As a young teen I did lots of odd jobs to make a little spending money.  These varied from the mundane babysitting and lawn cutting to cleaning old bricks.

A gentleman in the community who was building a house wanted a bunch of old bricks for the chimney and fireplace, so he offered me a penny or maybe two cents for every brick from a preexisting structure that I could clean.  The result was that word got around and several others had me perform the same job for them.

The cleaning basically involved a mortar hammer and a cold chisel to cut the bricks from rubble and then to chip off any mortar, thus cleaning them up.  It was time consuming and difficult work, to say the least.  Hours and hours of monotonous work for a 12-13 year old, but it was spending money.

Anyway, as I worked tearing apart and cleaning the bricks from the mantle area of this antiquated chimney, I popped a brick out and found a mercury dime!  Small treasure for most, but at the time I was learning a little from another local gentleman about coin collecting and it was hard work to make and save the money necessary to purchase additions to my little collection.  This was indeed great treasure for me!!  I was SO excited!  (I did ask the gentleman I was working for if he wanted it and he graciously let me have it.)

I still have that little dime and even now it is probably not worth more than $3, but I distinctly remember the joy over that ‘found’ treasure that represented about 200 cleaned bricks.  Unexpected riches!

Yeshua, in Luke 15, tells a parable saying,

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ ¹⁰ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

No doubt, thousands of sermons have been preached from this passage about the repenting of a sinner and the value of the coin, etc.  Still, recently, something else dawned on me as I pondered this passage.

Was He who said, “if you love Me, keep my commandments” possibly pointing to a deeper meaning?  I am finding that most Scripture is like an onion with layers of meaning.  Let me postulate a deeper meaning than the surface meaning I have heard countless times.

A woman.  How often is the church, or congregation referred to as a woman in Scripture?  Often.  A possible fit here.

Ten coins.  Several ‘tens’ in Scripture but the first two that come to mind are the ten scattered tribes, but that doesn’t seem to fit.  The Ten Commandments however, seem a perfect fit.  Very valuable.  Not lost…  well, except one.

The lost coin.  Valuable.  Worth searching for.  Hmmm…  Could it be?  The 4th commandment?

The woman, when she has found the coin “calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’”  This is the expected response!

It is interesting to note that over and over I hear from those who ‘find’ the 4th commandment the great joy they have.   To the consternation of all those around, ‘friends and neighbors,’ they tell with great zeal of the treasure now back in their possession.

My experience, being no different, has been one of finding great treasure!  Found riches of inestimable value!  The Feasts of Yahweh have been a wonderful, enriching, physical and instructive experience of my Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).  Further, the blessings of obedience have been innumerable.  This was the first of several treasures we found in the last couple years.

Shabbat was the second of the several riches.  What blessings to leave behind the doctrines and traditions of men.  Now, I don’t have to justify why Scripture doesn’t mean what it actually says!

Still another treasure among these riches I have found is the dietary instruction as described in Leviticus 11 by our loving Father.  My whole life I was taught that this was ‘bondage’ and ‘for the Jews.’  Yet, my experience has been radically different.  Yes, on occasion I miss a few of those things left behind, but in the pressing on toward the high calling of Messiah, there has been much joy, peace and blessing.  And, Scripture means what Scripture says.  No tap dancing, just simple truth!

Even now, as I ponder my new found treasures of the feasts and Shabbat, another thought teases my mind.

Is it possible to have the sizzle without the steak?  Or would that only be a vain imagining?

I was raised in a foreign/Latin culture for six of the first ten years of my life.  I experienced the richness of Colombian life by living there.  My knowledge base today, though limited by the youth of my experience, is not based on an encyclopedia of reading about the people, the culture or the food.  Neither is it based on the Travel channel or some local restaurant’s limited menu.  Rather, I experienced the culture, food and people and can still these forty years later taste certain foods or crave certain fresh fruit.  Why?  Because I lived it!

Whatever possibly made me think I could understand Pesach or Sukkot, or my Meshiach as the Passover Lamb because I read about Passover or the Feast of Booths in some Bible encyclopedia?   The richness of the lessons learned through experience the first two times my family and I celebrated these (and other) feasts added much more depth than forty years in the church including seminary and ten years in the pulpit.  Pure folly to think I could understand without experiencing the richness.  I have indeed found a treasure!

No wonder Rav Shaul (Apostle Paul) says, “Keep the feast!” and indeed, kept the feasts himself.  He further enjoins us to “follow me as I follow Messiah.”  If we are following Shaul’s example, and that of Yeshua, we will stumble right into the treasures of the Feasts of Yahweh (Feasts of the Lord), Shabbat, a healthy diet, and other blessings.

At some point we will address Shaul more deeply, but for those who would seek truth, I recommend the Pauline Paradox series.  What does Scripture really say?  Not, ‘what does your doctrine say?’

I might also recommend the rest of the RT series on this blog.  (Yes, shameless self promotion…lol!)  These are designed to help put together some other pieces of Scripture that have been hidden by doctrines of men.

Simply, pray and ask our Father to reveal Truth!!  Read with an open Bible and compare what is written with what you have been taught.  There are great riches in coming to the Truth.

Next week’s RT?  Don’t know yet, but come back for more.

May Yahweh bless you, and keep you;

May Yahweh make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;

May Yahweh lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace