ON THE THIRD DAY ...

Ephesians 2:14

For he himself (Messiah) is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

Everything about the Tabernacle was designed to mirror immortality. It is the reason why offerings were salted and why honey and leaven were forbidden on the altar. Resinous shittim wood also like cedar is resistant to corruption.  On the third after the offering meat turns rancid, so after two days (on the third day) any meat from peace offerings was to be burnt. Anyone who partook of the meat of a peace offering on the third invalidated the offering and was regarded as cut off (Lev. 7:16—21).

This brings us into the third day reoccurring theme of the Tanach. Rather than seeing corruption, on the third day meat from a peace offering put on incorruptibility through being burnt. The fire of the altar, a fire which originated from heaven, lifts the offering back to heaven in the form of smoke (Lev. 9:23-24). In the story of Samson, we see an example of the Angel of the Lord, rising back to heaven through the smoke of a burnt offering called in Hebrew the olah or that which rises (Judg. 13:20).

The peace offering is the only one in which the offerer partakes. It is symbolic of communion and fellowship with Hashem through a meal. Hospitality was a big thing in the East and to invite someone to eat showed a great level of acceptance and relationship. In the same way eating with God shows he accepts us. Moses and seventy-three other people ate with Hashem on the mountain and the whole congregation of Messiah’s people will eat with him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Exod. 24:11; Rev. 19:9).

The Passover Lamb is a shadow of Messiah, a peace offering that people partake of. Paul often used the imagery of the peace offering to describe Messiah’s role in our lives (1 Cor. 10:18; Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:14; Col. 1:20). In the manner of a peace offering, the Master's body was not allowed to see corruption (Ps. 16:10; 49:9) but rose from the tomb on the third day.

Hoseah prophecied on the resurrection of Israel’s great Diaspora (exile) in the following words,

Come, let us return to ADONAI; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him (Hoseah 6:1-2).

Seeing as with Hashem one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8), the prophet prophesied of the resurrection of Israel on the third millennium of the present exile, third millennium in which we presently witness the resurrection of the Jewish state which contains a strong Messianic first fruit element of believers which brings it incorruptibility.

In this day, in our day, the peace offering is finally being consumed. At the time appointed, at the sound of the great shofar of the Last Day, it will rise to him in immortality and find fellowship with Hashem. All those who partake of Messiah’s offering of peace are part of this everlasting promise. 

LIVING FAITH OR DEAD RELIGION

Matthew 3:11

I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The fire of the altar was to be kept burning continuously (Leviticus 6:12). It was to never be put out. Even when travelling the fire of the altar was to be kept low under a brass cover with coal still seething in order to use them to light a new fire at the time of the next offering.

The whole idea was to preserve the original fire with which God lit the original first offering (Leviticus 9:23-24). That first fire was not of human origin. It came from the altar above, from Hashem himself, and became the medium by which everything burnt by and on it transcended back to the heavenly realm. Without this fire, the altar is no more than a glorified barbecue pit and nothing burnt on it goes any higher than our atmosphere, much less transcends to the heavenly sphere. It is the meaning behind Yeshua’s mystic saying, "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven" (John 3:13). This is also why the sons of Aaron were punished for bringing to the altar strange fire, a fire which did not originate from the altar above.

Homiletically speaking, this fire teaches us much. It teaches us that faith in Messiah cannot be something originated from earthly personal emotions or charismatic style gatherings; it must be something kindled by the spiritual reality of Hashem, from the spiritual fire that is from above. This is the whole difference between living faith and dead religion. Our obedience to commandments may be all good and well but without being enflamed by redemptive messianic faith, it is nothing more than meaningless rote rituals; a self-evident truth as of before Yeshua’s manifestation on earth (Rev. 3:14; Rom. 3:2). We can see it in the patriarchs that we know of such as Abraham whose faith was based on belief in the resurrection (Heb. 11: 19), of David who in the Psalms incessantly speaks of Messiah, of Job (Job 19:25), and of a host of others.

In essence spirituality not enflamed by a consuming faith in Messiah's redemptive power is similar to an offering on a cold altar. Godly actions, even in obedience to Torah, consumed by any other elements than this consuming faith in Messiah's work actually becomes idolatry. Maybe this is the idea behind Yeshua’s rejection of many who will come to him in the end all proclaiming their good works for him while lacking faith in his power to redeem them.(Luke 13:26-27; Matt. 7:21-23); they offered strange fire (Lev. 10:1-2).

