Brother Paul
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Also, it is Torah that every seventh year is a Sabbath year for the land, and the 1st year following the sabbath year (a 7th year), which is also an 8th year, is a time of renewal for the land, a year of liberation from works. It is the entrance into a new cycle, the 1st or 8th year following the Sabbath year being a year of much fruitfulness, and newness of life, and so on. A new birth if you will of provision, security, promise, etc.! Likewise, every 50th year, like Pentacost is in the counting of days, is the first year following seven sets of seven years. It is the Jubilee year, again a time of rejoicing, of new hope, a new beginning, restored inheritance, fulfillment of promise, and a celebration of liberation and reconciliation for the people of God. Some have even theorized a Grand Jubilee, when after a Sabbath Millennium, there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth, where fallen creation having been resurrected to newness of life, all of God’s children “in Messiah“, having fully realized their redemption, now knowing even as they are known, enter an eternity of reconciliation and restored Shalom with God and He with us. It will be a time of restored Righteousness, and a glorious eternal Shabbat.
Also it is after 7 days of separation by the shedding of blood during her menstruation, being counted as ceremonially unclean, the wife performs a personal immersion (baptidzo called tefillah in the Hebrew) into a mikvah (pool or bath of water), and only then is she counted as reconciled and restored, and counted by God as clean. This happens on the 8th day which is a 1st day following the observation of having fulfilled her 7 day ritual. I effect, it is a new 1st day where the intimacy of the marital relationship, their oneness and communion, is restored and renewed between the bride and her bridegroom (like our Baptism is a preparation and declaration with our Bridegroom, Christ).
So it was that a leper, a common scriptural typification of the sinners, who has been healed, is still counted as unclean 7 days, and then following the necessary sacrifices, i.e., the shedding of blood, etc., the cleansed leper now endures immersion in a mikvah, vis’ a vis’ a water Baptism, and only then, as a result of these things, a sacrifice on their behalf and an immersion representing the remission of his leprous condition, can he/she then be restored and reconciled into the community of faith. Thus it is the new beginning on the 8th day, celebrating deliverance from his leperousness, which for the leper is a new first day, a new birth wherein holiness and communion with God is restored. And is it not also likewise for us? While we were yet sinners Christ’s sacrifice was made on our behalf drawing us to the font of identification (the mikvah or bath) and remission is providedd from our spiritual leperousy into a newly restored communion where now God is truly “with us”!
Then we consider the case of the Nazarite (one who has made a vow to God). A Nazarite, who for whatever reason has been defiled, spends 7 days in preparation, followed by a cleansing in a mikvah (baptismal immersion). He/she then must offer the appropriate sacrifices (the shed blood), and then, and only then, on the 8th day (a new 1st day) the Nazarite resumes to re-enact his vow. He becomes a renewed person in his holy order. His sins are now forgiven. His anointing is made fresh. So it is on the 8th day, which is a new 1st day, that the Nazarite is considered finally and fully cleansed, consecrated anew, and is now once again reconciled to God and the community of faith. Oh, praise be to God, for the unfolding of His mysteries to-usward!
Similarly, the High priest, who on the 8th day, after seven days of separation, on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), enters the mikvah eight times, and changes his clothing eight times, donning eight pieces of clothing, sacrificing and sprinkling the blood, on the Mercy Seat, which is a place of "God with us", within the Holy of Holies, and once the blood of the sacrifice has been sprinkled, Israel's sins being temporarily atoned for, have their fellowship and personal relationship to the Lord renewed, and each is now liberated from their sin debt and begin a renewed walk in newness of life with God and their fellow man.
Later on in history, the Feast of Chanukah though not Scripturally instituted by the Holy Spirit, is likewise an 8 day feast!?! Coincidence? I think not! The 1rst day and the 8th day, which is the day following the 7 day of the celebration, are also days of resting in the Lord, and days of rejoicing and celebration over the resurrection of the Temple (Christ), the reinstitution of the Light (Christ), the place where the Lord had for centuries tabernacled “with“ His children and cleansed them (Christ), and over the restoration His word, and renewal of the Eternal Light of the Menorah, the Shamash candle, which symbolizes a type of the Shekinah and also Messiah, from which we all, symbolized by the daily candles, receive our light. Amen! For His children Israel having overcome their slave masters, this was an event of new beginning, a time of restoration, liberation, a time of cleansing, redemption, and deliverance from their bondage under the Syrian-Greeks. All of the Temple, all the instruments and implements, had to be cleansed with the waters of purification and water of the word of God in consecration, and the shed blood of sacrifice on their behalf was given It was a time of liberation from, the living death of their bondage, into an era of new freedom and renewed hope, with God. A new resurrected national life for all of Israel, as well as a restored and renewed relationship as the people of God with God Himself.
It is called to this day, the Feast of Lights, and Messiah is the Light that has been sent from heaven, who is the light of the world, and the true life of men, the Word of God, i.e., the Memra/Logos. It was a Feast that was observed by Messiah Y’shua Himself while He was "with us", and the scriptures indicate by calculating from the course of Abijah according to the Hebrew calendar, that Chanukah (the 25th of Kislev, November-December) is more likely the time of His conception-incarnation (not the time of His birth) into the womb of the virgin Mary, for it is written in Luke 1:26, that He was conceived six months after the conception of John the Baptist, whom we know was conceived around Passover (thus the Elijah connection), which means Messiah would have been born in the month of Tishri (or Tabernacles). It is also a time of sharing and giving out of joy and love and the dispensing of gifts (John 3:16)!
Now on the Chanukah Menorah there is first of all in number and importance, the symbol of Eternal Light, the Shamash, or Servant candle, representing the source of Light from which all the other eight candles, which represent the number of days of the Feast, and the people of God, derive their light! By the blessedness of the 1st candle, all 8 are counted as blessed. From this Light all other receive their light, the first one representing the first of eight days, and all others that follow, receive their most important provision. We Christians know and understand this as applying to us, that it is not by our own light that we can share His Light with the world around us, but rather because we all share in His Light, that we may impart light for the benefit of the many. If His Light could be reckoned to the Sun, we, the Church would be as the Moon, that which but reflects that source of light as a beacon through the dark periods of this world. Therefore the very Light of the Servant Candle at Chunukah (Isaiah 53), and the light of all others are echad (one)! Our light is His Light, and we likewise are called by Him, to be the light of the world. But the light which we are, is but an imperfect reflection of His Light, until His return when as it is written, we shall see Him 'face to face', and we shall be like Him (1 Corinthians 13). Therefore in this feast as well, the light kindled on the 1st day, and the light of the 8th day, which is representative of a new 1st day following a 7th day, are the Light of Messiah! We who are so filled with His Spirit are of that light.
Brother Paul
Posts: 235 | From: Cambridge, MA | Registered: Dec 2009
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