Based on the bible passage from Shemot / Exodus 33:12 – 34:26 —

Not only is this passage the traditional passage for the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but I really connected with the concept of what did it mean and what would it require for YeHoVaH’s presence to go with us? What were the conditions to a happy marriage between us and the BrideGroom of our souls? What was / What IS expected of us? How could we give our all to the One who has it all?

Our wedding under the chupah of cloud at Mount Sinai some 4000 years ago joined us, Am Segula, the Chosen People, to El Elyon, the Elohim Most High. We are now in the midst of the omer count, the 50 days counting up to our wedding anniversary. Counting the Omer is a rehearsal to the counting of the years for the Yovel, the Jubilee year. On the Jubilee, the slaves are set free, the debts are cancelled and lands are returned to the rightful owner. Consider, dear brothers and sisters, that the next Jubilee is not far off. Although brother Y’hudah counts from 1948, the year that the land of Israel became a state, there is increasing evidence that the next Jubilee year is 2017, considering that the Balfour Declaration which acknowledges that the sliver of Middle East real estate is the Land of Israel was signed in 1917 (thereby returning the land to its rightful owner).  Fifty years later in 1967, the Temple Mount and east Jerusalem were relinquished by the Jordanians (again, the land was returned to the rightful owner.) What awaits on 2017 is anybody’s guess, but it seems that the sun, the moon and the stars are gearing up for quite the display of signs (if you’ve been following the appearances of the eclipses, blood moons and the potential for Planet X) and the politics of the Middle East is quite volitile at the moment. Of course, there is One who does know the whole story and its timing and He, for the time being, is keeping quiet.

So again, the question: What can we do to assure that YeHoVaH’s presence goes with us as we move through time to our Ultimate Redemption?

Let’s consider some of the directives of this reading which is a recap of the Parashah 21 Ki Tissa. We are to keep the Shabbat set apart. Guard it, is what the Torah actually says. It is difficult to flip the switch from mundane thoughts of laundry, cooking, dog washing, working, grocery buying, bill paying, etc and suddenly try to fill our minds and hearts with thoughts of our Creator and the Shalom that the Shabbat is supposed to embody. How do we flip the switch?? For me, naps are a great way to transition. When I wake up, the old busy-ness from earlier in the day isn’t as consuming as it was. So, on preparation day, I scurry all morning and then about 3 pm take a nap. It’s delightful. I hope you try it. Lighting the candles is commanded NOWHERE in the scriptures, BUT a ceremonial routine such as lighting the candles or ceremonial hand washing is a visual clue that something about this day is different. And indeed, it is. It is the one day, set apart since the week of Creation, to be Holy. No other day bears this distinction.

Again in this passage in Exodus, Abba also instructed us to keep the Passover and eat matza for 7 days. We are on the 7th day of this feast of Unleavened Bread which will end at sundown today. After 4000 years of experience, matza is not the dreaded cardboard bread we imagined it to be. There is matza pizza, lasagna, s’mores, cakes, granola, brittle — you name it. One of the highlights of the feast this year was sharing matza downtown with the homeless. Before we distributed the lunches this past yom reve’i / w’day, I explained what they were going to eat and how this humble, tasteless little cracker pictured Messiah. Several of them made the effort later to thank us for the lesson. It is a great reminder for us as well.  Y’shua, like the matza, was pierced. He was pierced for our transgressions. Like the matza, He bears stripes. By His stripes we are healed. A matza must be kept leaven free, so no  more than 18 minutes elapse between adding the water to the flour and taking the finished product out of the oven. The number 18 is significant. It is the gematria of the word chai, the chet (8) and the yud (10), which mean life. Y’shua is the Bread of Life. The Matza has 4 corners. In Hebrew, the number four is the letter dalet. Dalet is also the Hebrew word for Door. He is the Door; He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. Matza has no leavening. As a representation of sin or arrogance, the leavening is missing in Messiah as well. He is sinless, He is humble, riding on a donkey’s colt to the feast, not a horse.

We are also told to observe the feast of Shavu’ot at the time of the wheat harvest and the feast of ingathering, Sukkot, at the turn of the year, in the fall. These feasts, these appointed times, are signs that we are His people. When we demonstrate that we are His people, His presence is welcomed and goes with us because we are going with Him! So on Shavuot, we will wave our two leavened loaves, Ephraim and Judah in our puffed up state: Here we are, we are Yours, our Father, King and Husband!! On Sukkot, we will celebrate by sleeping in tents as a reminder of our wilderness journies on the way to the Land of the Promise as we, in this day and age, step by agonizing step leave our Egypt behind and move forward to the Land of Promise and living like the Redeemed People we are.

Here is a condition that is not quite so easy to meet: Twice, YeHoVaH says, do not make a covenant with the surrounding nations. In the VERY, VERY STRICTEST SENSE, our drivers license, voter ID, and draft cards are all contractual agreements with this nation’s government. Am I saying we are all going to hell because we drive to work or vote? No, of course not! But I am saying we are in this web called the Diaspora and it is very easy to get trapped by it. We must work hard to define our boundries as Torah compliant Israelites and maintain our personal borders so we don’t get sucked into the local customs, culture, morals and mores. For as long as we think of the lives of the nations around us as normal or righteous, we can never understand Yah’s words or His Ways. We must hold onto the teachings of Torah and be delivered from the ‘stinkin’ thinkin’’ of the nations whose righteousness is as filthy rags to the One who sits on the Throne and laughs in dirision as Psalm 2 says.

Lastly, we are told not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk. In our various discussions throughout the years, we have come to understand this has nothing to do with cheeseburgers but was actually a pagan fertility rite of the time. We are also told don’t participate in pagan meals and sacrifices. We are also told to demolish the sacred poles and standing stones. The sons of Esau are currently doing this in the nations they occupy. We see it on the news as they take sledgehammers to valued, ancient artifacts and destroy entire museums full of historical evidence of other civilizations and cultures.  We certainly despise their cruelty and want nothing to do with their deity, but we must admit, the world marvels at their devotion and gives them great deference because of it.

What about us? Will we of 21st century western / American culture have the right stuff to win the heart of our Creator so that His Presence goes with us? How bad do we want it? Are we willing to deny ourselves and fast for 40 days as did Moshe? Are we willing to go to the execution stake as did Mashiach? Will we be as fastidiously attentive to YeHoVaH’s wishes and commandments as we are to building our hobby car models, measuring ingredients for the bread machine, or adjusting sparkplugs?  Will we make the focused effort to count the omer? Day in and day out … will we set an alarm to remind us or just haphazardly TRY to remember. We remember our birthdays. We remember our anniversaries (or should, if we desire domestic tranquility). How about the omer? How about putting forth the effort to be YeHoVaH’s set apart people? We have been bought with a price. Don’t let Y’shua feel like He got a bad deal. Invest in your redemption. Be the devoted Bride and surely His Presence will go with us, now and eternally.

Shabbat Shalom.