“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”

October 18, 2020

Summary: John 2 opens with the wedding of Cana, which can serve as a visual for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in the Messianic Age. Yeshua performs a miracle of transforming water to wine; wine that had been reserved for the Messianic Age. The first century wedding guests tasted of the Messianic Kingdom.

Shalom, shalom; peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program.

I do have a website called ancientscrollsonline.com. I do post prophetic dreams, visions and prophetic words from the Lord.

 Today, this message I am going to give you is from the Lord. It is John 2, the wedding feast of Cana. He has confirmed this is the message He desires to be delivered to those who have ears to hear. Now sometimes we are permitted to just teach from the Word because all of it relevant. But on this occasion, He has specifically chosen John 2. 

Why? Because we have entered the time of separation–the wheat from the tares. This age is closing. There is going be persecution and it appears to be escalating, famine, and pestilences; Yeshua spoke of these things in Matthew 24. The Word has to be fulfilled. In the meantime, we can encourage one another in the Lord that Yeshua is returning. We have something to look forward to, we have hope as this age will become worse and worse because of the rebellion of man against God and everything righteous. That is what sin is, rebellion against God.

It is 16 days until the election. The Father has shown us that a storm of great proportions is coming and it will encompass the whole nation. My husband listens to news networks on his iPad, we stopped listening to mainstream media, in fact, we treat the media like it is roadkill and drive around it; but have noticed from these other sources their frequency in usage of this statement: “Brace yourselves.” We have been hearing that statement all summer from different sources. 

It appears November is going to be an extreme month, and it will probably go down in history as the month that changed everything; well, besides COVID. There are those who are already saying because of the severity of the violence that will take place, the United Nations will intervene. Some years ago, and I posted this on the website, the Lord had shown me the United Nations soldiers here. They had sent out these objects that had the ability to cut people down where they stood. I heard: “The axe is laid at the root.” Many were dead before they fell to the ground. It was very disturbing dream. 

As I take notice of what is going on here, and in the world, it is not too difficult to see where we are today and where we are going. In a little over two weeks this is going to affect every one of us in some way, especially with deliveries of goods, supplies, and gas.

We will need an overnight miracle to stop what is coming, and the divine court in heaven, from our understanding, has not issued any restraining measures on the storm that is coming. What the Lord has shown us over the years is going to be reality.

The Lord is sending the last harvest revival, it hasn’t been cancelled and will not be in spite of the apocalyptic events that are unfolding before us. The antichrist may soon make his appearance. Those who are already under a spirit of delusion will accept the beast from the bottomless pit. 

Shema from Deuteronomy 6

Shema, O Israel, the LORD God, the LORD is One.

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.

Psalm 24

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein. 

Father YHVH,

We realize that You are the King of the Universe, King over heaven and earth. We thank You for Your Word, for the life, death, resurrection, ascension and soon return of Your Son Yeshua.

We forgive others of their sins as we desire to be forgiven. 

We thank You for Your Word for the Holy Spirit of life, the blood of Yeshua. Amen.

So I am going to read the text so that you all will become familiar with it and then make some commentary on it. 

John 2 

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 

  1. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him: “They have no wine.” 4. Jesus said to her: “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” 5. His mother said to the servants: “Whatever He says to you, do it.” 6. Six stone pitchers were prepared according to the ordinance of the Yehudim for their purification. Each of them was able to hold two or three battim.
  2. Jesus said to them: “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8. And He said to them: “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it, when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.
  3. And he said to him: “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now.”
  4. This beginning of signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

The timing of this wedding. This is after Yeshua has been baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit, gone to the wilderness and fasting for forty days. These forty days reminds me of when Moses had gone up to Mt. Sinai for forty days asking God to forgive Israel for worshiping the golden calf (this would be the month of Elul). He (Moses) returned to camp with the second set of the Ten Commandments at the time of Yom Kippur. I just see patterns sometimes and it is possible that Yeshua also had gone to the wilderness at this same time and returned at Yom Kippur. He rested on His return and then prepared for the Lord’s feast of Tabernacles, which all the males of Israel were required to attend.  

It looks as if this wedding takes place after the fall feasts of the Lord, and the Passover is perhaps a month away according to verse 13.

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. On the third day there was a wedding. So, we have a typical Jewish wedding, and they usually lasted seven days. The mother of Yeshua is already there. One would think that perhaps this is a relative of hers and she been asked to supervise or manage some areas that will help the banquet go smoothly. What I cannot discern is if the wedding began that day or if it is already on the third day of the wedding. The language is not so clear. If it is the first day, it was not prepared all that well, because they had already run out of wine. If it is the third day of the wedding, most have drunk well, but there are still four days left. Someone has to make some arrangements to get more wine.

It is significant that John makes certain the reader understand it is the third day. The third day is connected to the resurrection, and to the Messianic Age. The third day is when Yeshua rose from the dead. The Messianic Age is the third millennium from the time of Yeshua. At the end of the third millennium which is the Messianic Age there will be another resurrection; the resurrection of the good and evil. So, this wedding is serving as a visual for the Feast of Tabernacles or the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. 

  1. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. They were invited but His mother was already there.
  2. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him: “They have no wine.” 4. Jesus said to her: “What do I have to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come.”

If this could be understood in the ancient Jewish setting, we would laugh at some of the comedy here because in a Jewish way Yeshua is being rather cheeky with His mother. The translation does not do justice to the scene that is before us. 

I have a Delitzsch translation of the four gospels. And the section, “What do I have to do with you, woman?” is a Hebrew idiom and should read: “What do you have against Me, ma’am? Or as I heard a minister say one time: “Why are you picking on me, ma’am?” He isn’t being rude to her, nor is He putting her in her place. He is acting like a 27 year old who is getting a little cheeky, in an endearing or amusing way, with His mother at her pressing Him to do something that would not allow the wedding to be a disaster. She is a Jew and she understands her Son is the Messiah, she understands the teachings of her Son and of her people that there is going to be this huge banquet in the third millennium, where there is going to an abundance of food and the abundance of wine. Her Son is going to be the groom in the Messianic Age and all the believers are going to set at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Elijah is going to be there, Moses, King David, the disciples, her husband, her children, and the wine is going to flow. It is going to be very prosperous and fertile.

Genesis 49:10-

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, He washed His garments in wine…

This has Messianic implications. Who would launder their clothes in wine? That would seem to defeat the purpose of washing them. This is implying that wine will be just as abundant, or as common, as water.

We have grape vines and for my husband it has been a struggle to keep the deer from munching them down to the roots. We finally fenced them in and they are flourishing.  I can’t imagine tethering a donkey to one of our vines, but in the Messianic Age the vines will be so sturdy that one could tether an animal to a grape vine and not damage it.

The Talmud describes winemaking in the Messianic Kingdom:

The age to come is not like this age. In this age, harvesting and treading grapes is difficult. In the age to come, one will bring a single grape on a wagon or on a ship and place it in the corner of his house, supplying himself from it like a huge cask. (b.Ketubot 111b)

This hyperbolic imagery is used to describe the amplitude of increase, it is more than enough. It is like setting one huge grape in your house and putting a spigot in it. One grape is equal to a keg. Where would they get that from  Deuteronomy 32:14

This is from the song of Moses and the general theme is that God would bring the Jews into the land and enable to defeat its rulers and enjoy the lavish bounty of the conquest. 

  1. Butter of cattle and milk of sheep with fat of lambs, rams born in Bashan and he-goats, with wheat as fat as kidneys, and you would drink the blood of grapes.

In the manuscript it does not say grapes, it says grape. The Torah: A Mechanical Translation, Jeff Benner.

So, Mary is asking Him for some advance on the wine from the Messianic Age to supply the need at the wedding. Also, sages have commented the wine the two daughters of Lot used to get him drunk so they could initiate intimacy with him came from the Messianic Age. They took no wine with them when they left Sodom, so where did they get the wine? This is their explanation. The Bible has to be understood from a Jewish perspective. 

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lots-daughters-midrash-and-aggadah

Mary is asking for an advancement of wine, but Yeshua is saying His time or His hour had not yet come. Of course, He is speaking it isn’t time for the abundance of wine, or anything else that is in that Kingdom at a future date. All those things are reserved for that time so that only the believers, only the righteous, will enjoy it. He is saying it isn’t His time yet to provide all those tremendously wonderful things.

So, what does Mary do? She refuses His refusal. It’s like she is having the last word in this situation.

  1. His mother said to the servants: “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Yeshua obliges and gives them instructions on what to do next.

  1. Six stone pitchers were prepared according to the ordinance of the Yehudim for their purification. Each of them was able to hold two or three battim.

In the Delitzsch  Six stone pitchers were prepared according to the ordinance of the Yehudim for their purification. Each of them was able to hold two or three battim. 

  1. Jesus said to them: “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

These are not clay jars as sometimes is seen in pictures. These are six hewed out stones. They are extremely heavy and sort of possibly squared with a large hole in the center. These were used for ritual purification of themselves and eating utensils. Stone is not susceptible to contamination, or ritual impurity and clay is subject ritual impurity. Whatever is stored in stone cannot be ritually defiled.

Each of them was able to hold two or three battim.

A single bat would equal about 6 gallons, some of these jars would hold 12 gallons and some 18 gallons. The math on this would equal 40 cases of wind or about 500 bottles of wine.

  1. And He said to them: “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it,  (this cup is called cowc habesorah, which means the cup of the good news at the wedding) when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.
  2. And he said to him: “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now.”

The better wine was on the third day, we know that to represent the Messianic Age, the third millennium in which Yeshua will reign. The guests at the wedding in Cana received the wine from the Millennium/Messianic Age. Wine was delivered to them from 3000 years in the future to the first century. The wine in the kingdom will be better than the wine as we know it is here in this time. He will be the King and all things will be returned to Him. The curse of the nations will be removed. 

Revelation 11:15

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall forever and ever.”

  1. This beginning of signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.

I am at the end of the program. 

If it is God’s will I will be here next program. Remember to walk by faith and not by sight. Do two things this week: love and forgive. Ask God to cleanse you from all unrighteousness every day. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spots, wrinkles and blemishes. Love God and love your neighbor.

Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic priestly blessing.