Rabbi Schneider - A Surrendering Sacrifice
Every part of the Israelites life, Beloved, was governed by the Torah, what they ate, the laws of kosher, how they dressed. Let me ask, is the way that you dressed, let me ask you this question, remember the burnt offering in Leviticus chapter 1 there's application there for our life today, it speaks of entire devotion, entire consecration, it effects every part of our life, let me ask, have you turned the way that you dress over to the Lord? Are you dressing to draw people to yourself? Are you dressing to attract people with your flesh? It is inappropriate, Beloved, to be dressing in such a way that we're drawing people to our sexuality.
If you want to live by that principle, you'll die. The Bible tells in the Book of Romans, saying: If we, by the Spirit of God, are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, will live. I'm not saying that we can't dress attractive but there's a way to dress attractive, Beloved, that gives God the glory. The High Priest dressed in attractive garments. The Scripture said there were garments for beauty and glory but he didn't dress in such a way that it was drawing people to his flesh. In fact the priests dressed in such a way that all their flesh was covered. They actually wore garments that looked like long underwear so that none of their flesh was showing because God wants us to understand that the flesh is not the principle of the spirit. The Bible says: The spirit lusteth against the flesh and the flesh lusteth against the spirit. You can dress attractive without drawing people to your sexuality.
I'm thinking, I'm thinking now of women that are wearing skirts that you know what they're doing; they're attention to yourself. I want you to know, if you want to be entirely committed and devoted to Yahweh, you need to filter the way you dress through the Lord and the same thing with men, are you dressing with your, with your shirt collar open three buttons down? Sure, there's a power there in your, in your humanity but the power that you're exposing in terms of your masculinity of the flesh by having your shirt buttoned down three or four buttons, Beloved, that's not the, that's not the type of power that God is wanting us to walk in. He wants us to walk in the power of the spirit. The flesh is covered, Beloved.
It's interesting that when we speak about all of our life being turned over to Yahweh and it means everything, it means what we eat, it means the friends that we have, it even means the way that we dress. It's interesting that the Lord told Israel how to dress and one of the things that the Lord did, I'm holding up right now, this is called tzitzit, you can see I have an undergarment on and you can see the fringes, this is what the woman with the hemorrhage touched on Yeshua when she reached out to touch the fringe of his garment. This is taken from the Torah where the Lord told the men of the children of Israel to where to tzitzit, from the four corners of their garment to have a fringe of blue and the Lord told them that the reason that they were to wear the tzitzit was that it would be a reminder that they belong to him and that it would keep them in his way. It's kind of like the Jewish version of the WWJD bracelet here, "What Would Jesus Do?"
You see the tzitzit and it reminds that you're the Lord's and it reminds you to walk in his path and not go to the left or the right but to follow him, and it's interesting when we're thinking about the olah offering and how every part of our life needs to be given over to God and we're considering the fact that it even effects the way that we dress, it's interesting that mankind, listen now, is the only, is the only one of God's creatures that wears clothes. I mean your dog doesn't wear clothes unless you put a coat on him in the winter. Your cat doesn't wear clothes; your goldfish doesn't wear clothes. You go to the zoo; those animals don't have clothes on.
The only animal, Beloved, that wears clothes is mankind and the Lord not only ask us that we're wearing clothes but he even told the children of Israel to wear the tzitzit, the sanctified fringes on their clothes and what this communicates, Beloved, is that God, listen now, he wants us to reign, listen now, he wants to reign over our fleshly instincts. He wants them to be covered with sanctified clothing, letting his principle, the principle of the Spirit, and the principle of divine intelligence, and the principle of the Word of God, he wants that to reign, listen now, over our natural instincts. The animal kingdom, none of them wear clothes, they all lived by their natural instincts but the Lord doesn't want us living by our natural instincts and he doesn't want us to use the power of our nature, our fleshly nature, to get by in this world, to draw members of the opposite sex inappropriately, and to try to influence people by the power of the flesh. We need to be of the flesh. We need to be completely given over to God completely given over to God and so we talked about the burnt offering, hallelujah, last week.
I want to continue here by pointing out that in the sixth chapter of Leviticus, verse number 12 we read these words about the altar that the burnt offering was burned on. It says that, in Leviticus, chapter 6, verse 12, we read these words: And the fire in the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not go out but the priest shall burn wood on it, listen now, every morning. The interesting thing about this is that the fire never went out. The thirteenth verse says in Leviticus 6: Fire shall be kept burning continually on the altar. It is not to go out. And what was put up on the altar, Beloved? The burnt offering, the olah, and remember when the worshipper brought the burnt offering to the altar, we read in the Book of Leviticus chapter 1 that he laid his hands on his offering and in so doing he was identifying with this offering that the offering became an extension of himself and that that entire offering was burned up in smoke unto the Lord and became a soothing and a fragrant aroma to Yahweh.
What the Lord is saying here by having the fire never go out, is he's saying when you out, is he's saying when you give yourself over to me, spirit, soul, mind, and body, my fire's going to be on the altar to receive you and to be altar to receive you and to be consumed by the Holy Spirit and to receive the blessing. We study in weeks past that over, and over, and over again in Scripture when there was a tremendous amount of sacrifices and offerings that were presented unto the Lord, that the manifest presence of God dwelt. This happened, Beloved, at the institution of the Tabernacle, of the temple, and many other places in Scripture. All the animals were sacrificed as offerings unto Yahweh and bam, the manifest presence of Yahweh fell and the fire will never go out because whenever you and I totally surrender to him on his terms, not using him as a magic genie to get what we want, but surrendering to him on his terms.
Beloved, his Holy Spirit will come and consume our lives for, hallelujah, his glory. And so, some final thoughts then as we close today on the burnt offering, I'm going to Leviticus chapter 1. I want you to notice that there were different types of animals that the Israelite could bring for his burnt offering. We read in Leviticus chapter 1, verse 3 through 9, that the Israelite could bring a bull. We read there in Leviticus chapter 1:10-13 that the worshipper could have brought a sheep or a goat and finally we read in the 14th through the 17th verse that he could have brought a pigeon or a turtle dove. Baruch atah Adonai, eloheynu melech ha-olam, borai p'ri hagafen. Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth the fruit, hallelujah, of the vine.
I want you to hear this: The important thing here, what's the point of bringing the bull, the sheep, or the pigeon? Why did the Lord say, now if you bring a bull, let it be like this? If you bring a sheep or a goat, let it be like this? If you bring a pigeon or a turtle dove, let it be like this? Why the different types of offerings? Because, Beloved, not everybody could afford a bull. Some people could afford a sheep or a goat but they couldn't afford a bull. Some people could afford only a turtle dove or a pigeon. The point is that we need to bring to God our best. Now if you could afford a bull and you only brought to the Lord a pigeon or a turtle dove, that would not be an acceptable burnt offering because it would be prophetically...it would be revealed there that you're not really giving to the Lord your best, you're not giving him everything.
The point is, Beloved, that we need to be giving him our best. This is also kind of a reference in the B'rit Chadashah, the New Testament, in the story that we read about in the Book of Mark, chapter number 12, verse 41 through 43: Hear the Word of God; and he sat down opposite of the treasury and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury, and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins which amounted to a cent. Calling his disciples to him, he said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors of the treasury for they all put in out of their surplus but she out of her poverty, put in all she owned and all she had to live in". Beloved, this is the point, it's not how much you give, it's are you giving him your everything and Yeshua said at the very end of the Scriptures, Beloved, in Revelation, chapter 22, Beloved, verse number 12, he said, "Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to render to each of you, to every man according to what he has done".
Father, we ask you today, by the power of your Spirit, by the Aish, Lord, by the fire of your Spirit we ask you to consume our lives, Holy Spirit, to present ourselves as living sacrifices to Yahweh, wholly burned up, Father, on the altar of consecration, abandonment, and surrender to you.
Beloved, the principle of the burnt offering, the principle of the olah offering is just as much in effect today as it was in effect for the ancient Israelite. They did it by bringing an animal, Beloved, but the Lord is looking for the principle of it to be operating in your heart and in my heart today. We're going to continue now with the second type of offering that Yahweh called the Israelite to present to him in the Tabernacle. It's called the grain offering, sometimes referred to as the meat offering. The King James calls it the meat offering. Some translations call it the meal offering. It's found in the Book of Leviticus chapter number 2: Hear the Word of God. Now when anyone presents a Grain Offering as an offering to the Lord his offering shall be of fine flour and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. This offering is known in Hebrew as the Mincha Offering. It was a Gift Offering.
