El Shaddai Ministries

Pastor Mark Biltz: One of the things I like doing is to dig a little deeper into the Gospels to give us a good understanding. What’s amazing to me is the New Testament verse that I want to explain is tied to the Torah portion. That’s always amazing when you see these connections.

Get a load of this. Here we are. We’re going to start with Mark chapter three, verses one through six. Everyone knows the story, but I’m going to make it come alive. Here we go. Yeshua enters again into a synagogue. Can you believe it? Yeshua’s habit was to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath, even. Oh, my goodness.

And it says there was a person there who had a withered hand. They were watching him to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath day. Look at these people’s heart. They could care less about the man with the withered hand. Talk about legalistic. Here these people, they want to see if Yeshua’s going to heal someone that’s sick or has an injury so they can accuse him. That’s what it says. They want to accuse him.

Yeshua says to the man which had the withered hand, "Stand forth." I want you to remember that: stand forth. And then he turns to the religious leaders and he says, "Is it lawful to do good on Sabbath days, or to do evil? To save life, or to destroy it?" But they kept their mouths shut.

When he had looked around about them with anger, he was grieved because of the hardness of their heart. He said to the man, "Stretch forth your hand!" And he stretched it out and his hand was restored whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

Let me ask you something. On the first reading of this, you might think it sounds perfectly straightforward. Jesus does a miracle on the Sabbath, they thought it was against the law, so they wanted to kill him. Is that basically what it’s saying? If we take the story as simply being an account of a miracle, don’t you think the reaction of the Pharisees is kind of over the top? Why would they want to kill him because he did a miracle?

That makes us wonder, there’s got to be more to the story, because they literally wanted to destroy him. What’s going on? I think the reaction is very excessive. Now, here is an even stranger view that Christianity takes when they read this. They say this proves that Jesus did away with the Sabbath, he did away with the law, and Jews are evil. I mean, how many of you have heard that? That proves he did away with the law.

Total insanity. Yeshua is turning this into a teaching opportunity, which is, after all, what you're supposed to do in the synagogue on the Sabbath. They're saying, "Oh, you want to cover Moses? Okay, let’s cover Moses," he says. What I’m going to do right now is we’re going to jump back into the Torah so I can further explain what actually is happening here. I’ll open this up for just a minute for suggestions. Does anybody have any thought on why they would want to kill him just because he did a miracle?

Guest (Male): Power struggle.

Pastor Mark Biltz: Power struggle, yeah. I don't think they think killing is wrong, too. That's what they wanted to do. I think that was one of the laws.

Guest (Female): It's about the pocketbook.

Pastor Mark Biltz: Well, let me go over this. Let’s start from the beginning. Let’s go to Deuteronomy chapter 11. Don’t you think we ought to see what Moses had to say and what God had to say to Moses to get their opinion? In verse one through four, it says you're supposed to love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments, and his commandments always.

Part of the problem is we think these were all just for the Jews. These aren't the Jewish commandments. These are his commandments. These are his statutes. It says, "Know this day, I’m speaking not with your children, which haven’t known and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his stretched-out arm, his miracles, his acts which he did right in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all of his land."

And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord had destroyed them. Here they wanted to destroy Yeshua. They need to recognize how Yeshua destroyed all of his enemies.

Look at verse 26 through 28. God says, "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you obey and the curse if you do not obey the commandments." Let me bring this up. Here’s the question. You have the Sabbath. Is the Sabbath meant for life or death? Good or evil? Blessing or cursing?

It says in Exodus 14:13, Moses said to the people when they’re at the Red Sea. Let me put them at the Red Sea. Here he is. And he says, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will show you today, for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you’ll see them again no more forever. The Lord is going to fight for you and you shall hold your peace." We have Moses. Everyone’s to stand still. He’s to stretch out his hand. This is a Sabbath, believe it or not, and the Egyptians all have hard hearts, we know.

Now, look at Deuteronomy 30:15 through 18. He sets before them life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day, wow, look at this first commandment. It’s really tough. You have to love the Lord. That’s a hard one. I’m glad he did away with all these laws in the Old Testament.

By loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you'll live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you're entering to take possession of. But if your hearts turn away and you won't hear and you're drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I’m telling you today you're going to perish.

You will not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. All the commandments were meant to live. Today, most people think the commandments are to kill you. No, the commandments are to allow you to live.

This goes back to our Torah portion and a little bit before and after. Look at Exodus 5:1. "Thus says the Lord God of Israel," what?

Guest (Male): Let my people go.

Pastor Mark Biltz: I got Pharaoh here. He’s got all the Israelis locked up in Egypt and God is telling him, "Let my people go." Two chapters later, Exodus 7:14 through 16, the Lord says to Moses, "Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning. He goes out to the water and I want you to stand by the river’s brink against him coming. And the rod which was turned into a serpent shall you take in your hand. You shall go to him and say to him, 'The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me unto you saying what?'"

