John 7:14-36 comments - at the Feast of Tabernacles

14 ¶  Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. 15  And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 16  Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. 18  He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. 19  Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? 20  The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee? 21  Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. 22  Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. 23  If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? 24  Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. 25  Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? 26  But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? 27  Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. 28  Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. 29  But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me. 30  Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. 31  And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? 32  The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. 33  Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 34  Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come. 35  Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? 36  What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?

In the middle of the feast Jesus began teaching in the temple. The Jews were amazed because they knew that this man was supposedly uneducated.  The implication is that they thought He was illiterate. So, the Jews are amazed at both His miracles and His knowledge although they did not believe Him because they thought they knew Him and we know that familiarity does often set our expectations, as mentioned previously.

Mark 6:2  And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? 3  Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

But, Jesus explains that what He has to give them came directly from God the Father, the seat of will of self-identity, the soul of God, if you will receive it. Jesus is glorifying God the Father, as His representative on earth, in what He says and does. Are we?

Jesus accuses them in that Moses gave them the Law but they don’t keep it. Paul makes a similar argument in talking of how the law does not justify men in his argument in the first chapters of Romans as the Jews who have the Law do not keep it and the Gentiles, who don’t have the Law, often follow its precepts not meaning to, as a law unto themselves.

The same can be said for those of us who are conservative Christians, who might call themselves fundamentalists, as we are notorious for gossiping when we say we aren’t, committing fornication in our hearts when we say we’re pure in that regard, and being filled with hate and envy when we are told that is not of God. This goes right along with seeking wealth for its own sake, power to dominate others, and adopting the world’s standards of entertainment and pleasure. We have a standard as well from God and don’t follow it ourselves.

In verse 20, in response to Jesus accusing them of wanting to kill Him, the Jews accuse Him of being possessed by a devil. By doing so we are shown that it was expected that one of the consequences of having a devil was thought to be confusion and paranoia.  This is basically what they are accusing him of. Remember how King Saul became when an evil spirit attended him in 1Samuel 16, 18, and 19? In the context the Jews are accusing Jesus of being controlled by a devil. A similar thing is done in Mark 3:29.

Jesus healed the handicapped man at the pool in the first part of chapter 5 and this was done on the Sabbath so the Jews wanted to kill Him for that. Jesus pointed out that the Jews obeyed Moses who ordered them to be circumcised, a requirement of God that came down from before Moses’ time. This could be done on the Sabbath. So, they found it no issue to remove part of a man on the Sabbath but were angry that Jesus had made a man whole on the Sabbath. Go figure. He tells them not to judge things by the way they look but to judge them by a righteous judgment, which could be taken to mean, by the context, to judge things for what they really mean, not by your slavish devotion to ritual and vain repetition to try to justify yourselves before God. In this, Jesus appears to be likening circumcision, being made one of God’s people by a sign, with being healed, made whole, by God, both of them being good things to have done on a Sabbath day.

Then, some of them ponder how He can speak so openly and boldly when so many are out to get him? They wonder if the rulers actually think He is the Christ, the Messiah to come. They then express their disbelief because they claim they know Jesus personally but no one is supposed to know the Messiah, “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2) For, as Jesus in Hebrews 7:1-3 has Melchisedec as a type of Himself, perhaps even it was Him, it has been argued, they did not truly know from whence He was, as He came from God.

In verse 26 modern versions remove, “very,” which takes the emphasis away that these Jews are asking, do the rulers think this is the true Christ?

Starting in verse 28 Jesus declares that they know Him. Presumably, from the context He is saying that they think they know Jesus but the one that sent Him they do not know, and that is God the Father. Back in verses 17 and 18 Jesus had made the statement that if a person was doing God’s will he would understand the doctrine that Jesus delivered from the Father. The point that righteousness flows from seeking God’s glory and not your own is an important point to understand. Put away your justifications for the desires of your flesh, your paranoia, your bigotry, and your fear. Seek to lift up God, not the world or your flesh. Righteousness is not found in your human heart, but only in God through Christ.

