Hidden North
Another requirement for the olah offering is that it was to be slaughtered on the north (tzafunah) side of the altar (Le 1:11). This is the "hidden" side, for tzafon in Hebrew also means hidden. Could the location of Yeshua's crucifixion tree have been located north of the altar?
The slaughter of the purification offering for a priest also was the north side of the altar. In these types, both the resurrected person and the priesthood is symbolically slain north of the altar, or "hidden." This describes the location of the souls "under" the altar in Revelation, resting and hidden from the rest of their people on earth for "a little while."
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion in the far [sides] north,
The city of the great King.
God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold. (Ps 48:1-3)
If one wonders how large the Lower Garden or the Palace of Messiah within it is, it could only be speculation, for it is a spiritual realm already present, "at hand." Unlike Yeshua, believers today cannot yet move at will between the physical earth and the spiritual Kingdom. One either is alive on earth, or she "enters in" the Lower Garden. Some of the prophets, and perhaps Mary in the Garden briefly "entered in." Elijah and Enoch possibly can move at will between the two realms. The rest await the resurrection.
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Mezuzah of Abraham and Sarah's Grave at Machpelah
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If the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron is the location of the "entrance" to the Garden, and Mount Zion in Jerusalem is the north side of the altar, as well as north from Hebron, then even the literal territory spans quite a distance. It is over 17 miles from Jerusalem to Hebron. The town of Efrat
[1]
(adjacent to Bethlehem) is halfway between Hebron and Jerusalem, and Rachel is buried on the road to Efrat/Bethlehem.
Efrat also means "fruitfulness," denoting the Feast of Tabernacles, yet astoundingly, it also means "ash-heap"! The olah resurrection appears again! From the ash-heap of righteous souls come the resurrected bodies who cross the fruitful Burning River to the Throne. In fact, the flames from the olah offering are considered by mystics to be in the form of a lion, which intersects Micah's prophecy to Efrat, who is "little among Judah." Efrat may be little or "hidden," yet from her holocaust of the innocents emerged the Lion of Judah who is a consuming resurrection fire from the Throne.
There is another offering clue to the "called" in Leviticus, the description of the meal offering. A token portion of the offering is removed and burned on the altar, and then the remainder is baked into unleavened bread, or matzah. This offering was considered like the purification offering of the priests, and it was only for the priesthood to eat, an elect group.
Unleavened bread accompanied the Hebrews from Egypt, and each year it is eaten for seven days in remembrance of the Passover. As the Hebrews fled with their unleavened bread, however, they realized that they were pinned against the sea:
Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. (Ex 14:2, 9)
The place-name Baal-zephon is a hint, for it means "Lord of the North." While it likely alluded to an Egyptian god or was an honorary name for Pharaoh, there is a true Lord of the North, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He rescued the Israelites from Pharaoh, mastering every Egyptian god and Pharaoh himself. The Israelites camped in front of the Lord of the North. The Israelites cry out to Moses: "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?"
Well, yes, actually Moses did bring them to die in wilderness graves. A tribulation in Hebrew is a tight, narrow place where there is no room to turn around. It constricts one's movements. Even the word Egypt denotes tribulation. In Hebrew, Egypt is Mitzraim, or "from tribulations."
The Holy One of Israel brought the Hebrews from one tribulation, serving Pharaoh, to another, being trapped between Pharaoh's army behind and the Lord of the North before them. Facing one's worst fear is a type of death, such as Abraham offering his only son as an olah. Nevertheless, the olah is a type of grave for resurrection. It burns up everything inside, leaving only the skin behind!
The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. (Ex 14:19)
Both the angel of God and pillar of cloud moved from before the camp and went behind them to guard them during the night. So was Baal-zephon a name-place, or a characteristic of the angel of the God, who was first before them, then he moved to block Pharaoh's army? "Baal" in Hebrew doesn't just mean god or master, it means husband. The wordplay implies that the Hidden Husband both led and protected the Israelites through their death and resurrection.
While the Egyptians believe that the Israelites are hopelessly trapped, the Hidden Husband, or Lord of the North, takes the opportunity to send salvation by way of the hot, burning east wind that blew all night (Ex 14:21), hiding the miracle like the evening olah that burns until morning. In the morning is another olah, the crossing of the sea, a type of immersion to life. The waters part for the Hebrews, but the unseen hand sweeps them back over the Egyptians at daybreak.
In Jewish tradition, there is a crossing of rivers after death (Raphael, p. 309). First, the departed soul crosses the River of Light (Nahar Dinur[3]) to enter the Lower Garden. Once again, one crosses and immerses in the Burning River from the Lower to the Upper Garden after one is completely purified and taught in the Lower Garden. The hint is found in the Genesis Two list of the Rivers of Eden.[4] The very definition of a river (nahar) in Hebrew is something burning and shining.
