Archive for the ‘Passover’ Category

Pining for Easter

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

I can’t remember for certain where I first heard this allegorical story of Christmas–probably on Mark Call‘s radio show–but I have never forgotten its message. It involves a recently married couple. The wife has a sordid past, and her husband gave up nearly everything to help her put it behind her and heal from her many emotional, spiritual, and physical wounds. I have embellished it somewhat from the original. Here, we overhear them discussing his birthday.

W: “Dear, what would you like to do for your birthday this year? Anything you want!”

H: “More than anything else, I’d like to spend some time with you. Let’s go camping for a week where we can really be together.”

W: “But it’s so uncomfortable out there sleeping on the ground. Mosquitoes, flies…yuck! And no air conditioning! I have a better idea. Why don’t we stay home and throw a party? We’ll put up lights and decorations, and we’ll give presents to everyone! I know how much you like the wilderness, so we’ll put a tree up in the living room and make it up all fancy with lights and silver and gold! Oh! Won’t it be beautiful?”

H: “I’m sure it would be, but that’s not what I want. Besides, didn’t you used to do all these things with one of your ex boyfriends?”

W: “I know you didn’t really ask for anything this fancy, but I know you’ll love it. It will give me and all our friends a chance to show you just how much we love you! We’ll even change the date to make sure it’s convenient for everyone. How does December 25th sound?”

H: “That’s your ex boyfriend’s birthday, not mine! Those are the things he wanted you to do!  How could you possibly think I would appreciate that?”

W: “I know, but we already have this tradition. We’ve been doing it every year for so long now. It will be so much easier if we just keep using that same date and holding the same party. We’ll change the name! It’s OK because everyone will know we’re doing it for you now, not for Sol. Nor for old Satty, even if that’s where I got most of my ideas. Nor for Mithras, because hardly anybody remembers him anyway. See? It’s OK because I’m doing it all for you!”

H: “I already told you what I want.”

W: “Thor and I used to have a fire every year on his birthday. Let’s do that too! Oh! One more thing. You’ll love this! Can you dress up like Odin? He looked so cute, and the children will love it!”

H: “I am not Odin!”

It gets worse. Here is another conversation at a later date.

H: “I want you to always remember how much I sacrificed to rescue you from the cruel bondage of your former lovers. I want you to remember how I bled and suffered for you.”

W: “Oh! I will. How could I ever forget? To commemorate what you’ve done for me and to show you how much I love you, I’m going to bake a ham and invite everyone over for dinner.”

H: “You know ham disgusts me! I told you to roast a lamb.”

W: “We’ll color eggs and decorate with cute little bunnies.”

H: “Isn’t that what your ex lesbian lover, the one who murdered your children, used to make you do?”

W: “Well, yes, but that doesn’t matter anymore. I’m doing it all for you, and you know how much I love you. We’ll celebrate this day in your honor every year, and we’ll call it Easter!”

H: “That’s your lover’s name!”

God specifically told us not to adopt the religious customs of pagans. He told us not to join in their feasts. Yet we do it anyway, year after year after year, and we say it’s all good because God knows our hearts. He does indeed. Do you? What would you think of a wife who continued to celebrate the birthdays and deeds of horribly abusive ex lovers while claiming she did it for her husband who told her not to? How pure can your heart be if you still pine after your slavery and fornication?

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Nehemia Gordon on The Good News of Passover

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

From the Karaite Korner Newsletter #508

Next week is the annual feast of Passover, which commemorates the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt. In the Tanakh, Passover refers specifically to the sacrifice offered at the end of the 14th day of the First Biblical Month, whereas the feast is referred to as Chag HaMatzot, Feast of Unleavened Bread. Every Israelite was required to partake in the Passover sacrifice in order to remain part of God’s covenant-nation (Nu 9:7, 13). Eating of the Passover sacrifice was also the means for non-Israelites to enter the covenant. The Israelites left Egypt with a mixed multitude of people from numerous nations and the 12th chapter of Exodus explains how these foreigners could become part of the covenant-nation:

When a sojourner sojourns among you and does the Passover to Yehovah, circumcise for him every male and then he will approach to do it and shall become as a native-born of the land… There shall be one Torah for the native-born and for the sojourner who sojourns among you.”

The Torah is saying that by eating of the Passover sacrifice, the circumcised Gentile becomes an Israelite. There is no legal distinction between the native-born Israelite of the physical seed of Jacob and the sojourner who joins the covenant-nation through the Passover sacrifice.

With the destruction of the Temple, most Jews believe that the duty of sacrifice, including the Passover, must be fulfilled through prayer. This is a lesson that appears in the 14th chapter of Hosea. This prophet lived in the Kingdom of Israel at a time when it was at war with the Kingdom of Judah. The Jerusalem Temple was in Judah leaving the inhabitants of Israel cut off from the Temple and all legitimate sacrifice. In this context, the prophet teaches the people a path to repentance which includes fulfilling the duty of sacrifices through prayer:

Return, O Israel, to Yehovah your God for you have stumbled in your iniquity. Take with you words and return to Yehovah, say to him: “Forgive all iniquity, and receive goodness, and let us pay for the bulls with our lips. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we ride upon horse; and we shall no longer call the work of our hands ‘our gods’, because in you the orphan finds mercy.” Hosea 14:2-4

The elements of repentance that the prophet Hosea lays down are:

1) Return to God, 2) Ask for forgiveness, 3) Do good in place of the bad you have done, 4) ask God to accept prayer as a payment for sacrifice, 5) profess God to be your only savior, not man or your own might, 6) deny false gods of your own creation, and 7) proclaim God as the Father who acts mercifully even to the fatherless. Ever since the destruction of the Temple, Jewish “sojourners” have followed the teaching of Hosea and joined the covenant-nation by participating in prayers at the Passover seder, the annual commemoration of the sacrifice on the first night of Chag HaMatzot.

In modern times, becoming a Jewish sojourner has become not only a religious act but also a political one. It entitles the “convert” to citizenship under the Israeli “Law of Return”. The secular State of Israel has stepped in and imposed certain standards that every Jewish denomination must follow in their conversions. The Karaite Jewish community is no exception. As a result, modern-day conversion, unfortunately, has as much to do with Israeli religion-politics as it does with being a true Israelite in the eyes of the Creator as set down in his Torah. The running joke in Israel is that if Ruth the Moabite turned up at the border she would not be recognized as a Jew.

Up until 2007, the Karaite Jewish community did not perform any conversions of non-Jews. In July of that year I was privileged to be present at the first formal conversion ceremony of this sort in recent memory at the Karaite Jewish synagogue in Daly City, California. The conversion ceremony was carried out by the “Karaite Jews of America” with the approval of the “Council of Sages”, the official Karaite Jewish institution recognized by the State of Israel. When the idea of conversion was first presented to the “Council of Sages” they insisted on certain standards beyond those imposed by the State. One of their biggest issues was that Karaite conversion not be “evangelical”. The Christian evangelical spirit of going out and convincing people to change their beliefs is alien to the Jewish experience of the last 1000+ years. In most parts of the Diaspora, evangelizing to the Jewish faith was punishable by death at the hands of the Gentiles. This made Jews gun-shy about spreading their faith and this is still the general Jewish sentiment today. Whereas Christians consider it the greatest piety to convince people to change their beliefs, in the Jewish world this is considered a repugnant thing. The Jewish attitude is that our covenant of faith with God is a closely-guarded treasure. If a non-Jew wants to share in this treasure he must come of his own volition and internal conviction. In fact, Jewish tradition teaches that when a Gentile comes and asks to convert he must be refused three times. Only upon the fourth request is he allowed. We Jews are not eager to share our spiritual gold.

While the Karaite Jewish conversion process does not observe this ritual refusal, those who wish to convert are required to arrive at Karaite beliefs on their own before being eligible. Going out and evangelizing those of other faiths is strictly taboo. In the Christian and Muslim worlds “missionaries” are considered heroes but in Jewish culture they are thought of as vampires who prey upon unsuspecting and unwilling victims. While I can’t say this is a biblical attitude it certainly is a Jewish one that I am not immune to. Recently a friend on Facebook said I was “as pious as a missionary” and I thought she was casting the worst insult at me, until I realized that in her terminology this was meant to be a profound complement.

