Looking at the Death of Yehoshua (Jesus) from the Perspective of First Century Orthodox Pharisaic Judaism and Essenism
By Robert Mock M.D.
April (Passover) 2007
Part Two
Topics
The New Commandment of the Nazarene’s – “Love One Another”
The Divine Relationship of Yehoshua and His Father in Heaven
The Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Spirit) is Promised to Yehoshua’s Disciples
Help from the Holy Spirit will come in Yehoshua’s Name
Yehoshua, the True Vine, the Father, the Vinedresser, and Disciples the Branches
When the Master’s Disciples Obey the Torah, They are called Friends of Yehoshua
Joy of Yehoshua when We understand that He has Overcome the World
Yehoshua’s Prayer for His Coming Mission, and the Sanctification of His Disciples
Yehoshua’s Prayer for the Unity of His Orthodox Nazarene Messianic Disciples
The Upper Terrace
Many consider that after the foot washing of the feet of His disciples, Yehoshua (Jesus/Joshua) left the upper terrace of the residence. Yet, in the Sefer (Book) of John, the evening for the last teachings by their Master to His chosen eleven, was just beginning.
What would you say if you were the Prince of David, Yehoshua, and had only one hour left before the cascading events of Calvary were to begin cascading around Him? What would be your last words that you would be privileged to communicate privately with those disciples that had been following you throughout Galilee and Judea for the last three and one-half years?
Prince Yehoshua carefully began to outline to His chosen eleven the mysteries of the divine and the human relationship. This was not just a few parting remarks, but a lengthy discourse. With the setting of the sun, the stars of the heavens began to shine forth in their brilliance. He could now reveal to them the pathway of the reNewed Torah in their new life.
The New Commandment of the Nazarene’s – “Love One Another”
This was to be the culmination of the all the private instructions of Yehoshua given personally to his talmidim. The “Son of Man” was soon to be executed. Out of His death, He would be glorified by His Father in heaven in this cosmic drama nearby on the Mount called Zion in Jerusalem.
The other-dimensional world in the angelic realms would now intersect with the earthly dimensions through the glorified person of Yehoshua who would eventually receive an ascended level of spiritual enlightenment as he moved in and out of 3rd and 4th dimensional spheres.
The disciples would soon be revealed a most profound and personal revelation. They would be privileged to witness how they would someday also be glorified in Yehoshua, as the cosmic “Tree of life” that was shattered in the Garden of Eden would be restored.
The Garden of Gat Shemem where Yehoshua Prayed in Anguish – Photo by Robert Mock
The purpose of this most profound revelation would be the “First Act” of the glorification of human flesh as was first revealed in the divine creation of man in the Garden called Gan Eden (Garden of Eden). Here in Eden was created the human body untainted by sin in the form of the first married couple; Adam with Chavah (Eve). They were humans that were created as “Light Beings”.
Within their bodies, the Supernal Glory of G-d radiated thru the energized, untainted, and uncorrupted blood as it streamed through their cardio-vascular system. Their bodies glowed with the revealed glory of their Creator.
The disciples, a few days later, would behold a glorified human whom they would recognize as the resurrected Messiah of Israel. Yehoshua would soon wrestle the dominion of this planet earth away from HaSatan (Satan) through this divine act as the power of the dark forces began to shatter. The days of the forces of evil from this day forward, were now numbered.
What would you say if you were an emissary sent from the heavenly dimensions to reveal the fullest manifestation of the Almighty One of Israel that could be revealed in human flesh? The mystery of the incarnation was an event that had no historical counterpart.
Was Yehoshua’s G-d now revealed in the flesh? No! Was Yehoshua the fullest revelation of the Almighty One that could be manifested in the flesh? Yes! He was the most complete revelation of seven of the ten emanations of the Unknown Ein Sof, the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient Monotheistic Eternal One.
Yehoshua was not the Keter, the “Crown” for He was not the King of the Universes. He was not the Abba but he recognized the Almighty One of Israel as the “Father in Heaven”. Neither was He the Hokhmah the right hand emanation of HaShem (“The Name”) with His unfathomable “Wisdom”. He was not the left hand emanation called Binah that was the Fountain of all Understanding. These were the three emanations that the Father in heaven kept to His Eternal Self.
