Set Apart and Carried Away

Some Torah portions are much harder to study and teach than others. I love everything about Genesis; it's stories lend themselves very well to theological concepts. Exodus and Leviticus with their detailed descriptions of the priestly duties, the tabernacle, and the various articles of worship are not so easy to parse. On one level, it is very simple: make this object in this manner and do this with it. There's nothing complicated about that. However, God threw a very large wrench into this simplistic understanding when he said to Ezekiel,

Ezekiel 43:10-11  You, son of man, give the children of Israel an account of this house, so that they may be shamed because of their evil-doing: and let them see the vision of it and its image.  (11)  And they will be shamed by what they have done; so give them the knowledge of the form of the house and its structure, and the ways out of it and into it, and all its laws and its rules, writing it down for them: so that they may keep all its laws and do them.

Huh? Israel is supposed to look at God's house, note the dimensions and materials...and be ashamed? How could the ins and outs of the Tabernacle or the Temple make the people ashamed of anything? It was built by people who lived long before Ezekiel and was used almost exclusively by the priests. What does any of it have to do with Joe the Shepherd or Tina the Chef?

If you've been reading my material for any length of time, then you'll know that I don't believe anything in the Torah has only one meaning. Very little, if anything, in this universe is single dimensional. It turns out that there are so many things to talk about in these seemingly dry, technical passages, that I have difficulty focusing on any one thing! In Tetzaveh (Exodus 27:20–30:10) we can learn about the character of God, the role of the Messiah, our relationship with both of those, salvation from sin and judgment, the role of a father in his family, and much more. Let me give you just one example that shows how much God loves his people.

Exodus 28:36-38  And you shall make a plate of pure gold, and carve on it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO YHWH.  (37)  And you shall put a ribbon on it, and it shall be on the miter; to the front of the miter it shall be.  (38)  And it shall be on Aaron's forehead, so that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which will sanctify the sons of Israel in all their holy gifts. And it shall always be on his forehead, so that they may be accepted before YHWH.

The High Priest wears a gold crown of sorts. Engraved across the front, resting on his forehead, are the words, "Set Apart to YHWH." This Torah portion tells us that this is because he takes onto himself the "iniquities of the holy things." What a contradiction! How can holy things be sinful? These things are holy because they are set apart from other things, not because they are perfect. The Hebrew word for holy is kadosh, and it literally means "set apart." The holy offerings of Israel are like you and me. In fact, they are you and me. We aren't perfect, and we never will be. There is no way in heaven or on earth that you and I can present ourselves to God perfectly unblemished. We need a High Priest who will take our meager, pathetic offerings and take responsibility for their faults onto himself.

Through the blood of Yeshua, our Messiah, shed by the thorns dug into his forehead, our inadequacies are lifted off our own heads and placed on his. Without God's grace to accept that shift, we would be without hope. We would be condemned as forever separated from our Creator, set apart forever, but away from him and not to him. In his mercy, he provided a way for us to approach him, to offer him our broken and scarred hearts as if they were a perfect and holy living sacrifice, completely acceptable in the highest court of Heaven.

What greater love could there be?