The Wide Path Dropout Mama
The Wide Path Dropout Mama
Jesus our Jewish Messiah
Join me, Ginny, on our first real episode as we discuss the Bible in it's middle eastern context and culture. In this episode we talk about idioms found in scripture that may be lost on western eyes and we breakdown the Hebrew bible and the commandments. I hope you learn something new, but most importantly I pray it gives you a burning desire to get closer to our Messiah.
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Hi, my name is Ginny. I'm a wife, a mom, an entrepreneur and, most importantly, a disciple of Yeshua Jesus. I've been a Christian for over a decade, having studied the Bible for at least that long, or better. Until about three years ago, I thought I knew Jesus pretty well. Then my world was robbed. I started studying the Bible from its Middle Eastern context and culture, and what I found has completely changed my and my family's lives forever. Join me as I share all that I've learned about our Jewish Messiah and listen to my conversations with other moms on their own journey with Jesus, as we discuss the practical ways that we walk out our faith in our everyday lives. This is a conversation for the Christian mom who wants more.
Ginny:This is the Wide Path Dropout Mama Podcast. Hi, welcome back to the Wide Path Dropout Mama Podcast. Thank you for joining us again for our first official episode. This is the episode that I start to get into the meat of what this podcast is going to be about. I am going to discuss with you some of the first things that I started to learn when I started this journey. Without further ado, here is the episode.
Ginny:One of the first things that I learned was that Jesus is Jewish. Surprise, surprise. I mean. I know we all know he's Jewish, right, but it's not something that we ever really talk about. It's not something that most pastors in American churches really teach about. Like I said, it's kind of something that I think we all know, but they don't really talk a lot about it.
Ginny:In my opinion, after learning what I've learned this past three years, I truly believe that the key to understanding the Bible is in the Jewish customs, is in the Jewish culture. I believe that as we begin to understand more about our Jewish Messiah and his culture, that we are going to begin to see the word in ways that we never have before. One example is the fact that we are a Western culture, meaning that Jesus and all of the people who lived in the Bible days and who wrote the Bible were from the Middle East, and they have extremely different customs and ways of thinking and ways of being than we do in America. Right, we say things to each other that only we know what they mean. Right, we have these idioms that we use, and the biggest one that comes to mind right now is what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. You say that to another American and they're going to know exactly what you're talking about. But, for example, if you go to London and you hear somebody say, hey, mate, come look at my new flat, he's not saying like, hey, come look at my flat tire. They're saying like, hey, come look at my new home, right.
Ginny:So depending on where you live, different words are going to mean different things. So there are idioms that they have in Israel that if you don't understand their culture and if you don't understand their way of life, you're not going to get. Those idioms are going to just be lost on you, they're going to fly right over you because you're not going to know what they mean. So I can give you an example in scripture, when Jesus says that you have no light, that your eyes are dark, that means that you are not generous, you do not have a generous heart, you are not opening up your storehouses and giving to the poor, you've got bad eyes. So it's just things like that, and there are so many of those all over the word, that if you learn the idioms, they take on a completely different meaning. So that's why I say when you start to understand the Jewish culture more, you start to understand the scriptures in a whole different way. And when you understand specifically the foundational scriptures, which is what Jesus and his disciples and apostles used for teaching and preaching, those foundational scriptures are really what unlocks all of the rest of the scriptures, and those are kind of almost like the answer key to the New Testament. It's almost like the glossary. Whenever you start to understand those foundational scriptures, the New Testament starts to go off with bells and whistles and you're seeing things, you're seeing the pattern of things. You're seeing them mention the feast days and the patterns of those which we'll get into in later episodes, and truly the Bible is going to come alive to you in ways that you have never seen before. And what does that mean? When you start understanding the Bible better, oh my goodness, your wisdom is going to grow, your ability to discern is going to grow, your love for the word is going to grow. It's just going to have such a beautiful impact on your walk as a Christian when you start to understand the scriptures from their Jewish culture.
Ginny:One of the next things that I want to go over is the foundational scriptures. I've mentioned those a couple of times as being what Jesus and the apostles taught from and preached on. So, jesus, it's actually what Jesus used to combat Satan. Every time Satan came against him, he would quote the foundational scriptures. And those foundational scriptures I'm going to break those down and tell you their names and describe to you what they are, and these words are going to be some words that you've probably heard. Maybe some of you have never heard these words before, but I just want to encourage you to no-transcript. Leave everything that you've ever been told about what these words mean and just start fresh and ask the Lord To give you a fresh revelation.
