Mark 6:7-13 The twelve are sent out. They were sent to preach repentance…what were the people to repent of? This is the key to this passage.

Jesus sent them out in pairs to preach a message. We will look at that message from the best of my understanding in the following discussion. First though, let’s look briefly at the dynamics of the mission. The disciples were sent out in pairs, they were instructed to travel lightly. They were instructed to go as they were without extra clothes or money. All they were to carry was a walking stick.

The disciples were sent out in the same manner as the Old Testament prophets who traveled such as Elijah and Elisha. They were also sent out in the same manner that John the Baptist traveled when he preached his message to prepare people for the return of the Messiah. Their specific instructions carried heavy weight. They were instructed to stay in only one house until they left town. If the town rejected them, they were to shake the dust of the town off their feet. This symbolized rejection of God’s instructions and a testimony against that town (Neh 5:13). This symbol carried grave meaning.

One of the things that has fascinated me in this passage is that all the disciples were sent. That included Judas Iscariot. Think about that for a moment. Judas was teaching, casting out demons and healing the sick. Then later he will deliver Jesus to be slaughtered.

The mission of the twelve is one of the tactics that Yeshua used in His ministry. Herod may have been focusing his effort on finding Jesus by following the healing trend that was taking place. This dispersion of the twelve may have been used to throw him off the path. Later we will see the same thing take place when the seventy are sent out on a similar mission (Luke 10:1-22). I have often wondered if these two mission trips were utilized to throw Herod off the path by dispersing the miraculous signs from the centralized point.

We learn in a few short verses that Herod believed John the Baptist had risen from the dead because of the preaching and the miraculous powers (Mark 6:14). John taught repentance in the form of returning to Torah. John’s ministry was one of turning back from deviating from God’s instructions (Mal 3:1-7). He came as a refiner’s fire which revealed the failure of people to follow God’s instructions (Torah) and to return to it. Yeshua sent the disciples out with the same message. Repentance from the Jewish mindset was to turn back to Torah from any deviant path.

I have heard many Christian preachers say that repentance is a “U-turn”, although this preaches good, it is a pretty bad illustration. Repentance is not a U-turn, it is a redirection. One way that this can be explained is that you are traveling to a destination and get off the path. When you become aware that you have gotten off the direct path, you redirect your route to reach the desired destination. This is not a full U-turn but rather a redirection. Few who know God will completely turn their back on Him. They may walk away from Him as the central focus of their lives.

There are many examples of this through the Old Testament. For example: Asa made great reforms by removing pagan symbols from the land. He loved the Lord deeply and sought to follow Him. In short, he redirected his kingdom to turn to Torah (1 Ki 15:9-14). However, even though he redirected, he still did not do away with the high places.  He repented his kingdom from blending paganism with Judaism. The negative mark against him was he allowed the high places to remain. In this example, even though he repented, he was still slightly off the mark.

The teaching that Yeshua did was radical. It was not radically different; it was radically simple. Yeshua taught Torah as it was written in the scriptures. This was much different than the oral torah that was being taught in that day. When He sent the disciples out, they were teaching the simple truth from the scriptures. The teaching of the disciples was to return to Torah. It was to return to the instructions of God.

Look at the evidence of the return to the instructions of God. These men were moving in the miraculous. This gives us a new focus on the miraculous. Why? It is commonly thought that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were dispersed at Pentecost (Shavuot); and they were. According to this passage, casting out demons and healing preceded the dispersion of the gifts of the Spirit. These gifts were utilized by the disciples prior to Pentecost. Think about that.

Deuteronomy 28 is one of the hidden gems in the Bible. It is a gem because it is in plain sight and clearly not understood by Jews or Christians. According to this chapter, a return to Torah has many benefits. Deviation from Torah has many judgments that accompany it… Yeshua sent the disciples out to teach people to return to Torah, or the original instructions of God. He also gave them spiritual authority over demons. The evidence of the truth they taught was validated by healing the sick.

Let’s look at the method of healing that the disciples used for a moment. They anointed people with oil. I realize that we are looking at minute pieces of information in this passage, bear with me.

Jesus (Yeshua) is the Messiah. If you were to transliterate the word Messiah into English from the Greek it is Christos. If you translate the title Christos into English, it is literally “the anointed one”. Messiah is not a name; it is a title. Names are transliterated, such as the name Jesus has been transliterated four times through languages from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English. That is why you often see me write with the name of Yeshua instead of the transliterated name: Jesus. Titles are not transliterated; they are translated as closely as possible to the original language. Messiah is the best translation for Christos since it carries the Hebrew meaning of “the anointed one”. Yeshua is the anointed one that has been expected through the ages.

When the disciples anointed people with oil it was with a new perspective. Yeshua, the anointed one, sent the disciples out to anoint others. He gave them the authority to anoint people by His authority for healing. This is where the power of anointing oil is found. When they anointed a sick person, they covered him with the symbolic nature of the Messiah. We can also do this today.

The name Yeshua means “Salvation”. That name means simply to “release from bondage”. When the disciples anointed people in the name of Yeshua, the oil represented the nature of the Messiah. His name carried the authority to release them from bondage. People were healed.

The result of returning to Torah according to Deuteronomy 28 is a return to favor with God (specifically Dt 28:1-12). Returning to the instructions of God brings the side effect of healing among other things. Therefore; if we change our preaching to teaching God’s instructions as they are written in the Bible, then people will be healthier. We will also see miraculous healings in our churches… It’s worth a thought.

He sends us out as His disciples also.  Our message then should be His message. He came to bring people back to the pure teaching of the Word of God. He removed the rabbinical teaching and simply taught Torah. He taught the simple instructions of God. We are to teach the same thing. When we draw believers to repent, we should be redirecting them to focus upon Yeshua the Messiah and the instructions that are found through the entirety of the Bible. When Jews and Christians learn Torah, they will be set free (John 8:31-36). By the way, an unbeliever is not brought to repentance, he is brought to the truth. Repentance is only for believers. An unbeliever cannot repent since they were not on the true path to start with. Asking unbelievers to repent is a display of biblical ignorance.

Remember, Jesus taught Torah exclusively. His message was completely drawn from Torah. The only thing that Jesus taught in the New Testament that is not found in the Old Testament is the extra mile (Mat 5:41). The extra mile is only found in one verse in the New Testament. It is not in the three synoptic Gospels or in John… Jesus taught Torah, if we discount the extra mile; He taught Torah 99.9% of the time. I challenge you to find anything else that Jesus taught that is not found in the Old Testament.