Ki Tisa

Shushan Purim - Later Purim Celebrations

"But the Yehudim who were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day of it, and on the fourteenth of it; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness." Esther 9:18

PURIM – THE LAST HOLIDAY So what is Purim all about? The story of Purim is the story of the preservation of Jewish life, and one day this holiday, which ends the biblical year, will be the last holiday celebrated in the world.

All biblical holydays were given to us as images of the plan of God for the redemption of mankind, as shadows of the things to come. When a holyday is fulfilled, it becomes the most important and significant holyday of its age, until the next holyday is fulfilled. Purim is an established historical holiday and it is the only one to be called “a holiday for the Jews” (Esther 8:17), a Jewish Holiday, all other eight ones are called God’s Holydays. But Purim is the last holiday in the biblical calendar and within itself contains all the other holydays, which are: Shabbat, Passover (together with the Feast of Unleavened Bread - Hag haMatzoth and the first First Fruits - Hag haBikurim), Shavuot - second First Fruits, Rosh haShanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

During this age, between the first and the second coming of Messiah, for almost two thousand years, the most important and significant holiday to our Lord Yeshua, and therefore to us by His request, is Pesach. That is why the apostle Paul said: “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.” But notice the last three words, "until He comes." When He comes there will be something added, another dimension and something else to focus on. But during this age the most important thing that we can do is to observe Pesach. This is the age of the fulfillment of the Pesach. We have seen its fulfillment, and its message has been poured out in our hearts at the feast of Shavuot. Passover and Shavuot are together, they are speaking of the same time in history. They say Yeshua died for our sins, than He rose, ascended to the Father's right hand to make intercession for us, and returned to us in the Ruach haKodesh, the Holy Spirit. When He came into our hearts He said, “I will be with you and I will be present with you at all times; the world will not behold Me but you will behold Me.”

There are some Jews right now who are hiding from the world their Jewishness, just like Esther did. Or worst, they do not even know that they are Jewish. But God is going to gather them all because He knows who they are, and He is going to bring them back to Israel. He says that He will look on every mountain, and on every hill, and in the clefts of the rocks. He will look throughout this earth; He will turn every rock to find every Jew that is on the face of this earth, and bring him or her back to Zion, because He cares for every single Jewish person. When this is fulfilled, the holydays that will come to pass are Rosh haShanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot — the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. And when these holidays will be fulfilled, they will also become reality, because they all speak of the return of the Jewish people, physically back to the land of Israel and then spiritually to the Lord. Right now, these holidays are just holydays, but these biblical holydays are living events that will happen just as Passover and Shavuot did.

So then, what is Purim all about? The fulfillment of Purim is revealed in the book of Revelation. The millennium is a time or an age when people will be celebrating Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, as Zechariah 14:16 says, by all people throughout the earth. But, into the new heavens and new earth, after the millennium is over, the Feast of Tabernacles will not be celebrated as the main holiday, because it will be incorporated into the holiday of Purim: “And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison.” Revelation 20:7 After Yeshua's return on earth Satan will be bound and put in prison. But after one thousand years of Yeshua's reign from Mount Zion, Satan will be released. For one thousand years Satan will not be able to tempt anyone, to hurt anyone, or to do anything to deceive anyone. This will be ample proof that people sin on their own without Satan's help.

But at the close of the millennium, Satan will be set free to lead the nations against Yeshua, Israel, and the saints. “... and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog [terms for the nations that had attacked Israel previously, before the coming of Yeshua] to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.” Revelation 20:8 Most people who will be born during the millennium will not really love Yeshua, they will stay in obedience to Him, or they will pretend to stay in obedience to Him, so that they will not have drought and other plagues upon them, but when Satan is let loose, he will lead them in an attack against Yeshua, Israel and the saints. The sand of the seashore is an idiom for numerous, they are uncountable, they may be billions of people. “And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city [Jerusalem, where Jewish people have been gathered and have been experiencing the glory of the Lord for a thousand years] and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.” Revelation 20:9