May our faith be more than an earthly emotional high originating from the mechanics of sounds and lights over-used in today’s pulpits. May our faith come from an all-consuming fire (yet safe and controlled like Moses’ burning bush) to challenge the powers that be, to deliver us from the Pharaoh outside of us and the one inside as well, and lead us, even by night, through to the Promised Land!

THE TAMID OFFERING

http://yedideiadonai.weebly.com/1/post/2013/03/the-tamid-offering.html

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 FRUITS OF THE LIPS

Hebrews 13:15-16

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to Hashem, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

In the sixth chapter of Leviticus we discover the daily offering called the Tamid תמיד, meaning, the perpetual offering (Lev 6: 8—13). This twice daily offering is supposed to be perpetual before Adonai. It represents the intercessory lamb perpetually standing before the Father; the one killed in the morning when Yeshua was hanged on the tree, and the second killed in the afternoon when the Master remitted his spirit into the hands of the Father.

Even after the death and resurrection of the Master, the Jerusalem disciples as well as all these new Jewish believers from the nations them continued attending the twice daily service at the Temple (Acts 2:46). The theology that Yeshua had replaced all offerings never existed in the disciples mind and it was never an issue for them. This theology that was later fabricated by non-Jewish Christian apologists lingers until today.

When believers were eventually forbidden entrance to synagogues and Temple, (just as Yeshua had predicted would happen, thus revealing that believers would continue attendance (John 16:2)) they were very distraught. It was a religious disaster. The rest of the Jewish nation and the world were soon to meet the Nazarenes outside the Temple when in 70 C.E. all people were barred access to it as the Romans burned it to the ground.   

Jewish people, believers and non-believers alike then turned their eyes to the sages who seemed to have anticipated the issue. A homiletic interpretation of a verse in the prophecies of Hoseah offered an answer to the crisis. The verse says, "Take with you words and return to ADONAI; say to him, 'Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips'" (Hos. 14:2). Jewish sages and religious leaders used this verse to teach the people that when they recite the order of the offerings (words), it is as if they offered them as bulls on the altar (b. meguilah 31a). Also the word bulls in Hebrew being spelled the same way as the word fruits gave birth to the idea of offerings made in such a way being called the fruits of the lips. Until this day, Synagogue services consist of the reciting of the offerings at the appropriate times.

This theme was actually endorsed by he who wrote the Book of Hebrews, the letter to the Messianic Jews of Israel when they barred from the Temple.. Referencing Hoseah, the epistle writer encourages the Jewish believers that while barred from Synagogue and Temple, they should offer to God sacrifices of prayer, praise, good deeds and sharing. He says, "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." Along with verbal offerings, they were also exhorted to do good deeds and to share, "Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God" (Heb. 13:15—16).

May we through our mouths and actions continually offer our offerings of prayer, praise, good deeds (obedience to the Commandments) and sharing, for these are pleasing to him!.

YOU ALONE ARE WORTHY

John 14:6

“No one comes to the Father except through me”.

From New-Age type meditations to quantum physics, many books have been written on how to approach God. Why don’t people just read the Bible? In the Tabernacle, later to be the Temple, we are taught all the details concerning the protocol to observe when desiring an audience with the Almighty. Here is how it goes:

Our sinful nature prohibits us from approaching God. We only do it by proxy through the mediation of the blood of a kosher animal, so first we must bring an offering to the altar. The offering was not designed to atone for sin; it only served as an acknowledgement and a confession of sin (Heb. 10:4; 9:13). As it is now, the same principle applied before his manifestation about 2,000 years ago,: only the work of Messiah done at the foundation of the world cleans the conscience from sin (Heb. 4:3; 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:20). From Genesis to today, the formula never changed; we approach the Father through the sole mediating agency of the Son (John 14:6; Heb. 4:14-16; Ps. 2:12).

After we have brought the animal and offered it, only the priest can go further into the precinct of the Tabernacle/Temple. To do so, he has to go through the laver and wash his hands and feet. He probably washed at home that morning, but this washing is not for hygiene; it is a ritual washing against ritual contamination designated for priests only. We remember how Yeshua did the same to his disciples on the day he died. The disciples had already washed their bodies as well as their hands before eating as was done in Jewish customs; all they needed now was to wash their feet which the Master did for them that night. In essence, Yeshua was treating his disciples as priests, which fulfilled messianic prophecies (Exod. 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:9). Yeshua himself is the laver wherewith we are clean to approach the Father (John 15:3).

