SEASONS - THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF PASSOVER

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Passover is coming soon.  Passover for the year of 2016 begins on the evening of Friday, April 22 and ends on the evening of Saturday, April 30.   Many do not realize that Passover is not just one day, but a season that lasts for eight days. 

It all started not long after Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and they began to till and harvest the land.  Every year they enjoyed a celebration of the harvest of the spring barley crops and the new lambs.  We can understand this from the stories of Cain and Abel.  One brought vegetables and one brought meat.   It was a set aside time that God had ordained each year at the ending of the rainy season and the beginning of the growing season. 

Adam and Eve passed this down through the generations right up until the flood.  Noah was the grandson of Enoch.  Enoch had walked with God and he taught Noah.  Noah taught his sons and kept God's calendar even during the time on the ark and the flood.  After the flood Noah's son Shem was made the family high priest.  He established a school to teach God's ways to the people of the earth.  Shem passed on the Holy Days of God to the generations after the flood.  Abraham was the next family high priest after Shem.  Abraham knew and passed down God's Holy Days to his sons and his household.

Many years before the redemption of Israel from Egypt, God instructed Abraham about the sacrifice of a lamb.   We know that Abraham offered up many lambs for sacrifice, and was even prepared to offer his own son, but God would not allow it.   

The word Pesach, as the Hebrews call it, was first derived from the instructions given by God to Moses.  It means “passing over” or “protection.”  God had promised that the Angel of Death would “pass over” the people who had put the blood of the lamb over the door posts of their homes.  The time of the year was right in line with the same clock that God had given men from the beginning.  It was the season of Passover when God told Moses to tell the Israelite people that He would bring them out of the bondage of slavery to the Egyptians.  

God was officially calling His people out and stating that He would lead them to the promised land, the land that He had promised to the seed of Abraham in a covenant long ago.  This was a land that would be known as the land of the people of God.  These people of God were the ones from which would come the promised Messiah.  It was a time of new beginnings for Israel.  They were leaving an old life and entering a new life.

  

After the Exodus, during temple times, people came up to Jerusalem every year singing joyous songs, bringing their lambs to the temple for sacrifice.  A sign hung around each lamb naming the family that brought them.  

Sometimes there were 3 million lambs offered up for the sins of the people in Jerusalem in one 24 hour period of time.  The priests blew the trumpet when the lambs were slain and they caught the blood of the lambs in a special silver or gold bowl.  Hymns were sung as this happened and the priest carried the bowls to the altar.  The service ended with incense on the altar after the lambs had been roasted on a special pole made specifically of pomegranate wood. 

The lambs were eaten at a special meal.  Anything that was not eaten was burned up with fire until none remained.  Unleavened bread and herbs were served with the lamb as well as red wine and water.  The people always remembered how God led them through the wilderness out of slavery into a new promised land where they lived in freedom and luxury.

By the time Jesus walked the earth this offering had been a required offering for many years.  He too went up for the Passover every year with his family.  Every Jewish male was expected to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the Passover.   It became a week long festival.  It was a time to repent, to  give the offering for atonement, to cleanse your house of all leaven (sin) then celebrate the harvest with an offering of the first fruits of your crops. 

The offering of the lamb was made on Passover.  The first fruits waive sheaf of barley was offered and waived before God in the first few days of unleavened bread which came to be known as The Day of the FirstFruits.   The people, who had put away sin and cleaned their homes of anything ungodly came up and celebrated the first fruits of their crops with Thanksgiving before God. 

The disciples of Jesus also kept the Passover.  They celebrated The Passover with Christ just before He was crucified.  Having celebrated this set-aside sacred time all of their lives, and understanding the history of their people, they realized when Jesus died for them that He had become their true Passover.  His resurrection on the third day, the day of Early First Fruits was positive proof to them that He was Messiah.  He was the perfect lamb of God offered up for the sins of mankind. 

Even after Jesus once more ascended to heaven; the disciples remembered that Jesus had commanded them to “remember Him” with this special Passover meal every year.  The Messiah is remembered weekly in The Holy Eucharist celebrated on The Sabbath and remembered annually with the great ritual and symbolism that tells the whole extensive story at Passover.  

The disciples continued year after year to remember the Passover, Unleavened Bread and Early First Fruits.  Each generation taught their sons and daughters, and the Church now understands the offering of Christ was fulfilled by keeping the Passover.  Now we do this to remember that He was once The Suffering Servant, but now is The Resurrected Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He will come again for His people.  He has commanded us to remember the story.  

