Davar Kingdom of God

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he (Isa 43:10).

Vv. 10-13 are in a chiastic form (A-B-C-D-C-B-A) so that v. 10 corresponds to v. 12.

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "that I am God (v. 12).”

Note that there are three verbs (to “know,” to “believe,” and to “understand”) with “you (the Lord’s chosen people)” as their subject in v. 10, and there are also three verbs (to “reveal,” to “save,” and to “proclaim”) in v. 12 with “I (the Lord)” as their subject. First, the Lord “reveals” his plan by speaking to the people so that they will “know” his plan. When they know his plan, they will come to “believe” that what he has revealed will be fulfilled, and as a result, the Lord will “save” them. But that is not the end. After the Lord saves, he will “proclaim (lit. let them hear)” that he is the one who has saved them so that they will “understand” that he is the Lord (Yahweh) who fulfills his word. And the Lord’s chosen people are the “witnesses” of that—he is Yahweh, the one who fulfills his word.

These words were spoken originally to those who received God’s judgment and were taken to Babylon in captivity at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. But the same words can be applied to those who are in Christ today.

Your first father sinned; your spokesmen rebelled against me. So I will disgrace the dignitaries of your temple, and I will consign Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn (vv. 27-28).

Note the expression, “your first father sinned.” The anger he poured out unto the people, his children, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem had been, in fact, kept and piled up ever since the time of “the fist father” who had sinned, whoever that first father was. And once his anger was released upon them, he is no longer angry. He says:

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more (v. 25).

The same thing happened through Christ, his only Son, who gave himself as a pleasing aroma to ease God’s wrath.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement (a propitiation), through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished (Rom 3:25)—

The Greek word hilasterion, translated as “a sacrifice of atonement,” is a kind of sacrifice given to gain God’s favor for the pacification of his wrath.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18).

God’s wrath has been removed completely. He is no longer angry with us. We used to be enemies to God, but we have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Now is the time of God’s favor—the day of salvation!

As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation (6:1-2).

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17)!

If you are in Christ, this is the reality in which you live. The reality you used to live has become old and disappeared, and a new reality has come. When the reality you live in changes, the way you live changes. When you are a single, you live as a single. But when you get married, which is a new reality, you start living as a husband or a wife. Then, when a baby is born, which is another new reality, you begin to live as a father or a mother. In the same way, if you are in Christ by having been baptized into Christ and his death, you are a new creation—the fulfillment of God’s word, and live in a new reality. You cannot live in the old reality you used to live in.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland (Isa 43:18-19).

Here, “the former things” and “the past” mean Satan’s work of death and destruction that happened in the past. And “a new thing” means God’s work of creation and life. The work of destruction has gone, and the reality of death has disappeared. To “forget” and “not dwell on” means not to accept as your reality. We must not accept the old reality of destruction and death because what was destroyed was created back, and death has been swallowed in victory. What was lost was restored to us, and the word of life was fulfilled in us. We are the witnesses of that.

Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of them foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, "It is true."

Here, “the former things” are God’s work of creation we have experienced in the past. We should know that all such work was done as his word was fulfilled. Nonbelievers have not experienced or seen such work, nor believe that God has the power to fulfill his word. Therefore, God wants us to go out and testify before them as his witnesses.

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he (v. 10).”

“I am he” means “I am the one who fulfills my word”: He is Yahweh, the Lord. There are three things we need to do: to know, to believe, and to understand. First, we need to know what he says, the truth—his will and plan. Second, we need to believe that God has the power to do what he says so that what he says will be fulfilled. Third, after it was fulfilled, we need to understand that what occurred to us was the fulfillment of his word.

I, even I, am the Lord (Yahweh), and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed-- I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, (vv. 11-12)…

Note the strong emphasis on “I” at the beginning of the sentence. He is the only God, and there is no other God. He is Yahweh, the God who faithfully fulfills his word. Note also the three verbs used here: to reveal, to save and to proclaim (lit. to let someone hear). He revealed his plan and will to us with his word, and saved us by fulfilling it, and proclaimed to us, or let us hear and see that it was by the fulfillment of his word that we were saved. We are the witnesses of that.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2 Cor 5:14).

The verb “to compel” in Greek means “to seize so as to leave little room for movement.” Because of Christ’s love, we have no choice but to live as follows:

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (v. 15).

