Category: doctrine

Resurrection part 1: What Yeshua taught

According to Yeshua, the resurrection is eternal life. This is both the present state and the living hope of every believer.

Core of the Bible podcast #121 – Resurrection part 1: What Yeshua taught

Today we are starting a new, four-part series on the topic of resurrection. When believers today consider the topic of resurrection, they will typically be focusing on the resurrection of Messiah, and they would be right to do so. The resurrection of Messiah has immense significance, and because of this, we will be concluding this series with a whole episode on its ramifications.

However, if most Bible believers today are discussing personal or general resurrection, they will usually point to the lengthy passage on resurrection penned by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.  In fact, the apostle Paul explains how the concept of resurrection is an essential doctrine for those who believe in Messiah.

1 Corinthians 15:12-14 – Now if Messiah is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, “There is no resurrection of the dead”? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Messiah has been raised; and if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.

Paul’s logic is simple and bold: if there is no such thing as resurrection, then Messiah has not been raised, and therefore the faith stemming from Messiah’s teachings is pointless and of no value. This is because one of the key things Messiah taught was that not only was resurrection was a reality, it was that he himself was the embodiment of resurrection and life. Therefore, personal resurrection is an integral hope of every believer in Messiah.

Like every other grand doctrine in the Bible, the topic of resurrection is not without its own complexity. I have found that resurrection is a wide-ranging topic in the Bible. Within its pages there are mentions of many individual resurrections, but there are also indications of collective types of resurrection, as well. Additionally, in a prophetic sense, resurrection is tied together with aspects of judgment which helps to illustrate the national arc of ancient Israel. All of this is combined with the use of ancient metaphorical and literary word pictures which can further distance us from the culture in which these concepts are presented.

The complexity of this concept is evident even among the Jews in the time of Yeshua, as there was sharp disagreement between the Pharisees and Sadducees on the nature and reality of resurrection, a topic we will touch on in today’s episode as we explore Yeshua’s teachings on this subject.

Because of this complexity, I am going to be spending the next several episodes reviewing resurrection from several different perspectives, grouped into four broad categories:

  1. Instances of individual resurrections, and also how Yeshua taught about resurrection
  2. Prophetic indications of collective resurrection and judgment
  3. The resurrection at the last day
  4. The implications of the resurrection of Messiah

So, to begin with, let’s start our journey by looking at some of the original language definitions of what resurrection actually means. In the Hebrew of the Tanakh several different words describe resurrection: chaya meaning to live or be revived, quts meaning to awaken (as from sleep or death), and qum meaning to arise or stand up. As we move into the Greek of the New Testament writings, the terms which include resurrection, or being raised, combine to form one of the most pervasive topics in the New Testament as a whole, occurring in all four gospels and over one hundred times total in the Greek. In the Greek, resurrection is based primarily on the Greek word anistemi which means to arise or stand up, very closely aligned with the Hebrew qum. It is used in the sense of arising as from a seated or lying position to standing, to raise up (either from the dead, or as an instance of causing to be born), or to rise up against an enemy.

Now that we have some basic definitions in place, we can begin reviewing a biblical record of resurrections in the Bible. Did you know that there were at least 8 different individuals listed in the Bible as being resurrected from the dead besides Messiah? In each of these instances, based on the original language definitions we have just reviewed, the individual was described as being revived, awakened, and then they rose up.

  1. Resurrection of the widow’s son in Zarephath through the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs 17:17–22)
  2. Resurrection of the Shunammite’s son through the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 4:18–37)
  3. Resurrection of the man thrown into Elisha’s grave (2 Kgs 13:20)
  4. Resurrection of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:41)
  5. Resurrection of the young man at Nain (Luke 7:14)
  6. Resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:38–44)
  7. Resurrection of Tabitha/Dorcas (Acts 9:36–42)
  8. Resurrection of Eutychus (Acts 20:7–12)

So, what is it that we can discern from reviewing all of these instances of physical, individual resurrections throughout the Bible?

First of all, I think it’s worth noting that there are quite a few; eight individuals who were raised from the dead! Interestingly, if you have listened to the previous study on the biblical holiday of Yom HaShemini, the Eighth Day, you may recall how the number eight is typically used throughout the biblical narrative in the context of new beginnings and new life, and here we see eight individual raised to life!

Additionally, if you take the time to read each of these accounts, you may find some striking similarities between these events.

  • An individual has died but then is brought back to physical life through the actions or the presence of a prophet or man of God.
  • God is glorified
  • The ministry of the prophet is validated

And while we don’t have scriptural records to indicate this, there is no reason to think that any of these individuals were raised to physical eternal existence; it is assumed that they once again died ordinary deaths at some point after having been raised.

For now, we can see how resurrection is simply an accepted reality throughout the entire Bible to demonstrate the power of God and to validate the teachings of his prophets. God repeatedly used these individual resurrection events to encourage his people that his power extends beyond death, and how this physical life is only one part of our conscious existence. What these accounts do for us is to set a baseline understanding that something is going on with the conscious existence of those whom God loves: they appear to continue to exist as individuals beyond their physical life, and are somehow “brought back” to live out the remainder of their physical lives.

For each of these individuals, their bodies were dormant and cold, and yet through the process of resurrection, their life returned, their bodies grew warm, and they opened their eyes and began to move again, as if simply being awakened from sleep. So, one of the primary metaphors used for death is this idea of sleep. Yeshua used this term in speaking of his friend Lazarus.

John 11:11-13  – He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”  Then the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.”  Yeshua, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep.

The apostle Paul also used this metaphor of sleep for death.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14  – We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, in the same way, through Yeshua, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

So, here’s something a little off the beaten path to consider: because of this symbolic relationship of death with sleep, what if the natural process of sleep and awaking from sleep is simply a daily illustration that God has given us of the very real hope of life after death? Just as we all sleep, we all are subject to death. But as we all awake, we are all subject to the power of God in maintaining our essence, our spiritual existence, beyond this physical life.

While this may be an interesting rabbit hole to go down, for now, we must keep the biblical passages in their context and what these events accomplished. Through each of the individual resurrections, God was glorified through his servant, and the authority of his prophets and disciples in conveying the truth of God was confirmed. This is a powerful testimony to the work of God in establishing the principles of his Kingdom in this world, and providing hope to his people that some form of conscious existence continues beyond this physical lifetime.

Now, let’s turn to the teaching of Messiah on this subject. As I have said many times before, Yeshua did not arrive on the scene in first century Israel and just invent a bunch of new ideas, including the idea of resurrection. What he taught about it builds on examples and representations, sparse as they may be, that come from the Tanakh, or Old Testament. These expectations would have been the ones he was building on as he explained the true meaning of resurrection as it is intended for those in the Kingdom. Besides the references to individual resurrections in the Tanakh that we just reviewed, there are really only three main passages which discuss a larger, corporate resurrection of some kind:

  • Isaiah 26:19  – Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.
  • Ezekiel 37:12  – “Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Yahweh says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, my people, and lead you into the land of Israel.
  • Daniel 12:2  – Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt.

So, while I mentioned resurrection is only briefly described in these few passages of the Tanakh (each of which we will review in more detail next time), there is an understanding that of the two ruling religious groups in Israel at the time of Yeshua, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, only the Pharisees believed in a collective resurrection. The Sadducees were not fully accepting of the prophetic writings outside the core books of Moses, and therefore would not typically give much credence these passages we just reviewed. So, in order to justify their own position and to possibly discredit Yeshua, they planned to confront him and test him to see what his doctrine was on the topic of resurrection. To do so, we can see how the Sadducees posed a “thought experiment” that was designed to force Yeshua to choose sides on the resurrection question, and potentially disqualify him as the Messiah.

Matthew 22:23-28  – That same day some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up to him and questioned him: “Teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother is to marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first got married and died. Having no offspring, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second also, and the third, and so on to all seven. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.”

We know they didn’t really believe in the resurrection, so they just took the concept and mockingly strung together a logical conclusion based on the Mosaic rules of Levirate marriage, or the familial responsibility for close relatives to maintain the family name. However, rather than take the bait of their straw man argument, Yeshua decides to take a different tack, and in so doing, he reveals for us an aspect of resurrection that many to this day may not have seen.

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So, after hearing the carefully staged question of the Sadducees regarding how the rules of marriage could possibly apply in the resurrection, Yeshua provides a direct response:

Matthew 22:29 – Yeshua answered them, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

Right to the point, Yeshua immediately recognizes their attempt at creating conflict with an absurdly speculative scenario on a point of Mosaic law. He simply shrugs it off by saying, “You’re wrong.” He then implies their non-acceptance of the prophetic writings is also incorrect by saying, “you don’t know the Scriptures.” And finally, he states their ignorance of the truth demonstrates they don’t really understand “the power of God.”

Then he directly answered their thought experiment: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven,” (Matthew 22:30). Yeshua states there is no marriage in the resurrection state, therefore the Levirate rules of marriage would no longer apply. But he decided to take this opportunity to push their thinking on the topic a little further and in the process provides insight on what true resurrection looks like:

Matthew 22:31-32 – “Now concerning the resurrection of the dead [that is, since you brought it up], haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

By redirecting their focus to the story of the burning bush in Exodus, he now confronts them squarely on their own turf, as they would be forced to agree with a concept directly taught from one of the books of Moses. He basically pulled a checkmate on their little thought experiment, and then redirected them to a passage they would have to agree was Scripture, and he confounded them in the process.

So what exactly was Yeshua driving at by bringing up this statement of Yahweh at the burning bush? This same passage is related by Matthew, Mark and Luke, so it obviously carried some heavy weight with the early believers. By saying that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” Yeshua appears to be teaching that at least the righteous dead (exemplified by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) were to be considered alive to God, and therefore, already in a resurrection state. While the Sadducees were talking of a general resurrection in a future tense (who’s wife will she be?), Yeshua speaks about it in the present tense (they do not marry and are like angels in heaven). This implied that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom had lived physical lives fifteen hundred to two thousand years prior to the time of Yeshua, by the power of God had been retaining their identities and were to be considered already living in the resurrection state.

Luke’s account adds even a few additional snippets of information in Yeshua’s response to the Sadducees.

Luke 20:34-36 – Yeshua told them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage. “But those who are counted worthy to take part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they can no longer die, because they are like angels and are children of God, since they are sons of the resurrection.”

In this telling, Luke emphasizes a new facet of this confrontation: that Yeshua contrasts what he calls “this age” (marrying and giving in marriage) with “the resurrection from the dead” (where no marriage takes place). But he distinguishes a conditional participation in this resurrection (those who have been deemed deserving).

Just like the other passages, he also focuses on the (then) present nature of that resurrection age by saying that the dead are raised, and God is not the God of the dead, and that all (who are worthy) live to (or in) him. All of these points would have been revolutionary considerations for the Sadducees who were confronting him. This is why the passage concludes:

Matthew 22:33  – And when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

Yeshua would have made his point clearly that the Sadducees not only did not understand the true nature of Scripture but also the power of God to provide life after physical death for the faithful. In these passages Yeshua seems to me to be implying that the righteous dead are already living in a resurrected state of some sort. For us, this broadens the meaning of the resurrection to become illustrative of the reality of life after physical death for believers.

To illustrate this further, in other instances Yeshua also teaches that those who could kill the body are unable to kill the true living essence of the individual; however, God has the ability to do so.

  • Matthew 10:28-31 – “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in [Gehenna]. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
  • Luke 12:4-7 – “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into [Gehenna]; yes, I tell you, fear Him! Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

In these passages, Yeshua appears to be making a distinction between the body and the soul (life). One (the body) is able to be killed by men, but the other (soul/life) is not. However, God has the ability to destroy both body and soul/life of those who do not fear him, represented by the fires of the Gehenna trash dump. This is also brought out in another famous passage:

Matthew 25:41, 46  – “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! … “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Now, to be fair, none of these statements made by Yeshua were provided in the context of a teaching on the reality of some sort of conscious existence beyond this life, but instead these ideas are intermixed with teachings of the coming judgment upon that generation. However, this aspect of God as the life-giver and life-taker is a corroboration with the rest of Scripture that all life is in God’s hands; he provides life, and he can also cause those who remain rebellious to perish.

Job 33:4 – The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Even in one of the most famous passages of the Bible, Yeshua is quoted as speaking of belief in him as the Messiah is an indication of an eternal life that will never perish.

John 3:14-16  – “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Now, to also carry the idea of “sons of the resurrection” forward that Luke had mentioned previously, I am reminded of Yeshua’s discussion with Nicodemus earlier on in this same passage.

John 3:3-7 – Yeshua replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  “How can anyone be born when he is old? ” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born? ”  Yeshua answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.”

Yeshua seems to be teaching that being born again or born from above is a spiritual reality that doesn’t have to wait for some future resurrection, but is something that can begin to be experienced in this life. This is also what he appears to have been discussing with Martha at the tomb of Lazarus before Lazarus was raised from the dead.

John 11:23-26  – “Your brother will rise again,” Yeshua told her.  Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

This seems to indicate to me that this resurrection life, exhibited by faith in Messiah, overlaps and is contemporaneous with this physical life. Here is another indication within John’s gospel:

John 5:21, 24 – “For just as the Father raises [present tense] the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives [present tense] life to whom He wishes…Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

Again, Yeshua seems to be teaching that eternal life was something that was being bestowed within the physical lifetime of the believer, where a future judgment was already bypassed due to the possession of this life by being faithful to God’s word in believing in his Messiah. However, he was also clear that this was not to forego the coming judgment upon those who refused to believe.

John 5:25-29 – Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth;those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

In this passage Yeshua appears to be teaching of a (then) present reality of passing from death to life, but also an event which was yet to happen in which the prior dead would come forth to a resurrection of judgment, both good and bad. In reality, he is drawing on the prophetic imagery of a collective resurrection and judgment which we encountered earlier from Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. This theme of collective resurrection and judgment in the prophets has a unique and significant meaning. Because it is so critical to our understanding of resurrection, these passages will be the subject of our next couple of visits to the resurrection topic.

From our brief introduction to the concept of resurrection today, we can summarize some of the main ideas of what we have examined in the following statements:

  • Individual resurrections hinted that conscious existence for the faithful is maintained beyond this lifetime.
  • The individual resurrections glorified the power of God, and validated the ministries of those who participated in them.
  • In the New Testament writings, Yeshua seems to be redefining resurrection with the Sadducees to mean something more than just a future, collective event. It was instead a present and active activity of the Father with the righteous dead who still consciously lived, since “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
  • Resurrection as defined by Yeshua also seems to have been connected as a continuance of conscious existence for the righteous who have been “born again” and who believed in him as Messiah, since “he who believes in me will never die.”

Yeshua had modeled in prayer for his disciples what eternal life was.

John 17:3 – And this is [present tense] eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Yeshua Messiah whom you have sent.

The disciples would then carry this message forward to the scattered Israelites among the nations.

1 Thessalonians 5:8-10: “But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Yeshua Messiah, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.“

According to Yeshua, the Old Testament saints experienced a resurrection state since he taught that they “all are alive to God.” In his view, it seems eternal life was a by-product of a life lived by simple faith in Yahweh. It was not necessarily an end to be sought in and of itself,  but it was a consequence or result of being a faithful believer in Yahweh, just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were. And, in New Testament times, if one truly believed in Yahweh, then it follows they would believe in the testimony he provided about his son, Messiah Yeshua.

According to Yeshua, the resurrection is eternal life. This is both the present state and the living hope of every believer. I believe it is in this sense that Yeshua truly conquered death and provided life eternal in the Kingdom for those who were to believe in him.

Next time, in the second installment of this study, we will explore the prophetic teachings of a collective future resurrection and how that concept squares with these ideas of eternal life.

Well, it’s my sincere hope that this introduction to the topic of resurrection has brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Yom haShemini, the Eighth Day

Eighth Day is just beyond the seven-day cycle of this Creation; it is new life in the day of eternity.

Core of the Bible podcast #120 – The Biblical Calendar and Yom haShemini, the Eighth Day

As you may know, in recent weeks we have been reviewing the fall festivals of the biblical calendar, as these podcasts are being recorded in that season of the year. Today is the final installment in this series, as we are about to review the last of the fall holidays known simply as the Eighth Day, or Yom haShemini.

  • Leviticus 23:39 “On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of Yahweh for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
  • Numbers 29:35-38 ‘On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work. ‘But you shall present a burnt offering, an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to Yahweh: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs one year old without defect; their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bull, for the ram and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.
  • Nehemiah 8:18 He [Ezra] read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.

The Story

While the other annual appointed days on the biblical calendar have a historical story to go along with their background, such as the Passover event of the Israelites leaving Egypt, or living in Sukkot or Shelters for forty years as a reminder of the wanderings in the wilderness, the Eighth Day is related in the Bible only as a day of consecration, offerings, assembly, and rest. It has been viewed as joined to the seven-day festival of Sukkot, yet distinct from it as a separate appointment day. In Hebrew culture, it is known as Shemini Atzeret, a phrase literally meaning Eighth-Assembly, or gathering. Some relate the word atzeret to another root word for rest, or pause.

During the Second Temple period and the time of Yeshua, this appointment day became filled with traditions surrounding a water ceremony, asking for God’s blessing of rain for the coming year’s crops. Since it comes immediately on the heels of the great harvest festival of Sukkot, these new crops would begin getting planted after the conclusion of this celebration. However, if we look beyond these traditions and do a survey of Bible passages that mention the eighth day, we see that eighth days have thematic and symbolic significance. 

In some instances, people, animals, and things are set apart or consecrated for God’s purposes on the eighth day.

  • Exodus 22:29-30 “…The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me. “You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.
  • Leviticus 12:1-3 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: ‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, … ‘On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
  • Leviticus 22:26-27 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to Yahweh.
  • 2 Chronicles 29:5, 17 Then he said to them, “Listen to me, O Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from the holy place. … Now they began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of Yahweh. Then they consecrated the house of Yahweh in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.
  • Ezekiel 43:18, 27 And He said to me, “Son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh, ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is built, to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it. … ‘When they have completed the days, it shall be that on the eighth day and onward, the priests shall offer your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you,’ declares the Lord Yahweh.”

