Massei, Journeys, Stages
B’midbar (Numbers) 30:1 – 36:13
Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 1:1 – 2:3; 2:4-28; 3:4; 4:1-2
Matthew 5:33-37; Jacob (James) 4:1-12; Philippians 3:7-21
Where are the people of Yah headed during these troubled times of confusion and uncertainty? Is there any kind of prophetic road map that the Scriptures lay out for our journey into the future? One question I’m hearing from our mishpocha to their leadership is: “What is our direction?”
The Road Map of Massei
Studying the forty-two camps of Israel, I see two layers of prophecy in the journeys of the Israelites. One is on the individual level being born again and then embarking on a spiritual journey in life following the Messiah Yeshua. The forty-two camps give us directions and examples on how to navigate the wilderness experience of life as a believer in YHWH our Elohim – how to come into the New Covenant and walk out Torah.
Another layer is on the soon return of the exiles of Israel from all over the world back to the Promised Land. The prophecies describe this future journey as the ‘greater exodus.’ The event will be so great that at that time when ‘it is no longer said:
“YHWH lives Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.” Rather, it will be said, ”YHWH lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again to their land that I gave unto their fathers.” Jeremiah 23:7-8
It’s an exciting time to live! Our journeys are preparing us for a greater journey to come. Let’s get ready for this great adventure! Our Messiah, the Good Shepherd, has yet to return the sheep of the House of Israel back to occupy all of the Land that He has promised to His people in the Torah portions Mattot and Massei. ‘Massei’ comes from the Hebrew word ‘nasa,’ meaning ‘to lift up, to pull stakes, to go on a journey.’ ‘NASA’ by no coincidence conjures up a spacecraft lifting up from the earth.
When YHWH moves us on in life, He lifts us up, empowering us to move forward, even if we’d been weak and weary. He always has a purpose in the journey for our good and a planned destination in mind. Abba’s plan is like a road map for the journey ahead of us.
Let’s begin by considering just the first three of the forty-two camps:
1. Rameses: Deliverance from the City of the Sun gods
This was the first camp of Israel down in Egypt in Goshen the children of Israel pulled up stakes to begin their journey. It was here where the new nation began their journey. They had been delivered from enslavement by the mighty hand of YHWH.
‘Rameses’ means ‘child of the sun.’ The children of Israel were delivered from a place of sun god worship where they had been in bondage to a tyrannical ruler. Today we live amid a societal enslavement system of sun god worship and worsening tyranny.
When I first came into the faith of Hebrew Roots, my eyes were opened by books like ‘Too Long in the Sun’ by Richard Rives (see toolong.com) and the teachings of evangelists like Michael Rood of the Rood Awakening (see aroodawakening.tv).
My journey started in a place of sun gods from where my Savior had delivered me.
Before coming out of sun god worship, I had applied the blood of the Lamb to the doorposts of my heart and soul. I repented for worshiping the gods of this world. My first Passover-like experience was when I first heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He delivered me from slavery to my lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
Having been baptized by the Holy Spirit, I was then ready to leave my Rameses. From the testimonies I’ve read and heard, many of us similarly started our journeys.
When the greater Exodus begins, prophecies describe the world to be judged and to be plagued to a greater degree than Egypt had experienced. The judgments will not only destroy sun god worship and other enslaving systems of the world but will break the bonds of enslavement from off our necks, so that we may go to the mount and worship our Elohim as a set-apart people. Thank Yah – mercy triumphs over judgment!
2. Sukkot: The Place to Prep for Camping Together
The very first place the children of Israel stopped on their journey to Mount Sinai was a place named ‘Sukkot.’ Historians do not agree on where it was located. Some say it was a camp just outside of Rameses, where all the children of Israel gathered for the next stage of the journey. Another historian claims it was about a day’s journey to copper and turquoise mines, where many Hebrew men were working to be picked up on the way. Another claims Sukkot was an ancient mercantile city where the sons of Israel could purchase tents and camping supplies with the loot they got from the Egyptians.
