I am always astonished whenever I meet a man or a woman who flees from the Old Testament and the Torah like a person who is afraid that a wild animal is going to catch and tear them apart. Why is it that one finds among believers this constant fear of the Old Testament? Was the Old Testament not the Scripture of Y’shua and his early followers? Against this background, it was so refreshing for me this week to be able to talk to someone who did not know much about our path of belief, but actually welcomed it when I began to talk about the Shabbat and the Old Testament. But let’s be honest: that is more the exception than the rule. For many traditional believers, the Shabbat equals the Jew, and the Jew equals the Old Testament, and the Old Testament does NOT equal the Messiah. That is how most Christians look at the combination of the Old Testament and Y’shua.
What about the Jews? How do they generally think about the relationship between the Old Testament (or Tanakh) and Y’shua? Of course, for most Jews, there isn’t really a point of contact between the Old Testament and Y’shua. For them, He is simply NOT the promised Messiah. For me, it is tragic and sad to see this. And it is sad to read in the Talmud of the absolute resentment with which some of the ancient Rabbis wrote about the followers of Y’shua. Somewhere in the Talmud it is written: “But the Minim… who separated themselves from the ways of the congregation… Gehenna is locked behind them, and they are judged therein for generations upon generations.” Minim is the name the Jews of that time used for the followers of Y’shua. Minim means something like “sectarians.” This negative label, hung around the necks of the followers of the Messiah, is well documented. It is written about at least three times in Acts. In Acts 24:5, Paul is called a “ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.” The Nazarenes were those who believed in Y’shua of Nazareth. And for that, they were branded as heretics.
In the Talmud, offensive things are also written about Y’shua Himself. It is written somewhere in the Talmud: “On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu was hanged… because he hath practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy… Did he have any defence? Was he not a Mesit (one who incites to idolatry)?” And with these words, this writer unequivocally declared that Y’shua held the Torah in contempt. Especially because He healed people on the Shabbat and did not hesitate to pronounce the Name of Yahweh. Remember, “name-blasphemy” was one of the major accusations brought against Him. But note the name they used for Y’shua. This is not accidental. It is not just a shortened form of the name. Yeshu—the name used in the Talmud for Y’shua—is a deliberate distortion. One important Hebrew letter is completely ignored, and the intention behind it is to belittle Y’shua and even pronounce a curse over Him. For “Yeshu” could also be seen as an acronym—a representation of the words: “Yimmach Shmo V’zichro,” which literally means: “May his name and his memory be blotted out!”
It is clear that this curse did not come true. What is equally clear to us is that this Y’shua in no way held the Torah in contempt—as many Jews thought then and many Christians still believe today. Y’shua came to show the people of his time, and especially the Jews, the proper way of keeping the Torah. Not with pious prayers on street corners and handing out alms where people can watch and praise you. Not with endless lists of do’s and don’ts. Not with “Shabbat shalom!” in the synagogue but by focusing on the establishment of true shalom in people’s homes and hearts. Not with pointing fingers at others, but by encouraging to look in the mirror, first. Furthermore, He walked a path of integrity that anyone who wishes to honour the Torah, can simply follow.
His ministry here on earth only really began when He walked into a simple synagogue in Nazareth on a Shabbat—possibly the same tucked-away synagogue that some of those who are reading here, may have visited in Israel. He stood up in that assembly and read from Isaiah 61. And his ministry here on earth reached a climax when He was killed on Pesach, together with the dedicated animal sacrifices, and risen from the dead, three days later, on the Day of the First Fruit Wave Offering. And so He was confirmed and proclaimed as the First Fruit from the dead—the first fruit of hundreds of thousands who would believe in Him and also be raised from the dead. At the beginning of his ministry, the Shabbat comes strongly to the fore. And toward the end of his ministry, there is not just one, but a series of feasts that strongly come to the fore. How ironic that most of his followers distance themselves completely from the Shabbat and the Feasts.
This brings us to the Scriptural portrayal of how Israel came into existence as a nation. Previously, they were merely an extended family of 70 people who went to live in Egypt. Previously, they were merely the house of Ya’akov. Previously, they were an unorganized group of slaves who simply danced to Pharaoh’s tune. But when the tenth plague and the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians came into the picture, the prophetic word of Exodus 4:22 also became a reality: “Israel is my firstborn son.” And the implications of “firstborn” are outlined very clearly. Everything that opens the womb belongs to Yahweh, it says in Exodus 13. And on a deeper level, one senses that a new entity—actually a whole new nation—is in the process of being born. Israel is born, and the nation of Israel receives what is known today among the Jews as the very first of the 613 commandments. And one wonders if perhaps there is a connection between the beginning of Yahweh’s first born son, Israel, and the beginning of the ministry of his first born son, Y’shua. What we know already is that his ministry began on a Shabbat, that He died on a feast day and that He rose from the dead on another feast day.
The first commandment given to Israel as a people, described in Exodus 12:2, is this one: This month must be for you the beginning of the months of the year. Which month? The month in which the barley in Israel begins to ripen. Aviv. The month of Pesach, which is also the month of the Exodus and the Firstborn—and ultimately of Y’shua, who became the First Fruit from the dead—who broke open the womb and opened up the possibility of new birth for us. How can we ignore the Shabbat and the months and the feast days if they emerge first in the Torah and also emerge first in Y’shua’s ministry? And what kind of logic is it when people say one is loading a yoke onto one’s own shoulders if you decide to keep the Shabbat and the feasts? The feasts that are held in such high esteem that the very first commandment establishes the time of year upon which the months should begin, so that the feasts may happen exactly on the right days? The feasts that have become a space for us to give expression to our indescribable gratitude. Gratitude for what? For the blood of the Lamb on our doorposts that broke open the bars of those doors so that we could march out of the place of our sin-slavery. Gratitude for our own Exodus and our own Promised Land. How can such a feast be called bondage? How can people who want to celebrate such a feast be branded as legalistic?
When Mosheh marched out of Egypt with between 1 and 3 million people, it was not only the birth of the nation of Israel. According to Exodus 12:38, among this crowd of people was a group described as “erev rav.” Some translations translate this as “a mixed multitude.” Our understanding is that it was A LARGE NUMBER OF NON-HEBREWS. Whether these were people from a number of other nations, or whether they were Egyptians who saw the great works of Yahweh in Egypt and wanted to join his new people, we do not know. But it could have been thousands. And at this point in the history of the nation of Israel—right at the birth of this nation—the Word gives us a glimpse into the pattern that would later unfold in greater detail. And that is that Yahweh chose one people to reveal Himself and his character and his will to this world. But that the door, with the clear signs of the blood of a Lamb on the post, would be opened right from the beginning for people from all nations of the earth to join Him, and to join those who had already aligned themselves with Him, and to participate fully in the ABUNDANCE that is found with Him—including the Shabbat and the feasts. For when the people departed from Egypt, it was not only their dwelling place and status and destination that changed. No, it was also their understanding of TIME that changed. If Yahweh had not given us the gift of time, we would not be able to hope and remember and understand and live. Why then do we hear with such difficulty when He tells us, in no uncertain language, how we ought to keep and honour our weeks, our Sabbaths, our months, our years and each of the annual Sabbaths that were set aside to be kept on their appointed times?
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