Tag: passover

Parashah Vayikra (He Called) Leviticus 1 – 5

Leave a comment

This Shabbat Torah reading begins with the 3rd book of the Torah, Vayikra, or Leviticus.

God tells Moses the rules and procedures for presenting offerings before the Lord. He goes through each type of offering, which animals or substitutes are allowed, and which type of sin the offering is intended to absolve us from.

The 5 main offering are:

  1. Burnt Offering – represents total commitment where the entire animal is used
  2. Grain Offering – this offering can be either grain (never with any leavening) or first fruits. There is a memorial portion that is sacrificed, the rest going to the Cohen. All grain offerings must also include salt.
  3. Peace Offering – This offering is also a thanksgiving offering, and although not stated in this parashah, we are told that the entire animal is not burned and that the parts allowed to be eaten shall be eaten there, in the presence of the Lord (Chapter 22); we are also reminded here that the fat and the blood are the Lord’s and we are never to eat them.
  4. Sin Offering – when someone sins unintentionally and then is made aware of it or realizes it, they must make this offering. This is covered for the entire community, leaders, commoners, and even allows for the poor by allowing lesser items of value to be offered if someone cannot afford the animal from the flock or herd.
  5. Guilt Offering – this seems, at this juncture, to be the same as the sin offering, assuming that the sin was unintentional. As we get further into this chapter we realize that the guilt offering is more for unintentional sins and the sin offering is for sins that were more from volition and forethought than accidental.

These are pretty much cut-and-dried chapters. What I find interesting is that God assumes that the sins we are making restitution for are unintentional. You would think He knew better, right? He sees our heart and knows our thoughts, desires and wants. He just has to understand that we do, often, sin on purpose. Yet, in His forgiving, compassionate way He instructs Moses and the people about restitution for sin by stating that when you sin unintentionally. I can understand one reason why God might take this approach: He’s God! Who would ever expect anyone to purposefully try to piss Him off? Especially after seeing and hearing Him at Mt. Sinai, in all His glory, majesty and awe! Really- who would want to mess with God by sinning on purpose?

I guess the answer to that is: everyone. I mean, that’s what happened, right? Just about everyone sinned; Moses (at Mirabah), Aaron (the golden calf), Miriam (with Aaron, again, in Numbers 12), Dathan, Abiram, Aaron’s oldest sons, the guy who picked up sticks on Shabbat, the people who gathered extra Manna….everyone!

Later on we get more details about the sacrificial system. I think it helps to understand these different sacrifices so that we can better understand the Bible. For instance, when we sacrificed the lamb for Passover it was, by definition, a peace/thanksgiving offering, not a sin offering. Yet, although Yeshua’s sacrificial death was a sin offering, He is called the Pesach Lamb. The Pesach (Passover) lamb was not a sin offering, so why do we call Jesus’s death a peace offering when it was a sin offering?

Good question. I think it might simply be an association without understanding- He died on Passover and the lamb was killed on Passover, ergo: Pesach lamb.

On the other hand, it might be from a deeper understanding of what He did and what it allowed to happen. He died for our sins: clearly, that is a sin sacrifice. However, with His death the parochet (curtain) in the Temple was torn, top to bottom, representing that the separation between God and people was removed. When two beings are separated, then they are allowed to come together, doesn’t that promote peaceful relations?  Isn’t that something we should be thankful for?

Yeshua’s death was more than a sin sacrifice, it was a total sacrifice, a combination of all the offerings in one. His entire body was given up (burnt offering), He was without leaven and His blood was the salt of the covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31 (grain), He was a lamb without blemish (peace) and although sinless, he took on all the sins, known and unknown, of all the people, everywhere and for all time (sin and guilt.)

Understanding the (seemingly) minute details of the sacrificial system help us to understand the broader impact of Yeshua’s sacrifice.

Some things in the Bible seem minute, unimportant and even obsessively recorded, yet there is always purpose in what God has told us. Faithful reading of every word in the Word is worthy of your time and energy- you never know what the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) will reveal to you.

Parashah Bo (Go) Exodus 10 – 13:16

Leave a comment

The last three plagues fall upon Egypt: the locusts, 3 days of darkness and the death of the firstborn. With this last and most terrible plague, Pharaoh is humbled before God and allows the people to leave without condition. In fact, he pretty much kicks them out. The rules for the Passover Seder and the festival of unleavened bread are also given in this parashah, as well as the Lord telling Moses that this is to be the first day of the year for the Jewish people.

