LEARNING TO PRAY A NEW WAY

From Nicodemus to New Birth: Learning to Pray “Your Kingdom Come”

For a long time I have struggled with how to pray. I know that prayer is not about getting my will done in heaven, but about God’s will being done on earth. Yeshua taught His Jewish disciples to pray exactly that: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” That line has shaped my sense of prayer more than anything else.

When I look at the Scriptures’ picture of the kingdom, I see a world with no death, no mourning, no crying, and no pain, because the old order of things has passed away. In other words, in the kingdom there is no sickness. So when I pray about sickness or brokenness, I am not trying to force God to do what I want; I am consciously asking that His kingdom reality touch this present need, that His will be done here the way it is already done there. If it is His will to heal in that particular case and moment, then bringing the kingdom to bear on that situation will mean real healing. If He chooses not to remove the sickness now, I am still aligning myself with His will and trusting His future promise where all sickness will be gone.

This struggle for understanding has driven me back to the Scriptures. I began to search out what it really means to see the kingdom, to be born again as a child of God, and to pray in line with God’s will. That search is what I am putting into writing here.

Starting with Nicodemus: Seeing Something, But Not Yet Seeing the Kingdom

When I read about Nicodemus, I recognize myself. As a Jew, he comes to Yeshua at night and starts with what he can see:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2)

Nicodemus has already reached an important conclusion. He knows Yeshua is “from God.” I also began there. I could see that the works of Yeshua in the Gospels, and in people’s lives, did not fit inside a merely human explanation. God had to be involved.

But Yeshua does not stay at that level with Nicodemus, and He did not allow me to stay there either. Instead of explaining the signs, He goes straight to a deeper issue:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [or ‘from above’], he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

This verse slowed me down. Nicodemus sees enough to say “God is with you,” but Yeshua says that to actually see the kingdom, something more is required: a different kind of birth. That forced me to ask myself: am I just admiring what God does, or do I actually see the kingdom Yeshua is talking about?

Nicodemus is confused, and I have been, too. He asks how a grown man can be born again (John 3:4). Yeshua clarifies:

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6)

Here I began to notice a pattern. “Flesh” includes everything that comes by natural birth—family line, culture, even religious training. “Spirit” points to a life that comes directly from God. It is not an upgrade of what I already have by nature; it is a new source.

When I set this beside John’s opening words, it became clearer:

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12–13)

Here John names three things that do not make someone a child of God:

- Not “of blood” – not simply by ancestry.  

- Not “of the will of the flesh” – not by natural strength or effort.  

- Not “of the will of man” – not even by another person’s decision or arrangement.

The positive statement is simple: “but of God.” This helped me hear Yeshua’s words to Nicodemus differently. He is not giving a slogan about being “born again.” He is saying that seeing and entering the kingdom requires a birth whose source is God Himself.

For me, this raised a new question: if this birth is “of God,” how does it relate to the Torah that Nicodemus already knew so well, and that I am learning to love?

Rediscovering Torah: More Than Law, a Living Way and Truth

To answer that, I went back to the Psalms. Psalm 1 describes the blessed person this way:

“His delight is in the Torah of YHWH, and on his Torah he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)

This is not the language of mere obligation. It is delight and constant meditation. That forced me to reconsider what I meant by “Torah.” I began to notice how often Torah is described as a way and as truth:

“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Torah of YHWH.” (Psalm 119:1)  

“Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your Torah is truth.” (Psalm 119:142)

Here Torah is not just a list of commands. It is God’s path, His truth, His instruction. The word “Torah” itself carries the sense of teaching and direction, not merely statute.

As I paid attention to that language, Yeshua’s own words sounded different to me:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

The Psalms say “walk in the Torah,” and “your Torah is truth.” Yeshua says, “I am the way… I am the truth.” John adds:

“For the Torah was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Messiah.” (John 1:17)

Slowly I began to see that to receive Yeshua is to receive the living Torah—the embodied way and truth that the written Torah was already revealing. That means that being “born of God” is not a move away from Torah, but a move into its deepest intention: walking God’s way from the inside out.

The Spirit and the New Covenant: Torah Written on the Heart

At this point I still had a problem. If Torah is God’s way and Yeshua is its fulfillment, how do I actually walk in that way? I know my weakness too well.

