Holy Week Bible Wonder - Bound to Freedom/Donkey Feast

Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?

I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises, but the stars never fall? Why dry land is never satisfied by water?

And why fire never says enough? What a Bible feast we're going to have today as God has given me an unbelievable feast in so many different ways and I'm going to illustrate that with a story to begin with. I worked hard and ate fish and did a lot of things that I was supposed to do in order to get my blood sugar down.

So this morning when I woke up, my blood sugar was at 88, which for me is spectacular. And so, you know, it kind of set up the idea that I could eat a special breakfast, you know, to have a feast. And so I had such a feast in his word this morning, and it's interesting that I would have a feast in his word this morning because last night I went to pick up my wife at the airport in Charlotte, which for me, if you don't know, is, you know, a couple hours away. And so I didn't get home until midnight, which means that I slept late and I had this pressure to go to work and I didn't think I could spend much time in the Bible, but as I entered into that special place that I get to be with the Lord, he said, Robbie, let it go, man.

Just let go of that burden that you have to go to work and just, you know, text your boss and tell him you got home late, you overslept so you could have your normal time with me. And I was like, okay. And when I did that, oh, man, now the freedom that came from that is I lose that burden, interestingly, that has everything to do with this feast that we're going to eat and has everything to do with these donkeys that we're going to get to here in a minute. But as I lose that then, and then they came the idea that I could have this phenomenal time in Genesis 49, which we're going to get to in a minute. But after I had my phenomenal time in Genesis 49, I went to making my feast. And so I had so much wonderful feedback on my feast, my coffee that I drink every morning with all the different spices, which in its way is a feast before I ever got to my breakfast feast. And of course, the recipe for my spiced coffee and all that is it at christiancarguy.com as well. But this is my breakfast feast like I've never had one before.

And so it was just cool. And I'm going to share with you the ingredients. And so I've learned recently that if you just take a shredder and you shred some orange peel along with it, you know, about a quarter of an orange and you shred some apple with about a quarter of the apple. And then you add some and again, I like fruit. And so I put some blackberries in there, some raspberries and some blueberries, just two or three of each of those. And then I cut up two strawberries to go with all my berries.

And then I took some tofu, you know, about one serving of tofu of the medium soft tofu. And I put that all in the bottom of this bowl with all the berries and the apples and the oranges. And then, you know, kind of squish that together after I'd cut up the berries. You know, I'd squished it all together with a spoon to create this phenomenal I mean, it's just a phenomenal paste that smells like apples and oranges and berries and then all that. So I had raspberries and blackberries and blueberries and strawberries, all that in there with my tofu. And then I cooked some oatmeal.

Of course, I didn't use any salt because I'm trying to cut down on my salt and I just cook some oatmeal and regular, you know, couple of servings is what I actually eat. So it was a pretty big bowl of oatmeal to go with all that that space that I'd made and then maybe an eighth of a cup of half and half to make it nice and creamy. Oh, my goodness. And so you may be wondering, you know, why am I make you hungry this morning? Well, this feast, I mean, it was a feast as I was sitting there and then I was taking communion, which I just love to do after that. But as I was eating this, I couldn't help but note the feast of God's word.

Right. So when we get into this passage, you're going to know that we're going to see something in Genesis forty nine. And that was kind of the oatmeal of the deal, because that's mostly what we're going to be eating. But then we had some stuff from Matthew twenty one, which is a triumphal entry. We had stuff from Zachary nine. We have stuff from judges five. In other words, God's word is like eating a feast.

Right. Because we were having a little bit of apples and a little bit of oranges and we were having some oatmeal and we were having some tofu. And then we mixed in some cream, a little Leviticus. And in other words, there's just it's amazing how that happens. But when you think about it, you know, God's people are. A feast, right, because if you're like me and you walk with a bunch of wonderful brothers, you know, there's there's some that are oatmeal and there's some that are raisins. And there are some that are all sorts of different things that you just know, you know, from experiencing them, that this is a very diverse group of folks. And that's, you know, the beauty of the body of Christ. And so interestingly, what he did the same thing with the plants and he did the same thing with the animals, as I was sitting there looking at my corgi dog this morning, whose name is Corgi. You know, how cool is it that he provides such a feast in so many different ways? So to dive in after that long explanation to Genesis forty nine, what I was reading is I've been pondering these donkeys for years and years and years.

