Category Archives: Feasts

Why Celebrate the Passover?

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Isn’t your life already busy enough? Who has time for a six-hour Passover Seder commemorating something that happened thousands of years ago? What could this possibly have to do with my life here and now, you may ask? How can a 3500-year-old Biblical ritual in any way relate to those living in the age of the laser, satellites, the worldwide web and computers? Well, let’s see!

The Preacher said in Ecclesiastes 3:15, “That which is has been already and that which will be has already been.…” Life is full of paradoxes. Do advancements in technology, science, economics, medicine, religion, and world government really promise to give men the rest for their weary souls for which they long?

How about a different approach to the questions and problems facing modern man? Is it possible to go forward by going backwards? This is a thesis that the ancient prophet Yermeyahu (Jeremiah) proffered to those who had ears to hear. He said, “Thus says YHVH, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it’” (Jer 6:16). What were those ancient paths to which this white-haired Jewish prophet referred? This question is answered three verses later: “Because they have not listened to My words, and as for My Torah, they have rejected it also” (verse 19). YHVH through his prophets has been showing men the way of rest for their souls for thousands of years, yet men consistently refuse to listen. They always have a better way, so it seems!

The festival of Passover is one of the most ancient paths to be found in all of the Scriptures. In it are contained clues that will help the partakers of it to understand the past, present and the future. 

A God-hater, Karl Marx, the father of modern communism, said that religion is the opiate of the masses. Yes, this can be said of dead, truthless and spiritless religion. But how about that religion which gives definition, purpose, meaning, hope and destiny to a man’s life? How could anything that comes directly from the Loving Father who created you and me in his own image be detrimental to us?

It has been said that the religion of the Bible tells a man where he has come from, where he is at and where he is going. Could it not be said that a man who knows the answers to these questions possesses true wisdom and wealth, and has indeed found rest for his troubled soul?

One of the most important scriptures in the Jewish faith is the famous shema passage of Deuteronomy 6:4–9. This passage, which is like a “pledge of allegiance” for the Jews, starts out by saying, “Hear [shema], O Israel …” The word shema literally means “to hear and to do.” Later, in verse five, the shema continues, “And you shall love YHVH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.” Loving our Heavenly Creator is not just a mind-thing, but also an action and a doing thing. It is something we act out and participate in. This is the Hebrew way … the ancient paths! As a path is for the purpose of walking down, even so, Passover is meant to be celebrated. This is how YHVH’s people showed their love and devotion to him. Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, reiterated this when he said, “If you love me, keep my commandments [or Torah mitzvot]” (John 14:15). 

This is what the Passover Seder is all about. We, as humans, learn by doing. We learn obedience by obeying. We learn to love by loving. We learn about heavenly and spiritual mysteries by walking out the types and shadows found in Scripture (of which Passover is but one) that point to the heavenly and spiritual domain or dimension of YHVH himself. The French have a saying: L’appétit vient en mangeant. Translated this means: Appetite comes while eating. Or we could say that the more one eats (delicious food) the more one wants. David said in Continue reading →

 

Why Study About and Celebrate YHVH’s Biblical Feasts?

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It’s Time to Take Off the Blindfold!

The biblical truths presented below you have NOT heard in your Sunday churches. If you had, you would have been observing or celebrating YHVH Elohim’s biblical feasts in those churches! Yet these truths have been in your Bible all along. The problem is that most people have been blinded to them, and until YHVH opens their eyes and they express willingness to hear and obey YHVH’s truth, they will remain spiritually blind!

An Introduction to the Biblical Feasts

If you had to sum up the entire message of the Bible in one word what would it be? Probably words such as love, hope, salvation, eternal life or heaven are coming to your mind. But I challenge you to find a better word than the following: r-e-c-o-n-c-i-l-i-a-t-i-o-n. The dictionary defines reconciliation as “to restore to friendship or harmony, to settle or resolve a quarrel, to make consistent or congruous.”

When the first humans chose to listen to the lies of the serpent and to rebel against YHVH by giving in to sin at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at the very beginning, our first parents chose the path of separation from their Heavenly Father. Sin causes man to be separated from our totally holy, righteous, sinless and loving Creator.

Since that time YHVH has been endeavoring to reconcile man to himself. He has laid out the criteria for this to occur—for man to once again have a loving and intimate relationship with his Heavenly Father as did Adam and Eve before they sinned.

The seven biblical feasts of YHVH (please note, the Bible calls them YHVH’s feasts, not men’s feasts, Lev 23:2, 4; Exod 31:13) prophetically represent the steps man must take to be reconciled to his Heavenly Father. They are the complete plan of salvation or redemption rolled up into an easy-to-understand ­seven-step plan. Though a child can understand these steps, the truths contained therein can, at the same time, be expanded and unfolded until one literally has rolled out before oneself the entire message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation—a message that to the human comprehension is staggering, deep and rich beyond understanding. The biblical feasts are literally the skeletal structure upon which the truths of the entire Bible Continue reading →

 

When do we celebrate the Passover?

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Passover occurs on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight (Lev 23:5; Num 9:3, 5, 11). Twilight is the Hebrew word erev meaning “evening, night, sunset” according to all the main Hebrew lexicons. The root word for erev is arab meaning “to become evening, grow dark or to spend the evening, do at evening.”

The phrase “at twilight” can also mean “between the evenings” (see the marginal notes for Exod 12:6 in the KJV). The addition of the word at (Heb. beyn) adds an additional meaning to the word erev as we shall discuss further below. 

Which twilight time did the Israelites keep Passover? The twilight of the thirteenth day going into the fourteenth day, or the twilight of the fourteenth day going into the fifteenth day? Let’s examine the Scriptures for the answer.

YHVH commanded the Israelites to kill the Passover lamb at twilight (Exod 12:6) and then to put its blood on their doorposts (Exod 12:7). After that, they were to roast and eat the lamb in that same evening (Exod 12:8). The word evening in Hebrew is layil meaning “night as opposed to day.” They were to eat the lamb that evening “with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand…in haste” (Exod 12:11). This was the same night that Elohim struck all the firstborn of Egypt, but passed over all the houses of the Israelites that had blood on the doorposts (Exod 12:12–14).

One thing is certain. Passover occurs on the fourteenth day of the first month of the biblical Continue reading →

 

How to Prepare Yourself for Passover and YHVH’s Spring Feasts

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It’s time to get spiritually clean!

Repent of Sin and Get Under the Lamb’s Blood. As the children of Israel applied the lamb’s blood to the door posts and lintels of their house, so we must apply the sin-cleansing and Satan-defeating blood of Yeshua afresh to our lives (i.e. to our thoughts as represented by the door lintel and and to our hands or actions as represented by the door posts). This occurs as we repent of our sins, and pray for and receive YHVH’s forgiveness. He will then cover our sins over or wash away our sins by Yeshua’s blood (1 John 1:9; Rev 1:5).

In Egypt at Passover time, YHVH judged all those who had failed to put the lamb’s blood on the door posts of their houses. In other words, they weren’t under the blood of the lamb, but were still under the penalty of sin, which is death (Ezek 18:4; Rom 6:23). Any unrepented of sin in our lives brings the curse of death on us. To the degree that one has sin in their life is the degree to which the spirit of death has a legal claim on us. Now is the time to repent of sin by confessing it and seeking Elohim’s forgiveness under the blood of Yeshua and then forsaking that sin through YHVH’s grace (1 John 1:9). 

Here are some things of which to repent. 

  • Pride. Do you always think that you’re right? Your opinion is what matters the most? Do you have a hard time with those who don’t see it your way, when you don’t get your way? Do you have a fit when people disagree with you? Do you criticize others and put others down (especially those who are closest to you)? Do you belittle, mock, scorn and ridicule others? Do you focus on other people’s faults? Do you have a hard time identifying any sins that you have committed? Are you proud of your humility? Are you proud of how Torah-observant you are (compared to others)? Are you overly defensive when someone corrects you or challenges your opinion? Do you blame others when things don’t go right instead of taking personal responsibility for your actions? Are you proud of (instead of grateful to YHVH for) your achievements in life? Do you constantly have to be talking about yourself? Is much of what you do, say and think focused on yourself? These are all signs of pride. Pride is self-idolization. Elohim hates pride and calls it an abomination (Prov 6:16–17).
  • Ungratefulness and selfishness. Are you ungrateful? Are you discontent about your place in life? Do you always want more? Are your material possessions and personal belongings really important to you? Do you have a hard time giving things away? This is a form of self-idolatry, pride and idolization of things.
  • The love of this world over love of YHVH and the things that matter to him. This is a form of idolatry. In this case, we’re concerned with what others think more than what Elohim thinks about things. Therefore, our thoughts and actions are geared at trying to please ourself and others instead of pleasing Elohim (Jas 4:4; 1 John 2:15).
  • Sins of the mouth include mean, selfish, unkind, angry, impatient, egotistical words and gossip. This is idolization of self. What matters most is what I have to say, how I feel, my opinions and I have the right to say what I want when I want. This is also pride.
  • The lack of the fear of Elohim. Are you more concerned with what others think than what YHVH Elohim thinks about something? Anything in our lives that we put ahead of Elohim is idolatry.

Ask yourself this: In everything that I do and say, am I advancing the kingdom of Elohim and bringing glory to Yeshua or am I doing the opposite? Am I being a river of life to all those around me, or am I dragging them downward by being a purveyor of negativity and darkness? Are my Continue reading →

 

Happy Biblical New Year 2019!

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Today is the first day of the biblical new year. Happy biblical new year or lashana tovah (in Hebrew) 2019!

Get ready!! YHVH Elohim’s spring biblical feasts are coming quickly… Passover/Pesach will be in 14 days and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread/ChagMatzot will be in 15 days. 

For the exact dates and a free calendar go HERE
or simply print this:

 

The 7 and 8 Steps in the Tabernacle as They Relate to Biblical Marriage and the Feasts

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The Tabernacle of Moses is a giant gospel tract that explains the entire Bible—YHVH’s plan of salvation from Genesis to Revelation—in a simple child-like way, so that our human pea brains will be able to understand that which is, in reality, way beyond our comprehension.

This post contains A LOT of info, so grab a cup of coffee (or two or three) and get the coffee “anointing” and sit down and learn some things about the Tabernacle of Moses that you’ve probably never heard anywhere else. I promise that you will be blessed (and I don’t make promises that I can’t keep). This is because YHVH gave me these revelations many years ago, so I give him all the glory and credit.

First, the Tabernacle is YHVH’s plan of salvation or redemption for humans. Here’s a quick outline of this. We won’t cover this part in great detail here, since we’ve gone over these things previously on this blog over the past few weeks. (Please review each of the furnishings in the tabernacle to see how they relate to the seven and eight steps in YHVH’s plan of salvation.)

The Bible Is the Story of Reconciliation Between Two Lovers—The Tabernacle Contains the Outline of that Love Story

Love and romance has captured the imagination of man since time immemorial. Today we see this fascination evidenced in music, movies, literature and numerous other ways including modern man’s obsession with sexuality and even, sadly, in rise of pornography and the societal acceptance of sexually perverse lifestyles.

The Creator of the universe, the Set Apart One of Israel, the Author of the Scriptures, is captivated by the concept of love and romance as well. He is the Creator of marriage and sex. In fact, his first command to man was to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth with humans (Gen 1:28). To accomplish this involves sexual relations in marriage. The writer of Hebrews declares that marriage is honorable and the marriage bed is not to be defiled (Heb 13:4). Much of the Bible is devoted to the subject of love and marriage. Love and marriage at a human level is merely a shadow of something much deeper: love and marriage at a spiritual level. John 3:16, the most popular verse in the Bible, talks about Elohim’s quintessential love for mankind and alludes to this higher spiritual level.

Most people understand that poetry and poetic prose is the language of love, yet few realize that much of the Scripture is poetry (or poetic prose) in Hebraic style. Much of this poetic style is lost in the translation from Hebrew into other languages like English. For example, all the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and most of the writings of the Hebrew prophets are written in a poetic style. Many of Continue reading →

 

Passover—When to Celebrate It and a Quick Overview of the Seder

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The exact timing of the Passover has sparked much controversy over the years among believers. In the early Christian church it was known as the “Quartadeciman Controversy.” Concerning this debate, which continued into the fourth century a.d. and was finally settled at the famous Council of Nicea in a.d. 325, church historian Philip Schaff in noted multi-volumed History of the Christian Church states, “Respecting the time of the Christian Passover … there was a difference of observance which created violent controversies in the ancient church [resulting in questioning] the genuineness of John’s Gospel” (vol. 2, p. 210). The Quartadeciman Controversy, although slightly different in nature to the subject of this present work, only serves to underscore the volatility of issues of dogma. With this in mind, let us not forget what Yeshua referred to as the “weightier matters of the law”: judgment, mercy and faith (Matt. 23:23). Now let’s begin our study of the timing of Passover.

First, there are some absolutes that Scripture gives regarding Passover:

  • Scripture states that Pesach/Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month (Lev. 23:5), and is called the month of Abib (Exod. 12:2,5–14; 13:4) of Elohim’s biblical calendar (Hag HaMatzot/Feast of Unleavened Bread starts on the fifteenth).
  • For Messiah Yeshua to be the literal fulfillment of the Passover Lamb he had to die at the same moment in time that the Passover lamb was slain.

When Is Passover and When Was the Passover Lamb Sacrificed in the Temple?

Exodus 12:6 says, 

And you shall keep it [the lamb] until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight [Heb. erev, marginal notes in KJV: between the two evenings].

According to ancient rabbinical sources, at the time of Yeshua, the term between the evenings or twilight had taken on a broader meaning than just twilight as in accordance with the literal meaning of the Hebrew word erev. For the Pharisees, it referred not just to the approximately 45-minute time period just before darkness that we in the west call twilight, to the time period from noon onward when the sun begins to decline from its Continue reading →