Jesus knows the Father because He came from the Father with the Father’s instructions. Again the Jews try to apprehend Him but He does not permit Himself to be caught because it is not in His timetable to be taken at this time. People then believed on Him with a question, as if another person claiming to be the Messiah came (and I have read that many did) could he do more miracles than Jesus? It appears to be a very weak statement of faith but people have come to Christ saying that His doctrine makes the most sense, answers the most questions about life, or is  the most consistent religious belief, and who else offers more than this? They’ll be the first to run in a pinch, though.

The Pharisees become even more vexed and the chief priests send the police to grab Jesus. We go from a mob to the authorities who want to end His ministry now. This is what you would expect to be directed by Satan who was denied in three attempts to subvert Jesus’ mission, if you recall Luke 4 and Matthew 4.

Then, Jesus speaks vaguely about the end of His mission on earth. He’s going to be leaving soon and they cannot go where He is going. They ask the question, is He going to spread His message among the Jews dispersed among the Gentile nations? What does He mean by saying He will be with us for a little while and we’ll look for Him and not find Him and where He is going we cannot come?

This is a puzzle to them. At this point the question has arisen whether or not the Jewish leadership believes Jesus, as they seem to be making little effort to arrest Him. A question of authority, a tension is created, and the credibility of the leadership is challenged. Jesus warns them that there is little time left for them to believe. Officers have been sent with orders to bring Him in but God’s timetable is certain and now is not the time.

John 7:1-13 comments: before the Feast of Tabernacles

1 ¶  After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. 2  Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. 3  His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. 4  For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. 5  For neither did his brethren believe in him. 6  Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. 7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. 8  Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. 9  When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee. 10  But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. 11  Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? 12  And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people. 13  Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.

Wisely keeping Himself in a position to be taken only when He had so planned Jesus walks in Galilee. Here, it clearly says that His brethren, His close relations, like the other Jews, were taunting Him by saying that He should go to Judea (Jewry of verse one) and practice openly, showing Himself for who He claimed to be to, “all the world,” which is clearly a case of them exaggerating as it is equally a matter of common sense that they were referring, not to people on the earth everywhere, but to the many Jews who would assemble around the temple in Jerusalem.

The world, typically, means the culture and civilizations of men. We have the world of politics, the world of sports, the world of entertainment, etc. etc. A great book that Bob Jones, Sr. admired was written by Philip Mauro and entitled The World and Its God, written early in the 1900’s, which discusses how Satan rules the world of men and women.

One definition of world in the Bible is the inhabitants of the earth.

Revelation 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Another definition is the earth itself as the location of the world system of men and women.

Jeremiah 25:26  And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

A world can be also thought of as an age in that it encompasses the thoughts that dominate the civilization that is most powerful. For instance, today the world of science is dominated by atheistic materialism. It is not that there are no doubts among scientists of the truth of Darwin’s or the Neo-Darwinists’ natural selection. In fact, the great materialists like Dawkins and Crick admit in their books that creation looks as if it is designed by a designer and not randomly generated. However, they, along with scientists like Lewontin, make it very clear that they will not consider any other explanation than atheistic materialism as their worldview demands it and rejects even the possibility of there being a God whom they cannot experiment on or theorize about. Even when the evidence, as it often does, overwhelmingly undermines their worldview they cannot allow themselves to look in that direction because worldview is more important than facts or evidence, and other possible answers must be ignored or derided as unscientific or irrational.

So, it is here, that the Jews have a mindset that is their worldview and it must not be challenged. Like Muslims six hundred years later they believe in a Deity who is far away, majestic, almighty, and to be served out of fear alone as He is not personal to them. They do not understand His love or His desire to know each of them personally. Jesus is committing a revolutionary act. He is showing Himself to be the very God, howbeit in the flesh, of which their writings speak, and they reject Him. The resurrection, the power of His very authority as God to conquer death, is therefore also rejected by the two religions of Judaism and Islam.

Jesus speaks of a timetable in verse 6 in that He has a specific time designated when He will offer Himself as the sacrifice for man’s sin, the ransom for man’s soul, and the justifier of those who believe. But, their time is always ready. Any man or woman can die at any time and there is nothing stopping it from happening but God Himself.

