Garments and Wineskins

Transcription

1 The following is a direct script of a teaching that is intended to be presented via video, incorporating relevant text, slides, media, and graphics to assist in illustration, thus facilitating the presentation of the material. In some places, this may cause the written material to not flow or sound rather awkward in some places. In addition, there may be grammatical errors that are often not acceptable in literary work. We encourage the viewing of the video teachings to complement the written teaching you see below. The old ways, are good. The old ways, are the way we should walk. The old ways, provide us rest. Garments and Wineskins Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord (YHWH): Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. In the days of our Messiah, new doctrine is what dominated the schools of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The traditions of the elders demanded obedience to the ways of men. Our Messiah showed us how to follow God by following the ancient Law of God, not by introducing new doctrines or traditions. One clear example of this is in Mark 7, in which the disciples were being compelled to wash their hands according to a doctrine of man. The Pharisees were offended that their doctrine was not being followed. Not washing ones hands before eating was interpreted as rebelling against the man made authority of the Pharisees. The old ways, were what Moses wrote, called by our Messiah in the same context as the Law of God, and the Word of God. The old ways were the ways that the Pharisees were making of no effect in their tradition. The old ways, the law of God, was considered good according to our Messiah. The new ways were the tradition of the elders, the washing of hands prior to eating, and other such traditions. These traditions were so authoritative, that it was believed that if you did not wash your hands before eating, that the person himself becomes defiled. The Word of God does not teach any such thing. But men were not following the Word of God in this case, but the doctrines and traditions of men.

2 The new ways caused people to follow man at the expense of following the Word of God. We were told by the Messiah Himself, not following the Law of God as written by Moses is bad. Authoritatively following the commandments of men instead of the commandments of God is bad. Let s read: Mark 7:1-13 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands? And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother ; and, Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do. Walking in the old ways or ancient paths is what our Messiah desired for us, not walking in the commandments or traditions of men. Yeshua is repeating what the prophets already taught us: Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord (YHWH): Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. It is not that doctrines of men are inherently bad. There is good doctrine and bad doctrine. For example, in Scripture, leaven is a metaphor for doctrine. Doctrine can be good and doctrine can be bad, however, each and every year we rid the leaven from our house in obedience to Leviticus 23. To know more about that metaphor, we would recommend our teaching The Leaven of Heaven. In this teaching, we are going to examine the parable of garments and wineskins. We will learn how these parables teach us about the Law of God, and men s doctrines.

3 Doctrines can indeed be good, which we will show later. However, men have a tendency to become offended if you do not follow and obey their doctrines. And thus, these new doctrines and respective traditions then become a new authority and cause the only true authority of the Word of God, to take a back seat. Mark 7:8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. This same issue presents itself in the parable of the garment and the wineskins. A man came up to our Messiah and questioned him. Why do your disciples not hold to the tradition of fasting, just like everyone else? Do you see how this is similar to the circumstances in Mark 7? Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of washing your hands before you eat, just like everyone else? Perhaps the man did not intend it, but he was placing expectations of obedience to these new traditions as something that should be followed. And if this doctrine was not followed, then you should be questioned at minimum, if not corrected and compelled to obey these traditions of men. We see the same things today. If you re not fasting at this length or frequency, then you re not spiritual enough. If you don t particularly care for singing and wish to praise our Creator in other ways, then you are not spiritual enough. If you don t raise your hands and yell amen every three minutes, then there is something wrong with your spiritual life. Many of us entertain this unconscious judging or questioning of a person s heart if we do not see them exemplifying the same traditions as us. But should we? Let s read. Luke 5:33-39 And they said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And (Yeshua) Jesus said to them, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. He also told them a parable: No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, The old is good. (also see Matthew 9 and Mark 2) This particular parable is often used in mainstream Christianity as supposed evidence that the Law of God is no longer applicable to those in the faith. Instead of explaining this doctrine to you ourselves, we

