Vayikra “And he called”
Leviticus 1:1–5:26
Isaiah 43:21–44:23
1 Samuel 22-24

Sacrifice His Way

This week we begin the Book of Leviticus. We can get bogged down in this book if we do not understand its purpose. Leviticus begins with how to present an offering before HaShem. The first chapters go into great detail regarding what to do with the animal, how to present it and even how to arrange it on the fire. As you read these verses remember that each of these offerings was a foreshadow of the work of Yeshua. With His death they are not done away with, but rather brought to a higher meaning for us. We are now on this side of His redemptive work and able to understand further the shadows these offerings prophesied. In the Millennium there will be sacrifices again and I for one am looking forward to the day that I can see the sacrifices being presented, with Leviticus in hand, and have Yeshua teach us how each spoke of His work, and continues to speak of it.

Also keep in mind that if a person brought his offering to the altar, but there was not repentance in his heart, the sacrifice meant nothing. It was no more than an animal dying in vain. We see this today in a person who says they receive Messiah, but there is no repentance. He or she is merely sorry for getting caught.

So why all the details about these sacrifices? Is it not enough that the person brought the sacrifice? Why did it have to be done in such an exacting way? There are many answers to this question, let’s look at he first level.

Each of us has a tendency to want to do things our own way. There are many reasons for this, ranging from the way we have always done it to the way our parents or teachers in the past did it. Just because we were taught to do something from birth does not make it right. What makes it right is that it lines up with His Word. Let’s take the season we are entering into as an example. I was taught to celebrate Easter as the time of Yeshua’s resurrection. We always had new clothes for this special day. We went to church a bit early because there was going to be a larger crowd that day, made up largely of people whom we had not seen since Christmas. After the service we would go home to eat large portions of ham. Then it was out to the yard to hide and hunt for colored eggs. The thought of all of this makes me a bit queasy today, but that is another subject. We did all of these things, not in honor of a false god of fertility that the day is really all about. We did it unknowingly because through the years men had taken the way HaShem told us to offer worship unto Him and changed it into something far from His ways.

We live in a day in which The Holy One is bringing us back to His way of doing things. He is showing us the details of how He desires our worship, just as He showed Moses and the Levites in Leviticus. What is Leviticus about? It is about putting Egypt behind us and forgetting its ways while taking up and embracing His way, the way of truth.

In the coming days we will all be given the opportunity to walk in His way or walk in man’s way. The choice is called Passover vs Easter. If we choose Passover, we choose His way of worship. If we choose Easter, we choose man’s way, Egypt’s way, the pagan way. Is there an advantage to walking in His way? Take a few moments and turn to Deuteronomy 28. Look at the blessings and the curses. The first part of the chapter is written to those who will choose His way, the second part is written to those who choose their own way of presenting an offering. Even a quick read will make the choice pretty easy. At least it does for me.

I can hear the voices of the multitude though, saying that when they worship during Easter that they are not thinking about the fertility goddess and all that is associated with that day. To those I would remind them to go back to Exodus and read the account of a golden calf and what happened there. I wonder how ground up bunnies and colored eggs tastes when mixed with water. See, it is not about what you and I are thinking when we offer a sacrifice the way we desire to do it, it is about what He is thinking!

So if you find yourself missing Passover this year and seated in a full church on Easter morning, take a few minutes as the offering plate is passed to consider the words of Leviticus. Ask yourself the question whether it would have been appropriate to come to the Levites with a chocolate bunny. Maybe you might even think back all the way to Genesis and consider what happened to Cain and Able when one made an offering according to how HaShem had said, but the other decided to do it his way.

If you find yourself in that situation and do not decide to repent and run, please do not be surprised when in the days and weeks to follow that life just feels a bit more like the later part of Deuteronomy than the first part. For those however who will throw tradition to the wind and bring an offering of obedience, expect His blessings to be abundant.