God is our Shepard;

​“Let us draw NEAR to God with a SINCERE heart and with the FULL ASSURANCE that FAITH brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”  ❤️

The clause “the Lord is my SHEPARD” comes from one of the most BELOVED of all passages of Scripture, the 23rd Psalm. In this passage and throughout the New Testament we learn that the Lord is “our Shepherd” in two ways. First, as the Good Shepherd, -He laid down His life for His sheep- and, second, His sheep KNOW His VOICE and FOLLOW Him (John 10:11, 14). 

In Psalm 23, GOD is using the analogy of sheep and their nature to describe US. Sheep have a natural tendency to WANDER off and get LOST. As believers, we tend to do the SAME thing (truth indeed). It’s as Isaiah has said: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). When sheep go astray, they are in danger of getting lost, being attacked, even killing themselves by drowning or falling off cliffs.🙏

Likewise, within our own nature there is a strong tendency to go ASTRAY (Romans 7:5; 8:8), following the lusts of our flesh and eyes and pursuing the pride of life (1 John 2:16). As such, we are like “sheep wandering away from the Shepherd” through our own futile self-remedies and attempts at “self-righteousness.” It is our nature to DRIFT away (Hebrews 2:1), to “reject God,” and to break HIS commandments. When we do this, we run the risk of getting lost, even forgetting THE WAY BACK to God. Furthermore, when we turn away from the Lord, we soon find ourselves confronting one enemy after another who will attack us in numerous ways.

Sheep are basically helpless creatures who cannot survive long without a shepherd, upon whose care they are totally dependent. Likewise, like sheep, we are totally dependent upon the Lord to shepherd, protect, and care for us. Sheep are essentially dumb animals that do not learn well and are extremely difficult to train. They do not have good eyesight, nor do they hear well. They are very slow animals who cannot escape predators; they have no camouflage and no weapons for defense such as claws, sharp hooves, or powerful jaws.

Furthermore, sheep are easily frightened and become easily CONFUSED. In fact, they have been known to plunge BLINDLY off a cliff FOLLOWING ONE ANOTHER. 

Shepherds in Bible times faced incredible dangers in caring for their sheep, putting their OWN LIVES at risk by battling wild animals such as wolves and lions who threatened the flock. David was just such a shepherd (1 Samuel 17:34–35). In order to be GOOD SHEPHERDS, they had to be WILLING to lay down their lives for the sheep.❤️

Jesus declared that He is OUR Shepherd and demonstrated it by giving HIS LIFE for us. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but TO SERVE, and to give His life a RANSOM for MANY” (Matthew 20:28). Through His willing SACRIFICE, the Lord made salvation possible for ALL who come to Him in FAITH (John 3:16). In proclaiming that He is the good shepherd, Jesus speaks of “laying down” His life for His sheep (John 10:15, 17–18).

Like sheep, WE, too, NEED a shepherd. Men are spiritually blind and lost in their sin (we all are- thing relationship with jesus takes years of building) This is why Jesus spoke of the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4–6). He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us. He SEARCHES for us when we’re LOST, to save us and to show us the way to eternal life (Luke 19:10). We tend to be like sheep, consumed with worry and fear, following after one another. By not following or listening to the Shepherd’s voice (John 10:27), we can be easily “led astray” by others to our “own destruction.” Jesus, the Good Shepherd, -warns- those who do not believe and listen to Him: “I did TELL YOU, but you do not believe . . . you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my VOICE; I KNOW THEM, and they FOLLOW me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can -snatch- them out of my hand” (John 10:25–28).

Psalm 23:1–3 tells us that the shepherd meets the sheep’s every need: FOOD, water, rest, safety, and DIRECTION. When we as believers follow our Shepherd, we, too, know that we will have all we need. We will not lack the necessities of life, for He knows EXACTLY what we need (Luke 12:22–30).

Sheep will not lie down when they are hungry, nor will they drink from fast-flowing streams. Sometimes the shepherd will temporarily dam up a stream so the sheep can quench their thirst. Psalm 23:2 speaks of leading the sheep “beside the quiet [stilled] waters.” The shepherd must lead his sheep because they cannot be driven. Instead, the sheep hear the voice of their shepherd and follow him—just as we listen to our Shepherd, Jesus Christ—in His Word and follow Him (John 10:3–5, 16, 27). And if a sheep does wander off, the shepherd will leave the flock in charge of his helpers and search for the lost animal (Matthew 9:36; 18:12–14; Luke 15:3–7).

In Psalm 23:3, the Hebrew word translated “paths” means “well-worn paths or ruts.” In other words, when sheep WANDER onto a NEW PATH, they start to EXPLORE it, which invariably LEADS them into TROUBLE. This passage is closely akin to the WARNING in Hebrews 13:9: “Do NOT be carried away by all kinds of strange TEACHINGS.” The apostle Paul also alludes to this idea in Ephesians 4:14. 

