Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:26 — 43.7MB)
Subscribe: RSS
There’s an old saying that is common among parents who are trying to teach their children to resist the temptation to follow their peers into making disastrous life-changing mistakes: “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”
God was preparing the children of Israel to enter the Promised Land, a land where the Canaanites who, by God’s account, lived immoral or amoral lives. Underlying the lessons in the Torah passages אחרי מות Acharei Mot and קדושים Kedoshim (“after (the) death” and “holiness,” Leviticus 16–20) on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and morality is that God did not want the Israelites to follow His laws on autopilot — not in apathy or indifference — but mindfully and purposefully.
Don’t enter God’s house uninvited (Leviticus 16:1–2)
Two sons of Israel’s high priest Aharon (Aaron), Nadab and Abihu, seem to have committed three egregious affronts to the One they served:
- Offered profane (common) fire.
- Offered incense at the wrong time.
- Entered the holy place uninvited.
Anyone one of these could have been a death penalty offense, considering how far Nadab and Abihu deviated from their instructed tasks.
Their deaths was a stern warning to Aaron, Elizar and Itamar of the sacredness and the seriousness of their duties and that they were to perform them exactly as they were instructed, and when they were instructed.
Brief notes on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16:3–34)
The sacrifice of the bull on Yom Kippur addressed the priests sin, the two goats were brought to deal with the sins of the community.
This shows us that the Day of Atonement is designed to take sins away from the people. The priest, the ark and the tabernacle are not the source of the sin that had to be cleaned, but the people. Yeshua, our perfect High Priest, is not the source of sin, we are.
Without repentance and confession, animal sacrifices are just a BBQ (Leviticus 17)
Atonement is through blood, it removes sins, but it is not the only thing that removes sin. Confession of one’s sins is also required for atonement. Without confession of sin, killing an animal is just a barbecue. We have to admit guilt for our sins.
If you can’t admit your sin, you can’t repent and any sacrifice for sin is useless if there’s no confession and repentance.
If the children of Israel committed a sin and paid the “fine” without repentance and confession, that apathy to their sin, the death of the animal, this indifference added to the sin and contamination of the Tabernacle that had to be cleansed at Yom Kippur.
An offering to God is brought to the Tabernacle, not in one’s own home. There are stories of people doing this, you can even see videos on YouTube of people making animal “offerings” (usually with a chicken) to God on Yom Kippur or other days but if we do something God says not to do, we can’t claim that we are doing that action for Him.
God makes a distinction between body and soul and the bible says that sacrificing animals outside the temple and without an appointed priest is a very serious offense. It was a death penalty offense.
Think different, act different, be different (Leviticus 18–19)
Blood is not food, period. It’s not an ingredient, a condiment or a seasoning. The penalty for eating blood on purpose is a spiritual death.
We are supposed to be different, we are supposed to act strange when compared to the actions of the world. This difference should be reflected in how we speak, what we eat and how we interact with the world.
The rules about sexual marital purity were also meant to make the Jewish people stand out from their neighbors.
People hare pointed out that there’s no literal prohibition of relations between adults and children. I suspect this is because pedophilia were not committed by the Egyptians, Caananites or other peopels of that day. However, by Yeshua’s day, it was common enough that He had to issue His rebuke that is recorded in Mark 9:42–48.
These sexual misbehaviors that are listed in this reading are the reasons that the Canaanites were being thrown out of the Promised Land. It’s a warning for any nation who claim to follow the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not to normalize these behaviors that God finds disgusting. There’s no reason to believe that God will tolerate these behaviors in nations that claim Him as their God.
Nations that commit these kinds of sins, flaunting them in God’s face are begging for His judgement. These sins may cause such people to be spewed out of their land and God will give their land to a people who don’t commit or condone these abominations. God tolerates willful sin for a time, to give time for national repentance, but after a time, if the generation doesn’t repent, God will correct it Himself.
Fear the beard?
What does the Torah mean by “beard trimming”? When you are in doubt, refer to Jewish tradition, but don’t hold too closely to your interpretation and don’t try to impose your practice on others (Mark 7:1–23).
Accidental vs. flagrant sin
The Torah makes a distinction between accidental sin and flagrant sin, which we see in this reading.
Time of the month for husband and wife to ‘take a break’
In last week’s reading, Tazria/Metzora, we noticed that the Torah says if a married couple accidentally have relations while the woman is in menstruation, they are merely unclean for seven days, and there’s no other penalty (Lev. 15:24). While in this week’s Torah reading, we are told that if a married couple purposefully come together during her menstral cycle, they are to be “cut off” from the people (Lev. 18:19; 20:18).
God always treats intentional sins (done with “a high hand,” i.e., arrogance) far more seriously and harshly than accidental, absent-minded sins.
Summary: Tammy