Why Save the Best Wine for Last?

It makes sense that the person who throws a party serves the best wine first, since after people have drunk, they won't know the difference if they're served an inferior wine.

What's the point then of serving the best wine last?

It seems our culture has shifted. It's no longer the innocent on the block. In that way, it's unfortunately following the example of post-Christian Europe. The U.S. has had its fill of playing the whore. The light is gone, and what is left? Well, what remains for a prostitute after her godless lifestyle eats up her beauty like a canker sore? 

The United States has had its time to drink its fill of the stuff that makes drunk but doesn't satisfy. Is this a doom and gloom scenario? Yes and no. 

Yes it is if people stay on the same decaying and declining track the country is on, but there's another way.

The new and best wine is the alternative. At a 1st century wedding feast, the host served the best vintage of wine after all the other wine ran out. Why? The host didn't even know.  It came from an unknown source. 

But the servants knew.

They just listened to what Jesus said and did as He instructed. This is the place that few even today know about. It's the source of what tastes best and truly satisfies in life. 

It's when we have had our fill of everything else and realize none of it is truly good that Jesus will turn the plain water of our lives into the very best wine.

And how does that happen?

It starts by asking Him, "What would you have me do?" 

That question doesn't portend doom. It births fulfillment.

Prosperity in Hidden Paths

Matthew 6:

²² `The lamp of the body is the eye, if, therefore, thine eye may be perfect, all thy body shall be enlightened,²³ but if thine eye may be evil, all thy body shall be dark; if, therefore, the light that [is] in thee is darkness -- the darkness, how great!

 

The good or perfect or generous eye appears to best be understood in connection with the three aspects of teshuvah, which according to Jewish scholars are repentance, prayer, and charity. These, we can see in the teaching of Jesus recorded in Matthew 6. The words repentance, prayer, and charity are the English words, but there's a problem. The Hebrew words do not mean what the English words do. Here is the discussion at length: http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/4453/jewish/Teshuvah-Tefilla-and-Tzedakah.htm

What I have done below is draw out the Messianic implications of historic Jewish understanding of the words teshuvah, tefillah, and tsedekah (from the link above), words traditionally translated repentance, prayer, and charity.

In Matthew 6, Jesus promised freedom from all the worries of the world as our hearts return to God. Similarly, in Jewish understanding, returning to God brings true wellness and wellbeing. It has the result of averting evil and filling all aspects of life with God’s goodness. Through teshuvah comes the promise of life with blessed descendants, health, and prosperity. 

Jesus spoke of God’s kingship, power, and glory with being rescued from tribulation and being kept from the evil one. We draw near to God in our secret chamber, serve God in secret, and experience His manifest blessings in the nitty-gritty of life. In other words, the millennial Messianic reign of Jesus manifests in our being kept from the evil one. The well-news of Jesus is the secret to enduring until the end in the realm of God's blessing in this crazy world. 

Teshuvah, translated as repentance, does not mean choosing a new direction but rather returning to the old, to one’s true being in connection with God. That place is where we find who we were made to be in the image of God. We are called to stand in the ancient paths with those who have gone before us. As the Lord says in Jeremiah 6: 

Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls

That good way is how Elijah, Noah, Enoch, Jacob, and the rest of the patriarchs, and Jesus Himself of course, walk with God. 

In Christ, we can be the full expression of ourselves apart from evil. It’s the place of rest in God where our true character blooms, accepted, loved, and full of life. In our heart of hearts, we experience the goodness we have in the Anointed. As we have all been made in the image of God, we are fundamentally good in our connection to Him. God saw all He had made and said that it was good. And with our sin having been taken away by Jesus dying on the cross and rising for us, we can experience newness of life on the ancient paths. 

Along with this understanding is tefillah in Hebrew, which does not mean to request, as the word prayer means. The essence of the word means attachment as in attaching ourselves to God. This is in complete harmony with return. In Christ we become eternally attached to God in our inner being, our essence. The attachment, in the Hebrew understanding, occurs between us here below and God in heaven above. God provides His strength and renewal in our attachment to Him. He is our source of life. He delivers us from evil.

Tsedekah, interpreted charity, does not mean giving out of the goodness of our heart as we might naturally think of charitable giving. It means the righteousness of giving to others because of duty to God. What we have is not our own but rather what God has entrusted to us. For example, as Jesus told us to ask God to provide our food at the appointed times, He entrusts us to feed His people at the proper times. Another aspect of the word is based on how we expect God to treat us. We don’t expect anything from God because we deserve it but rather because of His goodness. We give to others who ask even though we do not owe them because this is how we want God to treat us. The Jewish example is giving to institutes for teaching Torah, where learners will become the foundation of Israel. 