As the “Hidden One”, how could Yehoshua now reveal to His disciples in these last few minutes the hidden mysteries of divine personal relationship between the Father and Son, mirrored by the Son with all mankind?
The vast streams of energy from the Source of Creation flowed through the emanation called, Tiferet, in the Sefirot or “Image of Yehoshua”, who was the “Image of the Divine One of Israel”. On this earth, He was the “Son” cloaked in the fallen and degenerated form of humanity burdened with the ravages of four millenniums of the curse of sin.
Yehoshua informed them that He would soon leave them and go to a place where they could not go. There was one last command that He wanted to leave them, “that you love one another; as I have loved you” so that all would know “that you are My disciples.”
The legacy of the Nazarene Orthodox Jews was not to be holy wars, crusades, jihads, rebellions, or uprisings against social evil, injustice, or an imperial enemy. The transforming power of “divine love” exhibited in the relationships between one another would be the hallmark of the identity of His followers. (John 13:31-37)
The Divine Relationship of Yehoshua and His Father in Heaven
We can almost imagine, the Prince of David Yehoshua rising from His couch on the upper terrace and looking over the silk draped balcony towards the House of the Lord (Beit (Bayit) HaMikdash) on Mount Moriah.
The imagery of His message began to describe to the chosen disciples the divine archetype of heavenly relationships; His relationship with His Father in the heavenly spheres.
In Yehoshua’s heavenly dwelling place was His Father’s Bayit (House). As the disciples, had dwelling places here on earth, so in the heavenly archetype where there were many dwelling chambers in the House of the Lord in heaven.
As the Levites and priests lived during their temple service in the House of the Lord, so the chosen ones would soon become royal priests and live in Yehoshua’s Father’s House. To become a part of Go-d was to become a part of the “family of G-d”.
As He looked to the northwest, there stood the earthy representation of His Father’s House in heaven. He knew there was a great concern in the Jewish disciples’ mind of how to personally know their G-d; the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Yet the Davidian Prince Yehoshua’s (Joshua’s) words were one of comfort, “Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in G-d, believe also in Me. In My Abba’s Bayit (Father’s house) are many dwelling chambers (mansions)…I go to prepare a place for you, and…I will come again and receive you to Myself…I am the derech (pathway), the emet (truth), and the chayim (life); no man comes to the (Abba) Father in heaven except through Me.”
Here Yehoshua was describing the “Cosmic Tree of Life” called the Sefirot. Here along the “Pole of Grace”, all prayers, communication, and creative energies flowed to and from the other created worlds through the Tiferet to the World of the Divine. He urged them to try to comprehend that if they truly knew Him, they would know His Father, the Holy One of Israel. He tried to get them to grasp that He was not the Holy One of Israel, but that they both resided in the World of the Divine.
Yehoshua’s Father was all ten of the unfathomable ten dimensions of mathematical completeness. Yehoshua was the complete revelation of seven of those attributes.
As such, the authority that He spoke was because the Holy One of Israel was speaking through Him, for the Father dwelled within Him, and through Yehoshua the emanations of the Holy One radiated to all creation the glory of the Eternal One. As Eve was in Adam, so Yehoshua was in the Father, for His Father was dwelling in Him.
To connect with the World of the Divine, all the disciples of Yehoshua had to do was to ask in the Name of Yehoshua. The prayers of the Nazarenes would be sealed with the Name of Yehoshua. He would respond to them so the “Father would be esteemed in the Son”. There would be only one gentle warning to the Nazarene followers, “If you love me, keep My mitzvot (commandments)”.
Here was the Jewish Sage par excellent, who lived his life “above and beyond” the “letter of Torah Law”. Here was the One who told anyone who sought to be his disciple; “Follow Me!” “Do as I do!” “Do as I say!”
