PART 6

HEALING ON SHABBAT CONTROVERSY

{The Galil people and the leaders of the Yehudim could not agree on Halakhah [how to follow
Torah] and the schools of thought in Yerushalayim actually would pretend that the different rulings in the Galil did not exist! Since Yeshua was from the Galil some leaders of the Yehudim refused to accept His teaching concerning the Shabbat.} Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim to attend a Feast, {that is, an appointed holy season as commanded in the Torah of YHVH}. At Yerushalayim, by the sheep market, there was a pool called Beit-Zata which had five porches. A large number of sick people were laid on these porches. The blind, the crippled and the shrivelled were there, all waiting for the moving of the water, because a messenger of Heaven went down into the pool at holy seasons {the appointed Feasts} and disturbed the water. Whoever stepped into the water first, after it rippled, was healed of whatever disease they had. It was Shabbat and a man was laying there who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years. When Yeshua saw him, He knew the man had been in that condition for a long time. So Yeshua asked him, "Do you want to be healed?" The diseased man answered, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed. While I am trying to get there on my own, another person steps into the pool in front of me." Yeshua said to him, "Get up now, pick up your bed and walk!" Immediately, the man was healed and picked up his bed and walked. Some religious leaders said to the man who was cured, "It is Shabbat, so it is not proper Torah for you to carry your bed." "He who cured me told me to pick up my bed and walk," the man explained. Then they asked him, "Who is the man who told you to pick up your bed and walk?" But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Yeshua had disappeared into the crowd that was there. Later, Yeshua found the man worshiping in the Mikdash and said to him, "Remember, you have been healed, so sin no more or else a worse thing will come upon you." The man left Him and went and told some of the religious leaders that it was Yeshua, who had cured him. These religious leaders sought a way to get rid of Yeshua, because He had done this on the Shabbat, so they came to confront Yeshua. Yeshua told them, "Avi is working today, so I work also." {He said this to them because it was permissible to heal on the Shabbat according to the Torah, but those religious leaders had added to the Torah through their tradition, which blinded them.} Because He had not obeyed their man-made tradition concerning Shabbat and even worse, because He said that Elohim was His Abba, making Himself equal with YHVH, certain religious leaders wanted to get rid of Him even more.

YESHUA INVOKES HIS FATHER

Then Yeshua told them, "Amen, amen! I tell you, the Son can do nothing in and of Himself, but only what He sees Abba do. For whatever Abba does, the Son does also. For Abba loves the Son and shows Him everything Abba does and Abba will show Him greater works than these that you may stand in awe. As Abba raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whoever He wills. At this time Abba condemns no one; instead He has delegated all judgment to the Son, that all people should honour the Son, even as they honour Abba. He who does not honour the Son does not honour Abba who has sent Him. "Amen, amen! I tell you, he who hears My Word and trusts Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but he has passed from death into life. Amen, amen! I tell you, the hour is coming and now has arrived, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Elohim and those who hear it will live. Abba has life in Himself. In that exact manner He has given power to the Son to have life in Himself. Also, He has given the Son the authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man. Do not be confused by this, because the time is coming when all those in the graves will hear Abba's voice. They will all come out. Those who have accomplished good things, will be resurrected into eternal life, but those who have accomplished evil things, will be resurrected to be condemned. ‘As I said, I can do nothing by myself. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is righteous, because I do not desire my own will, but the will of Abba who has sent me. If I alone testify for myself, my testimony is not to be remembered. There is another who testifies for me and I know that the witness which He gives about me is the remembrance. You asked Yochanan and he testified to the remembrance. But I do not rely on the testimony of mankind. I only say these things so that you might be saved. "Yochanan was a burning and shining light. You were willing for a while to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater testimony than Yochanan's. The works which Abba has given me to finish, those same things which I do, they testify of me, that Abba has sent me. And Abba Himself, who has sent me, has testified of me. You have not heard His voice nor seen His shape at anytime. You do not have His Word abiding in you, for you do not trust the One He has sent. By reading the scriptures you think you have secured eternal life. Search them out and you will find they tell about me. However, you will not come to me, so that you can receive the remembrance, the Source of eternal life. "I do not care to receive honour from mankind, because I know that mankind does not have the love of Elohim. I come with the Holy Name of Avi, YHVH and you do not accept me, if another one comes in his own name, you will accept him. Why do you need to trust YHVH, when you receive honour from each other? Because of this, you do not seek the honour that comes from YHVH alone. Do not think that I will accuse you to Abba. There is one who already accuses you, even Moshe, whom you say you trust. For, if you really trusted Moshe, you would also trust me, because it was me he wrote about. But if you do not trust his writings, how can you trust my Word?"

