THE TRINITY: EASY AS 1, 2, 3?

ONE FOR ISRAEL

ONE FOR ISRAEL
One of the hardest things for Jewish people to deal with when it comes to Yeshua is
the idea that he could be God in human form. The trinity just sounds like straight
up polytheistic idol worship to Jewish ears.
Monotheism was the defining difference between the faith of Abraham and all the
pagan worshipers surrounding him in the Mesopotamian basin. Every Jewish person
knows that their God is one, and squirms inside when they see a church cluttered
with images that seem like idols – the holy child in the arms of Mary, Yeshua on
the cross… it might be like a believer going into a place of worship with star
signs of the Zodiac all over the walls.
Jewish resistance to the trinity comes from the knowledge that the God of Israel is
a jealous God, and that they must never bow the knee to any other. So how can we be
so sure that the appearance of Yeshua and teaching of the trinity does not
contradict the Torah’s insistence that only God should be worshiped?

DOES EXPLAINING THE TRINITY TIE YOU IN KNOTS?

An English preacher called David Pawson rightly noticed that we often feel awkward
and embarrassed about the inexplicable trinity. How can God be three and one at the
same time? “We don’t know!” We have to admit. There are metaphors of clover leaves
having three parts to the one leaf… of water, ice and steam all being H2O… of the
ability to be a mother, daughter and wife simultaneously, but none of these
analogies really do justice to the mysterious Godhead we claim to know and love.

But, insists Pawson, the trinity is one of the greatest truths we have to share,
because we alone, of all faiths, can declare the truth that God IS love!

In order to love, we need an object of affection, but since God is Father, Son and
Spirit, he was already living in loving unity long before he created the world! In
himself, God’s very essence is love with no need of outside intervention.
We could say that a singular God could be loving in nature, but to say that he IS
love is a unique privilege of those who believe that he can give and receive love
in and of himself.

THEY’RE ALL THERE, THE ENTIRE TIME, ALL THROUGH THE JEWISH SCRIPTURES
The word “trinity” cannot be found in the Bible, but the truth is that the three of
them have been there together all the way along.
Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth by his word. John 1
tells us that the Word is Yeshua – that he was with God and was God from the get
go, right there at creation. We also see the third person of the trinity, the Holy
Spirit, hovering over the waters in the second verse of the Bible. Not sure about
this? The first words of the Bible in Hebrew are ‫ – בראשית ברא אלוהים‬In the
beginning, God created (or “in the beginning, created God…”, because that’s the way
Hebrew sentences are structured). The word for God is Elohim. This word Elohim,
very interestingly, is plural. Still not convinced? The decision to create humanity
is made. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”, says the plural God,
in plural.
Later on we see hints of Yeshua appearing as “The Angel of the Lord”, which could
simply be one of God’s many angels, except that those who encounter this one a)
identify him as The Lord himself, and b) worship him.

There is no way that an angel of God – even a top level angel – would accept
worship that belongs to God alone.

If you want to see what I mean, see what happens when “The Angel of the Lord” turns
up to visit Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21, Abraham in chapter 18, and the One who
stops him killing Isaac in 22:11, look at the interaction between Samson’s parents
and the Angel of the Lord in Judges 13, and consider who the fourth person was in
the fiery furnace that Daniel’s three friends were rescued from. As you ponder the
texts and the dialogues, look carefully at the way people address this angel, at
the way he refers to himself, and you will see that there is something divine going
on here.
This angel speaks as if he is God, and people speak as if they have encountered
God.
Because he is. And they have.
We also learn of the third person, the Holy Spirit, very much active in his own
right in the Tenach – falling upon and anointing people with power to prophesy and
act to accomplish God’s will. He empowers the artisans who make the tabernacle,
falls upon Saul in 1 Samuel 10, and is spoken of by David in the Psalms and the
prophets (“The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me…”
Isaiah 61). He appears many times throughout the scriptures, helping and enabling
people to do the will of God.
We even see all three of them together in this verse:

“Come ye near unto Me, hear ye this:

From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;
from the time that it was, there am I;
and now the Lord GOD has sent me, and His Spirit.”
(Isaiah 48:16)

There they all are – all three of them together. The Lord God (Father), the One who
he sent, who was with him from the beginning (Yeshua) and His Holy Spirit. In the
Old Testament.
God repeatedly promises that he would come and live among them, in words that
bewilder the mind if you are not ready to accept the deity of Yeshua. He says,

“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your
midst, declares the Lord.
And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my
people.
And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent
me to you.” (Zechariah 2:10-11)

Yes, it was always God’s intention to come and live among us as Yeshua. And you can
see the sameness yet separateness in these verses – he speaks as God himself, yet
tells us that the Lord of Hosts has sent him.
We also see the God’s Son mentioned several times in the Tenach (Jewish
Scriptures):

Psalm 2:2 –
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly
kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Proverbs 30:4 –
Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!

