The Mission: What in your life is still incomplete? Instead of trying to fill it, find your completion in Him, and let His fullness fill what is empty.
Zechariah 12:10; Luke 22:19; Romans 11:25–26
The Bread and the Wine
DAY 159
YERUSHALAYIM
OVER THERE,” SAID the teacher, “beyond those mountains, far beyond them, is the city of Jerusalem. That’s the direction in which Jewish people have prayed for ages . . . to the Holy City.”
“I’ve never been there,” I said. “I’ve heard it’s like no other place.”
“It’s a city of rocks on the edge of a desert . . . And yet there’s something about it, a beauty, a glory, an awesomeness one can’t quite put into words . . . as in no other place. The mystery is in the name.”
“The name Jerusalem?”
“In its real name . . . Yerushalayim. Notice what it ends with?”
“The im. So the word is plural.”
“Yes. So Yerushalayim doesn’t really mean Jerusalem, but the Jerusalems. And the mystery goes deeper. It’s not just an im at the end, but an ayim, a unique ending that speaks specifically of duality, as in two. In other words, Yerushalayim means the two Jerusalems.”
“What are the two Jerusalems?”
“They are the Jerusalem you see and the Jerusalem you don’t . . . the Jerusalem that is and the Jerusalem that it is yet to become . . . Jerusalem, the earthly, and Jerusalem, the heavenly . . . Jerusalem of time and space, and Jerusalem, the Eternal . . . Jerusalem, the flawed and imperfect, and Jerusalem, the perfect, the beautiful, and the glorious. And the mystery of Jerusalem has everything to do with you. For if you belong to God, you are a child of Jerusalem . . . a child of Yerushalayim. Therefore, you share in her nature.”
“How?”
“As it is with Jerusalem, so with your life. To your life is an ayim. It means there’s always more to it than you see with your eyes. There are two realms, two lives . . . the life you see and the life you don’t see . . . the person you are and the person you are yet to be . . . you, the earthly, and you, the heavenly; you, the imperfect and flawed, and you, the perfect, the beautiful, and the glorious. So no matter what you think of your life, in God, the truth is always more and better. And even in your lowest places, there’s a glory beyond anything you see or feel or understand . . . an ayim, a duality . . . and therefore a choice. Choose, therefore, to live not by the earthly, but the heavenly. Believe not what is, but what is yet to be. Dwell not in the flawed, but the perfect. For you are the Jerusalem of God . . . His Yerushalayim.”
The Mission: You are a child of Yerushalayim. Therefore, choose to live this day not as you are, but as you will yet be, the perfect and the heavenly.
Psalms 122; 147:2–3; Revelation 21:1–2
Yerushalayim: The Mystery
DAY 160
THE COHANIM CONFESSION
IWAS WONDERING,” I said. “When the priests performed the Semikhah, placing the sins of the people onto the sacrifice, they had to lay their hands on the sacrifice, but they also had to confess their sins over it. They had to do both. Otherwise the sacrifice couldn’t die for those sins. But when Messiah was taken by the priests the night before His death, the priests laid hands on Him, but there was no confession of sin.”
“Come,” said the teacher. “Let’s see what we find.”
He led me into the Chamber of Scrolls where he retrieved from a high shelf a scroll of medium size, laid it on the wooden table, unrolled it to the place he was looking for, and began translating it out loud: “At that Caiaphas tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy . . . ’ to which those in the council agreed that He was guilty and deserving of death.”
“They condemned Him to death on false charges.”
“In the Semikhah, the priest confessed the sins upon the sacrifice. Was the sacrifice guilty of those sins?
“No. The sacrifice could only die for those sins if it wasn’t guilty of them.”