SHABBAT FREEDOM EXPLAINED

On a Shabbat, Yeshua went walking through a corn field with His disciples. They were hungry, so they began to pick and eat ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands. When some P'rushim saw it they said to Him, "Look at your followers! What they are doing is not proper Torah on Shabbat!" Yeshua defended them, "Haven't you ever read what David did, when he and those with him were hungry? He entered into the Holy Tabernacle of YHVH, when Avi'atar was the Kohen Gadol and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was not appointed for David or those with him to partake, but only the Kohanim were to eat it. Or have you never read in the Torah, how that on Shabbat many Kohanim in the Mikdash of YHVH work and yet are innocent?" {By this Yeshua demonstrated that persons, due to an emergency or divine right, may have the privilege to perform certain deeds on Shabbat, especially to eat.} "{But there are three more things you need to} consider today. {First,} standing before you is One who is even greater than the Mikdash. {Second,} the scripture says, 'I will have mercy, over sacrifice.' If you knew what this meant you would not have condemned the guiltless. {And third,} I, the Son of man, I am Sovereign over the Shabbat. The Shabbat was made to bless mankind, not the reverse." {By this Yeshua upheld the validity of the Shabbat, His constant authority over it and the practice of mercy and common sense in keeping it. However, these P'rushim had not recognized who Yeshua was.}

SHABBAT HEALING OF SHRIVELED MAN

He departed from there and on another Shabbat Yeshua went into a synagogue, as He always did. A man was there who had a shrivelled-up right hand. There were certain ones of the Torah teachers and P'rushim who kept watching Yeshua to see if He would heal again on Shabbat. So, for the purpose of accusing Yeshua, one of them asked, "Does the Torah allow healing on the Shabbat?" Then Yeshua commanded the man who had the shrivelled hand, "Get up and stand in the middle." The man stood. Then Yeshua said, "I ask you all, does the Torah allow doing good or causing harm on the Shabbat? To save a life or to destroy it?" He looked around at everyone of them, but no one answered Him. "Then, which one of you who has a sheep that falls into a hole on Shabbat, would you not get a hold of it and lift it out? How much more than a sheep is a man worth? Therefore, of course, the Torah allows healing on Shabbat! To do good on Shabbat is even commanded!" Then Yeshua instructed the man with the shrivelled hand, "Stretch out your hand." The man stretched it out and it was restored to complete wholeness, like his other hand. {Yeshua taught by this that Shabbat is good for mankind and intended for healing.} Yet, after this, some P'rushim left the synagogue filled with anger {because they loved their tradition more than Torah}. They held a council against Yeshua to try to find a way to get rid of Him. When Yeshua found out, He left there and went back to the area around Lake Kinneret, but large crowds followed Him. He healed them all and commanded them not to make Him known. They came from the Galil, from Yehudah and Yerushalayim, from Edom and beyond the Yarden River, from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon. This was done, so what the Prophet Yesha'yahu said would be fulfilled, "Watch My Servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Ruach upon Him and He will demonstrate judgment to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or complain, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break off and smoking straw He will He will not put out, until He sends judgment to win the victory. The Gentiles will trust in His Name."

ORDINATION OF THE TWELVE

Yeshua instructed His disciples to have a small boat wait on the shore for Him in case the crowds crushed Him. For since He had healed many, those who had plagues pushed toward Him to touch Him. When they did, power came forth from Yeshua and they were all healed of their diseases. When unclean spirits saw Him they fell down before Yeshua and cried out, "You are the Son of Elohim." Then He strictly commanded them that they should not make Him known and they were also healed. {By this we know that deceptive spirits have no privilege to express their knowledge, whether it is true or not.} Going up into a mountain, Yeshua called some of His disciples and they went up with Him. There He ordained twelve of them to stay with Him and to be sent out by Him to preach with the power to heal sickness and to cast out deceiving spirits. He chose Shimon, whom He also named Kefa and Ya'akov and Yochanan, the sons of Zavdai, whom He also named B'nai-Regesh, which means Sons of Thunder. He also chose Andrew and Philip, Natan-El (Bar-Talmai, meaning the son of Talmai) and Mattiyahu (who was Levi the tax collector), T'oma and Ya'akov Ben Chalfai, Taddai (also named Yehudah Ben Ya'akov), Shimon the Zealot and Yehudah from Kir'yot, who was the betrayer of Yeshua.

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