General Life

The Full Gospel and God’s Character

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This is the first part of a series. The events from that original Passover to Pentecost at Mt. Sinai paint an amazing picture of God, who He is, what He is doing, and what man’s part is. This picture, however, doesn’t always line up with what is normally taught in our churches.

Let’s start with Exodus 6:2-3.

“God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the LORD; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.” (NASB 1995)

There are a couple things to note. But before we get started there is another issue. Some of this won’t make sense if we stick to the English translation.

In the verses above, it seems that He is saying that “LORD” is His name. It isn’t. It is simply a title. The word lord is used throughout the Bible, and in ancient times, as an honorific to people, or even as a title to a deity. The word ‘lord’ is used today in much the same was as it was in ancient times, except that we call it His name as well, which it isn’t.

Here is a short article on the topic of God’s name: LORD – God’s Name.

Why is it important to understand God’s name at this point? Go back to that verse above. God is saying that He hasn’t fully revealed Himself yet; but He is going to. That revelation, underpinning the meaning of His name, starts there in Exodus and continues to the giving of the 10 at Sinai, and to the promised land. (It doesn’t actually finish until Yeshua (Jesus) comes, but that comes later.) He will be revealing His full character!

His name, יהוה, means basically, ‘the one who was, who is, and is to come’. Never changing; eternal. He further comments about Himself: He keeps His covenants and promises; He is full of grace and mercy.

Then comes a couple verses that explain all of what He is doing and will do. Paul and the apostles spend much time trying to explain it. Yeshua lived it out to show us its full meaning – the spiritual meaning if you will. Israel lived it out to show us the plain, physical meaning. The gospel! The full gospel! Not a watered down partial gospel! Here it is – Exodus 6:6-7; and I’ve replaced “the LORD” with Yehovah (or Yahweh if you prefer, or a couple other possible pronunciations – we aren’t sure):

Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. (NASB 1995).

Do you hear the gospel in that?

‘Bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians’: Did not Yeshua preach, ‘repent, the kingdom of God is at hand!’ He wants to bring us out of the kingdom of this world into His kingdom. Yeshua made this possible for us.

‘deliver you from their bondage’: Paul spends much time talking about the fact that those who have accepted and follow Yeshua are no longer under the law of sin and death – no longer under the bondage of slavery (to sin)!

‘redeem you’: Passover. The lamb and it’s blood on the door frame. All penalty for our sin, wrongdoing, and uncleanness has been paid in full through Yeshua!

‘I will take you for My people, and I will be your God;’: Ah, this one is the pinnacle! We are His! He is our God. This has many implications; If He is our ruler and God, we should follow His ways! If we are His people, we should act like it, including rejoicing that we are His! (As a side note, this phrase occurs a couple times in the Tanakh (“old testament”), and even in the book of Revelation. Check it out!

So, in God’s revelation of Himself, He starts with telling us the full gospel! Good news indeed! We don’t belong to this world – we have a higher calling! We don’t live and operate under the rules and penalties of the world – the law of sin and death; rather, we’ve been purchased as we were and brought in to His family! He is our God and we are His people!

Then He starts revealing more of what this means and has Israel live it out. As we go through it, it will be fun to notice the many Christian theologies that are addressed and often shown to be missing the mark. I hope you join in the journey! Both in reading it, and even better, living it by accepting Yeshua as the promised messiah! Doing all that He just stated…

Shalom,

Yosef

Yom Teruah / Feast of Trumpets

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Most people don’t know of this feast as it isn’t acknowledged in Christianity, and in Judaism it is called by a different name, “Head of the Year”, or more colloquially, the “Jewish New Year” or “Rosh Hashanah”

I’m not going to get into why it is called and celebrated as the New Year in Judaism. Rather, what importance can it possibly have to Christianity?

First, you have to realize that God gave us a calendar that, among other things, shows a sequence of events. This calendar is His Feasts, or as He calls them, His Appointed Times.

It starts off with Passover, where Yeshua (Jesus) was crucified.

Immediately afterwards starts the week of unleavened bread, which is all about showing us what it means to not be “under the law of sin and death” and what it means to be “in His Kingdom!”

During this week of unleavened bread, the barley waving happens. The first fruits of the year, where, early in the morning, the barley is waved before God. Yeshua rose on this day! (And did you ever wonder about that odd story in the gospels where, early in the morning, Mary is at the tomb but she does not recognize Yeshua as He appears to her; When she does recognize him, she grabs on to him, but Yeshua answers, “Do not hold on to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father”? The answer is simple: Yeshua is keeping the feast of ‘barley waving,’ and as the first fruits of those risen, no one is to touch him until after he is risen to the Father, just as no one was to touch the new barley until after it was waved before Yehovah (the LORD). See Leviticus 23:14. )

Then, some weeks later, comes Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit is poured out, just as promised as part of the new covenant (see Jeremiah. 31:31-34; Joel 2:28-29). It is also, by ancient Jewish custom, the day that God spoke on Mt. Sinai as He was giving the 10 statements (called ’10 commandments’ in Christianity, but not in scripture). Do you see a connection?

Then, after many more weeks, comes the Feast of Trumpets. It is followed, 10 days later, by the Day of Atonement, and then 5 days later by the week of the Feast of Tabernacles. The day after Tabernacles is a single day, “the Eighth Day.”

To date, Yeshua has done nothing special on those days.

But what does Paul say in 1 Thess 4:16 and 1 Corin. 15:52? That Yeshua (Jesus) will return at the sound of the trumpet and a cry of command!

The Feast of Trumpets is, well, a feast where the shofar (ram’s horn trumpet) is sounded, and shouts of praise are given to Yehovah (the LORD)! Do you see a connection? The trumpet call is calling God’s people to prepare for what is coming! Prepare with praise, repentance, and joy!

Atonement and Tabernacles fit in to the events of the end times as well. Atonement can be viewed as that time when Yeshua finishes “removing the spots and wrinkles from the church” (see Ephesians 5:27), and also possibly when all of Israel recognizes the Messiah! Tabernacles is then a good picture of the “wedding feast of the Lamb!”

Another way of looking at the feasts is to see the full story of the gospel (see Exodus 6:6-7) and salvation! Yet another aspect is to see God revealing Himself completely through the events surrounding each feast! There is also a more ‘mundane’ meaning to the feasts, a giving of thanks for all that we have here on earth!

There are other ways of looking at these feasts. The facts about what Yeshua (Jesus) did on Passover, waving of the barley, and Pentecost are irrefutable though.

So why has Christianity thrown these feasts out, that are so full of meaning on different levels, and replaced them with feasts of man’s making? What are they afraid of?

So, take the opportunity to start enjoying the feasts God has given us, and at the same time learning what the gospel truly says and its impact on His followers! And know, that each time you do, you are completely in His will – a wonderful place to be!

Shalom!

Yosef