We retell the whole story each year with The Passover.  The symbols and the whole eight days teach our children how to live in the truth of The Messiah. 

 With the season of Passover every year we learn and grow in God's grace as we celebrate all He has done for us.  We remember His resurrection on the day of Early First Fruits and we look forward to our own resurrection day when we will be with Him forever.

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 115 LISTENING TO THE BURNING BUSH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law while living in Midian. 

One day Moses took the flock over to the far side of the wilderness, to a mountain named Horeb, the place scriptures call “The Mountain of God.”

While Moses was there on the mountain The Angel of The LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.  The bush was clearly on fire; but it never burned up.  Moses moved closer, very curious as to why this strange bush never burned up.

As Moses stepped closer and closer; the LORD saw that Moses was approaching and he called out to him; “Moses!  Moses!”

As we have mentioned before, when God calls your name two times in a row, you better pay attention!  The only correct answer is the very one that came out of Moses mouth at the time:  “Here I am.” 

God told Moses not to come any closer.  He instructed him to take off his sandals, because the place where he was standing was holy ground.  Then God said:  “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

Up until this point, Moses had only known Egypt and life in the palace, then his present life as a shepherd in Midian.  He did not know much about his original heritage at all, except that he had learned he was a Hebrew raised as an Egyptian.  After finding this out he had run away. 

Now God himself had come down to speak to him about his heritage! 

Moses could not escape his own reality.  

God is telling Moses that He is the God of his father and their fathers! It is pretty clear that God wasn’t referring to Pharaoh.   God gives Moses a brief history lesson by mentioning the family linage; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Not only had Moses run away from his problems in Egypt, he had also ran away from who he really was; an Israelite.  God was forcing Moses to face his heritage head-on.  There was no running away this time.

Moses was one of God's people.  Are you running away from being one of God's people too?  You can't run and you can't hide.  If you belong to God he will find you.  He will find you in a palace or in a tent.  He will find you in a garden or in a desert.  If you belong to God; He is not going to let you forget.  Just ask Moses!     

When Moses heard these words from God he hid his face because he was afraid.  He was afraid to look at God, and he was afraid to face who he really was. 

God continued to speak to Moses: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

There is so much information to retain from that one little paragraph where God spoke to Moses! 

Can you imagine how it felt to see a bush that did not burn up, and then to hear the voice of God coming from it? 

What did it feel like to Moses to be standing on holy ground and to be hearing the voice of God speaking to him?

To me, the most striking words spoken by God were “So I have come down…”  God had come down to earth because he had heard the Israelites praying over and over again, begging for relief from their misery. 

Have you ever prayed this way?  

What if you were praying in one of THOSE moments and you physically KNEW when God came down to help you?  Not an angel, not a spirit; but GOD, HIMSELF (IN PERSON) gave up His time in heaven to look down on a nation of poor pitiful people who were praying during the time of their suffering. 

Well, it actually isn’t that rare!  It really isn’t that strange when you think about it for a long time.  God does this all the time.  We just don’t see the physical evidence of it; like Moses did here.  If we did; we would probably be like Moses and hide our faces in fear, afraid of what was about to happen next; afraid to SEE God in person. 

If you actually saw God with your own eyes, like was possible with Moses in this story, you would never again have any argument for the existence of God.  You would know without a doubt that God was real.  There would be no denying it; and that would mean you might have to listen, obey and follow His instructions.  No pressure at all....; I think Moses was in one of THOSE moments here. 

He had NO choice but to obey.  It was God speaking! 

Had God already looked down and noticed that Moses had great compassion on the Hebrews? 

People always marvel at how God chose Moses, but don’t you think God knew that Moses had a passion for these people and their suffering?  

Don’t you think God was looking over the fence when Moses went out from the comfort of Pharaoh’s palace to see how the people of his true heritage were getting along in Egypt?  

Do you think God took notice when Moses cared enough about their welfare to risk his own life to defend his fellow Israelite? 

God KNEW the heart of Moses.  God KNOWS the heart of all of his children.

I think God had been watching Moses from the moment of his birth, guiding that little basket through the bulrushes and placing him strategically in the places where he could fulfill his God-planned and God given destiny.  Now it was time for Moses to learn more of that destiny; straight from the horse’s mouth.  God didn’t send a messenger, He came in person. 

The next words God had to say to Moses were pretty plain:  

GO!!!

