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John 14:9
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The dear sages who compared Jerusalem to Sarah our matriarch could not have foreseen the extent of their analogy. In the midrash of the barren woman, Hashem reveals the messianic future of His dear city to the prophet Isaiah. Since its sacking by the Romans in the first century C.E., many have looked at Jerusalem just as Isaiah saw her: a barren woman sitting on a heap of ashes, ostracized and rejected by her husband because of her many infidelities (Isaiah 54; Jeremiah 26:6). One of the legends I like the most is the one about the weaning of Isaac. It is said that Abraham called in a great feast (Genesis 21:8). The rumor had gone around that Isaac was actually Pharaoh Abimelek’s child (Genesis 20:2). Not only people couldn't believe that old Abraham sired a boy, but they also could not conceive Sarah lactating at ninety years old. The point of the feast was to vindicate the miracle God had performed and put the rumors to rest. Great Sheiks came from all around in great caravans and pomp to attend Abraham’s feast. To prove herself, not only did Sarah nursed her son, but she offered to nurse every baby in the camp. She did, and the story goes on to say that every child Sarah nursed eventually became a king or a person of great influence and integrity. Also, in order to erase any doubt that the child was truly Abraham’s, God had made the face of Isaac similar to that of his father, so that it was said that he who saw the son saw the father. Sounds familiar doesn’t it (John 14:9)? Look now why our ages compared Sarah to Jerusalem. Just like Sarah was, twice Jerusalem was conquered and taken captive by foreigners, first by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans. With the re-establishment of the State of Israel, the Roman captivity shows signs of coming to its end. Having the past of Jerusalem in Sarah's life, let us now see now its future. After the return from her second captivity, Isaac, the promised child, the fore-shadow of Messiah was born. Sarah who barren and past the age, finally bore fruit. In the same manner today, Jerusalem, one of the oldest city in the world, a city that has been used, abused, rejected, redeemed, to be rejected again and re-redeemed, prides itself of a new vibrant Messianic community rising all over in Israel: the ‘remnant of the seed of the woman’ (Revelation 12:17) preparing the way for the soon return of the King (Revelations 19). The same miracle that rejuvenated Sarah to conceive Isaac and lactate happens in our day through Jerusalem. Think of it: a whole country was re-born in a day with a new generation of messianic believers preparing the way for the soon-coming of the King who will rule the earth in the justice and righteousness of the Father. Will they become the kings of integrity ‘nursed’ to rule in the Jerusalem of the World to Come? May it be soon Abba, even in our days! Those who would try to interfere with the miraculous plan of God are playing with the unstoppable spiritual and natural forces that created the heavens and the earth. May they beware!
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1 Corinthians 15:54
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." Starting from the 16th of Nissan, the day after the Passover Sabbath, we are asked to count seven weeks and one day, fifty days, until Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15). On the fortieth day of this counting the Messiah ascended in the cloud in the plain view of the disciples. They were at the same moment told that as He went in the cloud, so will He return (Acts 1:11). As believers this period between the resurrection and the ascension is very special. It is the period when we are told that the Messiah made all His resurrected appearances up to five hundred disciples plus (1 Corinthinas 15:6). This fifty days period is called in Hebrew ‘s’phirat ha’omer’, meaning, ‘the counting of the Omer’. This terminology is synonymous to, ‘the recounting of the Omer’ as if it were a story, or the ‘shining of the Omer ‘as in cleaning. I would say that all these are correct, in their own rights. As we count the days of the Omer, we can tell the stories of the appearances of the risen Messiah, thus shining and preparing our souls for the great day of Pentecost when in the similitude of Mt Horeb’s events, through earthquake, wind, and fire, the Torah was sealed in the disciples hearts 2,000 years ago (Acts 2). I would even say that remembering the resurrection is vital to our faith. Up to the time of the resurrection the disciples were weak in their faith. Many of those also who had previously believed in Him because of the signs and the miracles were easily swayed by the tide of prevailing public opinion. What sealed the deal for Israel was the resurrection. After the resurrection, the whole city of Jerusalem was filled with believers who had become quite a force and even a positive element in Israel until such a time when persecution started again under Herod Antipas (Acts 12) and the wicked High-Priest who executed James (Josephus). It is during that time that the Letter to the Hebrews was written encouraging thenJewish believers of Israel that even though things below looked bleak, they were supposed to comfort themselves with the reality which was from above. Still a good advice for today! This belief in the resurrection is the corner stone of faith. It is this belief that made innocent victimized Job say, I know that my redeemer lives (Job 19:25). It is that faith that brought Abraham to the mountain in the face of an insurmountable trial (Hebrews 11:17-19). Many people dare to challenge the authenticity of the apostolic texts, but their biggest vindication is the historically proven cruel martyrdom of each of the disciples who saw the resurrected Messiah. People can’t do that unless they have witnessed something real. Even today as the world gets darker, it is that same faith in the Resurrected One that needs to be our beacon of light, hope and faith in the face of the seeming irrationalities life seems to deal us. Telling the stories of the Resurrected One during the counting of the Omer, needs to ‘shine’ our faith that even though death may seem prevalent, He has come so that through resurrection, corruption and death puts on incorruptibility. Hebrews 11:16
