Messiah in Rosh HaShanah II & Chanukkah II Chapter 10
- FOLLOWING THE ONE INSTEAD OF THE MANY
- The confession of Shim’on Keifa (Peter)
- The ominous meaning of the full name of Yehudah ben Shim’on Ish-Keriyot
- The beautiful meaning of the full name of Shim’on Keifa (Petros) bar Yonas
- Messiah is the Temple where God and man dwell together in unity
FOLLOWING THE ONE INSTEAD OF THE MANY
On account of this word [cf. previous chapter 9] many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. So Yeshua said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Shim’on Keifa (Peter) answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of Adonai.” Yeshua answered them, “Did I myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now he meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.
On account of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.
Seeing what was in their hearts at the time, the Messiah refused to let the people make him their political King. The Messiah’s requirement that there first be a change in the people’s hearts before he would restore Israel to its promised political and material glory led the people to reject his messiahship. At the time the people of Israel were only interested in a change of their material circumstances and not of the hearts. So, “many were not walking with him anymore.”
So Yeshua said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”
The Salvation of God framed this question the way he did to encourage his closest disciples weak faith. The faith of the Twelve was weakened by the falling away of the many. The Messiah used this occasion to refine their faith. His Twelve Talmidim as yet did not understand his words and would remain ignorant of their true meanings until after the Messiah’s death and resurrection (cf. Messiah in HaBikkurim).
The confession of Shim’on Keifa (Peter):
Shim’on Keifa (Peter), under the invisible Presence and inspiration of the heavenly Father gave his confession of faith in the Messiah. He said:
פאֲדוֹנֵנוּ, אֶל מִי נֵלֵךְ? דִּבְרֵי חַיֵּי עוֹלָם עִמְּךָ. וַאֲנַחְנוּ הֶאֱמַנּוּ וְיָדַעְנוּ שֶׁאַתָּה קְדוֹשׁ הָאֱלֹהִים.פ
“Master, to whom will we walk near to? (אֲדוֹנֵנוּ, אֶל מִי נֵלֵךְ – i.e. who else could be our Rabbi-Teacher?) The words of eternal life (דִּבְרֵי חַיֵּי עוֹלָם) are with you (עִמְּךָ). We ourselves (וַאֲנַחְנוּ) have come to believe (הֶאֱמַנּוּ) and know (וְיָדַעְנוּ) that you (שֶׁאַתָּה) are the Holy One of God” (קְדוֹשׁ הָאֱלֹהִים).
The path may be difficult and hard to understand at the first but Shim’on Keifa (Petros) ben Yochanan was convinced that Yeshua was the Messiah, and that believing in His Word would lead to “eternal life.” Peter only knew this by a special supernatural work of the heavenly Father.
The ominous meaning of the full name of Yehudah ben Shim’on Ish-Keriyot:
“Yeshua answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ Now he meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot (יְהוּדָה בֶּן שִׁמְעוֹן אִישׁ קְרִיּוֹת-Yehudah ben Shim’on Ish-Keriyot), for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.” The Messiah then asked, “Did I myself not choose you?” This was not Messiah’s call to election but his call to the Twelve for them to serve him in a special way. Yet, he said one among them was a devil. The Messiah’s knowledge that Judas (who was called Judas Iscariot because his father was Simon Iscariot) would betray him is yet another example of the Messiah’s supernatural knowledge of others. Later the Messiah called Judas, “the Traitor.” Judas the son of Simon Iscariot is an ominous name in its literal meanings:
1. Yehudah=Praise
2. Ish=Man
3. Keriyot=Village
4. Ben (Hebrew)=Son
5. Shim’on=Hear, Understand, and Obey
6. The Son [who] Hears, Understands and Obeys [his] father [whose voice gives forth] Praise to the Village of Man.
Judas represents a life lived for the praise of the Village of Man and not for the praise of Adonai (our Father and our God). Judas was a tragic figure but so are all men who pretend to be devoted selflessly to the Holy One while all the while seeking to use religion as a means to receive glory (“praise”) only for themselves. It is a true saying, our Father in heaven gives abundant grace to the humble but He opposes the proud.
The beautiful meaning of the full name of Shim’on Petros bar Yonas:
Compare the ominous evil meaning of the betrayer Judas’ full name (cf. above) with the attractive beautiful meaning of Shim’on’s full name:
1. Shim’on=Hear, Understand, and Obey
2. Keifa (Petros)=Rock
3. Bar (Aramaic)=Son
4. Yonas (Written in Aramaic)=Yochanan=Grace of Adonai (Meaning in Hebrew)
5. Yonas (Spoken in Aramaic)=Yona (Heard in Hebrew)=Dove=Holy Spirit
6. The Son, the Rock, [who] Hears, Understands, and Obeys [His] Father [whose Voice gives forth] the Dove [the Holy Spirit], Who is the Grace of Adonai.
Messiah is the Temple where God and man dwell together in unity:
This teaching took place openly in the Synagogue of Capernaum (Kefar Nachum), the Synagogue of Nachum (נַחוּם): Compassion, Consolation and Comfort. In the Capernaum Synagogue on this particular day (Nisan 1-7)—in the time of being cleansed, just before Pesach—the eternal Word Himself, who is the fulfillment of all the Torah of Adonai was giving forth the manna from heaven to His people, the people of Israel. There is a food that endures to eternal life. It does not decay and spoil but instead nourishes real life, eternal life, life that endures forever. The Messiah repeats himself, using different symbols (i.e. bread and wine) from what he told the Samaritan woman at the well of father Jacob:
“Indeed, the water I give a person will become in that person a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
What do we really hunger and thirst for? Do we hunger and thirst for the cleansing goodness, righteousness and truth of the Spirit of Adonai? Or, do we hunger for the defiling things of this world? More than mere imagery is present here. Eternal life is present. The Divine and human realms meet together in the human body of the Messiah who is Indwelt with the Divine Spirit of our heavenly Father.
Messiah is the material and spiritual point of contact between temporal physical reality and eternal spiritual reality. The Salvation of Adonai’s (Yeshua’s) own body is the meeting place of both these realms. He is the Place where God and man meet. Therefore, Adonai is the EL-Bethel (אל בית־אל). Messiah is the Bethel and the Ladder (Staircase) of Heaven. He is the only Place (הַמָּק֜וֹם-Ha-Makom) where our physical being can commune with the eternal being of Elah Shemaiya (The God of Heaven).