Daniel 7:13 –
and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

INCOMPREHENSIBLE, BUT TRUE

So although this idea seems alien to most Jewish people (and frankly, rather
bewildering to most believers) a careful study of the Scriptures shows us that
Yeshua did not suddenly appear two thousand years ago. As he says of himself;
“Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58).
-----------------------------
THE NAME OF GOD
ONE FOR ISRAEL
ONE FOR ISRAEL
The name of God in the Jewish Scriptures is an enigmatic mystery. People often
pronounce the four Hebrew letters (YHWH) as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”, but the truth is
that we don’t really know how to say it. In most Bibles that word is translated as
“the LORD”, and similarly when reading it in Hebrew, we always say “Adonai”
instead, which means Lord. We don’t even try to pronounce it. However, close
examination of those four letters is an enlightening exercise which relates
wonderfully to the Messiah.

In Genesis 1, the Hebrew word for God is “Elohim”, which is the general term for
god or gods and is also, rather interestingly, a plural word. In Genesis 1 Elohim
is referred to as “him” (male singular) but speaks in plural (“Let us make man in
our image”). However, in Genesis 2, the four-lettered name of God, YHWH, first
appears, and God is mostly referred to by this unique name from there on in.

GOD’S NAME IS HOLY

Jewish people, by and large, prefer to avoid using any name of God, often writing
the word God like this: “G-d”, so that it is not written in its entirety. Many call
God “haShem”, which means “the Name”, or other similar designations. “Baruch
haShem!” (which means “Blessed be the Name!” or “Blessed be the Lord!”) is a phrase
one hears multiple times a day in Israel. So precious are those four letters that
we even change the dates that contain two of those four holy letters in a row – the
15th and 16th of every month deviate from the normal pattern in order to respect
the four-lettered name of God. Similarly, there is a tradition to avoid writing
down the name of God to avoid the sacrilege of it ever being thrown away, erased or
destroyed.
His name is holy.

“Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The God
of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ What
should I say to them?”

“God answered Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” Then He said, “You are to say to the sons of
Israel, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses: “You are to say to the
sons of Israel, Adonai (YHWH) the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My Name forever, and the Name by which I
should be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3:13-15)

I AM WHO I AM? As much as that might have been bewildering to Moses, God insists
that he cannot be categorized – he just IS.

God laughs at us all arguing about whether he exists or not – he is the very
definition of existence!

OPENING THE TREASURE BOX OF HEBREW GRAMMAR

The interesting thing with verbs in the Biblical Hebrew is that they are often
written in what looks like future tense to us today, but are rendered as past
tense. And the other way around! Prophecy is often expressed in what looks like the
past tense to modern Hebrew speakers, yet it is talking about things to come. Time
and tense are not straightforward, which is appropriate because the author of the
biblical text lives outside time. He can give prophecy about future events as if
they had already happened, and he can describe past events in narration that
actually point to future events to come – as in the stories of Joseph and the
Exodus for example.

I’ll tell you something else funny about Hebrew – the verb “to be” only exists in
past and future, but not in the present tense.

In Hebrew, we don’t say “I am hungry”, we just say “I hungry”. We don’t say “that
table is big”, we say “that table big”. We can say “I was hungry”, or “I will be
hungry”, but not “I am hungry”.

There is no “is” or “am” in Hebrew. Why?

Perhaps because in the Hebrew language, the language of the Bible, the present
tense of the verb “to be” is reserved for use by God alone.

Only God can say “I AM”.

And perhaps that helps us understand some of the mystery of the Tetragrammaton,
YHWH. When we look at the original Hebrew text which in English says, “I AM WHO I
AM”, it looks (to the modern Hebrew reader) as if it’s in the future tense: “I will
be that which I will be” (‫)אֶהְיֶה אֲֶׁשר אֶהְיֶה‬. And yet it’s translated into present
tense! Getting confused? The interplay between the tenses of the verb to be is
illustrative of the fact that our God is, was, and always will be.

Moreover, the very letters of the four-letter name of God (‫ )יהוה‬contain the Hebrew
for he was, he is, and he will be! This is a fact that has, unsurprisingly, been
noted by rabbis of the past.

RABBINIC INTERPRETATION
It’s interesting to see how the phrase, “I am who I am” (‫)אֶהְיֶה אֲֶׁשר אֶהְיֶה‬, was also
translated into present tense in the “Targum Yonatan” text, an early rabbinic
translation of the Bible into Aramaic by Jonathan ben Uzziel, a pupil of Hillel and
doctor of the Law in Jerusalem during the time of King Herod.[1]

He translated it into Aramaic as “‫”אֲנָא הּוא‬, which in modern Hebrew (Ani Hu – ‫אני‬
‫ )הוא‬literally means “I He”. This is as close as you can get in Hebrew to “I AM” –
the first person, present tense of the verb to be.

“God answered Moses, “I AM who I AM.” Then He said, “You are to say to the sons of
Israel, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.”

In rabbinic interpretation, it makes sense that the three times the word appears
reflects the three tenses: past, present, and future.

