Parasha Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 5783
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Me
Me
This week we read a double Parasha again, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, Leviticus 16:1-20:27, which begins by picking up where Leviticus 10 leaves off in the narrative of the priesthood after Nadav and Avihu died for rushing into the Presence of God with the Strange Fire.
The remainder of chapter 16 deals with the procedures for the Yom Kippur service in the Mishkan and later the Beit HaMikdash. These procedures with which the Kohen Gadol must take painstaking care to follow precisely include fifteen sacrificial offerings, three incense offerings, five changes of garments, five immersions in mikveh, vidui (or ocnfession) three times, ten hand washings, and 43 sprinklings of blood. All of which is for the purpose of restoring purity to the Nation of Israel before Adonai.
Connected to the concept of atonement we see 17 discusses the concept of life in the blood, blood atonement, not eating blood, and the proper way to dispose of blood from a butchered animal.
Now, chapter 19 begins Parasha Kedoshim, what we often call the Holiness Codes, but the reality is this discussion of holiness (which is really the totality of the Torah—and the Bible in general) actually begins in chapter 18 and flows through 19 and 20. And, if we pay attention to Leviticus 18-20 we’ll notice that the overwhelming majority of what is covered is about relationships… Chapter 18 primarily deals with acceptable sexual relationships, chapter 19 reiterates some and further explains the Aseret HaDibrot (Ten Words or Ten Commandments), which when looked at properly denotes our relationships with HaShem and man.
(Talk about serving at TGI Fridays in NY and tips going up when started to wear ball cap and Kippah wasn’t visible)
We
We
We’ve all had situations like this where we realized it would be so much easier to sacrifice our convictions and faith practices for advancement, or friends and family, or income, or a thousand other things…
God
God
Realistically, we see that as a whole Leviticus 17-26 has one distinct theme through out, and this is a call to holiness and in Judaism we call this section of Leviticus the “Holiness Code”. And what is most important about the Holiness Code is that it is often capped with the phrase, “You are to be holy because, I Adonai your God, am Holy.”
So as we dig into Parasha Acharei Mot-Kedoshim today we are going to be establishing a foundation for the call to holiness and what this means and looks like for us as followers of Messiah Yeshua today. And with this idea of holiness before the Lord and holiness before the world in mind, I want us to consider this principle today:
In a world that says the Bible is antiquated, we must press into a biblical definition of holiness because Ad-nai our G-d is Holy.
(Repeat)
Let’s dig into the text together...
Adonai said to Moses:
“Speak to Bnei-Yisrael and say to them: I am Adonai your God.
You are not to act as they do in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. Nor are you to act as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, nor are you to walk in their customs.
You are to obey My ordinances and keep My statutes and walk in them—I am Adonai your God.
So you are to keep My statutes and My ordinances. The one who does them will live by them. I am Adonai.
We read chapter 16 and 17 of Leviticus and we see the powerful discussion of atonement for our sins, an act which restores purity and spiritual cleanliness to the Nation. Then we dive into chapter 18 through 20 which sort of delineates ways in which our cleanliness can be defiled. But, as we do we see chapter 18 opens with a tremendous disclaimer of exactly why any of this matters...
Adonai said to Moses:
“Speak to Bnei-Yisrael and say to them: I am Adonai your God.
You are not to act as they do in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. Nor are you to act as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, nor are you to walk in their customs.
Notice the primary key to holiness? To be set apart, set apart righteous and holy from the nation of Egypt from which God brought us out of and set apart righteous and holy from the nations of the land of Canaan in which God was about to take us.
As we look through the rest of chapter 18 you will notice that most of the discussion is connected to sexuality, not that sexuality is the only thing that the nations would do differently than God intended for His people, but because sexuality was a huge part of idolatry. And notice how much sexuality has become a defining factor of identity in the world around us today…
As Israel is being prepared for their inheritance of the Promised Land the Lord is laying out for them the guidelines of Holiness, what this should look like, and how they should live. And as we read through the Torah we notice there are positive and negative commandments, or what we might call do’s and don’ts.... The do’s are how God is calling us to live, what we are to do in order to remain holy for Him because He is holy. The don’ts are how the nations around us live, and He is calling us out of that, to live contrary to them… And reality is that most of the do’s are simply the opposite of the don’ts and pretty much all of the don’ts are God pointing out oddities about the ways the nations around us live contrary to His holiness.
