Understanding Torah Society
Obedience and the Sacrifices of Torah
Vayyiqra (Leviticus) 4:2-3
2 “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘If any one shall sin unwittingly, in any of the things which YHWH has commanded not to be done, and shall do any one of them;
3 if the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto YHWH for a sin-offering.”
Even though a person truly loves YHWH, because he is a flawed human, he is bound from time to time to fall into sin. This should be the exception rather than the rule. In order to facilitate repairing the damage caused by such a sin, YHWH commanded a schedule of sacrifices and offerings a person must offer in exchange for his sin according to his transgression. In essence, these offerings and sacrifices are fines levied upon the one who has misbehaved. There are also offerings which a man may voluntarily give in addition to those so commanded as a means to say thank you to YHWH for the blessings He has given.
To live in a Torah society, the ability to repair the damages done by sin is paramount for the society to function properly. It is also necessary for these damages to be repaired in order for brothers to live together in harmony. Let us carefully examine the place of sacrifices in Torah society, as well as one’s commanded obedience to all of Torah, including the sacrificial offerings.
One of the common arguments today concerning the death of Mashiach is that His death did away with the need to offer up the sacrifices and offerings commanded by YHWH in the Torah Moshe. But is this a valid or warranted conclusion? We shall see in the rest of this study that it is not a valid conclusion.
B’midbar (Numbers) 15:30
“But the soul that does aught with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, the same blasphemes YHWH; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.”
One critical element about the sacrificial system is that there never was any sacrifice available for those who willfully transgressed the Torah. The sacrifices and offerings were only for those who unwittingly sinned and broke the commandments. Please note this wording in the opening passage. However, if one acts presumptuously, that is, a person intentionally sins, such a person has no sacrifice available to make things right according to Torah. Please note what happens to the person who acts with such willfulness—he is cut off from Israel. This writer is not convinced that this is a human judgment or action, but rather may be a statement of the action which YHWH takes against such a person as outlined in the following passage.
Vayyiqra (Leviticus) 26:14-15
14 “But if you will not hear and obey Me, and will not do all these commandments;
15 and if you shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhor My ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break My covenant;
16 I also will do this unto you; I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.”
YHWH kindly gives each person the option to obey or not to obey His Voice, His statutes, His commandments, and His ordinances. If a person unwisely chooses not to obey His Voice, His statutes, His commandments, and His ordinances, then YHWH will come against that person and bring terror and plagues and all that He brought upon Egypt until that person either repents and obeys or is destroyed.
I have had many conversations in which the person with whom I was having a discussion was of such a mindset that the Law had been fulfilled and was no longer valid and therefore should not be obeyed today. Invariably this person will bring up the sacrifices as commanded by YHWH as a means to entrap me. Perhaps you have had such conversations as well. That part of the conversation might go something like this.
“So you believe that one should keep every single commandment of Torah?”
“Yes.”
“And it is a sin if you do not keep every single commandment of Torah?”
“Yes.”
“So do you offer sacrifices as Torah commands you to do? Because if you don’t, then aren’t you in sin?”
At this point they believe that they have me boxed in and completely trapped with no escape except to agree with them that Mashiach fulfilled the Torah and it is no longer to be obeyed by us. But this is where he and all like him are completely mistaken. Let us examine this closely to see the fallacy of this mindset as well as what the proper attitude one should have regarding the commandments of YHWH, including the sacrifices.
B’midbar (Numbers) 23:19
Elohim is not a man, that He should lie, neither the son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will he not make it good?
YHWH is the same yesterday, today, and forever! He has not changed because of the advent of Mashiach. Mashiach did not change our Creator; He is our Creator! Mashiach is also the Giver of the Torah. Do not let this one fact escape you!
Malachi 3:6
“For I, YHWH, change not; therefore you, sons of Ya’aqov, are not consumed.”
We can be very thankful for the unchangeableness of YHWH our Elohim! We can count on Him because He never changes. And since we are to be like Him, then we are to have the same attributes as Him by having His Spirit fill and empower us for life and service.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 17:19
“and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear YHWH his Elohim, to keep all the words of this Torah and these statutes, to do them;”
While this passage specifically deals with the future king of Israel, it still applies to each and every person; we are to hear and obey His Voice. We all are to keep and to do all the words of His Torah and statutes. No person has the right or authority to pick and choose what to obey and what to disregard. Did not Mashiach Yeshua strongly chastise the Pharisees for making even the smallest commandment null and void through their manmade traditions? To be sure!
