Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00013A
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00:20 Hello, friends and welcome back to this program
00:22 "Books of the Book." 00:24 My name is Deyvy Rodriguez 00:25 and I'm so happy 00:27 that you are able to take this time 00:28 to join us in this Bible study. 00:31 And if you have your Bibles, you are welcome to open them. 00:34 Today we are on chapter 7 00:36 and we are studying the Gospel of John. 00:39 And with us we have Dr. Jon Paulien, 00:41 he is currently the Dean of Religion 00:44 at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. 00:49 And welcome back, Dr. Paulien. 00:51 It's always good to spend time with you, Deyvy. 00:53 Same here. 00:55 Now you are now at Loma Linda, 00:58 but before that you were at Andrews University. 01:01 Tell us what you did there? 01:03 Well, I was there for about 26 years 01:05 and I went there as a doctoral student 01:07 and fairly quickly, 01:09 they had me teaching a couple of classes alongside. 01:13 And as I finished the program, 01:15 I stayed on and continued teaching. 01:17 Studying? 01:18 Continued teaching and studying. Okay. 01:20 You do the ones and do the other. 01:22 For 26 years? 01:23 Yeah. Wow. 01:24 Okay, you must have loved it there. 01:27 Well, it was a place that used to catch 01:29 special snowfall and rainfall. 01:32 If you get a cold north wind 01:34 then we go down to 500 miles to Lake Michigan 01:36 and dump just on a small little area 01:39 right at the bottom of the lake 01:40 and we were in the middle of that. 01:41 So I remember once it's snowed 28 consecutive days. Wow. 01:46 For 28 days, you look out the window. 01:49 There was never a time 01:50 when there weren't snow flakes in the air. Wow. 01:52 And, you know, it was just piled over the head and so on. 01:56 How is the weather in Loma Linda compared to? 01:58 Yeah, it's slightly better. Oh, yeah. 02:00 Yeah. Wonderful. 02:01 Yeah, I think it can be as high as 80 degrees Fahrenheit 02:06 in winter which is nice. Okay. 02:08 Well, again we thank you 02:10 for being with us in this Bible study. 02:11 We are in chapter 7. 02:14 Tell us the background of this chapter 02:16 and what are we studying? 02:18 Actually, we're packaging chapter 7 and 8 02:21 because all of this is a scene in the temple. 02:25 And the previous chapter we were in Galilee, 02:28 the chapter before that we were in the temple in Jerusalem 02:31 or actually the pool of Bethesda, 02:34 nearby the temple. 02:35 And now we are at the temple, it's the Feast of Tabernacles. 02:39 And it's important to understand 02:41 that the Jews had an annual setting of feast, 02:46 just as many Christian churches do just sort of annually, 02:49 you celebrate Easter and Christmas and so on. 02:52 Well, the Jews had passed over and they had Pentecost 02:57 and they had the Feast of Trumpets, 02:59 the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles. 03:03 The Feast of Tabernacles 03:05 was the most popular feast of the year. 03:07 If you could only go to one, 03:09 this was the one that people usually went to. 03:13 And it was in the fall of the year, 03:15 it would usually be in September, 03:16 October, somewhere in there. 03:19 And it was very special, 03:21 because it focused on two special issues water and light. 03:28 Because actually it represented 03:31 their experience in the wilderness 03:32 when the Israelites came out of Egypt, 03:35 they spent 40 years in the wilderness. 03:36 And the Feast of Tabernacles was a reminder 03:39 that they lived in tents. 03:40 So everybody would live in tents. 03:42 They pitched tents all around Jerusalem. 03:45 And if you stand on the back steps of the Temple Mount today 03:49 and you look out there, you can see the hills 03:51 where all these tents would have been. 03:54 So they made tents out of tree branches 03:56 and they would sleep in them. 03:59 And the feast surrounded itself with water and light. 04:04 The light was--there were big torches all over the temples. 04:09 So even the night would be lit up like day 04:11 and that reminded them of the pillar of light, 04:16 pillar of fire in the wilderness that brought them light at night 04:20 and the pillar of cloud 04:22 that brought them shade and comfort by day. 04:25 So they were remembering 04:27 their experience in the wilderness. 04:29 And water, of course, 04:30 was very scarce in the wilderness. 04:32 The Sinai desert in many places was not a blade of weed, 04:36 I mean, it is really, really dry. 04:39 And so they celebrate there whenever they came across water. 