He was
He is
He forever shall be
In Exodus Rabba, Rabbi Isaac taught:

“God said to Moses: ‘Tell them that I am now what I always was and always will be’;
for this reason is the word ehyeh written three times” [2]

I AM – THREE TIMES?
It is interesting that just as in the Shema, the name of the Lord features three
times. Perhaps it’s not only about past, present and future, but perhaps it also
points to the threefold nature of God:

The Father
The Son – God incarnate, the Messiah
The Holy Spirit
Impossible? But the evidence is in the Jewish Scriptures themselves. At one point
YHWH turns up in person to visit Abraham, a fact that causes great consternation
among those who are adamant that God cannot become flesh. Well He did, right there
in Genesis 18. It says so repeatedly. Also, Jeremiah 23:6 says that YHWH will be
the name of the Messiah.

You know what else? The phrase used in Targum Yonatan as the best way to help
Jewish people relate to the unusual turn of phrase God declared from the burning
bush (“Ani Hu” / “I He”) crops up later in the New Testament. Quite a lot.

YOU KNOW WHO ELSE USES THAT TERM, “ANI HU” (I AM)?
In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman, and they had a conversation about God,
truth, and worship. She said to Yeshua, not knowing who he really was,

“I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called the Anointed One.) When He comes,
He will explain everything to us.”

Yeshua’s response?

“I, the One speaking to you, “ani Hu” (I AM).”

In chapter 8, Yeshua had got caught up in a controversy with the religious leaders.
Frustrated and confused, they demanded to know,

“Who are you?”

Yeshua replied, “What have I been telling you from the beginning?”

…“Abraham and the prophets died. Yet You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will
never taste death.’ You are not greater than our father Abraham who died, are You?
The prophets also died! Who do You make Yourself out to be?”

…Yeshua answered, “Amen, amen I tell you, before Abraham was, I AM!”

[1] ‫עלְמָא ָאמַר וַהֲוָה ּכּול ָא וַאֲמַר ִּכדְ נָא ֵּתימַר לִבְנֵי ִישְרָ אֵל אֲנָא הּוא‬
ַ ‫וַאֲמַר יְיָ ל ְמֶׁשה דֵ ין דְ ָאמַר וַהֲוָה‬
‫עתִיד לְמֶהֱוֵי ַׁשדְ רַ נִי לְוַותְכֹון‬
ָ ְ‫( דְ הַוֵינָא ו‬Targum Yonatan Ex 3:14, Aramaic)
[2] Exodus Rabba, 3:14
--------------------------------
WHY DON'T MANY JEWISH PEOPLE ACCEPT JESUS AS MESSIAH?
ONE FOR ISRAEL
ONE FOR ISRAEL
It can be bewildering considering that Yeshua the Messiah was an Israeli-born Jew,
grew up in a Jewish community, practiced Jewish laws and customs, worshiped God at
the Jewish Temple, his original followers were Jewish, and that all of his teaching
was based upon and rooted in the Jewish Scripture that so many Jewish people find
him incompatible with Judaism… but actually the good news is that there have always
been Jews who believe in Jesus. In fact, at first, it was only Jews who believed in
him, and today there hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jews, even though they are
still in minority compared to non-Jewish followers of Jesus. If you read Acts 15,
for example, you will see that back then a different question was asked: “Is it
possible for a Gentile to follow the Messiah of Israel?” So why do we often hear
today that “Jews don’t believe in Jesus”?
First of all, most Jewish people today don’t really know what following Jesus is
all about. Many believe that Jesus was the founder of a new religion called
Christianity, a idolatrous religion for the Gentiles that worships three gods
instead of one.

Unfortunately the only versions of Jesus many Jews know today are what look like
idols – carved images portraying the baby Jesus of Christmas, or the one still
hanging on a cross. They often see him as a false prophet, the illegitimate son of
a carpenter, who founded a new religion for the sake of which many Jews were
persecuted and killed; the Jesus of the murderous Crusades and the brutal Catholic
Inquisition[1].

