Though containing seemingly unrelated instructions, in reality Leviticus chapter 24 is one complete thought starting with the details on caring for the tabernacle’s menorah, instructions on making the showbread and then concluding with the stoning of the rebellious and blasphemous son. This is yet another example of the Torah teaching us important spiritual lessons using every day examples of life by juxta posing them with specific instructions without overtly connecting all the parts and pieces. The connective implication of these disparate subjects are astounding with regard to how parents should raise their children as we are about to discover.
Our western mentality has been conditioned in our educational system to the teaching method where principles are explicitly connected chronologically like a mathematical equation. An example of this mathematical step-logic is that two plus two plus five minus one times two equals 16. This pedagogic or teaching style is referred to as syllogistic or step logic, where one idea is laid atop another in a linear or a progressive manner. By contrast, Western thinking is unaccustomed to the Hebraic teaching method called block logic where various ideas and concepts are laid out side-by-side like pieces of a puzzle on a table leaving the reader to assemble the random pieces. Thus, through this process a holistic picture begins to emerge. It is about learning through engagement and discovery. Leviticus chapter 24 is an example of Hebraic block logic. In reality, the whole is like a giant puzzle containing numerous puzzle pieces that must be assembled little-by-little one piece at a time. Isaiah explained it this way, “But the word of YHVH was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little…” (Isa 28:13).
Thus, Leviticus chapter 24 is one continuous thought that is separated from the chapters that come before and after. This is clear because each chapter begins with the phrase, “And YHVH spoke to Moses….” What this means is that upon closer analysis while Leviticus chapter 24 that contains instructions about caring for the tabernacle’s menorah, baking the 12 loaves of showbread, and ends with discussing the rebellious blaspheming son these are not three separate and unrelated subjects, but are a continuum of the same thought. In fact, this chapter is not only teachings us about child rearing but is also a remez or hint about the current state of the modern, mainstream church and how it raises its young converts. Let’s now explore the this chapter to discover these insights that are examples that were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come (1 Cor 10:11).
Leviticus 24 is divided into three subsections, which include caring for the menorah, baking and placing the show bread, and punishing a young blaspheming son. Each new section begins with the Hebrew grammatical connective conjunction vav meaning “and,” which expresses a new thought. At the same time, each though is also a continuation of the previous thought. So what do these three sections have to do with each other?
First, the menorah is a symbolic picture of Yeshua and the redeemed believer. It is also a prophetic picture of Yeshua who is the tree of life to which each redeemed Israelite is attached and draws his spiritual sustenance through the Spirit of Elohim. The menorah was literally a series of hollow tubes filled with olive oil not unlike the vascular system of a tree which translocates sustenance from its trunk to its branches. When John tells us that Yeshua is the vine and the saints are his branches (John 15:1), this can be likened to the menorah—a picture of Yeshua, who is the saint’s tree of life from which we derive our spiritual sustenance and power. Moreover, the gold in the menorah symbolizes pure, godly character or the righteousness of the saints. Moreover, a menorah produces heat and light through its flame. Light represents the fruit of the Spirit of Elohim (Gal 5:22–25), and heat of the flame symbolizes the power or the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 12). Therefore, the flame is a spiritual picture of how the saints are to evangelizes the world by being like a light on a hill (Matt 5:14) in the spiritual darkness around them to those around him who are lost in spiritual darkness. The menorah also represents the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot, when YHVH gave the children of Israel his Torah-instructions in righteousness, and then later wrote his Torah on their hearts by his Spirit as recorded in the book of Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:37).
Next, the showbread of Leviticus chapter 24 symbolizes the saints or redeemed Israel (i.e., the twelve tribes of Israel) uniting to bring the bread of life, the Word of Elohim, to the world. The bread was covered in frankincense symbolizing the prayers of the saints not only praising YHVH, but interceding for those who are spiritually lost (see Rev 5:8; 8:3). Yeshua is the bread of life on which the saints are to feed in order to grow up in spiritual maturity and unity.