The prophets helped me here. Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant:

“I will put my Torah within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33)

Ezekiel adds more detail:

“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you… And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:26–27)

These promises explain how a person can move from Torah on stone to Torah lived out as a way of life: God Himself writes His instruction on the heart, and He puts His Spirit within. The result is not that we become perfect overnight, but that we gain both inner clarity about the righteous path and real power to walk in it.

Paul’s contrast between “letter” and “Spirit” fits here:

“[God] has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6)ǰ

Without the Spirit, even God’s good Torah can become a dead letter to me—something I know about, argue over, or fear, but do not truly live. With the Spirit, the same Torah becomes a living word that feeds me, corrects me, and leads me.

Yeshua promised this help:

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:13)

That is exactly what I have been asking for when I go back through Scripture and pray, “Open my eyes, open my ears. Let me see what Nicodemus did not yet see.”

Inner Conflict: Yetzer Hara, Yetzer Tov, Flesh and Spirit

As I looked at my own heart, I could not avoid the inner battle. Jewish teaching names this struggle very plainly:

- Yetzer hara – the evil inclination present from youth.  

- Yetzer tov – the good inclination, awakened and strengthened by Torah and obedience.

I find this language honest. I know what it is to feel pulled in two directions inside. The prophets’ promise of a new heart and Spirit within helped me understand how that battle might actually change.

When I look back to Genesis, I see that Scripture names this “contrary” pull of sin very clearly. With Cain, God warns him before he acts: “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7). In some translations that middle line is “its desire is contrary to you,” and that wording has helped me. Sin is not neutral; it wants what is opposite to my true good, and it pushes against the path God sets before me. Later, after the flood, God says, “the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Put together, these verses tell me that there is a real, inward bent (an early yetzer hara), and that sin’s desire runs against me, not for me. That is why I cannot treat sin as something harmless at the edge of my life; it stands at the door, wanting to master me, and I need God’s help to “rule over it” rather than be ruled by it.

The apostles speak in similar terms but with different labels. Paul uses “flesh” and “Spirit”:

“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16–17)

He goes further:

“Those who belong to Messiah Yeshua have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24)

This is not a technique of self-improvement. It is the result of belonging to Messiah, of being “born of God” and indwelled by His Spirit. In those terms, the good inclination (yetzer tov) is strengthened and led by the Spirit, and the evil inclination (yetzer hara) is no longer allowed to rule.

With the Spirit, I begin to have real discernment about the righteous path and the ability to walk in the ways of the Lord. I do not always do this perfectly, but I am no longer a slave to the desires of the flesh. This connects directly to how I now read Psalm 1.

Psalm 1 and Revelation 22: The Tree by the Waters and the Tree of Life

Psalm 1 gives a simple but profound picture:

“Blessed is the man… whose delight is in the Torah of YHWH, and on his Torah he meditates day and night.  

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:1–3)

Here is a life rooted in God’s instruction, constantly nourished, bearing fruit at the right time, with leaves that do not wither. When I read this in light of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, I see a person with Torah written on the heart and the Spirit as the underground water source.

Revelation 22 takes this image and enlarges it to the scale of the new creation:

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… On either side of the river, the tree oex²f life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:1–2)

Psalm 1 shows me one tree by streams of water. Revelation 22 shows the river of life and the tree of life at the center of the renewed world. What is individual and partial in Psalm 1 becomes corporate and complete in Revelation 22.

For me, this means that when I am born of God, rooted in His Torah and led by His Spirit, I am already a small preview of that final tree. My life is meant to bear fruit in season and to be a source of healing, even if only in limited ways for now.

Returning to Prayer: Asking for the Kingdom to Break In

All of this brings me back to my original struggle with prayer. Yeshua taught us to pray:

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

If the kingdom is the reality pictured in Revelation 21–22—a world without death, mourning, crying, pain, or sickness—then to pray for the kingdom to come is to ask that this reality begin to appear here and now in foretaste. When I pray for healing, I am asking God to let the river of the water of life and the healing leaves of the tree touch a particular situation.

The Scriptures also speak of confidence in prayer:

“This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14–15)

James links this directly to healing:

“The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.” (James 5:15)

These verses do not promise that God will always heal exactly when and how I expect. But they do teach me that when I am praying in line with His will, He hears, and He acts. As someone born of God, with His Spirit within, learning to walk in His ways, my aim in prayer is not to push my agenda but to agree with His.