You may be surprised to know that even the Holocaust is perceived by many Jews as
something that was done in the name of Christianity, as Hitler used quotes from the
Bible and Martin Luther to justify his wicked plans[2]. The sad fact is that many
so-called Christians have indeed committed atrocities against Jews in the name of
Jesus. So, is it such a surprise that many Jewish people do not want to have
anything to do with Christianity the way they know it from history?
That said, the truth is that many Jews have a very distorted and warped picture of
Christianity and Jesus because they have never seriously studied the issue and
never read the New Testament. Indeed, it is considered forbidden and even dangerous
to do so. In the Religious communities if anything is taught about Jesus, it is
often very biased, negative and sometimes completely untrue.
One of the most serious theological objections to Jesus is the issue of the nature
of God, the deity of Jesus, God having a son; the Trinity. For many Jewish people
the New Testament sounds like a completely foreign religion that contradicts the
main tenet of Judaism – God is one. In reality it is not a contradiction, and
although the trinity is extremely hard to understand, it is also found in the Old
Testament, where we can find the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit existing together.
The problem is that the mainstream Judaism today is not so much Biblical Judaism
but so-called Rabbinical Judaism where the Rabbis have made changes in Judaism to
adjust to a new reality – no Temple, no sacrifices, living outside of Israel. They
have chosen the Talmud and Rabbinical writings as the main guide for the Jewish
faith and practice, and many Jewish people do not have a good understanding of what
the Hebrew Scriptures actually teach about sin, faith, and the person of the
Messiah.
Another big stumbling block is a common erroneous belief that if a Jewish person
comes to faith in Jesus he is no longer Jewish, that is, a person is either Jewish
or Christian, but not both. There is often great pressure in families and
communities on those who accept Jesus as the Messiah. The cost of following Jesus
often times involves separation from friends and families, intimidation,
humiliation, loneliness, being called a traitor to your own people. In fact, there
is evidence that religious Jews were taught to curse Jewish people who became
followers of Jesus[3]. In some circles this is still practiced today.
Over the centuries the church has often failed to present Christianity as what it
truly is – a living relationship between God and His people (both Jews and
Gentiles) through Yeshua the Messiah – and that in its roots it is thoroughly
Jewish. Through physical birth a person is either Jewish or a Gentile, but through
spiritual birth both a Jew and a Gentile become followers of Yeshua the Messiah.
The Bible itself explains why it is hard for a Jewish person to accept Jesus:

Romans 11:25 says that, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full
number of Gentiles has come in.” The good news is that at the end the Jewish people
will turn back to him as a nation and that, “all Israel will be saved” (11:26).

It is hard to imagine what that will look like, but it is written in the Word of
God, and it can only be good!
Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Believing in Him is the most Jewish thing a Jew can
do. We need to explain to our Jewish friends that when a Jewish person accepts
Jesus as the Messiah he becomes more Jewish than ever before and his Jewish
identity will be deepened, and his love for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and
a passion for the Jewish Scripture will be restored and renewed.

[1] Learn more about the Church Crusades against Jewish people
[2] Martin Luther became strongly anti-Semetic later in life and wrote the book,
“On The Jews and Their Lies”.
[3] Anthony J. Blasi, Paul André Turcotte, Jean Duhaime, Handbook of Early
Christianity: Social Science Approaches (AltaMira Press, 2002) p.369
-----------------

WHAT’S IN A MEZUZAH?
ONE FOR ISRAEL
ONE FOR ISRAEL
Mezuzah is the Hebrew word for doorframe. It is also the name of the little
ornament you often see attached to Jewish doorframes, and there is a powerful part
of the Bible hidden inside every Mezuzah, known as the Shema. “It’s wonderful when
Gentiles say the Shema to us!” exclaimed a Jewish friend here in Israel. “It says
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord YOUR God, the Lord is one”, she explained. “It’s as if
it’s supposed to be said to us”.

Nearly every Jewish person is familiar with the first line of the Shema (shema
means ‘Hear’ – the first word of the verse), but there is so much more to this
important command in God’s Torah, or law.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Deuteronomy 6:4

“The Lord is one” bit seems straightforward enough for most Jewish people, but
there is a wonderful treasure hidden in the Shema…

The verse (Deut 6:4) is written on a small bit of paper, rolled up and inserted in
a “mezuzah” which is attached to every Jewish door frame (Almost every doorframe!)
in accordance with the instruction in the verses following it to write it,

“…on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:9)

Very often you will see the first letter of the Shema on the mezuzah. Shema means
“Hear”, and the first letter is the “Sh” sound. It looks like this: ‫ש‬. It is also
the first letter of Shaddai which is usually translated “Almighty” – El Shaddai
means Almighty God. He is the God of the forefathers of Israel, and so the ‫ ש‬of
Shaddai is usually written on the mezuzahs. This letter is called “shin” and
although it is one letter, it has three prongs, so to speak.

THREE IN ONE
Every Mezuzah quietly declares that our Lord is one, but with three persons united
in a singular Godhead. Equally the name of God (YHWH – ‫ )יהוה‬is mentioned three
times:

“Hear O Israel, YHWH your God, YHWH is one, you shall love YHWH your God…”

And how about loving the Lord with all our heart, soul and might? Here is a
challenge indeed. What does that look like? The Jewish religion is all about deed,
rather than creed – doing rather than believing, as a way of honouring God in the
best way they know how. Following the Torah. Obedience, doing all that is required.
But even though Yeshua says,“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” in
John 14:15, it is possible to obey with no love at all.

