Articles
He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
April 2020
When you read this, we will be moving on through Passover and Unleavened Bread Feasts toward the remembrance of Shavuot and “Counting the Omer” as we are instructed to do while commemorating the wait until the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. (It is called Pentecost by many today, simply the Greek word for “fifty.”)
HalleluYah! No power on earth or in the ranks of the powers, principalities, thrones or dominions of wickedness could stop our Father’s plan to redeem us from the power of sin! Because of Yeshua’s obedience, we are restored to relationship with our Father! It was established before the foundation of the earth was laid and what He says He will do, HE WILL DO!
When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them,
having triumphed over them through Him.
Colossians 2:15 NASB
Many believers are not familiar with this process today and are often confused as to how Messiah’s death and resurrection are connected with Pentecost/Shavuot. I see it as our Abba’s awareness that we finite human beings need patterns and reminders of His plan for how we are to walk, to help us prepare for That Day, when Messiah returns to gather His elect. Remember, too, that our God uses metaphorical meanings of numbers in His Word. The number three is always associated somehow with life, death and resurrection. As you read the Scripture references pertaining to these things, notice how often “three” makes an appearance! What we understand can and should influence how we live our lives, NOT just what we do “in church.”
The Foreshadowing:
Yeshua Messiah/Jesus is often called the Passover Lamb because He has already fulfilled all the pictures of what was to come that were given in the Feasts of the Lord for the Spring Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits; and Shavuot/Pentecost is under way. (Deu. 16: 1-8, Lev. 23) The story of the Israelites enduring their affliction until Moses was sent to deliver them is familiar to those with a church background. Moses was one “type” or foreshadowing of the Messiah so aspects of his life and events pictured what the Messiah, the Anointed One, would do. Our God demonstrated His power over all of the “little g” gods of the Egyptians through Moses and Aaron. After the first three plagues, He differentiated between the Israelites, who experienced no more while in the land of Goshen, and the Egyptians, who suffered through every one. The final event was the death of the first born of those who wouldn’t honor God. The Israelites were instructed to take a lamb without blemish, sacrifice it, place the blood on the doorposts of their homes, eat it all, and then remain in the home overnight. The angel of death then “passed over” the homes of those who had been obedient to God’s instruction, so again, they did not suffer the losses that the Egyptians did; though we suspect that there might well have been some Egyptians, the mixed multitudes, who had already gotten the message and MAY have joined them! If they hadn’t followed that direction and obviously marked their homes, they would not have been passed over. He then led them, through Moses, to the wilderness and Mount Sinai where they were given the written Words of His ways on two tablets. This event was called Shavuot, or “weeks;” the culmination of a seven-week count. It is spelled out in both Leviticus and Deuteronomy that this is to be counted as seven weeks from the time of the remembrance of the Passover. An “omer” is a unit of measurement of a dry grain, in this case barley. It is the state of the barley harvest that in part, determines the timing of our remembrance of Passover, and a new year. Barley is the grain that was being prepared as a grain offering for the 50th day.
Shavua is seven. Seven weeks of seven days each, 49 in all, looking to the 50th day. This is part of what is called a Jubilee cycle; briefly--involving redemption and release from debt. They had to sanctify themselves through confession, repentance and cleansing of themselves and their clothing in order to present themselves before God. It was spelled out again in the Word that they were to commemorate this first Exodus forever, remembering the sacrifice of the lamb that sheltered them while under its blood, in their homes. In effect, a family/nation that had seemed dead in slavery in Egypt, were expelled out, reborn through tribulation, to become alive again, and a force to be reckoned with indeed! They went to the mountain and received His word, this time written in stone, in the weeks following their rebirth.
One Realization of the Foreshadowing
Yeshua, Messiah was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, endured crucifixion for our sake, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day. When He came to Jerusalem, He was examined by the people and the priests, just as they would a four-legged lamb, and no fault was found in Him. False accusations were made. He permitted this to go on in order to full fill the promise of obedience to our Father’s plan of redemption. The Feast of Unleavened Bread follows Passover, a commemoration of His sinlessness, and a physical picture of leaven to represent sin, which needs to be removed from our lives. The third day after His death, fell within the Feast of Unleavened Bread and is called First Fruits.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20 NASB
Though Messiah told His disciples to expect these things ahead of time, they had difficulty understanding the full meaning of His words until after His resurrection. He revealed Himself to them on a number of occasions over the next 40 days, which would be the time period in which they were already Counting the Omer, preparing for that Jubilee on the 50th day. There was a reason why they were all “in the house” waiting!
…To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to
them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering
them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had
promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 1: 1-5 NASB
Future Realization of the Foreshadowing
Just as the Israelites were in bondage in a strange land, so are we in a society that overwhelmingly does NOT honor our God. So much so, that the general population and many church members do not have a strong understanding of His Word. Even many who do study the Word are told that the OT is no longer relevant so they miss these beautiful thematic pictures that form the foundation of how our God intervenes. Too many times I hear things like this: “Oh, we have already lost that battle against _____fill in the blank: homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion____ so we might as well just live with it.” That would be called “compromise” or as I like to say “the go along to get along gang.” Too often, we mistake the culture around us as our measuring stick for what is normal and right!
Moses was the shadow picture of the substance, Messiah, Who has also walked through a series of events that led to His providing a way for God’s people to be reborn “back to life” and relationship with the Father, through His shed blood.
The next picture we need to recognize is that it isn’t enough to simply SAY we believe, but we must demonstrate our acceptance of His ways, and acknowledge that we can’t accomplish this on our own. We must act and put His blood on the doorposts of our “house” and be counted among those who follow Him. Even when it isn’t popular to do so. ESPECIALLY when it isn’t popular to do so. That is what it means to be set apart/holy! Having cleaned our metaphorical “homes” of leaven and sin, we actively wait and count in anticipation, as we are now fit vessels for Him to show Himself ever more clearly in His power as He pours out on us at Shavuot/Pentecost. He came in the flesh that first time to write His Word on our hearts, and soon will be returning for those who have acted on His Word in faith through the empowerment of His Spirit.
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
James 2:17 NASB