“Correct. Therefore, for the Semikhah to be performed on the sacrifice, on Messiah, the high priest had to speak over Him sins He was not guilty of. So what sin was it that they spoke upon Him? The sin of blasphemy. But the sin that’s spoken upon the sacrifice is not the sin of the sacrifice, but the sin of those who speak it. So the blasphemy was not the sin of Messiah—it was the sin of the high priest and of the priesthood. They judged God of blasphemy against God. To judge God of blasphemy . . . is itself a blasphemy. The priests were confessing their own sin. But it wasn’t their sin alone. The priests represented Israel and Israel represented the world. So the priests were confessing the sin of man . . . the sin of the world . . . in the Semikhah of the sacrifice for man . . . the first sin, and the beginning of all sins, ‘You shall be as God’ . . . blasphemy.”
“So the sin was confessed over the sacrifice by the high priest, and the priests touched His head with their hands. And so the Semikhah for the sins of man was performed.”
“And by God,” said the teacher. “He confessed your sins upon Him. As it is written, ‘He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us . . . that we . . . that you . . . might become the righteousness of God.’”
The Mission: He became sin—your sin, that you would become righteousness—His righteousness. Live today as the righteousness of God.
Genesis 3:5; Leviticus 16:21; Mark 14:63–64; 2 Corinthians 5:21
Footsteps on the Altar
DAY 161
THE MYSTERY OF THE SECOND SCROLL
IT WAS A warm and windy afternoon. We were sitting outside on the ground. The teacher was reading from a small scroll.
“This is one of the hamesh megillot, the five scrolls. Each one is read publicly during the year. And this, the second scroll, is the Book of Ruth.”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s the story of the love between a Jew and a Gentile. But behind the story is a prophetic revelation that involves the entire world, the mystery of Israel, the church, and the age itself.
“The Book of Ruth begins with a Jewish woman named Naomi. She will represent the nation of Israel. Naomi is married to a man named Elimelech. Elimelech means My God is King. So Israel is joined in a covenant of marriage to God, her King. In the course of the story Naomi finds herself with no husband and living in exile from her homeland, a stranger in a foreign land, an existence of pain and sorrow. So too the Jewish people, for the last two thousand years, have found themselves living in exile from their homeland, strangers in foreign lands, in an existence of pain and sorrow. But in the days of Naomi’s exile, a Gentile woman named Ruth becomes, through Naomi, part of the nation of Israel and is brought to the knowledge of God. So in the days of Israel’s exile in the nations, those who are not of Israel, Gentiles, are, through the Jewish people, brought to the God of Israel and are spiritually joined to His nation.”
“The church,” I said, “those who are born again. They are Ruth.”
“Ruth becomes Naomi’s adopted daughter.”
“So those of the new covenant are the adopted children of Israel. Israel is their mother. And the church is Israel’s daughter.”
“At the end of the story Ruth bears a child who becomes the blessing of Naomi’s life. So through Naomi came Ruth’s redemption, and through Ruth comes Naomi’s blessing.”
“So it is through the Jewish people,” I said, “that blessing has come to the Gentiles . . . and it will be through the Gentiles that blessings will come to Israel.”
“Yes,” said the teacher. “And so those who are blessed with salvation are blessed through Israel and to Israel they are joined. They are Ruth, and Israel is their Naomi. And only when Ruth blesses Naomi and Naomi blesses Ruth will the circle and the story be complete.”
The Mission: Be a Ruth today. Pray for and bless your Naomi. Pray and bless Israel and the Jewish people. Help bring their story to completion.
Ruth 1:16–17; 4:13–17; Isaiah 40:1–2; Romans 11:11; 15:26–27
The Bethle
hem Allegory
DAY 162
THE GIFT OF THE LAHMED
YOU TOLD ME that in Hebrew, the verb have doesn’t really exist,” I said, “that you can’t really have anything in this world. But then there has to be a way around it. There has to be a way of speaking about one’s possessions. The Bible uses the word have.”
“In its translations, yes. But in the original, not really.”
“So then what does it say in the original that we translated as ‘to have’?”
