This was a post I read today that really caught my attention and made me think about the way that I read and interpret. Am I awed and amazed at YHWH and why He does things? Or am I stuck in the “how?” Click here to read the post. Also, read the first post by Gayle about a slightly different view of Abraham and the near-sacrifice of Isaac. It’s very cool!
This was posted as a comment on Skip Moen’s blog, but I wanted to repost it here because it clarifies a lot of questions I had/have. Granted, it’s one person’s view and since I don’t know much about the Jewish beliefs (other than what’s in the Bible), I don’t know if it’s perfectly, precisely, 100% right. However, it really helps me see much more clearly how the Torah applies to worshiping God. Thanks to Rodney who wrote this post! No-one was ever justified by bringing sacrifices and it was never about removing sin. Torah defines sin; it does not remove it. The 13 sacrifices given in Torah relate to the 13 aspects of the mercy of God. They were given to teach us how to approach God in a right way, not presumptuously but humbly and with reverence. They point us to Messiah and all speak of His ministry and work in us. The outward act of bringing the sacrifice or offering was supposed to teach us how to offer ourselves on the altar of our hearts. Isn’t that what Paul said in Romans 12? “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God topresent yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship”. The external acts are supposed to be internalised and acted on in our heartsand, as such, are still as valid today as they ever were. What are the 13 sacrifices? 1. Minchah – a meal offering of grain, flour, bread or cakes. Is not Jesus the “bread of life”? Did he not break bread and say, “this bread is my body, broken for you?” 2. Olah – a whole burnt offering, completely given to God, to be lifted up onto the altar. Was not Messiah lifted up for us? Completely given to God? He is our Olah, our Lamb (the Lamb of God), our whole burnt offering. 3. Chata’ah – a sin offering for unintentional sin. Messiah took on himself our sin and is our sin offering. 4. Nesek – a drink offering (of wine). Did not Jesus take the cup and say, “this cup is the blood of the new covenant, my blood poured out for you”? 5. Tenuphah – a wave offering (usually loaves of bread or leafy branches), lifted up and waved before God. Is this not what we do when we lift our hands in worship to our Saviour and King? 6. Asham – a guilt offering (for an unintentional mistake by a leader). Messiah is our true leader, the only perfect leader and example, yet he offered himself as our guilt offering; thus we are made righteous and declared “not guilty” – as Skip has just pointed out in the last couple of days, we are “justified by faith” by believing and acting on God’s declaration of righteousness bestowed on us. 7. Millu – an ordination offering, where priests and kings were anointed. Is not Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One? 8. Shelem – a peace offering. Is He not the Prince of Peace? 9. Todah – a thanksgiving offering (usually at the completion of something). Do we not still give thanks to our Heavenly Father for his strength, provision, sustenance and guidance in our lives? 10. Nedabah – a freewill offering (to celebrate with the Lord or involve Him in a celebration). Do we not still bring gifts to God and offer praise and thanksgiving as part of our celebrations? 11. Neder – a votive offering (in connection with a vow). Has our Father not vowed that “I will never leave you nor forsake you“? Does he not vow to save us through the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua? He is the votive offering that guarantees and completes God’s vow to us. 12. Terumah – a heave offering (a contribution from the heart). Do we not still give alms as a contribution from our hearts? Messiah taught about this when He said, “Don’t sound a teruah(trumpet) when you make a terumah (give alms)”; in other words, “when you make a true contribution from the heart, don’t make a big noise about it, but do it quietly – you’re giving to God and it is betwen you and Him”. 13. Azkarah – a memorial offering (a remembrance). Did Jesus not say to His disciples, “As often as you do this, remember me”? Each of these offerings was called “Qorban” – brought near – to be brought near when we approached the Lord. Only 2 have anything to do with sin and none are for intentional sin. The Torah is clear – there is no sacrifice that a man can bring that atones for intentional, wilfull sin – the penalty for wilfully sinning against God (which we have all done at some time in our lives) is death. The only way out of that is to be passed from death to life and that is only done through the sacrifice brought by God Himself- the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. OurPassover Lamb that passes us from death to life. Oh, by the way, that wasn’t taught by Moses – that one was taught to us by Abraham. Remember? Isaac was to supposed to be up on the altar, but Abraham prophesied that “God will provide Himself a Lamb in this place“. Isaac was passed from death to life in the same way we are; through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lamb of God. In that place. Mt Moriah. Known later as the Temple Mount. No-one was ever justified by “keeping the Law” (obeying Torah). That was never its purpose. It had two functions – to define sin and to teach us about Messiah. If you remove the definition of sin, then there is no more sin – therefore there can be no judgment for sin (and no-one on earth need fear God’s judgment because God has no grounds for judgment if there is no sin). BTW, Paul said this over and over again. We just twisted his words to say what we wanted them to say because we didn’t like the message. Just one thing to clarify – I said above that the sacrificial system is still just as valid today. It is, but we don’t have an operating Levitical Priesthood to assist with bringing and presenting the sacrifices, we don’t have a consecrated altar on the temple mount nor do we have a temple; therefore we obey Torah by not bringing the sacrifices, except in our hearts. Oh, yes. About the fact that each of the sacrifices was assisted by a priest? Yeshua is our High Priest – He is the one who assists us to bring the sacrifices on the altar of our hearts. We would all do well to study and learn how to apply that to our lives today (and our relationship with our Father will be all the richer for it). How’s that for awesome? I like it! I know there is some controversy over the part about Isaac (due to later comments), but it’s still amazing! God’s pretty incredible to come up with a system that had meaning then and that can continue to have meaning today! Skip’s Original Post is here. Rodney’s website is here.
I know it’s probably irritating to have so many links to the same site, but I learn so many things. Today it hit home to the heart of my mommy-ness (Read the original post by Skip Moen here). One of the biggest struggles that I find myself in is fearing for my children’s safety. I could imagine horrible situations and try to figure out how I’d get them out of it (it’s like that game or the TV show where it explained how to get out of these life-threatening situations). And then I read about a woman whose daughter taught her a valuable lesson – God has numbered my days, as He numbers the hairs on my head. He knows each one of them (and all the variations of them). He also loves my children. One of the hardest things I have to do is to stop holding on to them so tightly and fearing for their future. It seems like a daily thing that I have to release them back (metaphorically) into God’s care. Granted He always has them, but in my tendency to want to control the possible chaos in their lives (how very Greek of me), binding them tighter and tighter is the opposite direction from that in which I want to go. This commentary reminds me , again, that binding my children tighter to me won’t make them safer or more mine. Rather, stretching out my hand, cutting the bonds, and releasing them to His protection and care is the ultimate goal and the ultimate need. I am still a steward for my children, but I can no more protect them than I can fly (although I think my son might figure out how to do that… he’s certainly trying). Looking at this verse through the perspective of the verbs, I can more deeply understand what YHWH was asking of Abraham. Did Abraham understand that this was a test of his willingness to trust God’s plan and choose His path rather than the path that he could imagine, the one with Isaac? Does it matter? Do first, then if He wants He’ll explain. Sometimes it’s the doing without understanding, the choosing to walk the unknown, to let go, out of faith and out of love, that is the whole point of the test.
Leviticus 17:21 For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it [is] the blood [that] makes atonement for the soul. I’ll bet that if you read that without the address you’d think it was something Jesus said or that Paul quoted while making an argument for salvation. And maybe they did, but that’s not where the verse originated. Anyway, it’s here that the significance of blood is explained. Only blood can atone for a soul. Well, technically it says that blood atones for the whole self. The word used for soul is “nephesh” and it doesn’t mean just the soul. It is the living self (with life in the blood) and includes the body, the mind, the will, the character, the appetites and the emotions. It’s pretty all-inclusive of what makes a human a human. The Hebrews didn’t split a person into parts like we do (based on the Greek model). There wasn’t a body that was separate from the mind which was also separate from the soul. Nephesh was holistic. So this atonement was also holistic. It covers and atones (to make amends for, to compensate) for our sins. And it’s all about the blood. Nephesh is a being with life in the blood. Without blood we die. Maybe that’s why we call it the “life blood” of a thing. That life is the oxygen, the breath, it carries to our body. That breath originally came from YHWH himself! How precious is that! Symbolically, the blood circulates the breath of God through our veins to bring life to our body. No wonder God didn’t want people drinking the blood of animals. Eventually, Jesus would shed His blood as the final and perfect sacrifice, putting an end to animal sacrifices. But even here, long before Jesus, blood is important enough to be reserved only for sacrifices, only for atonement. To break this law meant that you were cast out of Israel… a pretty steep punishment. And, it comes after the sacrifices which means it’s pretty darn important. The sacrifices were of primary importance because they restored the relationship between men and God by removing the guilt of sin. And the prohibitions on blood come closely on their heels. So, this would pretty much rule out vampirism as a Christian fetish or practice. Does it rule out steak cooked medium rare?
