Why did Yahusha mikveh in the wilderness?

 I was asked this question by a brother yesterday:

 Matthew 3:6 And were baptized of him (Yahuchanan) in Yarden/Jordan, confessing their sins.

 Yahusha did not sin and why did he take it?

Firstly, baptism does not replace circumcision. Christianity has replaced it, that is another study which is in a video form. In this note I will only touch base on the ‘miqveh’ and its spiritual significance. The miqveh always existed, they used to miqveh inside the temple where the Bayth Chasda pool was, but since the temple was in apostasy, John (Yahuchanan) the son of the priest ZacharYah did the miqveh of repentance at Yarden (Jordan). John the immerser’s ministry was in the wilderness where people went out to him to hear him and to mikveh into repentance from dead works.

Miqveh H4723 means a gathering/collection of water. It comes from the root word H6960 ‘qavah’ which means to ‘to wait or eagerly for’

Mem in paleography is a picture of waters and the picture is of a ‘spiritual cleansing’ in the waters. The first time the words ‘qavah’ and ‘miqveh’ are used is in Gen 1:9,10 

Yahuah first divided the waters from the waters and then gathered the waters below the expanse in one place.

Gen 1:7 And Elohim made the expanse and separated between the waters which were below the expanse and between the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

Gen1:8 And Elohim called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

Gen 1:9 Then Elohim said, Let the waters below the heavens be gathered/qavah H6960 into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so.

Gen1:10 And Elohim called the dry land earth, and the gathering/miqveh H4723 of the waters He called seas; and Elohim saw that it was good. 

The Torah came with instructions stating any dead swarming/creeping things which fall into earthen vessel, clothing, skins or sack shall be unclean, including anyone touching the dead carcass but the spring or a cistern collecting/miqveh water shall be clean. 

Lev 11:36 But a spring or a cistern collecting/miqveh H4723 water shall be clean, though the one who touches their carcass shall be unclean. 

The Yahudites call this ritual cleansing in fresh spring water as ‘miqveh’. The Pool of Siloam בריכת השילוח‎, Breikhat Hashiloah was a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of Daud, the original site of Yerushalayim, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. The pool was fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring, carried there by two aqueducts. This aqueduct was very vulnerable to attackers, so, under threat from the Assyrian king Sennacherib, Hezekiah sealed up the old outlet of the Gihon Spring and the Upper Pool, and built the underground Siloam tunnel in place of the aqueduct (2 Chronicles 32:2-4).

According to the basarah of Yahuchanan, Yahusha sent "a man blind from birth" in order to complete his healing. As a freshwater reservoir, the pool would have been a major gathering place for Yahudites making religious pilgrimages to the city. Some scholars, influenced by Yahusha commanding the blind man to wash in the pool, suggest that it was probably used as a miqveh (ritual bath).

John 9:7 He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloach” (which means, sent). He went and washed and came back with seeing eyes.

 Joh 5:1 After this there was a festival of the Yehuḏim, and יהושע went up to Yerushalayim.

Joh 5:2 And in Yerushalayim at the Sheep Gate there is a pool, which is called in Heḇrew, Bĕyth Chasda (house of mercy), having five porches.

Joh 5:3 In these were lying a great number of those who were sick, blind, crippled, paralysed, waiting for the stirring of the water.

Joh 5:4 For a messenger was going down at a certain time into the pool and was stirring the water. Whoever stepped in first, then, after the stirring of the water, became well of whatever disease he had. 

There was a pool in Beyth Chasda H2617 (בית חסד/חסדא), meaning either house of mercy or house of grace. In Hebrew the word could also mean "shame, disgrace" (H2616 as used in Proverbs 25:10). This dual meaning may have been thought appropriate, since the location was seen as a place of disgrace due to the presence of invalids, and as a place of grace due to the washing of the sacrificial sheep’s pointing to Yahusha the Lamb. Like the pool of Shiloach this pool of Beyth Chasda also was constructed in the eighth century BC during the reign of King Hezekiah, and an upper pool in the area of Beyth Chasda is the one mentioned in the 2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 36:2. These were a pair of pools (pool of Shiloach and Beyth Chasda), an upper and a lower division of one large pool except that the pool of Shiloach was fed by the Gihon Spring while the water supply at Beyth Chasda was provided by rain. This pool of Beyth Chasda system was constructed in order to collect water for the washing of the sacrificial sheep as Yahuchanan mentions Sheep and Nehemiah mentions the rebuilding of the Sheep Gate. The word ‘Gate’ in John 5 was added by the translators to make sense because Nehemiah records of the Sheep Gate being repaired/rebuilt. The association with the washing of the sacrificial sheep could also be the origin of the sheep pool references. 