How did Haman get hanged on the gallows that he made for Mordecai? Just like that, it seems like fire came down from heaven and devoured him suddenly and he was hung on the gallows quickly. All these people will come up against the believers and the Jewish people and especially the King Messiah Yeshua and they will be devoured immediately. And that will bring about the greatest celebration of all time, because it will be no more evil. No more of satanic business on earth; God is going to create a better world for all of us. The book of Revelation gives us great hope for the future and for eternity: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.’“ Revelation 21:1-4

That means that during the millennium God is not going to wipe away all tears from our eyes; it is not at that time that it will happen. Right now, there is pain in the world and there is pain among believers, but He is going to wipe away every tear when we go into the new Jerusalem, in the new heavens and the new earth: "... and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.' And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' And He said, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true.'“ Revelation 21:4,5. There is going to come a time when we will never cry again over anything, when there will be no pain, there will be no sickness, there will be no assaults, no attacks, there will be no accidents happening, there will be no disease, there will be no death, and no one will have to mourn for anyone. There is coming a time in the New Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth, after the thousand-year reign of Messiah, when He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

Everything that God has done will be summed up in Purim, the final, ultimate and complete deliverance of all the people of God. And only after all is fulfilled in Purim can there be a true Shabbat. For right now we celebrate Shabbat, yet we realize that when it is over, we will have problems. But in that day, when Shabbat comes, we will enter into it and never leave it. “'For as the new heaven and the new earth which I will make shall endure by My will,' declares the LORD, 'so shall your seed and your name endure. And Rosh Chodesh after Rosh Chodesh, and Shabbat after Shabbat, all flesh shall come up to worship Me,' said the LORD.“ Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 66:22

Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon, is emphasizing the fulfillment of the old heaven and earth and the re-creation of the perfect world which happens right after Purim. Even as the first month of the year, Aviv/Nisan, which is the month of Passover, begins a new year, it will begin a new creation. It will bring with it eternal peace without sin, a true Shabbat, and it can only come after the fulfillment of Purim. This is the fulfillment and the reality that Purim represents. What we are looking forward is actually to live Purim in the new heavens and the new earth.

Hag Purim Sameah — Happy Purim!

"YESHUA — THE NEW MISHKAN"

Parashah Ki Tisa starts with a concept that is lost in our society: we all have to contribute equally for the maintaining of our place of worship, the place from where we receive spiritual nourishment. "This they shall give, everyone who passes among those who are counted, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary; a half shekel shall be the offering of Yehovah. everyone who passes among those who are counted, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to Yehovah. the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering to Yehovah, to make atonement for your souls. and you shall take the atonement money of the people of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting; that it may be a memorial to the people of Israel before Yehovah, to make atonement for your souls.” Shemot (Exodus) 30: 13-16

This passage says that everyone is equal in God's eyes thus everyone should give an equal offering to Yehovah. The rich should not give more and the poor should not give less. In our society we think that the one who has more should contribute more, but this was not so under the Mosaic covenant. Everyone had to be an equal partner in building and maintaining the Mishkan, regardless of his social or economic status, by offering annually a half a shekel.

But this offering was not an ordinary offering. The beginning verse says in Hebrew: Ki tisa et-rosh bnei Yisrael, literally: “when you (Moshe) elevate the heads of the sons of Yisrael,” implying that the entire nation was to be “elevated” to a spiritual level in which the offering was to be made for a sacred cause. A high calling for Moshe and a high calling for present-day spiritual leaders as well. The entire nation of Yisrael was to come together for a common goal, to make atonement for their souls. But why half a shekel? The rabbis’ interpretation is that no Jew is complete unless he joins with others. As long as we are in isolation, each of us is only “half” thus lacking a spiritual completeness.

On the same line of thought, the Jewish apostles thought that we, too, as believers, are to come together for the uplifting of one another and not be "half shekel" believers. “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” James 5:16 “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another].” Hebrew 10:24

We need the support and the encouragement of one another. God did not give us the “half a shekel” to hoard it for ourselves, but to use it for His glory. If we receive equal blessings from our place of worship shouldn't we equally participate in building it?

