Messiah in Yom HaBikkurim Chapter 92
Miracle #21. Restored man’s speech.
- The Twenty-first Miracle of Messiah
- Opening-up questions and clues
- The Tenth Miracle in Kefar Nachum (Capernaum)
- Isaiah the Prophet’s Test of the Four Messianic Miracles
- Messiah’s Three Arguments
- A word of Forgiveness and Warning
- Blasphemy of the Spirit of the Holy One
The Twenty-first Miracle of Messiah:
Mattai 9:32-34
{Classical & Mishnaic Hebrew}
הֵמָּה יָצָאוּ וְהִנֵּה הֵבִיאוּ אֵלָיו אִישׁ אִלֵּם אֲחוּז שֵׁד׃ וַיְגָרֶשׁ אֶת־הַשֵׁד וְהָאִלֵּם הֵחֵל לְדַבֵּר וַיִּתְמַהּ הֲמוֹן הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיֹּאמְרוּ מֵעוֹלָם לֹא־נִרְאֲתָה כָזֹאת בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל׃ וְהַפְּרוּשִׁים אָמְרוּ עַל־יְדֵי שַׂר הַשֵׁדִים מְגָרֵשׁ הוּא אֵת הַשֵׁדִים׃
{Modern Hebrew}
לְאַחַר שֶׁיָּצְאוּ הֵבִיאוּ אֵלָיו אִישׁ אִלֵּם אֲחוּז שֵׁד. הוּא גֵּרֵשׁ אֶת הַשֵּׁד, וְהָאִלֵּם הֵחֵל לְדַבֵּר. הִתְפַּלְּאוּ הַהֲמוֹנִים וְאָמְרוּ: מֵעוֹלָם לֹא נִרְאָה כַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל. אַךְ הַפְּרוּשִׁים אָמְרוּ: בְּעֶזְרַת שַׂר הַשֵּׁדִים הוּא מְגָרֵשׁ אֶת הַשֵּׁדִים. פ
לאחר שיצאו הביאו אליו איש אלם אחוז שד. הוא גרש את השד, והאלם החל לדבר. התפלאו ההמונים ואמרו: מעולם לא נראה כדבר הזה בישראל. אך הפרושים אמרו: בעזרת שר השדים הוא מגרש את השדים. פ
They went out, and then people brought to him a mute man gripped by a demon. He drove out the demon, and the mute man began to speak, and the crowd of people was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Yisra’el!” But the Prushim said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons!”
Opening-up questions and clues:
The following opening-up questions and clues are provided as an introduction to this study on the 21st Miracle of Messiah:
1. Look at the symbolism of the above miracle narrative: At what location does the miracle occur?
2. How many miracles has the Messiah of Israel performed thus far in Kefar Nachum? How many of these ten miracles have been performed in the same day as this 21st miracle?
3. Read Isaiah 34:5-6. What are the four miracles that only the Messiah can do? Of these four miracles which one did the Messiah perform this day in Kefar Nachum?
4. Go back and study the Fifteenth Miracle of the Messiah, “Restored sight & speech of man.” After Adonai (the LORD) manifested through His Messiah this 21st miracle of restoring speech to a mute man, the religious leaders immediately attributed the miracle to Satan. Earlier in our study of the 50 miracles of the Messiah, in the miracle of the Restored sight & speech of man, Yeshua gave three arguments to answer and discredit this claim that he was healing people by the power of Satan. What are these three arguments?
5. After Rabbeinu Yeshua presented the three arguments that discredited the claim of the Prushim (rabbis) that he was an agent of Satan, what somber warning did he deliver to them? What sins did the Messiah say would be forgiven? What sin did he say would never be forgiven?
The Tenth Miracle in Kefar Nachum (Capernaum):
This miracle is the tenth miracle of twelve recorded miracle events (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) that occur in the Messiah’s hometown of Kefar Nachum (כפר נחום); a village of [God’s] Comfort, Consolation, Compassion, and the giving of [His] Rest. Overall this is the twenty-first miracle of the Seven Signs and Forty-nine Miracles of Messiah. Today’s miracle of a “Restored man’s speech” is the last of four miracles that happened in Kefar Nachum on the same day. These four miracles are:
Today’s miracle #1: Healing woman’s 12 year old bleeding disorder.
Today’s miracle #2: Raising Ya’ir’s 12 year old daughter from the dead.
Today’s miracle #3: Healing two blind men.
Today’s Miracle #4: Restoring speech to a mute man.
Isaiah the Prophet’s Test of the Four Messianic Miracles:
The prophets separated miracles into two categories: ones that anyone might do; and miracles that only the Messiah could do.