In other instances, the eighth day represents a day of cleansing from uncleanness.

  • Leviticus 14:1-2, 10, 23 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, … “Now on the eighth day he is to take two male lambs without defect, and a yearling ewe lamb without defect, and three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil; … “Then the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, at the doorway of the tent of meeting, before Yahweh.
  • Leviticus 15:13-14 ‘Now when the man with the discharge becomes cleansed from his discharge, then he shall count off for himself seven days for his cleansing; he shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in running water and will become clean. ‘Then on the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before Yahweh to the doorway of the tent of meeting and give them to the priest…
  • Leviticus 15:25, 28-29 ‘Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean. … ‘When she becomes clean from her discharge, she shall count off for herself seven days; and afterward she will be clean. ‘Then on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them in to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.
  • Numbers 6:9-10 ‘But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day. ‘Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.

We can see from these passages that the eighth day has to do with the following themes and rites:

  • consecration or setting apart of the priests, firstborn and sacrificial animals, and circumcision of male infants (indicating a setting apart from the world)
  • ritual cleansing from impurities related to death and uncleanness  
  • new beginnings at the completion of faithful obedience

In these aspects, the Eighth Day therefore becomes representative of cleansing and being set apart for God’s purposes. It is a day of new beginnings, where uncleanness involving blood and death is left behind. 

Offerings

We also saw from the passage in Numbers that it is a day of offerings. In our previous review of Sukkot, we noted that there were sacrifices offered each day for the seven days of Sukkot, with the offering of a descending number of bulls each day until it reached seven bulls on the seventh day. This total number of seventy bulls sacrificed has been likened to each of the bulls representing each of the nations of the world besides Israel. However, when we reach the Eighth Day offerings, only one bull is offered for the remaining nation in the world, Israel. We have already viewed how the burnt offering or the offering by fire is representative of total consummation to the will and purpose of God, and this theme of national consecration ties in neatly with the themes of cleansing and being set apart, as already mentioned. It would have been an annual reminder of the unique purpose of Israel in being set apart as the light-bearers to the rest of the seventy nations of the world.

The Great Day In New Testament times

In the time of Yeshua, traditions had arisen in Jerusalem that every night during the week long festival of Sukkot, the priests would draw water from the pool of Siloam and pour it out at the Temple altar the following morning. The festivities each night grew to include lighting huge golden candlesticks seventy-five feet high that could be seen everywhere, along with singing and dancing, rejoicing with the fruit and branches as we saw in our last study. The final water ceremony on Shemini Atzeret was the culmination of the week, where the priests would, in a grand gesture, pour the water out in the sight of all the people while pronouncing a blessing for abundant rains and fruitful crops in the coming season.

Yeshua capitalized on both the thematic nature and the traditional nature of the day when he proclaimed that he was the source of living water, a water that consecrates the believer and leaves death and uncleanness behind.

John 7:2, 37-39 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. … Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Yeshua was not yet glorified.

Belief in Messiah was to be the ultimate consecration and cleansing, a spiritual setting apart that would become the unlimited source of new beginnings and eternal life for every generation.

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The Last Day

We can also see how the Eighth Day is associated with another term: the last day, “the great day of the feast”, as it is the last day at the end of the festival Sukkot. Being the great day, it has great importance among all of the biblical holidays. More significantly, it is the last day of all of the annual appointed times for the year.

Nehemiah 8:18 He [Ezra] read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.

If we carry this last day term forward into the gospels, we find it illuminates yet other several aspects associated with this day: final judgment and new life in resurrection.

John 11:23-27 Yeshua said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”

Mary expressed a belief in an end-of-time type of resurrection; yet Yeshua gently corrects her to say that there was a type of new life that was available already at that time, and was to continue even beyond physical death.

  • John 6:39-40, 44 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” … “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
  • John 12:48-50 “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

The words that the Father commanded Yeshua to speak were to result in eternal life for those who believed; those who did not believe would be judged by those same words. 

While many believe these last day references in John’s gospel speak of a culmination of all history on some prophetic last day of all time, if we follow the patterns of the biblical calendar, these are more likely references to two other aspects of the last day: a foretelling of the final judgment upon the nation of Israel, and a spiritual Shemini Atzeret for each believer in life and death. 

A national ending

We have to remember that the Bible is a book written by Hebrew people, for Hebrew people. In their culture, judgment had to do with God’s disfavor, while life had to do with his favor. Yeshua proclaimed that the word which he spoke would judge individuals on the last day. This did come to pass as the nation was judged within that generation, demonstrated by the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. Remember, Yeshua had prophesied that judgment would be passed upon that very generation, those who were alive at that time.

  • Matthew 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
  • Matthew 23:36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Also at that time, life was offered to faithful believers as they were joined with the righteous individuals of the past, to be united in God’s presence in that final assembly of the New Jerusalem forever.

  • Hebrews 12:22-23 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect…
  • Revelation 7:9-10 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

A personal ending

As the last day of the annual appointed times, there are no more; it is the termination of God’s appointed times for the year. The root meaning of the solemn assembly implies a restraining, or a retaining aspect. Jewish thinkers throughout the ages have interpreted this day as a yearning to prolong the last appointed time of the year by one more day; a longing to remain in God’s presence and the presence of his people before departing the festival days until the following year.

In like respects, man is appointed only one life, the timing and length of which is in God’s hands. Though we may desire to linger just a bit longer with family and friends in our community of faith, there comes a time where the offerings are complete, and rest has come. As the holiday comes at the culmination of the agricultural cycle, it provides hope for a new beginning in God’s presence at the culmination of this life, just like the new crops were to begin being planted after the harvest cycle was completed.

Application for today

Eighth Day is the grand conclusion of the fall festivals, but one that is tempered by its depth of meaning for this life and for eternity.

  • Yom Teruah is remembering the voice of God from Sinai; the Ten Commandments.
  • Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is when God provides forgiveness for not obeying his voice. It is the covering of sin and its removal from the community of faith.
  • Sukkot is the trials of discipline and the provision of God during this temporary existence of striving to live according to his commandments while we reside in our temporary shelters.
  • Yom haShemini, the Eighth Day, the last and greatest day of the festival, is the day of rest. It is the day of entering the Promised Land and new beginnings, the Eighth Day just beyond the seven-day cycle of this Creation. It is new life in the day of eternity.

Viewed from this perspective, the Eighth Day takes on many layers of meaning. During this life, the day alludes to the eternal Kingdom of God which can be experienced in this reality, but not fully realized until death. It is just like the Eighth Day which is connected to, but distinct from, the seven days of Sukkot, those seven days representing our temporary dwelling during our life in this Creation. But on the eighth day, at the end of the wilderness journeys of living in sukkot, we take down the sukkah and enter the permanent residence in the new land.

Because it has to do with concepts described in the eighth day passages, the biblical appointed time of Yom haShemini also represents the principles of consecration, cleansing and new beginnings, while the command to remember the day includes aspects of offerings, assembly, and rest.

  • It speaks of our consecration from all that is worldly, and our cleansing from uncleanness in God’s sight. We can experience a new beginning by placing our faith in Messiah.
  • Being set apart by faith in Messiah, the individual is freed to provide the offering of themselves in purity and faithfulness to God’s instruction (torah) during this life.
  • It relates the assembling aspect of God’s people: believers sharing with other believers during this life, and also our gathering with a great assembly of all of the faithful who have gone before.
  • It denotes a time of rest, when no more work can be done, and the final sacrifices of this life have been wholly consumed.

The day of Shemini Atzeret, the Eighth Gathering, intimates that believers are to be joined with the Spirit of God in the company of the faithful after the pure offering of a righteous life, providing hope for renewed life in God’s Kingdom and presence for eternity to come.

Well, it’s my sincere hope that these studies on the fall festivals of the biblical calendar have brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Sukkot, the Festival of Shelters

We are still invited to recognize and take to heart some of the great truths of these festival days.

Core of the Bible podcast #119 – The Biblical Calendar and Sukkot, the Festival of Shelters

Having looked at Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement in our last episode, we now come to the third of the fall holiday celebrations: the festival of Sukkot, or Shelters.

Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43 – Yahweh spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Shelters to Yahweh begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days. There is to be a sacred assembly on the first day; you are not to do any daily work. You are to present a food offering to Yahweh for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you are not to do any daily work.  … You are to celebrate Yahweh’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees ​– ​palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook ​– ​and rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days. You are to celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters, so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.”

The Story of the Wilderness

During the Exodus, after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, they were brought out into the desert wilderness on their way to the land that God had promised Abraham. After receiving the covenant of the Ten Commandments, they were to trust God and take the land. 

Deuteronomy 1:21 [Moses said,] ‘See, Yahweh your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’

However, due to their fear of those dwelling in the land, they chose instead to rebel and to try to revert course back to Egypt.

Numbers 14:2-4 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! “Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

Moses recounts what he told them at that time.

Deuteronomy 1:26-27, 34-36, 38 “Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. … Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’ … ‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.'”

Because they did not trust God but were stubborn in their hearts, God forced them to wander in the desert wilderness for 40 years until that rebellious generation all died off. However, he had promised to remain with them to guide and provide for them.

Exodus 25:8 – “They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them…”

While they were in the wilderness, God still provided food (manna) and water and whatever else was needed for them to survive. During this time, they lived in tent-like dwellings or shelters (sukkot). This was a long-lasting event that Moses encouraged them to recall with each generation.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5 “You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

The forty year wandering was a discipline process, readying the next generation to be faithful to inherit the land and everything that had been promised to Abraham and the patriarchs. Now, let’s take a look at some of the symbolism of these activities.

The Sukkot

To begin with, these events were to be remembered symbolically by living in sukkot for a week once a year to remind them of those desert wanderings and the provision of God. The sukkot or shelters served as a reminder, not only of the shelters they lived in during that time, but of the shelter and protection of God during the desert wanderings. For example, in Psalm 31, we are shown how God protects those who take refuge in him:

Psalm 31:19-20 – How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. In the presence of everyone you have acted for those who take refuge in you.  You hide them in the protection of your presence; you conceal them in a shelter [besukKah] from human schemes, from quarrelsome tongues.

The prophet Isaiah reveals a majestic vision of prophetic Zion or the Kingdom of God would have deep ties back to the provision and protection of Yahweh over his people during their desert journeys.

Isaiah 4:5-6 – Then Yahweh will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy [vesukKah] over all the glory, and there will be a shelter for shade from heat by day and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.

Just as God demonstrated he could protect them for those forty years, he was revealing how he would provide that same shield and protection over his eternal Kingdom.

The harvest

Additional symbols of this week include the command to rejoice in that which God has provided. This is a harvest festival after all, sometimes called the Feast of Ingathering, as it is in the book of Exodus.

  • Exodus 23:16 – “Also … observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.”
  • Exodus 34:22 – “Observe … the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year.”

The bounty of the fall harvest is brought in and shared among friends and family, kind of like an ancient Thanksgiving. Actually it is believed by some that the American Thanksgiving holiday was based on the festival of Sukkot by the biblically literate Pilgrims who were looking for a way to honor God with their survival in the New World.

Rest

Along with celebration in the provision of God is the theme of rest, with the first and last days being Sabbaths, or days of rest. The rest after a great harvest provides a deep sense of satisfaction and joy, as it is the completion of all of the hard work that has occurred throughout the spring and summer months. A seven-day festival indicates a complete cycle, just like the seven days of Creation. The fact that it takes place in the seventh month illustrates the sabbath-rest of the eternal kingdom of God, with God ever dwelling, tabernacle-like, in its midst.

Offerings

Each day was also to have an offering made by fire, which as we have seen in other studies as being representative of complete consummation in service to God. Even through the rejoicing in the hard physical work which has been completed, there was always to be a remembrance of who was ultimately responsible for their bounty, and their undivided devotion to his purposes.

On the subject of offerings, we find that the narrative in Numbers 29 regarding this holiday defines a very detailed and specific number of offerings that were to take place each day, inclusive of bulls, rams, lambs and goats, along with grain and drink offerings. Now this very specific numeration of sacrificial animals could be a whole study within itself. But what I find interesting is the sheer magnitude of trying to sacrifice, for example, thirteen bulls in one day, besides the 2 rams and 14 lambs and the goat. Additionally, the number of bulls diminishes each day, beginning at 13 on the first day, then the next day at 12, 11, and so on, until by the seventh day, they reach seven bulls in number. Therefore, when all the bull sacrifices are added up, you reach seventy bulls sacrificed over seven days, ending with seven bulls on the seventh day.

There are many extra-biblical references to the number seventy relating to the totality of the world. Even among ancient Hebrew oral traditions, seventy is considered the number of nations outside of the nation of Israel. At the Jewish site Chabad.org we can find the following explanatory quotes:

Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach of Avritch: “It is the task of the People of Israel to bring the glory of G‑d’s kingdom to all of creation, even to the nations of the world, and the offering of the seventy bulls on the festival of Sukkot is in order that the influx of G‑d’s kingdom flows to all of the seventy nations.”

Elana Mizrahi: “In the times of the Holy Temple, not only did everyone come to the Temple to celebrate and wave the lulav and etrog [the fruit and branches], but they also came to bring offerings to G‑d. Each day a number of animals were brought, including bulls. On the first day 13 bulls were brought, and each day one less bull was brought, totaling 70 bulls. These 70 bulls represent the 70 nations of the world.”

This is why, according to rabbinic sources, that only one bull is sacrificed on the Eighth Day of the festival, as it represents the sacrifice for the one remaining nation, Israel. We’ll talk more about the Eighth Day significance in our next episode.

From my perspective, considering there were seventy bulls over seven days, I was also reminded of Peter’s inquiry of Yeshua as to how many times we should forgive those who sin against us:

Matthew 18:21-22 – Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times? ”  “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Yeshua replied, “but seventy times seven.”

Such an odd way of phrasing this famous response: “seventy times seven.” Now, I wouldn’t be dogmatic about this, but could it be that Yeshua was hinting at the responsibility of believers to mimic the totality of forgiveness that Yahweh annually offers the nations of the world in the seventy bulls over seven days? In this sense, seventy times seven would be indicative of complete forgiveness of everyone, something which also very closely aligned with the mission of Messiah in this world.

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The branches and fruit

Leviticus 23:40 – On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees ​– ​palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook ​– ​and rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days.

Now this aspect of the holiday week has a certain meaning among modern Jews, as they believe that this verse relates to a specific group of “four species” of plants that they are commanded to worship with each day. These consist of the following:

  • Lulav: A ripe green, closed frond from a date palm tree.
  • Etrog: A citron fruit with a thick rind and a sweet fragrance.
  • Hadas: Three myrtle branches with leaves.
  • Arava: Two willow branches with long, narrow leaves

There is, in fact, ancient extra-biblical historical evidence that this rejoicing with the fruit and branches was a practice that, to outsiders, appeared to be a revelry similar to that of honoring Bacchus, the god of wine, or other pagan deities. The Greek philosopher Plutarch relates the following in his text Table Talk:

“First of all, he said, the time and character of the greatest, most sacred holiday of the Jews clearly befit Dionysus. For when they celebrate their so-called Fast, at the height of the vintage, they set out tables of all sorts of fruit under tents and huts plaited for the most part of vines and ivy. They call the first of the days Booth. A few days later they celebrate another festival, called openly, no longer through obscure hints, a festival of Bacchus. This festival of theirs is a sort of bearing of branches and of thyrsi [“rods”] in which they enter the temple carrying the thyrsi. What they do after entering we do not know, but it is probable that what they are doing is a Bacchic revelry, for in fact they use little trumpets to invoke their god as do the Argives at their Dionysia.”

Now while Plutarch may be interpreting the actions of the Jews in light of the pagan Greek gods, it is evident that there was a celebratory mood among the Jews during the time of Sukkot and the bearing of the branches into the Temple area. The waving of branches was an act of celebration, much like waving a team flag at a sporting event might be today. Today it is customary to wave these “four species” in a specific fashion each day of Sukkot, as this waving becomes be a representation of “rejoicing with the fruit and branches.” It is considered to be an exhibition of praise to Yahweh for his good provision in the land that he had promised them.

Waving branches as an act of celebration and acclaim should not be unfamiliar to believers in Messiah, as a similar practice was bestowed upon Yeshua as he entered Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment of prophetic texts:

John 12:12-13 – The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord ​– ​the King of Israel! “

Besides the celebratory aspect of the waving of the branches, this command in Leviticus comes on the heels of the previous verse which states to celebrate the holiday “for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land,” (Leviticus 23:39). This produce of the land would naturally include the fruit of the various fruit-producing trees of the land as well.

But the branches and fruit also have prophetic overtones for the future of Israel as God’s eternal kingdom, as well:

Hosea 14:1, 4-7 – Israel, return to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. … I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for my anger will have turned from him. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His new branches will spread, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon. The people will return and live beneath his shade. They will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Messiah Yeshua captures some of this prophetic imagery in his parable of the mustard seed:

Mark 4:30-32 – And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it? “It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown upon the soil, is the smallest of all the seeds on the ground. “And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.“

Ultimately, he claims to be the very source of the true branches and fruit in which believers can rejoice for all time:

John 15:5 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

If this meaning is layered onto the celebration of Sukkot at this time of year, there is additional reason for rejoicing in the living and fruit-producing branches of the Kingdom of God, harvesting the nations of the world for Yahweh.

Living in the shelters

Leviticus 23:42 – “You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters…”

It’s interesting how a distinction appears to be made between the native-born and those who are resident-aliens in the land. Only the native-born are required to live in shelters during the festival. By contrast, in the instructions for the Passover feast, it is stated that if the resident-alien desires to keep the Passover, they and their households have to be circumcised.

Exodus 12:48 – “If an alien resides among you and wants to observe Yahweh’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

Here at Sukkot there is no such caveat. It’s almost as if this command is specifically for those descendants of the generation which wandered in the desert, as the resident alien would have no connection to that event, and no need for the discipline of heart that that generation struggled with. God was very clear when he told the Israelites the reason they should reenact this scenario of living in shelters for a week each year: “so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt…” (Leviticus 23:43).

It’s not that the resident-aliens could not learn from that event, just that they were not required to live in sukkot for that week, even though they were still invited to participate in the festivities. Moses had instructed them:

Deuteronomy 16:13-14 – “You are to celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress. Rejoice during your festival ​– ​you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow within your city gates.

So this command to live in shelters appears to be more directed toward the physical descendants of that generation that was forced to wander in the wilderness, as an echo of their ancestral propensity toward stubbornness of heart. To live in shelters for a week would remind them to never again engage in that level of disobedience to the commands of God in establishing his Kingdom.

Probably the best applications of this biblical festival can be drawn from the Deuteronomy 8 passage we read earlier, a passage where Moses is recounting to the Israelites everything he has ministered to them over the past forty years in the wilderness before they enter the land of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5

“You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years…”

They were to be reminded that even in their unfaithfulness and stubbornness of heart, God still chose to live among them, to lead them safely through the wilderness, and provide for all of their needs.

“…that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

Through this process, God was determining what was really in their hearts, demonstrated by how faithfully they were to keep his commands. It is one thing to believe what is right; it is another thing to show how strong the belief is by what is done. The apostle James famously stated this truth:

James 2:18 – But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

This disciplinary process of the desert experience was more for the Israelites to learn about their own hearts, and for them to demonstrate what it is they really wanted in their relationship with God.

“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.”

The miraculous provision of food during their wilderness journeys was because God had promised he would take care of them. If he declared they would have food, they would have food, even if it was miraculous bread from heaven. But it was not the bread that they should focus on, but the faithfulness of God. The bread was a demonstration that they should honor his words because he is a faithful God. His words were the true source of their life.

“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.”

There were no clothing stores and no medical facilities in that desert wasteland. Forty years is a long time to go wandering about in the same clothes, and to not have major physical problems due to all of that travel on foot. And yet, once again, God miraculously provided for them.

“Thus you are to know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

And here is where the rubber meets the road, where the real need for remembering those forty years would come into play. They were being disciplined because they had rejected God’s command early on to take the land. Because they feared the Amorites more than they trusted Yahweh, he caused them to wander in the desert until all of the stubborn generation died off. Only then could they enter the land of Canaan. Discipline is real, and hard to endure, but it bears fruit in the end.

  • Hebrews 12:9-11 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
  • Proverbs 3:11-12  My son, do not reject the discipline of Yahweh or loathe His reproof, for whom Yahweh loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

If the week of Sukkot was to be a reminder of those forty years in the wilderness, then these are the things that they were to be reminded of. It was to show them how stubbornness of heart has consequences, even though Yahweh was still willing to be faithful. Even in the most trying of circumstances, God was able to provide for them when they recognized they truly lived by every word that God had spoken. These were the lessons that were to be handed down to each generation at the annual week of Sukkot.

Second Exodus fulfillment and application for today

Just as the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert wilderness, there was also a forty-year duration between Messiah and the destruction of the Temple and nation in 70 AD. This has been suggested to be a Second Exodus, a calling out of a faithful remnant from among the unfaithful of the corrupted religiosity of carnal Judaism which held its man-made traditions and rituals above the Word of God.

So if we are to carry the themes of the First Exodus with Moses into this Second Exodus beginning with the ministry of Messiah Yeshua, we can conclude the nation of Israel in the first century was being disciplined during this time for rejecting God’s promised kingdom which Yeshua announced during his ministry. Yeshua had taken them to the brink of the land so they could see the Kingdom of God for themselves, but they wavered in faith and rejected his message, just as Caleb and Joshua’s report was denied. They were choosing instead to hold tight to the principles of Egypt (the political world and their traditions) rather than recognize the presence of God among his people to lead them into the spiritual land of promise: Zion. 

Yet, just as the protege of Moses, Joshua (whose Hebrew name is Yeshua), caused Israel to inherit the physical land, another Yeshua caused them to inherit the spiritual land. Those who were faithful, the disciples and those who believed in Messiah, were provided for with supernatural gifts of the Spirit of God, and with hope for the soon-coming consummation of the national promises. The faithful were brought into the kingdom, while that rebellious generation perished.

Even for believers today, just like the resident-aliens who were not required to live in Sukkot for that week, we are still invited to be involved in the memorial of this festival time of our spiritual ancestors and recognize and take to heart some of these great truths:

  • We can be reminded that if we are disobedient to God’s commands, God still provides for our needs while he may be disciplining us for our own good. 
  • As a harvest festival, it teaches us to be thankful for all that God has provided for us each year, and to rejoice in God’s ongoing harvest of faithful believers everywhere. 
  • As a time of rejoicing, we are to celebrate the establishment and growth of the vine-branches and fruit of the kingdom of God until it grows to fill the earth.

So as we view this seasonal moed or appointed time of Sukkot, we can catch a glimpse of its renewed nature and purpose in the symbolism of the core of the Bible parameters. Having received the Ten Commandments and the covenant of God, the Israelites were to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth in the Promised Land. Just as Yeshua taught, this was to be a Kingdom based on the structure of those Ten Commandments, as both a near and present reality. There were many dangers in the desert that the Israelites had to be aware of and avoid, so this was a life where vigilance would be required of those who sought to participate. The believers in Messiah would be set apart and holy, trusting God for all of their needs, just as their forefathers had to do in the desert wilderness, and they were to operate with God’s characteristics of forgiveness and compassion, demonstrating that they are the children of God.

Well, I hope these studies on the fall festivals of the biblical calendar are bringing you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Atonement is the method God chose to symbolize his forgiveness of past offenses; he no longer sees them once they are covered over.

Core of the Bible podcast #118 – The Biblical Calendar and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

Over the past several months we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible. However, as I mentioned last time, for the next several weeks we will be returning to the biblical calendar as we are, at the recording of these podcasts, entering the fall season of the biblical year.

Having looked at Yom Teruah or the Day of Trumpets in our last episode, we come to the second of the fall holidays in the biblical calendar: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We read about this day in the narrative of Leviticus, and it is also touched on in Numbers, as well. The Leviticus passage explains the basic outline of the expectations God had for the people on this day:

Leviticus 23:26-32 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement [ha’kippurim]; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to Yahweh. You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before Yahweh your God. If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.”

Now, recently on this podcast we have looked at the concept of atonement from a theological perspective over two episodes, so if you haven’t listened to both of those yet, they may also be helpful in understanding the meaning of this day. In the discussion today, I would like to cover the different aspects of the actual biblical Day of Atonement activities and the significance of meaning as object lessons for believers today.

So let’s begin with understanding the emphasis of the passage as Yahweh relates the information to Moses and the Israelites. First of all, he says because it is the Day of Atonement, they should:

  • humble themselves
  • present an offering by fire to Yahweh
  • do no work

In the description of this appointed time, Yahweh emphasizes how seriously he wants the Israelites to view this day by saying, “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all.” Clearly God wants them to ensure that they approach the day with humility and complete rest, or they would potentially forfeit their place in the community. With this kind of fierce emphasis on these specific things, I think we should review these concepts of humility, rest, and an offering of fire before we even discuss the ritual of atonement.

Humble Yourselves

Leviticus 23:29, 32 – “If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people…you shall humble your souls…”

The word here rendered as humbling of souls is actually a Hebrew word with several meanings. Teh’uneh comes from a root word anaw, which carries the idea of bowing down or stooping low; it is a representation of humility and affliction, here listed as humbling of soul, sometimes rendered as self-denial. Most of the time it is used in the context of describing the brutality of forced humiliation and mistreatment of others; however, in one famously referenced passage, we find it is used in the context of fasting.

Isaiah 58:5 – “Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to Yahweh?

While God in this passage is mocking the Israelites’ hypocritical attitude on their special fast days, when fasting is done for a sincere reason, it represents a denial of self, a self-humiliation of sorts, and is the primary method of demonstrating a true, inner repentance. This humility before God, when sincerely offered, demonstrates one who has recognized the errors of their ways against God’s revealed instruction.

  • Psalm 69:10 – When I wept in my soul with fasting, It became my reproach.
  • Daniel 9:3 – So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
  • Joel 2:12  – “Yet even now,” declares Yahweh, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning…”

By fasting on this day, God’s people were to symbolically demonstrate their true repentance from disobedience to God’s instruction, and recognition of the sacrifice that was to be provided for their forgiveness. It is also a rejection of worldly sustenance to demonstrate a complete yielding to the provision of God.

Yeshua also encouraged having the right heart attitude when fasting which also emphasizes the point of doing so:

Matthew 6:16-18 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Offering by fire

Each of the biblical holidays has its own set of specific sacrifices. In the episode on the biblical holiday of Shavuot or Weeks, we looked at what each of these different types of sacrifices means from a symbolic perspective, so I will review that briefly here.

  • A burnt offering represents total consummation in God’s service.
  • A sin offering represents that which is a substitute for us due to our disobedience to God’s torah.
  • The trespass offering was offered for unintentional or unknown sin.
  • A fellowship or peace offering represents thankfulness for God’s mercy and enjoyment of his relationship.
  • The grain and drink offerings represent our gratitude for God’s provision as firstfruits of all he has provided us.

While we may no longer be required to present physical sacrifices to Yahweh since Messiah fulfilled all of the Temple imagery, I believe we still honor Yahweh when we memorialize these sacrificial aspects in the spirit of these attributes.

Leviticus 23:27 – “…offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh.”

Where the Day of Atonement is mentioned in the book of Numbers, it also mentions offerings of grain and oil:

Numbers 29:9 – “Their grain offering is to be of fine flour mixed with oil…”

Based on these aspects, we can see that the Day of Atonement encompasses an offering made by fire (or a burnt offering), an offering of grain and oil, and sin offerings within the atonement ritual itself.  We learned that grain offerings represent gratitude for God’s provision. We will look at the sin offerings of this day when we review the ritual in a little bit, but for now let’s focus on the offering of fire.

The burnt offering represents a total consummation in God’s service. While other sacrifices provided food for the priests and sometimes participatory meals for the offerer (such as the peace offerings), by contrast the animal that was presented for the burnt offering was completely consumed until nothing was left. This imagery becomes self-evident as to its application for the believer: every part of those who come before Yahweh should be completely committed to him.

A Sabbath Rest

Leviticus 23:28, 30-32 – You shall not do any work on this same day… As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all…. It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you… on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.”

The command to rest on the Day of Atonement represents the ideal of cessation from worldly toil, an intermission, to focus on the importance of this day, much like the weekly Sabbath. Rest from work to observe the appointment days demonstrates placing God as a priority over worldly concerns.  

Leviticus 19:1-3, 30 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I Yahweh your God am holy. ‘Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am Yahweh your God. … ‘You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

When God speaks of keeping his Sabbaths,  plural, I believe he is speaking not only about the weekly Sabbath but the annual ones, as well. Besides honoring Yahweh, I believe the annual Sabbaths contained within the biblical calendar all carry the same idea of being intermissions within the annual routine, especially the agricultural cycles, so that God’s people would remain focused on the object lessons within each season. 

Here, especially on the Day of Atonement as a day of rest, a Sabbath rest additionally signifies that there is nothing for the individual to do on their own behalf; all of the work for atonement will be completed by the intermediary priest.

Yeshua also famously related that those who would come to him would find rest:

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

From these examples we can see how significantly God focuses on the heart of the believer in approaching this day. We should be sincerely humble, thanking God for his provision, delivering our whole selves to him, and understanding we are recognizing this day as an intermission, a hold or pause button in our busy schedules. If we lived in ancient Israel and we were to approach this day in this mindset and with these actions, we would be better prepared to understand the significance of what was about to take place in the courts of the Mishkan, or Tabernacle.

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Now that we have looked at the heart attitude that was expected on this day, we can now turn to the atonement ritual itself. As we have seen in our study on the Atonement, the root of the word atonement is the Hebrew word kaphar which means to cover over. Depending on the context, it could describe covering over an object with some type of coating, such as Noah’s ark:

Genesis 6:14 – “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover [kaphar] it inside and out with pitch.”

It can also have the meaning of looking past an offense, as something that is covered, similar to Jacob trying to amend for past behavior with his brother Esau:

Genesis 32:20 – and you shall say, ‘Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.'” For he said, “I will appease [kaphar] him [Esau] with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

Kaphar is used most regularly in the narrative surrounding the Mishkan or the Tabernacle, and has to do with offerings and sacrifices which provide a covering over of transgression and guilt in the people’s relationship to God:

  • Leviticus 6:7 “…and the priest shall make atonement [kaphar] for him before Yahweh, and he will be forgiven for any one of the things which he may have done to incur guilt.”
  • Leviticus 10:17 “Why did you not eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and He gave it to you to bear away the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement [kaphar] for them before Yahweh.”
  • Leviticus 16:16 “He shall make atonement [kaphar] for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.”

Illustrated in this way, atonement is the method God chose to symbolize his forgiveness of past offenses. In a manner of speaking, he no longer sees them once they are covered over.

  • Psalm 32:1-2 – How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom Yahweh does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
  • Psalm 51:9-10 – Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

This concept of overlooking transgression is also a characteristic of God that he encourages us to practice with one another as we seek to conform to his image.

  • Proverbs 17:9 – He who conceals a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.
  • Proverbs 19:11 – A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, And it is his glory to overlook a transgression.

So, generally speaking, atonement has to do with a process of covering over offenses so that a vital relationship can be restored. An exchange takes place in which something of value (typically the life of an animal) has been provided as a substitute for the life of the one who offers it sincerely and with repentance. This demonstration of sincere repentance allows the opportunity for a change in the foregone outcome of disobedience to God’s torah or instruction. This act symbolically “covers over” the offense,  and the relationship with Yahweh can be restored. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, was that process for the whole nation of Israel at once.

In Leviticus 16, an elaborate ritual is outlined in which the High Priest is to offer sacrificial animals for various types of atonement for the temple, the priests, and the people. These offerings are all about entering into God’s presence in the Holy of Holies, the center-most compartment of the Mishkan or Tabernacle, where God chose to dwell among the camp of Israel in the wilderness. This is to illustrate to the Israelites that they could not just enter his presence carelessly, as Aaron’s sons had done and were killed for it. Through these offerings, God is allowing for substitutionary sacrifices for the sins of Aaron and for the people, their sins would be covered, and the national relationship with Yahweh would be restored.

At the center of this ritual is the double-goat offering: one of the goats was to be slaughtered and one was to be released into the wilderness. The goat that was killed was to have some of its blood poured out on the lid of the ark of the covenant which was in the holiest place of the Mishkan. By contrast, the live goat was not sacrificed; it was to have the High Priest lay his hands on its head, confessing the sins of the people. This goat was then led into the wilderness, never to return.

This day was considered the most sacred of all of the appointment days throughout the year, and, as we have seen, was to be marked as a day of rest from regular work, fasting in repentance and humility.

The Symbolism

This appointment day is rich with symbols, as it is central to the overall outworking of God’s will with his people. Let’s take some time to review these different aspects in detail.

The High Priest was the representative of the people to God. Since the people’s disobedience was keeping them separate from God, only he, as their sole representative, could bear their offering of the goat’s life-blood into God’s presence within the Mishkan. But he himself also had to be sinless, which is why he had to offer a bull for himself before representing the people.

The High Priest was also the representation of God to the people. It was his faithful actions which enacted the atonement and forgiveness which God was to provide for the nation.

The two goats represent a dichotomy illustrating the enduring nature of God’s forgiveness. One goat was killed; it had given itself in totality by giving up its life as a symbolic substitute for the people and its blood was poured out on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. The ark contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. So what this represented was that the pouring out of the life-blood of the sacrifice on the ark was symbolic of a renewal of life-commitment to follow the covenant made at Sinai. This life-blood of the goat was the substitution for all of the people of Israel.

The second live goat (the ez azal, or goat of departure) symbolically carried the sins of the nation that were confessed over it into the wilderness, away from the people, never to return.

This dual aspect of the ceremony is actually revealed in the Hebrew name for this annual ritual: ha’kippuRim, or “the atonements”, plural. This duality is critical for understanding the work of Messiah in relation to this day, as we shall see in just a little bit.

Since the live goat left the congregation alive, it was considered to remain a sin-bearer for the rest of its existence (or at least until the following year’s Day of Atonement), far from the assembly of the people. This live goat was to be led out to the eretz gezerah; the land of separation, never to return. This brings to mind the famous Psalm that is used of God’s grace in providing forgiveness for those repentant souls who have sinned against him.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

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Fulfillment in Messiah

Now let’s pull all of this rich symbolism into a representation of how Yeshua fulfilled these many symbolic aspects of this day simultaneously.

As the sinless High Priest representing the people, he was the only one authorized to provide the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of his people, Israel. He alone could enter the true holiest place in heaven based on the ultimate offering; his own life. 

Hebrews 8:1-2 – Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, Messiah, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a servant in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle [Mishkan], which Yahweh pitched, not man.

As the High Priest also representing the interests of God toward men, he became the sole authorized intermediary between God and man.

1 Timothy 2:5 – For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Messiah Yeshua…

The goat that gave its life and the goat that bore the sin of Israel are both combined in the person of Yeshua. Messiah was crucified and died, just like the one goat that was killed. However, Messiah also rose to life and continues to live, just like the living goat that was sent into the wilderness to keep sin away from the congregation. 

As the sacrificial goat that was killed, his blood, representing his life, can be likened in a symbolic way to the blood that was carried into the heavenly holiest place as the offering for the people.

Hebrews 9:11-12, 24 But when Messiah appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle [Mishkan], not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. … For Messiah did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…

As the living ez azal, the departing goat sent off into the wilderness, through his resurrection he continues to live.

