Walking With The King
28 March 2009 / 3 Aviv 5769 Vayikra - And He Called
28 March 2009 / 3 Aviv 5769
Vayikra - And He Called
Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26
Vayikra is the shortest of the five books of the Torah and is the capstone set between B'resheet(Genesis) and Sh'mot (Exodus) on the one hand and B'midbar (Numbers) and D'varim (Deuteronomy) on the other. It is poised between the completion of the Tabernacle, following the revelation at Sinai, and the wanderings in the wilderness. The oldest name for the book is Torat Kohanim, Teachings for the Priests. The entire book consists of instructions on how to meet the requirements associated with the Sanctuary – i.e., how to live as a “kingdom of priests” and to lead holy lives of service to the Lord, individually and communally.
Holy, or Not…
The flow of narrative found in the first two books of Torah, Genesis and Exodus, is interrupted with the book of Leviticus. As Rabbi S.R. Hirsch describes:
This entire book consists of instructions telling us how to meet the requirements represented by the Sanctuary; …how to lead holy lives as individuals and as a nation – an endeavor to be expressed in symbolic terms by our offerings and, in particular, by our conduct.
The Hebrew name of the book and of this parasha, is Vayikra, “And He called”. God has called Moses to Himself once again. We see illustrated by Moses’ constant response to the call of God that the primary action involved is to move from one’s present place and to draw in closer proximity to His Presence. This action is described by the Hebrew verb hivdil; one that is used from the beginning of Creation: And God divided (hivdil) the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:4). This division, or separation, brings order from chaos.
As Robert Alter expounds [1] :
"What enables existence and provides a framework for the development of humankind, conceived in God’s image, and of human civilization is a process of division and insulation – light from darkness, day from night, the upper waters from the lower waters, and dry land from the latter."
In fact, the call to be His people, and the purpose of the study of God’s Word and the aspiration to “be like Him”, is expressed in the verses: I have set you apart (hivdil) from all other peoples. And you shall set apart (hivdil) the clean from the unclean… And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy (20:24-26).
The very concept of “being holy as He is holy” radically challenges our understanding. What is made clear in Vayikra, however, is the connection between holiness and the acceptance of these categories of ‘clean and unclean,’ or ritually pure and impure, in the realms of human appetite; predominantly the sexual and dietary. The idea of imitatio Dei includes the element of hivdil – setting apart, clearly defining the boundaries, and the erection of shields, as it were, between that which is holy to God and that which is not.
It is the call of God that gives the authority to draw near to His awesome Presence. The authority, however, is accompanied by responsibility. Once called, the priests who were specifically set apart by God to serve in the Tabernacle and Temple needed to follow a careful regimen of preparation and observe a specific code of dress before entering the Holy Place of the Sanctuary. One of the two narrational incidents in the book of Leviticus tells of the instant death of Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron the High Priest’s sons, who, whether in uncontrolled zeal or misplaced arrogance, brought “alien fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them” (10:1).
Behind the Veil
When God sent His Messiah into the world in the person of Yeshua, in what one writer describes as “His own inconceivable Self-donation,”[2] He instituted a dynamic dimension to the tri-partite biblical pattern of covenant communication. God – Priests – His people, expanded to become: Father (God, Creator) – Yeshua (Messiah, Redeemer) – His people (Jew, Gentile).
To Yeshua was given full authority, in the heavens and on the earth, to draw all men unto the Father, Who is Creator of all. This had long been the understanding of God’s chosen people, highlighted in King Solomon’s dedication of the First Temple, that God’s dwelling place was to be a “house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). The vision was there; Yeshua provided the way to implement the vision.
He knew that the physical Temple would fall and the large, eternal plan would be brought into focus. All men, not only the Levites, were created to be set apart as priests to the One true God of Israel. Yeshua had come to part the veil into the Holy of Holies of God’s Presence and to prepare the way towards that reality. As a result, the Sanctuary – the Tabernacle of Meeting – would stand wherever the humble would hear the call of God and would enter into His Presence with hearts yearning to serve and worship Him.