When the reality in which we live changes, the way we live also changes. Our reality is now that when Christ died for all, we also died together with him. If we died, we no longer can live for us who died, but for him who died and lives in us. In other words, we no longer have the ownership of our life, but Christ does. This is the new reality we live in.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

“From a worldly point of view” literally means “according to the flesh.” It is the standard that our flesh considers as reality. Christ is a son of a carpenter from Nazareth according to that reality, but he is the Son of God, the pre-existent Word according to the reality that the Bible teaches. And the same reality tells us who we are as follows:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (v. 17)!

Every creation is the fulfillment of God’s word. God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. In the same way, he said to you, “Live!” and you began to live as the fulfillment of what he said. New creation deletes old destruction. When light comes, darkness vanishes. “The old has gone, the new has come!” The old reality is gone, and the new reality has come.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (v. 18):

All realities are made by God. His name is “I am that I am.” He is the source of all realities. Mass to which every object in this world owes its existence is one form of the reality that he made. But he can also create reality without mass. And according to this reality, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. We know that our eyes can see only certain types of light, but there are many other types of light that we cannot see. Thus, what we see with our eyes is not the only reality that exists or we live in. God sees all types of lights. In fact, he is the source of all lights with which everything was made in a physical sense as well as in a spiritual sense: “the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland (Isa 43:18-19).

Therefore, as those who live according to a new reality, we should no longer count the things of the old reality. “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” “To forget” means “not to remember, or speak about,” and “not to dwell” means “not to understand, or consider.” Do not take your past as your reality. Do not hold onto it. Now is the time of reconciliation, the time of God’s favor, the day of salvation, and the year of Jubilee.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11).

If you wish to have God’s word fulfilled in your life, you will need to accept the spiritual reality that the Bible teaches and live standing upon it by faith. In the above verse, pay attention to the verb “count.” Abraham counted the stars in heaven, and believed that God, who said, “So shall your offspring be,” had power to fulfill his word. Then, God also counted him as righteous. It is exactly in the same way that we were made righteous when we believed that God, who had raised Jesus from the dead, has the power to do the same for us according to his word.

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (vv. 3-4).

Note the expression, “don’t you know,” which indicates that the object of knowing is a fact—the spiritual reality in which believers live. We believe that Jesus died for us, and he was raised from the dead three days later. It means that we believe that the fact about Jesus’ death and resurrection, which happened two thousand years ago in Jerusalem—at the time we did not even exist, covers us and works for us today beyond the physical reality of time and space that we are living in. In other words, what we believe is the spiritual reality that our physical eyes do not see—that we all died, were buried, and were raised from the dead with Jesus.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection (v. 5).

We were all united with Christ, and when God sees us, he sees us through Jesus: whatever he is, we are also—completely righteous and blameless. This is how he sees us, and it is the firm reality. God’s eyes are not like our eyes, and he sees through the spiritual reality.

If this is true, and what these scriptures say is a genuine reality for us, then, there must be a certain way in which we should live according to the new reality we were brought in. If the reality changes, our way of life changes, too. Once we have become the righteousness of God, we are to walk on the way of righteousness—no other way. If we walk on the other way—the way of sin, we deceive ourselves and live according to a wrong reality.

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness (vv. 17-18).

In a sense, we lost the freedom concerning the righteous way of living that the Bible teaches. We used to be free from it because we were ignorant about the spiritual reality of God’s word. That time, the only reality we knew was that of this world, and we were completely sunk in it, and lived according to whatever the eyes of our flesh saw. And there was no fulfillment of God’s word.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death (vv. 20-21)!

But now, given the faith to accept the reality of the Bible, and having become the righteousness of God, we can and should live according to the reality that the Bible speaks about. When you live that way, the fulfillment of God’s word is inevitable.

What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Rom 4:3).

Abraham counted the stars in heaven, and God said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed that what God said would be fulfilled, and his faith was counted as righteousness. Just as he counted the stars, God counted him as righteous. It was the most vital step that he had to take in order for God’s plan and promise to be fulfilled in him. In the same way, in order for God’s word to be fulfilled in you and for all his promises to come true, you must be righteous before him.

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isa 59:1-2).

The truth is that God desires to save you more than you want him to save you, but he cannot if you are unrighteous before him. However, once this unrighteousness is removed, he can save you from all problems and sufferings, and his blessings can be yours unlimitedly.

Therefore, the promise (to be heir of the world) comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all (Rom 4:16).

As Abraham was counted as righteous by faith, we who believe in Christ were also counted as righteous by faith, not by works.

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness (vv. 20-22)."