The conversion ceremony in Daly City wasn’t about missionizing or even making people Karaites. The candidates had to be of Karaite faith and practice long before being accepted into the year-long conversion process. The conversion ceremony was about making them Jews in the formal sense, recognized by an established Jewish community, and ultimately by the State of Israel. The Karaite Jewish Bet Din (religious court) in Daly City didn’t convert Christians or Muslims or Buddhists to Judaism; they converted non-Jewish Karaites to (Karaite) Judaism. The first man in line for the conversion ceremony was a dear friend who had been living as a non-Jewish Karaite for nearly a decade. His formal acceptance as a Karaite Jew was a monumental moment of prophetic significance for me. I see it as a fulfillment of Isaiah 56 which speaks about the son of the Gentile who joins himself to Yehovah becoming an integral part of Yehovah’s people. The end of that prophecy says:

Thus says Lord Yehovah, who gathers in the dispersed of Israel, I will gather others unto those I have gathered.

I have lived this prophecy, having been gathered from a dark corner of the Diaspora to the covenant-land that God gave my people. I’ve also seen those “others”, people all around the world, gathered to the God of Israel and his covenant. Most of these “others” will never convert to Judaism but I still believe they are a fulfillment of this prophecy, each through his own relationship with the Creator of the universe.

Over the years I’ve met Jews of both the rabbinical and Karaite persuasions who do feel called to convince people to embrace the Jewish faith. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this approach but it is the exception to the rule. One such exception was an old Karaite man in Jerusalem named Mordechai Alfandari. He once told me how Christian missionaries used to harass him on the subway in New York when he was a boy. He spent a great deal of his energies over the next 60 years engaged in Jewish apologetics. I consider Mordechai my mentor as he is the one who opened my eyes to speaking the name of God, which incidentally he pronounced Yihweh. When Mordechai passed away in 1999 I felt like it was expected of me to follow in his footsteps as a counter-missionary but my heart was never in it. The more time I spent speaking with Christians, the more I found I had in common with them. It seemed to me to be a colossal waste of time and energy arguing with them when there was so much we could learn from one another. I realized you can always find differences with people if you want to. God knows there are plenty of differences between me and other Jews and even between me and other Karaites. I decided I would focus my energies on what I have in common with people rather than the differences.

Today I don’t see it as my job to convince anyone to accept my faith. I believe God is the one who changes the hearts of men, not missionaries or preachers. I see my role as empowering people with information so they can understand the roots of their faith in its original language and context. I am convinced this has value for Jews, Christians, and anyone else who professes the truth of the one true God and his prophet Moses. I’m not sure Mordechai would be pleased with what I am doing today, but I need to follow what I feel my heavenly Father has called me to do. The good news is that a day is coming when the Messiah will sit as the flesh and blood King of Israel, enabling all those who believe in the covenant of the one true God to sit together at the same table and partake in the literal Passover sacrifice. May it be soon in our days!

Nehemia Gordon
Jerusalem, Israel

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The Adultery of Easter

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Exodus 23:13-15  “Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.  (14)  “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me.  (15)  You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed.

Christians replace the appointed times of God (Daniel 7:25) with the days and names of false gods. In what universe would the Creator of heaven and earth approve of using the names of one of his rivals with whom his people repeatedly committed adultery to celebrate the death and resurrection of his only Son? That is obscenely offensive! It is no accident that he commanded us to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread immediately after commanding us not to speak the names of false gods. These two commands are directed squarely at so-called Christians who celebrate Ashteroth and her abomination that brings desolation and the sacrifice of pigs instead of Passover, sanctification, and resurrection of Yeshua ha Maschiach.

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What Purpose the Crucifixion?

Friday, January 1st, 2010

What purpose did the crucifixion and resurrection serve?

Among other things, the Crucifixion satisfied the requirement of the Law for the death of the sinner, and the Resurrection established Yeshua’s permanent mastery of death. The Law still requires death for certain offenses, but there is forgiveness apart from mere physical death. Yeshua’s crucifixion opened the door for grace at the final judgment and eternal salvation.

Did they change anything? If so, what, when, and for whom? Was the world a different place after the resurrection than before Christ’s death on the cross? In what way?

There was a change, but it was subtle. Yeshua did not change the way in which anyone is saved from eternal damnation or granted eternal life. Salvation has always been available to anyone who asked and subjected themselves to God’s mercy. No one was ever saved by his own circumcision or obedience to Law, but by the grace of God in providing a substitutionary payment for the sins of all people who have ever lived. Yeshua’s resurrection proved his innocence. He could not be condemned because he never violated a single point of the Law and so could not be held in the grave. Untainted blood acts as a sort of spiritual shield or mask that allows us to approach God and vice versa closer than we could as our natural, fallen selves. His blood erases our sins in the eyes of God and therefore his righteousness appears to the Father as our own if we willingly place ourselves beneath it. But since God exists outside of time and could look through that blood at Abraham and David as well as at you and I, this doesn’t really answer the question.

