DEVOTION
08 / 26 / 05
(Comments in parentheses and emphasis are mine)

“You do not know me or my Father,” Yeshua (Jesus) replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
John 8:19

“If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.”
John 14:7

FIRST THOUGHTS:

Why does our Savior seem to say that those who said they knew Him, actually did not? I was always taught that the Father was the one who set up the rules (for the Jews, of course) and the Son is the one who satisfied the obedience part of the rules so that us, Gentiles, don’t have to!

Was there even grace before our Savior came? Did our Father not show the natural Israelites any mercy or compassion, as our Savior does? Let us get to know the Father, so that we can better understand who His Son is and how He now helps us to become more like Him.

VERSES THAT SHOW THAT GOD THE FATHER IS THE SAME AS HIS SON … compassionate, long-suffering, merciful and forgiving …:

“When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.” (Exodus 22:27)

“Return to YHVH your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:13)

(It seems that even though God’s children were in sin … all they had to do was to TURN and REPENT and they would be forgiven. Listen to the cry of those who are rising up today. We are saying the same as the prophets of old … “turn from your sins against God’s Law and repent. His return is near.” Now read and see just what happened in the following passage and why God the Father was so upset. Ask yourself, has He changed? Is this what our Messiah means when He says, “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”?) “They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them. … You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.” (Nehemiah 9:17 and 29-31)

Could the above verse be applied today? Many today have become stiff-necked and have let go of His law. “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:5) WAIT A MINUTE! That verse was in the NEW Testament. Does it mean that our Messiah is going to let wrath come again to those who are stubborn and unrepentant? Stubborn to what? Unrepentant to what? If there is no Law or commands to obey … how can this be? Or is God the Son the same as God the Father? He too seems to be waiting for His children to repent and return to His “Rules” of the family! I pray we all stop roaming for standards in personal ambiguity and relativism and SEAK HIS righteous Law as a standard in which to live. IF, as some say, we no longer need to obey the Law because we are children of a Holy God, what does the following verse mean? (This CAN’T be the Messiah’s disciples saying this! This sounds like the Father that I was taught in the mainstream church, NOT from the “new way that His Son ushered in” … Yes, this is God the Son) “They claim to know God, but by their ACTIONS they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” (Titus 1:16) Do you see how both the Father and Son are identical? (Hebrews 13:8 … The Son was WITH the Father yesterday, as the Father is WITH the Son today … John 5:19)

How about the Father’s grace? IF the above statement is true, there MUST have been grace back then as well! There was … “He mocks proud mockers but GIVES GRACE to the humble.” (Proverbs 3:34) and “Yet YHVH LONGS to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion.” (Isaiah 30:18a)

There are so many more, but let me end with these verses found in Psalm 103:2-18. Read this carefully, it sure sounds like what the Son is doing, yet this is about the Father!!! … “Praise YHVH, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives ALL your sins and heals all your diseases, who REDEEMS your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. YHVH works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel: YHVH is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor his anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so YHVH has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting YHVH’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children – with those who keep His covenant and REMEMBER to OBEY His precepts.” (All those qualities of God are given to those who “keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts”. The SAME with His Son. THIS is why His Son says, “IF you REALLY knew me, you would know my Father as well.”)

LAST THOUGHTS:

I remember how I used to envision the Son of God as being like a shield between God’s the Father’s wrath and me (Since I was never taught to fear Him, the Son). We just got done reading, above, about how God the Father SUFFERED as He watched His children disobey Him and was patient and had mercy. Let us look at His Son’s return for just a moment … (Quite a different picture from what we normally think of Him to be … actually, this sounds more like the Father that I was taught growing up!) I wonder why He is so upset? Does it have to do with sin? Does it have to do with rebelliousness? First … let me show you who are Messiah’s followers in the end, for we know that He is coming to gather up those who obey Him (proving to be His disciples) … Revelation 12:17 … “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring – those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Yeshua (Jesus).” and 14:12 … “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints WHO obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Yeshua (Jesus).”!! (Do you see how our obedience and our faith go HAND IN HAND? Before the Messiah, After the Messiah and when He returns!)

Does the following verses sound like the gentle Lamb? Or like what we have been taught about who the Father “was” in the past? My friends, this is YET to come!! …

- “They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:16-17)
- “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12)
- “But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” (Romans 2:8) (evil is living against what God commands us)
- “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath is coming on those who are DISOBEDIENT.” (Ephesians 5:6)
- “This will happen when the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will PUNISH those who do not know god and do not OBEY the gospel of our Lord Yeshua (Jesus).” (2 Thessalonians 1:7b-8)
- “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did NOT come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34

Who is God’s wrath coming upon? “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” (Romans 1:18) (Sin is wickedness and sin is lack of law, or law-less-ness. Let us stop obeying man’s words and start obeying God’s Word … at all cost)

Here is the good news … both the Father and Son are long-suffering and full of mercy.

Here is MORE good news … both the Father and Son’s wrath is NOT for those who are obeying out of faith, but those who have let go of His Law because they don’t know the Father as they know the Son. Let us begin to live like the Son, who knew and obeyed His Father!! Did the Savior obey His Father to gain salvation? Is the Son a legalist? Or did He obey because He loved His Father?

“Though you do NOT know Him, I know Him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and KEEP HIS WORD.” (John 8:55)

“Yeshua (Jesus) gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do NOTHING by Himself; he can do ONLY what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John5:29b again)

So … do you know the Father? We cannot know the Son, if we don’t!!