Being equal in supporting our place of worship does not mean that we have equal calling, for the Torah further says: “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Yehudah. And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship.” Shemot (Exodus) 31:2-3

God called by name and gave Bezalel ben Uri, ben Hur, a godly spirit, with wisdom and understanding to build the Mishkan, its vessels and the priestly garments. So, too, you are called by name to participate in the building of the new Temple of the body of believers: “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Messiah.” Ephesians 4:11-12

The true enjoyment of our God given gifts comes not from possessing them, but from using them as God intended — in things that count for eternity, in the service for the saints, for one another.

Then Torah introduces another interesting concept regarding work, even work for a ministry, which somehow it is also lost in our society. “However, My Shabbats you shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am YHVH (Yehovah) Who makes you holy.” Shemot 31:13

“However,” implies that it does not matter how worthy is the work of building the Mishkan it must be stopped and not be done on Shabbat. It implies that obeying God’s commandments is more important than the object itself. The holiness comes from God - He makes us holy - not the building, not the altar or the priestly vestments. He is Holy and He is the only One who is Holy, and other persons, places or things are only holy as He has touched them, choosing them for His service. For example, Torah is not holy because of the parchment that it is written on, but it is holy because in it we find God's holy words. Oftentimes we elevate persons, projects, and objects to the status of idols, disregarding God's priorities.

One such priority is to observe the Shabbat in which we reconnect with God, in which we put aside all earthly preoccupations and concentrate on the spiritual ones, a commandment for all generations. "And the sons of Yisrael shall observe the Shabbat, to celebrate the Shabbat throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant.” Shemot (Exodus) 31:16

This Hebrew line became a beautiful prayer song for the Friday night service: "V'Shamru" (search YouTube for: "V'shamru (The Guardians) - The eternal covenant").

From other Biblical prophetic passages this word “everlasting” means forever - during the Biblical times, during the Talmudic times, during the New Covenant times, during the Millennium and during the Eternity. Our goal as individuals and as a congregation of Messianic believers is to bring the Good News to the Jewish people, and the first step in doing that is to observe the Shabbat. Without observing the Shabbat, we will always be outsiders, trying to “convert” them to a foreign religion.

But what does it mean to observe the Shabbat? It means to worship the Lord on the day that He chose, on the day that He sanctified, as it is explained by the prophet Isaiah: “If you restrain your foot because of the Shabbat, from pursuing your own pleasures on My Holy Day; and call the Shabbat a delight, the Holy Day of the Lord honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor pursuing your own pleasures, nor speaking of vain matters; then shall you delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Ya’akov your father.” Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 58: 13-14

Shabbat is a day to put aside all vain preoccupations, the profane - don’t even talk about them - and concentrate on doing the sacred by worshiping the Creator of the universe, and you will be rewarded with peace, joy and the heritage of Ya’akov. Why Ya’akov and not Avraham? Because from Ya’akov came the twelve tribes which formed the Jewish nation. Avraham had Yitzhak and Ishmael, and Yitzhak had Ya’akov and Esav, but Ya’akov, who later was renamed Yisrael, is the true father of the Jewish nation and thus the Jewish heritage. Observing the Shabbat not only preserves this Jewish heritage - the rich root of the olive tree of which Rav Shaul writes in the letter to the believers in Rome, chapter 11 - but also, becomes a witnessing tool for God as the creator of the universe, for the concept of Shabbat comes only from the Torah.

But, just as in our day-and-age, while we are in a spiritual uplifting state and delight ourselves in the Lord, haSatan is prowling around to see if he might somehow devour your joy (1 Peter 5:8), so, too, the Israelis experienced such an attack. While Moshe was on top of the mountain talking with God, something incomprehensible happened among the Jewish people, the sin of the Golden Calf. A cursory reading may seem as mass idol worship, but a careful analysis of the text reveals a different story. “And when the people saw that Moshe delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered around Aharon, and said to him, ‘Rise up, make us gods, which shall go before us; and as for this Moshe, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what became of him!’ And Aharon said to them, ‘Take off the golden ear rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.’ And all the people took off the golden ear rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aharon. And he received them from their hand, and bound it up and fashioned it into a molten calf; and they said, ‘This is your god, O Yisrael, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, ‘Tomorrow is a feast to Yehovah.’” Shemot 32:1-5

To understand what happened we have to read the entire passage, because only then we can understand four key issues: (1) who are “the people” who took off their rings; (2) who “made” the golden calf and for what purpose; (3) what God told Moshe up on the mountain and what Moshe understood; and (4) what Moshe did after he came down from the mountain.

