PARASHAH KI TISSA
(Exodus 30:11-34:35) Week 21
KI TISSA: When you take the census or the count.
HA’OVER: Subject To or literally one who was not counted then CROSSES OVER AND IS COUNTED!
COUNT: To Lift a Head, To Anoint, To Muster (each individual is important)
It is not the big number Adonai sought but each individual person! He desired to lift up and anoint each Image Bearer into the Covenant relationship with Him.
Adonai counted the nation of Israel many times out of His faithful LOVE (Chesed) for Israel!
LAND OF MILK AND HONEY: Signifies a land where there will be ample sun, rain, health, farmers and political peace.
Adonai identified this land as the Covenant Land of Israel for His chosen people, for all time, through all generations, until the Messiah rules and reigns from ZION!
KESEF HAKIPPURIM: Atonement Coins ~ Undetermined value of pure silver coins required by Adonai as an atonement offering for the lives saved by Adonai, God of Israel.
PARASHAT SHEKALIM: Half shekel coin ~ Used in the Sabbath ceremony where the Torah portion regarding the atonement shekel is recited during Temple.
SHEMEN HAMISHCHA: Holy Anointing Oil ~ Rabbinical Midrash says the Holy Oil Moses made lasted 750 years and was hidden by King Josiah before the destruction of the Temple.
MELAKAH: Work made by Artisanry (Artisan hands)
RUACH ELOHIM: The Spirit of God
BEZALEL: In the Shadow of God ~ A young man from the Tribe of Judah appointed by Adonai as the builder of the Tabernacle. Anointed by the Ruach Elohim, he was able to interpret with his hands, the artistic designs of the Lord!
OLAHIAB: Chief assistant to Bezalel…His name means “The Father’s Tent”
SHABBAT: The Sabbath, Adonai re-iterates the Covenantal sign between Adonai and the Nation of Israel which is the observance of the Sabbath, a setting apart of his Nation in obedience of His command to rest in HIM on the seventh day each week as FREE people, no longer slaves to the World System!
LUCHOT: Tablets of stone upon which Adonai carved His 10 Commandments (WORDS) inscribed with His own finger. The Hebrew letters are said to have been completely bored through the pure Sapphire tablets!
EGEL MASEIKHAH: Golden Calf (Represented an intermediary god from the Pagan gods of Egypt,) to be used like the ‘missing Moses’ as intermediary between a fearful people, and the awesomeness of ADONAI.
CHET HA EGEL: Original Sin of Israel!
KOL ASHER DEBER ADONAI NA ASEH V’NISHMA: “All the Lord has spoken we will do and will be obedient.” EX 19:8; 24:7
KAPPORAH: Covering; Atonement; Forgiveness (From this word comes Kapporet or the Mercy Seat…over the Ark of the Covenant!)
CHUTZPAH: Audacious Speech…Moses challenges Adonai to keep His covenant with His Nation, for Adonai had made the covenantal promises and Egypt would find out if this entire nation was wiped off the face of the earth and call the Lord God Almighty unfaithful. Moses begs Adonai to be with them, and if He will not go before them into the promised land, he begs not to advance there, for he cannot imagine the Nation of Israel without the presence and covering of Adonai! “Set your mind AT REST, my presence will go with you after all.”
Moses STANDS: Moshe was called to ASCEND to the top of Mt. Sinai, as Adonai DESCENDED to meet him there to give him the sapphire tablets of stone, etched with God’s own finger. SEE the ASCENT of Man ~ as God DESCENDS to meet with him…as a Divine Intersection…The CROSS!
Adonai told Moses of the Sin of the Golden Calf, & commanded Moses to DESCEND the Mountain to stand in OPPOSITION to the sin. This he did! He rounded up the faithful, and gave the command that they slay EVERY person, regardless of relation or family ties, who would not be faithful to Adonai.
Over 3,000 people died in this judgement of the Nation.
Moses cleansed the Mount Sinai Ground in all the same detailed ways the people of Israel were commanded to cleanse the land of Canaan of all idol worship, and of the tribe of Amalek.
The Sin of the Golden Calf: The Nation of Israel had only begun to sip the milk of God’s presence and instruction. They were babes of faith, just coming out of Egypt! (A Polytheistic culture where the worship of Pharaoh as a god was mandatory)
The Shekinah Glory of Adonai terrified the Hebrews. His divine nature was overwhelmingly powerful!
The people begged Moses to get in between them and the God of the 10 Plagues who parted the Red Sea!
The nation was too afraid of this powerful Adonai, to LOVE HIM. It was their love and adoration which Adonai invited! When Moses ascended Mt. Sinai and lingered for 40 days and nights…more than a full Moon Cycle they became afraid of WHO would stand in between them and this ALL-POWERFUL GOD!
FEAR AMPLIPHIED after the sin of the golden calf. Like in the Garden, Adam and Eve became fearful after sinning, and tried to hide from God.
Aaron said: “Surely he knew how determined these people were to do evil!” As if to say, surely Adonai KNOWS the hearts of this people HE has chosen to betroth.
Why get so upset when they act out what is their innermost desires?
