Footsteps of Messiah:
What We Hear
Exodus 35:1-38:20
1 Kings 7:40-7:50
Psalm 61
This week's Torah portion is Vaykhel, which means, “And Assembled.”
In last week's Torah portion Ki Tisa, which we called The Shabbat Elevator, it juxtaposed the observance of Shabbat with the Golden Calf and its alternate feast (Ex 31:12–32:6). Their relationship is adversarial, suggesting Shabbat brings Israel closer to Adonai, while forsaking the Shabbat leaves a breach in the wall for idolatry to enter in. From the text of Ki Tisa is the “V’Shamru,” a prayer said each Shabbat in the synagogue. V'shamru means, the Children of Israel will watch, shamar, guard the Shabbat as their obligation based on their exclusive relationship with the Creator.
V’SHAMRU
And the Children of Israel shall keep the Shabbat, observing it throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.
“Keeping” the Shabbat is to shomer [v’shamru], to guard and watch over it. The avodah, or service of Shabbat, is to zealously protect the Vineyard Israel from anything that breaks down its walls and spoils the young blossoms within. This week's Torah portion Vayekhel further clarifies the defense of Shabbat as the "assembling" of Israel. This assembly occurs weekly in synagogues and congregations, and it happens at the appointed times and their Sabbaths. Such assemblies are a result of the Spirit of Adonai, which He puts into the craftsmen to skillfuly prepare the Body of Messiah for His indwelling Presence. The result is an assembly delighting in the holy day.
Yeshua is possibly three out of the Four Craftsmen (see last week's newsletter for review). His own work is building the Body of Messiah:
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“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” (Mt 10:32–39)
Yeshua's words are echoed in Revelation:
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When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. (Re 6:3–4).
With this additional information, now review The Four Craftsmen:
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“Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen. I said, ‘What are these coming to do?’ And he said, ‘These are the horns which have scattered Judah so that no man lifts up his head; but these craftsmen have come to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it.’” (Zec 1:20–21)
A "craftsman" is a "chârâsh," from Strong's H2790; a fabricator or any material:—artificer, carpenter, craftsman, engraver, maker, mason, skillful, smith, worker.
Betzalel and Oholiav were charashim of the Tabernacle, preparing a place for the Presence of Adonai. This passage in Mark now has fuller context:
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Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. (Mk 6:1–3)
"Carpenter" is from the Greek 5045, a cognate to Hebrew charash: τέκτων tektōn; a craftsman, spec. a carpenter:—carpenter(1)
Yeshua is a craftsman, charash, likely a stonemason. He came to build up the walls of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Vineyard with precious stones. When they rejected him on Shabbat, it was a sign that “not one stone will be left upon another.” In his warning, he quotes from Micah:
All of them lie in wait for bloodshed; each of them hunts the other with a net.
Concerning evil, both hands do it well.
The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe, and a great man speaks the desire of his soul; so they weave it together.
The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge.
The day when you post your watchmen, your punishment will come.
Then their confusion will occur.
Do not trust in a neighbor; do not have confidence in a friend.
From her who lies in your bosom guard your lips.
For son treats father contemptuously, daughter rises up against her mother,
Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me. (Mic 7:2–7)
Oddly, in the day when the watchers are set on the walls, confusion rather than order sets in. Perhaps this is a sign of the sword. As more do and hear the Torah and the righteousness of Yeshua in it, they signal his Footsteps, a time the world will fall into deep confusion because false prophets have created false expectations of Divine intervention. The world must go from an absence of those to repair the breaches to calling up those who will.
The prophecy of “I am my Beloved’s, and He is mine” will be fulfilled when we call upon The Holy One, and He can then call upon us. It is not a helping relationship of equals, but of the help He designed mankind to give back to Him, a capability to help that He, Himself, already supplied. Although His own arm will perform the help, that arm Yeshua is calling us from the mountains with the Good News of the feasts and Sabbaths (Na 1:15). Return. Repair. Build. Guard. Help. Restore.
- And He saw that there was no one, and was amazed that there was not one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him. Is 59:16
- I looked, but there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath upheld Me. Is 63:5
Yeshua is the arm (long-term prophetic fulfillment) of YHVH, and it is HIS righteousness that is fulfilled in us. Only then are we able to respond and “help” the Father repair the walls with growing maturity. Like a parent allowing a child to help repair the drywall, to learn a grownup skill, Adonai teaches us how to repair the ancient walls.
A larger chunk of the Isaiah passage holds the key to re-establishing the “helpers” of the Beloved to repair His walls (Is 58:8-14):
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“Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will spring up quickly; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you offer yourself to the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday...
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And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach,the restorer of the streets in which to dwell. If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot from doing as you wish on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Ezekiel also prophesies of the lack of helpers: “...there was no one to build a fence and stand in the breach before Me, for the sake of the land, so that it might not be destroyed, but I did not find anyone.” (Ezek 22:30).
There have been great men and women like Noach, Elijah, and Esther, but for all their righteousness, there was never one who stood in the gap like Moses to intercede for a nation that did not deserve it. The “Arm” of YHVH is Yeshua, the prophet “like unto Moses,” the only capable “helper” to save and restore the Vineyard. He can do what even Moses could not, open the gate to the Garden. The birthpangs of Messiah open the gates to the repairers of the breach...if they hear his Footsteps.
It makes sense that in a time when righteousness is scarce, it will be restored. When the watchmen are ready for Yeshua, the righteous of Adonai to go before them and His glory to be their rear guard, then their ascent to the walls will be aided by great confusion among the nations.
The repairers of the breach in the walls of Jerusalem, the Vineyard of Israel, will begin with the greatest and first commandment, to have no other gods, for He is One. The first commandment is implied through Elohim’s resting on the finished, created earth’s first Sabbath. Micah's Footsteps prophecy offers this encouragement to the watchmen who may not understand why their return is accompanied by great confusion:
"But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me." (Mic 7:7)
The proclamation of mutual help, "I am my Beloved's, and He is mine" is a mutual promise. If the watchpersons hear Adonai, then He WILL hear them and respond with salvation.
RADAK (ibid to 7:7) says the intent of the above verse is: “Babylonia and Rome, do not rejoice over me, for though I have fallen into exile, I will yet rise.”
At least from a Jewish mindset, both Babylon and Rome (red beast) are addressed in Revelation. This explains the primacy of the number 7 in Revelation, restoring Shabbat, a proclamation of One Elohim throughout the Creation. Seven times in Revelation is the phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear...”
Do you hear Him? Assemble, and prepare to rise.
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We do plan to live stream more Footsteps on YouTube on Shabbat at 4:00 pm Eastern.
SHABBAT SHALOM!