In the Hebrew Scriptures the prophets separated miracles into two categories. First, there were those miracles (sourced in good or evil) that anyone might be able to perform. Second, there were those miracles that only the Messiah of Israel could perform. An example of the latter is found in Isaiah 35:4b-6:
גְּמוּל אֱלֹהִים הוּא יָבֹוא וְיֹשַׁעֲכֶֽם׃ אָז תִּפָּקַחְנָה עֵינֵי עִוְרִים וְאָזְנֵי חֵרְשִׁים תִּפָּתַֽחְנָה׃ אָז יְדַלֵּג כָּֽאַיָּל פִּסֵּחַ וְתָרֹן לְשֹׁון אִלֵּם כִּֽי־נִבְקְעוּ בַמִּדְבָּר מַיִם וּנְחָלִים בָּעֲרָבָֽה׃
The benefit of the Almighty will come,
And He will save you:
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped (1).
Then the lame will leap like a deer (1, 2),
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy (1, 2, 3).
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the Arabah.
When the Messiah came: he supernaturally made the blind to see; the deaf to hear; the lame to walk; and the mute to speak.
By all scriptural accounts no blind person had ever been made to see, or deaf person made to hear, or lame person made to walk, or mute made to speak. Amazingly, the dead had already been raised to life. We are reminded of the case of Elisha raising a dead child to life (2 Kings 4:18-37). Just as amazing Rabbi Yeshua had performed the same miracle as Elisha in raising three people from the dead (1, 2, 3).
As fantastic a miracle as raising the dead to life is the Prushim (the Messiah’s fellow rabbis) were not all that impressed by it. This was so because the miracle of raising the dead back to life had already occurred in the past. It appears that these highly suspicious and disbelieving religious leaders felt that the miracle of raising the dead might have been faked. They wanted to see further proof. They wanted to see Rabbi Yeshua perform all four of the miracles that Isaiah had set down as miracles that only the Messiah could do. By the power of God just this very day:
Messiah had made the blind to see and the mute to speak.
In spite of the signs, wonders, and miracles that Rabbi Yeshua had performed thus far he had yet to perform one of the four miracles required by the prophet Isaiah, “the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.” Therefore, for the time being the Prushim felt free to declare their disbelief that Rabbi Yeshua was the Messiah. The religious leaders were hopeful that Rabbi Yeshua would fail the last test of making the deaf to hear.
After the Messiah had healed the two blind men and the mute man the Prushim immediately began to claim that Rabbi Yeshua’s power to do exorcisms and heal people was sourced in Satan.
Messiah’s Three Arguments:
Earlier in our study of the 50 miracles of the Messiah, in the miracle of the Restored sight & speech of man, Yeshua gave three arguments to answer and discredit this repeated claim of the Prushim that he was performing exorcisms and healing people by the power of Satan:
Argument #1. If Rabbi Yeshua was casting out a demon by the power of Satan, “Why was Satan working against himself?” Why would the evil one allow Yeshua to cast out a demon and free a person that was already under his control?
Argument #2. If exorcisms were being accomplished by the power of Satan, “Under what authority were all the other exorcisms being performed?” In other words, if the Prushim believed that others (they personally approved of) were casting out demons by the power of HaShem, how did they arrive at the belief that only Yeshua was different? How was any exorcism not a demonstration of the Divine power of HaShem?
Argument #3. If Rabbi Yeshua drove out demons, “Was he not proving that he was greater than Satan?” If he was able to go into the “strong man’s house,” the realm of the demonic world, and come away as a victor with the spoils of war, “How was this not an institution of the kingdom of God here on earth?”
A word of Forgiveness and Warning:
After Rabbeinu Yeshua presented the three arguments that discredited the claim of the Prushim (rabbis) that he was an agent of Satan, then the Messiah Yeshua delivered both a word of personal forgiveness and a very somber prophetic warning to his fellow Yehudim (Jews):
Any Yehudi (Jew) who spoke a word against Yeshua (the Son of Man) would be forgiven.
However, if the nation followed the Prushim religious leaders in attributing the power of the Holy Spirit to Satan, there would be irreversible adverse consequences. For such an exercise of attitude and speech would be an act of “blasphemy against the Spirit of the Holy One.” In other words, if the leaders and the people declared to themselves and to the unbelieving pagan Gentile world that the Messiah Yeshua was empowered by Satan that generation of the people of Israel would commit a sin so severe that those persons would never find forgiveness from HaShem!
Blasphemy of the Spirit of the Holy One:
Blasphemy of the Spirit of the Holy One will never be forgiven!
As for the sin of the blasphemy of the Spirit of the Holy One that our Messiah warned us (Israel) about so long ago: we believe this specific sin can not happen today. This is so because to commit this particular sin of blasphemy one would actually have to be in the physical presence of the Messiah and say to him—and the Presence of the Spirit of the Holy One who Indwells him—“the spirit within you is the spirit of the evil one” (satan).
In the above case, which only could have occurred in the first century (CE): the insult to the Messiah, the man Yeshua, was forgiven; however, the insult to the Spirit of the Holy One, directly calling the One (‘ה) who indwells M’shicho (His Messiah)—the spirit of satan—will never be forgiven!