The Sin of the Golden Calf proves that the LAW does not change hearts!
The Law illuminates our sin nature! It is our relationship with Adonai that changes us from the inside out!
YUD HEY VAV HEY: YHVH … means Adonai and Adonai means My Lord!! In an amazing talk with Moses, Adonai shares HIS character and HIS attributes AFTER Moses INTERCEDES for Israel! This is a foreshadowing of YESHUA as Kohen Gadol ~ our High Priest and Intercessor!
ADONAI’S SELF REVELATION OF HIS 13 Attributes…to Moses:
Shelosh Esrei Middot is recited on Yom Kippur and during Torah service on high holy days.
Merciful God: Merciful to us while we are yet in our sin
EL – God Almighty
RACHUM – Compassionate to the downtrodden
VE’CHANUN – Gracious to the undeserving
EREKH APAYIM – God is slow to anger and patient as He waits for us to turn from sin and turn to Him
VE’RAV CHESED – Abundant in Kindness to the righteous and the wicked
VE’EMET – truthful and faithful in all His promises
NATZER CHESED LA’ALAFIM – Extending kindness to 1000 generations, taking into account the merit of the ancestors (Zechut Avot)
NOSEI AVON – Forgives iniquity
VAFESHA – Forgives transgression committed in rebellion
VE ‘CHATA ‘AH – Forgives sin which was inadvertent
VE’NAKEH -Cancels all punishment for those who truly repent
The Shekinah glory of the Lord remained on Moses’ face until the day of his death. Thus, he was veiled except when he would speak to the Nation as God’s mediator.
In his humility, Moses veiled the Glory of God on his own countenance, so the Nation could draw near to Moses as their intercessor and not be afraid!
(Does this remind us of how Jesus came, as a man, in the flesh, as our MEDIATOR to the FATHER?)
The Shining Face of the Believer: May we shine, because of HIS powerful Shekinah indwelling our hearts!
HAFTARAH (Old Covenant) READING: 1 Kings 18: 1-39
(Elijah’s confrontation with the cruelest of all kings, King Ahab)
Read about the validation of our human proclivity towards idol worship, and God’s vindication of Israel! The challenge at this time was the drought! The people had fallen into BAAL worship, the god of rain and fertility! During the drought, the god BAAL was evidently not present in the land! The dual sacrifice ordered by Elijah, one bull to the god BAAL to be sacrificed by 400 BAAL Prophets…and one bull to be sacrificed to Adonai, on His repaired altar ~ by the only Prophet of Adonai left in this historic moment in time…Elijah!
Elijah mocked BAAL as the prophets of BAAL try to call forth their god, for their sacrifice which lay limply on the altar, NO FIRE CAME TO CONSUME IT!
“By now it was afternoon, and they went on ranting and raving until it was time for the evening offering. But no voice came, no one answered, no one paid any attention”.
After Elijah repairs the damaged Altar of Adonai, he prepares the bull sacrifice and calls upon Adonai, in full view of all the people who were choosing to worship BAAL.
“Hear me Adonai, hear me, so that this people may know that you, Adonai, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back to you.”
“Then the fire of Adonai fell. It consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water in the trench.”
These parallel verses to Parashah Ki Tissa remind us that the hearts of men are bent toward evil. The hearts of men must be taught, trained, and circumcised of all that is un-necessary, dulling their hearts to the one true God! When we fall away from God’s instruction, step by step we will fall into sin and idol worship. This is the historical journey of Israel!
Without the LAW there is no TRESPASS! Without the reminder of our bent toward evil, we seek it with all our hearts!
BRIT CHADASHAH (New Covenant) READING: 2 Cor 3:1-18
“Now if that which worked death, by means of a written text engraved on stone tablets came with glory; such glory that the people of Israel could not stand to look at Moshe’s face because of this brightness, even though that brightness was already fading away; won’t the working of the Spirit be accompanied by even greater glory?
For if there was glory in what worked to declare people guilty, how much more must the glory abound in what works to declare people innocent!”
“So, all of us with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit.”
The Three Required Pilgrimages to Jerusalem are:
- Pesach (Passover)
- Shavuot (First Fruits)
- Sukkot (Feast of the Tabernacles)
The Month of Elul: Represents a time of repentance from National sin and God’s forgiveness obtained by repentance or Teshuva ~turning to God! (Yom Kippur)
Tammuz 17: The National Day of Tragedy; the smashing of the Stone Tablets because of the Sin of the Golden Calf.
In Ancient times, when an agreed upon Covenant was broken, the stone tablets recording the Covenant had to also be BROKEN!
MOSES BROKE THE SAPPHIRE STONE TABLETS OF THE COVENANT COMMANDMENTS BECAUSE THIS WAS THE CUSTOMARY, HISTORICAL ‘NEXT ACT’ TO TAKE PLACE AFTER A COVENANT WAS BROKEN…HE DID NOT BREAK THE STONE TABLETS BECAUSE OF HIS ANGER, BUT BECAUSE AS INTERMEDIARY OF THE COVENANT BETWEEN ADONAI, AND THE NATION OF ISRAEL, IT HAD TO BE PHYSICALLY BROKEN!