The Creator of the heavens and the Earth wants to live among humankind, but there humankind is too attached with the muck-and-mire ways of this world. Heaven’s solution is acted out in the imagery and ceremony of Israel’s Tabernacle and in the work of the Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus). Discover in the Torah reading ויקרא Vayikra (“and He called,” Leviticus 1:1-6:7) how our heart’s cry determines whether we are a “soothing aroma” as Heaven transforms us.
If we are honest with ourselves and with others, we want God to be unfair. We want Him to give us mercy. But if we don’t want Him to give others mercy, He will not give us mercy (Matt. 7:2; Mark 4:24; Luke 6:38). Neither atonement nor forgiveness are fair, yet we want it that way. Contrary to popular belief, not all offerings of the Tabernacle are equal or identical. When we confuse them and lump them all together, it’s too easy to dismiss them and throw them out as obsolete. וַיִּקְרָא Vayiqra (“he called out,” Leviticus 1–5), the beginning reading from the Torah book by the same name, teaches us that God has a purpose in mind for each of the offerings. We’ll learn what each are and more about what God is trying to teach us.
Many think that the Tabernacle and Temple services were about works that pay for entrance into the Father’s presence and that the regimens of faith — prayer and repentance — made the Tabernacle obsolete. But what the Bible actually teaches about the Tabernacle is quite different from this common view.
God’s presence can’t abide with impurity, and the book of Vayiqra (Leviticus) shows us God’s prescription to make us pure and ready to live in His presence. The animal and grain קרבנות qorbanot (offerings/sacrifices) described in the Torah reading ויקרא Vayikra/Vayiqra (“and He called,” Leviticus 1:1-6:7) were symbolic of the supplicant’s desire to abide with God.
The laws in Leviticus 12 about the “purification” of mother and newborns after delivery are perplexing. How could giving birth make the mother and babies so “unclean” before God they would need a sin offering for restoration and be separated from God’s House for so long? In the Torah, the physical requirements are a window into what God is doing to restore the world to the way it was at Creation. And these purification laws are a window into a prophecy God gave “the mother of all the living” and “the father of lies.”
This chapter gives us an example of unity and diversity. Each tribe had its function in regards to the dedication of the temple but each tribe was required to bring the exact same number of items in a set pattern over the course of 12 days. Within the tribe of Levi, each family had their functions and received different gifts to fulfill that function. Their individual functions did not dilute their unity as the people of Israel. All the tribes had to participate to accomplish the dedication of the altar.
This chapter is one of those chapters we read and question the modern day relevance. There’s lots of accounting in this chapter, giving an account of individual tribal offerings and adding them up overall. It also gives the names of individual tribal leaders we don’t know.
This chapter seems like a reiteration of the prior chapters but there’s more to this chapter than repetition. Every time the text says, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying…,” you have a new edict from the Lord. Many of these edicts were only for the sons of Aaron, and not for the general public.
When we commit “unintentional” sins and are later made aware of them, this text teaches us that we can’t simply say “oops” and ignore the revelation of that sin. This text shows us that when we become aware of some fault or sin, we must address the issue with repentance, restitution and restoration.