Neh 3:1 And Elyashiḇ the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate. They set it apart and set up its doors, even as far as the Tower of Ḥanan’ĕl they set it apart, as far as the Tower of Hanane’ĕl.  

Nehemiah doesn't record of this pool named as Beyth Chasda but it surely would have been there as Yahuchanan/John records it. 

Joh 5:2 And in Yerushalayim at the Sheep Gate there is a pool, which is called in Heḇrew, Bĕyth Chasda, having five porches. 

Now with this understanding lets view Gen 1:2:

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form/tohu H8414 and void/bohu H922, and darkness was over the surface of the deep/tahum, and the Spirit of Elohim was fluttering /rachapah H7363 over the face of the waters.

The mention of waters without collection/miqveh of them here is an indication of formlessness and void without Yahusha ha Mashiyach’s intervention. This can be seen by the two words ‘tohu’ & ‘bohu’

Tohu H8414 is a state of waste

Bohu H922 is an empty space with a need to be filled.

The Ruach was fluttering over the face of the waters is a picture we will see in a bit as to when this was literally fulfilled.

The next thing we read is Gen 1:3

Gen 1:3 Then Elohim said, Let there be light; and there was light.

And Shaul the emissary tells us who the LIGHT is

2 Cor4:6 For the Elohim, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of the Elohim which is in the face of the Mashiyach.

And this LIGHT was not created but existed and was manifested. This LIGHT was testified by Yahuchanan the Immerser

John 1:4 In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light for the sons of men.

John 1:5 The Light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

John 1:6 There was a man sent from the Elohim whose name was Yahuchanan.

John 1:7 He came as a testimony, to testify about the Light, so that all may believe through His hand.

John 1:8 He was not the Light, but he was to testify about the Light.

Gen 1:3 way’hiy-`ereb way’hiy-boqer yom ‘echad.

The Hebrew phrase ‘way’hiy’ is correctly translated as ‘And it came to pass’ and is used in each day of creation. Hence, the phrase itself holds a spiritual significance of what was going to come to pass. The first day in Hebrew is ‘yom echad’ where ‘echad’ is a plurality of whatever is in view.

Gen 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become into one/echad H259 flesh.

In the word ‘echad’ Yahuah would bind the eternal in the physical in Him.

Deut 6:4 Deut6:4 Hear, O Yisra’El! Yahuah our El, Yahuahis one/echad H259!

Hence, echad is ordinal ONE in two equal shares. Yahuah in creation face to face in a form and Yahuah eternal beyond creation, but in equal share of duality of powers.

In the man and his wife, they are dual in equal share but ONE flesh.

Hence, yom echad is a measure Kepha says ‘One day with Yahuah is as a thousand years and thousand years as One day’

Speaking of the flood, Kepha says the created things is hidden from the scoffers as they only see a ‘beginning of creation’ but not the deep things of creation or else they would not say “Where is the promise of His coming?”

2Pe 3:4 Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

2Pe 3:5 And they were hidden from their knowledge for their willingness that the heavens were made by the Word of Elohim and the earth standing out of waters and by his hands/yaday in the water,

2Pe 3:6 by His hands/yadayam the world was destroyed, which has since that been deluged with water of the flood.

This was hidden from their knowledge for their willingness. Kepha then goes on to say that the earth was standing out of the waters and by his hands submerged in the water when he destroyed it with the water of the flood. He likens the deluge of flood to the ‘yom echad’ where the waters were not seen in a collection/miqveh for cleansing but destruction and judgement.

2 Pe3:8 But this is the one should not be forgotten of them, beloved ones, that one /echad day/yom is with the eyes of Yahuah as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one/echad day/yom.

Hence, post the 40 days and 40 nights of the flood it was very important for the waters to be collected/miqveh in one place and can be seen through the significance of Noah sending doves out to see whether the dove finds a place for the sole of her feet.

Gen 8:8 Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land

Gen 8:9 but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark to himself.

Then he waited for yet another 7 days and again sent the yonah/dove from the ark who now came with a freshly picked olive leaf. The olive/zayith represents hope for Yasharal, remember Shaul the emissary speaks of we as wild olive branches/offshoots were grafted back in the natural olive tree as branches/offshoots (Rom 11). ZacharYah prophecy also tells us about the 2 olive branches which emptied out the golden oil by itself.

Gen 8:10 So he waited yet another seven days; and again, he sent out the dove from the ark.

Gen 8:11 The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noach knew that the water was abated from the earth. 

