Shavuot and the sabbatical years of the jubilee are based on three ideas: liberty, restoration and acceptance. Both stand on the same foundation.
What foundation does man stand upon? Dirt + water + breath of life = Man. We all began with Adam and Eve without exception. God gave Adam and Eve the Breath of Life and we have all inherited this because of them.
As Leviticus ends with the Torah reading בחקותי Bechokotai (“in My statutes,” Leviticus 26-27), we should remember the point of this book seen at its beginning: The LORD wants Israel in His presence, but each must be transformed to make that journey. That’s the lesson of the Tabernacle, offerings, priesthood, appointed times and years, distinguishing between clean and unclean, etc.
As promised in the New Covenant prophecy (Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 36:25–26), the LORD will give us a “new heart,” written upon with His laws and empowered by His Spirit.
The lessons of rest and release in the biblical sabbatical year (shemitah) and Yobel (Jubilee) teach us how we are to be good masters and how good of a Master our Messiah Yeshua is. Embedded in the lessons of the Torah reading Behar (“on the mountain,” Leviticus 25) is we are to treat each other with the kindness Yeshua gives us — the Golden Rule.
The Torah reading אמר Emor (“say,” Leviticus 21–24) calls YHWH’s servants to model a different way of life and keep anniversaries of important things Heaven has done, is doing and will do to make things right again, particularly the mission of Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ).
Cleanliness is next to Godliness, so the saying goes. There are things that bring us closer to God and things that move us away from God. There are things that happen to us that are beyond our control that can make us unclean before God, but there are also things that we do to ourselves that make us unclean. That’s the underlying message of the Torah reading מצורע Metzora (“leper,” Leviticus 14–15).
Without Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ), we are basically “the walking dead.” Does God want us to “come as we are” and “stay as we are”? No, God wants to bring us up and if we claim to be the sons and daughters of Israel, we should be willing to follow God’s instructions to elevate us from our base selves to His higher self.
Ever been homesick? Or finally woken up to the reality, “There’s no place like home!” The Torah reading ויקרא Vayiqra/Vayikra (“and he called,” Leviticus 1:1–6:7) flows from the end of the second book of the Pentateuch (Exodus 40:35), which ends with the exclusion of Moshe and everyone else from God’s Presence in the newly dedicated Tabernacle. The third book of the Pentateuch gives us God’s instructions for how we return to His Presence.
The entire book of Leviticus, called Vayiqra in Hebrew, teaches that true worship is not about entering a building but entering God’s Presence every day of our lives.
During the course of Israel’s settlements in the wilderness and later in the Promised Land, God’s name rested on several places, including Shiloh and later Jerusalem. The Tabernacle was never desecrated by outside forces but it’s worship was compromised from the outside in.
The Temple, in Jerusalem, on the other hand, was sacked several times by corrupt kings as well as foreign invaders. Sometimes, God blessed the dedications of His temples with a visible sign of His Divine Presence, sometimes he did not. In the Torah reading פקודי Pekudei (“countings,” Exodus 38:21–40:38), we will look at how and why God did or did not visibly show His presence when the various Tabernacles and Temples were dedicated or rededicated through Israel’s history.