Footsteps of Messiah
The Passover Risk and Resurrection
The resurrection is usually associated with the Feast of Trumpets:
- Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! LORD, they walk in the light of Your face. (Ps 89:15)
אַשְׁרֵי הָעָם יוֹדְעֵי תְרוּעָה יְהוָה בְּֽאוֹר־פָּנֶיךָ יְהַלֵּכֽוּן
The specific sound of the shofar that is known by Israel is the TERUAH, or shouting sound of battle. If they have known spiritual battle before, experienced it before, then they will know it again.
It has been part of their training in the spiritual disciplines of their faith, a comforting rod and staff. To know something or someone in the Biblical context is to have an experiential, sacrificial relationship with it. To know the teruah of the shofar is a knowing acquired like Yeshua, in suffering for obedience:
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So too Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming a high priest, but it was He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE FATHERED YOU”; just as He also says in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.” In the days of His humanity, He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His devout behavior. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him, being designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. (He 5:5-10)
Learning the Word is one thing. Suffering to obey it is to know the Word. In his letter to Timothy (1 Ti 1:8-12), Paul urges Timothy to join him in his suffering for the Good News because as a result, Paul says he KNOWS the One whom he has believed.
To know the sound of the shofar is to know Yeshua in suffering for the Gospel preached at Sinai through the sound of the shofar: obey the Word. To know that sound is to go up toward Yeshua with purpose at the shout of the shofar because of a covenant and suffering to walk in it as a child of Abraham. Rahab and her family became children of Abraham, and they, too, went “up” at the sound of the shofar. She was willing to suffer for the sake of the covenant, jeopardizing her very life for her faith.
Let’s review an important detail in Gideon’s battle, one that gives clarity to “knowing.” Knowing is positive, intimacy, growing into unity, and bearing fruit. Knowing is ALSO punishment with thorns of judgment for being apathetic, waiting for the sure thing.
Provoking are Hoshea’s prophecies of Ephraim’s apostasy with familiar verses:
- Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; thorns and thistles will grow on their altars; then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!” (Ho 10:8)
- “Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, ‘FALL ON US,' AND TO THE HILLS, ‘COVER US.’” (Lk 23:30)
- ...and they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; (Re 6:16)
Briefly, the rabbinic commentary to Hoshea [The Twelve Prophets, Artscroll] points out Ephraim as the main culprit in the sin of the golden calves of the Northern Tribes. Jeroboam was from Ephraim, and he set up calves in Beth-El and Dan, changing the appointed times and places.
Strangely, it is these very two tribes missing from the list in Revelation Seven. Ephraim is replaced with ”Joseph,” and Dan omitted altogether (although the context says “every tribe” was there, don't worry!). This particular list in Revelation must be pointing to a mission with which the names of Ephraim and Dan cannot be affiliated, namely, preaching against idolatry and changing appointed times and the place of worship at those times. In this particular list, they are represented by their father and brothers.
While Hosea prophesied of Ephraim begging the mountains and hills to fall on them, the prophecy telescopes all the way to Revelation and worldwide judgment. Ephraim was a tribe of Israel, yet they were not above being disciplined by their Father who loved them very much. When they still refused to repent, they begged mountains to fall on them. Being apathetic about repentance is risky. The story of Gideon is an excellent example of the consequences of apathy during the time when the Anointed One of War goes forth.
The story of Gideon begins in Judges 6:1 when the Israelites fell into idolatry after Deborah’s forty-reign as judge. The Midianites consumed and destroyed everything the Israelites produced, livestock or crop, for seven years to starve them out. This may soon be driven home to our generation.
As the story progresses, Amalek and the people of the East join Midian in the Valley of Jezreel against Gideon. Gideon calls (yitka/tekia) the rest of Manasseh, Asher, Zevulun, and Naphtali to him with the shofar.
Gideon gradually discards all but 300 warriors, a similar judgment that Samson accomplished with 300 foxes tied together. As the Midianites had destroyed the food of the Israelites, so Samson destroyed the standing crops, stores, and olive groves of the Philistines. Gideon tells his men:
- “When I and all who are with me blow the shofar, then you also blow the shofars around the entire camp and say, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’” (Ju 7:18)
One of the spiritual functions of the shofar is the separation of the lukewarm from the totally committed to the battle. The preview was in the separation at the waters.
In the battle, it is the warriors who are “all in” who blow the shofar to defeat the Midianites and their allies.
The Kenites were from Jethro, who also was a Midianite, as well as Moses’ wife. In the rule of the previous judge, Deborah, the Kenite Yael killed Sisera. Because Yael and Heber’s dwelling was in the north (Jud 4:11) near Kadesh [holiness], it represented an additional degree of separation from their kin, who settled in the Judean desert when converted by Jethro (Judges 1:6).
It is thought that when Jethro departed Sinai, he did so to witness to his Midianite kin, some of whom joined him and later settled in Judea with Israel. Although other nations “heard” about Israel’s deliverance by YHVH, only Jethro was moved to join them (Ex 15:14). He and his Kenite kin were “all in” with Israel. The enemy Midianites may represent the nations who rejected the Torah and “dwelled among the Amalekites,” just as there were Midianites who did not believe Jethro.
Yael was “all in,” risking death for breaking the covenant with Jabin, the Canaanite king of Charoshet-goiim {“craftsman of the nations”} in order to act according to her ancestor’s earlier covenant at Sinai. She killed Sisera, commander of Canaanite army. Likewise, Gideon’s three hundred were “all in” against the Midianites, Amalek, and people of the East.