So my confidence in praying for healing is not based on my own power or on a formula. It rests on who God is, what His kingdom is like, and what He has already begun in me through the new birth. I am a child of God, learning to see the kingdom, rooted in His Torah, led by His Spirit, and invited to ask, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done,” even in the places where sickness and brokenness still seem strong.

A Simple Conclusion: Meditating, Writing, Understanding

As I look back over this study, I don’t feel like I discovered something brand new. Instead, I’ve come back again to something I already knew in practice: I need to meditate on the word if I want real understanding.

Psalm 1 describes the blessed person as one who “meditates day and night” on the Torah of the Lord. That is not theory for me. Over the years I have seen the difference it makes when I actually stop, read slowly, and stay with a passage instead of rushing past it.

This is also why I write. When I write, I think. Much of my “writing time” is really time spent turning the Scriptures over in my mind. I trace patterns, I ask questions, I bring my confusion into the text, and I pray for my eyes to see and my ears to hear. Often there is a long, quiet stretch before any sentences come. Then, at some point, the words begin to flow, and I realize that my understanding has shifted a little.

That is how this whole line of thought formed for me. I did not sit down with a system. I sat down with questions about prayer, about the kingdom, about what it means to be born of God. I returned to John 3, to Psalm 1, to the prophets, to Revelation’s final pictures. I kept reading, meditating, and asking for understanding.¹

If there is any simple point I would leave with the reader, it is this: take time to meditate on the word. Let the questions you already have drive you back to the text. Ask God for understanding as you read. In my own experience, this is how the scattered pieces begin to come together, and how the answers Yeshua gave to Nicodemus slowly become answers we can receive for ourselves.

Epilogue:

The most widely used Jewish prayer for healing is the Mi Shebeirach (“May the One who blessed…”).  Here is a standard English form:

Mi Shebeirach – Prayer for Healing
May the One who blessed our ancestors —
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah —
bless and heal the one who is ill:
[name], son/daughter of [mother’s name].
May the Holy Blessed One
overflow with compassion upon him/her,
to restore him/her,
to heal him/her,
to strengthen him/her,
to enliven him/her.
The One will send him/her, speedily,
a complete healing —
healing of the soul and healing of the body —
along with all the ill,
among the people of Israel and all humankind,
soon,
and let us say: Amen

This prayer was put to a beautiful melody by Debbie Friedman:

GIVEN OVER TO EVIL

Genesis 4:7 – “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”  If we don't rule over it, it will rule over us. 

According to the Torah, Human's have evil desires. Genesis 6:5 tells us that “Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The Torah also tells us in Genesis 8:21 that “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We have an ongoing bent toward evil desires. 

Judaism calls this tendency toward evil the "Yetzer Hara." Yetzer (יֵצֶר) is a Hebrew term referring to an innate inclination, impulse, or urge within humanity. Yetzer comes from the root (y-tz-r) meaning "to form." Hara (הָרָע) is a combination of the Hebrew definite article ha (the) and the adjective ra (evil or bad).

In Jewish thought, yetzer hara is not merely a "bad" force but a creative, self-serving drive that is necessary for life—such as for building homes and starting families—but must be managed, channeled, and balanced to avoid immoral actions

According to Jewish sages and tradition, the Yetzer Hara exists from birth, Whereas the Yetzer Hatov (good inclination) enters a child the moment the child becomes a legal adult in Jewish law and is formally obligated to keep the mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah. This is known as their Bar or Bat Mitzvah (age 13 for boys and 12 for girls). The Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony is a celebration of that inner transformation it is a public declaration of the acceptance to follow the way of the Torah.

Satan Exploits Our Desires

Desires of the heart have gotten people in trouble since Eve took the forbidden fruit in the Garden. 

Genesis 3:1-6— Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate,

The bible depicts a struggle over who will exercise rule. Psalm 81:12 (echoed in Romans 1:24) shows God “giving them over” to their stubborn hearts, implying that what we desire eventually rules us when God ceases restraining it. 

JUDAS ISCARIOT IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF BEING GIVEN OVER

Why did Judas Iscariot betray Yeshua? It is NOT as simple as "for the money." That's the convenient reason on the surface. If we look deeper we find the real reason. 

The deeper reason with Judas has to do with the enormous desires of the Jewish people in that time period for the messiah—a messiah that would over throw the Romans. I wrote about this just the other day in a blog post I called "Betrayal? Look Deeper!" Here is a link to the post:

https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2026/04/betrayal-look-deeper.html

In "The Chosen," a film series about the ministry of Yeshua (Jesus), the motives of Judas are stated by his character. If you fast forward to 20 minutes into this episode you will hear Judas's motives. 

