Hi everyone, Jim Staley here again doing another video blog. This time we're going to talk about mikvah, or better known as baptism. Many of you are planning on getting mikvahed this Shavuot, and you're asking what the significance of it is.
So I'm going to take a few minutes, help you prepare for it, help you understand what you're getting ready to do, because it definitely is significant. In New Testament times, the mikvah really comes from the ceremonial immersion bath of the Old Testament, or the Tanakh. So when you go back to the Torah, you find immersion baths all over the place.
Most of the time, they are designed to help cleanse someone that became unclean for a variety of different purposes or reasons that someone became unclean, and in the evening, they would wash in a mikvah and become clean. Mikvahs in ancient Israel were very much like big bathtubs, and it looked, quite frankly, very similar, almost identical, to a... baptismal that's found in traditional Baptist church.
That's where they got the design from, believe it or not. If they got anything right, they definitely got that right because they look almost identical. It's a big tub with steps going down.
And the idea is when you step into the baptismal or the mikvah, that there would be another channel of water that comes in one side and a channel of water that goes out the other side, and they would keep the water just below the channel. And so when you would... walk into a mikvah, it was incredible the physical and spiritual things that happened because all of the dirt and the grime would come off of you and it would float, you know, on top. And because you're raising the surface of the water, the water would then go out into the exit channel and all of the dirt and the grime would go out and fresh water would come in. The spiritual implications is obvious that when you get mikved spiritually, the Holy Spirit comes into your life in a more powerful way and the dirt comes out and he washes that dirt away.
And so in the first century, it was very, in a physical way, the dirt was being washed away. And there was also a spiritual significance as well. When you get to New Testament times, there is such thing as being baptized or mikved in the name of the person that you were being mikved in. And so it was very commonplace that if you were following a particular rabbi, that you would be baptized in the name of that rabbi. Now, what's the significance of that?
When you were being mikved in the name of a rabbi, immersed in the name of that teacher, you were being immersed into the teachings of that rabbi. And so this is why Paul says, man, some of you say you were baptized in Silas and some in Timothy. I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you guys.
Because they were fighting over the significance of the teacher that they were baptized in, in the name of. And so when you said, I'm a disciple of Yeshua, that means that you were baptized, you were mikved into his teachings, into his, what was called, yoke. And so the yoke of a person is the teachings of that particular person.
It's the instructions of that person. So just like the yoke that goes on the back of an animal as you were trying to bowl. or an oxen to get them to do what you want them to do in the same way, you are allowing that rabbi to put his instruction manual, his yoke, around your neck and guide you where you're supposed to go.
He's leading. You are doing the work of a Talmudim, the disciples, of a disciple. And so the yoke is what you're being baptized into.
This is why Yeshua said, follow me and take on my yoke, because my yoke is easy and my burden. is light. The disciples of the Pharisees, on the other hand, their yoke was heavy and their burden was heavy. And it was a difficult yoke because the instructions of the Pharisees far outweighed the instructions of the Torah.
And so many of you have a strong desire. You've been already baptized in the name of Jesus when you first got saved, most of you. But then when you come into your Hebrew root, many people feel a strong urge and desire to get mikvahed again.
And that's a very legitimate reason to get mikvahed again, because you are taking on the new yoke of the Hebrew Yeshua instead of the Greek Jesus. Even though they're the same person, your relationship to that person has radically changed. You have a new understanding of the person of Yeshua, the teachings of Yeshua. And so some people feel a strong urge from the Holy Spirit to get re-immersed, re-baptized, re-mikvahed. into the teachings of Yeshua, making a proclamation to all of Israel, if you will, that I am deciding to follow Yeshua, the Hebrew Yeshua that followed the Torah, that taught the Torah, and I want to be in His dust.
I want to be so close to Him and follow His teachings that the dust of His sandals covers me. I want to be covered in the dust of Rabbi Yeshua. I want to encourage you that if that's you and you feel that, to prepare for getting immersed by fasting, by praying, by immersing yourself in His Word. Maybe by studying a little bit, looking up all of the verses on baptism in the New Testament and even in the Old Testament. Just immersing yourself, no pun intended, in the very context of the subject itself.
Prepare for yourself a time of introspection. Spend extra time in the Word. Institute the Nehemiah Prayer Challenge. and pray an extra hour a day, spend time reading the Word 30 minutes a day, get your soul ready and thirsty to be mikved, and when you come out of the water, you will be exactly like it was in the first century, where the death, burial, and resurrection, the gospel is portrayed that when you go under the water, you're committing to the Father that you're going to be dead to the sins of your past, dead to the struggles that you had in the past, and you're going to come out, and you're going to declare that you are alive.
in the name of Yeshua, that you're going to follow him in his ways. So thanks for joining us during this video blog. I hope this helps you understand a little bit about the Hebraic understanding of a mikvah versus the traditional Greek understanding of baptism. This is Jim Staley.
Shavuot is coming up, so join us this weekend. Passion for Truth Ministries. Shalom.