John 7:14-31
14 About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the Temple and began teaching.
Flavius Josephus (37 - 100 AD) Jewish general and member of the Jewish priestly aristocracy, turned to the Roman Empire during the destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD. Josephus moved to Rome as historian to three Caesars.
Josephus records the High Holy Days saw 2 million pilgrims
The sacrifices made had accounting work, Josephus goes into intricate detail.
15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but His Who sent me. 17 If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
28 So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple,
“You know me, and you know where I come from.
But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and He sent me.”
30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
31 Yet many of the people believed in Him.
They said, “When the Christ appears, will He do more signs than this man has done?”
In my life, I've believed, when you have trouble, Jesus is going to give us something in Scriptures to assure us He has seen the trouble before and will give us His answers. And as I realized this to be true, I found Scriptures don't just tell us once, the answers and situations repeat - for one great reason - Our Father is a loving parent. His Word, His Work, His Promise, His Love tells us again, and again and again, to reassure us of the Steadfast Love of God, yesterday, today and tomorrow.
God's Word supports God's nature.
Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God
rather than burnt offerings.
Psalms 51:1
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
Psalms 5:7
But I, by your great love,
can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple.
1 Kings 3:6
Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David,
because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart.
You have continued this great kindness to him
and have given him a son to sit on his throne
this very day."
Solomon didn't have an abundance of children, he had one son and
two daughters, this 1 Kings 3:6, was probably important to Solomon.
Deuteronomy 5:10
But showing love to a thousand generations
of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 7:12
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them,
then the LORD your God
will keep His
covenant of love
with you,
as He swore to your ancestors.
Nehemiah 9:17
They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them.
They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion
appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.
But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love.
Therefore you did not desert them
Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God;
he is the faithful God,
keeping his covenant of love
to a thousand generations of those
who love him
and keep his commandments.
Ezra 7:28
And who has extended his good favor to me before the king and his advisers and all the king's powerful officials.
Because the hand of the LORD my God was on me,
I took courage and gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.
Psalms 6:4
Turn, LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of
Your unfailing love.
From the first day of Jesus ministry, huge, large crowds gathered to see Jesus easily heal. To understand the wisdom of Jesus. The ease Jesus had with His Father. Beloved.
Solomon and David named the Pillars of the Temple doors Boaz.
David's father Jesse, Jesse's father Boaz married a gentile. Ruth.
When The Sanhedrin Talmud of the time of Jesus' ministry is examined in Scotland, we see each person is identified as Matthew 1. Their ancestry and Tribe. Luke 3, the same.
John 7 tells us a detail of the Life of Jesus.
28 So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple,
"You know me, and you know where I come from."
28 So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple,
"You know me, and you know where I come from."
Luke 1
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.”
And they all wondered.
64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
65 And fear came on all their neighbors.
And all these things
were talked about
through all the hill country of Judea,
and all
who heard them
laid them up in their hearts
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 according to custom.
43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.
46 After three days
they found Him in the temple,
sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
47 And all
who heard Him
were amazed
at His understanding
and His answers.
48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”
49 And He said to them, “Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that
I must be in my Father's house?”
50 And they did not understand the saying that He spoke to them. 51 And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.
And his mother
treasured up all these things
in her heart.
14 About the middle of the feast,
Jesus went up into the Temple and began teaching.
Hebrews 13:8
“Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday,
and today,
and forever.”
28 So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple,
"You know me, and you know where I come from."
Suppose, we want to know more about the Shepherds
- all we have to do is look to the facts.
1. Today in Bethlehem, Israel we know the grazing was 30,000 Hectare Acres.
2. If we want to know more about the Shepherds - all we have to do is look to facts. Today in Bethlehem, Israel we know the grazing was 30,000 Hectare Acres. And some of this land is available and set aside, today, as the Shepherd's Field.
Bethlehem 1847
Christmas
Today, the Shepherd's field of the first Christmas is still there.
