Exodus 31:12-17
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” (Emphasis added)
Just as a roaring blast furnace purifies gold by burning out its impurities, so does God’s Sabbath separate repentant humans from their inherent tendency to indulge in idolatry. The Sabbath reveals and proclaims God’s unique omnipotent Nature, and the Perfect Eternal Thoroughness of His Covenant ways to the Sin-corrupted, condemned human race. He imparted to Israel the priestly commission to minister to Him, on behalf of the rest of the world. And He entrusted His awesome commandments to Israel that reveal and uphold His Perfect Standards of Righteousness.
Because He is utterly Perfect in His Nature and Being and in what He has done to provide for us, He gives this supreme Sabbath revelation in Genesis, and the subsequent commandment in Exodus, that require Israel to acknowledge His Nature and join Him in His Perfect Eternal Rest. And to make sure the world knows how serious He is about this, He imposes a death penalty on anyone who would dare to disobey. In other words, God’s ‘Blast Furnace of Perfection’ burns every bit of human nature’s lust for idolatry out of anyone who will hear and obey Him. Idolatry is the primeval rebellion that flows out of the sin of unbelief. And that is the sin to which this fallen world is so attached, addicted, and committed.
God warns the Israelites that if they violate their Sinai Covenant and fail to observe His commandments, the consequences will be disastrous. But we also know that all humans are burdened with fallen, Sin-corrupted, mortal flesh. Thus we’ve been horribly diminished and now it’s impossible for any of us to even begin to comply with these incredible demands at the level of Perfection that God’s nature requires. And so, sure enough, shortly after entering the Sinai Covenant with God, many Israelites grossly violated their blood-sealed promises to God and worshipped a golden calf! And many do similar things to this day! So remember that God is using Israel as a ‘looking glass’ by which the rest of the world can see itself. All sons of the first Adam, Jewish or not, are truly born dead, in trespasses and Sin.
So, how could Israel’s corporate act of idolatry and violation of God’s Sabbath Rest not condemn the entire nation to instant execution? Well, this is where that mysterious ‘Substitute Covering’ we learn about in Genesis comes in:
Jeremiah 31:27-32
“‘Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord. In those days they will not say again, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.”
The atonement cost for the terrible consequences of mankind’s Sin must be paid in full! But all of humanity is spiritually dead and bankrupt! So God is revealing what His beloved Son, His living Word, must undergo to make full Atonement on behalf of any humans who will believe and trust in Him. Since we are all dead in Sin, we have no other choice but to place all trust and reliance upon God’s Covering Word. Only He can afford the price it takes to atone for all of our corporate and individual Sin. Therefore we must all be covered and protected by His Perfect Finished Works of Creation and Redemption. And this is why God’s Blood Covenant Structure is so important. Everything had to be done through God’s appointed Covenant Representative – His Living Word who became flesh to represent us and to rejoin God to His beloved humans. It was through Yeshua, the Messiah, that God appeared among His people, to fulfill His requirements and bring into this time and space dimension, the redemptive marvels God had created and finished in Eternity past. And the seeds of the revelation of this awesome news are planted in God’s Torah.
Israel, God’s Appointed Priestly Nation
So exactly how can Israel, and the rest of the Sinful human race, be insulated FROM the Glory, Justice and Perfect Righteousness of God’s Perfect Nature? It’s simple! They will also be covered BY that very same Glory, Justice and Perfect Righteousness. God’s own living Word, has become one of us and has come forth to us, through His God-prepared ‘womb’, Israel. He will be the Insulation that Israel and the rest of the world so desperately needs! So our eternal wellbeing depends on how accurately we understand the creative, redemptive significance of God’s Plan for His Word, and His people…and how obediently we respond to His absolute Authority, and come under the Perfect Covering Protection of His Grace and Mercy. Everything was accomplished through Yeshua, through Israel, as He acts in the capacity of the Sacrificial Lamb of God on the Cross. And Israel, acting in her priestly role, was appointed by God to offer Him on that altar! God told Abraham to offer his son on the altar of sacrifice. But it was the nation of Israel that fulfilled this commission. Isaac was not the son Abraham was to offer. Yeshua, His descendant, was the one that was God’s appointed worthy Sacrifice. And so, Israel, God’s appointed priestly nation fulfilled the task God gave her. Israel actually gave birth to the Lamb of God made flesh. It was her task to offer Him back to God in the Ultimate Sacrifice! So, although she was operating in total ignorance, she actually performed and fulfilled her God-given priestly commission when the Eternal Lamb, the Messiah, was crucified and executed in our space and time dimension!
Exodus 19:6
“‘…and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” (Emphasis added.)
Beloved, grasp the awesome and terrible implications of Israel’s priestly commission! God’s Lamb, the Ultimate Eternal Sacrifice, could only be offered to God… by Israel! When you see this, you have a key, a key to a better understanding of Israel’s history. God’s living Word became flesh in order to be her long-awaited Messiah. Most Israelites have not realized this. Nevertheless they have fondly, lovingly been waiting for some human Messiah or other, to arrive – for centuries! He is the desire of her heart! God has assured Israel that her Messiah will save her from all of her woes. So, because she would have to offer her own Messiah as our Sacrifice, for that very reason, God had to place a veil over the eyes of most of Israel’s people, to prevent them from recognizing Him when He finally came! If they had recognized Yeshua, for who He really is, would they have turned Him over to Gentile Romans for execution? No, they would have fallen at his feet and made Him to be their King, under the noses of the Romans!
But, in that case, they would have failed to fulfill the ultimate act of their priestly commission! Instead of offering the infinitely Righteous, Totally Acceptable Lamb, the one God had supplied for them to offer on behalf of the human race, they would have incurred the wrath of the Roman emperor, who would have sent his legions to destroy them all. If this Ultimate Passover Lamb had not been sacrificed, neither Israel, nor the rest of the fallen human race, would have a chance of being redeemed, reconciled to God, and restored to their image and likeness of God stature! No beloved, it had to happen this way!
