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This is the second part of a study on how we go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah and how the Creator’s presence goes into us and through us into the world around us by way of the Messiah.
Teachings of Sukkot and Shemeni Atzeret (Tabernacles and the Eighth Day) and of Yeshua’s ministry on Earth are that God desires His dwelling place to be with us — better, within us — not foreign to us. A heart transformed welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, Yeshua the Son of Man and the Spirit.
In Leviticus, a significant topic is the qorban,or offering. It strictly means “that which approaches.” What approaches is not you. We wouldn’t just stroll into the Most Holy Place and have a lunch with the LORD. What does go in is a very special qorban, but only the blood of that qorban, not the qorban itself.
In Hebrews 10, we have a picture of what it means to go “through the veil,” as in the veil of the Tabernacle/Temple that separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. It is made clear in Leviticus 16 that it was the blood of a special goat qorban that entered beyond the veil. In Hebrews 10, we are told that the blood of Christ went through the veil once and for all and made it possible for us to walk with Him into the presence.
Today is Shemeni Atzeret, Hebrew for “the gathering of the Eighth [Day].” Sukkot, the Festival of Tabernacles or Booths, lasts for seven days, but an eighth day is tagged on. What is it?
“Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD. ‘On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. ‘For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.” (Leviticus 23:33–36 NASB)
In times past, we have discussed the meaning of the number eight. The Hebrew word for eightis שמנה shemoneh (H8083), thought to come from the verbשמן shaman(H8080), which means to shine, as if to be made waxy or oily. A related word is שֶׁמֶן shemen (H8081), or oil. What is reaching its fulness — or anointed into fulness — that needs to be memorialized on this day? It is a time to acknowledge how God’s blessings overflow in us for our sake.
“Of [the assembly of believers in Yeshua as the Messiah] I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” (Colossians 1:25–28 NASB)
What do we see in Leviticus that teaches us how we become complete? There is a direction we should be go — toward the presence of the Holy One of Israel. But whether it’s due to inattention (sin), an incitement (transgression) or malice (iniquity), we do not stay on the right path. God has to direct us back.
“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” (2Corinthians 5:1–5 NASB)
When we talk about trust and faith, at the heart of that is the question Is the Kingdom of God worth it to endure these trials, and tribulations?
Yes, all our trials and difficulties for the sake of the Kingdom of God are worth it. The Lord will pay back what He promised and He expects us to do the same for one another. That is how we show that the Kingdom of God is important to us. God hasn’t hit the reset button on His love for us or His work for our salvation.
What it means to have ‘Christ in you’: the Temple
It wasn’t ever the purview of the kings of Israel and Judah to enter into the most inner courts of the Temple, but David wanted to be there in his most innermost being. David longed to live as though he was in the most holy place, which comes through in his psalms. The presence of God with us is not something that is attached to us like a sidecar on a motorcycle but something that is embedded in us and meshes with us to the point that we don’t know where one ends and the other begins.
Romans 8:1-39: An untransformed life is unable to fully live up to the Law of God
It’s never easy to drop into apostle Paul’s Romansletter. It’s a running conversation from the beginning to nearly the end, and it’s a letter that was 20-plus years in the making.
Paul tells us there is no condemnation for those who walk in Yeshua. Leviticus 16 tells us how. If we go into the Tabernacle through the Yom Kippur qorban, all the sins, transgressions and iniquities are covered. Yeshua went through that veil once and for all, and we follow with Him. We don’t go in by ourselves or on our own merits, but by Christ’s merits only.
The Messiah’s offering is not something that is done every year. It was once and for all. Sanctificationis the big word we use to tell us how to get off the roller coaster of repeatedly coming close to God then pulling away.
“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6–8 NASB)
A “mind set on the flesh” is death and hostile to God, but the mind” set on the Spirit is life, peace and a willful subject to the Law of God. The Spirit of God is there to help us, to comfort us. The Spirit can be anywhere at the same time, where Messiah Yeshua in the flesh could not. That is why He had to return to the Father.
Is this year going to be yo-yo for you, or will you come into God’s presence and stay there?
“If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:10–13 NASB)
The generation who were allowed to enter the Land after the Exodus were reborn from those who refused to be reborn and had to die in the wilderness. In a sense, Israel was reborn in the second generation.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:28–30 NASB)
John 17: Father in the Son, Son in the Father, believers in both
“‘I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.’” (John 17:11 NASB)
Yeshua is paraphrasing the Shema in Deut. 6:4 in this prayer to the Father.
