Twinkling of an Eye

Don't blink! You might miss it. When the redemption comes, things will change in the blink of an eye.

THIS WEEK'S TORAH PORTION:

Re'eh (ראה | See)

Torah: Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17

Haftarah: Isaiah 54:11-55:5 (Shabbat Rosh Chodesh: Isaiah 66:1 - 66:24)

Gospel: John 16:1-17:26

Twinkling of an Eye

When Israel left Egypt, they left in haste. The Torah explains the ritual of eating unleavened bread at Passover as a result of the abrupt departure from Egypt. Their bread dough did not have time to rise before they baked it.

You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 16:3)

A collection of midrash on Exodus titled Mechilta says that God hastened their departure because, when the appointed time for redemption comes, the Almighty does not hold matters back for even “the twinkling of an eye.” The idiomatic term “twinkling of an eye,” i.e., the blink of an eye, appears frequently in rabbinic literature to describe something that happens instantaneously. For example, another collection of rabbinic material called Pesikta Rabbati says that repentance takes effect “as in the twinkling of an eye.”

How long does it take to repent? According to the sages, it takes only the twinkling of an eye, the same amount of time it took for Israel to leave Egypt once the time appointed for redemption arrived. Just as Israel went from bondage to freedom in the blink of an eye, repentance and faith in Messiah transfers us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light instantaneously. When a person confesses Yeshua and trusts in Him for the forgiveness of sins, he is immediately forgiven and set free from bondage to the adversary. In the blink of an eye, he becomes a free man.

Likewise, in the time to come, the great messianic redemption will also happen instantaneously, in the blink of an eye: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

-First Fruits of Zion