Response of the Heart
Throughout the centuries, ever since, people from all nations have heeded the call. One shining example: In the late 1600s, a poor, uneducated, young Frenchman became a lay brother in a monastery in Paris. He worked in the kitchen and called himself “a servant of servants”. He determined to live every moment in “the practice of the Presence of God”. We can read (in the book of the same name compiled by his abbot from Brother Lawrence’s notes and letters after his death) that he indeed was able to transform his mundane chores into a glorious experience of heaven. Brother Lawrence wrote [3] :
“The only thing I was seeking was to become wholly God’s… I removed, for the love of God, everything that was not God.”
“When we are faithful in keeping ourselves in His Holy Presence, keeping Him always before us, this not only prevents our offering to Him as being something displeasing in His sight (at least willfully), but it also brings us a holy freedom and, if I may say so, a familiarity with God, wherein we may ask and receive the graces we are so desperately in need of.”
“Presenting myself before God, I ask Him to form His perfect image in my soul and to make me entirely like Himself.”
Another heart response is described by Frank Lambauch (1884 – 1970) who lived as a bearer of the gospel and literacy to many thousands in the Philippine Islands. He had two burning passions [4] :
"First, to be like Jesus. Second, to respond to God as a violin responds to the bow of the master."
"Open your soul and entertain the glory of God and after a while that glory will be reflected in the world about you."
He describes how, as he purposed to do his part each day:
"God takes care of all the rest. My part is to live in this hour in continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to His will. To make this hour gloriously rich."
As His priests, our hearts can join with King David, sweet psalmist of Israel, as he sang:
One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I desire, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.
For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His Tabernacle and set me high upon the Rock. Then my head [all my reason, thoughts and emotions] will be exalted above the enemies who surround me;
At His Tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD!” (Psalm 27:4-6).
Haftarah Isaiah 43:21 – 44:23
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel (44:21-23).
Brit Chadasha Hebrews 10:5-25
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a High Priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works… (10: 19-24)
[1] Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, p 541
[2] Marva Dawn, The Sense of the Call, p.12
[3] Devotional Classics, edited by Richard J. Foster & James B. Smith, Renovare Inc., Harper San Francisco, NY, 1993
[4] Ibid
Vayikra - And He Called
Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26
Vayikra is the shortest of the five books of the Torah and is the capstone set between B'resheet(Genesis) and Sh'mot (Exodus) on the one hand and B'midbar (Numbers) and D'varim (Deuteronomy) on the other. It is poised between the completion of the Tabernacle, following the revelation at Sinai, and the wanderings in the wilderness. The oldest name for the book is Torat Kohanim, Teachings for the Priests. The entire book consists of instructions on how to meet the requirements associated with the Sanctuary – i.e., how to live as a “kingdom of priests” and to lead holy lives of service to the Lord, individually and communally.
Holy, or Not…
The flow of narrative found in the first two books of Torah, Genesis and Exodus, is interrupted with the book of Leviticus. As Rabbi S.R. Hirsch describes:
This entire book consists of instructions telling us how to meet the requirements represented by the Sanctuary; …how to lead holy lives as individuals and as a nation – an endeavor to be expressed in symbolic terms by our offerings and, in particular, by our conduct.
The Hebrew name of the book and of this parasha, is Vayikra, “And He called”. God has called Moses to Himself once again. We see illustrated by Moses’ constant response to the call of God that the primary action involved is to move from one’s present place and to draw in closer proximity to His Presence. This action is described by the Hebrew verb hivdil; one that is used from the beginning of Creation: And God divided (hivdil) the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:4). This division, or separation, brings order from chaos.
As Robert Alter expounds [1] :
"What enables existence and provides a framework for the development of humankind, conceived in God’s image, and of human civilization is a process of division and insulation – light from darkness, day from night, the upper waters from the lower waters, and dry land from the latter."
In fact, the call to be His people, and the purpose of the study of God’s Word and the aspiration to “be like Him”, is expressed in the verses: I have set you apart (hivdil) from all other peoples. And you shall set apart (hivdil) the clean from the unclean… And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy (20:24-26).
