Weekly passages: Leviticus 9:1-11:47; 2 Samuel 6:1-7:17; Hebrews 7:1-19; 8:1-6.

There can be no doubt that what God says goes. For Israel it even came down to careful rules about what to eat and what not to eat. Bear in mind that the conditions of the Covenant at Sinai (Deut 28-29) stipulated all his commandments (Deut 28:1) were to be obeyed. God's own people are to stand out among the nations as unique – holy to the Lord.

A Matter of Life and Death

If we doubt God's word, then read Leviticus 10 carefully. Aaron's own sons, before they had much opportunity to ease into their priestly ministry, lost their lives for unholy offerings. It is arresting for us to note how, on several important occasions of a particular principle coming into force, someone lost their life. Examples are the man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath Day (Num 15:32-36), Nadab and Abihu in this week's portion, and Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit on the matter of gifts to God (Acts 5:1-5). God's word is not negotiable and is a matter of life and death.

The chief focus of our Torah Portion this week is the beginning of the priestly ministry. The rules for sacrifice for a sin offering are laid out clearly - the substitutionary offerings of the lives of the specified animals "without any blemish" (Lev 9:2-3). If we did not have this information here and elsewhere in the Torah we would not have such vivid, clear points of teaching concerning the Lord Jesus the Messiah, for whom all these things prepared the way.

Read the details slowly and prayerfully. We read them as words in our Bibles. For the tribes of Israel, it was a point to consider every day of their lives as the priests performed the ministries of the Tabernacle (and later the Temple), always with the principle of no compromise etched into their memory from this experience in the wilderness years. This is God's Torah – his teaching. There is no other teacher or teaching like this in the entire world.

No Compromise

Neither was there compromise when Jesus the Messiah offered himself up as the sacrifice for sin for all that would believe. These types and shadows prepared the way for him. The line of Aaron relinquished their priestly standing that day and a new priesthood began, through Jesus our High Priest. The Father did not compromise that day of inauguration, painful though it was. Neither can we compromise.

For all people, whether Jew or Gentile, there is now only one way to reconciliation with the Father. Many New Testament passages affirm this. For example, John 10:7-18 is Jesus' own affirmation that he himself is the door to the sheepfold (verse 9), confirmed by John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

The uncompromising principles learned by Israel in the wilderness years are now transferred to salvation through Jesus the Messiah, both High Priest and the perfect lamb slain for the sins of the world. It is, in the deepest of all ways, a matter of life and death that we realise that there is no compromise in this. What better Torah Portion to read the week after Easter and on the days running up to Passover?¹

Author: Clifford Denton

Notes

1 As an aside, especially at a time when the Archbishop of Canterbury is talking about standardising the date of Easter, it would be good and timely to reconnect Easter with Passover. What we study in this Torah Portion is deeply relevant to both Jew and Gentile.