In Yerushalayim for Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) ~ Part 8

In our last post, we learned that YeshuaWarns Against Unbelief and more. In this post, we will learn about the True Children of Avraham.

As in our last several posts, Yeshua is still speaking on the last day of Sukkot, Hoshana Rabbah.

True Children of Avraham

³⁹ They answered him, “Our father is Avraham.” Yeshua replied, “If you are children of Avraham, then do the things Avraham did!

Yeshua concedes their physical descent from Avraham but disputes their automatic inheritance of the promises to Avraham on that basis alone. Behavior, not bloodline, determines who are indeed children of Avraham.

⁴⁰ As it is, you are out to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Avraham did nothing like that! ⁴¹ You are doing the things your Father does.” “We’re not illegitimate children!” they said to him. “We have only one Father – God!”

We’re not illegitimate children (like you, Yeshua is implied)! They knew something about the unusual circumstances of Yeshua’s birth.

⁴² Yeshua replied to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me; because I came out from God; now I have arrived here. I did not come on My own; He sent Me. ⁴³ Why don’t you understand what I’m saying? Because you can’t bear to listen to My message. ⁴⁴ You belong to your Father, Satan, and you want to carry out your Father’s desires. From the start, he is a murderer, and he has never stood by the truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is speaking in character; because he is a liar – indeed, the inventor of the lie!

You belong to your Father, the Adversary – Yeshua is through playing games: He has listened to these people claim Avraham and God as their Father; he is no longer interested in wrong answers. Their sinful behavior, exemplified by unbelief, puts them in opposition to God and Himself. The accusation is an intentionally offensive counterclaim to their assertion that God was their Father.

 ⁴⁵ But as for Me, because I tell the truth, you don’t believe Me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you can show Me where I’m wrong? If I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe Me?

Which one of you can show me where I’m wrong? Or: “Which one of you can convict me of sin?” In either case, the answer is No one.

⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God listens to what God says; the reason you don’t listen is that you don’t belong to God. ^[1]

In our next post, we continue with our new series on Yeshua’s Journey to Yerushalayim for the Feast of Sukkot. In our next post, we learn that Yeshua Declares His External Existence.

Click here for the PDF version.

^[1] Yochanan 8:39–47.