Of all the three major pilgrim festivals, Shavuot (Pentecost) is unique. The word Shavuot actually means “Weeks.” Why is it called this? It is not because the festival lasts for many weeks! Rather, it is called the Feast of Weeks because of the way you find out when it is to be celebrated.

Unlike Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Weeks is dateless. In order to celebrate Shavuot you had to count “seven weeks” from “the day after the Sabbath” of the Passover, and the next day, the fiftieth day, would be Shavuot (Leviticus 23:15-16).


Israel was to count fifty days so that in order to celebrate Shavuot they would never forget Passover.  May it never be that Israel would reckon itself from the giving of the Law and not from the true foundation of their life as a nation at Passover. 

Remembering the Redemption
Passover is to be the foundation and head of the year (Exodus 12:2). It celebrates Israel’s redemption from bondage, and redemption is the foundation of our salvation. Thus the foundation of Israel’s redemption was provided only in Passover, not Shavuot. Every year as Israel counted the weeks from Passover to Pentecost they remembered that their redemption as a people was found in the lamb of Passover. Likewise, we are never to forget our Messiah who gave His life for us, and with that, the unspeakable riches of our new birth in Him. Like Israel’s redemption from bondage, our foundation of faith as believers in Messiah Yeshua is forever tied to Passover and our redemption in the Lamb of God.

We are not firstfruits to God just because we look to the Holy Spirit, but when we look to Yeshua as the true foundation for our spiritual lives. Through Him we are a firstfruits offering, for God’s use only (Romans 8:29).

Giving of the Law of Moses
For the traditional Jewish community, Shavuot was first celebrated around the time of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, about fifty days after leaving Egypt (Exodus 19:1). Therefore, Shavuot is called “The Season of the Giving of the Law.” It is also considered the spiritual birthday of Israel since the Torah brought twelve tribes together into one corporate people. From Shavuot’s fulfillment in Acts we can also call it, “The Season of the Giving of the Spirit” since the Holy Spirit makes all believers, from many tribes, into one family in Messiah.

Luke, the writer of the book of Acts depicts the events of Acts 2 as a second “Mount Sinai experience.” When the Law was given, there was fire and noise as God descended on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18-20). When the Spirit was given there was fire and noise as well (Acts 2:2-3). The rabbis comment in the Talmud that when the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, “Every single word that went forth from the Omnipotent was split up into seventy languages for the nations of the world” (1 Sotah 32a, 36a, Shabbat 88b).  When the Holy Spirit was given, men from every nation spoke in other languages as the Spirit enabled them: “Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:4-5).

This true fulfillment of Shavuot is also depicted in contrast to when the Torah was given at Mount Sinai. While the people waited for Moses to return back down from the mountain, an almost incredible chain of events began to transpire. Now, the Israelites had just witnessed the ten horrendous plagues upon Egypt, the opening of the Red Sea, and the supernatural revelation of God at Mt. Sinai. We had seen God work awesome wonders. In light of these events, the following verses are almost unbelievable:

“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron, and said to him,“Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:1-4)

Tired of waiting for Moses, the people sinned by committing idolatry with a golden calf. Moses did make his way back down the mountain, but by then the party was in full swing. Upon Moses’ arrival, God’s verdict upon their sin was read, and the party was over. Sadly, judgment came at the giving of the Law, revealing the disastrous consequences to the idolaters’ decisions:

Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day (Exodus 32:26-28).

Giving of the Holy Spirit
Lest we forget, sin has a terrible end: 3,000 people died at the giving of God’s righteous and holy  Law. What a difference when Shavuot was fulfilled and the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) was given. We read in Acts 2:41,

“So then, those who had received his word were immersed; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.”

When the Spirit was given there were 3,000 people redeemed and made spiritually alive in Messiah. The law reveals sin that condemns us, but the Spirit reveals the Savior who saves us.  Happy Birthday, Body of Messiah!

Messianic congregations like those WMM plants are meant to testify to the Jewish community that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah. Thus, people find it curious that Messianic congregations tend to be composed of both Jewish and Gentile members. In fact, while at Hope of Israel Congregation the membership may be about 50/50, in many congregations, the Gentiles even outnumber the Jewish people! What’s going on here? Aren’t we meant to testify that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah?   
The truth is that all nations have always been part of the biblical and Jewish testimony to the Messiah of Israel. 

Rather than being some sort of problem, the reality of Gentiles believing in a Jewish Messiah helps to prove the validity of the Messianic witness.

Unusual Pentecost Offering
To understand this issue better, let’s look at a subtle and often untouched aspect of the feast of Pentecost. We read in Leviticus 23 that God required an unusual offering at Shavuot, “You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD.”
While the amount of flour (“two tenths of an ephah”) is mentioned for other Feast days (for example, for Passover in Leviticus 23:13), this issue of two loaves is something recorded only and distinctly on Shavuot.  So we ought to ask: why two loaves?

The number “two” became a consistent picture for witness in the Scriptures; namely, it took two witnesses for an acceptable court testimony (Deuteronomy 19:15).  This principle finds a variety of applications within the New Covenant. Congregations are not to allow an accusation to be made against an elder unless there are at least two witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19). Messiah sent out His disciples two at a time (Mark 6:7). There will be two witnesses against the anti-Messiah (Revelation 11:3-11). Also, in marriage there needs to be agreement between both spouses for prayer to be accepted by God (1 Peter 3:7). Without two witnesses, we have merely opinions.

What does this have to do with the two loaves?  Note that the offering of the loaves accompanied several other sacrifices, including a peace offering (Leviticus 23:19). This is crucial. When the Apostle Paul speaks to Gentiles at Ephesus, commenting on this offering: But now in Messiah Yeshua you who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. For He Himself is our peace, who made both into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall...so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace (Ephesians 2:13-15).

Messiah is our peace offering, to unite Jews and Gentiles; so these two are witnesses to the reality of that fellowship that is found in Messiah.  Since God desires to reach the whole world in the testimony of Messiah, there had to be two witnesses for the testimony to be credible. Faith in the God of Israel and the universe was never meant to be limited to one ethnicity. Therefore, God promised to save the Gentiles to join the testimony of the Jewish people, who were already a “witness” for the Lord (Isaiah 42:6-7; 43:10,12).

This is why when the Day of Pentecost had “fully come,” “both Jews and proselytes” are specifically mentioned as coming to faith at the same time (Acts 2:1,10). A “proselyte” refers to a Gentile seeking the God of Israel. Luke is describing the two-loaves testimony—the Body of Messiah. Our witness is a spiritual unity and not based on cultural uniformity, where ethnic identity is lost. This unity is a result of a gracious work of Messiah in reconciling man to God. Messianic congregations should value the membership of both Jews and Gentiles as part of the unique New Covenant witness.

But more importantly, all congregations should understand the two-fold witness, which means that churches also should seek for Jewish believers to be discipled to freely live out their own cultural distinctives as well. For we are One Body made of both groups, Jews and Gentiles, serving the God of Israel together. We are of God’s household, “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Often our heart’s concern for the Jewish people is, understandably, that individuals would see Yeshua through the prophets, like Isaiah 53. Yet, the more immediate Jewish concern has been to survive and thrive as a people—a value which is often summed up in the phrase Am Yisrael Chai (the people of Israel live).

The body of Messiah in general, and the Messianic congregation in particular, are established by God to represent to the world His faithfulness in Messiah, to “keep a people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:2). Congregations are called both to share in and speak to this divine concern, thus testifying of Messiah’s faithfulness to Israel. Believing communities identify with Israel.  The importance of the Jewish community’s visible existence is God’s faithfulness to His word. God started with one man, and said, “I will make of you a people” (Genesis 12:2). With Abraham and Sarah who were unable to naturally have a child, He produced a people as proof of His faithfulness and power. God’s testimony of faithfulness to His promise is seen in a community of Jewish people, not just in the individual Jewish believer. Therefore Yeshua said that “upon this rock” He would build a community that testifies of His faithfulness.

