Category: Understanding Torah

Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 156 (The Dead Messiah and Stickin’ Chickens)

Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 156 (The Dead Messiah and Stickin’ Chickens)

by | Jun 16, 2025 | , , , , | 0 |

I have chickens. They are not my chickens. They belong to the neighbor. He already had chickens in a chicken coop. Now he has ten more chickens. They are not in the chicken coop. They are in my yard. My flowers. Digging holes in the yard and around the foundation of the house. Pooping on the porch. Hanging out.

I tried playing red-tail hawk sounds really loud. I tried taking watermelon rinds and veggie scraps over to their property, but they still lurk in the shady spots and follow me around every time I go outside to work. They just stick around.

It took me a whole day to lay chicken wire under the flower bed mulch to keep them from destroying my carefully designed and freshly-planted flower beds.

We let the neighbor know, but so far, we still have sticken’ chickens.

I even told them the story of when Billie Idol went missing, but while they enjoyed story time, they don’t connect Billie’s demise to their current situation.

Chickens are like that.

When I was four years old, my first pet was a chicken named Slicker.

Grandma’s cat Fuchsia ate it.

I didn’t connect a cat to Slicker’s current situation.

I was telling a good friend about our sticken’ chickens yesterday, and we were chatting about the danger of Moses’ forty days of absence on the mountain. The Israelites and mixed multitude pretty much gave up on his return. In spite of every miracle they’d seen, they couldn’t wait forty full days for the next one. Not only that, they started breaking the Big Ten. An idol. Sexual immorality. You know the story. They’d been delivered from slavery in Egypt; they’d been immersed as a congregation in the Reed Sea; they’d witnessed the glory of Adonai and agreed to His covenant at the mountain…and yet, they had sticken’ chickens from Egypt. They went right back to feeding slavery to sin.

“For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea…” (1 Co 10:1-2)

The tunnel of the Reed Sea was like a birth canal. Immersion has always been a symbol of a resurrection that is more than symbolic. On the Third Day of Creation was a birth of life from the water to fruit trees. On the dawn of the Seventh Day of Passover, the Israelites completed a supernaturally fast, effortless journey through the Reed Sea.

Likewise, immersion (mikveh) is undertaken as a rebirth. The pattern is this:

• Water represents spirit (as does fire)

• The earth is the substance of mankind, adam

• When YHVH turns the sea into dry land as a way of escape, that which was spirit became substance/flesh in order to provide a new beginning for Israel/mankind, a resurrection from the sin decay of mere earth to earthly life with the spirit, a promise of wholeness and perfections completed from above

• New life follows a mikveh in Messiah, the Great Hand of YHVH.

This is the mystical picture of the Reed Sea. When YHVH turned the sea into dry land, he figuratively resurrected the Israelites. When the natural body dies, it returns to the earth. In Messiah Yeshua, the bared arm of YHVH, mankind is resurrected from earth through water.

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” (Ro 6:1-7)

When we turn back to sin, we’re not quite dead enough.

Few who entered the Reed Sea mikveh entered as newborns in physical age; Israelites and the mixed multitude entered in various stages of aging. In that sense, we understand why a mikveh symbolizes rebirth, yet it is available to all ages for their various reasons.

Regardless of the age entering it, emerging from the mikveh is a re-set upon emerging. Immersion is a type of resurrection, especially as the water becomes the “dry land” of burial. It is a fresh start for a newborn who has yet to choose sin.

Purities of obedience begin in the home…

“There are seven dwelling places listed in the Seder Gan Eden, and in each there is a righteous woman who teaches the Torah: Batyah, daughter of Pharaoh, Yocheved, mother of Moses, Miriam, sister of Moses, Huldah the Prophetess, Abigail, David’s wife, and beyond this point, the matriarchs, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.” In one source, those who enter Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden) go through four transformations through their learning experience. Upon entry, the righteous individual is changed into a child and tastes the joys of childhood (Raphael, p. 187)… “When the Torah was first given, it was taught to the women first. It is written, ‘Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob’ – the women – ‘and tell the sons of Israel’ (Ex 19:3).” (Kaplan, p. 59)

Whether literal or not, the principle is that purity and obedience are first learned in the home, the domain of the mother: “My son, observe the commandment [mitzvah] of your father, and do not forsake the teaching [torah] of your mother.” (Pr 6:20)

Yeshua reiterated how important childhood is in entering the Kingdom without a habit of sin, without the pride of rebellion against the Word.

