passover

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

Passover Event

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Passover is coming up very soon. It begins Sat. night, Mar. 27th, 2021.

Prior to that you can join in learning about Passover, God’s calendar, how Yeshua kept Passover, and the church’s response to Passover today!

Join in a fun virtual “Bible study and Discussion” on Thursday night, Mar. 25th, 2021. The actual study starts at 5:15pm PST but start ‘arriving’ before then. Phone / video is online at 5pm. You can join in over just a phone line, or with video using computer or tablet.

The meeting will start off with a short teaching and be followed up by a Q & A time. You can take part in the discussion afterwards or just listen in.

The leader is a Jewish follower of Yeshua. This isn’t an actual Passover celebration – just learning about the background and a bit about the celebration itself.

Shalom!

God’s Calendar and the Feast of Trumpets!

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Did you know that God has a calendar?  Did you know that He is still following it?  It really saddens me, though, that most of Christianity has thrown out His calendar, and in doing so, they miss out on some of the beauty and richness and grace of God and His word.

What is this calendar?  Well, it isn’t a secret.  It is written about quite a bit in both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ testaments.  The calendar is marked by special occasions throughout the year.   They are often called the “Jewish Feasts” but that isn’t what God calls them.  He calls them His “appointed times” (this is the clear meaning of the Hebrew word used in the “old testament” when the ‘feasts’ are referred to.)

I know that many in Christianity will say that the feasts no longer apply as Jesus fulfilled them, but even the “new testament” proves that statement false.  Yeshua (Jesus) himself said,

“For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass away until all is accomplished.”  Matthew 5:18 (ESV)

“Do this in in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19 (ESV) – in context of celebrating the Passover.

There are many more verses showing Yeshua (Jesus) and the apostles (even Paul) celebrating the feasts.  However, this article isn’t about that.  It’s about the next feast in the yearly cycle, the ‘Feast of Trumpets’!

God’s year begins with Passover in early spring.  Then there are a couple more, then a couple months pause.  The feasts start up again near fall time, with the first in a short series being the ‘feast of trumpets’!  For this feast we are told, among a couple other things, to blow trumpets (or shout)!

Now, considering the fact that Yeshua (Jesus) did something appropriate on each of the earlier feasts (died on Passover; gave the holy spirit on Pentecost; – are two examples), it easily follows that this is the next feast where something should happen.  I wonder, if Paul wasn’t thinking of this when he wrote,

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.”  1 Thessalonians 4:16 (ESV)

The feasts are the markers of God’s calendar, and give God’s timeline for things He has done and is yet to do!

And I must say that I am really looking forward to this coming Sunday night to Monday night (Sept. 9 to 10, 2018), which is the feast of Trumpets!  I get to take the day off work and celebrate!   In Judaism, the day is celebrated as the “Jewish New Year” and, being Jewish, I’ll celebrate that also, but that is just tradition.

I look forward to meeting God at his next ‘appointed time’, the ‘feast of trumpets,’ and hearing the shofar (ram’s horn).  And I look forward to hearing that heavenly shofar calling, announcing the end of all things!

Shalom!   – Yosef