People usually brought this offering along with the burnt offering, it was an offering, Beloved, listen now, simply a thanksgiving. Have you ever given some...a gift to somebody just to let you know that you appreciate them and are thankful to them for who they are, and what they mean to you, and what they've done for you? Most of us have done that. We're given people gifts just out of love. It was voluntary. This is a voluntary offering. It's a...we've given to people gifts, voluntary gifts, sometimes the most, the most precious gifts to receive are gifts that are not given on your birthday, or Valentine's Day, or Christmas, or Hanukah, but just gifts that you're not expecting from someone and they present you a gift; they just say, "I want you to know I appreciate you". That's what kind of a love offering this was, Beloved, the Mincha, the Gift Offering, the meat meal, or the Grain Offering. It's an offering, Beloved, that was specifically to consist of, we read in verse number 1 of Leviticus 2, it's just a fine flour, listen now, oil, and frankincense.
The Lord specifically stipulated that in the offering need to be included fine flour, oil, and frankincense. We need to realize it, all three of these ingredients to the ancient Israelite that was wandering in the wilderness was very costly. I mean, these weren't items that came cheaply. Today we think of flour, I mean you can go to the store and get flour just like that. You don't think of it as a precious commodity but if you're in the wilderness, Beloved, to give up fine flour, frankincense, and oil was to give up something very precious and very, Beloved, goodly, very meaningful. It represented a significant sacrifice.
Remember David said, "I will not give to the Lord that which costs me nothing". It's inappropriate. The Lord sees through the outer and he sees the heart so those that were coming to present this offering, Yahweh stipulated the boundaries of it and it was a costly offering for the average Israelite. The same type of phenomenon that we just read about a little bit ago, the same type of offering, Beloved, that was in the case of the widow's might who gave up all that she had and Yeshua said, "She has given more than everyone else". Now not only did the Lord tell us here that the offering had to be consisting of fine flour, frankincense, and oil, but he also told us that it could not have any honey in it or any leaven in it. So we read what it should have and also we read, Beloved, what it can't have. Let's take each one of these ingredients, Beloved, first of all looking at the those that it should have and then we're going to move over to look at the ingredients that the Lord specifically said I don't want you to include, the honey or the leaven in the offering.
First of all when we think about the fact that the frankincense and the oil and the fine flour were costly, it reminds me of this story in the Book of Luke, chapter 8, verse 37 and 38: There was a woman in the city who was a sinner and when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisees' house, she brought an alabaster vile of perfume. Remember that this offering included frankincense. Now I know it's a little different but it has that fragrant perfume smell. And standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing his feet and anointing them with the perfume.
This in principle, Beloved, was the type of offering that we're referring to here. It was somebody just coming up to Jesus, presenting this costly vile of perfume, some have estimated it to be a year's worth of wages, just because she loved him, because she was appreciative of him and because she was so thankful of all that he had done for her. I wonder have you and I ever done something for the Lord just because we love him? Just because we want to thank him? This is what he's calling us to do, Beloved, to present ourselves to him in this way.
The frankincense speaks of his beauty, the oil perhaps speaks of the Holy Spirit because oil in Scripture is so often associated with the Holy Spirit, and the fine flour perhaps, Beloved, speaks of a reflection of how perfect he is to us because it wasn't just flour that was costly, but it was fine flour, the fine character of Yeshua HaMashiach whose character was perfectly conformed to the image of God himself and so it's a reflection of we love you for who you are, and we appreciate who are, we know who you are and we want to lavish our love upon you by presenting you this offering that reflects who you are, how beautiful you are and the fact that we realize that you are one that's sent from God, filled with the Holy Spirit, which is represented by the oil in the offering.
Now let's read verse 11 and look at the ingredients that were not to be included in the offering. Hear, Yadid, Beloved One, the Word of God: No grain offering, which you bring to the Lord, shall be made with leaven for you shall not offer it up in smoke any leaven, now listen to this, or any honey as an offering by fire to the Lord. Leaven, in Scripture so often is symbolic of sin, and arrogance, and pride. And so because this offering was a reflection of who Jesus was himself, the beautiful one represented by the fragrance, the one whose characters and his humanity was perfectly conformed to the image of God by the fine flour and the one who was filled and empowered by the Ruach Kadosh which is illustrated by the fact that it had oil in it.
It could not have in it the leaven because that represents sin, and pride, and that's not who he was and it could not represent, have honey in it, Beloved, because honey is symbolic of artificial sweetness, and, Beloved, God doesn't need to be artificially sweet because he's always good. I'm going to continue this message, Lord willing, on next week's broadcast. We're going to pick up with the honey and the leaven in the Grain Offering, Beloved. Make sure to join me. God bless you until then. Please tell a friend about this broadcast and we appreciate, Beloved, your financial support. Without you this broadcast would not be possible. God bless you and shalom.