To Believe in Jesus – Part 30

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:34-35

34དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བྱེད་པ་དང་ཁོང་གི་ཆོས་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པ་དེ་ནི་བདག་གི་ཁ་ཟས་ཡིན། 35ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་ཁ་དཔེ༌ལ། ཞིང་འབྲེག་པའི་དུས་ལ་ད་དུང་ཟླ་བ་བཞི་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཟེར་བ་མིན༌ནམ། འོན་ཀྱང་བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་སྐད་སྨྲ༌སྟེ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ཞིང་ལ་ལྟོས༌དང༌། ལོ་ཏོག་སྨིན་པར་གྱུར་པས་ཞིང་འབྲེག་རན༌ཏེ།

 

John 4:34-35

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

 

Again Jesus was addressing His disciples a message that was very difficult for them to understand. This conversation Jesus had with His disciples showed us something important the disciples were not prepared for at that moment and at that time in history

 

Harvest

 

Apparently Jesus was referring to harvesting of believers, people of faith, and especially those waiting for the Messiah! This is the time in history the Messiah appeared to atone for human sin and to restore Man to eternal life with God.

It is interesting to note that after Jesus’ resurrection He spend about 40 days with this same group of disciples teaching and explaining the kingdom of God again and repeated what He taught them till they finally understood!

When the same disciples witness the death of Jesus on the cross they were discouraged and even when they saw the resurrected Christ they were perplexed.

So Jesus had to explain everything to His disciples again and we also need to constantly and repeatedly seek to understand God’s plan and purpose to save us.

 

The atonement work of Christ is difficult for us to understand and it happened in God’s appointed time! And the mass harvesting of souls for the kingdom of God cannot happen without the atonement work of Christ!

 

We all struggles with the same difficulties these disciples went through and praise the Lord all these were recorded for our learning. There is that difficulties to connect what they witness on the physical realm to fulfillment of scripture in particular those prophesy of redemption and restoration that would be identified as “harvest“.

So in Jesus’ conversation with the disciples there is that clear position on “harvest” and because that situation happened with the Samaritans who claimed to be related to Jacob, we need to look carefully what is written in Isaiah 11:11

 

ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 11:11

ཡང་ཉིན་དེར་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་གིས་ཁོང་གི་འབངས་མིའི་ནང་གི་ལྷག་མ་སྟེ། ཨ་སུར་དང་ཨེ་ཅིབ། ཕཱད་རུའུ་སི་དང་གུ་ཤ། ཨེ་ལཱམ་དང་ཤིན་ཨར། ཧ་མཱད་དང་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གླིང་བཅས་སུ་ཡོད་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་ཏུ་བསྡུ་བ་དང་།

 

Isaiah 11:11

In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

 

Isaiah prophesy here was not refereeing to the returning Jews from the Babylon Exile because those who return from Babylon were exiled from the southern kingdom of Judah only.

Hundreds of years before the Babylon Exile, Israel was already split into two kingdoms due to civil war after Solomon. The northern kingdom was commonly referred to as Ephraim.

The northern kingdom of Ephraim was conquered by the Assyrian and those Israelites were deported and scattered to the various other nations and territories that lost their land to Assyria as well.

There have been a lot of discussions about the “Ten Lost Tribe”. The mentioned of Assyria clearly points to the devastation and exile of the northern kingdom of Ephraim and Isaiah’s prophesy points to the restoration of the “Ten Lost Tribe”.

There are increasing evident today that Samaritans were Israelites from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh exiled by the Assyrian after Israel split into two kingdoms. Although not every Samaritan is descendant of Joseph but the historical link is impossible to dismiss.

Furthermore from the time of exile till the time of Jesus, the many generations of mixed marriages had made the relationship between Samaritans and Israel complicated.

Nevertheless we must not ignore what that woman at the well said to Jesus –

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:11-12

11ཡང་བུད་མེད་ན༌རེ། ཇོ་བོ་ལགས། ཁྲོན་པ་འདི་གཏིང་ཟབ་ཅིང་ཁྱེད་ལ་ཆུ་བཅུ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཡོ་བྱད་ཀྱང་མེད་པས་ཚེ་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཆུ་དེ་གང་ནས་ལེན༌ནམ། 12ངེད་ཅག་གི་མེས་པོ་ཡ་ཀོབ་ཀྱིས་ཁྲོན་པ་འདི་ངེད་རྣམས་ལ་གནང༌ཞིང༌། ཁོང་དང་རང་གི་བུ་རྣམས་དང་གཞན་ཡང་ཕྱུགས་ཟོག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ཁྲོན་པའི་ཆུ་འདི་འཐུངས་པ་ཡིན། འོན་ཀྱང་ཁྱེད་ནི་ཡ་ཀོབ་ལས་ཀྱང་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

 

John 4:11-12

11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”

 

She identifies herself as a decedent of Jacob and Jesus did not dispute that!

Does that mean Jesus acknowledged her claim of relationship to Jacob?

And it is here in this incident in John 4 that Jesus speaks of “harvest” to His disciples!

So what we are reading here in John 4 is the beginning of fulfillment of scripture of God’s restoration of His lost sheep, not just the southern kingdom of Judah but also of the “Ten Lost Tribe” of the northern kingdom. And Jesus’ “harvest” would extend to the Gentiles as well.

The apostle Paul also speaks of God’s timing for redemption and restoration –

 

ག་ལད་ཡཱ་པ། 4:4-7

འོན༌ཀྱང༌། དུས་ལོངས༌པའི་ཚེ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྲས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་མངགས༌ཤིང༌། བུ་མོ་ཞིག་གི་མངལ་ལས་འཁྲུངས་པ་དང་། བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་འོག་ཏུ་འཁྲུངས་པའང་ཡིན་ཏེ། 5བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་དབང་འོག་ཏུ་ཡོད་པ་རྣམས་བླུས་ནས། བདག་ཅག་ཁོང་གི་བུ་དང་བུ་མོར་མཛད་པའི༌ཕྱིར་རོ།། 6ཁྱོད་ཅག་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བུ་དང་བུ་མོ་ཡིན༌པས། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་རང་གི་སྲས་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དེ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་སུ་མངགས༌ཤིང༌། ཨབ་བཱ་ལགས། ཡབ་ལགས་ཞེས་འབོད་པར་བསྐུལ་ལོ།། 7དེའི༌ཕྱིར། དུས་དེ་ནས༌བཟུང༌། ཁྱོད་ཅག་ནི་གཡོག་པོ་མ་ཡིན་པར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བུ་དང་བུ་མོ་ཡིན། དེ་ལྟར་ལགས༌ན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་ཕ་ཤུལ་འཛིན་མཁན་ཡང་ཡིན༌ནོ།།

 

Galatians 4:4-7

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

 

We should know this redemption Paul talks about could only happen because of the atonement work of Christ! The death and resurrection of Jesus made it possible for us to “receive adoption as sons“. This is part of the “harvest” for the kingdom of God.

This “harvest” started some 2000 years ago and is till happening today and it will continue till Jesus returns and we are part of it.

 

To be continue …

 

David Z