Leviticus starts with instructions about the three most important non-festival related offerings: whole offerings, sin offerings and peace offerings. Although we no longer have a Temple to offer up literal lambs, goats, bulls and doves, we can still discover what type of offering we can offer in our days that would be a “pleasing aroma” to Him.
Category: Discussions
Once David had some security in his kingship, he seeks out Jonathan’s kin and discovers that Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth is still alive (and has a son of his own) and has survived the political assassinations and turmoil that were part of the aftermath of Saul’s death.
Chiastic literary structures you find in the TaNaK (Torah, Prophets and Writings) and the Apostolic Scriptures give us prophetic clues in texts that don’t seem to be prophetic at all.
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Exodus 12–40 recap
When Yeshua told the elders that the scriptures speak of Him, many of us had no idea how much Messianic foreshadowing is found in this book. The exit from Egypt after Passover and the journey to Canaan was orderly, not chaotic. The journeys to and from Egypt, for Abraham, Joseph, Jacob and the Messiah are a lesson for us.
Galatians in general and chapters 2 and 3 in particular frequently are used to prove that observing the Law isn’t required for believers. However, the discussion of “justification” and “works of [the] law” in this passage reinforces that the real problem was excluding “justified” believers in God and His Messiah from membership in Israel, whose constitution is the Law of God.
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Exodus 1-6 recap
We need to look back on what we have learned in Exodus. Exodus is the most powerful book in the Bible because it reveals many aspects of God’s character. One of the lessons of the Book of Exodus is that often, the good deeds of great men are “seldom remembered” while the memory of “men who do great harm” live on.
This was true of both Joseph and Moses. As far as Egyptian history is concerned, both of these great men were rejected because of the arrogance of the Pharaoh. We are blessed by God that we have the Torah from God Himself, who made sure their deeds is recorded for us. God has not kept His will a secret. It’s all in the Bible.
We see another example of David as a messianic figure. He has “bloody hands” so his heir, Shlomo (Solomon), another messianic figure, will be able to reign in peace and build God’s temple undistracted by threats of war. There are a number of parallels between the David’s subjugation of Israel’s enemies to bring in Shlomo’s peace and the dual functions of Messiah Yeshua at His return as bringer of war to the enemies of God and the eternal peace of God’s presence on Earth.
We often reserve some very harsh judgment for our ancestors who left Egypt, presuming that if we were with them, we would have been smarter than them and not made their mistakes. However, this attitude shows our arrogance because we forget that it is God who has been gracious enough to us to give us His word so we would have the blessing of hindsight and insight at their expense. Rather than condemning our ancestors for their ignorance, we need to look at our own faults in the light of His word so that He can bless us with hindsight and insight to keep our own feet from stumbling.
From reading about the history and reliving the teachings through the annual appointed times, a.k.a. “feasts to the LORD” (Leviticus 23), we gain insight on the role of Messiah in the past and the future.