Zec 4:12 And I answered the second time and said to him, what are the two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the golden oil from themselves?

Zec 4:13 So he spoke to me, saying, do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my master.

Zec 4:14 Then he said, these are the two anointed sons who are standing by the Adon of the whole earth.

The two olive branches are the two houses of Yasharal, Ephraim representing the 10 tribes as Yasharal and Yahudah representing the 2 tribes, themselves and Binyamin.

Noah knew the waters were being mikveh/gathered as a cleansing after the destruction of the earth. The 7 days is significant of Noah’s waiting to send the yonah/dove again as the whole earth was created in 7 days and Yahusha stands with his legs one on the land and one in waters to keep the waters gathered in one place (miqveh) and not overrun their boundary again into chaos and it says He rested on the 7^th day from all His works as He Himself did the mikveh completing our transition in Himself when He created everything to fall into His purpose which is denoted by Kepha as ‘One day as thousand years and thousand years as One day’. The ‘yom echad’ is ‘alaph shanah’ (thousand years) written as אלפ שנא or אלפ שנה

Shanah/shana H8141 also means ‘two’. It’s a witness with a marker as the word shaniy H8144 שני translated as ‘scarlet thread’ is rooted in shanah. The scarlet thread of redemption, as scarlet is red in color.

Alaph H505 is the first alphabet in Hebrew and means an ox. The picture is of an experienced ox with a heavenly supremacy.

In alaph shanah/thousand years we see the Alaph Yahuah in equal share & duality of powers in two realms. 1. Beyond creation and 2. Face to face with creation as Yahusha (we saw this in 2 Corn 4:6)

Rev 10:1 And I saw another strong messenger coming down out of the heavens, and he was clothed with a cloud, and upon his head like the appearance of the rainbow which was in the cloud, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

Rev 10:2 and he had in his hand a little scroll opened. And he placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land;

This Messenger Yahuchanan sees is Yahusha ha Mashiyach as upon his head like the appearance of a rainbow in the cloud which shows He is mindful of the covenant i.e.., he zakar’s/remembers His covenant. Remember, Yahuah made a covenant with Noah that He will not bring the flood of waters upon the earth again and signified it by the rainbow in the cloud.

Gen 9:13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

Gen 9:14 It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,

This further gets amazing when we understand about the transition from chaos to order:

Luk 3:2 Ḥanan and Qayapha being high priests, the word of Elohim came to Yoḥanan the son of Zeḵaryah (Levite priest) in the wilderness.

 Luk 3:3 And he went into all the neighbourhood of the Yarděn, proclaiming an immersion of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,

 Luk 3:4 as it has been written in the book of the words of Yeshayahu the prophet, saying, “A voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of יהוה, make His paths straight.

Yahuah had given Yasharal His Torah in the wilderness, the one crying in the wilderness is to show where Yahuah is and is prophetic that He will scatter and gather His people in the wilderness. Not in any physical assembly as His people in the wilderness are called ‘assembly in the wilderness’.

Act 7:38 “This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the Messenger who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the living Words to give to us,

Act 7:44 “The Tent of Witness was with our fathers in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Mosheh to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,

Act 7:47 but Shelomoh built Him a house.

Act 7:48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in dwellings made with hands, as the prophet says:

 Act 7:49 ‘The heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house shall you build for Me? says יהוה, or what is the place of My rest?

Act 7:50 ‘Has My hand not made all these?’

Isa 66:1-2. As Yahuah doesn’t dwell in physical temple ( which stood as to make way for the spiritual house in Him) , Similarly, the mikveh and the circumcision are outward signs of the heart being regenerated by the Ruach ha Qodesh.

Tit 3:5 He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His compassion, through the washing of rebirth, and renewal by the Set-apart Spirit (Ruach ha Qodesh),

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Yehuḏi who is so outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

Rom 2:29 But a Yehuḏi is he who is so inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in Spirit(Ruach), not literally, whose praise is not from men but from Elohim.

Torah of sin and death said “Do this and live” Torah of life says “ Live and now do” The Torah is upheld and not abolished. It’s the Torah of life which is upheld and not the Torah of sin and death which Shaul speaks of.

Rom 3:27 Where, then, is the boasting? It is shut out. By what torah? Of works? No, but by the torah of belief.

Rom 3:28 For we reckon that a man is declared right by belief without works of Torah.

Rom 3:29 Or is He the Elohim of the Yehuḏim only, and not also of the nations? Yes, of the nations also,

Rom 3:30 since it is one Elohim who shall declare right the circumcised by belief and the uncircumcised through belief.