Continuing on in these opening words of Leviticus 18, which is ultimately the foundation for all of Acharei Mot and Kedoshim (and is realistically the call of the Word of God as a whole) we read:
You are to obey My ordinances and keep My statutes and walk in them—I am Adonai your God.
So you are to keep My statutes and My ordinances. The one who does them will live by them. I am Adonai.
So the Lord now begins to clarify what He is calling Israel to do… He isn’t just telling us not to live like the nations around us… He is calling us to something far greater. He is calling us to live contrary to the ways of the world around us. Historically, everything about the lifestyle and practice of the Canaanites (which includes their idolatrous practices) is all about self-gratification and debauchery. In fact, that was very much the case from the Greco-Roman culture that the 1st Century Body of Messiah often found themselves in as well… And this is probably the greatest distinction between Godliness/Holiness and worldliness… The Lord desires us to focus on Him and His desires, whereas the enemy wants us to focus on us and our desires...
So the Lord doesn’t simply command Israel to not be like the Egyptians or the Canaanites… He commands us to be something entirely different… He calls us to honor and obey His mitzvot and to walk in His ways. Now, often the Body of Messiah would want us to believe that the commandments of the Torah are overbearing and to difficult to keep, that they are hyper-restrictive and unrealistic. However, when we look at them for what they really are, they are simply a detailed account of how not to be like the world. Most of the Body of Messiah would have us believe that because of Grace, because of Salvation we are free from the responsibility of obeying Torah. But, if we are honest with ourselves, what is the opposite of obeying Torah? Being like the nations around us… And I believe that more often than not, it is a refusal to give up our ways of old that keeps us from understanding the beauty of the totality of the Word of God.
It isn’t Grace verses Law… It is that we only have a hope at honoring the Torah, more so the Word of God at all, because of the Grace and Mercy of the Cross.
In a world that says the Bible is antiquated, we must press into a biblical definition of holiness because Ad-nai our G-d is Holy.
—613 commandments —> 10 commandments —> 2 commandments <— 10 commandments <— 613 commandments—
But the Pharisees, when they heard that Yeshua had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together in one place.
And testing Him, one of them, a lawyer, asked,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”
And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The 2 commandments shows us that a priority to holiness is two relationships, God and man, and the latter flowing from the former.
The 10 commandments show us how to live that out in a basic format, with the first five being focused on relationship with God and the second five focused on relationship with man.
Then we find all ten command represented in the Holiness Codes:
1)
Exodus 20:2 (TLV)
“I am Adonai your God…
and…
Leviticus 19:3 (TLV)
…I am Adonai your God.
And we see this phrase over and over again in Acharei Mot-Kedoshim…
2)
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
and…
“Do not turn to idols, or make molten gods for yourselves. I am Adonai your God.
3)
Exodus 20:7 (TLV)
“You must not take the Name of Adonai your God in vain…
and…
“You are not to swear by My Name falsely, and so profane the Name of your God. I am Adonai.
4) "Remember the Sabbath day", and here it is written, "And keep My sabbaths" (19:3).
“Remember Yom Shabbat, to keep it holy.
and...
Leviticus 19:3 (TLV)
…keep My Shabbatot. I am Adonai your God.
5)
“Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land which Adonai your God is giving you.
and…
Leviticus 19:3 (TLV)
“Each one of you is to respect his mother and his father…
6)
“Do not murder.
and…
Leviticus 19:16 (TLV)
You are not to endanger the life of your neighbor. I am Adonai.
7)
“Do not commit adultery.
and…
“The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
8)
“Do not steal.
and…
Leviticus 19:11 (TLV)
“You are not to steal.