Jesus condemns the world system as being evil as He does elsewhere. As an example in the following is His condemnation of  Mammon, a Syriac word personifying wealth, riches, and the economic system in which a person lives.

Matthew 6:19 ¶  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Another example is His condemnation of all that mankind holds as valuable.

Luke 16:15  And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

We tend to ignore these verses when questioning the system about our savings, our IRAs, 401ks, investments, Social Security, pensions, or life insurance. Not that prudent behavior in saving and preparing for the welfare of your family in the event of your death is wrong but consider the system from which these things are generated and who or what it worships and holds in high esteem. The world hates Jesus because He shines a light on its evil and the one thing that an evil system hates, like an evil person, is to be exposed.

Note that in verse 8 Jesus says to His remaining disciples that He is not, at the time that they are, going to the Feast of Tabernacles observance. He goes a short while later. Modern versions, based on the musings of Biblical scholars steeped in Enlightenment theology and modernist views on science  remove the, “yet,” making this look like a lie on Jesus’ part. Jesus made Himself unrecognizable as He went to the feast alone. The Jews were looking for Him. It was not safe to even speak His name because of the animosity of some of the Jews, who called Him a deceiver. But, He will reveal Himself and teach openly in the temple as events unfold.

John 6:48-71 comments: the bread of life

48  I am that bread of life. 49  Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50  This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52  The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58  This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 59  These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

Jesus uses a figure of speech (a synechdoche or transfer – the exchange of one idea for another as per Bullinger in Figures of Speech in the Bible cited earlier) to describe Himself as the bread of life that came down from Heaven. The Hebrews in the wilderness ate physical manna and died but Jesus is the bread of life that if anyone eats spiritually they will live. Notice how He did this in chapter 3 by equating two ideas, natural childbirth or, “born of water,” with the spiritual rebirth that is brought about by salvation in, “born of the Spirit.” So, there, we not only had two different births but two completely different kinds of birth, one physical and one spiritual.

Here, there is physical food that satisfied temporarily not preventing those who partook of it from dying physically and spiritual food that satisfies permanently and the promise is made that those who partake of it will never die. There are then two things to be considered here. One, that Jesus is not saying that His body is physical food that they must eat to live like cannibals nor is He promising that physical, biological death is prevented by eating this food. As in John, chapter 3, we move from the temporal world to the eternal world by these comparisons.

As unbelieving people, with minds clouded by slavish devotion to meaningless religious ritualism will do these people do not understand His meaning and are asking why or how they should eat and digest the speaker.

Bible versions created after the Enlightenment, the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, and the triumph of German theology and Higher Criticism translate verse 58 without, “manna,” after, “your fathers did eat,” based on a handful of corrupt manuscripts.

    60 ¶  Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? 61  When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? 62  What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? 63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 64  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.  66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67  Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 69  And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. 70  Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? 71  He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

In verse 65, the modern Bibles influenced by heresies of German Higher Criticism remove, “my,” and replace it with, “the.” As well, in verse 69 those same counterfeit Bibles remove, “Christ, the Son of the living.” They repeat the testimony of devils in Mark 1:24 and Luke 4:34 and say, “the Holy One of God.”

Jesus’ own disciples are having trouble with this concept. Jesus asks them, “doth this offend you?” Now, we think of being offended as an outrage against our finer sensibilities like an insult made against us, unintended or intended. But, in the Bible, to offend can cause to stumble or even cause someone to sin as in Matthew 5:29, 30 as well as to sin against as in James 2:10. One way of looking at this exchange is to think of Jesus saying, does this trip you up? You don’t get it? It’s making you doubt? Just wait until you see me ascend to Heaven. How are you going to handle that?

In verse 63 Jesus goes on to make the distinction clear by saying that the spirit makes alive while the flesh has no lasting value. The Jews ate manna in the wilderness and hungered again but those who believe in Him will eat spiritual food and never need anything else. Physical food provides temporary relief while the spiritual food He offers lasts for an eternity.