Lev 14:6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. Maybe if I lived during the days of Moses this would make sense and would understand the logic behind some of these rituals. I understand the examination of the skin sores and red and white spots. They didn’t have all the medicines that we have today and things that were contagious could spread quickly. God’s instructions helped prevent sickness. But I wonder why the sacrifice for becoming clean again (being healed, essentially) involved 2 birds, one alive and one killed, with one getting dipped in the blood of the other. That just seems so random. However, I know that God is not one of disorder, so I’m sure there’s a good reason, and perhaps back then the people heard all this and nodded with complete understanding of why they were to do things this way. Thank goodness we don’t have to make sacrifices anymore. Not only would it be hard for those of us who like animals, but it’s an awful lot to remember!
Leviticus 3:-7 LOTS of sacrifices. Wow! The priests were busy! There are an awful lot of sacrifices that were to be made. Although, they often pertain to different classes of people, so it may not have been that many to remember. Most though do focus on unintentional sins. Only one is for an unintentional sin – lying or stealing. That one involves restoring what was taken plus extra, and then the person also had to make a sin offering. Another thing is that if a person is unclean and they participate in or consume any of the sacrifice they would be cut off from Israel – exiled. They wouldn’t be able to offer sacrifices, and that meant they wouldn’t be forgiven and they wouldn’t have that special relationship with God. No wonder they tried so hard to keep from being defiled or made unclean! Same thing if a person ate the fat from an offering or at blood. What the heck is a wave offering? And a heave offering? Other than those two weird things, there was a grain offering, a burnt offering, a sin offering, a trespass offering, the consecrations, and the peace offering. That’s a lot! But I suppose that if you’d grown up with that as part of your life it wouldn’t be nearly as complex sounding as it is today when it’s archaic. Thankfully, we don’t have a Temple anymore, and because of that and because of Jesus, we no longer have to offer sacrifices like this. The Hebrews always put the most important things at the beginning (they didn’t much care about chronology, like we do today). So, since the sacrifices are the first thing in this book (which was also the first book the children read and learned to write from), they must have been critical. They established and enabled the relationship between YHWH and His people. They didn’t want to do anything to mess that us, so they put it first. It was the first thing you learned because that relationship was the most important thing in their lives. Is it the most important thing in my life? Do I put that relationship first?
Numbers 18:29 Be sure to set aside the best portions of the gifts given to you as your gifts to the Lord. The context of this verse is that it is a change in the earlier law as a result of Korah’s rebellion. Now the people of Israel cannot approach the Tabernacle or they will die. The Levites will no longer get any inheritance of land, but they will get to keep the tithes brought by the people to the temple. In this verse, Moses tells them that they should tithe on this tithe that is given to them. However, I think the wording is pretty interesting. They must set aside the best. Not just any tenth will do. It must be the best portion of what they receive. This is pretty subjective, I think. God leaves it up to them to decide what constitutes the best. In essence, they must be honest about what they have been given and willingly choose to give back what they consider to be the best part. We are asked to do this, too. God blesses us: financially, physically, with family, spiritually. We must choose to give our best back to Him. We get to decide what is considered the best, but it still belongs to Him. We must be honest when we decide this… a true test of character. I also think the wording “of the gifts given to you” holds more meaning for us today. The Holy Spirit gifts us spiritual gifts when we become a Christ-follower and accept the Holy Spirit’s leading in our life. Paul explains some of those gifts, like teaching, mercy, shepherding (not sheep, people), administration, etc. These aren’t given for the fun of it or because they’re cool. We should also give back the best of these gifts to God – using them to honor Him and glorify Him. As I’m learning more and more, it’s not about me. It’s all about Him. He gives us the best, and He deserves the best in return. I am often selfish, but in surrendering my best, I get His best back. And that’s worth everything.