|
If this e-mail doesn't show properly, you can view it in your browser here
Shalom Friends in Yeshua's Love, T-minus 50 and counting. The 50-day count of the omer is quickly ticking down and soon it will be Shavuot, also known as the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost (For more info, see my teaching on Shavuot at https://hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/shavuot.pdf). What's the relevance of this strange agriculturally-based ancient Israelite ritual to us moderns? Fifty days is seven weeks of seven days each culminating with the fiftieth day celebration of Shavuot. Seven is the biblical number meaning "completion," "perfection" or "fullness." Seven times seven speaks of "perfect fullness." Additionally, 50 alludes to the jubilee when all Israelite slaves and debtors were set free. Relating the jubilee concept to Pentecost (a Greek word that means "to count fifty"), we see that when the Israelites exited Egypt, they were little more than a ragged rabble of spiritual babes and ex-slaves. They were a disparate group united only by their common ancestry, a common language and their status as freed slaves. They were not a united people, and could hardly be called a nation. They had neither laws nor a system of governance, nor even a territory to call their own. However, fifty days later, YHVH led this motley crew to Mount Sinai where he called them into a special spiritual relationship with him (Exod 19:5). He declared them to be his nation and his set-apart people and a peculiar treasure. There he gave them his Torah-laws to guide them in their new walk (Exod 19:20-20:17). There he commissioned them as a united people to be a kingdom of priests and to be a spiritual powerhouse and light to the nations (Exod 19:7; Deut 4:6). In a mere fifty days, Israel went from having a slave identity, and being a confused and directionless people united only by a common enemy to becoming one nation indivisible, under one God (YHVH Elohim) with one law (the Torah) and a common purpose and destiny! In fifty days, several million individual Israelites came into one accord with each other and with their Creator. Now scroll ahead some 1500 years to Acts 2:1 where we read, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." What united these people so that it could be said that they were "in one accord"? Let's answer this question with a question. What united the twelve apostles? Can we all agree that it was their love for and devotion to YHVH Yeshua the Messiah — the one who trained them, commissioned them, redeemed them from the wages of sin by his death on the cross, and the one who promised them a future in his spiritual kingdom through the hope of the resurrection of the dead? He was the way to Elohim — his Father in heaven. Can we back up the assertion that their love for Yeshua was number one and was what united them? Of course we can! Can there be any doubt that Elohim and Yeshua were at the center of the gospel message recorded by all the apostolic writers? Let's look at a few statistics to prove the point. What subject did Yeshua talk about most while on earth? Himself! In the Gospels of Matthew and John, there are 319 verses recorded where Yeshua is talking about himself. The second subject he talked most about was his Father with 184 references. In my study of the Gospels, I have catalogued 134 other subjects that he talked about less than these top two. Now the second statistic. In Paul's epistle to the Galatians, for example, there are 149 verses with 91 direct references to Elohim or Yeshua. In Ephesians, there are 155 verses and 186 references to Elohim and Yeshua. There are more references to the Deity than there are verses! Philippians has 104 verses with 85 references; Colossians has 95 verses with 110 references! The other epistles doubtless have similar statistics. Have I made my point that Yeshua and Elohim are the two most talked about subjects in the Apostolic Scriptures? Furthermore, the term "New Testament" is a later Christian appellation for the apostolic writings. This was not the term the "New Testament" uses for itself! In the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible to be written, John refers to the "Old Testament" as the "Word of God (Elohim)" and to the apostolic writings as "The Testimony (or Witness) of Yeshua" not once, but several times (Rev 1:2, 9; 6:9; 12:17; 20:4)! Again, Yeshua is the central theme of the apostolic writers. To bemoan the fact that many early believers were turning away from Yeshua in his day, Jude, in his short epistle, cried out, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (verse 3). Please note the expressions, "common salvation" and "faith once delivered." Who in Jude's mind was at the center of "the common salvation" and "the faith once delivered"? If in doubt, go back and look at the statistics above! John was clear about this. Those who will be the end-time saints and bride of Yeshua will not only be keeping YHVH's Torah commands, but they will also "have the faith/testimony of Yeshua" (Rev 12:17; 14:12). The disciples were together in one accord in one place on the day of Pentecost because of their love for Torah and because Yeshua told them to be there. Their eyes were on Yeshua, and because they walked in Torah they were together and in one accord. Because of their unity and faithfulness, we both know how YHVH used these early redeemed Israelites as instruments of his miraculous power to preach the gospel to the lost sheep of Israel and literally to turn the world upside down with the gospel message in a very short time (Acts 17:6). Is the Messianic Israel/Hebrew Roots Movement of our day walking in one accord, or can we be characterized by biblical phrases like, "all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way" (Isa 53:6), or "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judg 17:6; 21:25)? Where is the one-accordness in our movement that is supposed to be characterized by the rapidly approaching Feast of Pentecost? What keeps our movement from being the glorious, in-one-accord bride of Yeshua that he commissioned to be a light to the nations — to go to the lost sheep of Israel starting in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth to help restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6-8)? Are there too many things that are taking our eyes and hearts off of the simplicity of the gospel message, our common salvation, the faith once delivered — the truth of Yeshua? Let us ask ourselves some tough questions to help us to see if any of these things are keeping the body of Yeshua from being in one accord:
All these things destroy one-accordness and divide the body of Yeshua. Let's put these things behind us and unite with the body of Yeshua and keep the Feast of Shavuot/Pentecost as one bride and people of Yeshua, in the love of Yeshua and united IN ONE ACCORD! Selah! Chag Shavuot Sameach! (Happy Shavuot!)
|
May you grow in the grace, and in the knowledge of our Master and Savior Yeshua the Messiah. To him be the glory both now and forever.