*Part 3 in a 4 part series on the Feasts of the LORD
In Madeline L' Engle's Walking on Water, a captivating reflection on art and its relation to faith - Madeline spreads a feast of thought before her reader. Sometimes her spread is deliciously worded and I'm truly in awe of the way she so poignantly puts her finger on the truth. Other times I feel as though I've had a revelation, and it's either very beautiful or very sad. And still other times, she presents ideas I do not agree with... or subscribe to anymore. But that's just the way with many books, isn't it?
But. When I came across this sentence from her chapter entitled, A Coal in the Hand, I caught my breath and sat there for a moment, reading the sentence again. (pg 73)
"Truth, for instance: we all want truth, that truth which Jesus promised would make us free. But where do we find it? How could it have happened that even in the church story has been lost as a vehicle of truth?"
She continues: (pg 74)
"Jesus told his friends and disciples over and over again that not only were they to let the little children come to him, but that they were to be like little children themselves."
" And to be able to be childlike involves memory; we must never forget any part of ourselves. As of this writing I am sixty-one years old in chronology. But I am not an isolated, chronological numerical statistic. I am sixty-one, and I am also four, and twelve, and fifteen, and twenty-three, and thirty-one, and forty-five, and... and... and... If we lose any part of ourselves, we are there by diminished."
And there she said it. Something I've been ruminating on for a while. Disconnection from any part of our story diminishes it's power in our lives. I have Dissociative Identity Disorder; I know my share about disconnection. Many precious things are lost when parts of your story are lost. Lets apply this to the real story of us. If we are to be as children in our Father's Kingdom, giddily rejoicing in the stories He tells of the nobodys He transforms into somebodys and the way nothing is impossible for Him... we are also beholden to obey His loving instructions - for His are the words of life! Scripture is replete with imperative commands to remember our God's mighty acts of power and to keep His Sabbaths; to remain in that seasonally rhythmic place of connection with the story He's writing still. Sadly, I have to draw our attention to a breach in our walls. Our enemy has severely disconnected us who we are truly, and what it means to be grafted into God's remnant people. He has twisted Scripture to withhold from us the HOW our Father gave us in His Word - to carry out His instructions and keep His story alive in our hearts.
I believe the heart of what L'Engle is expressing here finds its answer in the Feasts of the LORD. We have forgotten the story of us, yet God calls us to remember it. He commands us to. As the story-teller of the ages, the Great Artist invites us into His seasonal rhythms of rest, remembrance, convocation (or sacred assembly), and re-commitment to holiness (being set apart) through the act of remembrance. Our Maker has set us apart from the nations to be a uniquely peculiar people - a treasure unto Himself! His beautiful people made up of every tribe, nation, and tongue - formed and forged in the fires of tribulation - constrained by our love for the Great Artist. Only this people can be obedient unto death and still exclaim in the end:
HalleluYah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Revelation 19:6-7
I believe remembering the story of our Deliverance and rejoicing in the God of Israel is how our stony, stubborn, stiff-necked hearts become soft and pliable in the Potter's hands. Sanctification is an active prescription of surrender to the Potter's wheel. It is the abdication of our fleshly desires that gives God access to the deepest parts of ourselves. The day-in and day-out rhythm of a life that says, "Not my way - Yours" is how wrinkles are ironed and the bride is made ready.
It's really quite beautiful what memory does to the soul. When we remember Abraham and Jacob and Ephraim and Moses, we maintain our connection to the greater whole of our story. We understand who we are and how we fit into this tapestry of ages past and time immemorial.
Scripture tells us when YHWH met face to face with Moses, He dictated His loving instructions or Torah to him on Mount Sinai. Moses was then instructed to give this Torah to all of Israel including the foreigners living among them. When we put our faith in Yeshua - the God of Israel - He grafts us into His covenant people, and we become partakers of the covenant promises He gave to the commonwealth of Israel. (Ephesians 2, Galatians 3, Romans 11).
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29
On Mount Sinai, YHWH gave His people (you and me) six feasts and one fast that we are to "remember" each year in it's appointed time.
This word "feast" in Hebrew is the word 'moed'. From Strong's Definitions:
מוֹעֵד môwʻêd, mo-ade'; or מֹעֵד môʻêd; or (feminine) מוֹעָדָה môwʻâdâh; (2 Chronicles 8:13), from H3259; properly, an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); appointed (sign, time), (place of, solemn) assembly, congregation, (set, solemn) feast, (appointed, due) season, solemn(-ity), synogogue, (set) time (appointed)
The phrase 'sacred assemblies' is interpreted in other translations as 'holy convocations'. In Hebrew, it is the word 'miqra' and it means:
מִקְרָא miqrâʼ, mik-raw'; from H7121; something called out, i.e. a public meeting (the act, the persons, or the place); also a rehearsal:—assembly, calling, convocation, reading.
As an actor and artist, I find this especially wonder-inspiring! Leviticus 23 reveals that God has 7 annual appointments - each with it's own historical, prophetic, and personal significance - it's own story - upon which He asks His people (me and you) to 'practice' certain realities like a dress rehearsal until their fulfillment in Messiah.
Sadly, due to the intoxicating blindness of historical antisemitism, this two thousand year separation from the truth of who we are as those grafted into Israel. We are the fulfillment of prophecy! We are the fullness of the nations coming to salvation through Messiah - Abraham's seed! The two sticks becoming one in God's hand! The restoration of the full house of Israel! We fit right into this story like a perfectly grafted olive branch into His carefully tended olive tree. We were wild and lawless, but now we take on the form our Gardeners cultivates within us. (Genesis 22, 48; Ezekiel 37; Isaiah 42,49, 60, Jeremiah 31; Romans 11)
If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to check out a post I wrote a few years ago entitled: Jesus, Paul, Israel, & me, a story of unity. I dive into Yeshua's Good Shepherd teaching, preached sometime during the winter months, when Rome was celebrating Saturnalia (Christmas) and Jews were celebrating Hanukkah. John 10 has become a deeply emotional chapter for me to study, as I believe the backdrop of this powerful teaching is Yeshua's grief over the coming separation of "the Church" from "true Israel." Yeshua put His finger on the heartbeat of this whole big, beautiful story when He said:
I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd. John 10:14-16
We were never meant to be separated from our Biblical heritage as Israel; we were grafted into it! Our Good Shepherd has one flock - one bride - one body... Israel, of which Christ is the head.
Amazingly, and I mean amazingly (let this hit you!), the Lord's spring and summer feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and the Feast of Weeks, were fulfilled with Yeshua's first coming and the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Yeshua died on Passover as our spotless Passover lamb, taking away the sins of the world. He was in the grave for three 24 hour days, during which, He removed the guilt of sin by conquering death and the grave in our place, allowing us to truly enter into sanctification and the process of removing the leaven of sin from our lives. Then, He resurrected to new life on the Feast of Firstfruits the following Sunday, becoming the Firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-28). And finally, the promised Holy Spirit was given on Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) - the time in which Israel commemorates the summer harvest and the giving of YHWH's Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. (amazing!!!)
The autumn feasts, on Yah's awesome other hand, remain to be fulfilled at Yeshua's second coming. AND WE GET TO HOST DRESS REHEARSALS FOR THESE EXCITING EVENTS OF THE FUTURE!!! Who thought of this!? The beauty and perfection of this story and our annual remembrance of it blesses me beyond measure! Our Father truly thought of everything. He is so so GOOD!
For the sake of time, I'm going to forego any deeper study of the spring and summer feasts at this time, and leave my upcoming deep dives for the fall feasts that are quickly approaching. YAY!
Eschatology is the study of End-Time prophecy and I've been a student of it since 2003. It is so exhilarating to me to study prophecy - hence, The Passion Prophecies. We know from Scripture some very concrete events that will happen at the return of Christ. We know He will return with a trumpet blast (1 Thessalonians 4:16), that there will be a great and terrible Day of the Lord - on which the nations of the earth and all its peoples will be judged as sheep or goats (Matthew 25; Revelation 20:11-12), and that Yeshua will once again tabernacle among His people and live among us (Revelation 21). These three incredible events of the future are what YHWH commands us to remember, rehearse, and celebrate in His fall feasts.
There is so much to investigate and call to remembrance in this harvest season. I pray your heart is awakened with longing to understand the times and seasons we're living in - and these sacred appointments God has with His people.
Up next - a look into the LORD's Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles!
Shalom, shalom - love your story!
Natalie
Comments