by Ron Cantor
“Let’s go back to the days immediately after Yeshua ascended into Heaven. Take my hand.”
We were heading back in time, once again. I loved this part! And again scenes from history flashed below me as we journeyed back through time. When we arrived, it was night.
We gazed once more into the room where Yeshua had celebrated Passover with the disciples. But now the room was filled with men and women who were praying. Ariel began, “Remember, David, how Yeshua, just before He ascended into Heaven, told these people not to return to Galilee but to wait in Jerusalem for what the Father had promised—the Holy Spirit. And as you can see, they are obeying Him even though they don’t really know what to expect. They spent their days in the Temple courts and nights back at the Upper Room, constantly seeking God for His promise. There are over one hundred people in that room worshiping Him, and every single one of them is Jewish.
“Let’s fast-forward a few days to Shavuot.”
And within seconds we were viewing a sea of humanity in the Temple courts on the morning of Shavuot. In one of the enclosures off the courtyard, I could see the 120 gathered here, waiting and praying. This was the same scene he had shown me earlier.
“David, they had no idea what was about to happen. Read this verse.” I saw this passage illuminated and read:
When the day of [Shavuot] came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:1-4).
He was filling their mouths with praise and worship and in a multitude of languages!
We watched, and I was fascinated that it was only the sound of a mighty wind. There was no movement as the Holy Spirit visibly fell on each one. It was a sound that could be heard far beyond the reaches of the place where they were and the strange phenomenon quickly drew a huge crowd. These Jews were not only from Israel but from all over the known world. They had come up to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to celebrate Shavuot.
Imagine their amazement at hearing God’s praise going forth in their own languages. We couldn’t help but smile as we watched Kefa stumble from the enclosure into the Temple court’s public area. The Jewish worshipers were staring at him and the others. Seeing this, Kefa took the opportunity to explain what was happening. He boldly preached his first sermon under the power of the Holy Spirit to an enormous crowd.
“By the end of the day, David, three thousand men had believed in Yeshua and were ready to be immersed in water.” (See Acts 2:41.)
“I remember this,” I said. “They were immersed in the mikvot pools surrounding the Temple.”
“Let’s take a look,” Ariel said as he leaned forward, and in seconds we were watching another amazing scene. There was great joy amongst the crowd as thousands of new believers in the southern sector of the Temple were being immersed in water.
“Ariel, that looks like more than three thousand to me!”
“Indeed you are right. They only counted heads of households back then. In truth, there were over ten thousand new believers—and again—all of them were Jewish! And consider, David, many of these men had not traveled with their families. So, while many of them arrived in Jerusalem feeling spiritually broken and beat up, seeking to survive under Roman rule, they returned home as new men. Their wives were stunned as their husbands radiated a new respect and love for their spouses, something that was uncommon in the world at that time.
“Let me take a few minutes to explain something to you and then we will get back to Shavuot. While many people falsely think that the New Testament restricts women, nothing could be further from the truth. Until this time, there had been no document more liberating for women than the New Testament. You have to understand that very few marriages at that time were based on love and mutual respect. Virtually every marriage was arranged. In many cultures women were viewed as property. In Roman cultures women were treated very poorly, often viewed merely as objects for sexual gratification and reproduction. A good many women died in childbirth.
“In richer families, the women were expected to bear children as quickly as possible, with little rest between pregnancies. In fact, many girls were doomed at birth. Boys were preferred, as they could carry on the family name, and for a girl the father would have to provide a dowry to her husband upon marriage. At certain periods in Roman culture, fathers were permitted to expose their newborns if they chose. Exposing a child meant that the child was thrown in a river or allowed to die naturally from starvation. This fate, in most cases, fell upon girls.”
I was sick at hearing this!
“In most cultures, women could not receive an education, testify in court, socialize in public, or talk to strangers. Young women were usually secluded until marriage and married women, especially in the larger cities, wore veils in public. Men, generally, looked down on women, seeing them as inferior.
“Despite the fact the wives of the Patriarchs are honored in Jewish prayers—Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel—it rarely translated into true honor between and husband and wife in the first century. The marriage hardly resembled a modern Hollywood movie, but was a contract between families. I am sure you remember the play Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye the Milkman was obsessed with finding suitable matches for his daughters, and that was based on Russia in the early nineteen hundreds. Things have changed rapidly in the last 100 years.
“Yeshua, however, broke all the rules, and treated women as equals in a time when such things were unthinkable. To be clear, we all have defined roles to play in our lives—for instance, you’re never going to have baby, David!”
“I hope not!” we laughed.
“The Father has created men and women uniquely different to complement each other in their relationships as they raise families. Men tend to be more disciplinary, while women are more nurturing. Yes, men and women are different, but equally valued and loved by the Father.
