Rhythm of the Kingdom

In the previous post, we looked at the phrase “permanent regulation through all your generations,” to recognize that these things were established as an unending part of the lives of YHVH’s people.  Among the primary instructions that bear this declaration are the descriptions of the Feasts of the LORD (Vayikra (Leviticus) 23).

I believe YHVH designated these times to connect earth with heaven.  When his disciples asked Y’shua to teach them how to pray, one of the phrases Y’shua included was “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-13)  As children of his kingdom, we are meant to live and operate according to the rhythm of heaven.  Y’shua said his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), and that we are also therefore not of this world.

REALITY CHECK and true confession:  Even today, after decades of studying the Bible and walking with the LORD, I would have sworn that the phrase “in the world but not of the world” is an actual verbatim verse of scripture.  It is not.  It is based (I guess) on John 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”  And on John 17:14-16, “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. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

There is no arguing that we are IN the world, even while, through Y’shua ha’Mashiach (Jesus Christ) we are not OF the world.  So the much-used phrase is accurate.  It is just not scripture.

My point is that we are already NOT OF THIS WORLD.  You can rest easy about your NOTW sticker.  Since we are not of this world, our lives should be governed by the rhythm of the kingdom to which we belong.  YHVH showed us what that rhythm is in His Word (Torah). 

There is a daily rhythm – sunset to sunset.  Read Genesis 1.  As the activities of each day of creation were described, we are told “the evening and the morning were the nth day.”  Easy to overlook, but it means that each day ends and the next begins with the setting of the sun.  We are actually somewhat confused in this daily rhythm because, well, when does the day begin?  At midnight?  That is what we tell ourselves.  When we rise from sleeping?  When the sun rises?  When we get to our workplace?  Can we learn to greet the new day when the sun is setting?  The world around us operates outside the rhythm YHVH established at creation.  Perhaps we can find ways to begin recognizing the daily rhythm the way YHVH apparently intended it.

There is a weekly rhythm – Shabbat to Shabbat. Have you ever considered the seemingly arbitrary nature of the seven-day week?  One day is based on the rotation of the Earth.  One month is based (roughly) on the moon’s orbit around the Earth.  One year is based (roughly) on the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.  What is the seven-day week based on?  It is so because YHVH made it so.  Humans of various societies have tried to impose a different schedule of days and weeks, but their attempts never succeeded.  YHVH ordained the seven-day week, and this is the chief reason that Shabbat is so important.

There is a monthly rhythm – new moon to new moon.  When the moon has reached its smallest sliver of light reflection (waning), and as the reflected light begins to enlarge again (waxing), that is when each new month begins; i.e., the birth of the “new moon.”  Granted, the Gregorian calendar to which we are all accustomed and which most of the WORLD uses as its standard, does not follow the waxing and waning of the moon.  But YHVH’s calendar does.  And he calls us to celebrate Rosh Chodesh – the beginning of each month – with the blowing of the shofar, to recognize his ordination and governance of light and darkness.  Also, accurately marking the beginning of each month is the only way to be sure we are keeping his designated times (moedim; appointed feasts) according to his schedule!

There is a yearly rhythm – the procession of the seven feasts, spread across natural changes of seasons.  The month of Aviv (now called Nisan) is the first month of the biblical year, according to Exodus 12:2.  At the full moon (Nisan 14), we are to celebrate Pesach (Passover), then for the next seven days the Feast of Matzah (Unleavened Bread), and including the Feast of Firstfruits, which comes on the day after the regular Shabbat in the middle of Matzah.  On the Feast of Firstfruits we begin “counting omer”; i.e., 49 days (seven weeks), then we celebrate Shavuot (Pentecost) on the fiftieth day (an annual mini-Yovel!).

Then come the “Fall Feasts,” Yom Teruah (Feast of Shouting) on Tishri 1; then ten days later, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement/Covering); then four days later begins Sukkot (Feast of Booths), which is another seven day celebration.  There is so much rich meaning, detail, and prophetic fulfillment embodied in these celebrations.  They no doubt each deserve their own separate blog entry.

There is the Shmittah rhythm – seventh-year Shabbat.  Instructions for this are given in Sh’mot (Exodus) 23:10-11; Vayikra (Leviticus) 25:1-7; and D’varim (Deuteronomy) 15:1-6.  It is difficult to know how this instruction is to be applied in our modern WORLDLY culture, but it is given to us by YHVH.  It is part of his plan for our lives.

There is the Yovel (Jubilee) rhythm, which takes place every fifty years.  Seven Shmittah cycles (49 years), then the Yovel year.  Instructions regarding Yovel are found in Vayikra (Leviticus) 25:8-55.  This cycle is also difficult to walk out in modern society, but it has major implications for the understanding of the last days.

The Kingdom of Heaven exists in eternity, outside the boundaries and limitations of time.  Yet, YHVH has created this time-based rhythmic rotation for us while we dwell here subject to the constraints of time.  YHVH has his reasons for establishing this kingdom rhythm.  And the enemy of the kingdom, haSatan, has done and continues to do all he can to confound us IN THE WORLD so that we lose our kingdom equilibrium.  Yet YHVH offers us the ability to tap into that eternal balance through his gift of Torah, his work in Y’shua ha’Mashiach, and the infilling and empowerment of his Ruach haQodesh.

