Messiah, the Teacher who was Taught

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ 50:4

ཐང་ཆད་པ་ལ་ང་ཡིས་ནུས་ཤུགས་བྱིན་ཐུབ་ཕྱིར། ང་ཡིས་ཇི་ལྟར་སྨྲ་དགོས་བླ་ན་མེད་པའིི་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ངར་སློབ་གནང།

སྔ་དྲོ་རེ་བཞིན་ཁོང་གིས་ང་ལ་ཇི་སློབ་པར། ཉན་འདོད་ཡོད་པ་ཅན་ཞིག་བཟོས་པར་མཛད།

Isaiah 50:4

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.

Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

 

Explanation

At a much earlier time the LORD had spoken to the Prophet Moses, saying, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you … And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18; see Post No.5).

In this scripture the Prophet Isaiah tells us how Messiah would be taught by the LORD.

 

Fulfilment

a. Yeshu spoke with great authority. Jews in Jerusalem, that is educated men of pure Jewish stock, asked, ‘How could that be? He’s just an untaught villager from Galilee.’ (John 7:14-17).

b. Yeshu said that he always spoke exactly as his Father had taught him (John 8:28, 29; 12:49). When was that? Doctor Luke made enquiries and found that Yeshu prayed regularly to hear his Father’s voice (Luke 5:16). In Mark’s Gospel we learn that Peter found him at prayer a great while before dawn (nam ma langs pa’i sngon du – Mark 1:35).

c. Yeshu spoke words of comfort to ordinary men who were downtrodden and struggling in their lives (Matthew 5:2-11; 11:28-30).

d. When he taught, he sat like a Jewish religious teacher. He taught –

• his disciples (Matthew 10:1-11:1);
• and worshippers in synagogues (‘du khang – Mt 4:23),
• crowds that followed him to a desolate place (Mark 6:31-34),
• the crowds, who pressed on him, from a boat (Mt 13:1, 2),
• and in the great Temple in Jerusalem (Mt 21:23; John 8:2).

 

A Master in Debate (rtsod wa)

Because of Yeshu’s good reputation, the Jewish leaders had lost authority, and wished to destroy him. So they tried to find ways to defeat him by making him ‘Defender’ in debate. Three different groups in turn acted as the Questioner (rik lam pa), while he sat in defence. But three times they were unable to answer his reply (rgol rtsod), and had to accept defeat (Mt 21:23-27; 22:15-22; 22:23-33).

Then, when Yeshu acted as Questioner, the religious experts were again defeated. After that no one dared to question him (Mt 22:41-46).

 

Authority

All authority is given to Yeshu, the Word of God (John 1:1-5). He is the Way, He is the Truth, He is the Life – all we need to know has been revealed by Him (John 14:6).

 

 

Next Post – Signs of the Messiah