As we prepare our hearts for the Passover, recall that the Hebrew verb “pasach” (פָּסַח) can mean not only “to pass over,” but also “to limp,” suggesting the heel of Messiah that was “bruised” in the battle for our salvation (Gen. 3:15). As it is written, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (חַיֵּי עוֹלָם). For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:14-17). Humanity as a whole has been “bitten by the snake” and needs to be delivered from its deadly venom. Just as the image made in the likeness of the destroying snake was lifted up for Israel’s healing, so the One made in the likeness of sinful flesh was to be lifted up as the Healer of the world (Rom. 8:3). All we need to do is look up and believe…
Some people might object that the verb pasach (פָּסַח) alludes to the wounded Savior, our great Passover “Lamb who was slain” (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19-20; Rev. 5:12; 13:8); however, it is evident that the Hebrew root can mean “to limp” as a result of a wound. Indeed the Hebrew participle pise’ach (פִּסֵחַ) means “lame” or “crippled” (for example, see Lev. 21:18; Deut. 15:21; 2 Sam. 9:13, etc.). Furthermore, there are several uses of the verb pasach that explicitly mean to “limp” or “be lame.” For example, in 2 Sam. 4:4 it says: “and he (Mephibosheth) fell and ‘became lame” (וַיִּפָּסֵחַ); in 1 Kings 18:21, we read: “how long will you limp (פּסְחִים) between two opinions?” and in 1 Kings 18:26 it is written: “and they (the priests of Baal) ‘limped upon the altar” (וַיְפַסְּחוּ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ) in a pagan ritual dance. In other words there is clearly a connection between Passover and becoming wounded, and this alludes to the Suffering Servant, the Messiah, whose heel was bruised in the battle for our deliverance (Gen. 3:15). Those who wish to argue that pasach cannot refer to the “limping” of the Messiah, the Passover “Lamb of God” who was slain for our sins in the battle against the serpent, therefore have the burden to explain the meaning and usage of the verb pasach in these other verses of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Hebrew Lesson:
A delusion is essentially a belief that does not correspond to reality which is held without rational warrant and is therefore immune from any possibility of falsification. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as, “a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary.” An example of a delusion is the theory of macro evolution, or the idea that the universe is an eternally self-existent, closed system of cause and effect. Another example would be the belief that value, meaning, purpose, logical inference, morality, beauty, truth, love, and so on, can exist in a universe apart from God.
It is written in our Scriptures, θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν, “God is love,” which means that God’s compassion and kindness are bound to his very essence and nature, and therefore our task is not to seek God’s love but to remove all the barriers within us that we have built against receiving it… Discovering what hinders our reception of love does not come from human analysis, however, as if we could take ourselves apart to find some reason for our fear. No, the best way to overcome barriers of the heart is to be still, seek silence, and pray – for this enables us to get in touch with the “sacred center,” that is, the realm of holiness where God dwells. “Shema Yisrael…” When we empty ourselves, turning to God for love, we will hear the Spirit whispering back to us: “Be not afraid…” “Live in me…” “Walk in the light…” “I am with you always…” “You are loved…”
We must be careful not to worship an idol, that is, a false concept of God! It is possible to study the Bible, to attend a church or synagogue, and yet worship a pagan god. How so? By not knowing the heart of the Father; by not honoring the One who passionately seeks our healing. We know the Father by the Son, that is, in “the language of Son” (ἐν υἱῷ) and in the truth of his passion (Heb. 1:2; Luke 10:21-24). Our heavenly Father is eager to forgive and embrace all of his children (John 3:16-17). In Yeshua’s famous parable of the “prodigal son,” the father saw his wayward child a “long way off” and ran to embrace and kiss him – no questions asked, no explanations needed about his past. When the son nevertheless began reciting his carefully prepared speech of regret and repentance, the father barely listened, and in his overwhelming joy instructed his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found’ (see Luke 15:20-25).
