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Elijah and John the Baptist
Matthew 11:13-15 “All the Prophets and Moses’ Teachings prophesied up to the time of John. If you are willing to accept their message, John is the Elijah who was to come.”
We read from the last prophet in the old testament, about 300 years before Yeshua was born, from Malachi 4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of YHWH.” Go back to the post of Malachi to read more. From that post it talks about (just like most prophets) about the great and dreadful day of YHWH, the day of fire and judgement. From the past, judgement has happened a few times. With Noah and the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah and Nineveh to name a few examples. It could be, reading the urgency of the return of Elijah and the prophecies, and also some of the prophecies that was fulfilled already in Revelation like the 7 Churches, that judgement also occured on Rome and Jerusalem with the great fires and Temple destruction between 64AD (Rome) and 70AD (Jerusalem).
Mercy, Not Sacrifice - Repeated
Here is another translation, for Matthew 12:7 “And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not offering,’ you would not have condemned the blameless.” This exact reference to Hosea 6:6 was also quoted by Yeshua in Matthew 9:13.
In Matthew 9 He quoted the Scripture when He was having dinner at Matthew’s house, and there were many tax collectors and sinners, according to the Pharisees. They blamed Yeshua for being around sinners. Here in Matthew 12 they blame Yeshua again for plucking grains from the field on a Sabbath. The Pharisees cannot see that these people are spending time with the Son of YHWH, the Messiah. For them all that matters is rules and laws, and mostly rules and laws made up by themselves, and no mercy. YHWH and Yeshua wants us to have mercy first for all, before we want to judge and act self-righteous for abiding the Laws.
It is not the Laws or Sacrifices that are a problem, it is the lack of Mercy. See this post from Psalm 86 about the Hebrew meaning of Grace and Mercy. From the prophet Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace H2580 and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
Yeshua and the Sabbath
Matthew 12:8 “For the Son of Aḏam is Master of the Sabbath.” The original Scriptures, especially Hebrew, doesn’t use “man” but the Hebrew word is Adam for man, which always refers back to Creation. Most translations also use the word “Lord”, however the meaning is Master. Click here to see the post from Isaiah 31 about the meanings of “lords” and “gods”. Another translation says, “the Son of Man has authority over the day of worship”. Where the “day of worship” in Hebrew is Sabbath H7676 – šabāṯ, and the Greek is Sabbaton G4521 – sabbaton. We posted back in Nehemiah 13 where some translations does not use the word Sabbath, but “day of worship” which can be confusing as some people worship on any other day than the one YHWH instituted back in Creation, the 7th day of the week.
From the days of Adam in Genesis, we have posted many posts (click here to find them) about the Sabbath. The Pharisees and some others, have added their own rules and laws on what is allowed on a Sabbath. But we have been given many teachings and examples from Scripture, and it always comes down to one thing : You and your family (and even the animals) are not allowed to work. The word Sabbath means REST – so that is what it is about. Did Yeshua work while they were plucking wheat to eat? Is it work for example when opening a container to eat? Did Yeshua work when He healed people? Is it work to wash your face or get out of bed? Work is not difficult to understand – it is what you do to make money and profits. It is your normal weekly “job”. Mark 2:27 says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”. In other words, the Sabbath was given for all to REST.
Son of Man
Matthew 12:32 “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.“
When you do a search for the entire Scriptures on “son of man” (click here for the list), you will see the phrase is used extensively in Ezekiel, and in the new testament. But Daniel also made a prophecy, clearly pointing to the Messiah in Daniel 7:13, “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven!”
The Hebrew word for “man” is Adam H120 – ‘āḏām, who was the first son created. Yeshua refers to Himself a lot as the “Son of Man”. Revelation 14:14 sounds a lot like Daniel 7:13, “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.”
Miracles
Matthew 12:38 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.””
From previous posts about the meaning of Miracles (click here), especially in Psalms we read why Miracles occur. The Hebrew word has a lot to do with testing of Faith, and when asking for miracles, it could show how strong one’s faith really is – as Faith is holding on to things not seen! In english there is a saying, “seeing is believing” – that is the opposite of Faith. Do we believe because we see, or because we have Faith? Click here to see previous posts about Faith.
Yeshua does respond here in Matthew 12 that He will reflect the journey and pain of Jonah, not just in the 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the earth, but also in the cries and suffering – read the post from Jonah here.
