Tag Archives: Messianic Judasim

March 30, 2015 · 7:31 AM

Preparing for Passover

We are getting ready for Passover! The holiday begins on Friday, but preparations are moving full steam ahead.

During Passover, the Jewish community refrains from eating leaven and eat what is known as matzah during the eight day holiday, as Moses and the nation of Israel fled Egypt in haste, not having time for our bread to rise and so we eat unleavened bread as a reminder of our leaving Egypt in haste.

Matzah

Matzah (unleavened bread) is eaten during Passover

For seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a foreigner or a native of the land. You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread (Ex 12:19-20).

As the Jewish community prepares for Passover, each family removes leaven from the home and stores – especially in heavily Jewish areas remove leavened products from their shelves. Then, during a ceremony called Bedikat Chametz, immediately before the first night of Passover and the first Passover Seder, we conduct a final search for leaven throughout the house, gather it together and throws it all out or burn it, symbolizing the house is purified or kosher for Passover.

Paul uses this understanding of the Jewish practice as the background to his statement in1 Corinthians 5:6-8.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The community of Corinth evidently demonstrated a tolerance for gross immorality. Paul compares sin to leaven and commands the congregation at Corinth to clean out the sin from their midst in the same way the Jewish community removes leaven from their homes during Passover. Just as leaven permeates an entire lump of dough, sinful behavior affects the entire life of an individual and congregation. If the congregation at Corinth did not deal with the wicked behavior in their midst, then this behavior would defile the entire community.

When my wife makes challah, the traditional Jewish Festival bread, she puts a small amount of yeast into the dough. This small amount of yeast makes the entire loaf of challah leavened. In the same way, sin affects the entire life of a person. We cannot compartmentalize our lives and isolate sin to a particular area. Sin in one area affects all areas of our lives. We deceive ourselves when we think the small or hidden sins in our lives will not creep it’s way into our entire soul. Even the small and hidden sins will permeate and corrode our entire being.

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long.

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide;

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:3-5)

Therefore, we should pursue righteousness, since our Messiah has removed the chametz, leaven, from our lives. Rabbi Saul (the Apostle Paul) describes those with leavened lives as depraved and wicked, but reminds his readers that those who are pure in motives and upright in character behave as if they are without leaven. The person free from leaven does not have a hidden or secret life. The preparation for Passover reminds us of the unrighteous behaviors we tolerate in our lives. If we tolerate immoral thoughts or actions, they will begin to affect our spiritual lives and ultimately destroy our soul.

We only deceive ourselves if we think that what we look at on the Internet, watch on television or do when others are not watching will not have any affect upon our spiritual life. We simply cannot behave badly towards our spouse or children, be dishonest in business or mean to at work if we are serious about honoring God. If we are going to have a healthy spiritual life we cannot tolerate our hidden and secret sins…the ones we only we know about, as the Lord knows them too1

In the spirit of Passover, let’s remove sin from our lives, so that we are kosher for Passover and can experience the joy that only godly obedience, in light of the redemption we have through Yeshua, can bring to our souls.

Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity. But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off.(Psalm 37:37-38)

For more on Passover click on http://tinyurl.com/no7r8l8

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September 29, 2014 · 6:02 AM

The Ten Days of Awe

We are in the midst of the Ten Days Awe which began with the first day of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.  The other name for this season is the Ten Days of Repentance as the traditional Jewish belief for this season is that God will judge our hearts and actions during this period of time and determine our future.  The culmination of the ten days is the observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement which begins this coming Friday evening.

I have written a series of devotionals on the themes of atonement and forgiveness and hope you will read them.  The following is the text of the first devotional…

We are about to observe the Civil Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which literally means, the “Head of the Year.” The festival is one of the seven great festivals, appointed by God to be celebrated on the first day of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, Tishrei. All seven of these Holy Days are found in the Bible in Leviticus chapter 23, as well as in a number of other passages in the Pentateuch/Torah. There is also a vast amount of rabbinic material describing the festivals and how they should be observed.

The Holy Days are prophetic in nature and over the course of the year provide a roadmap to redemption; Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, the New Year, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles. The holidays are similar as each one involves a rest from labor, worship, offerings and usually a reminder of a great event in the history of Israel. Oftentimes a holiday is also tied to the agricultural season and in one way or another is connected to the harvest.