“To do what he had promised” means “to fulfill what he had promised.” Abraham believed in the fulfillment of God’s word, and you followed him by believing the same way. Thus, you were counted as righteous the same way. No matter how acutely Satan brings charges against you, it is God who justified you and counted you as righteous through Christ. You can always go near to him and stand before him with boldness and confidence.

… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:22).

Yet, you should not forget that it was by the following truth that you were made righteous. Jesus said:

It is written: “And he was numbered with the transgressors”; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment (Luke 22:37).

Sin is spiritual, and unrighteousness is a spiritual condition—a reality in the spiritual world. Christ did not sin in this physical world, yet he was numbered (counted) as unrighteous in the spiritual world. On the other hand, we who sinned in this world were counted righteous in the spiritual world through Christ. This, too, came as the fulfillment of God’s word, and we are Abraham’s offspring, the new humanity—the believers of the fulfillment of God’s word.

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them (Luke 15:11-12).

The younger son went to the father and asked for his share of the property that he was entitled to as his son. With what he received, he decided to go to a far country where he would be free from the law, and the supervision of the father would not reach. In other words, he wanted to live according to his own ideas and principles by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living (v. 13).

So he did. But the moment he did, the riches of the grace of his father, which he used to receive as the fulfillment of his word, disappeared.

After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything (vv. 14-16).

He was no longer living as the son of his father with all rights he once had, but was made to work as a slave under the ownership of a foreign master—no mercy, no grace—the state of death as expressed later by the father.

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men (vv. 17-19).”

This should be compared with the attitude he had at the beginning: he did not want to obey his father, but demanded to receive his share of the estate as his son. After he lost everything, he decided to work as one of his hired men, which indicates that he was ready to obey the command of his father.

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him (v. 20).

There is no description of how the son reacted to these actions of his father who was always watching to accomplish what he desired, and to fulfill his word.

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son (v. 21).”

As he was about to say, “make me like one of your hired men,” the father turned to his servants and said to them:

“Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate (vv. 22-24).”

The father said, and his word was fulfilled. The moment this son returned to the father, the fulfillment of the father’s word returned.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa 55:8-9).”

God’s thoughts are higher than your thoughts. What he desires and plans are far bigger than what you desire and plan. Therefore, speaking of the fulfillment of God’s word, it will be difficult if you confine yourself to your own small and selfish desires and plans. Abram was childless, and wanted a child who would inherit his possessions. His wife, Sarai, wanted a baby that she could hold in her arms. But God’s plan for them was much bigger than that.

Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. …and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Gen 12:2-3).

And the land that God planned to give him was much larger—not a field or a small piece of land.

Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever (13:14-15).

What about the purpose of all of this? Why did God desire to give him all of these? It was not simply about the increase of his offspring or the possession of the land. His thoughts were far deeper than Abram’s thoughts.

For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him (18:19).

For this purpose, God taught and trained him. He wanted Abram to have the same thoughts as his own. It was for this reason that God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac to him.

Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about (22:2).

You should not consider the desires you have in your heart to be merely your own—small and selfish. God is not a tool with which you come to have what you want. No, he is the one who created you, and he always has something he himself wants to do for you and through you. You are his tool for the fulfillment of his word.

… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isa 55:11).

The fulfillment of God’s word is the fulfillment of what he desires. He speaks what he himself desires and fulfills what he himself speaks. We are his instruments, and we should let him fulfill his own word.

The Lord said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled (Jer 1:12)."

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Eph 3:20-21).

He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter. So he said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings." And Saul offered up the burnt offering (1 Sam 13:8-9).

Seeing the Philistines, as numerous as the sand on the seashore, being assembled to fight against Israel, all the troops with king Saul were quaking with fear, and many of those who followed him began to leave and scatter. So, Saul offered the burnt offering though he was not a priest. This offering was offered not to God, but to the people so that he could keep his men from leaving. It was done according to the idea of his mind. Just as he finished offering it, Samuel showed up, and said to him.

You acted foolishly. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure (vv. 13-14); …

When a Christian walk according to the flesh—his own understanding and ideas, the fulfillment of God’s word stops. It is the same thing as eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Bible says:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge him,

And he will make your paths straight (Pro 3:5-6).

We have God’s presence all the time, but it is our responsibility to acknowledge him wherever we go. King Saul, when he was attacked by the Philistines, did not acknowledge the Lord, but leaned on his own understanding. Therefore, the word did not come to be fulfilled: his kingdom was not established.

