Chukat: Cleansing Pagan Shadows, Broken Symbols, and Waiting for the Returning King

The Hebrew Calendar Still Carries Pagan Names

Before we can understand Chukat, we need to understand when it is read. The Hebrew date of this Shabbat is in the month of Tammuz. And that word deserves attention. The names of the months used in the Jewish calendar for the last approximately 2000 years are Sumerian, Babylonian, and Canaanite names — most of them names of pagan gods. Tammuz is the worst of the Babylonian gods. He was mainly the god of the summer harvest. He died in the winter and was resurrected in the spring. The rites of worshiping Tammuz were absolutely horrible. And the Israelites adopted him so deeply that in the book of Ezekiel we read that inside the Temple in Jerusalem they had a statue of Tammuz, and the women were crying for him. If I had to describe Tammuz in terms of 21st century Christian culture, Tammuz would be the ultimate god of prosperity. Many prosperity-preaching pastors, and a few Messianic Jewish rabbis, would be very happy with Tammuz.

Modern Judaism, both in the diaspora and in Israel, has much to clean up in the process of restoration. The Protestant Reformation and the Restoration Movement that started in 1807 in Cane Ridge, Kentucky, have both failed miserably — instead of creating unity, more divisions and new denominations keep growing like poisonous mushrooms. I would like to see Jews help Christians restore the faith of the apostles and the prophets of God, and I would like to see Christians encourage Jewish disciples of Yeshua to clean up the vestiges of paganism that we have imported both to the land of Israel and to our Jewish hearts.

Moses Struck the Rock — and That Cost Him Everything

The Torah portion of Chukat contains one of the most heartbreaking moments in Moses's entire life. The people complain again about having no water. And the Lord gives Moses specific instructions:

But Moses lifts his hand and strikes the rock twice with his rod instead. Water comes out abundantly. And that one act of disobedience — striking instead of speaking — costs Moses the Promised Land.

This is the second rock-water event. The first was in Exodus 17:

The first time, God said strike. The second time, God said speak. Moses struck both times. And Paul understands what this means in 1 Corinthians 10:

Paul knew the Pharisaic midrash of the rabbis' previous generations. The Rock that gave the water, according to Paul, is the Messiah. And the Messiah, as the Rock, followed them in the wilderness.

The Brass Snake That Became an Idol

Chukat also contains the story of the plague of fiery serpents and its cure. The cure was a brass snake that was lifted up on a tall rod — and those who looked on the brass snake were cured from the snake bites and lived.

A snake wrapped around a cup or a rod is also the symbol of Asclepius, the Greek and Egyptian God of healing and medicine — which is still the symbol of medicine today. God used something that these liberated slaves were familiar with to impress them enough to believe in this strange cure, because He said so. Yeshua becomes the fulfillment of that brass snake — which in the days of King Hezekiah became an idol that Hezekiah had to take out of the Temple and destroy. We have a good thing from God that people took and made an idol of it. I fear that sometimes Christians have done the same thing with the Living Son of God, Yeshua our Messiah. They lifted Yeshua on the cross and many Christians believe in Yeshua on the cross and don't cherish this Galilean Jew, our Savior, to come off the cross — because they know that if He is off the cross He is going to use His foot and apply it to many of the Christian leaders on their behind with formidable force.

Yeshua is no longer on the cross. He is on the right hand of God running the affairs of His Kingdom.

The Second Coming — From Edom

In the first coming of the Messiah, described in Isaiah 53, He comes humble, rejected, suffering, taking our sins upon His shoulders. The second coming is described in Isaiah 63:

Edom was a code word for Rome, and later for the Roman Catholic church. He is now riding on a horse, not on a donkey. His garments are stained with blood, because the judgment that is coming is not ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. It is a horrific event that will cause death and suffering in the world.

The diaspora was and is a threshing floor that is separating the wheat from the chaff in the judgment of the Lord upon His return. I want to be among those who have cleaned up and taken the extra oil for my lamp in case the Lord is delayed and coming late.