How many people had heard God say “go” before Moses?  Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now we come to Moses.  Moses more than likely knew about those guys from the things that his birth mother had taught him when he was very young during the time she tended to him for Pharaoh’s daughter. 

Moses knew when God said “go” He wasn’t being casual.  He meant it. 

God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.  He was asking Moses to go right back to the very things he had run away from.  Moses must have considered how dangerous that would be.  He gave God an answer that stalled for time.

“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

God didn’t answer Moses by telling him how equipped he was and how his whole life had been a preparation for this moment.  God simply said “I will be with you!”   How many times have those called by God had to learn that he doesn't call the equipped, but He equips the called?  Moses was no different than any other man in this respect.  God said He would go with Moses!

 That in itself should have been enough! Dayenu!  If God is for us, who can stand against us? 

God did give Moses some more information for assurance though.  He told Moses He would give him a sign that He had sent him.  God said “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”  

It is odd to some people that God speaks of himself in the third person here, but it is simply proof that The Angel of The LORD was once again a Christophany; or the appearance of Jesus in another form, before the Incarnation when He came as Savior of the world.  Jesus could speak of himself as God both then and now, because the Father and the Son are One.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had seen this pre-incarnate form of Christ too.  Now Moses had seen Him. 

Jesus was saying to Moses, when you have done what God instructed, you will come here to this place again and worship on this mountain. 

So Moses finally begins to think in terms of what he must do.  He knew if he had questions, this was definitely the time to be asking them!  

So Moses said to God:  “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them “The God of your Fathers has sent me to you.”  What if they ask me; “What is His name?”  What shall I tell them?”

God’s answer was “I AM THAT I AM. 

This is what you are to say to the Israelites:  “I AM has sent me to you.” 

Then God added a second part to that statement.  He told Moses to say “The LORD, The God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you.  This is My name forever, the name you shall call Me from generation to generation.”

So God repeated it all to Moses again, probably so he would not forget all the details:  

“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – appeared to me and said:  I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.  And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – a land flowing with milk and honey.  The elders of Israel will listen to you.  Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us.  Let us take a three day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.  But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.  So, I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them.  After that, he will let you go.  And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty handed.  Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters.  And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

WRITER'S SAMPLES: THE SUKKAH STORY (PART ONE) ABRAHAM'S SUKKAH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

            Long ago, even long before your great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents were born, Abraham built a sukkah.

            It was near a tamarisk tree and a well of fresh spring water. It was positioned in an area of Canaan near the road where the caravans of merchants and traders traveled back and forth to the large cities to sell their goods at the markets.

            Abraham would sit in the shade of his sukkah and welcome these guests to the land as they rode by.  He would invite them to come inside his sukkah and have a meal with him. He would tell them the stories of God. 

            Abraham believed there was only One God; the God of Heaven and Earth, Our Creator.  Abraham worshiped no other gods such as the pagans around him did.  He wanted everyone to know about The One True God, so he would welcome everyone and tell them God’s stories at his table in his sukkah.

            Sometimes, during the days of Awe, before he sat in his sukkah, Abraham would go down by the sea.  He would sit on the shore and look at the sand and the waves rushing in.  Abraham would find himself in complete awe of the things God had created.  They were indeed wonderful!  Abraham would give thanks to God as he sat by the sea shore.

            One day while Abraham was sitting near the ocean in awe, God make him a promise. God told Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the sands of the sea.  Abraham knew that the sands of the sea were so many that it would be impossible to count them!  Abraham thanked God for this promise, even though as of yet, he did not even have one son with his wife Sarah.  Abraham still believed the things that God promised and he looked forward to the blessings that were to come.

            Back at home near the road that the merchants traveled, Abraham sat in his sukkah again.  On many cool clear nights Abraham looked up through the covering of his sukkah’s roof to see the stars in the sky twinkling back at him.  They were so bright and so beautiful that Abraham just had to praise God for creating them!

            When Abraham worshiped God and praised Him as he sat in his sukkah, God made Abraham another wonderful promise.  God told Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky.  Abraham knew he could never count the number of stars in the sky, and that would be a great miracle! As of yet, Abraham and Sarah had no children.  They were old!  Still; Abraham had faith in God and he believed God’s promises and he looked forward to the blessings of the future.

            As the people traveled to and fro on the main trade route of the country, Abraham would invite these strangers into his sukkah.  Abraham would prepare feasts for his guests.  A feast is not just an ordinary meal, but a feast is a very festive meal with a purpose behind it.  Abraham’s purpose was to tell the stories of God to the people in the land.  Abraham and his wife Sarah were known for their gifts of welcome and hospitality to all the people of all the lands.