The world was a different place after Yeshua’s death and resurrection in three important ways.

First, our perspective changed. Abraham knew a redeemer must come and looked forward in faith to that day. We now know that the redeemer has already come, and we look back at that day in faith that his blood is sufficient to cover our sins. The ultimate fulfillment of redemption is yet to come, but the payment has been made in full. An earnest of delivery was given in the form of the Holy Spirit, and we now look forward to the reality.

Second, although God exists outside of time, our spirits do not. Before Yeshua, the Scriptures seem to indicate that the dead went to some place like the underworld common to most ancient mythologies: “Abraham’s bosom” for the faithful and hades for the unfaithful. They could speak and thirst and could sometimes even return to the land of the living. Yeshua changed something in that arrangement, although I won’t pretend to understand exactly what.

Third, Yeshua, who has become a man and the firstborn of the resurrection, can now operate as our high priest in the supreme tabernacle in Heaven. When we accept his kingship and covering of our souls, our obligation is transferred from the Law, which holds us in bondage as lawbreakers, to him, who sets us free by mercy. His priesthood is superior to that of Aaron and his forgiveness supersedes any condemnation we might have under the Law.

Did He die only so that we wouldn’t have to go to Jerusalem every year and offer up dead animals to God?

No. The sacrificing of animals never had anything to do with eternal salvation. They atoned for inadvertent or accidental sins. There has never been an animal sacrifice for deliberate sin. Having said that, I don’t know what affect his death and resurrection has on animal sacrifices. Since they were never intended to save anyone’s soul and there is no altar on which to offer them, it’s not something I’m going to worry about overmuch. However, there are prophecies that appear to indicate there will be animal sacrifices offered up again on an altar in Jerusalem under Yeshua’s personal supervision. If that is a correct understanding, then his death could not possibly have negated all need for sacrifices. Perhaps no sin offerings will be made. I’m not sure.

The patriarchs of old, were they really saved through their faith that Yahweh would send a walking talking Messiah one day thousands of years in the future to walk and talk with their descendants, or were they saved through simple childlike faith that Yahweh would somehow make good on His word that He would redeem all of His people?

Both. They were saved by their faith in God’s mercy that he would give them life despite their sins. The mechanism of that mercy was the Messiah’s death, which some of them knew was necessary. I don’t believe they had to know the precise details of what form that mechanism would take, so long as they trusted in God to provide it. I believe the same is true today.

Did they really know who the Messiah would be or what purpose He would serve?

Some of them, yes. I believe Abraham knew after God provided a sacrifice in place of Isaac. He prophesied of the Messiah when he told Isaac, “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” (Hebrew for “burnt offering” is olah, which means “an ascending”. It implies something that burns and rises up in smoke, but it could be interpreted as anything that ascends to Heaven.) God actually provided a ram that day, not a lamb. The Lamb of God appeared centuries later, was killed, rose from the dead, and ascended to Heaven.

Christ said “believe on me and you shall be saved.”
How about those who lived and died before Christ?
Did Job appeal to his Maker or to his cousin Abraham’s seed?

Isn’t Abraham’s seed and Job’s Maker one and the same? In order to believe on Christ, no one needs to know the vocalizations that make up his name (or any facsimile thereof) or even to know that he has already come. They only need to know that they are sinners and hopeless in themselves and to trust in (“believe on”) God to provide the means of their salvation.

Another very odd thing about the Scriptures is that they almost always, when properly translated (such as in the KJV, remarkably enough), say that the faith OF Christ shall save us, not our faith IN Christ. Now isn’t that strange?

The limitations of human language. We cannot possibly be really saved by any actions or thoughts of our own. Salvation is provided solely by God based on his own criteria. Fortunately, he has promised that salvation to us based on certain conditions which do not include physical obedience to any law.

And what of Mark 9:24, where the man says “I believe. Help my unbelief.” How does a man need help believing if he is already fully convinced?

I trust and believe, but sometimes I still have doubts.