The implication in verse 64 is that Judas doesn’t really believe. There were probably others who had doubts, like Thomas (John 20:26-31).

Verse 65 reinforces what was already said in verse 44, reinforcing God’s part in drawing men to Christ. Remember the first chapter of the gospel.

John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

At this point many of those who followed Him walk away. Belief in the supernatural claims of Christ and the Bible are essential for a person to honestly call themselves a Christian but for people such as Thomas Jefferson and others those claims were and are impossible to accept. They either leave the faith of their youth or they adopt the teachings of Christ as a standard and deny the supernatural claims. They are as lost as any atheist, however. To be a “Christian gentleman” without belief in the extra-natural, the supernatural claims of Christ, is to be no Christian. To believe in a Christian philosophy without believing in the supernatural claims of Christ is to believe in nothing different from anyone else. There are many good, by the world’s standards, persons of every faith or no faith at all who will match such a so-called Christian’s behavior and ambitions but without believing what Christ said about Himself they are bound for an eternity of agony and suffering as if they were a Stalin or the most selfish person on earth.

John 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

It is then that Peter expresses the understanding that is the basis of salvation, that Christ is God in the flesh and that God is a living being.

Jesus then reveals that He has, one, chosen all of them, and, two, that one of the ones He chose is a devil, that being Judas Iscariot who would betray Him. Later, He will refer to Judas as, “the son of perdition,” in John 17:12. At the end this son of perdition will be revealed. See 2Thessalonians 2:3. Some would claim that Judas himself will return at the end to be Satan’s person on earth based on this phrase and the following verse;

Acts 1:25  That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

Then, in Revelation, there is this statement;

Revelation 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

With the human Judas being dead then, if this were the case, he would have his eternal body in which he will eventually be cast into the lake of fire. This is not a reincarnation of Judas but a continuation in the spiritual world.

Another possible explanation is the way John the Baptist was described. First, the prophesy about Elijah;

Malachi 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

And this one before John’s birth;

Luke 1:17  And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias [Elijah from the Greek rather than the Hebrew], to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

And finally, Jesus’ statement about John;

Matthew 11:11  Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 13  For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14  And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. 15  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

So, if John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah but was not the reincarnation of Elijah, a possibility not allowed for in the Bible as per Hebrews 9:27, then the Beast of Revelation, popularly called the Antichrist, could come in the spirit and power of Judas.

In any event, Judas is a devil, according to Jesus, and that means that a person can be a devil and not know it but act in accordance with his nature. It is perhaps true that some of the greatest villains in history such as Hitler, Stalin, or even H.H. Holmes may have been acting from their basic nature rather than due to some traumatic event in their lives that turned them bad. It may be that some people are just evil even by human standards, which, based on the genocides of the last hundred years, aren’t very high.

John 6:43-47 comments: one person, three parts

43  Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45  It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. 46  Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. 47  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

To murmur, in the Bible, carries with it the act of speaking against someone, particularly those who are tasked with leading.

Exodus 16:7  And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 8  And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.

In verse 45 Jesus refers to verses in Isaiah (2:3;54:13), Jeremiah (31:33, 34), and Micah (4:2).

Here, the point is clearly made of God’s participation in our ability to believe. No person can believe in Christ unless that person has been drawn to Him by God. So, there is an influence of the Holy Spirit on the human heart that is active in belief, as I mentioned earlier that Calvin so prominently pointed out. However, Calvin and his followers went too far in saying that this meant that God then, by necessity, had purposed this person to go to Hell and that person to go to Heaven because He predestinated it to be so. The Bible doesn’t say that, doesn’t go to that extreme.

First, God wants every person to be saved from eternal suffering and loss.

1Timothy 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

God created our souls, our self-identity, our personhood.

Isaiah 57:16  For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

We are born in sin, destined to die, in rebellion toward God through our heritage received from Adam.

Romans 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

A person’s name is written in God’s book.

