Vision Logo Circle
Vision Logo Circle

Walking In The Dust Of Our Rabbi Pt 2

by | Fri, Aug 6 2021

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We began in our previous program to look at what it means to walk in the dust of our Rabbi, we learned a little bit about how without the understand of the Jewish cultural context of Jesus day or the setting that the Bible was written in, we can easily put our own spin on what we read. For example, the masterpiece by Leonardo Da Vinci of the Last Supper, was a Passover meal in reality but every single thing depicted in that painting is actually Biblically wrong. If Da Vinci had understood or researched what a Passover meal was actually like, that painting would have been vastly different.

We touched again a little bit on the difference between the Greek method of learning and the Hebrew or Jewish method of learning. The Greek primarily being that of a classroom where knowledge and information are imparted but the Hebrew method is very much that of a master and apprentice, a teacher and student learning side by side until a skill has been learned.

We also touched very briefly on the difference between Jewish congregations and Gentile congregations in that the Jews had a decent head start when it came to knowing and understanding what God’s standards or morals, ethics and behaviour was, but for the Gentiles it was very much a new concept. The Jewish church was much more ordered, thoughtful and disciplined when compared to the Gentile church in Corinth was an absolute mess. They had to learn the standards of God from scratch but in order to do that they needed an example, a model they could imitate and that model was the Apostle Paul.

There was another difference between the Jewish and Gentile believers…while the Gentiles knew Jesus as their Saviour and God, the Jewish believers also knew Him as their Rabbi but what does that mean in practical terms? To follow your Rabbi meant you were obligated to memorise His words and live according to His halakhah or His interpretation of how God’s Word teaches us to live.

This is really important because it demonstrates to us that we are not the ones who determine what the Scripture means, HE is the One who teaches what His Word means. Remember Jesus is the author of Scripture because He is the Word made flesh who lived among us. (John 1)

The world is always wanting to re-shape Jesus to fit their expectations. For example, a particular denomination ran a competition in the year 2000 called ‘Jesus 2000’ because they were searching for a new ‘image’ of Jesus for the next millennium and the prize winning painting was called ‘The Jesus of the People’ and it was of a dark-skinned, thick-lipped, slightly feminine looking man and nothing about Him was even slightly Jewish.

If you study the Bible with other people, please be very careful about taking turns in sharing what you think a portion of Scripture means to you. Scripture means precisely what God intended it to mean when He revealed it. That means that we don’t get to say what the Bible means…we’re to study it so that we find out what it was originally meant to mean and then we apply it to our own lives so we can live according to it.

But what does it mean to be a disciple?

Most of the church has been greatly influenced by the Greek mindset which predominantly interprets Scripture spiritually or philosophically and analytically and from these positions, you can make the Scripture mean anything you want. The Hebrew mindset is predominantly physical, practical and literal. That means the interpretations of the Bible can be poles apart sometimes.

We predominantly look at spiritual applications to Scripture while the Jew would look at how to practically live out what the Scripture says. So to be a disciple according to the Hebrew mind is to practically, physically imitate your Rabbi, to obey Him in all things and even take on his persona and mannerisms. A Greek mindset in the area of learning is to sit in a classroom and absorb knowledge and at the end of a period of learning, a test is given and you are marked on how much information or knowledge you’ve remembered and then you get your score. A Hebrew mindset is one of a teacher and his disciple, his apprentice; the teacher gives the lesson, he provides a demonstration of what he does and then the disciple, the apprentice tries to duplicate his teacher. He keeps doing it until he gets it right and at the end, he know has a skill that he can replicate and teach to others.

This Hebrew mindset – which is very practical and literal – is what it means to Walk in the Dust of your Rabbi.

In the next program we’ll take a closer look at what it means to walk in the dust of our Rabbi.

 

Shalom

Mandy

 

(These studies are based on the book ‘Walking In The Dust Of Rabbi Jesus: How The Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life’ by Lois Tverberg)