What Bull is This?

A quick recap of Wednesday Night's Sukkot Service:

In preparation for the Sukkot Message, I needed direction on where the LORD wanted me to take it, and what He wanted me to share.  Therefore, I asked the question, "What does Sukkot really mean?"

The Spirit lead me down the stream of "Imanu-el" to illustrate the essence of Sukkot.  "God with us," where this idea illustrates the LORD's desire to "Physically" walk among us again.

This study took me back to the first time that I read The Prophet Isaiah, many years ago.  I had just finished the Torah, and the Rebellious nature of Israel was fresh in my mind.  What I found most odd about Isaiah is that, apparently, Israel was "Doing," what the LORD had asked them to do.  As I read the words of Isaiah, Israel was being obedient to the Mitzvoth, but for some reason, The LORD was not pleased. 

I recall, as a young student of Scripture, and relatively new in my walk, being disgruntled at the context.  While we were in the Wilderness, disobedient, the LORD was not pleased with us, and now that we were in The Land, and observing the Holy Days, He was still not pleased!

As I read, I became frustrated, not understanding WHY the LORD was still not pleased.  "What do you want from us?" I remember thinking.  At the time I didn't realize that His dissatisfaction was not to do with what we were doing, but rather with, the How and Why we were doing it. 

In fact, this is where I learned about the Hebrew Pun, "You have turned my Torah, into a Torach."  or "My Instruction into a Hindrance."   Israel may have been observing the Holy Days, but the LORD refers to them as "Your new moons, and Your Sabbaths."  In doing so, He does not regard them as "Mo'edim" (My Appointed Times) but rather Israel's own version of the Holidays.  It would appear that "The Leaven of the Pharisees," had begun rising long before The Days of Yeshua, and it would appear that not much has changed on either side of the camp, even to this Day. 

Nevertheless, as I read on and began to witness the last part of the Prophet's Formula, the part where The LORD pleads with Israel to Shuva (Repent or Return), is when I recall seeing the Heart of the LORD longing for the Days in the Wilderness. 

At first this confused me, because from my reading of the story in the Torah, God was nothing but displeased with our people, and now He was looking back, as if those were "The Glory Days!"
The Truth is that He WAS!  Disobedient or not, Israel was closer to The LORD in disobedience, than in so-called "Obedience."

"And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near, and with their mouth and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment of men learned by rote;" Isaiah 29:13

Wisdom without Understanding.  Knowledge without Passion.  Some call this "Missing Heaven by 18 inches."  The distance from the head to the heart.  The LORD wants us to exercise both Wisdom and Understanding, and not one without the other, as some do.  I've known many believers who stand on the other side of that spectrum, with a Zeal for the LORD, but the inability to convey the message with Wisdom.  Let's pray that the LORD teaches us this relationship with balance.

With understanding, I could feel the LORD's Passion and Desire to have us return to those Days that we walked so close with Him.  It was as if the LORD was reminiscing about our Days in the Wilderness.  Through the words of the Prophet, He was longing to return to the Days of Sukkot, because in our infancy, Israel was dependant upon God, and turned to Him for their Salvation.  Hot or Cold, there was Passion - There was a Personal Relationship.

In the Days of Isaiah, Israel had taken on an attitude of Self-Righteousness.  "Don't worry LORD, we got it from here."  This was not the outcome that the LORD was looking for.  This was why he was dissatisfied.

Therefore, as we celebrate Sukkot,  in a way, we are returning to that place that is special in the LORD's Heart.  To answer the question, "Sukkot is about becoming more intimate with the LORD."  We need to return to our first Love.

I shared on Wednesday Night, that as I was preparing for the message, I was struck with the idea that we were taught to make sure that we could see the heavens through the roof of the Sukkah.  Now, if a Sukkah is supposed to be a "Shelter," the primary objective of a shelter is to protect us from the elements, especially rain.  However, when you can see the stars, the rain can surely enter, as it did that afternoon, as we were decorating our Sukkah.  "What's the point?" I asked.

In the message I answered this question by drawing a picture of how each of the Holidays of the Fall Feasts lead up, point by point, to the LORD's Return.  Therefore, I concluded with the reminder of what the LORD Yeshua taught us regarding The End Times, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28

This is the reason why we needed to be able to look up through the roof of our Sukkah, and see - Awaiting His Return!  Amain?

Now, instead of recycling the entire Message from Wednesday Night, I want to focus more on today's Torah readings; hence the title - What Bull is This?

There are 2 readings for this Shabbat during Sukkot.  Shemot (Exodus) 33:12-34:26 as well as Bamidbar (Numbers) 29:23-38.