Exodus 32:32  Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. 33  And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

Revelation 3:5  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

A child’s name then would be in that book until such time as they rejected God. It is then that they would be lost. It is not God’s desire that any of them should be lost as is revealed by these verses within a talk Christ gave to His disciples centered around children and belief.

Matthew 18:10  Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven…14  Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Keep in mind also these Old Testament statements, first where God took an infant, apparently to deliver him from the evil of his family and the disaster that living to adulthood would impose on his eternal soul;

1Kings 14:13  And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

And this admonition to Jonah about having compassion on Assyrian children;

Jonah 4:11  And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Until such time in our lives that we are capable of understanding our wickedness we are not held accountable. It is not a matter of whether or not you accept or understand that you are a sinner against God but whether or not you have the capacity to understand. So, people who are born with severe mental handicaps and children cannot be held accountable. In fact, under the Law an age of accountability was set at twenty. When the Hebrew male reached twenty he gave an offering to the Lord and that is when he went to war and that is the age of accountability for the people in the wilderness who were able to or not allowed to enter the Promised Land. Whether or not that says anything about the age of accountability for salvation you cannot say for sure but, nevertheless, there must be a capability present to understand.

Children are not able to understand.

It is not God’s purpose or desire that anyone should go to Hell and eternal destruction except for Satan and his angels, for whom such destruction was prepared. You go there by your own choice which is hard for a modern person to understand because they want to do whatever they choose and to be rewarded for it even if it is wicked.

Matthew 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

No one is predestinated to Hell. You are only predestinated, in the Bible, to things that happen to you after you are saved because you believed and were given faith to move forward for God. In Ephesians, chapter 1, you are chosen because of God’s foreknowledge from the foundation of the world to something because you will believe and come to the knowledge of the truth. You were chosen by virtue of your being, “in Him,” upon your new birth. Note that He chose us, “in Him,” to be, “holy and without blame before Him in love,” and it does not say chose us to be saved. Paul is talking to people who are already believers and presumably saved from Hell and eternal destruction. We are also predestinated to the adoption, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23).

  Ephesians 1:3 ¶  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

As Peter says, we are elect according to God’s foreknowledge.

1Peter 1:2  Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

As Paul says, we, who are saved are predestinated to be conformed to Christ’s image, not to salvation.

Romans 8:29 ¶  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Jesus uses the phrase, “everlasting life,” here. This isn’t just a long time. This is forever and ever. This is life without end. This is the promise that awaits the believer.

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is important to understand that if your Bible doesn’t have, “on me,” in verse 47 you should probably look it over for other errors. Many post-Enlightenment, post-German theology, post-Higher Criticism translated Bibles have removed it based on a small number of manuscripts they prefer. It is clear that it is Jesus Christ you must believe in for salvation, regardless of what a modern translator feels is appropriate.

46  Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

We’ve already been told earlier in John that no man hath seen God at any time. Verse 46 explains again that no one has ever seen God the Father, the soul of God, the seat of will and self-identity.

1:18  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

1Timothy 6:16  Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

1John 4:12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Jesus said earlier that God the Father is a Spirit, invisible.

John 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God is composed of three parts, as we are;

1Thessalonians 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

2Corinthians 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

1John 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

However, God’s three parts can act independently, while ours cannot. This explains the use of, “us,” in Genesis 1:36; 3:22; & 11:7 . Jesus is the visible image of God, the body of God, if you can grasp it.

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

So, Jesus will say to Philip that to have seen Him is to have seen the Father. That’s as close as you’re going to get in this flesh, Philip.

John 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

The Son of God, God in the flesh, and God the Father are one.

John 10:30  I and my Father are one.

So, God is one person with three parts, not three persons.