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:1-4)

The humble child is like a slave, not yet inheriting, yet he/she already has everything. Children of every age are equal, yet honor and responsibility according to growth age.

There is no least or greatest in that sense. All are children. All begin as little children and need time to experience spiritual childhood because of its pure joy and lack of responsibility. Just because a child is precocious doesn’t mean he/she is ready for the keys to the Kingdom.

The Hokey Pokey of Eden

Yeshua said, “Unless you be “converted” and become like children…”

?????? stréph?; to twist, i.e. turn quite around or reverse (literally or figuratively):—convert, turn (again, back again, self, self about).

“Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything…”(Ga 4:1)

Immersion into Messiah Yeshua mimics this growth principle, re-setting to childhood for a new cycle, preparing the child to inherit the Kingdom. No getting around it! What the child must not do is mistake himself or herself for the slave who has no inheritance! A slave inherits nothing! A slave has Egyptian sticken’ chickens of sin. A child, though awaiting and learning in the Father’s house, will inherit the estate. The child does not serve because of his past, but because of his future.

A child who hangs around slaves, however, may believe he is a slave. He may begin to mimic sins that are not his mother’s training for the inheritance of their father…and Father.

This principle is so elementary to our faith. We must mature in our faith, learning to be holy on earth because He is holy in Heaven, our inheritance. Through repentance and conversion, constantly turning around to live innocently according to the “new man” that was immersed in Messiah, we can mature in the Word to inherit the Kingdom:

“Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.” (He 6:1-8)

That’s horrible. Our continued sin crucifies and shames Yeshua again! It is as if we are among those screaming, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” It is as if we whipped Yeshua, spit on him, and drove the nails into his hands and feet. We are false witnesses, for while in one breath we speak of Messiah Yeshua, in the next breath we sin as if Yeshua is dead. If he is alive, we are his little children, learning, repenting, correcting, and trusting Yeshua the Living Word is alive in us. If we practice sin, we proclaim the death of Messiah, but not his resurrection.

If we don’t believe Messiah Yeshua is dead, then we need to cease dead works.

Dead works, too, are a testimony, not of Messiah Yeshua’s life, but of his death.

Let the world see the life of Yeshua in us resurrect us to increasing pure, holy, and faithful works when we trip over sticken’ chickens and fall. We can do the hokey pokey and turn ourselves around, but we must make the connection to our current situation.

Although I have sticken’ chickens during the day, at night, they go home to roost. Ultimately, that’s what sin does. It returns to the one who provides it a resting place. Those kinds of chickens should find no place to rest or roost in a believer. Yeshua lives. Let the little child arise from the waters of immersion, no matter what our age. Children were Yeshua’s greatest fans, and he always welcomed them with open arms, no matter how busy he was healing, teaching, and delivering the grownups.

How does water relate to the resurrection of the whole spirit, soul, and physical body? When we make transgressions, the spirit of grace offers a path of reconciliation with our Father, our King. If we sincerely repent and immerse, we come up a new creation, a new child. Forget the Fountain of Youth-this water is WAY better! It is a fountain of youth with an eternal inheritance!

As we wait for Yeshua’s return, let us not grow weary of waiting or become vulnerable to Egypt’s sticken’ chickens. An inheritance awaits.

“For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from him.” (Wise Woman of Tekoa in 2 Sa 14:14)

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Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 155 (Walking on Water Part 6 – Water in the Rock, or Rock in the Water?)

Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 155 (Walking on Water Part 6 – Water in the Rock, or Rock in the Water?)

by | Jun 2, 2025 | , , , , | 0 |

Water in The Rock, or The Rock in the Water?

This newletter is lengthy, so let it serve for two Shabbats. There will be no newsletter next week due to visiting Jacob’s Tent services Up to the Mountain.

In the last several newsletters, we’ve taken a close look at the many prophecies embodied in Yeshua’s walk on the water of the Galilee in Matthew Fourteen. How different was Yeshua’s perception of the walk than Peter and the other disciples’! For the one who was the water in the Rock…and the Rock…in the wilderness for the Israelites, it was no problem to also be the Rock in the water to his students.

