Tag Archives: Leviticus

How the First Fruits Day Points to Yeshua

Posted on by
3

The Day of the Wave Sheaf Offering or First Fruits Day

In Hebrew roots circles, a day has gained prominence for celebrating the resurrection of Yeshua. It is called by many, the Feast of First Fruits or simply First Fruits. In several books published by Messianic or Hebrew roots teachers, this day has been elevated to the status as one of the “feasts” of YHVH on a par with Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. In creating a special designation for this day—one, as we shall see later, that Scripture does not give it—most of these teachers curiously omit the last of YHVH’s seven “feasts” or miqra-ee kodesh (commanded assemblies); namely, The Eighth Day or Shemini Atzeret. This festival is a Sabbath and immediately falls after the Feast of Tabernacles. It has important spiritual significance and represents the formation of the New Heaven and New Earth and the descent of the New Jerusalem after the end of the 1000-year long Millennium on earth. It literally represents heaven-on-earth for eternity. It is, therefore, a shame to omit this most important festival of YHVH!

A field of barley grain in the land of Israel.

A field of barley grain in the land of Israel.

The Nature of the Omer Offering/Service

Does the omer offering on “Wave Sheaf Sunday” prophetically point to and foretell the death and/or resurrection of Yeshua, and if so, how? First, let us look at the scriptural passages that speak of this day.

Leviticus 23:10–17, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits [reshiyth] of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before YHVH, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto YHVH. And the grain offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto YHVH for a sweet savor: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that you have brought an offering unto your Elohim: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf [omer] of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meat offering unto YHVH. You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the first fruits [bikkurim] unto YHVH.

Leviticus 23:10b–14a, … you are to bring the premier sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He is to elevate the sheaf before the presence of YHVH, for acceptance for you; on the morrrow after the Sabbath the priest is to elevate it. You are to perform a sacrifice on the day of your elevating the sheaf: a sheep, wholly-sound, in its (first) year, as an offering-up to YHVH, and its grain-gift: two tenth-measures of flour mixed with oil, a fire-offering to YHVH, a soothing savour; and its poured-offering of wine: a fourth of a hin. Now bread, parched-grain or groats, you are not to eat, until that same day, until you have brought the near-offering of our Elohim… (The Shocken Bible)

Leviticus 2:12–16, As for the offering of the first fruits, you shall offer them to YHVH, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. And if you offer a meal offering of thy first fruits [bikkurim] unto YHVH, you shall offer for the meal offering of thy first fruits [bikkurim] green ears [abib, H24, or green in the ears barley] of corn [qalah; H7033, roasted dried, burned, parched grain] dried by the fire, even corn beaten [geres; H1643, crushed grain or groats] out of full ears. And you shall put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto YHVH.

The Order of Events Associated With the Waving of the Omer

Now that we have the scriptural passages before us pertaining to the First Fruits Day, let’s list in chronological order the events and ceremonies that occurred on this day involving both the Israelite farmer and the priest.

Continue reading →

 

Origin of the Anointing Oil, Ordination, and the Anointed One

Posted on by
Reply

Leviticus 8:12, Anointing oil … consecrates [Heb. kadash]. The Hebrew word kadash signifies the state of something that belongs to the realm of the sacred, and that is set-apart for divine use and has been separated from the sphere of the secular, common or profane. The Bible often uses the term holy (meaning “set-apart”) to signify this state of being. The word of Elohim designates many things as set-apart:

Anointing oil

Anointing oil

  • The ground upon which YHVH is standing (Exod 3:5; Josh 5:15)
  • The people of Israel (Exod 19:6; Deut 14:21; 26:19)
  • The Sabbath (Exod 16:23; 20:8)
  • The Tabernacle of Moses (Exod 26:33)
  • The garments worn by the high priest (Exod 28:2)
  • The altar of sacrifice (Exod 40:10)
  • The offerings made on the altar (Lev 6:18)
  • YHVH’s feast days (Lev 23:2)
  • The camp of Israel (Deut 23:14)
  • Heaven as the abode of Elohim (Deut 26:15)
  • YHVH Elohim (Job 6:10; Pss 22:3; 78:4; 99:5)
  • Zion and Jerusalem (Ps 2:6; Matt 27:53; Rev 22:19)
  • The Spirit of Elohim (Matt 1:20)
  • The angels (Matt 25:31)
  • The servants of Elohim (Mark 6:20)
  • The name of YHVH (Luke 1:49)
  • Yeshua (Acts 2:27; 3:14)
  • YHVH’s prophets (Acts 3:21)
  • The saints (1 Pet 2:9;Rev 22:11)
  • The Torah (2 Pet 3:21)