…And Jesus is the only way to the Father.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 6:41-42 comments: preconceived notions

41  The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. 42  And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

At least some of these Jews have known Jesus in His human form, as the child of Joseph and Mary. He declares that He is the true bread from heaven but, because they think they know Him they are, at the least, skeptical. How do we know who someone is? We think we know them by how we identify them. They are someone’s child, someone’s friend, a co-worker, a team-mate, or something similar. Once we have identified them that way they are stuck in a certain box in our mind. We then supply them with a role and boundaries that go along with that box. They cannot be anything other than what they are according to those identifiers. If you found from reading a newspaper that the co-worker you had been standing next to at your machine for five years was the rightful heir to the throne of England your mind would have a great difficulty in understanding or “attaining unto” (Psalm 139:6; Philippians 3:11) the very idea because that person’s convenient identification in your mind was destroyed. We confine our reality to narrow definitions and, by doing so, often miss great truths by which God is trying to teach us something.

Modern scientists insist that dinosaurs are 80 million years old or thereabouts and when red blood cells are found in their bones instead of questioning their established dating method of comparing a fossil to the previously assumed age of the layer of dirt in which its found they marvel at how red blood cells can last so long in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Even, when using their own dating method of C-14 they discover that dinosaurs lived recent to our time they simply ignore the information because it interferes with the convenient box in which they keep the information that contains their belief in long ages of geological time. They cannot perceive what this new information actually means, that they could be completely wrong about how old things are. They cannot question their most basic assumptions.

When you come to the Bible you will define words as you understand them or, if you are interested in that sort of thing, as the translators would have in Elizabethan and Jacobean England based on early modern English meanings. However, you must free yourself from those constraints and define the words as the Holy Spirit does, in context, within the Bible, using it as your map legend, so to speak, with the words being alive, speaking to you.

As an example, an Elizabethan scholar will say to you that the phrase, “after that,” found in Acts 1:8 means, “when,” and that isn’t apparent by the archaic rendering. However, not being aware of how the King James Bible defines itself he will not know that what he is saying simply isn’t true. In its first use, “when,” follows it in the context showing you how to use it (Genesis 6:4).

We have been taught many things about God’s word, from skeptics who dismiss it to so-called men of God who both wrench words and verses out of context to make them mean things they were never meant to mean. These things we are constantly unlearning as we read God’s word and let Him speak to us without the narrow identifiers that we have grown accustomed to accepting. For instance, there are no angels with wings in the Bible, the angels didn’t sing at Christ’s birth, they spoke, and the great fish prepared for Jonah doesn’t represent a particular species we know today as it was specially prepared for its purpose.

Someone is always trying to take the Bible away from you by telling you if you don’t speak and read Hebrew, Greek, and Latin you can’t understand it. They might say the English is archaic and hard to understand. They might say the doctrine is too deep for the unlearned to grasp or that only the words of the original writings were inspired by God and only the message in the translation of the day is inerrant and infallible. But, those people are doing Satan’s job. Because they want to rip this Book from your hands and remove it from your mind.

These Jews could not receive Jesus’ statement because they could not grasp that what they knew about Him was wrong or incomplete and that something now was being revealed greater than their understanding.

Matthew 13:54  And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? 55  Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56  And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?

Some of you who are believers led a deplorable, wasted life before you were saved and some even after for a time. Your family and friends are incredulous that you claim to be a follower of Christ now. They scoff at your declaration of faith and look for any proof they can find that you are lying through your teeth or mentally disturbed. Some of your extended family will never believe that you are no longer worthy of their utter contempt because it is convenient to keep you in that place in their mind. It justifies them and allows their continuing pretension of their superiority to you.

John 4:44  For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.

They will say they want proof but even with overwhelming evidence they will not believe that you are anything but what you were; immature and selfish, a pain in the neck, a failure, a criminal, or a mooch.

Here in this passage, familiarity does breed contempt. These Jews knew Jesus as a youngster probably and thought of Him as, perhaps, a religious young man of their culture and obedient to His parents although Luke, chapter 2, gives us an indication of His devotion to His mission and obedience to the Father at an early age.

