Congregation Beth Ha'Mashiach
(House of the Messiah) - Worshipping ADONAI
& His Messiah, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach
Living & teaching as our
Messiah taught us to Live
Messianic
Congregation serving Northeast Atlanta Georgia (Gwinnett, Barrow, Dekalb,
Rockdale, Walton)
Phone 770
554-2867 - email:
rabbi@cbhm.org
God commands us to rejoice on the pilgrimage festivals. This is one of the very few occasions in the Torah when we receive a commandment telling us how we should feel. Usually the commandments of the Torah
tell us what to do, not what to feel. When we celebrate the appointed times of Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles, we are to do so with a genuine spirit of joy.
Commentary:
You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days
of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 16:3)
Moses mentions that when Israel left Egypt, they left in haste. The Torah explains the ritual of eating unleavened bread as a result of the Israelites leaving so quickly that their bread dough did not have
time to rise before they baked it. They left in haste, wasting no time in getting out of Egypt.
The Mechiltah (a midrash collection on Exodus) says that they left Egypt at once, not even tarrying for “a wink of an eye.” The “wink of an eye” or “twinkling of an eye” is a term which appears
frequently in rabbinic literature to describe something that happens instantaneously. For example, in his book Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim cites a passage from another collection of rabbinic
material called Pesiqta Rabbati which says that repentance takes effect “as in the twinkling of an eye.”
How long does it take to repent? According to the Sages, it takes only the twinkling of an eye, the same amount of time it took for Israel to leave Egypt after they were given permission to leave. This
teaches an important practical lesson about salvation and repentance. Just as Israel went from bondage to freedom in the twinkling of an eye, repentance and faith in Messiah transfers us from the kingdom of
darkness to the kingdom of light instantaneously. When we confess Messiah and trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins, we are immediately forgiven and set free from bondage to the adversary. In the twinkling
of an eye, we become free men.
Every Passover season is an annual opportunity to experience salvation afresh as we further refine our lives and leave behind the old ways. Each time we repent, we are whisked into new life and a new
reality. “In haste we left Egypt!” the Passover Haggadah declares.
In the future to come, the great messianic redemption will also be instantaneous—in the twinkling of an eye:
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 will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)
Shadows of the Messiah "things into which angels long to look." (1 Peter 1:12)
Are you ready for a fresh encounter with the living Messiah? Shadows of the Messiah is the completely revised and rewritten Torah Club 2, written by the author of TC 4 &
5. This new material lifts the veil and reveals the Messiah on every page of Torah. Start a new year of Torah study and encounter the living Yeshua. More
info...
FFOZ's Weekly e-Drash is based on our popular Torah Study
Program, Torah Club. For an introduction to Torah Club
click here.
First Fruits of Zion, PO Box 620099, Littleton, CO
80162-0099 USA
Telephone 303 933 2119, Toll-free 800 775 4807, Fax 303 933 0997