The Complete Last Supper|The Chosen 

Jesus looking at a broken piece of matzah.
He knows what he must face.

GIVEN OVER - PROTECTION WITHDRAWN

In the story of the original passover in the book of Exodus, God protects the homes of those who have the blood of the pure lamb on the doorposts of their house. The others are given over to the destroyer.

Commentators note that the blood is a visible sign of obedient trust in God’s word, and the LORD himself actively restrains “the destroyer” from entering those homes.

The Last Supper episode above beautifully depicts the moment this concept is mirrored at the last meal Jesus shares with the 12 Disciples. 

Fast forward to 28 minutes into this episode. Notice Yeshua telling John to his right. Then listen carefully to what He says to Judas to His Left after that.

This scene is depicting John 13 and the battle over who rules the human heart. John 13 takes place in the Passover meal context, the very setting that recalls blood on the doorposts and God not permitting “the destroyer” to enter certain houses in Exodus 12.

John notes that “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot…to betray him” (John 13:2), showing the seed of betrayal first as an inner suggestion lodged in the heart.

A few verses later, “after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him” (John 13:27), marking a grim climax: what began as a thought in the heart becomes a dominating power that now uses Judas as its instrument.

In Exodus, houses under the blood are protected from the destroyer, while the rest are exposed; in John 13, Judas hardens into his choice and is effectively handed over to the destroyer’s rule, in contrast to the others who remain under Jesus’ care.

From there, Judas will go quickly to the High Priest to betray Jesus for a particular price. Don't overlook the meaning in the amount Judas sells Jesus's identity for. That amount also reveal's Yeshua's true identity. Again, read what I wrote in BETRAYAL? LOOK DEEPER! 

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?

Photo of the church where the
Shroud is stored in Turin, Italy

 

Jews and Christians both celebrate the Passover, albeit in different ways. We both rejoice in freedom from bondage, albeit from different types of bondage. We both celebrate First Fruits and begin counting the days until Pentecost, even though the Pentacost takes on different meanings for each. Keep in mind that all original disciples and the apostles were Jewish. So was the man they called their "rabbi," and ultimately the Messiah (the Christ). 

It is the resurrection that changed everything. Otherwise, ~2000 years ago, it would have just been another Passover and there would be no "Gospels." Even if Yeshua (Jesus) was crucified, without the resurrection there would be nothing to celebrate. The Christian faith would be in vain. In effect, all of Christianity, hangs on the resurrection.

Do you believe Yeshua (Jesus) suffered a horrific torturous death? Do you believe he was crucified and died on a Roman cross? Do you believe he was buried in a tomb for three days, as Jonah was in the belly of fish for 3 days and nights? Do you believe he passed through the linen clothes that he was buried in? Do you believe he rose from the dead? 

There is proven scientific evidence that all these things happened. I have been following the story of the Shroud of Turin for several years. 

My wife Mary and I made a trip to Turin Italy last year to visit the museum and church where the Shroud is kept. 

The shroud is the most researched religious and historical artifact in the world. That stands to reason since one can make the case that, regardless of whether one believes that it happened, the Resurrection is the most significant and consequential event in history.

Over the years, I have learned a lot about the Shroud, and I have written multiple blog articles to collect my findings and thoughts. Each post approaches the story and evidence from a different standpoint. Below are links to all my Shroud posts in the order I wrote them.

Love Letter from Yeshu'ah - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-love-letter-from-yeshua.html 

The Perfector -https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/07/perfector.html 

The Keter  - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-keter-on-shroud.html 

Questions about the Image - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/08/asking-questions-about-image.html 

The Man In the Shroud  - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-man-in-shroud.html 

Credible Witnesses - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/credible-withnesses.html 

Have You Seen Him - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/have-you-seen-this-him.html

How Bright Are We Talking About - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/10/how-bright-are-we-talking-about.html 

Brought Together  - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/modern-technolgy-reveals-what-apostle.html 

Nicodemus Knew - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2024/12/nicodemus-knew.html 

The Sign of Jonah - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-sign-of-jonah.html 

Why the Romans? - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2025/04/why-romans.html 

Mary was an accomplice  - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2025/04/mary-was-accomplice.html 

What AI Found on the Shroud - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/what-ai-found-on-shroud.html

"I Will Never Believe?" - https://bobritterblog.blogspot.com/2026/04/i-will-never-believe.html

BETRAYAL? LOOK DEEPER!

