From: The First and Last  who was dead and has come to life

Good Works:  I know your  tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) , and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.* 

Commandments:  Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about t o cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days . Be faithful  until death , and I will give you the crown of life.** 

Exhortation:   He who has an ear, let him hear  what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death .

Pharaoh will say about the Children of Israel, 'They are confined in the land, the Wilderness has locked them in.' (Ex 14:3)

Pithom's  name is changed to Pi- Hahirot , from "closed mouth" to "the mouth of freedom." The Egyptians believed that the god Baal- tzaphon  would not allow slaves to escape, that the borders were sealed.  It was Pharaoh, however, who'd been locked into the Abyss.  The Hebrews were resurrected while Pharaoh died a "second death" from the living death of the plagues. He went from riches to poverty; the Hebrews went from tribulation and poverty to riches.  Hmmm.  

Next stop, Pergamum, the third assembly:

Exhortation:  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, to him I will give  some  of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it .'

The Children of Israel arrived at the Wilderness of Sin...the entire assembly complained...YHVH said to Moses, 'I shall rain down for you food from heaven; let the people go out and pick each day's matter  on its day, so that I may test him, whether he will follow my Torah or not .  And it shall be that on the sixth day when they prepare what they will bring, and it will be double what they pick every day...(Ex 16:1-5)

So water was the first test, and manna was the second test.   Significantly, the people grumbled and didn't know what the Bread of Heaven was.  There are additional details given about the manna that would lead one to believe that people picked extra manna on Friday morning, but they didn't!  The passage above explains what happened.  

It wasn't just the giving of the Bread from Heaven that was miraculous, it was how that Bread multiplied.  The miracle was that it doubled "when they prepare."  They didn't pick double, it BECAME double, a hidden miracle (Rashi).  It was like the daily hidden manna that would appear even if someone didn't pick enough that morning.  Everyone still ate manna to satiety.  Unlike Sheol, or death, that never says, "Enough!" (Pr 30:16), the Israelites ate to satisfaction.

It was a test.  If they believed the commandment, then Shabbat would confirm their belief.  The Hebrews who left Egypt were a generation of slaves to hard labor.  What could they not stop doing?  They were addicted to work, and it was reflected in their excessive gathering, especially gathering on Shabbat...but THAT was the test!  

Perhaps the problem wasn't that they were afraid they'd go hungry (they had sheep and goats in addition to manna), but they'd become  addicted to activity .  Their souls craved the "wealth" of constant stimulation even though their bodies were no longer slaves to it.  The wilderness was a forty-year detox plan for enslaved minds in free bodies.   At what point does wealth and appetite become death instead of life-sustaining?  All things considered, forty years to detox from slavery to working on Shabbat seems like a fast-track plan.  

Shabbat is a test.  The last Shabbat of Pesach was a test for the Egyptians.  Would Pharaoh and his horseman acknowledge they were "dead men" and release their "wealth" of slaves, human souls?   For the Israelites, Shabbat is a test.  If they pass it, they will find the "hidden manna."  

"The root word שיר SHIR in Hebrew is actually something round, circular. 

 It alludes to the repetitive nature of a song, closing the motive circles. 

Same as שרשרת - SHARSHERET - chain

 

The same is with dance in Hebrew - מחול - MAKHOL 

It alludes to the circular movements when dancing.  

 

And the special bread used for Shabbat and holidays is חלה - CHALLAH  also has that root חל because of the circular structure of this bread." ( Ulpan-Or Newsletter, "The Tenth Song")  Typical Shabbat challot are braided into a "chain," and high holiday loaves may be braided into a circle.  They are topped with sesame or poppy seeds to simulate the manna, the dew of Heaven encircling the Camp and distilling into spiritual bread.

 

The circle of the moedim is pictured in such lofty places as Genesis Two, which describes how the Rivers of Eden savav, or circled, the Garden and the Tree of Life inside it.  Each River symbolized two feasts of the moedim (see CGWKBK 5 Vol 1), and the Rivers were circles within circles.  Sometimes Hebraic dance forms circles within circles as more people join the dance:

The potential within the manna is for Hebrews to recognize it for what it is. The people didn't recognize HIM.  " Man  hu ?" they asked, which may be translated as "He is manna."  Who is he?

Jhn  6:35 Jesus  said to them, "I am the bread of life;  he who comes to Me will not  hunger [because of the manna in the Wilderness of Sin],  and he who believes in Me will never  thirst [at Marah because of the Tree of Life] ."

Jhn  6:41 Therefore  the Jews were  grumbling  about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven ."

Jhn  6:48 I am the bread of life .

Jhn  6:51 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven;  if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever ; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh."