            You would be amazed at the guests that Abraham entertained under the roof of his sukkah!

Red, yellow, black or white, skin color did not matter to Father Abraham.  If you were rich or poor or in-between; you were invited to Abraham’s sukkah for a festive meal.  The only requirement was that you had ears.  Ears are for listening and Abraham liked to tell the stories of God to each of his guests.

            One day The Angel of The Lord (who was really Jesus in another form long before He came to earth as a man) and two other angels came to visit in the sukkah of Abraham.  They were passing through the land when Abraham spotted them in the distance.  He ran to them and invited them into his sukkah for a festive meal.

            The three were on a mission from God.  Part of their mission was to deliver a message to Abraham, but Abraham did not know this.  Abraham was so honored to have someone from The One True God that he worshiped sitting in his sukkah and gathering around his very table!  Abraham had Sarah to cook an elaborate and very special feast for them.  Abraham brought his very best offerings.  They shared a festive meal full of some serious talk but also some laughter.

            After the meal they shared a glass of wine together.  Sarah was waiting inside the tent where she and Abraham lived, tending to some of the things she would bring out for dessert, and she could hear their voices carrying on the wind as they spoke inside the sukkah.  Sarah heard The Angel of The Lord tell Abraham that a son would be born to them.  Sarah could not help but laugh out loud because she was very old and past the age of having children.

            So when Isaac, the son of Sarah and Abraham was born in their old age; it was a great miracle and Abraham and Sarah remembered the words that were told to Abraham as their special guests dined with them under the roof of their sukkah.  Sarah remembered her laughing and so they named him Isaac, which means “laughter.”

            Abraham had faith to believe the things that God promised and he looked forward to the blessings to come.  (The rest of this story series, (there are eight stories in this series, one for every day of The Feast of Tabernacles) is available, just send an e-mail to wordcastlepublications@gmail.com.  The Keeper of the Castle will be happy to help you.) 

STORY SAMPLES: EVERY TONGUE, TRIBE AND NATION

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The descendants of the three sons of Noah settled in the Plains of Shinar.  They decided to build a great tower.  They wanted a tower that would be a beacon they could see from miles and miles away.  If they got lost, they could look up and see the tower and walk towards it to find their way home again.  If they needed to tell someone how to find them they could say “just follow the tower and you will find me.”  It all started out so simple, so uncomplicated.  They all spoke the same language and they all understood each other and worked together to get the tower built. Everything was all together before everything began to fall apart.

They kept making the tower taller.  They were never satisfied that it was great enough.  At first they reasoned by thinking the taller the tower, the closer they would be to God.  Soon that thought was over and they began to concentrate on how great and awesome the tower was.  As the tower got taller and taller the people began to be prouder and prouder of their work.  They all thought the success of the building was due to their own individual participation.  They all began to think they had special unique abilities to have built a tower as special as this one. 

The tower kept getting closer and closer to God, but the people kept forgetting about God and remembering how talented they were for building the tower.  Each group thought their part of the building was the very best part.  They began to speak about their work in their own ways, each group speaking more and more different from the others as the tower kept growing taller and taller.  Soon their work was all about building the tower.  No one gave another thought to getting closer to God.  It was just about the tower now.  It was just about how wonderful the people building the tower were.  

One man, a descendant of Ham named Nimrod, thought he was the most special of all the builders.  He was strong and powerful and he thought he could do anything.   He proclaimed that he was the greatest leader on earth and had a large group of people following him as he named himself their king.  He wanted the tower to speak of him and spread his fame all across the land.  He wanted to be known for being the great tower builder.  He pondered how he would use the tower as a symbol to bring the world together under his leadership.  He loved the control that the thought of the tower gave to him. Others working on the tower seemed to have the same idea, only they wanted the tower to stand for their works. 

The tower soon became nothing about God at all, but only about the pride of mankind.

One day while the tower was being increased they heard a horrible sound.  It got louder and louder.  Soon the loud noise replaced all of their talking.  They had all begun to babble.  Their languages made no sense at all.  They no longer could understand each other.  Everyone was babbling.  There was great confusion.   

The one language of the people of the earth that helped them to work in unison and harmony became shattered and broken into many different pieces.  Each piece was beautiful, yet each piece was broken.  Nothing could come back together again.
   