4 will allow a popular Christian ministry to provide the explanation. These two parables illustrate the fact that you can t mix old religious rituals with new faith in Jesus. Jesus disciples were not fasting along with the Pharisees and John s disciples because they were now under the new covenant of grace and faith in Christ. As mentioned earlier, Jesus fulfilled the law; therefore, there is no longer any need to continue with the old rituals. Jesus cannot be added to a works-based religion. In the case of the Pharisees, they were consumed with their own self-righteousness, and faith in Jesus cannot be combined with self-righteous rituals. So let s test this understanding together. Jesus, His Hebrew name being Yeshua, responded by stating that there is an appropriate season for fasting, but this is not the season: Luke 5:34-35 Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. We are told that this is not the season for fasting because the bridegroom, Yeshua, is in the middle of courting His bride. His disciples over time, will expand and grow into the completed bride of Christ. We see in Revelation that the wedding occurs later. Revelation 19:7-9 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true words of God. When the bridegroom departs (which He must do), then that will be the appropriate time to fast. That will be the time to repent, to seek guidance, to pray, to seek renewal, to seek the face of God for renewed piety. When one understands that this is what Yeshua is teaching, then one can understand the parables that follow. Parables contain words as metaphors. That is where many misunderstand Luke 5, because the metaphors are not properly discerned. In the time of our Messiah, wine was metaphorically used as teachings or doctrines. Pirkei Avot 4:20 (Jewish Rabbinical Writings Between 200 B.C.E. and 200 A.D.) Elisha ben Avuyah said: "He who studies as a child, unto what can he be compared? He can be compared to ink written upon a fresh [new] sheet of paper. But he who studies as an adult, unto what can he be compared? He can be compared to ink written on a smudged [previously used

5 and erased] sheet of paper. Rabbi Yose ben Yehudah of the city of Babylon said, "He who learns from the young, unto what can he be compared? He can be compared to one who eats unripe grapes, and drinks unfermented wine from his vat. But he who learns from the old, unto what can he be compared? He can be compared to one who eats ripe grapes, and drinks old wine. Rabbi (Meir) said: Do not pay attention to the container but pay attention to that which is in it. There is a new container full of old wine, and here is an old container which does not even contain new wine. Doctrinal confusion manifests in the interpretation of the two parables that follow because many interpreters refer to Yeshua as the new wine, as exemplified in the mainstream Christian quote we presented earlier. Applying that metaphor to Luke 5, we learn the following. Commented [T1]: Was this part of the Writings? Or your commentary? Old wine = Old doctrine New wine = New doctrine Old wineskin = Yeshua New wineskin = New self Now, if one affords attention to what Yeshua says in Luke 5:38-39 the actual lesson of the parable becomes more clear: But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, The old is good. So, the old wine, or old doctrine, should be preferred over new doctrine. But what is the old doctrine that is good? What could he be referring to? Proverbs 4:2 For I give you good doctrine: Do not forsake my law. The law of God is the ancient doctrine, the good way in which we should walk. Again Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord (YHWH): Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. As you can see, Yeshua is not referring to Himself as the new wine. Yeshua is referring to Himself as the old wine that pleases the tongue. New fasts, new doctrines, and new traditions, were being observed by the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of the Pharisees, in particular; these doctrines taught which days to fast or how often to fast.

