Day 4 and Shabbat--Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread)

(Today is the fourth day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread--are you eating unleavened bread every day during this 7-day feast? The readings for the fourth day are included amongst the readings for Shabbat for this week of Unleavened Bread, so this is a combined post for the two days. I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 04/07/2007.)


Readings:

Shemot (Exodus) 33:12-34:26
Bemidbar (Numbers) 28:19-25
Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 37:1-14
Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs)
Hitgalut (Revelation) 15:1-4

The reading from Yehezqel is known as the dry-bones prophecy. It describes the spiritural resurrection of the people of YHWH.

The spiritual death of the House of Israel (the Northern Kingdom of Israel) is described in the book of Hoshea (Hosea):

Hos 1:4 And YHWH said to him, "Call his name Yizre'el, for in a little while I shall revenge the bloodshed of Yizre'el on the house of Yehu, and put an end to the reign of the house of Yisra'el.
Hos 1:5 "And it shall be in that day that I shall break the bow of Yisra'el in the Valley of Yizre'el."
Hos 1:6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And He said to him, "Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for no longer do I have compassion on the house of Yisra'el so as to forgive them at all.
Hos 1:7 "But I shall have compassion on the house of Yehudah and save them by YHWH their Elohim, and not save them by bow or by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen."
Hos 1:8 And she weaned Lo-Ruhamah, and conceived and bore a son,
Hos 1:9 then He said, "Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not for you.
Hos 1:10 "Yet the number of the children of Yisra'el shall be as the sand of the sea, which is not measured nor counted. And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' they shall be called, 'You are the sons of the living El.'
Hos 1:11 "And the children of Yehudah and the children of Yisra'el shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head, and shall come up out of the earth, for great is the day of Yizre'el!

The Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered and then taken into exile by the Assyrians and swallowed up in the nations, so scattered among the gentiles that they lost their identity as the people of YHWH.

Hos 8:7 "For they sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud, it yields no grain. If it does yield, strangers swallow it up.
Hos 8:8 "Yisra'el has been swallowed up. They have now become among the nations as a vessel in which is no pleasure.
Hos 8:9 "For they themselves have gone up to Ashshur. A wild donkey alone by itself is Ephrayim, they have hired lovers.
Hos 8:10 "Also, although they sold themselves among the nations, this time I shall gather them, when they have suffered for a while from the burden of a sovereign, of rulers.

But, as promised, YHWH is bringing them back from where He scattered them. There is a spiritual resurrection taking place among the gentiles. Those who have believed in Yeshua as their Messiah are rediscovering the Hebrew roots of their faith--the Torah--and thus embracing the whole B'sorah (Good News) ONCE delivered. The dry bones are rattling and coming together.

Eze 37:5 'Thus said the Master YHWH to these bones, "See, I am bringing into you a spirit, and you shall live.
Eze 37:6 "And I shall put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, and cover you with skin and put a spirit in you, and you shall live. And you shall know that I am YHWH." ' "
Eze 37:7 And I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and there was a rattling. And the bones came together, bone to bone.
Eze 37:11 And He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are all the house of Yisra'el. See, they say, 'Our bones are dry, our expectancy has perished, and we ourselves have been cut off!'
Eze 37:12 "Therefore prophesy, and you shall say to them, 'Thus said the Master YHWH, "See, O My people, I am opening your graves, and shall bring you up from your graves, and shall bring you into the land of Yisra'el.

At the same time, those among Yehudah with whom were entrusted the Words of Elohim (Romans 3:2) are awakening to the identity of their Messiah in Yeshua the Nazarene so that they also are embracing the whole B'sorah. Eventually the House of Yisra'el and the House of Yehudah will be reunited and will again be one nation.

Eze 37:19 say to them, 'Thus said the Master YHWH, "See, I am taking the stick of Yoseph, which is in the hand of Ephrayim, and the tribes of Yisra'el, his companions. And I shall give them unto him, with the stick of Yehudah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand." '
Eze 37:20 "And the sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes.
Eze 37:21 "And speak to them, 'Thus said the Master YHWH, "See, I am taking the children of Yisra'el from among the gentiles, wherever they have gone, and shall gather them from all around, and I shall bring them into their land.
Eze 37:22 "And I shall make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Yisra'el. And one sovereign shall be sovereign over them all, and let them no longer be two nations, and let them no longer be divided into two reigns.
Eze 37:23 "And they shall no longer defile themselves with their idols, nor with their disgusting matters, nor with any of their transgressions. And I shall save them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and I shall cleanse them. And they shall be My people, and I be their Elohim,

In his letter to the Romans, Shaul explains this promise and how it was beginning to be fulfilled.

Rom 9:22 And if Elohim, desiring to show wrath, and to make His power known, with much patience tolerated the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Rom 9:23 and that He might make known the riches of His esteem on vessels of compassion, which He had prepared beforehand for esteem,
Rom 9:24 even whom He called, not only us of the Yehudim, but also of the gentiles?
Rom 9:25 As He says in Hoshea too, "I shall call them My people, who were not My people, and her beloved, who was not beloved."
Rom 9:26 "And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there they shall be called sons of the living Elohim."
Rom 9:27 And Yeshayahu cries out on behalf of Yisra'el, "Though the number of the children of Yisra'el be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.

This is how all Israel will be saved--

Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

All the saved will be Israel--both the naturally born and the adopted, both the natural branches and the grafted-in branches. All will be "sons of the living Elohim".