CANDLEGLOW LESSON
“The Lesson of the Scarlet Bundle”
PARASHAH M’TZORA (Leviticus 14:1-15:33) Week 28
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The commands given for the person afflicted with TZARA’AT on the day of their purification ritual are explicit. Some responsibility was given to the afflicted, to gather the needed ritual elements after being examined outside the camp by a priest. Some of the responsibility lay with the priest (Cohen) as to the instructions for the sacrificial elements, the order of service, and the finalizing of the purification rights which would bring the afflicted back into the community where they belonged. The entire ritual of examinations, separation from the community, re-examination every seven days, and finally the purification rituals of the cleansing bath or MIKVEH, would be an extremely humbling experience.
Adonai, what is in this lesson for us today? What mystery is waiting to be uncovered by the recounting of the purification ritual for a Jew at Mount Sinai today, for the Wild Olive Branch? What is it about the sacred bundle of cedar wood, hyssop leaves, and scarlet thread; binding the sacrificial bird into a bundle of purification? I began to see during this questioning how the second living bird was the bird of escape, set free because of the death of the bird which became the blood sacrifice.
This is the picture of the Scapegoat or Sin Offering. In this ritual, two yearlings were brought for the sin offering; one was chosen to bear the burden by sacrificing its life; the other was set free, out into the wilderness. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus and the criminal, Barabbas, chosen by the crowd as the one to be set free. His name meant son or BAR of the father or ABBA.
The two living birds are mirrors of the sin offering of Jesus and Barabbas.
The two living birds are mirror images of those set free by the death and shedding of the blood of Jesus the Messiah.
Yeshua, the Father’s ultimate gift, His Passover Lamb.
One bird was bundled into elements which have deep meaning for our sin nature. The bundle was tied and bound, held by the scarlet thread which is a symbol of the blood of Jesus shed to set the captives FREE! It is by His power, authority, and sovereignty that sin is held under the flow of His living water mixed with His sacrificial blood, as if bundled and held with His own hands under the flow, washing all who will come, CLEAN!
The beauty of the irony of God’s stories pierces the heart, if one has a heart of flesh, not stone. The flow of the blood of the Son of God makes us ritually PURE not UNCLEAN! As we learn the deep lessons of Mt. Sinai, we must see with the eyes of the heart, the HEART of the MATTER!
This is the Lesson of the Scarlet Bundle. Adonai, in His faithful love for us has written His lessons, which transcend time and space. He tells us His word will never fade! His words are always fresh, like Manna in the wilderness.
We are not to eat stale bread, but eat His living word each day. See, dear seeker, the scarlet bundle of your redemption!
This is the Lesson of the Scarlet Bundle. The two living birds represent YOU and the one who died to set you FREE. See the cedar wood; a symbol of human pride; a hardened heart. Cedar wood, the symbol of our desire to elevate ourselves, uphold our wealth, increase our influence, makes us unclean!
See the fragile hyssop branch, the symbol of the humility of the Messiah. The hyssop branch was commanded to be waved across the doorposts on that first Passover night, painting a scarlet watercolor onto the doorpost of each Hebrew home so death would pass over all who accepted Adonai’s promise of life.
This is the Lesson of the Scarlet Bundle. The sacrificial life, the proud cedar wood, the humble hyssop branch, the scarlet thread holding it all together and bundled tightly under the cleansing flow of water mixed with the blood of His sacrifice, is the most beautiful picture I have ever seen of the tenderness of Adonai. Envision His hands holding you, dear seeker, under Jesus’ flow, like that!
As I prayed in thanksgiving to Adonai for showing me the vision of this lesson, I saw the scarlet silken threads woven around our lives! They metamorphosed into scarlet silken ribbons from heaven. I saw the draping, the contouring, and the sheen of the scarlet ribbon wrapped from our head to our toes, by the sacrifice of Yeshua.
On this Shabbat evening, just days before the blessed intersection of Easter and Passover celebrations for the Beloved, remember who holds everything together through His binding, His sacrifice, His death and resurrection, releasing the blood and water of eternal life! We are the bird set FREE, and are bound up in the scarlet silken ribbon of His sacrifice.
He has presented us dear ones, wrapped up as the inheritance which we are, to the Father; having been made clean, having been made whole, having been SET FREE!
Shabbat Shalom!
May this Easter ~ Passover remembrance be a silken, scarlet banner waving over your doorpost! I will hang mine today!
Sydney