The very concept of “being holy as He is holy” radically challenges our understanding. What is made clear in Vayikra, however, is the connection between holiness and the acceptance of these categories of ‘clean and unclean,’ or ritually pure and impure, in the realms of human appetite; predominantly the sexual and dietary. The idea of imitatio Dei includes the element of hivdil – setting apart, clearly defining the boundaries, and the erection of shields, as it were, between that which is holy to God and that which is not.
It is the call of God that gives the authority to draw near to His awesome Presence. The authority, however, is accompanied by responsibility. Once called, the priests who were specifically set apart by God to serve in the Tabernacle and Temple needed to follow a careful regimen of preparation and observe a specific code of dress before entering the Holy Place of the Sanctuary. One of the two narrational incidents in the book of Leviticus tells of the instant death of Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron the High Priest’s sons, who, whether in uncontrolled zeal or misplaced arrogance, brought “alien fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them” (10:1).
Behind the Veil
When God sent His Messiah into the world in the person of Yeshua, in what one writer describes as “His own inconceivable Self-donation,”[2] He instituted a dynamic dimension to the tri-partite biblical pattern of covenant communication. God – Priests – His people, expanded to become: Father (God, Creator) – Yeshua (Messiah, Redeemer) – His people (Jew, Gentile).
To Yeshua was given full authority, in the heavens and on the earth, to draw all men unto the Father, Who is Creator of all. This had long been the understanding of God’s chosen people, highlighted in King Solomon’s dedication of the First Temple, that God’s dwelling place was to be a “house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). The vision was there; Yeshua provided the way to implement the vision.
He knew that the physical Temple would fall and the large, eternal plan would be brought into focus. All men, not only the Levites, were created to be set apart as priests to the One true God of Israel. Yeshua had come to part the veil into the Holy of Holies of God’s Presence and to prepare the way towards that reality. As a result, the Sanctuary – the Tabernacle of Meeting – would stand wherever the humble would hear the call of God and would enter into His Presence with hearts yearning to serve and worship Him.
Response of the Heart
Throughout the centuries, ever since, people from all nations have heeded the call. One shining example: In the late 1600s, a poor, uneducated, young Frenchman became a lay brother in a monastery in Paris. He worked in the kitchen and called himself “a servant of servants”. He determined to live every moment in “the practice of the Presence of God”. We can read (in the book of the same name compiled by his abbot from Brother Lawrence’s notes and letters after his death) that he indeed was able to transform his mundane chores into a glorious experience of heaven. Brother Lawrence wrote [3] :
“The only thing I was seeking was to become wholly God’s… I removed, for the love of God, everything that was not God.”
“When we are faithful in keeping ourselves in His Holy Presence, keeping Him always before us, this not only prevents our offering to Him as being something displeasing in His sight (at least willfully), but it also brings us a holy freedom and, if I may say so, a familiarity with God, wherein we may ask and receive the graces we are so desperately in need of.”
“Presenting myself before God, I ask Him to form His perfect image in my soul and to make me entirely like Himself.”
Another heart response is described by Frank Lambauch (1884 – 1970) who lived as a bearer of the gospel and literacy to many thousands in the Philippine Islands. He had two burning passions [4] :
"First, to be like Jesus. Second, to respond to God as a violin responds to the bow of the master."
"Open your soul and entertain the glory of God and after a while that glory will be reflected in the world about you."
He describes how, as he purposed to do his part each day:
"God takes care of all the rest. My part is to live in this hour in continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to His will. To make this hour gloriously rich."
As His priests, our hearts can join with King David, sweet psalmist of Israel, as he sang:
One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I desire, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.
For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His Tabernacle and set me high upon the Rock. Then my head [all my reason, thoughts and emotions] will be exalted above the enemies who surround me;
At His Tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD!” (Psalm 27:4-6).
Haftarah Isaiah 43:21 – 44:23
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it; shout, O depths of the earth; break forth into singing, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel (44:21-23).
Brit Chadasha Hebrews 10:5-25
Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a High Priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works… (10: 19-24)
[1] Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, p 541
[2] Marva Dawn, The Sense of the Call, p.12
[3] Devotional Classics, edited by Richard J. Foster & James B. Smith, Renovare Inc., Harper San Francisco, NY, 1993
[4] Ibid
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