The sacrifice of the lamb is very different here than anywhere else in the Tanakh. This lamb was to be chosen on the 10th day of the month (Nisan in the current Jewish calendar, Abib back then) and then taken into the house- separated from the rest of the flock and treated, almost, like a family pet. Then it was to be slaughtered in the late afternoon to evening of the 14th day, roasted whole over a fire and eaten in it’s entirety.  Anything that was not eaten was to be burned up completely.

We always hear Yeshua referred to as the Lamb of God, and the Paschal (Passover) Lamb, and His sacrificial death is the ultimate sin sacrifice, through which we all are able to be forgiven.

We may be wrong in calling Yeshua the “Passover Lamb” because the Passover lamb wasn’t a sin sacrifice!

The Passover lamb was not a sin sacrifice: it was a friendship offering.  There are 5 types of offerings, or Korbanot:

  1. the burnt offering- represents total submission to God’s will and the entire animal is burnt on the altar at the Temple
  2. the sin offering- this was for unintentional sins, and the part that was eaten was eaten only by the Kohanim (Priests)
  3. the guilt offering- this sacrifice was for any sins that may have been committed but the person is unaware of them. It’s like insurance, and the eaten part was eaten only by the Kohanim
  4. the food and drink offering- this is another type of friendship or thanksgiving offering, devoting to God the fruit or work of our labor. The items sacrificed are not naturally made but man-made items which we devote back to God. Whatever portion is to be eaten is to be eaten by the Kohanim
  5. The peace, thanksgiving or friendship offering- this was obligatory for survivors of life-threatening crises and included free-will offerings, and offerings made after fulfillment of a vow. The essential difference between the peace offering and all the other offerings is that only the peace offering is eaten by both the Kohanim and the one making the offering. This was shared between God, the Kohan and the one making the offering.

Thus, the Passover lamb that was slaughtered was not a sin offering at all- it was a thanksgiving offering (in Hebrew, Todah / תודה) so we can’t really call Yeshua the Paschal Lamb because that lamb was not a sacrificial death to absolve us of sin.

On the other hand, the peace offering was designed to bring us closer to God, as all the sacrifices were meant to do, and with Yeshua’s death the Parochet was torn from top to bottom, representing that the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the common person was no longer there. And this was an act of God because it was ripped from top to bottom, from Heaven to Earth, from God to Man. So when Yeshua died, His death not only was a sin sacrifice, as we would do on Yom Kippur, but was also a peace offering.

Yeshua’s sacrifice, the offering of His life, performed a dual purpose under the sacrificial system- the sin offering to cleanse us before God, and the peace offering to bring us in total communion with God.

The Passover was supposed to be shared with family and those who have been circumcised and joined to the people of Israel (sojourners with the people) and as such no one who is not a “Believer”, if we can use that term, is supposed to partake. I have shared my Passover seder with people who are not Jewish; in fact, Donna and I try to invite people who are not Jewish and have never been to a seder to introduce them to the roots of their religion. If anyone is a member of any of the Judeo-Christian religions, then the Passover seder should be for them since they are followers of God. How often have you heard me say that God has no religion? So if they believe in God then they should partake of the Passover seder. Well, that’s my feeling.

I also feel they should be made aware of the fact that God’s laws and rules in the Torah are valid for them, too. In fact, not just valid, not just a good idea, but required.

I think it is interesting that the Passover seder is probably one of the most well-known Jewish celebrations, and that Yeshua (Jesus) is called the Passover Lamb by nearly everyone, yet His sacrificial death was not the same as the passover lamb’s death. His death at Passover represented what the Yom Kippur sacrifice is to do. The two biggest Jewish festivals, Passover and Yom Kippur, were brought together in one event with the sacrificial death of Messiah Yeshua. He freed us from sin and brought us into communion with God, which is what is happening in the parashot we are reading tonight. We read how the people are freed, and soon the people come to Mt. Horeb (Sinai) and there they commune with God.

Is there a parochet still separating you from God?  The curtain in the Temple was woven material, thick and heavy, but is there a parochet in your life that you can’t see? Do you obey the commandments that are in the Torah? Do you follow what God says to do? Do you believe that you should do as Jesus did?

