This video explains how the ceremonies Elohim ordered the ancient Israelites to do on Firstfruits (or Wavesheaf) Day prophetically pictured the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah some 1500 years before that event occurred, thus proving both the divine origination of the Bible and the divine mission of Yeshua.
A free study guide is available at http://hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/firstfruits.pdf.
In this video, learn the heart and spirit behind the biblical dietary laws. This issue involves a whole lot more than just health—it’s about holiness. Following the biblical dietary laws help…
Parashat Tazria-Metzora — Leviticus 12:1 – 15:33
Haftarah — 2 Kings 7:3-20
Prophets — Isaiah 62:1 – 66:24; Jeremiah 1:1 – 3:25
Writings — Job 2:1 – 8:22
Testimony — Acts 16:1 – 19:41
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 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.
Weekly Blog Scripture Readings for 4/7 through 4/13/13.
We are instructed in Vayikra/Leviticus 23:15-16: “You shall count for yourselves – from the morrow after the Shabbat, from the day when you bring the Omer of the waving – seven Shabbatot [weeks], they shall be complete. Until the morrow after the seventh Shabbat you shall count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to YHVH.”
This is the 2nd week of the counting of 7 weeks.
What does it mean to become a “son of God (Elohim)? Please note the following biblical excerpts:
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Rom 8:15)
Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Rom 8:23)
Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises… (Rom 8:23)
To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Gal 4:5)
Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will… (Eph 1:5)
Who me???
The word adoption is the Greek word huiothesia meaning “adoption, adoption as sons; that relationship which God was pleased to establish between himself and the Israelites in preference to all other nations; the nature and condition of the true disciples in Christ, who by receiving the Spirit of God into their souls become sons of God; the blessed state looked for in the future life after the visible return of Christ from heaven” (from the Online Bible).
The Bible must be our ultimate guide as to what we believe, teach and practice. The Hebrew word Elohim is a plural noun referring to the “Godhead” (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). At the same time, we read in John 1:12 that those who have received Yeshua are given the right, authority, or power to become the children of Elohim. This same thought is also stated in Rom 8:14–15; 9:4; 2 Cor 6:18; Gal 4:5–6; Eph 1:5; 1 John 3:1–2 and Rev 21:7. The idea that men would become children of Elohim (part of the spiritual family of Elohim) seems to have been broadly accepted by the apostles.
Just because the Protestant church doesn’t generally teach the biblical fact that redeemed men will become part of the family of Elohim doesn’t not make it a fact. And similarly, just because some cults teach a perverted twist of this biblical truth doesn’t mean we should reject what the Bible teaches about it.
Interestingly, many of the Eastern Orthodox churches (the counterpart of the Roman Catholic Church in the eastern world) have taught the concept that man will become like God in their idea of the theosis. For educational and enlightenment purposes, may I suggest that the reader look up this term online.
What is to be our spiritual destiny or inheritance after we receive our glorified bodies at the resurrection? To only be glorified angelic beings? The Bible says that man will be above the angels (1 Cor 6:3). What’s above the angels in spiritual rank? That’s right, Elohim!
I leave you with this passage from John:
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of Elohim! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of Elohim; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:1–2)
This being said, what does this scripture mean?
I said, “You are gods [Elohim], And all of you are children of the Most High. (Ps 82:6)
What is the heart and spirit behind the biblical dietary laws? I will, in part, attempt to answer this question the following brief teaching.
The Genesis creation account records that YHVH Elohim made man in his own image (Gen 1:26). As such, the first humans, Adam and Eve, had spiritual communion with their Creator. Though man fell quickly to the temptation to sin, which separated him from a sinless, set-apart and righteous Creator, YHVH has desired to redeem man from the power of sin to be set-apart (holy or in Heb. kadosh) as he is set-apart (e.g. Lev 11:44).
Israel was redeemed from YHVH’s judgment against sin when they sacrificed the lamb on Passover and painted the blood on the door posts of their homes. YHVH then immersed Israel in the Red Sea (a picture of baptism for the remission of sins) and led them to the foot of Mount Sinai. YHVH revealed his Torah-truth (his instructions, teachings and precepts in righteousness) to the nation of Israel from Mount Sinai so that they could become a set-apart (kadosh) kingdom of priests (Exod. 19:6). He was showing them the pathway of righteousness so that after having been redeemed by the blood of the lamb—a direct prophetic picture pointing to Yeshua the Lamb of YHVH slain from the foundation of the world—they could have fellowship with him by avoiding sinning by walking in the straight and narrow path of righteousness.
