A New Beginning

 As Spirit-filled believers, we have embraced YHVH’s words of truth pertaining to all that the Father has accomplished through Yeshua's first coming.  This year while we approach Passover and Unleavened Bread, I would like to take a stance of being a witness of Yeshua (including the shared witness of all of us).  We, therefore, have to address the issue of whether we are actually living in the reality of those truths, or are we still being overcome by the flesh and the power of sin?   Abiding in the Messiah's finished work, as recorded in the scriptures, especially the writings of the apostles, we begin to experience more and more of Yeshua’s tangible presence in our life.  Passover is the time to reflect and remember the Lamb of Elohim through whose blood we have been forgiven and justified so that we now have “Shalom/Peace” with our Elohim.

Messiah “… was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with Elohim through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah… Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of Elohim through Him” (Romans 4:25; 5:1,9 emphasis added).

Thanks be to YHVH’s love and mercy, who has promised that "all the offspring of Israel will be justified, and will glory" (Isaiah 45:25).  Paul reiterates this when he addresses those whom Elohim “… foreknew, [and who] He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

Moreover, we are not only justified and forgiven, but we were also joined to Yeshua in His death (see 2 Corinthians 4:10) so that His death becomes our death, (verse 11), His burial is our burial, and His resurrection is our resurrection (see Romans 6:4).  But it does not stop there. For without Him taking us before the Father on that resurrection day, as the barley – Omer wave offering, none of what had taken place before that or after would have had any meaning or significance. ^“And he shall wave the sheaf before YHVH for you to be accepted; on the day after the Shabbat, the priest shall wave it” (Leviticus 23:11 emphasis added).  

Yeshua is the beginning of the New Creation, just as He was the beginning of the old. This is why the Omer (the "resheet" – "first" or "beginning" of the barley harvest) had to be waved on the first day after the weekly Shabbat – pointing to the new beginning.   The barley offering, in particular, was also part of the process of appeasing the jealous husband (see Number 5:15, Hosea 3:2).  Obviously, Israel was guilty of adultery and bore the curse of a wife who has committed the deeds that she had been suspected of performing.  This Pesach let us celebrate YHVH’s great mercy of providing a Lamb in order to redeem His wayward divorcee back. Had He done only this we could have said "dayeynu" (as the traditional seder song goes) – "it would have been sufficient for us". But He did much more than that. In Jeremiah 31 YHVH surprisingly calls Israel a virgin. This is how great our forgiveness and reconciliation are in His eyes and heart! “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.  Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel"!  (Jeremiah 31:3-4 emphasis added).  

Pesach is the foundation upon which all the other feast days are based. They are all dependent on what takes place during these seven days. If these days and their intentions are not fulfilled as specified in the Torah, as well as in the rest of the scriptures, they all become an ineffective witness to Elohim’s faithfulness. If Pesach is to gain its fuller meaning, our lives are to be lived out from death and into the newness of the life in Messiah.  For this new reality to be ours, it takes to know Him and the power of His resurrection, as stated by the apostle Paul: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…  in order that I/we may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:10-11).