“He alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea…” (Job 9:8)

Sometimes it helps to put the Gospel of Matthew back into its original Hebrew text. While no one is certain of where that text might be (only fragments are known to survive), there is a version whose provenance can only be traced so far back in Jewish history, yet it is quite accurate considering it was used by a less-than-friendly readership. It is the Shem Tov’s Evan Bohan version from the Fourteenth Century. The differences between the Hebrew and Greek texts are not drastic.

To Yeshua, the stroll on the Galilee during the storm was perceived much differently than his students, who perceived it as dangerous, chaotic, and “contrary.” In the Hebrew Matthew version, the word for contrary is neged, or opposing, opposite. Neged has a good side, too, for Adam’s wife Chavah was his ezer kenegdo, or “helper opposite him,” which brings balance. When opposition is a helper, it is because in spite of the opposition, the overall purpose is to achieve unity walking in the Word. The opposite helper pulls the weight of the yoke beside the other, ensuring the burden does not get dragged in endless circles, but can go straight. For example, grace and truth are not opposed to one another. One cannot be practiced at the expense of the other. In Yeshua, they work together.

Sarah wasn’t such a good helper when she suggested Hagar as a solution to their problem, but she was a good helper when she advised Abraham to send away Ishmael, who had not internalized the righteousness of his father and threatened the inheritance of Isaac. The disciples did not see the waves of the storm as their ezer kenegdo, or helping opposition, but as a destructive force. They were just rowing in circles in the middle of the Galilee, taking on water.

Galilee does indeed imply circles in Hebrew, like a roll or spool, and a wave is a gal, pronounced gahl (not to be confused with other gals). This is perhaps what it has in common with the “circle of the earth,” and why from Isaiah’s prophecy, Galilee came to be called “Galilee of the Nations.” In Jewish tradition, Moses hid the Rock that followed them in the wilderness in the bottom of the Galilee before he died, which explains why Yeshua would have made his early home near the Galilee and begun his ministry there. The Rock was both the water in the Rock, the Rock, and the Rock in the water.

It also explains how Yeshua’s ministry prepared the way for the nations to hear the Gospel message from his disciples:

“But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” (Is 9:1-2)

As the region of the Galilee represented the Gentile nations in the time from Isaiah to Yeshua’s ministry, so the disciples were dispersed to proclaim the Light of the Word Yeshua to the scattered of Israel as well as the Gentiles who dwelled among the raging waves of tormenting wickedness.

Even as we are rescued, we are tested of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, who also is described as a “Helper.” An ezer kenegdo may seem contrary, yet it is a necessary instrument of contention from the Father before we officially enter into “the bond of the covenant” with Him. While we said “We will do and we will hear” at many Shavuot feasts in our wilderness of the peoples, a final reckoning under the Shepherd’s rod will occur at a future Feast of Trumpets (Rosh HaShanah) so that the bond may be sealed at Yom HaKippurim before we enter into the chuppah of Sukkot with Yeshua:

“I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord GOD. “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezek 20:34-38)

If there are rebels, they will be purged in the wilderness of the nations, but the testing and refining process will not feel good to any believer even if they are not sifted out by the test.

When we follow Yeshua, we will encounter the contrary waves of the Galilee, for we fish people in “Galilee” of the nations. For many walking with Yeshua, whether on land or sea, they realize that they are already a long distance from where they departed, but yet are quite a distance from where they are going. At this point, turning around might seem easier because that’s the way the wind is blowing. Just ride it wherever it blows, right?

It really isn’t the easiest way out of the storm, though. Hebrew Matthew 14:24 says the disciples’ boat was b’emtzah, or “in the middle of, the center of” the sea. It’s just as far to go back as it is to go forward, yet fear makes going back to the wilderness of Egypt, the starting place, seem less painful and scary than riding out the storm.

It isn’t.

When Yeshua steps into our “boat,” the journey will be over in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. “So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going” even though the text states they were three or four miles along the water (Jn 6:21), and Matthew says they were in the center of the Galilee.

Yes, going forward feels like going nowhere because every stroke of the oars meets resistance. What discouraged Peter mid-walk was that the wind was chazak, or “strong.” A strong force was at work on the Galilee. The forces that test us ARE strong. The disciples could have no better object lesson of struggle not being against flesh and blood, but against “principalities and powers in high places.” No wonder the disciples thought Yeshua might be a not-so-friendly-ghost, or in Hebrew, a sheid (demon).

On the other hand, their struggle was against flesh and blood…their own fears and limitations to act in the storm.