Luke 2:41 ¶  Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. 42  And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. 43  And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. 44  But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 45  And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. 46  And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. 47  And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. 48  And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. 49  And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? 50  And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. 51  And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52  And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

In times past we did not worship individuality as we do today. A person was not easily able to  extricate himself from the cultural context in which he was born and lived. Clearly, also, from this context, Jesus did not spend His time doing tricks for his family and neighbors growing up, bringing dead animals back to life, and making it rain in a drought. Clearly, He revealed Himself when He did and the people who knew Him were unaware of His nature as fully God and fully man until the time. They may have thought of Him as a very bright young man whose devotion to God and the Law given to Moses was exemplary but this new information is beyond the grasp of their minds due to their spiritual condition.

People who say Jesus must have done miracles as He was growing up, other than perhaps for His mother as is apparent from John 2:1-5, are just as foolish as those who say the Old Testament Jews were looking forward to the Cross. In order to believe either thing you have to deny the Scripture’s clear statements. They Jews did not know Him, He revealed Himself and performed miracles that they would require, and yet they still denied the proof they had been given.

John 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

What incorrect information are you holding onto that keeps you from believing in Christ? Is it that nothing can be real that you don’t already know about and believe? Are you able to question your most basic assumptions about life? I know I had difficulty with it. It couldn’t be true because I wasn’t taught it in school, I wasn’t raised that way, and there are so many different opinions, who knows? My forebears had allowed so-called men of God and so-called scholars to remove the true Bible from their churches and homes replacing them with Bibles translated from German theology and the apostasy of the phony “science” of textual criticism and each generation strayed further from the truth until I grew up with the only thing teaching any kind of spirituality being the television and movies, and they were filled with lies.

It is established in the Gospel According to John up to this point that Jesus is not only the Creator (John 1:1-3), but also God in the flesh, the only time this ever happened in history (John 1:14-18), and He is the Messiah, the Christ (John 4:25-26), and the Prophet that Moses predicted (John 6:14).

Will you believe?

John 6:34-40 comments: eternal security

34  Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36  But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37  All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39  And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

This passage brings out some important ideas about the nature of belief. An atheistic, evolutionary scientist, Andrew Newberg, in a book entitled Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief admits that mankind seems to be programmed, although he doesn’t mean that in the literal sense of a programmer, to believe in God.

The Bible teaches that we have the capacity to believe and that faith is given to us in measure once we believe.

Romans 3:3  For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?…22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Galatians 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Belief and faith are closely linked so that one must believe in order to be given faith. Belief is the first step, issued from man’s heart, while faith sent from God is necessary for your right relationship with your Creator and salvation.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

You are saved by God’s response to your belief and confession of that belief to Him.

Romans 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Then faith is given which is the necessary ingredient for sanctification and for pleasing God.

Romans 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

So, those who accuse God of unfairness because they say that mankind has no capacity to believe without the interference of the Holy Spirit I say that you do have the capacity to believe and with that belief God will give you faith. Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, believed that man was so corrupt and wicked in his free will that he would not believe without the Holy Spirit’s intervention. I am not denying any operation of God on a human heart, simply pointing out how the Bible distinguishes between believing and faith which can be a very fine distinction in some places, as it will become clearer that being drawn to Christ is based on God’s work in your heart. You simply have no excuse. If you will believe God will draw you to Christ. If you do believe He will give you faith.

Jesus declares here that He is the bread of life, the genuine article. Those that come to him will never thirst or hunger and, as God is very inclusive and welcoming, He will deny no one who wants it, the opportunity to come to Christ. He is obviously, to any sane person, making a spiritual application as believers, those who have faith, do experience physical thirst and physical hunger. Can you picture some fundamentalist declaring that if you feel a gnawing in your stomach because the morning sermon went on long that you might not be saved because you have no faith, because, after all, Jesus said if you come to Him you will never hunger? Well, that’s the kind of thing these Pharisees are about to do.

There are several declarations of why Jesus came to earth in the Bible but it is clear here that He came to do the Father’s will which is to save men and women, who once saved will always be saved as seen from the literal rendering of the passage.

