Light In Torah

In yesterday's study, "Invest Wisely," at first blush, it appears we went away from Yeshua in Hebrews, but in actuality, it is an essential piece of the puzzle to hear, "Well done." The heavenly sanctuary represents the place where God and humanity can meet. Yeshua has reopened it, which raises an obvious question—and the author of Hebrews wants to answer it. This week's study of Hebrews does the heavy lifting we need for understanding that answer. His blood is life—and not just any life. It is an  indestructible  life. Hebrews says that He walked into death, and death could not hold Him. He holds His priesthood by the power of His indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). That is why He is a priest of a different order—not because of His bloodline, but because death could not hold Him. A life like that—indestructible—and blood like that is the most potent force in all of creation: the strongest purifying and consecrating power there is. And that is the key to the bo...

It does not happen very often in my life, but the topic of the Red Heifer in Israel is in the news again. Within this week's Torah portion is the topic of the Red Heifer (Num. 19). It is a very strange ceremony, and though I have considered and studied it for many years, I am perplexed with the simplicity and the complexity of the eternal decree (Num. 19:21). Every year God gives me a deeper understanding concerning this topic, but, as I shared with a buddy this morning, I have a loooooong way to go when it comes to understanding this topic of how God restores us from coming into contact with death. We live in a world that is saturated with death. We cannot watch a movie, TV show, or any YouTube series without being desensitized with the death mindset. Add to that the overstimulation of sex into our society and the longing to be loved, felt, or heard, and we are in desperate need of the Red Heifer—whatever the complete meaning of that could be. Like many topics in life, it is one w...

Last week I shared one verse with you: Romans 3:25. This week I am going to try to give an overview of the entire book of Hebrews, which is not going to be very easy. There is one book people turn to in order to say that everything we have said across the entire "Atonement Explained" series is completely wacky and cannot be possible. This is the book people would go to. The whole discussion in Hebrews is basically summarized by saying: Jesus is the sacrifice, He took His blood into the Holy of Holies to satisfy God and buy your access. Case closed. But Hebrews says we cannot do that. We have to take the writing apart one step at a time, because that is far too small a picture of what His work actually entails. The author of Hebrews himself has already said this book is very, very large. There is a lot going on, and the author stops right in the middle of his letter. He warns his readers that it is going to be hard to understand, so I feel like I am in good company attempting ...

  In last week's Torah portion,  Shelach  ("send"), we find the purpose for the entire journey of God's people lost in a single decision. What caused that decision is multifaceted, but the end result is the same. The generation that had it all lost it through murmuring, complaining, and faithless actions toward God and one another. It is all about the Land—the destination of our calling as Abraham's seed. But you ask, "What is so significant about the Land?" Simply put, every prophecy ever spoken was either given in the Land or is about the Land, which is the central focus of God's vision for mankind! Ironically, in last week's and this week's Torah portions, there are principalities and powers to deal with on the way to the Land. Some are overtly obvious, and others work behind the scenes without you even knowing it. One of the greatest adversaries that we all face is the pain of the past, hungering to manifest itself in the present, so it c...

The fivefold ministry is often cited as originating in the New Testament, but that would be a mistake. Whether we look at Moses in Exodus 18 appointing individuals for national leadership, Elijah passing his mantle to Elisha (2 Kings 2 & 3), studies of our Bible heroes, or the creation story itself—where God's image manifests throughout His Word, highlighted in Yeshua's life so the world might know the Word from the beginning (John 1:1–3)—the fivefold ministry is hidden in plain sight through the first 39 books of our Bible, with its seed in the first five. To assume this ministry started only in the assembly at Ephesus (the only letter that mentions it) would be like assuming the church began in Acts—both are mistaken (Acts 7:38; Gen. 48; Ex. 19:3–8). A simple way to remember the fivefold ministry is the acronym  APEST : Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers. An  apostle  ( shelach  /  apostolos ) is one who is sent out. They are like the bud...

