Friday, April 14, 2017

Weekend Meditation--Understanding Kingdom, We Are The Second Exodus and the Firstborn!!  Now Rise Up and Passover!!!!

Exodus 12

 We are walking in today:  Weekend Meditation--Understanding Kingdom, We Are The Second Exodus and the Firstborn!!  Now Rise Up and Passover!!!!

Witness firstborn throughout the Bible:   H1060 bĕkowr--firstborn

Exodus 4:22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: 

Torah:  Genesis 27:19, 27:32, 35:23, 36:15, 38:6; Exodus 4:23; Numbers 3:12,  3:13, 3:42
Prophets:   1 Samuel 8:2, 17:13; 2 Samuel 3:2; Micah 6:7; Zechariah  12:10
Writings:  Joshua 17:1; Judges 8:20; Psalms 78:51, 89:27, 105:36, 135:8, 136:10

Hebrews 11:28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

Exodus 12  verses 29-33
29 At midnight Adonai killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh sitting on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. 30 Pharaoh got up in the night, he, all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was horrendous wailing in Egypt; for there wasn’t a single house without someone dead in it. 31 He summoned Moshe and Aaron by night and said, “Up and leave my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve Adonai as you said. 32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you said; and get out of here! But bless me, too.” 33 The Egyptians pressed to send the people out of the land quickly, because they said, “Otherwise we’ll all be dead!”

Passover/Pesach is an important, biblically derived Jewish festival. The Jewish people celebrate Passover as a celebration of their liberation by God from slavery in Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in the Hebrew Bible especially in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. According to standard biblical chronology, this event would have taken place in about 1300 BCE (AM 2450).

Passover is a spring festival which during the existence of the Jerusalem Temple was connected to the offering of the "first-fruits of the barley", barley being the first grain to ripen and to be harvested in the Land of Israel.

Strong's #1061
bikkurim: first fruits
Original Word: בִּכּוּרִים
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: bikkurim
Phonetic Spelling: (bik-koor')
Short Definition: fruits

The Hebrew term bikkurim and related terms for the "first fruits" derive from the same root asbekhor, "firstborn (see Firstborn). On the same general principle that the firstborn of man and beast belonged to the God of Israel and were to be devoted to Him, the first fruits, including the first grains to ripen each season, were to be brought as an offering to God. Every Israelite who possessed the means of agricultural productivity was under this obligation (Ex. 23:19; 34:26, Num. 15:17–21; 18:12–13; Deut. 26:1–11). A frequent synonym for bikkurim isreshit, "the first [fruits]."

Passover commences on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for either seven days (in Israel and for Reform Jews and other progressive Jews around the world who adhere to the Biblical commandment) or eight days for Orthodox, Hasidic, and most Conservative Jews (in the diaspora). In Judaism, a day commences at dusk and lasts until the following dusk, thus the first day of Passover only begins after dusk of the 14th of Nisan and ends at dusk on the 15th day of the month of Nisan. The rituals unique to the Passover celebrations commence with the Passover Seder when the 15th of Nisan has begun. In the Northern Hemisphere Passover takes place in spring as the Torah prescribes it: "in the month of [the] spring" (בחדש האביב Exodus 23:15). It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays.

In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape from their slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born.

The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to pass over the first-born in these homes, hence the English name of the holiday.

When the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover, no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason Passover was called the feast of unleavened bread in the Torah or Old Testament. Thus Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is eaten during Passover and it is a tradition of the holiday.

Historically, together with Shavuot ("Pentecost") and Sukkot ("Tabernacles"), Passover is one of the three pilgrimage festivals (Shalosh Regalim) during which the entire population of the kingdom of Judah made a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. Samaritans still make this pilgrimage to Mount Gerizim, but only men participate in public worship

Seder meal
The preparing of the items for the Seder plate requires some time. It is best to prepare all the Seder foods before the onset of the holiday, in order to avoid halachic questions.

Three matzot are placed on top of each other on a plate or napkin and then covered. (Some also have the custom to separate the matzot from each other with interleaved plates, napkins, or the like.)

The matzot are symbolic of the three castes of Jews: Priests, Levites, and Israelites. They also commemorate the three measures of fine flour that Abraham told Sarah to bake into matzah when they were visited by the three angels (Genesis 18:6).

On a practical level, three matzot are needed so that when we break the middle matzah, we are still left with two whole ones to pronounce the hamotzi blessing (as required on Shabbat and holidays).

On a cloth or plate placed above the three matzot, we place the following items:

The special foods we eat on Passover are also food for thought. Every item on the Seder plate abounds in meaning and allusion.

The Shank bone:

A piece of roasted meat represents the lamb that was the special Paschal sacrifice on the eve of the exodus from Egypt, and annually, on the afternoon before Passover, in the Holy Temple.

Since we can’t offer the Paschal sacrifice in the absence of the Holy Temple, we take care to use something that is relatively dissimilar to the actual offering. Accordingly, many communities have the custom to use a roasted chicken neck or the like

The Egg:

A hard-boiled egg represents the holiday offering brought in the days of the Holy Temple. The meat of this animal constituted the main part of the Passover meal.

The Bitter Herbs:

Bitter herbs (maror) remind us of the bitterness of the slavery of our forefathers in Egypt. Freshly grated horseradish, romaine lettuce, and endive are the most common choices

The Mixture:

A mixture of apples, nuts, and wine which resembles the mortar and brick made by the Jews when they toiled for Pharaoh

The Vegetable:

A non-bitter root vegetable alludes to the backbreaking work of the Jews as slaves. The Hebrew letters of the word karpascan are arranged to spell “perech samech.”

Perech means backbreaking work, and samech is numerically equivalent to 60, referring to 60 myriads, equaling 600,000, which was the number of Jewish males over 20 years of age who were enslaved in Egypt

The Bitter Herbs (Lettuce):

The lettuce symbolizes the bitter enslavement of our fathers in Egypt. The leaves of romaine lettuce are not bitter, but the stem, when left to grow in the ground, turns hard and bitter.

So it was with our enslavement in Egypt.
At first, the deceitful, subtle approach of Pharaoh was diplomatic and sensible, and the work was done voluntarily and even for pay. Gradually, it evolved into forced and cruel labor a bitter jealousness.
Keeping in mind that the celebration of the Passover is a simplification of the freedom Yahweh gave to the children of Israel. From the Egyptian mental, physical slavery bondage. As the death angel passed over the homes of the children of Israel and slaughtered the firstborn among the Egyptians. Yeshua is considered the first one born among the dead. Moses as being the first born from slavery being taught and brought up under the false doctrines of the Egyptians.

As the children of Israel, we're freed from the oppression of Egypt. The journey in the wilderness needed to get out the leaven of Egyptian philosophical way of life. So will the lost tribes of Israel’s return to the land promise?

Jeremiah 16:14-16   “‘Therefore,’ says Adonai, ‘the day will come when people will no longer swear, “As Adonai lives, who brought the people of Isra’el out of the land of Egypt,” but, “As Adonai lives, who brought the people of Isra’el out of the land to the north and out of all the countries where he drove them”; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their ancestors. “‘Look,’ says Adonai, ‘I will send for many fishermen, and they will fish for them. Afterward, I will send for many hunters; and they will hunt them from every mountain and hill and out of caves in the rocks. -CJB


Shema Selah let us now rise up to crossover to worship the Most High in the wilderness in spirit and in truth!!  Facebook LIVE video!!

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