Physical to Spiritual Parallels of Passover by Rav Sha'ul   The Passover is the Scarlet Thread of Redemption The Passover is far more than just a retelling of the Exodus out of Egypt.  It is more than just Yahusha suffering to pay the penalty of our transgression on the torture stake on Passover.  The blood of the Passover Lamb and the foreshadowing of the Messiah’s role is the scarlet thread of redemption that runs throughout the entire Word of Yahuah. This Scarlet Thread of Redemption runs ·       from the prophecy in Genesis that the seed of a woman will crush the enemy and a lamb slaughtered to “cover” the sinful parts of the bodies of Adam and Eve ·       through Abraham sacrificing his first born son Isaac who was saved by a lamb/goat ·       leading to the Exodus where the blood of the lamb covered the first born and the angel of death passed over the homes who entered into that covenant ·       culminating with Yahusha transposing these prophecies and physical metaphors and rehearsals to their spiritual truths ·       being expressed in faith each year by offering our own lives as living sacrifices on Passover ·       finding completion with the return of Yahusha and the GREATER Exodus into the Millennial Kingdom.  When Yahusha gathers all the spotless lambs of Yahuah who have followed his example on Passover and offered themselves as spotless lambs and living sacrifices on the altar to Yahuah! We must use the physical rehearsal to learn the Spiritual Truth The Torah instructs us all to bring our own Passover lambs to The Temple and slaughter them (as a personal sacrifice), and to slaughter the national Korban Pesah, THE paschal lamb, and then to eat the lambs WE brought with matzot and marror, and to sprinkle some blood on the lintel and the two doorposts (Exodus 12:22 ff.) It also instructs the father to teach his son about the Exodus on Pesah (Exodus 12:26; 13:6, 14; Deut. 6:12 and cf. Exodus 10:2). Exodus 12  (NIV) - The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread 12 Yahuah said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them (there were many Passover Lambs) at twilight. 7  I am asked each year around Passover how to celebrate it and what it truly means to us today.  We all know it is commanded of us in The Torah and that Yahusha both celebrated it and “fulfilled it”.  He brought the physical rehearsals of the Spring Feasts to their fullest spiritual expression and meaning.  The festivals of Yahuah were given to us as a guide to His plan of salvation.  They are His witness of His true Messiah.  They are all “moedim” or rehearsals that foreshadowed (shadows of greater things to come) the two comings of The Messiah Yahusha.  Colossians 2 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink (as you keep The Torah Kosher Laws), or with regard to a religious festival (as you keep Yahuah’s festivals), a New Moon celebration (as you keep Yahuah’s months) or a Sabbath day (as you keep Yahuah’s weeks). 17 These are a shadow (physical rehearsal/metaphor) of the things that were to come; the (spiritual) reality, however, is found in The Yahushaic Covenant. Hebrews 10 1 The law is only a (physical) shadow of the good things that are coming—not the (spiritual) realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices (and rituals such as The Seder or Easter) repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship (perfection is found in the spiritual fulfillment, our personal sacrifice following Yahusha’s example, and attitude of the heart). The Law, the Festivals and Sabbaths are “tutors and mentors” to guide us and help us come to understand a spiritual kingdom and point us to the Messiah by training us in Righteousness. Galatians 3:24 – Book of Yahuah translation But before faith (in the Spiritual Kingdom of Yahuah) came to us (through The Yahushaic Covenant), we were guarded by the power of The Law, being shut up together (gathered together and protected) until the faith in Messiah (spiritual realities) would be revealed (unveiled and uncovered in The Yahushaic Covenant).  So in this (endeavor to teach us spiritual truths and lead us into and understand The Yahushaic Covenant), the Law is our teacher, leading us (by physical examples) to the (spiritual truth of the) Messiah so that we would be justified by faith (in The Passover Lamb not in the ritual keeping and rehearsal of sacrificing an animal).  But now that the faith (true spiritual reality of The Passover Lamb) has come, are we no longer under the training of that teacher? (Paul asks a rhetorical question, the answer is yes we remain under the training of The Law until we mature and wean ourselves off the milk of the word i.e. physical examples/rehearsals to the meat of the word which is spiritual truths) Hebrews 5 12 In fact, though by this time (in The Yahushaic Covenant) you ought to be teachers (of the physical to spiritual parallels in The Torah), you need someone to teach you the elementary (physical examples/rehearsals) truths of Yahuah’s word all over again (found in The Torah). You need milk (the physical letter of the law and physical rituals), not solid food (the Spiritual Truths that the physical shadows were designed to teach us)! 