THE TAMID OFFERING

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Hebrews 7:25

He always lives to make intercession for them.

Contrary to what is commonly assumed, the five korbanot ,קורבנות offerings described in the beginning of the Book of Leviticus are not meant for sin atonement. While the sin and guilt offerings portray an acknowledgment and confession of sin, the others are statements of thankfulness, gratefulness, praise, and dedication. The main atonement offering in the Levitical system is what is called the Tamid תמיד, the daily perpetual morning and evening offering (Lev. 6:8-13).

Like two book ends, the Tamid opened the day's offerings, and closed it. These two offerings are the foundation of the two main prayer services in the Temple, and are still today the theme from where the synagogue service and daily personal prayers were conceived. When Luke in the Book of Acts mentions,   "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes …" (Acts 2:46), he informs us that the disciples attended these lamb offering based services. Peter and John are also mentioned going to the temple’s evening service (Acts 3:1). This is important information as it teaches us that the disciples of the Master continued to attend Temple services and liturgies even after Yeshua’s resurrection. They had never stopped.

The two lambs offered one in the morning and one in the evening provided a continual lamb presence on the altar before God. Those who did not come to the Temple prayed in synchronicity in their homes facing Jerusalem.

At his last Passover on earth, our Master was nailed to the cross at the time the priests offered the morning offering. All day while Yeshua was on the cross, throngs of locals and pilgrims offered their Passover lambs. The Mishnah records that at the end of the ordeal towards mid-afternoon, the High-priest who worked hard in the hot Jerusalem sun says, "I thirst", and is offered a drink. At the end of the whoel thing this same high-priest declares, "it is finished'. Our Master, the high-priest from above, concurred these very words while on the cross, then remitted his Spirit to his Father at the very time of the evening offering that closed the day's services (Mark 15:25,33,34). As Yeshua was put in the tomb just before dusk, Jewish families put their striped and pieced unleavened breads in their ovens.

The Tamid is therefore a perfect picture of the intercessory role of Messiah in our lives. As the writer of the Letter sent to the Messianic believers of Jerusalem says of him, "He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).

Yeshua the innocent righteous victim,  truly stands at the right hand of the Father always ready to intercede for us because, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:16). 

THE LANGUAGE OF THE OFFERINGS

Ephesians 2:14

For he is our peace …

The beginning of Leviticus presents us with five types of offerings to approach God each carrying a different message. We have lost their meaning in translation, but their imagery still reveals their message. These offerings are the physical outward expressions of the longings of the inward heart of man in seeking to approach Hashem in full communion.

The sin and guilt offerings are mandatory (Lev. 4; 5:15). The Passover lamb and the daily perpetual offerings fall under these categories. There is a difference between the two. The sin offering concerns itself with our natural state of being a sinner, while the guilt offering is for sins involuntarily committed (there are not offerings for voluntary sins (Heb. 10:26)). The difference is that we are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners and that from the time of our birth. We may have never killed or stolen, but we may have thought or wished it at times through coveting. There is a teaching in Judaism that the last of the Ten Commandments is the reason why we break the nine others. Both God and priest share in these offerings; he who offers doesn't.

After we have acknowledged our innate sinful state and the sinful actions and thoughts that result from it, we have the burnt or ascent offering called the olah עולה, (Leviticus 1:3). It is the only offering that is to be totally dedicated to God; no one but Hashem gets to partake of it. It is a voluntary offering. After we have cleansed ourselves from sin, the olah represents our desire for complete utter abandonment to God; a strong desire to perpetually abide with the Hashem. After dedicating our lives to God comes the meal offering. The meal offering is also a voluntary one; now that we’ve dedicated ourselves to Hashem, this offering  represents our walk with God. Only priest and God share in it.

After admitting to our sinful nature, confessing our faults, and dedicating our lives to walk with Hashem, we celebrate the peace offering, the one we all look forward to as it expresses the completion of our union with Hashem. This is the one we get to share in, along with God and the priests. Peace offerings usually consisted of lavish parties.

Fellowship with God has always been expressed by a meal; it was true on Mount Horeb and it will be true at the end of the age (Exod. 24:9-11; Rev. 19:9). That is why the most spiritual thing we can do in this world, the highest act of spirituality we can practice on this earth, is to have a peaceful and joyful meal with our families. It represents our union with God.

It is no wonder that in this day and age of the soon return of the Master (blessed be his name), the enemy (cursed be his name!) works like mad to break up families. The breakdown of the family unit in Western societies is a tool in the Adversaries' hands against God’s plan. For decades now, the devil's biggest attacks have been against the family units. First he got everybody distracted away from the daily dinner table and into T.V. and so many evening school activities, and now the very idea of family is being redefined; ugh!

May our Master soon return, even in our days,  that we may recline with him at that peace offering meal with all our brothers and sisters (Rev. 19:9) and start the work of bringing sanity back to this world!

ADONAI THE SHIELD

Hebrew 4:16                                                                                                             Nissan 1/ בניסן א

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,

that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

This week we are studying the gory details of the beginning of the Book of Leviticus concerning the Levitical offerings. These consist of an uncomfortable text seeming more worthy of a conversation between butchers than a spiritual manual on the concepts of approaching God. Yet, it may surprise many to know that at the age of five, Leviticus used to be the first book required of Jewish children to learn for their spiritual education.

Today, because there is no temple, the Book of Leviticus is 'tossed under the bus' of irrelevancy. Yet, in full knowledge of what will happen to the Temple, Hashem gave these important words as part of the main oracles of his manifestation on Mt Horeb; they are a substantial part of the Tanach תנך.  How come so many people dare to can claim the words of Hashem irrelevant and obsolete just because they sometime seem so far removed from their current culture that they don't understand it?

In spite of Paul's statement that the Levitical offerings were never intended for salvation (Heb. 9:9), many people endorse the notion that the Levitical offerings were for the purpose of sin atonement and that therefore they are obsolete in these post Yeshua-death-and-resurrection days. If it is so, somehow Yeshua forgot to inform the disciples who lived with him for three years, as in the Book of Acts, they attend the twice daily worship times at the Temple, which consists of an animal offering (Acts 3:1). Also, when Paul came to Jerusalem, he paid the expenses for the animal offerings to break not only his own Nazarite vow, but that of four other Jewish believers in Yeshua (Acts 21). History books tell us that Jewish believers in Israel actually continued Temple attendance until it was destroyed. The sacrificial system was never an issue for them; they always understood that for the Jewish people, these were forever ordinances. Yeshua himself said that he did not come to abolish the Torah (that includes the sacrificial system of worship), but to complete it (Matt. 5:17).       

A closer look at the Hebrew language used in the text reveals that actually Leviticus is a lesson on approaching God with the protocol, honor, and respect he deserves. It also teaches us the role of Yeshua in our lives. Even the Hebrew word for atonement; kaphar כפר reveals the nature of the offering as not being a ransom, or a price for sins, but a protective covering; a shield. God is holy and a consuming fire towards all that is unclean and impure. We need the protective shield of the Master Yeshua in order to approach Hashem and this is what the Levitical offerings teach us in many levels. David actually called the Messiah: the shield of salvation (Ps. 18:35)..

Thanks be to Hashem. He has provided us the shield/covering of the Lamb to cover our nakedness (Gen. 3:21) that we may approach Him confidently with our requests. Yeshua simply brought the final piece of the puzzle that activated the whole system: his innocent death as a righteous person.

May you and yours also all come under ihs covering, that you may approach the Father with all confidence with your requests.