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Hebrews 9:13-14
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Unlike all the other offerings, which are performed by the altar of the Temple, the offering of the red heifer is to be done outside the Temple. This alludes to Yeshua who was also 'offered' outside the Temple. In the second half of the first century C.E., the Sadducee leadership executed James the Righteous, the brother of the Master and leader of the Israeli community of believers. This event initiated a severe persecution of the Israeli believers in the Rabbi from Nazareth. As the Master had prophesied, the disciples became outlawed in the Synagogues and in the Temple where they had until then worshipped side by side with other Jews (Luke 21:12; John 16:2). They also faced official excommunication from the rest of the Jewish community. At that time the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews' community in disarray desperately tries to encourage Yeshua's disciples. As they lost their rights to attendance in the Temple below along with representation by its earthly High Priest, the author encourages the Nazarenes to look to the Temple and High Priesthood which are above. He contrasts the offerings below, which serve to purify the flesh for attendance at the earthly Temple, with the offering of Yeshua whose blood could clean their conscience for attendance at the heavenly Temple: the throne of the Almighty, all through representation by a heavenly High Priesthood (Hebrews 9:13-14; 4:16). In this light, their loss seemed like a gain! Today Jewish Messianic believers still face excommunication from Jewish orthodoxy at large. Some very small but very vocal orthodox minority even actively works to deny present-day Jewish believers their emigration rights to the Land or to its social benefits. It is important to mention here that it is from such a circle that Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles came from. Abba does seem to have a sense of humour! In the same manner as the first century believers did, we the Jewish believers of today must also allow our eyes to, for a moment, forego the temporal realities below and embrace the eternal realities above. We must also, as the Master taught us, respond to evil with good (Isaiah 53:7; Romans 12:21). Because we are sure of our rights, commission, and destiny, we know that we can, and should 'stand' firm for who we are, even while turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39; Ephesians 6:13-14). We absolutely must refuse to ourselves the indulging temptation to answer evil with anger and hatred. Even so, as the red heifer offered outside the Temple, let us go to him (Yeshua) outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured (Hebrews 13:13). As offered first-borns of the congregation of the First-Born (Revelations 7:4; 14:4; Hebrews 12:23), let us follow Him and be offered as He was, excommunicated, outside the temple, and allow the Father to work through us His plan of universal redemption to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles (Romans 1:16).
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Romans 14:6
The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of Adonai Each religion distinguishes itself through its calendar of events and yearly feasts, but Abba is the One who has created and organized the celestial bodies to show us His calendar (Genesis 1:14), so we should leave it up to Him to teach us what the important times of the year are. In the Book of Leviticus the Almighty teaches us about the weekly Sabbath and also of seven heavenly appointments called in the Hebrew text ‘moadim’ (Leviticus 23). These are commanded to be observed perpetually throughout our generations wherever we are. One may argue that Paul is the one who taught us to abolish these feasts, but a reading of his lectures within their own contextual values shows us that he never did but actually practiced them. We must remember that in the days of Paul, ‘Christianity’ did not exist; that before their divorce from Jerusalem to pursue their adulterous relationship with Rome, believers were merely a sect of Judaism called: the Sect of the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5). Believers were actually found practicing the Levitical Festivals up to the fourth century C.E. when Constantine finally ruled them illegal in the Council of Nicaea in favor of Roman observances. Whereas Jews in the congregations were already familiar with God’s calendar of events, Paul had to teach them to the gentile believers as well as to encourage them to renounce their pagan holy days. In Corinthians Paul gives the congregation instructions on how to observe Passover (1 Corinthians 5:8), and all throughout Acts, Paul times his journeys according to the Levitical schedule. The Pauline texts used to abolish Levitical Holy Days for believers are texts divorced from their context. For example in Romans, Paul seems to teach that there are no days above others and that the distinction of days is a matter of personal opinion (Romans 14:5-6). We must remember that the Roman congregations were made up of both Jews and gentiles, and that we are only left to speculations as to the subject matter of the text. In any case though, Levitical ‘moadim’ are Holy Appointments and commandments given by the very Voice of God in Horeb, not issues subject to personal opinion. I would therefore safely assume that Paul cannot be talking about them in this text. The non-Jewish disciples in Colossi were given a hard time by their pagan counter-parts, and even from non-believing Jews for adopting the Biblical Festivals, but Paul encouraged the disciples to not let people bother them about it, because they are important times shadowing the reality of the Messiah who will soon return to rule and judge the earth (Colossians 2:17-18). Lastly, Paul seems to rebuke the Galatians congregation for following the Biblical Festivals, but a closer look at that text shows us that he was actually talking to gentile believers about their inclinations towards pagan observances (Galatians 4:8-17); the adjectives used in this text could hardly define God’s Appointed Days. Again, we must read the text within its proper context. People today have even forgotten which day is the Master’s Sabbath, and some even say that it can be observed on any day as long as we take one. Before He left, in His Endtime discourse, the Master instructed us to pray that our ‘flight be not … on the Sabbath Day’ (Matthew 24:20). The contextual Sabbath in this passage is God’s weekly Sabbath, but how can believers pray that prayer if they don’t even know what day it is? The Levitical Feasts are our yearly appointments with our God. They lead us to the final of all Appointments at the end of time, but someone who wants us to miss the Heavenly Rendez-Vous falsified the information. Let us now return to our first love and the truth if the Word; you don’t want to miss the ‘Appointment. Do you? |
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