“And while on earth, Yeshua frequently challenged the status quo. On His way back from Judea to Galilee, He and His disciples passed through Samaria. While the disciples went into town to buy food, He did the unthinkable. He talked to a woman in public! John recorded the whole story in chapter four of his biography of Yeshua.
“When the disciples came back they were clearly surprised and bewildered to see the Master talking to a woman alone—especially a Samaritan woman!
“Let me show you another example.” Ariel snapped his fingers and a portable version of the tablet appeared before me, like a flat screen TV, and a movie began to play.
Yeshua was at the Temple courts teaching a group of eager listeners, when He was approached by an aggressive group of men. They appeared to be religious leaders. Two of them violently pushed a bound woman in the direction of Yeshua. She was scratched and bruised, clearly their prisoner. Her hands were bound. As they pushed her forward, she fell and they made a half circle around her. Then the ringleader turned to Yeshua.
“Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Torah, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do You say?”
Oh my goodness, they were going to stone her, like they did Stephen. It would have been one thing if this were merely a movie. But Ariel was showing me something that really happened.
“No!” I blurted out. “They can’t!” Ariel was smiling. “Ariel, how can you smile? This isn’t funny!”
He just looked at me and said, “Keep watching.”
I continued to watch, as they asked Yeshua if they should stone her to death. Their accusations and calls for her to be stoned were met with silence. Some of them even appeared to be giddy as they put the weight of this woman’s life upon Him.
Yeshua gazed at them intensely, but said nothing. Finally, He bent down and began to write with His finger in the dust on the stone floor.
&
nbsp; Ariel interrupted, “David, this was far more than a man writing in dust. In fact, He was essentially saying, ‘I am Divine.’ It was the finger of God that emblazed the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets. Now here, the Divine Son, humbled by taking on the form of humanity, revealing Himself not as the One who parted the Red Sea or spoke the world into existence, but as a servant, He has a divine message for this woman’s accusers.”
As he bent down I could see what He was writing, and despite that it was in Hebrew, I understood it. “Pride, deception, manipulation, shame, judging, jealousy….” Even as He wrote they continued to badger Him with questions.
At last, He stood up and, looking them straight in the eye, gently said, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And then He resumed writing on the stone floor as they pondered His rebuke. “Lust, greed, hypocrisy….”
His confronters were suddenly very uncomfortable, embarrassed, and clearly outwitted. No one was laughing now as, one by one, starting with the oldest, they all crept away.
Yeshua then untied the hands of the woman. She was weeping, overcome with relief at the sudden change in the course of events. She was sure that stones would soon be digging into her flesh and now she was free. Yeshua asked her, “Where are your accusers? Is there not even one to condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
Yeshua looked at her with eyes of compassion and said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
The tablet went blank.
“You see David, they knew they had no legal authority under Roman law to kill her, and that is why they sought to trap Yeshua. They knew if He said, ‘Stone her!’ He would be in trouble with their Roman overlords. However, if He was unwilling to pronounce a death sentence over her, they would tell the people that He didn’t obey Moses. Instead, He exposed their own sinfulness and guilt. Yeshua, making them look like fools, revealed that their sin was just as evil as hers.”
“Is this story in the New Testament?” I asked.
“Yep, that and many more that reveal how counter-culture the teachings of Yeshua were. If you read what Shaul wrote to the Ephesians, it probably won’t seem so earth-shattering.”
I looked to the tablet and saw: “Husbands, love your wives, just as [Messiah] loved the [Kehilah] and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25).
“That’s a beautiful passage,” I remarked.
“Sure it is—for you—a twenty-first-century American husband. But for the Ephesians and the rest of the known world at the time it was revolutionary. It was not the norm for a husband in those days to regard his wife in this way—as someone to be cherished, protected, someone for whom he would be willing to die. You have no idea how radical this teaching was. Asking a man to express unconditional love and affection for his wife was unheard of. Western culture has Yeshua to thank for this shift. Without the teachings of the New Covenant, the West would never have become as civilized as it has.
“Of course, the belittling and devaluing of women went on for centuries, because the Church did not emphasize these teachings and forbade people to read the Bible for themselves. Even in Jewish circles women continued to be treated poorly. Josephus, the great first century Jewish historian noted, ‘The woman, says the Law, is in all things inferior to the man.’1 Here are a couple more quotes from both Jewish and Christian sources.” I looked to the tablet:
Rather should the words of the Torah be burned than entrusted to a woman…Whoever teaches his daughter the Torah is like one who teaches lewdness.
—ELIEZER BEN HYRCANUS2
What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman…I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children.
—ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
“While so much has changed in the West in regard to how women are viewed, much of the world still treats women as objects or property. Hold your stomach and watch this.”