Guest (Male): Let my people go.

Pastor Mark Biltz: God wanted him to do it voluntarily. Notice, if you remember from last week, there were two rods. There was Moses’ rod at the bush. When he threw it down, it became a serpent. But then there was Aaron’s rod that he threw down in front of Pharaoh and what did it become? A crocodile, exactly. But now we see it’s back to Moses’ rod that he threw down at the bush.

Look at Exodus 8:1. The Lord says to Moses again, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me.'" Almost every one of these plagues, it was the same thing. In verse 20, "The Lord says to Moses, 'Rise up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, he comes forth to the water, and say to him, thus says the Lord God, let my people go that they may serve me.'" In other words, you are their king, you made them slaves. I’m their king and they're going to be my slaves. It’s really in his mind. He doesn't see the love, he just sees it’s the battle between two gods over who’s going to have the power.

Same thing in Exodus 9:1, "Let my people go that they may serve me." Exodus 9:13, another plague. The Lord says to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, let my people go so they can serve me." Look at Exodus 10:3, Moses and Aaron come into Pharaoh and they say to him, "Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me." What do you think God’s trying to say?

Guest (Male): Let my people go.

Pastor Mark Biltz: You guys are good. Let my people go. Did God have the power to force him to let them go all along? Of course he did. This is why free will is so important and this is why I spoke last week about when God hardened his heart. It’s completely different when Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Pharaoh hardens his heart and makes it hard. God hardens his heart to strengthen him to continue his free will. He’s saying, "Hey, don't give up now. I got three more plagues."

Now let’s watch what happens. Exodus 14. We go there now, verse 13 and 18. Moses says to the people, "Fear ye not," and what are they to do? "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he’s going to show you today. The Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will see them again no more forever. The Lord is going to fight for you and you are to just hold your peace."

And now the Lord speaks to Moses, and he says to Moses, "Why are you whining? Why are you crying out to me? You just told the people in one sense to stand still. Well, I’m telling you to tell them to go forward." He says, "Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward. But I want you to lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel will go on dry ground through the midst of the sea." That’s what’s amazing to me is the fact that it was dry ground. How many of you have ever been through water when the tide's gone out and it’s all mucky and muddy? This is dry ground. That is what the miracle is.

And then it says, "And I, God says, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they shall follow them. And I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all of his host, upon his chariots, upon his horsemen, and the Egyptians will now know that I am the Lord when I’ve gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, his chariots, and upon his horsemen."

What does he say happened in Exodus 14:21? What does Moses do? Stretch out his hand over the sea and cause the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided. I can't help but think of Genesis when he divided the waters above from the waters below. But look at verse 25 through 27. It took off their chariot wheels and they drove them heavily so that the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians."

And what did the Lord say to Moses? "Stretch out your hand that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, upon their chariots, upon the horsemen." And so what did Moses do? Stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared and the Egyptians fled against it and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

Let’s go back to our story for a minute. For the Pharisees at the time when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand, for them, Moses was just someone whom they might use against Yeshua. But now what did Yeshua do? He presented to them the real Moses.

And guess what. This real Moses, he not only presents, he brings a question, insinuating that the real Moses is totally against their imagined Moses in a way that’s perfectly clear to them. So now what happens? They're struck with silence. Sometimes when you feel like an idiot, you just shut your mouth for a little bit. You ever seen people like a deer in headlights? I’ve been sometimes involved with politics watching what’s going on in the news and someone will bring up something that the other person can't answer and you can see the confused look in their brain.

Yeshua looks around with anger and then it says he was grieved at their hard hearts. Think about this. Were the Pharisees acquainted with the scriptures? Were they acquainted with Passover? It’s been 1500 years since Passover, and they've been keeping the Passover every year. If you do a Passover with us or anybody, they talk about this. They talk about all of the plagues. They talk about crossing the Red Sea. They know the scriptures.

In the scripture, who has the hard heart? Pharaoh. He is telling the Pharisees they are the hard-hearted Egyptians. They're the hard-hearted Pharaoh. That’s what’s going on in this story. And he’s looking at their hard hearts. God tells Pharaoh through Moses to let my people go. And he’s telling the Pharisees, let this child of mine go. Why do you want to keep them in bondage with a withered hand? Let him go. He’s playing out the whole Exodus scene in front of them.

Then remember, in this scenario, if the man with the withered hand, what Yeshua’s doing, he’s making him Moses. And he’s telling Moses back then, he’s telling this man to do what all through the Exodus? He’s saying stretch out your hand. Here Yeshua is telling the man to stand still and then he says, "Stretch out your hand." So Yeshua’s playing Yahweh. Yeshua in this whole story in Mark, he’s saying, "Okay, I’m going to be God, he’s going to be Moses, and you're the hard-hearted Egyptians that won't let him go."

