“But with the fall, the peace of the Sabbath and all its blessings were gone from the creation and from our lives.”
“So then a new Sabbath is required,” he said. “But only God can bring the Sabbath. And the Sabbath can only come in the ceasing of God. So for God to bring a new Sabbath, He would have to cease. And the timing of that ceasing would have to be linked to the timing of the Sabbath. It was Friday afternoon, the end of the sixth day, not of creation, but now of redemption. And as in the beginning, the sixth day was the day of the completion of God’s labors. So the labors of God were completed on the cross . . . And then on the cross . . . He ceased. He ceased from His labors and His life . . . the ceasing of God . . . God’s shevat. As in the beginning, God ceased and then came the Sabbath, a new Sabbath, not of this world, and a new peace, greater than the world . . . for all who will enter it. How? By ceasing . . . in the shevat . . . the ceasing of God.”
The Mission: Learn the secret of shevat. Cease with God from laboring, struggling, and from yourself. Enter the Shabbat, the Second Sabbath.
Genesis 2:2–3; John 19:30–31; Hebrews 4:4, 9–10
The Sabbath Entrance
DAY 195
KHANANYAH
HE WAS A blasphemer,” said the teacher, “a violent man, and a murderer . . . Saul of Tarsus. He hunted down the followers of Messiah and delivered them to judgment. And then with a flash of light, on the road to Damascus, he was blinded. The Lord then spoke to a believer in the city named Ananias. He told him to go to Saul. So Ananias approached the blind persecutor, and with the touch of his hand, Saul regained his sight. Now a question: What was the first thing that Saul ever saw as a believer?”
“Ananias?”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “but what was it that he saw?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“In God there are no accidents. He chose the man Ananias as the first thing Saul’s eyes would see in his new life. What is Ananias? It’s a translation of his real name, his Hebrew name, Khananyah. And what does it mean? Yah is the Name of God, and khanan means grace. Khananyah means the grace of God. So what was the first thing that Saul saw in his salvation?”
“Khananyah.”
“The grace of God,” said the teacher. “The first thing he saw was the grace of God. And it was Khananyah who touched him and caused his blindness to be removed and allowed him to see.”
“So it was the grace of God,” I said, “that touched Saul’s life and the grace of God that allowed him to see.”
“Yes, and so it is for all of us. It is the grace of God that touches our lives, that removes our blindness, and allows us to see. Only by the grace of God can we see. And the first thing we see in salvation is khananyah, the grace of God.”
“And it was khananyah,” I said, “that gave Saul the ability to rise up and walk and then to live as a disciple, to minister, and to fulfill his calling.”
“And so it is only the grace of God that gives you the ability to rise and walk in Messiah, and only His grace that enables you to be His disciple, to live in righteousness and holiness, to minister and to fulfill your calling. And that’s why Khananyah was the first thing Saul, in his new life, was able to see, because it’s all the grace of God . . . It is that which saves those who have no reason or right to be saved. It all begins by seeing khananyah. Thus, you must never move away from that grace, or from seeing it. For without khananyah, we become blind. And every good thing we do comes from it. It all begins . . . and is all fulfilled . . . in khananyah . . . the grace of God.”
The Mission: In all things today look to see khananyah, the grace of God. Follow it, dwell in it, act in it, and let everything flow out of it.
Psalm 84:11; Acts 9:8–18; 20:24; 1 Corinthians 15:10
The Power of Being Wrong
DAY 196
NEKHUSHTAN: THE DOUBLE NEGATIVE REDEMPTION
THE NEKHUSHTAN,” SAID the teacher, as he pointed to a lithograph on his wall. “The brazen serpent. When the Israelites were dying in the wilderness from the bite of venomous snakes, God told Moses to make a serpent of brass and suspend it on a pole. And when the dying looked at that brass serpent, they were healed.”
“Strange,” I replied, “healed of the serpent’s venom by an image of a serpent.”