Finally, the death of the young blasphemer in Leviticus 24 is what happens when parents do not raise their children correctly by teaching them the truth of YHVH’s Torah when they are young. If parents fail to lay the right spiritual foundation under their children by being a spiritual light to them, when they grow up they will likely turn away from Elohim in rebellion, and sometimes even end up blaspheming him via their words and actions. The end result? If they fail to repent and return to YHVH, what will happen? The Bible tells that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Eventually eternal death is the end result of rebellion against YHVH.
It is most likely that the Israelite woman in the story married an Egyptian man who was not a believer in Elohim and the Torah, and thus she was unequally yoked with a heathen unbeliever. Or perhaps they were both followers of Elohim, but they raised their child incorrectly by not being a spiritual light to him (as represented by the menorah) by teaching their son to love, fear and obey Elohim by giving him the spiritual bread of life (represented by the table of show bread). Likely the former situation was the case. That is, the Israelite woman married an unbelieving Egyptian man. How can we deduce this? Verse 22 of the same chapter that tells us there is to be one law for both the Israelite and the alien who chooses to live among the Israelites. This is an implied indication that the Egyptian man had not accepted YHVH’s Torah-law and that the Israelite woman was unequally yoked in marriage to an unbeliever. That being the case, the rebellious son did not receive the proper upbringing since his parents were not united in the faith. Perhaps the woman did her best to teach her son YHVH’s ways, but without the support of her heathen husband, her efforts would have largely been in vain.
Our modern prisons are filled with children from Christian families who were not taught about YHVH, and who grew up and became criminals. Similarly, our universities are filled with agnostic and atheist professors who mock and even blaspheme Elohim and the Bible because their parents failed to teach them the love and fear of YHVH Elohim.
Whether the Israelite woman was unequally yoked in marriage or failed to raise her son properly either way this illustratively points to a problem in the modern Christian church. As the parents of the blasphemer failed to properly disciple their son, so the Christian church is failing to disciple its spiritual children in the word of Elohim. Does a serious disciple of our Messiah really think that an hour or two on Sunday morning with a dab of Sunday school tossed into the mix plus a week’s worth of vacation Bible school each summer is sufficient to counter the onslaught of the secularistic spirit of antichrist that continuously inundates our children 24/7 via the satanic educational system, entertainment, the media, popular culture, the influence of their peers? Add to this the electronic devices that are continuously feeding our children a study diet of ungodly filth, and what chance do they really have of growing up to be God-loving and fearing people? Yes, the church has largely failed to be a spiritual light to those Yeshua instructed them to disciple (as represented by the menorah and the showbread), and thus the church has lost many of her children to the influences of the world, the flesh and the devil because of it. How many saints (along with church leaders) spiritually abort their children because they failed to properly disciple or raise them in the Torah-Word of Elohim? Too many churches to their shame are more focused on making coverts, filling parking lots, pews and offering plates than on making true disciples of Yeshua.
To be sure, the church is spiritually aborting its own children because of its failure to assiduously follow Yeshua’s great commission instructions to “make disciples.” Because of this, is it any wonder that the infanticidal abortion rates in America and the rest of the West are so high? We have failed to inculcate our children with the fear of YHVH, the love of his Word—the Bible, and the high, sacred value that our Creator places on life. The natural result of this is high abortion rates, and the spiritual seeds of this horrific genocidal holocaust against our children started in the Christian church who regularly spiritually aborts its young converts for the love of money and power!
As we can see, the example of the menorah, the showbread and the rebellious son of Leviticus chapter 24 is a graphic allegorical and prophetic picture of the modern Christian church that fails to disciple its people. Again, a couple of hours a week in Sunday church is a woefully inadequate amount of time to disciple and to inoculate a Christian with the means to resist the strong, downward pulls of the world, the flesh and devil that they will face all week long after they exit the church’s doors on Sunday morning. If we fail to learn the lessons from the mistakes of those who have gone before us, then it is likely we will repeat the same mistakes and suffer the same sad consequences as the young Israelite blasphemer did in Leviticus chapter 24.