The commonality between the two portions has reference to the bovine, in Sacrifice and Worship.  Hence the title.  We need to understand what the Bull has to do with God's Plan for the Nations. 

The Exodus portion deals with the renewal of the Covenant, after The Sin of the Golden Calf.  The Golden Calf is an image of the Bull god of Ancient Egypt.  Now, there is much speculation on whether or not, this was Israel "deliberately" worshipping the image of another god, or "A mistake in identity."  Meaning that since the Israelites were tenders of cattle, they simply associated the idea of "god," with this image, and therefore fashioned an idol in the image of what they perceived to be god.  Regardless of the speculation, the truth is that, it was counted to them as Sin, and as we read in the previous chapter, the LORD dealt with this Sin.

Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the fact that the Israelites chose a Bovine god to represent the image of how they perceived god.  WHY?  After doing some research regarding the influence of Bovine deities to the Ancient Egyptians, I discovered that this was no small matter to Egyptian Culture and Religion, and it is STILL a point of focus today.

In fact, I did some research on "Apis," the Bull god of Ancient Egypt.  Now, without going into too much detail and or reciting the entire encyclopedia, I'll give a quick summery of what I found out about this Ancient Egyptian Bull god - Apis.

First of all, the cult of Apis started at the very beginning of Egyptian history, probably as a fertility god, connected to grain and herds, and his name has been discovered in markings on very early ancient monuments found in Egypt.

Archaeological evidence suggests that ceremonial burials of bulls was practised in Ancient Egypt, which indicates that ritual sacrifice was part of the worship of the early cow deities and that the bull might represent a king who became a deity after death.

The Apis bull was unique as he is the only Egyptian deity represented solely as an animal, and never as a human with an animal's head—perhaps, because from the earliest of Egyptian religious practises, bulls were animals sacrificed to the cow goddess Hathor, and represented the resurrected, renewal of life (Hapy and later Osiris).

Apis became known as a protector of the dead, and was entitled "the renewal of the life," associated with the Egyptian's idea of "The Resurrection."

The cattle in the region of Memphis, just south of Goshen, exhibited white patterning on their mainly black bodies, and so a belief grew up that the Apis bull had to have a certain set of markings suitable to its role. It was required to have a white triangle upon its forehead, a white vulture wing outline on its back, a scarab mark under its tongue, a white crescent moon shape on its right flank, and double hairs on its tail.

A bull which matched these markings was selected from the herd, brought to a temple, given a harem of cows, and worshipped as an avatar of Ptah.  Where, Ptah being the Egyptian god of "Creation." The mother of Apis, Hathor was believed to have been conceived by a flash of lightning from the heavens, or from moonbeams, and also was treated specially.

At the temple, Apis was used as an oracle, where his movements being interpreted as prophecies. His breath was believed to cure disease, and his presence to bless those around with virility. He was given a window in the temple through which he could be seen, and on certain holidays was led through the streets of the city, adorned with jewelry and flowers.  It was also believed that they danced about the image of Apis in religious celebrations.  Does this sound familiar?

The Apis was a god to be venerated for his excellent kindness and for his mercy towards all  - "strangers." - Remember how Israel perceived itself in Egypt? 

Apis was the most popular of the three great bull cults of ancient Egypt (the other bull gods being -- Mnewer and Bakha --)  Now, I think we may have an answer to the origin of the use of this idiom.  Perhaps this was Paul's reference in Philippians 3:8 in the King James Version.  - I'll let you look it up later.

OK, unlike the cults of most of the other Egyptian deities, the worship of the Apis bull was continued by the Greeks and thereafter, the Romans until almost 400 A.D.  Which I'm sure was brought to an end, do to the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, under Christianity.

Now, as I had mentioned, Bull worship was paramount in Ancient Egypt, and since the Israelites had spent some 400 years within the influence of Egyptian Culture, there were obviously influences effecting HOW the Israelites would perceive the concept of "God."  This, placed together with their focused trade in the land of Goshen, it should be of no surprise that this would be the image that they chose in the desert of Sinai.

However, the Bull was not only specific to Egyptian Culture.  The idea was amalgamated and evolved through the surrounding cultures to manifest THEIR image of WHO god was.  Due to man's separation from the presence and intimate knowledge of God, man was left to his own vain imagination to who he thought "God," was, and what his nature was.

Let me teach you something about Religion.  In the Ancient World, Religion was based upon prosperity.  If a family, or a nation was prosperous, others would look to "What made you so prosperous?"  Since the Ancient Man was so influenced by the concept of deity support, they simply accepted that if you were successful, then therefore "Your god, was god," or at least most powerful among the gods.

