Emor
Leviticus 21:1 - 24:23
The first two chapters of this week’s Torah portion contain
instructions for priests. Note
the beginning of chapter 21:
Then
the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say
to them…
Also the beginning of chapter 22: Then
the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Tell Aaron and his sons…
Both of these chapters talk about prohibitions placed on
the priests. They contains various situations which would bar someone from
serving as a priest for a short
period of time due to uncleanness and situations that would prohibit someone
from ever serving as a priest due to bodily deformities.
At first, we might find Lev. 21:16-24 uncomfortable because we know
that in our society it would be unfair to discriminate against someone because
of a disability. However, if we
look a little deeper we may understand these laws and how they apply to the
coming of the Messiah.
There are several important observations to make about these
“blemishes”. First, notice the
similarity between the laws pertaining to blemished priests
and the animals with blemishes (Lev. 22:19-25). Generally speaking they
are the same. We can learn from this that both the priest and the offering had
to be “without blemish”. I
suggest that this teaches us that the “instruments of atonement” or the
“instruments of mediation” had to be “perfect”.
These laws were a way of teaching that God is holy or “other”.
God cannot be approached in what ever way we wish.
The Brit Chadashah (New covenant) tells us that Yeshua came to be the
“intrument of atonement”; the “instrument of mediation”. He serves as
both our perfect priest and the perfect offering.
The Book of Hebrews says For
it was fitting for us to have such a ahigh priest, bholy,
cinnocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and dexalted
above the heavens; 27 who
does not need daily, like those high priests, to aoffer up
sacrifices, bfirst for His own sins and then for the sins of the
people, because this He did conce for all when He doffered
up Himself. 28 For the
Law appoints men as high priests awho are weak, but the word of the
oath, which came after the Law, appoints ba Son, cmade
perfect forever.(Hebrews 7:26-28). Notice
that according to this passage, Yeshua was perfect in every sense of the term.
Even the priests that qualified according to the Torah were unqualified
compared to the Messiah. We all
have deformities in that sense. Yeshua is the only one who could qualifiy as
an “unblemished” High Priest and an unblemished offering. Every
priest stands daily ministering and aoffering time after time the
same sacrifices, which bcan never take away sins; but
He, having offered one sacrifice afor 1sins bfor
all time, cSAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,(Hebrews 10:11-12). He
is the perfect “instrument of atonement”.
In order to emphasize the holiness of the role of priest, Leviticus 21
uses the phrase “bread of his God” to describe the offering. (Many
translations say “food of his God”. ) This is the only place in the Bible
where we read of that phrase. Perhaps
it is used here to show that the offering belongs to God and that the offering
satisfies God’s demand for the judgment of sin.
Yeshua filfills this role. Yeshua is the “propitiation”,
the means of forgiveness; the way of reconciliation.
(see Rom. 3:25, Heb. 2:17; 1Jn. 2:2;4:10)
The “Bread of his God” also reminds us of the phrase used at the
Passover Seder, the “Bread of Affliction”. At our Seder,
I shared how this is a type or reminder of the sufferings of the
Messiah when he died for our sins. Of course, Yeshua is not only the Bread of
God; the Bread of Affliction” but
He is also the Bread of Life. When
we repent of our sins and believe that He is the Messiah - that He died for
our sins and raised from the dead, paying the judgment price for our sins, we
have new life in Him.
We have discussed the holiness of the priesthood, portrayed in the
unblemished qualifications of the priesthood and the sacrifice, calling them
the “instruments of atonement”. We have likened them to Yeshua who served
as both the perfect High Priest and the perfect sacrifice
of our atonement. However,
there is one more observation from the Torah portion that we need to
understand that points to the good news of the coming of Yeshua the Messiah.
The observation is that there are no qualifications for the offerer!!
The children of
Shabbat
Shalom!