In Matthew 6, Jesus contrasts serving money with serving God. The issue at stake is what will be the singular focus for life. All the things added to our lives come not from focusing on them but from the reign of God in our lives through our closeness to God. Our attachment to our heavenly Father through His holy Son Jesus Christ reinvents and invigorates all aspects of life. There is a flowing stream from the throne of God. In it, we are cleansed and made whole and perfect. Our drawing from the waters of life produce the leaves which are for the healing of the nations. 

Walking with God is the right focus for life. He navigates our lives through paths He has hidden in the sea for us. 

Thoughts from Ezekiel 1

Ezekiel 1:2-5:

² In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,³ The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.⁴ And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.⁵ Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

Ezekiel 1:15-21:

¹⁵ Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.¹⁶ The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.¹⁷ When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.¹⁸ As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.¹⁹ And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.²⁰ Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.²¹ When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

The picture of the wheel in a wheel is like an atom with the nucleus in the center and electrons in two rings around it. From Ask.com, "Helium is the only element with two electrons in its outer shell. Next to hydrogen, helium is the element with the highest abundance in the entire universe, forming the heart of most stars and star-like celestial bodies.”  Helium is appropriate since all those who are sheltered by God’s glory rise with the angel at the sound of the trumpet and shine like the stars in heaven.

 

The Ancient Paths

The Lord has said in Scripture that people see no real benefit in serving God. Basically, they say it doesn’t matter and what difference does it make. This is both a lie and deception. Here’s how.

The Job expression in 8:11 "Can papyrus shoot up without a marsh? Can the reed-grass grow without water?” means (according to Rashi the Jewish commentator) that reeds grow in the mud, but they dry out first before other grass dies. In other words, things appear to go well for those who don’t listen to God —their ways seem to be sustained— but their own ways will quickly become their downfall. Job 1:6 says that those who walk upright, those who listen to the voice of Jesus, to him God will make his righteous home complete and perfect (Rashi). What a wonderful promise!

Furthermore, in the same chapter of Job (8:7), the word is that the beginning of the righteous is small but in the end there’s great increase. I've seen this many times (it appears a quality of those of the millennial reign of Christ). Obedience seems like a small thing, something almost imperceptible like a seed in the ground. The result, however, is nothing less than completeness, fruitfulness, and perfection, for it is fruit born of God.

This I believe is a fulfillment of those who hear the voice of Christ and therefore fulfill the works God has for them as implied in Revelation 3:

“To the angel of the Messianic Community in Sardis, write: ‘Here is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know what you are doing — you have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead! ² Wake up, and strengthen what remains, before it dies too! For I have found what you are doing incomplete in the sight of my God. ³ So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and turn from your sin! For if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief; and you don’t know at what moment I will come upon you.

One other confirmation of the completeness God desires appears in Job 8:

⁸ “Ask the older generation,and consider what their ancestors found out;⁹ for we who were born yesterday know nothing,our days on earth are but a shadow.¹⁰ They will teach you, they will tell you,they will say what is in their hearts:

This Scripture shifts our attention to something profound. The Lord God of Heaven’s armies exhorts us to ask about the ancient paths in Jeremiah 6: 

16 Here is what Adonai says: 

“Stand at the crossroads and look;ask about the ancient paths,‘Which one is the good way?’Take it, and you will find rest for your souls.But they said, ‘We will not take it.’17 I appointed sentinels to direct them:‘Listen for the sound of the shofar.’But they said, ‘We will not listen.’18 So hear, you nations; know, you assembly,what there is against them.19 Hear, oh earth! I am goingto bring disaster on this people;it is the consequenceof their own way of thinking;for they pay no attention to my words;and as for my Torah, they reject it.

One to Stand Before the Lord Always

Jeremiah 35

Because Jonadab, the father of the Rekabites, instructed the family not to drink wine and the family obeyed, God promised that the family would always have a man standing before the Lord. This is true even though the family were gentile proselytes to Judaism.

Messianically, this explains mysteries in Revelation, how people can stand before the Lord, particularly the two olive trees and two lampstands and how those standing before the Lord minister day and night in His temple.

The key is not whether a person owns a vineyard or lives in tents; the issue is obedience. The name Jonadab refers to serving Yahweh with free will. The family name Rekab means chariots.

Those who serve the Lord willingly are before the Lord always. They are separated to God by chariots in preparation for being carried up to heaven as happened to Elijah. If we take this one step further, those who are separated to God through a transformed heart for obeying the voice of Jesus are those who are separated by the chariots of God in preparation for being caught up in the air and always being with the Lord.