So try to realize how painfully burdensome, costly and inconvenient Israel’s task truly is. The cost she has had to pay for fulfilling God’s Plan goes beyond anyone’s ability to imagine! Israel fulfilled her commission at a staggeringly enormous cost to her own fortunes and earthly wellbeing. But through her, God has opened the Gates of Salvation for the whole world! And that is why the entire world owes God’s people an eternal debt of gratitude. But sadly, that is not the case. Even though God has used her to do His work on our behalf, most of the world still ignores and rejects Him. Nor do men rejoice and thank Israel for paying such a steep price for cooperating with God in achieving their redemption. No, most of the world ignores Israel’s God; and they reject His living Word… and they despise hound, persecute and try to traumatize and even eliminate, His chosen people! In Part 16 of this Exodus series, we discussed Israel’s role and significance in two parts. If you refer to that section, you will have a fuller understanding of what we are saying here. Section 16 has 2 parts, entitled: “Israel – The Thorn in the Flesh of the World.”
Actually there are two veils. The Serpent covers all human eyes with the first one. It is the veil created by our Sin corruption. It blinds us to the true God and His ways. Only when we turn to our Messiah Yeshua in repentance is that veil removed. But the other veil is that additional one that God had to place over Israel’s eyes. He warned us about this through the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 53:3
“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom (most Jewish) men hide their face. He was despised, and we (Israelites) did not esteem Him.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Therefore, much blindness afflicts the Earth: Most of Israel cannot recognize who Yeshua really is. Therefore, they refuse to accept Him as their Messiah. However, the rest of the world, even, tragically, great portions of Christendom, cannot see Israel and her God-given uniqueness! They fail to see what an enormous blessing she has been and continues to be for every child of Adam. And, as long as God allows these veils to remain in place, they will continue to prevent the entire House of Israel from coming together. The whole House of Israel consists of the entire Body of Messiah… Jews and Gentiles that God brings together in Covenant Love and Faith and whom He unites into… One New Man… in their Messiah, as the prophets of Israel and the New Covenant apostolic writings describe (See Romans 9, 10 & 11, and Ephesians 2).
So as long as those veils remain in place, the age-old ‘wall of separation’, that Yeshua died in order to destroy, continues to be rebuilt. And it keeps the Jewish people and the rest of the world apart from each other. But as long as that wall remains, the Ultimate Fulfillment of God’s promises and plans will continue to be delayed until God’s appointed time for removing the veils arrives. Then God will send His risen living Word back to Earth to be enthroned as the Supreme Lord of the Earth, just as He is eternally enthroned as Lord of the Universe, in Heaven.
In the days of Moses, God first began to teach Israel the significance and meaning of His sacrificial system. It required continuous, morning and evening sacrifices of innocent animal offerings, signifying humanity’s need for continuous dialysis-like soul cleansing, to keep our Sin-corrupted nature restrained and out of the way. Even from that early beginning, He was looking forward to the day when Israel would be called upon to fulfill her Ultimate Task of offering the Eternal Lamb of God…once and for all… on the altar of the Cross!
John 11:47-53
“Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, ‘What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.’ Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that (by God’s Blood Covenant Decree) Jesus (and not Isaac or anyone else) was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So (thanks to the veil God placed over their eyes) from that day on they planned together to kill Him.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The Crucifixion as Seen through God’s Covenant Truth
Let me repeat this: these priestly leaders of Israel would have never plotted against Yeshua, had they known Him for who He truly is. They would have rejoiced and praised God that the Messiah had finally arrived! In that case, they would have prevented the Atonement that had to be made for them and for the whole world, from taking place! God HAD TO keep His chosen people from seeing this Truth! Israel is not to blame; this was Almighty God’s doing! He impaired their vision and discernment so they would be fully equipped to follow through and complete the dreadful, gut-wrenching, soul-shattering task He had reserved for them to accomplish:
Exodus 10:24-26
“Then Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, ‘Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be detained. Even your little ones may go with you.’ But Moses said, ‘You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice them to the Lord our God. Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the Lord our God. And until we arrive there, WE OURSELVES DO NOT KNOW WITH WHAT we shall serve the Lord.’” (Emphasis added.)
Even to the moment of the crucifixion, the leaders of Israel did not know with what, or in what manner, they would serve the Lord. For the Lord kept them from knowing… to enable them to fulfill the horrid task of serving as the priests who had to offer their own beloved Messiah, the living Word of their own God… to be the Substitute Sacrifice for them, and for all the rest of us!
Isaiah 53:4-11
“Surely our grief’s He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging, we are healed.
“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.
“By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
“His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
“BUT THE LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; IF HE WOULD RENDER HIMSELF AS A GUILT OFFERING.
“He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.” (Emphasis added.)
And after Yeshua’s Resurrection and Restoration to the Father’s right hand in Eternity, God, through Yeshua’s apostle Peter (Shimon Kefa), began to remove the veil from the eyes of some of his fellow Israelite brethren:
Acts 3:14-26
“But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus, which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith, which comes through Him, has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
“And now, BRETHREN, I KNOW THAT YOU ACTED IN IGNORANCE JUST AS YOUR RULERS DID ALSO. But the things, which God announced beforehand, by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ (Messiah) would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom Heaven must receive until the period of Restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time…
(What Peter told His Jewish contemporaries that day was nothing new. Moses had warned Israel this was going to happen, and so did Isaiah, who came after Moses. God’s veil prevented them from recognizing the one Moses had spoken of… and that veil continues to prevent many from realizing who He is, to this day, so that the plan of God, who is intent on saving the whole world, may continue to the end.)
