Thursday, 3 December 2020

Are you able?

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Question of the day: Yeshua was answering Jacob and John (the sons of Zebedee) with these words. The last part of the verse forms the question of the day. Mark 10:38b "Are you able to drink the cup I drink, or endure the immersion I must endure?"

They answered, "Yes, we are," and Yeshua agreed with them. But the question remains, are we able to drink and endure? What is the "cup?" It is called the cup of reeling or the bowl of wrath. Isaiah 51:22 "Thus says your Lord, Adonai your God who defends His people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of reeling, the bowl of My wrath. You will never drink it again."

Yeshua paid the price for us all. But we have a calling to intercede. Our call is to have fellowship with His suffering. Philippians 3:10 "My aim is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death."

And what about His immersion? That's part of the question too. Are we able to endure His immersion? Which one? There are 7 baptisms (but that's for another time). I believe contextually, this is the baptism by fire. John the Baptist mentioned it here, when speaking of Yeshua ... Matthew 3:11 "As for me, I immerse you in water for repentance. But the One coming after me is mightier than I am; I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will immerse you in the Ruach ha-Kodesh and fire."

Fire comes down burns the Korban (offering), which is our flesh. Our offering before the Lord is accepted when God sends fire to consume it, and it becomes a sweet aroma (like a Bar-B-Que) to heaven. This was Elijah's experience. 1 Kings 18:38-39 "Then the fire of Adonai fell and consumed the burnt offering--and the wood, the stones and the dust--and licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, 'Adonai, He is God! Adonai, He is God!'"

In spite of what I read from many commentators concerning the baptism by fire, I do not believe this is the fire of hell, but the fire of purification before God, when that which is not of Him is burned away. What remains has been refined in the refiners fire. Hebrews 12:26-27,29 "His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.' Now this phrase, 'Yet once more,' shows the removal of those things that are shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain ... For our God is a consuming fire."

What remains is the divine, the image and likeness of Him. That's pure gold. We die to self and live for Him.