“The negative of a negative nullifies the negative and produces its opposite—a positive. So the power of the serpent is nullified by the power of the serpent—a double negative. And what is the serpent a symbol of in Scripture?”
“Evil,” I said. “The enemy . . . darkness . . . Satan . . . sin.”
“So what does the Nekhushtan reveal?” he asked. “It reveals that the power of sin and evil will be nullified . . . by a double negative redemption. So Messiah said this to Nicodemus: ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’ What does that mean?”
“The Nekhushtan . . . is the cross,” I said. “He made Him to become sin for us. He came in the image of sin, of evil, as in the image of the serpent . . . as the brazen serpent lifted up on the pole . . . so that all who were infected by the serpent’s poison . . . by sin . . . would, by looking to the image of sin . . . by believing in Him who died on the cross . . . be healed of sin and its power.”
“Yes,” said the teacher. “The cross is the Nekhushtan. It is the double negative redemption . . . the binding of all bondage . . . the taking captive of captivity . . . the rejection of rejection . . . the abandonment of all abandonment . . . the turning away from turning away . . . the crippling of all crippling . . . the limiting of all limitations . . . the separation of all separations . . . the barring of all barriers . . . the banishing of all banishment . . . the cursing of all curses . . . the defeating of defeat . . . the destruction of all destruction . . . the death of all death . . . and the end of all endings. And the double negative of judgment equals salvation, and of separation equals reconciliation, and of condemnation equals love, and of death equals eternal life. That is the power that you have in Messiah. Live in that power and, from the negative of the negative, bring forth redemption.”
The Mission: Live today in the power of the double negative redemption. Doubt the doubt, defy the defiance, bind the bondage, reject the rejection, defeat the defeat, and turn death into life.
Numbers 21:8–9; John 3:14–15; Romans 8–3; 1 Corinthians 15:26; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 4:8
The Double Negative Redemption
DAY 197
THE ARCH OF TITUS
HE LED ME into a room opposite the Chamber of Scrolls. It was dimly illuminated by the light of an oil lamp. He picked up the lamp and lit the first light of a giant seven-branch lampstand, the menorah. He proceeded to light each lamp until it was fully ablaze.
“In the year AD 70,” he said, “the armies of Rome, under the command of the general Titus, destroyed the land of Israel and the ancient nation of Judea. To commemorate the end of Israel along with other Roman victories, a monument was built and called the Arch of Titus. Inside the arch was carved an image of Israel’s destruction, the carrying away of the sacred vessels from the Temple of Jerusalem. Two thousand years later, the Roman Empire lay in ruins. But the nation of Israel was miraculously raised from the dead. The new nation needed a symbol. And do you know where they found it, Israel’s national seal? On the Arch of Titus. By building a monument to seal in stone the destruction of Israel, the Romans ended up doing the very opposite. They preserved in stone the image of Israel’s sacred golden seven-branch menorah for two thousand years. And that very image from that arch became the symbol of Israel’s resurrection, the national seal of the newborn nation . . . the menorah, the symbol of God’s light overcoming the darkness. What does the Arch of Titus reveal?”
“That in the end,” I said, “you can’t stop the purpose of God.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “and more than that. God not only causes His purposes
to come to pass, but He will even use that which is against His purposes to cause those purposes to come to pass. He not only overcomes evil, but causes evil to be used for good. And so He will turn death into life, destruction into rebirth, darkness into light, the curses set against His people into blessings, and the tears of His children into rejoicing. And He will turn everything in your life that was meant for evil around for good and that which was meant to harm you to save and bless you instead. It’s all there in the menorah of God’s light kept safe for the ages on the Arch of Titus.”
The Mission: Identify the “Arches of Titus” in your life—all the bad that God redeemed for your good. Take part in turning the present bad into blessing.
Genesis 50:19–20; Psalm 30:11–12; Romans 8:28
The Arch of Titus
DAY 198
THE INFINITY SOLUTION
WE WERE SITTING in the desert sand when I asked him a question.
