Footsteps of Messiah:
The Greater Exodus Part One
The Footsteps of Messiah are directly linked to the feasts. More specifically, from among the seven moedim, it is the three “foot festivals,” also known as the chagim:
Pesach (Passover)
Shavuot
Sukkot
Nahum explains:
Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news,
who announces peace!
Celebrate [chag, verb] your feasts [chag, noun], O Judah; pay your vows.
For never again will the wicked one pass through you;
He is cut off completely. (Na 1:15)
The key to hearing the footsteps of Messiah is to know and celebrate the feasts of Adonai, which are in perfect synchronization with the footsteps of Messiah Yeshua’s return. Although we do not know the exact date of his return, we are commanded to rehearse these foot festivals so that we will be ready every year. Additionally, by rehearsing, the next generation is show the way to salvation in Messiah Yeshua and the path for growth and maturity. Let’s return to our working text, the Shir HaShirim, Song of Songs, focusing on the context of Chapter 4:1-5
- How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep which have come up from their washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost her young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is beautiful. Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David, built with layers of stones on which are hung a thousand shields, all the round shields of the warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that graze among the lilies.
In past newsletters, we did more in-depth study of these verses. In a nutshell, they describe the spiritual growth of Israel in the Exodus from Egypt. To recap:
• The glory of Adonai is the glory "hair" of Israel, who descend from Mt. Sinai after their meeting with Him.
• They came up from their two “washings,” the crossing of the Sea of Reeds and the washing to prepare for their meeting at Mt. Sinai.
• Israel’s agreement to “do and hear” the covenant is a scarlet thread, two lips acknowledging their redemption.
• The pomegranates are the commandments.
• The neck is the increase in spiritual stature.
• The shields are the “perfect” and symbolic 1,000 generations promised to Abraham and Sarah.
• The two breasts are the twin tablets of the commandments, Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Elazar.
Let's return to "your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead."
Previously, we considered an explanation of this flock as referring to the sons of Israel crossing from the territory of Laban into Israel. Although Laban pursued, he was prevented from harming the flock, “not one of them has lost her young.” Laban and Jacob made a pile of rocks [galeed] to commemorate their covenant of no harm, a “mound of testimony.” (Ge 31:47-48) After the covenant at the mound of testimony, Jacob was about to cross the Jordan to return to the Land of Promise. This is the seed prophecy for Israel later entering into covenant at another mound of testimony, Mt. Sinai, and then crossing the Jordan to the Land of Promise.
This Jordan [Yarden] crossing is mentioned in all three components of the TANAKH. Tanakh is an acronym of:
Torah
Neviim Prophets
Ketuvim writings
In the first mention of a miraculous water crossing in the Torah, the literal flocks of goats and sheep followed Jacob, creating a “pairing” with the sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes. In Genesis 32:11, Jacob refers to the importance of the crossing:
“For with my staff I crossed this Jordan.”
The Midrash Rabbah explains, “He placed his staff in the waters of the Jordan River, and God miraculously parted the waters for him.” 4§6
Later, Jacob’s descendants will experience the same miracle following a shepherd of their generation.
In the Prophets, Joshua reminds the Tribes of Israel of their forefather Jacob’s [Israel’s] prophetic crossing to encourage them, using heaps of stones to illustrate:
-
Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. He said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall inform your children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.” (Jo 4:19-24)
Joshua reminds Israel of their forefather Israel's testimony of crossing the Jordan with his staff and its miraculous parting. If Jacob (Israel) crossed at the same feast time, he crossed in the first month. The Jordan in spring is gushing from winter rainwater, which makes the miracle all the more notable. This parting and pairing of the water crossings is commemorated each year in the Passover Seder with the recitation of the Great Hallel. Psalm 114 (Writings) is part of the Great Hallel recited at the conclusion of the Pesach seder:
1When Israel went forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became His sanctuary, Israel, His dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills, like lambs.
5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob,
8 Who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of water.
The point is rehearsal. The second Jordan crossing occurs during the Pesach week, just as the crossing of the Reed Sea occurred during Pesach week forty years previous. Prophecy recycles because that is its structure, the structure of the universe.
Joshua tells the Israelites to pass on the Jordan crossing to their children just as Moses told them to pass on the Passover to their children. By using Moses’ language, Joshua assumes the leadership of his new generation of prophecy with Elazar the High Priest. They are now the “two breasts” of our Shir.
This is the importance of rehearsing and passing along the feasts in every generation as though the great miracles happened to us personally. Because prophecy transcends time, we were there. We are there. We will be there. We taste something of the Divine nature of the Sacred name when we walk in the footsteps of Messiah, who will one day part the seas of the peoples to return his faithful ones to their Land of Promise. The question is, are we walking out our own generation of these prophecies? May it be so!
In Part Two, we'll look more closely at another word for the feasts to learn even more about the importance of ear tuning to the Footsteps by keeping the feasts.
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Shabbat Shalom!