Finally, the shepherd cares for the sheep because he loves them and wants to maintain his own good reputation as a “faithful shepherd.” As we’ve seen in Psalm 23, the analogy of the Lord as the Good Shepherd was also applied by Jesus in John chapter 10. In declaring that He is the shepherd of the sheep, Jesus is CONFIRMING that He is GOD. The Eternal God is our Shepherd. And we would not want it any other way.

Resource “My jewish learning:” In its very earliest days, Christianity was seen by the Jewish teachers as a Jewish heresy (its Not heresy) ; its adherents were Jews who believed in the divinity of Christ [and considered Christianity a Jewish sect]. (The original jews who followed jesus in israel were only several hundred before they got kicked out of the synagogues by authority- so they werent a sect- they were continuing to follow God, but “sect” comes from the perception from judiasm, or atleast due to obvious seperation. Jesus disciples followed his teachings, ministry, healings and performed miracles for 3 years throught israel before his death- then a chosen few witnessed the ressurection, and many witnessed his resurected body on earth. Many religious leaders in judiasm did not like this and forced them out-) so the disciples and witnesses continued preaching in Rome and it expanded from there) But when Christianity spread and became a world religion, with numerous converts from the Gentile world (the new testament makes it CLEAR- IN GOD there is “No jew, No gentile, No greek,” for they are ALL ONE in spirit through the “body” of jewish messiah) , it became a rival religion to Judaism. (Not really rival, i think this circles back to Israel wrestling with god, fighting gods word or truth which led to conflict) Christians were then seen as Gentiles (i didnt understand the concept of separation- whats with the “othering” labels?) not because they were Christians but because, in the main, they were, in fact, Gentiles (i.e. not Jewish).  (hmmmm… 😂). 

In the Talmud and Midrash, the comparatively few references to Christianity (these only appear in uncensored versions- okay where is the instigation stemming from) are to this religion as a heretical sect believing in a form of dualism, God the Father and God the Son. (Not heretical- its true, but i can thoroughly understand how confusing this concept would be at that time- its even confusing to some people now😆). 

Typical is the comment of the late third‑century Palestinian teacher, Rabbi Abbahu, on the verse (Isaiah 44:6): “I am the first, and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God.” As Rabbi Abbahu spells it out: “‘I am the first,’ for I have no father; ‘and I am the last,’ for I have no son, ‘and beside Me there is no God,’ for I have no brother.” (This is explained on my blog- God gives his true identity to moses in the burning bush and through jesus in ministry) Since the doctrine of the Trinity did not emerge fully until a later period, there are no references to this doctrine in the Talmud or midrash, despite far‑fetched attempts to find hints of it in these sources. (There would be no reason for it to be in the talmud, they didnt belive it happened). 

It was not until the Middle Ages that the status of Christianity (and of Islam) as a rival religion was considered from the Jewish point of view. (Why is everyone a rival? So much fighting?) ….

…SO here is where theres a BIG difference between “ideology” and “identity” islam has been thoroughly proven as riddled with historical inaccuracies. The deriving points are hit and miss from judiasm OT- then tangled with various interpretations. Mohomad was a prophet, but hes not the final prophet, he lived several hundred years after jesus and was very violent and barbaric- because he was human, not god) However- for someone to “critique the accuracy of the islamic ideology”  in NO way means that they are “racist of Muslims”  (muslims are wonderful people and NO different, anyone can do good or harm) so thats the WRONG perspective because it reduces people to “group identity” instead of the “individual in search of truth and unity in truth.” All humans are equal. 😍 Not all ideologies are historically accurate.  Identity politics separates instead of uniting, it represents man, not God. Represents group-race based on alienation, not one humanity. Its division, not inclusion.  Some religions refer to additional religions   as “the others” or “otherly” (this gives the person- or group- a sense of superioroty over other groups) which is the exact opposite message of the new testament. We are all EQUAL in ONE FAMILY of God, ONENESS, UNITY. 

Attacks on Christian dogma are found in medieval Jewish writings (this improved after israel became a country- and christians aren’t totally innocent whatsoever, -mainly the roman catholic church- but theres a long history here, and the pope did a lot of work to correct this) from the biblical commentaries of Rashi and [David] Kimhi, refuting the Christian claim that the Old Testament contains prophesies anticipating the coming of Jesus, through works of apologetics such as the Kuzari of Judah Halevi and the Faith Strengthened of [the Karaite] Isaac of Troki (d. 1593), to the records drawn up by Jews of the various disputations they had with Christians [perhaps the most famous being the disputation about the nature of the Messiah between the apostate Pablo Christiani and Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, Nahmanides, in 1263].