YHVH’s people are to learn to make a difference between that which he designates as being kadash (holy) and that which is profane (Lev 10:10). In order to do this, one must know what YHVH defines as set-apart and then align our thinking and lifestyle with that.

The act of consecrating someone (or something, e.g. Exod 30:26) as occurs in Leviticus 8:12 often involves the ritual of pouring olive oil on them to signify their being set-apart for a special work or service. This is called anointing (see Exod 28:41; 29:7; 1 Sam 16:12; 1 Kgs 1:34; Isa 61:1; 2 Cor 1:21).

Yeshua’s title is Messiah (Heb. Mashiach/ משח) literally meaning, “one who is anointed, smeared or consecrated with (olive) oil.” The English word Christ derives from the Greek word Christos, which is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word mashiach. In Biblical thought, the Messiah would be One coming from heaven who would possess a super-anointing of the Spirit of Elohim (Isa 11:1–10; 42:1–21; 61:1–3; John 3:34) to accomplish the purposes of Elohim on earth.

 

Why the Biblical Sacrificial System?

Posted on by
Reply

A Brief Study of the Sacrificial System—The Purpose of Sacrifice

Lamb sacrifice

  • The Levitical system foreshadowed and pointed to the Messiah’s ultimate sacrifice (Heb 9:11–12).
  • The tabernacle offerings were specifically designed to spiritually draw the offerer near to Elohim through the  sacrifice of a prescribed animal (Ps 51:16–17; 50:12–15 cp. 1 Pet 2:21).
  • Elohim commanded offerings to assist the offerer to better understand himself; his attitude, and his personal relationship with Elohim (e.g., Gen 3:21; 4:3–5; 8:20; 22:1–2 cp. 1 Cor 11:28).
  • Altars were erected by the patriarchs in order to honor Elohim through sacrifice after having had direct contact with him (Gen 12:6–8; 13:18; 26:24–25; 35:1; 35:2–4; Exod 17:13–16; cp. Exod 20:12).
  • Proper and regular sacrificial offerings kept the children of Israel in direct contact with the Elohim of the patriarchs (Exod 5:3; 10:25; cp. 1 Tim 2:5).
  • To make the offerer holy (set-apart) so that he would be allowed to approach and commune with the Set-Apart Elohim of Israel (Isa 43:15; 57:15; Lev 19:2 cp. 2 Cor 6:16–18).
  • Under certain circumstances, blood, as used in the Levitical system, could serve as a purification agent for both people and objects (Heb 9:18–23 cp. Luke 2:22–24).
  • The blood of the animal sacrifices served to cover the offerer’s sins, thereby allowing him to draw near to the Set-Apart Elohim of Israel. However, the offerer could only be forgiven for specific sins through full repentance and by returning to Elohim’s way of life as outlined in the Torah (Lev 1:4; 4:35; 23:27–28; Heb 10:3–4; cp. Rom 4:7–8).
  • The purpose of the animals offered by the Levitical priesthood served as a shadow of the blood of Messiah, which does not merely cover our sins, but removes all of the sins of the person who accepts Yeshua’s offering of himself for that sinner (Heb 9:11–12, 24–28; 1 Pet 1:18–19; Eph 5:25–27; Lev 25:47–49; Rom 5:11; John 1:29 cp. Heb 13:10–13).

YHVH instituted the biblical sacrificial system at the fall of man, and it pointed to the coming of Yeshua the Messiah, the Redeemer and Savior of mankind. Depending on how one understands the passages recording the vision of Ezekiel’s Temple (Ezek 40–48), there may or may not be a reinstitution of part of or the whole sacrificial system during the millennium. Some believe that Ezekiel’s Temple is only an allegorical picture of Yeshua on the cross and speaks to YHVH’s plan of salvation and therefore will never be built. Others feel that it is yet to be built. This author favors the former thesis.

