“What you see,” he said, “is the olam. . . Everything you see is the olam, the universe, the creation. And this,” he said, lifting up the parchment, “is the Davar, the Word. The Davar and the olam, the Word and the world. Which seems greater, the Davar or the olam?”
“It would seem that the universe is greater,” I said, “the olam.”
“Yes, it seems so much bigger. And which seems more real and solid?”
“The olam,” I said again.
“Yes, it would seem to be so,” he said. “But it’s not.” Then, holding the parchment to the light, he began translating its words.
“It is written in the Psalms, ‘For He spoke, and it came into existence. He commanded, and it was established.’ And in the Book of Hebrews it is written, ‘The universe was formed at God’s command . . . ’ So which came first, the olam or the Davar, the world or the Word?”
“The Word came first,” I said, “then came the world.”
“Then which is greater, the world or the Word?”
“The Word would be greater.”
“Then which is more real and more solid?”
“The Word is more real.”
“Yes,” said the teacher. “The Word came first; the world came second. The Word was spoken, and the world followed. So the Word doesn’t follow the world. It is the world that follows the Word. And what does that mean for our lives?”
“We must not be led by the world, but by the Word.”
“Yes,” he said. “It means you are never to be led by the circumstances and events of your life. All that is part of the olam, and so is secondary. The olam, the world, changes and passes away. But the Davar, the Word, never changes or passes away. Be, therefore, led by the Word, even when it goes against everything you see around you—especially then. Stand on the Word, despite the world. For what He has spoken shall come to be in the universe and in your life—the Davar and then the olam. The Word is first . . . and only then, the world.”
The Mission: Choose the Word over the world, over your circumstances, your problems, and everything else. Let the Davar rule your olam.
Psalm 33:6–9; John 1:1–4; Hebrews 11:3
The Word
DAY 59
THE EXODUS FACTOR
WE WERE WALKING through a vast desert plain, spotted with small plants and shrubs and surrounded by mountains in every direction, far into the distance.
“I told you of the Ivrim,” said the teacher.
“The Hebrews,” I replied.
“Yes. Do you remember what Ivrim means, what Hebrew means in Hebrew?”
“The one who crosses over.”
“Yes, and what did the Hebrews cross over to get to the Promised Land?”
“The Red Sea and the Jordan River.”
“They crossed the Jordan River to enter into the land of Israel. But they crossed the Red Sea to get out of the land of Egypt. So before they could enter the new land, they had to leave the old land. As important as is the act of entering is the act of exiting. So you have an entire book of the Bible named after it, the Book of Exodus, which means the leaving or the exiting. Exiting is as holy as entering. You can’t have the one without the other.”
“You can’t enter unless you leave.”
“It’s a law of physical existence. It’s simple, but profound. Abraham is the first Hebrew, the first of the Ivrim. And what was the first thing he had to do?”
“Leave?”
“Yes. The first call of Abraham was ‘Get out of your country . . . and to a land I will show you.’ The first command was ‘Get out.’ The rest, all the blessings, all the promises of the Promised Land, and the future, all rested on the words ‘Get out.’ You see, getting out is a holy act. Messiah called His disciples to come with Him. But in order to do that, they had to first leave, drop their nets, get out of their boats, and leave their old way of life. If they didn’t leave, they couldn’t come. God calls us to come, to move, to follow, to pilgrim, and to enter into blessing. But we can’t know any of these things without first being willing to leave. There are many who long for change, for something better, something new. But few are willing to leave. But the law is not only of the physical realm, but of the spiritual. If you want to get to the place where you aren’t, you must first leave the place where you are. Leave the old, and you will enter the new. Cross the Red Sea out of your Egypt, and you will also cross the Jordan River into your promised land.”
The Mission: Where do you need to go? What promised land has God called you to enter? What must you first leave? Begin your exodus today.
Genesis 12:1–3; Exodus 12:51; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:22–24
The Secrets of Change & Breakthrough
DAY 60
THE SECRET OF YOMA
HE TOOK ME into what was known as the Chamber of Books, a massive room of towering bookcases filled with volumes of mostly old or ancient-looking books. Retrieving one of these from the shelves, a large reddish volume, he laid it on a wooden table, opened it up, and began to share.
“There were in the Temple of Jerusalem two major barriers separating God from man, the holy from the unholy. One was formed by two massive doors of gold—the doors of the hekhal, the holy place. These separated the holy place from the Temple courts. The other, deeper inside, was called the parochet, the colossal veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies and through which only the high priest could enter on the Day of Atonement. They were the representations of the barrier separating each of us from God, the chasm between the sinful and the most holy. But it is recorded in the New Testament that at the time of Messiah’s death, the parochet, the veil of the holy of holies, was torn in two. What would that have signified?”
“That the barrier between man and God was removed?”