Tehillim (Psalm) 119:34
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your Torah;
Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Man has wrongly classified the commandments of YHWH into moral and ceremonial laws. Please understand that this is man’s doing and not YHWH’s doing. YHWH never makes a distinction between one commandment and another, that is, He expects us to keep them all.
Ya’aqov (James) 2:10
For whosoever shall keep the whole Torah, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all.
Man has a tendency to put an order of severity in YHWH’s commandments saying that the breaking of one commandment is worse than another. For example, man often states that murder is worse than lying. But in the eyes of the one true Judge, this is not true. In fact, to lie is to be guilty of murder as well as to be guilty of breaking every single commandment. In the eyes of YHWH our Judge, to break a commandment is to disobey His Voice and He has only one Voice.
What we need to see and understand so very clearly is that obedience to His Voice and to His commandments is a matter of the heart.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 6:6
“And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart;”
Not only was this true way back then, but it is still true today! Please consider this passage as well.
Yirmeyah (Jeremiah) 31:31-33
31 “Behold, the days come,” says YHWH, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah;
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says YHWH.
33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says YHWH; “I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.”
Please note that this coming new covenant, which is better understood as a “renewed covenant,” is dealing with the same exact Torah as before. The major difference is that the first covenant was written upon tablets of stone and upon scrolls. In the renewed one, those same commandments shall be written upon the hearts and upon the inward parts of His people. If it is not written upon one’s inward parts, then such a person is not a part of His people.
Ivrim (Hebrews) 8:10
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says YHWH; “I will put My Torah into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them; and I will be to them Elohim, and they shall be to Me a people.”
The writer to the Hebrew talmidim of Mashiach Yeshua quotes the prophecy from Yirmeyah indicating that this renewed covenant has now been implemented through Mashiach Yeshua. This means that we are now in the process of His Torah being written upon the minds and hearts of His people. A person will have to want His Torah written there before He will write it there. If a person rejects His Torah, then he is rejecting being a part of His people, for YHWH will have nothing to write upon such a person’s heart.
Matithyah (Matthew) 5:17-18
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the prophets; I did not come to destroy, but to verify.
18 For amein I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall pass away from the Torah, till all things be accomplished.”
It is important to note that Yeshua Mashiach did not say that He came to do away with the Torah except for … (fill in the blank). There are many today who actually teach something along these lines: that the Torah is valid except for certain aspects of it like the sin sacrifice, or sacrifices in general, or some other commandment that they personally have no desire to keep and do and obey. Mashiach Yeshua made no exceptions. Those who say that even one jot or tittle or even one commandment has been removed are anti-Mashiach and are teaching that the above passage is false and are calling Mashiach Yeshua a liar. Mashiach Yeshua is not a liar!
Those who teach such error do not understand Scripture or history. They wrongly suppose and teach that because the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, YHWH has removed sacrifices because of the coming of Mashiach. Wrong! If this were so, then YHWH would have destroyed the temple in 30 AD right after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Mashiach Yeshua.
So why was the temple destroyed in 70 AD? This is a full generation after the coming of Mashiach. To answer that question we must understand what is recorded in the book of Acts. In the book of Acts we see that the talmidim of Yeshua continued to keep Shabbat, to observe the mo’edim (feasts) of YHWH, and to offer sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem.
Ma’aseh (Acts) 21:26
Then Shaul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them went into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, and the offering was offered for every one of them.
Since this seems to be a Nazirite vow, this would include a sin sacrifice as we see in the following passage of Scripture.
B’midbar 6:10-11
10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting:
11 and the priest shall offer one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, and make atonement for him, for that he sinned by reason of the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day.
It is all recorded there for our instruction if we are willing to be honest and to learn from Him as He has recorded in His written word. Life in the temple continued on as it always had with the talmidim of Mashiach Yeshua participating in it fully and completely for 40 years after the coming of Mashiach Yeshua. But here is what did not happen. The religious leaders, those who controlled the system, did not accept Yeshua as Mashiach. Many did, but not those in control. Those who loved their places of power continued to “lord” it over the people. In fact, they actually set out to persecute and to kill the followers of Mashiach.