13 Anyone who lives on milk (continues in the never ending physical rehearsals year after year Heb. 10:1 not learning the spiritual meaning of them), being still an infant (in spiritual maturity), is not acquainted with the (spiritual) teaching about righteousness (and still must keep The Law by the letter until the spiritual truths are revealed to them). 14 But solid (spiritual) food is for the mature (in Yahuah), who by constant use (of physical to spiritual parallels) have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (defined in the physical examples in the Torah which teach us of spiritual attitudes we must have to enter The Kingdom of Yahuah). We were (His Chosen) to rehearse these coming events so that we would recognize the Messiah when he came to fulfill them and not fall for “the false messiah” or any other counterfeit.  We were to use our “spiritual eyes and ears of understanding” to discern the Spiritual Truths behind them and then apply it to our lives. Once a feast or moedim (rehearsal) was fulfilled, then the rehearsal becomes a memorial to be kept as a remembrance i.e. “love feast” to keep the event alive in our minds each year.  Moreover, we are to truly understand our role in them and follow Yahusha’s example.  Not just sit down and eat a Seder meal and call it a day. Coming out of total rebellion in the Christian Church into the light of Yahuah’s moedim (appointed times) we struggle to understand The Law and His Festivals.  We struggle with the physical rehearsals and even more importantly the spiritual application the rehearsals were designed to teach us.  We are now in The Yahushaic Covenant whereby the physical “letter of the Law” and rehearsals have been transposed into their final Spiritual state.  Few people truly understand the significance of Passover or how to celebrate it.  We look to Judaism and the Passover Seder and the myriad of traditions surrounding Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread and come away with a very burdensome and unfulfilling “ritual”.   These rituals still to this day have left us spiritually blind and deaf. However, Yahuah has been trying to tell us that it is our obedience to the “spirit” of His commands that he requires.  It was never about the sacrifice of physical animals; those sacrifices were designed to teach us spiritual truths through personal sacrifice (that is what we are after in this teaching). Hebrews 10 1 The law is only a shadow (physical example/rehearsal) of the good things that are coming (The Spiritual Kingdom of Yahuah)—not the (spiritual) realities themselves. For this reason it (the physical examples/rehearsals in The Law) can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship (perfection is found in the spiritual attitude of the heart not outward physical rituals). 2 Otherwise, would they (physical sacrifices) not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (forgiveness of sin come from repentance of heart i.e. is spiritually offered not physically). 5 Therefore, when The Messiah came into the world (to fulfill Passover), he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a (sinful) body you prepared for me; 6 with (physical) burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am (offering my sinful body as a living sacrifice to deny my sinful will and reverently submit to Your Will)—it is written about me in the scroll (Torah/Prophets) —  I have come (to deny my selfish sinful flesh and) to do your will (not my own Luke 22:42), my God.’” 8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law (Yahuah’s rehearsals became a burdensome ritual Micah 6). 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will (Yahusha made this clear on Passover when he prayed in the garden Luke 22:42).” (In doing so, dying to his selfish will in obedience to Yahuah’s Will) He (Yahusha) sets aside (transposes) the first (physical ritual example) to establish the second (Spiritual Truth of reverent submission of will). 10 And by (following) that (same) will (of our own obedient submission), we (too) have been made holy (set apart) through (by following the example of) the (living) sacrifice of the body of Yahusha the Messiah (who) once for all (the sons of Yahuah tore the veil and provided access to the altar of Yahuah. Revealing the meaning and spiritual truth of Passover.  We no longer go through the same ritual physical example of killing an animal year after year Hebrews 5:1 above, now we offer ourselves as lambs of Yahuah on Passover as we are to be living sacrifices and follow in the example set by Yahusha). Below we see the concept the Apostle Paul was teaching above in Hebrews 5 is what Yahuah was trying to teach the Israelites for thousands of years.  