In the Gideon battle, in Judges Chapter 8, Gideon’s men are weary from chasing the defeated Midianites, and he requests bread and water from the towns of Sukkot and and Penuel. How had Gideon been shown these 300 would finish the job? They didn’t stick their faces in the water, but instead brought the water to their mouths with their hands. They were vigilant, watching for one another, and because they had self-discipline, they demonstrated that they could finish the job in spite of the hunger and thirst they would endure soon. All in.
The elders of Sukkot refuse Gideon’s request to give his little army bread and water. They feared that since the Midianites weren’t literally in Gideon’s palm, they might return. The elders of Penuel thought their strong tower would save them. They weren’t “all in” as Israelites. Instead, they stood back to see who wons, thinking it would safe. Gideon promised that when he returned victorious, he would come and discipline the men of Sukkot with thorns and the break down the tower of Penuel.
And then he did.
And then He will.
- Then he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and he disciplined (knew, yada) the men of Succoth with them. (Ju 8:16)
וַיִּקַּח אֶת־זִקְנֵי הָעִיר וְאֶת־קוֹצֵי הַמִּדְבָּר וְאֶת־הַֽבַּרְקֳנִים וַיֹּדַע בָּהֶם אֵת אַנְשֵׁי סֻכּֽוֹת
To discipline someone is also to “know” him. This helps to explain the following passage concerning Messiah Yeshua:
Too often, we stand back in our obedience because Yeshua hasn’t won the final battle. We’re afraid he won’t protect us from the enemy, or maybe we think we’ve found a safe spot where no one will notice our covenant identity. We might SAY we believe the King on the Throne, but our reluctance to be “all in” with the commandments says just the opposite. If we truly BELIEVE the King of Kings is on the Throne, then we will ACT like He’s the King on the Throne. Our delayed actions can lead to being left behind among the mountains and rocks when a great victorious shout of the teruah goes throughout the earth. If we know Yeshua, we will know the sound because we have known him through suffering for his Word. Battling and supporting our brothers and sisters who battle. Yael was both a supporter and warrior of the battle.
Lest we procrastinate in our faith, thinking our salvation, represented by Passover, is enough protection against the day of judgment, Yeshua cautions his disciples against such thinking. To go forth at Passover is actually the first resurrection step toward the Feast of Trumpets:
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Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the LORD, as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also.” (Ex 12:26-32)
So there is a preliminary “rising” at Passover, perhaps signaled by Yeshua’s resurrection, but perhaps also the harbinger of another Passover rising by Israel before another “rising” at the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh HaShanah. Shabbat Shuvah, is a bookend to Shabbat HaGadol*. Shabbat Shuvah occurs between Rosh HaShanah and Yom HaKippurim. Passover opens the door to the commandments at Shavuot. Shavuot provides us with the knowledge of the Word that brings us to full "perfect" repentance at Trumpets.
Gideon’s story takes place during the season of Passover, signaled by his baking matzah and the enemy’s dream of a round loaf of barley upending the enemy's tent. When the three hundred shofars blew and the three hundred earthen vessels shattered, there was a resurrection in Israel. The earthy body revealed its light to the enemy. The three hundred were men who were not ashamed of the Good News.
They continued the battle all the way to Sukkot, where Gideon “knew” the 77 elders of Sukkot with thorns. Seventy-seven in Hebrew gematria spells az, or goat. The goats were separated from the sheep in Israel. Soon, the Footsteps of Messiah will be be heard on the mountains. The goats will beg the mountains to fall on them because they stood aloof on the day of battle and suffering for the Word. We can either know Yeshua by sacrificing our lives daily for his Word, or we can be known by him with thorns and briers.
Yeshua told his disciples they COULD cast out demons, perform miracles, and prophesy. These, however, are not commandments. These things are necessary when disobedience reigns in the earth. What Yeshua did say we should do was keep the commandments. He knows those who obey him. He may not know those who simply want the personal rewards of admiration for the gifts of the Spirit.
Goats. Kosher, but not obedient.
The gifts should always work with obedience to the Word. It’s a risk to do otherwise and expect to share in the victory when Yeshua returns. It doesn’t mean the goats aren’t saved, but it may mean a longer path into the Kingdom. Shortcuts and the easy way always end up being long journeys the hard way when it concerns obedience to the King of Kings. Citizenship won’t save us from suffering with the wicked on “that day.”
Yeshua says KNOWING him is essential to entering the Kingdom of Heaven “on that day”. Rather than begging rocks and mountains to fall on us to hide us, we will be hidden in the Heavenly Tent ON a Rock:
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“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; LEAVE ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
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Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and its collapse was great.” When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. (Mt 7:21-28)
If you know to do it, do it. Go all in.
Next week, we’ll see how the “rising” at Passover is necessary to the “rising” at the Feast of Trumpets. You might be closer to the Kingdom than you think at Passover!
We plan to live stream at the regular time on YouTube on Shabbat. B'azrat HaShem, we'll see you at approximately 4:00 pm Eastern.
The Sukkot tour is full, but...
Scroll all the way down to read more about the waiting list with Blossoming Rose. Kisha and I are also planning a limited mobility tour in late November - early December. There are some intriguing new sites on the limited mobility itinerary, which should be available soon.
SHABBAT SHALOM!