HEART, SOUL AND MIGHT

Parallel to the command of loving God with all our heart, soul and might is this
verse in Jeremiah 17:

“I the Lord search the heart

and test the mind, (the Hebrew for this word is literally “the kidneys” – the
innermost parts, or the hidden motivations)

to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

God knows very well if our hearts and souls are in it – he searches our hearts, he
tests our innermost thoughts, and he gives to us according to the fruit of our
actions. This verse comes right after a wonderful passage on how we can keep God at
the core of our lives, and avoid putting our love and trust anywhere else. How
often do we find it easier to put our trust in human beings around us, who are
visible, touchable, but fallible?
Immediately before this verse (verse 10) is a passage warning us not to trust in
human beings but to keep our trust in God. Cursed is the man who trusts in man,
Jeremiah says, and blessed is the man who trusts in God:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart
turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any
good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an
uninhabited salt land.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a
tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear
when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of
drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

What a contrast! When we trust in human beings instead of God himself, it does us
no good, and we can’t even see the good that is there. But when we trust in God,
even in dry times we don’t have to worry! We are plugged into the unstoppable,
endless water of life. Jeremiah speaks a lot about this problem – God’s sorrow that
the people of Israel had forsaken him; the the spring of living water, and had
instead dug around elsewhere – hoping that their broken and useless water cisterns
would do the trick.

TRUSTING IN THE WRONG THINGS

How had it come to that? The same way it happens in our hearts today –

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand
it?”

Bemoans Jeremiah in verse 9, right before he tells us that God is searching our
hearts and testing our minds. We keep moving away from God in our hearts, deceiving
ourselves, and ending up putting our trust elsewhere before we even know it!

An advert just appeared in the newspaper here in Israel1, disguised as a proper

article, saying that on the anniversary of the death of Rachel the matriarch
(Isaac’s wife) a Kabbalist rabbi had performed a ceremony over hundreds of
mezuzahs, imbuing them with special powers! For the special price of 84 shekels in
24 easy payments (that’s ₪2016, $550) you can get salvation! Health! Miracles!
Fertility! An ideal marriage partner! What a con.

These mezuzahs are (very expensive) lucky charms, and Jewish people are being
tricked into trusting in them, instead of trusting in God for help and salvation.

It’s an extremely grievous situation.

No wonder God insisted that we needed to be reminded about what’s important, which
is why he suggested keeping a reminder on the doorframes in the first place:

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.You shall teach
them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.You
shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your
eyes.You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
(Deuteronomy 7-9)

You could use the Shema to guide your prayers today for Israel. Take time to check
in your heart and mind and action whether you are loving God first, and put things
right with him where you have moved away from that spring of living water. Then
pray the Shema over the people of Israel, praying that God would be their first and
highest love, and that they would come to love the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit as one.

http://digital-edition.israelhayom.co.il/Olive/ODN/Israel/Default.aspx#
---------------------------
THE BIBLICAL FEASTS OF ISRAEL ALL POINT TO JESUS
ONE FOR ISRAEL
ONE FOR ISRAEL
God commanded His people: Have a feast! Take a break! He made festivals part of the
Law, codifying the commandments to stop for a while and celebrate a few times a
year.

Of course, there’s more to it than just food and merriment (although there’s plenty
of that) but there’s deep prophetic meaning woven into the tapestry of God’s
mandated feasts. In ingenious ways, God created fun, experiential reminders of
important milestones along the journey of redemption. But as well as marking the
history between God and His people, these milestones go way into the future too.

Today, as people are beginning to think more about the second coming of Jesus, it’s
worth remembering that the feasts not only speak of Yeshua’s first coming, but also
His triumphant return. It’s a great time to look again in earnest at the
information God has given us in the calendar He set for His people.

DATES WITH DESTINY

The first thing to talk about is the word for feast used in Hebrew. The word for
“feast” is moed (‫)מועד‬. This word is based on a very important root word, ‫יעד‬. In
general, we say that moed means “appointed time”, or set feast. But there is more
to it. There is certainly a sense of destiny associated with the word, but the word
is also used to talk about time: everlasting, like “Everlasting Father” (Isaiah
9:6). It also means “until”. There’s another associated meaning in the word ‫עד‬: it
is the Hebrew word for “witness”. In court a witness gives testimony to what they
have seen and heard, telling something to the people listening about something they
have not experienced. The witness testifies and points to something that isn’t
present, but has to be explained. So all together, the word for feast, moed, means
a fixed appointed time of destiny which testifies and points to something that goes
backwards and forwards through eternity.

Isn’t that a perfect description of what God gives us in the biblical feasts?!

WOAH! SLOW DOWN THERE

Other Hebrew words for the feasts are mikra (‫ )מקרא‬and atsera (‫)עצרה‬. Mikra is
often translated as “holy convocation”, and it means to call people together. It is
also one of the words we use in Hebrew for “Bible”, because it has to do with the
word for reading as well as calling. The second word, often translated as “solemn
assembly”, is the word to stop. Today in Israel you’ll see it on buses, showing
where the next stop is. It has to do with stopping activity, or being restrained.

Leviticus 23 gives us a clear rundown of all of these feasts that God established
and commanded the Israelites to keep. They all are extremely rich with prophetic
meaning.
The first moed listed is the Shabbat. In Ezekiel 20:12 God says that the Shabbat is
a sign between Him and His people, a holy day which serves as a reminder that He
has set us aside to be a holy people. The pause each week reminds us that it’s God
who created the world and the seven day week, and Jesus says that the Shabbat was
created for our benefit. The rest from work helps us relate in a more healthy way
to God, our families, our environment and ourselves. Hebrews chapter 4 also
explains that it is a witness to the rest that Jesus would bring through His work
at calvary. Now He has finished His work, and is seated at the right hand of the
Father (Hebrews 10:12). Thanks to Yeshua, we can enter perfect rest with God with
Him. The Shabbat testifies to what Jesus did when He paid for our sin, and also
what we have to look forward to when He returns in glory.

Another interesting thing about the Shabbat is that God made seven days in the
week. He could have chosen any number, but He chose seven. Many of the times and
seasons mentioned in Genesis chapter one are obvious to both humans and animals
alike – nature knows the difference between night and day, spring, summer, fall and
winter… and even months going by as the moon changes shape. But the days of the
week? Only human beings know which day of the week it is – no animal knows whether
it’s Shabbat or not! The seven day week and the weekend was created by God for us.
The whole world keeps to this pattern, this seven days of completion, and this is
also significant, as we shall see.

THE SPRING FEASTS

Then the next set of feasts come in the Spring, and are all related to one another:

In Exodus 12, God instructs the Israelites to start the calendar in the first
month, which is now known as Nisan in the Spring.

“This month will mark the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month
of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of
this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one lamb for the household…
Your lamb is to be without blemish, a year old male. You may take it from the sheep
or from the goats. You must watch over it until the fourteenth day of the same
month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at
twilight.”

“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the
blood, I will pass over you.”

When we think of the events of the Passover and the Exodus from Egypt, it’s hard to
think of a more perfect picture for what was to come in Jesus! An innocent lamb
without flaws was sacrificed, and the blood smeared on wood vertically and
horizontally so that people who believed would be saved from death. Hammering the
point home, Jesus was tested and found innocent, then He was beaten and betrayed,
before his sacrifice for us on the wooden cross at exactly the time Passover lambs
were being checked and slaughtered. The picture is crystal clear.

“Get rid of the old hametz [leaven], so you may be a new batch, just as you are
unleavened—for Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians
5:7)

Then the people, after being redeemed by blood, passed through water and went on a
long, hard journey before they finally arrived in the Promised Land. Similarly,
after receiving salvation through the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who took away
the sin of the world, we go through the waters of baptism and walk with God through
hardships until we finally arrive in the place prepared for us.

After the night of Passover itself, we enter the Feast of Unleavened Bread which
lasts for seven days. This is a picture of our lives as believers here on earth,
choosing to turn our back on sin, with leaven (hametz) being symbolic of sin. The
unleavened bread also points to Jesus – matzoh bread is striped and pierced, just
as He was, and with no trace of leaven which represents sin and pride.

The 14th of Nisan, the night of the Passover, falls on different days of the week
each year, but we are told that the Feast of Firstfruits must always be celebrated
on the first SUNDAY after Passover (Leviticus 23:15). This feast is unique in that
it fixes the day of the week – of course it points to resurrection Sunday, as a
prophetic witness to the day when Jesus gained victory over death. It is also
unusual because although there are other sacrifices mentioned, there is no sin
offering required for the festival of Firstfruits. Jesus was the first to rise
again from the dead, never to die again, but He will not be the last! At the end of
time, we will all join Him and have glorious, new resurrection bodies. We will all
be changed, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52).

Then from that Sunday, God commands that His people should count seven weeks to the
Feast of Weeks, Shavuot in Hebrew, which means weeks (Leviticus 23:16). This
festival is also known as Pentecost, with pente meaning 50, because it’s 50 days
since the Feast of Firstfruits. Pentecost is the time when God poured out His Holy
Spirit on the believers, giving them His power to live a new life in the Messiah
and take the gospel all over the world. Shavuot testifies to the gathering and
inclusion of the Gentiles into the New Covenant.

These Spring feasts are all connected and dependent on each other, and the basis
and foundation is the blood of the lamb. All the other Spring Feasts depend on when
the night of Passover falls. Unleavened bread follows the Passover seder, and
Firstfruits falls on whichever Sunday comes next… and Shavuot is counted seven
weeks from then. But it all hinges on that night of blood on the doorframes. Eating
the unleavened bread of a repentant lifestyle is no use without the salvation of
blood. The Passover and the redemption of blood must come first, and is followed by
the equipping of the Spirit to help us walk out our new lives in Him.

So all these Spring Feasts have been fulfilled in many ways in the first coming of
Jesus.

THE FALL FEASTS

Then there is a long gap before the next festivals in the fall. This gap between
the Spring feasts and the fall feasts is not dependent on wherever Shavuot ended
up, but rather starts on the first day of seventh month, which means the gap
between them varies and is of uncertain length, year to year. This testifies of our
experience of waiting, living in expectation of the trumpet call which will
announce the return of King Jesus.

The Feast of Trumpets is called Yom Teruah in Hebrew, which means a loud noise, or
blast of the horn, rather than trumpet exactly. We learn in Thessalonians that
there will be a great trumpet sound to usher in the return of the Messiah. Although
Jesus opened the door of redemption 2000 years ago, God has yet to ultimately
redeem all things to Himself as He promised He would do in the Age to Come.

