I read the first known miracle of Yeshua in John 2 this week. It shows us where He turned water into wine at a wedding. It left me stand in awe of the fulness and detail of the inspired Word of our Creator.
Here we find Yeshua as a guest at a wedding. He was not an honoured guest. He did not sit at the bridal table or with the elite. He was sitting around a table having the first mentioned meal with His disciples. They were seated at a spot where they were aware of the panic in the kitchen. That is how they knew that their hosts had run out of wine.
Miriam, Yeshua’s mother, asked Him to help with the crisis. He answered her, “ My hour had not yet come.”
I was always under the impression that He meant His ministry did not start yet, but as I discussed it with Johan, a new fresh insight emerged.
Did His ministry not start yet? He was there with His disciples. He called them to follow Him.
His public ministry started after His baptism, when He rose from the water and was declared the Son of God by our heavenly Father. I am sure the news spread like wildfire. Would you have been able to keep quiet if you saw the heaven open, the Spirit ascend like a dove and our Creator declare from heaven that this is His son?
He was not referring to His time of ministry that did not come yet, but to the time that He would reveal Himself to His people, Israel, through miracles. A time of revealing to them that He is the one promised from Genesis. The hope for deliverance, not deliverance from physical oppression, but from death caused by the “disease” of sin.
He was the one that will give them access back to Eden—to Life— and to the presence of our Father.
This revelation is full of detail, with two exact bookends at the beginning and the end.
At the wedding we find the first bookend. Yeshua turned water into wine. Later as His ministry was ending, He was around a table again, having a last meal with His beloved disciples.
During that meal He lifted His cup of wine and compared wine with blood. So the miracle of water and wine can be seen as water and blood.
The last bookend of His ministry also has the components of water and blood.
It was water and blood that flowed from Him, as they pierced His side as He gave His life to save us from the death we deserve because of sin.
His blood, mixed with water as it flowed from Him on the cross, covered us and made us free. Free to follow Him. Free to be reconciled to our Father. Free to find our way back to Eden. Free to be image bearers of our Creator, by living as He taught us by example. Free to love Him.
By this we will become one with Him and fulfil the will of our Creator as described in Deut 30:20. We will love Him, obey Him end become one with Him by clinging to Him.
This imagery of water and blood reminded me of the cleansing of the leper as described in Lev 14.
Leprosy was a physical sign of sin in your life. If sin persisted, after a period during which the priest would visit you to check if there is healing or change, you were moved outside the camp. It was for the protection of the community, but also to enable you to concentrate inwards on yourself and your sin and not focus on the sins of the others in the camp. Outside the camp was a time of reflection and healing and once you were cleansed, you would call the priest to inspect you once again.
If he witnessed healing, you had to offer an offering after cleansing. Having the imagery of John in our minds, we can clearly see the picture of Yeshua in this cleaning ritual.
The sinner brings two doves, one representing his life and one representing our Redeemer. Both were presented to God and then the one representing Yeshua dies, and his blood is mixed with water. The other dove is then dipped in the water and blood mixture, and being redeemed by the blood of the other, he is set free.
In every book, chapter, verse and word in the Torah there is reference to the foundation of our faith. Our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Hope: Yeshua.
The Word is filled with a roadmap back to the presence of our Creator, back to Eden.
All to the glory of God!
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