In the Torah reading בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ Beha’alotcha (“when you raise up” [the lamps], Numbers 8–12) we learn two main lessons: First, what started in Sinai (approaching God’s Presence) won’t stay in Sinai. (Hint: It will travel with the people, in the midst of the assembly.) Second, God is always willing to give us every opportunity to repent and participate fully in His community.
Shavuot (Pentecost) is an invitation to all mankind to meet and fellowship with God. He sent the same invitation through Moshe (Moses) to the first generation of Israel post-Exodus that God sends through His Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).
“It’s good to be king!” Except when invaders are about to conquer your kingdom because of your predecessors forgot Who put the crown on their heads and Who gave them the Land they ruled. The closing chapters of the Bible book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) foretell of Israel’s dystopian future, but it didn’t have to be that way. The companion passage to the Torah reading בְּהַר Behar / בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai (“on the mountain” / “in My statutes,” Leviticus 25–27), shows a moment just before that horror arrived when a king tried to reverse centuries of oppression in the Promised Land, Heaven’s mercy for Israel and the world.
The otherness (aka holiness) of the Kingdom of God can be a preservative for the world and an offense. Heaven’s messages and messengers can bring life-saving hope or abhorrent reminders of a life that’s being squandered. A key lesson from the Torah reading אָמַר Emor (“say,” Leviticus 21–24) is the ongoing and recurring work Heaven does through us by way of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ).
Some are concerned about making the Bible more relevant to modern society, by playing down or sidestepping the “icky” or seemingly backward depictions and instructions in it. However, among the key lessons from the dual Torah reading אחרי מות Acharei Mot (“after the deaths”) and קדושים Kedoshim (“holies/holy”) (Leviticus 16–20) is that the what seems obsolete is anything but that — especially for how they undergird the gospel of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus).
The human condition is often ugly and gross. Yet the Creator still wants to live among us. He wants to deliver us out of the grossness and corruption of our culture. Yeshua (Jesus) sat with sinners, but He didn’t sin with them. That’s the lesson behind all the icky instructions in the dual Torah reading Torah readings תַזְרִיעַ Tazria (“she will conceive”) and מְּצֹרָע Metzora (“leper”) covering Leviticus 12–15.
The last of the seven days of the Festival of Matzot (Unleavened Bread) commemorates ancient Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea, when Heaven delivered not just from slavery but also from certain death at the hands of the slave masters who pursued them.
Apostle Paul connected Israel’s passing from death to life through the sea to the passage of everyone who does likewise by trusting in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) and commemorating the freedom through baptism.