The number of acres is known, then and today.
3. Then we find the number of sheep will be entirely up to the amount of rainfall. Isaiah 7 tells us times are good for crops. So, in a normal year, the number of sheep per acre is 1.5 sheep.
So 20,000 sheep.
Do we know in the Bible this is an acceptable, relevant number of sheep?
Job 42:12
12 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys.
4. The 1596 A.D. Ottoman Tax Record and Census indicates Bethlehem's population of 1,435 - the 13th largest village. Populations didn't change much until this last century in most of Israel. Vintage Photography of Israel is very interesting. When vintage photography of Israel is discussed, people remark the population of the villages don't change a lot in 2 millenniums until this computer, modern age we live in.
All we need now is to figure out how many shepherds there were.
Jacob was described as an exceedingly rich man because he:
Genesis 30:43
Jacob possessed large flocks,
maidservants and menservants, and camels and asses
In the case of the rich man, Nabal we find statistics:
1 Samuel 25:2
He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats
Animals were cared for and were: milk, meat, and fabrics (
Isaiah 7:21-22; Proverbs 27:27; Deuteronomy 14:4; Leviticus 13:47; Exodus 25:4). The sheep provided wool for garments to keep out chilly nights and windy days. The goat skins provided bottles in which to store liquids. The uncut hide of either animal, might have been the wineskins of Jesus’ parable (
Mark 2:22 = Matthew 9:17 = Luke 5:37-38).
The Number of Shepherds
5. How many shepherds were there for 20,000 Sheep? We know how many acres there are and how many sheep based on rainfall... what about Shepherds?
6. Now, we find out about the Shepherds. We don't know the number of the Shepherds. This explains the social status of the Shepherds.
Shepherding - It depends on this: how profitable has ranching been? Rain again. The New Testament records about 100 to 1. But we can see Bethlehem might fall in the category of 1 to 1000 sheep because Bethlehem doesn't have many sheep hiding places. Both David and Samson provide lonely, animal wildlife threatens lone shepherds in the day. Lions.
We know some families have small flocks and the children shepherd. While other Biblical families only Shepherd.
7. 1400 people. Women do Shepherd like Rachael and Leah. Moses's Wife. Good to know.
1400 people. Aged people. Children. Farmers. An easy terrain.
About 4 to 9 human births a month. Herod would find 40 innocents.
8. Labor force would be about 500. Sufficient small farming. And Household chores for gathering, cooking and cleaning.
And then you'd have farmers, lots of Farming in Israel on the terraces of hills.
9. So suppose... 250 shepherds. And possibly even 25,000 sheep.
Then you'd have day Shepherds, and then more Night Time Safety from Predators Shepherds.
10.250 nighttime Shepherds
Looking over a large, easy field. Spread out in military precision, with some usual campfires. A field is easy to view in daylight, you can use children, like David had been asked during the day.
Bethlehem in winter
250 Shepherds at night, not standing in one crowd, watching over 20,000 Sheep
However...
Luke 2
And suddenly
there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven...
the shepherds said to one another,
“Let us go over to Bethlehem
and SEE this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 And they went with haste
and found Mary and Joseph,
and the baby lying in a manger.
17 And when they saw it,
they made known the saying that had been told them
concerning this child.
18 And all
who heard it wondered
at what the shepherds told them.
Recently discovered
Roman Road
to
Bethlehem
28 So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple,
"You know me,
and you know
where I come from."
21 And they went into Capernaum,
and immediately
on the Sabbath Ge entered the synagogue and was teaching.
22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.
27 And they were all amazed,
so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
28 And at once
His fame spread everywhere
throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.
29 And immediately
He left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening at sundown
they brought to Him ALL who were sick or oppressed by demons.
33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
34 And He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew Him.
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed.
36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him,
37 and they found Him and said to Him,
“Everyone is looking for you.”
38 And He said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
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