It was this Rabbi’s gentle reminder that Torah observance was a precondition for the revelations of Yehoshua to be given to His followers. (John 14:1-12)
The Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Spirit) is Promised to Yehoshua’s Disciples
Dominus Flevit Chapel Overlooking the Temple Mount at the reputed Site of the Rock where Yehoshua Wept – Photo by Robert Mock
The Davidian Prince Yehoshua knew that he left them, he also leave behind a vacuum or a void within their lives. He promised them that He would not leave them “orphans” or alone. His Father would send them the “Helper” or the “Comforter” who was the “Spirit of Truth”. Together the Divine Spirit and the Nazarene, Yehoshua would dwell within them in the spirit.
Now, the Nazarene disciples were promised fellowship with both the Father and the Son. The Son’s “dwelling place” would be along the “central pole of grace” of the Sefirot of the Divine World that would connect the Ein Sof, the Unseen G-d of Israel, with the Orthodox Nazarene talmidin (disciples) of the Nazarene.
Yehoshua wanted his disciples to know that when He did leave them, He would be with them always. How was this to be? The mystery of the Divine relationship was so uncharacteristic to life here on earth. How were they to understand, when Yehoshua described this relationship as; “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you?”
In the earthly sphere, we define a relationship between two individuals in terms of independent, individuality, and autonomous human characteristics. Yet “individuality” is not compatible with “spirituality”. In reality, “individuality” the hard protective outer “husk” that protects the inner spiritual person inside.
In the spiritual dominion, the “personality” is the signet characteristic of the inner, spiritual man. A personality describes a whole person as G0d is always described in terms defining His Total Person. The Hebrew mind saw a wholeness when describing the personality of the World of the Divine. They could not comprehend the Divine fragmented into parts.
It was independence and individuality that started the first rebellion in the angelic hosts by HaSatan. Was not Lucifer, one of the guardian cherubim that guarded the throne of G-d?
The Maccabean Pathway descending down the Mount called Zion into the Hinnom and Kidron Valley – Photo by Robert Mock
When Lucifer began to define himself as an individual or an autonomous being, he suddenly removed himself from the “Oneness” in the relationship with the World of the Divine and went into rebellion against the absolute Oneness of the Person of G-d.
Satan was no longer a part of the spiritual angelic dominions in heaven for he separated himself by his independent and autonomous behavior and took with himself a third of the angelic host in rebellion against the Almighty One of Israel.
It was those same characteristics that defined the rebellion of man, when Adam and Chavah (Eve) asserted their own independence by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.
The “oneness” of the spirit of loving fellowship between the Father and the Son was now being shared together between the heavenly spheres with all the disciples of Yehoshua here on this earth.
Yet, that hard, outer shell must be cracked open. Independence and individuality must be yielded and surrendered so that the inner spiritual person inside could participate and respond to inner calling of the Divine. When that happens, immediate freedom transforms the whole person and is portrayed by the acts of loving relationships. (John 14:13-23)
Help from the Divine Spirit will come in Yehoshua’s Name
The Balcony Terrace of the Church of St. Peter at Gallicantu overlooking the Gardens and the Mikvahs at the Residence of High Priests, Caiphas and Ananus – Photo by Robert Mock
The “Helper” that Yehoshua promised to His disciples was the Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Spirit). This Divine Spirit would be sent by the Father down the “Pole of Grace” in Yehoshua’s Name. From the Helper the Nazarene Christians would receive future teachings and the remembrance of the things in which they had learned.
With His loving eyes piercing each of their own souls, Yehoshua turned to them and said,
John 14.27 – “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart by troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
The voice of Yehoshua then became somber and quiet. He warned them that very soon, He would become strangely quiet and no longer communicate freely with them as they were used to Him speaking.
He wanted them to understand that the atmosphere of oppressive evil was closing in around them. And He stated, “ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing against Me.” The hour of darkness was soon to come upon them. His warning to them was also a warning to his disciples at the time of the end. (John 14:25-31)
Yehoshua as the True Vine, the Father as the Vinedresser, and the Disciples as the Branches
As the future emissaries of the Davidian Messianic Prince gazed down from the sheltered upper terrace and looked out over the city of Jerusalem from the Mount called Zion, Yehoshua directed their minds to the “vineyard of Israel”.
He reminded them that He was the archetypical heavenly vine (de-vine), so on earth He was “the true vine” or the true representative of the heavenly vine. He also reminded them that His Father was the vinedresser.
Looking to each of His disciples, He said, “You are the branches.” If you “abide” or stay connected to the vine, you will bear a lot of lush and succulent fruit. If not, your branches will bear poor fruit or become barren.
If that happens, the Vinedresser will prune you so that you will “bear fruit”. If you do not bear fruit, this will represent that you are not connected with Yehoshua, the vine. The branches will be cut off, cast into the fire, and burned up. If they did bear much fruit, Yehoshua’s Father in heaven would be glorified. (John 15:1-8)
Looking down upon a Mikvah Bath of the High Priests at the Palace of Ananias and Caiphas – Photo by Robert Mock
Yehoshua was a Hasidic orthodox Jewish rabbi, who proclaimed that “not one jot nor tittle” would pass from the Torah and kept every command above the letter of the Law (Torah). Once again the Davidian Prince of David, Yehoshua turned to his talmidim (disciples) and reaffirmed the core-essence of their Jewishness;
John 15:10-11 - “If you keep My mitzvoth (commandments) you shall stay in My ahava (love); even as I have kept My Abba’s (Father’s) mitzvot, and stay in His ahava. These things have I spoken to you, that My simcha (joy) might remain in you, and that your simcha (joy)might be full.”
The disciples were once again reaffirmed that the life of Torah living was affirmatively tied to the loving relationship between G-d and man. If they wanted to be “Torah observant friends” of Yehoshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah), they must follow His commands of living a life of harmony with His Father’s Torah.
What was this joy that Yehoshua had? The “joy in Yehoshua was not to be confused with the emotion called happiness. The “joy of Yehoshua” was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice in doing the express will of His Father in heaven.
When the Master’s Disciples Obey the Torah, They are called Friends of Yehoshua
The abundant life with joy flowing out like a fountain of water was not dependent upon physical circumstances, body health, a perfect understanding of G-d, nor even the success of G-d’s work in this world.
This joy was the affirmation of a fellowship of oneness with the L-rd. The physical irritants in this world would not affect this joy, for focusing on their physical cares would literally choke and starve this relationship with the divine.
When their lives reached a state of spiritual joy, Yehoshua would no longer call them bond-servants. He would instead call them “friends”. The real mysterious fact was revealed that they did not choose Yehoshua, but He chose them and appointed them to bear fruit and love one another. (John 15:9-17)
The Rejection by the World
There is one thing the world of individuality hates is for someone who is aberrant or outside the social norm of recognized “individual behavior”. Aberrant behavior is rejected and cast aside. This type of behavior can be those that are “too good” or “too bad”.
The Nazarene pointed this fact out to His disciples as they sat on the mats surrounding His sofa on the upper terrace. They were soon to see, within a few hours, the cost of
being an aberration of society.
The Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion – Photo by Robert Mock
Because their Master had challenged the religious and social norms, and politically attacked the most powerful Sadducean family, the House of Ananias, Yehoshua was now the “most wanted” on the hit list of the high priests of Israel.
Yehoshua was very pointed to His disciples that if they chose to continue their relationship with He and His Father in heaven, they would become hated by the world. Why? They would be hated because the “the world loves its own”.
When they were to be persecuted, they would be persecuted for Yehoshua’s name. The fact that the “world” of the Sadducean leadership sought to persecute them, would be the revelation to the disciples that the temple leadership did not know the Almighty One of Israel.
The mission of the Nazarene stated many times in His ministry, was that He was “sent” to the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel”. These lost cousins to the Jewish people were lost in the assimilation within the nations of the gentile world.
The surprising fact was that the lost tribes of Israel were not even hunted or searched for by their own Jewish relatives. If they could be reconnected to the vineyard of Israel, they would have to be reconnected to the G-d of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The “Lost Israelites of the House of Joseph” would become logistically “insiders” to the pagan gentile world who were still worshipping pagan planetary gods and idols of sticks and stones. A “Lost Israelite” reconnected to the vineyard of Israel could naturally infiltrate and infuse the seventy nations of the world with the knowledge of the Creator G--d of Israel.
