05/09/2022 – “The Mystery of the Kehilah” / “Live today on a spiritual caravan. Our goal is to move continually forward, away from Egypt and closer to the Promised Land” /+ Bonus spontaneous P.S. – “Performing Your Semikhah”. Sublime!
Scripture for today on this Daily Devotional from Day 182 from “The Book of Mysteries” by Jonathan Cahn: Exodus 16:10; Acts 7:38; 1 Peter 2: 9-10
You may recall from previous posts from this book, there are two characters, a teacher in the faith and an inquiring student. I quote it verbatim and at length here:
“We were overlooking a barren valley through which one of the nomadic desert communities was moving. With the help of a few camels and donkeys, they were carrying all their worldly goods, black tent curtains, multicolored clothes, and the utensils of daily life.
‘What is the name given to Messiah’s people,’ asked the teacher, ‘ as a whole?’ I was surprised by the question as it didn’t seem to have anything to do with what we were seeing. ‘The church,’ I replied.
‘That’s a translation. The actual word that appears in Scripture is ekklesia.’ Ekklesia means the gathering, the congregation,, or the convocation. So the church is not a physical organization, location, or building. It is the gathering of God’s people, the congregation of Messiah, no matter where they are in the earth. But there’s more to it. The biblical roots of the word ekklesia go back much further.’
‘The church goes back before the New Testament?’
‘The word does,’ he replied. The word ekklesia appears in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures , over and over again.’
‘To speak of what… if there was no church then?’
‘Overwhelmingly the word refers to the nation of Israel.’
‘So Israel was called the ekklesia.. the church?’
‘In a sense, yes. The word ekklesia is a translation of the Hebrew kahal or kehilah, words especially used to speak of the congregation of Israel as it journeyed through the wilderness and dwlt in tents on its way to the Promised Land. In fact, the Book of Acts speaks of Israel at Mount Sinai as the ekklesia or church in the wilderness.’
‘So Israel is an ekklesia,’ I said, ‘and the church is an Israel?’
‘Yes, an Israel journeying through the wilderness. And that’s the mystery. The church is the kehilah, a caravan, an Israel of spirit, not yet home, but journeying, caravanning, tenting, pilgrimming, camping out in the world, always moving, always farther from Egypt, and always closer to the Promised Land. The church is the kehilah, Messiah’s caravan.’
The Mission: Live today as on a spiritual caravan. Your goal is to move continually forward, away from Egypt and closer to the Promised Land.
Exodus 16:10; Acts 7:38; 1 Peter 2: 9-10
And here is a Bonus p.s. – “Performing Your Semikhah” – Day 329
p.s. – Back last October, I posted day 329 – “Performing Your Semikhah”. This is where our blog name comes from . I mentioned this before: My bad! ; I misspelled the blog website when I set it up. It should not be “Semikkah7.com” as it is not, but “Semikhah7.com”. Maybe someday, perhaps in web3, we will set it up appropriately. But search on “Semikhah” , and you should get the previous post if you are interested in this word. Ya know, I am going to type it again , for we still have readers who do not have logins so they can’t use the search function on the menu.
Here we are, a section of “Performing your Semihah”:
” ‘We return one last time,’ said the teacher, ‘to the Semikhah. Tell me what it was.’
‘The placing of sin on the sacrifice by laying hands on its head and confessing your sinss over it… that which the priests of Israel performed on Messiah before they delivered Him to death.’
‘That’s correct,’ he said. ‘But is wasn’t only the priests who performed the Semikhah. It was performed by whoever needed to be forgiven of their sins. In order to offer up a sin offering, you had to perform the Semikhah over it. You had to touch it with your hands and confess your sins over it. And by doing so, you became one with the sacrifice. Only with that total identification could the sacrifice die for your sins. Now if we’ve all sinned, the Messiah is the offering of our sin, whtat must there also be?’
‘The Semikhah?’
‘Yes. The one who needs their sins to be forgiven must perform the Semikhah.’
‘So how does one perform it? The same way it was performed ancient itmes. You must touch the sacrifice and become one with it.’
‘But how?’, I asked, ‘The sacrifice of Messiah took places ages ago.’
‘But remember, it is is the one sacrifice that transcends time, that touches all time, past, present and future. So the time doesn’t matter. The Semikhah can still be performed. You reach out your hands , across time and space to touch Messiah on the cross… You confess your sins upon Him. You become one with Him there just as He was one with you in His sacrifice. That’s when it’s complete, when the two moments are joined together. That’s when your sins are forgiven and washed away.’
‘It sounds like salvation.’
‘It is,’ said the teacher. ‘How do you become saved? You confess your sins, you bring them to the sacrifice, and you become one with the sacrifice as the sacrifice has become one with you on the altar. What is that? It’s the Semikhah. The act of salvation is the act of the Semikhah, and not only once. Touch the head of the sacrifice , place your sins upon Him, your burdens, your fears, your shame, your cares, join every part of your life to the sacrifice, and the sacrifice to every part of your life … that the two moments and the two lives be lived as one.’
The Mission: Perform the sacred Semikhah. Place your hands on His head. Lay your life upon His life. Release what must be released. And be released.
Leviticus 16:21 ; Galations 2:20; 1 Peter 5:7; 1 John 1: 8-9