“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:20–23 NASB)
This goes back to what Paul wrote in Colossians 1. This is a mystery that God saw fit to reveal a little to us to reveal to the world. What we see here is a revelation that the Creator of Heaven and Earth who wanted to be among His people and be close to them so He robed Himself in flesh, not to enslave us but to free us. We call ourselves servants or slaves to Christ, but Christ tells us that servants are not told the Master’s purpose, but friends are allowed to know some of the Master’s inner counsel.
Hoshana Rabbah: When it’s good for the House of Elohim to flood
We did a water-pouring ceremony yesterday, which is part of the Hoshana Rabbah (“great appeal for help”). That ceremony of the seventh day of Sukkot traditionally is connected to Isa. 12:3:
“Then you will say on that day, ‘I will give thanks to You, O LORD; For although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, And You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the LORD GOD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.’ Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation.” (Isaiah 12:1–3 NASB)
Why do we have joy? Because our ancestors returned from exile and were no longer forsaken by God. They were reborn and given a second chance. Common reactions in Bible-based cultures to tragedy are to appeal to God, to turn away from God and to mock God.
Those who went “all in” with Israel 2.0 (3.0, if you count the second generation past the Exodus) after the first exiles had to decide what caused the reboot of the nation:
- Human will (leaders like Zerubbabel, Yeshua ben Yehozadak, Ezra and Nehemiah).
- Statecraft (petitioning Cyrus and Darius I).
- Trust in the original and continual Source of life for Israel.
When Daniel prayed at the end of the 70 years, he cried out, even “owning” the sin that caused they exile when he was actually a teenager when the exile happened. There’s no way that his sin contributed to the exile but he was caught up in it. He was the one at the right time, right place to speak “truth to power” and prepare the people to return after the exile.
Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) prophesied decades earlier that Israel created a spiritual drought for herself by turning away from the true Source:
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13 NASB)
The LORD reveals through the prophet that the precursors to the drought started hundreds of years earlier, with ingratitude of the people after the Exodus and eventual entry into the Land (Jer. 2:4–8).
The priests, whose role in life was to bring the people closer to the LORD via the qorbanot, didn’t care about what the LORD was doing. The teachers of the Law of God didn’t know the Law-Giver. The Rulers, who were supposed to be Law enforcers, became chief Law-breakers. They made people actually curse God because of their dereliction of duty.
The prophets, who were supposed to communicate the words of the Creator, turned into spokesmen for false gods.
The priests, rulers and prophets were directing the people everywhere except towards the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
Among the prayers of Hoshana Rabbah is a prayer for the coming of the Mashiakh. Yeshua specifically traveled to a land of half-breeds, Samaria, the human wreckage from the apostasy and exile of the northern Kingdom of Israel. He specifically went to a well dug by the founder of Israel, Ya’akob, to vividly demonstrate where the true Source of life for Israel came from (John 4).
Yeshua made one prophetic statement about the woman’s past. Then she did what the prophets of the kingdom Israel failed to do: point the people to the true Source of wisdom.
The prophets such as Jeremiah and Isaiah were killed when they told the people everything they had done. But rather than be angry or resentful at the Messiah’s message, the Samaritan woman was excited and told everyone she knew that she had met the Messiah.
Yeshua on one celebration of Sukkot called the leadership of Israel to think carefully about the source of life for the nation, then during the Hoshana Rabbah celebration He made a bold declaration of that source (John 7).
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus 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 Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37–39 NASB)
Yeshiyahu (Isaiah) communicates several examples of “living water”: Isa. 44:2-4; 55:1; 58:11.
“Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants; And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.’ ” (Isaiah 44:2–4 NASB)
Israel’s revival had to come from the inside, a change of heart.
“ ‘Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.’ ” (Isaiah 55:1–3 NASB)
The book of Revelation ends (Rev. 22:17) with an allusion to Isa. 55:1, to “drink” the “water of life.”
Yeshua was appealing to that generation to return to Israel’s Source of life:
- The Father Who birthed Israel as a light to the nations.
- The Spirit Who changes the heart.
- The Son Who speaks directly from the Father and takes us directly to Him.
We have no condemnation before the Father with the spotlight of God’s Law shining on us, because the blood of the Lamb covers it all. Teachings of Sukkot and Yeshua’s ministry on Earth are that God desires His dwelling place to be with us — better, within us — not foreign to us. A heart transformed welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, the Son of Man and the Spirit.
Banner Photo: Priests, such as Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, could enter the Holy Place to burn incense to take care of the menorah, but the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place only once a year. (Photo from www.LumoProject.com via Creative Commons License for educational purposes only)
Summary: Tammy