Acts 3:14-26 continued “…Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you. And it will be that every soul that does not heed that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the Covenant, which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
So, despite the God-imparted ignorance of Israel that forces many to continue to abhor and reject their own true Messiah, and despite the Serpent-imparted blindness of the fallen world that abhors, rejects and persecutes Israel, falsely accusing her of the crime of ‘Deicide,’ and of everything else that is wrong in the world… nevertheless, the glorious Truth remains: God’s living Word did the Work that was necessary. God is totally eternally transcendent; He cannot be killed by any of His own creatures! Israel offered up the Perfect Human Life of God’s living Word! The Word of God took on our flesh for this very purpose! It was His Humanity that was offered to God’s Justice, in place of our Sin-corrupted humanity. But Almighty God Himself could never be put to death! And… THAT REDEEMING WORK IS FINISHED. And the Kingship of God’s Word is in the process of being established over all the Earth! So although most of us remain blind to what is really going on, the Eternal Lamb of God was sent to cover and protect and redeem whoever will hear what God’s Word was sent to tell us of Himself, and repent of their living death state, and fall at their Messiah’s feet at last… on God’s terms.
God’s Lamb has done everything to Perfection, exactly as God revealed it to, and through, Abraham in Genesis 22. God did not tell Abraham specifically how He would select His designated Offering. He simply let him know that somehow, someway, He would provide for Himself, a Lamb of His own choosing. So Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all of Israel remained ignorant concerning how, or when, God’s Plan and Purpose would be fulfilled, and what, exactly, their part in it would have to be. This made it possible for the Perfect Righteousness, Justice, Truth and Order of God to be fully restored and satisfied in His Eternal Kingdom… and it was done exclusively by God’s own Perfect Living Word.
Now, just as God’s Eternal Substitute Representative offered Himself in place of Isaac, so has He done the same for all of Israel and the rest of the human race! And soon the awesome Day will arrive, when all Jewish and non-Jewish people will see the Fruit of Yeshua’s Perfect Redemption appear in their midst, and spread, from person to person, enfolding all repentant humans, all across the Earth. And because of the gravity of the eternal stakes, it is easy to see why God was so stern and demanding with Israel as He began to train and equip her to be the model and example and ‘looking glass’ for the rest of the world. Through Israel’s priestly commission, God planned to deal with the whole world’s state of Sin and Death, and all the unspeakable consequences that has caused. In His Omniscience and infinite Wisdom, God was doing everything that He knew was necessary to effect all of mankind’s full Redemption and Restoration. So He was most definitely not joking or giving Israel permission to be lax or uncaring or engage in inane levity when it came to making their response to all of this. God will have to judge us according to His Perfect Eternal Nature and Standards of Righteousness… not according to our mistaken, erroneous opinions, personal feelings or well-meaning intentions. We will be measured against the unchanging Truth and Reality that flow out of His Perfect, Eternal Nature. This is what all of humanity MUST understand and take to heart: our Perfect God requires Perfection in all things! And that is why His beloved eternal, Perfect Living Word and Holy Spirit HAD to do ALL of the Work and why we MUST all come under the protective Covering of our Messiah’s infinite Perfection!
Luke 22:41-46
“And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’ Now an angel from Heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, and said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.’”
So, we must agree to allow God’s Spirit to enter into our spirit now… to abide with us and work the Word’s own Righteousness and Holiness into us. In this way, all of humankind may truly become Yeshua’s Perfect image and likeness. This is the destination God had in mind in all that took place between Him and Israel in the Exodus from Egypt. And by the time they reached the part of the Exodus Journey described in Exodus 31, the relationship and interaction between God and His chosen people had developed to a significant stage. Moses was being moved by God’s Spirit to begin to reveal the Perfection and All Sufficient Ability of God and His living Word. He was revealing to Israel that God’s chosen people had nothing to worry about, regardless of how weak and frail they were, and regardless of what the idolatrous fallen world believed, thought or was doing, or failing to do. Regardless of any circumstances the Israelites might have to face, like Abraham, they too had to know that their God is Perfect in His Ability, Credibility, and Covenant Faithfulness. He is their Perfect, infinitely Faithful Shepherd, Friend, Protector and Provider. Everything they will ever need in the past, present or future has already been foreseen, created, given and paid for, by God’s Living Word. And His Spirit is always ready to apply what all creatures need to fulfill their God-given purpose. He is here to give it to them, moment-by-moment, issue-by-issue, and step-by-step, according to a Plan and Timetable known only to the Father.
What is True for Israel, is True for All Mankind
God first entrusted His Self-Revelation to Israel. He showed them His nature and His ways. And their job was to learn and embody and guard this Truth, by reflecting and radiating back to God, the solid bedrock Security and Assurance this knowledge and insight imparts to those that come to know Him. But remember the veil that God had to place over Israel’s eyes with regard to her Messiah. Because of that veil, Israel herself could not fully observe God’s Standards and Requirements. Instead, unwittingly, she set the stage and prepared the way for her Perfect Messiah to do it all. So, when the time for His arrival finally came, He did what she could not do. He fully and perfectly observed God’s Standards and Requirements, in her name and on her behalf! And just as He did it for Israel, so did He do it for the entire human race!
So even from the beginning, this was, whether people realize it or not, what Israel was to demonstrate and make available, to the whole world. What is true for Israel is true for all mankind. The whole world must realize once and for all, that there is only One, True, Living God… only one Source in existence! All Creation must know, acknowledge and live by this Absolute Reality. God has made it possible for Israel and the rest of the world to know Him… through His Word and Holy Spirit. Now we can all rest upon His Word’s All Sufficient Grace and Protection…in peace, with relief and joy…for all of Eternity!
Genesis 2:1-3
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day, God completed His Work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His Work, which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it HE RESTED FROM ALL HIS WORK, which God had created and made.” (Emphasis added.)
Exodus 20:2-6
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Emphasis added.)
This Truth, as revealed through Moses, and the awesome miraculous works God had already performed on Israel’s behalf, even amid apparently hopeless wilderness conditions, was our God-given assurance. Israel was sufficiently informed and reassured about her living God’s Perfection and airtight Faithfulness and Ability. He told them that He has already covered everything they, and all future generations, will ever need at any time, and under any circumstances… now and in the future. And God continues to convey this message to, and through, Israel, generation after generation. God continually sends His Word and Holy Spirit to them, in every generation, to be and to supply everything they will ever need:
Psalm 23
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely Goodness and Lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Emphasis added)
But, in Genesis 28, and John 1:51, God also revealed that, His Perfection and Almighty Power and Boundless Creativity needs a ‘connecting Ladder’ or Pathway by which to travel from Heaven’s Eternity into Humanity’s earthly time and space situations. And that ‘Ladder’ is His Living Word, abiding and working from within the heart of hearts of His True Israel. God’s Word brought Israel into a personal Covenant with Him. God united Himself to Israel through His Word. So the faith, hope and trust in God’s Word of Israel’s believing, repentant Remnant, makes that ‘Ladder’ appear and do its work in our midst.
The Ladder (Yeshua) connects God, who reigns from His Heavenly Throne, to all of humanity’s earthly needs and demon-oppressed circumstances. The Ladder renders God’s dynamic Love and Provision, present, real, active and available, for all of us! So it’s not enough merely to give intellectual assent to God’s revealed truths. To believe in the true Biblical sense, we must obediently receive something very substantial from God, spiritually speaking. If we do not receive a new regenerated spirit that is filled with God’s own Spirit, nothing real will happen to us and in us. We must truly be equipped with spiritual gifts and faculties in order to operate on God’s ‘wave length’. His living Word has already done and paid for everything! But the priestly faith, hope, love and trust of Israel’s Remnant must be firmly in place and working properly in order for the world to see it and avail itself of it. The Remnant’s obedient faith is to be the ‘point of entry’ for the actual appearance and working of the Word. Then His world-changing ‘Fruit’ can appear in our earthly lives and circumstances. And the Remnant must share this Fruit, and the knowledge that goes with it, with the rest of the world. The Word was, and is to be, Israel’s Ultimate Bridegroom. And, in Exodus, in the days of Moses, God’s Word had just united Himself in betrothal, to Israel, His intended future consort and perfect ‘image and likeness.’ But the actual union with Him must take place.
So God has been waiting, patiently and mercifully, for Israel and the rest of the world to respond to His gardening. He kept plowing and breaking the hard soil of each generation’s heart and sowing His Truth and Reality into them… and He continually ‘weeds’ and ‘prunes’ our souls, so that we can sink our roots ever more deeply into Him. He prunes us so that we can become increasingly fruitful. He anticipates the future day when it will be time for all of Israel to be mature enough and ready for the awesome day of Future Consummation when God’s beloved Son, the Word, finally becomes her True Husband and finally removes the veil that covers her eyes… in the sight of the whole world. Then, She will finally be able to see Him clearly. And at that same time, the veil that covers the world’s eyes will be removed. And all men will finally see Israel, in all of her God-imparted beauty, for what she truly represents and means, to us all.
God waited, in Moses’ day, for His people to begin this awesome Journey, and He still waits to this day, for them to finish it. In the meantime, His Word and Spirit continually abide in their midst, to cover their nakedness with the Righteous Perfection of His Eternally Finished Work. Israel remains weak and bankrupt; but her Messiah covers her with His Infinite Strength and Abundance. She remains contaminated by Sin; but her Messiah covers her nakedness with His Infinite Eternal Righteousness. And the same is true with any other human being or nation that will allow God to graft them into the Covenant Inheritance that He has bestowed upon His chosen people. This is what the Exodus is all about, for all of us.
When Israel was in the wilderness, God directed Moses to see to it that His residential Tent would always be placed right in the middle of her encampments. And by His commandments, He began to teach Israel the proper ways to ‘set up housekeeping’ with Him so that He could reveal His Nature to the rest of the world. And through her, He would draw as many of the idolatrous Gentiles that would hear, believe, repent and obey His Word, to Himself.
It was Israel’s task to get to know her awesome God so intimately and accurately, that she would give her entire heart to Him and open herself completely to receive His Glory and be able to revel and bask and REST in His Word’s Perfection and enjoy His Eternal All Sufficient Grace. God wanted to train her to know and rejoice and trust in Him… and to welcome the nations into God’s Covenant Love… even amid the harshest, most dangerous wilderness conditions with which the powers of Darkness continue to afflict humankind. By teaching His own to rely exclusively on Him, He can free them from slavery to self-reliance and from their bondage to earthly circumstances and from their entanglements with false gods and their deceptive devices. He must equip His people to give proper living example and testimony to His omnipotent All-Sufficient nature, before the rest of the world. Israel must be able to do this in the Last Days, because she will be surrounded by impossible situations that the hate-filled venom of the Serpent and his powers of Darkness will frenziedly stir up in a last ditch effort to destroy them and disrupt God’s Plan.
Israel’s Testimony
Because God’s Credibility and Faithfulness are airtight, Israel’s Testimony must grow to be correspondingly airtight! She must be ready to give this perfect testimony in the harshest, most unforgiving Arena of Testimony known to human history… the Arena of the Last Days. Israel will survive and flourish. But she will only do it by the supernatural grace and Power of God. Her human might or wiles or devices will not accomplish it! It will happen because the Finished Work of God’s Word has always been, and always will be, so Eternally Perfect and Complete! This gut-wrenching level of Rest-based testimony, is God’s tool for opening the eyes and hearts of the world’s idol worshippers and exposing the lies of the Serpent and cutting right through his coils and destroying the fatal inroads and strongholds his lies have created in the minds and hearts of all of Adam’s children.