It is important to note the Hebrew word translated as “holiday” in Leviticus 23 is better when understood as “appointments.” God asks Israel to remember what He did for them in history over 150 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. He set up these “appointments” (or “appointed times”) to help His people commune with Him and “remember” His good works in their history. Each of these Holy Days was established by God and revealed to the children of Israel by Moses, who received the calendar as part of the Sinai revelation.

I also believe that every one of these festivals (“appointed times”) was fulfilled in the person of Jesus the Messiah and, along with many scholars, believe the first four Spring festivals pointed to His first coming and the latter three in the Fall are related to His second coming.

These holidays have a variety of themes and customs and are observed in a similar manner by most Jewish people, whether they be Ashkenazic (Eastern European decent) or Sephardic (primarily from Spain and North Africa)—New Yorkers, Brooklynites or Israelis. The major themes of the Jewish New Year are Kingship, Remembrance and the Blowing of the Shofar.

Over the centuries, our rabbis and sages have complied a book entitled the Machzor, which is used in the synagogue as the prayer book and service guide for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (See Leviticus 23: 23- 25; Numbers 10: 10; 29: 16 for the biblical details).

Rosh Hashanah is the first of three great festivals to be celebrated in the Fall. The other two are Yom Kippur, (Day of Atonement) and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles).

The great theme of Rosh Hashanah is repentance and the overarching theme of the High Holiday season is forgiveness. In fact, the first day of Rosh Hashanah begins a season of ten days of repentance, often called the Ten Days of Awe by the Jewish people. The observance of the Day of Atonement concludes these ten days. It is understood by most Jewish people that repentance is the path that leads to salvation and the forgiveness of sin, which is secured at the closing moments of Yom Kippur.

Though it is difficult to explain the difference, forgiveness is stressed in the Jewish community far more than personal salvation, especially as understood by most Christians. Jewish people are not as apt to think about personal salvation or a secured future beyond the grave in the same way Christians do.

However, Jewish people do think about forgiveness during this time of year and are usually eager to repent before God and reconcile with whomever they may have offended as well. But, forgiveness is viewed as temporal, needing annual renewal and received on the basis of God’s grace as well as our repentance and willingness to be obedient to His Law found in the Five Books of Moses. At least this is the traditional Jewish teaching on the subject.

The Ten Days of Awe or the Ten Days of Repentance are observed during the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Jewish tradition calls upon us to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others as one vital part of receiving God’s forgiveness at the conclusion of the ten-day period.

The Purpose for the Devotionals:

During the Ten Days of Repentance, we will be providing our readers with ten devotions, one for each day.

These devotional thoughts will hopefully be a blessing to you and help sensitize you to what your Jewish family and friends are observing as well. We also will present a passage or two from the Bible for you to meditate upon and will allow the Lord to speak to you through His word during this important season of the year.

The Apostle Paul suggests the importance of understanding and even experiencing the Jewish festivals in his letter to Timothy. He writes,

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Scripture Meditation:

I have found the above verses to be very helpful and practical in understanding the role of the festivals in the lives of believers in Jesus the Messiah.

In using the term Scripture, Paul is referring to the entirety of the Old Testament. Certainly, we can infer that this is also true of the New Testament, but specifically Paul has the Hebrew Scriptures in mind. Every part of the Bible is useful to us in the process of growing to spiritual maturity. This would include the Jewish holidays.

Paul is not suggesting that we must keep these festivals in any particular way nor is he suggesting that we are under obligation to keep them! Rather, he tells us that every verse in every one of the 39 books of the Old Testament is helpful and may be utilized for spiritual benefit. This would be true of the festivals outlined in Leviticus 23 and would include the three Fall events; the New Year, the Day of Atonement and Tabernacles.

Therefore, learning more about these “Feasts” is helpful for your spiritual journey. And for me, the emphases of the first two holidays on repentance and forgiveness create a magnificent backdrop for understanding the work of Jesus the Messiah, who died that I might live.

To read the rest of the devotional go to:

http://www.chosenpeople.com/main/index.php/holidays-and-festivals/836-ten-days-of-awe-devotionals

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