We see in Isaiah that Yahuah finds no pleasure in the physical sacrifices because they are not the point: Isaiah 1:11 "The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me?" says Yahuah. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats (Israel was missing the point with the physical offerings not realizing they were designed to teach spiritual sacrifice). The “point” was always that true sacrifice is the spiritual attitude of your heart, which is what the physical sacrifices were SUPPOSED to teach us: Psalm 51 16 For you do not desire sacrifice; else would I give it: you do not delight in burnt offering. 17 The (true spiritual) sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. It was “obedience” that Yahuah was trying to teach us through the physical animal sacrificial system: 1 Samuel 15:22 But Samuel replied: "Does Yahuah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying Yahuah (obedience is the spiritual attitude of our hearts)? To obey (spiritual sacrifice) is better than (physical) sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams (this type of dying to self and living an obedient submissive life is the example Yahusha set). Yahuah finally had enough of the ritualistic religious practices built around His commandments that were robbing His people of their love for Him.  You know the same things we still do today such as the Jewish Seder!  The Israelites simply became religious on the outside by ritualizing Yahuah’s ordained festivals and they failed to understand the spiritual meaning and application behind their physical acts.  They were just going through the motions. Yahuah spoke His case against Israel through the prophet Micah.  Yahuah’s commandments and festivals had become a tedious ritual burden to the people.  Each year over and over Israel would go through the ritual sacrifice on Passover sacrificing their lambs in this endless meaningless way never realizing the spiritual truth of that sacrifice.  That is what Paul was talking about in Hebrews 5.  The sacrifice of the lambs (each man had to bring a lamb to slaughter) on Passover was simply to illustrate that each man had dedicated his life and family to Yahuah as living sacrifices (committed to lovingly obey Yahuah).  It was a symbolic act that they had that the past year and will in the future walk humbly all year long (in reverent submission) with Yahuah and act justly with love and mercy.  Instead, they simply once a year went through the motions and mistakenly thought the sacrifice of their physical lamb on Passover “covered their sin” the rest of that year.  They totally missed the point.  The physical lamb was but a “symbol” of their own living sacrifice all year. Micah 6  - Yahuah’s Case Against Israel (Yahuah realizes His loving instruction, The Torah, had been turned into burdensome rituals.) 1 Listen to what Yahuah says: “Stand up, plead my case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. 2 “Hear, you mountains, Yahuah’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For Yahuah has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. 3 “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.… (now we see the “attitude” of the people, they are looking to give some physical thing or physical ritual to Yahuah for His forgiveness) 6 With what shall I come before Yahuah and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will Yahuah be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?  Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (the people has no idea that Yahuah has NO USE for physical things, He is a Spiritual being and what He requires is loving obedience and a loving heart), 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does Yahuah require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. So let us dispense with all the physical ritual and study the examples and rehearsals and come to the proper spiritual understanding and truth.  That truth is that THE Passover Lamb that was paraded down the streets of Jerusalem and inspected in public and sacrificed for the nation of Israel each year was symbolic of Yahusha’s living sacrifice.  The individual lambs that each man selected from his own flock, inspected, and presented as a sacrifice on the alter each Passover was symbolic of OUR bodies and living sacrifices on Passover.  Yahusha is THE Passover Lamb and we all are Passover Lambs in following the example Yahusha set of reverent submission and loving obedience to Yahuah. Now we will examine Yahusha’s example on Passover and enter into the “narrow gate”!  We are going to abandon the syncretized (baptized pagan) Roman ritual of the Jewish Seder and cease the year after year distraction of these religious traditions.  Let us press on to maturity and eat of spiritual meat and wean ourselves off the milk of physical ritual.   Next:

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