Behold, the Lamb of God!

                                                       

This time of year sees the world celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
The Gospel of John opens with both a declaration and a depiction that reminds us of the purpose and identity of Jesus:
"The next day John (the Baptist) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!...Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"                                                                             John 1:29-36

The New Testament also closes with both a declaration and depiction of Jesus as the Lamb of God. The angels, elders, and creatures of heaven are declaring loudly:
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"           Rev. 5:12

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."                                  Rev. 19:7

"The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light."                               Rev. 21:23

The name of "Lamb" is given to Jesus because on Passover, He was the sacrifice for sin on the cross, and our Father's provision for our deliverance from death. He rose from the dead on the third day after Passover. His association with Passover has a deep importance for His acceptance by the Jewish people, as well as a contextual and spiritual meaning for Gentile people. God decreed the blood of the Passover lamb thousands of years ago in the Torah as He delivered His people from the bondage of the Egyptians. He revealed Passover's prophetic significance in the New Testament/Covenant with Jesus' death on the Passover feast. The term "Passover" in Hebrew includes the meaning of "a sacrifice made that provides a sparing immunity from penalty and calamity". Yet centuries ago, the Church, as a whole, made a decision to separate the sacrificial Lamb of God from the Passover, and instead to calculate the date of His death and the celebration of His Resurrection each year from the date of the Vernal Equinox, the arrival of spring.
This would be error enough, but in addition, by making this change, the Passover Lamb of God has become associated with the goddess Ishtar, with Easter becoming the name given to His day of resurrection. This day is celebrated with new spring outfits, elaborate bonnets, and with cartoonish depictions of bunnies and eggs. While these springtime activities seem harmless enough and pleasant, and provide "fun" for our children, the goddess Ishtar, was a vile, destructive creature. She was the Assyrian/Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sexual promiscuity. Those whom she chose to "love", were eventually reduced to slavery, and then destruction. Her worshippers would construct tabernacles, or booths (Succothbenoth), of idolatrous prostitution. In her various identities, depending upon the culture, she was considered the personification of the planet Venus. She was not just associated with carnality, but she also carried weapons of war.
Her legend also includes an account of her descent into the Underworld, that should give all Christians serious pause. Ishtar's plan was to violently storm the gates of the Underworld in order to bring the dead back to earth to kill and consume the living. It would be a counterfeit, demonic version of resurrection. Why would we, as Christians, want to be any part of that? Why would we want to associate our Savior with that?  In the beginning, this mixing of Jesus' greatest gift to us with pagan worship was a decision made by the Church that may even have been done with good intentions. However, man should not think that he can change and "improve upon" the will and word of God, especially regarding His beloved Son. Now the tradition is continued perhaps in ignorance. However God gives a strong warning in His word that His people are destroyed from their ignorance and lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6).

If we remove Jesus, the Lamb, from the delivering power, timing, and deeply prophetic meaning of Passover, which was commanded by God to be taught to all our generations as an everlasting ordinance (Ex. 12:13-14), we lessen the meaning of His resurrection.

The Apostle Paul also exhorted the New Testament Church to observe the true meaning of the Passover:
"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.                                    1 Cor. 5:7-8
 

If we associate Jesus' death and resurrection with a pagan goddess instead of the Passover, we have placed a barrier to faith and knowledge of Messiah before the Jewish person, and robbed the Gentile of the full meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. We have created a spiritual mixture that does not bring the Lamb the glory He deserves. 
In past examples, as God's people mixed His name with the names of idols, He delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and they suffered the consequences as He removed them out of His sight (2 Kings 17 and 18). By continuing to manipulate the date of the Resurrection, and celebrate it as Easter, we do the same thing, creating the same mixture, by joining the sacred with the profane. 

Jesus certainly did not separate Himself from the Passover. On the night He was arrested:

"... He said unto them, "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."                                                        Lk. 22:15-16

With His suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus fulfilled the Passover, as He, the Lamb of God, was purposed to do. Let us connect the Lamb again with the Passover in our understanding, and in our hearts. He desired and suffered so much to fulfill it on our behalf.

 



                                                                                   

                                             Above: Matza incl. Afikomen, Unity Bag, cup of wine  

                                                        

 

                                                      

                                                            Above: Seder plate with lamb shank

 

 



 

Above Depiction: Blood of the Passover Lamb applied to the doorposts and lintels

Esther, the Beautiful Bride

 

 

This is the season of Purim and Resurrection. As we are looking into the Book of Esther, which is the story of Purim, it is rich with revelation and prophetic meaning. It has layers of truth, and the deeper you look, the more layers you can uncover.
One of the beautiful portraits from the Book of Esther is the portrait of the Bride of Christ. Esther was chosen to marry King Ahasuerus. His name translates as "I will be silent and poor (humble)", but even more interestingly, from an older source, his name means "lion-king". His city of Shushan means "lily, trumpet, white" from a root word meaning, "exult, rejoice, leap with joy".
As Esther married the king, she carried two identities. Outwardly, publicly, Esther was a Gentile. However, inwardly and truly, she was a Jew. Her Hebrew birth name was Hadassah, meaning "myrtle". According to rabbinical teaching, the myrtle tree releases a fragrant aroma called "Maharsha" when its leaves are crushed. The leaves were also used in brews and teas for medicinal purposes. The myrtle tree is associated with righteousness as it is mentioned in Zech. 1:8-11.
The name Esther is of Persian origin and means "star". The Hebrew word closest to this name is hester, meaning "hidden". What was hidden about Esther? It was her Jewish identity. This hidden Jewish identity made all the difference in foiling the plot of the wicked Haman against the covenant people of God. Esther's uncle, Mordecai, commanded her not to reveal her Jewish heritage, nor her connection to the Jewish people (Est. 2:10,20). So she lived as a Gentile, known only by her Gentile name.
The Bride of Christ is also both Jewish and Gentile. Although most of the Church is identified as being Gentile, its roots, and its Savior are very much Jewish. Our scriptures are Jewish. The Gentile branches may have been grafted in, but the root is Jewish. Not only that, but scripture tells us that those original Jewish branches are going to be restored.

 

"For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature,

and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree:

how much more shall these,

which be the natural branches,

be grafted into their own olive tree?"
 Rom. 11:24

And
"For if their (the Jews) being cast away is the reconciling of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?"
Rom. 11:15

 

Queen Esther finally revealed to the king that she was Jewish, as she petitioned the king for her life and for the lives of her people, which were endangered by the plot of Haman (Est. 7:3). While the king originally gave his favor to Esther as a Gentile bride, it is the Jewish bride who came forth from hiding, who broke the plan of the enemy. It is in this moment of her revelation that the king decided the fate of Haman. She was his bride, and he upheld her life, and her royal honor as his wife. 
The Esther story has so many things to teach us. One thing it teaches us, the Church in general, is that if we ignore the importance of the Jewish people as part of the Church identity, and the importance of our Jewish roots, we do so at our own peril, and we will not be able to fulfill properly the role that God has purposed for us in an "Esther victory" over the enemy. That victory is His plan of enlargement and deliverance (Est. 4:14).

Esther is the beautiful Bride of the King. The Bride of Christ is neither Jew nor Gentile (Gal. 3:28, Col. 3:11), but a new creation that requires both identities to be grafted in together, to be made one in His hand, to be all one in Christ Jesus, our King and Bridegroom. It requires the unifying in Him of both identities to become "life from the dead".

 



 







photo above: myrtle branch


"Prepare Ye the Way of the LORD"

 

 

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

"Prepare ye the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth; The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

                                                                       and

"Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts.      Isa. 40:3-5, Mal. 3:1

 

This above cry comes forth out of the wilderness. If you think of yourself as part of a church that seems to be in a wilderness, it is very likely that this cry is coming from you right now. It is a cry that is calling out to all to "get ready", to prepare. It is a cry that we feel compelled to shout out.

This year, during this season before Passover and Resurrection, it seems especially urgent.

In the days before Passover, a Jewish household is cleansed of leaven, and prepared for the Feast. Similarly, we need to prepare our spiritual houses, ourselves.
The term "prepare" used in the scriptures above refers to a "turning back, a turning toward something, and a turning away from something, an approach of evening, to clear from things in confusion, to put a house in order, to face, to approach, to behold."

The "way" that we are to prepare as used above, is a journey, a road, a manner, a conversation, a custom, a way of life. Most interestingly, it also means to express wine or oil by treading down with the feet. Wine and oil have great meaning in God's Kingdom, one of which is their use in comfort and healing. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan uses wine and oil to bring healing to the wounds of the man he finds beaten while the Samaritan is on his journey (way) in Lk. 10:33-34.

 

 

                                           

Oil is also used to represent the Holy Spirit, and the anointing and presence of the LORD. The oil is used to light lamps, including the Lamp of the LORD in the Temple.
Jesus pointed out that not only were we to be a light, but a light by which all can see through the darkness. That light is to be lifted up, placed on a lampstand, that those who enter may see it, in order to relieve that darkness, and bring glory to God:

"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp, and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house...that those who enter may see the light... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven."      Mt. 5:14-16, Lk. 8:16

Jesus warns us about being unprepared, caught without oil in our lamps, when the bridegroom suddenly comes, with a shout, or a cry:

"And at midnight a cry was heard: "Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!" Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out"...And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut."                Mt. 25:6-10 (abridged)


                                                      


The wine produced by preparing the way of the LORD is a symbol of the blood, the atonement of Christ, the redemption, the reconciliation, the beautiful new covenant between God and man. It is also a symbol of the gladness of the LORD. It is the miracle done at the wedding in Cana. ("Cana" happens to have the root meaning of a measuring rod, the beam of a balancing scale, the shaft and branches of a lampstand)

In the treading down process, the way that belongs to the LORD presses the oil out of the olive, and the wine from the grapes. This is what is to be pressed from our lives also. We turn back to those things of God that allow the oil and the wine to come forth from us. Jesus called Himself The Way. He is the One who produces this oil and wine from each one of us, if we will submit to Him in this pressing process.

The cry is going out from the wilderness: Now is the time to prepare, now is the time to have our lamps filled with the oil which is produced from the way of the LORD. Now is the time to have that light in us shining for all to see the way out of the darkness, and into His marvelous light. Let our temple storehouses be filled with the oil and the wine of the Spirit. It is time to make our crooked places straight, to raise up the valleys in our lives, and pull down those mountains that have exalted themselves in us, to smooth out those rough places, to prepare His way. All of these "preparations" have a direct impact on the soon and sudden coming of the Lord, according to our scriptures above. 
As we prepare the way before Him, He will enter in.