“And there had to be two presented,” I said. “So there had to be two men presented before the people.”
“Exactly. And only one could become the sacrifice. So Messiah had to be one of two lives presented before the people in order to be chosen as the sacrifice. And according to the ordinance of Yom Kippur, the other life had to be let go. So what happened to the other life that was presented that day?”
“He was let go.”
“And what was his name?”
“Barabbas.”
“According to the requirements of the ancient ceremony, the two goats or lives had to be identical. Messiah was the Son of God, the Son of the Father. Do you know what the name Barabbas means?”
“No.”
“Barabbas comes from two Hebrew words, bar, which means son, and abba, which means father. Barabbas means the Son of the Father . . . Two lives . . . Each one bears the name the Son of the Father. So the sacrifice and the one set free because of the sacrifice must in some way be identical. So if God were to die in your place . . . ”
“He would have to become like me.”
“He would have to become like you, of flesh and blood, in the likeness of sin. He would become . . . your identical.”
The Mission: Live today as one sentenced to judgment, but who has instead been set free and given a second chance of life, because of the love and sacrifice of Him.
Leviticus 16:7–10; Matthew 27:15–24
Azazel
DAY 30
THE DIVINE NONPOSSESSIVE
WHAT DO YOU have in this world?” asked the teacher. “What do you possess?”
“A lot of things,” I said. “At this point, most of them are in storage.”
“But even when you take them out of storage, you won’t have them.”
“What do you mean?”
“According to the Scriptures it’s impossible to have.”
“But there are plenty of Scriptures that talk about having things.”
“Not really.”
“But you can find the words have, mine, my, his, and theirs throughout the Bible.”
“Those are all translations. And to a degree, they’re accurate. But there’s more to it. In the Hebrew of Scripture, there’s no true verb for ‘to have.’ There’s no real or exact way of saying ‘I have.’ So in Hebrew you can’t possess anything in this world.”
“But what about all the things we do have?”
“As in the Hebrew, it only seems to be. It’s an illusion. If it was really yours, you could keep it. But you can’t keep anything of this world. Everything you have is temporary. In the end, you have to let everything go. What you think you have is only entrusted . . . borrowed. And when you think you have what you don’t have, you live in conflict with the truth. And you’ll end up fighting to keep what you don’t have. It is only when you let go that you can live in the truth. So in order to live in the truth, you have to live in the Hebrew.”
“To have ‘no have’?”
“Yes, to live with ‘no have.’ And when you don’t have, then you can’t have any problems. Or worries. They may be out there, but you don’t own them. They’re not yours. You can’t even be burdened down by the weight of your own life . . . because you don’t have your life . . . or its burdens.”
“But not everything is temporary. So there must be something we can have.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “There is one thing you can have.”
“What?”
“God . . . and the blessings of God. That is the only true possession. And it’s only when you let go of all that you don’t have, that you can be free to have Him.”
The Mission: Today, learn the secret of living with “no have.” Let go of your possessions, your problems, your burdens, your life—and possess God.
Psalm 16:5; 2 Corinthians 6:10; 1 Timothy 6:6–11
The Divine Nonpossessive
DAY 31
THE PORTAL
WE WALKED THROUGH a dark corridor inside the school’s main building. At the end of the corridor was a large wooden door. It had to be at least twice our height, though it was hard to see in the dark. As he pushed it open, the darkness in the hall was broken by the intense light of the desert sun. He stood by the doorway and, gazing into the outer expanse, began to share.
“The portal,” said the teacher. “It allows one to enter another realm.”
“Sounds mystical,” I replied.
“On the night of Passover the Hebrews were told to put the blood of the Passover lamb on the beams of their doorways. They would then enter in through the blood-stained doorway and stay inside their houses. And when they once more passed through that doorway, it would be for the last time. It would be to leave the land of bondage, to leave their old lives, and to enter a new life, a new identity, a new realm, and ultimately a new land. The blood of the lamb transformed the doorways into a portal by which they could leave an old world and enter the new. Centuries later would come another Passover, another Lamb, and another portal.”
“The Passover of Messiah.”
“And what was the key event of that day?”
“His death.”
“Through the cross. And what is a cross made of?”
“Beams of wood.”
“Beams of wood marked by the blood of the lamb. And so again on the day of Passover we have beams marked by the blood, and of a sacrificial lamb. So what is the cross? It’s not just an execution stake. It’s a doorway. It’s the set of beams that forms the doorway, the doorway marked by the blood of the Passover Lamb. So the only way it can be truly known is to be entered in.”
“But how do you enter in?” I asked. “There’s no opening.”
