“An animal with bruised, crushed, torn or cut genitals you are not to offer to Adonai. You are not to do these things in your land, and you are not to receive any of these from a foreigner for you to offer as bread for your God, because their deformity is a defect in them — they will not be accepted from you.”-Leviticus 22:24-25
Verses 24 and 25 point out an important principle that is laid out very well, but easily overlooked.
It says that Israel must not sacrifice any defective animals from their own herds or any foreign animals that have the same defects.
Notice the prohibition is NOT against using foreign-bred animals for sacrifice.
It’s only that the foreign animals must meet the same exact standard as the animals raised by the Hebrews.
Are you catching the principle being communicated here?
The requirements to approach God ARE UNIVERSAL!
It didn’t matter if the sacrificial animal came from a native-born Hebrew or a Gentile!
There were no special exceptions for anybody, whether Jew or Gentile, and Paul diligently expounded on this principle in many of his writings in the New Testament.
Before God, from a spiritual perspective, all humanity is the same!
The requirements one must meet in order to be allowed in God’s presence are the same!
In terms of what is good and evil, clean and unclean, holy and impure, the standards for BOTH Jew and Gentile are the same.
So don’t be deceived by those who say only the Jews have to abstain from eating pork and shellfish but gentiles don’t or only the Jews have to keep the Biblical feasts but gentiles don’t.
If the requirement in order to be saved is the same for all humanity (trust in Messiah Yeshua), then where in the heck do you get the idea that the rules and commands that define good and evil, clean and unclean etcetera are different depending on whether one is a Jew or not?
HASHEM does NOT have plan A for the Jews and plan B for the gentiles in terms of what is righteous and HOLY before Him.
The Torah is the source document that defines what is righteous and HOLY for all people!
The Torah defines life and goodness for all!
God doesn’t have one Torah for the Jews and another Torah (or no Torah as the church says) for gentiles.
And no, don’t buy the false teaching that the Old Testament is just for the Jews and the New Testament is for the gentiles.
Both books, the OT and NT, are for BOTH Jew and gentile.
Does it really make sense that God would say “Well, alright, all of you here who are Jews, you’ve got to be very strict in obeying my commands in the Torah, but you gentiles, go ahead and make it up as you go”.
Nowhere in Scripture is it promoted that Jews have no latitude and gentiles have no boundaries.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free,
nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.”
-Galatians 3:28
“Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith?
Not at all!
Rather, we uphold the law.“
-Romans 3:31
“If you belong to Messiah,
then you are Abraham’s seed,
and heirs according to the promise.”
-Galatians 3:29
Amen, Brother! The “Church” has historically tried to separate itself from the very root of the tree to which it is grafted onto, and to say that the Torah is for Jews and the Blood of Christ s for Gentiles is to reject God, and insult the sacrifice Yeshua made on everyone’s behalf. I read recently that what the “early church” leaders did, in separating themselves from their Jewish roots, was the same thing that Yav’roam (Jeraboam) did when he was made king over the Ten Tribes of Israel, which was to separate his tribes from Y’hudah and Binyamin by creating his own altars, and setting up the Golden Calf and Ba”alim as the gods of Israel. Torah was given to the Jews, but it ins’t just for the Jews- it was given to us so that we could show the rest of the world, by example (we’re still working on that), how God wants us to worship Him and treat each other.
Thanks for sharing Steven! Be blessed and SHALOM!