Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Ezekiel 46:1,9 “Thus says the Lord GOD: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
9 “When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul reveals the prophetic nature of Shabbat and the Biblical Feasts as “shadows of things to come”, whose substance is the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). My study of the feasts therefore seeks to discover their relevance to the Lord, His identity, work, and purpose for my life in relationship to Him.
The prophet Ezekiel, in chapters 40-48, lays out a detailed pattern for a future Temple that is so large, encompassing territory so vast, that it’s physically impossible to fulfill in the current environment. This material is theologically challenging and many scholars have struggled to interpret and understand the implications of a “Millennial Temple”, sometimes, simply “spiritualizing” the nine chapters to refer to the “Church” in some allegorical way. Even the Talmudic Rabbis’ considered removing Ezekiel from the Tanach because of the complexities and variant worship described therein. We believe this temple is literal and will be fundamental to spiritual realities during the Millennial reign of Messiah.
But I discovered something relevant to Paul’s point in Colossians as I pondered the content of these chapters in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 46:1 specifies that the doors of the inner court are only opened on Shabbat, the New Moon, and the Feast Days. This Inner Court is the designated place where the King of Glory will sit on His throne. Typically, one must be summoned to see the King during the other six days of the week, but on these special days, everyone is granted the opportunity to have audience with Him.
The accessibility of the King on Shabbat, New moon, and feast days in Ezekiel’s temple points to the days which, though they are “shadows” according to Colossians, are an open invitation for audience with Yeshua. Why? Because they are days of rest from normal responsibilities of work, and because they also speak of different aspects of His nature and divine purposes.
And one more revelation from this chapter: verse 9 stipulates that when visiting the King of Glory, one who enters the North Gate must exit the South Gate, and one who enters the South Gate must exit the North Gate. No one must exit the same way he entered. What’s the point? Enter the presence of the King and you will be changed, you will leave different than you arrived. And it’ll be a “walk” a journey which will take you the whole way from one side of the inner court to the other.
Shabbat, and the Feast Days, are opportunities to transform your relationship with the Lord. Your audience with Him as our Sabbath rest, is wide open as you rest and celebrate His Presence. And the longer you dwell there, having once entered, be sure you will not leave through the same “gate”, but will find yourself “coming out the other side” a different person. That’s the real point and purpose of Shabbat!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Once upon a time, there was a prince who received a very rare and beautiful bird. He named her Goldie and placed her in a lovely, 14K gold cage. But the poor creature was not impressed by the gold at all. She pleaded for her freedom but the prince loved her much too much to part with her. Still, she continued to beg. In final desperation, she asked that he at least allow her go to her relatives and tell them that, though captive, she was still alive.
Charles Swindoll wrote about these men who bring in animals from Africa for American zoos. They say that one of the hardest animals to catch there is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it’s simple. They’ve been catching this agile little animal with ease for years.
When I teach about “understanding the will of God,” I’d like to talk about a story that is told in all the synoptic gospels, except that Luke’s account gives a significant nuance. (Many skeptical Bible “critics” point out differences in the gospels to argue that they can’t be reliable — yet it’s actually the differences that support the validity of these accounts because they reveal that the events recorded were simply experienced and told from slightly different viewpoints, a very common circumstance when people are telling a story.)
This is a story relayed by Corrie Ten Boom, “It was Christmas, 1944. My sister, Betsie, had died. I was in a hospital barracks in Ravensbruck, a Nazi prison camp. Dark it was in my heart, and darkness was around me. There were Christmas trees in the street between the barracks. Dead bodies of prisoners had been thrown under the Christmas trees. I tried to talk to the people around me about Christmas, but they mocked and sneered. At last I kept quiet.
Over the past few days, one of our servers that hosts roughly 20 different web sites was breached and used to send SPAM. While there was no real damage done, the thousands of bounced messages literally caused the server to shut down. There was no personal information stored on the server, however, the hours spent setting up a new server in the midst of a speaking tour created chaos which we really didn’t have the time to deal with. However, the worst of it is all over, and we’re back! Just as we’re getting ready to launch another website (https://worthy.bible) for the Kingdom … we get attacked from all sides!
From the beginning, we anticipated a time when we would need to produce all our news content. Over the past month, as many of you are aware, we’ve fully shifted to generating articles exclusively through our dedicated in-house writing team. We’ve also expanded as we continue to freely syndicate our news to any online Christian ministry. Operating on faith and independent of advertising revenue, our ministry’s content is driven not by external factors but by a deep commitment to fulfilling the Lord’s will.
I came across an old legend about three cowboys crossing the desert on horseback by night. Suddenly, as they reached a rocky spot, a voice came from heaven and commanded them: “Friends, pick up some pebbles, put them in your pockets and do not look at them till morning.” The men looked at each other in astonishment and began to do as they were told. The voice went on to promise that if they obeyed, they would be both glad and sad. The perplexed men put a few pebbles each in their pockets and went on their way.