I enjoy reading about vacation spots and RV parks as much as the next guy with cabin fever, but that’s not our bag here at MessianicMusings.com. It’s a place for Torah and Torah-centric topics. Like so: here’s my commentary for VaYakhel and P’kudei. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashahs for today are VaYakhel, or “And he assembled,” and P’kudei, or “Accountings of,” and they cover Exodus chapters 35 through 40. This week, we get a double portion of the Torah; this happens a few times throughout the Torah year, and this one comes at a time when we are closing out the book of Exodus.
In these final chapters, we review many of the commands given in earlier chapters, especially the commands concerning the Tent of Meeting and all of the commands surrounding the worship of the L-RD in His tabernacle – His dwelling among men.
But our very first verses review a subject we touched upon last week, and that is the command to observe one of the L-RD’s first, and most important, appointed times: the Sabbath. We read this in:
NIV Exodus 35:1-3
Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the L-RD has commanded you to do: For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the L-RD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”
By now, some of you may be wondering why The L-RD repeats this command so often throughout the Torah. What I would suggest to you is that The L-RD repeats most often those things which are most important.
Considering the number of times the observance of the Sabbath is called for in the Torah, that would have to make it one of the most important commands of God.
Yet recently, I had someone ask me a very good and very important question that I think will shed some light on this topic for many of you, so I’d like to share it with you. My friend asked me, “How are we supposed to know that the seventh day is actually sundown Friday to sundown Saturday? I understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath. It makes sense to me, and I’m not arguing in favor of Sunday as the Sabbath, but where is the evidence I can show someone else, if they ask me?”
To respond to this question, let’s first establish how The L-RD measures time for us. We find this in:
Genesis 1:3-5
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning–the first day.
Notice the order of things here. “And there was evening, and there was morning–the first day.” Evening comes first here and marks the start of the first day. That day continues on through morning and the second day doesn’t begin until the second evening.
This is how the measuring of a day from sundown to sundown was first established; it came directly from Torah. Now, this contradicts the way the world thinks. Many people regard the time they rise in the morning as the “start of a new day.” Others have declared midnight to be the beginning of each new day. However, none of these human traditions help us to understand the original mindset of the Torah, which is what we are studying. That mindset is a Hebrew mindset, a Torah-based mindset, and from that perspective, a day begins and ends with the setting of the sun.
Now to the more difficult part. We have established that a day is from sundown until sundown, but what about the seventh day falling on sundown Friday until sundown Saturday? Where in the Bible does it say that?
We run into a problem there; you see, the days of the week as we know them – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and so on – are younger words than the words of the Bible. In the time of Moses, there was no specific word, “Friday,” or “Saturday,” in use in the Hebrew or any of the Middle Eastern, Semitic cultures. So nowhere in any Bible is there – or perhaps I should say, SHOULD there – be a verse that says, “And the L-RD called the Sabbath Friday,” or anything like that. While some rare translations will attempt this, it is a translator’s imposition on the text and is not present in the text itself. The names for the days of the week as we now know them actually are based off Roman culture and Roman gods – the god Saturn being who the day Saturday is named after, for example.
So, without a handy verse that says, explicitly, “The L-RD called the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday,” how can we know that we are observing the proper times, the proper twenty-four hour period of time that The L-RD commands us to observe?
The answer comes in the practice of the Hebrew people. From the time the command was first given at Sinai, the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath has been continuously observed by the Jewish people. Even in the darkest times in their history, there has always been a faithful remnant keeping the observance of the Sabbath alive, from the time of Moses until today. While Christianity, under Constantine and the Council of Nicea, attempted to change the Sabbath day, the practice of the Jewish people never waivered. They never changed it. And in their practice, it has always been from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. That is the Sabbath of the L-RD and that is trustworthy.
Now, I’d like to shift our focus to another part of our double portion this week. It concerns the commands surrounding the Tent of Meeting and the garments to be worn by the priests. While some readers consider this home stretch of Exodus a laborious review, it is important because earlier when these commands were laid out, it was because they were being given to the people. Now, they are gone over again because they are being carried out by the people; so they are recorded here to show that the people did obey everything the L-RD had commanded them, just as He had commanded them.
Now, last week, Phil shared some thoughts about the priestly garments, which is reiterated again in this week’s portion, and I thought we might benefit from looking at those commands again. We read in:
NIV Exodus 39:1-3
From the blue, purple and scarlet yarn they made woven garments for ministering in the sanctuary. They also made sacred garments for Aaron, as the L-RD commanded Moses. They made the ephod of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut strands to be worked into the blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen–the work of a skilled craftsman.
Much of Exodus 39 continues the detailed descriptions of these priestly garments, but unless you have been on a trip to Israel, it’s unlikely many of you have seen what these garments might have looked like.
Fortunately, I was talking with Teresa last week and found out she had some pictures from her last trip to Israel that you might find interesting in light of this week’s portion.
Now, the blue mentioned here is actually t’chellet, derived from a snail, and used in the fringes on the corners of the prayer shawls as commanded elsewhere. It symbolizes the heavens and is also a reminder of the commands of the L-RD because if its association with the prayer shawl fringes. Other colors used include argemon, which is a shade of royal purple. It is there to remind us of the royal position of the L-RD. The palette also include chaynei, which is the color of blood. This represents the blood of the sacrifices and – for us as Messianics – the blood of Yeshua Himself, the ultimate sacrifice. Finely twisted linen, the color of sheis – or white, which symbolizes purity – is also mixed and woven in, along with gold beaten to a thread-like consistency – and gold symbolized the eternal nature and incorruptibility of the L-RD.
It sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? But what could it have looked like? Well, here is a reproduction taken from the Temple Institute in Israel. While we cannot be certain it looked exactly like this, it is a close approximation – as close as we can get today.
Here’s a close-up of the breastpiece with the jewels that adorned it, which we read about in:
Exodus 39:6-14
They mounted the onyx stones in gold filigree settings and engraved them like a seal with the names of the sons of Israel. Then they fastened them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel, as the L-RD commanded Moses. They fashioned the breastpiece– the work of a skilled craftsman. They made it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. It was square– a span long and a span wide– and folded double. Then they mounted four rows of precious stones on it. In the first row there was a ruby, a topaz and a beryl; in the second row a turquoise, a sapphire and an emerald; in the third row a jacinth, an agate and an amethyst; in the fourth row a chrysolite, an onyx and a jasper. They were mounted in gold filigree settings. There were twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.
The passage later describes a series of bells and pomegranates on the fringe of the garment, which you can see in this close-up. This museum also had some examples of Hebrew crowns that are based on descriptions in the Torah, which you can see here. Now, the high priest did wear a crown that may have been like these, but it was covered by a turban, as you can see in this closer shot of the overall outfit.
While these garments are reproductions, we now know what they represent. Heaven and the commands of God, royalty, sacrificial blood, purity and incorruptibility – all of these are qualities of our Messiah Yeshua – our eternal high priest.
Just as these commands were given as a promise and a prophecy of who the Messiah would be, so are they reminders to us today of who He was. Yeshua is found throughout the Torah – as long as you are open to learning how to recognize Him.
Shabbat Shalom.