So, Israel’s faith has to become as airtight as that of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! God’s Word must be utterly free to abide and work through her. And He will do it to Perfection, when the time finally comes for the veil to be removed from her eyes. Then she will give unassailable Testimony to God’s Truth and the Reality of His Word, by which God will eternally vindicate His Name and Reputation, and expose and depose the slander of the Serpent… before all of Creation.
Malachi 4:4-6
“Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse!” (Emphasis added.)
So God’s stringent, unyielding insistence that Israel honor and observe the Sabbath Rest, just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob learned to do, is linked to the Invasion God’s Word continually wages against the Darkness created by the Serpent’s slander against God’s Nature, Character and Ability. Israel is God’s prime witness against the accusations of the Father of Lies, in the worldwide Arena of Testimony. Thus, in the Last Days, all of God’s people – the Whole House of Israel, repentant Jews and non-Jews alike, will be fully trained, taught and bred to become the perfect human Testimony, the living embodiment of their Creator. Together, acting as one New Man, they will reflect God’s Presence and His All Sufficient Provision and Protection to the entire universe! Thus God’s living Word says to each generation of those who are His own:
Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the Salt of the Earth; but if the Salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the Light of the World. A City set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the Lampstand (True Israel’s Menorah), and it gives Light to all who are in the House (Living Temple of God). Let your Light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good (Rest-based) works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Through the obedient faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God got off to a wonderful start. But when the time came for Israel to leave Egypt, it was time for the physical and spiritual descendants of the Fathers of the Faith to pick up the torch they left… and carry it further. So, the Sabbath Rest God instituted for Israel was to be her perpetual response to God’s Word. She was to give this Light-radiating, History-fulfilling Testimony to God’s Perfect Finished Work, in front of the powers of Darkness and the rest of the world! God has entrusted His Reputation to His Word and Holy Spirit. And He imparted His Word and Spirit to the Remnant of Israel so that He might shine forth from within her Remnant’s obedient faith! This is the ‘Ladder’ that connects God’s Eternal Heaven to our temporal Earth!
We are not discussing some religious idea or theory, or dead set of ritualistic traditions. This is about a living interpersonal connection and ongoing interaction with Almighty God! To keep Heaven connected to Earth, and Earth to Heaven, requires an awesome level of human faith and trust in God. This is the airtight, total trust discipline, to which God’s people must willingly submit… for the sake of their awesome, Perfect God! This is what our risen Messiah is here to be and do and fulfill in us! This Truth, concerning the Revelation of God’s awesome Perfection and unique All Sufficiency, must be driven home, into the depths of Humanity’s heart. This is the underlying basis upon which God has built His True Israel. This Truth is to be established in perpetuity. God is actually demonstrating His Perfect Credibility and Trustworthiness to His people through all of the awesome miraculous things His Word has done, and continues to do for them, amid their impossible wilderness conditions throughout human history! The Word is God’s living Testimony of Himself, to and through His chosen people. This is an Eternal Trumpet Blast Fanfare Proclamation – directed at the ears and hearts of all of God’s Creation!
What God is revealing through Israel will completely expose all of mankind’s false gods and the pathetic delusions that their false religions and deceiving prophets continually foist upon the world’s naïve, unsuspecting peoples. God’s chosen people, and those who join themselves to them, are being trained to rest and rejoice within the Sabbaths that God instituted, to proclaim and display His Perfect All Sufficient Grace. Israel is the living proof… proof that the Serpent is the Father of Lies and that what he says against God is nothing more than empty rebellious slander against the one true God. The Sabbath rubs the Serpent’s face in the inescapable Reality of Almighty God’s Eternal Perfection! So, each generation of Israel’s Remnant must be trained to know and share and enjoy His Eternal Peace and Well Being… with God! God will see to it that Israel, when she can truly rest in Him, will thrive under His loving care, so that she can serve as His living proof, proof that God’s claims and promises concerning the Perfection and Fullness of His Finished Work are absolutely ETERNALLY TRUE! Israel exists for the Glory and Validation of God’s Living, Eternal Word! And the Word is here to uphold and protect His beloved Israel! Nothing created will ever be able to separate them!
This Sabbath Testimony is what God desires all Last Days New Covenant disciples to embody, proclaim and demonstrate all over the world. Every thought, action, reaction and interaction that comes out of us, is intended by God to be a Testimony of His Eternal Perfection and the Perpetual Sabbath Rest that His Fullness makes possible for each of us. God’s People have the privilege of giving this Testimony to the world, so that more and more of the languishing, doomed victims of the Serpent can see, hear and receive for themselves, the Good News of Reconciliation Salvation and Restoration that God’s Word has made possible for all. Hopefully these considerations will help you gain a deeper insight and appreciation for how deep, vast and eternal the significance and importance of God’s Sabbath is, for us all.
Matthew 5:47-48
“If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be Perfect, as your Heavenly Father is Perfect!” (Emphasis added.)
God’s Living Word and Holy Spirit abide in us to be God’s Perfection, revealed through us! The future wellbeing of the human race and the rest of Creation depend on this! Remember the principle God instructed Moses to reveal and to continue to repeat and repeat and repeat:
Deuteronomy 28:1-10
“Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you IF you obey the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
“The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you.” (Emphasis added.)
All of this sounds so wonderful in theory, does it not? But this is actually what happens when ‘The Ladder’ is visibly in place through the obedient faith of God’s people. Once the Ladder is operative, Heaven supplies Earth with God’s Infinite, Eternal Covenant Inheritance. But without our obedience of faith, the Ladder cannot appear and do its work in our midst. And it is obvious that the people of Israel and all the peoples of the earth, in themselves, fall far short of God’s standards. Is that not true? So this is why God sent His own Word to be and do whatever is impossible for us to be and do, so that God could rightfully, legally and justly restore us to the perfect state of being His own image and likeness.
The Perfect Answer to Our Every Need – Messiah Yeshua
So, if we view the Perfection that God’s Torah requires of Israel and the rest of the fallen world through self-centered, humanistic eyes, we quickly see the impossibility of Israel, or anyone else, doing anything at such a level of perfection. Then it becomes a horrifying failure for us. And, with Paul, we are forced to cry out, ‘wretched men that we are, who will deliver us from the body of this death?’ And, as always, the answer is: ‘Praise be to God…through Yeshua our Messiah!’ Even now, while we struggle to complete our journey, our Messiah’s Perfect Humanity and Perfect Human Performance before God, is covering us and filling in the ‘blanks of inadequacy’ that all the rest of us keep leaving.
So, keep this in mind when you ponder and assess the ‘golden calf’ incident, and all of Israel’s other lapses. After all the wonders God had demonstrated to His chosen people and to the idolatrous peoples of that entire region, Israel kept stumbling and falling on her face in very tragic ways. She fell into the very pit God was leading her away from… the pit of idolatry, or, spiritual adultery! So, did God grossly overestimate Israel’s abilities? Was He naïve and unrealistic in choosing this company of Jewish and non-Jewish people for such an exalted purpose, position and destiny? Was He unaware of what really goes on in the depths of each human heart? Or, as usual, is it we humans that are unaware of what is going on in Almighty God’s mind and heart? God is showing us more and more of what His beloved Son, Yeshua, was going to have to cover and pay for, on our behalf!
Thanks to the hindsight we now enjoy, we can know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that our God is utterly Perfect in every way and on every level. So there must be another way of looking at these dreadfully tragic, ‘golden calf’ types of failures. We must never forget that everything God is doing with the human race is being done through the instrumentality and agency of a Blood Covenant Bond that God established with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For self-absorbed, self-reliant worldly Hellenistic and humanistic minds, this Blood Covenant structure is alien and incomprehensible. Thus, the fallen world remains blind to it and continues to ignore it.
Sin-loving humans who are dominated by the Serpent cannot, and will not, see or think according to this Covenant mechanism, through which God does everything that pertains to us. In the world dominated by the Serpent, man is deluded into believing that he is the hero of the story, the main protagonist, the star of the show, and the measure of all things. But that spells disaster! If Man truly must do everything… then in God’s sight, by His Standards, nothing about us will ever be good enough! In that case, we will remain eternally frustrated… slaves to ourselves and to one another and condemned to a most dismal eternal state of Failure. Nevertheless, the fallen world continues to see, think, react and live according to God-less self-centered paradigms. Because it is so natural for mankind to be selfish and arrogantly self-centered, they continue to dare to presume to usurp the place and preeminence of Almighty God!
The spiritual eyes and ears of our fallen flesh are blinded and deafened by the effects of Sin. Flesh can only see the temporal, carnal aspects of God’s Creation. But the Heavenly, Eternal aspects of it are off limits to its faculties and senses. Nevertheless, God sent His Word to reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven to us. And He also commissioned His Word to become human, just like us, except for Sin. That enables Him to represent us and serve as our Sacrificial Substitute Lamb in God’s awesome Covenant. And so His Plan is being fulfilled to Perfection, thanks to the veil that God, in His awesome Wisdom, placed over Israel’s eyes, to prevent her from recognizing her Messiah, which would have caused her to fail to fulfill her priestly commission.
So, what does this mean for us? Hopefully, Israel and the world will realize that since God is Perfect by Nature, and since He requires Humanity to be His Perfect Image and Likeness, then, in order to react to His Perfect Nature and Finished Work Perfectly, and obey His commandments Perfectly…only by and through God’s own Word… can God’s Perfect requirements be fulfilled, Perfectly! In other words, God Almighty Himself… has to stand in our place as High Priest and Covenant Representative, to do all the Work that has to be done in order to raise us to His level of Perfection… Perfectly. And so, from this we can see what God is revealing throughout the Torah. We can see who the real Hero of the Story and Star of the Show truly is. We can see that what Moses was given to reveal… had to be God’s Perfect Living Word, Yeshua, Israel’s Messiah… the Lord and Master of all Creation!
John 5:18-24
“For this reason therefore the Jews (that had the veil over their eyes and thus refused to believe and accept Him) were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath (the man-made rabbinical rules their religious factions advocated), but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
“Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them Life, even so the Son also gives Life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My Word, and believes Him who sent Me, has Eternal Life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of Death into Life.’” (Amplification added.)
The Gift has been given. But that’s not enough. We must also RECEIVE this Gift from God. As long as God’s living Word and Holy Spirit are received and made welcome in the hearts of Israel’s faithful Remnant, God will be free to apply His Perfect Finished Work to her and shower upon all of Israel the Blessings that flow out of His Perfection. Then the ‘Ladder’ revealed to Jacob can appear in our midst and do its work. These are the conditions under which Israel’s True Remnant, the heart-circumcised disciples of God’s Word, are commissioned and equipped to operate, thanks to the Gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the Glory that all true disciples must be trained and equipped to demonstrate in the Last Days’ Arena of Testimony. The Perfection of God becomes our Perfection when God’s Living Word is truly our Head and Sole Source. The day is coming soon when the veil God placed over Israel’s eyes, and the veil that the Serpent placed over the world’s eyes, will both be removed. Then Israel will see and repent and be saved completely, and people from all the families of the earth will therefore, share fully in her Blessings. And the human race will have its true Head – Messiah Yeshua. And He will have a Body made up of living members that embody Him, and thus, prove to be really and truly His!
Romans 11:13-15
“But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection (of their Messiah) is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance (of Him) be but Life from the Dead?” (Emphasis added.)