One thing we do know for sure is its name and what that name means to Yah’s people. The singular ‘sukkah’ means a booth, a protective covering as a temporary shelter.’ It’s where we get our English word ‘shack’. We know these temporary shelters to be later called ‘tents’ – ‘ohelim’ in the Hebrew text. Tents were portable shelters that were ‘nasa’ – pulled up when departing and set up when settling down. Sound familiar Sukkoters?
YHWH had their tents arranged in an orderly fashion as recorded in Numbers chapter two. We know that the camp ‘Sukkot’ meant a place where the children of Israel first camped together in tents at the beginning of the first exodus according to the orders of YHWH.
It is obvious from the text that the children of Israel camped at Sukkot during the seven-day spring festival of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, thematically connecting the camp with the one other seven-day festival – called ‘Sukkot.’ YHWH commanded that the observance of the fall festival of Sukkot be connected to the first exodus journey in tents:
‘You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am YHWH your God.'” Leviticus 23:42-43
The Hebrew word for the festival is ‘mo’ed,’ meaning ‘appointment, a time that is repeated time after time’ (Ancient Hebrew Lexicon, Jeff Benner). ‘Mo’ed’ means a ‘fixed time, a festival, a season’ (Strong’s #H4150). Think of it as a repeated, fixed festival time.
The concept of a ‘fixed time’ is in the sun, moon, and stars being created on the fourth day for ‘signs and seasons (mo’edim). As fixed as the moon orbiting the earth is the fixed time of the seventh month when the moon is full, which happens on the 15th day, which begins the seven days of Sukkot. Why would we not observe a fixed time every year relegated by the sun and moon, regardless of where we are living on this planet?
As for my wife and I, we love to keep every commandment the best we can. Unlike the wind of doctrine blowing in our community today that the festivals are not to be kept in exile, but in the Holy Land only, this commandment refutes that. YHWH our God commanded us to keep it so that we may know that He had the children of Israel to live in booths (tents) when He brought them out of Egypt. In Hebrew, to know something is by doing it.
The name of the second camp ‘Sukkot’ reinforces that connection. He wants us to make.
The camp ‘Sukkot’ was not in the Promised Land, but coming out of exile on their way to the Land. That first exodus is a shadow picture of a greater exodus soon to come.
I believe that if we don’t keep Sukkot here in exile, we will not be ready or inclined to keep it with our mishpocha when the greater exodus begins here in exile. If you don’t believe we should keep Sukkot until we are in the Land, will you join your brethren in the first camp of our exodus back to the Land? It’s better to come to terms with this now.
That first camp of the journey is called ‘Sukkot’ in this Torah portion. I tend to agree with Monte Judah that when the greater exodus begins, we will be gathering together and camping with those we have kept Sukkot with before, maybe in the same location as he teaches, but maybe not necessarily. We shall see. But wouldn’t it be good to camp together during Sukkot in a way that best observes the first exodus to learn how to live in a community for at least one week once a year? If we don’t, how will we work out the differences that arise only when we’ve been living together communally for a time?
Please mishpochah, let’s keep the festival of Sukkot together and get prepared for what’s coming. Even unbelievers who prep say that one of the necessities of prepping is to be a part of like-minded people in a community. In my opinion, there’s no better way to become part of a community when we’re so scattered across the Mid-Valley than to enjoy Sukkot together as closely to the commandments as we possibly can keep them.
3. Etam: The Place of the Alef Tav Covenant
Etam was the camping site ‘on the edge of the wilderness’; the place where YHWH’s permanent and visible presence was with them. “With them’ is the meaning of the name ‘Etam’ according to Brown-Drivers Briggs. Read on after they went from Sukkot to Etam:
YHWH was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. Exodus 13:21-22
Etam may also be connected to the Egyptian word ’htm’ which means ‘wall, fortress’. The children of Israel were hemmed in by the mountains around them and the Red Sea ahead of them, but they didn’t realize how the glory cloud would be a wall or fortress protecting them from Pharoah’s army in hot pursuit. YHWH was ‘with them’. He had them covered and protected with His glory cloud, so why should they fear Pharaoh?