God’s desire for humanity is;

1Timothy 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Other declarations of the fullness of Jesus’ mission on earth include that He came to save sinners;

1Timothy 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

He came to take away our sin and destroy the works of the devil who is the god of this world, it’s institutions, and ambitions (2Corinthians 4:4; Luke 16:15);

1John 3:5  And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin…8  He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

When He arrived the first time He did not come to judge but to save;

John 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

John 12:47  And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

After His resurrection and ascension He works through His followers to deliver as much of mankind as possible from death and Hell by faith in Him.

Matthew 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

He will bodily return to judge the world and take physical control of it.

Revelation 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

And to complete physically His work of redemption;

Hebrews 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Are you looking for Him?

Titus 2:11 ¶  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

God’s will is that those who believe on Christ have everlasting life and will be physically resurrected.

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Old Testament saints knew of this physical resurrection. From the oldest book penned in the Bible, Job;

Job 19:23 ¶  Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! 24  That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! 25  For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Through Isaiah, a thousand years later;

Isaiah 26:19  Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

And Ezekiel;

Ezekiel 37:5  Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: (Read the entire chapter, written specifically to the Jews)

And Daniel;

Daniel 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

The question remains; are you looking for Him?

John 6:32-33 comments: true bread from heaven

32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

Here, Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, God in the flesh, contradicts the Jewish understanding of the following passages from the Old Testament and the event itself.

Exodus 16:4  Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Psalm 105:40  The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

Nehemiah 9:15  And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

The bread from heaven the Jews received in the wilderness was but a shadow, a type of what was to come. This event and these passages pointed, like many others, to the presence of Jesus Christ on the earth, offering salvation to the Jews and then, to all mankind. He offered the reality of God. As He said here in referring to the, “true bread from heaven,” the gospel writer, John, later refers to Jesus as the true God;

1John 5:20  And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

True, in Biblical parlance, means authentic and real and genuine along with meaning the opposite of a lie or a falsehood.

Genesis 42:11  We are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.

In Jesus’ speech He corrects many misunderstandings about the meaning of Old Testament events and written statements. For instance, in the following verse He clarifies what, “Thou shalt not kill,” in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17 means;

Matthew 19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

…even though He also quotes it as, “kill,” in the same gospel as reported by the same gospel writer;

Matthew 5:21  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

So, it is not a matter of Matthew’s opinion getting in the way of God’s words as a liberal theologian might contend.

Jesus also, in another place defines what, “some uncleanness,” means, which is the Jew’s justification for finding no favor in a wife’s husband’s eyes, which is the literal context.

Deuteronomy 24:1 ¶  When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

See how the Pharisees, like a Christian fundamentalist today, twisted that;

Matthew 19:3 ¶  The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4  And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5  And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6  Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 7  They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? 8  He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9  And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. 10  His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. 11  But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. 12  For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Notice how they had taken, “some uncleanness,” and interpreted it by the finding no favor part of the Law, which was backwards. Fornication, that the bride had put herself up as a virgin but had been immoral before she was married legally, was the only cause for divorce in this instance. Without going into vulgar details understand that a woman who falsely professed to be pure could have been stoned as per Deuteronomy 22.  This was the, “some uncleanness,” not a criminal charge but suspicion in its vagueness, therefore requiring a bill of divorcement rather than a charge before the elders. Jesus notes that this freedom was given because men’s hearts were hard implying that God would prefer forgiveness.

 Notice, that this misunderstanding and misapplication of the Law also made others sinners, perhaps without knowledge. But certainly, under the Law given by Moses, Jesus asserts that whoever puts his wife away for any reason other than fornication and marries another is committing adultery and anyone who marries a woman who was put away for any reason other than fornication is committing adultery. Finally, in this context, a eunuch is someone who follows the disciples’ complaint and does not marry and does not produce offspring. It has nothing to do with a person who engages in homosexual behavior. Examine the context and quit misrepresenting God in your speech and teaching. Do you think that God is pleased when either a conservative Christian or a non-believer rips a verse out of context to make it mean something He never meant it to mean to satisfy their own agenda? I can think of a dozen examples of that in typical fundamentalist preaching without even straining. It is abomination.

Jesus is here about to drop a bombshell and the hard of heart will totally misunderstand it, although the context should make it clear.