Month 11 – Shevat: A Month of Preparation for the New Year
The Hebrew year has 12 months (13 in a leap year). A Hebrew month starts when the first sliver of the new moon can be seen on the horizon just after sunset. The month of Shevat usually begins in January on the Gregorian calendar. It is the 11th month of the year. So we’re just about through the whole year at this point.
I want to set the context for this month by looking at the new year coming up on the Hebrew calendar, so we can see where we’re headed. (more…)
How Can I Observe the Sabbath Without a Congregation?
I hear this question a lot. In fact, I used to ask this question a lot. You may feel the pull of the Holy Spirit to observe the Sabbath. You may find that your heart and perspective toward the scriptures, the Israelites of old and the land of Israel today is different than those you currently worship with at church on Sunday.
But now what? You don’t know anyone else who is pursuing these things; there’s no gathering on the Sabbath that you can be part of. How can you keep the Sabbath on your own? What should you be doing? What about the command of assembling with others on the Sabbath? (more…)
The Feasts of the Lord: Going Through the Motions
Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First Fruits, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles – lots of Feasts, each with different instructions for observing them. Sometimes when we’re just starting out observing the Feasts, or approach a new season of Feasts, we can easily think of all the instructions and do’s and don’ts, and forget the richness of each Feast. It can feel – and in fact become – like we’re just going through the motions.
I can imagine that’s how the Hebrews must have felt when they heard the instructions for the first time as well. Exodus 12 is 50 verses full of instructions for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the instructions are not exactly intuitive or logical. What were they to make of killing a lamb and smearing its blood on their door frames? Had that ever saved them from death before? Was this a common practice? And what’s so bad about leavened bread? What does that have to do with saving their firstborns? (more…)
Our Spiritual Journey Inside the Tabernacle – Part 6: The Table of Showbread
Inside the Tent of Meeting
So far in this series, we’ve seen that through the functions of the tabernacle’s fence, the bronze altar, the bronze basin and the menorah behind the veil of the Holy Place, God has provided us with faith to believe, the payment for our sin, cleansing with the blood of His righteous Son and a transformed mind, illuminated with a spiritual perspective.
Once we get to this point and begin seeing the world around us from our new spiritual perspective, we realize all that’s available to us in the Spirit. We realize God is much bigger than we thought. The world and life in general is not what we thought. It’s a whole new paradigm. (more…)
A Messianic Perspective
In Leviticus and other sections of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), we read about the myriad of offerings and sacrifices, the ceremonial cleansings, and the stipulations for coming near to a holy God. On The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), for example, the high priest would’ve prepared for weeks ahead of time to perform the duties prescribed for the one day — with all its garments, offerings, animals, his family and other priests involved and contingency plans in case something didn’t go as planned. Then on the actual Day of Atonement, it would probably take him all day to perform the list of duties.
Granted, The Day of Atonement was the most holy day of the year, but there were six other holy days equally as rigorous in their requirements, not to mention the daily and weekly procedures of the temple and the offerings and sacrifices brought in by the people of Israel that were also required.
In Yeshua, we see the fulfillment of all of these requirements. (more…)
Messianic Sabbath 