Tag: Leviticus

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Appointments With God Discussions Firstfruits Pentecost/Shavuot Shabbat Torah Unleavened Bread

‘Feasts to the LORD’; ‘the LORD spoke to…’ (Leviticus 23–24)

Studies in Torah

The 23rd chapter of Leviticus is a relatively obvious passage. The explanations are simple and self-explanatory, except for questions about the biblical timing of Firstfruits and Pentecost.

The 24th chapter is a bit unusual and not so simple to decipher. When you read the book of Leviticus and you find the phrase “the LORD spoke to…” pay attention to whom is supposed to hear the message. There were some messages for the sons of Aaron but some messages were for the people of Israel. Each group had their own duties and responsibilities, and it’s God Himself Who decides.

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Discussions Torah

George Washington’s vision at Valley Forge and God’s approach to sanctification (Leviticus 21–22)

George Washginton's vision at Valley Forge and God's approach to sanctification (Leviticus 21-22)

These two chapters of Leviticus and the vision George Washington had at Valley Forge during the U.S. War of Independence have some interesting connections.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 19-20 — God teaches Israel how to be holy

Up to this point, most of Leviticus has described how the Levites were to serve God. Starting at this point, we now start to learn how God wants the people to serve him.

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 17-18 — prohibitions against eating blood and perversion

The wording in this series of chapters differs from prior chapters. At this point, HaShem (the LORD) is addressing all the people, not just the priesthood. There is an intriguing link between the elaborations on not eating blood in Leviticus 17 and then those on not having sexual relations with blood relatives in Leviticus 18.

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Appointments With God Atonement Discussions Torah

Day of Atonement: When what is hidden is still known (Leviticus 16)

Leviticus 16 provides us an “insider’s view” of the Day of Atonement. We can know what the High Priest is doing on that day, even though the common person was not allowed to witness most of of the tasks required of the High Priest on that day. Most of the priests activities are “covered” away from the general public. The people of Israel had to believe by faith that the High Priest was doing his job on their behalf properly and that God would accept the High Priest’s offerings on their behalf.

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Discussions Torah

Yeshua the High Priest declares clean and unclean (Leviticus 13–15)

This text could be called the “leprosy” text, except that it’s about more than examining one’s skin. There are spiritual applications, too. An example is the need to examine our hearts to see if we have surface sin or deep ingrained sin that we need our High Priest Yeshua to diagnose and atone. Sometimes we need to isolate ourselves and contemplate the issue deeply for seven to 14 days to wrestle with the issue.

God calls us “priests and kings.” But there is only one true High Priest, Yeshua, and He is the one who declares us “clean” or “unclean.”

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Discussions Torah

Leviticus 11-12 — ‘unclean’ vs. ‘abomination’ in meat; purification of women after childbirth

The phrase “unclean” and “abomination” are different words. The reason that God introduces certain animals clean and fit to eat versus unclean and unfit to eat is a lesson to us to look at the character of the animals. The length of a woman’s purification is twice as long for a female child as a male child. Liberals claim this is about a lack of thankfulness for the female child, but the real issue is the health of the mother after childbirth.