Rom 3:31 Do we then nullify the Torah through the belief? Let it not be! On the contrary, we establish the Torah.

Yahusha took it in the wilderness to fulfil righteousness, i.e... To show He is Yahuah who would meet them in mikveh of repentance in a priesthood not tied to a physical temple and its rituals but the washing of the regeneration of the Spirit/Ruach in the heart (not in the letter). Also, the meeting would be in the wilderness where the Torah is renewed as the voice came from the heaven “This is My Beloved Son in whom my Soul is well pleased” and the Ruach / Spirit came in the form of a dove/yonah.

John 1:31 “I did not know Him, but that He might be revealed to Yisra’El, therefore I have come to immerse in water.”

John 1:32 Yahuchanan testified and said, “I beheld the Spirit/Ruach in the likeness of a dove/yonah descending from the heavens and resting upon Him.”

John 1:33 I did not know Him, but the One who sent me to immerse in water said to me, “The One on whom you see the Spirit descending and resting upon Him, Behold, this is the One that shall immerse with the Holy Spirit.”

The Hebrew word for dove is Yonah, the Psalms says,

Psa 55:6 And I said, “Who would give me wings like a dove/yonah! I would fly away and be at rest.

Psa 55:7 “See, I would wander far off, I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah.

The desire of the elect of Yahuah was to flee to the wilderness as the same Psalm says, “For I saw violence and strife in the city.”

Psa 55:9 Confuse, O יהוה, divide their tongues, For I saw violence and strife in the city.

Yahuchanan was sent to prepare His way in the wilderness while he himself was qualified to be a Levite priest in place of his father ZacharYah who served in the temple (Remember the birth of John the Baptist was given to him at the incense hour in the temple). Now since the temple was being overrun with Levites corrupting Torah, the elect went to the wilderness in repentance to mikveh from Yahuchanan/John. And that is how the Psalmist says that he would like to have the wings of a dove to be at rest in the wilderness. Yahusha went there to mikveh i.e., now to get immersed in the gathering of waters to fulfil the transition from Levitical priesthood to the Malchitsedek priesthood, a transition from chaos to order.

Heb 7:17 For he testified of Him, You are a priest forever after the order/dabar of Malkitsedeq.

John had transitioned to the Malchitsedek priesthood, and He was setting His seal on the transition to show Yahusha is the one prophesied of as “You are a priest forever after the order of Malchitsedek.'' It was told to him that whom He saw the Ruach descending upon as a dove/yonah will be the one doing the mikveh in the Ruach Ha Qodesh. Hence, when we tie this to Gen 1:2 the chaos of tohu i.e., is a state of waste or chaos and bohu i.e., a need to be filled, we see Yahusha as the Mediator and in equal share of Yahuah, in the form of a dove fluttered/rachapah over the chaotic waters and came face to face with creation in a bodily form (Gen 1:3, 2 Corn 4:6) and gathered/mikveh the waters in one place by His hands/yaday (2 Peter 3:5-6) and stood between the waters and the dry land in keeping the order (Rev 10:2),  in order to fulfil all righteousness i.e. gathers/mikveh the waters in one place & goes through the immersion in ‘mikveh’ as the firstborn, to transition many unto Himself from the chaotic blood of bulls and goats sacrifices which never could take away sins & the literal divers washing which was interprested by the Levites as mikveh in pool of Siloach & Bayth Chasda which never washes the filth of the flesh.

Matt 3:15 But Yahusha answering said to him, “Permit it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him.

Series of thoughts connecting scriptures came to my mind this morning which I am adding in this note:

Joh 3:3  יהושע answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he is unable to see the reign of Elohim.” 

Joh 3:4  Naḵdimon said to Him, “How is a man able to be born when he is old? Is he able to enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

Joh 3:5  יהושע answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he is unable to enter into the reign of Elohim.

Yahusha told Nakdimon that unless one is born of the water and Ruach (being born from above) , he is unable to enter into the reign of Aluahym. Nakdimon carnally was trying to place the adult man in the mothers womb where the elements of the womb are water and blood. 

1Jn 5:6  This is the One that came by water and blood: יהושע Messiah, not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the Truth. 

It’s the path the One from above already took for us in an earthly womb, the Ruach of truth testifies that He came ‘not only by water’ 

If we refer to what Yahusha told Nakdimon that unless one is born of water and the Ruach, he is unable to enter the reign of Aluahym. 

Hence there are two testimonies 

1. Internal : Water and Ruach which speak of regeneration and is a mikveh through this regeneration 

Tit 3:5  He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His compassion, through the washing of rebirth, and renewal by the Set-apart Spirit, 

The birth of the heavenly body in its clearness is what we will se a bit later through the imagery mentioned.