Ginny:Okay, so the foundational scriptures are what the Jewish people would regard as the Hebrew Bible, and that is called the Tanakh. The Tanakh is the Hebrew Bible and it's basically Split into three sections. Okay, so your first section is going to be what's called the Torah. Now, torah in Hebrew just means teachings, instructions or law. The Torah is actually referred to as the law of Moses a lot of times.
Ginny:The Torah is actually the first five books of the Bible, which is Genesis through Deuteronomy, and it Simply means Instructions on how to live a good life. The Torah was the instructions that God gave to Moses to give to the Israelites on how to live a good, abundant life, how to love him and how to love their neighbor, right? So there was the Torah, which is the first five books, genesis through Deuteronomy, and then you have what's called the writings, and the writings are the Psalms and Proverbs, those kinds of things, and then they also the last section Would be the prophets. So the prophets and the writings. The writings, like I said, are like your Psalms, your Proverbs, and the prophets are just what they say. The prophets like Isaiah, jeremiah, habakkuk, all of those things. So those foundational scriptures are all that Jesus and the apostles and his disciples had. That is what second Timothy 316 is referring to when Timothy says that all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuke and correcting and training and righteousness. That is what Timothy was talking about. He was talking about those foundational scriptures, the Torah, the prophets and the writings. That's what they're talking about.
Ginny:That is what Paul would have been preaching and teaching from. That's what Jesus would have been teaching and preaching from. That is what all little boys, when they reach the age of manhood, they were to learn the Torah. You had to begin to learn the Torah. That is why, at the age of 12, jesus was caught missing when everybody was heading home from the feast day he stayed in the temple and was learning the Torah. He was actually teaching the rabbis the Torah.
Ginny:So when you hear the word Torah, I don't want you to be scared off or to have any preconceived Notions about what it is. The Torah is Simply just the instructions that God gave Moses for the Israelites on how to love him and how to love their neighbor. And that is what Jesus taught. And actually, when Jesus says in Matthew 5, he says I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He's saying I haven't come to do away with all of these laws that the Lord gave Moses. I've actually come to show you how to walk them out perfectly. That's what I've come to do is show you how to live out the Torah Perfectly blemish-free.
Ginny:Something you may not know or maybe have never considered is that the New Testament was not canonized until, which means it was not included in the Holy Bible until between three and four hundred AD, so three to four hundred years after Jesus actually died and Rose and ascended. So the New Testament was not even available to read until then. So that just shows you that's not something that we ever really think about. It's not something I ever really thought about, like wow, they didn't even have this Bible when they were teaching. All they had Were those foundational scriptures. So that was a big eye-opener for me because it really made me think about the way that I looked at the Old Testament again, because I thought if, if the New Testament didn't even exist when Jesus was alive and with the disciples were alive, how much more emphasis should I be having on the front of the book that I've always been taught was kind of done away with, or Maybe not done away with, but it definitely. I definitely grew up being taught that Jesus came to show us a better way to live, that we cannot possibly Keep all of these laws, and he died so that we wouldn't have to. Whenever you realize that I don't know something about Realizing that those were the only scripture that they had in my mind, that really made me think.
Ginny:If the Lord spent so much time and so much effort laying out this foundational teachings, these foundational teachings, why on earth Would he then send his son to just do away with them? That just never sat with me. That never made sense to me. Why, if the Lord, who there is absolutely nothing arbitrary in his word. Everything in his word is there for a reason. Why would he set something up? Why would he spend so much time setting something up to just tear it all down? Especially when the last book in the Old Testament and Malachi says I am Yahweh, I do not change, he doesn't change.
Ginny:And if you believe that Yeshua is Yahweh, then you have to start asking yourself these questions. What are the commandments that Jesus is talking about? If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. What are those? Those are the 10 commandments, yes, but there are also all of the commandments that Yahweh gave to the Israelites. All of them, and there are about 613 of them.