The people lost the hope of getting closer to God with the tower.  They soon left their work and divided into small groups without ever finishing their tasks.  Soon the tower fell down from neglect and lack of care.  Instead of a beacon it became known as the Tower of Babel.  Instead of becoming a symbol of comfort and hope what was left of the tower soon became a symbol of despair and decay, confusion and chaos.  The once lovely tower turned into a pile of rubbish.  Eventually it all turned to dust and blew away.  Not one piece of the tower remained in place.

Thousands of years passed by and the tower was forgotten.  

A man called Jesus came to live on the earth. 

He did not try to be the greatest.

He was very humble and kind.  

He did not demand that people follow him, but many different types of people loved him and followed him anyway.  He did not claim to be a great leader, and he only considered himself a servant. 

One day he died on a cross.

As he was dying they heard him pray; “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

His followers were very sad until they realized he was alive again!

In just three days they learned that He had risen from the dead!

They were full of joy and they walked with him to a mountain called Olivet and they saw him go up in the sky into heaven where God was.  He went up higher than any tower that could ever be built by men.  He was so close to God and they realized He was a part of God.

Those who followed him were amazed.  They were glad and they thanked God for having sent Him.  God sent them a gift to comfort them because they missed Jesus so much.

One day these followers of Jesus went to Jerusalem because Jesus had asked them to do so before he went to heaven to be with God.  The city was busy celebrating a great day of thanksgiving.  People had come from many different countries for the celebration.  They all spoke many different languages.

     

Suddenly these disciples heard a loud sound, like a mighty rushing wind.  It was God’s gift; The Holy Spirit.  They became so full of power that they seemed to be on fire.  Their tongues burned in their mouths.  They went out on the streets that were filled with the people from many different nations.  

   

No one expected to understand the disciples since they spoke different languages, but they

looked upon them and knew that they had come very close to God and God had come very close to them in a whole new way than He ever had before.  God had given them the promised gift of The Holy Spirit.  Jesus had made it possible for them.

   

Suddenly it no longer mattered that they all spoke different languages.  They all understood one another.

Each person heard in their own language.  

Each one understood what the other was saying, though they never had before.

The disciples began to speak to the people in the streets about Jesus.  They spoke of how He had died for the sins of all; how He had been buried; and how He rose from the dead.  Everyone heard the story in their own language and they asked, “So what should we do?”

Peter stood up and told them they should repent of their sins and believe in Jesus and be baptized.  Many people believed the messages about Jesus and they received The Holy Spirit too. 

And that was how God united (through Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit) what sin had scattered and broken.  

It was at the miracle of Pentecost where all the beautiful broken languages that had kept people divided for so many years united and came back together again because of Jesus Christ the Messiah and God's Holy Spirit.

  

The broken picture of the people of every tribe, language and nation that fell apart at the Tower at Babel became a pure new painting of every tongue, tribe and nation united under God.

What started the prophetic Table of Nations in Genesis (the first bookend of time) will end in Revelation (the last bookend of time.)  

What sin has scattered from the beginning of time will one day unite in one glorious song to The Glory of God.  

In the end God will reverse all the effects of evil and turn it to good.

In Genesis we read of Adam and Eve, in Revelation we hear of Christ and his Bride.  Those of mankind who at first were cast out because of sin have been covered by the garment of Christ and in the end will be invited back in to participate in The Marriage Supper of The Lamb. 

In Genesis Satan came to deceive mankind.  In Revelation we learn that God will bind Satan and allow him to deceive mankind no more. 

In Genesis men were only given dominion over the earth.  In the Revelation it is revealed that man will reign with Christ over Heaven and earth and the whole universe forever.

God’s glory will once again return to the earth when Christ returns and walks through the East Gate of Jerusalem.  He will forever be with His people; those who have repented, believed and received the precious gift of The Holy Spirit.  

Who would have thought that all of this has been planned by God from The Foundation of The Earth for the 70 nations who descended from the three sons of Noah?  This is yet another of the surprises of the miracles that came from Pentecost!

Do you have a Tower of Babel in your life? 

The curse of it can be reversed and you can live under the blessings of God again.  Do not wait for a thousand years.  Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ.  He died for you.   Reach up and receive God’s Holy Spirit.  Your life will be forever changed.   Jesus died so you can experience the comfort and peace that passes all understanding.    

God has a gift for you. 

All you have to do is let go of your own plans and let God show you His. 

The Holy Spirit will be your guide.  

May the grace of Jesus Christ be with you always as you travel on and walk further and further into The Kingdom of Heaven.