After the fall of man, YHVH made Adam and Eve coats or garments of skins or leather (Gen 3:21). Though the Scriptures don’t tell us, we can guess these were made of leather from a kosher animal such as a cow, sheep or goat. In other words, YHVH probably sacrificed an animal to cover their physical and spiritual nakedness. This would have marked the beginning of the sacrificial system and thus pointed to Yeshua’s atoning death on the cross through his shed blood—the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The next occurrence of a sacrifice was that of righteous Abel in Genesis chapter four. After that, animal sacrifices become a common occurrence with the male head of each family acting as the officiant or priest for his family. It was not until the golden calf incident (Exod 32) that the responsibility of the male head of the family to perform sacrifices passed to the Levites, thus, initiating the Levitical priesthood with its sacrificial system.

Sacrifices are no longer necessary, since Yeshua our Messiah offered his body as the penultimate sacrifice for our sins, once and for all, forever (Heb 10:10–21). HalleluYAH!!!

 

YHVH’s Plan of Salvation in the Biblical Feasts

Posted on by
7

The seven biblical feasts are a chronological step-by-step template of YHVH’s plan of redemption or salvation for mankind. This process begins with Passover—a picture of a believer’s initial salvation, and concludes with the Eighth Day—a picture of eternal life for each bonafide and glorified member of the spiritual family of Elohim. The first step in this spiritual journey starts with one’s turning their back on spiritual Egypt,which is the realm of the world, the flesh and the devil, and embarking on a life-long spiritual journey that leads one progressively to higher planes with the ultimate goal being the paradise of the New Jerusalem—literally a heaven on earth.

moedim_s_sm

Sadly, the church system has failed to reveal these essential truths to believers. It has robbed the saints of their biblical, Hebraic and Torah-based heritage including an understanding of the biblical feasts and has replaced it with many lies. This has left believers without a full moedim_f_smunderstanding both their spiritual heritage and destiny. For most believers caught up in the Babylonian church system, it’s merely a matter of getting saved, doing some good works along the way and going to church. Beyond that, one bides their time standing on the street corner waiting for death or the rapture bus—whichever come first—to take them to heaven. But is this all there is to the believer’s life? What is supposed to happen from the point of one’s initial salvation until they “get to heaven”? Hmm?! Now there’s a good head-scratcher for most!

Thankfully, YHVH hasn’t abandoned his spiritual children to wander aimlessly through the wilderness of life. He has a plan for each of us. Continue reading →

 

Overview of the Books of the Torah (Main Themes)

Posted on by
1

Genesis (Beresheit) is the book dealing with beginnings and eventually its overarching theme is divine election. YHVH is choosing certain people (according to his divine will and sovereignty) to accomplish his purposes.

Exodus (Shemot) is the book whose principle theme is redemption—Israel’s deliverance from Egypt (Mitzraim). Here we learn how YHVH saves his people and we are shown that his people are redeemed in order to worship him.

Redemption is perhaps the main theme in Exodus. It is best delineated in the following passage,

Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, “I am YHVH, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your Elohim; and you shall know that I am YHVH your Elohim, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am YHVH.” (Exod 6:6-8, emphasis added)

Obedience to and worship of YHVH is another major theme in Exodus.

And he said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be a token unto you, that I have sent you, when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve Elohim upon this mountain.” (Exod 3:12, emphasis added)

And I say unto you, “Let my son go, that he may serve [Hebr. awvawd, Strong’s H5647] me, and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, even your firstborn.” (Exod 4:23, emphasis added)

And you shall say unto him, “YHVH Elohim of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve [Hebr. awvawd, Strong’s H5647] me in the wilderness, and, behold, until now you would not hear.’” (Exod 7:16, emphasis added)

The Basic Outline of Exodus

  • Chapters 1–6 show us the need for redemption.
  • Chapters 7–11 show us the power or might of the Redeemer as the ten plagues are poured out upon Egypt.
  • Chapters 12–18 show us the character of redemption; purchased by blood and emancipated by power.
  • Chapters 19–24 we are taught the duty of the redeemed.
  • Chapters 25–40 we see the restoration of the redeemed—provisions are made for the failures of the redeemed.

Leviticus (Vayikra) gives instructions on how to worship YHVH.

Numbers (B’midbar) gives us instructions pertaining to our spiritual walk and warfare in the “wilderness” of life.

Deuteronomy (D’varim) gives instructions to the younger generation preparing them to enter the Promised Land. Contained within is a recapitulation of the main tenets of the Torah, as well as the addition of some new laws, heart and prophetic issues pertaining to Torah obedience.

 

Why Study and Celebrate YHVH’s Feasts?

Posted on by
1

Here are seven biblical reasons to celebrate the feasts of YHVH Elohim:

  1. The biblical feasts are a prophetic shadow-picture of things to come (Col 2:16-17; Heb 10:1). When they were given to ancient Israel they pointed forward to future events that would occur to the nation of Israel. The spring feast days, for example, pointed to Messiah’s first coming while the fall feast days point to his second coming leading into the Messianic Age (Millennium) and into eternity beyond.
  2. All the biblical feasts point to Yeshua. The name Yeshua means “salvation” and these days all point to the various steps of the path of salvation that believers find themselves on.
  3. Many of the feasts point back to historical events that occurred in Israel’s history from which we can learn lessons and that are representative of our own spiritual journey (1 Cor 10:1–6, 11).
  4. The people of YHVH are commanded to keep what the Scriptures call the appointed times. They are times when he makes an appointment that he will meet with his people (Lev 23:1–2, 4). It is at these festivals or commanded assemblies that YHVH teaches his people about his wonderful plan of salvation or redemption of the world through Yeshua the ­Messiah.
  5. The feasts are in the Bible and the whole Bible is the inspired word of Elohim (2 Tim 3:16). Yeshua commands us to live by every word that comes out of the mouth of Elohim (Matt 4:4).
  6. The feasts set forth the pattern of heavenly things on earth (Heb 8:1–2, 5; 9:8–9, 23; Exod 25:8–9, 40; 26:30; Num 8:4; Ezek 43:1–6, 10–12).
  7. We as physical beings need physical means and methods to help us understand spiritual mysteries. YHVH gives us the natural to help us to understand the supernatural (spiritual) (1 Cor 2:9–13).
 

The Torah on Abortion/Infanticide

Posted on by
Reply

Leviticus 18:21, Pass through the fire. In the juxtapositioning of this passage directly after the Torah’s prohibition of illicit sex, it would appear that YHVH is broadcasting a clear message to his people. Extra-marital sex often results in unwanted babies. In our day, many choose to murder their undesired offspring through abortion. In ancient times, some of these unwanted children were likely sacrificed to the pagan Canaanite god Moloch by being burned alive. That is certainly the implication in this passage. Whatever the case, YHVH hates the murder of children for any reason!

This passage (along with Exod 21:22) is one of the strongest pro-life, anti-infanticide verses in the Scriptures. The penalty for those who sacrificed their children to Moloch was that the land would vomit the people out of it (vv. 25 and 28.) Could any clearer statement be made about how the Creator feels about the sanctity of life?

Statue of Moloch

The murder of the innocent children is perhaps the greatest sin that a nation can commit. Abortion is a form of child sacrifice, which is something many ancient cultures practiced (the Aztecs, Incas, Phoenicians, pre-Islamic Arabs, and the biblical Canaanites). In the Bible, YHVH condemns the practice of heathens and apostate Israelites who made their children pass through the fire in worship of the demon-god Moloch (See Lev 18:21; 20:2–5; Deut 12:30–31; 18:10.) What judgment did YHVH place on the Jewish nation for sacrificing its children to Moloch? (See Jer 7:30–34; 32:35–36.)

By the way, here are some statistics about abortion:

  • 42 million abortions occur worldwide each year (that’s 115,000 per day).
  • In 2008, 1.21 million abortions occurred in the U.S.
  • From 1973 to 2008, 50 million legal abortions occurred in the U.S.
  • 22 percent  of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion.
  • In 2007, 84% of all abortions were performed on unmarried women.
  • At current rates, nearly one-third of American women will have an abortion.

(Sources of information: abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html; guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html; abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/)