Romans 7:15-17 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

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Messianic Symbolism in the Passover Seder

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

The Jews have been celebrating Passover for thousands of years and practicing traditions of which they only know half the meaning. Christians have been celebrating a mixture of Passover and pagan holidays during that time, but they too know some of the meaning of the Jewish traditions. Most of them just don’t know that they know. Here is just some of the rich meaning behind the traditions and commands of the Passover seder:

The Karpas

We eat parsley or celery greens dipped in salt water to remember the hyssop with which our ancestors painted the lamb’s blood on their doorposts and with which Yeshua was given vinegar on the cross. We dip the greens in salt water to remind us of the tears of bondage in Egypt and sin, as well as the tears of joy at our redemption.

The Matzah

We eat unleavened bread to remember how our ancestors had to leave Egypt in such a hurry that they had not time to allow their bread to rise, and it baked in the sun right on top of their packs.

The matzah is striped and pierced (think of a typical Saltine) to represent the wounds of our Messiah who was pierced for our transgressions and striped for our healing.

In the center of the Passover table, we place three pieces of matzah wrapped in white linen. Each piece is in a separate fold or compartment of the cloth and represents one part of the Trinity.

The Yachatz

At the start of the seder, we break the middle matzah in half, wrap it in a separate cloth and hide it. This is called the afikomen and reminds us of how the Messiah’s body was broken for us, wrapped in a linen burial shroud and buried in the tomb for three days. It also reminds us that he was taken away and hidden from our view after his resurrection.

At the end of the seder, the children all go to find the afikomen. This tells us that only those who are willing to look for the Messiah with the heart of a child will find him. The child who returns with the matzah may bargain with the leader for a prize. When the Messiah returns to rule his kingdom, he will not be coming for a slovenly bride, but one who is pure, who has worked out her salvation with earnestness. He will accept our gifts of gold and silver but destroy our chaff.

The Maror

We eat horseradish or some other bitter herb to remind us of our ancestors’ bitter suffering in Egypt. Although their suffering was great, so was their redemption and reward. We suffer too, but Yeshua said to rejoice when we are persecuted for righteousness sake. Our reward in heaven will be more than just compensation.

The Charoset

We eat a paste made of apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine to remind us of the mortar used to lay bricks in Egypt. It tastes much better than the mud it resembles, however, which is appropriate, because time spent in hard labor as a community binds us together and strengthens us as families and a nation.

The Lamb

Since there is no Temple in Jerusalem, we cannot have an actual Passover lamb. Many families will include a roasted lamb bone on the seder plate to symbolize the lamb whose blood marked the doorposts of the faithful in Egypt. The bone is roasted to remind us that the Passover lamb is to be roasted over a fire and eaten in whole. Whatever is leftover must be burned in a fire. The lamb also represents the Lamb of God who was slain to take away the sins of the whole world.

Although many people only eat chicken or some other bird on Passover so as to avoid even the appearance of having sacrificed somewhere besides the Temple, there is no commandment to that effect. Since this Passover can only ever be a rehearsal, no blood sacrifices are involved.

The Wine

We drink four cups of wine at Passover, though they need not be four full cups and can even be diluted or filled with simple grape juice instead of wine. The cups represent four promises that God made to Israel regarding slavery:

Exodus 6:6-7 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and (1) I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and (2) I will rid you out of their bondage, and (3) I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: And (4) I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

We drink the first cup immediately after the opening blessing to remind us that God saves us from our sins, while we were yet sinners. He took our ancestors out of Egypt before he gave them his laws or told them to do anything at all except to trust in him. Likewise, we do not need to complete our transformation to be saved, but only to commit ourselves to the process.

We drink the second cup after telling the story of the Exodus and explaining the significance of the various items on the seder plate, but before eating the main meal. This represents our sanctification through obedience to God’s law after our salvation from sin. God gave his Torah to Israel after saving them from Egypt and before allowing them to enter the Land. Only after we rid ourselves of bondage to sin can we partake in the full richness of God’s promises.

We drink the third cup, the cup of redemption, after the meal. This is the cup that Yeshua held when he said, “This is my blood of the new covenant.” Since sin entered the world through one son of God, so sin can only be taken away through another. As the perfectly sinless only begotten Son of God, the Messiah is the only person whose blood can redeem all of mankind from sin. Although we work hard to rid our lives of sin, we could never remove it through our own efforts. True redemption can only be a gift of God.

We drink the fourth cup to symbolize our union with God as his people. Yeshua did not drink the fourth cup because his mission was not yet complete. Although his blood was given as an earnest of that time, the New Covenant has not fully come. Only when he returns to rule his Kingdom will he drink the fourth cup and usher in the age of the New Covenant, writing his Torah on our hearts so that we will no longer have to teach or be taught about God. We will know him and his ways in our very flesh.