Ginny:If you think that's a lot to keep, just take a look at all of the laws that we have. In the United States alone, there are thousands, thousands, and in Deuteronomy, moses says the law is not too far away from you, that you should say who's going to go get it and bring it to us. It's right here and it's not too hard for you to do, it is not burdensome. In fact, it brings blessing and it brings life, and most of us will agree today that if we didn't have the 10 commandments to go on, it would be utter chaos and most of us live by those commandments, but some of them we have gotten away from, like keeping the Sabbath, keeping it holy, keeping it set apart, observing it on the right day. These are all things that we'll get into in later episodes, but just the things that I've learned, and even just learning that one tidbit about the Bible the fact that the New Testament didn't even exist until three to four hundred years after Jesus ascended and that all that they had to teach with was the Torah and the writings and the prophets that definitely is so much food for thought whenever you start looking at the Bible.
Ginny:And something that always kind of frustrated me once I started learning this was how, in when somebody gets saved. Nowadays, a lot of times we tell them oh, go, start reading in the Gospels or go start in the book of John. No, the Bible is one whole story. It is meant to be consumed from the beginning in Genesis, all the way to Revelation, because it's one cohesive story. It all goes together and it's just like reading a book or going to watch a movie. You would never just jump in in the middle of it and watch or read the last half of the movie or the book and think that you could comprehend what the book was about or what the movie was about, you miss the entire foundation of the movie. So it's a lot that way with these scriptures, with the Bible If you don't fully grasp the foundational scriptures, you won't be able to understand the New Testament to the best of your ability, you won't get the most out of it. My goodness, it's amazing and it's wonderful, and it's such a beautiful and informative book on how to live and it documents the life of Jesus and the life of the disciples and the apostles. It's huge, it's a big deal, but you could be understanding it on such a deeper level if you understand those foundational scriptures in the way that they were meant to be understood.
Ginny:While on the subject of the Ten Commandments, I will just read something that I wrote in my journal last year. It's about the Ten Commandments. The first four of the commandments teach us how to love Yahweh. The other six teach us how to love others or our neighbor. When Yeshua was asked in Matthew 22, verses 36-39, they asked him which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he says Love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. That is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is, like it Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
Ginny:He was summarizing the Ten Commandments. They're categorized in two ways, as I mentioned before. The first four were about how to love God and the last six were about how to love your neighbor. So when he says All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments, that's what he means. And he says All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. The word these he chose these instead of those, which I find pretty interesting because these refers to something close by, and in fact Moses says in Deuteronomy 30, verses 11-14,. I'll read it to you.
Ginny:Moses says this Now, what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven so that you have to ask who will ascend into heaven and get it in a proclamant to us so we may obey it. Nor is it beyond the sea so that you may have to ask who will cross the sea to go get it in proclamant to us so we may obey it. No, the word is very near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. So when Jesus says in John 14-15, if you love me, keep my commandments. This may sound obvious to you, but I never really understood what he meant there. Like what commandments? But now I know he's talking about the commandments that he gave to Moses, not just the ten, but the entire Torah, the entire law, all 613 of those which, by the way, could be broken down and all categorized up under each of the ten commandments. So, as I explained before, the ten commandments could be grouped up in the first four, teaching us how to love God, in the last six, teaching us how to love our neighbor. In the same way, all of those 613 laws can fall up under the category of those ten main commandments. So I thought that was pretty interesting too.
Ginny:Those are what he wills us to keep. That is how he wants us to love him. That's how he wants to be loved by us. His love language is obedience. It's by no means what saves us, but it's how we show our love and our appreciation for being saved. It's how he simply and politely tells us how we can show him our love. He doesn't leave us guessing. He tells us exactly how he wants us to love him, and I'm so grateful for that. It's not so far away that we have to ask who's going to get it and bring it to us. He's laid them out for us.
Ginny:So do we have to keep these laws? No, we do not. We do not have to keep these laws. But if you love someone, wouldn't you want to keep the laws that they gave you? Wouldn't you want to show him that you are willing to be obedient and that you are willing to love him in his love language? Because that's pretty much what it is You're choosing to follow his laws that he gave us for life, and blessing shows him how much you really love him and what you're willing to do for this person that you say you love so much. Well, that's going to wrap it up for today's episode. I hope that you learned something new today, I hope that you were edified and I hope that you are hungry to know more about your Messiah. So, with that, thank you so much for joining us and I cannot wait to meet you on the next episode of the Wide Path Dropout Mama Podcast. As always, I love you and I pray that he will keep you in perfect peace today. God bless you and see you next time. God bless you.