A Man of The Law III: Judgement

I so wish it was honey from sweet clover.[1]

Left behind was he after this Passover.[2]

He is here in the Temple of our Lord God,[3]

But to me he is only a poke of the prod.

 

“Now then, Ethan wrote ‘David’s sustained by God’s hand,[4]

And His covenant fails not, just as God planned’,

He then said David’s lineage would last forever,[5]

But his heirs would be punished for evil endeavor.[6]”

“So of whom does God speak when the deed was done:

‘You rejected, you spurned the anointed one.

You renounced covenant with your servant just,

And defiled his pure crown, ground into the dust!’ [7]”

 

“Who confesses, as David’s own enquiry:

My transgressions are laid bare in front of me?

My right sacrifice – spirit, chastised,

A heart broken and contrite won’t be despised.”[8]

 

I expect he will bear the great weight of sin,[9]

Though somehow it provides little joy within.

We are told of the coming Hamashiach[10]

When the world will be changed for his chosen flock.[11]

 

On that day all who serve will stand by their king

And reveal to the people his signet ring,[12].

Then assertions and questions which come from youth

Will be silenced as all will perceive the truth.

 

“Why does God desire mercy o’er sacrifice;

To know Him more than offerings of any price?[13]

Does your love dissipate like the morning mist,

Like the dew before sunrise, will not persist?[14]

“Who can prosper when sin is ignored, concealed?[15]

Through confession we’re freed; and by mercy healed.

So while men assess value from outward view

Our God searches the heart, and our thoughts construe.

 

“Is it not greater love overlooking sin,[16]

than to air one’s transgressions, inform their kin?

Is it blessed to magnify transgressions,

Thereby separating those who were once close friends?[17]

“Do you sense you judge others more harshly now,[18]

Yet excuse your own debts with a brief kowtow?[19]

Do you think you’re secure in your heritage,[20]

While you hide from your heavenly parentage?”

 

Someone asked him which noteworthy tasks he knew

The Tanakh has instructed the priests to do?

 

“To act justly, love mercy”[21]was his reply

“And walk humbly with God” – how simply awry!

He continued:“Oh Come, let us praise our Lord

And bow down before God our maker, adored.[22]

He, our God, we, the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand[23]; our heart he’ll capture.

“If you hear his small voice, harden not your heart,

Like the day that temptation tore us apart…”[24]

 

Oh such insolence![25] He thinks he knows the truth.

He’d be silenced, yet quoting God’s word forsooth.

 

Where his parents are now, well we do not know!

He’s from Nazareth[26]! Back home now he should go!

He’s a carpenter! No respect he will find

For our learned, respected class is not blind!

 

‘Twas our fathers who built and maintain this place,[27]

And these courts, our best artisans’ works do grace.

He creates unsophisticated, crude things[28].

Oh there’s nothing of use that to us he brings.

 

His own strength, more the winnowing fork befits,[29]^,[30]

Separating the wheat from the chaff; not wits.

A full season of harvest would show the truth.

It’s how Boaz was caught by that foreigner Ruth.[31]

 

Well now! Here come his parents. Take him away.

Now his mother asks “Why do you treat us this way?

For your Father and I have searched anxiously”…

 

Did he call this august court “My Father’s house”?

T’is the Temple of Herod The Great, you mouse![32]

Let your visions of grandeur deflate and cease!

Send him far away, LORD, and restore our peace![33]

 

(C) 2017 Chuck Curtiss

To read other similar stories in this series see The Witness List.

Based on Luke 2:41-52

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. http://www.zondervan.com.

The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

 

The footnotes below show definitions and/or Scripture references. The Hebrew version of the English name is shown, romanized, at the right in italics)

[1]Proverbs 16:21-25 (Mishlei)

[2]The Feast of Unleavened Bread, remembering how God delivered the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt

[3]Psalm 89:28 (Tehillim)

[4]Psalm 89:21 (Tehillim)

[5]Psalm 89:36 (Tehillim)

[6]Psalm 89:32 (Tehillim)

[7]Psalm 89:38-39 (Tehillim)

[8]Psalm 51:15-16 (Tehillim)

[9]Psalm 38:3-5 (Tehillim), Isaiah 53:4 (Yesha’yahu), Romans 4:18-25

[10]Numbers 24:7 (B’midbar), 2 Samuel 7:12-16(Sh’mu’el Bet), Psalm 2:1-12(Tehillim), Isaiah 9:6-7 (Yesha’yahu)

[11]John 12:23-33 (Yochanan)

[12]Psalm 110:1-4 (Tehillim)

[13]Nehemiah 10:37 (Nechemyah)

[14]Hosea 6:4-6 (Hoshea)

[15]Proverbs 28:13 (Mishlei)

[16]Psalm 25:4-7 (Tehillim)

[17]Proverbs 16:28 (Mishlei), Proverbs 17:9 (Mishlei)

[18]Matthew 7:1-5 (Mattithayu)

[19]Romans 2:1-4

[20]Luke 3:1-9

[21]Micah 6:6-8 (Mikhah)

[22]Nehemiah 8:5-6 (Nechemyah), Psalm 95:6-11

[23]Psalm 95:6-7a (Tehillim)

[24]Psalm 95:7b-11 (Tehillim)

[25]Malachi 2:1-9 (Mal’akhi)

[26]Matthew 2:23 (Mattithayu) – Matthew’s statement may not seem to make sense. He says the prophets mention this, but there appears to be no specific quote in the Tanakh. There are, however, 2 very similar words that some scholars think might play off in Aramaic between Nazareth and Nazarene, including: 1) nasar – consecrate, watch, guard, keep; and 2) netzer – branch (Isaiah 4:2, 11:1, 60:21 – ‘from Jesse’s root a branch will bear fruit, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15, Zechariah 3:8, 6:12). A third idea rests on the possible regional perspective of Nazareth: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth”. 3) Nazareth was apparently a small, quiet backwater, though it had a reputation (deserved or not) that might be best described as ‘despised and rejected’ (Isaiah 53:3). Perhaps all three are fitting for Yeshua.

[27]Solomon built the first Temple which was destroyed by the Babylonians. Ezra rebuilt the temple after the Babylonians destroyed it. Herod the Great (who also did some awful things) financed ‘upgrades’ to the temple to make it more grand, more opulent. This latter (‘second’) temple was destroyed by the Romans about 70 A.D. (C.E)

[28]Genesis 1 (B’resheet)

[29]Jeremiah 15:7(Yirmeyahu)

[30]Matthew 3:12 (Mattithayu)

[31]Ruth 3 (Rut)

[32]Revelation 5:5, Genesis 49:1-7 (B’resheet),Hosea 11:10 (Hoshea)

[33]Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (Yesha’yahu)