Once the nations of the world knew who the Holy One of Israel was, they would have “no excuse for their sin”. The rulers of the nations of the world would obviously hate the true disciples of Yehoshua, just like the rulers of the Jewish people hated Yehoshua. Why!
Because HaSatan, the “the ruler of the world”, hates Yehoshua, and Satan was the ruler of the world of pagans and the Jewish leadership in rebellion to Him.
When the Great Drama of the Ages was completed on the Mount called Calvary, the Divine Spirit would be sent so that the G-d of Israel could testify about His Son; Yehoshua.
This Divine testimony would collaborate with the human testimony of Yehoshua’s disciples who would bear witness that they had been with the Nazarene “from the beginning” and the fruits of His ministry would be revealed in their lives, their actions, and by their verbal testimony in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.
When the messianic followers of Yehoshua were persecuted, it will be because Jesus said that they “hated Me without a cause”.
The days of persecution would rapidly descend upon the disciples of Yehoshua. They would first be thrown out of the synagogues and their orthodox Jewishness would be rejected by the leadership of the Jews.
A pogrom would soon lash out against the Nazarenes by the Saul the Persecutor later known as the Apostle Paul in the persecution. This persecution was ordered by the High Priest Jonathan son of Ananias and as such the Nazarenes fled to Damascus.
Some of them would be killed by those who felt that killing them was for “G-d’s service”. The reality was, these Jewish temple leaders did not know the G-d of Israel but were servants of the “ruler of this world” and the dark forces of the spirit world. (John 15:18-27; 16:1-4)
The Work of the Divine Spirit
The Mikvah Baths of the High Priests at the Palace of Ananias and Caiphas – Photo by Robert Mock
The first of the human emotions that the disciples would feel when Jesus was leaving them was sorrow. This would be a natural response, but Yehoshua’s departure was to be a good thing. His mission was completed and now a new “Helper” would be sent for a special and specific task. He would be sent:
- To “convict the world of sin,
- To convict the world “of righteousness”, and
- To convict the world “of the judgment to come”.
Even at this moment during the celebration the Passover, there were things to come that would be too hard and fearful to comprehend. The purpose of the Holy Spirit was to “guide you in all truth” and “tell you things to come”. Yet, was the Holy Spirit the Father in heaven? No! Like Yehoshua, the Holy Spirit could not speak on its own authority. The purpose of the Holy Spirit was to glorify Yehoshua and take those things that the Father gave to Yehoshua, the Holy Spirit would give to Yehoshua’s followers. (John 16:5-15)
Joy when We understand Yehoshua’s Plans for He has Overcome the World
The Master then warned His disciples, in a little while they would not see Him, then they would see Him. This was confusing to them. Did they not come to this Seder with the messianic expectations that the end of days was coming now?
Perhaps, they thought, the gates of heaven would break open this very night with the hosts of heaven pouring down upon this earth, the angelic hosts, the patriarchs, the mothers of Israel, the Prophets plus Moses and Jeremiah…all of them! In their apocalyptic imagination, they could see the light of heaven, that fiery light of creation, the light that the Almighty One of Israel kept concealed in heaven from the beginning of time, now bursting forth in glory, radiance, and with the brilliance of divine glory.
Yet, Yehoshua was talking about sorrow and not joy. He was talking about Him leaving them, but then their sorrow would be turned to joy. They would not see their Master, then they would see Him. This was a mystery that they were so puzzled over.
When Yehoshua would be taken away from them, Jesus told them, the Jewish and Roman world leaders would rejoice. Like the labor pain of a woman about to bear a child, the pangs of sorrow will be mixed with joys of expectation. Up to this point they had not asked anything of Yehoshua, but in that day, they will ask of the Father, in Yehoshua’s name. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
The symbolic language was about to overwhelm Yehoshua’s disciples. Now, He would speak to them with the forcefulness of literal reality. “The hour has now come” that “you will be scattered, each to his own, and leave Me alone…In the world, you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” They were sorrowful, elated, shocked, and now stunned. (John 16:16-33)
Yehoshua’s Prayer for His Coming Mission, and the Sanctification of His Disciples
The Entrance to the Tomb of David beneath the Church with the Upper Room – Photo by Robert Mock
Suddenly, Yehoshua in the Upper Terrace raised His eyes to His Heavenly Father saying:
John 17:1-19 (parts) - “Father the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true G-d, and Yehoshua HaMaschiach (Joshua the Messiah) whom You have sent…I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.
