God's Channel #5

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God's Channel #5

We are now beginning to study the book of Leviticus. In the lexicon of the Talmudic Sages, the book of Leviticus is called the Toras Kohanim, the Torah of the Kohanim, or Priests. Most of the book deals with the Temple services and how they were carried out. The beginning chapters are largely dealing with the “korban.” We don’t actually have an English word that accurately translates this word korban. The closest one we are accustomed to reading is sacrifice. However, this word does not really describe the real meaning of the word as it should. The root of the word korban means to come near. The person who brings an offering comes closer to God; he elevates his level of spirituality. God doesn’t take pleasure in the death of the animal, only the fact that a person had such a desire to be clean and come close to his creator is what the sweet savor to God is. It is said there were three miracles that happened each day at the Tabernacle. There were never any flies, which should have been the case with all the blood and raw meat that was there. The smoke from the offering being burned always went straight up, even if it was windy the smoke always went upward. The last thing is, the fire never went out at the altar, even if it rained on it. There were many different types of offerings that were done at the Tabernacle each day. One rather different one you’ll see is in Leviticus Chapter one, verse 15.

Here we see a fowl being offered up as a korban. It states the Kohen shall nip its head. “Nipping” refers to a unique method of slaughter the Priests did to kill a bird. It was done with the fingernail of the Priest instead of a knife. What a fingernail that must have been! Lee Nails, eat your heart outJ. When it came to fowl, the bird was allowed to have a blemish on it and could either be male or female. It could not be missing an entire limb however. In Lev. 1:17, you’ll notice it says, “he shall split it.” Here the Kohen grasps the bird and its wings and bends it backward until its back is broken along its spine. The entire bird is burned up. This is usually a poor person’s offering. You will also notice two terms mentioned here in reference to the bird offering, which is turtle doves and young doves. Turtle doves are acceptable only after they become mature, and doves only when they are young. In both species, maturing is indicated by the glistening sheen of the feathers around their neck. So, turtle doves may be used only after that stage arrives and doves only up until then. But before I mix you up to the point you call “foul play”, let’s move onJ. In Lev. Chapter 2 we see a meal offering. A meal offering consists of finely ground wheat flour, oil, and frankincense. This was another offering usually brought by the poor person.

The frankincense is the hardened sap of a tree in the form of granules that were small but easy to work with. There were other offerings of meal made besides this one, some were baked, some were not. In Chapter 3 of Lev. is the peace-offering. The peace offering was an animal brought voluntarily by the person to show their love and thankfulness to God for his blessings in their life. It is also known as the Shelamim offering. According to Rashi that word comes from the word Shalom, meaning peace. The peace offering provides a portion for the Altar, a portion for the Kohanim, and a portion for the owner of the offering. It symbolizes peace between the heavenly realm and the earthly realm for the person offering it. Peace because there was not any sin involved in the reason the person brought the offering, just a desire to be closer to his creator. I do believe a peace of my home made “glow in the dark meatloaf” could have put him a bit closer to his creator than even this offering could.J But since that wasn’t available back then, I guess this was a good second choice. Also there was always a morning sacrifice that was done, and an evening sacrifice that was done each day. If you remember, Goliath taunted the Israelites in the morning and in the evening. This perhaps might have been a little mockery of their two daily sacrifices. In chapter four of Leviticus it lists the offerings that must be brought to YHVH for sin offerings. In the first three chapters, the offerings were all voluntarily given to elevate one’s spiritual being. Now the importance switches to sins.

It’s interesting to note in the case of ordinary offerings, the animal is skinned and the hide is given to the Kohanim, but all the offerings such as the one in Lev. 4:11 the opposite is done. Here the blood was to be taken inside the sanctuary, so the hide of the animal was to be left in tact. In Lev. 5:7-9 we see another instance of a fowl offering, only this time it is used as a sin offering, as opposed to the elevation offering we read about earlier. So now the rules of sacrifice change. The blood of a fowl used as a sin offering is sprinkled directly from the bird’s neck onto the “lower half of the Altar wall.” The blood of an animal sin offering is placed with the Kohen’s finger on the horns at the “top of the Altar.” After sprinkling the blood on the Altar wall, the Kohen presses the bird’s severed neck against the Altar wall above the base and lets the blood run down the base. The blood is the only part of the sin offering from the bird that goes to the Altar, the rest is eaten by the Kohanim. This only applies when the bird is used as a sin offering as opposed to an elevation offering. YHVH also made available an offering for a poor person with the tenth ephah of fine flour. However, if a rich man brought this, not only does it not make atonement for him, but he is guilty of bringing unsanctified objects into the Temple Courtyard.

A rich man has not fulfilled his obligation if he gives as little as a poor man (Chofetz Chaim). The last item I want to mention in this parashas is the idea of restitution. In our day and time this idea is really foreign. We should pay back one fifth more of anything we took that was not ours. (Lev.5:24) But now our society seems to think an apology is sufficient, that is, if the person is even caught in the first place. I believe it would be a good thing to teach our children if they take something from another child or a store etc., they are to return it and work out the one fifth of the cost of the item to be repaid to the owner. So we can learn a lot about offerings in Leviticus. One main idea I believe we must remember is, YHVH does not get pleasure in the sacrificing of animals. The sweet aroma that goes up to him from a sacrifice is not the smell of blood! We were the aroma, our sins were covered by the obedience to Him “through” the sacrifice of the animal. Now Yeshua is our atoning sacrifice forever. Now our “prayers” go up to him as a sweet aroma, and to YHVH, that’s better than Chanel # 5.J Shalom