In five previous blogs about the first Day of Unleavened Bread, I mentioned “the way.” How is “the way” critical to the Days of Unleavened Bread? The first use of “the way” biblically is the way to the Tree of Life guarded by the two cherubim at the entrance to the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:24). It means the path traveled between two points. Yet metaphorically, “the way” is how a person lives life as in “the way of YHWH” (Gen. 18:19). In Israel’s exodus story, both meanings occur. The way out of exile and death is a journey of walking in the way of His name back to God’s dwelling place. Initially, YHWH led Israel out of Egypt for seven days of Unleavened Bread by the pillars of cloud and of fire (Exo. 13:21-22), and then to Mount Sinai. After Sinai and the golden calf incident, the Angel of YHWH, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exo. 3:2), escorted them into the Promised Land (Exo. 23:20-24; 33:1).

21 And YHWH went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. 22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people (Exo. 13:21-22).

“Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. 22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off (Exo. 23:20-24).

YHWH called “the way” His commands (Exo. 32:8).

8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!'” (Exo. 32:8).

Moses stood before Israel and taught them the statutes and the laws to show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do (Exo. 18:20). He commanded the Israelites to teach these to their children diligently and talk of them when they sat in their house, when they walked by the way, when they lay down, and when they rose up (Deu. 6:6-7).

“The way,” therefore, is a path to the Tree of Life, and that path of life is His Torah commands. There is a covenant way to approach God and gain access to His Presence and fullness of joy demonstrated by the sacrifices at YHWH’s tabernacle dwelling place. Specifically, the path to holiness in Sabbath rest was mediated in three sequential offerings: the sin offering, the whole burnt offering, and the peace offering. Cleansing through the sin offering’s blameless blood substitute removed sin’s pollution and punishment, ransoming a person from corruption and death. Having been thus forgiven and purified, a person could dedicate his life to YHWH through the refining fire of the burnt offering, transforming and sanctifying as its smoke ascended into the heavens. Only then could the peace offering take place, providing fellowship between God and that person at a meal. Consequently, it is written, “Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary” (Psa. 77:13a).

Ultimately, Yeshua’s sacrifice paved the way for YHWH’s Feasts to begin so that those who sit in exile may begin the journey home. Entering the Presence of YHWH involves choosing whom we will serve and worship by the way we conduct our lives. John the Baptist came in the way of righteousness, crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of YHWH; make His paths straight” (Mat. 3:3). Enacted by making the Abrahamic covenant on the NTBMO with pillars of smoke and fire, the way of YHWH was His sacrifice that destroyed sin and death, opening the way into the Eden sanctuary of His Presence and rest. Yeshua guides our feet into the way of peace, into His dwelling place, because He was the Father’s Household’s firstborn Lamb slain and was raised the High Priest of a new tabernacle, mediating a new covenant with a new Torah.

Just before He died, Yeshua told His disciples that He would prepare a place for them, adding to His Father’s dwelling. And regarding the way to the place, He said, “And where I go you know, and the way you know” (Jhn. 14:4). They knew because they had the tabernacle worship system. Then He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jhn. 14:6). He was the summation of the three tabernacle offerings, taking us out of exile into His abode according to His oath to Abraham. Just as Yeshua called Lazarus out of the grave, “Lazarus, this way out!” (Jhn. 11:43), He calls each of us to come and sup with Him.

Takeaway:
Through the Torah, we have received instruction on the way out of exile and back to life. The first tabernacle symbolized the way into the Holiest of All through a mediator. The servants of the Most High God proclaimed and taught the way of salvation written in the Law and the Prophets. Pointing to Yeshua’s redemption through sacrifice, we follow the way of His sacrificial pillars of smoke and fire out of this world to receive an eternal inheritance in a place prepared, the heavenly Tabernacle of His dwelling.

Fun Factors:
In the last blog’s Fun Factors, I mentioned that only three people were named in Moses’ birth story: Shiphrah, Puah, and Moses, whose letter sum was 1091. Shiphrah and Puah’s name meanings have to do with the light of the Spirit, its brilliance and beauty, in rescuing the children of Israel. Moses’s mother saw that he was good (tov), meaning by ancient Hebrew definitions, “to surround with bright beauty.” The sum of Moses’ name, 345, had factors from Shiphrah’s and Puah’s names, 15 × 23. So, Moses’ birth story pointed to a great deliverer of God’s household.

In this blog, I emphasized that “the way” out of exile is a journey and a way of life, depicted by the Torah as the Tree of Life. The way back to living with God in a new exodus involves a new Moses, a new Deliverer, through a new sacrifice. Yeshua (sum 391 = 17 × 23) declared, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life.” The letter sum of His statement is the same as the sum of Shiphrah, Puah, and Moses’s names, 1091, the 182^nd prime (7 × 26), pointing to the Spirit moving in the new creation of Yeshua’s exodus.