Now, as an interesting linguistic note here, when Tyndale first translated the Bible into English, since there was no English equivalent for the goat of departure, he coined the term “scapegoat” which is short for the “goat which escapes”. In modern usage, the meaning of this term has become synonymous with the purpose of that goat on the Day of Atonement: “one who is blamed or punished for the mistakes or sins of others”. Now a person who is identified as a scapegoat is typically forced into that role unwillingly, as blame is assigned to them, usually unjustly, by others. However, Messiah willingly accepted the duty of bearing the sin of others when he submitted to the will of his Father.

There is hardly a better description of the work of Messiah than this. While his sacrifice was once for all time, whenever someone places their faith in him, their sin is borne away. In this sense, he is eternally capable of being the sin-bearer, one who voluntarily chose to be identified with the sins of an entire nation, and any others who place their faith in him. 

  • 1 Peter 2:24 and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by his wounds you were healed.
  • 1 John 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins; and in him there is no sin.
  • Galatians 4:4-5- But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
  • Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly.

Because the ancient Day of Atonement was a national event, the disobedience of the nation was completely resolved through dual atonements of the goat of sacrifice and the goat of departure. In Yeshua’s day, this same result was effected through his simple and profound faithfulness in submitting to the will of the Father. As Israel’s representative king, he willingly took on the sins of the entire nation at once, allowing the covenant of Sinai to be fulfilled before Yahweh, and releasing those who placed their faith in him from the effects of sin and death. All that has been required for his people is faith in the substitutionary gift of himself, just as faith in the substitutionary goats was required in the original institution.

The Balance of the Spring and Fall Holiday Cycles

As mentioned in the previous discussion surrounding Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), this period of the fall cycle of biblical holidays is the corroborating balance of the spring cycle.  In the spring pattern, God raised up Moses as a deliverer for Israel from slavery and the worldliness of Egypt. In the fall pattern, God raised up Messiah to deliver his people from slavery to sin and the worldliness of corrupted religion. Just as the lamb at Passover provided physical deliverance from death for the firstborn of each family, the Yom Kippur ritual provided spiritual deliverance from sin for the firstborn nation of God: Israel. As Yom Kippur is six months removed from Passover, it is the counter-balance of the annual cycle, harking back to the same redemptive themes of that event. They are both about God redeeming and delivering his people from both sin and death; two witnesses to the faithful work of God.

As Israel was to be a light for the rest of the nations, the patterns established in their history still teach us in the nations about God’s faithfulness today. Since the spiritual Kingdom was established at the time of Yeshua, and it is eternally growing until it fills the earth, we can apply principles learned by their example. The principles set down in their narrative allow us to draw conclusions about how God desires to interact with all of humanity for all time. 

Application for today

Yeshua’s death was primarily the culmination of Israel’s redemption under the first covenant in their narrative that was completed in the first century AD.

Hebrews 9:15 – For this reason He [Messiah] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

However, the truth is that Yeshua’s example of giving himself for others paved the way not only for Israel, but for our deliverance from our own disobedient actions when we place our faith in him, as well.

1 Peter 2:24 – He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

The apostle Paul carries the imagery of sacrifice forward into the personal life of every believer:

Romans 6:3-7, 11 – Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yeshua were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. … So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua.

We no longer bring sacrifices of representative animals before Yahweh to demonstrate repentance before him. As believers in Messiah, we must now demonstrate our sincere and ongoing repentance through the sacrifice of our “old self” as Paul says, the self that has acted in disobedience to God’s torah, his instruction. Only then can we live the new life in Messiah that God expects of us.

The Day of Atonement captures all of this symbolism within its elaborate ritual. When we approach Yahweh on this day in a true spirit of humility, represented by fasting, and when we offer ourselves as burnt offerings (that is, wholly committed to him), and when we honor him by putting a pause on our busy lives and resting, we can then be in the right frame of mind to appreciate the forgiveness he has provided to his people. Because Yahweh forgave his people by covering over their offenses through the representative sacrifices offered on that day, we, too, can be forgiven of our sin when we place our faith in his representative Messiah, the King of his people. This High Priest is the eternal intermediary between God and man. Through faith in his symbolically sacrificial death, our sin is carried away “as far as the east is from the west.” And as we follow Yeshua’s selfless example, we can lay down the lives of our old selves before God as we are now freed to live for him in the new and everlasting covenant in Messiah Yeshua.

Well, I hope these studies on the fall festivals of the biblical calendar are bringing you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The Biblical Calendar and Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets

On this day of Yom Teruah, we are to remember the voice of God, and to not refuse him who spoke on that day.

Core of the Bible podcast #117 – The Biblical Calendar and Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets

Lately we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible. However, for today and the next several weeks, we will be returning to the biblical calendar as we are, at the recording of these podcasts, about to enter the fall season of the biblical year. But before we jump into the first of the fall holidays, Yom Teruah, I would like to quickly recap why I feel it is imperative for believers today to understand the biblical calendar and the feast days.

Most Christians today do not recognize or celebrate the biblical feast days. Yet, the biblical calendar is filled with symbolism of the Kingdom and God’s relationship with his people. I believe it is as we maintain recognition of these days that we can be reminded of God’s, and our, purpose. Just as the recurring physical seasons bring annual holidays and traditions to remembrance, these biblical days become recurring, practical, object lessons that point to the totality of God’s work among his people, and his presence in this world.

The annual biblical calendar contains seven special times known in Hebrew as moedim, meaning seasons or appointed times. I believe the annual biblical holidays are the true appointments with God, the seasonal moedim that he has established for all eternity. They are centered around three central “feasts” or “festival gatherings:” Unleavened Bread, Weeks/Shavuot, and Tabernacles/Sukkot. These occur in the first, third, and seventh months of the annual biblical calendar.

Deuteronomy 16:16 – “All your males are to appear three times a year before Yahweh your God in the place he chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread (first month), the Festival of Weeks (third month), and the Festival of Tabernacles (seventh month).”

Interestingly, these festival-gatherings follow the agrarian timelines of the early barley harvest (first month), the early wheat harvest (third month) and the ingathering of all of the remaining crops (seventh month). All of these festivals surround God’s provision for his people. These three annual gathering seasons focus on seven appointed times which are described as memorials or re-enactments which I believe are to be used to keep God’s people focused on his will and purpose.

I also find it fascinating that God has placed these appointments on the annual calendar in a way that can still be recognized today, even though worldly calendars and methods of timekeeping have come and gone. I believe this is why they are described in the Bible the way they are, and why we are still able to keep those appointments with him.

How are we to keep these appointments? Certainly we are not to sacrifice animals as all sacrifice and temple service has been fulfilled in Messiah. However, on these special days we can still gather together as his people to review the symbolism of those days to bring greater awareness to our understanding of our relationship with God. Whether it is through deeper fellowship and community among his people, as well as renewing our total devotion to him and consummation in his service, we can become serious about our faith by living it out as object lessons that others can see and learn from, as well. After all, as you may know from previous episodes, I believe that God’s Torah or Word is eternal, and therefore has lasting influence on those who approach the God of the Bible as his people. These should be as much a part of our doctrinal understanding as any other major proposition such as the study of who God is or the Kingdom of God.

When viewed from this perspective, the biblical calendar becomes an annual reminder of God’s dealings with his people, Israel, from beginning to end. While the story isn’t necessarily about us directly, we find ourselves in that story when we come to know Yahweh and his son, Yeshua the Messiah.

So, with that basic understanding restated, we can now begin to take a look at our focus for the next several weeks: the fall festivals. In this time, the biblical calendar now starts its second “cycle”, the autumn cycle. By its very nature, the autumn cycle is the antithesis of the spring cycle. Spring themes are about new beginnings and ripening crops. Autumn themes are about endings and harvests. Just as the end of the harvest looks forward in hope to the beginning of the crop season in the next year, so the end of the autumn cycle looks forward in hope to the beginning of existence in the next reality. 

YOM TERUAH – TRUMPETS

The first of the fall holidays is known as Yom Teruah, which literally means “day of horn-blasts/shouts”.

Numbers 29:1: “And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no regular work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.” This is how the day has come to be known as the Feast or Festival of Trumpets.

But the phrase used here in the Hebrew is Yom Teruah, “the day of blasting noise”, not necessarily a word describing trumpets, per se. Teruah is a word that describes a severely loud noise which a trumpet or horn, or even someone shouting would make. Taking the word back to its root meaning, it means “to mar (especially by breaking)” or figuratively “to split the ears with sound”.

Now, this is a curious development. If we review the parallel description of this day in Leviticus 23, it is described there as “a sabbath-rest, a memorial of “blasting-noise’, a holy convocation.” The day is described in that place as zikronteruah, a memorial of an accompanying blast or horn-like noise.

Leviticus 23:23-25 Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ‘You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to Yahweh.'”

Interestingly, today this simple instruction from Yahweh has been changed from its Scriptural meaning into what the Jews traditionally call Rosh Hashanah or New Years Day. On this day, there are the mournful blasts of shofarim, that is, trumpet-like horns made of actual animal horns, which are blown throughout the land to signal the coming of the new civil year.

If this is different than what was originally intended by Yahweh, then how did this come about? Well it seems that Jewish tradition of this day is based on a different passage of scripture which also has significant meaning but it’s different than that which is expressed as we have just seen in Numbers 29.

Leviticus 25:8-10: ““‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month.On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.”

This instruction specifically concerns the announcing of the year of jubilee which was to be done once every 50 years. If you have listened to the podcast on Shavuot or the Festival of Weeks, you may recall we discussed the symbolism of the Jubilee that was also represented numerically in the 50th day after Passover. However, because of this scriptural declaration of the Jubilee being counted during the fall festival, Jewish sages adopted the tradition of counting the civil calendar year from the first day of the seventh month in the fall while also simultaneously counting the religious calendar year beginning on the first day of the first month in the spring. As if their calendar based on both lunar and solar cycles wasn’t complicated enough already!

As can be seen in the Leviticus 25 passage, the horns were not supposed to be blown on the first day of the seventh month (which is when Rosh Hashanah is recognized today) but they were to be blown on the 10th day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement. We will be looking at the significance of the Day of Atonement in the next episode, so be sure to listen in there if you would like to find out more about this pivotal day in the biblical calendar. So if Jews were to be consistent with what Scripture says, they should be proclaiming new year not on the first day of the seventh month but on the Day of Atonement which is the 10th day. And, they shouldn’t be doing it every year, only once every fifty years.

So, all of this is to say that the current traditional practice of Jews celebrating the beginning of the new year on the first day of the seventh month is tradition only and is not biblically accurate, although it is based in the writings of the Talmud. It is a strong and a unyielding tradition and has been celebrated among Rabbinic Judaism since about the second century A.D.

So if Yom Teruah or the day of trumpets is not about the beginning of the new year, what does it signify and why is it important for us to know this today?

Yom Teruah represents the themes of REMINDER and PROCLAMATION with loud noise. It’s a call to action: a preparation of repentance and a reminder to be obedient to the ways of God. This is to be a day which memorializes a loud blasting noise that could have potentially “split the ears with sound”. Is there such a day recorded for us in Israel’s history? When surveying the experiences of the ancient Israelites for an instance where there was a loud blast or trumpet-like sound of alarm that they should be reminded of, one experience shared by the entire nation stands out above all others: the presence of God at Sinai.

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Exodus 19:16-19 So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud shofar sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because Yahweh descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the shofar grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.

In verse 16, the sound heard that day is described as chazaq, meaning “mighty, sharp, loud”. In verse 19 it is said to have grown louder and louder, literally meaning it “traversed” the entire assembly, growing even mightier and louder as Yahweh descended in fiery smoke upon Mount Sinai.

In fact, this event is so pivotal in the history of Israel that even to this day this event at Sinai is the cornerstone of contemporaneous Jewish belief and identity. It is known throughout the world through the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. This demonstrates how that sharp, blasting, penetrating sound like a mighty shofar from 3,500 years ago has changed all of history and continues to influence the majority of the world to this very day.

In the Exodus narrative, we learn that the presence of God on Sinai with this shofar-blast was the occasion in which he himself spoke the Ten Commandments (or Ten Words) to the entire nation at once. Because the force and sound of the words were so frightening (perhaps so loud as to have been considered “ear-splitting”), the Israelites begged Moses, as their representative, to go and speak with God himself, and then bring the information back to them so they could be spared having to listen to God speak directly to them. God then delivered to him the Ten Commandments, which became the cornerstone of the covenant that the people made with God in that day.

The Symbolism of Yom Teruah

The piercing, mighty shofar-like sound is the central symbol of this day. The sound at Sinai was not the sound of a man-made trumpet as we might think of the musical instrument today, but the plaintive cry of a type of sounding instrument made from the animal horn of a ram, known in Hebrew as a shofar.

Exodus 19:16 So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet [shofar] sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

This shofar-sound was so penetrating, it shook the people to their core. In fact, the writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament refers to it as an event that even Moses himself feared.

Hebrews 12:18-21 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a shofar and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. … And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”

On this annual appointment day, the shofar is sounded as a reminder, a memorial, of the importance of God’s instruction (torah) which was summarized in the Ten Commandments. The trumpet represents God appearing on Sinai and announcing his standards of conduct for his covenant people. They were to be his physical kingdom representatives on earth, and this was the outline of their constitution. This Kingdom of God was about to become a physical reality on the earth, and they were expected to be obedient to his ways and to abandon the ways of Egypt and the surrounding nations. This horn-blast was a symbol of awe to remind them of God’s power and majesty, which was to have brought them to self-reflection and repentance.

In the same way, this day should be for us a memorial of that same event, as if we were standing at the foot of that fiery, quaking mountain, a shofar-like blast piercing through our bodies amidst the deafening peals of thunder at the awesome sound of God’s voice. Remember the voice of God; this is what the day is for. On that day he spoke his torah, his instruction, in the declaration of those ten phrases we have come to know as the Ten Commandments.

The spring festivals of the biblical calendar cover the events of the Exodus from Egypt to Sinai. It was there at Sinai that they received the charter of the Kingdom, setting them free from the tyranny of worldly slavery. The fall festivals pick up at that same event, not as a declaration of freedom, but as a reminder of God’s awesome power and majesty and as a call to repentance and renewal. The fall feasts then continue the Exodus story through discussion of atonement, and the miraculous provision of God through their wilderness journeys while they lived in tents, or sukkot. It culminates on the feast of the Eighth Day, signifying the arrival into the Promised Land, an eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-25, 28-29 – For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest andthe sound of a shofar and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. … But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Yeshua, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. … Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Application for today

On this day of Yom Teruah, we are to remember the voice of God, and to not refuse him who spoke on that day. We are to be mindful of those Ten Commandments, be repentant of our failings in those things, and remain in awe and reverence of the might and all-consuming power of God.

Just like the earthly Kingdom that was established that day on Sinai, the eternal kingdom that began with Yeshua is continuing to become an expanding reality within each generation. We are expected to be obedient to God’s ways and to abandon the ways of Egypt (i.e., the world) in order for the kingdom to grow. We are to be God’s kingdom representatives on earth, following the patterns and principles of his instruction (torah) as our constitution of faith and practice.

The whole biblical calendar is a testimony to the faithfulness of God in bringing his people to himself. It is a type and shadow of the work of Messiah in leading his faithful remnant out of worldly religion into the eternal Kingdom of God. This is a process which continues to this day, and is prophesied to continue until it fills the earth.

So, as we view this seasonal moed or appointed time of Yom Teruah, we can catch a glimpse of its renewed nature and purpose in the symbolism of its biblical parameters. That ear-splitting shofar-blast of the voice of God on Sinai declared the eternal nature of the Kingdom of God summarized in only ten phrases. Just as Yeshua taught, this was to be a Kingdom based on the structure of those Ten Commandments, as both a near and present reality, a realm where vigilance would be required of those who sought to participate. These believers would be set apart and holy, trusting God for all of their needs, just as Yeshua did, and they would operate with God’s characteristics of forgiveness and compassion, demonstrating that they are the children of God.

Well, I hope this introduction to the fall festivals of the biblical calendar brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Atonement, part 2

The atonement word-pictures in the Bible are best understood as Israel-centric, then flowing out to the nations.

Core of the Bible podcast #116 – Atonement, part 2

Lately we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible, and today we are continuing a study on the topic of the atonement. This is a very complex and involved concept to present, not because it is so extremely difficult to understand, but because we have had a certain view over the centuries that may not reflect what the Bible actually teaches about this critical aspect of the biblical faith.

In order to view atonement from an authoritative biblical stance, it made sense to me to consider it by identifying the following categories:

  • How was atonement represented in Israel’s past (the Old Testament, or Tanakh)
  • How did Yeshua view his role in that worldview
  • How were atonement themes viewed by Yeshua’s disciples and the NT writers
  • What does all of this mean for believers today

To quickly review, last time we examined the first two premises: how atonement was represented in the past through the biblical calendar and the Day of Atonement and also the significance of blood sacrifices in general. We also reviewed how Yeshua conveyed his role as the Good Shepherd, the Ransom, and the founder of the new covenant sealed with his own life.

Today, we are now moving into the New Testament writings and how Yeshua’s disciples interpreted his life and death. I am hoping by the end of this to be able to pull all of this information together so that we can draw some practical understanding and application for our lives today.

What atonement themes were conveyed by Yeshua’s disciples in the New Testament writings?

While there are many references to prophetic fulfillment throughout the New Testament writings, I find that there are three main ideas related to atonement that were primary understandings of those early believers, and how they interpreted the life and death of the Messiah.

  • Lamb of God
  • Paschal lamb (lamb sacrificed at Passover)
  • Mediator/High Priest (Day of Atonement)

Yeshua as the Lamb of God

John 1:29 – The next day John saw Yeshua coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

This verse comes to us as a standard understanding within Christianity. When we typically read this, we have been taught to view this as John the baptizer proclaiming that Yeshua was destined to die as a blood sacrifice for everyone who ever lived in the entire world, satisfying God’s righteous justice and wrath against the sin of all of mankind since the rebellion of Adam.  That is a lot of theology packed into a single verse!