I pray for them, I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours…I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
Yehoshua’s Prayer for the Unity of His Messianic Nazarene Believers
With His eyes ascended to His Father in heaven, Yehoshua closed with prayer not just to His own disciples, but to those who would become believers through the testimony of their word. He prayed for their unity, “that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in You: that they also may be one in Us…and the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one
With these final words, Yehoshua closed the Seder with a benediction. According to the traditions of the celebration of the Pesach Seder, the Psalms were then sung. It would be the last supper that Yehoshua would eat with all of His disciples. One of them would be lost, “the son of perdition (Judas), that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” There was one last desire of Yehoshua to His Father:
John 17:24 - “I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:20-26)
The Last Supper in the Upper Room
That evening, after the Pesach meal, Yehoshua and His disciples quietly stole out into the street within the Essene Quarter. The Master was cloaked in a white robe that shown with brilliance in the strong rays of the full moon lit night. Yehoshua was fatigued, wiping the sweat from His brow, for pouring out the last reserve of love for His disciples in the service of the Seder.
Together they walked down the slopes of the Mount of Zion beside the palatial guarded residence of the high priest, into the Hinnom Valley, over to the Kidron Valley to seek a place to sleep near the Village of Geshemonim. There in the grove of olives by the garden of the olive oil wine pressers, called the Garden of Gat Shemen, they found a private grassy meadow to settle down to rest.
There in the garden, Yehoshua spent the hours in agony until He was arrested by the traitorous kiss of His zealot disciple called Judas Iscariot, who would identify Yehoshua and become His accuser. Yehoshua was taken to the Palace of the High Priests on the eastern slopes of Mount Zion during the night of the eve of the Preparation Day.
The Rejection by the World
There is one thing the world of individuality hates is aberrant or outside the social norm of recognized “individual behavior”. Aberrant behavior is rejected and cast aside. This type of behavior can be those that are “too good” or “too bad”. Yehoshua pointed this fact out to His disciples as they sat on the mats surrounding His sofa on the upper terrace. They were soon to see, within a few hours, the cost of being an aberration of society. Because their Master had challenged the religious and social norms, and politically attacked the most powerful Sadducean family, the House of Ananus, Yehoshua was now the “most wanted” on the hit list of the high priests of Israel.
Yehoshua was very pointed to His disciples that if they chose to continue their relationship with He and His Father in heaven, they would become hated by the world. Why? They would be hated because the “the world loves its own”. When they were to be persecuted, they would be persecuted for Yehoshua’s name. The fact that the “world” of the Sadducean leadership sought to persecute them, would be the revelation to the disciples that the temple leadership did not know the Almighty One of Israel.
The mission of Yehoshua, stated many times in His ministry, was that He was sent to the “lost sheep of the House of Israel”. These lost cousins to the Jewish people were lost in the assimilation within the nations of the gentile world. The surprising fact was that the Lost tribes of Israel were not even hunted or searched for by their own Jewish relatives. If they could be reconnected to the vineyard of Israel, they would become reconnected to the Go- of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The lost Israelites of the House of Joseph would become logistically “insiders” to the pagan gentile world who were still worshipping pagan planetary gods and idols of sticks and stones. A “lost Israelite” reconnected to the vineyard of Israel could naturally infiltrate and infuse the seventy nations of the world with the knowledge of the Creator G-d of Israel.
Once the nations of the world knew who the Holy One of Israel was, they would have “no excuse for their sin”. The rulers of the nations of the world would obviously hate the true disciples of Yehoshua, just like the rulers of the Jewish people hated Yehoshua. Why! Because HaSatan, the “the ruler of the world”, hates Yehoshua, and Satan was the ruler of the world of pagans and the Jewish leadership in rebellion to Him.
