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From: Jeff Harrison [mailto:Jeff@totheends.com]
To:      heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: To The Ends of The Earth--Teaching Letter #5


TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH--Teaching Letter #5

Back issues of this Teaching Letter #1-3 are now available
on our web site, complete with photos!  Go to the Articles
section on the Classroom page at www.totheends.com

There's also a new Question and Answer section with
answers to questions that have come in about the Teaching
Letter and other topics.  Go to the Questions and Answers
section on the Classroom page at www.totheends.com

To submit a question or comment, e-mail us at Jeff@totheends.com

Thanks for your interest and for helping us spread
the word by sharing this teaching with your friends
and family. 

-------------------------------------------------------

THE MESSIANIC JUDGE
By Jeffrey J. Harrison

Unlike the dusty desert colors of Jerusalem and its
surroundings, Galilee is fresh, green, and beautiful.
 Orchards and fields lie everywhere, especially the
olive tree, shimmering its silvery leaves with every
passing breeze.  The village of Nazareth, where Jesus
grew up, was located right in the heart of Galilee,
on top of a long hill known today as the Nazareth ridge.
 Here, in a hilltop valley, tiny Nazareth lay hidden
from those looking up from below.  But from above,
the view is magnificent.  From the north rim of its
hilltop valley, you can see all the way to snow-capped
Mt. Hermon on a clear day.  From the south rim, above
a rocky cliff, you can see over the entire Jezreel
valley and to Mt. Carmel, where Elijah faced the prophets
of Baal.  This is a commander's view over the battlefield
of the ages, where Deborah and Barak faced the Canaanites
and Saul battled the Philistines.  Imagine the interest
that would put in your Bible study lesson, to take
a group of young students on a hike up the rocky slopes
to this magnificent view, and point out the very sites
where so many dramatic Biblical events took place.
 We can be sure Jesus came here as a boy, either with
Joseph or with his class from the synagogue school.
 Over here, someone would have pointed, Gideon fought
the Midianites.  Over there, to the west, King Josiah
battled Pharaoh Neco.  Over here Jezebel was thrown
down, and right across the whole valley Elijah outpaced
King Ahab's chariot.  The armies of the centuries visited
this valley--from the Assyrians and Babylonians of
old to the army of Alexander the Great, and since Jesus,
Crusader and Moslem armies, even Napoleon and British
General Allenby--all fought here or passed through
here.  No wonder, as one of the great battlefields
of history, it's also called the valley of Armaggedon*:
 the staging area for a final war of the nations against
God and his Messiah (Rev. 16:16).  The nations will
be at a disadvantage:  they'll be in Messiah's home
turf. 

* In Hebrew, this means the "mountain of Meggido."
 Meggido was one of the Canaanite cities faced by Joshua
and later by Deborah and Barak in the Jezreel Valley.
  

But the spot of this magnificent view came very close
to being the place of Jesus' death.  Late one Sabbath
morning, he was marched toward this rocky cliff to
be thrown off into the valley below (Luke 4:29).* 
His sermon that morning in the synagogue had offended
his fellow townsmen so much, they were ready to kill
him.  What had he said that was so bad?  He had judged
their spiritual condition by comparing them to the
Israel of Ahab and Jezebel, when God had done no miracles
for the people because of their sin and disobedience
(Luke 4:25-27).  This kind of teaching was not what
they wanted to hear.  They were looking for a Messiah
that would judge their enemies, the Gentiles, not themselves!
 

* Today, this cliff is called the "Mount of Precipitation"
used in the sense of a headlong fall, which Jesus nearly
experienced here.  The identification of the site is
traditional, but supported by its steep slope and its
proximity to the village. 