As each family/nation would develop, they would take on the gods of more prosperous peoples to accelerate their success.  The thing about man is, is that enough is never enough, and so greed and the competitive nature would arise from such practises.  This nature would move man to attempt to please his god more, or better than the more prosperous nation, because simply this would turn that god's favour towards them. 

Ultimately, this behaviour, matched with man's vain imagination, the gods were ascribed with new and greater attributes, morphing these ideas of god to amalgamations of varying deities.

For this reason, the Bull of Egypt, and Israel's own rendering in the Wilderness of Sinai was not the end of this interaction.  In fact, the image of Molech, worshipped by the Moabites, was that of a human body with a bull's head. 

The Moabites would sacrifice their Children, demonstrating their submission to Molech, in attempts to appease him.  The Torah specifically addressed this practise directly, forbidding it.

Once again, this is why we just read in last week's parasha for Yom Kippurim:

1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: I am the LORD your God.
3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their statutes.
4 Mine ordinances shall ye do, and My statutes shall ye keep, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 18:1-4)

Israel was meant to be different.  Set apart from the other nations, Holy.  Israel's motivation wasn't prosperity based -- It was reconciliation based.  If idol worship was a man's honest attempt to reunite with The LORD, then God was going to have mercy on him, and was going to use Israel to provide that connection for reunification.  Israel was to become the oracles of God. 

However, if it was a man's motivation to be prosperous, focused upon material wealth, then he would find no beauty nor value in Israel.  God's mercy was so great that even at that rate, he was going to prosper Israel.  This prosperity, would be a sign, to provoke even those who sought wealth and material gain, but in doing so, they would learn of God's true nature.  Therefore Israel's relationship with YHVH would be a witness, even to those people, so that they would begin to learn of God's nature, and His desire to reunite with man. 

God's relationship with Israel, wasn't about Israel alone.  God was using Israel, the smallest of all nations, to be the witness to the mighty nations.

"The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people--for ye were the fewest of all peoples--" Deuteronomy 7:7

This was the meaning of Sukkot. 

"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." James 4:10

He shall exalt you.  He shall resurrect you.  He shall rapture you, unto himself.  Sukkot is about his return, and our reunification with Him.

This leads me to the last part of today's message, What Bull is this?
As we also read into today's Torah reading, from Numbers 29, we learn of the 70 Bulls sacrificed during Sukkot.  Each day of the 7 days of Sukkot a certain number of Bulls were sacrificed, in a count down sequence, which equalled a total of 70 Bulls, by the last day.  These 70 Bulls represented the 70 original nations of the Earth, demonstrating that this Feast was not only about Israel, but was about the reconciliation of the World back to The LORD.  If the Nations would humble themselves before the LORD, and recognize Him as LORD, then they too would be blessed.

In fact, in Zechariah 14, after The Great Battle of Jerusalem, it will be a requirement of ALL Nations to come before the LORD to the Feast of Sukkot, because it is written that if they do not, their nation will receive no rain. 

At this point in History, we will see the completion of the 2 parts of the New Covenant. 

1) The Law will be placed into our hearts, as is should be already, but also
2) We will no longer need to teach about The LORD, because all will know Him. Jeremiah 31.

As it is written: "By Myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, and shall not come back, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." Isaiah 45:23

And as it is written in Philippians 2:9-11

9Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10That at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11And that every tongue should confess that Yeshua HaMashiach is Adonai, to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, we know that Sukkot is also meant for the Gentiles, but still, WHY 70 Bulls?  Why is the sacrifice of a Bull or Bulls used to represent the Goyim (The Nations)?

Obviously, the Bull or Bovine theme for a false god, is something that stems back to the beginning of Ancient Civilization and Religion.  This image has remained a central theme for Man's View of god, since the beginning, where god is a god of "Prosperity." Even until this day, this has not changed.  The image of the Beast is still found today, as a focus point of prosperity in our Culture.  Standing in the World's Capital City, New York, on Wall Street, the centre of World Finance, stands the image of the Beast.  The Bull represents the strength of prosperity of a "Bull Market."  A bull market is associated with increasing investor confidence, and increased investing in anticipation of future price increases, and capital gains - Prosperity!

Is this our god today?  Is the Sukkah starting to make sense now?  Is the message hitting home?  Humble thyself, and The LORD will provide.  How about that, "Name it and claim it theology?"  Is this the message of our God?

Alright, as I had just mentioned previously, the worship of Apis continued right into the Church Era.  It was not until the Romans, amalgamated and morphed the concept of Messiah from "The Jewish Religion" into "Jesus Christ," did Apis loose his outward expression in Rome. 

To add to this, the image of the Bull is describe in The Book of Revelation, in regards to "The Beast."