“Exactly. But there was still a second barrier, the golden doors of the hekhal. Should not that barrier have been opened as well? Could there have been a second sign, a second witness? There was, and of the most powerful kind . . . an opposing witness. This is in Tractate Yoma 39,” he said, pointing to the open book, “from the writings of the rabbis, the Talmud. It contains a most amazing thing. The rabbis record that before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, a strange thing began to take place in the Temple. The second barrier, the golden doors of the hekhal, began to open by itself.”
“When?” I asked. “When did they start doing that?”
“The rabbis record that it began to happen about forty years before AD 70.”
“Then it comes to about the year AD 30!”
“Yes, and which just happens to be the same time that something else took place in Jerusalem, the Rabbi Yeshua, Jesus, died as the final atonement, to remove the barrier from man to God.”
“Has that ever happened in the history of faith where a hostile witness . . . ”
“So powerfully testifies to such a fact? Never. And the fact remains that rabbis themselves bear witness concerning the removal of the second barrier, and, thus, that at the time of Messiah’s death, that which was separating God from man . . . God from us . . . was removed . . . and that the way to His presence has been opened.”
The Mission: Even the rabbis bear witness, around AD 30 the way was opened. Use the power of Messiah today to open the doors that are closed.
Psalm 24:7–10; Matthew 27:50–51; Hebrews 6:19–20; 10:19–20
The Mystery of the Temple Doors
DAY 61
THE REVELATION LAND
JERUSALEM,” SAID THE teacher, “is built on Mount Moriah. Surrounding Jerusalem is the land of Moriah. It’s the land of the Holy City. So what exactly is the land of Moriah? What does it mean? Moriah comes from two Hebrew words. The first, ra’ah, means the seen, the visible, the shown, or the revealed. The other is Yah, the Name of God.”
“So Moriah,” I said, “means the revealed of God.”
“Moriah is the land of revelation, the place where God will reveal Himself. There are many who see God as a distant king, an
impersonal cosmic force, a capricious puppet master, or an angry judge wanting to bring judgment. But Moriah is the land where God is to be revealed, the invisible made visible. Therefore, that which appears in Moriah will be the true revelation of the true God. So what was it that was revealed in the land of Moriah? What was the revelation of God that was made visible in that land?”
“In the Temple?” I asked. “The Temple was in Jerusalem.”
“It was,” said the teacher, “but there was another manifestation, a revelation of God even more graphic and amazing than the Temple.”
“What was it?”
“It was in the land of Moriah that God appeared taking our sins and our judgment upon Himself. It was in the land of Moriah that God willingly gave His life, wearing a crown of thorns, being beaten mercilessly, scourged and bloodied because of us . . . It was in Moriah that God was mocked, ridiculed, beaten, stripped naked, pierced through, impaled, and raised up on a wooden execution stake. It was in Moriah that God hung on a cross, bleeding, suffocating, dying, agonizing, and breathing His last breath . . . and doing it all to save us from judgment . . . doing it all because of love. It was all in Moriah, the land of God revealed . . . God willingly hanging naked on an execution stake, bleeding and dying because of us. Who is God? God is love. God is total, unconditional, extreme, incomprehensible, self-sacrificing cosmic love for us . . . the greatest love we can or will ever know. That is the absolute and ultimate revelation of God that was manifested once and for all in Moriah, the land of the revelation of God.”
The Mission: Take in the revelation of Moriah personally—that if you were the only person in the world, He still would have given His life for you.
Psalm 122; Matthew 27:29–50; Romans 5:8
The Moriah Miracle
DAY 62
THE JONAH PARADOX
WE WERE OUTSIDE looking up at one of the buildings when we noticed a dove perched on one of the stones just under the roof.
“The word for dove in Hebrew is yonah,” he said, “as in the prophet Jonah . . . who did everything he could to reject God’s calling and yet unwillingly ended up fulfilling it, leading an entire godless city to salvation . . . and then ended up completely miserable over his success.”
“Why miserable?”
“Because Nineveh was filled with his enemies, and he knew that if he gave them God’s Word, they would repent, and God would have mercy on them. The word he gave them was this: ‘Forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’ Not a very encouraging message. In fact, there’s no hope in it. It’s a paradox. If Jonah refuses to give them the prophecy of judgment, then the judgment and the prophecy come true. But if he delivers the prophecy of judgment, then Nineveh could repent and the judgment and the prophecy fail to come true.”
“The opposite of a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“A self-nullifying prophecy. And therein lies the other paradox. God told Jonah to tell the people, ‘Forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’ But in forty days there was no judgment. Because the people of Nineveh believed the prophecy to be true, the prophecy became as if untrue. People have used the fact that the prophecy didn’t come true against God and His Word. What does it tell you?” he asked. “It tells you that man is more concerned over the fact that the warning didn’t come true than the fact that 120,000 people were saved because it didn’t. It tells you that it is not God who lacks mercy, but man. God would rather save the lost even if by doing so it would appear to void His Word . . . even if by doing so it would void His own life . . . as in His death. It is His love, His mercy, and His grace that bring about the impossible.”
“So in this case, the love of God caused the Word of God to not come true.”
