Today we begin Leviticus Chapter 23.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James Version, click here.
Leviticus 23 is considered to be “The Calendar of Sacred Time”.
In this chapter, we get a nice organized and detailed schedule of the 7 God-ordained Biblical feasts.
However, this isn’t the first time we’ve been introduced to these feasts, nor will it be the last.
Hebrew scholars inform us that there are 3 main sections in the Torah where the Biblical Feasts are presented.
The first section is Exodus chapters 21-23.
This part of Exodus is also known as the “Book of the Covenant”.
The Book of the Covenant are those rules and commands that immediately follow the 10 Words (commandments) given in Exodus chapter 20.
Remember that the 10 Words of God are the foundation from which the remaining 603 future commands of God arose.
There is not one law, ordinance or command given that doesn’t conform to the principles and patterns of the 10 Words of God (understand when I say “10 Words”, I’m referring to what the church calls the “10 Commandments”).
Now isn’t it interesting that the church venerates the “10 Commandments” (which also contains the command to keep the Sabbath by the way) but will turn around and tell us that to follow the laws and principles of the Torah is being “legalistic”?
Holy hypocritical cheesecake muffins!!!
Okay, let’s move on before I get on a rant that might last a couple of days.
The second section where the God-ordained religious calendar is presented is Leviticus 23 (where we’re at now) coupled with Numbers 28-29.
The third section is in Deuteronomy.
You may be wondering why in the world there are 3 different sections dealing with the 7 Biblical feasts in the Torah?
Are these separate sections just repeating one another or do they conflict with one another?
Well, the best way to explain it is to say that each section gives us a different aspect of the religious event calendar.
For example, take the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The truth be told, there ARE differences and discrepancies between these books and I would be lying if I was to say otherwise.
Bible critics and those who oppose God in general just love to point out these discrepancies.
The best way to explain the difference and discrepancies in Scripture is remind ourselves that we are reading about the same events as told through the eyes of four different men.
Some of these men were direct eye witnesses to the events they wrote about, others gathered their data from eye witnesses and then later compiled it.
Think you about your own personal life experiences.
When two people view the same event, or hear the same sermon, each person comes away from it with a different slant or understanding about what they saw and heard.
In the same way, the writers of the four Gospels viewed Yeshua and His life and ministry from different perspectives.
On the other hand, if the Gospels were too identical to each other, one would definitely suspect collusion.
Most of the differences in the Gospels are because the authors chose to emphasize different parts of Yeshua’s ministry over others.
And in some cases, it’s just a matter of the writer choosing which events to record and which to leave out based on what he thought was most important.
We apply the same principle in our courts of justice.
We have a number of different witnesses give their testimonies and then the judge and jury piece together what they heard to obtain a complete picture of what really transpired.
It is exactly the same phenomenon with the 3 sections of Torah dealing with the Biblical feasts.
Each section provides us a different slant, perspective and emphasis that when taken together gives us a more fuller and complete understanding of what God expects from us in terms of observing these feasts.
Since we’re now in Leviticus, it should be obvious which perspective we’re being given: The PRIESTLY perspective of of course!
Because of this, we’re going to get more of an emphasis on the required rituals and the sacrifices connected to the Biblical Feasts.
Let me give you fair warning that we may be wading in Leviticus 23 for quite a while.
We’re going to go deep into the details because these Biblical Feasts are central and point directly to the life and ministry of Messiah.
I’m also going to be taking a close look at those passages that Christians have MISUNDERSTOOD for centuries that have led to some, quite frankly, really bizarre and completely misguided Church traditions and doctrines.
This study should be quite interesting.
I deeply appreciate your viewpoint of Hebrew Law and tradition. It is my belief that in the years to come, as humanity climbs Mount Zion and gains a shared perspective of Holy Creation in its magnificence, from the Sacred Temple of The Pure Heart at the summit, teachings such as yours will grow in significance from here on out. I wish to share with you what is going on concerning the advent of the Jews’ Messiah. Please invest a little time into perusal of this post and I would appreciate any response of any kind.
http://jonathanmichaelrobbins.blogspot.co.il/2017/04/the-messiah-and-digital-synchronicity.html
Thanks for the positive thumbs up on my posts Jonathan. I did peruse your post. It seems interesting and I feel like I want to go back later and give it a deeper reading. True. The internet has in so many ways changed everything. It’s changed how we gather and disseminate information, it’s changed how we do business and in many cases, rendered geographical limitations mute. With one blog post of mine and yours, we can reach millions around the world. Seth Godin was right. One person with a computer and internet hookup is equivalent to a factory owner in the early 19th century. Just some thoughts.
One of the elements of bible interpretation is the use of hermaneutics, which means we should take the bible literally. In this case, it would be possible to show that there are sections that don’t seem to agree with each other. Yet, traditional Judaic interpretation goes beyond this topographical level of understanding. In Judaism we look for four different levels of meaning: the P’shat (literal meaning, or written word),the Remez (reading between the lines, so to speak, to look for a different meaning), Drash (comparison of different verses to find a similarity in meaning), and the Sud (also spelled Sode, which is the deeper, mystical meaning.) So, although there may be areas within the bible that seem to be contradictory, it could be (as you have pointed out) simply the point of view that the writer is taking. It is like the Hindu story of the four blind men feeling an elephant and combining their notes to see what it really is- not one of them agreed. We need to see past the individual parts of the bible and see the bible as an entirety, understanding that it was written by humans. Yes, they were spirit led, but they were still human and no one can write something down that won’t have a part of their own “self” in the writing. We need to each, on our own, look to the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) to lead our individual understanding: I am sure you have come across this many times, as I have- we read the same passage over and over, then one day BAM!! an entirely new understanding of what God is saying in that very same passage. That’s what is so wonderful about the bible- it never changes but it is always different.
Hi Steven, Well said. I’ve actually used the Hindu story you mentioned to elucidate on this very point. And am aware of the four different levels of understanding used to approach Torah in Judaism. Yes, God’s Word is many layered and continues to provide us many rich treasures the deeper we keep digging into it. Thanks for sharing Shalom!
We appreciate your presentation on the Torah, well researched, informative and inspirational. Us from the South came to interact with the bible through missionaries, who where not from the Jewish background and had their own agenda, using the bible to enslave us, rendering us less humans than those with pale skin color. So theres a long way to go.
With that being said, I also picked a lot of your ranting and falling short of spewing insults to the “church”. I suggest you keep such emotions at bay, and focus on presenting the Word… with Love, and Understanding. Bring all of us who might have go astray… not of our own doing, but by design. If you look at those hypocrites as you call them, as the beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, and look at yourself as that vessel equipped to bring the lost back to God. That will go a long way. Those who might want to fight back, might just seat back, listen and learn the true path of our faith.
.SHALOM