Imprisoned ! by Dr Chris Koster
Yoseph, eleventh son of Ya'aqob,
having a character which one might call unimpeachable, was sold by his jealous
brothers as a slave, and was taken to Mitsrayim. Here he served as slave for
thirteen years, the last two years of it in prison, after having been falsely
accused by a seductress, a lying woman, the wife of Potiphar.
Lusting
after him, she enticed him, daily, to get him to have intercourse with her.
Eventually she even grabbed him by his garment when she saw that her attempts
were futile - but he fled away from her. Why did he refuse to yield to her
seduction? In Bereshith / Genesis 39:9 we read why, when Yoseph
said, "And how shall I do this great evil and sin against Elohim?"
Yoseph refused to sin against Elohim, he resolutely
resisted the seductive approaches of Potiphar's wife,
he remained true and loyal to his Elohim, and therefore he was imprisoned!
Would you believe it - refuse to "do this great evil and sin against
Elohim" and they send you to prison!
The
Hebrew word for "sin" means to "commit an
offence," according to modern Hebrew
scholars. This word "sin" is found even as far back as Bereshith /
Genesis 4:7. Some form of do's and don'ts of what is right and what is wrong,
if only in a primitive code, must have been known ever since the time of Adam.
How else would one "commit an offence" if there does not exist some
rule or rules?
Yoseph knew that adultery is an evil, that it is a sin,
and because he was truly loyal to Elohim, he refused to sin, he refused to
commit an offence against Elohim. He only did what was right in the eyes of
Yahuweh, and therefore he was imprisoned.
At this
stage we would like to sound a warning, in case all those in prison might wish
to apply Yoseph’s imprisonment to themselves.
According to 1 Kepha 2:20 those who get a beating
when they sin, deserve to get the beating - in contrast to those who suffer for
doing good (Read 1 Kepha
4:15 too.)
If you
should ask a million people what is right, what is "doing good,"
what is sin? - you can be sure to get as many
different replies. All that matters is this: What does the Word of Elohim say?
What does Yahuweh say? He gave us the Ten Words in order that His fear may be
before us, so that we do not sin (Shemoth / Exodus 20:20, Rom. 3:20, 4:15 and
7:7).
And
according to these same Ten Words Yoseph was tried
(tested) and proved. After having been a slave in Mitsrayim for eleven years,
he was enticed by this seductress to commit adultery, but Yoseph
prevailed. In Ps. 105:19 we read, "The Word of Yahuweh tried him."
Yoseph was tried, but prevailed. Thereafter he proved
to be a true prophet indeed, and then he was released from prison and from
slavery, and the sovereign elevated him to the highest position in Mitsrayim,
next to Pharaoh.
The
trustworthiness and loyalty of this one man, Yoseph,
eventually led to one of the greatest epochs of all time, the exodus of an
entire nation, the establishment of a new nation founded on the Word, the
Everlasting Covenant. Please note that it was also said of Yoseph
that the Spirit of Elohim was in him, Yoseph
(Bereshith / Genesis 41:38).
Although Yoseph is not regarded as a typical "type"
of Messiah, there are so many resemblances between them, and scholars have
listed at least 40 points of similarity between Yoseph
and Yahushua - but the details of this similarity are not the purpose of this
study.
Let us
now turn to another unjust imprisonment, that of Yochanan
the Immerser. In Mat. 14:3-4
we read that Herodes put him in prison because Yochanan told Herodes that it was
not right (or not lawful) for him to have his brother’s wife, Herodias. In
other words, Yochanan told Herodes
it was wrong to commit adultery, and therefore he put Yochanan
in prison.
Interestingly,
Herodes was not even an Yisraelite who is supposed to live according to the
Commandments. No, Herodes was an Edomite,
he was not an Yisraelite.
We, who are evangelical, usually say someone must first be declared right
(justified) by belief (faith) before the keeping of the Commandments are taught
to him. But strangely enough, Yochanan was telling an
unbeliever that it was unlawful for him to live in adultery!
Yochanan was merely continuing to preach the message of
repentance, the same he did when he started his ministry (Matt. 3:2). For this
he was imprisoned. But that’s not all. Later on he was beheaded for this - telling
Herodes it is unlawful to live in adultery!
Who was Yochanan, in the eyes of Elohim? Yahushua said in Luk. 7:28 that among those born of women there is not a
greater prophet than Yochanan the Immerser.
In other words, Yochanan was reckoned to be great, if
not greater, than all the prophets up to that time (Yahushua, of course, being
the True Great Prophet of all times). But more than that, Yochanan
was much more than a prophet (Luk. 7:26), because he
was the messenger of Elohim who was sent "to prepare the way before Me" (Luk. 7:27, Mal.
3:1). In Matt. 3:3, "Prepare the way of Yahuweh, make His path
straight." In Luk.
1:17 the messenger of Yahuweh says, "to make
ready a people prepared for Yahuweh."
So Yochanan came, "filled with the Set-apart Spirit even
from his mother’s womb" (Luk 1:15) and did
exactly what he was called to do - and so he was imprisoned, and even beheaded!
Remember there was no greater prophet than Yochanan
up to that time (except Yahushua, of course). But even more: Yochanan was the chosen messenger of Elohim, chosen to
prepare the way for Yahushua - yet he was to be imprisoned, and beheaded,
because he told a sinning Edomite it was not right
for him to sin!
