"Put out into the deep water and let down your nets…” (Luk 5:4 NAS)

Peter called Him Master, a term used only by disciples, or a near to be one. The word was equivalent to rabbi or teacher. And because the Master had asked, Peter went back into the deep water where he had spent the previous night drawing in empty nets.  But this time their nets began to break and their boats began to sink from the weight of the catch! It was a miracle!

Has God ever asked you to go into a situation that was well over your head? He often calls his people into the deep waters to bring them into a position to hear his voice! Like Job, we will cover our mouth (Job 40:4). Like Isaiah, we will feel ruined and unclean (Is 6:5). Like Peter we will cry “depart from me,” for His Holy presence reveals the depth or our sin! (Lk 5:8)

It is in this holy, special revelation moment that God reveals our heart and heals our soul. If you ever find God leading you into deep waters, listen for His voice, drop your nets, and follow Him. 

Poiema - God's epic poem lived out through our lives!

God's Workmanship (Poiema) - Eph 2:10

 "You are an epic poem, a God-imaging poiema  — become flesh and spirit…. If you think you are a boring work of prose, you don’t yet see things as they really are…there is nothing boring about you…. remember what Chesterton said: ‘We are perishing for want of wonder, not want of wonders’…. God is wholly absorbed in his living epic. He wants you to be too." - John Piper

Click to read full article  John Piper - You Are God’s Workmanship

There is a lot packed into the context of Eph 2:10 that relates to God’s plan for our life that includes: adoption, the presence of the Holy Spirit,  our story, and the voice God has given us to share through our journey. 

According to the principles of hermeneutics (or methods of Bible Study), when one finds a key word that is used only twice in the entire Bible, the uniqueness of the word becomes like a spotlight to its significance. This includes how the word is used and defined in its immediate context, as well as the relationship of its usage in other texts (cf. Rom 1:20 "made"). In addition, it is important to take note when similar themes emerge using different words. Michael Card titled one of his albums after this unique word where he draws out the theme of Eph 2 into the greater context of God’s love, mission, and purpose.

2 Cor. 3 & 4 and Phil. 3 share that we are living letters, with an unveiled perspective designed to carry His message through the joy of His presence and the fellowship of His suffering.

It is out of a position of obedience that we are able to abide in Christ

The hebrew verb שָׁמַע (Shama), can mean simply ‘to hear,’ or it can mean, according to context and according to what prepositions follow it either ‘to listen, hearken.’ ‘to obey,’ or “to understand.” (emphasis mine, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Explained and Defined p83)

The Hebrew word shama is used in Duet 6 to translate the word “Hear” in the foundational passage known as the “Grand Shema” (or Shama)

"Hear (Shama), O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! (Deu 6:4 NAS)

Samuel used  the same hebrew word, shama, to convey the importance of obedience when he confronted Saul's disobedience of withholding the spoils of war and Saul's further cover up when trying to justify he was doing it for God!

“To shama, (obey, hear, listen) is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22)

Saul failed because he refused to follow, to listen, and to carryout what God had asked him to do.

The Holeman treasury goes on to say “To really hear God means to obey what is spoken, or heard or even read.”

God saw Saul’s disobedience as a turning from following Him! (1Sa 15:11 NAS) and a rejection of His Word! (15:23). God tore the kingdom from Saul that day, and the presence of His Spirit left Saul in the next chapter.  I believe that the sin of Saul’s disobedience and the events that followed were in David’s mind after he was confronted by Nathan the prophet for striking down Uriah so he could take Bathsheba to be his wife (2 Sam. 12). It was in this context that David penned his well known psalm of repentance.

 "Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. (Psa 51:10-11 NAS).

It is interesting to note that God forgave David when he repented, yet did not forgive Saul when he confessed his sin of disobedience (15:30). I imagine it had to do with a heart that is tied to obedience and not the "appearance of an external confession" (1 Sam 16:7). 

The context of the Grand Shema in Duet 6 goes on to show that our love for God is our motivation to listen to / obey Him.

"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut 6:5) 

John says that when we love God we keep his commandments (1Jn 5:2-3).

The Greek word used to translate the Hebrew shama in the Old Testament is ακούω (akuo) meaning to hear, and in the N.T. one of the words for obedience is a derivate of akuo  ὑπακούω (hoop-akuo (to listen, hear, follow, be subject to, to ‘obey’ ). We find this used in both Rom 10:17 and Hebrew 5:9 that relate the same concepts of hear and obey to the concept of obedience in our faith.

In Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The implication of obedience is tied to the application “going or sending”   

In Hebrews 5:9 “And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, (Heb 5:9 NAS)

John goes on to say that Christ abides in the one who keeps his commands;

“And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” (1Jo 3:24 NAS)

There is a lot to the concept of our obedience as it relates to how we follow, listen, believe, and abide in Christ.  Jesus asked His disciples to “Follow me” and then sent them out to make disciples teaching them to obey His commands. The relationship of God’s presence and our obedience to his mission is clear in the contrast of Saul and David, and in Jesus sending out his disciples in His great commission. 

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always… (Mat 28:19-20 NAS)

The year the scarlet thread stopped turning white - the importance of the historical and cultural context

The Scarlet thread of the scape goat turned from red to white on the day of atonement up until AD 30! This temple miracle signified God accepted their sacrifice, and forgave their sin. The imagery of the scapegoat provided powerful teaching on atonement. The Jewish Talmud points to a new day of atonement. A one time all sufficient sacrifice that would happened on the hill of Calvary. After that day, the thread in the temple stopped turning white!  I first heard about this from my O.T. Jewish professor at Moody. I can still remember the joy in his face, as a messianic Jew he felt the weight the Jewish text. Who would have thought someone would be so excited that God had stopped a miracle! He taught us that day the importance of the historical and cultural context in understanding the biblical text.


"...and it has further been taught: 'For forty years before the destruction of the Temple the thread of scarlet never turned white but it remained red'. - Rosh HaShanah 31b, Babylonian Talmud, Soncino Press Edition."

"...but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God... Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin." (Heb 10:12-18 NAS) 

"Here is the basic story:  Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the scarlet cord stopped turning white showing that Yom Kippur sacrifice was not accepted by God.  This is by far the most interesting of the Jewish sources that has to do with the legend of Azazel.  The Azazel is the Jewish name for the scapegoat. 

In the ritual for the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, two goats were brought into the Temple, one was killed as a blood sacrifice, the other after the laying on of hands was chased out into the wilderness symbolically carrying the year's sins. That was the scapegoat. 

According to Jewish writing of this period, it became the custom to tie a red ribbon around the scapegoat, and when the goat was sent out to the wilderness the ribbon turned white.  The changing of the color of the red ribbon to white signified that God had forgiven the sins of Israel for that year.  The Jewish legend goes on to say that the red ribbon stopped turning white, 40 years before the destruction of the Temple.  So, as of the year 30 AD, God was no longer forgiving the sins of Israel by means of the Yom Kippur sacrifice of the slaying of on goat, and the sending forth of the other in to the wilderness"    http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/odds.htm


A couple clarifications on the above, I understood there to be two scarlet threads, one tied on each goat. The ribbon on the goat that was sacrificed was hung on the temple door, and the ribbon on the scapegoat remained on the goat. As the scapegoat ran away the ribbons turned white.

Regarding laying hands on the animal: While the priest laid his hands on the animal, he would confess the sins of the people. The sins would then be symbolically transferred to the animal. When the animal was put to death or released it into the wilderness, the sins were atoned for as they died with the animal and were taken into the wilderness. The goat would serve as the people's substitutionary atonement.


The imagery was clear to Israel. Jesus became both our sacrificial lamb (substiutionary atonement) and our scapegoat, taking our sins away, as we place our hands on him and in faith confess and repent of our sins. Like with the animal sacrifice, our sins are symbolically transferred to him), In His death, Jesus atones for our sin. When Jesus was raised from the dead, it demonstrated that God the Father had accepted His death as payment for our sin and because he lives, no further atonement is necessary.

Because He lives, His atonement made in AD 30 can be applied to our hearts and atone for our sins today! There is no need for a cord in a temple to change color to tell us God accepted our confession of faith, because when our sins are atoned for, it is our hearts that change, they become white as snow! Now that is a miracle!



"Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. (Isa 1:18 NAS) 

When we discover the historical context behind some of these O.T. concepts, the Bible takes on a new richness and deeper meaning! 

The Talmud and other Jewish writings provide a cultural and historical insight when placed next to the light of inspired scripture and often provide a deeper perspective into key theological concepts like the day of atonement.

"The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (Hebrew: משנה, c. 200 CE), a written compendium of Rabbinic Judaism's Oral Torah, and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. "Talmud" translates literally as "instruction" in Hebrew, and the term may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together.

The entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in standard print is over 6,200 pages long. It is written in Tannaitic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through the fifth century CE) on a variety of subjects, including Halakha (law), Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law, and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud