The Torah Origins of the Communion Ritual and the Priesthood of All Believers

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Leviticus 7:6, Every male…may eat it. 

Why were the priests allowed to eat some of the offerings? What’s this all about? Let’s answer this question with a question. Why do believers in Yeshua eat the communion elements, and what do they represent? Is there a connection between the Levitical priests eating of the sacrifice and the saints eating the communion elements? Now let’s explore this idea. 

In Leviticus 6:26 and 29, only the male priests were allowed to eat of the sin offering. Likewise, YHVH commanded the male priests to eat the baked unleavened bread of the minchah offering (Lev 6:16, 18). Yeshua himself not only continued this Levitical practice, but expanded and elevated it to a higher level at his last supper. 

When Yeshua initiated communion among his disciples, what in essence was he saying? Simply this. His disciples were all now his holy or set-apart priests. This is the origination of the concept of the priesthood of all believers, or the royal priesthood as Peter terms it (1 Pet 2:9), or a kingdom of priests John calls it who will rule with King Yeshua in his millennial kingdom (Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). 

It was YHVH’s desire that the children of Israel would become such a priesthood even before he called the Levites to be his set-apart priests (Exod 19:6). However, they failed in this mission when they chose to worship the golden calf instead of YHVH (Exod 32). At that time, YHVH chose the faithful Levites to be his priests instead of the firstborn male leaders from all the tribes of Israel (Exod 32:26, 29; Num 3:11–13, 44). 

Moreover, Isaiah prophesied about the priesthood of all believers—a priesthood that would extend beyond the confines of the Aaronic priesthood (Isa 66:21 cp. Dan 7:18). This higher level priesthood would extend beyond the patriarchal male leaders, who were the original priests in Israel (Exod 19:22, 24), to include all the Israelites, both male and female (Exod 19:6), as well as Gentiles who have been grafted into Israel through Yeshua the Messiah (Gal 3:28–29; Eph 2:11–19; Rom 11:11–32), which Paul refers to as the Israel of Elohim (Gal 6:16).

Being a kingdom of priests who will teach the inhabitants of planet earth the ways of Elohim is the role and destiny of all the modern day saints of Elohim who have been washed of their sins (i.e. Torahlessness, 1 John 3:4) in the blood of Yeshua (Rev 1:6), for they will reign with Yeshua on this earth (Rev 5:10) for a thousand years as Elohim’s resurrected and glorified adopted sons and daughters (Rev 20:6; John 1:12 cp. Rom 8:14–15, 23; 9:4; 2 Cor 6:18; Gal 4:5–6; Eph 1:5; 1 Jhn 3:1–2; Rev 21:7). 

So saints of the YHVH Elohim, encourage yourself with these immutable promises from the Word of Elohim! Are you presently preparing yourselves now for auspicious and lofty role?

 

The Coronavirus, Covid-19 Plague—The Prophetic and Spiritual Implications

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Judgment Against Many of Our Modern Gods and Idols

With the current viral plague that is sweeping across the world, I see YHVH judging many of the gods and idols of the ungodly heathens, and even some of the gods or idols in the mainstream Christian church. I especially see this occurring in America where I live.

  • The god of medical science and pharmaceutical drugs. Many people feel that they can live their lives anyway they like regardless of the health, psychological, emotional, societal or spiritual consequences. Modern medical science seems to have a pill, treatment or vaccine for everything that will cure all our ills. Currently there are no medical cures for the coronavirus.
  • The god of money and economic security as reflected in paper assets such as the stock market. The golden calf or bull of the stock market has come down. All the gains the stock market has made over many years has been erased in a couple of weeks.
  • The god of food and gluttony. The closing of many restaurants is judgment against the god of food and gluttony resulting in unhealthy diet, sickness and obesity.
  • The god of alcoholism. Judgment against over-consumption of alcohol with closing of bars and liquor stores.
  • The god of sports and entertainment. Sporting events have been canceled including television sports. Movie theaters have also been closed. Entertainment is a major distraction that not keeps people away from Elohim, church, the Bible, family and from thinking about the deeper things of life, but anathematizes people form the deeper spiritual realities of life.
  • The god of education and learning. Most schools and universities have been shut indefinitely.
  • The god of self-beautification, self-indulgence and narcissism. Beauty salons, barber shuts, nail shops, massage parlors, day spas and fitness centers are all shut.
  • The god of trust in Big-Brother government to take care of us. Despite federal and local government’s best efforts to stop the virus, people are still getting sick and dying.
  • The god of full grocery store shelves to meet all of our needs when we need them day-by-day. This exposes our lack of preparation for hard times, and our vulnerability to shortages to food and other staples of life such as toilet paper and our trust in man and economy to meet all of our needs on demand.
  • The idol of money or mammon in the churches. Since giving will likely be down because many churches have had to cancel church services, church leaders will have to living by faith and start trusting Elohim for money instead of the usual church gimmicks to extract tithes and offerings from people.

An End Time Judgment from Elohim?

The Bible predicts that plagues and pestilence will come upon the earth in the end times just before the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah. This along with wars, famines, earthquakes and the persecution of the saints are just the beginning of sorrows (Matt 24:7; Rev 6:7). These are also precursors to the Great Tribulation and the great end times spiritual revival that is yet to come (Matt 24:21 cp. Rev 7:14).

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Blog Scripture Readings for 3-29 Through 4-4-20

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Parashat Tzav — Leviticus 6:1 (8)* – 8:36
Haftarah — Jeremiah 7:21 – 8:3; 9:22-23 | Malachi 3:4-24**
Prophets — Isaiah 19:1 – 26:21
Writings — Proverbs 22:1 – 28:28
Testimony — John 19:1 – 21:25; Acts 1:1 – 2:47

Our new annual Scripture Reading Schedule for 2019-2020 with daily readings is available to download and print. If you are still working through 2018-2019’s Scripture Reading Schedule, the link will still be available on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links”. If you are using a mobile device or tablet, the link may be below, meaning you’ll need to scroll down instead.

Most of this week’s blog discussion points will be on these passages. If you have general comments or questions on the weekly Scripture readings not addressed in a blog post, here’s a place for you to post those. Just use the “leave a reply” link or the “share your thoughts” box below.

The full “Read Through The Scriptures In A Year” schedule, broken down by each day, can be found on the right sidebar under “Helpful Links.” There are 4 sections of scripture to read each day: one each from the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and from the Testimony of Yeshua. Each week, the Torah and haftarah readings will follow the traditional one-year reading cycle.

** A different Haftarah is read when it is a special sabbath in Jewish tradition. This week it is Shabbat HaGadol on the traditional calendar and Malachi 3:4-24 is read. Otherwise, Jeremiah 7:21 – 8:3; 9:22-23 would be read.

* Verse numbers in parenthesis refer to the verse number in Christian English Bibles when they differ from Hebrew Bibles or the Tanakh.

Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 3/29 through 4/4/2020.

 

Why study and celebrate the biblical feasts?

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The Biblical feasts are a doorway into another world of the spiritual dimension, which is the realm of YHVH Elohim, and they all center around Yeshua the Messiah and his work to reconcile fallen humans to our Father in heaven.

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 hang. The message of redemption, sanctification, salvation, the atonement, glorification, end-times eschatology, the history of Israel, the entire gospel message, the covenants, the marriage of the Lamb of Elohim, the truth about the bride of Messiah, and Yeshua the Messiah are all prefigured within the glorious spiritual container of YHVH’s feasts contained in seven steps. Seven is the biblical number of divine perfection and completion, thus revealing to us that his plan of salvation is complete in that it will bring man back into an eternal and spiritual relationship with Elohim.

Quite assuredly, without a deep, walking-it-out comprehension of YHVH’s feasts, no matter how learned one may be in biblical knowledge, one will miss key elemental truths pertaining to YHVH’s plan of salvation. For example, there is no way to correctly or fully understand end-time events such as the second coming of Yeshua, the great tribulation, the wrath of Elohim, the resurrection of the righteous, the marriage of the Lamb, the Millennium, or the New Jerusalem unless one understands the feasts from a deep Hebraic perspective. Spiritual pride may not allow one to handle this fact, but it is the truth none the less! It’s illogical to think that one can throw out the foundation of a building and expect it to stand, or to eliminate the skeleton from a human body and expect a person to stand upright. Similarly, the feasts are both the foundation and the skeletal framework upon which is built or hangs the whole corpus of biblical truth.

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A Hand from Heaven…Extended to YOU!

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Leviticus 3:2, Without blemish. Heb. tamiym meaning “complete, whole, entire, sound, healthful, wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity.” Of this word, The TWOT states, [Tamiym r]efers to animals which are without blemish; also translates as such related adjectives as full, whole, upright, perfect. It represents the divine standard for man’s attainment.” Tamiyn occurs in the Tanakh 91 times, and the KJV translates it in a variety of ways: without blemish, perfect, upright, without spot, uprightly, whole, sincerely, complete, full. What can we learn form this and how does it apply to us?

First, here are some examples of how tamiym is used in the Tanakh:

  • Noah was a just, perfect or upright (tamiym) man (Gen 6:9).
  • YHVH admonished Abraham to walk perfectly or blamelessly (tamiym) before him (Gen 17:1).
  • The Passover lamb was to be without blemish (tamiym, Exod 12:5) as were all the other animals offered to YHVH as sacrifices (e.g. Exod 29:1; Lev 1:3, 10; 3:1, 6, 9; 4:3, 23, 28, etc.).
  • YHVH instructed the Israelites to be blameless (tamiym) before him by not being like the wicked, abominable and idolatrous nations around them (Deut 18:13).
  • Elohim is perfect (tamiym, Deut 32:4).
  • The people of Elohim are to fear him and to serve him in sincerity (tamiym) and truth and to put away the gods of Egypt (this world) and to serve Elohim (Josh 24:14).
  • David was blameless or upright (tamiym) before Elohim (2 Sam 22:24). Even thought David committed adultery, murder and egregiously disobeyed in some other areas, Elohim viewed him as tamiym because of he had repented of and turned away from his sins.
  • When a person is upright or blameless (tamiym) before Elohim, Elohim will be blameless (tamam meaning “to be complete, be sound, be unimpaired, be upright or to deal in integrity, to act uprightly) in response to that person (2 Sam 24:26).
  • The ways of Elohim are perfect (tamiym, 2 Sam 22:31).
  • Elohim makes the ways of the saint perfect (tamiym,2 Sam 22:33).
  • Those who walk uprightly (tamiym) will be allowed to dwell in the presence of Elohim (Ps 15:2).
  • The Torah-law of YHVH is perfect (tamiym, Ps 19:7).
  • YHVH blesses or withholds no good thing from the upright (tamiym, Ps 84:11 cp. Ps 119:1; Prov 2:21; 28:10, 18).
  • The righteous are to walk perfectly or blamelessly (tamiym) before Elohim (Ps 101:2, 6; 119:80; Prov 11:5).
  • YHVH delights in the blameless (tamiym) person (Prov 11:20).
  • The wicked abhor those who speak uprightly (tamiym, Amos 5:10).

From the scriptural usages of tamiym it is evident that this not only describes the sterling character of Almighty himself, but is the high bar, gold standard for how the saints of the saints of the Most High are to be and to act as well. To have a relationship with our Father and Creator in heaven, we must endeavor to become like him—to meet him on his terms and on the transcendent plateau on which he exists. Yes, Scripture is clear that Elohim reaches his hand down from heaven to lift lost humans from the pit of their sinful existence, but it is only to lift them up. All day long he is continually extending his hand of mercy and grace to those humans who will reach out to him in humility and want to  brought up to his place of perfection and wholeness. Scripture is also clear that there is no other way to bridge the vast and cavernous gap that exists between humans and their Creator except through Yeshua the Messiah who is the way to our Father in heaven, and who is the ladder that all must climb to meet our Maker in heaven on his terms (John 14:6; 1:51). YHVH Elohim is reaching out to some of you right now through these words that you are currently reading. What are you going to do about it?

More Discussion on Sin, Its Consequences and Yeshua’s Atoning Death on the Cross

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Are YOU Child of the Light?

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As we celebrate the new biblical year and prepare to celebrate YHVH’s biblical feasts starting with Passover in just under two weeks, I’m reminded of several important things that the children of light would be wise to reflect upon.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Phil 4:8)

Even though the world around us is like a full swirling toilet bowl about to be flushed in light of all the economic, political and terrorist woes not to mention the most recent imminent threat of plague and pestilence, it is time for the children of light to look up!

Yeshua said, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” (Luke 21:28)

As children of the light, we are neither to be ignorant of the times and season in which we are living (geo-politically) nor of YHVH’s appointed times and festival seasons as well. In fact, we’re to comfort ourselves and others with this truth!

You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.  But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. (1 Thess 5:1–11)

Why are YHVH’s feast so important to celebrate? To answer this question, let’s ask another question. Why are anniversaries, birthdays, national holidays and the like important to people and cultures worldwide from time immemorial? Because they commemorate important events in people’s lives. This being so, let’s ask another important questions: Why doesn’t the Christian church do the same by celebrating YHVH’s appointed times or biblical festivals? If anniversaries, birthdays and national holidays are so important to most people, then how much more important are YHVH’s seven biblical festivals for the following reasons:

  • They reveal the seven steps in YHVH’s plan of salvation.
  • They commemorate important events in the past, present and future of the lives of the people of Elohim.
  • They are commanded by the Creator for his saints to observe.
  • They were celebrated by the saints that went before us including Yeshua, the apostles and the saints of the early book of Acts church.
  • They will be celebrated again in the thousand year long millennial reign of King Yeshua the Messiah after his second coming.

So what unbiblical reasons (i.e. excuses) do you have for not celebrating YHVH’s seven biblical feasts, or are you ready to take the to take the bold next step in knowing Elohim and to walk as Yeshua walked?

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of Elohim is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He [Yeshua] walked. (1 John 2:3–6)

Onward and upward for the glory of YHVH Elohim!

Hoshana Rabbah has numerous FREE resources including calendars, study guides and other materials to help you to celebrate YHVH’s biblical feasts. We sell nothing (financial donations are appreciated though)!

Articles: https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/teaching.html#feast
Biblical calendars: https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/calendars.html#may20
Additional resources on how to celebrate the biblical feasts on your own or with a group: https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/moedim.html