“But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary.” (Mt 14:24)

Two words describe the reason for the disciples’ fear: “battered” and “contrary.”

The Greek word for “battered” is:

basaniz?

The KJV translates Strong’s G928 in the following manner: torment (8x), pain (1x), toss (1x), vex (1x), toil (1x).

to test (metals) by the touchstone

to question by applying torture

to torture

to vex with grievous pains (of body or mind), to torment

to be harassed, distressed

In Sodom, Lot was also tortured by the wickedness surrounding him:

“…for by what he saw and heard, that righteous man, while living among them, felt G928 his righteous soul tormented G928 day after day by their lawless deeds)…” (2 Pe 2:8)

The disciples were figuratively among the nations, “battered” by the waves, their righteous souls tortured at the level of Sodom’s wickedness.

In the Hebrew Matthew, the wording is slightly different: “The boat was in the midst of the sea, and the waves of the sea were driving it because the wind was contrary.”

While the Greek describes the waves as tormenting the disciples, the Hebrew is dachaf, which means pushing and shoving. Who or what are these deathly tormenting, pushing, shoving, waves driven by contrary, neged wind?

“When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.” (2 Sa 22:5)

It is ungodliness that tests us just as it tested Lot and every other righteous person in Scripture. Yes, ungodliness is very frightening. Every stroke of the oar that should impel us forward to the goal meets strong resistance. We’re pushed and shoved. Faith in Yeshua, however, can cause the storm to give it a rest.

Think of this. Although it feels as though we’re not stronger than the wicked waves, going wherever the contrary ruach shoves us, the opposite is true. In the boat with faith in Yeshua, we DO have control over the direction of the boat even in the storm. Obedience to the Word is a definite direction, not drifting. When we invite Yeshua into the boat, it shortens the journey to where we’re going. The longer we struggle against it alone with our fears, the longer it will take.

Yeshua is still the Rock in the water of the nations. When we walk on his Word, we walk on a solid foundation.

And eventually, the nations will stand still and watch the salvation of YHVH like the Israelites did while Yeshua arranged the waters of the Reed Sea for their journey home. The nations will have to watch Yeshua be the cloud, the bridge, the strong hand that leads His people to their destination in the City of Comfort. When the Israelites crossed the Reed Sea, the waters below them became dry land; the waters to their right and left hardened into brick-like stone walls, and the water above them was the cloud: “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea…” (1 Co 10:1-2)

Remember this from the beginning of the “Walking on Water” mini-series:

“All the waters of the world were split when the sea was split. Ten miracles occurred at the sea. First, that it split. Second is that it was made like a dome or a roof and Israel walked under the water. The water was under, on the sides of and over Israel. Third, it was dry under them, so that Israel should not smear their feet with mud. Fourth, for the Egyptians, the earth was all mud and slime and they sank into it. Fifth, the water was congealed and hard as stone. Sixth, the water was not congealed completely, but it was congealed a section at a time. It was like large boulders, in the expectation that when the Egyptians would drown, the hard water would smash their heads, like stones. These pieces were on top of each other, like a brick wall.” (Tze’enah Ure’enah, Commentary to Beshalach)

Understanding the symbolism of the Galilee in relation to the crossing of the Reed helps us to make the connection between the Exodus from Egypt and the coming Greater Exodus. The ancient rabbis carefully read the Exodus text, and they saw the “stone wall” composition of the sea walls when it parted to make a way for Israel to cross the earth on its journey home. The pushing, shoving, tormenting waves of the world were frozen in place so that they could not move, forced to watch the salvation of YHVH’s strong right hand Yeshua as he led Israel to a supernatural existence:

“Terror and dread fall upon them;

By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone;

Until Your people pass over, O LORD,

Until the people pass over whom You have purchased.

You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance,

The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling,

The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.” (Ex 15:16-17)

When the Israelites completed their journey, the “stones” fell on one another, wicked smashing wicked.

Imagine what the gathering of Yeshua will be like. The wicked will be frozen, unable to move, while Israel exits the natural world and begins walking in the supernatural world of Eden. It’s a realm of heavenly waters where supernatural meets the natural, just above us.

Peter said to Yeshua, “If it is you, command me to ‘Bo!’”

?Yeshua said, “Bo!”

“Come up here!”

Step on up, students. There’s a Rock in the waters.

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