When the messianic followers of Yehoshua were persecuted, it will be because Jesus said that they “hated Me without a cause”. When the Great Drama of the Ages was completed on the Mount called Calvary, the Holy Spirit would be sent so that the G-d of Israel could testify about His Son, Yehoshua. This Divine testimony would collaborate with the human testimony of Yehoshua’s disciples who would bear witness that they had been with Jesus “from the beginning” and the fruits of His ministry would be revealed in their lives, their actions, and by their verbal testimony in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.
The days of persecution would rapidly descend upon the disciples of Yehoshua. They would first be thrown out of the synagogues and their orthodox Jewishness would be rejected by the leaders of the Jews. A pogrom would soon lash out against the Nazarenes by the Saulian persecution that was ordered by the High Priest Jonathan son of Ananias and had to flee to Damascus.
Some of them would be killed by those who felt that killing them was for “G-d’s service”. The reality was, these Jewish Sadducean temple leaders did not know the Go- of Israel but were servants of the “ruler of this world” and the dark forces of the spirit world. (John 15:18-27; 16:1-4)
The Work of the Divine Spirit
The first of the human emotions that the disciples would feel when Jesus was leaving them was sorrow. This would be a natural response, but Yehoshua’s departure was to be a good thing. His mission was completed and now a new “Helper” would be sent for a special and specific task. He would be sent:
- To “convict the world of sin,
- To convict the world “of righteousness”, and
- To convict the world “of the judgment to come”.
Even at this moment during the celebration the Passover, there were things to come that would be too hard and fearful to comprehend. The purpose of the Holy Spirit was to “guide you in all truth” and “tell you things to come”. Yet, was the Holy Spirit the Father in heaven? No! Like Yehoshua, the Holy Spirit could not speak on its own authority. The purpose of the Holy Spirit was to glorify Yehoshua and take those things that the Father gave to Yehoshua, the Holy Spirit would give to Yehoshua’s followers. (John 16:5-15)
Joy when We understand Yehoshua’s Plans for He has Overcome the World
The Master then warned His disciples, in a little while they would not see Him, then they would see Him. This was confusing to them. Did they not come to this Seder with the messianic expectations that the end of days was coming now?
Perhaps, they thought, the gates of heaven would break open this very night with the hosts of heaven pouring down upon this earth, the angelic hosts, the patriarchs, the mothers of Israel, the Prophets plus Moses and Jeremiah…all of them! In their apocalyptic imagination, they could see the light of heaven, that fiery light of creation, the light that the Almighty One of Israel kept concealed in heaven from the beginning of time, now bursting forth in glory, radiance, and with the brilliance of divine glory.
Yet, Yehoshua was talking about sorrow and not joy. He was talking about Him leaving them, but then their sorrow would be turned to joy. They would not see their Master, then they would see Him. This was a mystery that they were so puzzled over.
When Yehoshua would be taken away from them, Jesus told them, the Jewish and Roman world leaders would rejoice. Like the labor pain of a woman about to bear a child, the pangs of sorrow will be mixed with joys of expectation. Up to this point they had not asked anything of Yehoshua, but in that day, they will ask of the Father, in Yehoshua’s name. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
The symbolic language was about to overwhelm Yehoshua’s disciples. Now, He would speak to them with the forcefulness of literal reality. “The hour has now come” that “you will be scattered, each to his own, and leave Me alone…In the world, you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” They were sorrowful, elated, shocked, and now stunned. (John 16:16-33)
Yehoshua’s Prayer for His Coming Mission, and the Sanctification of His Disciples
The Entrance to the Tomb of David beneath the Church with the Upper Room – Photo by Robert Mock
Suddenly, Yehoshua in the Upper Terrace raised His eyes to His Heavenly Father saying:
John 17:1-19 (parts) - “Father the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true G-d, and Yehoshua HaMaschiach (Jesus (Joshua the Messiah) whom You have sent…I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world…I pray for them, I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours…I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:1-19)
Yehoshua’s Prayer for the Unity of His Nazarene Messianic Believers
With His eyes ascended to His Father in heaven, Yehoshua closed with prayer not just to His own disciples, but to those who would become believers through the testimony of their word. He prayed for their unity, “that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in Me, and I in You: that they also may be one in Us…and the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.”
