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Emor
(“Speak”) - Greater Things Than These
Our
reading for this Shabbat is entitled Emor,
meaning “Speak.” This Torah portion
covers Leviticus chapters twenty-one through twenty-four.
It begins with Adonai telling Moses to give instructions
to the priests about maintaining ritual purity.
A higher standard is expected from those who serve
the altar and mediate between God and men.
In terms
of ritual purity, the priest was not to have any
contact with a deceased person, the exceptions
being his immediate family. In terms of lifestyle,
priests were forbidden to marry any woman who
had ever been a prostitute, an adulteress or even
divorced. Priests were required to take only virgins
as wives. Even physical perfection was necessary.
Those who were blind or lame or who had any sort
of disfiguration on their face or who had eczema
or a crushed testicle - even a physical defect
as simple as a broken bone or a limp disqualified
a man from serving at the altar. If a man was
from a priestly family, he was still permitted
to eat of the holy things, but not to serve at
the altar.
Before
you accuse the Lord of job discrimination, bear
in mind that the priest served a dual role. He
was a representative of the people to God, and
also a representative of God to the people, and
our God is awesome in perfection. Those standing
between the nation and God had to be not only
ritually pure, but physically without any defect.
Also bear in mind that the ancient Jewish priests
were a type of the Messiah who was to come, and
Messiah Yeshua was flawless in every respect.
Chapter 22 includes a reminder that, likewise,
animals brought for sacrifice to the Lord were
required to also be without defect. Animals with
any sort of blemish or deformity were unacceptable
as sin offerings or for burnt offerings fulfilling
vows.
These
things were almost certainly in the mind of the
author of the New Testament letter to the Messianic
Jews, who wrote, “For it was fitting that
we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent,
undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted
above the heavens; who does not need daily, like
those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first
for His own sins, and then for the sins of the
people, because this He did once for all when
He offered up Himself... For if the blood of goats
and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling
those who have been defiled, sanctify for the
cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the
blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse
your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God?” (Hebrews 7:26-27, 9:13-14).
Let me
skip ahead for a moment. Chapter 24 repeats instructions
about the show bread, and reiterates God’s
command that murderers receive the death penalty.
There is also recorded in chapter 24 an incident
in which a young man blasphemed God’s Name.
It shocked the nation and earned him the death
penalty as well.
Leviticus
chapter 23 gives us an overview of the seven annual
feasts of Israel, four in the Spring and three
in the Fall, and every one of them a prophecy
of the Messiah. Passover pointed to Yeshua as
the spotless Lamb of God, not a bone broken, by
whose blood death passes over us if we apply His
blood to the doorposts of our hearts. The seven-day
Feast of Unleavened Bread points to Yeshua as
the sinless One who was afflicted for our iniquity,
and who also received stripes and was pierced.
The Feast of First Fruits, falling on the 3rd
day of Passover week, anticipated the resurrection
of the Messiah from the dead on the 3rd day, at
the very time the priest raised up and waved the
single, unleavened sheaf before the Lord. Seven
weeks and a day later, Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks,
with its offering of new grain and two loaves
of bread baked with leaven waved before the Lord
as first fruits, looked ahead to the Holy Spirit’s
coming and drawing together of Jew and Gentile
in Messiah as one new man.
There
are no Summer festivals in Leviticus. The Summer
was a time for the harvest to grow and ripen,
but the harvesting was yet to come. In that regard,
we may justly see ourselves as being in the very
late days of Summer in the scope of world redemption.
Messiah came and died as the perfect Lamb, rose
from the dead, and sent the Holy Spirit to summon
the Church, God’s Holy Community of Jews
and Gentiles, into being. For the past two thousand
years the word of God has been spreading worldwide,
and the harvest is ripening, readying for the
reaping to take place at the End of the Age.
I believe
that Israel’s three Fall festivals are also
prophecies, but looking instead to the second
coming of Messiah to Earth. The first of these,
Yom T’ruah (also called Rosh HaShanah),
coming on the 1st day of the seventh month of
Tishri, with its blowing of trumpets not only
summoned our attention to re-focus on the Lord
in preparation for the Day of Atonement which
followed 10 days later, but looked ahead to the
coming Great Day about which Rabbi Paul wrote,
For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Messiah
shall rise... (1 Thess. 4:16).
Yom Kippur,
the Day of Atonement, was to take place on the
10th day of Tishri. It was the great day of reckoning
each year. The High Priest, standing in for the
nation Israel, after elaborate ritual cleansing
and robing himself in specially appointed garments
and offering a bull for his own sin, entered the
K’dosh, K’dosheem - the Holy of Holies.
Leviticus 16 describes in more detail what took
place on that day, but suffice for us to say this
morning that it was all or nothing - we would
either be accepted by God and live another year,
or be judged by God and condemned. God commanded
us on Yom Kippur to humble or afflict our souls.
We were to fast and to reflect on our need of
God’s forgiveness for our multitudinous
sins. The rabbis tell us that in ancient times
a scarlet-colored piece of fabric was tied to
the Azazel, the scapegoat, and another piece tacked
up at the Temple gate. They say that when the
Azazel met its death, instantaneously the scarlet-colored
fabric would turn white; symbolizing God’s
acceptance of our atonement for the year, and
hearkening back to God’s word through Isaiah:
“Though your sins are as scarlet, they will
be as white as snow; though they are red like
crimson, they will be like wool (Isaiah 1:18).
Imagine the joy and relief that was felt by all
when they knew they were accepted for the year
to come!
That relief
would naturally give way to joy and celebration,
which is precisely what the third Fall Festival
was all about: Sukkot - the Feast of Tabernacles,
five days later, on the 15th of Tishri. The sukkahs,
the little shelters we were commanded to build
and decorate with leafy branches, were reminders.
We were to remember our wandering in Sinai. But
I believe we were also to consider our sojourning
in this life as transitory. This world is not
our home, and these bodies of ours are merely
temporary shelters. Sukkot looks ahead to both
the Millennial Kingdom of Yeshua, characterized
by peace and abundance, and to our eternity in
fellowship with God, about which the apostle wrote,
“Behold, the Tabernacle of God is among
men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall
be His people, and God Himself shall be among
them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes; and there shall no longer be any mourning
or crying, or pain; the first things have passed
away.” And He who sits on the throne said,
“Behold, I am making all things new”
(Revelation 21:3-5). Perhaps it is the very idea
of a new beginning that explains why God appointed
Shemini Atzeret - an additional assembly on the
eighth day.
Remembering
these things helps us to keep a godly, heavenward
perspective when things aren’t going so
well in our lives. If we know that this is all
going to pass away, and that new heavens and a
new earth await us, it makes the momentary difficulties,
the obstacles and the annoyances we face a whole
lot less daunting. Aren’t you glad there
is a Great Feast yet to come? Don’t you
want to tell others about it, too?
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
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