dictionary.com: used for, belonging to, or concerned with mere style or effect.
Merriam-Webster: employed for rhetorical effect; especially : asked merely for effect with no answer expected rhetorical
I have a friend who tends to get annoyed with me when discussing the Bible. I tend to ask the rhetorical question but he often does not realize that I am not looking for an answer. For him, it becomes an issue of not knowing the answer or feeling as though I am putting him on the spot. This reaction is not exclusive to my dear friend but rather universal. I will ask a series of questions concerning the Bible often. My questions are almost always rhetorical. I do this for one reason and one reason only. It is my intent to have the question itself considered.
I have spoken with many fellow believers who know the New Testament scriptures intimately. I have spoken with Pastors, Ministers, Bishops, Preachers of God's word in virtually every denomination over the course of the last 6 years always asking rhetorical questions. I have had Pastors, Ministers, Bishops and fellow believers react in various ways not unlike my friend, the pattern is consistent. What tends to happen is most get irritated until they actually think about the questions themselves. When the person actually looks at the pattern being revealed then revelation almost always emerges and a connection to Hebraic thinking is made.
For example I will ask, "Why was Jesus going to the 2nd Temple with his parents at the age of 12?"
Luke 2:41 "His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the Festival of the Passover."
Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.
The question itself is not what I am hoping the person will see alone but WHY is the question not asked at all in the first place? Most do not know the answer. Jesus, every year, obeyed what Moses was commanded to teach/re-teach the descendants of Jacob, He was Jewish, of course he obeyed the Festivals and continues to do so to this very day.
What happens however is the answer becomes sufficient. This is what a Greek understanding of the Holy Scriptures tends to produce...I call it the, "Question and Answer Class." Here is the question, now let's go look into the scriptures and find an answer that makes the most sense.! This sort of study uses philosophy, science and reasoning to draw a conclusion. Albeit, the conclusion could very well be wrong based on the wrong premise or the manner of study itself. In most Western Theology the intimacy with Scripture is redacted. We miss the implication of why anything is written in the scriptures at all...We try to apply our logic to it as opposed to see What or How God is using the scriptures to reveal the nature of why he has done or is doing the sum of the whole. He repeats patterns and is very cyclical....He does not think Greek or linear.
Example number two: Millions of years ago dinosaurs roamed the earth and man looked like a monkey!
Those who research, and research, and research this understanding can and have concluded just about everything the mind can imagine because they need an answer. However, because God made the earth and the heavens, and all that is in them in 6 days the premise of Millions of years ago becomes abstract. Six days is precise, Millions of years ago imprecise.
|The pattern of the Garden, in Eden, the pattern of Mt Sinai, the pattern of the temple and HOW YAHWEH does everything is represented in this picture of our solar system. You body is also represented here!|
Why did God tell Moses and Aaron to write down a calendar...before they left the captivity of Egypt?
Exodus 12:1-2 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, "This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you"
Exodus 23:15 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out from Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty. Remember, Abib is another use of the word Nissan
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Nisan 10, according to the Hebrew Calendar. This was 4 days before his death on Nisan 14. (Matthew 21:1-11,14-17)(Mark 11:1-11)
(Luke 19:29-44)(John 12:12-19).
(Luke 19:29-44)(John 12:12-19).
So, the question is rhetorical because I am wanting the person to see how God had set into motion dress rehearsals of the death of Yeshua or Jesus. The calendar dates all line up with Passover.
For 40 years God was teaching those in the wilderness explicit dates and times to do certain things every year....Why?
Joshua 4:19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho. God wanted Joshua to cross over at Passover...Why?
The Jews/Hebrews of the 12 tribes of Israel were taught to do these things from birth and to this day still do....Why?
Why did God create a people called the Hebrews, pouring into these people, a very exclusive group of folks along with those who left Egypt [who were grafted into the nation of Israel], these procedures/instructions. Why did Jesus continue to do them until his death and why are the Jews still doing them to this very day!
What is God doing and why is he wanting it done forever? From Adam to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses to Jesus or Yeshua why does God not ask a question but rather command a pattern to be observed forever?
Exodus 31:13 "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, 'Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.
Nehemiah 9:14 and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,
Genesis 26:5 because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
1 Thessalonians 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. (Calendar)
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:4 But you, brothers, aren't in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.
If you follow what I am trying to convey you will see that I have presented to you several questions that expose a PATTERN that Abba, Father, placed into the identity of the Jewish people and what they were commanded to do...Jesus was no exception but rather, the reason behind the pattern and the events leading up to them. If you don't understand the "Times and Seasons" or what they "have no need" of then what was Jesus doing by observing them...if he was going to make them null and void? Why does "null and void" or fulfill contradict....YOU SHALL DO THEM FOREVER?
That is not a Rhetorical Question
During the Millennial reign
Zechariah 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Isaiah 66:23 It shall happen, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me," says Yahweh.
Okay, so why does God use the moon to track his calendar and yet it has no light?
Have a blessed day
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