The writer of Hebrews quotes Haggai when he states “One more time I will shake not only the earth but heaven, too!” (Hebrews12:26)  Then the author reminds us that we belong to an unshakable kingdom.  The rhythm of the kingdom is the means YHVH has provided for us to stay connected and learn to walk more and more according to the true principles of the kingdom, in light, life, and love.

Shalom!

שלום

Is Permanent Permanent?

We saw in the “Valid Identification” entries, Part 1 and Part 2, that we are Israel.  Then we confirmed that YHVH’s Word Never Changes; and we saw what His Word says about Shabbat.  Now, let’s take a look at a few words that are repeated several times in Torah and consider what they mean to us today.

The phrase to which I would like to draw our attention is “let this be a permanent regulation through all your generations.”  Some translations use the term “perpetual statute,” “lasting rule,” “standing ordinance,” or “abiding law.”  The clear point being emphasized here is the instruction in view is meant to be remembered and observed for all time.  Let us agree then, that since YHVH’s Word does not change, then anything he marks with this phrase should certainly be taken seriously.

This phrase accompanies dozens of verses in Torah.  This entry cannot provide an exhaustive list of those references or, especially, provide extensive commentary on each of them.  So, I will encourage you to do your own study of this phrase, and confine myself to a few significant examples.  That is, at least I consider them to be significant.  Once I started noticing the recurrence of this phrase, it became important to me that I understand what is being required in each passage.

One of the first places I noticed this phrase was in Vayikra (Leviticus) 23, where the Feasts of the LORD are clearly laid out in annual order from first to last.  This chapter begins with “The designated times of YHVH which you are to proclaim as holy convocations are my designated times.”  This opening statement makes it clear that these “designated times” – moedim – belong to YHVH, and anyone who belongs to YHVH should be careful to give attention to his designated times.

A major point I want to highlight here is that Torah quotes YHVH here as declaring that these are HIS designated times.  They are not Jewish – and I direct your attention again to the explanation of the origins of that term in Valid Identification, Part Two.  Furthermore, even though these instructions are being imparted to all of B’nei Yisrael, YHVH nevertheless labels them HIS, which makes it technically inaccurate even to ascribe them solely to Israel.

Since YHVH is, in fact, addressing B’nei Yisrael in this passage, it is certainly not wrong to say that He expects Israel to observe the designated times he is proclaiming.  Remember that we have been grafted in to the tree of Israel (Romans 11).  We are children of Israel.  Therefore, these instructions belong to us, too.  And, by the way, what a great joy it is to keep the Feasts of the LORD!  More on the Feasts in later entries.

Another place where the subject phrase enters our view is in B’midbar (Numbers) 15.  It comes up in two passages – 15:15-16 and 15:38-40.

The first of these two passages is this:  “For this community there will be the same law for you as for the foreigner living with you; this is a permanent regulation through all your generations; the foreigner is to be treated the same way before YHVH as yourselves.  The same Torah and standard of judgment will apply to both you and the foreigner living with you.”

I know I have gone to great lengths to explain that we are “no longer foreigners” (Ephesians 2:19) and have become “joint heirs” (Romans 8:17); that, in fact, “we are Israel.”  The passage above seems to be a strong reminder to B’nei Israel that these instructions are YHVH’s eternal instructions, meant for all who call on His NAME.  We are not to think that we somehow have exclusive rights to HIS instructions.

But I have often heard people say that Torah does not apply to us.  This passage negates that argument in two ways.  One, it says Torah applies to “the foreigner living with you,” AND it says it is a “permanent regulation through all your generations,” so it has not passed away.  It is still in effect.

Possibly the most profound aspect of this particular instruction is that it also brings to mind YHVH’s desire for purity, holiness, cleanliness.  Many times he reminds us that he cannot abide mixture – he does not want us to worship him the way we worship any other gods.  And he calls on Israel to destroy utterly any practices that contravene his Torah.  Therefore, the foreigners in their midst must be held to the same standard.

The second passage of interest in B’midbar (Numbers) 15 is at the end of the chapter:  “Speak to the people of Israel, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot (tassels/fringes) on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzits on each corner a blue thread.  It is to be a tzitzit for you to look at and thereby remember all of YHVH’s mitzvot and obey them, so that you won’t go around wherever your own heart and eyes lead you to prostitute yourselves; but it will help you remember and obey all my mitzvot and be holy for your God.”

Many believers wear tzitziyot.  You may not see them, since they are often worn inside, out of public view.  The idea being that this instruction is meant to be a personal reminder of YHVH’s mitzvot, not particularly a public declaration of one’s loyalty to his mitzvot.  Torah is not meant to be a flogging stick by which we punish those we judge to be in violation of its tenets.

For me, the “discovery” of this phrase about “permanent regulation,” which came on the heels of a new understanding of the status of Torah and my identity in Israel, was earthshaking.  It was as if internal flags, which had been there all along, suddenly popped up out of the text and smacked me in the forehead.  I mean, how many different ways can we interpret “let this be a permanent regulation through all your generations”? 

Shalom!

שלום