“Or did it?” said the teacher. The prophecy was ‘Nineveh shall be overthrown.’ But the word overthrown is the Hebrew hafak. And hafak also means to be overturned, changed, and converted. And that’s how they were saved from judgment.”
“So the same word that signified judgment also signified repentance and salvation from judgment . . . a paradox of paradoxes.”
“A wonderful paradox,” said the teacher, “the paradox by which we are saved.”
The Mission: Today, let His mercy triumph over all judgment and condemnation. Let logic of judgment yield to the paradox of His love.
Jonah 3; 2 Peter 3:9
The Book of Jonah I–VII
DAY 63
IN HIS DEATHS
WE WERE IN the Chamber of Scrolls, examining again the scroll of Isaiah, the fifty-third chapter. He began reciting one of its passages.
“‘He made His grave with the wicked . . . and with a rich man in His death . . . ’ It’s describing the Suffering Servant, the Messiah who dies for our sins. His death will be linked to wicked men and to a rich man.”
“‘He made His grave with the wicked.’ So Messiah was crucified in the midst of criminals, among wicked men, and He was buried in the tomb of a rich man.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “and there’s even more . . . a mystery that you can only find in the original language. If you read almost any translation of Isaiah 53, it will say ‘in His death.’ But it doesn’t really say that. What it does say, in the original language, is so big, and so cosmic, it’s hard for any translator to do it justice.”
“And what does it say?”
“In the original Hebrew it says ‘in His deaths.’”
“What does that mean?”
“Remember, in Hebrew, when a word should be singular, but is rendered plural, it is often a sign that the reality behind the word is so unique, so intense, so extreme, or so colossal that the word alone cannot contain it.”
“So in other words, His death . . . ”
“In other words, the death of Messiah is such a unique reality, such an extreme reality, such an intense reality, and such a colossal reality that the word death cannot even begin to approach it. What happened in His death goes beyond anything we can express with our words or comprehend with our thoughts.”
“But plural can actually mean plural.”
“Yes. But it’s a singular combined with a plural. ‘In His death’ would make sense as would ‘in their deaths.’ But it doesn’t say either. It says ‘in His deaths.’ That breaks the rules. What is it revealing?”
“That Messiah would die not just His death, one death, but many deaths. He wouldn’t die for Himself but for all. His would be the one life that dies the death of all.”
“Yes,” said the teacher, “including yours. Your death, and the death of all who read the words of the prophecy . . . Every death is contained inside that plural word. It is the witness in black and white that your old life and the judgment thereof is finished . . . in His deaths.”
The Mission: One of the deaths in His deaths is the death of your old life. Give that which is old a eulogy and a burial. Be finished with it and be free.
Isaiah 53:9; Romans 5:18; 2 Corinthians 5:14–15
In His Deaths
DAY 64
THE TALMIDIM
IT WAS NIGHT. The teacher and I and several other students were sitting around the campfire.
“Messiah had twelve disciples,” he said. “They were with Him wherever He went and in everything He did. They assisted Him with ministry, traveled with Him, ate with Him, rested with Him at night, rose up with Him in the morning, and lived their lives with Him. Who were they?”
“People from all walks of life,” said one of the students.
“Yes, but who were the disciples?”
No one answered.
“You must remember,” he said. “Messiah was a rabbi. Every great rabbi had disciples. The twelve were not just disciples, but the disciples of a rabbi. They weren’t called the disciples. They were called the talmidim.”
“What does talmidim mean?” asked another student.
“It comes from the Hebrew root word lamad. Lamad is linked to teaching or learning. So the disciples were the taught ones, the learners.”
“L
ike us,” said another.
“Yes,” said the teacher. “But you must be His disciples. It must be Him who teaches you. And if you are a disciple, then what is your purpose?”
“To be a learner,” I said.
“Yes, your first calling is to be a learner. And you’re not learning on your own. No disciple learns on his own. You have a Rabbi. You have the Rabbi of rabbis. That means you have One who teaches you every day, every hour, and every moment. It means your life is not just a life, but a course. And it means you’re not to waste your time here.”
“Our time in the school?” asked another.
“Your time on earth,” said the teacher. “This life is your school. And Messiah is your teacher. And as it was for the disciples, so it will be for you . . . Every day He will teach you. Every day there will be lessons given you. Every circumstance will be a class. Every event will be a teaching tool, an illustration for the lesson. Do not fail to recognize them. Don’t miss your classes. Seek them. Let every day be a journey. Make it your joy to learn from the Master. For the world is your classroom . . . and Messiah is your Rabbi.”
The Mission: Start living today as a true disciple, a learner. Seek the Rabbi’s teaching. Listen to His voice and follow His instruction.
Matthew 4:18–22; Matthew 9:9; John 1:36–40
The Cosmic Rabbi
DAY 65
THE BIRTH TOMB
WE WALKED THROUGH a dry riverbed that wound around two mountains until we emerged in a small hidden valley. “Look,” said the teacher, as he pointed to the top of one of the mountains. “Do you see that?”
“What is it?” I asked.
The Book of Mysteries Page 10
