Following....and getting lost!

I've had the wonderful, yet challenging experience of going on 3 backpacking trips in my adult life...all over the age of 40! Talk about adventure! These backpacking trips were through Young Life, two in Colorado and one in British Columbia. On two of the trips, I was a volunteer leader, (not the backpacking guide!), along on the trip with a group of high school and college students. The trip in British Columbia was an opportunity for our family and friends to hike all together with Jessica serving as one of the guides.

I have great respect for those back packing guides on every level. Even though they may be nearly half my age, it requires stamina and knowledge about climbing, snow arrest, ropes and knot tying, minimalist no-trace living, and navigation, to name a few. The navigation maps are not the easiest to decipher.

On all three trips there were times we got lost. How lost and for how long varied. With no-trace backpacking, there isn't necessarily a well worn path, if one at all. On my very first trip in Colorado, we got really lost. We were still out in the dark, after taking the wrong turn, trying to snake our way back, hanging on to branches along a creek so we wouldn't fall into the water, in pitch blackness...with a 40 lb pack on your back. Yikes! But we finally made it to our campsite and Ramon noodles never tasted so good. What an adventure!

We can get off the track and loose our way scripturally (Biblically) as well, I am discovering. When the scriptures were written (or translated) into Greek , and then into English, sometimes words are translated or understood a bit differently than the original intent. This mainly has to do with the difference between a Greek vs a Hebrew mindset. (Hebrews wrote the scriptures) One of the many differences between the two is a linear vs cyclical thinking process. Greek (and we in the West) think more linear. We tend to view things in the past, present and future as a time line  and where we are located on that line. Hebrew thinking is cyclical, repeating as seen in nature in terms of the seasons, growing and harvesting, day and night, new moons to full moons, etc.

For example, when I think of the word "paths" such as in Psalm 23...."you lead me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake...", as a Westerner, with Greek-like thinking, I view it as a path leading out to the horizon somewhere, or a destination, like our lost campsite we were desperate to find in  the dark! So here I am wanting to follow Yeshua (Jesus). With a Greek understanding of him leading me and of "paths" I interpret that to mean he's out there in front of me, like my backpacking guide, and we are on a path that I can't see very well and I'm not sure where it's going...except at the end is eternal life. It seems vague sometimes.

In Psalm 23 the word "paths" in Hebrew means, "to make a cycle", and you do it so often and consistently that you make a groove in the dirt. Another idea entirely.  So how does Yeshua lead me in paths of righteousness? What are the cycles he is showing me to repeat? What cycles did He repeat?

When I look at the scriptures through a Hebrew lens, I find out that follow means to "be in the same way with, accompany, unified" and comes from a root word meaning"to hear"(and then) "do". If He is leading me in paths of righteousness, put all together,  I am walking in unity, side by side with Yeshua (we are yoked together). I hear what He says to do and see what he does and I do that too as we repeat these cycles, over and over, and wear a well trodden groove. With each time around I learn more and more about Him and about me and  I come to understand more of Yeshua's and His Father's love for me and how to love the Father and Yeshua. I come to understand more and more His purposes and plan not only for my life but for the ages.

What are these cycles of righteousness in which God leads me to walk? One of the things we see Yeshua doing in scriptures is following His Father's instructions to celebrate the Feasts. The word "Feast' in Hebrew  means "appointed time". These are set times that God has appointed for all his people to meet with him. When we meet with Him at theses appointed times, He promises to show up! "Feast" comes from a similar root word as 'paths" which means "revolve, cyclical." We also see Yeshua's followers celebrating the feasts in this cyclical pattern and continued to do so for over 100-200 years after his death and resurrection until the feasts were outlawed by Rome. Interestingly, there has always been a remnant of believers somewhere in the world who have continued to follow the Lord's Feasts.

The Feasts are indeed cyclical and even follow a pattern of "7"s. The first Feast listed in Leviticus 23 is the Sabbath, celebrated every 7 days on the 7th day. The 7 remaining feasts of the Lord are kept yearly, 4 in the spring (Passover, Unleavened bread, First Fruits, Shavuot or Pentecost) and 3 in the fall (Trumpets or Rosh Hashanna, Yom Kippur

Here is a sampling of discovery, how we can see Messiah Yeshua in the 7 feasts:

