‘Observing’ & ‘remembering’ the Feasts of the LORD

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Speaker: Susan Pierce [contact]

 = El Shaddai in Hebrew. It points to a hidden

The name of HaShem, YHVH, has been translated mostly in our scriptures, “I am who I am.”

Yes, that is one meaning, but at a much more colloquial meaning, which is important because your God is speaking the language that we speak, at its most colloquial. That name actually should be translated, “I will be there wheresoever I will be there.”

Where God is, it doesn’t matter  whether your land is teeming with frogs and where the river has turned to blood. It doesn’t matter what is going on, whether there doesn’t appear to be any meat or any help insight, God says, “I will be there will be with you.”

And I believe this is an important lesson for what we’re heading into, in these end the days that are coming rushing upon us. Because this is not going to be a time for feelings. This might not even be a time for experiencing the presence of the Spirit of God. There might be an actual absence of the presence of God, and so we really must come to grips with God’s “absence” and walk by faith that He is there, even if we don’t feel He is there.

We must be grounded in our knowledge and love of God because as the persecution of Christians grows exponentially throughout the world, we have to be so grounded in this because  this will keep you Faith alive.

If nothing else, this will you will be so grounded in the word so grounded in God’s plan that you can endure to the end, He who overcomes in Yeshua’s name.

Thought questions

• Is there a plan in Scripture that has been kept from most of humanity?
  • What is it?
  • Why has it been hidden?
• What is so central to the Exodus to all of Scripture?
  • If you don’t understand that significance, what challenges do we have with understanding the rest of Scripture and the cosmic battle between good and evil?
  • With what verse did Matthew connect Yeshua to the Exodus?
  • What are several significant events before and through the Exodus?
• What does The Name, YHWH, commonly translated as “the LORD,” mean?
  • What lesson does the meaning of The Name have for us today?
• What is the struggle for in the clashes between Moshe (Moses) & Aharon (Aaron) on one side and Pharoh on the other?
  • What do those clashes represent?
• How is the Exodus a picture, mirror and rehearsal of something coming later?
  •  = natzal in Hebrew means “delivered” or “snatched away”
  • = yatzah in Hebrew means “coming out” or “birth”
• What is the ketubah,Hebrew for marriage contract, between YHWH and Israel?
  • What happened before it was ratified at Mt. Sinai?
  • What is the connection between the 40 days Israel was waiting for Moshe to come down from Sinai with the Ten Commandments — God’s ketubah with Israel — and us today?
  • What was the “new covenant” at Sinai (Exodus 34)?
  • What was added to that new ketubah?
  • Why was Moshe’s face glowing when he came down from the mountain the second time?
  • How is this transferred glory part of the “mystery of God” (1st Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:27 & 4:3) and the veil over the faces of Israel (2nd Corinthians 3:12–18) that apostle Paul talks about?
• Why are “observing” and “remembering” the Feasts of the LORD, as described in Deuteronomy 16:12, crucial for God’s people?
  • = shamar in Hebrew means “observe” or “keep”
  • = z’kharon in Hebrew means “remember” (See Exodus 12–13.)
  • How is doing so essential for the passing on of the knowledge of God to children and unbelievers? (See 1st Corinthians 5.)
  • What does that tell us about why apostle Paul was teaching Gentiles about the festivals?
  • What is the duality of the teaching in creation of the sun, moon and stars in Genesis1?
    • = moed in Hebrew means “appointment,” “specific time” or “season”
    • = oht in Hebrew means “sign”
  • How is that connected to the calendar of Israel?
  • How is it connected to the purpose of Paul’s teaching in 1st Corinthians 15?
•  How are the Shabbat (Sabbath) and the moedim— literally, “appointed times of the LORD” — sanctuaries in time?
  • What do they teach us about God’s view of time?
• What is the mysterious plan aposle Paul discusses in Romans 1:2 & 16:25–26, 1st Corinthians 2:7 & 15:51, Colossians 1:26–27, Ephesians 1:9–10 and 3:3–10, and Titus1:2?
  • How does Paul include the gentiles or goyim — “the nations” in Greek and Hebrew, respectively — in the history of Israel?
  • How is that connected to the loss of power and direction in Christianity today?
  • How is it no accident that when we have come so far from the teachings of God that there is such a threat from Islam against Israel and the Christian nations?
  • How is that connected to the coming fulfillment of the Exodus again?
• Why does Paul write that the New Moon, Shabbat and the other festivals are “shadows of things to come” (Colossians2:16–17)?
  • Why do many translations say “only shadows”?
  • What does that teach about the importance of the moedim?
• Why are we today according to the pattern of the moedim?
• Which events have happened that some of the moedim have pointed to?
• What is the point of keeping and remembering the festivals?
• How does it hint at the cause of the vehement reaction to the teaching of the purpose and importance of the festivals when talking to Christians and Jews?

• What two main groups of people come together in the bride married to the king during Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles or Booths)?
• Why did the apostles use the Greek word ecclesia to describe the body of believers in Messiah Yeshua?
• Where was that word used in the Greek version of the TaNaKh (a Hebrew acronym for Torah, Nevi’im (prophets) and Ketevim (writings), commonly called “the Old Testament” by many Christians)?
• How have most Christians and Jews been robbed of their heritage by this obscuring of the purpose of the festivals?
• Considering that har moedim, Hebrew for “mount of the congregation,” in Isaiah 14:12 literally means “mount of the assembly for the appoint times,” what has been the goal of the Accuser, haSatan, in obscuring the festivals?

• How have the “early church fathers” contributed to the work of anti-Messiah in this regard? Where did “replacement theology” teaching come from? [download PDF history summary, 160 KB]
  • Ignacius of Antioch (A.D. 90–110) suggested the replacement of the Passover with Easter
    • “be not seduced by fables and strange doctrines”
    • “no longer observing the Sabbath but observing the Lord’s Day”
    • “put away the vile leaven, which waxed stale and sour and take the new leaven which is Jesus Christ”
    • “it is montstrous to practice Judaism”
  • Marcian (A.D. 140s)
    • the God of the Old Testament is vile and vengeful
    • the Old Testament is no longer valid
    • He was excommunicated as a heretic by his teachings persist today.
  • Justin the Martyr
    • God’s covenant with Israel is no longer valid.
  • Melito in Peri Pascha
    • accused the Jews of killing God
  • Origen
    • developed an allegorical teaching of Scripture that trumped the literal meaning of prophecies about Israel
  • Tertullian in Against the Jews
  • Eusebius
    • a prolific church historian
    • “separate from the hostile rabble of the Jews in regards to the Easter observance