With these final words, Yehoshua closed the Seder with a benediction. Per the traditions of the celebration of the Pesach Seder, the Psalms were then sung. It would be the last supper that Yehoshua would eat with all His disciples. One of them would be lost, “the son of perdition (Judas), that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” There was one last desire of Yehoshua to His Father:
John 17:24 - “I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:20-26)
That evening, after the Pesach meal, Yehoshua and His disciples quietly stole out into the street within the Essene Quarter. The Master was cloaked in a white robe that shown with brilliance in the strong rays of the full moon lit night. Yehoshua was fatigued, wiping the sweat from His brow, for pouring out the last reserve of love for His disciples in the service of the Seder.
Together they walked down the slopes of the Mount of Zion beside the palatial guarded residence of the high priest, into the Hinnom Valley, over to the Kidron Valley to seek a place to sleep near the village of Geshemonim. There in the grove of olives by the garden of the olive oil wine pressers, called the Garden of Gat Shemen, they found a private grassy meadow to settle down to rest.
There in the garden, Yehoshua spent the hours in agony until He was arrested by the traitorous kiss of His zealot disciple called Judas Ishcariot, who would identify Yehoshua and become His accuser. Yehoshua was taken to the Palace of the High Priests on the eastern slopes of Mount Zion in the midst of the night of the eve of the Preparation Day for the Passover, for imprisonment and interrogation by Ananus the Elder, the former high priest and Patriarch of the House of Ananus Ben Seth ben Boethus.
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Seeing is believing! For over 2000 years, the world has been affixed with the drama of those few years of time that a single solitary Prince of the esteemed dynastic lineage of Kings David and Solomon shook up the then known world.
His life literally became a “Drama of the Ages” that evoked such a passion in the lives of not only the entire peasantry class of Jewish people, but his fame swept across the entire Middle East changing and transforming all the inhabitants of that era.
It has been stated in hundreds of different cultures that the world as we know today would be totally different if it were not for this one life, for out of his one life, one who was a Neshama Yehudi (Jewish soul) affected so many variant cultures that out of his spiritual loins rose Three Major Religions of the world; Judaism, Christianity and over six hundred years later Islam.
The era of man is standing now on the brink of the seashore waiting to be passed through the inter dimensional veil of the “World to Come.” The day is coming soon when we will break through that inter dimensional barrier and stand on the beach of a “New World” and a “New Age” as the rising Light of the age called the “Era of the Messiah” raises to its glorious manifestation.
The day is coming soon when Hashem the One G-d of Israel will stretch forth His great hand of judgment and cleanse the earth from the great pollution of man upon Planet Earth. He will take away the “blood oaths” from between the mouths of the Palestinian Arabs, He will restore the Land of Israel back to “Am Yisra’el”, that means both the House of Joseph (All Ten Tribes of the House of Israel), and the House of Judah.
He will then redeem and restore His own “sheep” back into a living relationship with Himself. If you are chosen, as a Lost Tribal Member of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, your destiny is to return to your Homelands first in Shomron (Samaria), Israel.
If you want to learn more, click the link and Contact
“Kol Ha Tor Vision”, the Voice of the Turtledove.
Here is a joint Orthodox Jewish and Christian 10-Triber Vision to bring awareness of the imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United). This Supernal Event of all Times will entail Establishing the Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of All Israel.
For inquiries about Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, Visit – “Shomron Lives!”, a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria.
DISCLAIMER - Kol Ha Tor is an independent commentator and may or may not agree with the contents, the views, interpretations and opinions as expressed by the independent theological and/or political views of Destination Yisrael.
Destination Yisrael scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end. It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”. Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth. In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest.
Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace. Our defender is the Metatron, the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth. The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel.
In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information. We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah, the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament, and the writings of Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo ben Zalman (famed Vilna Gaon) called the “genius” in the 18th century, and his vision of the final redemption in his collection of writings highlighted in his supernal understanding of the Torah, the Prophets and Writings as outlined in the Kol Ha Tor.
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