching?

Context is vital to understanding this parable properly, and all of the Scriptures, for that Continue reading →

 

Natan’s Commentary Notes on Luke 13

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Some Spiritual Treasures from Yeshua

Luke 13:1–9, Repent or perish. Sometimes bad things happen to “good people” who are bearing no spiritual fruit. These “bad things” can be YHVH’s way of rehabilitating one’s spiritual tree for the greater good of bringing forth spiritual fruit even as an orchardist scarifies the soil in a fruit tree’s root zone and mixes in fertilizer (like manure) to stimulate and to help make it productive.

Treasure, examining

Luke 13:12, Woman…spirit of infirmity. Sometimes Yeshua healed people who neither asked for it, nor evidenced faith to be healed just for the glory of YHVH. From time to time, we hear of miraculous healings and divine interventions that saved people’s lives occurring for no apparent reason. Perhaps YHVH likes to stir the pot of human affairs occasionally just to draw men’s attention to him, bring glory to his name and to raise men’s hopes a bit that there is an Elohim who is sovereignly orchestrating things behind the scenes.

Luke 13:14, Ruler of the synagogue. (See also Matt 9:18; Mark 5:35, 36, 38; Luke 8:41, 49; Act 18:8, 17.) Heb. rosh hachenesheth. This was the ruler of the synagogue (Sketches, by Edersheim, p. 257).

Luke 13:15, Hypocrite. Yeshua was able to defend his actions and contradict the leader of the synagogue because he knew the Torah better than they did. This teaches us two things. First, just because one is a church leader doesn’t mean they know the Torah or the rest of the word of Elohim very well. Paul taught the “whole counsel of Elohim,” including Continue reading →

 

The Blood of All the Martyred Saints on the Jewish Leaders?

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Luke 11:49–51, I will send them…the blood of all the prophets. How can Yeshua logically lay at the feet of the spiritual teachers of his day the blood of all the prophets and apostles from the time of Abel to Zechariah?

Blood stains

Simply this. In all that the prophets of old did and preached, they pointed the way to Yeshua the Messiah.

For example, Abel preached Yeshua when he brought a lamb offering to Elohim. By the fact that Yeshua’s generation of religious leaders would reject him and condemn him to be crucified, they represented a false, demonic and murderous antichrist religious system that had been responsible for the deaths of all of YHVH’s servants to that time. Instead of repenting of their sins and accepting Yeshua as the promised Messiah to which all the prophets of old had pointed, they joined their voices and forces with the chorus of antichrist rebels and dissenters including with Satan himself—the arch instigator of that rebellion—in rejecting the Messiah.

By rejecting Yeshua, they tacitly approved of the deaths of all those who had gone before him pointing the way to him, and were therefore just as responsible for the deaths of the ancient prophets as if they themselves had been the ones who had actually killed them.

 

Who is a fool?

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Luke 11:40, You fools. Here Yeshua calls the Pharisees fools (Gr. aphron) or “senseless, stupid, without reason, acting rashly, without reflection or intelligence.”  (Cp. Matt 5:22.)

How does this compare with Yeshua’s forbidding his disciples from calling a brother a fool in Matthew 5:22? Let’s see.

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Matthew 5:22, Brother…raca…fool. Raca is an Aramaic word meaning “empty, i.e., a senseless, an empty headed man, vain, worthless, shallow brains” and was a term of reproach used among the Jews. Fool (Gr. moros) can also be translated as “empty, i.e. a senseless, empty headed man.” In Luke 11:40, Yeshua called the hypocritical Pharisees fools (Gr. aphron) or “without reason, senseless, foolish, stupid, without reflection or intelligence, acting rashly.” In Yeshua’s mind, it seems that calling an unbelieving religious hypocrite a fool is one thing, but calling one’s spiritual brother a fool (without a cause) is quite a different matter. Therefore, it would seem that to Yeshua, there is a time and place even to call a brother a fool as long as one is justified (presumably on solid Torah-based, scriptural ground) for doing so.

The LXX translators replace the Hebrew word nabal and the Greek word moros. According the TDNT, nabal not only means “want of understanding,” but also refers to one who “is missing the true understanding of Elohim, acknowledgement or confession of Elohim. Someone who’s heart is hardened and whose spiritual eyes are blind and ears are deaf. The folly condemned here is apostasy from Elohim. Yeshua uses the moros in describing the five virgins who were unprepared for the bridegroom in his Matthew 25 parable. Apparently, they were in a far worse state spiritually than one might suppose from a casual reading of this parable.

The bottom line is this: We must be careful who we call a fool. The Creator made man was made in his image, and is thus a dignified, honorable and noble being. In Hebraic thought, anything that demotes a person’s honor not only is a serious offense, but is a slap in the face of Elohim, the Creator. One must be very careful and be certain that one has solid scriptural backing before applying such epithets to another person — especially one’s spiritual brother.

 

Beware of Blind Leaders Leading Many Astray

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Luke 6:40, Perfectly/fully trained. Those disciples of Yeshua the Master-Teacher who are properly trained, fit out, prepared or equipped can become like Yeshua the Master-Teacher. Those who aren’t properly equipped or trained to teach are like the blind leading the blind and will cause others to fall into a spiritual ditch (Luke 6:39). Those who aren’t properly trained not only will be like a blind man, but will also be hypocritical in his judgments and assessments of things. This is because he lacks the experience, wisdom and skills to be able to point out the faults of others because he still inexperienced and has too many blind spots and is still like the blind leading the blind (Luke 6:41–42).

Blind Businessman

This is why Paul very carefully lays out the qualifications for those in spiritual leadership in the local congregation. A spiritual leaders was not to be an inexperienced individual, a new convert or a novice (1 Tim 3:6), but well-discipled in YHVH’s truth before hand (Tit 1:9). Paul says that it is good thing for a man to desire to be a spiritual leader (1 Tim 3:1), but it isn’t a good thing if he doesn’t meet the criteria or qualifications, which Paul then lays out (1 Tim 3:2–13).

The problem is that in our day, there are many individuals who desire to be leaders and teachers, who are self-appointed, and who have not been perfectly or fully trained. Since the advent of the internet, such people now have an easily accessible pulpit-platform from which to influence others. Sadly, they are like the blind hypocrite in Yeshua’s parable leading many astray and causing many to stumble and fall into spiritual ditches. Just because someone has a website, a YouTube channel, has published a book, spoken at a conference, has academic credentials or been on radio and television doesn’t mean they have been perfectly equipped or fully trained for such a vocation. We may not always know what a person’s background or qualifications are, but the spiritual fruit they produce, whether good or bad, can be an excellent indicator as to what type of spiritual tree they are, as Yeshua goes on to say in the next verses (Luke 6:43–45).