04:43 Moses would strike the rock, 04:45 water would come, they'd find springs, you see. 04:49 So their experience 04:51 in the wilderness was surrounded with water 04:53 and light and these became the central themes of this. 04:58 And so as pilgrims, 05:00 they come from all over the Roman world 05:03 and they spend a week in the temple. 05:06 There was a main ceremony. 05:08 And this ceremony was basically-- 05:11 they would take a pitcher 05:14 and the priests would march down from the temple. 05:17 Have you ever been to Jerusalem? 05:18 I have actually. Okay. 05:19 One thing you realize the old Temple Mount is still there. 05:23 So this is one of those things you can actually picture, 05:25 but it's extremely steep. 05:28 And they went down from the temple, 05:30 down to the Kidron Valley 05:33 and there which usually just a little stream, 05:35 it's only like a meter across at best. 05:37 And they would catch water in that 05:41 and they would march back up 05:42 and they would be singing songs as they did. 05:45 And then when they'd enter 05:46 the inner part of the temple there were 12 steps. 05:49 And they would stop on each of these steps 05:52 and it was 15 actually. 05:53 Stop on each of these steps 05:55 and sing one of the last 15 Psalms, 05:57 some 120 not the last but 120 to 134. 06:01 Those 15 Psalms and they'd sing one at every step. 06:06 And then they would go 06:07 into the inner part of the temple 06:09 and they would take this pitcher of water 06:12 and a pitcher of wine 06:14 and they would pour them together into a sink. 06:17 That was at the base of the altar. 06:20 Now that water would drain in pipes 06:22 and go all the way back to the Kidron River. 06:26 Now much of the summer 06:28 that river is actually pretty dry 06:31 and this would just peter out there. 06:33 But if it were raining, when they had the service, 06:38 the rain would cause that water 06:40 and wine to go all the way down to the Dead Sea. 06:43 And if it was raining during the Feast of Tabernacles, 06:46 they knew it was going to be a good year, 06:49 because Palestine is fairly dry. It is sort of a semi-desert. 06:53 And that means there's barely enough rainfall 06:56 even in good years. 06:58 Now why would water be so important then? 07:02 Yeah, you need to know something about the climate. 07:05 You see, the summer in Palestine 07:08 is kind of like Southern California, 07:09 it's the same kind of climate. 07:11 It doesn't rain from say, 07:13 the 1st of May until like the 1st of October. 07:17 It is dry, I mean, everyday is blue sky, 07:20 not a cloud in the sky, it can be quite hot at times. 07:24 You can't grow stuff in the summer, 07:28 because you plant a crop, 07:30 it doesn't rain, the crop will wither, it's gone. 07:34 So you do your annual crops. 07:36 You plant them in the fall, when it starts raining 07:40 and that's what they call the early rain, 07:42 would come in the fall. 07:43 And then over the winter 07:45 the crops would grow wheat and so on. 07:48 They would grow other grains. 07:50 And then in the spring you would harvest. 07:52 So its winter wheat is what we would call it. 07:56 Fruits on the other hand, they would grow over the summer. 08:00 Now why would fruits be able 08:01 to grow over the summer and grains cannot, 08:04 because the trees have deep roots, 08:07 they go down and get water. 08:09 Even when it's not raining, 08:10 they can still get water further down. 08:12 If the fruits grew over the winter, 08:16 they would be killed by frost, 08:18 it's just cold enough in winter sometimes 08:20 that it would kill off the fruit. 08:22 So the fruits grow over the summer 08:24 and they're harvested at the Feast of Tabernacles. 08:27 The grains are planted 08:29 at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles 08:32 and they're harvested in connection with the Passover. 08:36 So the early and latter rain concepts 08:39 are actually from fall to spring. 08:43 The early rain is in the fall 08:45 and the latter rain is in the spring, 08:48 so that aspect of Palestinian climate helps us understand 08:53 why the Passover focuses on bread, unleavened bread. 08:57 The Feast of Tabernacles they're rejoicing in the fruits 09:01 that are now available, you know, fresh grapes 09:04 and apples and peaches and whatever else you would grow. 09:09 So the Feast of Tabernacle is a very special time, 09:11 a very popular time, people loved to go there. 09:16 And I remember the first time I was in Israel. 09:19 We visited a Biblical Landscape Preserve 09:22 where they were trying to restore the biblical landscape. 09:25 And we were given a tour by a woman 09:29 who was a Jewish New Testament scholar. 