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Pesach 5769 – Jews and Gentiles

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

With Passover coming up, I’ve been listening to some studies and sermons on Passover and the Exodus. Mark McLellan’s “Messiah in the Passover” deserves a plug:

“And also a mixed multitude went up with them, and flocks, and herds, very much cattle.”

…Both Jews and gentiles came up out of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb. Both Jews and gentiles travelled together as brothers and sisters through the Red Sea, which was their baptism, underneath the cloud which was their baptism in the Spirit, and they emerged on the other side, and they stood shoulder to shoulder as the redeemed of the Lord out of Egypt. Jews and gentiles…so when we read in the hagaddah that everyone is supposed to look at themselves as being there in Egypt, the Jew looks back because his ancestors were there. The gentiles can look back and say our ancestors were there too. Our ancestors were represented in the mixed multitude. We were there with you, Jews and gentiles together!

…How many people have ever heard, “Well, you know, Jesus fulfilled that stuff. we don’t have to do it anymore because it’s fulfilled. Then why does Paul say that these festivals are shadows of things still coming? Why? Because these days not only have a past, but also have an inauguration in his ministry. That inauguration was not the fulfillment; it was the beginning of it, but the consumation is still coming.

You can download this as a podcast from iTunes.

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The Firstfruits of the Resurrection

Friday, April 25th, 2008

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, of which you heard before in the Word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world, and it is bearing fruit, even also among you, since the day you heard and fully knew the grace of God in truth, even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, he also having shown your love in the Spirit to us. For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being empowered with all power, according to the might of His glory, to all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation. For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be pre-eminent in all things. For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. And through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven. And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish, and without charge in His sight, if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and I fill up the things lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the church; of which I became a minister, according to the administration of God given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God; the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. For which I also labor, striving according to the working of Him who works in me in power….

-Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, Letter to the Colossians

We search our houses for leaven in preparation for Hag ha Matzah and Firstfruits. We search our hearts for sin in preparation for Final Exodus and eventual Resurrection. Yet we know that yeast fills the very air we breathe, and sin inextricably infuses our flesh. It is only through Yeshua that we are made pure. Keep the faith, but know that in our weakness, he is our strength. In our failure, he is our success.

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Yeshua in the Passover

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

(Sorry this one is so sloppy. I was tired and stressed. Excuses, excuses.)

Passover commemorates the day that God spared the Israelites from the plague against the firstborn. The blood of the lamb painted on the wooden door posts prophesied of the blood of Yeshua (the Lamb of God) on the wooden cross and how he is the only door through which anyone can survive the curse of death. The only thing required for that salvation is faith in God’s promise of mercy for those who belong to him. Painting the blood on the door was an outward sign of that faith.

Passover is also a family celebration. It is supposed to be celebrated with your family. If the family is too small to eat a whole lamb, then you invite the neighbors over too. Together, the family is supposed to eat the entire lamb. Nothing is supposed to be left over. That sounds kind of gross, but it really is what God expects of us in the rest of our life, too. We don’t get to pick and choose what parts of Yeshua to keep and which parts to reject. It’s all or nothing, the conquerer and absolute ruler along with the servant and messiah.

The day after Passover is the first day of Unleavened Bread, which lasts for seven days. The Israelites had to leave Egypt with their bread dough unleavened and uncooked. All yeast is supposed to be out of the house by the end of Passover day. Sometimes yeast is used in scripture to symbolize sin, and seven represents perfection. Yeshua’s sacrifice erases sin from the record of our lives, and that’s how we start out our new life in God’s eyes. It’s a continual fight to keep sin out, though. There really is no way to eliminate all yeast from your home. It’s in the air, and there were no hepafilters in ancient Egypt. There is no way to eliminate all sin from your life, either. Don’t focus on being sinless. Focus on eliminating the sin as you find it, and as you are able.

The first day after the first regular sabbath after Passover is called First Fruits. It’s a day to dedicate the first of your early crops to God. The firstborn of every animal and every family also belongs to God. Paul called Yeshua the firstborn or the first fruits of the resurrection. First Fruits is always on the first day of the week, the same day that Yeshua rose from the dead.

All of the biblical feasts are prophecies of the Messiah in one way or another. Passover is the first feast of the year and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God.

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