Yesterday, I left you with the question: Which one is it? Is it the mercy seat, or is it a specific monument—a specific place referencing a merciful act? Yes. What did Paul mean? In both meanings, the same thing is true. The whole idea of penal substitution is not a sovereign act first. God designed the mercy seat . The agent has come and meets me here. The emperor forgives a rebel city, and they raise a monument to him. There is no appeasement; it is mercy. It is mercy, and that is what  hilasterion  carries in either meeting—not a victim offered up to God, but a gift set forth by God, who had already decided on mercy. We saw this, as I mentioned earlier, at that meeting place in Isaiah 53. Do you remember this word in Hebrew?  Paga  (to meet, to intercede). In Isaiah 53:6, "the iniquity of us all met on Him"—the servant. The guilt converged on Him, but  paga  does not actually capture it all, because in verse 12 we see the same word returning: "He made in...

In the Greek and Roman world, far from the temple,  hilasterion  had nothing to do with the mercy seat . It meant a  monument —a public marker set up to declare that peace had been made. Archaeologists have found stones with inscriptions using this word hailing Caesars. One of the clearest examples comes from Metropolis, south of Memphis. Here is the story for you history buffs: after Caesar was murdered and Rome fell into civil war, it came down to two men—Marc Antony and Octavian. Octavian won and became Caesar Augustus. The city of Metropolis had backed the wrong guy—Antony. So when Augustus became the most powerful man on earth, those people were shaking in their boots. Why? They bet on the wrong horse. He should have treated them as traitors. What did he do instead? Augustus forgave them. In gratitude, the people built a  hilasterion  to Augustus. It was not a payment to buy anything back. It was a public marker thanking him for mercy. They were not all kil...

  Over the past eleven weeks, I have done my best to make the case about Jesus, blood, sacrifice—all of it. So now, without a doubt, every question answered, right? Lol, not quite. The purpose of continuing these studies is that the topic is limitless, and my understanding is limited. Yes, we have gained some insight. Some excitement may have been challenged, and maybe even relieved at some point. Hopefully, you have gained a greater understanding—bigger than what you might have inherited. But then, at some point, you share this with someone. You try to communicate, and within about five seconds, they are going to open their Bible and point to a verse. At the top of that list, I think, is probably Romans 3:25. There are a handful of verses that people treat this way. Someone opens the Bible and says, "Heresy. It is right here. This is the one that says everything is wrong about what you believe." This is one verse. We are going to tackle this week. We will look at something a...

As we draw these studies to a close, I want to encourage you to hear me carefully. I am not saying there is no atonement in the gospel. John writes, "He is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole cosmos." Atonement runs from the beginning to the end of the gospel. The question has never been whether atonement is real. The question has always been:  What is atonement?  For ten weeks, I have been telling you: Atonement is not God's wrath being pacified by death. It is His life overcoming the forces of death. Atonement is cleansing, the holding together of heaven and earth, so that God's presence can dwell with His people. Jesus is the atonement for the whole world. John says His indestructible life is the answer to the death-dying condition every human being lives in. He is the cleansing, the consecration, the living water, the meeting place where heaven and earth come together. He is more than enough. That is  more  atonement than Penal Sub...

Eleven weeks ago, we started an expansive journey beginning with the merit—the favor that flows from the faithfulness and standing of the Righteous One. For the  chen  pattern to hold, for the participation framework to work, for everything we have said about the servant to make sense, we must say something carefully about Yeshua Himself. Most of us were given a picture of Jesus where the emphasis on His deity made His humanity feel incidental—a divine being walking around in human form, looking like a man, but actually God making decisions with God's knowledge and power, with outcomes never actually in doubt. I understand the impulse: the desire to honor Him. But hear me: if His obedience was not real obedience, His merit is not real merit. If His temptation could not have pulled Him another way, His faithfulness is not the kind we have been describing. If the prayer in Gethsemane could only ever have ended one way, it is not that big of a deal. If any of that is true, the en...