He is the Lamb of Passover
He is the unleavened, sin-free bread in the Feast of Unleavened Bread
He is the firstfruits from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits
He is the one we wait for during the Counting of the Omer (the counting of 50 days until Pentecost)
He is God's Spirit on Shavuot or Pentecost
He is the trumpet of the Feast of Trumpets, a wake-up call to holy living (set apart)
He is the High Priest of Yom Kippur, who sprinkles His own blood
He is our Shelter, our sukkah, at Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles (an 8 day celebration)
He is the Living Water of Hoshanna Rabba, the day of Great Hosanna (7th day of Tabernacles)
He is the one we meet on Shemini Atzeret, the Eight Day of Assembly (8th day of Tabernacles)

There is so much to experience and learn in regards to the feasts. We can learn what God is doing prophetically through the feasts, in other words, have deeper understanding of what Yeshua prophetically fulfilled in the first four feasts at His first coming and what will happen in the future when he returns. God accomplishes all His major plans on Feast days. When we rehearse them, celebrating them year after year in these cycles, we commemorate the feasts that have been given their fullest meaning in Yeshua and we will know what is happening on future feast days so we "are not in darkness that this Day should overtake us..."

Here is how Yeshua fulfilled the first four feasts in the spring:

Passover- Pesach, the day of Yeshua's crucifixion. He died the same hour that Passover lambs were slaughtered. (John 1:29, 1 Corinthians 5:7)
Feast of Unleavened Bread-begins the day after Passover. It began as Joseph of Arimthea laid Yeshua in the tomb.
Feast of Firstfruits- the day of Yeshua's resurrection. he rose as the firstfruits from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20)
Feast of Weeks- Shavuot or Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit touched the disciples in the Upper Room with tongues of fire. This is also the same day that God gave the commandments to Moses on
Mt. Sinai with burning fire.
When you study these more in depth, the degree of detail fulfilled is astounding.
The fall feasts are a rehearsal for future events that accompany Yeshua's return: the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:52), God's final judgements (the Prophets and Revelation), and the thousand-year Messianic Age. (Revelation 20:6) These all occur in the 7th month on the Hebrew calender.

Feast of Trumpets or Rosh HaShanah
Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement
Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot

God also says these feasts are to be everlasting, statutes to follow forever. What? Forever? Yikes. The scriptures say that God does not change His mind. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Turns out it wasn't God that changed His mind. History tells us it was Rome.  .

So why now? Why has it taken nearly 2000 years for these things to come "full circle"? That is what I was asking myself when I began to discover all of this.  Someone made the observation that it took Martin Luther 1100 years to get us back to the biblical truth that salvation is by grace, not by works. Perhaps now it has taken another 500 to reclaim the rest of the story. How to walk with and love God in the way that he desires.

It is also interesting that a reoccurring theme in the Bible is Restoration. The disciples asked Yeshua about this in the gospels and Acts; When would the Kingdom be restored to Israel and when would be the time of the Restoration of all things? Restoring things back to the beginning as they once were  originally.  In Acts 3:17-22 Peter speaks of Yeshua remaining in Heaven until the times of the restoration of all things..." Frequently the idea of the "the end being in the beginning of all things" occurs in scripture. Perhaps all these things are being made known in our day so that we can return to the beginning because the time of the restoration of all things is drawing near. There are so many things that are beginning to be restored. Scripture talks about how we will celebrate the feasts and the Sabbath when the Kingdom is restored when Yeshua returns to reign as King! (Isaiah 66:23, Zacariah14:16)

There is  much depth and richness in the significance of the feasts, but the real learning and knowing comes from "doing", the walking of the cycles. Though I have just only begun to walk these cycles in the last year, I'm no longer walking on a path that sees ahead dimly or only catches glimpses of my guide, let alone getting lost (off the path). I've done plenty of that over the years. This gives me a clearer picture of how God desires to be loved. The paths, the cycles, are clearly marked. It takes study. And frankly it takes courage that He provides. But as we follow (hear and do) more and more is revealed and understood.  And as the Psalmist says, "He leads me beside still waters and restores my soul". There is a deep and abiding peace and  joy that flows.

Want some resources to learn more about the Biblical Feasts?

Here is presentation giving an introduction to the Feasts
http://www.glc.us.com/site/watch.php?program=36&video=1075

Here is a DVD series on the Biblical Feasts that you can download for free
http://elshaddaiministries.us/storefront/dvd_n.html

This is a wonderful book giving a deeper, rich understanding of the Biblical feasts
http://www.moedministries.com/Reasons.html

This is a great book if you want more information on the biblical feasts and ideas for how to celebrate.

http://hebrewdiscovery.com/index.php?page=store

Enjoy!