“God is one. And God is three. Mathematically speaking,” I said, “I don’t see how it can work. One can never equal three and three can never equal one.”
At that, it was I who picked up a stick and began writing numbers in the sand.
“One plus one plus one equals three, not one.”
“And if it was one divided by three?” asked the teacher.
Again I wrote it out on the sand.
“One divided by three equals one-third, not one.”
“You’re right,” he said. “It doesn’t work. How could it?”
“I guess it can’t. So I should forget about trying to use equations.”
I lifted the stick to erase the numbers when his hand took hold of the stick.
“I didn’t say that. You just used the wrong equation. God is infinite. You can’t use that which is finite to comprehend the infinite.”
The teacher then took the stick and pointed it to the first equation. Next to every number he inscribed the symbol of infinity.
“Now let’s try it again. One infinity plus one infinity plus one infinity equals three infinities. How big is three infinities?
“It’s infinite. It’s infinity. Three infinities equal one infinity . . . So three equals one.”
Then he pointed the stick to the second equation and did likewise, inserting again the symbol of infinity.
“One infinity divided by three equals one-third of infinity. And what is one-third of infinity? One-third of infinity is . . . infinity. When you speak of God, you speak of the infinite. And one infinity and three infinities are equal. One-third of infinity and one infinity are likewise equal. So in the realm of God, the realm of the infinite, one does equal three and three equals one. You can never fit the infinite inside the finite, and you can never fit God inside of your understanding. If you could, then He wouldn’t be God. Then your understanding would be God. But God, by definition, must be greater than your understanding. And this will set you free. You don’t have to figure out God. But there is a way that the finite can understand the infinite.”
“How?”
“Believe!”
The Mission: Seek this day to live not limited by the limitations of your circumstances, problems, thoughts, and ways. Live by faith beyond them.
1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 40:28; Romans 11:33
The Infinity Solution
DAY 199
THE EUCHARISTIA
WE WERE SITTING by the fire at night. The teacher had in his hand a piece of matzah, unleavened bread. He broke off a piece and handed the rest to me. We partook.
“The bread of the Passover, as Messiah gave to His disciples at the Last Supper.”
“Communion,” I said.
“Which is from the Passover,” he said. “And do you know what some call that bread?”
“The Eucharist,” I replied.
“Yes. And do you know where that word comes from? It comes from the Greek word, eucharistia. It appears in the Scriptures. But it has nothing at all to do with bread.”
“What then?”
“Eucharistia means to give thanks or to say a blessing.
“So why do people think it’s the bread?”
“It was what Messiah said over the bread. It’s what the Jewish people have said over the bread for ages. It was the Hebrew blessing known as the Motzi. He said, ‘Baruch atah Adonai, Elohaynu Melekh Ha Olam, ha motzi lechem min ha aretz,’ which means, ‘Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.’”
“So it’s not the bread but the blessing of thanks He gave over the bread.”
“Yes,” said the teacher. “And what does that tell you?”
“That life is not about things.”
“Yes. It tells you that your life does not consist of objects, but of the blessings you say over them . . . the thanks you say over them. You see, it doesn’t matter how much or little you have on earth. What matters is how much thanks you give for what you have. The one who is rich in possessions but poor in thankfulness is, in the end, poor. But the one who is poor in possessions but rich in giving thanks is, in the end, rich. And what was the bread over which Messiah gave thanks? It was the symbol of His suffering and death. Yet He spoke a blessing over it and gave thanks for it. For those who give thanks in all things have the power to turn curses into blessings and sorrows into joy . . . the power of the eucharistia.”
The Mission: Seek today not to increase what you have, but to increase your thanks for what you have. Give thanks in all things. The greater your thanksgiving, the greater will be your life.
Psalm 136; Luke 22:14–23; 1 Timothy 6:6–8
The Eucharistia
DAY 200
YOVEL
THE TEACHER LED me up a hill in the middle of a plain. Only when we reached the top did I understand why we had come there. He took out a ram’s horn, a shofar, and, from the top of the hill, began to sound it in every direction.
“‘And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year,’” said the teacher, “‘and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants.’ It was called the Yovel, a name based on the shofar that was sounded to proclaim its coming. In the year of Yovel, slaves and prisoners were set free. And God had decreed, ‘Each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.’ So the Yovel was also the year of restoration. If you had lost your land, your inheritance, your ancestral possession, then in the year of the Yovel you would go home, you would return to your land, you would receive back your inheritance and your ancestral possession, all that you had lost. But the Yovel is known by another name.”
“What name?”
“The Jubilee. Most people know the word, but few people realize its key. You see, the Jubilee can only begin on one specific day. That day was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The blessings could only come after being reconciled to God. And the only way to be reconciled to God was through the atonement. So apart from Yom Kippur, there can be no Jubilee, no release, no freedom, and no restoration. And what is the atonement?”
“The sacrifice of Messiah.”
“And here’s the key. Yom Kippur brings the Yovel. The atonement brings the Jubilee. Therefore if Messiah is the atonement, He must also bring the Jubilee. And the more you dwell in the atonement, the more you will live in the Jubilee. So go deeper in Messiah. And go deeper in His atonement. And you’ll have the power of Jubilee, the power to walk in freedom, the power of returning home, the power of reconciliation, the power of liberty, and the power to be restored to your God-given inheritance. For from Yom Kippur comes the Yovel . . . and from Messiah comes your Jubilee.”
The Mission: Make today your Yovel. Walk in the power of freedom, restoration, reconciliation, and release. Live the power of Jubilee.
Leviticus 25:10–11; Luke 4:18–19; Galatians 5:1
Jubilee
DAY 201
THE ADERET
IT WAS THE middle of the afternoon. We went up a high mountain and to the same cave in which we had seen the engraving of the cherub w
ith the outstretched wings. The teacher went inside without me and soon emerged holding a large garment, a robe of sorts, made of a rough light brown material.
“A mantle,” he said, “but unlike the one I showed you earlier, it’s made of camel’s hair, as in the mantle of Elijah, the one he cast onto the shoulders of Elisha, signifying that Elisha would follow in his footsteps as a prophet of the Lord. Can you imagine being Elisha and feeling Elijah’s mantle coming over you?”
“It must have been overwhelming. He must have felt totally inadequate.”
“Undoubtedly,” said the teacher, “but so did all the others who received their mantles. From Moses, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Peter, they all felt unworthy of the mantle given them, and with good reason . . . the mantle was too big. It didn’t fit. But that’s the nature of the mantle. In Hebrew the mantle is called the aderet. Aderet means large, big, great, wide, powerful, excellent, noble, mighty, and glorious. You see, the mantle is bigger and greater than the one it’s given to. And so too it is with you.”
“With me?”
“With all His children. Each one is given a mantle, a calling. And you will be given yours. But remember, your mantle is your aderet, and the aderet always speaks of greatness. So your calling will be too big for you. It won’t fit. It won’t match who you are. And there will be times when you’ll struggle with that, with its magnitude in comparison to who you are . . . It will always be greater, more powerful, more noble, more excellent, and more glorious than the one who wears it and to whom it was given.”
“But why? Why does God give us mantles that are too big and don’t fit?”
“Your mantle is not meant to fit who you are. It’s meant to fit who you are to be, who you are to become. So when you were a little child, your parents bought you clothes that didn’t fit, that were too big. It wasn’t to fit who you were; it was to fit who you were to become. So too your mantle must be beyond you, that you can grow into it, that you can rise to it. So never be discouraged at the difference in size. It must be that way . . . that you might become greater, more excellent, more noble, more powerful, and more glorious than you are now.”
The Book of Mysteries Page 29