Finally, the continual incense burning in front of the Ark showed the prayers offered unto God. When Zechariah came to the Temple, the angel who said, “Your petition has been heard”, appeared to him as he was offering the incense (Luke 1:13). Our prayers are brought before God and He answers each one of them; He will vindicate his people (Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4).

May we then, having laid our sin on the altar, trust in the righteousness of our High-Priest in Heaven Yeshua HaMashiach המשיח ישוע, and through him have the confidence to draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).

THE HEAVENLY ADAM

2 Corinthians  5:21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become

the righteousness of God.

Reading much differently from its English processed translations, the original Hebrew text of the second verse of the first chapter of the Book of Leviticus presents interesting messianic insights. I do not believe that the English misreading is due to any conspiratory voluntary malefic action, but rather to a reading with an already established theology. We must also realize that a translation always carries the bias of the translator; it is merely a commentary in another language. I heard it said one time that reading the Bible through a translation is like kissing a bride through a veil!

The usual translations of the verse read something to the effect of: “When any one of you brings an offering to ADONAI … (Lev. 1:2), but a more literal translation of the text would read, (my translation) “When a man from among you (you: 2^nd person plural) desires to come near Me with n offering …” The word for ‘man’ is adam אדם, the same as the name of the first man Adam. This did not pass the attention of Chassidic teacher Rabbi Schneur Zalman. In 1812 The Rabbi  suggested a deeper meaning in the verse; he came to the messianic conclusion of the existence of a supernatural/spiritual Adam who approaches Hashem on the behalf of Israel. Based on the vision of Ezekiel in which he saw ‘a figure with the appearance of an Adam, Jewish teachings sometime offer the idea of a heavenly Adam; it is to this spiritual Adam the Rabbi refers to.

This may sound far-fetched, but only until we read Paul teaching along the same lines in. The Apostle says, "The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven" (1 Cor. 15:47). Understanding that everything on earth was created after an heavenly pattern,  we understand that Paul’s accounting of first and second does not refer to importance, but only to the chronology of this Adam’s earthly manifestations. 

The Rabbi was right. Israel does have an Adam, who approaches Hashem on our behalf, and who "lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25 referring to Isaiah 53:12). He is our burnt offering in Hebrew called olah עולה or ‘he that ascends’, an image of a total submission and consumption in God and ascending to him (Lev. 1:3; Matt. 26:39; John 3:13-15). He is our grain offering (Lev. 2:2; Matt. 26:26); our peace offering which is an image of communion and fellowship with Hashem through a meal (Lev. 3:1; John 14:27; Rev. 19:9). He also is our sin offering for involuntary sins (Lev. 4:2; 2 Cor. 5:21 (the word for sin in Hebrew or Greek also means: sin offering); Heb. 9:28); and our guilt offering ((Lev. 5:19; Isa. 53: 10-11).

In studying the eternal offering ordinances in the Book of Leviticus, we learn about Yeshua’s eternal intercessory role in our lives. It is one and the same thing, and  since He completes them (Matthew 5:17), if the offerings become obsolete as some teach, Yeshua also becomes obsolete, God forbid!

May we always be granted to confidently approach Hashem through him who is our eternal intercessory offering, in a spirit of submission and humility, in full knowledge of our sin, and personal unworthiness.

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.

THE HUMILITY OF MOSES

Matthew 11:29                                                                                     

… I am meek and lowly in heart: …

The Hebrew text of Scriptures contains several letters that differ in size, some bigger than the overall text, some smaller; there is even one that is broken in two. We find such a scribal oddity in what corresponds in English to the last letter of the first word of the Book of Leviticus, Vayikra, which is noticeably smaller than the rest of the text. The extreme scrutiny Jewish scribes used in replicating this text throughout millennia forbid us to assume a scribal error. Why would Moses then have diminished the ahlef אלף, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the last letter of the word Vayikrah , meaning, "And he (God) called)"?

The oracles Moses wrote down cannot just be read as a chronological string of words giving instructions. In the Hebrew biblical text, everything matters; repetitions have their value in emphasis as well as the placement of certain clauses within the text. The particular choice of certain words and their lexical root also tells us much about the underlying meaning behind the text. We are not used to pay such attention to these things while reading the Bible, but this is part of the cultural context of the writing, and sad to say, many of these vital details are lost in translation.

Scholars do not really have a satisfying answer concerning the diminishing of the aleph in Vayikra, the first word of the Book of Leviticus, but since Torah students hate a vacuum, it has left room for speculation and here is the most widely accepted reason for it. Vayikra means, "And he (God) called …" (Lev. 1:1). Moses whom Hashem defined as the humblest of all men did not think himself worthy of being singled out and called by God, so he originally wrote Vayikar (same word without the last ahlef), a much more impersonal inflection of the verb also used when the Angel of the Lord meets with the idolatrous prophet Balaam. Hashem disapproved of Moses' writing style and of the comparison, so Moses reluctantly acquiesced and d that last aleph, but smaller. This story is probably not true, but thus being so, it has it does have its own homiletic value in teaching us the vaues endorsed by the fathers of the Judaism our Master Yeshua.

The sages here describe Moses, the man blessed with the highest form of divine revelation one could ever be blessed with, as a person who did not even feel worthy of his calling. This sets Moses, the greatest of the teachers and prophets of Israel, as a trend setter, a blue-print for teachers and would-be prophets for al ages; one by which even the coming Messiah should be identified (Deut. 18:15). There is a dictum in Judaism which our Master Yeshua used, "With the same measure that a man uses, it will be measured to him" (Matt. 7:2). It is believed that because Moses humbled himself, God also humbled himself as he called Moses from the Tabernacle (Lev. 1:1). In a certain sense, Hashem is not afraid of humbling himself as he did also in sending Yeshua, the prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15), "who , being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death …" (Phil. 2:8).

Many desire to be teachers and prophets and these are good callings. May these called to such offices never forget the blue-print of self-effacement and humility that is to be the earmark of all those Hashem chooses to teach and lead his flock. That is the standard measure that should be used, not eloquence, depth, or intelligence, but the spirit of utter humility because, "He dwells in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite" (Isaiah 57:15).

THE KORBAN THAT 'COMES NEAR' FOR US.

Hebrews 4:14, 16                                                           

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Yeshua the Son of God, … Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

During our whole narrative in the Book of Exodus, Moses had unlimited access to Hashem. Now that the Tabernacle is completed and that the glory of Hashem fills it, Moses cannot go in (Exod. 40:34-35). What happened? This is the great paradox concerning the glorious presence of Hashem inhabiting among us; God is to live within us but the sinful nature we contracted through disobedience in Eden forbids us communion. Hashem therefore must ‘tweak the system’, find a loophole so to speak, in order to make fellowship happen.

In the first verses in the Book of Leviticus, the Almighty reveals his plan and says, “The man who approaches me needs to bring Me a ‘token of approaching’ from his flocks or from his herds” (Lev. 1:2: Literal translation by me). It is unfortunate that for ‘token of approaching’ most English texts use the word ‘sacrifice’, as it does not convey the idea meant in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew word used here is Corban קורבן, a Hebrew word left un-translated from Hebrew in the Mark's narrative of the life of Yeshua (Mark 7:11). What is a Corban?

The Torah teaches that life is in the blood, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement (covering) for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement (covering) by the life" (Lev. 17:11), so the blood of a biblically clean animal is brought forward instead of ours which is corrupted by sin. The Hebrew word Corban is actually a derivative from the Hebrew verb lekarev לקרב, to approach or to come near. Therefore the animal brought forward to the altar not a gift nor a bribe to gain brownie points with God, but a token that helps us come near to Hashem by proxy.

It seems that from the time of Abel through the Levitical service to today, both in Heaven and on earth, the principles of approaching Hashem have remained the same; in essence, we don't. We only approach the Almighty God Creator of Heaven and earth by proxy, through the agency of an acceptable token. In the Tabernacle/Temple on earth through the agency of a clean animal; in the throne in Heaven, through the agency of Yeshua the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 5:6; 13:8; John 14:6).

The Torah (as in Hashem's commandments found in the five books of the Pentateuch) is truly a tutor which teaches us this principle (Gal. 3:24). In a sense this confirms the idea that, "I am ADONAI, I change not" (Mal. 3:6).

May we all grow close to our Agent, Yeshua HaMashiach  המשיח ישוע ; as we confess him on earth, He confesses us to his, and our Father (Mat. 10:32; John 20:17).

"SO NOW ... HOPE ... ABIDE."

ADAR 26

Hebrews 12:12-13

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Here’s to those who battle sickness; to those who find themselves losing faith in the midst of financial or domestic battlegrounds. You out there who’s hands droop in discouragement and whose knees weaken under the weight of the heavy load Hashem seems to have unmercifully allowed to be placed upon your weak shoulders (Hebrews 12:12): has this world gotten you down?

