judaism – The Core of the Bible

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.

Standing for the truth of God’s word above the philosophies of men

We need to be aware of, and reject, false religious traditions.

Colossians 2:8 – Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Messiah.

This admonition from the apostle Paul strikes at the heart of the major conflict that the first century believers faced: the resistance of the orthodox Jews of their day who did not accept their Messiah. The Messiah-believing Jews were coming out from among the ranks of orthodox Judaism into what was considered a new sect. However, what was happening biblically was the remnant of true Israelites was being separated from the rest of unbelieving Judaism, even among those who had been dispersed, as had been prophesied.

Isaiah 10:20-22 – On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God. Israel, even if your people were as numerous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction has been decreed; justice overflows.
Isaiah 11:10-12 – On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will look to him for guidance, and his resting place will be glorious. On that day the Lord will extend his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people who survive – from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west. He will lift up a banner for the nations and gather the dispersed of Israel; he will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

This process required immense vigilance, determination, and faith in God. They were being persecuted (that is, hunted with intent to harm) by their very own brothers. They were being challenged in their faith on principles they had grown up believing, being taught in the synagogues throughout the areas where they lived. They were coming to see that many of the traditions and ideas that had been created by the religious elite were being cast away because they were not God’s design for his spiritual people.

Yeshua had railed against the religious leaders for their adherence to their traditions and philosophies above the both the clear and symbolic teachings of Scripture.

Matthew 15:3-6 – He [Yeshua] answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

Besides their hypocrisy and pride, Yeshua was calling them out on their observance to their own philosophical traditions that they held to above Scripture. They had created traditions around the teachings of Scripture, traditions that were contrary to the spirit and purpose of the law.

The apostle Paul in like fashion condemned the man-made restrictions and rules that had been added to the clear teaching and meaning of Scripture:

Colossians 2:23 – These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

The true message of the kingdom was not more restrictions and rules by the letter of the law, but the fulfillment of those things in Messiah and the advent of the spiritual kingdom adhering to the spirit of the law. The oral laws and traditions that had been added to the law of Moses were being shed as people began to understand Messiah’s teaching in light of the spiritual kingdom.

For example, physical circumcision had become a “badge of honor” among the Jews regardless of any spiritual or ethical practices. Paul preached that this was no longer necessary, but spiritual circumcision through a removal of the flesh through baptism was.

Colossians 2:11 – In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Messiah…

Temple worship and practices were no longer needed, because the body of believers themselves had become the dwelling place of God, as taught by both Paul and Peter.

2 Corinthians 6:16 – What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
1 Peter 2:4-5 – As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Yeshua Messiah.

These were the types of teachings that continued to separate the remnant of Israel from the orthodox Judaism of the day.

We also have a responsibility to confront the false teachings, traditions, and philosophies that have grown up around the true faith of Messiah in the centuries since these brave and faithful forefathers stood their ground in the first century. Through our institutions, organizations, and denominations, we have created a new “oral law,” a set of trappings that continue to divide and separate God’s people. We have created holy days not listed in Scripture, constructed networks of churches around the dynamics of charismatic leaders and humanistic teachings, and built a theology of orthodoxy on the philosophies of men rather than the truth of Scripture.

We have strayed from the spiritual nature of the kingdom into the realm of trying to build a physical kingdom representation in our own image. We must return to the roots of biblical faith and the spiritual kingdom that Messiah established two millennia ago. We, like our spiritual forefathers, must remain vigilant in the face of those who, as the apostle Paul admonished, would seek to take us “captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Messiah.”

Colossians 3:23-24 – Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Messiah.

If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

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