Instead of answering the question, he picked up a stick and began drawing a symbol in the sand.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s a lahmed,” he replied. “The twelfth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It is from the lahmed that comes the letter L. This is how you would communicate what we understand as ‘to have’ by using the lahmed. So to say ‘I have’ or ‘mine,’ you would use the Hebrew word li. To say ‘he has’ or ‘his,’ you would use the word lo. And to say ‘you have’ or ‘yours,’ you would use the word l’cha. So you can’t really have in Hebrew. But what you end up ‘having’ is better than having. The lahmed means to. So instead of saying ‘I have,’ you say, ‘It is to me.’ And instead of saying ‘he has’ or ‘his,’ you’re actually saying, ‘It is to him.’ In God you must live in accordance with the sacred tongue. That means giving up the idea that you ‘have’ in this world. But when you do that, when you give up the idea of having, then something miraculous will happen.”
“What?”
“Everything will become to you. When you ‘have,’ then that which you have cannot be given to you. But when you don’t ‘have,’ when you cease to ‘have,’ then that which you don’t have is freed up to be given. When you give up the ‘I have,’ it becomes ‘to you.’ And when you take no good thing for granted, then every good thing becomes a gift given to you, your means, your belongings, your friends, your loved ones, your talents, your time, every day, every moment, every breath, your life itself, your salvation, they all become gifts of grace, blessing, and love. Give up your having ‘to have,’ and everything in this world will become l’cha, a blessing from God to you . . . the gift of the lahmed.”
The Mission: Give up ‘having.’ Take no good thing today for granted, every blessing, even our life. And receive everything as a gift from God.
2 Corinthians 6:10; Ephesians 5:20; James 1:17
The Divine Nonpossessive
DAY 163
THE APPOINTED
WE WERE SITTING outside, not far from the well. The teacher was reading a passage out of one of the scrolls: “‘Some of them also were appointed over the vessels and over all the instruments of the sanctuary . . . ’ It’s speaking of the Levites, those appointed by God as His ministers in the Temple of Jerusalem, ordained for the fulfilling of sacred purposes. Now Jonah was a prophet called by God to give a message to Nineveh. But he ran away from his calling. God caused a large fish to swallow him and carry him back to the shore. Then He caused a leafy plant to grow and give Jonah shade, then a worm to eat the plant, and then a desert wind to blow from the east. Only after all these things took place was Jonah able to know the heart of God.”
“I’m not getting it,” I said. “First you spoke of the Levites as the ministers of God, and now you’re speaking of worms and fish. I don’t get the connection.”
“In the Book of Jonah,” he said, “in the original language, it doesn’t say God caused a fish to swallow Jonah. It says that God appointed the fish to swallow Jonah. It’s the same Hebrew word used of God appointing the Levites to minister in His sanctuary.”
“And the plant?”
“The same word. God appointed the plant. And God appointed the worm. And God appointed the east wind. The same word used of God’s appointing the Levites, His holy ministers, is used of the fish, the plant, the worm, and the wind. You see, they too were holy ministers, equally appointed to accomplish the purposes of God and bring His prophet to the appointed place.”
“I just never thought of a worm as a . . . ”
“No,” said the teacher, “and you probably never thought of your problems as appointed ministers either. But for the child of God, everything, the good, the bad, the joys, the sorrows, the problems, the victories and defeats, the wounds, the rejections, the losses, the past, the worms and the winds, all things are appointed. In fact, each is an appointed minister ordained to bring about God’s purposes, God’s blessings, God’s calling and destiny in your life. So be blessed. For in the end, what you thought were your problems were actually holy ministers, appointed to bring you to the appointed fulfillment of God’s calling on your life.”
The Mission: Today, see your problems and challenges in a new way, as God’s appointed ministers to bring you to the place of His will and destiny.
