Little

      The title of this week's Sabbath reading portion is T'tzavveh, meaning "You shall command". This title comes from Exodus 27:20, the first part of the reading portion: "And you shall command (tsa-vaw - command, appoint, charge, order, commission, set up) the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) children of Israel that they bring you pure (zak/zakak/zaka - clean, clear, pure, righteous, the pure one/to be pure, bright, clean, shining splendor of nobles, make clean, pure in God's sight, to cleanse, to wash/clean, pure, justified, keep clean, keep pure, to be translucent, be innocent) oil of pressed (katit/katat - beaten out regarding pure oil, pounded fine, costly/beat down, destroyed, break in pieces, smite, crushed, bruise, violently strike) olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually."

     This command from God is for the aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega people of God (see *notation below). That includes all believers in Messiah/Christ both Jewish and Gentile. The hidden mystery of God from the beginning was to bring forth the Messiah/Christ, Jesus, from among the children of Israel for the whole world. (Col. 1:26-27). The very olive oil used to light the lamp of the tabernacle referred to above is a reflection of the righteousness and suffering of Jesus to produce us justified, clean and pure, so that we also may shine as He shines. He is the Light of the world, and commands us also to be the light of the world. There is a parable told by Jesus of the foolish virgins who had no oil for their lamps. When He, the Bridegroom came suddenly, they were unprepared to go with Him. When they tried to enter into His presence later, Jesus told them, "Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you." (Mt. 25:1-12). The prepared pressed/beaten/crushed/bruised pure oil, which identified Him, was not present in them.

     We also saw in last week's Sabbath reading portion blog titled "HeaveOffering", that all of the fifteen free-will offerings used to construct the tabernacle reflected the image and pattern of Jesus Christ.

     The Sabbath reading portions from Exodus chapters 27 through 30 deal with the furnishings of the holy chamber in the tabernacle that was before the holiest place. It also deals with the holy garments that Aaron was to wear as the high priest. Moses was to wash and dress Aaron himself in the presence of Aaron's sons: "And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty...to consecrate him, that he may minister to Me (the LORD) as priest." (Ex. 28:1-3, Ex. 29:4-9).

     The tabernacle was meant to be a holy place where the LORD would dwell with His beloved people as the LORD told Moses: "...at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you to speak with you. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory. So I will consecrate the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) tabernacle of meeting and the altar...I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God." (Ex. 29:42-46).

     How beautiful is the desire of God to dwell among His people! How did this miraculous and awesome purpose become empty religious ritual to some? The LORD said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men..." (Isa. 29:13, see also Mt. 15:7-9). However, God will never give up on His greatest desire to dwell among men. He sent Jesus, His Son, to walk and tabernacle or dwell among us and even in us. (Jn. 1:14). God will also bring His heavenly tabernacle to descend to the earth in order to dwell with men. (Rev. 21:1-6).

     In another reading portion from this T'tzavveh Sabbath portion, the LORD revealed to His prophet, Ezekiel, the message that the glory and beauty of His tabernacle/temple should bring to men: "And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple....Son of man, this (the tabernacle/temple of the vision) is the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever....Son of man, describe the temple to the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) pattern (taknit - pattern, measurement, consummation, perfect form)...Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) whole design (sura/sur - a form as if pressed out, a rock/rock, block of stone) and all its ordinances, and perform them. This is the law of the temple: The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple." (Ezek. 43:4-12, excerpt).

     In this case, the vision of the tabernacle/temple has the purpose of showing His people how holy He is, and how holy they are not. Sometimes, we cannot see the spots and stains upon ourselves, yet it is necessary if we are to allow God to bring us closer to Himself in His dwelling place with us. This amazing vision of the temple of God was to achieve that - that the people of God would see their own iniquities in contrast to the glory of God. It is interesting here though that not only is the holiness of the LORD on display but also His glory. His holiness is His glory. When the prophet Isaiah experienced the LORD's holiness and resulting glory, he realized his own iniquity. (see Isa. 6:3-5). In the same way, the LORD commands Ezekiel to show the pattern and design of the temple to His people.

     The LORD wants His people to know the temple's pattern and to keep its design. Both of these things are based upon the aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega (see above), which is the identity of the Messiah/Christ, Jesus. Paul wrote about believers in Christ coming to "the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Eph. 4:13). This is also the story that the tabernacle/temple has to tell God's people according to the written Hebrew of the verses from Ezekiel above. This is the place where we come to have our sins washed away by the atonement sacrifice (Jesus Messiah/Christ) and to walk in the presence and the glory of God, which Jesus gave to us that we may be one with each other as the Father and Son are One, as well as we being made perfect in one. The glory is unifying. (Jn. 17:22-23).

     The purpose of the vision of the tabernacle/temple of God given to Ezekiel was to call God's people out of the low place of men's doctrines and ways, and into the high, glorious place of the holiness of God through the pattern and design that represents the Messiah/Christ.

