“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
דרשו יהוה בהמצאו קראהו בהיותו קרוב׃
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Don’t Take Justice into Your Own Hands
Paul the Apostle (a.k.a., Saul of Tarsus) and Y’shua the Messiah were contemporaries. The Messiah was a few years older than Paul.
Paul lived in Jerusalem and studied under Gamaliel, a prominent Jewish rabbi and a member of the Sanhedrin. While the Messiah was in Jerusalem, Paul was studying there. Paul was in Jerusalem when the Messiah was crucified.
Jerusalem was not a large town in those days. Paul must have heard a lot about the Messiah. Since he studied in the Temple complex and the Messiah visited the Temple often and performed miracles there, Paul must have seen and heard the Messiah in Person.
50 days after the Messiah’s crucifixion on Passover, Yahweh sent His Holy Spirit to believers. Christians call that day “Pentecost”. Pentecost means “the 50th day”. On Yahweh’s calendar, Pentecost is called “Shavu’ot”. It’s also called the “Feast of Weeks”, “First Fruits”, and the “Feast of Ingathering”.
Shavu’ot the year the Messiah was crucified is the birthday of the church. The word “church” does not refer to a religion. It refers to “the called out ones” or people who are called out by Yahweh. The institutional church is man-made religion.
Shavu’ot the year the Messiah was crucified was the first day that the message about the Messiah’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins was broadcast to the world. On that day, 3,000 believers received Yahweh’s Spirit. They became His ambassadors or His emissaries. They delivered the good news about the resurrected Messiah, our Savior and our Redeemer.
Paul was not one of those people. He was an ambitious Pharisee who was rising rapidly in the ranks of Judaism. He was a religious man. Today, Paul would be called an ultra-Orthodox Jew, even though he was a Benjaminite.
Below is a picture of the Church of the Dormition in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was built over the spot where it is believed that the Holy Spirit came down on believers on Shavu’ot following the Messiah’s crucifixion. The Church of the Dormition sits on the top of a hill that is called “Mount Zion” today. That’s a misnomer. The City of David is the real Mount Zion. (See “Yahweh’s Temple was not on the Temple Mount (Part 1)”.) The Tyropoeon Valley (a.k.a., the Central Valley) separates the City of David from the hill that is called “Mount Zion” today. (See “The Pope and Me: A True Story”.)
Paul participated in Stephen’s murder shortly after Shavu’ot. (See Acts 6 and 7.) After Stephen’s murder, Paul was assigned the task of rounding up Jewish believers and bringing them to Jerusalem for trial before the Sanhedrin. That was a job tailor-made for a man like Paul. He was thought to be on his way to doing great things in Judaism.
Shortly after Stephen’s murder, the Sanhedrin sent Paul to Damascus to round up Jewish believers and bring them back to Jerusalem to stand trial. On the road to Damascus, Paul had a personal encounter with the risen Messiah, and the Messiah changed Paul’s life forever. He went on to become the greatest evangelist of all time.
Don’t Participate in Vigilante Justice
Things aren’t always what they appear to be, and you are not a vigilante. You don’t know enough to take justice into your own hands.
Yahweh is the Judge. He’s on top of things. Let Him do His job, and you do your job. Your job is to follow the leading of Yahweh’s Spirit.
Yahweh will send His designated emissaries to pronounce His judgement. That will be their job, and they will know their limitations.
Delivering judgement is Yahweh’s job, not yours. If you try to interfere, you will be making a serious mistake.
Self-defense is permissible. Exacting vengeance or retribution is not.
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“I pray…that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 21-24)