— (1) “The people” it turns out - from 32:28 - were only about three thousand, a small number in comparison with the six hundred thousand men plus women and children which came out of Egypt — over a million souls. This number can hardly be construed as representing Israel. Also, these people may not have been Israelis in the first place, as the sentence from 32:4 alludes: “This is your god, O Yisrael.” They did not say “This is our god.” Therefore, we can conclude that they were not Hebrews but some outsiders, possible Egyptians, addressing the Jews. Regardless of who they were, these people did not blaspheme or deny Yehovah, they explicitly wanted just to replace Moshe, whom they believed was dead. The error of “these people” was that, believing Moshe was dead, they needed someone or something to represent them before God, to guide them further into their journey in the wilderness. To Aharon, who knew these people from the time of Egyptian idolatry, at first, it did not seem a strange request or a form of idolatry. Just as today, in error, sincere people have the need for a tangible intermediary to God in the form of a person, a building, a representation, or any other man-made religious practice.

— (2) Who made the Golden Calf? It is inconceivable that Aharon, the future High Priest, would make an idol for people to worship; also, he was never rebuked by God for this incident. What Aharon did, as explained in 32:25, was to gather the gold, bound it up, and throw it in the fire. It can be presumed that “the people” who requested it used some kind of Egyptian sorcery to make the Golden Calf, which, by the amount of gold brought to Aharon was not very big. When Aharon saw what came out, he built an altar and declared a festival for Yehovah, not for the calf.

— (3) God tells Moshe on the mountain exactly what happened and that He intends to annihilate “those people." But Moshe misunderstands who “those people” are and pleads for the entire Jewish nation.

— (4) As Moshe comes down from the mountain, he realizes what truly happened and does exactly what God wanted to do in the first place, annihilate “those people,” the trouble makers.

The sin of the entire nation was that they did not resist the calf worshipers and even joined in the revelry rebelling against Moshe. But, as the Brit Chadashah comments, they did not rebel against God but against His messenger: “This is the Moshe who said to the sons of Yisrael, 'God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren'… Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him (to Moshe), but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, saying to Aharon, 'make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moshe who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.' At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.” Acts 7:37-41

This "Prophet" of which Moshe spoke, came few hundred years later in the person of Yeshua and the Jewish people would again rebel against God's messenger.

Moshe, in his human compassion, pleaded with God for people's forgiveness and God forgave all who did not sin against Him (Shemot 32:33). Years later, the Jewish people rebelled against Yeshua, and just as Moshe pleaded for their forgiveness, so, too, Yeshua, while on the cross, pleaded for their sins to be forgiven even though they were unknowingly sinning against God incarnate. That was because Yeshua’s ministry was not just as of a messenger as Moshe’s was, but a ministry of righteousness as the Son of God who offered Himself as an atonement sacrifice. He was bought by the Temple priests with thirty pieces of silver shekels - atonement money - to make atonement for our souls, just as was prescribed in the earthly Mishkan, and in His compassion He extended forgiveness to all who were - and are - willing to come to Him and repent of their sins, to make "teshuvah." “Now if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the Bnei Yisrael were not able to gaze into the face of Moshe because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, then how much more will the ministry of the Ruach haKodesh come in glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, how much more abounds in glory the ministry of righteousness.” 2 Cor. 3:7-9

As magnificent as the Mishkan must have been it was only a shadow of the things from above. Through the belief and the faith in Yeshua we will be able to see the glory and the splendor of that heavenly Mishkan. For now though, we can only see dimly that glory in the body of believers which is the new spiritual Temple. The mystery of the "Ekklesia" is revealed in us coming together, Jews and Gentiles, and worshiping a God of mercy and compassion. Let us, therefore, all equally use our time, talents and treasures for the uplifting of this spiritual and glorious Mishkan, the Ekklesia.

Shabbat Shalom!