Bear Fruit

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I recently viewed the movie Jesus & His Times by Questar Studios, released in 2009. There are many good ideals, scenes, and scenery in this movie, I watched it through Prime Video. One hour into the film they talk about grapevines and wine, with connections to various aspects of first century Jewish life. In this section they address John 15:2, my focus of this post. With all of that said I will state this is a STUDY not an ANSWER.

The earthly kingdom of God and our Lord Christ Jesus is built around being connected to the Vine and bearing fruit. The management of the branches and fruit are the core of this verse and the section that includes loving God and fellow members of the kingdom and mankind. The movie questions the phrase “cuts off”. They assert that the practice Jesus knew would have been to “lift up” the branch and place it on a rock to keep it from making its own roots and allowing it to produce fruit. Okay, that could be good for several sermons in itself. For me it was a challenge to think through how I view the Father and His dealings with us. To demystify that sentence, will God pick you up to help produce fruit or just cut you off? The movie writers assert that there is a misinterpretation of the word αἴρω (airō) Strong: G142. This is the study.

It is important to see how God reveals His glory to Moses, Exodus 34:5-7.

Start with these:

Please look at the cultural context sections and the corresponding Hebrew words, Nasa and Massa.

An important fact about concordances, they list root words. So, many words we search for are a variation of the word you find in the concordance. The actual word in John 15:2 is Greek Concordance: αἴρει (airei) — 8 Occurrences. (God bless translators.) You should read through those eight verses putting them in context.

  • Matthew 9:16, Mark 2:21. The question to Jesus was about fasting and He answers with examples of a wedding ceremony, patches, and wineskins.
  • Mark 4:15, Luke 8:12. Jesus is explaining the Parable of the Sower to His disciples. This is where the seed hits the path, and Satan takes the Word right away.
  • Luke 11:22. Jesus was driving out a mute demon and was accused of doing it with power from the lord of the flies. Our word is in one of the four comments He made in response to their unbelief.
  • John 10:18. Jesus is talking about Himself and His mission after He healed the man who was born blind in John 9. He has found the man and the Pharisees are running mouth.
  • John 15:2. This part of Jesus’ last meal with His disciples before He goes to the first garden.
  • John 16:22. This also is part of the last fellowship Jesus had with His disciples; He is talking about their joy. Judas Iscariot has been gone from the dinner since Chapter 13.

Cuts off or lifts up, you may have to go back each time airei is used and reread inserting the phrases. I hope you can see why this is a study and not an answer. Another study to help this one is BibleGateway – Keyword Search: bear fruit.

Bible 911 – John

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John 9:11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. (KJV)

John’s Purpose was to show Jesus as the Son of God. He did this by highlighting miracles with the teaching Jesus did. We have singled seven out of those John listed, but in my Plus One post, and Miracles ++++ post I tried to show others.

Festival Time – Yes, Jesus observed the festival. Chapter Seven starts the Feast of Tabernacles or Yom Kippur. John 7 to 21 is just several months; from the seventh month to the first month in the Hebrew Calendar. For much of this period He relocated to the east bank of the Jordan River across from Jericho, just like Joshua and Israel. (That crossing was also at Passover.) The teachings/statements that Jesus gave at this Day of Atonement Feast are quite bold. The opening of the eyes of a man born blind (Chapter 9) is as much of a challenge to the authorities as it was an act of mercy and a testimony for the power and greatness of God the Father.  

What Was Not Said – I was going to have a long list of things not said, I had thought of many of them. The most important thing I settled on was the man did not ask for help. John, like the other Gospel writers, focused on Jesus and His actions and not all of the characters. The other question is how did they know that the man was blind since birth? Okay, this could keep going especially in the “trial” of the man.

The Pool of Siloam – Its history starts with Hezekiah in the 8th century BCE and his efforts to protect Jerusalem’s water from the Assyrians. He was the fourteenth king in Jerusalem and the fifteenth ruler over the City of David. There are various mentions of this system in the Old Testament (2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chronicles 32). Nehemiah 3:15 mentions it in the rebuilding of the wall. Jesus references a tower in the area that fell and killed people, Luke 13:4. There is a fair amount of guessing about this tower and the people who died. (As part of the Gihon Spring’s protection there was a tower built over the spring that was part of the wall of Jerusalem. Just saying.) The name may have come from the water being “sent” to the pool. Siloam | The amazing name Siloam: meaning and etymology  The Incredible Tunnel of King Hezekiah – Chabad.org    Gihon Spring – Wikipedia

The Washing – In my myopic vision, I initially missed the water and the spring that allowed for the washing. (Thank you, Jesus for fixing it.) In the Jewish religion at that time there were many types of washings/baptisms, it was an important of their culture. If the man had not walked to the pool and washed there would have been no miracle.

Given the feast it happened at; the washing can represent the healed people of Israel walking through the Red Sea and being free of Egypt. The fresh start allowed them to see that God cared for them and was their God and Moses was His servant. I do not want to end the Exodus comparison there; that water flowed from a rock that had been “broken open” to supply water inside Jerusalem. Glory!

As always, I am thankful for the resource links, but ask God for wisdom as you read them.  

Spitting – This topic has been covered in different ways by different people; my big add-in is there are two different words for spit. The one used most often is Strong’s Greek: 1716. ἐμπτύω (emptuó) — To spit upon Yes, this one is just disrespectful and is not used in John 9.

The word in this passage is used three times and they are connected to healing miracles. The other two references are in Mark 7:33 and 8:23. In Mark 7 Jesus has traveled from Tyre and Sidon to the Decapolis, both are not in Israel and Mark 8 is in Bethsaida. Both of these tell of Jesus taking the people out of town by themselves, where the miracle happened. John 9 seems to be done in plain sight of everyone. Strong’s Greek: 4429. πτύω (ptuó) — To spit Between my imagination and wanting to inject “science” into this I still have to say that I could not prove any of my ideas. I will point out the onomatopoeia of the Greek for the cartoon sound of spitting – ptoo.

Why the Mud – In Seven Miracles in John, I tried to find an Old Testament type for Jesus’ miracles. In the first writing I could not think or find any, but I have added several since working on this post. After musing on this for awhile and still wanting to add some “miraculous science”, I will offer this thought. The one miracle I thought of was God creating man from the earth. If the man was born blind, were all of the working parts in the eyes? So, Jesus added some raw material and His holy DNA to create what was lacking in the eyes, and finished the miracle with water that flowed from a rock. Now, part of that thinking is from the two miracles in Mark; were there “missing parts” in those people?

The complexity of the miracle – This man had used his other senses, but not sight. Imagine the rush of information into this man’s brain. I say this and then have to say that the God who created the earth could help this man through this shocking change in his life. See the link to the Name of Siloam. This amazing act of mercy is a forerunner of Acts 3 and the man crippled from birth. In verse 3:8 he is walking and jumping just minutes after the healing. (That is a complex motion.)

Jesus Not Claiming the Glory – He walked away. He did not follow the man. He did not wait for the man to return. The man’s trip to the pool was a faith/obedience walk. I am not sure what your personal image of Jesus is. The thought of Him not breaking a bruised reed or putting out a glowing candle is valid, when He was working with people in their faith. There were cultural aspects here that would have been at odds with Jesus “blowing His own horn”. He also had just had that conversation in Chapter 8. He did not shy away from confronting wrong thinking and, in John, there are plenty of times He “hide Himself” because He had gotten the crowd upset.

It was not yet His time. The next few months still had many things that needed to happen. Read from Matthew 13:53 and then again in Chapter 19 to Palm Sunday. Of course, when He did this miracle may have been part of why He walked away.

Sabbath – Please, the rest God wants us to enjoy started in Genesis not the middle of Exodus. The Father wants us taking time each week to rest and focus on Him, that is righteous fellowship.

To open blind eyes in the time period of Yom Kippur and living in the booths for seven days to remember the Exodus is a bold action. Just that much could be several sermons. So, was this a special Sabbath or the weekly one? I do not know, but it was a Sabbath (See Leviticus 23). Making mud/clay, putting it on the man, and healing were all “work”. I would think washing it off was also considered work. Then we can think about the uproar the man made when he could see. We are not told if the man knew where the mud came from, that would have added more charges to Jesus for spreading body fluids.

People Talking – More questions to ask, more assumptions to be made, and more commentaries to write about 9:8 and 9. Because of these verses, I will say the man lived in or very close to Jerusalem. The people’s reactions are what you would expect. How many of them were mad because they thought they were duped? Others knew something amazing had happened and they needed answers, so off to the church leaders they went. To be fair, the common person in Jerusalem may have heard of Jesus and what He was doing, but they probably never went to see Him.

The Holy Spirit, gently, reminded me that THESE PEOPLE are the reason Jesus did the miracle. These children of Abraham, the people Jesus would cry over, needed Light. Here are the various groups:

  • The disciples, there were more than just the Twelve.
  • The man.
  • The people at the pool.
  • The neighbors and those who had seen him begging.
  • The Pharisees.
  • His parents.
  • The Jews.

The Light shone on all of them and there were different reactions to the miracle. If that miracle happened in your church today; what group would you be in? (Look at reactions and words, not titles.)

Jews – How many times can you read something and never see it? In verse 18, John referred to the Jews not believing; yes, I had to look. Please keep in mind that John’s Gospel may have been one of the last New Testament books written. If you do a word search, know you will find jewels first, so, see the link for some help. Strong’s Hebrew: 3064. יְהוּדִי (Yehudi) — Jew, Judean Acts (Luke) and Paul use Jew many times and you will find it in the Old Testament, mainly after the Babylon Exile (See Ezra, Nehemiah, and the last parts of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.) So, John using that term so often should not be a surprise, but it was. He did not use the term Sadducee at all but included “chief priest” frequently with Pharisee. He did use Pharisee about twenty times.

I will say that I found this surprising and I think it is a major paradigm shift in early Christian thinking. In 2 Corinthians 11:22 Paul does refer to himself as a Hebrew, and an Israelite, as well as a child of Abraham. Something new to study and ponder.

The Rulers and the Trial – If you have read the Gospels or seen any Jesus movies you know the Pharisees and Sadducees took Jesus as a threat to them and their continued leadership. This trial is no different. I call it a trial because they asked questions and called witnesses.

With this man is an added dimension. He actually participated in the miracle and he had a blind beggar’s cloak. Threats and insults are how “little leaders” react when they know they are losing or lost.

He should have had limited rights to participate in religious gatherings, he was not “perfect”. By his answers he knew a lot about God, and the Pharisees did not like that. Him being of age probably meant that he was old enough (12 or 13 years old) to read Torah, if he could have seen to do it. No, there is no indicator as to how old he was. He may have been thirty.

The Man – Recently I finished a post on Romans 9:11. The man in this story is an example of being called of God before birth. Jesus’ answer to the disciples in verse 3 not only addresses the miracle about to happen, but I believe speaks of his future.

Was he special? Yes, by the way he answered every challenge thrown at him, and his fearless replies to the Jews I know he was special. His eyes may not have worked, but he heard the Word and knew His God.

Who was he and what became of him? I believe the Holy Spirit kept the Gospel writers from include some of those details. Why? Because people are people and the focus and glory belongs on and to the Father and Jesus. So are there answers to any of the questions I am about to ask, no. The answers are but dreams of how “the work of God was displayed in his life”.

  • Was he standing in the crowd when Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem and get a wave from the Master?
  • Did he listen to the sermons in the Temple and on the Mount of Olives?
  • Did Jesus wash his feet in the Upper Room?
  • Was he praying in that room on Pentecost?
  • Did he carry out and bury Ananias and Sapphira?
  • Was he one of the seven deacons?

Stones and Rocks

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I am layering this post on top of Stone, Rock, and Cornerstone. Rocks have been used for thousands of years to make stone building, jewelry, and weapons. In Genesis we find Jacob using rocks to make memorial stones and piles of stones to bear witness to oaths and treaties. (O, rocks and stones listening to us and then being used to testify about our words; that certainly could be used in creative writing:) The brick pits of Egypt are certainly mentioned, but we miss the fact that some of them worked with jewels when they made Aaron’s priestly garments.

God commissioned a pile of rocks from the Jordan be used as a memorial for teaching His people. He also had definite rules how to handle rocks that were to be used in His worship; no working them with tools, especially metal ones. Metal tools were for war, not for building an altar for God. The altar in Solomon’s Temple was made of olive wood. The blocks for the foundation and walls were worked with tools, but not at the building site. (See 1 Kings 6 and 7) Yes, there seems to be a difference between etz (wood) and rocks.

I started comPILING this post after reading about David and Jonathan by Eben-haezel or the Rock of Ezel, 1 Samuel 20:19. Both of those men had rocks and stones as important parts of their stories. There are many places in the Bible where rocks and stones are important parts of the stories. An example of a type of rock is found in Joshua 5:2 when flint was made into knives for circumcision. A hard, sharp rock for hard attitudes; ever male young than thirty-eight years old had to circumcised. They did not do that while they wandered in the desert, that can open up many questions. Here are a few references to look at.

Easter is in just a few days, so I will take this time to make the case for Jesus, the Rock of our Salvation, becoming our Cornerstone, and the Stone the builders rejected. Rocks are called stones after man has used them for something. Jesus went from our Rock to the Stone after He was beaten and nailed to the cross for us. He is what we have to build our lives on, but the chief priest used Him and then threw Him away.

Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus

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As I read 2 Timothy this morning, I thought it would be good to write what I have learned about these terms – Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus. To be perfectly clear, Jesus is the Christ/Messiah. He was born of the Virgin Mary, was killed on Good Friday for our sins, and rose in victory on Easter morning. He has sent His Spirit to those who chose to believe and would have everyone repent and follow Him.

In a little naivety I thought this would be an uneventfully study. I was almost correct. First, Jesus is His name. There are a few variants of that name in Hebrew and in Greek, like Joshua and Justus. Christ (Greek) or Messiah (Hebrew) is a title that connects to God. So, Jesus Christ could be understood as the Man-God while Christ Jesus should be thought of as God-Man. I looked for my reference on that and could not find it, I thought it was from the Vine’s Dictionary in my Strong’s Concordance.

Then I went to step-two in the study and was going to list Scripture verses. My reading this morning was in the NIV. The references I started to compile were in the KJV. I soon found out that the editors of the KJV seemed to have followed the 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV). The Greek Interlinear in Bible Hub is in agreement with the NIV and NASB and many others. I will offer what may have happened and some other things I noticed.

  • The Gospels and the Letters from Hebrews to Revelation use Christ or Messiah when referring to the One who will redeem mankind.
  • Jesus (by itself) is used in the narratives of the Gospels.
  • Paul in his Letters use Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. He is specific when he uses them. I have found that reading Man-God where Jesus Christ is written and God-Man where Christ Jesus is written adds to the understanding of the text.
  • If you use BibleGateway you will see different totals in the numbers of times the terms are used between translations. The first thing to remember is that some of them use headings in their writing and this can add up quickly. Even the 1599 Geneva has commentaries, and they use the terms Jesus and Christ in them. I did read that one reason for the King James being written was to get rid of those Commentaries. The English Crown did not like them.
  • I may not be perfect in my observations; I looked through several translations.

Was there anything nefarious going on, no. I believe it was a matter of keeping it simple for the readers (not sure on that point). Society was coming out of the Dark Ages and being able to read God’s Word in your own language and home was a big deal. We take so much for granted.   

In 2 Timothy Paul uses Christ Jesus the most and Jesus Christ only in 2:8. Paul had been in prison for a while and I think it shows in how he wrote to Timothy and where his thoughts were.

Judas, Adonijah, Absalom, Man of Lawlessness

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This post comes from my year-through the Bible readings near Easter that included 2 Samuel and 2 Thessalonians. If 2 Samuel was given a modern genre, I think it would be a soap-opera drama. Like all Scripture it was included for instruction. This time when I read through 2 Samuel and 1 Kings, I asked myself if Absalom and Adonijah were types and shadows of someone to come and why was this story included in the Bible.

With Holy Week approaching I went to the person who betrayed someone for monetary gain, Judas. I have a post called Judas in the Old Testament that contains mostly sections of Psalms that relate to how Judas acted. Types and shadows can be hard and may not be agreed on by everyone. Like Absalom and Adonijah, not everything they did may fit 100% with Judas. Yes, I did leave myself a bit of an open door. Joseph’s brothers taking money (Genesis 37:28) is more like Judas than Absalom and Adonijah.

