3 28 26 – New Opportunity

In this week's Torah portion, Tzav ("command"), the stage for the Great Passion Play—to awaken all peoples and nations of the world to the stunning reality of the goodwill of their Creator and the brilliance of His grand plan of redemption and restoration—is ready, and the show has begun. The Tabernacle is complete. The bronze altar is ready for service. Now, all eyes are on the bronze altar. In the outer court of the Tabernacle, something wonderful is happening. The tamid offering is burning 24/7. The ashes are removed daily and taken to a clean (tahor) place (Lev. 6:10–11).

God Himself is receiving diplomatic visits from men for the first time since Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. He is welcoming people into His presence through a variety of korbanot (offerings). He is revealing Himself to them in a personal, divine encounter (Ex. 29:43):

"There I will meet with the children of Israel, and the Tabernacle will be sanctified by My glory."
(Ex. 29:43)

Mankind is reintroduced—personally, individually—to experience holiness with his Creator (Ex. 29:37):

"Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy."
(Ex. 29:37)

The opportunity for His presence is pulsing through and around the altar like high-voltage electric current. And in its wake, hearts are being healed, souls are being restored, and divine intimacy is made possible (Lev. 1–5).

Whether it is returning to God through the forgiveness found in the sin (chatat) offering, recognizing God's goodness through the peace and thanksgiving offerings (korban shelamim), or the definitive decision to give everything back to God in the burnt offering (korban olah)—there is a gaping hole in every human soul, a tremendous chasm that has opened up between His will for our lives and our own, that now can be filled at the bronze altar.

Our independent, uncontrolled operation of our selfish desires and fleshly appetites can now be truly fulfilled with personal access to the Most High. Through God's provision and His presence in the Tabernacle, we can offer up our lives in any and every capacity (Rom. 12:1–2; 8:36; Ex. 29:38–39). Whether it is the "old man," the "flesh," the yetzer hara (evil inclination), or our independent mindsets through the knowledge of good and evil—when we look past our own understanding of life and desire Him; when what we see with myopic natural eyes, what we hear with our hearing-impaired natural ears, what we feel with our horribly corrupted human emotions, and what we think, opine, theorize, theologize, and reason with our handicapped natural minds get put on the altar—we get to experience a new day with new mercies.

No more is it a life of hiding (Gen. 3:8). No more blame game (Gen. 3:12–13). No more "that's not fair," "that's not what it means to me," "reasonable vs. unreasonable," "cultural right and wrong," "essential vs. expedient," "important vs. trivial," or "provable vs. not provable." The daily altar activity takes us to a new level!

May that be our experience today on this beautiful Sabbath morning!

Shabbat Shalom!
Alan

Last night's Zoom call: "The Daily, Non-Negotiable Activity at the Bronze Altar That Keeps the Fire Burning Inside Us Every Day" (Lev. 6:9–13).

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/2Rgld9qSWU8kpf-VwXWL_7xqcOG2wPUo0XjeGkrdH2gFswKTz_hrneewLg0P7-Vu.AGB9k5D8dtA07T21 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3.20.25

Good morning! Yesterday, we learned some essential truths about how to 'be still and know that He is God (Psa. 46:10). Today, I want to ask you a different question based on life's ability to throw a wide variety of circumstances at us!  One of the most difficult situations is when we are threatened by someone or some circumstance. Have you ever been threatened?  Oh, maybe no one came up to you with a gun, or shouted at you with malice, or told you that you were going to be tortured or punished.  Maybe all the threat you ever had was the innuendo of rejection, or the social snub or something much less violent than jail time.  But my guess is that if you are traveling the road with Yeshua, living a Torah lifestyle, you know what it means to be threatened. Every time the circumstances of your life look as though they are about to cave in, you are threatened.  It might not be a threat from a physical enemy, then again...but we all know that in one form or another t...
Read more

3.22.25

Good morning! Shabbat shalom! Although the portion of Vayakhel/and he assembled is almost entirely focused on the construction of the tabernacle, it begins by reminding the children of Israel that no work may be done on the Sabbath (Ex. 35:2,3). Why does it begin here rather than jumping right into how to construct the Tabernacle? Enquiring minds want to know :-) By placing the topic of the Sabbath against the construction of the Tabernacle it's God's way of defining the boundaries of the Sabbath...that even the most intimate work for the Lord needs to be put aside for His 'Date Day'. However, upon further investigation, there’s another layer to understand that connects us back to the golden calf (Ex. 32). As we know, while Moses was up on the mount getting the instructions from God the children of Israel decided to make an object that would replace Moses, their deliverer; The object, later known as the golden calf, originally intended as a 'necessary' means to ...
Read more

10.31.24

Good morning! To live as salt, it's important to connect pieces of the salt covenant. Through our study yesterday, we saw the salt covenant spoken of in two different ways. With the phrase, 'covenant of salt' He desires a relationship with His people based upon trust that is seen in their actions and, eventually, through a changed life (Rom.12:1,2; 8:29,36,37; Matt.5:13-19). A covenant is an agreement or alliance between two parties where each party makes a pledge to keep their end of the bargain; whereas the terms of the agreement are known as terms of grace.  We find the first covenant in this week's Torah portion (Gen.6:18). Noah was to build the Ark and gather the animals.  If Noah would fulfill his end of the bargain, God would get them safely through the coming deluge...This took trust.  In order to go through the embarrassment of building a boat so far away from water in a land that's never needed or seen rain, in order to start gathering supplies for animals...
Read more