Johann Quisumbing

An Adventure Story of Yeshua bar Yosef by JQuisumbing

We pick up the story with Yeshua encamped in the wilderness of Judea remembering his past.

The yelpings of several Jackals were a little bit closer to his campsite. Yeshua was not worried. He knew they would not bother him here. He stood up to stretch and walked a few steps outside the fire-light circle to look up at the clear night sky. Seeing its vastness, he could not help but remember a favorite psalm of his father, Yosef. He began to sing softly…

The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. ¹ 

When he was very little, he asked Yosef what it meant. So, on one clear night,  he took him to a grassy hill north of the village. Yosef made up a campfire and they sat around it. Then, with elaborate hand movements and that overdramatic way that he loves to use as he tells stories to him and other children, he first recited the creation story written by Moses. ² Yeshua’s imagination soared with those incredible images of the Great Adonai making the universe. Yosef then guided him to span the night sky from horizon to horizon. 

“My son, can you see Him making all that? When you look up there, you can almost hear Him saying ‘Come forth!’”

Yeshua fell asleep on that hill. He dreamt of faraway times and of distant celestial objects like he had seen them before. When he woke up, he was back home and his mother was just bringing in newly baked bread. When his father walked into the house for the morning meal, Yeshua told them about the images. He was excited and he wanted to know more, but more importantly, he wanted to know why it all seemed familiar. 

Yosef looked at Mariam, his mother, for a long while. Then, his mother told him an even more incredible story of his birth and finding out that Yosef was not really his father but the Adonai who created all things. So, he wanted to know more.  

“I will bring you to the Synagogue to see the Rabbi,” Yosef said. “But you must keep secret what your imma has told you.”

“But why, Abba? Imma?” 

Mariam brought him close in her embrace and whispered, “Because your time has not yet come.”

Yosef then brought Yeshua at the age of three to the Synagogue. Though schooling usually started at the age of 5, the rabbi, amazed by Yeshua’s keen inquisitiveness, agreed to let him start school. By his first year, he was quite adept with the five books of Moses. 

He was quite happy because he was learning so much about his Father in heaven. But deep down, he had this childhood desire to hear his Father Adonai’s voice like the way He spoke to Abraham, Moses and the prophets of old. Then, at the age of 12, he was told that they were taking him to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, he thought that this was an opportunity to hear his voice in his Heavenly Father’s house on earth. 

He recalled in the Holy scrolls about Samuel, one of the greatest prophets in Israel’s history, who lived some thousand years ago. It was in the time when the dwelling place of God was still in the Tabernacle that Moses erected after Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt. And when Israel finally entered the promised land some 40 years later, the Tabernacle was settled in the region of Shiloh during the era of the Judges. It was also written that, in those days, the word of the Lord was rare and there were not many visions. Yeshua took note that Samuel was about his age when he was left by his mother to serve in the Tabernacle as a Nazarite. One night, while he slept, the Lord Adonai spoke to him. ³ Yeshua wondered somewhat excitedly, while in the Temple, maybe his old childhood wish might finally come true. 

The moon started to peek above the rim wall bathing the canyon floor with its soft light. Yeshua then went back into his shelter. The fire was down to coals. He put more wood and stoked it until it flared up. Then he drew his robe tighter around him and stared long into the fire. 

TO BE CONTINUED

Footnote: [1] Psalm 19:1-4; [2] Genesis 1; [3] 1 Samuel 3  

In my next posting, Yeshua will continue his reminiscing into his past when he and his parents ventured into the city of Jerusalem and young Yeshua will have his own 3 day adventure himself.

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