2. External: Water and blood which speak of the Son of Aluahym who came through the womb (water and blood are elements of the womb) in an earthly mikveh for us.

Psa 110:3  Your people volunteer in the day of Your might, In the splendours of set-apartness! From the womb/racham of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth! 

Psa 110:4  יהוה has sworn and does not relent, “You are a priest forever According to the order/dabar of Malkitseḏeq.”

Psalms 110 is about Mashiyach who is Yahuah, who occupies the office of mediatorship as the right hand who also laid the path mikveh for us in Himself.

From the order/ dabar of the heavenly priesthood as we read in YashaYahu 6:1 …and His shul/ hem of the garment filled the temple/haykal, He came after the order in the earthly realm to make all of us fall in line of the order of the heavenly. Remember, the earthly pattern was replica of the heavenly, while heaven and earth pass away, the Dabar of Yahuah will never pass away, it’s firmly established forever. 

‘ Not only came by water ‘ is terminology best understood from Gen 1:9 where the word for gathering is qavah which also means ‘expectation / eagerness’

Gen 1:2 says the earth was formless and void and darkness covered the Face of the deep, 

there was an expectation/qavah of mikveh and this can be seen as it says the Ruach was fluttering/ rachapah over the waters. 

Yahuah didn’t gather the waters immediately, He first brought an order in creation when He spoke His substance over His Word or Order (Dabar) with a decree “Let there be Light and there was Light” Gen 1:3 and Shaul the emissary says in 2Cor 4:6 that the Light of the knowledge of the esteem of Aluahym in our hearts shone, enlightening us is through the face of Yahusha ha Mashiyach. 

Hence, the body prepared for Him was manifest before even the collection of the waters / mikveh and He is the bone of heaven and as Psalms 110:3 says 

From the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth! 

The word for womb is racham which also means ‘compassion’ in Hebrew. The word for morning there is mishchar which means ‘breaking of dawn’ Hence, the womb of the morning is a womb of compassion where the darkness/ night is broken. In an earthly womb the baby in the womb is in the warmth of the water and blood but is in darkness. When the baby comes out, it first encounters Light. 

Yahusha is said to be ‘in the beauties of set apartness from the womb of the morning’ 

He breaks forth as Light shining forth out of darkness but the darkness doesn’t overcome it.

Joh 1:5  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

Yahuchanan/John introduces this heavenly order and LIGHT in John 1 who is Aluahym. 

Hence first the expectation/ qavah, then the LIGHT shone forth through the womb of the morning first breaking the darkness/mishchar and dividing the light from the darkness. The light he called Day and the darkness He called Night. 

He then separated the waters below from above 

He then gathered the waters under the heavens and called it a mikveh. 

Every baby born into this world is mikveh into an earthly womb of darkness, hence, it was necessary to break this chain of darkness which Yahusha ha Mashiyach Himself who came forth from the womb of the morning before the worlds was (in a form or body of heaven in its clearness) being mikveh in the division of the waters above which were separated from waters below, and then came forth in time born under the Torah of a woman in the earthly womb by water and blood to put all of us born of the order of darkness into His heavenly order of womb of the morning.

The mish/mash in shachar is drawing out. It’s rooted in Masha(Moses) as He was drawn out of waters. Shachar is dawn and Mishchar is being drawn out of the dawn darkness into Light.

That’s why we who believe in Yahusha are called children of the Day. Yasharal is Yahuah’s firstborn, and Yasharal is firstborn after the order of Yahusha the only yachyid. 

Out of Egypt I called my Son. 

Why would Yahuah cause Yasharal to go through the depths of the Red Sea with waters standing as heaps on both the sides , just as in Genesis 1 He divided the waters from the waters, the depths were uncovered and Yasharal walked on dry land in those depths which is a type of mikveh in both orders. ie. Waters from waters. 

Yasharal fell into the order of the heavenly figuratively as Shaul says they were all immersed into Mosheh (Moses) which is figurative for Torah.

1Co 10:1   For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 

1Co 10:2  and all were immersed into Mosheh in the cloud and in the sea,

We who are in expectation/qavah and have even taken a mikveh in the collection of waters from below, we are in expectation of being transformed into His body which is heavenly.

May Yahuah open the eyes of our understanding to obey His Torah of life and that we walk in it so that those seeing us would see the Malchitsedek priesthood in us and the washing of regeneration & circumcision within us being called a true Yahudi. The outward form comes as signs in obedience of what transition has already happened within us! Shalum in Yahusha ha Mashiyach!