Part of the walking in a loving relationship with a righteous and totally set-apart (kadosh) YHVH involves keeping his commandments as Yeshua said in John 14:15. To know and to love YHVH is to obey his commandments (1 John 2:3–6). Those who love him and back up their belief in him with the actions of obedience (faith without works is dead, Jas 2:14–26) are better off than the demons who believe in Elohim only, but do not back up their belief with obedience to YHVH’s righteous commands. Those who love and obey YHVH are called set-apart ones or saints. Scripture defines saints as those who keep (i.e., observe or do) the Torah commands of YHVH and who also have the testimony of faith of Yeshua, the Messiah, Savior and Redeemer of mankind (Rev 12:17 and 14:12). Those who obey (hear and do) YHVH’s Torah commands will be called the greatest in the kingdom of Elohim while those who disregard the Torah and its commands will be called the least—so says Yeshua in Matthew 5:19!
Keeping YHVH’s dietary laws as outlined in the Torah is a foundational aspect of living a righteous and set-apart lifestyle. If one expects to be a member of the king-priest class in YHVH-Yeshua’s future kingdom, one must begin preparing for this role by keeping YHVH’s Torah in spirit and in truth (as Yeshua taught us in the Sermon on the Mount). Continue reading
The Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering or First Fruits Day
In Hebrew roots circles, a day has gained prominence for celebrating the resurrection of Yeshua. It is called by many, the Feast of First Fruits or simply First Fruits. In several books published by Messianic or Hebrew roots teachers, this day has been elevated to the status as one of the “feasts” of YHVH on a par with Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. In creating a special designation for this day—one, as we shall see later, that Scripture does not give it—most of these teachers curiously omit the last of YHVH’s seven “feasts” or miqra-ee kodesh (commanded assemblies); namely, The Eighth Day or Shemini Atzeret. This festival is a Sabbath and immediately falls after the Feast of Tabernacles. It has important spiritual significance and represents the formation of the New Heaven and New Earth and the descent of the New Jerusalem after the end of the 1000-year long Millennium on earth. It literally represents heaven-on-earth for eternity. It is, therefore, a shame to omit this most important festival of YHVH!
A field of barley grain in the land of Israel.
The Nature of the Omer Offering/Service
Does the omer offering on “Wave Sheaf Sunday” prophetically point to and foretell the death and/or resurrection of Yeshua, and if so, how? First, let us look at the scriptural passages that speak of this day.
Leviticus 23:10–17, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits [reshiyth] of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before YHVH, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto YHVH. And the grain offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto YHVH for a sweet savor: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that you have brought an offering unto your Elohim: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf [omer] of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto YHVH. You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the first fruits [bikkurim] unto YHVH.
Leviticus 23:10b–14a, … you are to bring the premier sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He is to elevate the sheaf before the presence of YHVH, for acceptance for you; on the morrrow after the Sabbath the priest is to elevate it. You are to perform a sacrifice on the day of your elevating the sheaf: a sheep, wholly-sound, in its (first) year, as an offering-up to YHVH, and its grain-gift: two tenth-measures of flour mixed with oil, a fire-offering to YHVH, a soothing savour; and its poured-offering of wine: a fourth of a hin. Now bread, parched-grain or groats, you are not to eat, until that same day, until you have brought the near-offering of our Elohim… (The Shocken Bible)
Leviticus 2:12–16, As for the offering of the first fruits, you shall offer them to YHVH, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. And if you offer a meal offering of thy first fruits [bikkurim] unto YHVH, you shall offer for the meal offering of thy first fruits [bikkurim] green ears [abib, H24, or green in the ears barley] of corn [qalah; H7033, roasted dried, burned, parched grain] dried by the fire, even corn beaten [geres; H1643, crushed grain or groats] out of full ears. And you shall put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto YHVH.
The Order of Events Associated With the Waving of the Omer
Now that we have the scriptural passages before us pertaining to the First Fruits Day, let’s list in chronological order the events and ceremonies that occurred on this day involving both the Israelite farmer and the priest.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2010/03/127864/#khusihZ9x6FE291k.99