Another
unjust imprisonment was that of Yirmeyahu. He was not
only imprisoned, but was threatened with death, and was thrown in the muddy
dungeon as well. These dungeons apparently were muddy cisterns, and those
thrown in them were left to die! Why was Yirmeyahu
imprisoned? Simply because he was called by Yahuweh to
prophesy to Yerushalayim and Yehudah
during the reigns of the last five sovereigns of Yehudah,
and even after the destruction of Yerushalayim.
This made him most unpopular.
Yirmeyahu related to them the words of Yahuweh, namely that
because of all their evil and idolatry He was sending judgement upon them, they
would be taken off into Babylonian captivity. The priests did not enquire after
Yahuweh, "and the shepherds transgressed against Me, and the prophets
prophesied by Ba’al ... they have forsaken Me, the
fountain of living waters ... The prophets have prophesied falsely, and the
priests rule by their own hand, and My people loved it so ... prophets of
falsehood ... who try to make My people forget My Name by their dreams ... For
every man’s message is his own word, for you have changed the Words of the
living Elohim" (Yirm. 2, Yirm.
5, Yirm. 23). All this is still true,
and even more applicable since the third century C.E.
In Yirm. ch. 6 we read of how the
Word of Yahuweh was a reproach to them, they delighted not in it, they refused
to walk in the old paths, the good way, "and they rejected My teaching (law)." Yirmeyahu
kept on prophesying and called them to repentance, to turn back to Yahuweh, but
they would not listen.
Eventually,
when the judgement of Babylonian captivity became a certainty, as was
determined by Elohim, Yirmeyahu said so, and made
himself extremely unpopular with Tsidqiyahu, and he
ended up in prison and in the dungeon.
Yet
another example was that of Dani’el. In him was the
Spirit of the Set-apart Mighty One, as we read in Dan. 4:8 and 9, Dan. 5:11 and
14 (If this was written in Hebrew instead of Aramaic, it would have read, "Spirit
of the Set-apart Elohim").
In Dani’el ch. 6 we read that there
was such an "excellent spirit in him," and the governors and
viceroys were jealous of him because of his steadfastness, and they were unable
to find negligence or corruption in him (vv. 3-4). So the only accusation
against him was to find it "concerning the Law of his Mighty One."
So they persuaded the sovereign to issue a decree forbidding anyone to bow
down before any mighty one, except the sovereign.
Dani’el, however, remained true and loyal to his Elohim
and continued to worship Him three times a day towards Yerushalayim,
before an open window. So this led to Dani’el being
thrown into the lions’ den, but miraculously, his Elohim shut the lions’
mouths! Notice the way Elohim tried him - he was not saved from the lions’ den,
no, he was saved from the lions’ mouths!
That is
the extreme test. The three friends of Dani’el were
similarly put to the extreme test. They were not saved from the furnace, no,
they were saved from the fire in the furnace - they too were true and loyal to
Elohim, they would not worship the golden image of Nebukadnetstsar.
There are
quite a few other examples in Scripture of trustworthy believers who were
imprisoned, or even stoned to death. Because they were true and loyal to the
Elohim of Yisra’el, they remained steadfast in the
Word of Yahuweh and upheld His Word, His Teaching, His Law, His Commandments.
Let’s look at two of these, both being filled with the Spirit:
In 2 Divre haYamim / 2 Chronicles
24:20-21 we read, Then the Spirit of Elohim came upon Zekaryah
... and said to them, ‘This said Elohim, "Why are
you transgressing the Commandments of Yahuweh, and do not prosper? Because you
have forsaken Yahuweh, He has forsaken you.’ " So Yo’ash
commanded that he be stoned to death right there in the courtyard of the House
of Yahuweh.
The other
example is that of Stephanos, as we read in Acts 7. Stephanos was a man filled with the Set-apart Spirit (Acts
6:5 and 7:55). He was addressing the Yehudim and
reminded them how Mosheh had received "the
Living Words" on Mt. Sinai "to give to us," but the
fathers would not obey. He reminded them of the fact that all the prophets were
persecuted, and that they killed those who announced the coming of the
Righteous One, and of whom they now have become the betrayers and murderers.
Then in Acts 7:53 his last words were that they were not keeping the Law! Verse
54 says, "And hearing this they were cut to the hearts and gnashed the
teeth." So they stoned him to death.
Nowadays
they don’t imprison you or stone you to death, literally, but the True Believer
who witnesses is indeed figuratively imprisoned and figuratively stoned,
especially by the religious leaders - at least that, and worse might even
befall them in time to come, as was prophesied.
Yahushua
and His emissaries repeatedly told us that we will endure sufferings, pressure
and persecution. But this persecution is (according to the Messianic
Scriptures) only for two reasons:
(1) For
the sake of Yahushua’s Name.
(2) For
righteousness’ sake.
It is
still the same, especially in our day as we witness for the Name of Yahushua and
for the righteousness of Elohim - in the same way the prophets suffered
persecution, as we discussed in this article.
"Blessed
are those persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because theirs is the reign of
the heavens." (Matt. 5:10).
In a
subsequent article we shall be focusing on the greatest unjust persecution,
rejection and impalement of all time - that of Yahushua.