"Then John's disciples came and asked him, 'How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?"
Yehoshua's following is seen as what in our language today would be called an Orthodox following. Those of the school of Yochanan (John) understand Yehoshua to be a prophet and wonder why he is not following the way of the Pharisees with regard to the practice of fasting, as they themselves do. This practice was to fast on all occasions which called for fasting without exception. What prophetic significance, they wondered, did it have that Yehoshua's disciples were not being taught to do this?
The prophet Zechariah (8:19), had foretold a time when certain fasts in Israel would be turned into holidays of joy. Did the practice of Yehoshua's followers prophetically indicate the soon coming fulfillment of this prophecy from Zechariah? Note how Yehoshua's reply would constitute a Yes and No answer to this question. From here is the teaching on the old and the new wineskins. For, as in Zechariah 8, this "No and Yes" time is the time of the Great Conversion.
That time to which Zechariah referred was the time of the restoration of the Temple. For had all the tribes of Israel been restored to worship in one House of Prayer in the building of the second Temple, that Temple would have signified a restoration that merited the joy of celebration in the place of the fasts that had been instituted based upon the destruction of the Temple. However this was not to occur.
Therefore the second Temple represented a Yes and a No in the manner that Yehoshua's presence with his disciples would represent a Yes and a No. No they would not fast while the Bridegroom was present with them. Yes they would fast again when he was taken from them. No they would not fast once he was returned to them again. Then it would be that the fullness of the prophecy was come and there would be joy and celebration come upon Israel.
With respect to the "old wine" one would fast, but with respect to the "new wine" one would not fast. These parables are parables concerning the position of Israel with respect to the first Adam and with respect to the last Adam, that is to say Messiah, the Son of Adam. With respect to the first Adam there is promise, chastisement and preparation for re-creation. With respect to the Son of Adam there is divine matrimony, celebration and a new creation of the redeemed Adam as represented by redeemed Israel.
When this is understood it can be seen that what is being discussed at a deeper level is the meaning of the seventy years of Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the desolation of Jerusalem and how it is to be understood in terms of the 70 'weeks' revealed to Daniel. "In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem," Daniel 9:2. See the introductory comments to these Mellow Wolf Matthew Files.