Looking a little into Greco-Roman Theology, we begin to understand where the "Image of the Beast" stems from, in John's writing in Revelation.  The Greeks adopted the Phoenician goddess Europa, and as I had mentioned in the nature of Religion, the Greeks adapted, amalgamated, and evolved Europa to fit their own understanding.  Europa as a goddess, represented the lunar cow, at least on some symbolic level. 

She was the daughter of Agenor, and on her disappearance from Earth the Phoenicians honoured her with a temple and told a sacred legend about her; how that Zeus was enamoured of her for her beauty, and changing his form into that of a bull carried her off into Crete.  This image of Europa sitting upon a bull, which is Zeus himself, can be found on coins to this day. 

Therefore, is it not befitting that the Bull is sacrificed to exemplify YHVH's Supremacy over the Nations, and their false gods, regardless of their acknowledgement, and acceptance of it?  This is to say, that the LORD was having Israel, as A Nation of Priests, performing Priestly duties for the nations unaware.  What a merciful God we serve, Amain?

Ultimately, the Beast will be destroyed as depicted in Revelation 19:19-21:

19And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

The promise and meaning of Sukkot is that God will reveal Himself to us, and once again walk among us.  He will slay the Beast, and man will no longer chase after gods that are no gods, because All will know YHVH!

I want to leave you with one last discovery, from my study, before I conclude today.

Now, here at Chaverim, I like to share ideas within "Jewish Thought," to help you better understand and close the rift between the thoughts of our people, and "Non Jewish thought."  They are different, because of different influences.  That being stated,  when I share these ideas, they are not meant to be taken as doctrinal foundations, but rather to help assist you more within your ministry to our people.  If you do not understand how we think, how can you even speak the same language, conceptually?

Therefore, while researching the 70 Bulls of Sukkot, I came across the Gematria of the number 70.  Gematria is the term used to describe the Alpha-Numeric system of Hebrew.  Meaning that Hebrew letters are also numbers, and the words also equal additional values.  This is to say that if you add up the letters, the value of the sum, also depicts a conceptual value associated with the original word. 
Now, I am not going to endorse this use of study, however I'm not going to condemn it either, as some do, calling it "Numerology."  In this case I will fall upon Yeshua's teaching of, "It's not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him."

All this to say, if you want to play games with mysticism, and that is what you get out of it, then that is for you to work out in your own salvation.  All the while, if numbers are numbers and math is math, then take from it what you will.  I am not referring to the mystical nature of numerology.  I'm simply showing you an anomaly in Jewish thought or better "Hebrew Thought," that makes me ask my people, "Why can't you see this!?!"

The letter Ayin in Hebrew, represents the number 70.  It is also is used in place of the Alef in certain grammatical circumstances.  I've conducted some research on what the rule is regarding its use, but have not found anything conclusive, as of yet.  Perhaps some of our Hebrew students may have some light to shed on this, later at the Midrash.  Nevertheless, one rule that I did find mentioned, is that it is commonly used instead of the Alef, if the word if foreign to Hebrew.

Regardless of the grammatical rules, I believe that its use has to do with the numeric value of the letter, and for this reason it is used in place of the Alef. 

Now, here's where the Jewish thought comes in on this matter.  The Ayin is considered the symbol of The Eye.  The Eye is what we use to consider.  Our eye can lead us towards evil inclination or righteous inclination alike, and therefore works almost like a steering wheel of our will, of which the heart is steering.

Therefore Yeshua declares, "And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell."  This idea is not foreign to Jewish Thought.

Now taking this idea further, I discovered that not the letter, but the word "Ayin," in Hebrew actually means "Nothing."  It is compared to the word in Hebrew, "Yesh," which means "Something."  Therefore the Midrash on this, that we get from Berashiet, is that in the beginning there was "Ayin," (Nothing) and Elohim spoke, "Let there be Yesh." (Something) and that "Something" was "The Light."  Yesh is also the root word of Yeshua (Salvation).  Yeshua's name in Hebrew is spelt Yod, Shin, Vav, Ayin.  Which depicts "Something," from "Nothing."  The very concept of "Creation."

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)

The LORD has come to reconcile us to Himself.  Once again, this is the meaning of Sukkot.  It is believed that He was born during this season, and many believe that He will return during this season.  I know, and I will not argue the matter that "No man knows the day, nor the hour," but none the less, we should always be ready for His return.  Therefore, I'll state it again.  As you sit in your Sukkah, during this festival, remember why we are to be able to see the heavens.

25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  Luke 21:25-28

Chaverim - We're almost there.  Halalujah!

The one who is testifying to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon!"  Amen!  Come, Yeshua Adonai!  May the grace of Adonai Yeshua be with all!  - Revelation 22:20-21

May the LORD Bless you during this Sukkot, and may we see His Return soon.