I believe there is a parochet thicker, heavier and more impossible to penetrate than the one in the Temple of Solomon- it is called “religion”, and it is what separates us from God. It separates us from God because it rejects His laws (I am not just talking about Christianity- even within Judaism many of the Jews today who are reform or conservative ignore and reject Torah laws as obsolete) and acts, thereby, as an idol. The biggest complaint Yeshua had against the Pharisees was that they gave man-made traditions precedence over God’s laws. Rules made by people that take precedence over the rules given to us by God: this is what I consider the absolute definition of “religion.”

People need to read the bible, from Genesis through Revelations, and recognize it is one book, Christianity was not created by Yeshua (it was created by Constantine) and the commandments God gave us in the Torah are the only rules and regulations that we are to follow. At the end of Deuteronomy Moses writes that anyone who adds to or detracts from the laws written in that book will suffer all the plagues of Egypt. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to deal with that.

Read the book, the whole book, and see for yourself that there is nothing “new” in the New Covenant  and understand that Yeshua died so we could be free of sin once and for all, and that the parochet that was torn was supposed to stay torn.

Don’t let your ‘man’-dated worship of God repair the parochet.

 

 

 

Everything is Wonderful, Everything is Great, It’s Just That….

Leave a comment

Do you read “Ann Landers?” “Dear Abby?” Maybe, “Ask Amy?” I do: not so much for the gossipy kind of stuff you get, or to take pleasure in hearing about other people’s problems (making mine seem less),  but as fodder for this ministry blog.

If you do read these columns, even only once in a while, I hope you also think, “How can they say that?”  They say they have a wonderful spouse with wonderful children and a wonderful marriage of x-number of years, then say that they think their husband is having an affair, or their kids are on drugs, or their spouse is excluding them for no reason!

Or any other number of serious problems. And how often are they the real problem, but they fail to face it?

I appreciate the difficulty of writing a column like that, although the one thing you never have to worry about is, “Gee- will I have enough mail from people with problems to write a full column today?” That is the easy part- there will be plenty of mail if you offer to answer people’s problems. The hard part is being correct in determining what they should do.

These “advice columns”, as they are called, are to me a clear and present example of just how many lost sheep there are in the world, with no shepherd because they haven’t turned to God. The world is a godless place not because God isn’t present, but because the world refuses to seek Him out.

Maybe if God was to write to Dear Abby,  it would read something like this:

I have a wonderful relationship with many of my children, which has lasted since I created them, and I have had a lot of kids, but there are so many of them that just won’t listen to me. I have given them life, food, water, and shelter; I have told them and showed them how much I love them, and yet most of them look to others for love. They sell their souls to my worst enemy because he offers them the things I know are bad for them. I just feel like they don’t love me anymore, and it was so nice in the beginning. All I want is for them to have a wonderful and joyous existence, but they just don’t want to listen to me. What can I do? I even sacrificed my first born son so they can have these things, but they reject Him, too. Here I have given them the opportunity to have total joy and peace, forever, and they choose something that feels nice for a moment but will lead to eternal pain! Help me, Abby! What can I do or say that I haven’t done already to make them listen to me?

That’s a tough one. I don’t know if Abby can handle this one: I know I have no “pat” answer. I guess the only answer one could offer is that this is how some people are- they just refuse to listen, to do what is best. Maybe God needs a bit of a wake-up call, i.e., maybe we need to suggest to God that when He gave us free will He set Himself up for heartache. If we, as humans, can make our own choices about what we want to do, then there will be those that will choose the wrong things.  And God, since you did give those kids their own choice, knowing that their hearts are sinful and self-absorbed, why would you be surprised when they choose the enemy’s choice tidbits and immediate rewards instead of the hard road that You offer? True, Your Son Yeshua went through a lot to make it possible for your children to find their way home again, but that path is hard because it goes against the world’s desires. You offer them the best that there could ever be, but not when they want it, and not the way they like it.

That’s true, isn’t it? God offers us eternal joy and peace, but not the way we want it, and not when we want it. Maybe God knows better than we do?  Maybe God knows something we don’t? Maybe this life isn’t all there is, and maybe this life wasn’t meant to be all we have?

Maybe, just maybe, this life is nothing more than preschool for eternity? Really! In preschool we learn to develop our muscles and motor skills, we develop our social skills, we learn to play with others, we learn how to speak better, to do things better, and we even get sick faster, which gives us anti-bodies which make us stronger and healthier when we grow up.