In their eyes, Jesus committed blasphemy, since only
God is worthy to judge the hearts of men, and they
did not accept that he is God.  The Biblical penalty
for blasphemy was death by stoning (Lev. 24:14-16).
 But the rabbis ruled that a stoning should begin with
pushing the criminal off a high place.  This change
was probably made for humanitarian reasons--stoning
is a long and painful way to die.*  But for some unknown
reason, Jesus simply walked away (Luke 4:30).  It may
be because, as was recently suggested, the edge of
the cliff was more than a Sabbath day's walk away (the
maximum distance permitted to be travelled on a Sabbath,
a little over half a mile).  Had they gone all the
way to the edge of the cliff, those with him would
also have become guilty of a capital crime.  As a result,
the death of the Messiah was postponed to a later time.
 

*A stoning at Jeddah in February 1958 took more than
an hour before the victim was dead.  The rabbis instructed
that the victim should be pushed down from a height
by one of the witnesses against him.  If the fall didn't
kill him, then a large stone was dropped on his chest
by a second witness.  If that didn't kill him, everyone
standing by picked up stones and threw them at him
until he was dead (Mishnah, Sanhedrin 6:4).  This may
be how Stephen, the first Christian martyr after Jesus,
was killed (Acts 7:58).  The tradition persisted for
years that he died outside the north gate of Jerusalem
(not the eastern "St. Stephen's Gate" shown today).
 Just here, outside the northern gate (today's Damascus
Gate), there is a steep, rocky cliff that may have
been the city's ancient place of stoning (site of the
present Garden Tomb and the adjoining bus station).
 This explains, too, why James, the brother of Jesus,
was pushed down from a high place as the first step
in his execution (Eusebius, History II.23).

In the Jewish and Biblical view, all judgment ultimately
belongs to God.  Human judges were therefore considered
to be exercizing a holy office.  The 70 judges appointed
by Moses in the desert had the Holy Spirit distributed
to them to help them exercize their office (Num. 11:16-17,25).
 In the same way, the Sanhedrin Council in the time
of Jesus was believed to exercise divine authority,
with Messianic prophecies occasionally applied to it
by the Rabbis (Psa. 89:38 in Ecclesiastes Rabbah 12:7,
in Judah Nadich, The Legends of the Rabbis I, 1994,
p. 166). 

The kings of Israel, who also served as judges, were
also anointed for office, and sometimes referred to
as sons of God.*  Unlike our modern idea of separating
the judiciary from the executive branches of government,
judgment was considered a right of kings, and one of
their chief duties.

* In prophetic anticipation of the Messiah (Ps. 2:7,
89:26,27). 

This helps clarify the title of the 7th book of the
Bible:  the book of Judges.  These were not judges
in the modern sense, but rulers over the people, which
also gave them the right to judge their disputes.

Matthew 19:28, which says that the 12 apostles will
sit on 12 thrones judging the tribes of Israel, means
they will rule over the 12 tribes.  In 1 Corinthians
6:2, when Paul says that the believers in Christ will
judge the world, this also means they will rule the
world (as in Rev. 20:4). 

Given this understanding, it's only natural that the
Messiah, too, as the Lord's anointed king, has the
right to judge.  In Micah 5:1, the Messiah is called
the "judge of Israel" in a verse that prophesies the
torture and death of the Messiah.  But far from being
an ordinary human judge, his divine nature is also
hinted here:  "his origins are from of old, from the
days of eternity" (Micah 5:2). 

The same understanding appears in Isaiah 11, another
famous prophecy of the Messiah.  Here, one of the primary
responsibilities of the Messiah is to judge the people:
 "With righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide
with fairness for the afflicted of the earth" (Isa.
11:3,4).  For this he is given the anointing of the
seven-fold Holy Spirit:  "The Spirit of [1] the Lord
will rest on him, a Spirit of [2] wisdom and [3] understanding,
a Spirit of [4] counsel and [5] strength, a Spirit
of [6] knowledge and [7] the fear of the LORD" (Isa.
11:2).  This prophecy was fulfilled when the Spirit
descended on Jesus at his baptism:  a sign that he,
as the Messianic king, is anointed to judge justly.
 

One of the verses in this section posed a puzzle for
the early Rabbis.  How can the Messiah judge, they
asked, if he does "not judge by what his eyes see"
(Isa. 11:3)?  The answer provided in the book of Revelation
is the vision of a lamb having "seven eyes, which are
the seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth" (Rev.
5:6):  the Messiah (the lamb) will judge by the eyes
of the Spirit--described with the same seven-fold nature
as in Isaiah 11. 