The Spirit cries out, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8). This verse sets up a great contrast between olam ha-zeh and olam haba – between this present world and the heavenly realm. King David states, “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you (וְחֶלְדִּי כְאַיִן נֶגְדֶּךָ). Surely all mankind stands as a mere vanity” (Psalm 39:5). Yet we hunger and ache for love that fulfills the infinite depth of our hearts: “My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you (Isa. 26:9). I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2). Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God, the Eternal, the abiding, and true…
Our Master said: “For the bread of God (לֶחֶם אֱלהִים) is the One who comes down from heaven to give life to the world” (John 6:33). This is the Bread of Presence, literally, the “Bread of [his] Face” (לֶחֶם פָּנִים) that was prefigured in the manna that fell in the desert and in the rituals of the Tabernacle (Exod. 25:30). It was in the Holy Place, in the light of the Menorah, that the “bread of his face” was to be eaten… At his last Passover Seder with his students, Yeshua said “this is my body” (τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου), and made analogy between physical and the spiritual. We metaphorically “eat his flesh and drink his blood,” by seeing Him as our altar, our bridge before the Father. Just as the heart is the means by which blood is distributed to the body, so with the love of God expressed in our Lord Yeshua. He is the Divine Center of all of life: the true Tabernacle, the Word made flesh. He is the true Bread of Life (לחֶם הַחַיִּים), and we receive spiritual strength when we abide in his Torah (תּוֹרָה) and his life (John 15:5).
The goal of the great Sinai revelation was not to simply impart a set of moral or social laws, but rather to “accommodate” the Divine Presence in the midst of the people. This is not to suggest that the various laws and decrees given to Israel were unimportant, of course, since they reflect the holy character and moral will of God. Nonetheless, the climax of the revelation of the Torah – its goal or purpose or “end” – was the revelation of the altar which prefigured the sacrificial work of the Lamb of God. Indeed, the central sacrifice upon this altar was the daily sacrifice (i.e., korban tamid: קָרְבַּן תָּמִיד) of a defect-free male lamb with unleavened bread and wine. The LORD calls this “My offering, My bread…” (see Num. 28:1-8). In other words, the service and ministry of the Mishkan (i.e., Tabernacle) constantly foreshadowed the coming Lamb of God who would be offered upon the altar “made without hands” to secure our eternal redemption (Heb. 9:11-12). The sacrifice of the lamb is therefore central to the meaning and purpose of the Torah.
“Whoever battles with monsters had better see to it that it does not turn him into a monster” (Nietzsche). A God-fearing man once complained to a sage that he was tormented by evil desire and had become despondent over it. The sage listened intently and then said, “Guard yourself from such despondency above all else, for it is worse than sin. When the yetzer [evil impulse] awakens desire in us, it is not concerned with plunging us into sin, but with plunging us into despair by way of our sinning.”
It is written in the book of Hebrews that faith (understood in context to refer to the superior ministry of Yeshua that brings eternal redemption and that supersedes the earthly ministrations of the Levites) is the “underlying substance” (i.e., ὑπόστασις, or “being”) of our hope that “demonstrates” (ἔλεγχος) the realm of the unseen in the decisions and actions of those who truly believe. Faith is also a subjective conviction of the heart that apprehends the “unseen,” though that passion is a response to the hidden reality of God, and it is the work or practice of faith that makes the unseen seen. Another way to say this is that the believing heart “substantiates” the promise of God – apprehending the future and making it present within the heart (2 Cor. 4:18). “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
Those who know the Lord Yeshua understand that He is none other than the very Lawgiver and King of Israel, and it was He who spoke to Moses at Sinai regarding the moral will of God. His is the Voice of God (קוֹל אֱלהִים) speaking from the midst of the fire (Deut. 4:33). Yes of course (and thank God) that Yeshua is also our Savior who graciously died for us to be pardoned from the verdict of the law, but he did NOT die so that we should continue to sin but rather to be delivered from sin’s power in our lives…. We are never “perfected” in this life, and each of us will struggle with sin, but we should never allow sin to become a regular practice, and we should never live a secret and double life of hypocrisy… If we struggle, fair enough — we need to be honest, confess the truth, and get help, but we should never hide the truth about who we really are, since that leads to sickness of the heart and self-destructive despair. May God have mercy and help us all be on guard from the deceptions of the enemy of our souls.