Advent images in the Torah / 24

Balaam prophesied in 4.Mose 24:17: “A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel”.

In 132 a rebellion against Roman rule broke out under Simon Bar Kosiba. Rabbi Akiba saw in him the Messiah, the star that the prophet Balaam had seen rising over Judah. So he was named Bar Kochba – son of the star.

After initial successes, the revolt was bloodily crushed by the Romans in 135. His name was reinterpreted as Bar Koziba – son of lies. Jerusalem was turned into a military settlement called Aelia Capitolina and Jews were forbidden to enter the city.

About 140 years earlier, scholars from the East had come to Jerusalem because they had seen in the stars that an important king would be born in Israel. It is striking that only the astrologers knew about the star, not the people of Jerusalem. This suggests that it had something to do with the constellation.

In any case, they were not just waiting for a local king. They wanted to worship him. This suggests a heavenly king. Jesus told Pilate in John 18:36: “My kingdom is not of this world”.

Did the wise men know the promise of the Son of Man in Daniel 7:14? Daniel was a wise man in Babylon and he prophesied: “To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve (worship) him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed”.

In remembering the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the divine light that comes into our world. “The light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). Jesus says in Luke 18:31: “Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished“.

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When there is no water in Refidim (Exodus 17:4-6), Moses is afraid that the grumbling people will stone him to death.

Moses has to take out the staff of Exodus. God uses it to remind the people why they left Egypt and how he delivered them. The same divine power can also bring water out of a rock in the desert. This seemed impossible.

Moses is to strike the rock. Later, Moses should speak to the rock (Exodus 20:8). But the second time Moses acts on his own authority. He acts on his first experience with the rock and makes the biggest mistake of his life.

God always has different solutions. We cannot simply say from our experience of faith that what worked once must work again.

Faith is not a method, but a dependence on God. A conscious listening and doing of what he says. If someone has an experience of faith, it doesn’t mean that if I do the same thing, I will have the same experience.

Verse 6 says that God stands before Moses at the rock. It is a picture of Jesus being struck and then being called (1 Corinthians 1:2). 1 Corinthians 10:4 says, “And the rock was Christ”.

Exodus 17:4-6  4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.”

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Nicodemus wants to know how a person can be born again or receive new life (John 3:9). Jesus explains it with the example of the serpent in the wilderness of 4.Mose 21 during the Exodus from Egypt.

All the rebellious Israelites who were bitten by snakes had to look at a snake on a pole so that the deadly poison would be ineffective (4.Mose 21:9). They had to shift their gaze from the problem to the conquered serpent.

In the same way, the Son of God will hang on the pole and eternal death will no longer have power over all those who look at him (John 3:14-15).

This is an indication that Jesus’ death on the cross indicates the end of the serpent’s power (cf. Gen 3:15). By recognising the consequences of our transgressions, the poison of rebellion against God is rendered ineffective.

Anyone who wants to live with God needs a spiritual beginning – a yes to a life with God. When we are born of the Spirit (John 3:8), we allow God to change us according to His will.

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God does not want to be a distant God but wants to dwell among his people. That is why God tells Moses in Exodus 25:8: “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst”.

John writes in chapter 1:14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”. He wants to experience for himself what it means to live as a human being. That is why he understands us.

Jesus described himself as the temple that will be destroyed and rebuilt in three days (John 2:19).

Jesus says in John 14:23: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him”. God’s is present through the Holy Spirit.

Paul reminds the Corinthians: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).

As children of God, we are always online with God. Through Jesus we can talk to our heavenly Father at any time.

God is interested in how we are doing. We should ask him for our daily bread. Tell him what we need to live. He wants to hear from us what we are observing and where we have questions. A third level is to share our feelings with God. Tell him what makes us happy and what makes us sad. He rejoices when we are also interested in what is on His heart.

God wants to share with us live.

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The pillar of cloud and fire in Genesis 13:21 has no origin. It is a sign from another dimension. It guides and protects.

What David writes in Psalm 27:1 is thrilling: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”

Isaiah 49:6 says of the Messiah: “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

And John writes in John 3:19: “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.”

The pillar of cloud and fire is an image of God’s presence that we see in Jesus and experience through the Holy Spirit. We cannot analyse God’s work. But we can see the effects (John 3:8).

The pillar of cloud and fire repeatedly led the Israelites into difficult situations. God allows us to get into trouble again and again so that our faith is strengthened. Each time we choose to trust God anyway, we draw closer to him.

Sometimes it’s not so much about us, but about other people seeing that faith endures even in difficult times. It’s easy to believe when things are going well. But it is something special when our faith is challenged.

Moses shows how faith works. He shifts the focus from the problem to God. Do not be afraid. God will help us. He fights for us. He gets the victory – not us. Exodus 14:13: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.”

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Jesus interprets the Passover lamb as a symbol of his death on the cross. He uses the bread of the Exodus and the cup of redemption (Luke 22:20) at the Passover as a sign of remembrance of his death. He dies at this feast. Jesus is the Passover Lamb so that divine judgement may pass us by.

According to Exodus 13:13-15, the Passover lamb is not a sacrifice of restitution, but a ransom sacrifice. It is about release from slavery into a life with God. It is about a change of rule. God wants to free us from the slavery of sin so that we can live a life with him. It is about whether we want to live with God.

Rabbi Berel Wein writes in The Triumph of Survival, 1990: “It was an ancient Jewish tradition from biblical times that the death of the righteous and the innocent served as compensation for the sins of the nation or the world”. We find the death of a righteous person affecting the living in Numbers 35:25-28. There was a general amnesty at the death of the high priest. Isaiah also writes about the death of the righteous in chapter 53. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities … the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Jesus frees us to live with God by taking away everything that keeps us from living with God.

John the Baptist sees Jesus and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

He was born like a Passover lamb in a stable in Bethlehem.

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