All of a sudden, this whole story now takes on new meaning when you bring it back to the Torah. That’s why they want to kill him. He’s equating them to the hard-hearted people who won't let his people go. Isn't that fascinating when you look at the story like this?

Now, here’s the other thing. Do you know when they cross the Red Sea? It was on the Sabbath. It was the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first day’s a Sabbath, the last day’s a Sabbath. So not only Moses, Moses broke the Sabbath. God is saying because they were all traveling, carrying stuff on the Sabbath when God redeemed them.

Let’s watch how this unfolds. Leviticus 23:6 through 8. On the 15th day of the same month, it’s the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. Seven days you eat unleavened bread. The first day is a holy convocation, you do no work, but you will offer an offering made by fire to the Lord seven days. And the seventh day is a holy convocation, you're to do no work.

According to Jewish history, the first day of unleavened bread is when they left Egypt. Nissan 15, that’s when they left. It’s a Sabbath. And they're carrying all their burdens and they're hauling with wagons all of the Tabernacle they're going to use in the wilderness. Here they're traveling over half a mile on the Sabbath, they're carrying burdens on the Sabbath. You following me?

And then on the seventh day, which is also a Sabbath, that’s when they're crossing the Red Sea. Here they are, crossing the Red Sea. They're walking on the Sabbath, they're carrying on the Sabbath what they brought out of Egypt. They're being delivered on the Sabbath. God brings redemption and health on the Sabbath.

By bringing the Exodus story in, Yeshua’s telling them that the real Moses allowed for all of these things to happen on two Sabbaths in a row, both fleeing Egypt on the first Sabbath of unleavened bread and crossing the Red Sea on the last Sabbath of unleavened bread. And the whole purpose was to bring life to the children of Israel.

So he tells the Pharisees, "So what would Moses do? Let’s look at what he did." The question is, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil? To save life or to destroy it? Well, guess what. God did both. He saved Israel and he destroyed the Egyptians. He saved the lives of the Jews on the Sabbath when they crossed the Red Sea, but he also destroyed the Egyptians. It’s lawful to do both on the Sabbath as far as God is concerned, and that’s what happened.

But what’s fascinating now when you go back and read the story in the book of Mark when he’s telling the man with the withered hand, "Stand forth! Stretch forth your hand!" is because of the hardness of their hearts. This is a whole replay of the Torah portion that they're very familiar with. But see, if we’re not familiar with it, we don’t see the connection. This is why we have to get familiar with it. Does that make sense?

And it was on the Sabbath. Man, did he save them? Okay, here’s another one. But wait, there’s more. Here we go. I have down here at the bottom, you can see the Sea of Galilee. Do you see the Sea of Galilee there? Do you see Capernaum on the coast at the north at the top? If you go down to the bottom left, you'll see these two little red stars around Mount Moreh, which is kind of like a root word of Torah, but it means a teacher. *Moreh* being teacher.

The Mount of Teaching. We have Shunem to the south and Nain to the north. They're both very close to each other, a couple miles. Let’s look at something that happened in the Bible. First off, look at your notes on Joshua 19, verse 17 and 18. It says how the fourth lot came out to Issachar for the children of Issachar according to their families and their border was toward Jezreel and Chesulloth and Shunem. Do you see Shunem? So that’s Shunem. That was Issachar’s border.

Now, look at 2 Kings 4:8 and 9. Look what happens. It fell on a day that Elisha went to Shunem. Elisha is right there in Shunem and there was a great woman and she was constraining him to eat some bread. And so it was that as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat bread. She said to her husband, "I perceive that this is a holy man of God which passes by us continually."

Then in verse 14 through 17. And he said, "What then is to be done for her?" And Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, said, "Truly she has no child. Her husband is old." And he said, "Call her." And when he had called her, she stood in the door. He said, "About this season, according to the time of life, you're going to embrace a son." And she said, "Don't you lie to me! You man of God, don't you lie to your handmaid!" But the woman conceived and she bore a son at the season that Elisha had said to her according to the time of life.

So what happens in verse 18 through 20? When the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers and he said to his father, "Oh, my head, my head!" And he said to another lad, "Carry him to his mother." When he had taken him, he brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon and then what happens?

Guest (Male): He dies.

Pastor Mark Biltz: He dies. Look what happens in verse 35 through 37. He returns and he walked in the house to and fro, this is Elisha, and he went up and he stretched himself on him and the child sneezed seven times. And the child opened his eyes. Then he called his servant Gehazi and he said, "Go call the who?"

Guest (Male): Shunamite.

Pastor Mark Biltz: Shunamite. Why? Because she lives in Shunem. He called her. And when she came in, he said, "Take up your son." She went in, fell at his feet, bowed herself to the ground, took up her son and went out. I want you to see what happened to the south of Mount Moreh in Shunem. There was a little boy raised from the dead by Elisha, right?

