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Jesus (Isa) in the Qur'an Yeshua Speaks to Palestinian Parents
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by Paul Sumner
The covenant that God made with Av-Raham (the "exalted father") was meant to bless "all the families of the earth" (Genesis 12:3). His grandson Israel (Jacob) and the nation that would come from him were to be the actual conduit of God's blessings to the world. In time, a special Servant [Eved] would rise up from Av-Raham's seed from within the nation. His work would be to restore the remnant of Israel in order to be "a light for the Gentiles" (le'or goyim; Isaiah 42:6; 49:6). Yeshua of Nazareth (Isa of Notzrat) took upon himself that servant mantle to be a light to Jews and to Gentiles (John 8:12). His love for people did not stop at contemporary ethnic boundaries. He expended time and energy to seek out anyone whom he could deliver from the tyranny of sin and bless them with life, now and in the kingdom to come. George Athas summarizes how Yeshua recognized the worth of women: He knew their names (John 20:16), understood their stories (John 4:17-18), recognized their strengths and vulnerabilities (Luke 10:38-42), appreciated them (Mark 14:6-9), interacted meaningfully with them (Mark 5:34), and related to them in godly love (Luke 7:44-48). (Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs [Zondervan, 2019, chap. 9]) [Top]
God, Yeshua, and Gentile Women
Three non-Jewish women are even listed as Yeshua's grandmothers — Rahab, Ruth, and Bat-Sheva, the wife of Uriah (Matthew 1:5-6). Continuing God's ancient generosity, Yeshua's spirit of mercy, compassion and love toward non-Jews saturates the gospel accounts. And, frankly, his male Jewish disciples did not at first accept his welcoming attitude. In time they did. And because of the outreach of these Jewish men, many Gentile women have entered into his Kehilah [congregation] — and have to this very day. What many don't think about is that Yeshua's holy Spirit is still operative today, and Muslim women should hear about it. Following are two stories from the gospel of John that speak to familiar cultural realities.
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Yeshua once ventured into the region of Samaria [Hebrew, Shomron] and met a non-Jewish woman at a public well in the town of Shechem. The Jewish nation mostly hated Samaritans because they viewed them as apostates of mixed blood. Likewise, this woman's people looked on Jews with contempt. Her people, in fact, believed they had received purer revelation from God and were more faithful to the Abrahamic tradition than were the Jews, who were disobedient to it. [Muslims have a similar attitude.] This woman's people believed in the coming of "the Taheb" (Samaritan, the Restorer), whom she called "the Messiah" and "That One" (John 4:25). She believed The Taheb would come as a prophet and "declare all things to us." She was confident in her beliefs and culture, and boldly affirmed them to this Jewish man who dared to break social taboos to not only enter their town but to speak with her — alone. Yeshua wasn't turned off by her spunky spirit. He happily engaged her in serious dialog about spiritual issues. His unbigoted compassion for her moved her. And when he declared hidden things about her personal life with godly insight, he undid her world. [Top] Unlike the men in town who denigrated her and treated her like a free roaming cow (six husbands had claimed and used her), Yeshua wanted far better for her. Some think she was a town whore. But perhaps she was a victim of sexual abuse by males who so humliated and demeaned her that she believed she was good for nothing else than to be used and abused. In that era, a peasant woman had no security outside marriage; so this woman married six men for protection, care, self-respect. It didn't work, and she knew it. Yeshua offered her living water…eternal life…and God's yeshuah ("deliverance," vv. 11, 14, 22). Though the Text does not say explicitly, she eagerly took in all that he offered her. She became an evangelist for him to those men (and the women) who had shamed her (v. 29). [Top] In the same way, with respect, kindness and understanding, Yeshua would freely engage Muslim women today. He wouldn't see them as objects of barter or sensual pleasure. He wouldn't segregate them from his male disciples, as though they were the source of all temptation. Nor would he condemn their Creator-given procreative abilities and natural beauty as inherently sinful qualities. He would see every woman as a child of the Creator and a potentially repentant and redeemed human, with equal access to the Living God. Equal access with "all Israel." One of his Jewish disciples told husbands how to treat their wives. Each man should "grant her honor as a fellow-heir of the grace of life" (1 Peter 3:7). This teaching elevates both men and women above societal norms. [Top] Yeshua rescued a Jewish woman from execution by religious zealots. This story also has a bearing on Muslim women. Someone caught her committing adultery (it doesn't say who caught her or how they found out). These pious men wanted to stone her to death, as the Law of Moses prescribed (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22-26). They tested Yeshua if he would validate their judgment. If he didn't uphold Torah, then he was guilty of Lawlessness, as an apostate. "Honor killings" in some Muslim societies today reflect a similar zeal by males to avenge violated sexual mores. Girls and women can be murdered by their husbands, sons, brothers or fathers, for offenses ranging from talking to or kissing a boy to marital unfaithfulness. Women live with fearful knowledge that any unlawful contact with a male could humiliate their family and cost them their lives. [Top] Yeshua knew the Law of Moses. He knew the Torah said that both the man and the woman should be stoned if caught in adultery — a point of law these zealous males were conveniently ignoring.
"... the adulterer and the adulteress shall [both] surely be put to death." (Lev 20:10) Where was the male adulterer in this woman's case? Was he there in the crowd, in the front row? Had he picked up a stone of judgment himself, to appease his conscience, to silence his sinning partner? Yeshua taught his disciples that a man's lustful thoughts for a woman were the same as an act of adultery (Matthew 5:27-30). He wasn't naive about the hearts and imaginations of these self-righteous men surrounding this helpless woman. [Top] Upturning the situation, Yeshua challenged these pious Torah men to examine themselves before God, then throw a stone at her if they were free of lustful imaginations — their own private sins of adultery. Convicted men (who knew well their own hearts) "began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones" (v. 9). When the younger ones finally realized that Yeshua had cast a bright light into their souls, they too abandoned their religious duty to Torah. The woman stood alone before Yeshua. What would he do? To our surprise, he did not condemn her. But he did not pass over her sinfulness. He told her, "Go your way [and] from now on sin no more" (v. 11).
Muslim women who have violated family honor codes (and even the Law of Moses) can be forgiven by Yeshua. For, as Scripture says, "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," for he is God's appointed Judge. They do not have to endure loss of life for their sinning — if they come to him for forgiveness, deliverance, cleansing and yeshuah [Luke 5:24; Acts 10:42; 17:31]. Muslim men can also be forgiven for their self-righteous hypocrisy and multitude of sexual sins. There is no gender favoritism with the God of the Bible. According to Scripture, Yeshua is not dead. He is present now, in our time. He can speak by his Spirit to Muslim women in their spirits. [Top] He also speaks to them with the voice and eyes of his living disciples. They can be "Yeshua" to these women. They can voice the Scriptures to them, and beckon and welcome them into his tribe, his family, his kingdom — just as his Gentile grandmothers were welcomed and blessed for entering the covenant nation, Israel:
Matthew 1:1-6: Rahab (Joshua 2); Ruth (Ruth); Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:3) The biblical Messiah is a liberator, commissioned by God, for all nations. He seeks to free every person from the enslaving power of their sins, the brutal tyranny of other humans, and the deserved judgment that awaits us all if we choose not to be liberated. One day, many of Ishmael's daughters (by blood or conversion) will themselves testify that Yeshua brought them into the fullness of the Birkat Av-Raham, the true Blessing of Abraham.
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Jesus (Isa) in the Qur'an Yeshua Speaks to Palestinian Parents
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