6 Luke 5:33-39 And they said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. These new fasts are equivalent to the unshrunk cloth (Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:21), or the torn piece from a new garment (Luke 5:36). These traditions are the new wine. Yeshua is the old garment, the old wineskin, as He is the Word of God in the flesh, the ancient eternal Word. The old garment cannot take on new (verse 37), and the old wineskin cannot take in new wine (verse 38). Yeshua did not come to teach anything new. He taught Torah, not new doctrines and traditions. He said to follow the law of God taught out of the seat of Moses, not the traditions that the Pharisees practiced and taught. Matthew 23:1-3 Then (Yeshua) Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. The traditional Christian way of interpreting these two parables misses the mark in the way that it says that Yeshua is the new wine. When one interprets this parable in this manner, it creates a conclusion that does not logically follow from the previous statement with Yeshua s comment in Luke 5:39, And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, The old is good. This statement thus does not make sense if one is interpreting this parable in the usual manner. We are the new wineskin, because we are a new vessel. A new vessel has no wine. It is empty. A new vessel can be filled with either new wine (doctrines of men) or old wine (ancient perfect Torah of YHWH). That is our choice. Some choose the doctrines of men when they come into the faith, and they never get to taste the fullness of the old wine, the Torah, that our Messiah said is so good. Our Messiah was right, once you taste the old wine, you don t want the new. Doctrines of men become empty and harsh compared to the old wine of the Torah. Yeshua is not a new vessel. He is not a new creation. He is not a new garment, and he is not a new wineskin. And an old garment does not take on the new, and the old wineskin does not take on the new wine. Yeshua did not teach new doctrine. He did not come to give new, only what was already established as true.

7 Here are some facts to consider: Yahweh is the Creator; the Word comes from Yahweh The Word was and is God (John 1) The doctrine of God is older than any doctrine of man The Old/Ancient Ways are to be desired (Jeremiah 6:16) Doctrine of Yahweh as the Law of God is good (Psalm 119)( Proverbs 4:2) Doctrine of Man can be bad (Mark 7:1-13) Old/Aged Wine is better than New Wine (Luke 5:33-39) Wineskins are vessels designed to hold wine. Yeshua had the fullness of God in Him (Colossians 2:9) Old Wine is ORIGINALLY found in an Old Wineskin Yeshua could not sin and be spotless lamb New Wine MUST be put in New Wineskins We are New Creations in Messiah (2 Cor. 5:17) New Wine in Old Wineskin destroys wine (microbiological contamination). New Wine in Old Wineskin destroys wineskin (unfit for use) Here is what we can infer based on those facts: Yahweh is the Winemaker The Word/Doctrine of God is Old Wine, it cannot be New The doctrine of God is old wine, the doctrine of man is new wine The Word/Doctrine of God cannot be new wine The Doctrine of YHWH is old wine (Old is better than New) The doctrine of man is new wine (New is worse than old)

8 The doctrine of God is better than the doctrine of Man We and Yeshua are vessels Yeshua is Old Wineskin Yeshua Cannot be new wineskin (Luke 5:39) Yeshua cannot have new wine in Him (Luke 5:37) Old Wine can go into New Wineskins Born Again in Messiah we are New Wineskins; we are empty. We choose how to be filled with either new or old wine We cannot be old wineskin because we must be made new The doctrine of man is destroyed by Yeshua Yeshua and Doctrine of Man do not mix If Yeshua had the Doctrine of Man (which is not as good), He would have sinned and could not be perfect Messiah

9 A proper understanding of this parable results in profound implications in terms of mission. We are not to compromise the old wine because that would be compromising Yeshua Himself and the Torah, or Law of God. Our old self is to die and be made new, but contain the old, or ancient ways that are good. We are to be new garments, with an old patch. We are to be new wineskins, with old wine. Old wine, the wine our Messiah said was good, and is pleasing in texture, aroma and mouthfeel. It is

10 more pleasing as it provides a fuller and richer taste. When we forget about our Creator s ancient ways, the Scriptures lose their fullness. Our appetite for it can be dulled and grow weary. However, for those of you who know, once you discover your Hebrew Roots, leading to the Torah our Messiah practiced and taught, the Word of God becomes so alive so amazing, that it is difficult to even remember what the new wine, as the traditions and doctrines of men, tasted like. Luke 5:39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, The old is good. Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the Lord (YHWH): Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. We hope that this teaching has blessed you, and remember, continue to test everything. Shalom. We pray you have been blessed by this teaching. Remember, continue to test everything. Shalom! For more on this and other teachings, please visit us at Shalom, and may Yahweh bless you in walking in the whole Word of God. Info@119ministries.com FACEBOOK: WEBSITE: & TWITTER: