Messiah in Yom HaBikkurim Chapter 94 Part 5
- Part 5: He directs his disciples to feed the people!
- Messiah tests His disciples
- The Bread of Heaven
- Do not work for the food that spoils
- The Hebrew Sign of our Redemption (5 Points)
Messiah tests His disciples:
After these things Yeshua went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs (attesting miracles) which He was performing on those who were sick. Then Yeshua went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. Now Pesach, the feast of the Yehudim, was near. Therefore Yeshua, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” This He was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do.
אֵיפֺה נִקְנֶה לֶחֶם כְּדֵי שֶׁיֺּאכְלוּ אֵלֶּה?פ
“Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?”
Messiah’s question to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” was not a request for information. It was a test (נָסָה). The Messiah was testing his disciple Philip to grow his faith. Philip was from Bethsaida which was the closest town to the hillside location they were presently at. If anybody knew of a place where the Messiah’s talmadin could acquire enough food to feed this large of a crowd (around 10, 000 men, women and children), Philip would know where that place was.
The answer to the Messiah’s question was that it was “impossible” for the disciples to get from the small neighboring villages enough bread to feed the five thousand men (explicit) and five thousand women and children (implicit) who had come to hear Rabbi Yeshua teach.
Messiah was deliberately asking Philip and his other disciples to do something that was beyond their ability to do.
the God of Israel tests His people. He pushes us beyond our limits to force us to rely on His Spirit, the Spirit of the Eternal One (Ruach Olam); instead of relying on our own understanding. Therefore, HaShem (the NAME) tests us to refine and mature our faith. He never tests us to tempt us to do evil (cf. Genesis 22:1-18). The experience of a mature faith requires the testing of fire. This testing is sufficient to give us a Crown of Life (עֲטֶרֶת הַחַיִּים).
The Bread out of Heaven:
Just before teaching the mashal of the Bread out of Heaven the Messiah rejected the crowd’s effort to forcibly make him their king. Messiah repeatedly refused to let the people of Israel make Him their political leader. Messiah was the rightful heir to David’s throne but he was unwilling to be a political king of the people before he was their spiritual prophet and high priest. Messiah required the people to first hunger and thirst for the things of the Spirit (צֶדֶק-righteousness). Not the things of this world.
Once the people wanted the righteousness of Avinu (our Father) more than they wanted material wealth and political power, then and only then would the Messiah agree to become the king of Israel; then the people would be “satisfied” (שָׂבַע).
The Messiah also demanded that the people first exercise personal faith (אֱמוּנָה-emunah) in him or he would delay the time of his becoming their king and ushering in the messianic age.
Unfortunately, the demands of Messiah were rejected by the people.
The leadership and people of Israel wanted a political king who would through a continuous display of supernatural power secure their freedom from Gentile (Roman) rule and assure them of unending materialistic prosperity. The Bnei Yisrael (Sons of Israel) had no understanding of what kind of kingdom our Father in heaven required. The people of Israel did not comprehend that would only agree to continuously manifest His miraculous power on earth if the people agreed to believe in and obey His Servant, the Messiah. This was so because HaShem wanted the rule of His kingdom on earth to mirror His rule in heaven.
All of Man’s efforts at Self-rule have failed miserably.
Historically, Man’s international efforts and Israel’s efforts at self-rule have completely failed to live up to God’s high standards. The gentile world’s attempt at obeying the covenant of Noah was a miserable failure. The gentile world ended up just as wicked after the flood as it was before the flood. Only the gracious promise of the Holy One not to flood the world ever again held back His hand from doing so a second time.
The Covenant with Moses and Israel was a failure too but in a limited way.
The Torah of Moses cannot save us from our sins. But it can and does help us to understand that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of the Holy One. It also is effective in calling Am Israel to do Teshuvah (to Return to HaShem).
The Torah of Moses teaches us we need a New Heart.
The Torah of Moses does not possess the means to actually cleanse us of all sin and give us the gift of all righteousness that is the gift of the (unfailing) New Heart that can miraculously change us from the Inside-out (Spirit-soul-mind-body). Obeying all of the Torah of Moses has proven to be an impossible task. Only Messiah has been declared righteous under the law. Only Messiah has fulfilled the law. All of the rest of us have sinned. We have all broken the Torah of Moses in our thoughts, feelings, and behavior (many times). All but Messiah have sinned and come short of the glory of the Holy One. Therefore, we cannot be delivered from our sins by our own sinful will or self. Rather, we must be delivered by the compassion and mercy that is afforded us solely by HaShem our Father’s own Strong Arm and Right Hand.
The Messiah is the New Deliverer, the promised Moses to come.
וַיַּרְא כִּֽי־אֵין אִישׁ וַיִּשְׁתֹּומֵם כִּי אֵין מַפְגִּיעַ וַתֹּושַֽׁע לֹו זְרֹעֹו וְצִדְקָתֹו הִיא סְמָכָֽתְהוּ׃
And He saw that there was no man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His own arm brought salvation to him, [Ya’akov]
And His righteousness upheld him. [Yisra’el]
The Messiah Yeshua ben Yosef ben David is the New Deliverer who Moses promised would appear in Israel in the future.
Messiah is HaShem’s own Arm by which we are saved and the besorah (gospel) of HaShem’s Grace is the New Torah He has given to all. The Torah of Moses leads us to Teshuvah. The atonement of Messiah cleanses us from all sin; and the New Covenant (Brit HaChadashah) of the Grace of HaShem assures us that we have received the Gift of the Indwelling Presence of His Holy Spirit that is His gift of eternal life.
Over 3,500 years ago the first generation of Israel tragically perished in the desert because they hardened their hearts and refused to exercise true emunah (faith) toward HaShem our God and His Servant Moses (i.e. they perished due to their unbelief).
Almost 2,000 years ago another generation of Israel tragically died in the desert of their own unbelief regarding HaShem and His Servant, Messiah Yeshua ben Yosef. So we patiently wait for the promised new generation of (believing) Israel who will trust and obey the Holy One sufficient for Messiah to return to earth and set up the messianic kingdom, where:
“No longer will they (the people of Israel) teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘know HaShem,’ because they will all know Me (כִּֽי־כוּלָּם֩ יֵדְע֨וּ אוֹתִ֜י), from the least of them to the greatest,” declares HaShem. Therefore:
We wait for a new generation of Israel whose citizens all know God, “from the least of them to the greatest.”
In all prior generations of Israel (since the time of Messiah’s first appearance) the sons of Israel have rejected HaShem’s terms and teachings given through Moses. For he bears witness to the Messiah Yeshua. Consequently, because our people of Israel have yet to submit to His Word (biblical Judaism) HaShem Avinu (our Father) has ‘delayed’ His restitution of all things; His establishment of His kingdom here on earth; and His fulfillment of all the biblical promises that He made to our fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.).
Therefore, the delay of the coming of the messianic kingdom in Israel will only come to an end when all of HaShem’s demands have been met. We wait patiently, therefore, for some new generation of Israel to meet the demands of Abba Avinu that will immediately usher in the (complete) restoration of Israel.
Do not work for the food that spoils:
In his teaching on the Bread of Heaven the Messiah said we are not to work for the ‘’food that spoils.”
The temporary (symbolic, prophetic) manna of Moses was not the permanent (messianic) manna from heaven. The symbolic manna which is physical can “spoil” (אָבַד-perish and vanish away). The permanent (messianic) true manna from heaven will never spoil. The symbolic manna that is physical has to be taken almost every day and that just to temporarily sustain you physically. The true (real) manna from heaven need only be ingested once and then it is sufficient to sustain you for an eternity. The Bread of Heaven, the Bread of Life, is the Person of Messiah. The Person of the Messiah is Indwelt with the Living Spirit of the Holy One.
פאֲנִי הוּא לֶחֶם הַחַיִּים. כָּל הַבָּא אֵלַי לֹא יִרְעַב, וְהַמַּאֲמִין בִּי לֹא יִצְמָא עוֹד.פ
“I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.”
This means that as we ingest the Living Word of the Messiah we also in the ingesting of His Word automatically “drink” in the eternal Indwelling Presence of the Spirit of the Holy One. The Messiah clearly communicated this fact when He said:
הָרוּחַ הִיא הַמְחַיָּה; הַבָּשָׂר אֵינוֹ מוֹעִיל כְּלוּם. הַדְּבָרִים שֶׁדִּבַּרְתִּי אֲלֵיכֶם רוּחַ הֵם וְחַיִּים.פ
It is the Spirit (הָרוּחַ-Ha-Ruach) who gives life; the flesh (הַבָּשָׂר-ha-bashar) profits nothing. The words (הַדְּבָרִים-ha-d’varim) that I have spoken to you are spirit (ruach) and they are life (חַיִּים-chayim).
Therefore, the words (הַדְּבָרִים) that the Messiah is speaking and we are ingesting are “living” because His words are endowed with the life-giving Presence of the Spirit of the Holy One. In the Hebrew idiom (הַבָּשָׂר אֵינוֹ מוֹעִיל כְּלוּם) it is patently clear beyond any doubt that the Messiah is saying it is not His mortal physical flesh that gives us eternal life but the immortal, invincible, incorruptible, ineffable Presence of the Living Spirit of the Holy One who “gives [us] life!” (הָרוּחַ הִיא הַמְחַיָּה).
מֶה עָלֵינוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת כְּדֵי שֶׁנִּפְעַל אֶת פָּעֳלֵי אֱלֹהִים?פ
What shall we do that we may work the works of God?
The plan of HaShem our God is not for us (Israel) to do good works on our own to please Him; and thereby for us to earn on our own merit the right for us to one day enter into His new heaven and new earth. By works of the Torah no one will be declared righteous. This is so because our own personal righteousness can never bring us a right standing with God. Every human being who has ever lived—except for the sinless one, the Messiah Yeshua—has sinned and come short of HaShem’s very high (perfect) standard of righteousness. Nor can we by our deficient works ever compel God to forgive us of our sins.
We do not possess the power to transform imperfect persons into perfect ones. We are unable to resurrect anyone from the dead. We cannot give to others the gift of eternal life. Yet, unlike us, the Messiah has been given by HaShem (the NAME) the power and authority to do all these things. Therefore, the Torah of Moses makes it clear to us all that we are all sinners in need of a Savior (the Messiah of God).
The Torah has, therefore, become our Tutor (אומנת-literally nanny) to lead us to the Messiah.
Now that the Messiah has come, justification by faith has come and there is no longer a need for a Tutor (הָאוֹמֶנֶת). We have matured in our understanding sufficient that we know we are all sinners in need of a Savior and we know that the Deliverer (HaPalat) is Ha-Mashiach Yeshua. We know that there is now and forever only one required work of salvation and that is to believe in the Messiah whom our heavenly Father has sent to us.
Messiah is our Korban Pesach.
The Hebrew verb pasach (פָסַ֤ח) is first mentioned in the Torah account of the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:23). Pesach (פֶּ֨סַח) means “He passed over.” This refers to HaShem our God “stepping over,” “passing over” the houses of our people (Israel) during the final plague of the Ten Plagues of Egypt.
The meaning of the Passover is further revealed through the ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh provided in the Septuagint. The Greek verbs “pareleusetai” (παρελεύσεται) and “eskepasen” (ἐσκέπασεν) are used in the Septuagint to convey “He hovered over” and “guarding” (Exodus 12:23, 27).
This imagery is used by Isaiah in his use of the Hebrew verb “pasach” in Isaiah 31:5: “As birds hovering, so will Adonai Tzevaot (the LORD of Armies) protect Jerusalem; He will deliver it as He protects it, He will rescue it as He passes over.” The term Pesach refers also to the lamb or kid that was designated as the Passover sacrifice (called the Korban Pesach-קרבן פסח). On the 10th of Nisan four days before the Exodus, our people were commanded to set aside a lamb or kid and inspect it daily for blemishes (Exodus 12:3).
At twilight (הָעַרְבָּֽיִם) of the 14th day of Nisan, our people of Israel were to sacrifice the animal and use its blood to mark the lintels and door posts. The door posts are a symbol of the entrance and governance of our hearts (our spirits). The heart is the eternal core (center) of our being; also called ‘spirit.’ Only through the atonement sacrifice of Messiah our Korban Pesach are our hearts cleansed sufficient for the life-sustaining Presence of the Holy Spirit to dwell within our spirits. By his atoning sacrifice our Messiah (of Israel) has made it possible for both Jew and Gentile to become the eternal Temple of the Spirit of Holiness.
This is all entirely the gracious work of the rich mercy and great love of the Holy One.
Therefore, we may not ascribe any majesty to anything that we have done. We have not delivered ourselves from sin unto righteousness. God has! Therefore no one may ever boast that they are equal in righteousness to the Holy One. Since all have sinned, our salvation must come from the LORD. HaShem alone is perfect. He is complete morally and existentially. He does not learn. He does not grow. HaShem is never-changing. Man is not perfect. El Shaddai (the All-Sufficient One) is perfect. Our God needs no help from anyone. In contrast, Man desperately needs the help of our heavenly Father. We are delivered from sin to live in the righteousness of our heavenly Father only by His graciousness. We ascribe glory only to the Everlasting Father (Avi’ad). Never to ourselves.
The Hebrew-Sign of Redemption must be affixed to the doorposts of our hearts.
On Nisan 10 the heads of each household of Israel selected an unblemished young male lamb to be offered as a sacrifice to HaShem. On the afternoon of Nisan 14 (erev Pesach), a family member slaughtered the lamb (the Korban Pesach). The blood of the sacrificed lamb was then smeared on all three sides of the the door-frame of the observant family’s house. The blood was applied upon the door-frame of the house in a motion that made the Sign of the ancient Hebrew letter “Tav.”
The Tav is the last letter of the 22 letter Hebrew alphabet.
