Luke 11:39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.”
Hmmm....Remember when you were a kid - before every home had a dishwasher? Well, some of you do! After the evening meal, the dinner dishes had to be washed. If you had siblings chances are you were on the clean-up crew and did plenty of kitchen duty. Some great conversations took place while washing and drying the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. But have you ever washed the dishes with Yeshua? He spoke of the importance of cleaning the inside of the dish and cup and not only the outside. Luke 11:39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. (I can imagine that He meant how they treated those in their own families)
“Doing the dishes with Yeshua”; we are living in a time that we should want to do the dishes with Yeshua. We are vessels of the Ruach…the Spirit of the Living God and these vessels are to be clean and undefiled. If you would not consider eating your next meal from a dirty plate, then you understand the need to keep your vessel free from defilement of this world.
Every human being is a clay pot, as we are all made of the dirt of the ground just as Adam. Your clay vessel was designed to hold the Spirit of the Living God; a heaven- and-earth-together-in-the-same-place kind of container. When Adam and Eve disobeyed in the Garden, the Spirit of the Holy One left their clay-vessels and they were earthbound. Man had a predicament. In Hebrew, he had gone from ‘Neshama’ (with the eternal Spirit of the Living God in him) to Nefesh only (a living, breathing soul destined to die - mortal). Without the Spirit, this clay vessel could no longer live in the Garden. Not until the Perfect Vessel sent from the heavenly realm breathed on His disciples after His resurrection was it possible for the Spirit of God to reside once again in man. With the words, "Peace to you, as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." John 20:21-23
There were ten disciples in that room who believed Him that day. Judas, who had betrayed Him, was dead and Thomas, who we know as “Doubting Thomas,” and was not with them had said that he would not believe the resurrection of Yeshua unless he could touch His wounds. Yeshua came to him and had Thomas touch Him and said, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." God had found ten righteous men (those who would believe and obey Him).
He had been looking for these ten men since Moses sent 12 spies to the Land and only 2 came back believing that God was well able to give them the Land, while 10 professed unbelief. Those 10 men’s unbelief kept the entire nation out of the land for a total of 40 years and led to the death of everyone who had been over the age of 20 at the time of the Exodus. Because of the belief and obedience of these two men, God used Joshua and Caleb to lead the younger generation across the Jordan and into the Land promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Think of the millions and millions of people who have never seen the Messiah yet believed in His resurrection. The work of Messiah has been done, the price for our sin has been paid in full; all that remains is for people to recognize their need to be a clean vessel in order to come into God’s Presence and learn of Him.
Our hearts need a cleansing, and to be set-apart from the world for His use; just as any vessel, or tool, or pan, or utensil was set apart in the Tabernacle to be used exclusively unto serving God on behalf of the people.
If you have not had your heart cleansed, your sin of unbelief and disobedience forgiven, your acknowledgment of falling short of God’s glory then it is time to do the dishes with Yeshua. Your best conversations take place when you talk with your Father, your Provider and your Protector, your Messiah.
Day of Atonement is coming....let’s clean this place up!