7J

7J

Yeshua replied, "Brother,  how do  you not  discern this  time? The  kingdom of  God, like  any  birth, comes  with great  pain. Henceforth  a father  shall be  divided against  his son,  and a mother against her  daughter, and a brother  against his sister, until the rule of God is made manifest!"

"Will you stay here as your mother and sister suggest?"

"In one location? With fixed lines of power? No, Yakob, that is precisely  what will  be soon  be overthrown  by God.  Every day shall begin anew, with people in direct contact with God through prayer and with each other through giving."

Yakob sighed, then said to  him, "It  is Shabbat. We  will make room  here  and in  the  house  of  Zvad'yah  for they  who  are travelling with you. But on the  morning of the first day of the week you should go, as you have said."

"They are justified, brother, who call you Yakob the Righteous."

Yeshua spoke true when he said families would be divided. Yakob would not join Yeshua, but his twin brother Yudah  did. And the followers of Yeshua called him Teom, or  'Twin', to distinguish him from Yonanan's Yudah, he who came from the town in southern Judea called Kerioth. And the young sister of Yakob and Yudah, who was called  Little Miriam  now that  she had  a step-mother named Miriam, mourned that her brother was to leave. Yet he was not alone. The sons of Z'vad'yah and Salome, Yakob and Yohanan, chose to become disciples. Yohanan was two years  younger than Yosy, so he was the youngest  of all those who  became Yeshua's disciples. To avoid confusion  with the  baptizer and  with his stepbrother Yeshua  surnamed  his  cousins  Yohanan  and  Yakob Boanerges, or 'Sons of Thunder'.

There was a  sect called  the Essenes  built entirely  around a single passage in  the Book of Daniel that  said, "With flattery he will  corrupt those who  have violated the covenant,  but the people who  know God will  firmly resist him." Yohanan had been Essene, but broke with them. The baptizer knew that once, just once, the Jewish people had overthrown the succession of masters who had dominated  them  since  the fall  of  Jerusalem to  the Babylonians. They defeated the corrupt Syro-Macedonian king and installed a king of their own every bit as  corrupt. To Yohanan the lesson from God  was clear: It  served nothing  to struggle against God's enemies if the  very nature of the  conflict made you God's enemy as well. So there was nothing to do  but make oneself pure and wait for God himself to bring superior violence to his enemies.