The shape of the ancient Tav (pictograph) that Moses wrote in was configured in the shape of a crude cross. The hyssop brush was dipped in a basin of blood then lifted up and applied to the “crown,” lintel, i.e. top of the door-frame (in a south to north axis of motion). Then the blood was applied to the “sides” of the door-frame in a right to left motion (in a east to west axis of motion). The Hebrew letter Tav that was used in the time of Moses was configured in the form of two sticks that when joined together looked like a crude cross.
For reasons that deeply trouble and offend us the Hebrew Sign of the Tav is now identified as being a gentile sign.
“Nothing” could be farther from the truth. The Sign of the Tav is solely of Hebrew origin. The Sign of the Blood Tav is seen in the manner that Moses ordered the blood of the Korban Pesach be placed on the door mantels of each household during Passover. It is a most sacred and holy Hebrew symbol that for over two millennia has been horribly and wickedly misused by both gentiles and Jews.
It is a blasphemy that gentiles have crucified Jews on this Sacred Hebrew Symbol!
Keep in mind that the Messiah was, is, and always will be a Jew. It was pagan Gentile Rome that chose to crucify the King of Glory upon a crude cross configured in the sacred Hebrew Sign of the Tav. This Sign is first and foremost a Hebrew Sign.
The Hebrew Sign of our Redemption (5 Points):
Point #1. The ancient pictographic Hebrew Sign of the Tav is made up of two intersecting sticks. The first stick drawn (drawn in blood) is a vertical one. The second stick drawn (drawn in blood) is a horizontal one. Regarding the horizontal stick, the “arm” of the right side of the horizontal stick is slightly more elevated than the arm of its left side, causing its line to slope down in a “descending” motion from right to left (cf. archaeological artifacts: ancient Hebrew pictographs and ideograms; i.e. 1,400-2,000 BCE).
Point #2. The door-frame, however, is not composed of two sticks but three. Because the one vertical line of the Tav has to be put on both sides of the door-frame, it can be said that it becomes two vertical lines. The one vertical line is split up into two weight-bearing columns (wood beams). These two vertical columns (wood beams) are the weight-bearing lines.
Point #3. In the application of the Tav to the door-frame the horizontal line (wood lintel) is held up as it rests upon the two vertical beams of the doorpost. Just as before, in the Sign of the Tav, the horizontal line rests on the strength of the vertical weight-bearing line but now there are two lines instead of one (rabbinic hint; i.e. there are now two visible Columns-Helpers, where there used to be only one: you figure the meaning out). Also, instead of the horizontal line being rested at the mid-point of the one vertical line (wood lintel), now the horizontal line is ascended up to the top of the door mantel and made to rest upon and in-between the two vertical lines.
What does this mean spiritually?
Point #4. The Torah symbol of the ancient Hebrew letter Tav applied to the door-frames of our hearts is a symbol of “covenant,” “purchase,” and therefore, “ownership” (i.e. “redemption”). The split vertical lines of three weight-bearing wood beams represent our relationship of total dependence on the Holy One.
An illustration of this Divine support of redeemed humanity can be seen illustrated in the entry-Way leading into the Temple.
In the Temple there are two vertical columns that are prominently displayed in its entrance. One of the columns is called “Boaz” and the other column is called “Yakin.” Together these two vertical columns mean:
In His [God’s] Strength (Boaz) it will be established (Yachin)!
This means that in our vertical dependence on God and His Strength (בֹּעַז-Boaz), the Messiah, both our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with each other will be established (יָכִין-Yakin).
Point #5. Therefore, in summary: What is the symbolic meaning of the Tav of redemption (blood) that becomes a Doorpost of Redemption for us? “Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it” (Exodus 12:7). “The blood shall be a Sign (of the Tav; i.e. Redemption) for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you” (Exodus 12:13). “You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning” (Exodus 12:22).
The Tav that is written in blood on the door-frames of our houses (hearts/spirits) prophetically speaks of the application of the Holy One’s atonement, healing redemption and forgiveness that He has most mercifully and graciously applied to the door-posts of our spirits, souls, minds, and bodies (doorways and gates symbolize governance).
What is illustrated in the application of the Hebrew-Sign of Redemption to the doorposts of our hearts, therefore, is that through the redemptive works of HaShem we have received atonement for our sin, redemptive cleansing for our souls, and reconciliation with the Father of Lights (אבי האורות-Avi Ha’Orot).
However, it must be cautioned, this gift of redemption can only be applied to our lives if we exercise true faith in the Korban Pesach (the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God). A picture of what this path to restoration looks like is revealed in the witness of the Ten Commandments.
Therefore, first the relationship of man to HaShem our God is to be completely restored (represented in the vertical stick). This is firmly established through Messiah in (the strength of) His fulfillment of the first four commandments. Then second man’s relationship with man is to be perfectly restored (represented in the horizontal stick). This too is firmly established through Messiah in (the strength of) His fulfillment of the last six commandments.