But this will not be the quiet judgment of a courtroom.
 The Messiah's jurisdiction includes God's judgment
of all the earth:  the Day of the Lord, in which God
will destroy the wicked (John 5:22).  In that day,
the Messiah "will strike the earth with the rod of
his mouth" (Isa. 11:4) to destroy the rebellious nations.
 Since the office of king and judge are one, this righteous
war against the nations is also a judgment of those
nations.

Psalm 2 uses the same image of judgment:  the rod of
the Messiah which strikes the nations, smashing them
"like pottery" (Psa. 2:9).*  Here the Messiah is called
the Son of God with words similar to those quoted by
the Father over Jesus at his baptism:  "You are my
Son" (Psa. 2:7; see Matt. 3:17, Luke 3:22, etc.). 
This is followed by a prophecy of the universal reign
of the Messiah--and a hint of the salvation of the
Gentiles (the nations):  "Ask of me, and I will give
nations to be your inheritance, and the ends of the
earth to be your possession" (vs. 8).   

*The word often translated "Anointed" in Psa. 2:2 is
"Messiah" (which means anointed) in Hebrew.

In Isaiah 51, God's judgment is accomplished by his
"arms":  "My arms will judge the peoples...and for my
arm they will wait expectantly" (Isa. 51:5).  The arms
of the Lord are a beautiful picture of the tri-unity
of God.  The Father, whose arms they are, removed himself
from the earth because of the sin of mankind.  (This
was the message of the Temple with the ark of God hidden
behind the veil.)  If he were to reveal himself now,
in the fullness of his holiness, all would be destroyed
because of their sin ("man cannot see me and live"
Ex. 33:20).  But because of his love for us, he reaches
out with his two arms--the Son and the Spirit--who,
in their often hidden way, draw us to himself. 

The identity of the arm for whom the peoples "wait
expectantly" is made clear in Isaiah 53:1:  "And to
whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?"  This
is the beginning of the famous Suffering Servant chapter,
that talks about Jesus in such clear language, it is
not read in the synagogue as part of the annual Scripture
reading cycle:  "He was pierced for our transgressions....
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter.... He will bear
their punishments...." (Isa. 53:5,7,11). 

It can only be called divine justice that this same
one who himself experienced such injustice will come
to judge all mankind.  When he comes, Jesus warned
us, the doors of mercy will be shut (Matt. 25:10-12).
 But until then, they are still wide open for all who
would come to the everlasting arms (Deut. 33:27). 
We will all stand one day before the Messiah for judgment.
 But if we anticipate his coming, and welcome now the
healing of the Spirit and the cleansing of the Word
(Matt. 3:11; Eph. 5:26), we will be ready when he returns.
 

-------------------------------------------------------

Copyright c 2000 by Jeffrey J. Harrison.  All rights
reserved. 

If you know anyone else that would be interested in
these teachings, please feel free to forward it to
them. 

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To see these teachings complete with photos, visit
our web site at www.totheends.com.  Photo versions
will be posted a couple of weeks after a new teaching
is sent out.   

To The Ends Of The Earth is sponsoring a study tour
to Israel in June 2001.  Pastor Jeff Harrison, who
will be leading the tour, studied with some of the
top Israeli archeologists and Christian scholars in
Jerusalem and led tours full time while living in Jerusalem.
 This will be a rich time of study of the Jewish roots
of Christianity and the life of Jesus in the Land of
Israel.  For more information, e-mail us at Jeff@totheends.com
 

To The Ends Of The Earth is a Messianic/Christian teaching
ministry bringing you information from Israel on the
Jewish Roots of our faith.  We are able to make these
teachings available at no charge because of the support
of a team of believers called alongside to help in
prayer and finances.  If you are interested in joining
our team, visit our Support page at www.totheends.com
, or contact us by e-mail at Jeff@totheends.com

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