Your Life May Depend On It
Welcome to parasha Acharei Mot. It begins in Leviticus 16:1-18:30. Here we have in the very beginning a warning to Aharon. YHVH tells him through Moshe, that he is not to come into the Holiest of Holies just any old time he pleases. If he does, he will die. Certain criteria had to be met and then he was to come only once a year. He had to offer up certain sacrifices and be dressed in certain attire. So let's take a look at Yom Kippur back in Moshe's time. There was brought to the High Priest (Kohen HaGodol) two male goats. Both were to be around the same size. The Priest cast lots to see which goat was going to be sacrificed to YHVH and which goat was going to be the scape goat to be sent away to the wilderness, never to return. Sort of sounds like how Yeshus sets our sins apart, as far as the East is from West. The priest had two sets of garments, one was called the golden vestments. The other was called the linen garments. At the regular services, the Priest wore his golden garments on all of the services, except part of the Yom Kippur service. The white kittel worn by the Hebrew people today on special occasions was born out of the High Priest wearing the white linen garment. The High Priest changed his clothes a total of five times during the day of Yom Kippur. Each time he changed his garments, he had to do a mikvah (immersion) in water. Let's get back to the two goats that were offered on Yom Kippur. The High Priest would lay his hands upon both goats. The Priest drew lots as to which goat would be sacrificed and which would not. The goat that was not sacrificed was led away into the wilderness, called the scapegoat. This goat was supposed to have carried all of Israel's sins away. We've heard some people say the scapegoat was thrown off a cliff. However, the Scriptures do not say that! The person who led that scapegoat away was considered to be unclean afterwards and had to immerse himself and his clothes in water before he could come back into the camp. When Aharon went into the Holiest of Holies, no one was to be anywhere in the Tabernacle. You may notice that Aharon had to cleanse not only himself in this ritual, but even make cleansing for the very altar itself.
This was done to cleanse it from past discretions and sanctify it for future uses. Now there are some when it comes to Yom Kippur, who believe there is no need to do anything. They believe they are cleansed by the blood of Yeshua and therefore have no need to keep Yom Kippur. But let me say that I believe YHVH might just be smart enough to know, when he commanded us to keep this Feast "forever," (Lev:16:31), that Yeshua was going to be in the picture in the future. Yet, He still says to afflict your beings on this day "forever." Anytime you see afflict used with the word flesh or your being, it involves fasting. Well some might say, I ask forgiveness for my sins every day, so I don't need to do it again on Yom Kippur. Do you honestly believe that you can remember every sin you have committed for the past year? Some of these sins will include sins you don't even know you did, because we don't know our Torah well enough to know all of our sins! So maybe YHVH knew this and decreed that you "afflict yourself" forever because of that. One day a year YHVH asks you to look back at your life and ask forgiveness for "everything" you did wrong. Take an overall personal survey! I don't believe one day out of a year is a big sacrifice, do you? Ok, let's move on:. YHVH goes on to inform the people about not doing things the pagans do. There is much emphasis put on not eating the blood of an animal. You will notice that YHVH says this commandment (like all others) was to be for the goy among the Hebrews, as well as the Hebrews themselves. Not only were they not to eat of the blood of any animal that was killed, but they were to bury the blood with dirt. Life is in the blood, that's why an animal had to be slain to cover up man's sins until Yeshua came. However, this commandment of covering up the blood did not pertain to the animals slain at the Tabernacle, their blood was put on the altar.
