The Tree of Light

And the second one is in Ezekiel 36: 26 – 28 NKJV:  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

Understanding details and importance entrenched in this picture as it links to the Scriptures quoted, and related to us as grafted in believers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, means going back to understanding the Covenant that God instated His people millenia before Yeshua came.

The History of the Covenant

Let’s start in Genesis 17: 1 – 14. Where the following stands out: the covenant was initiated by our Father, the Almighty God as stated in verse 2a NKJV “And I will make My covenant between Me and you…”. Then God continues and in Gen 1: 10 – 11 NKJV: This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; ¹¹ and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. And then He continues in verse 14:  And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

This is therefore very serious, that we carry a sign in our flesh that shows that we are in covenant with the most High God, the God who created the universe. This is so serious that we see in Exodus 14 that even Zipporah, a Midianite, understood that is of utmost importance to be circumcised in order to live in covenant with God, in order to LIVE! Ziphhorah wanted to save her son and I have a feeling that she did not enjoy doing this.

Exodus 14: 22 – 26(NKJV): Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.” And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.

Then in Joshua 5 after the Israelites has again walked dry foot through a water barrier into a new territory, the promised land, God instructed Joshua at Gilgal to circumcise the sons of Israel for a second time. Joshua 5: 2, 4- 10 NKJV(quoted partially):

² At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”…. ⁴ And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died …….. ⁵ For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, …….had not been circumcised. ⁶ For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord……….. Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way…..⁹ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day. ¹⁰Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.

Jesus Christ, the תא, mediator of God’s covenant

And this finally brings us to the Passover, the time when Yeshua was crucified, died and rose again, when He became the final blood offer to our God, the Creator of the Yeshua. The One who redeems our sins, who paid the price so that we, via the covenant that our heavenly Father installed in Genesis 17, can become His children, His covenant keeping people. Remember everytime the Israelites was going through the process of being set free, the first borns had to be circumcised (Exodus 14 and finally Joshua 5). Every time there was a knife, a cutting and blood.

Now in Revelations 1:5 and 8(NKJV) states the following: “⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood…..⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” The description of Jesus continues in Revelations 1:16 – 18: ¹⁶ He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.¹⁷ And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Going back to the Hebrew, the Alpha and the Omega is the Aleph(א) and the Tav(ת)and the תא, is Jesus, the sign of the covenant. John 1:1 states: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” and Revelations 19:13 says:  “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” For more in depth study of the above refer to https://www.cepher.net/on-the-aleph-tav.aspx

Revelations 22:13-14:  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the  Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. And having established all of this, what the covenant is about, and who Jesus is, brings me back to the picture I saw and its relation to our covenental life, walking with our God.

The New Covenant

When we look at the pattern of the covenant as described in the previous paragraph we see that God initiated it, that the sign of the covenant was made by the cutting of flesh with a knife. And this brings us back to the original picture. The middle branch of the menorah is refered to as the servant branch, the one that is used to light all the other branches and it is called the תא, aleph tav. However, we also established that Jesus is the Word of God, and that from His mouth proceeded a sharp – edged sword. Jesus, when He was baptised received the Spirit of God

Add to this that Jesus is the Son of God, who was baptized and received the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3: 16 -17^{: 6} When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. ¹⁷ And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The Tree of light …..and life conclusion