1 Chronicles 9:28; Jonah 1:17; 4:6–8; Psalm 139:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:11
The Book of Jonah I–VII
DAY 164
THE ZICHARYAH MAN
BY THE WATERS of Babylon, the children of Israel wept in exile as they remembered Zion, their homeland, which now lay in ruins. They had turned away from God, broken the covenant, rejected His ways, persecuted His prophets, did and celebrated what was evil, and lifted up their children as sacrifices on the altars of foreign gods. They had every reason to believe that their days as a nation were over and that they would be a people forgotten by God. But after many years a small remnant of the exiles returned to the land of Israel to find it a desolate wasteland and their Holy City a heap of ruins. They tried to rebuild but at every point were hindered. They had to have been haunted by the continual question, Has God forgotten us?”
The teacher paused as if in thought, then continued. “And then a prophet appeared in their midst named Zechariah. He came with a message: They were to rebuild Jerusalem, and it would be to the rebuilt Jerusalem that Messiah would come. But who was Zechariah?”
“A prophet sent by God,” I answered.
“Zechariah is just another way of saying his real Hebrew name: Zicharyah. And what does Zicharyah mean? The Yah of Zicharyah means God—the zichar means has remembered. So in the days of their judgment and exile, when they thought God was finished with them, that God had forgotten them, a baby was born and given the name ‘God has remembered.’ And the baby would grow up to be the prophet God sent to them in the days of their discouragement, the prophet named ‘God has remembered.’”
“So it was not only what Zicharyah said to them, but what he was.”
“Yes. In the midst of the people was Zicharyah, ‘God has remembered.’ Every word of encouragement came from that. He was the sign in flesh and blood that even in their greatest fall and their darkest sins, even when they should have been cast away and forgotten forever, God had not forgotten them. Even when they had forgotten God, God would not forget them. He remembered His promise, His love, and His tender mercies. And so He did not give up on them, and they would be restored. And so,” said the teacher, “for all who have fallen, for all who have failed, all who have sinned, all who have lost, and all who have wondered, ‘Has God forgotten me?,’ remember this one, and his name, Zicharyah. It means that God will never forget you, and His faithfulness to you will always be greater than your sins.”
The Mission: Remember the times when you’ve fallen—and yet when God didn’t give up on you. In view of that dedicate your life to blessing Him all the more.
Psalm 98:3; Isaiah 49:14–16; Zechariah 8:3–9
Zechariah: God Remembers
DAY 165
THE LULAV
WE SAT IN the midst of a desert plain surrounded by mountains. The teacher was holding in one hand a fruit and, in the other, a cluster of three branches. “This,” he said, holding up the branches, “is called the lulav. It comes from the biblical command to worship God on the Feast of Tabernacles with branches. During that feast the people of Israel would remember how God led them through the wilderness through the waving of these branches.”
“How so?”
I asked.
“This, the largest of the three branches, is the palm. The palm tree grows in the valleys. So the palm branch reminded the Israelites of their journeys through the valleys, that God was with them. And this,” he said, pointing to a smaller branch with dark green leaves, “is the myrtle. It grows in the mountains. So the myrtle reminded them of their journeys through mountains, and that God was with them there as well. And this,” he said, pointing to a drooping branch of light green, “is the willow. The willow grows by the water brooks. It reminded them of their journeys through the dry places that God was with them to give them water in the desert. Now, what is the mystery of the lulav?” he asked.
“I have no idea.”
“The wilderness is the world. The journey is this life. And this is the message of the lulav to the child of God: The palm tells you that no matter what valley you go through in your life, no matter how deep or dark, you will never be alone, He will be with you. The myrtle tells you that when you go through the rockiest of times, He will go through it with you and will keep you from falling. And the willow tells you that in the dry and empty places of your life, He will never leave you, but will stay close, and will even give you rivers in your desert.”
“And what about the fruit?” I asked.
“The fruit speaks of the Promised Land, and its message is this: No matter what you go through in this life, it’s not the end, only the journey to your destination. And when you get there, you’ll give thanks that your journey was blessed, that you were never alone, and that He was with you every moment, making sure that you made it to the Promised Land.”
The Mission: Today, gather your lulav. Remember and give thanks that in all your valleys, mountains, and deserts He was there—and always will be.
The Book of Mysteries Page 24