Now the Israelites are about to enter a land that is fully paganized (sounds like America I hate to say it). YHVH does not want His people doing what these pagan people do. They are not to have personal relationships with certain people. For instance, you could not marry a woman and then turn around and marry her sister too. The one woman had to be deceased before you could marry her sister (hello Jacob). Of course Jacob was tricked into his situation. No matter how much the two sisters loved each other, there would always be jealousy there between them if they both had the same husband. I made a mistake by marrying two sisters-then marrying my neighbor's ex wife, sounds like a Jerry Springer show:. Also, you could not lay with a woman during her "time of the month". This can lead to cervical cancer for the woman. I stated before, but I'll state it again, Jewish women have the lowest rate of cervical cancer. Why, because they go by this law of Nidah. Then you have some REAL hideous things mentioned. Two things in particular it says is an ABOMINATION to YHVH. One is having sexual relations with an animal. Anyone who would get this low in life, will have to 'reach up' to scratch a snake's belly! The other is man lying with a man and woman with a woman. I didn't say that folks, the Scriptures did. This lifestyle is being taught in our schools and on television as just an alternate "lifestyle", they are still good and kind people. It says if you commit all these abominable things, the land will spit you out. So why isn't Israel seeing any peace, they are not following Yeshua and His Kingdom instructions? When Tel-Aviv is the gay capital of the world, something is terribly wrong in Denmark, I mean Israel:! In this parasha we see YHVH giving his people some serious instructions. As a people and as a nation, we have seriously strayed away from these principles. How could we not, when so many people are out there teaching that Torah instructions were done away with? To me, I can't understand how they can agree that a lot of these things are wrong to do, but yet, want to disqualify the very books they are in. How many times have you heard a preacher use the so called, Old Testament, to preach tithing from???? So read and study how you are supposed to be walking out your life, your very life will depend on it! Shalom
This was done to cleanse it from past discretions and sanctify it for future uses. Now there are some when it comes to Yom Kippur, who believe there is no need to do anything. They believe they are cleansed by the blood of Yeshua and therefore have no need to keep Yom Kippur. But let me say that I believe YHVH might just be smart enough to know, when he commanded us to keep this Feast "forever," (Lev:16:31), that Yeshua was going to be in the picture in the future. Yet, He still says to afflict your beings on this day "forever." Anytime you see afflict used with the word flesh or your being, it involves fasting. Well some might say, I ask forgiveness for my sins every day, so I don't need to do it again on Yom Kippur. Do you honestly believe that you can remember every sin you have committed for the past year? Some of these sins will include sins you don't even know you did, because we don't know our Torah well enough to know all of our sins! So maybe YHVH knew this and decreed that you "afflict yourself" forever because of that. One day a year YHVH asks you to look back at your life and ask forgiveness for "everything" you did wrong. Take an overall personal survey! I don't believe one day out of a year is a big sacrifice, do you? Ok, let's move on:. YHVH goes on to inform the people about not doing things the pagans do. There is much emphasis put on not eating the blood of an animal. You will notice that YHVH says this commandment (like all others) was to be for the goy among the Hebrews, as well as the Hebrews themselves. Not only were they not to eat of the blood of any animal that was killed, but they were to bury the blood with dirt. Life is in the blood, that's why an animal had to be slain to cover up man's sins until Yeshua came. However, this commandment of covering up the blood did not pertain to the animals slain at the Tabernacle, their blood was put on the altar.
Now the Israelites are about to enter a land that is fully paganized (sounds like America I hate to say it). YHVH does not want His people doing what these pagan people do. They are not to have personal relationships with certain people. For instance, you could not marry a woman and then turn around and marry her sister too. The one woman had to be deceased before you could marry her sister (hello Jacob). Of course Jacob was tricked into his situation. No matter how much the two sisters loved each other, there would always be jealousy there between them if they both had the same husband. I made a mistake by marrying two sisters-then marrying my neighbor's ex wife, sounds like a Jerry Springer show:. Also, you could not lay with a woman during her "time of the month". This can lead to cervical cancer for the woman. I stated before, but I'll state it again, Jewish women have the lowest rate of cervical cancer. Why, because they go by this law of Nidah. Then you have some REAL hideous things mentioned. Two things in particular it says is an ABOMINATION to YHVH. One is having sexual relations with an animal. Anyone who would get this low in life, will have to 'reach up' to scratch a snake's belly! The other is man lying with a man and woman with a woman. I didn't say that folks, the Scriptures did. This lifestyle is being taught in our schools and on television as just an alternate "lifestyle", they are still good and kind people. It says if you commit all these abominable things, the land will spit you out. So why isn't Israel seeing any peace, they are not following Yeshua and His Kingdom instructions? When Tel-Aviv is the gay capital of the world, something is terribly wrong in Denmark, I mean Israel:! In this parasha we see YHVH giving his people some serious instructions. As a people and as a nation, we have seriously strayed away from these principles. How could we not, when so many people are out there teaching that Torah instructions were done away with? To me, I can't understand how they can agree that a lot of these things are wrong to do, but yet, want to disqualify the very books they are in. How many times have you heard a preacher use the so called, Old Testament, to preach tithing from???? So read and study how you are supposed to be walking out your life, your very life will depend on it! Shalom