PARASHAH VAYIKRA
(Leviticus 1:1-6:7) Week 24
VAYIKRA: “And He called”; “The Lord called Moses; speaking to him from the tent meeting.”
TORAT KOHANIM: Another name for Leviticus; meaning the Law of the Priests.
AM SEGULALH: A Treasured People; as the Nation of Israel was referred to by Elohim
MISHKAN: Tabernacle
TZADDIKIM: Righteous Ones
KORBAN: Sacrifice: Korban means ‘to draw near’; because of His atonement, we may draw near!
SEMIKHAH: The Laying on of hands for the TRANSFERENCE OF SIN onto a sinless sacrifice.
VIDUY: Confession
THE KORBAN PRINCIPLE: SIN ~ SACRIFICE ~ CONFESS ~ DRAW NEAR ~
Sin must be KNOWN or REALIZED: The Unholy separates us from the Holy Adonai. There is NEED for atonement for sin in order to be in relationship with Adonai.
KOSHER KORBAN: OXEN, SHEEP, GOATS (Domesticated animals were sacrificed due to their gentle, non-predatory, peaceful natures.)
DOVES and PIGEONS: Acceptable as sacrifices due to their non-raptorial non-predatory natures. (These were gentle, peaceful birds.)
GRAIN OFFERING: Sacrificial meal or grain as an offering for the poor. The Priests could partake of this sacrifice for food for themselves.
THE FIVE KORBANOT: The FIVE Sacrificial offerings ~
- Olah: Freewill offerings of ascending fragrance to the Lord, entirely consumed by fire.
- Minchah: Freewill meal offering of flour, olive oil and frankincense which was partly burned sacrificially and partly given as a gift, or Mincha, to the priests for consumption.
- Shelamim: Peace offering of freewill, eaten by the one bringing it as an expression of joy and thanksgiving to the Lord God Almighty!
- Chatat: Sin Offerings required atonement for certain sins committed unintentionally by Priests, individuals, or the entire community of Isra’el.
There is no specific atonement sacrifice for INTENTIONAL SIN; meaning life-long rebellion against God’s laws.
Premature death is the punishment for life-long sin and rebellion from God’s laws as stated in His word.
- Asham: Guilt Offering which is Penance for wrongfully taking what is not one’s own, explicitly stealing, by direct overture or by lying-in court to obtain what is not one’s own.
CHATAT AND ASHAM: Mandatory, obligatory atonement must have been made for sin and/or guilt confessions.
These had to be offered only by the High Priest. The offerings of fat were burned at the altar but the body parts were taken outside the camp for destruction. This was a foreshadow of the crucifixion and sacrificial death of our spotless, sinless Savior, Messiah Jesus, as the transference of all the sin of mankind was laid upon the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! (SE HA ELOHIM)
KORBAN SHALOM: Peace Sacrifice; helps the worshipper draw near to the Lord.
LAVONAH: Frankincense; literally means white object. Frankincense is white. Frankincense neutralized offensive odors, purifying the air which was important for the Priests who dealt with animal sacrifices; their blood, organs, and entrails, along with the aspect of burning and smoke from the requirements of atonement.
MITZVOT: The Law or Commands of Adonai
Forbidden foods for the Sacrificial System:
- Leven or Yeast, everything must be unleavened, as we must be!
- Blood and Fat of the sacrificial animals may never be ingested!
“Wherever you live, through all generations, you will eat neither fat nor blood!”
Please consider these truths:
- Levitical Laws were instruction for the Priests, revealing God’s relevant commands for them, as they led the nation into the Shekinah Glory of Adonai. This was the will of God and the purpose of the Tabernacle and the Sacrificial System. The Levitical system was created to bring a barbaric and sinful people BACK into the Garden of Eden, meaning Delight, and into right standing and intimacy with the Father in Heaven.
The Sacrificial system took into consideration rich and poor people who would be making sacrifices. The Lord is interested in each one of His children as individuals. He respects and honors His creation and those created in His Image. This is an example of God’s ‘Chesed’ or faithful love!
Even while yet in our sin, Adonai desires to bring us back into alignment with Him. No one is to be dishonored for their station in life, whether the richest or the poorest.
Adonai made a way for All to draw near!!
- The Priests were given detailed, precise instruction for all circumstances so they could be the holy conduit to bring atonement for sin and provide the way back into intimacy with Adonai for each repentant. Priests were a foreshadow of our great Kohen Gadol, Messiah Jesus!
- The Sacrificial system took into account sins of Commission and Omission!
“Even if he is unaware of the law or its intention but finds later, he was in ERROR, he is guilty.”
- The sacrificial system was first and foremost, the Lord’s teachings of holy, versus the unholy, and was a deterrent to sin!
- Every detail of the sacrifices and their instructions point to Jesus the Messiah, who fulfilled every element of the Old Covenant, by making the way to the New and Better Covenant.
- His sacrificial, atoning death EXTINGUISHED SIN!
- The death of God’s Passover Lamb did not cover sin, but wiped it out of existence! As far the east is from the west!
- The Life for Life Principal: The life for life principal is a life redeemed from sin and death by being paid for in full, by a perfect, innocent life in exchange.
- THIS is the GREAT EXCHANGE!
Brit Yeshana: OLD Covenant; a shadow of the ultimate better New Covenant in Yeshua.
Brit Chadashah: NEW Covenant; the permanent and eternal REMEDY for the sin of mankind.
BRIT YESHANA or Haftarah; Old Covenant Reading: Isaiah 43:21-44:23 (CJB)
“Such people know nothing, understand nothing. Their eyes are sealed shut so that they can’t see; their hearts too, so they can’t understand. Not one thinks to himself, or has the knowledge or the discernment to say; ‘I burned half of it in the fire, baked bread on its coals, roasted meat and ate it. Should I now make the rest an abomination? Should I prostrate myself to a tree trunk?’
He is relying on ashes! A deceived heart has led him astray; so that now he won’t save himself, just won’t say, “This thing in my hand is a fraud!”
I formed you, you are my own servant; Israel don’t forget me. Like a thick cloud, I wipe away your offenses; like a cloud, your sins.
Come back to me, for I have redeemed you.”
BRIT CHADASHAH (New Covenant Reading): Romans 8:1-13, Hebrews 10:1-14, 13:10-16 (CJB)
Romans: “Therefore, there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union with the Messiah Yeshua. Why? Because the Torah of the Spirit, which produces this life in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the ‘Torah’ of sin and death. For what the Torah could not do by itself, because it lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, God did by sending his own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one (but without sin).” (Yetzer Hara; The Old Sin Nature)
Hebrews: “For the Torah has in it a shadow of the good things to come, but not the actual manifestation of the originals. Therefore, it can never, by means of the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, bring to the goal those who approach the Holy Place to offer them. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.”
“Look, I have come to do your will;” he takes away the first system in order to set up the second. Baruch ha Shem!
“So too Yeshua suffered death outside the gate, in order to make the people holy through his own blood. Therefore, let us go out to him who is outside the camp and share his disgrace. For we have no permanent city here; on the contrary, we seek the one to come.”
“Through him, therefore, let us offer God a sacrifice of praise continually. For, this is the natural product of lips that acknowledge his name. But don’t forget doing good and sharing with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your lives, as people who will have to render an account. So, make it a task of joy for them, not one of groaning, for that is of no advantage to you.”