The credential that the Jewish Messiah has a sovereign impact on the nations for Israel’s good is vital to the Hebrew Scriptures and the rabbinical writings. The congregation’s testimony pictures a restored Israel with the Nations in the commonwealth of Israel:

God also said to him, "I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you.Genesis 35:11

Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. (Ephesians 2:12-13).

So also, the congregation is the Jewish olive tree through which both present tense Jews and Gentiles proclaim the Good News that in Messiah: God is faithful to Israel. May the people of Israel live in Yeshua the Messiah!

On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was born. God continues to build this nation through the regeneration of His people. The Lord is building Jerusalem, not only through political influence in the world, but more importantly, by bringing Jewish people to faith in their Messiah. Jeremiah 31:3 states, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

These words could be one of the most profound statements in the Bible, since for God, love is a personal matter. The word for “loved” in Hebrew is ahav, which means a deep desire from the heart of God. Does God still personally care about the welfare of the Jewish people? Paul answers this question by saying that God’s hands are outstretched all day long to a rebellious and disobedient people (Romans 10:21).

God’s Unfailing Love
He continues to reach out and just can’t “take the hint.” Where are His hands today? They are your hands and my hands. As our hearts are yielded to His heart, then our hands reach out on His behalf. Yeshua wept over Jerusalem because of their lost spiritual state (Luke 19:41).  Today He is still weeping, for He personally loves and cares for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  This is hard for most people to understand, since in the human experience, everybody has a breaking point and eventually gives up. God’s love is unique. What we know in our everyday experience is one thing, but the “eternal,” by definition, is hidden from our experience.   The word “everlasting” in Hebrew is olam which comes from the root that means secret or hidden. That is why we have “a peace that surpasses comprehension” (Phil. 4:7).

This love of God is beyond our understanding. I have two sons and I would never even consider giving up one of them. But, “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). This is a love that goes beyond our experience or understanding. His love for us is based on His character. God is not only love, but He is also immutable. Therefore, His love will never cease. He loves you eternally, and He will never give up on you.

Witnesses of His Love
But how is God’s faithful and perpetual love revealed to Israel today? Through you as you continue to pray and reach out to the Jewish people. In fact, God has two witnesses to His faithful love today. Paul proves that God has not forsaken His people through the witness of Jewish believers who have a present tense Jewish testimony (Rom. 11:1-6). Additionally, Paul shows God’s faithfulness through the witness of the Gentile believers, for they are specifically called to make Israel jealous by ministering His mercy to them (Rom. 11:11-31). As Messiah’s perpetual love constrains our hearts, we too, will reveal His faithful love to Israel (2 Cor. 5:14). His call upon Israel is as sure as His faithfulness to His word. It is His faithfulness that is on the line. Both Jewish and Gentile believers are necessary to be a living demonstration to the Jewish community of the eternal love of God that will never give up on them.

Family Loyalty Counts
God’s love can powerfully change our lives! God continues to draw us to Himself with His lovingkindness, which is chesed in the Hebrew. Chesed is a word that speaks of a relationship commitment to one another, a covenant love and kindness.
It is what one would expect to receive when in covenant with another. This word chesed has the same root that is used for a stork, chasidah. The stork is known as a self-sacrificing bird and is so called for being kind and affectionate to its young. Chesed (lovingkindness), or loyal love, teaches that family counts.

Therefore, we are to care for our family members. God sees Israel as His family, even as the father of a prodigal or a runaway child—the father forever seeks the runaway’s return. As Psalm 89:28 reiterates, “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall be confirmed to him.”  During Yeshua’s earthly ministry, He proved His faithfulness and loyal love to His Jewish family. His credentials as the Jewish Messiah were demonstrated in His priority to save His people from sin, which was evidenced when He initially sent His disciples to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6).  Since God cut the covenant with Abraham and his descendents, we can understand Yeshua’s reticence in ministering to non-Jews, for they were outside of the Abrahamic Covenant (Matthew 15:26)
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In general, God made all redemptive covenants with Israel. However, the promise of the Seed was extended to all families of the earth. Through faith in Messiah, all can receive the spiritual blessings and benefits of the covenant that God has made exclusively with Jewish people (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:12). And all who believe in Yeshua receive His grace (chesed) and are grafted into His olive tree.

Drawn by the Beloved
Likewise, God through this covenant relationship is faithfully drawing each one of us to Himself, continuing His lovingkindness toward us, never letting us go. Why? Because His character is love, He therefore has the constant conduct of love (1 John 4:8). He loves us personally, perpetually, and powerfully. I have often thought how glad I am that it says He will “draw me,” not “drive me,” to Himself. He draws me as a beloved and does not drive me as a master. Israel needs the Beloved. He doesn’t draw us with better laws, but with greater love. What’s going to get me all the way to heaven? His love, which will never give up or fail me. What will bring national Israel back to God? Israel will be drawn back by God’s powerful love, even through us, as we yield our hearts to Him. God’s Word never returns void. As He made His covenant with Israel born out of love, by the same love He will keep and sustain Israel. He loves His people with the most zealous love as He says in Zechariah 2:8, “For thus says the LORD of hosts, “... he who touches you [Israel], touches the apple of His eye.”

Likewise, all our relationships work best when we relate God’s way, which is through love and mercy. Through our testimony of God’s great love, He will continue to draw many into His covenant relationship. Even now, God’s hands are outstretched all day long to His people. Therefore, let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that Israel will recognize her Beloved Messiah (Psalm 122). (Adapted from the book Messianic Foundations).

You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. (Leviticus 23:15-17)

Of all the three major pilgrim festivals, Shavuot is unique. “Shavuot” actually means “Weeks.” Why is it called this? It is not because the festival lasts for many weeks! Rather, it is called the Feast of Weeks because of the way you find out when it is to be celebrated. Unlike Passover and The Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Weeks is dateless.

In order to celebrate Shavuot, you had to count “seven weeks” from “the day after the Sabbath” of the Passover, and the next day, the fiftieth day, would be Shavuot (Leviticus 23:15-16).

Why don’t the Scriptures just give the date? In this fast-paced, “day-timer”-controlled world we live in, we would have been inclined to say to Moses, “Forget counting fifty days, and just give me the date and I’ll show up and worship!” No, you had to count fifty days regardless of how busy your schedule might be. Why?

In the same way, can you imagine if your mother never told you your birthday? Rather, suppose she told you to celebrate it fifty days after the anniversary of your Uncle Murray’s death. When you are very young, this might be okay, but in high school, it would be embarrassing not to know the date of your birth. “Hey Joel, when’s your birthday?” “Well, it’s fifty days after the day my Uncle Murray died.” You would eventually run home, insisting on knowing the date of your birthday. Mom would reply, “It’s fifty days after your uncle Murray died.”

“But, Mom why do I have to count fifty days from Uncle Murray’s death?”

“Because, your Uncle Murray left you his fortune and I never want you to forget your Uncle Murray!”

Israel was to count fifty days so that in order to celebrate Shavuot they would never forget Passover.

May it never be that Israel would reckon itself from the giving of the Law, and not from the true foundation of their life as a people at Passover. Shavuot is traditionally remembered as a time when God made Israel one people in the Law. Nevertheless, it was Passover when God redeemed us from bondage and destruction through the blood of the Lamb.

Passover is to be the foundation and head of the year (Exodus 12:2). It celebrates Israel’s redemption from bondage, and redemption is the foundation of our salvation. Thus the foundation of Israel’s redemption was provided only in Passover, not Shavuot. Every year as Israel counted the weeks from Passover to Pentecost they remembered that their redemption as a people was found in the lamb of Passover.

Likewise, we are never to forget our Messiah who gave His life for us, and with that, the unspeakable riches of our new birth in Him. Like Israel’s redemption from bondage, our foundation of faith as believers in Messiah Yeshua is forever tied to Passover and our redemption in the Lamb of God. We are not firstfruits to God just because we look to the Holy Spirit, but when we look to Yeshua as the true foundation for our spiritual lives. Through Him we are a firstfruits offering, for God’s use only.

Every Shavuot, believers are to remember Passover and the Passover Lamb, Yeshua. Though Pentecost is the ‘birthday celebration’ of the Body of Messiah when the Holy Spirit came, we are never to look to the Holy Spirit as the foundation of our faith either individually or as a body of believers. No matter how big or small our congregations may be, we are not secure in congregational size, wealth, or prestige. Our security is experienced only when we look to Yeshua as our foundation of faith. Our confidence is in the Lord and in Him alone. The Passover redemption of the believers reminds us each year that despite all that the world, the flesh and the devil may throw at us, we are secure in Messiah.

Passover was meant to be like the foundation of a house in a storm:

Yeshua said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

How strong is your foundation? Do you trust in someone or something besides the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5)? If you are trusting in anything or anyone else, stop! Place your faith in His eternal atonement for your sins and receive new life in Yeshua, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Evil exists because of our free choice, which includes the freedom to love or rebel against God, but anti-Semitism is a special kind of evil.  The Scriptures are clear regarding the basis for anti-Semitism: spiritual warfare. The Scriptures inform us that there is an enemy of God, HaSatan (Hebrew for "the adversary"). The Adversary is working to defeat and dethrone God (Isaiah 14:12-14), as impotent, futile, and laughable such a task may seem.

God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). The Adversary’s plan is to prove God wrong by nullifying God’s promises made to the Jewish people through the Jewish Messiah. God has promised that the Jewish people would always survive as a people (Jeremiah 31:35-37), and would also be the conduit of the Messiah, the savior of the world.

The Enemy’s Strategy: Satan is trying to remove the Jews as a people, and his strategy is two-fold:

1. Stop the Jews from living! The Psalms describe this most obvious strategy:

"Your foes rear their heads.... They plot against those You cherish ."Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel will be remembered no more" (Psalm 83:1-5).

Simply put: if you destroy the Jews then you can prove God is a liar. For if God can’t keep His people as He promised, then no one can trust any of His promises. Additionally, if Satan can destroy Israel as a people, he proves himself to be greater than God!

Anti-Semitism is anti-God. This accounts for the Pharaohs, Hamans, Herods and Hitlers throughout the centuries. That they are tools of Satan in no way excuses their culpability: we all are responsible for our actions, regardless of who or what influences us in those actions.

2. Stop the Jews from living as Jews! The second, more subtle (though potentially just as effective) strategy is to make Jewish identity repugnant, or at least irrelevant, to Jewish people themselves. In this way, Jewish people would not want to remain Jewish, and Israel would cease to be an identifiable nation before God. In the book of Esther, we read of Mordecai’s bad advice, followed by Esther: "Don’t reveal you’re a Jew" (Esther 2:10). Only when she abandoned that bad advice and revealed her Jewish identity was catastrophe averted.

This same bad advice has been relived by many of our people in every generation; in an attempt to fit into the Hellenistic culture of early second century BCE, some Jews actually had their circumcision surgically reversed! Even today, being Jewish is often so poorly understood that many make no attempt to maintain their heritage.

The shame of it all is that there are some Jewish believers in Yeshua* who do not maintain their Jewish identity. In some cases they didn’t value their Jewishness before they came to faith in Yeshua. For others, it’s because they are told that as followers of Yeshua they are no longer Jews. In any case, by not identifying as Jews they play right into Satan’s plan: to stop the Jewish people from existing as an identifiable people. In so doing, we not only make our faith repulsive to the general Jewish community, we work against the very testimony of God’s faithfulness to the recognizable existence of the Jewish people (Jeremiah 31:36)!

Though he was an apostle to the Gentiles, Paul understood what was at stake: the very faithfulness of God. Would the Good News of Yeshua that Paul proclaimed to Gentiles mean that God had rejected His people? His answer: "By no means! For I am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God will not reject his people He foreknew" (Romans 11:1-2).

Every Jewish believer who states "I am an Israelite" or "I am a Jew" (Acts 22:3)—as opposed to "I was a Jew" or "I am a former Jew"—confirms that God keeps His people. God is faithful, and Yeshua is the hope of Israel, not its destroyer!

The Enemy’s Destroyer
Therefore for the sake of testifying of God’s faithfulness in light of this trenchant spiritual warfare, Jewish believers have a responsibility to maintain Jewish identity. In this responsibility we also have a liberty as to how we express our Jewishness, just as the larger Jewish community enjoys its liberty in the various expressions of Jewish identity. However, our lives must in some way declare "Am Yisrael Chai b’Yeshua HaMashiach - the People of Israel live in Yeshua the Messiah!"

God promised that the Redeemer of mankind and the Destroyer of Satan would be the Messiah of Israel (Gen. 3:15).

To prevent his own demise Satan would need to stop this Redeemer from coming and fulfilling His mission. We see how this dovetails with his previous ploy, since the Redeemer was promised to come through the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3; 22:18; 49:10; Isa.11:10; 49:5-7). On this point, it seems, Satan has failed, since Messiah has come. But if Satan failed, then why is there still anti-Semitism today after Messiah’s resurrection?

Am Yisrael Chai!
The survival of the Jewish people is the lynchpin of God’s future activity and victory, because the return of the Lord is tied to the repentance of Israel. Yeshua said to our people:

"You will not see me again until you say, Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai, ‘Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord’" (Matthew 23:39).

Just as David could not rule over all of Israel and remove the adversaries until the people accepted him as king (2 Samuel 5:1-5), Yeshua will not return to reign on the Davidic throne and remove the adversary, Satan, until the Jewish people acknowledge Him as King.

Peter reiterates this point when he proclaims to the Jewish people: "Repent and turn to God, that your sins might be wiped away, in order that the times of refreshing might come from the Lord, and that He might send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you - even Yeshua. He must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised…" (Acts 3:19-21).

The return of Yeshua will "restore everything" and bring "the times of refreshing." Messiah’s reign on earth is tied to the Jewish people "repenting and returning to God."

Therefore, Satan is desperately trying to avoid his own demise by preventing the return of Messiah. He is doing all he can do to destroy Israel and the Jewish people now; at the same time he is trying to make faith in Yeshua so alien and repugnant that no self-respecting Jew, let alone the nation, would ever desire to repent and turn to Yeshua!

Congregations of believers in Yeshua, Jewish or Gentile, who do not endeavor to bring the Good News to the Jewish people, play into this satanic plan to prevent Israel from recognizing their Messiah. Hence, not only must we remember the Holocaust and "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6), but believers should do all they can to bring the Good News of Messiah to the Jewish people around the world.

For followers of Yeshua, Passover not only reminds us of the Exodus story, but how redemption in the Lamb affects our lives now and even into eternity. In the Scriptures God progressively reveals this truth of the Lamb of redemption so we may grow into the image of the Son: the Lamb of God.

A Lamb for the Person
A lamb for sacrifice is first specifically mentioned in Scripture in Genesis 22. God commanded Abraham to offer his only son as a sacrifice. He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:2).

This trial went to the very core of Abraham’s being. Isaac was a miraculous gift from God to Abraham and Sarah. Moreover, Isaac was the child of promise through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed. If he sacrificed Isaac, what would happen to God’s plan? Rather than attempting to figure it all out, Abraham simply trusted and obeyed, and with confidence stated, “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you” (Genesis 22:5). He would return with the child!

Carrying the wood for the burnt offering up the mountain, Isaac was described by the rabbis “like a man carrying his cross” (Genesis Rabbah 56:3). He and Abraham went willingly to the place of sacrifice, confident that God would work out the details. At just the right time, God halted Abraham, and provided a sacrifice “in the place of his son Isaac” (Genesis 22:10-13).

Why did God require a sacrifice lamb for Isaac? Even though he was a good, obedient son, the requirement for sacrifice pointed to the truth that even the best of people need the Lamb. We often think of Messiah’s sacrifice as sufficient for the worst of people, but all have sinned (Romans 3:32). At the first reference of a lamb for sacrifice, we see that there is a lamb for the person.

A Lamb for the Family
When the first Passover took place during Israel’s exodus from Egypt the lamb was required. God told Moses that the blood of the lamb would be a sign for the “houses where you are” (Exodus 12:13). The lamb would insure the safety of each Israelite family:

They shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household is too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. (Exodus 12:3-4)

Please note that it says, “if the household is too little for the lamb.” The household may be too little for the lamb, but the lamb is always more than enough for the household! It is not your hard work, your income, or your sacrifice that will secure your family-- it is His sacrifice. Your family needs the Lamb of God, and thankfully there is more than enough for your family. Parents, the best service you can provide for your family is to share the Lamb of God with them. There is a Lamb for the family.

A Lamb for Israel
In the days of the prophets, Israel had become more than just families and tribes, but a nation. With greater size, comes greater sin. What would meet the needs of this people? Isaiah wrote that Messiah would be the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7), and the prophet recognized that even he and his people needed the Lamb. Isaiah 53:6-8 says:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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 her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth… He was cut off from the land of living for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Yeshua went willingly, “as a lamb led to the slaughter” to the place of sacrifice, “for the transgressions of my people.” There is not only a lamb for the person and the family, but there is a lamb for the people.

A Lamb for the World
As we move along with God into the New Covenant we begin to understand what this world needs: Messiah!
In politics and the media the ideal of peace is a frequent topic. In our world’s efforts to bring about peace, one factor is often overlooked: sin. This world does not possess the power or the wisdom to deal with the unrepentant evil that resides in human hearts. In the New Covenant we read, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). There is no wisdom for attaining peace without purity from sin, just as “wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable” (James 3:17).
God has provided what the whole world needs–forgiveness of sins by faith in Messiah– and one size fits all. The best fit for the greatest need of this world is the Lamb of God, and the best news we can share with the world is the Good News. There is a Lamb for the world.

A Lamb for Eternity
In the book of Revelation, John describes how he saw a “strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?’” John then tells us how he wept because no one was found worthy to open the book.

One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” (Revelation 5:5)

John turned and saw, not a lion, but a lamb, standing as though slain. He tells how he saw and heard all creation saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing… unto Him that sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:12).

We see here that there is a Lamb for eternity! What will secure your life forever? Is it that house, car, or career that you have invested your life in? I often tell the story of the Microsoft investor who was asked, “If you knew before what you know now, what would you have done differently then?” He answered, “I would have invested more; I would have invested everything!” Yes, those who are growing into maturity live out the eternal values of Heaven as they live their lives on earth.

God is committed to growing us into His love and life through concern for the individual, the family, the nation, the world and living with eternity in view. In eternity every tribe and nation will praise Him. Believers from all ages, Jew and Gentile, will be there. Will you be there? The Lord has provided Himself as the Lamb for eternity. Trust in the Lamb!

Adapted from the book  Messiah in the Feasts of Israel by Sam Nadler