Tag: sabbath-rest

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Shabbat Torah

Promised Land and promised ‘rest’: Do we have enough faith to allow God to free us? (Numbers 13–14; Hebrews 3–4)

Promised land and promised rest: Do we have enough faith to follow God to freedom? (Based on Numbers 13 and 14; Hebrews 3 and 4.) Adobe Firefly AI image of a group of weary people walking up a hill from a dark, scary forest to a bright, restful place.

This study of the Torah reading שְׁלַח Shelach/Shelakh (“send,” Numbers 13–15) reports of the 12 spies in Numbers 13–14 foreshadow the sending by Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) of the 12 and 70 apostles in the Gospels. Just as the spies were sent to scout the Promised Land, the apostles were sent to proclaim the coming Kingdom.

However, the Israelites’ lack of faith prevented them from entering God’s “rest,” a spiritual reality that believers in Yeshua the Messiah can now access. This “rest” is not a replacement of Israel’s role, but a fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. The Promised Land was a physical type and shadow of the eternal “sabbath rest” that believers can enter through faith in Messiah. This rest represents the ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan for His people to dwell with Him in peace and righteousness.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Bondage-breaking power of the Bread from Heaven and Living Water (Exodus 15–17; John 6; 1Corinthians 10; Hebrews 3–4)

Bondage-breaking power of the Living Water (Exodus 17; Matthew 14; Mark 6) and the Bread From Heaven (Exodus 16; John 6).

When we look at the Torah reading בְּשַׁלַּח Beshalach (“when he sent” or “after he had let go,” Ex. 13:17–17:16), we need to ask ourselves five big questions: Is God with us? Are we really free? Where are we going? How will we get our “daily bread”? Where will we find “living water”?

And via a number of parallel passages in the Prophets, Writings and Apostolic Scriptures, we learn that the answer to all those questions is Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ).

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

Don’t leave your heart in Egypt: Faith to move forward to freedom (Exodus 17; 1Corinthians 10)

Don't leave your heart in Egypt: Faith to move forward to freedom (Exodus 17; 1Corinthians 10)

1Corinthians 10 was the apostle Paul’s midrash on Israel’s history, detailing how division arose among the children of Israel during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.

In the Torah reading בְּשַׁלַּח Beshalach (“when he sent,” Ex. 13:17–17:16), we see that it didn’t take Israel very long to forget all of the miracles that God had rendered on their behalf for their freedom and struck out in anger against Moses and Aaron. These lessons can teach us how to trust our Deliverer, Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) and follow Him to true rest for our restless souls.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 13–15: Overcoming fear in doing the right thing

Photos by Freeimages.com/Christopher Bruno

We all have “pivot points” in life, times when a decision or circumstance dramatically changes our lives, sometimes irreversibly. A pivot toward lifestyle and character in step with the Kingdom of God leads to a fulfilling life, regardless of good times or bad times. A pivot away from the Creator can be “sin that leads to death,” unless we respond to Heaven’s warning “today” and “enter His rest” via the Passover Lamb, Yeshua (Jesus).

Such a huge pivot in the history of our ancestors in faith is recounted in the Torah reading שְׁלַח Shelakh (“send,” Numbers 13–15), when a “bad report” about Israel’s prospects for settling in a land of giant warriors, walls and grapes persuaded many of the generation of the first Passover, Red Sea crossing, etc. to abandon the LORD’s leadership.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Torah

John 14: Ultimate fulfillment of the Exodus to God-provided rest

Jeff

As part of an excursus from our study of Luke 22 on Yeshua’s teachings to the 12 during and just after His last Pesakh (Passover) with them, we’re looking at John 13-17. There appears to be a number of parallels between John 14 and Num. 10:29-12:15 that seem to suggest that the “going” Yeshua is referring to would be into the grave and then to God’s throne, reserving the privilege to dwell with God for anyone in the wold who want it.

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Appointments With God Discussions Shabbat

Hebrews 3-4: How to enter God’s lasting ‘rest’

Hebrews 3-4: How to enter God's lasting 'rest'

Some read about the “Sabbath-rest” in Hebrews 4 and conclude that the teaching is that the remembrance of the seventh-day rest, the Sabbath, has been transferred to the Messiah, Yeshua. Yet the context of the passage and the quotations in it relating to a pivotal event in the Torah point to the fuller meaning of personal peace and real “rest” that God provides.

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Appointments With God Discussions Tabernacles The Eighth Day

Shmini Atseret (convocation of the Eighth Day) pictures new beginnings

Studies in Torah

The common name for the day following seven days of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles) is Shmini Atseret in Hebrew, or “Assembly of the Eighth (Day).” The day also is called Simchat Torah, Hebrew for “joy of the Torah,” based on the centuries old practice in synagogues of restarting the cycle of Torah readings at that time.

Shmini Atseret is a bookend to the miqra qodesh on the first day of Sukkot. Its place following Sukkot suggests that God wants to memorialize what is planned for when the time period of “wandering” in these mortal bodies and rebellious minds finally comes to an end, and humankind enters total lasting “rest.”