A lady I recently met and who had a full life of serving the cause of the people of God recently realized that she is approaching the last years of her life. After being a very active social creature, she is now handicapped and stuck in the small room of an adult care facility. Feeling sick, lonely, and abandoned even by friends, she confessed to me that two days before she contemplated suicide. She then asked me, “Is it worth it? Is it worth it to wait it out, or should I just end it now?” Another lady friend of mine faced with a cancer resurgence cried in my arms the other day, “Why? Why doesn’t Hashem heal me?” On the other side, my wife presently cares for her sick ninety-nine year-old Swedish aunt who does not believe in God or in any sort of thing such as the after-life. As she realizes that she may not reach the meaningful landmark of one hundred years old, she faces her fate with uncanny pragmatism barely falling short of comforting the doctors who care for her. What is the difference? Why does this lady who does not even believe in God seem to have more peace in the face of sickness and probable death than the ones who do?

Hope; hope is the difference. Those who believe have learned to have hope, but as wise King Solomon said, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick …" (Prov. 13:12). Deferred hope may make the hear sick, but is a cynical life without the life and light of hope better? I don’t think so.

The very design of the tabernacle teaches us about the present and tangible hope that Hashem fulfills all his promises; that if he doesn't do it now in the Olam Hazeh  זהה עולם (this age) he will do it in the Olam Habah  הבא עולם (the Age to Come, the Messianic Age). The great divine plan for the destiny of the world is imbedded in the geography of the Tabernacle. Through it the Holy Spirit teaches us that as long as the protos (the first part of the tabernacle which represents this present age) pursues its unfinished course, the Deuteros (the second part which represents the World to Come where the full atonement of the Master our heavenly High Priest rules, the place where promises are all fulfilled) cannot come (Heb. 9:8-9). Our patriarchs understood that as they all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar (Heb. 11:13).

As we look into this beautiful shadow picture in the design of the Tabernacle, may we look for the World to Come with the hope and assurance from he who fulfills all hopes, and into the second part of the King Solomon’s proverb, “… but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life" (Prov. 13:12).

TAKE HIM HOME!

Matthew 22:37

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Before starting the construction of the Tabernacle, the Children of Israel were commanded to cease from all sort of creative activity and observe the Shabbat שבת. “Oh but, how can we observe the Sabbath? There is no synagogue, no Tabernacle, no Temple …!"

Faith based on worship at a certain place on a certain day is common to most religious systems. Whereas for community sake it is good and even needed to have regular meetings and fellowships, I wonder if that was Hashem’s core original idea. After all, the synagogue service was only a post-exilic organizational attempt to expose people to the Torah, in order to avoid another exile. The problem is that with such systems, religion gets removed from home’s daily life and revolves around what we do in the place of worship. Our teenagers then see the difference between who we are at home and who we are at the place of worship and feel that we are hypocrites, and maybe we are. What was then Hashem’s core idea?

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:6-9).

Regardless of our other fellowship activities, our religious lifestyle should be a home-based worship system, where Hashem is involved in every aspect of our lives from the time we wake till the time we sleep. The Jewish Friday night custom of sanctifying (separating/distinguishing) the Sabbath day is a microcosm of the Tabernacle which represents God’s presence with his people. The two candles on the table remind us of the Menorah; the challah bread on the table speaks of the bread of presence; the wine of the daily libation; the festive meal of the Sabbath double-offering portion; and the prayers of the altar of incense. It is home-base service officiated by the  father as the priest for his congregation composed of direct and extended family, as well as friends. The Saturday fellowship at the synagogue is good but it is an extra. I would paraphrase Yeshua and say that, ‘it is Friday night which sanctifies the synagogue service, not the synagogue service which sanctifies Friday night." To go to Saturday service and not sanctify the Sabbath at home on Friday night with our families misses the whole purpose. It’s a family thing. On Friday night it is customary for the husband to give an ode to his wife using Proverbs 31; the wife does the same to her husband and they both bless the children.

Hashem doesn’t just want to fellowship with us in a building somewhere when we are on our best behavior, He wants to be invited to live at the very core of our lives, to hear how we talk to each other at the table, witness how we interact and treat each other during the commonest of household functions. How else can we get his correction input if we just play ‘games’ in front of him (which He is actually not fooled by anyways)?

As we live our lives, may we allow him to be present in all our thoughts. May his bord be in our mouth when we sit in our house, and when we walk by the way, and when we lie down, and when we rise. May we bind them as a sign on our hand, and may they be as frontlets between our eyes. May they be written on the doorposts of our house and on our gates, … and on our hearts. 