Preschool is how we learn to survive in the world, and life is what we are given to make our choice where we will spend eternity.

Maybe the answer to the question I hypothesize above is simply that God knew what He was doing when He created us, and when He gave us free will, and He has done all that He can do. Just keep loving us, and be happy for the ones that choose Him over the world and the enemy. He has made salvation available to all His children, but only a very few, a remnant, will choose life.

This past weekend we were reminded of the choice that Yeshua made for all of us: He chose to do His Father’s will. It cost Him a lot at the moment, but He gained everything that there ever will be that is truly wonderful. And He gained it not just for Himself, but for every one of us. All we need to do is accept it.

Many, many people, and most of the ones I know and love in my own circle of friends and family, have chosen to accept only what they want to accept, even when (I think) in their heart of hearts they know they have chosen what is easy and not really what they need to choose. It is easier to think that all I need to be is a “good person” and I will go to heaven, which is what many people are taught. If that is true, then why did Yeshua have to die? What is “good”, after all? Is it “good” according to the world or “good” according to God? If God is the judge, then shouldn’t you be doing what He considers “good?” He tells us what He considers “good”- doing everything in the Torah. It’s that simple- live your life in total accordance with the Torah and you will be “good” according to God’s definition. Well, “good” luck with that! No one ever has (except Yeshua, of course), and even though it isn’t all that hard, we just can’t do it. Not every minute of every day. So what is left? Yeshua’s sacrificial death, that’s what: and that is why being “good” isn’t going to be “good” enough! So wake up, people! Get with the program! You need to accept Yeshua as your Messiah AND you need to accept your own sinfulness. You’re NOT a good person; at least, not in comparison with God’s definition. That’s OK- it doesn’t mean you are a bad person, it just means you are a human being.

Accept who you are and what you are so that you can accept Him. Being baptised when you aren’t even old enough to know your right hand from your left isn’t going to make any difference, and going through some religious ceremony (when you are told by parents and religious leaders alike that you have to do this ) won’t make any difference, either. Catechism, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Baptism, Confirmation: none of it matters if you did it because you were told you had to, and not because you wanted to choose God. That’s a hard word to hear, but it is one that will set your feet on the path to life, so take the carrots out of your ears and hear! As Yeshua said, “Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

I am saddened when I read about these poor lost souls who need to get personal and spiritual guidance from a newspaper. Nothing against the people writing these columns, but really? A total stranger in a cubicle somewhere is telling me how to be loved and how to treat others? Isn’t all that in the Bible? Didn’t God tell us how to live, how to treat others and how they should treat us? Can an advice columnist give me eternal joy? Can a newspaper be as influential as the Bible? Is the Op-Ed better for me than the Word of God?

Go to the source, read the ultimate User’s Manual, and get your head on straight! This past weekend we have seen and heard of God’s deliverance; from Egypt, from sin, and from destruction of our very souls! Are you listening out there? If you are, and if you have made the choice Yeshua made, which was and is to do God’s will, then go out there and show people. Let your light shine on their darkness, and let them see what a difference God has made in your life.

I confess I am no better at demonstrating all the wonderful things God has done for me than anyone else. I ask you to be better than me at showing what God has done for you, so that maybe through you someone else will make the right choice.

One less letter to the newspapers, and one more soul in heaven. That’s a trade-off I can live with!

Parashah Pesach (Exodus 12:21 – 12:51)

1 Comment

Weren’t we in the book of Leviticus last week? How’d we get back to Exodus?

Today, actually tonight, begins Passover (‘Pesach’, in Hebrew.) As such, this being one of the most important and happiest of all the Holy Days God gave us, we read this portion of the Torah and then get back to Vayikra next week.

Passover is a Holy Day that is somewhat misunderstood, by both Jews and Christians. If you ask most any Jewish person how long Passover lasts, I’ll bet the answer you get is “7 days”, but that’s wrong. “Passover” only lasts from evening until midnight, when the angel of death passed over Egypt. The 7 days that we fast (no leavened products, i.e.. nothing with yeast) is called Hag Ha Matzot. It is the Feast of Unleavened Bread that lasts 7 days. Another thing that is misunderstood is that Passover is when God said we should celebrate the new year; God never said that Rosh HaShannah is the Jewish new year. In Exodus God tells Moshe that this day (the day the Jews left Egypt) is to be the first day of your year. Rosh HaShannah, the Jewish New Year, is a Rabbinical holiday and not a God ordered Holy Day. The day that it is celebrated on is a God-ordered Holy Day, but that day is called (by God) Yom Teruah, or Day of Trumpets. It is a memorial day.

From the Christian viewpoint, because of the undeniable association of the sacrificial death of Yeshua (Jesus) on the day after Passover, leading to His resurrection on the third day (Sunday, the beginning of the Jewish week, as we are told in the Bible) the sacrifice of the Passover lamb is considered to be what Yeshua underwent, which was a sacrifice to absolve us of our sin. Especially since He is often referred to as the Lamb of God. Even the Jewish people, for the most part, believe that the Pesach lamb was a sin sacrifice.

Oh, oh…not so, oh no. The Passover lamb was sacrificed, yes, but it was a thanksgiving sacrifice, a peace offering, not a sin or guilt offering.

Go back and read the first chapters of Leviticus we just went through- it describes how the different sacrifices are to be administered by the Kohen. There is only one type where the person offering the sacrifice also partakes in the eating of the sacrifice, and that is the peace offering. God demands that the Passover lamb be roasted and eaten by those offering it, so that makes the Passover sacrifice a peace offering, not a sin offering.

But didn’t Yeshua offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin? Yes, He did. Well, when do the Jewish people offer their sin sacrifice? That’s on Yom Kippur.

You see, Yeshua is both sides of the coin, so to speak: His sacrifice to overcome our sin was on Passover, and the Passover sacrifice is a peace offering to God. When we think about it, isn’t the Messiah supposed to bring us all back into relationship with God?  So when He sacrificed Himself as a sin offering, didn’t that also allow us to come into relationship with God? Wasn’t the curtain torn from the top down? From God to us? When Yeshua died on that execution tree, His sacrifice was both the sin sacrifice that comes at Yom Kippur (the final one that will be at the End of Days) and the peace offering that brings us back into relationship with God. His sacrifice counted then as two- the sin sacrifice to cleanse us before God and the peace offering that will bring us into relationship with God. They may be a little backwards to us, since our time is linear, but God’s time is different. What Yeshua did back then was for then, and for now, and for the rest of time; one sacrifice to accomplish two things, from then until forever.

Isn’t God just amazing?!? It gives you goose-bumps. Now do you see the real association between Passover and Yom Kippur? We usually associate Passover with freedom from physical slavery and follow it up with Shavuot, the giving of the Law on Sinai as a “one-two punch” against sin. For those that accept Yeshua’s Messianic calling as true, these two Holy Days also represent the freedom from spiritual slavery and the giving of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, which only because of Yeshua’s sacrifice can now indwell forever. Prior to Yeshua the Ruach fell on the person, but was lifted up later. Only because of Yeshua can that Ruach now indwell and remain.

And there’s another misunderstanding- as nicely as this all fits, Passover is not really associated with Shavuot, but with Yom Kippur. Passover and Yom Kippur are the two sides of the same coin, sacrifice for sin to cleanse us and peace offering to bring us back into relationship with God. Again I ask, isn’t that what the Messiah is supposed to do?

I also do two things at once to my Christian friends at this time of the year: I teach them by kidding with them and rebuking them at the same time. I ask them if they ever considered that as they are celebrating and honoring the resurrection of Yeshua, they are eating something that He would find to be an abomination and an insult on His table?

Think about it before you buy that Easter ham. Also think about it when you have bread and cake all next week. Yeshua told his Talmudim (Disciples) to beware the Hametz (yeast) of the Pharisees;  Yeshua and all His followers fasted from yeast during the celebration of Hag ha Matzot. Do you want to do as Yeshua did? Do you really want to please God?

If you do not normally fast during the 7 days after passover, try it. I am sure there are many who fast from something for a day or a week to get closer to God. Don’t you think that fasting as God says you should would bring you that much closer to pleasing Him? To being in communion with Him?

Forget the ham- do a turkey or a chicken. No lamb- that is not allowed because the lamb is the demanded sacrifice and it must be done at the Temple, but the Temple doesn’t exist anymore so we don’t do lamb on Passover. Chicken, turkey, maybe a nice brisket, no bread- only matzah for the next week. No cakes, no nothing with any yeast in it at all.

Try it. Do what God says and He promises to bless you (read Deuteronomy 28.) Don’t get all caught up in that drek about obeying Torah means you aren’t under the blood- that’s nothing but a bunch of fertilizer taught by those who don’t understand and don’t want to obey God to those who don’t want to make their own decision about how to worship God.

Here are my two most favorite ways to eat matzah: spread butter lightly over it with salt (warm the butter a bit first or it will crack the matzah)- YUM!!! And for breakfast eat Matzah Brei: soak matzah in warm water, when it’s soft wring out the water (carefully) and then drench the matzah is an egg wash with a little milk (and cinnamon), then fry in a frying pan greased with butter. Serve hot with syrup or sugar. It’s sort of a Jewish french toast, and I cannot believe you won’t LOVE it!

Chag  Sameach!!

Parashah Bo (Go) Exodus 10:1-13:16

Leave a comment

Here we see the final culmination of the plagues against Egypt. So far the plagues have destroyed much of their cattle and most of their crops, but the locusts are coming to finish off everything that wasn’t already destroyed. Next, three days of darkness: the ultimate defeat of Ra, the sun god and their major diety.

Finally, the coup de grasse: the death of all the firstborn. And with this horrible plague comes both the end of Hebrew slavery, and the beginning of the Nation of Israel. It is the first day of the first month of their existence as a free nation. You know that expression, “This is the first day of the rest of your life?” I think this is where it started.

The sacrifice of the Passover lamb, however, is somewhat misunderstood, especially when we refer to the sacrificial death of Yeshua/Jesus during that fateful 1st Century Pesach celebration.

Yeshua is often referred to as the Lamb of God, or the Paschal Lamb. But the passover lamb sacrifice was not a sin sacrifice. The sin sacrifice was to be presented and killed at the tabernacle. There would be a portion given to the Priest and the rest was to be burned on the alter. The remainder portion for the Priest was to be eaten in a holy place, and only by the male priests. The blood was to be sprinkled against the altar and poured onto the ground.

That is not the regulation for the passover lamb.

The peace offering is treated differently. With a peace offering the person presenting the offering is allowed to eat the flesh, and can share it with others. The Passover Seder is exactly that- a peace offering that is shared with others. It is not a sin offering.

Yeshua may be called the Paschal lamb, but His death was a sin sacrifice. The paschal lamb is a peace offering.

It was Pharaoh who should have been making a sin offering. Although he didn’t have any intention of doing so, the Lord made that choice for him. The choicest of Pharaoh’s possessions were being sacrificed to the Lord to atone for the sins he had committed against God’s people. And even though Pharaoh had no intention of doing so, he did make a sin sacrifice: he lost his first born, and the firstborn of all his people. And from then on, the first born of both people and animals from the nation of Israel belonged to the Lord.

At the same time the people of Israel were making a peace sacrifice to the Lord, the people of Egypt were making a sin sacrifice to the Lord. There was a peace offering, and a sin offering; there was communion and there was punishment. Two sides of the same coin.

Fifteen hundred years after the first Passover, as the people were making their peace offering, Yeshua was offering up His own body as a sin offering for the people. It was history repeating itself, anew. The Passover in Egypt was the beginning of the physical freedom from slavery, and the Passover in Jerusalem 1,500 years later was the beginning of the spiritual freedom from sin. We normally associate these two freedoms on Shavuot, 50 days (give or take) after the Passover Seder, but it really happened after dusk on the night of that Seder.

God commanded that on Yom Kippur we perform the sin sacrifice for all the people, yet Yeshua was a sin sacrifice for all the people on Passover? What’s with that?

Yeshua is both sides of the coin- He is both the sin sacrifice and the ultimate peace offering. His sacrifice was first for the sin of the people while they enjoyed a peace sacrifice. When He returns, he will be bringing peace and communion to the people of God while the rest of the world will be suffering for their sin. Passover and Yom Kippur are the two sides of the coin of salvation. The first Passover saw the sin offering of the Egyptians (their firstborn) and the peace offering of Israel. The Passover of salvation saw the sin offering of God’s firstborn and the peace offering of Israel. The final Passover (which may not be on Passover, but more likely will be around Yom Kippur) will see the sin offering of the world and the final and eternal peace for those who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah.

Peace and suffering, two sides of the same coin and both working together to make salvation possible.

If you aren’t sure which side you are on, ask God for forgiveness, accept Yeshua as your Messiah and ask Him to send to you the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit.) Then start to read the Bible through the eyes of God’s Spirit so you can truly see what He has in there for you.