Which river is the Burning River in which one immerses before ascending? An educated guess is the Perat River, called the Euphrates in the earthly realm. In Hebrew, perat means fruitful. It was the river that ran out of [Upper] Eden and watered the whole [Lower] Garden of Eden, feeding the other three rivers that circled the Garden. Or perhaps the initial immersion into the River of Light is the Pishon, or the outer river circling the Garden. Its natural counterpart is thought to be the Nile River, for it was beside its banks that the pishton, or the flax for the priestly linen garments, grew.
John has a vision of a New Jerusalem "coming down." One may assume to the natural earth, but what if he means from the Upper Garden to the Lower Garden like the River of Upper Eden that watered the whole Lower Garden?
And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Re 22:1)
The Perat, or fruitful river, connotes the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles), which included offerings of every kind of fruit and produce. It was Sukkot in which the Jews practiced the water-pouring ceremony accompanied by wine-pouring.
According to Jewish tradition, the four rivers of Eden are honey, wine, balsam, and milk.[5] Yeshua stood at the Feast of Sukkot water-pouring ceremony and proclaimed himself to be that River of eternal life. He connects the resting souls of the Lower Garden with the Upper Garden. When New Jerusalem descends in Revelation 22, John describes twelve types of trees that grow along the River, and their leaves heal the nations. This is consistent with rabbinic tradition.
There is no need for the physical light of the sun and moon because the light source is The Holy One. The descending upper city is one in which there is no more death and the "first things" are passed away. This suggests that the full descent of the righteous in the New Jerusalem occurs after the judgment of the "books," which occurs at the second resurrection.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.' (Re 21:2-4) "...Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, 'Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' (21:9)
The New Jerusalem's inauguration as the permanent residence of the righteous after the second resurrection is accompanied by the disposal of the wicked souls in the "lake that burns with fire," which is known as the second death:
He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (Re 21:7-8)
Can a soul die twice?
Apparently, yes. The unrepentant wicked would never survive the trip across the River of Light, for it is holy and for the sustenance of the holy ones. The "lake of fire" is an apt description of the abode of the wicked who will likely be bundled together similarly to the way the Body of Messiah is bundled together in the "bundle of the living."[6]
Can a soul resurrect twice?
Perhaps. If it is a matter of an even greater spiritual transformation to enter the gates of the Upper Garden when the books open at the second resurrection, maybe so. A clue is in the following verse (9):
Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
The "bride adorned for her husband," the wife of the Lamb, may be able to go from a Lower Garden, which according to the Apostle Paul, is already unspeakable to human understanding, to a Garden City home for the virtuous Wife of the Hidden Husband. The Throne of this city issues a fruitful river of Sukkot, yet Sukkot is the last feast of the Biblical year, and Passover is the first. To the understanding student, the chiasm is apparent. That which was hidden at Passover openly gives life at its bookend of Sukkot!
Both the angels in the empty tomb and the Gardener ask Mary, "Woman [Ishah], why are you weeping?" The maror of the Passover meal represents the bitter tears shed in Egypt, but may they also represent the bitter tears shed by Sarah for resurrection at the entrance to the Garden and the tears that will be forever wiped away at the second resurrection?
The importance of Yeshua calling Mary Ishah, or Woman, Wife, cannot be overstated. She was the first living human being to testify of Yeshua's resurrection, which is the behavior befitting those who have "the testimony of Yeshua and the commandments of God." She was the first living righteous human being to see the resurrection of the Hidden Husband. He would be hidden again when he ascended to the Father, but for a moment, Miriam stood in the Garden with the Tree of Life.
Every year a piece of matzah is wrapped in a linen napkin and hidden during the Passover; this is called the tzafun. Tzafun means locked away, hidden, buried, and out of reach. A rescue from tribulation is found in the hidden salvation (yeshuat) of Yeshua, who was wrapped in linen and hidden in a tomb at Passover. That burned token portion was resurrected from the purifying meal offering fire, and eating that unleavened bread of truth purifies a nation of hidden and buried priests preparing for resurrection today.
Jewish mystics also see the tzafun as representing the hidden life force of the soul. "If the soul is light, then that essence is the source of light."[7] As the soul awaits the first resurrection in the Lower Garden, that hidden life force is further purified, ever burnishing the light from within. At the resurrection, the Husband, no longer hidden, will unite all the righteous and shining hidden priests to meet in a glowing resurrection cloud. How much more will they shine at the second resurrection?
[1]
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Mi 5:2 KJV)
[3]
The earliest mention of the River of Fire is in the Book of Daniel where it is described as a Throne of "fiery flames, and wheels of burning fire" (Daniel 7:9). Daniel sees a nahar dinur: "A river of fire issued and came forth from before Him; with thousands upon thousands ministering unto Him, and ten thousand upon ten thousand standing before him."
[4]
See Creation Gospel Workbook One Volume 1 for a comprehensive study of the Rivers of Eden.
[7]
"Tzafun-Eat the Afikomen."
On a personal note, I met my husband at North Side Church 37 years ago, and we currently reside in a place known locally as Mount Zion. How strange is that? - Hollisa
