The Breaker
Matthew 11:12

Some twenty years ago I came to understand the importance of studying the Hebraic foundation of the bible and it’s been an incredible journey ever since. Very often I’m asked why I care. After all, I’m not Jewish. One of my professors used to tell people that no, he wasn’t Jewish, but neither was Jesus a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Baptist from Dallas. His point is that Jesus was a Jew. The Bible was written to Jews for Jews. It is full of Hebraic idioms and thought.
Can one come to know Jesus and be saved without ever knowing a word of Hebrew or understanding the bible from its Jewish background? Certainly one can. But why would anyone truly in love with Jesus be satisfied with a surface understanding of the bible? In this and future postings, I hope to show you the beauty of the Hebrew language and how it unlocks the deeper meaning of the bible. I can think of no better place to start than with a verse that has been vastly misunderstood and erroneously taught everywhere you look. Matthew 11:12..
…”And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
Sermons have been taught and books and articles have been written describing how Christians need to take the world by force for the kingdom. In actuality, this verse has nothing to do with that mindset at all. The main problem is a poor translation. Rather than ‘the kingdom of heaven suffers violence’, it should be translated ‘the kingdom of heaven is breaking forth.’ Instead of ‘and the violent take it by force’, the proper translation is, ‘every person is breaking forth’.
Jesus is speaking of John the Baptist. John is ‘the breaker’, or in Hebrew, the Poretz. (פרז). What is a breaker? In the days of Jesus and before, a shepherd and his helper would come to the end of the day and need to bed the sheep down for the night. They would often find a place with a high hillside or mountain behind them and stack stones in a semicircle around it to make a small fence. Sometimes they would make a door and the shepherd would sleep in the doorway. But many times they would not make a door at all. In the morning, the breaker would kick a hole in the fence, creating an opening. The shepherd would go out and the sheep would eagerly follow him, first one at a time, until in their zeal to pursue him, the hole in the fence would burst open and the sheep would run to the shepherd.

Jesus is referring back to Micah 2:12-13,
“I will gather all of you, Jacob;
I will collect the remnant of Israel.
I will put them all together like sheep in a fold,
Like a flock inside its pen.
It will be noisy and crowded with people.
The breach maker (the Poretz) goes through before them.
Then they break out.
Passing through the gate, they leave by it.
Their king passes through before them, their Lord at their head.”

The breaker, Ha Poretz, is a term used in multiple places in the bible. In 2nd Samuel God broke through the enemies of the Israelites and David named the place ‘Baal-Perazim’. In Genesis 38 a twin is named Perez because before his brother was born, he, Perez pushed his arm through first, he broke through. Perez is in the lineage of Jesus.
Jesus is the good shepherd who has gone out into the world. His sheep long to be with him. John is the Poretz, the breaker who comes before and opens the way. These verses from Micah were well known to everyone listening to Jesus. They understood to what Jesus was alluding and the claim he was making upon himself. Another fascinating note is that Micah 4:8 refers to the Tower of The Flock, (Migdol Eder). This tower, near Bethlehem, looked over the pasture where the sheep to be sacrificed in Jerusalem were kept. The crowd listening to Jesus no doubt understood the obvious allusion that he, the Lamb of God, born in Bethlehem, would soon to be sacrificed in Jerusalem.
As you can see, when we look at this verse through ‘Jewish eyes’, it takes on a completely different meaning. This verse is not advocating a violent uprising but explaining that John is the breaker, the one who comes before the messiah to make a way. And once done, the sheep rush out to follow the Good Shepherd. Jesus is not only letting it be known who John is, but also who He is.
As interesting as all this is, in what way does it impact your life? Aside from knowing a proper translation, what can we glean from this that makes a difference? Much of our walk with Jesus is about choice. What choices will we make? Will we choose to follow or walk away? In John 10:1 Jesus says, “Truthfully I say to you, he that enters the sheepfold not by the door, but climbs over is a thief and a robber.”
In the same way that a hole can be made by the breaker to usher people towards the Messiah, a hole could be made by someone coming in to steal the sheep, to harm them. What choice will you make? Will you choose to be one who shows the lost and broken the way to Jesus the shepherd? Or, will you choose to live in the world, fulfill your own desires and be a stumbling block to those looking for peace.
Will you become a thief and a robber? “…Choose you this day…” and by that, every day. Choose every day to be a light that shines the way to Messiah. We don’t need to look very hard to see that in the very places that we walk, we have friends, family, and neighbors who are trapped and hopeless, broken and afraid. Choose to be a poretz today and make a way for them.

Sources:
Tom Davis. Word of Life Bible Institute.
David Bivin and Roy Blizzard, Jr. “Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus”
Dr. Ron Moseley. American Institute for Advanced Biblical Studies.
Dr. Doug Wheeler. Kidron Christian College and Seminary. https://www.kidronchristiancollege.org/