Now, from there we’re going to run up to Capernaum and let’s look at another story. This is in Luke chapter seven, verse one through five. After he had finished speaking in the hearing of the people, Yeshua entered into Capernaum. There was a centurion’s servant who was dear to him, he was sick at the point of death. He heard about Yeshua, and he sent to him Jewish elders asking him to come and save his servant. When they came to Yeshua, they begged him earnestly saying, "He is worthy for you to do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built our synagogue."

So what happens in verse six and seven? Yeshua went in with them when he was now not too far from the house. The centurion sent friends to him saying to him, "Lord, don't trouble yourself even what they said. I’m still not worthy. I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. Therefore, I didn't even think myself worthy to come to you. But you just say the word, and my servant will be healed." In nine through 12, Yeshua heard all this, he marveled, and he turned to the multitude and said, "I tell you, I haven't found such great faith, not in all of Israel." And those who were sent returning to the house found that the servant had been sick as well.

Now, here we go. It happens soon afterwards that he went to a city called what?

Guest (Male): Nain.

Pastor Mark Biltz: You can see at the map, he’s clear up at Capernaum, he’s now headed down to Nain, which is the other side of the hill. Oftentimes when a famous person is in a city, they always say, "This is the home of this president" or "This is the home of this Olympian." I can just see Shunem, "This is where Elisha healed the servant." Well now, it’s on the other side of the mountain and it’s now Nain. Look at this. It says "many," how many? Many of his disciples with a great multitude went with him.

How many are with Yeshua when he’s going from Capernaum to Nain? Many. And the great multitude. I mean, many, many, many, many. Now, when he drew near to the gate of the city, not many great multitude can go through the gate at once. Picture this vast multitude of thousands of people coming and there’s this little narrow gate. They're near the gate of the city and behold, there’s a dead person who’s being carried out of the gate, the only son of his mother and she was a widow. We just got done reading about a story, the only son of a mother. And it says how many were with her? Many people are with her.

Let’s imagine a gate. Okay, here we are, there’s Nain. Now, how many of you realize and remember the day when, especially if you lived in a smaller town, whenever there was a funeral procession, all the cars would stop until the funeral procession went by? That comes from Judaism. That’s what the Jewish people would do. Here we have a cemetery. The women would usually lead the funeral procession, then would come the men, then the children, and then you'll see the bier at the very back where four people are carrying the casket.

Back then, just like what we've experienced, everyone would stop to allow the funeral procession to go. This has been for thousands of years. But the Jews say, "Oh, no. What happens if at the same time there’s a funeral procession, there’s also a wedding procession? Who stops? Here you have a great multitude of people with the wedding procession going down the street and then coming another direction is a funeral. What’s the protocol? Who’s supposed to stop?"

And they say that the funeral procession has to stop and the wedding procession goes first, because it’s all about life and not just about death. And then someone says, "Well, what happens if at the same time of the funeral procession and the wedding procession, there’s a procession of the King of Israel? Who’s supposed to stop?"

This is why the Jews are lawyers. They always go through all these different scenarios long ago. And they decide everyone has to stop for the King of Israel. Everybody has to stop for the King of Israel. And then the wedding procession would go, and then the funeral procession would go. So here we have this funeral procession headed, then all of a sudden here comes the wedding procession. And then here comes the procession of the King of Israel. What a clash, right?

Yeshua’s bringing many, many people into the gate. At the same time, many, many people are trying to go out the gate to the cemetery. Who stops? Who stops? See, this is when you understand Judaism and how it works and their protocol, all these stories take on whole new meanings.

Look at this. It goes on to say in Luke 7:13, when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and he said to her, "Don't cry." Now, the women are at the front of the funeral procession. They're not at the back. The dead body’s clear at the back. And look at what it says in verse 14 through 17. He came near, so he walks the whole procession down, he goes to the back and he touches the coffin and the bearers stood still because the King of Israel gets to go first. They're recognizing him and his procession as one of the King of Israel. This is why they stop.

And he said, "Young man, I tell you arise." And he who was dead sat up and began to speak and he gave him to his mother. He says, "Don't fear." And they all glorified God saying, "A great prophet has risen among us! God has visited his people!" And the report went out concerning him in the whole of Judea and then all the surrounding region.

So here he is. And guess what. The funeral procession stopped and he went clear from the front to the back and healed the child because they recognized he was the King of Israel. All right, with that, let’s stand.

Guest (Male): [Applauding]

Guest (Female): [Applauding]

Pastor Mark Biltz: Thank you. Thank you. We'll be back next week. Have a wonderful Sabbath. Shalom.

Guest (Male): Shalom.

Guest (Female): Shalom.

Pastor Mark Biltz: God bless.