In these and similar works the main thrust was to deny that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus (the world gave no evidence that this glorious age had arrived, it was frequently protested) and especially to take issue with the doctrine of the Incarnation and the Trinity. (It had arrived through the living embodiment). 

As [the Venetian rabbi] Leon da Modena noted, it was not the doctrine of the Trinity in itself that was objectionable (after all, in the kabbalistic doctrine of the Sefirot there is much talk of three, and more, aspects of [the] Deity) but its elaboration, in which the Trinity is composed of three divine Persons, one of which became incarnate in a human being. The medieval thinkers who held Christianity but not Islam to be an idolatrous faith did so particularly because of the worship of the Cross; to bow before an icon or a crucifix was held to be akin to bowing to idols. (Technically False- its the opposite of worshipping idols- but fair enough, lack of knowledge- so therefore Jesus wasnt the messiah for judiasm at that time). 

The basic question in practice was whether the older talmudic regulations against social intercourse and business dealings with pagans on the days of their festivals (because they might offer praise to their gods at the successful outcome of the deal) applied to Christians. With Jews living among Christians to apply these regulations would have been catastrophic, if not impossible.

The French scholars [such as Menahem Meiri, discussed below] tended to adopt casuistic arguments in order to circumvent some of the more onerous rules; they argued, for instance, that any money given by Christians to the Church is largely for the benefit of the clergy, and there are certainly no actual sacrifices of animals or birds to idols as there were in talmudic times.

Menahem Meiri [a thirteenth-century talmudist] went much further to argue that the references to pagans in the talmudic literature could not apply to what he called “people whose lives are governed by religion.” Eventually, a distinction was made, unknown in the talmudic sources, according to which Christianity did constitute idolatry for Jews but not “for them” (i.e. Christians). A Christian did not offend against the Noahide laws [the seven principles, including the rejection of idolatry, by which Judaism expects non-Jews to live] since the Torah allows a Gentile, but not a Jew, to worship another being in addition to God. (This is backwards). 

This concept was known as shittuf (“association,” of another together with God) and the oft‑quoted legal maxim, allowing for a more liberal attitude towards Christians, is: “A Noahide is not enjoined to reject shittuf.”

Social needs obviously called forth this artificial distinction which was by no means universally accepted. As late as the end of the eighteenth century, Elijah, Gaon of Vilna, ruled that, since it is forbidden to mention the name of an idol, a Jew may refer to Jesus but never use the name Christ. 

In the twentieth century, the halakhic authorities debated whether it is permitted to use an abandoned church as a synagogue, or for a Jew to give a donation to a church or even enter a church, or wear a medal in the shape of a cross. In the last instance, permission was given, on the grounds that the medal is a decoration, not an object of worship. Some authorities permitted a Jew to trade in the sale of crosses to Christians, provided these were to be worn not for purposes of worship but simply as decorations.

Some Jews believe that Judaism and Christianity have so much in common that it is permissible to speak of a Jewish-Christian tradition. But there is the strongest opposition on the part of all Jews, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform, to the attempts by Christian missionary groups to convert Jews to Christianity. The Jews for Jesus movement is very much a fringe phenomenon and has justly been condemned by all faithful Jews as trying to introduce Christianity to Jews through the back door, so to speak. (Its the only door now). 

A single contemporary Orthodox Jewish theologian in the US has argued that Judaism does not oblige Jews to reject the doctrine of the incarnation as impossible in itself. For him, Jews reject Christianity not because God could not have become incarnate in a human being, since that would compromise God’s omnipotence, but because, in fact, He did not do so in the person of Jesus. (Yea, he did). 

This eccentric view is rejected by all other Jewish theologians on the grounds that God, being God, can as little become human as He can wish Himself out of existence. As Aquinas said–and he was anticipated by Jewish thinkers–it is no compromise of God’s omnipotence that He cannot do the absolutely impossible. (Surprise!! It is possible!:)


​
Judaism perspective from wikipedia: 

The messiah in Judaism originally meant a divinely appointed king or "anointed one" and included Jewish priests, prophets and kings such as David and Cyrus the Great.[1] Later, especially after the failure of the Hasmonean Kingdom (37 BCE) and the Jewish–Roman wars (66–135 CE), the figure of the Jewish messiah was one who would deliver the Jews from oppression and usher in an Olam HaBa ("world to come") or Messianic Age. (This is jesus of nazareth- jewish messiah, the anointed one). 

Some people were looking forward to a military leader who would defeat the Seleucid or Roman enemies and establish an independent Jewish kingdom (during his second coming this will be similar). Others, like the author of the Psalms of Solomon, stated that the messiah was a charismatic teacher who would give the correct interpretation of Mosaic law, restore Israel, and judge mankind.  (This is exactly what jesus did at his first coming). 