LAMED: The 12th Hebrew Letter. Value is 30.

Judas Iscariot betrayed his beloved friend and rabbi, Jesus, for thirty pieces of silver. That’s the surface story. But the more we pay attention to the names, the numbers, and the metals, the more it becomes clear: Judas did not simply betray Jesus "for money." He sold Jesus’s identity, yet the amount he took actually reveals who Jesus is.

Joseph’s shadow: evil, good, and the two twelves

Joseph gives us the key pattern:  

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.”

His brothers really did mean evil. God did not erase their sin, but He took the very same betrayal and turned it into a path of preservation. That’s the first thing Joseph teaches us.

The second thing is the setting: Joseph belongs to the first twelve—the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel. Betrayal happens inside the twelve. 

In the Gospels, Jesus gathers a new twelve around Himself—the twelve disciples. The connection is deliberate. The first twelve tribes, the new twelve disciples, and the betrayal of one from within each circle all line up:

- Joseph: one brother among twelve betrays, yet God uses it to save the twelve.  

- Jesus: one disciple among twelve betrays, yet God uses it to bring salvation to all.

And right between these two twelves stands the 12th Hebrew letter: Lamed.

Lamed and 30: the Shepherd over the Twelves

Lamed is the 12th of the 22 Hebrew letters, with the numerical value 30. It is drawn like a shepherd’s staff, rising higher than all the other letters. It's Hebrew root connection is to "lamad"—to learn, to teach. Lamed is the letter of the shepherd, the teacher, the one who stands above to guide.

Put that together:

• 12 tribes / 12 disciples.  
• The 12th letter, Lamed, is worth 30. That is it's gematria value.
• The letter Lamed is shaped like a shepherd’s crook. In my mind even appears somewhat like a man hanging from the cross—Shepherd and Teacher raised up over both twelves.

So when “thirty” appears in the betrayal of Jesus, we are already in the world of Lamed: the Good Shepherd, the lifted‑up Teacher of the twelve, standing in continuity with Israel’s twelve tribes and now betrayed, like Joseph, by one from within.

Thirty pieces of silver: selling His identity

Now look at what he takes: thirty pieces of silver. Silver, in Jewish imagination, speaks of holiness, refinement, and Chesed—grace and kindness poured into the mundane world. It is the metal of purity and redemption. The Temple's ritual objects are made of pure silver. 

So the “Judas from Kerioth” accepts:

- Thirty – Lamed, the Good Shepherd lifted up, the Teacher with His twelve.  

- Silver – the metal of holiness, spiritual refinement, Chesed, and grace. 

He isn’t just pocketing some coins, The price reveals Jesus's true identity. The 30 pieces of  silver silently spell out who Jesus really is.

(Click here for more thoughts on Lamed.)

Judas’s name: the Judah‑man from Kerioth

Now to Judas Iscariot himself. The only disciple named for a location outside the Galilee. 

“Judas” is simply the Greek form of Yehuda—Judah. The tribe of kings, the tribe of David, the tribe of messianic expectation. “Iscariot” is best understood as "ish‑Kerioth"—“man from Kerioth,” a town in southern Judea.

So his full designation points in two directions at once:

- He is “Judah” – carrying the name of the royal, messianic tribe. Judas delivers Jesus up.  

- He is "of Kerioth” – not a Galilean. In the southern area where Judas was formed, messianic and nationalist expectations ran especially strong.

That is a clue in plain sight. Judas is the one disciple whose very name and origin are saturated with ideas of what Jews believe Messiah "should be"—strong, decisive, fitting southern Judean hopes for a messiah that would overthrow the Romans and restore political peace and the freedom to worship.

When Jesus insists on walking the path of the suffering Shepherd instead, that is precisely where Judas’s inner conflict gets the better of him. Judas cannot accept this kind of Messiah. Jesus chose Judas for a purpose, so if you want to blame any Jew, blame Jesus.  He willingly went to the cross! 

Caiaphas: words that betray and reveal

Caiaphas, the high priest, does with words what Judas does with silver. In council he declares:

“being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad."

On the surface, it’s pure political calculation: The high priest intends to justify a plot. God quietly turns his words into a prophecy. Just as God turned Balaam’s curse‑mouth into a blessing‑mouth, He turns Caiaphas’s killer‑logic into a confession of atonement.

Betrayal? Look Deeper

Put all the pieces together:

- Joseph: one of the twelve betrays, “you meant evil, but God meant it for good,” and many lives are preserved.  

- Balaam: a hired curse is forced to become blessing because God loves His people.  

- Judas: the man from Kerioth sells the Lamed‑Shepherd for thirty pieces of silver, and the very price reveals the identity he is rejecting—yet God uses that betrayal to reveal and accomplish true redemption.  

- Caiaphas: the high priest’s political sentence becomes an unintended prophecy of one Man dying for the people.

WHEN WE FOCUS ON HATE WE MISS IT

Betrayal is real, ugly, costly. But if we stop at “Judas loved money,” we miss the deeper story. 

Right there, in the darkest act of betrayal, Scripture invites us to see that identity more clearly than ever—if we are willing to look deeper.

Epilogue:

I shared further thoughts on this meditation subject: Link to "Given Over to Evil." 

"I WILL NEVER BELIEVE"

By the time one reaches chapter 20 in the Gospel of John, the apostle who also wrote the Book of Revelation, many signs and much testimony have been given about the ministry of Joshua (Yeshua), who the bible calls Jesus.

One of the disciples who has heard it all is famously known as "Doubting Thomas." Thomas remains unconvinced in the ressurection. Thomas embodies the stubborn unbelief that Yeshua rose from the dead. Thomas wants his own irrefutable physical evidence. He sets his own conditions and refuses the apostolic witness.

In many ways the disciple Thomas (Didymus) mirrors the characteristics and spiritual journey of the people of Israel as portrayed in the biblical narrative, particularly in his journey from doubt to faith, his need for tangible proof, and his ultimate commitment. Thomas represents humanity's tendency toward skepticism, yet also demonstrates a capacity for sincere devotion.

After the crucifixion, Thomas hears the others say, “We have seen the Lord,” and answers:

“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛 20:25

The amazing twist in the story is that Yeshua graciously grants Thomas’s requirements. In John 20:26-27 it says: 

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the

doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to

Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” John 20:26-27

Jesus confronts Thomas’s unbelief by meeting his conditions, providing the evidence, and draws out one of the strongest confessions in the Gospel. Thomas’s resistance collapses in a single sentence: 

“My Lord and my God!” 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛 20:28.

Thomas' words echo back to ten chapters earlier in John 10:30:

"I and My Father are one.” 

That verse echos back further still into the Tenach, Deuteronomy 6:4 the Shema:

"Hear, O Israel

The LORD our God, 

the LORD is one".

At the center of Jewish worship, the Shema declares the unity and uniqueness of God.

When Thomas says, "My Lord, My God!", the scripture does two things at once. 

First, it reinforces the "oneness" of Adonai. Second, it shifts the relationship with "Hashem" (the Name) from a communal relationship to a personal one. 

Then Jesus turns the conversation outward with the following profound statement of faith:

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛 20:29

The evidence for the resurrection is compelling. Most Jews never stop to consider it at all. Minds are made up. Sentiment toward Jesus, particularly the claim that he is Messiah, let alone the "Son of God" is a lot to unpack, and I am not trying to do that in this blog post!  

By the same token, since today marks probably the single most significant event in world history, the "Resurrection," you might care to learn more about it, even if you will never believe it. 

  

Nathan Robinson was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home and recieved an excellent Yeshiva education in NYC schools. As an adult he came to find the love he longed for in Yeshua. Today, Pastor Nathan Robinson gave an educational "Resurrection Day" sermon. 

This is his Ressurection Day sermon. 

At the start of Nathan's sermon is a little story about this picture. It captures the essence of Christianity. 

In terms of contemporary research into the validity and historicity of the resurrection, i would recommend two books:

1. "The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus" by Lee Strobel. Strobel, a former award-winning legal editor for the Chicago Tribune and a Yale-educated journalist, was an atheist who set out to disprove the claims of Christianity after his wife converted to faith.

2. The Jesus Discoveries, Dr. Jeremiah Johnston highlights 10 fascinating archaeological and historical findings that point to the truth of the New Testament and the identity of Jesus.

Conclusion

As I see it, faith in any religion is a matter of choice. Very often, that choice is made for us and we grow up in it. Judaism is rather unique in that there's also a cultural identity with a genetic component— one is born a Jew. 

All the apostles were Jewish and they made the choice to follow an individual you wish man whom they considered the rabbi, their teacher and there would be messiah. None of them, not even John or Peter, expected the resurrection. They did everything they could to keep Yeshua alive, and after witnessing his crucifixion and death on the cross, they all abandoned him.  So if there was no resurrection, there would be no christian bible. Pardon the pun, but, christianity, hangs on a tree. 

In my opinion, Judaism's promise hinges on the Sinai experience and is born out by the land of Israel. There is real tangible historical and archaeological proof, yet Judaism it's still a belief system that requires one to make a choice.

When it comes to hard evidence of the crucifixion and resurrection, it is hard to beat the Shroud of Turin. 

All belief systems require a choice, which begs the question, do you want to believe?  That question leads to another question: why would you want to believe?

Epilogue:

According to tradition, the Apostle Thomas was martyred in Mylapore, India, in 72 A.D.. He was killed by being stabbed with spears (or a lance), likely prompted by local leaders opposing his ministry. His death is believed to have occurred on a hill known as Little Mount (or Big Mount).

Traditional Martyrdom Accounts:

• Peter: Crucified upside down in Rome during Nero's persecution; he reportedly requested this because he felt unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus.
• Andrew: Crucified in Patras, Greece, on an X-shaped cross (now known as St. Andrew's Cross).
• Philip: Traditionally martyred in Hierapolis (Turkey), either by crucifixion (sometimes upside down) or by being hung from iron hooks.
• Bartholomew (Nathanael): Reportedly flayed alive and then beheaded in Armenia.
• Matthew: Tradition varies, but many accounts suggest he was martyred in Ethiopia, either stabbed with a sword or killed with a halberd.
• James the Less (son of Alphaeus): Thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and then beaten to death with a fuller's club.
• Jude Thaddeus: Traditionally martyred in Persia, often recorded as being killed with arrows or an axe.
• Simon the Zealot: Reportedly martyred in Persia alongside Jude, possibly by being sawn in half.
• Matthias (Judas’ replacement): Traditionally stoned and then beheaded in Jerusalem.Paul (The 13th Apostle): Beheaded in Rome under Nero.

John, the supposed author of the Book of John, lived to write the Book of Revelation around 95–96 CE, approximately 60 years after the crucifixion. It is based on a series of divine visions and prophetic revelations he experienced while exiled on the island of Patmos. 

MORNING LIGHT

Sunrise at Zion National Park

There is a notable scriptural and gematria connection between בוקר (bóker), “morning,” which carries a numerical value of 308 and חש (chash), a "listening silence," which also carries a numerical value of 308. 

There is a mysterious connection in the letters חש. Chet (ח) 8 is the "great eight" which has a supernatural nature that I blogged about a few days ago and the Shin (ש) 300 which is the crushing teeth just before the last Hebrew letter Tav, a cross, sign, mark. It is the letter of the Shema (Hear) and Shaddai on Jewish doorposts and gates.

In the beginning, God said, “Let there be light,” That first light filled the lifeless void and “God saw that the light was good (tov).” There is perpetual rejoicing in the "morning light." The gematria of בוקר reminds me that this is not random light; it is measured, intentional light. Morning Light has a special holy quality; it is a time to connect with the Creator of the primordial light. 

When we are חש (chash) “being quiet” in a chosen, focused, listening‑silence, it is what scripture means when it says, “Be silent before the Lord and wait patiently for Him,” “My soul, be quiet before God, for from Him comes my hope,” and “To You, silence is praise, O God in Zion.” 

The חש (chash) “being quiet” is not apathy, not zoning out, not blankness. It is the soul leaning forward. It is the inner posture. It is asking and listening in silence. It is a morning prayer. 

חש (chash) is what I believe these scriptures speak of: “In the morning, Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait expectantly.” I pour out my words, but I do not stop there. I step consciously into חש (chash). That is when the “308”  (chash) of listening‑silence meets the morning “308” (boker) בוקר. I pause. I wait. I expect. I listen for the quiet reply—the thought I did not generate, the Scripture that surfaces, the gentle correction or comfort that feels like it came from outside my own noise. I am listening for the קול דממה דקה (qol demamáh dakáh), the “still small voice. ” Elijah does not meet God in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in a voice of thin silence—a sound that can only be heard in חש. That voice is the God given Morning Light of day aleph, day 1, in our soul. 