And yet, if we are to do our best to keep things in their contextual and cultural habitat where they belong, we find that John was more likely to have been referencing an aspect of Yeshua’s role that had been conveyed through a prophecy that at that time was already hundreds of years old. As the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, John appears to be referring not to Adam, but to a prophecy from Isaiah; specifically, that very famous passage in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:7, 11-12 – He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.  … After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.  Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

This is the allegorical Lamb of God willingly carrying iniquity and bearing sin. By referencing this passage directly, John squarely assigns the role of the servant in this Isaiah passage to Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel who has rejected him.

We need to briefly discuss these “suffering servant” passages in Isaiah, because they comprise a larger section of Isaiah’s prophecies as a whole. Surprisingly, the Wikipedia entry on these Servant Songs has a decent summary of these passages for us to get our contextual bearings:

“The servant songs (also called the servant poems or the Songs of the Suffering Servant) are four songs in the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible, which include Isaiah 42:1–4; Isaiah 49:1–6; Isaiah 50:4–11; and Isaiah 52:13–53:12. The songs are four poems written about a certain “servant of YHWH” (Hebrew: עבד יהוה, ‘eḇeḏ Yahweh). Yahweh calls the servant to lead the nations, but the servant is horribly abused by them. In the end, he is rewarded.“

Most Christians likely don’t recognize this, but these servant passages have had a different meaning among the Semitic community, even into modern Judaism. Although Christians readily attribute these passages to a prophetic foreshadowing of Messiah Yeshua, the Semitic view is that the servant of Yahweh is not an individual, but is the nation of Israel as whole, suffering throughout the nations on behalf of the rest of the world.

“Rabbinic Judaism sees this passage, especially “God’s Suffering Servant” as a reference to the Jewish nation, not to the king Mashiach. Jewish teaching also takes note of the historical context in which God’s Suffering Servant appears, particularly because it speaks in the past tense. The Jewish nation has borne unspeakable injustices, under Assyria, Babylonia, Ancient Greece, ancient Rome, which are all gone, and bears persecution to this day.

“Christians traditionally see the servant as Jesus Christ. The songs are quoted to and applied to Jesus multiple times in the New Testament…

“Another Christian interpretation combines aspects of the traditional Christian and the Jewish interpretation. This position sees the servant as an example of ‘corporate personality’, where an individual can represent a group, and vice versa. Thus, in this case, the servant corresponds to Israel, yet at the same time corresponds to an individual (that is, the Messiah) who represents Israel.”

Looked at in the context of the Bible as a whole, my personal belief is that these “servant” passages do refer to both corporate Israel and the Messiah as Israel’s representative. How can both be true at once? This is because this is the pattern that emerges from the depths of the Bible narrative.  For example, the Levites were the “chosen tribe” out of the twelve tribes of Israel for service of the tabernacle, and yet the High Priest alone is the one who represented the whole nation in intercession before God. In this sense, the Levites were both corporately (as a tribe) and in a single representative individual (the High Priest) the “servant” of the rest of the twelve tribes. From this perspective, this dual identity of the servant in the Isaiah passages solidifies Israel’s role in the world as the chosen people of God who were selected and tried by God on behalf of the rest of the nations, and it also substantiates the Son of God as God’s chosen representative from among that group to intercede for the whole.

To illustrate this further, the famous passage in Isaiah 53 can be viewed from both of these perspectives depending on the emphasis on the pronouns in the passage. So I’d like to read an excerpt of the passage and then substitute the object and subject emphasis of the pronouns used to show you how the passages can be viewed either way.

First, I’ll read it the way it’s generally written.

Isaiah 53:4-6 – Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.  We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and Yahweh has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Okay, now I’ll read it substituting the pronouns as the Jews might interpret this passage today:

Isaiah 53:4-6 – Yet Israel himself bore the world’s sicknesses, and Israel carried the world’s pains; but the world in turn regarded Israel stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.  But Israel was pierced because of the world’s rebellion, crushed because of the world’s iniquities; punishment for the world’s peace was on Israel, and we are healed by Israel’s wounds.  We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and Yahweh has punished Israel for the iniquity of the world.

I know this type of interpretation may sound weird to Christian ears, but this is the way the servant concept is identified in Semitic thinking today. To be honest, there is a strong measure of truth to this, as Israel was indeed chosen by God to be the light to the rest of the nations, and in a very real sense, they did go through their trials and rebellion on behalf of providing that light of the Messiah to the rest of the nations.

But now let me read it in the context I believe it was originally intended for that ancient audience.

Isaiah 53:4-6 – Yet Messiah himself bore Israel’s sicknesses, and Messiah carried Israel’s pains; but Israel in turn regarded Messiah stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.  But Messiah was pierced because of Israel’s rebellion, crushed because of Israel’s iniquities; punishment for Israel’s peace was on Messiah, and Israel is healed by Messiah’s wounds.  All Israel went astray like sheep; all Israel have turned to their way; and Yahweh has punished Messiah for the iniquity of all Israel.

You may be thinking, “Well, that’s closer to the right way to view it, but what are all of these references to Israel; where is the rest of the world in this passage?” That’s just it; the rest of the world isn’t in this passage, at least in the context in which it was originally intended. All of the “we” and “our” pronouns actually belong to them, the nation of Israel, not the rest of the world. Isaiah was Israel’s prophet speaking to Israel, not the rest of the world, at least, not at first. Israel was the one whose iniquities (under the first covenant) were needing to be atoned for. Israel was the people who had all gone astray like sheep from God’s torah, which had been given to them and to no other nation. This is why Messiah could say he came “only for the lost sheep of Israel.” And Messiah was the one who bore the iniquity of all Israel as their representative. Yeshua, rightly assuming his role as Israel’s king, accepted the burden of iniquity for his own people. This was the picture that John describes of the “lamb who takes away the sin of the world”: the Messiah who came to represent the collective “world” of all of the tribes of Israel.

We’ll talk more about the rest of the world in a little bit. But for now, consider how this Israel-centric view also makes sense if you simply keep reading the context into Isaiah 54:

Isaiah 54:6-7, 11-12 – “For Yahweh has called you, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God.  “I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion.  … “Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will set your stones in black mortar, and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli.  I will make your fortifications out of rubies, your gates out of sparkling stones, and all your walls out of precious stones.”

This is the theme of restoration and renewal like in the book of Revelation, where Jerusalem is transformed into the heavenly Zion with allegorical pearly gates and streets of gold. This is Kingdom language that pervades the imagery of the servant’s representative sacrifice for others. The Lamb who takes away their sin would be a leader figure like King David, the one reigning in this restored Kingdom.

Isaiah 55:3-4 – “Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David.  Since I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples…”

And here is where the rest of the world comes into the picture in this telling of the good news of the Kingdom:

Isaiah 55:5-7 – “so you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For Yahweh your God, even the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you [Israel].”  Seek Yahweh while he may be found; call to him while he is near.  Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him [Israel] return to Yahweh, so he may have compassion on him, and [rest of the nations] to our God, for he will freely forgive.”

All of this tells us that the Lamb of God imagery is symbolic, representative, and allegorical, not literal. Yeshua accepted the role of fulfilling these prophetic passages by being the voluntarily obedient, symbolic or representative covenant-victim for Yahweh’s new covenant with Judah and Israel (Jer. 31:31; Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25), and all those from among the nations who would ultimately be joined to God’s people.

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Paschal lamb

Tied up with all of this lamb imagery in our modern minds is now the concept of the Passover lamb. This is evident most notably because Yeshua was crucified at the exact same moment the Passover lambs would have been being sacrificed for the people in that year. The New Testament writings all convey that Yeshua’s crucifixion was at the start of the week of Unleavened Bread. Because our minds are primed to see sacrifices as being made for sin, we assume that Yeshua, as the symbolic Lamb, was sacrificed for the sin of the world, just as we think the Passover lamb was sacrificed for the sins of Israel.

However, the Bible teaches us that the real reason for the pesach or Passover lamb was not to be sacrificed for sin, but to redeem the firstborn son in each family and protect them from death.

Exodus 12:12-13 – “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

By killing the pesach, the lamb-offering, and applying its blood to the doorway, the families gathered in each home were essentially protecting the firstborn male of each family; no one else was in danger of dying. This is why we reviewed the biblical concept of ransom and redemption last time, and I mentioned we would revisit it as we studied the paschal lamb.

Remember what Yeshua said about himself:

Mark 10:45  – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Last time I defined a ransom as “a price to be paid, a value to be given, for the changing of a foregone outcome.” In the case of the Passover lamb, the lamb was a ransom for the life of the firstborn male in each family. If the lamb’s blood (the evidence of its sacrifice) was on the doorway, the household would be spared the tragedy of losing their firstborn son, the “foregone outcome” that the rest of Egypt suffered.

And here is the critical thing for us to understand: the Passover lamb has nothing to do with forgiveness of sin; it is all and only about ransoming the firstborn from death.

Exodus 4:22-23 – “And you will say to Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Israel is my firstborn son. I told you: Let my son go so that he may worship me, but you refused to let him go. Look, I am about to kill your firstborn son! “

I believe it is clear in the New Testament writings that Yeshua was identified with the paschal lamb, not only in the perfect timing of his crucifixion, but even in his followers’ teaching as explained by Paul:

1 Corinthians 5:7 – …For Messiah our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

In this passage, Paul is using the Passover imagery here as he carries over the statement that Messiah was the ultimate Passover lamb. Since the pesach, the Passover lamb, was known to have redeemed the firstborn from death, and Israel is clearly referenced in the Bible as God’s firstborn, then the imagery has gone full circle back to the Israel-centric view we discussed earlier.

It’s been said that if God was to synchronize his Messiah’s death with the biblical holidays, it would have made way more sense to have him be crucified on the Day of Atonement rather than on Passover. This would have better corroborated his death for the sins of the people in a much more understandable way. But the reason this is not the way God actually worked it out was because he was more focused on teaching Israel that he was redeeming them, his firstborn son, as it were, and providing a way out from death and the coming wrath on their nation. Just like the Hebrew people of old in Egypt, by placing their faith in the true pesach, Yeshua Messiah, they (the firstborn) would be spared. That is the message of Passover and Yeshua as the paschal lamb.

So now we have seen Yeshua represented as the lamb who takes away Israel’s sin as the obedient servant in Isaiah’s prophecy, to his coming to redeem Israel as the paschal lamb. Now let’s see another picture that is presented by the early believers in the book of Hebrews: Yeshua as the High Priest of Israel.

Mediator/High Priest

Yeshua’s role of redemptive mediator is expressed in symbolic fashion in the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 9:15 – Therefore, he [Yeshua] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that the primary purpose of this mediation concerns sins that were committed under the first covenant. Who was the first covenant made with? Israel, of course; this reinforces Yeshua’s claim that he was sent to Israel.

Once again, this imagery of Yeshua as the High Priest is not literal, but figurative. In fact, the writer of Hebrews goes out of his way to explain how Yeshua could NOT be a literal priest in this world, because he was not from the priestly tribe of Levi, but he was from Judah.

Hebrews 7:14-17 – Now it is evident that our Lord [Yeshua] came from Judah, and Moses said nothing about that tribe concerning priests. And this becomes clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears, who did not become a priest based on a legal regulation about physical descent but based on the power of an indestructible life. For it has been testified: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

The idea being conveyed here is that Yeshua functions as a priest, not as a physical descendant of Levi, but as a spiritual descendant of Melchizedek because he lives forever.

Who is this Melchizedek? He is a character related to us in only three spare verses in the book of Genesis as having met Abraham after Abraham won a private war with five kings in the region of the Dead Sea.

Genesis 14:18-20 – Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High. He blessed him and said: Abram is blessed by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,  and blessed be God Most High who has handed over your enemies to you. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The mystery surrounding Melchizedek has spawned many theories, but what we do know from the text is that this individual was a king reigning in Salem (before it became Jerusalem) who was also a priest of the Most High God (before there were any Levites to be priests). This is why he becomes such an important figure for those early believers who were looking for a way to explain the relevance of Messiah in their day. Melchizedek was a Messiah-like figure, a foreshadowing of the roles that Messiah would be fulfilling: that of both king and priest. Messiah was to rule over God’s kingdom and be the one who mediates between God and men in the role of priest.

This is why the Levitical priesthood is no longer needed: it was fulfilled and ended when Messiah arrived, and the only priesthood that now exists is the spiritual High Priesthood of Melchizedek. It is a spiritual priesthood needing no successors on earth because the Messiah lives forever and does not need to be replaced. In a grand spiritual allegory, he alone is the eternal representative before Yahweh interceding, as it were, between Yahweh and believers. This is what the role of the priesthood was designed to do: provide atonement (mercy and reconciliation) between Yahweh God, the one whose instruction had been violated (that is, the offended party) and the offender (the person who had sinned). This is the atonement process which the priesthood of Levi taught us about, but was ended forever with the arrival of the Messiah and is no longer needed.

This is why a true understanding of biblical atonement is so needed today. When we see how Messiah fulfilled that spiritual priestly role of eternal mediator providing eternal reconciliation, we realize we no longer need any priests here on earth; there is no point. This is not to denigrate those who have committed their lives to God by serving as priests among the various denominations, whether Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox and such. I’m sure those commitments are by and large sincere and made with the best intentions of helping others. But a priest’s primary function, his one job as it were, is to serve as a mediator, a go-between between God and people, and according to the Bible, that role is currently and eternally filled by Messiah Yeshua because he lives forever.

Messiah is also to serve as a king, reigning over the heavenly Jerusalem as God’s faithful representative. This is why he is recognized as “Lord” throughout the New Testament writings, because that is what he is: the authoritative ruler, like David of old, whom God has chosen to reign within his Kingdom. And if we consider ourselves to be participators in that Kingdom, then he is our authoritative ruler, as well; he is our King.

Summary

The scope of Yeshua’s impact on the world of the ancient nation of Israel and on the rest of the world now begins to come into view. The early believers recognized this and explained all of this two thousand years ago; we have just been too distracted with our own theories over the centuries, many of which became traditions, to recognize this.

Last time, we looked at the Old Testament example of the Day of Atonement as the baseline for understanding the process of reconciliation through representative sacrifice, which is what atonement is. We then looked at how Yeshua viewed himself as the Good Shepherd for Israel’s lost sheep, the representative ransom for that nation, and the institutor of the new covenant for Israel and Judah with the extreme commitment of his life, his own blood. Today we viewed how his followers connected him with the allegorical lamb of Isaiah’s servant passages, how they saw the redemption of their own people in his role as the paschal or Passover lamb, and how he fulfilled and superseded the Levitical priesthood as an eternal mediator after the pattern of Melchizedek for all who place their trust in him as Messiah. Each one of these topics could be its own study to flesh out the full ramifications of each; however, I believe we can still draw some overall conclusions to help us maintain a biblical perspective of these ancient patterns and ideas.

First of all, it becomes apparent that not one of these word pictures conveying atonement is meant to be taken literally. Yeshua is not really a lamb, he is not really a shepherd of sheep, he is not literally a priest standing at an altar, which also means he was not literally a sacrifice for sin. Yeshua could not have been a literal sacrifice for sin, because that would mean Yahweh condones human sacrifice, along with punishing the innocent for the guilty and justifying the wicked, which is all against his own Torah, or instruction.

Jeremiah 32:35 – “They [Judah] have built the high places of Baal in Ben Hinnom Valley to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire to Molech ​– ​something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

Exodus 23:7 – “… Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the wicked.

No, in all of these examples, God was teaching his people through object lessons, patterns, and foreshadowing that they would have understood from their own writings of how the fulfillment of these preparatory examples were completed and fulfilled in his Anointed One, his Messiah. We see Yeshua as coming for his people, Israel, as their Messiah; their redeemer, their priest and mediator.

So, if that’s the case, how does all of this good news for Israel mean anything to the rest of us who are not descended by flesh from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How does the atonement provided by their Messiah have any relevance for us?

The apostle John sadly relates to us how their Messiah was rejected by them.

John 1:11 – He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But in the very next breath, John also shares the good news of the Kingdom with all who will listen:

John 1:12-13 – But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

To receive Yeshua, to accept that he truly is the Anointed One of God who came to reveal the Kingdom of God, is to become born from above as a true child of Yahweh God. This is a status that is not bound by blood heritage from Israel; it is based on the heartfelt faith that Abraham expressed when he simply believed what God said was true.

Paul writes:

Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the good news of Messiah, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

All of this imagery that we have been looking at is for the Jew first, which is why it is all stated in word pictures and allegories that they would have understood and been familiar with. But Paul says it is also for the Greek, that is, the Hellenists. The Hellenists were those Jews who had been scattered throughout the empire and had succumbed to the Greek culture and lifestyle. But Hellenists were also descriptive of those non-Jews among them who became “God-fearers” through their interest in, and learning the ways of, this Jewish God. We who are non-Jews are always at a disadvantage until we can begin to understand how these Semitic word pictures and allegories are to be understood. This is why our Bibles contain both the Old Testament writings or Tanakh, and the New Testament writings of the apostles: We need to fully grasp the concepts presented in the Old Testament and not just continue to re-hash New Testament principles taken out of their cultural and historical context.

Once we rise above the limiting horizon of scholarly theories, tradition, and orthodoxy, we can then begin to see the biblical picture of atonement for what it truly is. The atonement that Messiah provided was not one of literal blood sacrifice to calm the wrath of an angry deity, but a representative and allegorical atonement providing mercy and reconciliation that reaches into the very depths of each soul who trusts in him, Jew and non-Jew alike. The mercy and reconciliation of this atonement provides true freedom from sin and causes us to walk in the righteous ways of Yahweh as he always intended: from the heart, not through the traditions and rituals of men. Anyone, therefore, who exhibits faith in Messiah is therefore accepted into the Kingdom, and this is how it was always designed by God to be from the very beginning: to start like a seed from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then at the fulfillment of all things in Messiah, to spread and grow like a blossoming tree until it fills the earth.

