Torah: Shemot (Exodus) 33:12 – 34:26; Haftarah Shabbat Pesach: Ezekiel 37:1-44
THE FOURTH CUP OF PASSOVER
This Shabbat is the fifth day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread – Hag haMatzot. We have partaken of the Matzah and of the Cup. We have understood the meaning and the fulfillment of these elements in the death and the resurrection of Yeshua.
But THE FOURTH and FINAL CUP of the Passover stands for a future event. Traditionally it stands for “I will take you to Me for a people.” It is this cup that cements the relationship through the Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai that turned the family of Jacob into the nation of Israel, as God had promised to Abraham, to Isaac and also to Jacob, and took this group of people to be His chosen people, or nation, forever.
At His last Seder, Yeshua did not drink this fourth cup because in its Messianic significance, it is the CUP OF RAPTURE. It symbolizes the taking us out of this world into the clouds of the air at the event called the “Rapture” in Latin, or “Harpazo” in Greek, to be God's people forever. We will then return with Yeshua in glorified bodies, even as He was after His resurrection, to witness Israel's national reception of Him and to dwell with Him in Jerusalem. Zechariah in chapter 12, verse 10 foresee this event: "’And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, the Spirit of grace and supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced.’ And they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born." God will pour out His Spirit upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jewish people. They will be baptized first with the Holy Spirit baptism. They will know Yeshua as Messiah through this baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace and supplication.
It is grace to know that we are not saved by our works - even those commanded on the Torah - because Yeshua kept all the requirements of the Torah perfectly for us, so that we can be saved by His atoning work alone. But it is grace as well to know that we must make supplication and give Him thanksgiving from the depths of our hearts.
But the above verses are also about the intense mourning that the Jewish people will have for the One that was pierced and crucified under the authority of their leaders. The bitter weeping, the mourning which cannot be described as anything but the greatest mourning that people can have for an only son, for a first-born. We read what will happen next in chapter 13, verse 1: "'In that day [in that moment when they will recognize Yeshua as Messiah] a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, for sin and for impurity. And it will come about in that day,' declares the Lord of hosts, 'that I will cut off the names of the idols from that land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.'" God is going to cause the filthiness and idolatry to pass away from Israel, and He is going to cause a fountain to spring up that all Jewish people, after they have been baptized by the Holy Spirit - coming to faith in Yeshua, are going to walk under this fountain for the water baptism as a symbol of their purification.
That fountain will be opened up in Yerushalayim and everybody shall give testimony to their faith in Yeshua and to the cleansing that is happening. In that day there will no longer be an idol in the land of Israel, no one will say that Talmud is as authoritative as the Tanakh. The unclean spirit will leave the land and they will follow the Lord and only the Lord.
Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 24 says: “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I give to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God." God is intending not only to bring them to the land of Israel and to save them, but also to baptize them by sprinkling them with water.
Water symbolizes the word of God, therefore, water baptism is a testimony and also an identification with that which you are baptized into. This is what Romans chapter 6, verse 3, tells us: "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah Yeshua have been baptized into His death?" There is an identification with Him in baptism, with the belief in the living waters - the Bible - and with His death and resurrection - the symbolism of the third cup.
Therefore, the four cups of Passover symbolize our entire Messianic life from the day we are born again to the day we will dwell in His Presence.
Shabbat joy, peace, and blessings! Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesah Sameach!