God’s Eternal Truth invades Time and Space
Always remember what happens to people who are in the state of decapitation. Their spiritual eyes and ears cannot function. The Serpent easily deceives and manipulates them. And he is intent on getting humans to destroy each other. As long as he is free to deceive, he continues his agenda of destroying more and more humans. By doing this, he intends to prevent God from having and enjoying His beloved intended ‘image and likeness’. The Serpent did not decapitate us because he loved and cared for us. He did it to attack, maim, deceive and destroy the humans that Almighty God loves so much! God gave us free will. That is why the Serpent tries to seduce our minds. If he succeeds, he can control our wills, choices and outcomes. Remember what God said to Cain: ‘And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.’ (Genesis 4:7b)
This is why our dealings with our Creator and potential Redeemer can’t depend upon some kind of iffy, chancy ‘democracy.’ God will not leave it up to us or put it to a vote. He is intent on saving us… PERIOD! He is our Blood Covenant Friend and Champion! We are dealing with the Creator of all things, with the Author of Reality and Truth. He is our Supreme Lord and the Owner of all Creation. And because He has sworn to be whatever we need Him to be for our eternal well being, what He is revealing in Scripture is not up for discussion. He is notifying us that we victims of the Serpent do not know what we are doing! So because this is a Life or Death issue, He does not leave it up to us to vote for or against what He must do to save us. God is GOD! And that’s the end of any discussion to the contrary. However, He gave us free will; therefore, it is a law of His Creation that we will all reap, exactly as we sow. And that is why He keeps bringing His Truth and Reality up to us and keeps it ever before our eyes, so that we can obediently receive and embrace it and sow its wisdom into our own hearts and outcomes!
Galatians 6:6-8
“The one who is taught the Word is to share all good things with (God) the one who teaches (and perfectly supplies) him. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap Eternal Life!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
God reveals the wonderful consequences that follow when God’s people do their job properly, and live wedded to and fully bonded with, His living Word and Holy Spirit. But disastrous consequences follow when God’s people choose to continue to ignore and live separate and apart from God’s Word and Spirit:
Deuteronomy 28:15-20
“But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses (to which the fall of Adam has already condemned you) will (continue to) come upon you and overtake you: (thanks to the living death that is already within you) Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord (by His unchanging Truth that you reject) will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your (dead, Serpent-dominated) deeds, because (in Adam) you have forsaken Me.” (Amplification added.)
The commandments that reveal God’s awesome Perfection are a Portent of the coming Judgment! We will all be judged according to God’s Eternal Reality, Truth and Commandments! Therefore, the crucial question for humans will be this: ‘Did you avail yourself of what I sent My Living Word to be and to do on your behalf, as your Messiah, or not?’
So, hopefully, this will convincingly expose our personal ‘spiritual nakedness.’ Who would have the gall to assume that he or she has what it takes to meet God’s Perfect Standards by their grossly limited and imperfect personal performance? Who would be naïve enough to assume that God would realistically expect the likes of us to have what it takes to cleanse, atone for and redeem ourselves, and meet His Perfect Standards?
Instead of relying on and drawing from the Perfection of what God has already provided, we tend to believe the worldly things we see around us and go by how we feel and what we think we can accomplish. That is why we keep taking our eyes from God and obsess over ourselves, and what we think we have to do, and how well we will have to do it on our own behalf! Thus, we debase God and idolize our Sin-contaminated, fallen human nature and mortal flesh, elevating them and putting them in God’s place! This is what living death always does. In ourselves, because of our living death state, we are helpless, incorrigible and hopelessly dead in our trespasses and sins against our Creator. And Israel was chosen to serve as the ‘template,’ the model, against which all the rest of us are to be instructed and measured and judged. What is true of Israel is true of the rest of the human race. Whether it is ‘Jewish or ‘non-Jewish’, Sin-corrupted living death cannot save itself. Death cannot be improved. Death cannot educate itself or raise itself by its own ‘bootstraps.’ Death cannot achieve any level of adequacy, hope or redemption. Death cannot aspire to the level of Perfection that belongs only to Almighty God. Death is always… Dead! God knows this; but humans that the Serpent has decapitated, always tend to refuse to admit it.
So, God commissioned Israel to serve Him in this most difficult, excruciatingly painful office. In the fulfillment of her official priesthood, she had to sacrifice her own Messiah, who is the Perfect, Eternal Lamb of God, on the altar of the Cross. The Word, in His Perfect Humanity, is the only Perfect Covering for the nakedness of His human brothers and sisters. And that is why God sent Him to Israel. Israel had to reveal and offer Him up to God, on behalf of the world:
Matthew 27:19-26
“While he (Pontius Pilate) was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him.’ But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. But the governor said to them, ‘Which of the two do you want me to release for you?’ And they said, ‘Barabbas.’ Pilate *said to them, ‘Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ (your Messiah)?’ They all *said, ‘Crucify Him!’ And he said, ‘Why, what evil has He done?’ But they kept shouting all the more, saying, ‘Crucify Him!’
“When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.’ And all the people (appointed by God to be His priestly nation) said, ‘His blood shall be on us and on our children!’ Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
No matter what each individual involved in this incident saw or thought or chose in his or her own mind, the whole Truth was much too huge and majestic for any them to be able to grasp or fathom. All of Heaven and Earth – and all of time and space and Eternity – were involved in this. At that moment, there were three levels of traps being set in this painful, horrid scenario. On one level, the Serpent was setting the same trap for the leaders of Israel that he set for Eve in the Garden. To get them to forget about God’s Eternal Perfect Finished Work, so that they would take matters into their own hands and do away with their own Messiah! Thus they turned him over to the Gentile executioners. The powers of Darkness were assuming that this would destroy Israel’s relationship with God. This ultimate crime would even force God’s hand! Faced with such an outrage against His beloved Word’s Authority and Station, the Serpent assumed that God would be so outraged, that He would be forced to turn on Israel and wipe them out for the repeated violations of their Covenant with Him. This would be the last straw. It would push God over the edge of Forbearance and Mercy and into the chasm of Revenge! Thus, God’s Plan of Salvation would be derailed. But the Serpent grossly underestimates his own Creator! It is because the powers of Darkness themselves are filled with so much hatred and because they lust for revenge and destruction… that they assumed God would react to this, just as they would have reacted. But, as always, they were dead wrong! God is totally ‘Other’! His ways and thoughts are not like any of those of any creature. The Serpent assumed that by manipulating Israel into killing her Messiah, he could manipulate God into giving up on Israel and taking revenge and killing her, thereby insuring that the promises He made in Genesis could not be carried out:
Genesis 12:3
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”
“And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Meanwhile, on another level, Israel’s priestly leaders were setting a trap for Pilate and his administration. They thought that by playing on his fear of the Roman Emperor’s wrath, they could manipulate Pilate into doing the dirty work of crucifying this troublesome young rabbi who was continually thwarting their religious establishment and making them look bad in the eyes of the Jewish people. Thus, they led Pilate to believe that if he executed this ‘Jewish zealot’ who meant nothing to Rome, he could avoid a Jewish uprising and riot… and thereby save his own neck.
But God, in His infinite Wisdom was doing some maneuvering of His own, on a third level! He was maneuvering the powers of Darkness to manipulate the official priestly caste of Israel into fulfilling their God-given commission! Although Israel’s spiritual leaders were acting in total ignorance, God was seeing to it that the correct and utterly essential Sacrifice was now going to be offered, on behalf of the entire human race, by the priestly nation that was divinely appointed to fulfill this task! This Sacrifice would fulfill all those millions of daily animal sacrifices that had taken place before, dating all the way back to the offering of Abel. The Perfect Victim, the Ultimate Sacrifice who had already offered Himself to His Father in Eternity, was now, finally, going to be offered in the dimension of space and time, in the sight of fallen men. His willing Self-Offering would fulfill the Eternal Truth that was written in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. This would truly cover the nakedness of all the children of Adam, with His Perfect Love, His Perfect Obedience to God, and His Perfect Atoning Value in the sight of God’s Perfect Justice and Righteousness and Order:
Leviticus 16:29-33
“This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; for it is on this day that Atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. It is to be a Sabbath of Solemn Rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute. So the Priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as Priest in His Father’s Place shall make Atonement: he shall thus put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and make Atonement for the holy sanctuary, and He shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.” (Emphasis added.)
Yeshua was the Perfect Fulfillment of the Ultimate Yom Kippur, the Ultimate Day of Atonement. All the previous sacrifices of countless numbers of Sin-less, innocent animal sacrifices had been leading up to this first century Day of Atonement and to the true Eternal Sacrifice that was now to be made on the same Mt. Moriah to which God had once led Abraham and Isaac. This is what the binding and release of Isaac were foretelling! Yeshua is the Sacrificial Lamb that God provided for Himself. He is the True Eternal, Infinitely Perfect Sacrifice that takes away all the Sin of the world and causes God’s Infinite Justice, Judgment and Condemnation of Sin to be perfectly satisfied. It is by this Perfect Passover Lamb that God’s Perfect Justice and Condemnation are able to pass over…once and for all… any human being that will believe and repent!
John 19:28-30
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘IT IS FINISHED!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
At that moment in time and space, Yeshua, our human Messiah and Blood Covenant Representative… by the absolute Authority of the Eternal, Living Word of God, drew down upon Himself all of the curses, punishment and Divine Retribution that every human being ever had, or does have, or will have coming, as a result of Sin. His precious Covenant Blood washed all of our human Death corruption and contamination away from anyone of us who will repent and receive God’s Grace. As far as Almighty God is concerned, His Son’s Truth and Perfect Righteousness and Loving Obedience, cut right through the Serpent’s deceptive coils… setting free all of the repentant children of Adam with the Real Truth concerning our awesome God. And through Israel’s unwitting, but eternally effective priestly act, God’s Infinite Wisdom overwhelmed the lies, wiles, traps and tricks that the Father of Lies and his demonic rulers and powers have placed in every human’s path.
With Israel’s unwitting compliance, in His meek, self-giving and utter weakness, our Messiah embraced our Death. And thus, by His Atoning Death, our awesome Shepherd purchased and redeemed all of God’s Flock from the demonic predators and made it possible for us to escape the ravages and destruction caused by radically independent, God-less self-life. He did it to Perfection! So, truly, it is Finished. Truly, Almighty God is our ever-Faithful Blood Covenant Friend. And He truly has overcome all the Evil in Creation, by His beloved Son’s Infinite Good. And this is why our risen Lord and Master, Messiah Yeshua, requires His New Covenant disciples to know and live by faith in Him, so they can embody His awesome Life-dispensing Truth, in their every thought, word and deed:
John 14:4-8
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the Vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, FOR APART FROM ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING! If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (Emphasis added.)
Can you see what our Messiah is saying through this awesome ‘Vine and branches’ analogy? Our faith and trust and rest in Him is what causes God’s awesome Ladder that connects us to Heaven, to appear in our midst! Yeshua repeats and confirms to His New Covenant disciples what He, as God’s living Word, had revealed about Himself through Moses in the Torah! There is only one Source… only one God! And through His living Word, He has done all of His necessary Work… to Perfection! Yeshua is our Ladder!
Thank God for His Mercy… thank The Lamb for actually being Almighty God’s Lovingkindness to us… and thank God’s chosen people, Israel, for having been willing to do the task that no one else would, or could have done… and for paying the price that the consequences of their priestly obedience continues to exact from them to this very day!
John 5:45-47
“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me! But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (Emphasis added.)