Ten days later, on the tenth day of the seventh month, we have Yom Kippur – the Day
of Atonement. The number ten signifies God’s claim for perfect obedience (think of
the 10 commandments). In this special day of national repentance and sacrifice, the
claims of God are met and the conscience of the people is cleared. It’s a time of
affliction and humbling, repentance and cleansing. In ancient Israel on Yom Kippur,
the high priest entered in alone, but Jesus, our high priest, has made a way for us
to be together with Him in the holy of holies. However, those who reject the
forgiveness of Jesus will have to stand before the judgement seat with no cover of
atonement. Yom Kippur points towards the Day of Judgement, the great and terrible
day of the Lord.

Last of all we have the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot as we call it in Hebrew.

After hearing Ezra the priest read the instructions about how to celebrate Sukkot
after they had returned from Babylon, the people of Israel joyfully went to fulfil
the command to go and build booths! God instructed His people to build shelters, or
sukkot as they’re called in Hebrew, to remind us of the forty years of journeying
in the desert. A week spent in a flimsy shelters reminds us of the temporary nature
of this life, and points to our eternal home in the world to come.

The wheat harvest and the grape harvest are both gathered before Sukkot. Jesus
speaks of good crops of wheat being like fruitful believers, and also the Bible
warns us of grapes trodden down in God’s wrath. The harvesting and the sorting
happen before Sukkot which is like a big harvest festival. Unlike the Feast of
Unleavened Bread which is seven days long, this holiday lasts for eight days, which
symbolises going beyond completion into eternity, resurrection and a new beginning.
There are seven days of the feast, with an eighth day (known as shmini atzeret) of
joyful rest at the end!

“So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits
of the land, you are to keep the Feast of Adonai for seven days. The first day is
to be a Shabbat rest, and the eighth day will also be a Shabbat rest.”

In Zechariah 2:10, God promises His people that He’s going to come and tabernacle
with us, and Jesus makes it clear to us that He wants to live with us, and we with
Him. In Jewish thought, a sukkah is reminiscent of a chuppa, a wedding canopy. This
is another shelter that points to the ultimate wedding of the Bride and the Lamb.
The ultimate rest.

This is how the calendar ends, with joyful union with God.

THE FEASTS AS WITNESSES AND POINTERS

Now you might ask, with all these amazing signs that point so clearly to Jesus, why
don’t Jewish people believe in Him? A large part of the answer is that the Jewish
picture of the Messiah is very different to the Lamb of God, the Suffering Servant
who came 2000 years ago. They were expecting a conquering king, a victorious
warrior, who would usher in a Messianic age of perfection. Why did they think that?
Because that is what is described over and over again in the Hebrew Scriptures –
and it will happen! But many Christians don’t seem to know this side of our Messiah
very well. They might know what Revelation says about the end of time, but aren’t
so familiar with the hundreds of details about the Messiah’s glorious coming given
to us in the Old Testament.

In the same way that the Jewish people missed the time of His visitation in the
first century because they were expecting something very different, people will be
in for a big shock when He comes again in glory if they’re expecting a gentle
shepherd instead of a conquering King.

Where Christians see the crucifixion prophesied in the Passover, Jewish people see
multiple pointers to the ultimate redemption to come.

Many seem to believe that the Spring feasts point exclusively to Yeshua’s first
coming and only the Fall feasts look to his return, but there is plenty we can
learn about His second coming from all of the feasts.

As each day passes we are getting nearer and nearer to the day of His return. Do
you know what to expect? Do you know what the Hebrew Scriptures tell us about what
will happen when the Messiah comes in glory? What we can learn from all of the
Feasts of the Lord about that great and glorious day?
It’s high time to learn more about the Lion of Judah the Jewish people have been
expecting generation after generation, because let me tell you, He is on His way.
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THE DOUBLE MEANING OF MESSIANIC PROPHECY
ONE FOR ISRAEL
ONE FOR ISRAEL
There is a lot of biblical prophecy that speaks about Jesus. But I think it’s fair
to say most people are blind to the double meaning in those passages. Many
believers would cite Isaiah 53 as an obvious example of a biblical prophet speaking
of the promised Messiah. We could also talk about the numerous other prophecies
concerning His birth and early life, matters over which the man Jesus of Nazareth
could have no control:

The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)

He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)

He would be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10)

He could come out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1)

He would be called a Nazarene (Isaiah 11:1)

Then there are all the impossible miracles he would perform during His lifetime: He
would heal lepers, open the eyes of the blind, and the lame would leap for joy as
foretold in Isaiah 35:5-6. The religious leaders knew this to be true. They were
looking for those signs. There are prophecies saying that the Messiah would be the
Son of God (Psalm 2:12, Proverbs 30:4) and yet God Himself (Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah
23:5-6, Zechariah 2:10). There is also a lot of prophecy about the way in which the
Messiah would die; the timing and His manner of death, long before crucifixion was
even invented, again, matters out of His control:

He would be ‘cut off’ before the second temple was destroyed (Daniel 9:26)

His hands and feet would be pierced (Psalm 22:17)

He would be mocked and tortured before his execution (Isaiah 53:4-8)

His friend would betray Him (Psalm 41:9)

He would be offered vinegar on the cross (Psalm 69:21)

None of His bones would be broken (Psalm 34:20)… and many more.

WHY CAN’T JEWISH PEOPLE SEE?

You may be aware of these prophecies and many more like them. There are hundreds.
We can look back with the confidence of hindsight and say, as improbable as they
might have sounded at the time (a virgin giving birth? Really?), they came to pass
exactly as described.

It’s easy for Christians to wonder why Jewish people don’t get it… why can they not
see? Well. It’s in large part due to the fact that there is a double whammy going
on in most of these prophecies. Christians often only see one side of the prophecy,
and Jewish people tend to see the other.

If you look at Micah 5, Christians will see the birthplace of Jesus, miraculously
foretold with perfect accuracy. If a Jewish person looks at Micah 5, they see a
heroic warrior coming to kick butt at the end of time. Take a look, but try to read
it through the eyes of Israel. Go on—really, take a quick look—it’s here if you
don’t have a Bible handy. Try and see what Jewish people see.

But most biblical prophecy works like this. Whether it’s Isaiah 61 (Good news to
the poor AND the day of the Lord’s vengeance) Isaiah 9 (unto us a child is born AND
God’s kingdom rule from Jerusalem, punishment of the wicked) or just about any
prophecy you care to look at.

It’s time to start using two lenses. Christians need to start adjusting their
vision to see the warrior Messiah in the very passages they know so well. Because
it’s not like the Jewish Messianic expectation is wrong—it will indeed happen, just
as it is written. And Jewish people need to start seeing that the first incarnation
was there, in the midst of these passages, all along. And it’s not too late for
them to receive Him as Messiah today, two thousand years later!

WHEN WE DON’T SEE THE DOUBLE MEANING

John the Baptist got it, but then again, did he? Here’s how he introduced his
cousin, Jesus of Nazareth:

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier
than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing
floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with
unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 1:11-12)

He knew Jesus had come to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. He also warned of
the unquenchable fire of God that was coming in judgement at the end of time. But
perhaps he didn’t fully understand what he was seeing.

John saw both the first and second coming simultaneously, so when he was locked up
in prison, on death row, the confusion about why the Messiah wasn’t busting him out
of jail and blasting the evildoers must have been hard to take.

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his
disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for
another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the
blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear,
and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And
blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:2-6)

John the Baptist knew his cousin could rescue him, yet somehow He wouldn’t. He saw
that this Jesus was truly the Messiah who would winnow, thresh, and burn, but
reported the two comings in one breath. As is very common in Biblical prophecy.
John didn’t seem to understand what he had seen. Why wasn’t Jesus executing
vengeance as the prophecy said? But John wasn’t wrong, was he? It was just an issue
of timing. “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me”, says Jesus. John had
been so sure at first declaring, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world!” But now he gets the disciples to go and check—did I get it wrong? The
temptation to doubt and become disappointed with God, dismayed and offended must
have been strong.

20:20 VISION AND THE PROBLEM OF UNPREPARED PEOPLE

It was hard for Jewish people in the time of Jesus to accept that this humble
carpenter from Nazareth who died the cruel, humiliating death of a criminal was
their Messiah. But equally, many Christians are too settled and fixated on this
first coming to see what Jewish people see. They are simply not mentally ready for
the warrior from the tribe of Judah who will execute vengeance and punishment,
which is exactly what Jewish people have been expecting.
The problem of an unprepared people is that they not only miss it when God acts
according to His prophecies, but they may even oppose it.

The religious leaders of the day were not ready for what they saw, they were
offended by the humble incarnation, so they rejected Jesus and stood in opposition
to God’s perfect plans. Lord, let it never be said of us that we opposed Your
plans! We want to be with You, ready and waiting, rejoicing and joining in Your
activity on earth. Just as so many Jewish people struggle to see Jesus in their
Bibles, Christians often fail to see what God has said about the second coming,
about God’s plans regarding Israel and the Messianic kingdom to come because
they’re just not used to reading the Bible with Jewish lenses. Just as Jesus is
there through the whole Bible, plain as day when you know how to look, so are God’s
prophetic plans for the end of time. You just have to get your focus right. We need
to look with both lenses.

These are the days for seeing both together. More and more Jewish people are tuning
in to the truth about Jesus, finally seeing Him in the Hebrew Scriptures, and it’s
time for Christians to start adjusting their focus to look at the Bible through
Jewish lenses: to get to know the warrior Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
who comes with a sword. Look again at passages of prophecy and see what John the
Baptist saw ahead of his time. Get ready for the Lord of lords and King of kings,
because here He comes. Not lowly on a donkey this time. No. This time He’s on a
white horse, here to execute judgement and put everything right. And John the
Baptist will be thrilled.
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