Good studies generate answers, but should also create questions. So, is all of this written in stone in my thinking? No, there are questions and “what if’s” that have come along. That is where 2 Thessalonians comes in, which then took me to Revelations and Genesis. First a little history from 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles and some thoughts on human nature.

In 2 Samuel 3:2 and 1 Chronicles 3:1 we find lists of David’s children. The only timestamp I can find is that these narratives took place in the thirty-three years of David in Jerusalem. Adonijah’s story is at the end of that time. By my count there are twenty children and seven wives listed by name. How many concubines did he have, who knows? According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, concubines were not “wives” but shared the same privileges as one; that was a messy business. So, you have twenty-seven egos and David’s wishes combined with customs and traditions put on display for millions of people to view. A reason for all of this is to show that the progenitor of the Messiah was very human and needed a Savior.

Bathsheba/Bathshua, Solomon, and Nathan are important in the histories of Mary and Joseph. Bathsheba and Solomon are part of the Adonijah story in 1 Kings. Here are the first six children in order minus their mothers. (That’s six wives in seven years.) I would think the mom’s may have had their hands involved in these dramas. David’s extended family (Joab) provide their own drama in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings.   

  1. Amnon (2 Samuel 13 is the start of this soap opera with Absalom.)
  2. Kileab
  3. Absalom
  4. Adonijah (1 Kings 1)
  5. Shephatiah
  6. Ithream

David’s extended family

This was not in my original thinking for this post; this comes from questions and thoughts during my studies. It seems to be popular these days to bash Father Jesse and David’s brothers. Much of the drama in 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles come from his sister’s families; the brothers are all but forgotten.

Zeruiah was David’s aunt, she had three sons Abishai, Joab and Asahel. Joab is a main character in several stories, and he is not a cheery personality in them. Zeruiah, however, is a true standout from the norm. First, she has no husband listed. Abigail, her sister, is married to Jether (a non-Hebrew) and had Amasa (Joab killed his cousin). Jesse was a leader in Judah, so who did Zeruiah marry? David was very conscious of his cousins and their “power” in the family/tribe/community. Normally, listing children by their mother’s name (sons of Zeruiah) was not a good thing; of course, the husband may not have been living. See 1 Chronicles 2:10-17.

Joab is hard to read, he has an agenda, but. He is leader of the army, seems to be for David most of the time, but has no problem eliminating anyone who might stand in his way. With friends and family like him, who needs enemies. He is very easy to think of as a Judas-type, but not in this post.

Judas and his types and shadows have received a lot of my ink in past years. I have heard even more from pastors and teachers, he is never portrayed as a nice guy, but some have edged very close to making excuses for his actions. One person even thought that since God is love, Judas would be forgiven in the end. How special was Jesus? He dealt with Judas for years, even though He knew what he would do.

For some reason I never thought of Judas as just one character in a long line of deceivers and betrayers, he was always an endpoint. 2 Thessalonians and the man of lawlessness is what put Judas in his proper place. I have had a shift in thinking on Absalom and Adonijah. Adonijah and Judas betrayed the promised heir to the kingdom; Absalom, like Satan, went after everything by trying to displace the true king. For me, that adds to the parable in Matthew 21:33, the Parable of the Tenants. Now Judas joins the corrupt priest, who bought the high priest position from Herod, in monetizing the sacrifices to God.

As bad as I have always considered Absalom, now to see him as a type of Satan, he is horrible.

  • He was goodlooking and high favored.
  • He stole most of the people’s hearts from the king by lying.
  • He would have killed his father and anyone that got in the way.
  • He destroyed the lives the ten concubines. I will do some projecting here; the Law, the Ark of the Covenant, and the worship of Yahweh would have been slowly destroyed or allowed to disappeared.

Now I am wondering if Satan tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden was his first open act of rebellion that then went into angels or just one of many.

Where does Judas fit into other parables of Jesus? Is he the bird in the mustard tree? Can you see him as a weed in the wheat field? Judas, Adonijah, Absalom, and the Man of Lawlessness now have a few more layers to their stories.