Well, I hope this two-part study on the atonement brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Atonement, part 1

In atonement, blood is substituted in a representative way for the life of the one presenting the sacrifice.

Core of the Bible podcast #115 – Atonement, part 1

Lately we have been reviewing some of the bigger key doctrines in the Bible, and today we are beginning a study on the topic of the atonement. This is a very complex and involved concept to present, not because it is so extremely difficult to understand, but because we have had a certain view over the centuries that may not reflect what the Bible actually teaches about this critical aspect of the biblical faith.

So let’s begin with a basic description of the common understanding of the atonement, taken from Wikipedia’s entry on the topic:

Atonement in Christianity, in western Christian theology, describes beliefs that human beings can be reconciled to God through Christ’s sacrificial suffering and death. Atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin in general and original sin in particular through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. Throughout the centuries, Christians have used different metaphors and given differing explanations of atonement to express how atonement might work. Churches and denominations may vary in which metaphor or explanation they consider most accurately fits into their theological perspective; however all Christians emphasize that Jesus is the Saviour of the world and through his death the sins of humanity have been forgiven, enabling the reconciliation between God and his creation.

As the article says, many Christians may not be aware of this, but like every other great piece of doctrine, there are widely different scholarly views of the specifics of how the atonement should be interpreted, such as:

  • Ransom theory: Yeshua paid a ransom to the devil to free humanity from sin and death.
  • Christus Victor theory: Yeshua defeated the powers of evil and liberated humanity from their bondage.
  • Recapitulation theory: Yeshua recapitulated or summed up the stages of human life and reversed the effects of Adam’s disobedience.
  • Satisfaction theory: Yeshua satisfied the honor and justice of God by offering himself as a sacrifice for human sin.
  • Penal substitution theory: Yeshua bore the penalty and wrath of God for human sin in their place.
  • Moral Influence theory: Yeshua Messiah came and died in order to bring about a positive change to humanity. This moral change comes through the teachings of Yeshua alongside His example and actions.

Depending on which church or denomination you may belong to, one of these views is likely favored. Most of these theories are ways of dealing philosophically with the concept of how Yeshua overcame original sin. However, in the previous episode 111 of Humans and Sin, we have already explored how the philosophical concept of original sin is itself a theory and is not actually biblical. This obviously takes away the importance of establishing how these theories of atonement justify a different theory of original sin.

While I would personally love to geek out and explore each of those theories in detail (something I may do in a subsequent episode if there is interest in it), I would rather spend this initial run-through of atonement by looking at the actual biblical themes that discuss what is represented by the concept of atonement. If we can start the journey on a biblical basis, then I believe the theories will sort themselves out as to how useful they may or may not be.

In order to view atonement from an authoritative biblical stance, it made sense to me to consider it by identifying the following categories:

  • How was atonement represented in Israel’s past (the Old Testament, or Tanakh)
  • How did Yeshua view his role in that worldview
  • How were atonement themes viewed by Yeshua’s disciples and the NT writers
  • What does all of this mean for believers today

And, because this is such a convoluted topic that intertwines with so many other biblical themes, I think it’s important to spend some time developing some of these pictures more fully for a better overall view. This will require more than one episode, so today I would like to cover atonement as represented in the Tanakh, and also how Yeshua viewed himself and his role in relation to that. Next time, we will look at atonement themes in the New Testament and then see how all of this information comes together for believers today, so I hope you will make the time to listen to both episodes for the full review of this topic.

Atonement in the Tanakh

The term itself is a theological word based on the Hebrew concept of covering, mercy, and reconciliation. As defined by Strong’s, the word kaphar is: “A primitive root; to cover (specifically with bitumen); figuratively, to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel — appease, make (an atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, be merciful, pacify, pardon, purge (away), put off, (make) reconcile(-liation).”

The most prominent example of this type of transaction in the Old Testament is captured in the ceremony of the scapegoat ritual which was to take place once a year on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur.

Leviticus 16:9-10  – “[Aaron] is to present the goat chosen by lot for Yahweh and sacrifice it as a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot for an uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before Yahweh to make atonement with it by sending it into the wilderness for an uninhabitable place.”

Without going into extreme detail, once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would present two goats to Yahweh. One was sacrificed as a national representative substitution for the sin of the community, and the other was symbolically imbued with the sins of the nation and sent off into the wilderness never to return. The entire process is fascinating symbology and can be reviewed in total in Leviticus 16. We will spend some more time reviewing this as we draw near to the actual Day of Atonement at the beginning of the fall season in a few months.

A key portion of the ritual was that the high priest would take the blood of the sacrificed goat and pour it out on the cover of the ark of the covenant, covering the lid. Since the Bible teaches that the life of the creature is in the blood, the life of the goat was substituted for the collective life of the congregation. This “life” was then poured out upon the ark of the covenant containing the ten commandments, covering the covenantal agreement. In so doing, the community was essentially committing their collective “life” before Yahweh to follow the law that he himself  pronounced from Sinai to the entire assembled community that had been ransomed from Egypt. Because of the atonement offering, God extends his mercy to the community and forgives their offenses against his covenant, resulting in reconciliation. This whole ritual is a vivid illustration of themes that would have been commonly understood within that culture and that are continually built on in later biblical stories.

The life is in the blood

Leviticus 17:11  – “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.

This principle is one of practical understanding and symbolic representation. When an animal (or human for that matter) has the blood drained from their body, they die. All other medical considerations aside, this dying due to loss of blood demonstrates practically that blood carries the life of the creature. However, God has ordained that the the symbolic aspect of animal sacrifice in the process of atonement is that its blood is substituted in a representative way for the life of the one presenting the sacrifice. The one offering the sacrifice is essentially saying to God, “My life is now intertwined with the life of this creature which is provided completely to you.” While the offerer continues to live, they have had to provide something of great value to them as a substitute for their own life. This then would become the deterrent to future sin because of the high cost of sacrificing a perfectly good animal which would have had great value to an agrarian family, especially one that was perfectly healthy as it had to be provided without blemish.

The net result of the sacrifice would be that the offerer would have had their sinful behavior “covered” by the life of the animal so that they could be reconciled and continue to live in their relationship with God. And as mentioned, the value of the sacrificial animal would provide a deterrent against future sin.

What this whole sacrificial ritual demonstrates in a practical way is that when wrongs are committed, there are consequences, and also a God-provided mode of overcoming those consequences. Atonement as a biblical concept is a symbolic principle of substitution value, not a token of having to give God something he desires for himself.  It is a principle which says, “God, I recognize I have done something you didn’t want me to do. I’m sorry and won’t do it again. Please accept this thing of value in place of my own life to demonstrate my sincerity.”  God then views the value of this thing (sincerely offered) as a token of sincerity and he subsequently responds with mercy and forgiveness, resulting in reconciliation between him as the offended party, and the offerer, as the offender.

This is why atonement was able to be provided by money, as well, because money has value and requires sacrifice to offer it to God. We’ll take a look more closely at that concept as we explore how Yeshua viewed his role in atonement.

Yeshua’s view of his role

We have to always remember that Yeshua did not just arrive on the scene at the start of his ministry drawing on a blank piece of paper. To the contrary, everything he did was as a culmination of all the revelation that had come previously, to fulfill all of those things the ancients had been looking forward to. He did not come to start a new religion, but to bring the one faith in Yahweh into its fullest prophetic expression. As such, everything in his life and ministry has deep roots in his Hebraic culture and the life of the nation of Israel up to that point. The New Testament writers were constantly quoting from Old Testament passages to demonstrate how Yeshua validated the Messianic role by fulfilling all of these Old Testament types and symbols.  As we spend some time on these concepts, we can gain the most wisdom as to what the meaning of his life, and his death, was all about.

As the primary indicator of atonement, I think it’s most important to see how Yeshua himself viewed his role and mission as it applies to this concept. These include the themes of the Good Shepherd, the Ransom, and as the institution of a new blood covenant.

Good Shepherd

John 10:11  – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

This idea of a shepherd is not just a cool metaphor that Yeshua came up with for himself. The Shepherd was a reference to several prophecies in the Tanakh or Old Testament, most notably Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 50:6  – “My people [that is, Israel] were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place.”

The redemptive work of Israel’s Messiah was to be their Good Shepherd; to provide a path of redemption for Israel from their sins that they and their ancestors had committed under the first covenant. Now as a good shepherd who lays down his life, it’s important to note that a shepherd can’t do anything for his sheep when he is dead, but he does have to demonstrate his commitment to his flock by being willing to die, if needed, in order to protect the sheep. This is what Yeshua was conveying; Yeshua knew that he would be killed for his teachings and taught it plainly to his disciples and also in parables to those who gathered to hear him. But he was adamant that he was going to shepherd them for as long as possible so that they could grasp how all things were being fulfilled. Now, besides this quote from Luke, there are at least four other parallel references in Matthew and Mark (Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23; Mark 9:31, 10:33-34).

Luke 18:31-33  – Then he took the Twelve aside and told them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For he will be handed over to the Gentiles, and he will be mocked, insulted, spit on; and after they flog him, they will kill him, and he will rise on the third day.”

Even though he mentions resurrection in each of these passages, a concept that the disciples didn’t yet fully grasp (and one that we will pursue more deeply in a future episode), Yeshua knew that he was going to be killed and tried to prepare them as best he could ahead of time. He even taught the Jewish leaders they would do this to him, and he conveyed this by using the parable of the tenant farmers. I am quoting here from Luke but the parable is also in Matthew and Mark:

Luke 20:14, 19  – “But when the tenant farmers saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’ … Then the scribes and the chief priests looked for a way to get their hands on him that very hour, because they knew he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.

Yeshua even confronted the Jewish leaders openly on several occasions about their plans to murder him:

John 7:19  – “Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me? “

John 8:37, 40  – “I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you. … “But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.”

Regardless of this known fact, Yeshua was adamant that he was the fulfillment of the role of that Good Shepherd, the one who would be willing to lay down his life for the sake of the flock.

Ransom/redemption

Mark 10:45  – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Yeshua also defined his own purpose as being a ransom for many. What does this mean? We know that a ransom in modern vernacular is typically an amount of money paid to a kidnapper to gain the release of a hostage. But is this what is meant in the Bible? If this is the case, and we are the kidnapped hostages, then what is the ransom and who is it being paid to? Some have suggested that this ransom, Yeshua’s life, was paid to the devil to secure our freedom from his clutches. If that is the case, then the devil won. Well, that can’t be right because the Bible teaches that Yeshua defeated the works of the devil, not cooperated with him.

Instead of going down these rabbit holes of conjecture with our wrong-headed modern cultural perspective, let’s just see what the Bible actually means by a ransom.

Exodus 21:28-30  – “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned, and its meat may not be eaten, but the ox’s owner is innocent. However, if the ox was in the habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned, and its owner must also be put to death. If instead a ransom is demanded of him, he can pay a redemption price for his life in the full amount demanded from him.

Exodus 30:11-12, 16  – The Yahweh spoke to Moses: “When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, each of the men must pay a ransom for his life to Yahweh as they are registered. Then no plague will come on them as they are registered. … “Take the atonement price from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will serve as a reminder for the Israelites before Yahweh to atone for your lives.”

In these instances, we can see the concepts of ransom, redemption and atonement are becoming equivocated. In these passages, a price of money, a ransom, is paid to Yahweh (or his representative leaders) as a means of avoiding death. In the first instance, the ox owner was sentenced to death, but the leaders could provide him a price to be paid to avoid execution, sort of like bail is today when someone is to be released from custody. In the second instance, Yahweh institutes a ransom, or life-price, for the members of the life of the community to avoid any potential plague that might come upon them for taking a census. Why would this be the case? Censuses were usually taken as a measure of the pride of the nation, showing how numerous its fighting force could be. To avoid this connection with trusting in one’s army over trusting in Yahweh, the Israelites could demonstrate their honoring of God during a census by providing an atonement price to be used for his service. This money was to be used to maintain the tabernacle and its implements. Later on, this would be corrupted by the Jewish authorities to become the justification for the temple-tax in New Testament times.

As touched on earlier, we see how the principle of redemption is closely allied with the ransom, as the ransom is equated with the redemption money. Biblical redemption is essentially the process of intervening in an established process, statute, or condition to provide something of value which then allows for a different outcome. A redemption price could be paid for a person’s life (Exodus 30-11-12); it could be paid for land or a residence in a city prior to Jubilee (Leviticus 25:24, 29); or it could be paid to provide for a ministry representative for the firstborn males (Numbers 3:44-48). These examples are all using money or land value as an acceptable substitute for some other process, statute, or condition which God had ordained. Since Yeshua considered himself a ransom, instead of money as a value, he would provide his life.

Mark 10:45  – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Clearly, this is an allegorical ransom on behalf of the lives of others (those who would believe in him), not a literal ransom that was demanded to be paid to either God or the devil. While he did literally gave his life, the ransom/redemption he provided is a representative one based on the biblical pattern that the Israelites would have understood, not some cosmic balancing of the scales of justice. Once again, we have to keep things in their proper perspective as much as possible within the bounds of the cultural understanding of the time. Yeshua saying that he was giving his life as a ransom would be a word picture that the Israelites would have immediately picked up on as being represented physically in these other biblical motifs, or types and foreshadows. It is only in our modern era (the last 500 years or so) that these ideas have been solidified into philosophical and legal, cosmic absolutes which were never intended by God in the first place.

We will explore this concept of the ransom and redemption a little further next time when we look at Yeshua represented as the Paschal Lamb in New Testament writings. However, for now, it is important to note that the ransom was essentially a price to be paid, a value to be given, for the changing of a foregone outcome. In the sense that Yeshua is using it, the foregone outcome is that Israel was about to be judged in that generation for their sins under the first covenant and he was offering his own life as a representative ransom on the behalf of all who would believe in him. Those who placed their faith in him would have their sins forgiven, and they would not come under God’s judgment which was about to be poured out.

Covenant in blood

Now we come to one of the most prominent themes that Yeshua considered about his own life: that he was giving it up voluntarily to seal the new covenant.

Matthew 26:28  – “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Mark 14:24  – “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Luke 22:20  – “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Hopefully, after reviewing the Day of Atonement and how blood represented the life of the sacrificial victim, I’m hoping we can now come to these passages with a little more Hebraic perspective. Remember, we saw how on the Day of Atonement the blood of the sacrificial animal was poured out on the ark of the covenant. This was the vessel that contained the actual Ten Commandments, the original covenant between God and believers. This “life” blood being poured out symbolically represented the life of the community committing to follow the covenant in stone upon which it was based, and for them to be reconciled with God whom they had offended by disobeying that covenant agreement.

This is the way the blood of the new covenant is intended to be viewed, as well. Yeshua is capitalizing on that imagery, which would have been readily understood by his disciples, as a way of saying his blood (that represents his life) would be poured out on their behalf (that is, for any who believed in him as the Messiah) for the sake of the new covenant. The new covenant was not about a new set of instructions; it was about a new location for the existing instructions: on the heart instead of on pieces of stone in a box.

Jeremiah 31:31-33  – “Look, the days are coming” ​– ​this is Yahweh’s declaration ​– ​”when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt ​– ​my covenant that they broke even though I am their master” ​– ​Yahweh’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” ​– ​Yahweh’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Interestingly, we see that in all of these views that Yeshua held about himself, they were all in relation to the nation of Israel. That new covenant was for Israel and Judah. The ransom was for Israel’s forgiveness of sin under the first covenant. The Good Shepherd was a shepherd to lead Israel faithfully.

Matthew 15:24  – He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Yes, all of these concepts are Israel-centric, but not exclusively so. It’s important for us to keep all of these things in their original perspective as much as possible. We have to remember, if these concepts seem difficult for us to grasp today, it is because all of this was originally intended for an ancient audience halfway around the world in other languages and another culture. Yet, because the new covenant is based on the simple faith of Abraham believing God, and on the heart application of God’s eternal instruction, we, too, in this day and age can participate in the fulfillment of these things, because that was also prophesied to that ancient audience:

Romans 15:8-13  – For I say that Messiah became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and so that nations may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the nations, and I will sing praise to your name.  Again it says, Rejoice, you nations, with his people! And again, Praise Yahweh, all you nations; let all the peoples praise him!  And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the nations; the nations will hope in him.  Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so far we have reviewed the atonement as represented in the Tanakh or Old Testament and we have looked at how Yeshua represented himself within that ideology and culture as fulfilling those types and foreshadows that were present in Old Testament prophecy. Next time, we will continue into the writings of the New Testament to see how this concept of atonement was viewed in relation to the work of Yeshua, and I will hopefully be able to provide some measure of summarizing all of this information in order to make it more applicable for us today.

Well, I hope this first part of our study on the atonement brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Salvation and the Kingdom of God

The ‘good news of the kingdom of God’ is not so much a universal message about personal salvation as the prophetic assurance that a renewed people of God would emerge through the fires of persecution and judgment.

Core of the Bible podcast #114 – Salvation and the Kingdom of God

Up to this point in our journey of doctrinal issues, we have established some understanding of promises and covenants that God has made with Abraham and ultimately with his people, Israel. Last time, I mentioned how these were “necessary and proper until the fulfillment of the promises and covenants in Messiah.” We explored how becoming a “child of Abraham” was to be defined by the believer’s simple faith in God’s Messiah, and how those believers, according to Yeshua, would “come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” (Matthew 8:11). What this teaching did was to then equate Abraham’s children (i.e., Messiah believers) with those who participate in the Kingdom of God. Further, we see how Yeshua connected the idea of salvation with being a child of Abraham. In the story of Zacchaeus’ repentance, Yeshua also sees this Abrahamic ideal as an indicator of salvation.

