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The parasha
for this Shabbat is entitled Vayyikra,
and it begins this, the third book of the Torah,
which goes by the same name: Sefer Vayyikra,
or in English, the book of Leviticus. Vayyikra
is translated “And He called out”. The reading
takes us from Leviticus chapters one through five.
These chapters contain specific regulations about
presenting "korbanot" - offerings to Adonai. Each
chapter describes in detail a different type of
offering. These kinds of detailed passages in
Leviticus are usually ignored as people read through
the Scriptures devotionally, and read quickly
and without much attention when people are reading
through the Bible in one year. But these details
are of great importance, and should not be neglected.
In so many ways they are prototypical of Messiah
Yeshua’s nature, and of the manner of His life
and death.
Chapter
one deals more generally with the "olah" - the
burnt offering as atonement for sin. The animal
might be a young bull from the herd or a sheep
or goat from the flock. In either situation, the
animal had to be a male without defect. If a person
was too poor to offer something from the herd
or flock, he might either turtledoves or pigeons.
Chapter
two concerns the"minchah" - the grain or meal
offering. The grain offering could be of the type
that included fine flour, oil and frankincense
offered up in smoke, and it is described as a
soothing aroma to the Lord. It also could be an
offering of baked items like cakes, or of those
cooked in a pan. They all had something in common:
salt. Salt was to season every grain offering
(2:13). They also lacked something in common:
leaven. Leaven was to be excluded from all grain
offerings (2:11). That is simple enough to understand.
Leaven is a biblical type for sin; specifically
the sin of pride, which causes us to be puffed
up, just as leaven puffs up a batch of dough.
And just as leaven is mixed in a batch of dough
and a small piece pinched off and put in the next
batch, leaven shows us the generational perpetuation
of sin in fallen mankind.
But how
are we to interpret the required salt? Salt is
vital to life in the arid Middle East, not only
adding flavor to foods, but preserving them as
well. It was quite common for gifts of salt to
be exchanged in the making of ancient Near Eastern
treaties and in the process of reconciliation
between previously adversarial parties. Salt symbolized
hospitality. Salt is also pure - it is nearly
impossible for germs to survive in salt - which
is where we get the expression “pouring salt on
a wound”. Salt also helps heal. People will sometimes
travel to far-flung, remote parts of the Earth
in order to derive healing benefits from natural
salt springs. You cannot even survive without
salt! Remove all salt from your diet, and your
body will begin to deteriorate, because sodium
regulates the assimilation of nutrients into your
body at the cellular level.
In so
many ways salt is symbolic of God’s nature: He
is pure, He is precious, He is kindly and hospitable,
He heals - even though sometimes the process itself
may hurt. And you cannot live without God. In
Him we live and move and have our very being.
Salt dissolves in water, yet its quality remains
- which is perhaps what Yeshua had in mind when
He told us that we are the salt of the Earth.
We are in the world, but not of it. We are to
influence the world around us, yet not lose our
saltiness.
Chapter
3 tells us about "sh’lamim" - peace offerings.
A peace offering could be either from the herd
or flock and if from the flock it could be a female
or male. In chapter three we are commanded in
perpetuity not to eat any fat or any blood from
those offerings. We already know from Genesis
chapter nine that God has prohibited the consumption
of blood, because it is sacred, containing in
it the very substance of our life. It is for that
same reason that there can be no atonement for
sin without the shedding of blood - something
we will revisit a few weeks from now, Lord willing,
in chapter seventeen.
In chapter
four we learn about the particulars of the "chatat"
- the sin offering. There were more rituals involved
in the sins offerings than in the others. Generally
it was to be a bull, once again a male and without
defect, whether for an individual or the whole
congregation of Israel. However, if a leader of
the people sinned unintentionally, the offering
was to be a goat, a male without defect. Under
other circumstances, if an am haaretz (commoner)
sinned, a female goat, also without defect, was
to be the sacrifice.
Chapter
five informs us about the "asham" - the guilt
offering. The circumstances requiring these offerings
might include coming in contact with something
or someone who is unclean, an oath (whether good
or bad) sworn thoughtlessly, refusing to testify
in legal proceedings when you were a witness to
an alleged crime, or else sinning in some way
unintentionally. This chapter makes clear that
unintentional sins are no less demanding of atonement
than willful, high-handed sins. God is holy, His
righteous requirements inflexible. We cannot afford
to lie to ourselves and presume that our good
intentions render sin acceptable. We must still
confess our sins to God and bring blood for atonement.
Let’s
sum it all up. What do all these offerings have
in common?
- Inevitably, one or more of them would be
necessary for you. Every human being falls short
and transgresses against a holy God. Every one
of us needs atonement.
- Whether a bull, lamb, goat or ram, all offerings
were to be of flawless animals - no defect!
- With the exception of the grain offerings,
all involved the shedding of blood.
- In every blood offering the worshiper had
to lay his hands on the head of the animal which
was about to be slain.
- The offerings were always performed through
the mediation of a priest.
- The carcasses of the sin offerings were always
burned outside the camp (Lev. 4:11-12, 21).
- Every single offering in some way prefigured the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua!
What we
have here is what Dr. Louis Goldberg, of blessed
memory, called “The Exchange of Life Principle”.
You, the guilty party, lay your guilty hands on
the head of an innocent animal. In so doing your
sin is symbolically transferred to that animal,
and its innocence symbolically transferred to
you. The animal (now bearing your guilt) is then
put to death, suffering in your place. Just as
those animals had to be without defect, Messiah
Yeshua lived a perfectly sinless life. And the
writer of Hebrews, the letter to the Messianic
Jews, reminds us that just as the carcasses of
those sin offerings were always burned outside
the camp, so Yeshua suffered outside the camp.
And if we will be His true followers, it will
mean our going outside the camp, outside social
convention, outside the realm of respectability.
We need to be open and up-front about our faith
in Yeshua. If we are ashamed of Him He will be
ashamed of us. If we confess Him before men, He
will confess us before the Father, and welcome
us into Heaven!
Shalom!
Rabbi Glenn
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