2.27.25 ~ Costume Party 🎭

Good morning!

For me personally, the Scripture that contains the details of the Tabernacle are the most important in all the Bible. Why, you may ask? It reveals Who God is. It reveals His purpose. It reveals how He approaches me. It reveals how I approach Him. If it gives me more clarity of His function than any other section of Scripture. It teaches me how to live as a living sacrifice, how to love my honey bunny, the essence of being filled with the Spirit, how to encounter mankind, how to pray and how to prepare myself to be the Bride...and so, so, much more.

Last night's special zoom: The Tabernacle: Fine Twined Linen clean and white or 'How do I live as the Bride'? (Ex. 26:1; Rev. 19:7,8)

Let me digress.We are officially in the month of Adar. Purim is just a couple of weeks away and Passover is just around the corner! One of the main themes of Purim, found in the book of Esther, is that there’s no such thing as a coincidence.

And in our Torah portion this week, Terumah/offering, there's a link to Purim in the fine twined linen to conceal our nakedness. The Tabernacle structure is full of costumes, garments, and all the accessories of the high priest/kohen hagadol and the lay priests/kohen; the Kohen descendants of Aaron that are serving in the Tabernacle. But what is the connection between Purim, Terumah and next week's Torah portion Tetzaveh? Enquiring minds want to know :-)

The root of the Hebrew word the world/olam carries with it a hiddenness; like a garment/it covers something up.

If the truth is told, this whole world of man is a costume and a disguise because the world is purposefully or inadvertently hiding God. This whole world is a costume party, covering over the face of truth, confusing and confounding everyone by concealing the Lord's endless light (Ex. 27:20,21)

"And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure olive oil for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually. In the Tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaon and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel. (Ex. 27:20,21)

Everyone we meet, everything we go through, and everything we have to deal with, including ourselves, gets lost in this costume party. Strangely enough, it’s like we’re always in costume.  All of us are participating, whether consciously or unconsciously, in some massive lifelong production of performing arts. Shakespear said, 'the whole world is a stage, and all the men and women are merely players'. So open your heart, because this story of Purim involves the secret of costumes and seeing beyond the veneer of what is perceptible to our physical eyes. The question for me, this morning is, "will I wear the costume of fig leaves or fine twined linen?

As Deuteronomy 4:35 reminds us, there is nothing else but God:

To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him. (Deut. 4:35)

In the midst of this theater, if we could break down the barriers of costume, and let the soul of everything shine through the smoke and mirrors we might be able to remember that this world is hostage to a strange and wondrous dichotomy of remembering and forgetting. Yes, remembering and forgetting.

One of the biggest challenges this material world presents is that it is programmed for forgetting us. The Torah warns us to never forget that the Lord delivered us out of Egypt; from the house of slavery (Deut. 6:12).

"Beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." (Deut. 6:12)

What does this really mean? It means that it’s so easy to forget the most important thing of all, where we've come from! And, here, Torah is warning us against falling into those steps of forgetfulness to the point of forgetting the only thing that’s real (Deut. 4:35). Remembering this is freedom and forgetting is as the slavery of Egypt. Passover's coming!

We have a constant battle  that rages around us in this world between the power of remembering and the counter of forgetting. Our whole Sojourn in this world is tied to memory, and this Torah is full of commandments that focus on remembering.

In a parallel passage to our Torah portion (Deut. 25), we are told to remember what happened to us on the way when we were leaving Egypt and Amalek struck those of you who were hindmost. And in remembering, we are to wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. You shall not forget (Deut. 25:19).

"Therefore it shall be when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget! (Deut. 25:19)

If there's one enemy that has a greater impact than any other, it's Amalek. He's the enemy of our spiritual power of remembering/zakar.

For now, as you prepare for your work day and you dress in your work appropriate garments, remember that garments/begged are meant to cover up shameful nakedness (Gen. 3). One day, for those living the Tabernacle lifestyle, they will be clothed in fine line, clean and white (Rev. 19:7,8).

Happy 5th day of the week!

Shalom