Jeremiah 7-9; Malachi 3-4: Heaven’s salve for our hearts to prepare us for Passover

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Why should we study the offerings of Israel’s Tabernacle and Temple, particularly after the arrival of the ultimate offering, Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ)? Thankfully, the prophets the LORD sent ahead of the Mashiakh help explain why this study is critical to learning more about the heart of the Creator of the heavens and the Earth.

The parallel passage (haftarah in Hebrew) for the Torah passage צו Tzav (“command,” Lev. 6:8–8:36) provides a sobering reminder that the Tabernacle has always been about the heart connection to Heaven and not works-based forgiveness. We learn that we are to forgive the sins, transgressions and iniquities of others completely, as God has forgiven ours. And we are to forget them, as God has forgotten ours, freeing us from our “house of bondage” of guilt. That’s a great prelude to the memorial of Pesakh (Passover).

Here are two questions that came up from an earlier discussion of Tzav that help set the stage for this study of the haftarah passages: “Why can’t you eat the sacrifice after three days?” “Why can’t certain fats be eaten?” Both of are branches of one fundamental question, “Why can’t I…?”

The goal of the Tabernacle was for God to bring people to Himself. The point of the qorbanot (offerings, sacrifices) is to teach that one must be transformed before one can enter God’s presence.

In the Gospels, Yeshua went to the tomb of Lazarus, but he waited three days. When He told them to open Lazarus’ tomb, He was warned that the body inside would already be rotten.

There’s a play on words here regarding the fats discussed in the Torah. The words for fats is similar to the word for “eight” which is symbolic of abundance and new beginning. The fatness of the internal parts of the animal go up to the Lord.

David told us that God desires truth in our guts. The guts of the animal are exposed for everyone to see and have to go up to the Lord.

Tzav for our hearts

I know this is a horrible pun, but we really do need a salve for our hearts, just as we need it for our eyes. One question that comes up very quickly when reading Jeremiah is:

Did the LORD come to despise the offerings and festivals He commanded?
- If so, why?
- And what did He do about it?
Does the LORD come to hate our obedience to His commandments?

Is Leviticus just an instruction manual on how to run a BBQ restaurant, or is it more? Thankfully, these three prophets at crisis periods in Israel’s history provide the “why”:

Jeremiah (pre-exile)
Isaiah (exile)
Malachi (post-exile)

Jeremiah 7–8: Did the LORD’s commands become loathsome?

Did the LORD come to despise the offerings and festivals He commanded (Jer. 7:21–24)? Let’s read an oft-quoted similar passage from Isaiah 1:

“ ‘What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?’ says the LORD. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies — I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. ‘So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.’ ” (Isaiah 1:11-17 NASB)

This is more than just standing by and being “good” in and of yourself. This is “see something, say something.” God will not listen to the prayers of people who sit silent when people are suffering from injustice or corruption.

God didn’t give the Israelites the instructions regarding the Tabernacle and the offerings until a year after He gave them freedom from bondage. He didn’t make them sign on the dotted line that they must keep His law before He gave them freedom. He gave them freedom and then gave them Torah. Only a free people can truly follow Torah freely.

The “abomination of desolation” has come on the Tabernacle/Temple repeatedly. The first time was in Shiloh, but it came every time the people had turned their backs on their covenant with God. The “new covenant” prophecy says the fault was with the people, not the LORD’s laws:

“ ‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ‘They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 NASB)

The Tabernacle/Temple were not to be treated like a casino, where one can just pull a handle and out come blessings. It was always about the heart of the person as much as the actions of the person. The Tabernacle/Temple was to a place where one could come into a relationship with the Creator and to be close to Him. The point was that the closer one is to the Creator, the more one become like Him and moves further away from the self and the flesh.

Jeremiah 7:25: Despising the prophets

Yeshua challenged the teachers of Israel to not just build memorials to the prophets but to listen to their lessons and reproofs of the leaders of their times to avoid making the same mistakes (Matt. 23:29–39). How do we despise the prophets? When when claim to praise them but have no idea what they actually said.

By dropping in a line (“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD”) from the Hallel grouping of Psalms normally sung after the Pesakh (Passover) seder, Yeshua was asking them if they really know what Pesakh is about? Did they know the point of the Pesach lamb in freeing Israel from the “house of bondage” in Mitzraim (Egypt)? He wants to know if they don’t understand it. If we don’t understand, we need to ask God for understanding and God will give wisdom to those who ask.

Jeremiah 9:22–24: Wrong and correct ways to boast

Here are the wrong ways to boast:

“Thus says the LORD, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches…’” (Jeremiah 9:23 NASB)

What did their wisdom bring them? Did they understand why they were brought into the land? Why they were still there? Did they really know who they were praying to? During the times of the prophets, many people in both the Northern and Southern Kingdom, including the priests, were turning their backs (both figuratively and literally) to God and were facing the false gods.

But here are correct ways to boast:

“ ‘… but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:24 NASB)

Knowing the Lord is not about how to correctly pronounce His name, or the exact way to present the various gifts. Knowing the Lord is about living our lives in the pattern He taught us.

‘I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness’

exercises = עָשָׂה ʿasah (H6213a) = do, fashion, accomplish
- מַעֲשֶׂה maʿăs′eh = deed, work
lovingkindness = חֶסֶד khesed (H2617a)
- Early examples: Ex. 20:6 (Deut. 5:10); Ex. 34:6–7

“ ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6 NASB)

This is one of the first references to “lovingkindness” in Torah. Lovingkindness is not just faithfulness and loyal but also mercy.

“Then Moses said, ‘I pray You, show me Your glory!’ … The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’ ” (Exodus 33:18; 34:5–7 NASB)

This text really puts the focus on mercy and lovingkindness when one recalls this is post-Golden Calf. Some of those who were involved were punished but God forgave most of them graciously. The Golden Calf was a stunning insult to the Creator, just after He had explicitly said not to make any kind of physical representation of His “form” to worship it.

‘I am the LORD who exercises … justice’

justice = מִשְׁפָּט mishpat (H4941)
- We read through a section of the Torah already titled מִשְׁפָּטִים Mishpatim (Ex. 21:1-24:18).
- It concerned treatment of servants/employees, civility to other people, dealing with murder, etc. This isn’t just about crime and punishment on a grand scale but also about interpersonal relations on a small scale

Mashiakh Yeshua said that the second-greatest commandment is “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37–40; Lev. 19:18).

If we want to follow Yeshua, we must also strive to be peacemakers, to be peace creators. There are some things that we can’t let just slide but in so far as possible, we need to try to live in peace. We are not to hold grudges against others but to love our neighbors. If the Lord accepts repentance, we should to. If we don’t, we are bearing grudges and that is not a way to love our neighbors.

We shouldn’t hold grudges against ourselves either. We need to let go of things that God has already forgiven. It’s not arrogance to accept God’s forgiveness but gratitude.

In Isaiah 58:5-10, we read that part of humbling oneself before Heaven is helping those who have been humbled by circumstances. The good things that the Lord has done for us go before us. The good works He gave for us to do accompany us.

“ ‘Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.’ ” (Matthew 7:1-5 NASB)

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” Most stop there, but by stopping there, they miss the context and make the text says what it does not say. Our pray should be to take the log out of our eye so we can see clearly. We need to be able to judge what is a crime and what is not a crime but we can’t be hypocrites about it.

‘I delight in these things’

“For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.” (Psalm 33:4–5 NASB)

We should look to mirror this in our lives and to those around us. We should look to fill the earth with God’s lovingkindness:

“You have a strong arm; Your hand is mighty, Your right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.” (Psalm 89:13-14 NASB)

“With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:6-8 NASB)

The Mashiakh modeled for us how God’s khesed is put into action and how understanding and knowing the LORD is part of that:

“ ‘This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.’ ” (John 17:3-4 NASB)

The Septuagint rendering of “walk humbly” in Micah 6:8 is “be ready to follow.” We should always be ready to follow the LORD, just as the Israelites followed the Cloud wherever it went while they were in the Wilderness. If the prophets of God were persecuted because the people didn’t like their message, the Messiah was also treated like that. We can’t expect to be treated better than they were.

Malachi 3–4: Beware, the Mashiakh is coming

In our day, we see a profound breakdown in the relationship between the young and naive v. the older and wiser. What is what happens in a culture that is insolent against authority. They delude themselves to think that the Lord doesn’t care because He doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to knock them down for their iniquity. They false believe that His patience is the same as His acceptance.

“ ‘Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,’ says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:1 NASB)

Malachi 3:1 saw its fulfillment in Yochanan the Immerser (Matthew 11:10–15). The questions for us now as it was in the Messiah’s generation is this: Do we want to force ourselves in or force ourselves out? Do we want to be refined or do we want to be full of impurities? These things are teaching us how to move ourselves from where we are into the presence of God. There are different steps we have to walk through to get closer to the Lord.

As we read scripture, we learn a little more about the heart of God: We are to forgive the sins, transgressions and iniquities of others completely as God has forgiven ours. Let them go! We are to forget them, as God has forgotten ours, freeing us from our “house of bondage” of guilt.

Summary: Tammy

Banner Photo: God is the epitome of lovingkindness, mercy and justice. He reigns in Heaven but He is as close as the prayers on our lips. (Photo by Freeimages.com/Martin Boose)