Psalm 30.6  describe this 308: 

“My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.” 

Like the morning watchman straining his eyes for the first light on the horizon; in חש, the soul strains its ears for the first whisper of God’s voice. 

Today is "Resurrection Day." It is the Chet day and Mary at the tomb shows this in story form. Before the rooster crows, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark,” Mary comes to the tomb in tears. She is standing exactly where this meditation lives: between night and morning, between not‑understanding and understanding. Her heart is in חש, grief‑softened, listening‑ready silence into which the risen Lord speaks. There, in the half‑light, she hears a single word—“Mary”—and everything changes. Her resurrection encounter begins not with seeing, but with hearing. The Voice is alive and it knows her name. Matching 308's. The pattern of Genesis 1 becomes personal. “Let there be light” is spoken again—not just over the world, but over our personal darkness. 

I like to think that when we say "Good Morning" (Boker Tov), in some profound way we are celebrating Creation. 

LIFTING UP MAN

This isn’t just a space story. This is a story about civilization and power.

Artemis II’s launch during Passover season, under the Paschal moon, has become an uncanny parable of the present struggle over world order. At the very moment when Jews remember the Exodus and Christians remember the lifting up of the Son of Man, humanity has “lifted up” four astronauts toward the heavens on a vehicle named for a pagan moon‑goddess and branded as the spearhead of a new civilizational era. The timing and imagery are not neutral. They dramatize a clash between two rival grammars of the cosmos: one in which power is secured by ascent, control, and technological reach, and one in which power is revealed through descent, self‑giving, and the blood of a Passover Lamb.

Exodus 7:5—The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.

In Scripture, Passover is a political and cosmic event before it is a private religious one. Yahweh confronts Pharaoh’s world order, judges Egypt’s gods, and redraws the meaning of time itself by resetting Israel’s calendar around the night when blood on doorposts marked out a liberated people. Jesus steps into this feast as both firstborn and Lamb, enacting a second, deeper Exodus. John’s Gospel insists that when he is “lifted up” he will draw all people to himself, indicating the kind of death he would die. The Greek verb there, ὑψόω, names both crucifixion and exaltation. Behind it stands the resonance of the Hebrew verb "Nasa" (נָשָׂא) meaning: to lift, bear, and carry away. On Nisan’s Paschal full moon, the true center of world order is publicly enthroned on a Roman cross.

By contrast, Artemis II embodies a different soteriology (study of salvation). Artemis II's mission is heralded as “historic,” a step toward permanent human presence beyond Earth, a test of systems that will sustain bases on and around the moon. That project is not just technical; it is theopolitical and astropolitical. Whoever writes the rules for cislunar* space effectively scripts the grammar of a new phase of civilization: who may extract, who may settle, who may surveil, whose myths and flags and gods define the story we tell about our species. Artemis, China’s lunar ambitions, and other national projects are therefore not just about science or prestige. They are rival liturgies reaching upward, each an enacted prayer that its civilization’s vision of the good will be inscribed into the heavens.

The Gospel does not deny humanity’s calling to exercise dominion in creation or to explore. But it exposes the idolatry of any ascent that refuses the pattern of the Lamb. Babel is not wrong to build; it is wrong to build a name apart from God. Artemis is not wrong to reach; it is wrong insofar as it imagines that control of orbits and regolith can establish a just cosmos. At Passover, the Creator defines the world’s true order through a path the empires did not anticipate: liberation through judgment borne by Another, victory through apparent defeat, enthronement through crucifixion.

So Artemis II’s launch under the Paschal moon becomes a sign. On one side stands a rocket, a goddess‑name, and a coalition of states struggling to secure the high ground of a coming space‑faring order. On the other stands a Lamb, slain yet standing, whose blood once marked Hebrew doorposts and now marks a multi‑national people. The question is not whether humanity will go to the moon, or even to Mars, but under which lordship we will travel. Will our “lifting up” be another Babel—an anxious project to secure ourselves by grasping height—or will it be received as a gift, folded into the already‑accomplished ascent of the crucified and risen Son of Man, whose cross at Passover remains the one true center of world and cosmic order?

“God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.” Psalm 47:8

* Cislunar refers to the region of space encompassing Earth, the Moon, and the volume between them, extending just beyond the Moon's orbit. It acts as a springboard to the moon and other ventures.