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DISCOVER THE TRUTH THROUGH FICTION(TM) THOENE FAMILY CLASSICS(TM) HISTORICAL

Stories of miracles abound.
Could Yeshua be the long-awaited Messiah?

Eve, the widow of Absalom the Scribe, has one thing to live for-her only son, Abel. She grieves over his every rasping breath. She's heard of a great Healer who walks the earth. Could the rumors be true? Could there be a miracle for Abel?

While riffling through the archives under the Temple Mount, religious leader Ra'nabel ben Dives discovers startling information about a child who escaped the slaughter of Herod the Great's soldiers. If King Herod Antipas and High Priest Caiaphas don't know, ben Dives schemes, perhaps I can turn this news to my own advantage. . . .

Meanwhile, in Bethany, El'azar, a close friend of Yeshua's, grows seriously ill. Miryam and Marta, his sisters, quickly send word to Yeshua, but Yeshua delays. Why does He not come? the sisters wonder. Does He not care?

Special feature: Study questions suitable for individual use or group discussion.

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Seventh Day

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Chapter One

Though certain they had known Him all their lives, the people of Nazareth had no idea who Yeshua was or where He had come from. Nor could they imagine the eons that had passed since this moment of divine revelation had been planned.

Despite the fact that every detail of Messiah's life and mission was revealed within the text of ancient law and prophets, the good people of Nazareth did not comprehend.

Not surprising.

After all, could Messiah live next door?

"Yeshua, my mother wonders, please, could she borrow two eggs?"

Was it possible that The Lord of All the Angel Armies, El Olam, and Ancient of Days, had descended to earth from His throne and was singing in the carpenter's workshop?

Could the descendant of David-Prophet, Priest, and King-be more than a metaphor? Could He truly be Immanu'el, God-with-us?

They had heard of Yeshua's miracles, yes, but even then, few in Nazareth believed.

"Messiah, remember me? I gave you water when you were building new stairs to my roof. So ... just give me a sign."

One particular Shabbat, Yeshua stood among His neighbors.

It was in the autumn. The fifty-first week of the cycle of Torah portions. The reading for that Shabbat was Nitzavim, which means in Hebrew, "Standing."

Certain men of the congregation, including Yeshua, were chosen to make aliyah, to ascend the bema to read. One section of the Parashah was recited by an old man with a quavering voice. It was taken from the last chapters of the book of Deuteronomy:

"Today you are standing, all of you, in the presence of Adonai, your God ... in order to enter into a covenant with Adonai, your God; a covenant Adonai is making with you today and sealing with an oath."

Taken literally, the verse informed the congregation plainly that they were in the presence of the Lord, that He was physically there.

Yet the hearers did not hear.

Those who saw Him did not see.

Another read:

"But I am not making this covenant and this oath only with you. Rather I am making it both with him who is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and also with him who is not here with us today; those of future generations. See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. Now choose life."

The truth of the message escaped them. After all, Scripture was just Scripture. Familiar. Boring. An obligation. They studied it, read a different Parashah every week, memorized it, and talked about it all the time. It never meant anything literal, did it?

That the Lord Himself was standing in their midst?

Torah readings completed, the congregation recited the blessings:

"King, Helper, Savior, and Shield! Blessed are You, O Eternal! Reviving the dead; You are all powerful to save! He sustains the living in mercy, and reanimates the dead in abundant compassion; supports the fallen, heals the sick, releases those who are bound! Who is like You, Lord of mighty deeds?"

Praise was on their lips, but what was in their hearts?

Then their Redeemer, Messiah, Adonai, Immanu'el, God-with-us, stood before them at the bema of the little synagogue.

If only!

Yeshua's deep brown eyes, flecked with gold, searched each familiar face, knew every unspoken thought and secret.

The scroll of the prophet Isaias was presented to Him. Unrolling it, He found the appointed place and began to read:

"The Spirit of Adonai is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the favor of Adonai."

Yeshua rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the shammash, and sat down. The eyes of everyone were fastened on Him, and He said to them, "Today this passage of the Tanakh is fulfilled in your hearing."

"What?"

"Fulfilled?"

"You don't say?"

The congregants eyed each other in consternation.

Yeshua's earthly father was dead, His mother left a widow.

"If you are truly the Messiah, why did Yosef die?"

Broken hearts in Nazareth were still broken. The poor were still poor. Blind were still blind. The oppressed were still burdened. If Yeshua was Messiah, He had not done them any favors!

"Today the Scripture is fulfilled, he said? Who does he think he is?"

"Isn't this Yosef's son?" an old man asked.

Yeshua said to them, "Surely you'll say to me, `Doctor, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard you did in Capernaum.' I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. There were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine in the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath."

"Elijah was sent to outsiders, he means!"

"Is he comparing himself to Elijah? Saying he can raise the dead, is he?"

If only they had let Yeshua speak, He would have taught them how Elijah raised the widow's son from the dead and miraculously provided flour and oil enough for her and her son to eat while all the rest of the country hovered near starvation.

If only they had opened their hearts, they might have understood that Yeshua was The One Sent from heaven to lavish Yahweh's endless chesed, mercy, on all who called out to Him.

If only!

But the people of His hometown were in no mood to listen.

"He's a nobody, this son of a carpenter!"

"Yet now he declares he meets the criteria to be Messiah!"

"Heal the sick and raise the dead? To cleanse the Temple of corruption and set up a kingdom? And bring the exiles home?"

"Yeshua claims he is the fulfillment of all the writings of Torah and the prophets?"

"He's a madman! Or worse!"

It was a mob comprised of old friends and good neighbors who dragged Him outside the town with the goal of hurtling Him over a cliff.

The Sovereign Lord of the Universe, the Anointed Messiah promised by the prophets, had indeed lived next door. And they drove Him away.

The Parashah proclaimed, Listen! Today you stand before Adonai! He has come to you personally to seal the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Choose life!

They chose, instead, to try to kill Him.

Yeshua never returned to Nazareth. Not ever. There were other towns, other needs, others who hoped He would come to them ... and His time to live as a man among mortal men was growing very short.

* * *

His name was Abel. Abel begins with alef, the first letter of the alphabet. He was Eve's first and only son-her miracle, her joy. He was her life. He was everything ... the substance of every hope.

Like Isaac, the baby was a miracle child-a gift from God, his father, Absalom, said. So they named him Abel, meaning "God is my Father." Circumcised into the covenant of Abraham at eight days, Abel was the lone offspring of...