9)
“Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
and…
Leviticus 19:11 (TLV)
You are not to lie. You are not to deceive one another.
and…
Leviticus 19:16 (TLV)
“You are not to go up and down as a talebearer among your people.
10)
“Do not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
and...
Leviticus 19:18 (TLV)
...love your neighbor as yourself. I am Adonai.
In Acts 15 we see the disciples wrestling with what to do with the Nations coming into the Body of Messiah. They have heard of how God has used Paul and Barnabas to spread the Gospel and how those of the Nations are receiving Salvation and the outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh just like the Jews have. But, this poses a question they have to figure out… Do we make Gentiles convert to Judaism to be Saved? If not, what should their walk look like? This is the whole purpose what is called the Jerusalem Council...
So often this passage is taught from the perspective that the disciples are teaching that Gentiles have no relation or connection to Torah at all, but that was not the intention of the disciples nor the heart of their message here. In fact, the sole purpose of this passage was to determine if gentiles needed to convert to Judaism, in other words go through full circumcision and uphold every single word of Torah to be saved. Obviously, the answer to this is emphatically NO!
So, what the heck were they talking about then?
Well, to understand that we need to pay attention to two things:
#1
Therefore, I judge not to trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God—
but to write to them to abstain from the contamination of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what is strangled, and from blood.
For Moses from ancient generations has had in every city those who proclaim him, since he is read in all the synagogues every Shabbat.”
#2 — Again we read...
You are not to act as they do in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. Nor are you to act as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, nor are you to walk in their customs.
As we’ve discussed before, the term Ever from which we get the word Hebrew simply means to cross over and a Hebrew is one who crossed over. Crossed over from what? Simply crossed over the Jordan River? No… Crossed over from worldliness to Godliness, from unclean to clean, from sinfulness and shame to righteousness. So when God brought Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land it was for the purpose of them crossing over from the ways of this world to the ways of the Kingdom of God. The Torah defines not do’s and don’ts, but rather how to live righteously, how to avoid living like the world, how to avoid being idolatrous.
So, when we look at Acts 15 what we see are four distinct issues being discussed in this letter to the Messianic believers from the Nations.
abstain from contamination of idols
abstain from sexual immorality
abstain from foods that were strangled
abstain from consuming blood
And, in all honesty, the latter two of these about strangulation and blood are actually pretty much the same thing. If the animal was strangled then draining the blood was not done properly.
But, if you pay close attention you’ll notice that there are a ton of commandments in the Torah that you’d think would be way more important to focus on if there were only four issues the disciples though matter for Gentiles. For instance, notice “Love the Lord your God” and “do not murder” are not a part of this list, and James doesn’t say in Acts 15 these four plus the couple of things Yeshua addressed. So, if this is all that the disciples intended for Gentiles to adhere to it seems like a very odd and confusing list of commands, doesn’t it?
But, what if the purpose of stating these four particular issues isn’t the disciples saying this is the end all be all of Gentile believer’s observance, but rather launching point? In the 1st Century if you weren’t Jewish what would you have been? A Pagan… Those were pretty much the only options… Judaism and what the Torah would call Idolatry… So, these gentiles coming into the Body of Messiah were entering what we might call today as Messianic Judaism from idolatry, from paganism. So, what would be the most important issue for the disciples to address? The idolatry they were use to, because those forms of worship and lifestyle weren’t compatible with crossing over into godliness.
When we look at all four of these issues closely we realize all four deal specifically with idolatrous worship. Drinking and eating blood, strangling sacrifices and eating them, sleeping with temple prostitutes, priests, and priestesses were all a part of paganism of every variety. So, the disciples are saying that these new disciples coming from the Nations and from a pagan background have to first rid themselves of everything rooting in idolatry, rooted in the ways of the Egyptians and the Canaanites, if you will.
The idolatrous worship practices were the biggest hurdle, and the reality is they were entering a new worship structure and a new way of life. They had to get rid of the old ways, the old man before they could progress from there and figure out how to even consider living in relation to any other aspects of Torah.