You can compare this with the story of Jehoshaphat who was attacked by the allied forces of the Moabites and Ammonites—a vast army.

Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him (2 Chr 20:3-4).

King Jehoshaphat put God first, not himself, or his own understanding. He stood before the temple of the Lord, and prayed:

O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. … For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you (vv. 6-12).

This is what it means to trust the Lord with all your heart. So, the word of the Lord came to him:

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's (v. 15).

Because he committed his way to the Lord, it was the Lord himself who did it by fulfilling his word. When you think you can still do it, fear comes and you fail with no fulfillment of his word. Jehoshaphat encouraged the people by saying:

Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld;

Have faith in his prophets and you will be successful (v. 20).

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:8-9).

The Bible speaks a lot about food. That is because humans have bodies to maintain, and need to eat continually. Eating has become the center of our life, and even the purpose of it. Therefore, using it metaphorically, the Bible teaches us about the way of living. The above scripture in Genesis mentions two different trees—one from which man can eat freely, and the other from which he cannot. God said to Adam who had eaten from the tree that he was commanded not to eat from:

Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat of it,” … through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. … and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground (3:17-19), …

Note, here, that the verb “to eat” is used so many times. The sin that came from eating from a wrong kind of tree resulted in another way of eating. This is the world we see today—how people eat and die, not live. Satan said to Jesus who had fasted forty days and forty nights, and was hungry:

If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread (Mat 4:3).

But Jesus answered:

It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (v. 4).”

Here, you see two kinds of food—one that fills your physical stomach, and the other that is your spiritual food, the word of God. But this spiritual food is not only for your spiritual satisfaction, nourishment or growth. The disciples who had gone to a town to get some bread came back and urged him to eat, saying, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said:

I have food to eat that you know nothing about. … My food … is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work (John 4:32-34).

As when he was tempted by Satan, he refused to eat the food that the disciples brought. For him, the real food is to do the will of the Father, and finish his work—the fulfillment of the Scripture. These two kinds of food represent two different ways of lifestyle. Jesus said to the crowd who came to follow him after the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand:

I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval (6:26-27).

Food is something that you “work for.” Humans after the Fall came to work for food that spoils: this food, you eat, and die. It is the way you live by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the food that Jesus gives endures to eternal life. Where is really the difference? Jesus said:

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life (v. 63).

The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:6).

There are two ways for a human to live:

1) To live as the fulfillment of God’s word

2) To live with his/her own ideas

If these two lifestyles are to be illustrated using the story of Adam and Eve who lived in the Garden of Eve, lifestyle 1) is to eat from the tree of life, and lifestyle 2) is to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And Paul explains the same two ways of living as follows:

1) To live according to the spirit

2) To live according to the flesh

This is to be understood together with the fact that a human has three parts—spirit, soul and body. A human is essentially a spirit who has a soul and lives in a body. A spirit and a soul are two independent beings, and each has its own will, reason and emotion. God speaks to the sprit, and the spirit speaks to the soul, and the soul controls the body. This is how God’s plan and will are carried out in this physical world, and his word comes to be fulfilled. It is not merely about keeping the law, but about God’s work being done for us through our actions. He always desires to do his will on earth as he does in heaven.

But when our soul stops listening to the spirit, and does not carry out what God says, the fulfillment of his word stops for us. This happens when we live according to our ideas in our soul: that is to say, by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The result is death—spiritual death, and with no spiritual communication with God, we are left to live with our own fleshly ideas with no spiritual power. In this condition, it is impossible to keep the law, God’s commandments, which are spiritual and requires spiritual power in order for us to keep them.

… the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God (vv. 7-8).

So, Christ came to save us from this miserable condition. He lived completely and perfectly according to the spirit. Yet, he was always surrounded by those who lived according to the flesh. Interestingly, the contrast and friction between him and them is seen everywhere in the gospels. We can look at John 6, for example. Some of the crowd whom Jesus fed from five loaves of bread and two fish came to follow Jesus by crossing over the lake. When they found him on the other side of the lake, he said to them

I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval (John 6:26-27).

They wanted to make Jesus the prophet like Moses who had given the manna, or the king-messiah who would give them freedom from the Romans. However, Jesus was to die as the Lamb of God fulfilling the scriptures. While these people approached him attempting to lure him to give them another free meal with their fleshly calculations, Jesus explained to them that he was the true and living bread that came from heaven. Jesus lived in a different world—the reality different from the reality they lived in. They were disappointed with his words, complained and accused him

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him (v. 66).