But to walk within the protective covering of YHWH of Hosts, the children of Israel had to be in a covenant relationship with the Almighty. Without the two parties meeting the terms of the covenant, protection from their enemies would not be afforded them. Establishing a covenant with the people was paramount to the Covenant Maker, Yeshua the Messiah, the Angel Who went before them, the Glory Cloud manifested Presence, Who abode ‘with them’ at Etam. Yeshua is the Giver of the Torah covenant.
Where do we get an understanding of the covenant relationship? In the paleo-Hebrew of ‘Etam’, the name is spelled ‘Alef Tav mem.’
It is rare to see Alef Tav in a name anywhere in the Scriptures.
We know from Yeshua’s three declarations recorded in the Book of His Revelation (Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13) that He is not just the Alpha and the Omega, but in the mother tongue – He is the Alef and the Tav.
Yeshua is the One Who is the Giver of the Torah and the One Who made the New Covenant in His blood with His people. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:18). Well, one may say, the first exodus was long before His first coming. So how could Yeshua make a covenant relationship with Israel?
The sons of Israel had to be obedient, slay the lamb, and apply the blood upon the doorposts. I believe they entered into the same covenant we have through faith in the Savior of the world to come – Yeshua the Messiah in His first coming. The Passover Lamb and His covenant work of redemption are encapsulated in the Alef Tav, meaning in paleo-Hebrew – the power of the cross, the power of the sign of the covenant. This is what Yeshua offers by His mercy and grace to whosoever would believe in Him.
The children of Israel had obeyed the commands for Passover and put their trust in Yah Who saves, the Name of Yeshua. They were saved by grace through the same faith.
Etam, being the third camp during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, eludes to the Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection according to the sign of Jonah.
The power of the covenant secured their relationship with YHWH with Him being a Refuge of protection and the Provider for His people.
People are often symbolized by a mass of water, like a sea, in the Scriptures. The letter mem pictures a mass of water that reproduces like the waters of a womb. The name ‘Etam’ is spelled with a mem on the end: alef, tav, mem. Put the paleo meanings all together now and you get – the Alef Tav people, the people under the strong sign of the covenant, under the power of the cross of the Messiah Yeshua. That’s who I want to be!
To overcome our adversary, the accuser of the brethren, in the wilderness experience, we will have to overcome in the way that the Word says:
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. Revelation 12:11
Denying ourselves, picking up the cross, and following our Good Shepherd Yeshua by faith in Him is the only way to make it to the Promised Land. That’s what the paleo picture of ‘Etam’ means to me. To survive communal living in tents and traveling through the wilderness, we’ll have to not love our lives even when faced with death.
Why would we be willing to do that? What does that mean for a follower of Yeshua?
Yeshua loved not His life when faced with death on the cross. By the power of His love, He laid His life down to be ‘with them.’ By the power of His love, imitating Yeshua, we will have to be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren we are in covenant relationship. What would you and I do for a brother facing adversity and death?
We will have to camp at Etam. I believe that’s when the glory cloud will appear to a people who are crucified with Messiah, sojourning by the Spirit in the power of His might.
We will have to trust Him to deliver us from our Red Sea experience when the enemy comes in like a flood. In an inverse miracle to the parting of the Red Sea, the prophetic great sign in the heavens (it’s been seen back in September of 2017) will become reality. That road sign also mapped out what’s coming. Read and heed! It will be awesome!
Hopefully, now you have the unction of the Spirit to explore other prophetic meanings of the forty-two camps in the wilderness. We’re going to face the harshness of the wilderness – lack of water, no meat to eat, the complaining erev rav (the mixed multitude), Amalekites attacking the stragglers – everything the children of Israel experienced.
But thank Abba for the Torah! He’s given us examples to learn from, which builds up our faith in Him. Be in the Word, build up your faith in our Messiah, and love Him and others with all you got! The great tribulation is on the way, but by the power of the cross and by the New Covenant in His blood, the Almighty will bring us through to the Promised Land.
Glory be to YHWH our Elohim and our Savior and Deliver, Yeshua the Messiah!
Blessings be to you, Alef Tav people!
David Klug