     The last piece of our puzzle from this Sabbath's reading portion is the theme of Zachor. Zachor means "Remember and don't forget." Zachor is observed on this Sabbath as the Jewish people are entering into the period of time before Purim, the deliverance of God's people from an evil man's plan for their destruction, and Passover, when the lamb was sacrificed and its blood applied to the doorposts and lintels of the houses of the Israelite slaves in Egypt. The blood of the lamb would protect their houses from the plague of the death of the first born that would lead to their deliverance from Egypt and its slavery. For believers in Christ, this is also the time before the crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah/Christ and our Passover Lamb.  Zachor observed during this time, like the tabernacle/temple, has a pattern, similar to the pattern of Ezekiel's vision of the temple, as we will see, that we are to remember and observe.

     The Zachor reading that is part of this Sabbath comes from 1 Sam.15. King Saul was given a command from the LORD through His prophet Samuel. Samuel was also the judge of Israel. Saul was given the command to totally destroy that Amalekites: "Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." (1 Sa. 15:2). Amalek was one of the nations that ambushed and attacked Israel when the LORD was bringing Israel up out of Egypt. The Amalekites were also involved in sorcery and other occultic practices to a very dark and dangerous degree. Their involvement with dark magic went so deep that it manifested not only in each person, but also in all of their animals. Rabbinical writings suggest that the Amalekites, through black magic, were shape-shifters, able to take on the form of animals. The Amalekites were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, and the grandson of Abraham. Therefore they would have at some point had the knowledge from their forefathers of the God of the Hebrew people, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They had fallen away from the light of God, and sought the darkness of the occult instead.

     However, Saul was not obedient to the command of God spared the Amalekite king, Agag, and the best of the Amalekite animals. Not waiting for Samuel, Saul even sacrificed these bewitched animals to God in order to please the people. (v. 9). 

     Afterwards, Samuel heard this from the LORD: "I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments." (v. 10). Samuel also found out that Saul had set up a monument for himself at Carmel. As Samuel confronted Saul, Saul insisted that he had performed the command of the LORD given to him, but then blamed the desire of the people with him who had wanted to spare the best of the animals. Samuel delivered the judgment of the LORD upon King Saul: "When you were little (qatan - young, small, insignificant, unimportant, little) in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel?...Why did you swoop down (it - scream, shriek, fly, swoop down upon, to dart greedily) on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?" (v. 17-19).

     Samuel told King Saul that obedience to God's voice was better than sacrifice, and rebellion against the LORD was equal to the sin of witchcraft (which was what the Amalekites practiced). Saul was no better than the Amalekites in the eyes of the LORD. Saul pleaded with Samuel to pardon his sin and return with him, so that Saul could worship the LORD. Samuel said to Saul: "I will not return with you, for you have rejected (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel...The LORD has torn (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And the Strength of Israel (referring to the LORD) will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent." (v. 22-29, excerpt). Samuel, however, did relent and return with Saul so that Saul would not be dishonored in front of the elders of Israel, which had been Saul's concern. (v. 30). Again, Saul's concern was his own honor in the eyes of others, and not in respecting the Word of the LORD. We know that Samuel would soon anoint young David to be the next king of Israel.

     Samuel, himself, carried out the word of the LORD and killed Agag, the king of the Amalekites whom Saul had disobediently spared. (v. 32-33).

     Samuel pointed out to King Saul that his fall from the LORD didn't begin with his disobedience to the LORD's command. It began when Saul stopped seeing himself as "little" before the beauty, glory and holiness of the LORD. To me, this is the lesson that we are to zachor remember and never forget. It is the same lesson that the LORD wanted Ezekial to show the people as the prophet revealed the pattern and design of the temple of the prophet's vision.

     We all begin to go astray when we forget that we are little before the LORD, even when He has kindly elevated us by the grace of His Son, our Savior, Jesus. Paul wrote to the church: "For I say, through the grace given to me, for everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." (Rom. 13:3). 

     Jesus gave us this powerful insight: "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." (Lk. 18:16-27). 

     Many have fallen because they forgot to be "little". God's elect are disgraced before the heathen because they forget to be "little".  Zachor remember and don't forget, especially as we come into this powerful season of the deliverance of the LORD.

     If you would like to know more about remaining "little" in the sight of the LORD, you can pray with me: "Father, when I look into Your holiness and the pattern and design of Your House, based upon the sacrifice ow Your own precious and beloved Son, Jesus, I want to remember and never to forget to be little before You. If I catch myself thinking more highly of myself, or if I desire to be honored and respected before men more than God, let me remember to be little. Jesus told us that the Kingdom is composed of little children. Remind me, LORD, to be a little child before You. Show me the pattern and design of Your glorious House when I forget to be little. I ask this in the name of Jesus. AMEN."

*NOTE: aleph-tav written in Hebrew as אֶת, are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The meaning of the two pictographic Hebrew letters can also be interpreted "Adonai (Lord) of the Cross/Covenant". In the New Testament, these letters are translated as Alpha and Omega written as ΑΩ , the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters are those by which Jesus Christ identifies Himself in the Book of Revelation: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13.