Right. Because there's in Matthew twenty one, it says that, you know, Jesus told his disciples. To go and and they would see that there would be a donkey in the fall of a donkey that would be tied together and to lose them and to bring them unto him. Well, one of the things to add to that that has always just piqued my curiosity is I had this very wonderful Jewish friend who was from Israel and fought for Israel. It was actually like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner for there had only been like eight or ten people ever win that medal in the Israeli war, in the in the war against Egypt and all that and whatever that was.

Sixty nine. Anyway, he talked about the peace that was in Jerusalem when Netanyahu was made prime minister was like the white donkey of the Messiah. And so I'd always thought it was fascinating that from the Jewish perspective, peace comes with the Messiah and it comes on white donkeys. And the idea of that is in Judges Chapter five, verse 10.

OK, so if you look, Deborah has had this huge victory and now they're going to sing to the Lord and they're going to talk about that. That the judges and the good people, the nobles would be riding white donkeys. And of course, you know, that has to do with such peace that nobody has to worry about a war horse and that these donkeys, the color that's described as white, interestingly, is only there referred to as white. In fact, you only find it in the Bible, that one place.

And it looks more like righteousness than it does like white because whites, you know, has its own description. So I find it fascinating that the Jews are very much call this the white donkey, even though that it has to do with the righteousness that comes with whiteness. And of course, we see that in the whole story of the donkeys. But the part that I want to just, you know, you know, just hone in on, which is beautiful, is in verse 11 of Genesis 49, it says, binding his foal unto the vine and his ass his colt unto the choice vine. He washed his garments and wine and his clothes and the blood of grapes. So, interestingly, the idea of, if you study these words in Hebrew, which you know I would, and Rashi, by the way, he wrote, he waxed elegant on this verse.

I mean, he wrote more than I've ever seen him write on anything describing all that this was and how they saw it as far as prophecy for Judah and for who all that would be. So when it says his foal, that idea there is a he as or a male donkey, right? And that idea of that in Hebrew is a burden carrying beast.

Okay. And what is that burden carrying beast going to be tied to? The vine. And interestingly, when you tie your burden to the vine, it gets loosed. It's like when I tied my burden to get to work early this morning to the vine, guess what?

All of a sudden I had this tremendous freedom and ability to study God's word and enjoy the feast that he had for me as a result of tying my burden to the vine. Right. And then he says, right, and his ass is colt unto the choice vine. Well, that word ass is colt. The word asses is a she at. So it's a female donkey, but it's a spectacular word in Hebrew.

And actually it is the same word. And Rashi pointed this out. It's the same word that's used in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 40 15, which is describing the temple. And so fascinatingly, when Rashi described this verse, he talked about that, that the Messiah would build the temple, which he does. But here what he's doing is he is binding his sons, the son of this amazing opening to the temple or this this idea.

It's an aleph and a tav, which is the aleph, you know, the alpha and the omega, essentially the beginning and the end. And it's connected in faith. And so it's really a spectacular idea of this entrance.

This this female donkey is like a picture of the faithful father in a lot of ways. That's going to be there from the beginning to the end. But that in his entrance is where that happens in faith.

And see what he does is he ties. His son. Right. The word has been its son. So this idea of tying our sonship, which is just a critical part of the masculine journey and our initiation as sons. And daughters of Jesus. In other words, we tie our sonship to the choicest vine.

I mean, it's absolutely spectacular. So now when you think about what Jesus actually said in Matthew 21 is here, you're going to find these two donkeys. Right. And they're going to be tied.

The the the donkey and the son of the donkey. Right. They're going to be tied.

And what's going to happen? The Lord has need of them. Right. And so they get loosed.

Is that just a spectacular idea? And lose to do what for Jesus to to unite with them, to ride on them into Jerusalem. Right. We get the honor of being right untied now to be united with Jesus as we as we ride into the Jerusalem, which, you know, as you well know, is is is maybe you don't. That it's the Jerusalem is tied to the teaching and the Salem or Salem is tied to peace. And so he is he is tied to the teaching of peace.

I mean, what a feast is that? Right. Right. Right.

And even, you know, again, Zachariah nine giving us the same picture of the whole idea of these cults and this donkey. Right. And so when he told the disciples to go loose these that are tied.

Right. We tie our burdens to Jesus. We tie our sonship to the choicest vine.

And then he loses us to go on this adventure with him. I mean, it's absolutely a feast and it's all over the scriptures. When you think about what a spectacular thing it is, this feast of donkeys. I am so grateful that you would listen with me this morning and you had a chance to enjoy this feast again. I'm going to put the recipe for my oatmeal feast at my Web site, as well as in the show notes. And again, the Bible verses that we're using. So there's just all kinds of feasting that can go on today here in Holy Week. Thanks for listening.