A video played on the tablet. A Muslim sheik was teaching on the proper way to beat one’s wife. I looked at the angel incredulously. He was not smiling. “If the husband wants to use beatings to treat his wife, he must not do it in front of the children. It must remain between him and her….”3
The video ended quickly. “This is sick!” I roared, “Religious leaders giving instructions on the godly way to beat your wife!”
“Oh David, if you knew how many horrible and tragic events take place every day on your planet. Women are raped, sold into slavery, and forced into prostitution in nearly every country, every day.4 Evil men line their pockets with money, as their consciences are seared. They feel no guilt or remorse as they use and abuse these creations of God, whom He made in His image.
“This is why Yeshua was so radical in His treatment of women—He hates the way men have used physical strength to take advantage of women. On another occasion when a woman with a notoriously promiscuous past came and wept at His feet, He did not send her away. He was actually in the home of a religious leader at the time and everyone there judged Him for letting her touch Him. But Yeshua rebuked them. In truth there was no difference between them and her—they were all guilty of sin before God. The only distinction was that the woman recognized she was a sinner, while the smug, self-righteous ones present misguidedly trusted in their own virtue for salvation.
“No one in history has contributed more to the liberation of women than Yeshua,” Ariel said emphatically.
Notes
* * *
1. Josephus, Against Apion Book II, 201.
2. Rabbi Eliezer, “Mishnah, Sotah” 3:4.
3. Wife beating in Islam—The Rules, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp3Eam5FX58.
4. The Richmond Justice Initiative (www.richmondjusticeinitiative.com) is a great resource to get educated concerning human trafficking and sexual slavery in the U.S. and around the world. It is headed by Sara Pomeroy, a former student of mine.
Chapter Nineteen
TENS OF THOUSANDS
OF MESSIANIC JEWS
Returning to the subject of the Jewish revival that began on Shavuot 30 CE, Ariel continued, “So these men who were giving their lives to the Messiah returned home as changed men. In most cases, their wives were so affected by the new respect with which they were now treated that they, too, quickly became followers of the Messiah.”
I looked at the scene as one after another entered into the mikvot—the immersion pools.
“Rising up out of the water is a picture of the resurrection life—the new life in the Spirit that Yeshua gives to all who ask. And three thousand is a very significant number.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Well, Shavuot, traditionally, is the holiday on which Israel celebrates the giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai. On the day Moses brought the tablets of the Law into the camp, the people’s sin was so flagrant, Moses threw down the tablets, breaking them—and three thousand men were put to death” (see Exod. 32:19-28).
“So, three thousand people died when the law came, but with the coming of the Holy Spirit three thousand people received new life!” I added.
“Precisely! Shaul wrote to the believers in Corinth, ‘He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life’ (2 Cor. 3:6). The letter kills because it only reveals the problem. However, when one receives Yeshua, he now has power to live out God’s plan. It was the beginning of a whole new way of relating to God—now the Torah would be written on their hearts.
“And this number quickly grew,” the angel continued. “In Acts 4:4 it states that the number of men grew to about five thousand—and when you count the rest of the family members that number was closer to twenty thousand, and, need I say it…?”
“… All of them were Jewish!” I finished his sentence.
“Indeed they were, David, and it wasn’t merely the uneducated or the unwanted, t
hough the Lord loves them greatly, who were placing their trust in Yeshua. Acts 6:7 says, ‘So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.’”
“What kind of priests? Catholics?” I asked.
Ariel laughed out loud. “No, there weren’t any Catholics yet, David. These were Jewish priests!”
“We have rabbis,” I said, “but I have never met a Jewish priest.”
“It’s true, David. If your typical Jewish person were to read that second part, they would probably all think that these priests were Catholic. Why? Because there is no such thing in modern Judaism as a priest. The spiritual leaders in post-temple Judaism are called rabbis, which means teachers. Without a Temple, last destroyed in 70 CE, there was no need for priests anymore, as the job of the priests was to offer sacrifices to God in the Temple on behalf of the people. Even when there were Jewish priests, they would not have used the word priest but cohen, which is a common family name even today among Jewish people. The fact that a large number of these men, the cohanim, who worked in the Temple had come to faith, shows that the good news of Yeshua was reaching every sector of Jewish society.”
Ariel snapped his fingers and a rather serious-looking man addressed me from the tablet screen.
“And that included Jewish society outside of Israel as well. Shaul, who once imprisoned Jewish believers, made it a point of principle everywhere he traveled to seek to reach the Jewish people first.”
“David, meet Lukas. Everyone up here calls him Dr. Luke.”
“Hello, David. What a pleasure to meet you.”
Despite his stern demeanor, his voice was warm and his manner friendly.