Judas of Galilee, or Judas of Gamala, was a Jewish leader (he was an original apostile of jesus- there were 12, but after he betrayed jesus after the fist supper he was replaced, but he betrayed jesus under the “order of god” by kissing his cheek in exchage for money (how amazing is that- its all part of gods ultimate redemption plan!) which turned him into authorities that lead to his crucifixtion- his religious leaders called him a heretic- though he is god. Therefore, when judas found out that jesus was going to be crucified he tried returning the money as he was remorseful but couldn’t as it was too late, and he was “cursed”) who led resistance to the census imposed for Roman tax purposes (judas took bribed tax money instead of giving to the poor.) by Quirinius in Judea Province around 6 CE.[1] He encouraged Jews not to register and those that did had their houses burnt and their cattle stolen by his followers (if referring to jesus followers this is incorrect- remember israel was named for contending god, not man).[2] He began the "fourth philosophy" of the Jews (this must be when they labeled followers of jesus as christians then kicked them out of the synagogues- which is fine- but, you can not find the truth without speaking truth) which Josephus blames for the disastrous war with the Romans in 66–70. These events are discussed by Josephus in The Jewish War and in Antiquities of the Jews and mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (i would like to see this version of the acts of the apostles).

In Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus states that Judas, along with Zadok the Pharisee, founded the "fourth sect" of 1st century Judaism[3] (the first three being the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes). Josephus blamed this fourth sect for the First Jewish–Roman War of 66–73. Judas and Zadok's group were theocratic nationalists (completely untrue) who preached that God alone was the ruler of Israel (JESUS is the messiah the one true god, PRAISE the LORD 🙌) and urged that no taxes should be paid to Rome. (Need i say more?) thankfully- we dont need to be perfect, thats why we need jesus- hes perfect! 

Several scholars, such as Gunnar Haaland and James S. McLaren, have suggested that Josephus's description of the fourth sect does not reflect historical reality, but was constructed to serve his own interests (true, which is exactly what happened in american politics these last seceral years). According to Haaland, the part covering the sect acts as a transition and an introduction to the excursion concerning the Jewish schools of thought, all of which Josephus presents to portray the majority of Jews in a positive light, and to show that the Jewish War was incited by a radical minority. (No- thats backwards.) Similarly, McLaren proposes that Judas and his sect act as scapegoats for the war that are chronologically, geographically and socially removed from the priestly circles of Jerusalem (and Josephus himself). Very keen observation. (The judiasm text is not in chronological order- so this makes sense). 

Josephus does not relate the death of Judas, although he does report that Judas' sons James and Simon (this may be historically innacurate). were executed by procurator Tiberius Julius Alexander in about 46 CE. He also reports that Menahem ben Judah, one of the early leaders of the Jewish Revolt in 66 CE, was Judas' "son", but some scholars doubt this. Menahem may have been Judas' grandson, however.[8] Menahem's cousin, Eleazar ben Ya'ir, then escaped to the fortress of Masada where he became a leader of the last doomed defenders against the Roman Empire. (Not historically accurate). 

Judas is referred to in ACTS of the Apostles, in which a speech by Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrin, identifies Theudas and Judas as examples of failed Messianic movements, and suggests that the movement emerging in the name of Jesus of Nazareth could similarly fail. (Innaccurate, jesus is the jewish messiah and christianity is the truth). ❤️

What does 1 Corinthians 12:17 mean? What is the spiritual body of the messiah? 

Paul has described a comically-absurd scenario. Imagine a human body where the foot is disgruntled that it cannot be one of the hands. Perhaps it wants the prestige of doing "hand" tasks; it doesn't like being inside of shoes anymore. Or suppose there is an ear who declares itself independent of the body because it cannot be an eye. Even if it were possible for body parts to have such feelings, Paul's point is that there's nothing they could do about it. 

In the same way, those in Christ have been given their own unique spiritual gifts, as well as specific functions to do in the body of Christ. Those functions require their specific gifts. Apparently, some in the church in Corinth were discontent with their role in the church, with the purpose God had uniquely equipped them to fulfill. Perhaps, they wanted out. Or they simply refused to use those God-given abilities. 

Christians, though, like body parts, can't just walk away from the body they belong to. Every believer remains attached to the body of Christ. Like a stubborn body part, all a saved believer can do is refuse to function—making them the equivalent of a paralyzed limb or an inert organ. The best that we can do, once we have discovered what our function is, is to learn how vital it is to the church and to do it with the power of God. 

Paul demonstrates that by calling attention to the work of hearing. If ears and all the other body parts decided to be eyes, how would the body hear anything? If there were only ears, on the other hand, the body would lose its sense of smell. Every body part—every believer, without exception—serves an essential function in the body.