“It’s not a doorway to another place in this world. It’s a doorway to a different realm. It’s a portal to a new reality, a new existence. It’s the doorway that allows you to leave your old life and enter a new realm and a new life. And the only way to know a doorway is to go through it. And only those who do will know what it is to leave the realm of Egypt and enter the realm of the Promised Land . . . by way of the portal.”
The Mission: Today, use the door of God to leave what you could never leave and go where you could never go. Enter through the portal.
Exodus 12:21–27; John 10:9; Hebrews 10:19–20
Heaven’s Portal
DAY 32
THE TRIUNITY OF LOVE
WHAT IS THE number of love?” asked the teacher.
“I don’t understand.”
“How many do you need in order to have love?”
“More than one,” I said.
“Love must have a source,” he said, “the one from whom it comes, the one who loves. So there has to be at least one.”
“But one isn’t enough,” I said. “You can’t have love if there’s nothing or no one to love. If you love nothing, then you don’t love.”
“That’s correct,” he said. “So what else is needed for love to exist?”
“An object. Loves needs an object. The one loved, the object of love.”
“So you have two, the source of love and the object of love. But then you have the love itself, the love between the two, and the love that joins the two together. So if we were to translate love into a sentence, what would we need?”
“A subject,” I said.
“The subject is the ‘I,’” he replied. “And what else?”
“An object,” I said.
“The object is the ‘You,’” he answered. “And what else?”
“A verb.”
“Love,” he said. “Put it together and what does it become?”
“It becomes, ‘I love you.’”
“The simplest expression of love . . . and in how many words?”
“Three.”
“And yet at the same time, love is one. Love is one and love is three . . . one and three at the same time. Love is triune. In the Scriptures it is written that ‘God is love.’ If God is love, then God is triune as well, one and
three at the same time. Who is the source of love, the ‘I’? The Father, the source of all love. Who is the object of His love, the ‘You’? The Son, the Messiah, who is called in Scripture, ‘the Beloved.’ And the love that emanates from the Father to the Son? The Spirit.”
“The Lover, the Beloved, and the Love . . . the triunity of love . . . the triunity of God.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “as incomprehensible and yet as simple as ‘I love you.’”
The Mission: Partake of the triunity of love. As God has made you the object of His love, today, make those who don’t deserve it become the object of yours.
Isaiah 48:16–17; Matthew 28:19–20; 1 John 4:16
Shalosh
DAY 33
THE DAY OF THE RESHEET
HE TOOK ME into one of the chambers inside the school’s main building. I would learn later that it was called the Chamber of Scrolls. He led me over to what looked like an ornate upright wooden chest called the ark. Inside the ark was long scroll, which he removed, unrolled on a large wooden table, and from which he began to read: “‘When you enter the land . . . and reap its harvest, you will bring in the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. And he will wave the sheaf before the Lord . . . on the day after the Sabbath.’ This is the Day of the Resheet. The resheet is the firstfruits, the beginning of the harvest, the first blossoming, the first grain, of a new harvest. The firstfruits would represent all that would be reaped or gathered in the days that followed, the rest of the harvest. So on the Day of the Resheet, the first sheaf of the spring harvest would be lifted up to God and dedicated to Him. And since it represented all the sheaves that would follow, by its consecration the entire harvest was consecrated. It would all take place ‘on the day after the Sabbath’ of Passover. It was the day of new life, the day that sealed the ending of winter and the beginning of springtime . . . and a day that contains a mystery of cosmic proportions.”
“How so?”
“The world is fallen. The curse of winter and the shadow of death hang over it. But God’s will is to redeem it. And the promise of redemption is that one day the curse of death and the barrenness of winter will be broken. And the firstfruits break the winter . . . and bring new life.”
He looked up at me. “When did Messiah die?” he asked.
“On Passover,” I replied.
“And then He was in the tomb?”
“On the Sabbath.”
“The Sabbath of Passover,” said the teacher. “So then when did He rise?”
“On the day after the Sabbath of Passover!” I said. “On the Day of the Resheet . . . as the firstfruits! When the firstfruits are lifted up to the Lord.”
“The day of the resurrection is the Day of the Resheet. It had to happen on the day when the firstfruits are raised up from the earth . . . because He is the Resheet, the Firstfruits, that ends the winter of our lives, that begins spring, and gives us new life. And if the firstfruits stand for all, and if He has overcome death and this world...”
“Then so can I . . . ”
The Mission: If the Resheet has overcome, so then can you. Today, in full confidence of the power given you on the Day of the Resheet, overcome!
Leviticus 23:9–11; 1 Corinthians 15:20–23
The Day of New Beginnings
DAY 34
THE HOUSE OF BREAD
IT WAS A mystery that had the added benefit of a midday snack. We were sitting on the desert sand and the teacher offered me some bread, which I accepted.
“Lechem,” he said. “It’s Hebrew for bread. The word is used in Jewish prayers to represent food and sustenance. Why do you think bread is so important?”
“Because it’s ‘the staff of life.’ It’s a basic necessity. It sustains us. It keeps us alive. It’s what we need.”
“That’s correct,” he said. “In Hebrew, the word for place or house is beit. When you put the beit together with lechem, you get beit lechem, which would mean . . . ”
“The place of bread or the house of bread.”
“And what would you expect to find in the house of bread?”
“Bread . . . of course.”
“You’d expect to find bread, the staff of life in the house of bread. You’d expect to find that which sustains you, what you need above all things.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Only because you don’t recognize it yet.”
“Recognize what?”
“Beit lechem, the house of bread. You already know it. It’s Bethlehem.”
“Bethlehem!” I said. “The house of bread! And so it’s there that we find the bread, that which we most need, that which sustains us, our most basic necessity, the staff of life . . . in Bethlehem!”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “so if what we needed most was money, if money was the bread of our lives, then what we’d find in Bethlehem, the house of bread, would be money. If what we most needed was success, then we’d find success there. Or if it was acceptance or pleasures or substances or careers or possessions or any other thing we desired. If any of these were what we needed most, then that’s what we would have found in Bethlehem. But we didn’t find any of those things there. What is it that we find in Bethlehem?”
“Him.”
“Yes, Him. We find God come down into our lives. So what does that reveal?”
“That more than anything else . . . we need Him.”
“Yes. What we find in the house of bread . . . is the Bread of Life.”
The Mission: Stop filling your needs and desires with that which is not bread. Fill your heart with the love, the presence, and the fullness of your true bread—Him.
Micah 5:2; John 6:32–35
The House of Bread
DAY 35
THE ROADS OF ZION
WE WALKED A wilderness path that was at times rocky and winding, and at a few points, treacherous. At the other times it became wider, more even, and easier, as when it traversed valleys and plains. At one point in the journey, the teacher asked me, “How would you name this road?”
“The Rocky Road,” I replied.
Then, as the terrain changed, he asked again, “And now what would you call this road?”
“The Sandy Road,” I replied.
This went on throughout the journey every time there was a dramatic change in scenery. There was no shortage of names I gave it: “the Winding Road,” “the Open Road,” “the Valley Road,” “the Treacherous Road,” “the Dark Road,” and on and on—until we reached our destination.
“Every time I asked you what you would call the road,” said the teacher, “you came up with a name based on what the road looked or how it felt. And many roads are so named. But in the Holy Land, it’s different. The most famous roads in Zion are not named for what they look like or feel like, nor on their condition. Instead, they have names like the Road to Bethlehem, the Damascus Road, Emmaus Road, and the Jericho Road.”
“So the most famous roads of Zion are named for places.”
“Not just places, but their destinations. Their names come not from what they look like but where they take you. This is the secret of the roads of Zion,” said the teacher. “So too in the journey of your life, you will find the road to be at times rocky, at times smooth, harder, easier, dangerous, pleasant, unbearable, joyful. But you must never make the mistake of judging your road or your life by what it looks like or feels like. A pleasant road may lead to a cliff. And a hard and rocky road may lead to the Holy City. A pleasant way may lead to hell, and a hard way may lead to blessing and eternal life. Always look to the end of your course, to where it’s taking you. And if you’re on the right road, don’t get discouraged by the terrain. Never give up. Keep pressing forward to your destination. Because it is the end that matters most. And your road, and the journey of your life, will not be known by its terrain, but by the place to which it brought you.”
The Mission: Today, take your eyes off your circumstances, and focus only on your destination. Press o
n to the good, the highest, and the heavenly.
Matthew 7:13–14; Philippians 3:12–14
The Roads of Zion Mystery
DAY 36
THE KHATAN
WE WERE BACK again on the same hill overlooking the city where we had previously seen a bride and her maidens. Again, there was a wedding where the first had taken place. Again, I could see the bride and her maidens.
“Where there is a bride,” said the teacher, “there must be a bridegroom. Look,” he said, pointing slightly to the left of the bridal party. “What do you see?”
“The bridegroom and his men.”
“In the mystery of the bride and groom, who is the Bridegroom?”
“God.”
“In the Scriptures, in Hebrew, He is called the Khatan.”
“Khatan,” I repeated.
“Khatan means the bridegroom, but it goes deeper than that. It can be translated as he who joins himself.”
“Then another name for God,” I said, “is He Who Joins Himself.”
The Book of Mysteries Page 6