Luke 19:9 – “Today salvation has come to this house,” Yeshua told him, “because he too [Zacchaeus] is a son of Abraham.”

It appears that Yeshua understood and taught a concept of salvation that was tied both to the Abrahamic faith model and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. So for us to understand salvation, we will need to understand it in the context of both the Abrahamic sense and the Kingdom sense. Since we have explored the Abrahamic sense (that is, the simple faith of Abraham expressed by faith in Yeshua as the Messiah), we can now turn to gaining a better understanding of the core Bible principle of the Kingdom message that was presented to that first century generation.

To explore this further, I would like to quote several times today from an article titled “The Kingdom of God” that I found a few years ago at a now-defunct website called opensourcetheology.net. The author is not named so I don’t have the ability to credit anyone specific with these ideas. Additionally, I won’t be quoting the whole article because it is quite lengthy, but I was able to find a back-link to the entire article which I have linked here if you are interested in exploring it further.

The New Testament picture of the Kingdom of God has not been painted on to a blank canvas; rather, we watch it emerge from the historical and religious circumstances of first century Judaism. Israel had failed to realize the potential inherent in its religious institutions and traditions, in its national identity and in its calling, to be a righteous, God-centred people and an authentic and effective ‘light’ to the peoples of the earth. This failure was apparent in various ways: creeping Hellenization, Roman occupation, the fragmentation of religious leadership and community, the loss of any prophetic voice, and the awareness that the return from exile in Babylon remained tragically incomplete.

John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, first articulated the belief that this state of religious failure was bound to culminate in national disaster: ‘Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire’ (Matt.3:10; Lk.3:9). At the same time, however, he is interpreted by the Gospel tradition as the messenger who cries in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Mk.1:2-3; Matt.3:3; Lk.3:4-6). The quotation from Isaiah 40:3 invokes a declaration of ‘good news’ to Jerusalem that the punishment of the exile is coming to an end, that her sins have been forgiven, and that the Lord God is about to return to Zion. The forgiveness of sins in the Gospels is not a matter of purely personal benefit: each instance is a sign of national restoration. Central to the prophecy is the description of a righteous ‘servant’, who is both an individual and Israel, who will suffer, but who will be ‘a covenant to the people, a light to the nations’ (Is.42:6). This is the context in which Jesus begins his ministry.

When Yeshua arrived on the scene in the years of his public ministry, he was proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God and how God was establishing it among those who would believe in that generation. Yeshua’s salvation was all about the Jews and forming a remnant of faithful believers (i.e., children of Abraham) from among the non-belief of the wider Jewish community to carry the message of the Kingdom of God to that generation and beyond. He came primarily for the lost sheep of Israel, to reconcile them to the God of their ancestors from the condition of apostasy that they had descended to. His focus was that they would be saved from the wrath of God about to be poured out on that generation by repenting of their sinful ways.

Jesus did not invent the idea of the ‘kingdom of God’. Behind the use of the phrase in the Gospels lie two distinct Old Testament motifs. Together they account for the eschatological narrative structure that gives shape to the New Testament concept of the kingdom of God.

The first entails the coming of the Lord to dwell once more amongst his people as king, which draws on prophetic themes of the restoration of Israel following exile in Babylon. It is acted out most powerfully in the carefully staged, and of course ironic, pageant of Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem in the guise of the prophesied king of peace: ‘Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass…’ (Matt.21:5; Jn.12:15; cf. Zech.9:9). It is invoked in the numerous parables of a master who returns to his house after a long journey (eg. Matt.25:14-30; 12:35-40; 19:11-27). It speaks of the renewed and decisive presence (parousia) of God within Israel, which is a presence inevitably both for judgment and salvation. Jesus’ warning to the disciples that they must be ready for the return of the master (eg. Lk.12:35) has a particular historical frame of reference: the great crisis of judgment and salvation at the end of Israel’s age. If the disciples do not remain faithful to their calling, they will be put ‘with the unfaithful’ (Lk.12:46), ‘with the hypocrites’ (Matt.24:51), cast ‘into outer darkness’ where ‘men will weep and gnash their teeth’ (Matt.25:30) – in other words, they too will suffer the judgment that was coming upon Israel.

Here we can begin to see some historical boundaries coming into view in regards to how the New Testament writers describe the unfolding events that were occurring in real time as they were being written. Notice how the impending judgment was coming upon Israel at the “end of Israel’s age,” not the end of all things. The nearness of this judgment for Israel’s failure to recognize God’s sovereignty and their Messiah in the person of Yeshua was to suffer the judgment reaching back to the very beginnings of their history. This was the very point that Yeshua hinged his prophetic warnings on in heated arguments with the religious elite:

Matthew 23:32, 34-36 – “Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors’ sins!  … “This is why I am sending you prophets, sages, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. So all the righteous blood shed on the earth will be charged to you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all these things will come on this generation.”

That was the generation upon whom all of these things had come! The Kingdom was being advanced but through their unfaithfulness they had counted themselves not only not worthy of participating in it, but in being wiped out in the process. This was the clear teaching of Yeshua’s parable of the vineyard owner, explaining how the tenants of the vineyard had rejected their responsibilities:

Matthew 21:40-43 – “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?” “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”  Yeshua said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is what the Lord has done and it is wonderful in our eyes?  Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit.”

In this context, Yeshua is equating the Kingdom of God with salvation from the righteous wrath of the vineyard owner. This provides the foundation for many other famous “salvation” passages from the New Testament writings:

Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.

Acts 2:40  And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”

Romans 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath [of God] through Him.

Romans 9:27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved…

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

2 Corinthians 2:15 For we are a fragrance of Messiah to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…

2 Thessalonians 2:8-10 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; [that is,] the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

Even as I shared those passages above, you may have been taught to understand some of those as applying to personal salvation rather than a national type of salvation and deliverance. However, to accomplish this feat of collective repentance of the remnant, this would mean individuals would need to repent of their sinful actions. This is why salvation many times appears to be personal and spiritual. For national repentance to take place, individuals must repent of individual disobedience. The article also clearly states this:

The forgiveness of sins in the Gospels is not a matter of purely personal benefit: each instance is a sign of national restoration…The announcement that the kingdom of God is at hand in the Gospels has to do primarily with the fate of first century Israel. Jesus warned the people of impending national disaster but also offered a way of salvation for the nation if people would walk with him on the path that he was following. This salvation is depicted in the first place in terms of the Old Testament hope of a final end to exile and the return of YHWH to a Zion set free from oppression. It becomes possible because Jesus suffered judgment in the place of others: the community which identified itself in faith with him, therefore, would not be destroyed but would survive to be the renewed people of God.

If this is the case, then this puts forgiveness of sins and salvation in a new light for modern eyes and ears: that perhaps the thrust of these New Testament passages are speaking about a collective, national salvation and restoration much more than a personal and private one. However, a personal and private repentance and experience of salvation would result in growing the overall restoration of the nation. This is the logic behind the Kingdom of God language.

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To briefly review, the article I have been discussing mentioned how the Kingdom model was not a new concept but was built on two Old Testament prophetic motifs. We have just explored the first motif of the presence of God returning among his regathered people, a presence bringing both judgment and salvation. Now the second motif comes into view:

The second motif relates to the overthrow of Israel’s enemies and the vindication of the righteous – the saints of the Most High – in the aftermath of persecution. It emerges from the complex and dramatic prophecy in Daniel 7 concerning ‘one like a son of man’ who, as a representative, or better a representation, of the persecuted saints of the Most High, receives ‘dominion and glory and kingdom’ (Dan.7:14). This story may appear obscure and irrelevant (suffering is not one of the great post-modern aspirations), but it pervades much of the New Testament and must be made central to our attempt to understand the person of Jesus and the community that takes its identity from him.

The ‘good news of the kingdom of God’ as it is announced in the Gospels is not so much a universal message about personal salvation as the prophetic assurance that a renewed people of God would emerge through the fires of persecution and judgment. The basis of this hope is not found in the institutions of Jewish religion but in the willingness of the Son of man to take upon himself the suffering that would befall the nation as a consequence of its ‘sin’. Resurrection becomes important primarily as the means by which God will vindicate those who remain faithful in the face of extreme opposition. The Gentiles hardly enter into the picture here: it is the salvation of Israel that is at stake (eg. Matt.10:5-6).

Yeshua demonstrated he was authorized to provide this salvation through the acts that God performed through him: healing the sick, raising the dead, and confronting the corrupt Jewish authorities. Like Jonah and Nineveh of old he was earnest that their collective repentance would spare the city (representative of the nation as a whole). His death and resurrection, following the pattern of Jonah in the fish, was to be the confirmation to them that their repentance would be effective, like it was for Nineveh. Also, like Noah of old, their acceptance of his message would allow them to board the ark of salvation to be spared the flood of God’s wrath about to be poured out on that generation. Interestingly, Yeshua used both of these examples during his public ministry to the nation.

Luke 11:30 – “For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.

Luke 17:26 – “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man…

The preaching of the good news of the kingdom throughout the world (Mk.14:9; 16:15; Acts 15:7) is the announcement that Jesus has been vindicated and that those who believe in him will be vindicated in the same manner; it is the announcement that not even the most virulent persecution will overcome the community of those who experience the power of the Spirit of God in the name of Jesus (cf. Rom.8:33-39). But that message is accompanied by a new possibility, emerging from a different set of prophetic texts – one that arises unexpectedly and almost despite the best intentions of the early Jewish believers. It is that non-Jews may also become part of the renewed, forgiven covenant people in the Spirit (cf. Acts 13:46-48; Rom.11:11-32; Eph.2:11-22).

Let’s look a little closer at a couple of these passages:

Acts 13:46-48 – Paul and Barnabas boldly replied, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. Since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we are turning to the nations. “For this is what Yahweh has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the nations to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” When those of the nations heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of Yahweh, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Ephesians 2:11-22 – So, then, remember that at one time you were of the nations in regard to the flesh ​– ​called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Yeshua, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Yeshua himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

While I believe this Ephesians passage was aimed at those former Israelites who had been scattered among the nations (i.e., the “lost sheep of Israel”), its words were just as meaningful and effective for those known as “God fearers” who were present among those congregations, non-Jews who joined with the God of the Bible and participated within synagogues in various places. Through this message of faith in Messiah, all people, Jews, Greeks, barbarians, slaves, and free, had been granted the same opportunity to be saved from that evil generation, the generation that was incurring the final wrath of God upon the nation of Israel as the prophets had predicted.

But to be saved from that evil generation was also to be joined to “God’s household” exhibited by the more expansive and universal term of the Kingdom of God. If these Old Testament motifs of restoration and persecution were validated as being played out in the closing years of national Israel in the first century, then it follows the prophetic foresight embedded within those motifs was also to be taking place at that time: this Kingdom would be eternal and would ultimately grow to fill the earth.

Daniel 2:44 – “In the days of those kings [i.e., the Romans], the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.

Daniel 7:27 – “The kingdom, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given to the people, the holy ones of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey him.’

In summary, when the Bible speaks of salvation, it is almost always in the context of Israel’s national unity and restoration. It is this context in which the Kingdom of God is preached by John the baptizer and Yeshua, a warning of impending judgment upon Israel’s unfaithfulness and yet a promise of a new and everlasting hope for all who would repent and accept their Messiah. As the national phase of Israel in that first century was disappearing, that is, the “[then] present Jerusalem” (Galatians 4:25), it was simultaneously ushering in the “Jerusalem [from] above” (Galatians 4:26), an eternal city whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10, 16), the prophetic city of Zion (Hebrews 12:22) whose gates would never be shut (Revelation 21:25) and where the presence of God would always remain with his people for all time (Revelation 22:3-5). This, then, is what I consider to be the good news of salvation and participation in the Kingdom of God!

Well, I hope this broad overview of salvation and the Kingdom of God brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Children of Abraham, children of promise

According to Yeshua, the biblical concept of being considered a child of Abraham is to demonstrate the same type of faith that Abraham exhibited when he simply believed what God said.

Core of the Bible podcast #113 – Children of Abraham, children of promise

In my last post, we reviewed the concept of covenants in the Bible, and I concluded by stating how believers today can participate in the promises that God made to Abraham when we simply come to God in faith, believing in his Messiah, Yeshua.

Many people today believe the children of Abraham to be a specific race or line of descendants that can trace their lineage back to him. This was believed in the time of Yeshua, as well. However, we will see that the biblical concept of being considered a child of Abraham is to demonstrate the same type of faith that Abraham exhibited when he simply believed what God said. To understand this, we will need to begin by exploring God’s dealings with Abraham himself.

Promises made to Abram before the covenants

While most people studying the Bible recognize that God made covenants with Abraham, they misunderstand or overlook how Abraham’s relationship with God came about. To begin with, God simply made seven promises to Abraham before any covenants were enacted.

Genesis 12:1-4 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;

  1. And I will make you a great nation,
  2. And I will bless you,
  3. And make your name great;
  4. And so you shall be a blessing;
  5. And I will bless those who bless you,
  6. And the one who curses you I will curse.
  7. And in you all the families of the earth [ha’adamah] will be blessed.”

So Abram went forth as Yahweh had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

At this point, no covenant was in place; God simply promised that all of these things would come about.

Next in the narrative, we find God reaffirming the promise to Abram that he would have numberless descendants, and now he adds the promise that they would also inherit the land of Canaan.

Genesis 13:14-17 Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”

God then also promises that a very specific individual, one of his direct descendants, would be receiving the fulfillment of these promises that God was making to Abraham.

Genesis 15:1-4  After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” Abram said, “O Lord Yahweh, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.“

Then, once again, God reaffirms his promise of many, numerous descendants that Abraham would have.

Genesis 15:5-6 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in Yahweh; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

So far, no covenants have been enacted; these are all promises that God made with Abraham. At this point, the Bible tells us that Abraham simply believed in these promises of the one true God. This is the exhibition of faith that Abraham is primarily remembered for. Understanding this principle is key to how the apostle Paul would use this simple faithfulness of Abraham later on in his letters to illustrate faith in Messiah.

The first covenant with Abraham

As the narrative now moves from promises to covenants, the focus shifts from the spiritual aspect of God’s promises to the concrete realities of what, to a middle eastern person living in ancient times, would be the realization of the spiritual realities coming to pass. The first covenant God made with Abraham was to guarantee him and his descendants the physical land of Canaan in a way that he would recognize and understand its reality. God was simply using the covenant process as a way of guaranteeing to Abraham that it would come to pass. It is important to also note that this was an unconditional covenant; there was nothing Abraham needed to do to bring it about.

Genesis 15:7-21 And He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” He said, “O Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”

The first covenant with Abraham was a guarantee of the promise that God had previously made to Abraham, granting him and his descendants the physical land of Canaan, from river to river. There was nothing Abraham needed to do for this to come about; God alone passed between the animal pieces in the vision Abraham saw. This was an illustration that it was assured God would accomplish this, and Abraham was not a participant to bring it about in any way.

God faithfully delivered on his covenant agreement to give them all of the land by the end of the book of Joshua:

Joshua 21:43-45 – “So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.”

The second covenant with Abraham

The second covenant God made with Abraham was a conditional covenant that would establish Yahweh as the God of Abraham’s descendants. However, it would require a practice for Abraham and any participants in the covenant; circumcision. Participants in this covenant would have to abide by the condition or they would not be included within the parameters of the covenant. This would be the distinguishing mark of the people that God was setting apart for his own purposes, to be their God and for them to be his people.

Genesis 17:1-14 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

Twenty-four years after the original promises made to Abraham, God asks Abraham and all of his physical descendants to participate in a covenant of circumcision. This was a fleshly covenant, to participate in a physical community with Yahweh as their God. The land had already been covenanted unconditionally; however, this conditional covenant would regulate the descendant community of Abraham as believers in Yahweh to distinguish them from the current possessors of Canaan.

It would also serve to confirm the original promise God made with him in Genesis 15 that “one who will come forth from your own body [that is, a physical descendant], he shall be your heir.” Thinking that God was primarily speaking of his immediate heirs, Abraham pleads for his son Ishmael to receive God’s favor.

Genesis 17:19-21 – But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a permanent covenant for his future offspring. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will certainly bless him; I will make him fruitful and will multiply him greatly. He will father twelve tribal leaders, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will confirm my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”

Isaac, the miraculous child through Abraham’s wife Sarah,  a child of promise, would be the immediate heir that Abraham was looking for. However, the covenantal practice of ongoing circumcisions in the community would ensure that a future descendant, another child of promise who would be the ultimate recipient of the spiritual promises made previously to Abraham, would be able to be recognized as coming from Abraham’s line.

Since we read in the book of Joshua how the promise to Abraham that his descendants would receive the land was fulfilled, it then makes sense the Bible would also record the fulfilled promise of how a physical descendant beyond the immediate family of Abraham would become his ultimate spiritual heir, the heir of the promises that were originally made to Abraham.

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Yeshua as the seed of Abraham

Now we fast-forward almost two thousand years to the time of Yeshua. Abraham’s descendants, through Isaac and then Jacob and his twelve sons, have been faithfully circumcising their male infants and keeping genealogical records throughout their history. There were a few exceptions, such as Israel’s time in the wilderness and some of their captivity, but those were accounted for and rectified upon their return to their land. Based on these records and the faithful practice of circumcision within the community, we know, therefore, that Yeshua was a fleshly descendant of Abraham from these genealogies as recorded in the accounts of Matthew and Luke.

Matthew 1:1 The record of the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Luke 3:23, 34 When He began His ministry, Yeshua Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli, … the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham…

This lineage is critical to recognizing Yeshua as the rightful heir of the promise that was made to Abraham.

Genesis 15:2-4 Abram said, “O Lord Yahweh, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.”

The apostle Paul confirms that this promise of God to Abraham, while immediately fulfilled through Isaac, was ultimately fulfilled in Messiah, the descendant or seed of Abraham.

Galatians 3:16 – Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Messiah.