When an alcoholic comes to faith whats the most important thing for God to address in their life out the gate? Do you really think whether or not that person eats a ham sandwich or still works on Saturday morning matters if they are still drinking a liter of whiskey or a case of beer every single night? No, not in the least. The first thing God is going to work on is the biggest hurdle to intimacy with Him, and this case that would be the alcoholism. Then, once that is conquered in Messiah everything else will fall in place little by little as the person draws closer and closer to God.
In a world that says the Bible is antiquated, we must press into a biblical definition of holiness because Ad-nai our G-d is Holy.
And, I don’t care what we think of ourselves, every single day we should be experiencing God drawing us closer to Himself and in turn, removing more and more of the ways of this world from our lives.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so He may be with you forever—
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you.
I will not abandon you as orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while, the world will no longer behold Me, but you will behold Me. Because I live, you also will live!
“In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you.
He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
In the Body of Messiah there is this constant push of this mindset of grace verses Law, but the reality is that we can only truly keep the Torah if it is written on our heart in the work of the New Covenant…
The outsider dwelling among you shall be to you as the native-born among you. You shall love him as yourself—for you dwelled as outsiders in the land of Egypt. I am Adonai your God.
(Expound)
In a world that says the Bible is antiquated, we must press into a biblical definition of holiness because Ad-nai our G-d is Holy.
You
You
(Call worship team back and unmute)
What about your life? What concessions have you made in your walk with the Lord to make others around you happy?
What pressures are you allowing to hinder your walk as Kedoshim?
What distractions have you been giving into that have tripped you up and held up or defaulted your discipleship?
We
We
Much like Israel coming out of Egypt and moving into Canaan, there is a call from Paul in 1 and 2 Corinthians and from James in Acts 15 to separate ourselves from the idolatrous and despicable ways of the world around us. Keep in mind, especially as the message and work of the Gospel spreads, this is not a call to pack up and abandon the world around us. This is a call to not live like the world around us, to live our lives as kedoshim in the world so that the world will see God in us.
But the Body of Messiah has, for far too long, had this mindset that the Torah and faith in Yeshua are not compatible. Honestly, I think a lot of people may even have the perception that honoring the Torah would be idolatrous, that Yeshua gave His life so we could be free from the Law. But Paul says in Romans not that we were freed from the Law, but that we were freed from the curse of the Law, through the Blood of Messiah, through His grace and mercy we have been freed from the consequence of our sins which is eternal death. But we are not free to do whatever we want, to live however we want...
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
And James says
But do you want to know, you empty person, that faith without works is dead?
Wasn’t Abraham our father proved righteous by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
You see that faith worked together with his works, and by the works his faith was made complete.
The Scripture was fulfilled that says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness”—and he was called God’s friend.
You see that a man is proved righteous by works and not by faith alone.
And likewise, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also proved righteous by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out another way?
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Now, I don’t say any of this to say that to not keep Kosher or to not keep Shabbat means you aren’t really saved… But, rather to say that the Torah, really the Bible as a whole, makes it clear that the people of God should be constantly longing and desiring to live more like Yeshua. Our lives should be molded to the Word that is now, by the Blood of Messiah, etched up on the very flesh of our hearts. We have the Shechinah of the Living Word residing within our hearts and our lives, this means our lives should not be in contradiction or in battle with the Word, but rather should be an example to the world that the Word of God does not come back void. That in the Blood of Messiah we have in fact been freed from the curse and bondage of sin and are now able to truly exemplify the call of God as we read in Parasha Acharei Mot- Kedoshim…
Adonai said to Moses:
“Speak to Bnei-Yisrael and say to them: I am Adonai your God.
You are not to act as they do in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. Nor are you to act as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, nor are you to walk in their customs.
You are to obey My ordinances and keep My statutes and walk in them—I am Adonai your God.
Let us truly strive to be the Kedoshim (holy ones) we are called to be, why? Because, as we read over and over and over again in Acharei Mot and Kedoshim, we are called to be holy because the Lord our God is holy.