The miracle of the manna was Yeshua, the one who could feed a crowd of any size (Jn 6:4) when Passover was near if that crowd would let his Word fall upon them "like dew on thirsty grass" as it states in the Song of Moses.  In fact, Yeshua "tests" Philip:

This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. (Jn 6:6)

The manna fell encased in droplets of dew, and as Rashi comments on the grammar of the text, it was enclosed in a type of package from dew that had both descended from Heaven and ascended from the earth. Have you ever heard of a resurrection ba-manna split like that?  Yeshua descended as the Dew of Heaven, the Word of Adonai, and he conquered Death and ascended from the Abyss of the earth.

Let my teaching drop as the rain,

My speech distill as the  dew ,

As the droplets on the fresh grass

And as the showers on the herb. (From Song of Moses, Dt 2:32)

The hidden manna's miracle was a type of resurrection.  The Hebrews had seen Pharaoh hurled into the Abyss on the last day of Passover.  The Hebrews who grumbled about the bread had experienced salvation and deliverance, yet they did not believe.  

From the Rivers of Eden the prophecy was proclaimed, for the bdellium stone in the Garden was bdolach in Hebrew.  The manna was round like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdolach  (Nu 11:7).  The rabbis say that bdolach was like crystal, a prism, which would have given the territory inside the Rivers of Eden an appearance of a crystal sea.  Such would have been the appearance of the Wilderness around the Camp of Israel each morning when the sun rose, Yeshua surrounding Israel with morning songs of deliverance.

Do we grumble on or begrudge ceasing from labor on Shabbat?  Do we ignore the commandment: 

This is what the L ORD   meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the L ORD .  Bake  what you will  bake  and  boil  what you will  boil , and all that is left over  put aside to be kept until morning.  (Ex 16:23)

Why?  Concealed within that commandment is Yeshua, the point of the test.  If Yeshua is the whole reason you prepare for Shabbat, then what is the problem with expecting the hidden manna?  If you hoard more than you need, it stinks, rots, and turns to worms, a metaphor of death. Pharaoh wanted more than he needed, and his own obsession killed him. What are we so obsessed with that it can't be put to rest on Shabbat?

Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices ;  My  flesh also will dwell  securely .  For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay .  You will make known to me the path of  life; in  Your presence is fullness of  joy; in  Your right hand there are pleasures forever . (Ps 16:9-11)

Mary witnessed the "hidden manna" as it dawned toward Shabbat, the manna hidden in the Ark of Testimony.  Indiana Jones never saw it.  There was no decay, only resurrection dwelling securely in flesh.  Unless it is to save life, whatever we believe that we are working or cooking for on Shabbat, it can only turn to worms.  Gather.  Prepare.  Rest.  Working and cooking on Shabbat is a grumble against Yeshua.  He cannot be fully known as the spiritual Bread as long as we are rushing headlong around our own prisons of activity.

Rest is the test of Shabbat.

Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal. (Jn 6:27)

Two steps tested Israel, people made of water and clay.  When they gathered, baked, boiled, and grumbled, they tested Him.  Are we still testing Him?

Water Test (bitter)

* "listen diligently" and "give ear" to the commandments

* Bitter, Egyptian water will be sweetened, or "healed"

Bread Test at Sin (clay, thorn)

* Gather the daily bread on its day; do not hoard "daily" bread, but pray for "daily bread," what you need, not excessive wealth

* Do not  gather on Shabbat 

The Tenth Song, the New Song of Resurrection and ultimate redemption will be sung, but will everyone hear it spontaneously, like Rashi says that the Torah prophesies? 

Those who keep Shabbat because of their belief, love, and hearing of Messiah Yeshua, the Word of God, the Hidden Manna, are kept continually before Adonai:

Then Moses said, "This is  what the LORD  has commanded, 'Let an omerful of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'"  Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar and put an omerful of manna in it, and place it before the L ORD  to be kept throughout your generations."  As the L ORD  commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the Testimony, to be kept.  The sons of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.   Now an omer is a tenth of an  ephah. (Ex 16:32-36)

There's a Tree of Life in your Wilderness.  Believe.

*"The synagogue of Satan" is a specific reference to the House of Shammai, which unlike the House of Hillel, rejected Gentile converts.  For the full context of the term, see Pharisee: Friend or Foe? available on Amazon.

**Refer to previous week's newsletter, "How Pharaoh Got a Black Eye" to see how the "crown of life" given by the Father is different from Pharaoh's crown, which held the serpent and the "Eye of Ra," a killing force.

Want to read about the connections of the seven feasts to the seven "churches" of Revelation?  Start with Creation Gospel Workbook One: the Creation Foundation.

Or you can attend The Creation Gospel foundational seminar: