NewsLetter 5859-050 or 5860-002
The 7th year of the 4th Sabbatical Cycle or
The 1st Year of the 5th Sabbatical Cycle
The 28th year of the 120th Jubilee Cycle or
The 29th year of the 120th Jubilee Cycle
The 13th day of the 13th month 5859 years after the creation of Adam or
The 13th day of the 1st month 5860 years after the creation of Adam
The 4th Sabbatical Cycle after the 119th Jubilee Cycle or
The 5th Sabbatical Cycle after the 119th Jubilee Cycle
The Sabbatical Cycle of the Red Heifer, Famine & The 2 Witnesses
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February 24, 2024
Shabbat Shalom to the Royal Family of Yehovah. As you can tell, I still do not know which month we are in right now. Is it the 13th month or is the month of Aviv?
I am sending this Newsletter our early to all of you. You have by now heard the report Becc gave this week. I will include her two reports in this Newsletter. You can draw your own conclusions from her report. You are to judge angels, so you should be able to judge her words. When is Passover?
I will be keeping it this Sunday evening. I will be doing the foot-washing ceremony in Israel after Sabbath February 24. We will update you about the barley during this next week. You can then decide when Passover is. Do you have faith? Will Yehovah provide us with the evidence of the first fruits this year? We will never know unless we get off our couch and go and look.
Heb 11:1Â Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:2Â For by it the elders obtained a good report.
I know many of you can’t do this. I understand. Randy and I will be searching for the barley during the days of Unleavened Bread leading up to Wave Sheaf Day next Sunday, March 3, 2024. That is when we need the Barley to be ripe enough to make into flour. We do not need the barley ripe at the end of the 12th month nor on the 10th day of the month. We must have barley that can be roasted and turned into flour by Wave Sheaf Day, whenever that is. And this year it is on the last Day of Unleavened Bread, March 3, 2024.
Will you keep Passover out of faith just in case the barley is ripe, even though you will not know until the last day, or will you cave into the pressure of those who must know for sure before they do anything? Do not forget, it is all a test, as we showed you in our article a few weeks ago. It is a test. Will you pass or fail?
During the Exodus, Israel fled Egypt for three days and nights and then rested just west of Eliat before leaving Egypt and crossing over into Midian. Then, instead of going past Eliat, the cloud turned south and went into the narrow canyons and out to the beach at Nuweiba. Can you hear all the people saying,”what is Moses doing?” “We were supposed to go straight, not turn south.”
Then, when they got to the Nuweiba, some might have said, “This is nuts. We are trapped here. I’m leaving and going back up to Eliat and then into Midian” “This Moses guy is nuts.” Had they left, they would have missed the most extraordinary event in history, the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army.
Last year, we were before most of the other groups. We went by the barley. And we kept Passover and then Sukkot long before the war broke out, which it did when most of the others were keeping the fall Holy Days. Did anyone see that coming? We were looking for something. This spring we are again looking for something else to take place on March 31, 2024, which would be Wave Sheaf Day if we wait another month. And if we wait another month, the barley will be shattering. So stop murmuring and wait on Yehovah and watch what He does. Stop making Takanot and Ma’asim rules and watch and obey. Make special not of the date Becca is reporting and the state of the barley and then look at the charts to decide.
One more thing to keep in mind. When Moses crossed the Red Sea, the water was heaped up on boths sides. ANd when Joshua crossed the Jordan it too was heaped up. I want all of you go and heap the water up from your tap to a height of 30 feet. See who can do it. What the Bible is describing is the water being frozen and then piled up on itself forming a glacial damn. When this fact is understood, then you will realize just how cold it is in Israel at this time of year. And it was at this time that Yehovah told Moses it is the month of Green Ears. Stop and think Brethren what this means.
After the Sabbath ends, the Last Supper Meal begins this year. It is the start of the Fast of the First Born. We had that article in last weeks News letter and I will include it here for you once again.
The Foot washing will be on Saturday evening of February 24.
Jhn 13:1Â Â And before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come when He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved Hisown in the world, He loved them to the end.
Jhn 13:2Â Â And when supper had ended, the Devil now having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon to betray Him,
Jhn 13:3Â Â Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and went to God,
Jhn 13:4Â Â He rose up from supper and laid aside Hisgarments. And He took a towel and girded Himself.
Jhn 13:5Â Â After that He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe themwith the towel with which He was girded.
Jhn 13:6Â Â Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, Lord, do You wash my feet?
Jhn 13:7Â Â Jesus answered and said to him, You do not know what I do now, but you shall know hereafter.
Jhn 13:8Â Â Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.
Jhn 13:9Â Â Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head.
Jhn 13:10Â Â Jesus said to him, He who is bathed has no need except to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And you are clean, but not all.
Jhn 13:11Â Â For He knew who would betray Him. Therefore He said, You are not all clean.
Jhn 13:12Â Â So after He had washed their feet and had taken His garments and had reclined again, He said to them, Do you know what I have done to you?
Jhn 13:13Â Â You call Me the Teacher, and Lord, and you say well, for I AM.
Jhn 13:14Â Â If then I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
Jhn 13:15Â Â For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Jhn 13:16Â Â Truly, truly, I say to you, A servant is not greater than his master, neither is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
Jhn 13:17Â Â If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Sunday represents the day when Yehshua is hung on the tree at 9 AM and then killed at 3 PM. On this day, I will watch the Passion and The Ten Commandments videos. That is my tradition. All leaven is to be out of your homes by this day. If you leave it until this day to remove all your leaven, as some say, you will learn yet another lesson.
Mrk 15:25Â Â And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.
Mat 27:45Â Â And from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46Â Â And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?
Mat 27:47Â Â Some of those who stood there, when they heard, said, This one calls for Elijah.
Mat 27:48Â Â And immediately one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar, and he put it on a reed and gave it to Him to drink.
Mat 27:49Â Â The rest said, Let Him alone, let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.
Mat 27:50Â Â And crying again with a loud voice, Jesus released His spirit.
Luk 23:44Â Â And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
Luk 23:45Â Â And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in the middle.
Luk 23:46Â Â And crying with a loud voice, Jesus said, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit. And when He had said this, He breathed out the spirit.
Jhn 19:31Â Â Then the Jews, because it was Preparation, begged Pilate that their legs might be broken, and thatthey might be taken away, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath. For that sabbath was a high day.
The Passover meal is eaten after the Passover Lambs are killed or after the time when Yehshua was killed. This meal is eaten on Sunday evening, February 25. Yehshua died at 3 PM when the Passover Lambs are killed. They are then roasted for a couple of hours.
Exo 12:5Â Â Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take from the sheep or from the goats.
Exo 12:6Â Â And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
Exo 12:7Â Â And they shall take some of the blood and strike on the two side posts and upon the upper door post of the houses in which they shall eat it.
Exo 12:8Â Â And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
You are to eat the Passover meal with unleavened Bread. This means that the Passover meal begins or starts the 7 days of Unleavened Bread.
Exo 12:1Â Â And Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
Exo 12:2Â Â This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.
Exo 12:3Â Â Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth of this month they shall take to them each man a lamb for a father’s house, a lamb for a house.
Exo 12:4Â Â And if the household is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take according to the number of the souls, each one, according to the eating of his mouth, you shall count concerning the lamb.
Exo 12:5Â Â Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take from the sheep or from the goats.
Exo 12:6Â Â And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
Exo 12:7Â Â And they shall take some of the blood and strike on the two side posts and upon the upper door post of the houses in which they shall eat it.
Exo 12:8Â Â And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
Exo 12:9Â Â Do not eat of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire, its head with its legs, and with its inward parts.
Exo 12:10Â Â And you shall not let any of it remain until the morning. And that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.
Exo 12:11Â Â And you shall eat of it this way, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in a hurry. It is Jehovah’s passover.
Exo 12:12Â Â For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. I am Jehovah.
Exo 12:13Â Â And the blood shall be a sign to you upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you for a destruction when I smite in the land of Egypt.
Exo 12:14Â Â And this day shall be a memorial to you. And you shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by a law forever.
Exo 12:15Â Â You shall eat unleavened bread seven days; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Exo 12:16Â Â And on the first day shall be a holy gathering, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy gathering for you. No manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.
Exo 12:17Â Â And you shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For in this same day I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall keep this day in your generations by a law forever.
Exo 12:18Â Â In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
Exo 12:19Â Â Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses. For whoever eats that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, among the aliens and among the natives of the land.
Exo 12:20Â Â You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwelling-places you shall eat unleavened bread.
From Sunset Sunday evening and for 7 days you are to eat unleavened bread. This takes you to the end of the 7 days of Unleavened Bread, which ends at sunset on Sunday, March 3rd.
Exo 13:3Â Â And Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For Jehovah brought you out from this place by the strength of His hand. There shall be no leaven eaten.
Exo 13:4Â Â You are going out this day in the month Abib.
Exo 13:5Â Â And it shall be when Jehovah shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
Exo 13:6Â Â You shall eat unleavened bread seven days, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Jehovah.
Exo 13:7Â Â Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with you, nor shall there be leaven seen with you in all your borders.
Exo 13:8Â Â And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, This is because of what Jehovah did for me when I came out from Egypt.
Exo 13:9Â Â And it shall be a sign to you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Jehovah’s Law may be in your mouth. For the Lord has brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.
Exo 13:10Â Â You shall therefore keep this law in its season from year to year.
The First Holy Day of Unleavened Bread is Monday, February 26, starting the evening before with the Passover meal.
Exo 12:29Â Â And it happened at midnight Jehovah struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive that was in the prison; also all the first-born of cattle.
Exo 12:30Â Â And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
Exo 12:31Â Â And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up! Get away from my people, both you and the sons of Israel! And go serve Jehovah, as you have said.
Exo 12:32Â Â Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go. And bless me also.
Exo 12:33Â Â And the Egyptians were urging the people, that they might send them out of the land in a hurry. For they said, We are all dead.
Exo 12:34Â Â And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
Exo 12:35Â Â And the sons of Israel did according to the word of Moses. And they asked articles of silver, and articles of gold, and clothing from the Egyptians.
Exo 12:36Â Â And Jehovah gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they granted their request, and they plundered the Egyptians.
Exo 12:37Â Â And the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, the men being about six hundred thousand men on foot, apart from little ones.
Exo 12:38Â Â And also a mixed multitude went up with them, and flocks, and herds, very much cattle.
Exo 12:39Â Â And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not stay, neither had they prepared any food for a journey for themselves.
Exo 12:40Â Â And the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Exo 12:41Â Â And it happened at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even it was on this very day, all the armies of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt.
Exo 12:42Â Â It is a night to be much kept to Jehovah for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of Jehovah to be kept by all the sons of Israel in their generations.
Num 33:3Â Â And they pulled up stakes from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the next day after the Passover the sons of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.
The 7th day of Unleavened Bread on Sunday March 3, which is also going to be Wave Sheaf Day.
Wave Sheaf Day is the day we are to bring the wave offering of first fruits, which is the first of the Barley, to present it on behalf of all the rest of the barley that is yet to come. You are to present this offering on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread. This 6th day of Unleavened Bread this year is the only Sabbath during the 7 days of Unleavened Bread. There for the only morrow after the Sabbath is this Sunday March 3, which is both after the Sabbath and still during the 7 days of Unleavened Bread.
Consecration of the Firstborn
Exo 13:1Â Â And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,Exo 13:2Â Â Sanctify all the first-born to Me, whatever opens the womb among the sons of Israel, of man and of beast. It is Mine.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Exo 13:3Â Â And Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For Jehovah brought you out from this place by the strength of His hand. There shall be no leaven eaten.Exo 13:4Â Â You are going out this day in the month Abib.
Exo 13:5Â Â And it shall be when Jehovah shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
Exo 13:6Â Â You shall eat unleavened bread seven days, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Jehovah.
Exo 13:7Â Â Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with you, nor shall there be leaven seen with you in all your borders.
Exo 13:8Â Â And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, This is because of what Jehovah did for me when I came out from Egypt.
Exo 13:9Â Â And it shall be a sign to you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Jehovah’s Law may be in your mouth. For the Lord has brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.
Exo 13:10Â Â You shall therefore keep this law in its season from year to year.
Exo 13:11Â Â And it will be, when Jehovah shall bring you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and shall give it to you,
Exo 13:12Â Â you shall set apart to Jehovah every one that opens the womb, and every first-born that comes of any animal which you have; the males shall beJehovah’s.
Exo 13:13Â Â And every first-born of an ass you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the first-born of man among your sons you shall redeem.
Exo 13:14Â Â And it shall be when your sons asks you in time to come, saying, What is this? you shall say to him, Jehovah brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand, from the house of bondage.
Exo 13:15Â Â And it happened when Pharaoh hardened himself against sending us, Jehovah killed all the first-born of the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man, and the first-born of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that opens the womb, that are males. But all the first-born of my sons I redeem.
Exo 13:16Â Â And it shall be for a token upon your hand, and for frontlets between your eyes. For Jehovah brought us out from Egypt by strength of His hand.
Pillars of Cloud and Fire
Exo 13:17Â Â And it happened, when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines although that was near. For God said, Lest the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.Exo 13:18Â Â But God led the people around, by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the sons of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 13:19Â Â And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For he had strictly sworn the sons of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones away from here with you.
Exo 13:20Â Â And they moved from Succoth and camped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
Exo 13:21Â Â And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the right away, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, to go by day and night.
Exo 13:22Â Â He did not take away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Crossing the Red Sea
Exo 14:1Â Â And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,Exo 14:2Â Â Speak to the sons of Israel that they turn and camp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon. You shall camp before it, by the sea.
Exo 14:3Â Â For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, They are tangled in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.
Exo 14:4Â Â And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he will follow them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his army, so that the Egyptians may know that I am Jehovah. And they did so.
Exo 14:5Â Â And the king of Egypt was told that the people fled. And the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people. And they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
Exo 14:6Â Â And he made his chariot ready, and took his people with him.
Exo 14:7Â Â And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
Exo 14:8Â Â And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he pursued the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel went out with a high hand.
Exo 14:9Â Â But the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army. And they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baal-zephon.
Exo 14:10Â Â And Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel lifted up their eyes. And, behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they were very afraid. And the sons of Israel cried out to Jehovah.
Exo 14:11Â Â And they said to Moses, Have you taken us away to die in the wilderness because there were no graves in Egypt? Why have you dealt this way with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12Â Â Did we not tell you this word in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, so that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
Exo 14:13Â Â And Moses said to the people, Do not fear. Stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah, which He will prepare for you this day. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them anymore.
Exo 14:14Â Â Jehovah shall fight for you, and you shall be silent.
Exo 14:15Â Â And Jehovah said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Speak to the sons of Israel, that they go forward.
Exo 14:16Â Â But lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. And the sons of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
Exo 14:17Â Â And behold! I am about to harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. And I will get honor for Me upon Pharaoh, and upon all his army, upon his chariots and upon his horsemen.
Exo 14:18Â Â And the Egyptians shall know that I amJehovah when I have gotten honor for Me upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
Exo 14:19Â Â And the Angel of God, the one who went before the camp of Israel, moved. And he went to the rear of them. And the pillar of the cloud went from in front of their face and it stood behind them.
Exo 14:20Â Â And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloudy and dark night, but it lit up the night, so that the one did not come near the other all night.
Exo 14:21Â Â And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And Jehovah caused the sea to recede by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
Exo 14:22Â Â And the sons of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground. And the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Exo 14:23Â Â And the Egyptians pursued and went after them to the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
Exo 14:24Â Â And in the morning watch it happened that Jehovah looked to the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the army of the Egyptians.
Exo 14:25Â Â And He took off their chariot wheels, and made them go heavily, so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for Jehovah fights for them against the Egyptians.
Exo 14:26Â Â And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
Exo 14:27Â Â And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea. And the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against it. And Jehovah overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea.
Exo 14:28Â Â And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There did not remain so much as one of them.
Exo 14:29Â Â But the sons of Israel walked upon dry land in the middle of the sea. And the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Exo 14:30Â Â So Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.
Exo 14:31Â Â And Israel saw that great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians. And the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah and His servant Moses.
Torah Portion
Torah Portions
We read through the entire Torah along with the Prophets and the New Testament, once over the course of 3 1/2 years. Or according to the Sabbatical Cycle which means we read it all twice over a 7-year period. This allows us to cover more in-depth rather than being rushed to cover as much as is covered on an annual basis. We allow all to comment and take part in the discussions.
Septennial Torah Portion
If you go to Torah Portion at our archived section, you can then go to the 7th year which is the 7th year of the Sabbatical Cycle, the one we are in now, as we state at the top of every News Letter. There you can scroll down to the proper date, and see that this Shabbat we could very well be midrashing about:
Genesis 2
Joshua 5-7
Psalm 2-3
Matthew 2:19-4:25
As we approach the end of the year we are doubling up on our Torah Portions so that we can fit them all in before the year ends. We thought we had an Adar Bet and four more weeks. I am not sure we do so we are going to double up.
If you missed last weekâs exciting discoveries as we studied that section, you can go and watch past Shabbats on our media section.
Join Our Sabbath Meetings
Join Our Sabbath Meetings
There are many people in need of fellowship and who are sitting at home on the Sabbath with no one to talk to or debate with. I want to encourage all of you to join us on Shabbat, and to invite others to come and join us as well. If the time is not convenient then you can listen to the teaching and the midrash after on our YouTube channel.
What are we doing and why do we teach this way?
We are going to discuss both sides of an issue and then let you choose. It is the work of the Ruach (Spirit) to direct and to teach you.
The medieval commentator Rashi wrote that the Hebrew word for wrestle (avek) implies that Jacob was âtiedâ, for the same word is used to describe knotted fringes in a Jewish prayer shawl, the tzitzityot. Rashi says, âthus is the manner of two people who struggle to overthrow each other, that one embraces the other and knots him with his armsâ.
Our intellectual wrestling has been replaced by a different kind of struggle. We are Wrestling with Yehovah as we grapple with His Word. It is an intimate act, symbolizing a relationship in which Yehovah and I and you are bound together. My wrestling is a struggle to discover what Yehovah expects of us, and we are âtiedâ to the One who assists us in that struggle.
Today, many say Israel means âChampion of Godâ, or better â the âWrestler of Godâ.
Our Torah sessions each Shabbat teaches you and encourages you to constantly challenge, question, argue against, as well as view alternative views and explanations of the Word. In other words, we are to âwrestle with the Wordâ to get to the truth. Jews worldwide believe that you need to wrestle with the Word and constantly challenge Dogma, Theology, and views or else you will never get to the Truth.
We are not like most churches where âThe preacher talks and everyone listens.â We encourage everyone to participate, to question and to contribute what they know on the subject being discussed. We want you to be a champion wrestler of the Word of Yehovah. We want you to wear the title of Israel, knowing that you not only know but are capable of explaining why you know the Torah to be true with logic and facts.
We have a few rules though. Let others talk and listen. There is no discussion about UFOâs Nephilim, Vaccines or conspiracy-type subjects. We have people from around the world with different world views. Not everyone cares who is the President of any particular country. Treat each other with respect as Fellow wrestlers of the word. Some of our subjects are hard to understand and require you to be mature and if you do not know, then listen to gain knowledge and understanding and hopefully wisdom. The very things you are commanded to ask Yehovah for and He gives to those who ask.
Jas 1:5Â Â But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.
We hope you can invite those who want to keep Torah to come and join us by hitting the link below. It is almost like a Torah teaching fellowship talk show with people from around the world taking part and sharing their insights and understandings.
We start off with some music and then some prayers and itâs as though you were sitting around the kitchen back in Newfoundland having a cup of coffee and all of us enjoying each otherâs company. I hope you will grace us with your company someday.
Sabbath services begin at 12:30 PM EDT where we will be doing prayers songs and teaching from this hour.
Shabbat Services will begin at about 1:15 pm Eastern.
On the Holy Day, Passover Monday February 26, 2024, we will be having two meetings. One at 10 AM Eastern and the afternoon will be 2 PM Eastern. Look forward to seeing you all there.
We look forward to you joining our family and getting to know us as we get to know you.
Joseph Dumond is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Joseph Dumondâs Personal Meeting Room
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The Barley Report
The Barley Report
This year, Norman Willis of Nazarene Israel has declared this month Adar Bet, or a 13th month. Norman has now adopted the position that the Barley must be Aviv by the end of the 12th month. This is a new position for him as far as I can tell.
Becca’s latest video states that she must have the barley in the state of Aviv by the 10th day of Aviv when the lambs are taken in by each family and watched. A position she has been working towards now for a little while.
Takonot and Ma’asim are the laws that the Rabbis enacted based upon their understanding of the Oral Laws and then combined with the Torah or even overrode what the Torah said to do. We do not currently have a Beit Din or House of Elders to decide on these matters. Even if we did, many would still do it their own way. And this is exactly what we have today. Those following Devorah will be two months from now before they keep the month of Aviv. Most of the Karaiates will be keeping the Month of Aviv next month. And amongst those following Becca Norman or myself, we are now at different positions as to when is the cut-off date to declare what is Aviv Barley.
Just because we differ is not a reason to no longer associate with those who do not agree with us.
I want to suggest that there is only one Holy Day that has a “do over,” and that one Holy Day is Passover. You could only do it over if you had contacted a dead person in the 7 days leading up to Passover or been on a journey, and this is if the Passover was in the first month. Hezekiah kept the second Passover for all of Israel and Judah on the grounds the Levites were not ready, and Yehovah blessed them.
We are all striving to obey Yehovah. The Barley during the Middle Ages also caused the Karaites to keep it at different times. So, our problem today is no different than when they strived to obey in the Middle Ages. If, on Wave Sheaf Day, there is no kernel to ground flour, then I will be doing a do-over. Not because I missed the first one, but because I got the ripeness of the barley wrong. I will not have missed Passover. But if I skip this month as well as Passover and there is indeed barley on Wave Sheaf Day, then I do not get a do-over. I will have missed it.
So what is the Month of Aviv?
Abib does not mean “green ears”, despite the incorrect translation in the King James Bible. The precise meaning of Abib must be reconstructed by going into the fields and studying the barley and cross-referencing this with the Biblical evidence. The Bible often speaks of “Abib parched in fire”. This refers to grain which is developed enough to be eaten after it has been parched. In contrast, “Green Ears” is such a broad term that it can refer to grain which when parched will shrivel up leaving no edible material. This has been confirmed by experiments. In order to be Abib, the barley must be more developed than Green, tender ears.
Sightedmoon.com maintains the Barley must be ripe enough to be roasted or parched to dry up the remaining moisture, and then the seed that remains be ground into flour to make the wave offering. The Barley is not cut until after Sabbath and prepared that Sunday morning. Nor does the barley have to be grown next to the temple in order to qualify. That is a takonot. So we will still wait until that time to declare this month Aviv or not Aviv. It is quite clear to me. We have been looking for Barley in Israel since 2005. I have done some of the searches with Nehemia during this time. It was in 2016 that we began to split with the Karaite group as they developed a takonot and Ma’asim of their own, stating the barley must be Aviv by the 12th month and that they had to have fields and fields of it so all the farmers could make the Wave Offering at the same time. This is impossible as the barley ripens at various stages throughout the country. So, the first barley is representative of all the country, which has yet to come to maturity.
The fields are right now green; the barley is green in the head. It is the month of green ears or green heads. Is it ripe enough to be roasted and ground into flour, that is the question.
Becca Biderman reported on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, the following.
There is a slim chance this will be a 12 month year. But a chance nonetheless. I did find an amazing amount of super young barley with heads from white to blooming to just beginning to tip their heads. Stay tuned. I’ll try to get a video up but don’t think it will happen today, likely tomorrow.
The 1st month, or the 13th, began Sunday, February 10, after sunset and Monday, February 11, 2024. Begin to plan on how you are going to remove all the leaven from your homes, cars, and work areas. If the barley is Aviv, then you will only have one week to get ready. So plan as if Passover will be on Sunday evening February 25 and Monday February 26 is the First Holy Day.
If I get any reports from Becca, I will update this post right here. So check back from time to time to see what news we have discovered. You can get the long range weather reports at this link.
Becca made two more reports on Tuesday, February 20, 2024. You can judge them for themselves here.
The Perpetual Calendar
The Perpetual Calendar
We have available from our website a calendar you can use to keep track of the days of the month based on when the Barley is ripe and when the moon is sighted. ALl you have to do is download it. https://sightedmoon.com/perpetual-calendar/
With the new year about to begin, you can learn about the calendar as you record it. This is a great tool to have and it is free to anyone who wants it.
Deleavening Your Home
Here is a reminder from Chabad.org about how to go about cleaning your house of leaven. In the comments, some have said they only have to remove the bread on the 14th of Aviv. The more you put into the cleansing of your home the more you learn about the cleansing of your soul. It is about you learning a real-life lesson by doing a commandment. I have been cleaning out my sins for some time now and I will not leave it until the last minute on the 14th.
As of this post on Shabbat, just 2 days before Passover, I have cleaned out under my couch and bed and dug into the cushions to remove the midnight snacks that missed my mouth. I have gone through the freezer and storage room and discovered more leaven hidden in the back. I moved the fridge and stove out and cleaned in there. I have also vacuumed the cars and tossed the contents of the vacuum. I have asked my wife, who is not a believer, to work with me this year, and I will give her a huge reward if she does. I asked to give up all bread for just 7 days instead of chocolate for lent for 40 days. I may have a deal. Do not forget to empty the toaster.
Those of you waiting until the very last minute will be exhausted by the time you sit down for Passover meal at the end of the 14th. But that is your choice.Â
Cleaning the House
Simply stated (though not so easily done) â give your home a thorough, top-to-bottom, cleaning. Vacuum the carpets and floors, wipe clean the cupboards and bookshelves. Make sure you get into all those hard-to-reach places: under the sofa cushions, the spaces between the floorboards. Move aside furniture and kitchen appliances to get behind and underneath. Bottom line: if that proverbial cookie crumb could be hiding there, go after it!
As each area of the home gets cleaned, make sure that everyone knows that it’s “kosher for Passover” and absolutely off-limits for any food to be brought in there. Practical advice: start with the bedrooms, then proceed with the living room and other common rooms, leaving the dining room and kitchen for last, so that you can use these spaces for eating chametz as close as possible to the “deadline.”
Other places that need to be cleaned: office, car, pocketbook â any space that is yours by ownership, lease, or right of use.
Places you don’t have to clean: a) Rooms and areas where you’re absolutely certain that no food was ever brought. b) Rooms and areas that will be sold (see step 5).
Cleaning Checklist
The following is a checklist of all areas that should be searched well and thoroughly cleaned from all traces of chametz.
Room-by-Room Checklist
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Alphabetical Listing
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Click here for a PDF print version of this list.
Deleavening Your Home
It is now just past the full moon. In two months time we will begin to celebrate Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. We read in Mt 24:45 âWho then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?
So with the Passover season approaching and with many new people learning the Torah and wanting to keep the Holy Days we shall begin now to teach on these.
Once again I am telling you to turn off Oprah and Dr. Phil and to start to read you bible. There is nothing on TV worth watching. Many of you are sharing this News letter and encouraging others to read it and to prove those things said here true or false. I do thank you. But in reality it is those who have come here and learnt the truth that are thanking you. You have saved their lives.
But once you have been turned on to the truth, do not just read what is written here. Search other sites and other groups and learn also from them, what is true and what is not true.
I keep telling you how little time is left and so I am trying to give you as much information as I can without you being over whelmed. Turn off the TV and this will help.
We now have just two months to Passover.
Immediately after the Passover comes a festival that shows us the next step in the plan of Yahweh. After Yahshua is sacrificed as the Passover Lamb, and we have been forgiven for our sins, how do we continue to avoid sin, since we must go on living in newness of life? How do we live as Yahwehâs redeemed people? We find the remarkable answer in the symbolism of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
When Yahweh freed Israel from slavery in Egypt, He told His people that for âseven days you shall eat unleavened breadâ (Exodus 12:15). Verse 39 further explains: âAnd they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.â
The leavening process, which makes bread rise, takes time. The Israelites had no time to spare when they left Egypt, so they baked and ate flat bread. What started out as a necessity continued for a week. Yahweh appropriately named this time the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6), or Days of Unleavened Bread (Acts 12:3).
When Yeshua came to earth as a human, He observed this seven-day festivalâ sometimes called the Feast of Passover by the Jews because of the proximity of the Passover to the Days of Unleavened Bread. Yeshua kept it as a child and later as an adult (Luke 2:41; Matthew 26:17). The early Church, kept it as well.
Yahweh gave His earliest instructions concerning this festival to the Israelites as they prepared to leave Egypt. âThis is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORDâ a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat-that is all you may doâ (Exodus 12:14-16, New International Version).
This is where we get the expression of spring cleaning from De leavening our homes.
Each year as the Israelites observed this feast, it reminded them of Yahwehâs deliverance of their forefathers from Egypt. The Creator instructed, âCelebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egyptâ (verse 17, NIV). The exodus from Egypt remains as a foundational reason for observing this feast today. Just as Yahweh delivered ancient Israel, He delivers us from our sins and difficulties.
Now notice Yeshuaâs teaching about leaven, which expands the meaning of this feast.
During Yahshuaâs ministry He performed two miracles in which a few fish and loaves of bread fed thousands of people. After one of these incidents, when His disciples had gone around the Sea of Galilee, they forgot to bring bread with them. So Yeshua told them, âWatch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.â
The disciples thought Yeshua was referring to their lack of bread. However, He was using the occasion to teach them by calling on the symbolism of leaven. Yeshua asked them, âHow is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.â Then the disciples âunderstood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadduceesâ (Matthew 16:5-12, NASB).
Some of the members of the religious establishment of Yeshuaâs day appeared to be righteous, yet they secretly practiced sinful behavior. Yeshua let them know He knew their hearts. They may have appeared righteous to other people, âbut inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessnessâ (Matthew 23:28).
The Days of Unleavened Bread remind us that with Yahwehâs help we must remove and avoid all types of sin âsymbolized by leavenâ in all areas of our life.
Symbolically we do this by cleaning our homes and our places of business and our cars and removing any bread or bread products that contain leaven or yeast from them.
During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the apostle Paul taught the same spiritual lessons as Yeshua, invoking the comparison of sin to leaven. In the context of reprimanding the Corinthian congregation for its divisions, jealousies and tolerance of sexual misconduct, Paul wrote: âYour glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Yeshua, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truthâ (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
The church at Corinth was obviously and unmistakably keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread, to which Paul repeatedly alluded. However, Paul used the Corinthiansâ faithful obedience in keeping the feast physically (removing leaven from their homes) as a basis to encourage them to celebrate this feast with proper understanding of its spiritual intent.
Today removing leaven from our homes for seven days reminds us that we, too, through prayer and Yahwehâs help and understanding, must recognize, expel and avoid sin. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is thus a time of personal reflection. We should meditate on our attitudes and conduct and ask Yahweh to help us recognize and overcome our shortcomings.
Paul spoke of this much-needed self-reflection in 2 Corinthians 13:5 when he told the Corinthian church: âExamine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Yeshua the Messiah is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified.â
Paul explained the significance of the phrase âYeshua the Messiah is in youâ in Galatians 2:20: âI have been crucified with Yeshua; it is no longer I who live, but Yeshua lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of Yahweh, who loved me and gave Himself for me.â
These seven days of self-examination prove invaluable in helping us to devote our lives to Yahweh and Yeshua. This week-long period also pictures our eventual triumph over sin. As Yahweh delivered the ancient Israelites from enslavement to Egypt, so He delivers us from our enslavement to sin (Romans 6:12-18).
We learn by doing. We learn spiritual lessons by doing physical things. Performing the task of deleavening our homes reminds us to vigilantly watch for sinful thoughts and actions so we can avoid them. Yahweh knows that, in spite of our good intentions, we all sin.
Many years after his conversion, Paul described the powerful human tendency to sin. âI find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of Yahweh according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank Yahweh-through Yeshua the Messiah! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of Yahweh, but with the flesh the law of sinâ (Romans 7:21-25).
Paul knew life itself is a battle with sin. The Bible speaks of âthe sin which so easily ensnares usâ (Hebrews 12:1). We have our own part to play in struggling to overcome sin. Yet, paradoxically, we must rely on Yahweh to help us. Paul explained this to the Philippians by telling them to âwork out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is Yahweh who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasureâ (Philippians 2:12-13, King James Version).
Our observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread helps us realize our need for Yeshuaâs help in overcoming our weaknesses. Yet this feast is certainly a time for rejoicing because Yeshua freely gives us the help we need. Yeshua, the Lamb of Yahweh, was sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins, thus unleavening, or cleansing, our lives. He continues to help us live obediently through Yahwehâs Spirit dwelling in us.
Paul tells us in Ro 2:13 (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;
James tells us it is the doers of the law who will be justified. Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Letâs read what James also has to say about doing things.
James 2:14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, âDepart in peace, be warmed and filled,â but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, âYou have faith, and I have works.â Show me your faith without your F6 works, and I will show you my faith by my F7 works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believeâand tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? F8 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, âAbraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.â F9 And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Some brethren do not believe we should keep the days of Unleaveded bread. Some do but they say you do not have to remove the leaven from your homes.
The bible says we do have to keep this time for ever, and that you do have to remove the leaven, and that by doing so you are acting out your faith by your works.
I am sharing this message now with you, so that you have time to begin to clean one room or two a week before the Days arrive in about two months time. You will see as you move your frig and stove how the crud has piled up over time and how hard it is to remove. This is the same as sin sneaking in to your lives and you not knowing it until one day it is exposed. Then you see how hard it is to remove or correct that sin. It is not easy.
You will learn by doing. Please consider doing the necessary work in cleaning your home so that you will be ready for the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Always remember that as you move closer to Yahweh, He moves closer to you. When you stop so does He and he waits for you to make the next move.
The more you learn and practice the more that will be revealed to you. But if you do nothing you learn nothing.
So may your spring cleaning be bountiful in teaching you many lessons from the scriptures.
Fast of the First Born
The Redeemer
I had almost completed this weekâs News Letter when my friend Donald McGrew began to write me on facebook wanting to talk about Passover being on the 13th instead of the 14th. I was busy packing books and DVDs for overseas and for the prisons that had requested them and answering other emails at the same time. So I was in truth not paying much attention to the discussion Donald was trying to have with me. It is a big subject and one that I have devoted many newsletters to and really did not want to have at this time.
Now Donald has come to my first teaching in Eastern Kentucky when I was there in I think 2010. He later came to our teaching a year or so later in Missouri. And he also attended our Sukkot in 2013 where we made the videos of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years teachings, which was the first time I was able to explain in detail the whole matter over the course of 8 days.
This Donald with his granddaughter in Jericho on tour with me in 2016 for Sukkot.
In 2013 after each of my presentations all the people would rush out and head back to the campsite. I had felt they were eager to leave these long teachings and go and have fun. There were over 100 people there and few stuck around to ask questions. So at night when I would walk around the camp, I would see Donald and about 6-10 others sitting around the campfire all studying their bibles. When they saw me they would shout out a question and wait for me to answer then go back to studying.
When I joined them to ask what they were doing they all said they had to prove the astounding things I had taught them that day whether it was true or not. They had never heard such things before. And they were proving what I said was indeed true and they were dumbfounded they had never seen it before. And as I walked around the camp to other groups most of them were doing the same or discussing the dayâs lessons. It was pretty awesome for me to see this. But it was Donald and his group that I have never forgotten and one other lady sitting under the Succah alone going over everything as well. Those are some my sweetest memories of that Sukkot. Until I saw Donaldâs group studying, I was under the impression no one was interested in what I had to say.
What I am telling you is, that Donald is a true Berrean.
Back to our facebook conversation. After a bit, Donald wrote me something in the conversation he was mostly having and the same one I was not paying much attention to. And it was like Yehovah had hit me across the side of the head with a 2 x 4 and said wake up and look at this. Donald had switched his position about the time of the Passover meal and was now agreeing with me that it was at the end of the 14th, the start of the 15th. But how he arrived at that was stunning. It was the very thing I was writing about in this News Letter and was about to wrap up.
Now thanks to Donald I have to rewrite this weekâs News Letter and share these juicy truths with you all.
In Christian theology, Jesus is sometimes referred to as a Redeemer. This refers to the salvation he is believed to have accomplished, and is based on the metaphor of redemption, or âbuying backâ. Although the Gospels do not use the title âRedeemerâ, the word âredemptionâ is used in several of Paulâs letters. Leon Morris says that âPaul uses the concept of redemption primarily to speak of the saving significance of the death of Christ.â[1] The English word redemption means ârepurchaseâ or âbuy backâ, and in the Old Testament referred to the ransom of slaves (Exodus 21:8).[2] In the New Testament, the redemption word group is used to refer both to deliverance from sin and freedom from captivity.[3]
When I searched the word Redeem I found the following;
40 verses found, 56 matches
Exodus | 4 verses found | 8 matches |
Leviticus | 12 verses found | 17 matches |
Numbers | 3 verses found | 4 matches |
Ruth | 2 verses found | 8 matches |
2 Samuel | 1 verse found | 1 match |
1 Chronicles | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Nehemiah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Job | 2 verses found | 2 matches |
Psalms | 8 verses found | 8 matches |
Isaiah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Jeremiah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Hosea | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Micah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Galatians | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Titus | 1 verse found | 1 match |
The word Redeemer
18 verses found, 18 matches
Job | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Psalms | 2 verses found | 2 matches |
Proverbs | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Isaiah | 13 verses found | 13 matches |
Jeremiah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
The word Redeemed
61 verses found, 62 matches
Genesis | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Exodus | 2 verses found | 2 matches |
Leviticus | 10 verses found | 10 matches |
Numbers | 5 verses found | 5 matches |
Deuteronomy | 6 verses found | 6 matches |
2 Samuel | 1 verse found | 1 match |
1 Kings | 1 verse found | 1 match |
1 Chronicles | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Nehemiah | 2 verses found | 2 matches |
Psalms | 7 verses found | 8 matches |
Isaiah | 13 verses found | 13 matches |
Jeremiah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Lamentations | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Hosea | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Micah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Zechariah | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Luke | 2 verses found | 2 matches |
Galatians | 1 verse found | 1 match |
1 Peter | 1 verse found | 1 match |
Revelation | 3 verses found | 3 matches |
I can only see 9 times the word redeem or one related to it is used in the New Testament. All the rest are found in the Old Testament.
According to Talmudic tradition, the first-born acted as officiating priests in the wilderness, until the erection of the Tabernacle, when the office was given to the tribe of Levi (Num. iii. 12, 13, 45-51; Zeb. 112b; compare Onelos to Ex. xxiv. 5). In consequence of the deliverance from the tenth plague, when âthe Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Egyptâ but spared the first-born of the Israelites, the following commandment was given: âSanctify unto me all the first-born, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mineâ (Ex. xiii. 2), which is explained in greater detail in verses 12-15. The first-born of clean beasts were thus made holy and were unredeemable, while the first-born of unclean beasts and of man had to be redeemed from the priests (Num. xviii. 15-18; Deut. xv. 19-22; compare Neh. x. 37).
The concept of the redeemer is used in the Book of Ruth to refer to the kinsman-redeemer, and in the Book of Isaiah to refer to God, the âRedeemer of Israelâ.
In Job 19:25, Job makes the statement, âI know that my Redeemer liveth.â
This passage mentions an unnamed man who was the guardian-redeemer for Naomi and Ruth. Other Bible translations call him a family guardian or kinsman-redeemer. This description comes from the Hebrew word goâel, meaning âredeemer.â A goâel was a male relative who was responsible for caring for a deceased relativeâs possessions, including land, houses,
livestock, and even the widow. If the deceased had debts, the goâel would pay them. If the deceased was childless, the goâel would marry the widow and produce offspring who would carry on the name and family lineage of the deceased man. When they came of age, those children would inherit the deceased manâs property. The possessions and people who were cared for by a goâel were said to be âredeemed.â The goâelâs responsibility, then, was supremely sacrificial: He invested much in supporting his deceased relativeâs estate and family but
received little to nothing in return. Israelâs social system and survival as a people depended on men who performed their duty as a goâel. So important was this role that Isaiah 43:14 describes God as Israelâs goâel or redeemer, a concept that carries over to the New Testament understanding of Jesusâ life and ministry.Ruth 4:1-12
1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, âCome over here, my friend, and sit down.â So he went over and sat down. 2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, âSit here,â and they did so. 3 Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, âNaomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.â âI will redeem it,â he said. 5 Then Boaz said, âOn the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead manâs widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.â 6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, âThen I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.â
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.) 8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, âBuy it yourself.â And he removed his sandal. 9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, âToday you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlonâs widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!â 11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, âWe are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. Boaz was a well-to-do farmer who owned land and crops and had numerous employees. Why would he be interested in a poor Moabite widow such as Ruth, despite Jewish law forbidding intermarriage with Moabites? It so happens that Boaz was a fifth generation descendant of Perez, who was the son of a Canaanite widow named Tamar. Tamarâs first two husbands died. They were both sons of Judah, one of the great-grandsons of Abraham himself, the father of the Jewish people. Judah promised to give her his third son, but he neglected to fulfill that promise. So Tamar used some loopholes in the law, plus a little trickery, to get Judah to father twin sons, one of whom was named Perez. (Genesis 38 has the full details.) Thus, Tamar provided for her future security and family line. Perhaps this was why Boaz was sensitive to the plight of disadvantaged foreign widows such as Ruth. And he was brave enough to ignore social stigma to follow through on his promises to care for her.The Hebrew word for redeem is used 22 times in Ruth and 104 times throughout the Old Testament. It means to restore, repair, or avenge. God is the ultimate redeemer (Isaiah 49:26).
In the Old Testament, God redeemed people from slavery (Exodus 6:6), disobedience (Isaiah 44:22), harm (Genesis 48:16), enemies (Psalm 107:2), captivity (Isaiah 43:14), and death (Hosea 13:14). In the New Testament, God sent Jesus to provide redemption for all people: âAll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesusâ (Romans 3:23-24).
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The Pidyon Haâbon
Why did Yehovah have to pay a redemption price and to whom?
To redeem the firstborn is called The Pidyon Haâbon
The source for an Israeliteâs obligation to redeem his firstborn son through giving the kohen (priest) specifically five shekels is the Book of Numbers (18:15-16): âYou shall redeem the firstborn of man . . .the redemption [shall be performed] from the age of a month, according to the valuation, five shekels of silver.â
Several explanations are given for the specific amount of silver shekels used for the pidyon haben. The following is from the Talmud:
Joseph â Rachelâs firstborn son â was sold by his brothers for twenty silver pieces, the equivalent of five shekels. This established that the standard âpriceâ for a (firstborn) human is five shekels, which are given to the kohen, Godâs representative, to redeem the child.
Genesis 37:26 Judah said to his brothers, âWhat will we gain by killing our brother? Weâd have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, letâs sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brotherâour own flesh and blood!â And his brothers agreed.  So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Josephâs brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.
A pidyon haben, or âredemption of the [firstborn] son,â is a ceremony wherein the father of a firstborn male redeems his son by giving five silver coins to a kohen(a priestly descendant of Aaron), thirty days after the babyâs birth.
What is the reason for this procedure?
Exodus 13 The Lord said to Moses, 2 âConsecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.â
:13 And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break its neck: and all the first-born of man among thy sons shalt thou redeem.
And it shall be, when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand Jehovah brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: and it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that Jehovah slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man, and the first-born of beast: therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that openeth the womb, being males; but all the first-born of my sons I redeem. And it shall be for a sign upon thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand Jehovah brought us forth out of Egypt.
The first place we see the word redeem is in Exodus 6:6
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments: and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, who bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Originally, the Israelite firstborn were the sanctified priestly class. They were inducted into Godâs service when they were spared from the Plague of the Firstborn that struck Egypt. However, when Israelâfirstborn includedâserved the Golden Calf, the firstborn forfeited their status. The priesthood was transferred to the tribe that did not participate in the Golden Calf hooplaâthe Levites, and particularly the children of Aaron.
Now we have 20 pieces of silver being the price for Joseph being redeemed from the cistern. That amount equalling 5 shekels as we were just told. Joseph represents the northern 12 tribes. It is upon his children that the name of Israel is given. Let my name Israel be carried on in them.
Gen 48:15Â âThe God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.â
We have another interesting story that we can also connect to this and to the redemption of Israel. That is the story of Hosea. Hosea represents Yehovah seeking His wayward bride who has gone a whoring after other men. Hosea, Yehovah is redeeming Israel.
Hosea Brings His Wife Back to Himself
3 The Lord said to me, âGo. Show your love to your wife again. She is loved by another man. And she has committed adultery. But I want you to love her just as I love the people of Israel. They turn to other gods. And they love to offer raisin cakes to Baal and eat them. In spite of that, I love my people.â
2 So I bought Gomer for six ounces of silver and 430 pounds of barley. 3 Then I told her, âYou must wait for me for a long time. You must not be a prostitute. You must not have sex with any man. And I will be faithful to you too.â
4 So the people of Israel will live for a long time without a king or prince. They wonât have sacrifices or sacred stones. They wonât have sacred linen aprons or statues of family gods. 5 After that, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God. They will look to him and to a king from the family line of David. In the last days, they will tremble with fear as they come to the Lord. And they will receive his full blessing.
Now 6 ounces is equal to 170.1 Grams of Silver. And 1 shekel is equal to 100 grams. So gomer is being bought or redeemed for about 10 shekels of silver. And Gomer represents Israel (Ephraim and Manasseh) who have gone a whoring after other gods.
The question we are addressing this week is Why did Yehovah have to pay a redemption price? And to whom did He pay it?
We are told in Exodus 4:22-23
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, âThus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, âLet my son go that he may serve me.â If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.ââ
In The Prophecies of Abraham,we have shown you many times how Egypt represents the end time whore.
When Abraham and Sarah go down to Egypt Pharaoh takes Sarah for his wife. This is similar to Egypt taking the children of Israel for slaves and in the end time how the Great end time Whore will take the remnant of Israel for captives. You are this very day witnessing the same events of the children of Israel living in Egypt and the tables being turned to make them slaves. Today the UN and the EU whores are fighting everything the US is doing under Trump. And now Trump is cutting off funding to the UN and so is the State of Isreal and the UK is pulling out of the EU agreement. The BREXIT divorce. The USA has pulled out the Paris Agreement.
When you step back from the banter of the headline news you should be able to see that in each of these cases, the EU and the UN stand to lose billions of potential income that the USA and the UK were providing to these various causes.
The EU and the UN will soon turn their forces upon the USA and the UK and turn what is left of them after the wars, (The remnant) into slaves.
It is during this time that the two witnesses will act and cause all sorts of plagues to fall upon this great whore in the same way Moses and Aaron did in the Exodus story.
Now again I ask you âWhy does Yehovah have to pay anything at all.â I can see Hosea paying for Gomer who is owned by her new lover.
Oops, I think I just learned something Gomer was owned by the one she had given herself to, the other lover. Gomer represents Israel, who has gone after all sorts of other lovers who do not love her. Hosea or Yehovah loves Israel, who is His first born. Meaning Yehovah will have others nations as HIs children at some point in time.
Paul has this to say in Romans 6:12:
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
When we give into sin then we submit ourselves to Satan. We submit ourselves to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The very same tree Adam and Eve submitted themselves too and the rest of mankind. Just imagine if you can, that each time you sin, all of your descendant that come from you from that point on will be enslaved by Satan for your sins.
And yet we have sinned and we have submitted ourselves to our new lord Satan.
In Matthew, we read how he has authority to give kingdoms to whomever he chooses.
Mat 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, âAll these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.â
We also read in the letters from both John and Paul how Yehshua Himself admits that there is one who rules this earth now and it is not Yehshua.
John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
John 14:30Â I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
John 16: 7-11Â Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.
1 Corithians 10:18-22 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedienceâ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Eph 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Rev 9:11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon..
Rev 20:1-3 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
Now getting back to the Exodus story we can need to understand that Yehovah did not destroy the firstborn of Egypt. But Yehovah protected Israel from the destroyer who was at this time killing all the firstborn in Egypt.
Exodus 12:23 says that when God passed over the doors of the houses which had been marked with the blood of the Passover lamb, He would not allow the destroyer to enter into the house to kill the firstborn of that house.
So it was not Yehovah who struck down the firstborn sons of Egypt, but a being referred to as âthe destroyer.â
Yehovahâs primary activity in the tenth plague was not in killing the firstborn sons of Egypt, but in protecting people from the destroyer that had come to kill all things.
Yehovah paid a price to this destroyer and that price was Egypt.
Isa 43:3Â For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
The Seâudat-Siyum
We now need to take another look at what took place on the night Yehshua was betrayed and relook at the events of this night. I have not seen this until Donald tipped me off whether or not he realized it.
Nisan13 was Tuesday. Do not forget the day begins with sunset. Tuesday is the day before the preparation day for Passover. At the end of this the 13th of Nisan, and the start of the 14th, which is the start of the preparation day, that the disciples had the special meal that we call The Last Supper.
There was a tradition which in Hebrew is called, seudah maphsehket; this translates essentially to âlast supperâ. This last supper was about remembering that it was indeed not ALL Hebrews who were in danger from death at Godâs hand in Egypt, but ONLY the firstborn sons. So a special nighttime meal was adopted whereby this meal would be eaten and then there would be a 24 hour fast that followedâŚâŚthus the name âlast supperâ. The next meal to be eaten was the Passover meal after the 14th had passed and the start of the 15th of Nisan was just beginning.
It is at the start of the 14th day of Nisan at this seudah maphsehket that Yeshua says to commemorate this day by drinking wine that symbolizes His blood that establishes the New Covenant, and by eating unleavened bread that symbolizes His body.
After having the last supper, the next event is that Judas betrays Him and shortly after midnight Yehshua is arrested. It is still The Preparation day. In the wee hours a little before sunrise, He is tried and convicted of blasphemy by the Sanhedrin. It is still Preparation Day. After the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, confirms his death sentence Yehshua is scourged and then nailed to the tree by Roman soldiers. It is still The Preparation Day, Wednesday, Nisan 14, 31 C.E.
When Yehshua dies at 3 pm in the afternoon on this Preparation Day, it is the exact same time the slaughter of the Passover Lambs begins in the Temple grounds. Somewhere around Ÿ million sheep will be killed and their blood collected between the hours of 3 pm and 6 pm. It is still Preparation Day because the sun has not yet set and after sunset then the Passover meals are eaten with these lambs which have just been killed and roasted in the Temple area.
The Fast of the First Born
Letâs understand one thing very clearly: The final meal Yeshua had with his disciples was NOT THE PASSOVER! The Passover was very plainly not yet come. John, in describing this final meal Yeshua had with his disciples, said, âNow BEFORE the feast of the Passoverâ (John 13:1). He plainly shows this meal or banquet was BEFORE the true Passover, which was scheduled to be eaten and observed the next night, Nisan 15 (John 18:18). The next day the Jews would still be âpreparingâ for the Passover (John 19:14, 31). Therefore, what exactly WAS this âlast mealâ?
What few have realized, not being familiar with Jewish customs of the time of Yeshua, is that this meal could not have been the Passover, since Passover lambs would not be slain until the following afternoon, and then eaten in the homes of the Jews on the night of the actual âPassoverâ â when YEHOVAH God slew the firstborn in the land of Egypt and âpassed overâ the Israelites â Nisan 15. Yet obviously, this final meal was very important â a meal of close fellowship and spiritual significance.
A Jewish Look at the Last Supper
Says David H. Stern, in the Jewish New Testament Commentary:
âThe Last Supper is considered by most scholars to have been a Passover meal or Seder. Many Pesach themes are deepened, reinforced and given new levels of meaning by events in the life of Yeshua the Messiah and by his words on this night. However, Joseph Shulam has suggested that it may not have been the Seder but a seâudat-mitzvah, the CELEBRATORY âBANQUET accompanying performance of a commandmentâ such as a wedding or bâ rit-milah.
âHere is the background for his argument. When a rabbi and his students finish studying a tractate of the Talmud, they celebrate with a seâudat-mitzvah (also called a seâudat-siyum, âbanquet of completion,â i.e., graduation). The Fast of the Firstborn, expressing gratitude for the saving of Israelâs firstborn sons from the tenth plague, has been prescribed for the day before Pesach, Nisan 14, at least since Mishnaic times. When it is necessary to eat a seâudat-mitzvah, this takes precedence over a fast. With a modicum of foresight a rabbi can plan to complete a tractate on Nisan 14 and thus avoid having to fast; doing so is not construed as cheating, and in fact it has become the custom. âThe tradition of the Fast of the Firstborn dates at least from Mishanic times. But, Shulam reasons, if it goes back a couple of centuries more to the time of Yeshua, and if the siâudat siyum custom applied in the first century to the completing of any course of study, then Yeshua might have arranged to have himself and his talmidim [students, disciples] finish reading a book of the Tanakh on Nisan 14. Or, since Yeshua knew he was going to die, he may have regarded it as appropriate to complete his disciplesâ earthly âcourse of studyâ with a BANQUET. This solution would also resolve the perceived conflict between Yochanan [John] and the Synoptic Gospels over the timing of the Last Supperâ JNT, p. 77).
In other words, there is much more to this passage in I Corinthians 11, and its meaning, than we have supposed. Although there is no doubt that Yeshua the Messiah presented the new meanings of the bread and the wine as representing his broken body and shed blood, given on our behalf, at the last supper, and that these symbols are directly involved in the Passover Seder, held on Nisan 15, it is also a fact that this final meal was ONE DAY before the Passover. It is also a fact that Yeshua did not tell his disciples that they should institute a NEW COMMANDMENT, or a new âholy day,â and begin observing Nisan 14, at the eve, as a memorial of this âlast supper.â However, he was having a âfinal banquetâ with them â a special and unique âfellowship mealâ with them, where all were relaxed, reclining, at ease, and experiencing a very close oneness with each other. This was similar to a Passover Seder in some respects â but yet different.
The Greek Word âArtosâ
Interestingly, when Yeshua held this final dinner with his disciples, the word John used to describe it was diepnon, which means âsupper, the principal meal, dinner.â It is used of the last supper Yeshua held with his disciples, and other main meals of the day (see Mark 6:21; Luke 14:12, 16, 17, 24; 22:20; John 12:2; 13:21, 4; I Cor. 11:20-21; Rev. 19:9, 17). This word is NEVER used of an annual Festival, or of the Passover. However, it simply refers to the MAIN MEAL of the day, usually at evening.
Furthermore, at this final dinner or banquet, there is no mention of a lamb being eaten â which would have been necessary if this were the Passover. The gospel accounts would hardly have neglected to mention such an important feature.
But even more interesting is the fact that Jewish custom of that time, and always, has dictated that UNLEAVENED BREAD was not to be eaten during the days before the FEAST of Unleavened Bread, so that the Feast would be set apart as distinct and real. For unleavened bread to have been eaten BEFORE the Festival would have diminished its importance during the Feast itself! Therefore, if Yeshua and his disciples had eaten âunleavened breadâ on the night of Nisan 14, they would have violated Jewish custom and practice. It is very interesting, therefore, to notice that when Yeshua sat down at dinner, at that final meal with his disciples, âas they were eating, Yeshua took bread, and blessed it [many Greek copies have, âgave thanksâ], and brake it, and gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my bodyâ (Matt. 26:26). The word for âbreadâ here is artos, and means, âbread (as raised), a loaf.â This same word is used in Matthew 4:3-4, âman does not live by bread alone,â in Matthew 6:11, âour daily bread,â and Matthew 16:12,âthe leaven of bread,â etc. This word is often used of LEAVENED BREAD!
Generally, whenever UNLEAVENED bread is meant, this word is preceded by the Greek word for âunleavened,â which is azumos, meaning âunleavened, uncorrupted.â But in the three synoptic gospel accounts of the last supper of Yeshua and his disciples, Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19, the writers always use ONLY THE WORD ARTOS, meaning BREAD â without the modifying word azumos to designate âunleavened.â Therefore, the clear indication is that AT THE LAST SUPPER YESHUA USED NORMAL LEAVENED BREAD, when he blessed and broke it, and said, âTake, eat; this is my bodyâ!
Here is further proof that this dinner was not and could not have been the PASSOVER!
The Real Bread at the âLast Supperâ
Further proof that Yeshua and his disciples did NOT and could not have eaten the âPassover,â with its unleavened bread, at the âlast supperâ on the eve or beginning of Nisan 14, is plain and simple Jewish law (halakha) of the time. It is a historical fact that when the Scriptures use the expression âkept the Passoverâ (Ezra 6:19) it refers strictly to the slaying of the Passover lamb, on the 14th of Nisan, whereas the expression âeat the Passoverâ was fulfilled the coming evening of Nisan 15 which was the beginning of the eating of unleavened bread on âthe night to be much observed.â The reason why this evening was called âthe night to be much observedâ was because the Passover meal was always eaten as the first meal in the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Also, according to Jewish law of the times (halakha), it was absolutely forbidden to eat unleavened bread during the 24-hour period prior to the first night of Unleavened Bread! This was a distinction made by law to sanctify (set apart) the sacred meaning of the Feast from whatever they may have eaten for bread on the previous days. This means that Yeshua and the disciples could not have eaten unleavened bread the evening prior to the ânight to be much observedâ!
Also, the gospels indicate that Yeshua was keeping the Fast of the Firstborn during the daylight hours of the crucifixion day â this was a daytime fast observed by all firstborn Jews on the Preparation Day in remembrance of YEHOVAH God protecting the firstborn of Israel while killing the firstborn of Egypt; this also explains Yeshuaâs remark in Matthew 26:29, âI will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fatherâs kingdom.â Obviously, Yeshua did not drink any wine the following day. Furthermore, this explains why he refused to accept the vinegar mixed with gall mentioned in Matthew 27:34. The Hebrew text of Matthewâs gospel written by the Spanish Jewish scholar Shem-Tov ben-Shaprut (c. 1380 A.D.) reads: âand gave him wine mixed with gall. But when he began to drink it he perceived and would not drink it.â Yeshua must have remembered he was observing the Fast of the Firstborn. The Greek word for âtasteâ used in this verse produced a false impression. Yeshua remembered before he drank and swallowed.
Clearly, then, the âbreadâ which Yeshua broke and gave to his disciples during the beginning portion of Nisan 14, in the evening, at his final âsupperâ with them, must have been and indeed was LEAVENED BREAD!
But can this be? Can leavened bread, as well as unleavened bread, represent the body of Yeshua the Messiah?
The answer is a resounding YES!
In Leviticus 23:17, regarding the feast of Pentecost, we read: âYe shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be BAKEN WITH LEAVEN; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.â Leaven, in this case, certainly does not represent SIN, as nothing âcontaminatedâ or âsinfulâ could ever be offered to YEHOVAH God. To offer âsinsâ to YEHOVAH would be sacrilegious â blasphemy â like offering swineâs flesh (Isa. 66:3, 17).
Notice, therefore, what the Jamieson, Faussett and Brown Commentary has to say on this passage in Leviticus 23:
âThese loaves were made of âfineâ or wheaten flour, the quantity contained in them being somewhat more than ten pounds weight. As the wave-sheaf gave the signal for the commencement, the two loaves solemnized the termination of the harvest season. They were the first-fruits of that season, being offered unto the Lord by the priest in name of the whole nation (see on Exo. 34:22). The loaves used at the Passover were UNLEAVENED, those presented at Pentecost were LEAVENED â a difference which is thus accounted for, â that the one was a memorial of the bread hastily prepared at their departure, while the other was a TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE TO GOD for their daily food, which was leavenedâŚâ (vol. 1, p.498).
However, even âleavened breadâ is a TYPE of the body of the Messiah, and represents âhis fleshâ which he gave for the sins of the world. To the Jews, unleavened or flat bread represented affliction and poverty, as when the Israelites came out of Egypt; but leavened loaves of bread, as were sacrificed at Pentecost to the Lord (Leviticus 23:17), typify ABUNDANCE, richness, wealth. The typology should be clear. The Messiah crucified was in affliction, flatness, abject, beaten, bruised, pierced, pummeled â the perfect type being unleavened bread. The Messiah as the richness of the abundance of life, life-giving bread, is pictured by the leaves of beautiful, sweet-smelling leavened bread! Donât all of us enjoy a beautiful loaf of home-made leavened whole wheat bread straight out of the oven steaming? Therefore, the richness of leavened bread also symbolizes Yeshua the Messiah, the âbread of life.â Notice!
âThe BREAD of Lifeâ
In John chapter 6, when Yeshua fed the multitude from a few loaves of bread and a few fishes, he declared,
âFor the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the worldâŚ.I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believth on me shall never thirstâŚ.
âI am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
âI am the LIVING BREAD which came down from heaven: if any man eat of THIS BREAD, he shall live forever: and the bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the worldâŚ.
âVerily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
âThis is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live foreverâ (John 6:33-58).
Yeshua, then, is the âbread of life.â This is a reality. This is not just Passover. Throughout the year, every day, day in and day out, Yeshua the Messiah remains and IS the âbread of lifeâ which came down from heaven! We should be eating of this âbreadâ DAILY as we study the Scriptures! Yeshua went on to declare:
âIt is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are lifeâ (John 6:63).
Thus even regular bread is a type of the richness of the life-giving bread of Yeshua the Messiah! In this sense, the leaven represents fullness and abundance. True Christians, as members of the body of the Messiah, also are âone breadâ IN the Messiah!
30 Pieces of Silver
Now with everything you have been shown thus far consider the following.
Zech 11:10-14Â And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. Then I said to them, âIf it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.â And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, âThrow it to the potterââthe lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
In Mathew, we learn how Judas has agreed to betray Yehshua.
Mat 26:14-16Â Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, âWhat will you give me if I deliver him over to you?â And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Next, we read about the betrayal of Yehshua in John 13:21-30
After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, âTruly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.â The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesusâ side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, âLord, who is it?â Jesus answered, âIt is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.â So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, âWhat you are going to do, do quickly.â Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, âBuy what we need for the feast,â or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
We then read the rest of what Judus has done in Mat 27:3-10
Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, âI have sinned by betraying innocent blood.â They said, âWhat is that to us? See to it yourself.â And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, âIt is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.â So they took counsel and bought with them the potterâs field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, âAnd they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potterâs field, as the Lord directed me.â
I will share next what is commonly said about this transaction and then share my thoughts on it.
In Zechariah 11:12â13, 30 pieces of silver is the price Zechariah receives for his labour. He takes the coins and throws them âto the potterâ. Klaas Schilder notes that Zechariahâs payment indicates an assessment of his worth, as well as his dismissal.[18] In Exodus 21:32, 30 pieces of silver was the price of a slave, so while Zechariah calls the amount a âhandsome priceâ (Zechariah 11:13), this could be sarcasm. Barry Webb, however, regards it as a âconsiderable sum of money.â[19]
Schilder suggests that these 30 pieces of silver then get âbandied back and forth by the Spirit of Prophecy.â[20] When the chief priests decide to buy a field with the returned money, Matthew says that this fulfilled âwhat was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.â Namely, âThey took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potterâs field, as the Lord commanded meâ (Matthew 27:9â10). Although many scholars see Jeremiahâs name as included in error,[21] Jeremiahâs purchase of a field in Jeremiah 32 may indicate that both prophets are in mind.[22] Craig Blomberg argues that Matthew is using typology in his quotation, rather than âany kind of single or double fulfillment of actual predictive prophecy.â According to Blomberg, Matthew is telling his readers that, âlike Jeremiah and Zechariah, Jesus attempts to lead his people with a prophetic and pastoral ministry, but instead he ends up suffering innocently at their hands.â[23] William Hendriksen argues that Matthew is referring to Jeremiah 19.[24]
Blomberg also suggests that Matthew may also be saying that âJesusâ death is a ransom, the price paid to secure a slaveâs freedom,â and that the use of the blood money to buy a burial ground for foreigners (Matthew 27:7) may hint at the idea that âJesusâ death makes salvation possible for all the peoples of the world, including the Gentiles.â[25]
The 1877 Handy Book for Bible Readers states that âArgurion, argenteus, denarius. This word occurs in two passagesâ(A) the account of the betrayal of our Lord for âthirty pieces of silverâ (Matt. xxvi. 15; xxvii. 3, 5, 6, 9). These have usually been considered to be denarii, but on no sufficient ground. The parallel passage in Zechariah (xi. 12, 13), is translated âthirty [pieces] of silverâ; but which should doubtless be read, âthirty shekels of silverâ, whilst it is observable that âthirty shekels of silverâ was the price of blood to be paid in the case of a servant accidentally killed (Exod. xxi. 32). The passage may therefore be explained as âthirty shekels of silverâ, not surrent shekels, but tetradrachms of the Attic standard of the Greek cities of Syria and Phoencia. These tetradrachms were common at the time of our Lord, and of them the stater was a specimen.â
Slave-Captives-Death-Redemption
There is something very special about this Fast of the First Born and the money paid to redeem the firstborn. And then when we actually see it played out in real time at the crucifixion we should be able to draw understanding from it. But we do not because of so much confusion about the events and because we have not obeyed for over 2700 years. So we have lost much understanding.
Yehovah had to pay the ruler of this world, Satan the destroyer, for those whom Yehovah was redeeming the same as Hosea did for 33-34 his adulterous wife whom he bought back.
The price of redeeming the firstborn was set at 5 shekels. The price for Gomer was equivalent to about 10 shekels. The 30 Silver coins âŚ
The word used in Matthew 26:15 (???????, argyria) simply means âsilver coins,â[9] and scholars disagree on the type of coins that would have been used. Donald Wiseman suggests two possibilities. They could have been tetradrachms of Tyre, usually referred to as Tyrian shekels (14 grams of 94% silver), or staters from Antioch (15 grams of 75% silver), which bore the head of Augustus.[10] Alternatively, they could have been Ptolemaic tetradrachms (13.5 Âą 1 g of 25% silver).[11]There are 31.1035 grams per troy ounce. At spot valuation of $17.06/oz (the closing price on Monday, December 12, 2016), 30 âpieces of silverâ would be worth between $185 and $216 in present-day value (USD).
The Tyrian shekel weighed four Athenian drachmas, about 14 grams, more than earlier 11-gram Israeli shekels, but was regarded as the equivalent for religious duties at that time.[12] Because Roman coinage was only 80% silver, the purer (94% or more) Tyrian shekels were required to pay the temple tax in Jerusalem. The money changers referenced in the New Testament Gospels (Matt. 21:12 and parallels) exchanged Tyrian shekels for common Roman currency.[13][14]
I am trying to say that the redemption price is connected to the 30 pieces of Silver. Exactly how I will leave for you to ponder.
This day called the Fast of the firstborn is directly connected to the Fast of the Day of Atonement. As we showed you last week, the goat that represented Yehovah was killed on the Day of Atonement. This is the sacrifice that shows us we will be killing Yehovah. We were to kill the goat that represented Him, the same as we were to take the other goat, that looks just like the one that represents Yehovah, and cast it into the wilderness with all the guilt from our sins placed upon it. This Goat represented Satan the destroyer.
So because of these two Holy Days are connected in that the lamb that is killed also represents Yehovah at Atonement, so we are to fast at this time. It is the Fast of the Firstborn.
But although we have the symbolism here in the redemption of the firstborn, and we have it already stated that the 30 pieces of silver were to be used to buy the potters field as graves for the strangers. It has been stated that this field represents the rest of the gentile world.
Now let us go back once again to Genesis 15.
Gen 15:17-21 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, âTo your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.â
Yehovah made this blood covenant by Himself. He swore by His own life. There is no higher authority than He.
Then at Mount Sinai Yehovah again reaffirms this covenant with all of Israel whom He had just bought with the lives of the Egyptians from the destroyer. In Exodus starting in chapter 19 and going all the way to 34 is the covenant with all of Israel and we all agreed to obey it. Now, this too was a blood covenant which means that if either party breaks those things they have agreed to in it then they would pay with their lives.
Israel did break this agreement and is guilty of sin and thus must pay for this with their lives.
But Yehovah has shown us just how much He loved Israel and not just Israel, but all of mankind, by giving His own life as payment for us breaking the covenant of Mount Sinai.
He has redeemed us with His own blood. The redemption price of the firstborn as shown to us each time we keep the Pidyon Haâbon and again each year we keep the last supper not as the
Passover meal which is the next night but as this special night in which He paid for us on this day by His own blood.
We know this is what He did because of the fact that the dead who were held prisoners by Satan up until that time had not and had never come back to life from the grave until Yehshua came out of the grave at the end of the Sabbath.
This is the first time other than Lazarus, that anyone has come out of the grave.
Mat 27:50-53 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
This was the first chag of Unleavened Bread. It is the first wave offering and it is the first time any of the Saints were brought back to life.
Paul tells us how Yehshua led the captives.
Eph 4:8 Therefore it says,
âWhen he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.â
1 Cor 15:20-26 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
This event that took place after the payment had been executed is the redemption of mankind from the grave. It took place on the wave sheaf day. It is what the wave sheaf represents. Those Saints who obeyed were brought back to life on wave sheaf day. All of those from the time of Adam until this day in 31 C.E. were brought back to life and then ascended to heaven at 9 AM that Sunday morning with Yehshua.
Those captives were those who were held by Satan in death. They are now free and ascended with Yehshua to heaven.
The next wave offering to take place happens at the end of the tribulation on Shavuot when the next wave offering of two loafs of bread are waved. This is the one that all those since 31 C.E. until that time who have died and even those who are alive will be brought back to life and or changed in the twinkling of an eye and rise to meet Him in the air.
1 Cor 15:50-57 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
âDeath is swallowed up in victory.â
âO death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?â
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Again death is captivity and captivity means to be a captive of Satan. What is to be thrown into the lake of fire in the end?
Rev 20:11-15Â Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyoneâs name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Rev 20:4-6 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
I do hope I have been able to convey this new to me and some of you, understanding. I hope you can see the Great and mightiness of Yehovah in everything He is doing. Yehovah is our redeemer and Yehovah is the one who paid the redemption price with His own blood for us and for all mankind.
Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.
Isaiah 41:14 âDo not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,â declares the LORD, âand your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Jeremiah 50:34 âTheir Redeemer is strong, the LORD of hosts is His name; He will vigorously plead their case So that He may bring rest to the earth, But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.
Amos 4:13 For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind And declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness And treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD God of hosts is His name.
Isa 43:14-15 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: âFor your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.âIsa 44:6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: âI am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
Isa 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.â
Look at this verse above again and note what it is saying to you. âI am Yehovah Yehshua and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacobâ.
Isa 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
Isa 43:3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Let me show you this scripture in the Hebrew. And I want you to think on it some over this coming week.
Isa 43:3 For I am Yehovah, the Holy One of Israel, your Yehshua. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you..
Jer 31:10-11 âHear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, âHe who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.â
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
Jer 50:33-34 âThus says the Lord of hosts: The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah with them. All who took them captive have held them fast; they refuse to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon..
The Foot Washing Memorial
âThe Foot Washing Memorialâ
This article taken from our teachings in 2011 and updated for this year.
On the evening of Wednesday March 23, 2016 is the customary night of washing each otherâs feet and the drinking of wine and the breaking of bread in remembrance of the last supper Yehshua had with the Apostles. This is not the Passover meal. There will also be a dark full moon this night.
After supper Yehshua and His apostles went over to the Mount of Olives, also known as the Mount of Offence, where He prayed that this cup He was about to bear might pass from Him.
He was arrested this night and brought before the Sanhedrin and found guilty of blasphemy. They then brought Him to Pilot which is where the Dome of the Rock now is, who then sent Him to Herod which is up near where the Jaffa Gate now is who then sent Yehshua back to Pilot at what is now the Dome of the Rock, the Pavement. This all took place through the night and it is now morning of the 14th day of Nisan. This year it falls on the morning of the 24th of March.
Pilot gave in to the demands of the crowd and ordered Yehshua crucified. They then led Him and two other criminals back to the Mount of Offence, Calvary, Golgotha, the Skull or the place where the head count was done, where He was nailed to the wood that went across between His hands and then hoisted Him up and nailed Him to the Almond tree, having already cursed the Fig tree so that He would not be nailed to it.
On Thursday, March 24, 2016 which again is the 14th of Nisan from about Noon to the ninth hour it was dark. And when I look at NASA for the year and the month that Yehshua was killed on April 25, 31 C.E., we do indeed find a lunar eclipse over Jerusalem. The trouble is, that in order for this to be a natural event like an eclipse it had to be a solar eclipse. And it is impossible for a solar eclipse to take place when we have a full moon. Again showing you all the facts. This year we had a solar eclipse on the 1st day of the Month of Aviv. Now at Passover we are going to have a lunar eclipse much like the one Yehshua had, showing you a dark moon which represents famine is coming.
If you have not yet watched our teaching on the blood moons then I do urge you to watch it during this Passover Season.
This year Wednesday March 23rd is the 13th day of Aviv. The Foot Washing Memorial takes place this evening after sunset. It is a very somber evening and not one for talking and having a social. This is the evening Yehshua was betrayed and the next day murdered. I treat it as if I am at a Funeral and remember the things I have done that caused Him to be killed.
Thursday day, March 24, is the 14, of Aviv. This is the day when Yehshua would have been hung on the tree at 9 AM and then die at 3 PM, the same time the lambs were slaughtered. He was placed in the tomb before sunset which began the High Day of the 1st day of Unleavened Bread. Sunset Thursday is also the time we eat the Passover lamb. The blood having been smeared on the doors after it was killed at 3 PM. Midnight is the time when the first born of Egypt would have been killed by the death angel.
Moses and all of Israel then left Egypt in the dark, this year that is before Friday morning started. Friday March 25 is the 1st High Day of Unleavened Bread and no leaven is be found in your home from Sunset the evening before until after the 7th day of Thursday March 31 at sunset.
This year we then have Sabbath and then the wave sheaf day on Sunday. I will send out that teaching for Sabbath.
I have told you this for all the new people now starting to keep Passover and the rest of the Holy Days for the very first time. It is truly awesome to see so many going back to the Torah and the ways of our Ancestor who came out with Moses and crossed the Red Sea.
Many are asking how do we do this? Most of those who call themselves Christian do not keep Passover even though Yehshua did.
Let me tell you what I do. It is not the end all and be all way. It is what I try to do. You may develop your own customs.
To begin with I read
1Co 11:23  For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; 24  And giving thanks, He broke it and said, âTake, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me.â 25  In the same way He took the cup also, after supping, saying, âThis cup is the New Covenant in My blood; as often as you drink it, do this in remembrance of Me.â 26  For âas often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you showâ the Lordâs death until He shall come. 27  So that whoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, he will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. 29  For he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lordâs body. 30  For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and many sleep. 31  For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32  But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 33  So that, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34  But if anyone hungers, let him eat at home, so that you do not come together to condemnation. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
Pay attention to what you just read. This is a very serious time of the year. If you treat it shamefully then you can die from the sickness that will come upon you.
This is why we do the de-leavening of our homes and of ourselves. We are examining ourselves and finding out that we are guilty of sin and need this Passover sacrifice. We do not take part in it halfheartedly.
It is a somber time. This is not a night to be talking about this or that. It is the memorial of the night Yehshua was betrayed and then killed. And the more you think about it the more somber the night is.
Without this first step pictured by the Passover, there would be no hope for humanity. But because Yehshua gave His life as our Passover sacrifice, we have a potential beyond human imagination! All the holy Days as told to you in Lev 23 explain this great potential.
I myself will watch again the Passion by Mel Gibson and the Ten Commandments.
If youâre in a group then explain to them briefly the seriousness of the event of this evening and set the tone for the night.
I begin in
Mat 26:26  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is My body. 27  And He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink all of it. 28  For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29  But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Fatherâs kingdom. 30  And singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
This is briefly the outline for the evening.
We begin with the foot washing.
Notice this is before Passover and after the supper they were gathered for, had taken place. So this is not and was not the Passover meal as some teach.
I then read
Joh 13:1 And before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come when He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 And when supper had ended, the Devil now having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon to betray Him, 3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and went to God, 4 He rose up from supper and laid aside His garments. And He took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciplesâ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, Lord, do You wash my feet? 7 Jesus answered and said to him, You do not know what I do now, but you shall know hereafter. 8 Peter said to Him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me. 9 Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head. 10 Jesus said to him, He who is bathed has no need except to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And you are clean, but not all. 11 For He knew who would betray Him. Therefore He said, You are not all clean. 12 So after He had washed their feet and had taken His garments and had reclined again, He said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me the Teacher, and Lord, and you say well, for I AM. 14 If then I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one anotherâs feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, A servant is not greater than his master, neither is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
I have had the distinct pleasure of doing this with a couple of men on the Mount of Olives one year and another friend the year before. It surely has a very special meaning to me now having done this there at this place at that time.
After reading this part of John we would then go and wash each otherâs feet; Men doing the menâs feet and women doing the womenâs feet. If youâre with your own family you can do each others. In your own family this will help to teach the children to serve each other in love and not to always think of themselves. This is a very humbling thing to do, especially as a father to allow your son to do your feet or you do his. It can be emotional as you submit in humility. Tremendous lessons learned in doing this one exercise.
What does it mean for us? Is it just something we do on the night of the 14th or is it something that represents the way we strive to be all year round?
After the foot washing we come back and read the next section with the Bread.
As you tear the bread in front of your group know and understand this represents Yeshuaâs body being ripped apart for you, because of your sins.
Mat 26:26Â And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is My body.
Heb 10:10 By this will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And indeed every priest stands daily ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God,
Again what is sin?
1Jn 3:4 Everyone doing sin also does lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
1Pe 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we, having died to sins, might live unto righteousness1 â by whose stripes you were healed. Footnote: 1Rom. 6:2, 1 Peter 4:1-2.
Joh 6:48 âI am the bread of life. 49 âYour fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. 50 âThis is the bread which comes down out of the heaven, so that anyone might eat of it, and not die. 51 âI am the living bread which came down out of the heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And indeed, the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.â
1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Messiah? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Messiah?
Now let me ask you when is the lamb ever beaten as Yehshua was? The answer is it never is. So what is beaten? It is the barley which is beaten to give up the grain which is then roasted as a grain offering on the wave sheaf day which is the day after the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened bread, or in other words the first day of the week.
This same grain is made into bread which is what Yehshua represents; The Bread of life.
Yehshua said the bread represented His body, which He voluntarily gave to be beaten and to die as part of His complete sacrifice for us. He suffered that He might take our infirmities and bear our sicknesses.
Mat 8:16 And when evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17 that it might be filled what was spoken by Yeshayahu the prophet, saying, âHe Himself took our weaknesses and bore our sicknesses.â
He is our Healer. Bread is also associated with life, and Yehshua is the Bread that makes eternal life possible as we allow Him to live in us.
Gal 2:20 âI have been impaled with Messiah, and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me.1 And that which I now live in the flesh I live by belief in the Son of Elohim, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Footnote: 1Rom. 8:10, 2 Cor. 6:16, 2 Cor. 13:5, Eph. 3:17, Col. 1:27, 1 John 4:4.
And the fact that His followers all partake of this symbol of Him highlights the unity He wants us to have.
Isa 53:2 For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor majesty that we should see Him, nor an appearance that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as it were a hiding of faces from Him, He being despised, and we esteemed Him not. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken. 9 And He put His grave with the wicked, and with a rich one in His death; although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased Jehovah to crush Him; to grieve Him; that He should put forth His soul as a guilt-offering. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. He shall be fully satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify for many; and He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide to Him with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul to death; and He was counted among the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors.
Once you have broken the bread share it with everyone and let them think about this the body of Yehshua.
We now move on to the wine part of this service.
Luk 22:14 And when the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve emissaries with Him. 15 And He said to them, âWith desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering, 16 for I say to you, I shall certainly not eat of it again until it is filled in the reign of Elohim.â 17 And taking the cup, giving thanks, He said, âTake this and divide it among yourselves, 18 for I say to you, I shall certainly not drink of the fruit of the vine until the reign of Elohim comes.â
Luk 22:20 Likewise the cup also, after supper, saying, âThis cup is the renewed covenant in My blood which is shed for you.
The 4 glasses of red wine that are drunk during the Seder, symbolized Yehovahâs four statements of redemption in the Torah:
- âI took you outâ
- âI rescued youâ
- âI liberated youâ
- âI took you to Me for a peopleâ
The wine represents redemption. Although this meal Yehshua is eating is not the Passover meal he is showing them what the symbols of that meal mean.
The cup of Elijah derives from a problem in Talmudic Law. The problem is not knowing exactly how many cups of wine to drink at the Seder, four or five. The number of cups is based on the four expressions of deliverance, but there is actually a fifth expression of deliverance.
So, the rabbis came up with the perfect Jewish compromise. We fill the fifth cup, but we donât drink from it. And since Elijah will proceed the Messiah, who will be able to tell us whether four or five cups are correct, we make the fifth cup of wine Elijahâs cup.
In some Seder services, each person at the Seder contributes some wine to the fifth cup, symbolizing everyone sharing in the messianic hope. At other Seder services, wine from the cup of Elijah is mixed with the fourth cup.
You can learn more about the 4 or 5 cups at http://www.sichosinenglish.org/cgi-bin/calendar?holiday=pesach10474
Now notice what Yehshua said after the meal;
Luk 22:20 Likewise the cup also, after supper, saying, âThis cup is the renewed covenant in My blood which is shed for you.
Is this not the 5th cup that Judah had a problem figuring out? âThis cup is the renewed covenant in My blood which is shed for you.
Heb 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the defiled, sets apart for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of the Messiah, who through the everlasting Spirit offered Himself unblemished to Elohim, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living Elohim?
Heb 10:16Â âThis is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,â
â1 Footnote: 1Jer. 31:33, Heb. 8:8-12. 17 and, âTheir sins and their lawlessness I shall remember no more.â
Heb 10:19 Therefore, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies having been washed with pure water.
The wine of the New Testament Passover represents Yeshuaâs shed blood. His sacrifice made the forgiveness of our sins and the removal of our guilt possible. This opened the way for the New Covenant that Yehovah makes with believers, writing His laws on our hearts. We make this covenant when we are baptized and renew it each year at the Passover. This is why Passover and Atonement are tied together.
At this time you should all drink a small amount of wine.
After the wine we close the evening with the following readings.
Joh 13:18 I do not speak of you all; I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture might be fulfilled, âHe who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.â 19 From now I tell you before it comes, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, He who receives whomever I send receives Me. And he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 21 When Jesus had said this, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Truly, truly, I say to you that one of you shall betray Me. 22 Then the disciples looked upon one another, wondering of whom He spoke. 23 But there was one of His disciples leaning upon Jesusâ bosom, the one whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore signaled to him to ask whom it might be of whom He spoke. 25 And lying on Jesusâ breast, he said to him, Lord, who is it? 26 Jesus answered, It is he to whom I shall give the morsel when I have dipped it. And dipping the morsel, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 And after the morsel, then Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly. 28 But no one reclining knew for what reason He spoke this to him. 29 For some thought, because Judas had the moneybag, that Jesus had said to him, Buy what we have need of for the feast; or that he should give something to the poor. 30 He then, having received the morsel, went out immediately. And it was night.
To help show that this was not the Passover meal I have said in the past that the bread Yehshua was leavened and not Matzos because Matzos does not soak up sauce. Others will argue this point differently so I bring it to your attention.
We continue to read in John;
Joh 13:31 Then when he had left, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall immediately glorify Him. 33 Little children, I am with you yet a little while. You shall seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, Where I go, you cannot come, so I now say to you. 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another. 35 By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another. 36 Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, where do You go? Jesus answered him, Where I go you cannot now follow Me, but you shall follow Me afterward. 37 Peter said to Him, Lord, why cannot I follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake. 38 Jesus answered him, Will you lay down your life for My sake? Truly, truly, I say to you, The cock shall not crow until you have denied Me three times.
Joh 16:1 I have spoken these things to you so that you should not be offended. 2 They shall put you out of the synagogue. But an hour is coming that everyone who kills you will think that he bears God service. 3 And they will do these things to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4 But I have told you these things so that when the hour shall come you may remember that I told you of them. And I did not say these things to you at the beginning because I was with you. 5 But now I go to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, Where do You go? 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when that One comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. 9 Concerning sin, because they do not believe on Me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, He shall speak. And He will announce to you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will announce it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and will announce it to you. 16 A little while and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father. 17 Then His disciples said to one another, What is this that He says to us, A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little and you will see Me? And, Because I go to the Father?
Joh 16:18 Therefore they said, What is this that He says, A little while? We do not know what He is saying. 19 Then Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and said to them, Do you seek answers with one another concerning this, because I said, A little while and you shall not see Me; and again a little while, and you shall see Me? 20 Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. And you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. 21 The woman has grief when she bears, because her hour has come. But when she brings forth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of the joy that a man is born into the world. 22 And therefore you now have sorrow. But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 And in that day you shall ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 24 Before now you have asked nothing in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25 I have spoken these things to you in parables, but the time is coming when I shall no more speak to you in parables, but I will show you plainly of the Father. 26 At that day you will ask in My name; and I do not say to you that I will pray to the Father for you, 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from God. 28 I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father. 29 The disciples said to Him, Lo, now You speak plainly and speak no parable. 30 Now we know that You know all things and do not need that anyone should ask You. By this we believe that You have come forth from God. 31 Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour comes, yea, has now come, that you will be scattered, each man to his own things, and you will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33 I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
Joh 17:1 Jesus spoke these words and lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 even as You have given Him authority over all flesh so that He should give eternal life to all You have given Him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You upon the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 6 I have revealed Your name to the men whom You gave to Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7 Now they have known that all things, whatever You have given Me, are from You. 8 For I have given to them the Words which You gave Me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from You. And they have believed that You sent Me. 9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 And now I am in the world no longer, but these are in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father. Keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those that You have given Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 And now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world that they might have My joy fulfilled in them. 14 I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray for You to take them out of the world, but for You to keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth. 18 As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 19 And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth. 20 And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. 22 And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, 23 I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me, that they may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, indeed the world has not known You; but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent me. 26 And I made known to them Your name, and will make it known, so that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. Footnote: 1See v. 6, Ps. 22:22, Heb. 2:12.
Joh 18:1 Having spoken these words, Jesus went out with His disciples over the winter stream Kidron, where there was a garden. He and His disciples entered into it. 2 And Judas who betrayed Him also knew the place. For Jesus oftentimes went there with His disciples. 3 Then Judas, having received a band and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all things that were coming upon Him, went out and said to them, Whom do you seek? 5 They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I AM! And Judas who betrayed Him also stood with them. 6 Then as soon as He had said to them, I AM, they went backward and fell to the ground. 7 Then He asked them again, Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. 8 Jesus answered, I have told you that I AM. Therefore if you seek Me, let these go away; 9 (that the word might be fulfilled which He spoke, âOf those whom You have given Me, I have lost not one of themâ). 10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priestâs servant and cut off his right ear. And the servantâs name was Malchus. 11 Then Jesus said to Peter, Put up your sword into the sheath. The cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it? 12 Then the band, and the chiliarch, and under-officers of the Jews together seized Jesus and bound Him. 13 And they led Him away to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. 14 And Caiaphas was he who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
All that we have just read was the night before Yehshua was arrested. Pray after this evening and think about what you have just experienced and then what Yehshua was going through this whole night. We have prayed this in the very same garden Yehshua did on the Mount of Olives.
You can now sing a song and then quietly leave and consider the events that this night represents and those things that are about to happen to our Messiah the following day. Again it is a very somber time.
Albertaâs Brutal Water Reckoning
Albertaâs Brutal Water Reckoning
St. Mary Reservoir, near Lethbridge, just 11 per cent full. Climate change is only part of the reason Alberta is reeling for lack of water. Photo via Alberta government.
Andrew Nikiforuk | 19 Feb 2024 | The Tyee
Scientists who studied the regionâs arid past warned this drought was coming. Thirst for growth won out. A Tyee special report.
âTo a water expert, looking ahead is like the view from a locomotive, 10 seconds before the train wreck.â â The late scientist David Schindler on Albertaâs looming crisis
Albertaâs water reckoning has begun in earnest. Snowpack accumulations in the Oldman River basin, the Bow River basin and the North Saskatchewan River basin range from 33 to 62 per cent below normal. A reduced snowpack means less summer water for the fish and all water drinkers.
Ancient glaciers that feed and top up prairie rivers in the late summer melted at record speeds last year, the hottest on global records. Many indomitable ice packs, such as the well-studied Peyto Glacier, are disappearing altogether, wasted by the desiccating hand of climate disorder.
Fifty-one river basins from Milk River to Hay River report critical water shortages due to low rainfall and high temperatures, according to the provincial government.
Groundwater levels in parts of Alberta have reached record lows. Wells in Rocky View County just outside of Calgary, for example, show steady declines and the lowest levels ever measured. Some 600,000 rural Albertans depend on groundwater.
Most of the provinceâs water reservoirs sit five metres below their normal waterlines, boat launch docks projecting over baked earth like monuments from a lost civilization.
The Oldman River Dam, a $500-million megaproject built for the irrigation industry, has become a desert of silt cut by a narrow canal of chocolate water. It sits at 30 per cent capacity. Normally it ranges from 60 to 80 per cent full.
St. Mary Reservoir normally was between 40 and 70 per cent full. Today, at 11 per cent capacity, it has become a ghost of a water body. The Spray Lakes Reservoir, high in Kananaskis country, reports 34 per cent of capacity.
Lake Diefenbaker, from which the people of Saskatchewan get 60 per cent of their drinking water, received only 28 per cent of normal inflow last year from heat-stricken Alberta, a plummet scientists called âunprecedented.â
The Crowsnest River arm of the Oldman Reservoir viewed from the air in December 2023. To deal with the crisis, Premier Danielle Smithâs UCP government has appointed an advisory body with no known water experts. Photo by Robert Costa.
With less water in the rivers and ground, the cottonwoods and willows that decorate the banks of prairie rivers are dying.
Parched rural communities have even begun to question the huge thirst of the powerful oil and gas industry. A water commission that provides potable water to the municipalities of Innisfail, Bowden, Olds, Didsbury, Carstairs and Crossfield has banned treated bulk water supplies to the fracking industry, which permanently removes water from the water cycle. One study recently noted that water consumption by frackers âintensifies local water competition and alters water supply threatened by climate variability.â
Yet the Alberta government has not declared an emergency. It says it is planning for extreme drought but hoping for snow and rain.
Meanwhile Danielle Smithâs United Conservative Party government has appointed an advisory body with no known water experts. But it does include Ian Anderson, a promoter of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that will transport bitumen from the oilsands to the Port of Vancouver, criss-crossing many dwindling rivers, creeks and streams as it does.
Predicted by tree rings and scientists
Albertaâs water emergency, which is also a fire emergency, was foretold by scores of water scientists. They predicted that prolonged water scarcity would hit southern Alberta hard for stubborn geographical reasons.
No one sounded the alarm more persistently and urgently than the late David Schindler, one of the worldâs great water ecologists.
Schindler never tired of reminding Albertans that their province has only 2.2 per cent of Canadaâs renewable fresh water. Meanwhile its industries, government and residents behaved as though water came from ever-flowing taps instead of dwindling glaciers, rivers, aquifers and snowpacks.
Thereâs another ignored reality. Eighty per cent of Albertaâs water flows north while 80 per cent of the provinceâs growing population lives in the drier portion south of Edmonton.
âSometime in the coming century, the increasing demand for water, the increasing scarcity of water due to climate warming, and one of the long droughts of past centuries will collide, and Albertans will learn first-hand what water scarcity is all about,â warned Schindler nearly two decades ago.
Schindler explicitly forecasted that collision when he and fellow researcher Bill Donahue wrote a paper on the impending water crisis facing the Canadian prairies for the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. It appeared in 2006 with much fanfare.
Oldman Reservoir near the Island View day use area. Boosters of industrial and population growth failed to heed researchersâ warnings that for previous centuries the region was far more arid, making recent decades an aberration. Photo via Alberta government.
The big water problem, said Schindler and Donahue, really began in the early part of the 20th century, when European settlers flooded the arid prairies during a period of unusually stable and moist conditions in the Canadian West. Federal reports also misled immigrants by informing them that cacti were no sign of aridity. The settlers wrongly assumed that the good water conditions would persist.
But extended wet periods arenât normal on the prairies. In earlier centuries, long droughts made the land thirsty for decades at a time, and then the drought would recede like some hellish glacier. Tree ring data from 1,000-year-old limber pine shows some of the worst dry spells occurred in the 1500s and 1720s. But recent instrument records upon which modern water allocations are based provide a too-small window that leaves the regionâs long, dry history out of consideration.
Even the Dirty â30s and the recent drought that damaged crops in the 2000s were mild affairs compared with these historic events, wrote Schindler and Donahue. No one in modern Alberta has really planned for prolonged dry spells, let alone the ability of climate change to magnify their impacts. Indigenous people, of course, adapted to the drought challenge by being nomadic; they kept their footprint small.
Schindler and Donahue then noted that government policies started to drain the rivers, wetlands and aquifers for malls, casinos, gas wells and farms without thinking how these waters depended on healthy snowpacks and glaciers in the Rocky Mountains.
Next Schindler and Donahue looked at trends in air temperature, rainfall and river flows in a world disrupted by the warming emissions of fossil fuels. They selected 10 sites on the prairies with 80 years of weather records. Most showed warming of one to four degrees. Half showed rainfall declines by 14 to 24 per cent. None showed increased rainfall.
Then they looked at summer water flows because thatâs when irrigation, municipal water withdrawals and seasonal evaporation are at their highest. Summer flow for the majority of prairie rivers declined rapidly in the 20th century.
But that hasnât caused a rethink about Albertaâs approach to agriculture. The province today is the site of about 60 per cent of Canadaâs irrigation.
The flow of the Athabasca River, upon which oilsands production depends, declined by 30 per cent between 1970 and 2003.
When Schindler and Donahue issued their report, on dammed rivers such as the Peace and the Oldman, summer flows had fallen 40 to 60 per cent below historic measures. The South Saskatchewan had suffered badly; its flow had fallen by 84 per cent since the 1900s.
Demise of the mighty glaciers
The scientists, in their paper, turned their attention to trends in glacier mass and snowpack depth, which also told a story of persistent decline. The number of days that winter snow lingered on the ground had shortened. The mean depth of snowpacks had shrivelled in the last 100 years.
These dwindling snowpacks once provided water insurance for rivers in the months of May and June, noted Schindler and Donahue. But no more.
Contributing to drought factors is the relentless receding of Albertaâs glaciers due to global warming. On the left, a satellite image of Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park taken in 1999; on the right, in 2021. Photos via NASA Earth Observatory.
All these drying trends have been compounded by the arrival of more and more residents. The oilsands boom triggered a 15 to 20 per cent population surge between 1996 and 2001, which ârendered Alberta the most vulnerable of the western prairie provinces to water shortages,â wrote Schindler and Donahue.
At the time of their paper, Alberta boasted 3.4 million human water drinkers. Now the number tops 4.7 million, and Premier Smith has said she would like to see that population more than double.
Schindler and Donahue then cited some of the impacts of too many people and industries sopping up limited water supplies. They included six million cattle (now down to four million due to drought) and an irrigation system that gulped the majority of the water in southern basins.
They noted that water for deep-well bitumen injection in northern Alberta âcurrently comprises 25 per cent of licensed groundwater withdrawals, approximately equal to water licensed for municipal use.â
They also noted that freshwater withdrawal for bitumen production had also compromised the winter flow of the Athabasca River.
They added that agricultural interests combined with municipal and highway expansions had destroyed 70 per cent of the prairieâs wetlands with dire consequences. Wetlands clean water, regulate its flow and provide reliable drought insurance.
If these trends continue, warned Schindler and Donahue 18 years ago, âthe combination of climate warming, increases in human populations and industry, and historic drought is likely to cause an unprecedented water crisis in the western prairie provinces.â
Evidently, if wholly unsurprisingly, Alberta has arrived at that destination.
Recommendations ignored
What could have been done? What might still be done even at this late moment?
Schindler and Donahue made a few pointed recommendations. They included:
Catchment-wide planning for the management and conservation of water on the dry prairies. In other words, all economic decision-making must be limited by water realities and impacts on watersheds over time.
Good science to drive the planning and protect the integrity of rivers.
The enforcement of laws to protect rivers and watersheds.
The restoration of wetlands and riparian zones.
Switching to agricultural crops that use less water.
Favouring industries with light water demands.
Finally, Schindler and Donahue recommended the opposite of Premier Smithâs boosterism about attracting millions more people to live in Alberta. âIt may prove wise to keep human populations in the dry WPP [western prairie provinces] relatively low, to avoid the water scarcity that has already become a major problem in the southwestern United States and many other populous dryland areas of the world.â
Trickling remnants of the Oldman River and a large silt deposit at the Highway 510 crossing earlier this month. When Alberta became a province in 1905, its 160,000 European settlers each used about 50 litres of water a day. Today 4.7 million residents consume 400 litres per person. Photo by Robert Costa.
Only two things have changed in Alberta since the paper was published. Climate change has intensified. And those in charge are even more heedless in the demands they are willing to place on the regionâs ever more scarce water.
Both Alberta and Saskatchewan, for example, have grand plans to expand irrigation during a drought.
The oilsandsâ demands keep growing as well. In 2020, just four companies in the oilsands took 200 billion litres of fresh water from the Athabasca River to lubricate eight water-intensive bitumen projects. Thatâs more than what the city of Calgary withdraws from the Bow and Elbow rivers to slake its needs for a year.
The Tyee asked Bill Donahue about the famous paper and all it warned and prescribed. The independent water scientist and Alberta Environmentâs former chief monitoring officer was blunt.
âWeâre now 18 years after our PNAS paper made waves and Alberta’s in a worse position,â said the scientist, who now lives in British Columbia. âThe irrigated acreage has expanded substantially, water-intensive oil and gas production has skyrocketed, mainly in the form of natural gas fracking and mined and in situ bitumen extraction, and climate change has continued to advance.
âToday’s Alberta government is completely incapable of managing something like climate change, drought and widespread water shortage because they only see environmental problems as political and ideological problems, as opposed to actual problems with potentially catastrophic real-world consequences.â
Equally stark was his assessment of leadership in Alberta Environment and the Alberta Energy Regulator and other arms of government key to dealing with the water crisis in the province. They âlack the attention span and skills to properly respond to it.â
âDave and I tried to warn Albertans about what was coming, and unfortunately we were largely ignored,â said Donahue.
âIn every presentation I’ve ever given on climate change and its effects on water supply in Alberta, I’ve always talked about the possibility that a 20- or 30- or 40-year drought could start this year, based on what the norm was for every century in the last two millennia, other than the exceptionally stable and wet 20th century.â
Brad Stelfox, an Alberta-born, highly respected land-use ecologist, says Albertans need to think about the crisis in terms of supply and demand. If thereâs no demand for water, then having very little of it constitutes not a drought but simply low flow.
âUnfortunately Alberta has made lots of water allocation decisions on the poor assumption that abundant rainfall and melt water will persist forever.â When Alberta became a province in 1905, it had 160,000 people who each consumed about 50 litres of water per day, related Stelfox. Now more than 4.7 million Albertans each use eight times that amount on average.
Robert Sandford, a water expert and resident of Canmore, says Alberta wonât be alone in facing a water reckoning. He told The Tyee: âFire and water are different sides of the same coin but, as we have been witnessing, too much of either can create catastrophe.â
No government was ready for the Canadian wildfires of 2023, and none are prepared for the drought Alberta now faces.
âWe need to hope less and do more,â exhorted Sandford, who holds the Global Water Futures Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
âWe now exist in a climate regime that humanity has never experienced before.â Responding with âanything less than a well-organized, aggressive and nationally coherent response could ultimately be fatal to thousands.â
âIf we want to end this perfect storm â and this climate emergency â we have to wake up and act as though our lives and our futures depend upon immediate action. Because they do.â
MEDICINE HAT â Pressure on Alberta rivers due to sustained dry conditions last fall forced a Saskatchewan town to declare a state of emergency in early December.
Combined flow rates from both the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan rivers fell below 42.5 cubic metres per second (cms), according to provisional hydrometric data. That led the town of Leader, Sask., to declare an emergency on Dec. 7.
With 2023 officially recognized as the hottest year on record, 2024 has kicked off with a concerning new record of its own: the least ice coverage on the Great Lakes in half a century.
At the start of the year, average ice cover on the worldâs largest collection of freshwater lakes was 0.4 per cent, the lowest since ice levels began to be tracked in 1973, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Since then roughly 1 per cent of the lakes have frozen over, the second-lowest level and well below the historical average of 14 per cent for this time of year.
NOAA researchers at NOAAâs Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) report that theyâve seen a steady decrease in ice coverage across the Great Lakes, which has reached a historic low.
Together, Great Lakes ice coverage was measured at 2.7 % on February 11, 2024.
Coverage on each of the lakes was measured as follows:
Lake Superior 1.7 %
Lake Michigan 2.6 %
Lake Huron 5.9 %
Lake Erie 0.05 %
Lake Ontario 1.7 %
Lakes Erie and Ontario are basically at â or tied with â their individual historic lows for the date, making both essentially ice-free.
âWeâve crossed a threshold in which we are at a historic low for ice cover for the Great Lakes as a whole,â says GLERLâs Bryan Mroczka, a physical scientist. âWe have never seen ice levels this low in Mid-February on the lakes since our records began in 1973.â
Then we should close the man made chanels to the USA. When they run that pipeline from Albert to the ocean,they should run a large pipe for water. Put a neuclear de salination plant or 2 there.
You cannot start Unleavened Bread without the Aviv. How is it you will be “searching” the land for it, and calling it, before clear indication?
Rivkah Biderman searched diligently in unirrigated fields, for a harvestable, Omer sized grouping, all over Israel, and found that the second flush of growth overgrew the first, and that the first is far too sparse and buried by the fresh and largest flush of barley growth to call it Aviv.
She bases this search she does on going right up to what would be Lamb Choosing Day, that is the tenth within this current month
Her criteria is excellent, and she is a very experienced barley watcher, that also loves Yeshua. This should be enough that she did not find it.
I personally am not comfortable with following a protocol of watching up until Wave Sheaf Day because it creates a situation where people are being instructed to have Passover/
Unleavened Bread based on an assumption that you will find an Omer’s worth of Aviv (standing up to being sickled without breaking apart) Barley.
I am wondering if you will be gathering it along the wayside, and not in an unirrigated field? It’s perhaps speculation on my part, but to match Yehovah’s criteria of providing food for everyone, shouldn’t it be in a field?
I’m going to now be saying that you have the Timeline, and do observe patterns within in, but until the true Oblation Land, for the true Temple Mount is restored (unless Yah changes my mind on that supposition about Oblation Land that I have)I am sticking with Rivkah’s judgment in this matter of setting the Aviv and New Moons.
I actually pray you repent of starting Unleavened Bread early “just in case” you find some barley right up until Wave Sheaf Day, because, frankly, dear Brother, it is illogical.
I didn’t realize you were doing this Wave Sheaf Day criteria until this year, and I found this out because I started watching Becca/Rivkah is her Hebrew name, to hear straight from her when the barley would be Aviv.
It is enough for me. I still love and am all in support of your ministry as concerning the Timeline though, and believe you have observed patterns in the Timeline, though I differ with you on what they may mean, a little.
Please, reconsider your position on this — both you and Randy. I hope you do. Shalom Shalom!
Shalom, it is stated in the newsletter: “The First Holy Day of Unleavened Bread is Monday, February 26, starting the evening before with the Passover meal.” Being Sunday, February 25, the Passover meal, it is only nine (9) weeks into the winter season that began on Dec.21, 2023. Three and one-half week before the Spring season begins. How can this be?
With due respect and thanks for your time and attention to this comment.
Shalom Eduardo, we do not go by the winter or spring seasons that are used today with regards to the Equinox. We go by the Barly in Israel being ready to make a wave Offering by Wave Sheaf Day and that day is Sunday March 3, 2024. Randy and Myself are here in Israel looking for an omers worth of Barley that is roastable right by this coming Friday March 1, 2024.
There is only one reason to search for the barley and that is to find Aviv, or green ears that can be roasted and turned into flour to make that offering. The Barley was cut after sunset after the Sabbath was over, during the days of Unleavened Bread. For us this year in 2024, that will be this coming Saturday night. So we are keeping Passover on Faith the barley will be Aviv by this coming Friday.
But if we do not find barley that is ready we will do Passover again next month.
Some people do not have enough faith to do it this way.
Yehovah said this is the month of green ears or Aviv. He did not tell us every detail. He expected us to search. You cannot make flour from empty ears of Barley. You cannot make flour from milky or wormy ears of barley. And you cannot make flour from the first fruits of Barley if they have reseeded themselves. Understanding all of this requires us to understand the timing and nature of the barley in the land of Israel. You have a very short time between Aviv and shattering.
So we are here in Israel searching for Aviv, or green ears of Barley that can be ground into flour in time for Wave Sheaf Day. But this year to do this requires us to have faith that it will be ready on time and that Yehovah will show us where to find it.
Right now the barley has headed, and is flowering for most of Israel that we have already seen. But we have also found some that is worm stage and I myself have found some that is dough stage, which is ready to roast by fire to make into flour. But I have not found enough to make an omer.
Based on this understanding I will be keeping the foot Washing ceremony this evening after Sabbath February 24. And I will eat my Passover meal Sunday evening February 25. And I will continue to search the land for roastable Barley until Friday March 1 on the faith it will ready in 7 days time. According to the charts it should be.
Some people say you must have Ripe barley by the end of the 12th month. The Bible does not say this. Others say you must have it by the end of the 10th day of what could be the first of the month. Again there are no scriptures that say this. The only reason we need Barley is to make the wave offering and that is why we wait until the day before to harvest it if it is ready. This year it very late and the very last day of the 7 days of unleavened bread. It is a test of our faith. I am not ashamed to wait and be in sync with Yehovah. If we do wait another 30 days, then much of the barley will already begin to shatter. So this is the situation we are wrestling with.
The Hebrew Idiom, no man can know the day or the hour is on full display this year once again.
I hope this helps you to understand why and what we are doing. Thank you for asking.
Chag Semeach from Joseph F Dumond
Joe, I have read your explanation and the comments and I just can’t imagine a family making two pilgrimages to Jerusalem because they were wrong on the first date.
I do support Beccas summation concerning the barley and she backs that up with the state of the flax. She has said that the flax has always been in bloom when the barley is Aviv and that no flax is blooming currently.
Excellent point about the flax. [Flax being the plant grown for making linen cloth, for one thing. Also, it is the seed source for flaxmeal, and also even lineseed oil — for our information.]
Thank you, for bringing the flax up. đ
Calgary Alberta has been persecuting Christian Pastors and church members who continued to gather for worship during the Plan-demic. PastorArthur Pawlowski,after suffering persecution in Communist Poland, sounded the alarm in Canada,his adopted new home. How many fellow Pastors cared enough to speak out to support him? Very few.How about Sabbath & Holy Day keeping Christians, embroiled in the Barley Count? One thing the old Churches of God seemed to come up short on, was Godly love to their fellow Christians, especially when they did not keep the Sabbath. Do we care enough to pray for or even help others? The day may well come, when we are imprisoned for our beliefs and there will be few who stand with us. Dr. Gene Scott/Faith Center,Glendale,Ca., on his Satelite TV network in 1979 came out in defense of Herbert W. Armstrong & the Worldwide Church of God against the attack by the attorney General of California/Deukmajian to the Church.Very few other church leaders did. Dr. Scott said at that time: ” The price of freedom, is association with nuts.He defended the right of all churches to operate,free of govt. interference,as the Constitution guaranteed. The drought in Alberta could be part of God’d Judgement on the people. How many churches there are calling for fasting and prayers to change the situaation?
Thankyou Joseph for allowing comments. Also appreciate your need to moderate and censor as you see fit.In the future,if I want to comment, I will first censor myself. This will be good training for when the world around us will censor true Christians.When I met you in Jerusalem years ago at Don Esposito’s group, you shared fascinating truths to all who would listen.I will be ever grateful for you taking us on tour in Jeriusalem, and showing us things very few ever are priveledged to see.May the LORD continue to Bless your work,as you follow His leading.
The Month of the Aviv, the Wave Sheaf, and the Observance of Passover and Unleavened Bread
Where in the Bible does it say that Wave Sheaf must be during the days of Unleavened Bread?
Where in the Bible does it say that the Waving of the Sheaf cannot be outside of the days of Unleavened Bread?
Why is the month called âthe Month of the Avivâ if the Wave Sheaf can only be brought during the days of Unleavened Bread, which is a seven day period?
Why is it the âMonth of the Avivâ, as opposed to the âWeek of the Avivâ, the âTwo Weeks of the Avivâ, or the âThree Weeks of the Avivâ?
About how long is it between when the barley is aviv and when it shatters?
Shalom!
First fruits (when the wave ahead is presented) is the “morrow after the Sabbath” meaning it is the day after the weekly Sabbath(because in order to find the date of Shavuot, you count 7 sevens and the morrow after the 7th seven is Shavuot, which means this Sabbath that is being referred is the weekly Sabbath). Therefore, you have Passover and the following Sunday after Passover = first fruits/wave sheaf offering.
February 10th was the Chinese lunar year.
February 24th -14th day , as you celebrate on the first month , Passover. I have heard Chinese Bible will be revised because of more findings(archaelogical).
Hi…I read about something going to happen in April 1st, 2024.
Did anything happen? Did I miss any events?