Yeshua defines who the true children of Abraham are

As the genealogical and covenantal end-stop of the promise made to Abraham, Yeshua is fully qualified to define who the true children of Abraham are. Several times in his teachings, Yeshua equates being a son or daughter of Abraham with being a person of faith in the working of God, NOT just a product of a physical lineage.

Luke 19:1-10 [Yeshua] entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. Zaccheus was trying to see who Yeshua was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. When Yeshua came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Yeshua said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Zaccheus may have been a natural descendant of Abraham, but the context demonstrates Yeshua was speaking about his faith which resulted in action. This is what truly qualified him as a son of Abraham. When Yeshua used this phrase, as shown above, it was in the context of someone exhibiting great faith, especially faith in him as the Messiah.

Conversely, when confronted by the Jewish leaders who were clearly physical descendants of Abraham and had the genealogies to prove it, Yeshua contradicts their fleshly ideas that just because of their physical lineage they were entitled to the blessings of Abraham.

John 8:39-40, 47 – They [the Jewish leaders] answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Yeshua said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. … “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

This shows how the “works of Abraham” are once again equated with faith in Messiah. Since the Jewish leaders did not believe, Yeshua did not consider them in the category of children of Abraham, even though they were Abraham’s physical descendants.

In a similar style, John the baptizer had held nothing back when it came to confronting the religious leaders as he was paving the way for the work of Messiah to follow. Concerning Abraham’s fleshly lineage, he said the following:

Matthew 3:7-9  But when he [John] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”

Once again, the Jewish leaders were not believing in the work that God was doing at that time in preparing people for the coming Messiah. So John dramatically states that God can create a child of Abraham out of anything, even stones!

Yeshua expands the term to non-Israelites

Matthew 8:5-12 And when Yeshua entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Yeshua said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Yeshua heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This passage shows that a centurion, a non-Israelite who expressed faith in Yeshua, was qualified by him to be in the kingdom of God with Abraham. This was due to his faith in the Messiah. However, the “sons of the kingdom,” those Israelites in the physical descendant lineage of Abraham, but not of the faith of Abraham, would be cast out.

From these passages, I believe both John the baptizer and Yeshua defined a child of Abraham, or someone who would be blessed along with Abraham, as someone who exhibited faith in God, just like Abraham did.

The apostle Paul continues the teaching of John and Yeshua

Paul also confirms this is an appropriate view of the term when he writes:

Galatians 3:6-9 Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the [nations] by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

Galatians 3:26-29 For you are all sons of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua. For all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

Paul equates the promise that was made to Abraham as being effective for all who exhibit faith in Messiah, just as Abraham exhibited faith in Yahweh.

Romans 4:13-14, 16 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; … For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all…

We have to remember that Abraham had two prominent sons: Ishmael (born through a slave woman, Hagar) and Isaac (born miraculously through Sara). Isaac was the child of promise through whom God chose to continue the preferred line of Abraham’s descendants.

Genesis 21:12 – But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

Isaac then had two twin sons: Jacob and Esau. Jacob gained the name Israel (Genesis 32:28) and was the child through whom God chose to continue Abraham’s fleshly lineage all the way down to his Messiah, almost two thousand years later. So, while both Isaac and Jacob were “children” (that is, descendants) of Abraham, one was the miraculous child of promise chosen by God, and the other was the physical descendant chosen by God.

The apostle Paul capitalizes on this distinction by quoting that Genesis passage in his argument as to why those who believe in Messiah are counted above the physical descendants of Abraham:

Romans 9:6-8 – Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel [Jacob] are Israel. Neither is it the case that all of Abraham’s children are his descendants. On the contrary, [the Bible says,] “your offspring will be traced through Isaac.” That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.

Therefore, while the physical covenants belonged to the physical descendants, the spiritual promises and blessings belong to the miraculous descendants: those who exhibit faith in the promises of God, just like Abraham did. Isaac was the miraculous result of Abraham’s faith, therefore, in like fashion, those who exhibit faith in God receive a miraculous adoption into Abraham’s line of spiritual descendants through Isaac. It can be said that Jews were physically Abraham’s descendants through Jacob, but anyone believing in the Messiah became Abraham’s spiritual descendants through Isaac.

Using the analogy of the long history of Israel as a cultivated olive tree, the apostle Paul wrote about how it was not just the connection to the physical tree that mattered, but belief in the Messiah that allowed the branches to prosper.

Romans 11:17, 24 – Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the root and richness of the cultivated olive tree, … For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these ​– ​the natural branches ​– ​be grafted into their own olive tree?

According to the Bible, it is the natural thing for Jews to believe in their own Messiah, and they can flourish when they do so. But because of their unbelief, God had chosen to break off some of the natural branches and miraculously graft in believers from among the nations into that same olive tree. But all of the remaining branches stand by faith in Messiah, so technically, all of the remaining branches are branches of promise, according to faith.

For those of us who believe in Yeshua today, we are counted as Abraham’s children (that is, we are considered as descended from the patriarchal olive tree root that Paul mentions) but only because of our faith in God by believing in his Messiah. This is the same type of faith that Abraham exhibited, and we are considered heirs only because we believe in the promised seed of Abraham, the Messiah. We are heirs according to the promise of God to Abraham, NOT by seeking God’s favor through fleshly rule-following (like the Jews of Yeshua’s day), NOT directly by covenant (since God’s New Covenant was made with Israel and Judah), and NOT by genealogy (since we are not direct descendants of Abraham), but strictly by faith in God’s promise, just like Abraham.

As I mentioned in our last study, in the book of Hebrews, quoting from Jeremiah, it is clear that the new covenant was not about starting a new religion with a new group of people, but it was about fulfilling the promises made to Abraham on behalf of Israel and Judah, and it described where God’s eternal law or torah was to be placed.

Heb 8:8-10 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith Yahweh. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Yahweh; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people…

While the law originally written on stone was placed inside the ark of the covenant within the holiest of places in the tabernacle and then the temple, the new covenant provided for the law to be written on the heart so it could be lived out in practice through his eternal temple, the body of Messiah believers in each generation.

1 Corinthians 3:16 – Don’t you yourselves know that you [plurally] are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

This new covenant was made specifically with and for Judah and Israel, yet it is available to all who would believe in Abraham’s descendant, the Messiah. Though the covenant was not made with believers in this generation directly, we have the privilege of participating in it since we, by faith, are considered to be IN Messiah who was the goal and end of the promise made to Abraham.

Galatians 3:16, 29 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Messiah … for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua. And if you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

The physical covenants and genealogies were for physical blessings for Abraham’s fleshly descendants through Jacob. They were necessary and proper until the fulfillment of the promises and covenants in Messiah. From Yeshua’s time on, genealogies would no longer be necessary, since they had served their purpose of identifying Abraham’s ultimate “seed,” Messiah. Physical covenants related to blessings of the land would also no longer be necessary, as the children of Abraham would be defined by their simple faith in God’s Messiah. And this would not be to gain or prosper in a specific, physical land but to live in an eternal, universal Kingdom covering the entire earth.

However, just because the covenants were fulfilled in Messiah, it does not mean that the instruction of God contained within the covenant language has been completely abandoned. It has not been abolished, but fulfilled! Even better, it is my belief that the torah instruction of God has been simplified and elevated into the moral and spiritual principles taught by Yeshua which are summarized in the Sermon on the Mount. These include primarily the principles of the Kingdom (a Kingdom which has been forever established by God upon the Ten Commandments), integrity, vigilance, holiness, trust, forgiveness, and compassion. These are the core Bible principles allowing believers to truly love God and to love others from the heart which is the fulfillment of having the law or torah of the Kingdom placed within the heart. The new covenant is genuinely fulfilled in us when we abide by these principles, and the Kingdom of God then has potential to continue to expand further in each generation!

Those who exhibit this faith in God by believing in his Messiah, just like Abraham’s elementary faith, will be counted within the idiomatic expression of believers spanning many ages, known collectively as “children of Abraham.” These are the ones whom, like Yeshua taught, will “come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” (Matthew 8:11).

Well, I hope this deeper dive into the promises made with Abraham brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Covenants and Promises

How Yeshua became the way to God for anyone who was not part of covenantal Israel and Judah.

Core of the Bible podcast #112 – Covenants and Promises

Today, I wanted to take a closer look at the concept of covenants, and how covenants are represented throughout Scripture. With an understanding of how covenants worked in the ancient world, we can gain a better perspective on the application of these covenantal principles today.

So, to begin with, in its simplest form, a covenant can be defined as an agreement between parties. In the Bible, covenants are noted as being instituted between individuals, heads of tribes, countries, and by and with God.

In these ancient covenant practices, various symbols and practices were involved to mark the agreements. Typically, an animal was cut in half, and both parties to the agreement would walk between the severed pieces. This was a way of saying, “May what has been done to this animal be done to me if I break my agreement with you.”  This is why it was called “cutting” a covenant.

There were also specific benefits offered by keeping a covenant, and consequences to breaking a covenant. These would have been outlined at the time of the agreement. Today, a close equivalent to a covenant would be something like a contract which outlines an agreement with penalties or benefits between individuals or corporate entities. The phrase “to cut a contract” stems from the covenant roots.

The Bible records that there were tokens or symbols to memorialize these agreements. For example, in the covenant with Noah, God promised to never flood the entire land again. The symbol for remembrance of God’s covenant with Noah and all living flesh was a rainbow. Other covenantal tokens between men might include a pillar of stones, a symbolic feast, an exchange of animals, a well of water, or a symbolic altar.

Genesis 31:43-46 – Then Laban replied to Jacob, … “So now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.” Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

Genesis 26:26-30 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” They said, “We see plainly that Yahweh has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of Yahweh.'” Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

God’s covenant with Abraham – Approximately 2000 BC

Abraham lived roughly four thousand years ago (from today) in the land of Ur, which is the region of Babylon. God’s covenant with Abraham was to be the start of a set-apart tribal community that would eventually become the physical nation of Israel.

Genesis 15:7-18 And He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” He said, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. 

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” 

It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates…”

His name was originally Abram. Since he was to become the father of many nations, God changed his name to Abraham. 

Genesis 17:4-6 – “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.

Abraham’s son was Isaac; Isaac’s son was Jacob; Jacob’s twelve sons became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel (Israel was another name for Jacob). This is how the nation as a whole got its name. While Abraham’s son Ishmael also became the start of other tribes and tribal leaders (confirming that Abraham became the father of a multitude of nations), the Bible story primarily follows the descendants of Jacob, which became the nation of Israel, just as God had covenanted with Abraham.

Mosaic covenant – Approximately 1500 BC

Hundreds of years after Abraham, his physical descendants, the children of Israel, became enslaved in Egypt (as God had foretold). He raised up Moses to lead them out of their captivity and to become their own nation. This is described in the story of the Exodus and Passover.

Once out in the desert, the newly formed nation needed rules for governing the masses. God provided this direction through the covenant at Mt. Sinai, which was based on the Ten Commandments. 

Deuteronomy 4:12-13 “Then Yahweh spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form–only a voice. So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.”

This covenant with the children of Israel through Moses was still based on the covenant made with Abraham but also added the Ten Commandments and further instruction which was to guide them in establishing a representative Kingdom of God. This Torah, or instruction, set the people of Israel apart from all the people of the world.

This was a national covenant agreement that contained both blessings and curses. Whenever the people of Israel collectively breached the covenant and the law, they would suffer the consequences according to the covenant agreement.  

Deuteronomy 28:1, 15 “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey Yahweh your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. … “But it shall come about, if you do not obey Yahweh your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…”

The worst of the curses was captivity and loss of the covenantal land which in later years led to dispersions among the nations of the world. 

Deuteronomy 28:58, 64-65 “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, Yahweh your God, … Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.

Covenant with David – Approximately 1000 BC

As the nation of Israel grew, God provided an ideal example of kingship in David. The surrounding nations became subject to David’s rule and at that time the nation rose to all that had been prophesied before. This physical, national ideal became the type and foreshadowing of the spiritual kingdom which was to be realized a millennium later through the direct descendant of King David, Yeshua.

Psalm 89:3-4 – “I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever And build up your throne to all generations.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t even take one full generation for Israel to begin to fall away from their faithfulness and to begin to break this covenant. Toward the end of the reign of David’s son, Solomon, he began to honor foreign gods. When Solomon died, his two sons began rival kingdoms, and the nation entered a period of time of civil war and unrest. The two kingdoms became referenced by separate names. The northern kingdom became “Israel” and the southern kingdom became “Judah.”

Over the next several hundred years, king after king in both kingdoms defied the covenant. A few kings were faithful and would attempt to do what’s right and re-institute the ways of God; however, their successors would lapse back into idolatry and disobedience. The overall will of the people was rebelliousness in their heart, which is why they struggled generation after generation. 

Ultimately, the curses and penalties of the covenant agreement could no longer be forestalled, and the entire nation was removed from the covenantal land and scattered among the surrounding nations, just as God (through Moses) said he would do if they were to become unfaithful. The northern kingdom, Israel, was captured by Assyria in 722 BC. The southern kingdom, Judah, was captured by Babylon in 586 BC.

Jeremiah 3:21; 4:1-2 A voice is heard on the bare heights, The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their way, They have forgotten Yahweh their God…”If you will return, O Israel,” declares Yahweh, “then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver, And you will swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory.”

Even throughout their disobedient ways, God in his love and remembrance of his promises and covenant with Abraham declared that they could still be the blessing to the rest of the nations if they would only return to him. Since the people continually turned from God in their hearts, God promised that he would make a new covenant with the children of Israel and Judah where he would put his law in their hearts and not on stones like the Ten Commandments. When the law is in the heart the person does not forget the ways of God and then is effective in keeping them. 

Jeremiah 31:31-33  – “Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

—

Yeshua fulfilled the previous covenants and promises – Approximately 30 AD

Yeshua of Nazareth was sent by God to fulfill the words of all of the previous covenants and the promises that God made with Abraham. 

By Yeshua proclaiming that he was speaking the word of God, and by the accompanying signs done through him, the covenant God made with Israel when they were led by Moses was fulfilled.

Promise:

Deuteronomy 18:18-19 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

Fulfillment:

John 8:42 Yeshua said to them [the Jews], “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.

John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

By Yeshua coming from the line of David, the covenant that God made with David was fulfilled.

Promise:

Psalms 132:11 Yahweh has sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; “Of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne.”

Fulfillment:

Matthew 1:1 The record of the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Matthew 21:9 The crowds going ahead of Him [Yeshua], and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh; Hosanna in the highest!”

More importantly for us today, since God’s covenant with Abraham began the nation of Israel, Yeshua not only fulfilled God’s covenants with the nation through David and Moses, but also the promises made to Abraham before any covenants were made, even the covenant with Abraham. Since Yeshua was a true descendant of Abraham, these promises to Abraham were also fulfilled in Yeshua:

Promise: 

Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Fulfillment: 

Galatians 3:8-9 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

Promise: 

Genesis 15:2-5 Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 

Fulfillment: 

Matthew 1:1 The record of the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Messiah.

The New Covenant was made with Israel and Judah

Modern Christianity teaches that the new covenant through Messiah was made with the whole world. However, the prophecy of Jeremiah states exactly who the new covenant would be for: 

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…

The new covenant was for the house of Israel (the northern ten tribes) so that they could return to him from the nations among which they had been scattered, after they were disobedient to the covenant God had enacted through Moses. The New Testament epistles demonstrate that they did return to him; the assemblies of Messiah were made up of those from among the nations where the disciples went and preached to the scattered Israelites, the “lost sheep” of Israel.

The new covenant was also for the house of Judah (or the southern tribes), so they could have the law placed within their hearts, and no longer be subject to the hypocritical traditions of men. On many occasions, Yeshua scolded them for their hypocrisy:

Mark 7:5-8 The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” And He [Yeshua] said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

In the book of Hebrews, quoting from Jeremiah, it is clear that the new covenant was not about starting a new religion with a new group of people, but it was about fulfilling the promises made to Abraham on behalf of Israel and Judah, and it described where God’s eternal law or torah was to be placed.

Heb 8:8-10 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith Yahweh. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Yahweh; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people…

The issue was not that the Law or the instruction of God was bad, but it was the people’s failure to keep it because they weren’t keeping it in their heart. They were only treating it as an outward set of rules and regulations and were adding more and more rules on top of it. Therefore, through the new covenant, God was able to place his instruction directly into the hearts of believers through his Spirit. This was to help the believer to walk in the true spirit of God’s instruction, not just the letter of rules, and therefore to actually remain faithful to his Word. 

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The spirit of God’s Word, the true intent of him providing it in the first place, could now begin to bear fruit by spreading life among the people through this new covenant of the Spirit.

Now, the really good news (for us) is, because Yeshua also fulfilled the pre-covenant promises that were made to Abraham, Yeshua then also became the way to God for anyone who was not part of covenantal Israel and Judah. In this way, anyone from anywhere who expressed faith in Yeshua as being sent by God, whether Jew or non-Jew, could now approach the God of Creation through simple faith, just like Abraham. This is why the early congregations were made up of both Jews and those from among the nations where the Israelites had been scattered.

Galatians 3:26-28 For you are all sons of God through faith in Messiah Yeshua. For all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.

Colossians 3:10-11 and you have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him– a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Messiah is all, and in all.

Because the promises to Abraham were made prior to any covenants, the fulfilled promises can be accepted and applied by non-covenantal believers, like all of us today who are not of Jewish or Hebraic descent. This is why the gospel of the Kingdom is considered good news! In this way, through Yeshua, God has been able to draw all men to himself, Jews and non-Jews, and to re-establish the New Creation of his Kingdom with all people for all eternity.

Well, I hope this overview of the covenants and promises of the Bible brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. Because the good news of this Kingdom has such far-reaching implications, I would like to take some time to further explore our relationship with the promise of Abraham in more detail. So, next time, we will review this concept of the faith of Abraham to demonstrate how believers even today can be considered “children of Abraham.”

Remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.