Passover Part 5: Our Chief Cornerstone
I'm back Friends! This time I want to "build" some background for you (pun intended) about thresholds, foundation stones, and corner stones. I will warn you that the resource excerpts that I will be using from The Threshold Covenant can be quite disturbing. I do not share them as a form of entertainment, I assure you. My purpose for sharing is to reflect a clearer perspective as to Biblical texts about "The Rock" and "Our Chief Cornerstone." Those are terms that should have given ancient peoples some pretty GIGANTIC clues about Messiah Yeshua. And without ancient context, Western minds easily overlook those clues.
We have spent quite a bit of time so far learning the rite of the threshold covenant, understanding the significance of The Door, and realizing that animal sacrifices took place as a form of worship in homes and in the Tabernacle.
Recall that this threshold covenant began with YHVH, was perverted in the worship of pagan gods, and was once again take back by YHVH at the time of the exodus.
Unfortunately, the pagan worshipers kept it as well.
It continued to be used in pagan worship, as a way to honor guests, and in superstitions.
The most unfortunate part, is that sacrifices were not always of the animal variety. Horrifically, the ancients....all the way up to fairly modern times (the last documented time I could find in writing took place in 1876 in Alaska), sometimes included human sacrifice.
You may be familiar with an ancient example from the books of Joshua and 1st Kings. Trumbull tells of it this way:
“There is, indeed, a suggestion of this idea in the curse pronounced by Joshua, when he destroyed the doomed city of Jericho, against him who should rebuild its walls, he not being in covenant with and obedient to the Lord. “Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: with the loss of his firstborn shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.” A later record tells of the fulfilment of this curse. It says of the reign of Ahab: “In his days did Hiel the Bethel-ite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub; according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun.”
Human sacrifices, in order to furnish blood at the foundations of a house, or of a public structure, have been continued down to recent times, or to the present, in some portions of the world; and there are indications in popular tradition[…]”
Excerpt From: H. Clay Trumbull. “The Threshold Covenant; or, The Beginning of Religious Rites.” iBooks.
I don't know about you, but I had always wondered about that.... Naively, I just assumed that the sons were killed in construction accidents.
Nope
They were sacrificed
By their father
Are you following me, Friends?
It was well-known by the ancients that homes, temples, public building, city gates...all of these things had to be built on a foundation of blood. As I read through Trumbull's book, there were many examples of human sacrifice...including the most horrific of all...children.
Again, if it feels like I am leaving a few things out, I am. There is too much to cover about this topic to address it without you doing your own additional research. I encourage you to read your Bible cover to cover and download Trumbull's book. I am only giving you the "crash course" cliff notes. Back to the blog...
So...when the ancients read Psalm 118:22, they were thinking things that have NEVER crossed our Western minds.
The very rock that the builders rejected
has become the
Cornerstone!
Psalm 118:22
Our ancient fathers knew that cornerstones were laid on a foundation of blood.
This was a clue to Israel, that her Messiah would suffer and die a sacrificial death in order to lay a proper foundation to build The Kingdom of God.
And those builders who rejected The Cornerstone...
Peter calls them out in Act 4:11 -- He tells a group of builders that THEY rejected the Chief Cornerstone.
Who was in that group? Who were those "builders?"
On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent.
Acts 4:5-6
They missed Him.
The builders... The very people who held the sacred scriptures and had the clues in their hands ... missed recognizing their Messiah.
This gives me pause, Friends.
If rulers, elders, the high priest, and all who were of high priestly descent missed seeing that Messiah Yeshua was the Son of YHVH and the Chief Cornerstone, we must be very careful - and humble, "For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly won't spare you!" Romans 11:21
May we examine the scriptures and ourselves to make sure we recognize Messiah Yeshua...in His first advent and when He comes again. May we not be like the arrogant builders who missed Him, but instead, be always searching, adjusting our lives to the scriptures, confessing our sins, and turning our lives toward the Chief Cornerstone.
As we continue to move toward Passover, may we remember that Messiah Yeshua is:
- The Sacrificial Lamb
- The Blood of the Covenant
- The Doorway
- The Chief Cornerstone
May we celebrate this year with a deeper understanding of the rite that took place in the original exodus from Egypt (the physical), and how it teaches us to recognize the exodus from sin and death to life through trust in Messiah Yeshua (the spiritual).
May We:
- Ask Yeshua to be our Sacrificial Lamb
- Be covered by His Blood
- Walk through the Doorway of Yeshua
- Be part of the Temple built on the foundational blood of Messiah Yeshua
And may we not trample His precious blood, but walk through The Doorway with awe and reverence at His gift and YHVH's amazing plan for Salvation.
So now that we have learned more of the background of the threshold covenant rite and how The Father used it to teach His people, let's move forward and look at what a Passover celebration may look like in our day. Interested....
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Passover Part 6: What the Bible Says
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