09:32 I thought that was very interesting combination 09:34 and she was a lot of fun. 09:36 And she took us around, 09:37 explained some of these things from the biblical context. 09:40 But the one thing she said I will never forget. 09:44 She said in Egypt, 09:48 "Everything is watered by the Nile." 09:51 In Turkey, "Everything is watered by the rain, 09:55 there's plenty of rain." 09:56 If God had placed his people in Egypt, 10:00 there would be in danger of trusting the Nile. 10:02 If God had placed his people in Turkey, 10:06 they'd be in danger of trusting Mother Nature. 10:09 So He placed His people in a place 10:11 where you always have to look for heaven for rain. 10:14 If heaven doesn't provide you're not going to have enough, 10:17 so the very landscape there taught them to trust in God, 10:21 not to trust in their efforts. 10:23 I thought that was a good point and I appreciated it. 10:25 God uses our circumstances to lead us to Him 10:30 and I think that was the message that she was giving. 10:33 So why don't we get into the text. Sure. 10:36 In chapter 7 and I would point out to our viewers, 10:41 there's way too much to cover 10:44 in a half hour program in chapter 7 and 8. 10:47 And that' true of most of our programs here 10:49 in the Gospel of John, it's a really big book. 10:51 But we're going to touch on a few things, 10:53 talk about them generally 10:54 and I hope that you can read these passages for yourself 10:57 and fill in the details that we can't cover here. 11:02 But in the very beginning of chapter 7, 11:04 there's an issue between Jesus and His brothers. 11:08 And the brothers want to go to the feast 11:11 and they want Jesus to go to the feast 11:13 and He says, "No, I'm not going." 11:17 And look at verse 6 in particular. 11:23 Then Jesus said to them, 11:25 "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready." 11:30 Okay. They're ready to go. 11:32 You know, they can do whatever they want, 11:34 but Jesus-- His time has not yet come. 11:37 Because His time is governed by the Father, you see. 11:42 The brothers then are tempting Him 11:45 to look away from the Father's timing in His life 11:49 and to follow human reasoning in when He's going to go 11:52 and what He's going to do when He gets there. 11:55 And His time referring to what? 11:57 Well, it's actually the Greek word is hour. 11:59 My hour has not yet come. 12:02 Different translations believe 12:03 the translator's hour or its time. 12:06 And that's the time of the cross. 12:09 The word hour always just pointing to the cross 12:12 and Jesus says, "My time, my hour has not yet come." 12:15 You can do whatever you want any time, 12:17 but I'm on a timetable. Right. 12:19 I'm following God's timetable. 12:21 Now here's an interesting piece of the Gospel of John. 12:24 The Gospel of John doesn't describe 12:26 the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. 12:29 In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, early in His ministry, 12:32 Jesus goes into the desert 12:34 and the devil was tempting Him there. 12:37 And he tempts Him on appetite. 12:40 And he tempts Him on power. 12:43 You know, you want to rule the kingdoms of the world. 12:45 He tempts Him on show. 12:47 Why don't you jump off the temple? 12:48 And when the angels save you, everybody will say, wow, 12:51 you know, he's the guy who flies in from heaven, you see. 12:55 So in chapter 6, they try to make Jesus king. 13:02 And in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there's a temptation, 13:04 if you want to rule the nations of the world, bow down to me. 13:08 In chapter 6, "He is the bread of life." 13:11 In contrast to the earthly bread that we might have. 13:15 Here He's tempted by his brothers 13:17 to go show off in Jerusalem, 13:19 so that everyone will believe that you are the Messiah. 13:22 So the three temptations that Jesus had in the wilderness. 13:26 In the Gospel of John 13:28 those are built right into everyday life. 13:31 Once again John is asking us to look for the presence of God 13:36 or look for the presence of opposition 13:38 in the everyday aspects of life. 13:41 The things that Jesus experienced 13:44 at specific times in other places 13:46 here are built into the ordinary features of life. 13:50 So the Gospel of John 13:52 is a spiritual gospel as we've said before. Yes. 13:55 And you can't just read the story 13:58 but have to try to see it in the light of deeper things. 14:02 Okay. Well, Dr. Paulien, 14:03 we're going to continue studying this particular chapter 14:07 of the Gospel of John, after this short break. |
Revised 2014-12-17