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. A wealthy man who we will name Rav Shlomo was wondering about a certain Rabbi who by choice lived in a very austere manner. The conversation went somewhat like this,” Rabbi, how can you speak so of God’s bounty; you yourself seem to live like a pauper and have hardly anything in your house. Look at me, my house is beautiful and well furnished!”. “But Rav Shlomo”, said the Rabbi, “When you travel, do you carry all your furniture with you?”, “Of course not!” replied Shlomo, “I take a traveling bag; but when I am at home I live comfortably”. “Ah, that is it Shlomo, I am not home yet, I am not home!” When Jacob knew that his time had come, he told Joseph his son, “Deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place (Genesis 47:29-30)”. Jacob spoke of death using the term, ‘lie with my fathers’, a Hebrew expression we also find in Abraham and David (Genesis 25:8; 1 Kings 2:10). It is an early expression referring to life in the hereafter and the World to Come. It was very important for Abraham to bury Sarah in the Land. It was very important also for Jacob and Joseph to be buried in the place God had promised to His Children. This shows that the patriarchs did not look at death as the end of anything but rather as the continuation of life where God’s promises are fulfilled, but in a somewhat different dimension. Yeshua also confirmed (before His death and resurrection) that the patriarchs were alive (Matthew 22:32). You see, those gone before us are not dead, they are only resting, sleeping! At the end of his sojourn on the earth, Jacob yearned to return to his ancestral land. He didn’t even want his bones to remain in Egypt. This has to do with a belief in resurrection. The type of resurrection the patriarchs believed in was not just a spiritual one, but a very physical one with flesh and bones like Yeshua’s resurrection where He said, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have (Luke 24:39)”. That is why it was important to them to be buried in the Land. Even today devout Jews pay thousands of dollars to be buried in Jerusalem’s Old Cemetery. They say that those buried there will be first ones to see the returning Messiah! And what can we learn from that? Have we settled down in this world, in this dimension, in this absurd, temporal reality? Do we live for what we can get today in this world? Or do we use this life to prepare towards the more substantial and eternal reality of the world to Come? Do we feel ‘home’ here, or do we yearn with Jacob and the patriarchs, “Carry me out of Egypt (Hebrews 11:10; 14-16)?” Prisoner in this dimension of time and flesh, like the homing pigeon the soul of the true Child of God constantly yearns to be reunited with the spiritual roots that gave it birth. This is the meaning of the Hebrew word ‘Dror’: ‘Freedom’; freedom to go home! May we all at the opportune time be found with our fathers in our ancestral home, in the eternal dimension of the World to Come! Hebrews 11:19
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. When Abraham and Isaac neared Mount Moriah, the patriarch told the young men with him, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you (Genesis 22:5)." The Hebrew is a little more specific, it says, “we will go, and we will return”. Knowing that he was going to sacrifice Isaac on the Mount, why did Abraham say “we will return”? The other question to ask is, ‘why did he go’? When I teach this story I always ask my students, ‘If today God came to you and said, “Son, I want to teach a lesson to the universe and I want you to help me. All you need to do is take your son or your little brother or sister and sacrifice them”. Would you go? Would you even hear that type of language? Abraham had always been a willing instrument in God’s hands so it is fair to assume the he was in all good conscience going to literally sacrifice Isaac on the altar that day; but he did say to the young men, “We will return”. We get a little clue from the writer of the Book of Hebrews. Chapter eleven says, By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, … He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back (Hebrews 11:17-19). Because of Abraham’s willing intentions, the text tells us that Abraham ‘offered’ Isaac. The text also reveals that Abraham believed in resurrection, and that was the faith which made him obey God. This faith in resurrection was the seal of Abraham’s faith in God and wherein he and us become potential heirs to all the promised in the Book. But now, let’s return to our former scenario. What if today God came to you and said, “Son, I want to teach a lesson to the universe and I want you to help me. All you need to do is take your son or your little brother or sister and sacrifice them, but don’t worry, I will resurrect them right away”. Would you do it? Would you have that much desire to accomplish God’s purpose, so much love as to kill what is dearest to you, even if He had told you that He would give it back? Our messianic faith does lie in that one idea that Hashem allowed Yeshua to die on the cross, and that He resurrected Him. A problem also is that when Hashem allows us to be tested with the prospect of losing something dear, we usually rationalize the idea. We try to find a ‘comfortable’ compromise so we don’t really have to give ‘it’ up. Abraham probably had his trial, but he didn’t do that. Some people like to think that Abraham did it so we don’t have to, but this is not my experience. I for one believe that faith in God though Yeshua is sealed in our conscience through many trials and tests; you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Hebrews 12:4). Is yours? |
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