The Torah, Images of Messiah
Symbols, illustrations, traditions, stories and archetypes ——all of which told the Hebrew people ahead of time what the coming Messiah would one day do and how they will be able to recognize Him when He would come. These patterns and ways were also literal instructions on how to live life, which became cultural customs and over time perhaps rote motions.
But within every word picture, behind every ritual and practice are revelatory implications. Every bit of God’s Torah is about Messiah in picture or rehearsal form and pointed to the redemptive work He would perform on behalf of every person on earth.
Yeshua told the Pharisees in John 5:46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. Moses wrote about Yeshua. Encrypted within in the entire Tanach we see all prophetic events that must come to pass through the redemptive and restorative plans of Messiah.
It perplexed Yeshua that two of His disciples were forlorn after his execution and burial. Finding them walking down the road he said to them;
“Why can’t you understand? How can you be so slow to believe all that the prophets said? 26 Didn’t you know that the Messiah would have to suffer before he was given his glory?” 27 Jesus then explained everything written about himself in the Scriptures, beginning with the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets. of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me.” John 24:25-27
It wasn’t until Yeshua broke bread and prayed that their eyes were opened, and they recognized who He was. It was at that moment that the Holy Spirit unveiled what was hidden.
The ways of God are higher than ours. – He knows all – transcending beyond all that man can comprehend. It is a spiritual veil that keeps us from the hidden things of God.
It is as if we are young children to God. His self-disclosure is rated “G” but the deeper things of the Spirit require His Holy Spirit guidance.
Children are simple minded
Babies are not born speaking a language nor do they have the capacity to communicate effectively or reason in any way. Words are complicated. So, we simplify – repeating one word at a time. Slowly, annunciating every syllable with purposeful voice inflection. We show them pictures. We speak tenderly with expression. We become ecstatic when they repeat a word back to us.
There may be a picture of a ball in a book. We would say the word and point to the picture.
We may even introduce a ball – the child takes it and almost always either by encouragement or maybe instinctively throws it and watches it roll or bounce. Their observance teaches them that they have a distinct role to play with that ball. They throw – it bounces. We may get on the floor and roll the ball back in forth. Starting the slow process of teaching and interacting with the baby and the ball. We don’t stand an 18-month-old up in the back yard and say ok son, catch this 85-mile an hour curve ball. No – The ball is introduced on a primary level and over time the child learns and obtains experience, then develops skills and maturity.
To God, we are like babies when it comes to growing in the knowledge of the Lord and His ways. He is patient with us. Showing us pictures. Throughout the Tanach, His truths are hidden in symbols and illustrations. Many of the things He has told us to do –we do without question – not totally understanding why. We try to observe Shabbat and the feasts but still not sure if we are totally understanding all the ins and outs. These observances are called convocations in the Bible. A better English translation would be “rehearsals” inferring that there’s something more revelatory coming concerning these “rehearsals” that is on an official or final level . Perhaps in time we will graduate from the little red ball to that 85 mile an hour curve ball in our spiritual understanding.
God speaks to us in pictures
Have you ever thought about how elementary the Words of Yeshua really are?
He gives us pictures describing Himself in His Word. It’s like He’s trying to introduce Himself to us in rudimentary terms.
Yeshua often explains concepts addressing his audience as “my children” speaking to us as if with picture flashcards.
I am the door (I will open and let you come into higher places) .
I am the pathway (I will show you how and where to walk).
I am the good shepherd (I am gentle, you can trust me, I will take care of you).
I am the chief cornerstone (I will hold you up – I will support you).
I am the Lamb going to the slaughter (I am the innocent one willing to die for you).
I am the bridegroom (I desire a lifelong relationship with you).
God is all knowing, He is all powerful and He loves us. He comes down to our level (like we do with a baby) and communicates with us. He gets on the floor and rolls the ball. He talks to us in concrete pictures that hint toward deep spiritual concepts. When the deeper spiritual meanings of God’s word are understood then revelation explodes inside of our soul, and we see powerful connections into the plans and purposes of God.
The Picture of The Wedding
Everyone employs some wedding traditions on their big day. Weddings are steeped with one tradition after another. Many don’t question traditions like – carrying the bride over threshold, bridal bouquets, wedding rings, the throwing of rice etc. And while some of our wedding traditions may be pagan at their root —-many are Biblical and come from pictures straight from God’s WORD.
Marriage and the Wedding are pictures Yeshua uses repeatedly throughout the Bible.
It is so frequent that it must be important. And the depictions must have great spiritual implications. Marriage was patterned AFTER God’s intrinsic love for His creation.
God communicates a deeper mysterious devotion for us. God is Spirit and His creation is physical. God, the Spiritual Entity and the human believer, the physical entity are united together as the two make a whole or sum total of both. When the Holy Ghost comes upon you and dwells within you, it is then a phenomenon manifesting in a Spiritual consummation.
In fact, we often talk about how a ministry, or a situation gets “birthed” from the spirit into the natural. We read that the Earth itself will go through “labor pains” as God unfolds His plans in the end of Days. When someone leads another to the Lord, they often consider themselves a “spiritual parent” to their spiritual sons and daughters. The Bible is full of marital and consummation pictures.
The Created Being
God’s love relationship with us started from the foundation of the world. It was the beginning of a love story. He created man from the elements of His physical creation, the Earth. But the elements of the Earth are just compound matter. Clay has no intrinsic life,
and minerals are not animate.
Within these elements of what makes up humankind, God did the most beautiful and intimate thing. He took this composite of dust and minerals and breathed into His new creation His own “life-spirit”. Some ancient teachers call this “the Spark” as a human being takes a breath and the ignition comes on – the child is now alive. The actual meaning of the letter Hay is “breath”. It is taught by rabbis that your breath is His Name being spoken all day as you breathe. This means that we “calling” on His Name every day – all day, until breath leaves us and the body returns to dust and His breath or spirit life returns back to Him. Two times the letter hay appears in God’s Name (Yud hay vav hay). A beautiful picture of breathing in – and breathing out.
I’ve witnessed the birth of 7 of my own grandchildren and with every one of them I witnessed the refreshing chill of the Spirit wind blow through the room as they took their very first tiny breaths.
God is active in procreation. We know from His Word that it is God that forms our physical bodies in the womb.
Thus, says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb. Is. 44:24
He told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Jer 1:5
Could it be before we were formed ….in the womb – “He actually knew us – before there was physical evidence of our bodies? Yes!
Psalm 71:6 is most curious and gives us another clue;
“Upon you -I have leaned (camak) from before my birth.
Have we really leaned upon God before our birth? The Hebrew word “camak” means – established – sustained or resting on. Apparently – not only did God know us before we were born but we, His creation, were cognizant of Him – we leaned on Him, depended on Him. We were established by Him before we were born.
What was this relationship that we had with God? And why don’t we remember it?
When we are born in the flesh, we are born with a loss of spiritual memory. I call it spiritual amnesia. We, in our spirit, were once with God in the Spirit realm but when we are born into the flesh – we all were subject to spiritual amnesia and a mental deficit.
So, a baby aided by their parents and then their teachers learn the ways of the physical world. Cause and effect – science, math, language and social skills. We even learn philosophy – a perspective on how to view life.
But what about the spirit? Often God is presented to the child on a philosophical level or from the eyes of our carnality. Because God is Spirit, He cannot be decerned by the flesh. It’s confusing to the child or maybe the adult who is trying to grasp the idea of who God is. Every person alive has the spirit breath of God in them. Your Spirit belongs to God. That’s why he can say “we are all belong to Him”– He gave us all his spirit-life when we were born. Our very breath is His breath. But there is a caveat. The Spirit waits on our realization – our awareness – our need for Him. How can we choose Him or even be aware that we need to choose Him?
It comes down to the 3rd component of man. Beyond the physical flesh (of the body) and the spirit-life (God’s breath that comes from God), there is the fulcrum – the soul.
The Soul Is not your spirit.
The soul is the inner-most you that lives within a shell called your body. The body and the soul are kept alive by the miracle of God’s Spirit life breath. But your soul is what you perceive as “you”. It holds your thoughts, opinions, will and emotions. Also, your memories and your beliefs. It is the source of your nature and it governs your actions – your behavior. It is your our inmost being.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13
The word being comes from the words ‘to be”. In fact, when one says I am…, happy, frustrated, mad, depressed, determined – you are describing your state of “being”. It isn’t proper English but often other languages when directly translated into English will come out as – I be happy, I be sad. Or my being is unhappy – You are describing the condition of your inner soul being.
Within your soul you treasure or bury your experiences, you construct your intellect, your personality, your desires and imaginations and the will that makes you act or “do”. Your inmost being is your nature. The problem with the human nature is, that it is corrupt. The Word says our nature is evil to the core. The key is this: We all need to be regenerated.
The Soul Must be Reborn
Through contrition and repentance, the soul can call on the Creator and Savior to change their nature by being born again. The fulcrum shift to God is necessary in all humans. If the soul does not get regenerated it becomes callous and hardened to the callings of the Spirit. Over time the soul doesn’t even hear the Creator at all. Some choose to allow the rebirth of their soul to be born into the light of the Holy Spirit, some choose to connect to the darkness of an evil spirit . The soul must connect to a power source. Good or evil.
An unregenerated soul will give more and more of its thought time, its imagination, its will over to the tempter. Your soul binds itself to either God’s spirit that lives inside of you or your soul refuses God and therefore chooses the antithesis of God. There’s no gray area – either you are with Him or You are against Him.
A soul that only knows carnal life will look for happiness in various places and in various things that bring it carnal pleasure. (Satan appeals to our carnality) enticing us as he beguiles our emotions.
Your soul is either to align (bound or married) to God as He knitted it your soul to Himself or in the case of the un-generated souls – their destiny is to the recesses of the lower realm as it is united with the spirit of Anti-Christ or Anti-God – the Soul must be knitted to spirit – to God or the Anti-Christ spirit.
The soul “the being” inside of you is the part of you that sins. Because it is selfish, It over-indulges. It loves food and drink. Food activates a hormone that registers as pleasure. It likes attention, power and flattery. It likes status, wealth and comfort. It likes sexual stimulation and often sins against the body that houses it, extorting it and using the body for the soul’s own pleasure. The body often pays the price for the soul’s selfish ways. The over-indulgence of food, alcohol, abuse of drugs to induce a high wreaks havoc on the body and can kill it. Promiscuity can lead to diseases and betrayal, even murder. The soul can become proud, greedy and calculating – a cheater, a liar, an adulterer. The soul can hate – the soul can be poisoned. The soul is the part of man that is lost. The soul is where the spiritual battle occurs. The question is “Who owns your soul”?
When people give into the core nature of the soul they are tormented. God calls out but the pull to self-indulgence is so strong. The soul desperately needs redemption. Is there any hope for the sinner? Many must “get to the end of themselves”. It’s actually could be a good thing when one has bottomed out and is forced to surrender.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking (and other soulish pleasures) but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17
Yes, the soul must be born again but this time not in the natural physical state but by the Spirit. God will begin this intricate knitting process and lift the veil to reveal Himself. Inside everyone is a natural memory of God. It’s a small voice that calls to the soul. If man is not so calloused or given over to a reprobate mind, he may be able to hear the familiar voice of the Spirit and begin to see and hear God as the veil of separation is lifting. As the veil is being removed the soul begins to hear the Spirit in a profound way.
When the Veil Lifts
It is that moment, we are born of the Spirit. Just like a child comes from the darkness of the womb into the bright lights of the delivery room – so does the soul come out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The soul begins the transformation process of renewal and regeneration.
God is now welcomed to come in and clean up! The inner most man now begins to grow in the Lord.
When the veil is lifted – we see Yeshua! Just as a groom lifts the veil of his bride to see her face. How glorious! There is no more separation. The two have become one.