THE MICROCOSM OF THE TABERNACLE

John 1:14

And the word … dwelt among us

What does the Tabernacle teach us? Let me now take you on a journey to the feet of Jewish sages who have pondered the question for hundreds of Years.

Many have suggested that as he built the Tabernacle, Bezalel saw it as a microcosm of the creation of the universe. Here is how it works. King David describes the first day of creation when God created the Heavens and the Earth using the following words, "stretching out the heavens like a tent" (Ps. 104:2). So we find that a curtain (similar to that of a tent) was stretched out above the Tabernacle. The colors of the material used also corresponded to the colors of sky and earth. On the second day of creation, God made the firmament as a separation between the waters above and the waters below. Similarly, in the Tabernacle there was a curtain separating one part from another. Just like on the third day of creation God gathered the waters into one area, in the Tabernacle there was also a designated place to gather water in a basin. Corresponding to the luminaries created on the fourth day, we find the menorah with its lights in the Tabernacle. On the fifth day of creation, God created the birds. Similarly, there were birds brought as offerings on the altar of the Tabernacle. And corresponding to the creation of man on the sixth day, the service in the Tabernacle was led by the High Priest. The Torah describes how the work was completed on the seventh day of creation and how that day was blessed and sanctified by God. The idea of the Tabernacle was to make a place for Hashem to live on earth. It represents therefore the restoration of all things to the day when the voice of ADONAI could be heard in the Garden of Eden.

Some have also viewed the Tabernacle as a microcosm of the human body with the Ark as the heart of a person and the cherubs with their wings over the Ark as the lungs that spread out around the heart. They saw the table with the showbread as a person's stomach and the menorah with its oil lamps as a person's mind. The frankincense reminded them of the sense of smell and the water basin of the fluids in the human body. Finally, the curtains were to them a person's skin and the beams represented the ribs. Jewish sages taught that every person is a microcosm of the entire universe just like the Tabernacle.

Jjust like it is the light of the world and of the body, the goal of the making of the Tabernacle was for the light of the Shekinah to come dwell within it, and thus within Israel (Exod. 25:22). ;. As farfetched as these musings may seem, we can’t help but realize that our Jewish sages were on the right track in their understanding of the Tabernacle. After all, did not Paul say that to their advantage, the Jewish people had been entrusted the oracles of God (Romans 3:1-2)? As the spirit of God came to fill the earthly Tabernacle, so it filled the earthly ‘tabernacle’ of the human body of the person of Yeshua who is the representation of the presence of God among us, in God’s created universe (Heb. 1:3; John 1:4; 8:12).

As we study these things, may we look forward to the time when Messiah will once again walk the earth among us.

May it be soon Abba, even in our days!

PATIENCE: NOT A HUMAN VIRTUE

Luke 21:19

By your endurance you will gain your lives.

The episode of the golden calf finds a parallel in the days of the Kings of Israel. In the ninth century B.C.E. Ahab marries the Tyrian princess Jezebel who reintroduces devotion to Baal worship. Before long Israel is deep in apostasy and God sends Elijah the prophet to minister to the wayward Northern Kingdom. Elijah’s efforts culminate to the test on Mt. Carmel where again we have as in the golden calf incident, Israel worshipping a false god in a wild dancing party (Exod. 32; 1 Kings 18).

The events on Mt. Carmel ended a three year drought inflicted on the country through Elijah as an results of their Ba'al worship.  Rabbinic historians say that the drought only lasted fourteen months; why then did both Yeshua and James mention that it lasted three and half year (Luke 4:25; James 5:17)? Joseph Fitzmyer explains that the drought lasted fourteen months straddling over a three and half years period, and that this duration of the drought paralleled the length of the period of distress in apocalyptic literature (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:6).

In both the golden calf and the Mt Carmel episode we have an impatient people turning to a wild idolatrous party. In the one they wait for Moses to return with the Torah, in the other they wait for the rain (the Hebrew words for ‘rain’ and ‘Torah’ are of the same etymological family). Will it be the same at the end of time? Hear these Words of warning from the Master, For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Matt. 24:37-39). Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 24:46-51).

These last 2,000 years of waiting for the return of the Master may seem long, but not as long as to those from whom the revelation of Messiah has been withheld. We have the assurance that,  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him (Hos. 6:2) (a day is as thousand years to the Lord (Psalms 90:4;

2 Pet. 3:8)).

May we patiently wait for him, each day doing our best to follow in his footsteps and shining the light of his Torah to all around us. May he find us and ours doing so at his return.

May it be soon, even in our days!