It is for this reason that the temple was taken away from them: because they refused to accept Yeshua as Mashiach. Had these leaders accepted Yeshua as Mashiach and acted accordingly, then the temple would not have been taken away from them and it is likely that it would still be standing today.
In part we know this, because in the coming days when Mashiach rules upon earth from Jerusalem, there will be a new temple and all the sacrifices will be offered according to Torah. YHWH tells us so through His prophets. It even specifies that there will be sin sacrifices.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 8:3
“And He humbled you, and caused you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know; that He might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of YHWH does man live.”
Notice, it is every word that proceeds out of the mouth of YHWH by which a man lives – every word! Man does not have the option of picking and choosing what to obey and what not to obey. This is not some fast food joint where you can have Torah your way! It is either all or none! Please reference again Ya’aqov 2:10 above.
It is time that those returning to our heavenly Father’s house (Torah) accept all of His commandments, statutes, and ordinances and are willing to obey every word of His Voice. It is time to accept it. It is time to get over yourself! YHWH is the same today as He has always been. If Torah society is going to function properly, then all of Torah, every single jot and every single tittle, must be in effect with no adding to or taking away from His word.
Remember, according to Scripture, obedience is a matter of the heart.
Tehillim (Psalm) 119:11
Your word have I laid up in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
Sin is the breaking of His word, the breaking of His commandment. In order not to sin against YHWH, we must allow YHWH to write every single commandment of His upon our heart.
Now, let us go back to the conversation with the person questioning the commandments of sacrifices and not doing them today. Here is the truth of this matter. If a person is where he should be in his relationship with YHWH, then no matter what YHWH tells him to do, he will do it. Amein? Amein! So, if YHWH provides the means and teaches us how to offer the sacrifices, then we will do that. Until that time, we remain open to His Voice in this matter.
Oh, by the way, according to prophetic Scripture, YHWH will provide the means and the way to offer sacrifices again in a new temple. Will you obey YHWH in this matter? If His Spirit tells you to go, will you obey, or will you offer up some readymade excuse? It is your choice.
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 28:15
“But it shall come to pass, if you will not hear and obey the Voice of YHWH your Elohim, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you.”
For a person to select one or more of the commandments and statutes of YHWH and decide that he will not obey that particular one is to bring curses down upon himself and upon his household. Is this truly the decision you want to make for yourself and your family?
YHWH is very serious about His people obeying every single word that comes forth from His mouth. Are you as serious about obeying Him as He is in wanting you to obey Him?
Tehillim (Psalm) 40:8
I delight to do Your will, my Elohim;
Yea, Your Torah is within my heart.
It is plain from the testimony of Scripture that this is an all or nothing proposition. Each one of us needs to make sure that we have not raised up some manmade barriers or exceptions to His Torah saying within our hearts that we will go so far, but not all the way. One of the most common places this is found today is in the area of sin sacrifices—particularly the sin offering.
The common argument is that since Yeshua is our sin sacrifice this somehow did away with the Torah commandments concerning sin sacrifices. Well, nowhere in Scripture does it state this. Just because Mashiach Yeshua is our sin sacrifice does not somehow nullify a previous commandment from YHWH. In fact, did not Mashiach Yeshua teach us that He did not come to do away with the Torah? Yet, there are so many who teach that this particular commandment has been done away because of His death and is no longer applicable to us today. This is error.
Please check your own thinking and what is hidden in your heart today. Look for anything that is raised up against the knowledge of Mashiach!
Qorintyah Bet (2nd Corinthians) 10:5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of Elohim, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Mashiach;
Remember there is but one Torah and it is for everyone who is a part of shema Yisrael.
Shemot (Exodus) 12:49
One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourns among you.”
Is the Torah whole in your mind and thinking today? If not, this is a good time to make it whole!
If the Torah is not whole, then a Torah society cannot function properly. The Torah, every jot and every tittle, must be in place and being obeyed if the Torah society is to function smoothly and in the manner in which YHWH has intended it to function.
ABBA YHWH, make Your Torah one in our minds and hearts; in the name of Mashiach Yeshua. Amein.
Zerubbabel ben Emunah
www.onetorahforall.com
zerubbabel@onetorahforall.com