April 17, 2010 / 13 Nisan, 5771

Dear Berean,

Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

Passover begins tomorrow (Monday, April 18) just before sunset. Tonight we will search our home for the last bit of leaven and then burn it before noon. There will be no leaven in our home from that time until after the Feast of Unleavened Bread concludes seven days later. Passover marks the beginning of the redemptive calendar that culminates with the Feast of Sukkot in the Fall. Each of the steps of these 185 days remind us of our salvation - and the certainty of Messiah's return! Let the season of our redemption begin!

This week is one of only two weeks a year that we do not follow the sequential readings from the Torah. Instead, all Israel focuses upon the Lamb - "the Pesach," the Passover Lamb. Our Torah and haftarah readings are all focused upon Passover. This week our eNews will come to you in three parts: Part 1 and 2 dealing with Passover, and Part 3 dealing with the Counting of the Omer.

Ruminations

Rumination #30: My love is measured by how well I listen. How well I listen is measured by how I respond.

In its modern usage, love is rarely spoken of in relationship to listening.

In the Bible, love is different. It speaks of husband and wife; of parent and child; and of HaShem and His people. It is there that we learn what real love is - and it always involves listening. If we were speaking Hebrew, that might be enough to make the point - but English makes listening passive. Love is not passive, and it does not simply "go in one ear and out the other." In Hebrew, to sh'ma is to respond. It is not merely hearing – it is reacting to what is spoken. We cannot claim to love G-d, and not respond positively to what He says. To sh'ma is to hear and obey. It is why in Hebrew, the words for "hear" and "obey" is the same: sh'ma.

Followers of Messiah should not wonder if some "obscure commandment" from the "Old Testament" applies to them (there are no "obscure commandments to those who love G-d).

If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:15

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
John 14:21

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
John 15:10

You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
John 15:14

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1John 2:3-4

By this we know that we love the children of G-d, when we love G-d and keep His commandments. For this is the love of G-d, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
1John 5:2-3

Do you have ears? Did you hear what the Almighty spoke? Why are you not responding in love, by obeying Him? Sh'ma!

Passover and the Revelation of Gravitational Pull - Part 1

Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace, was born in 1749. He was a brilliant French mathematician and astronomer who is sometimes referred to as the "French Newton" because he summarized and extended many of Sir Isaac Newton's theories with regard to mathematical astronomy.

Pierre-Simon Laplace's place as a great scientist and mathematician is assured by his five-volume work, "Celestial Mechanics," in which he describes the nature and movement of celestial bodies in mathematical language.

The primary focus of Laplace's work relates to gravity. Using the known effects of gravity's pull on celestial objects, Laplace was able to explain many things such as the movement of planets and stars. Knowing that gravitational pull reveals the mass of an object such as a planet or a star enabled him to be the first to describe the "invisible star" - or what is known today as a black hole.

When Pierre-Simon Laplace presented his work, "Celestial Mechanics" to Napoleon, the French leader asked him, "Monsieur Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator." Known for his arrogance, and confident of his mathematical process, Laplace responded, "I did not need to make such an assumption."

Sadly, Laplace did not understand that the heavens reveal their Creator. He did not understand that the very principle that he described of how the invisible force of gravity can reveal the presence of an otherwise invisible object is in fact a biblical principle. It is also a general principle of life that if you look for the "gravitational pull" you can begin to "see" things that otherwise would be hidden. This lesson is about "gravitational pull" and how it can help us rediscover something that otherwise may have been forgotten. This lesson will be about Passover. Before we look into the idea of the "invisible" revealed by a "gravitational pull" let me tell you a story.

Imagine with me for a moment. It is about 2,000 years ago. We are Galileans traveling to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration. Three times a year we went to Jerusalem for three pilgrimage festivals mandated by the Torah. They were Pesach [Passover], Shavuot [Pentecost], and Sukkot [Tabernacles]. The first festival in the annual cycle is Passover. It is a weeklong celebration. It is a joyous time when we celebrate the fact that the Almighty rescued us from the bondage of Mitzrayim [Egypt].

The celebration begins with actual Pesach Seder, the Passover meal, and then continues through the next seven days in which we also celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits. All of our celebration is outlined in the Torah in Leviticus 23 and other passages, and all of our traditions that surround this celebration are correctly focused on the Almighty and His redemption. As a people we have been celebrating this for nearly 1,500 years.

We normally travel in large groups from the villages we are from. We are coming from the village of K'far Nachum [Capernaum] on the shores of Lake Kinneret [Sea of Galilee]. To avoid Samaria, we travel the easy route down the river valley of the Yarden, and ascended from plains near Yericho [Jericho] to the mountains of Yerushalayim [Jerusalem].

When we came over the mountain and looked down at Yerushalayim from the village of Beit-Pagey [Beth Page], the holy city seemed to glow. Closest to us, where we descended from Har HaZeitim [the Mount of Olives] was the gleaming glory of the Beit HaMikdash [The Holy Temple]. The road from Beit Pagey winds down Har HaZeitim into the Eastern Gate of the Beit HaMikdash.

As we walked down the road, our Master rode on a small donkey. Many of us lined the way and sang the Hallel, the Psalms that are traditionally sung during Pesach. It is always wonderful to enter Yerushalayim at festival time - there are always Psalms that we sing as we approach the holy city - but this Pesach was even more exhilarating, as more and more people began to openly speak of our Master as the long-promised Mashiach [Messiah].

For the past few months, each morning, afternoon, and evening as we prayed with our Master we had begun to understand the importance and fulfillment of many of the memorized prayers and how our Master was in fact the One for Whom we were praying that HaShem would send. We wanted Mashiach, we prayed for Mashiach - and here He was in our midst. Our Master was the Mashiach!

During the week leading up to the actual beginning of Pesach we spent the night on Har HaZeitim with other villagers from the Galil region. It was wonderful being that close to the Beit HaMikdash. In the mornings we would walk across the Kidron and enter the Eastern Gate of the Beit HaMikdash to participate in Shacharit [the Morning Prayers] and the morning tamid offering. Afterward, our Master would teach in the Portico of the Beit HaMikdash.  In the afternoons we would pray Minchah [the Afternoon Prayers] with our Master, at the time of the afternoon tamid offering. Sometimes we would pray Ma'ariv [the Evening Prayers] there at the Beit HaMikdash, and sometimes we would pray from where we stayed on Har HaZeitim, facing the west and the Beit HaMikdash.

It was a very satisfying few days leading up to Pesach. There were a few moments of unease, but even those were quite satisfying. One of those was when our Master threw over some of the tables that merchants had set up within the Beit HaMikdash. It was something that pleased more than one chasid [pious one]. Over the years, the Tz'dukim [Sadducees] in the Priesthood, particularly in the Kohel Gadol [High Priest] office had turned the Beit HaMikdash into center for their political and monetary efforts. They had actually set up special Temple bazaars, with their own currency, using all manner of legal loophole to enrich themselves. Yeshua, our Master, pleased many with His cleansing of the Beit HaMikdash of that rabble - but in the meantime He had enraged the Tz'dukim and the Kohel Gadol [High Priest].

Yeshua, our Master (did I mention that He is Mashiach?), was always caring for us, even as we faithfully followed Him. Apparently, without our knowledge He had made plans for us to have our Seder in a house in the city, within the walls. This was no small feat during the week of Pesach, when Yerushalayim swelled to ten times its normal number of inhabitants.

It was a Seder to remember, which ironically is what the Seder is all about - remembering. The Pesach Seder is a meal that is focused upon the redemption of our people from bondage in Israel. Even before the official Seder begins, we first helped clean the house that we were to use for the Seder. Obedient to the command of removing leaven from our dwelling place, we were reminded of our miraculous and speedy exit from Mitzrayim [Egypt]. Symbolic of sin, it reminded us that our bondage in Mitzrayim can be compared to being enslaved to sin, and thereby repugnant to the Almighty. Removing the leaven reminded us how G-d prepares a way not only for redemption, but for removing from us what offends Him.

As we sat down for our Pesach Meal, our Master delighted us by leading the Seder memorial. It was joyful and satisfying. We enjoyed His recounting of the deliverance from bondage. We drank in His allusions to what we thought we understood regarding His soon-to-be-realized delivering of us from the bondage of our Roman occupiers. As we sang the Psalms we knew that we were on the threshold of something big regarding our Master's revelation as Mashiach. That made it especially joyous, so even when we left the city to go to pray Ma'ariv [Evening Prayers] on the Mount of Olives, we could not sense that He was wrestling with something deep and dangerous. After Ma'ariv, He went further back into the olive trees to pray alone, and yet we still did not realize the extent of that approaching danger.

We had sensed some of the danger in that the Master had angered the Tz'dukim and particularly the Kohen Gadol [High Priest] - and yet we did not anticipate what happened that night after prayers.

Of course, our Master always knew. It was ultimately His very plan that this night would be different from every other night. He had always planned that this would be the time. Our problem was not that the Master had been unclear - but that we were unaware how grand His plan of redemption from bondage really was.

The next day, merely hours after eating the Pesach r with us, our Master was hanging from an execution stake outside the city walls. Imagine our shock. The joy of the Seder, now replaced with horror. How was it possible that Mashiach would be put to death?

Of our number only Yochanan [John] witnessed the horrible scene that was beyond our worse nightmares. It seemed that at the threshold of redeeming us from the bondage of Rome, this One like unto Moshe [Moses], our Mashiach had failed. The powerful Tz'dukim had used their Roman collaborators to snuff out our redemption in the very season in which we celebrated our redemption from bondage. Maybe He wasn't Mashiach.

Three days later of course we had a much better understanding of what kind of Master it was that we had followed for these three years. It was after Shabbat [Sabbath] that it happened. Some of our women had helped prepare His body for the tomb, but had not finished because of preparation for Chag HaMatzah [the Feast of Unleavened Bread]. Now three days and three nights later, the sun had set on the night of the Seventh Day of the week, and all over Yerushalayim families concluded Shabbat with havdalah [separation prayers]. As it grew dark, the first day of the week began. The women went to the tomb that night, in the dark. When they arrived there, the tomb was empty, and the Master's body was gone!

By morning we had all been informed that the Master's body was gone, and some in our group began to understand that our Master had actually risen from the dead. By the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all of us had seen Him - risen and very much alive. The joy of our Seder had been briefly interrupted by the horror of His death - but it soon returned all the more with the revelation that our Mashiach was far more than we had ever imagine.

He was Mashiach. He is Mashiach. For forty days He appeared to us and taught us from the Torah and the Prophets. On the forty-first day of the Omer, He gathered us together on the Mount of Olives again and told us to remain in Yerushalayim. Shavuot was only 9 days away...

Each year after that wonderful Pesach Seder, we remembered our Master during the Seder. Yes, we remembered our deliverance from bondage in Mitzrayim [Egypt], redeemed by the outstretched arm of the Almighty and led from bondage by Moshe [Moses] - but we also remembered that we have been redeemed from the bondage of sin by the outstretched arms of the Master - One who was like unto Moshe.

Each Pesach, one of our young children would recite the traditional questions. During each Seder we smiled as we remembered and answered the question, "Why is this night different from every other night... "

Yes Master, we still remember You..

eNews Archive

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Standing in Prayer with all Israel,

Rick Spurlock
Bereans Online
www.bereansonline.org