(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us your Torah.)
Num 4:17 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, and to Aharon, saying,
Num 4:18 “Do not
cut off the tribe of the clans of the Qehathites from among the Lĕwites,
Num 4:19 but do this to them, and they shall live and
not die when they approach the most set-apart objects: Aharon and his
sons shall go in and appoint each of them to his service and his burden.
Num 4:20 “They are not, however, to go in to watch
while the set-apart objects are being covered, lest they die.”
These are specific instructions
to the High Priest – Aaron and his sons – they are to make sure all the priests
or ‘’kohanim’’ were given an opportunity to serve in the tent of meeting – the
set apart place – the first part of the tabernacle. Only Aaron was permitted
once a year on the day of ‘’Yom ha kippurim’’ to enter the Most Set Apart
place. (the second place)
The incident of Korach –
Numbers 16 – indicates that there was some rivalry and envy amongst some of the
priests regarding their duties in the tabernacle.
According to Numbers 16:1, his lineage goes: "Korah,
the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi," making him the
great-grandson of the patriarch Levi and the first cousin of Moshhe and
Aharon.
We see in Numbers 17 YHVH confirms Aharon’s appointment
of High Priest – his staff was the only staff that budded and later found its
way as one of the three objects placed in the ark of the covenant, which
resided in the most set apart pace.
‘’Before the Temple was built,
David received instructions from the Set Apart Spirit that showed Solomon how
to divide the priests and the Levites and how they were to serve. In the
Temple, there were several classes of Levites:
- Priests (1 Chronicles 24:1-19)
- Priests' Assistants (1 Chronicles 23:4,28)
- Singers (1 Chronicles 25:7-31)
- Musicians (1 Chronicles 23:5)
- Gatekeepers (1 Chronicles 26:1-19)
- Keepers of the Treasure (1 Chronicles 26:20-28)
In addition, there were also officers and judges (1 Chronicles 26:29-32) that assigned outside responsibilities.
The priests and the Levites were divided into 24 courses within their assigned class. The length of each course was 7 days (1 Chronicles 9:25). The week of service began and ended on the Sabbath (2 Chronicles 23:8). In addition, all the priests served for 3 extra weeks during the year (Deuteronomy 16:16).
Each course of priests and Levites came on duty for a week, from one Sabbath to another. It should be made clear that not every priest and Levite in a course served every day. The service was subdivided among the various families which constituted a course. The number of families in a course varied. The singers had only one family in each course (1 Chronicles 25:7-31) whereas the other classes had up to 9 families in a course.
The Hebrew calendar has only
51 weeks in a year. Each of the 24 courses therefore served twice a year, plus
3 weeks they all served, for a total of 5 weeks during the year. Every 2 or 3
years, there is a leap year which adds a leap month. It was not certain how the
priests served these extra days.’’
Jer 33:18 ‘And for the priests, the Lĕwites, there is not to cease a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to slaughter continually.’ ”
We also clearly see in Ezekiel’s prophecy from Chapters
40 -48 a restoration of the temple service and Levitical priesthood.
We also see during the millennium, only certain
Levites were allowed to minister to YHVH.
Eze 44:15 “But the priests, the
Lěwites, the sons of Tsaḏoq, who guarded the duty of My set-apart place when
the children of Yisra’ěl went astray from Me, they shall draw near to Me to
serve Me, and shall stand before Me to bring to Me the fat and the blood,”
declares the Master יהוה.
Eze 44:16 “They shall enter My set-apart place, and
they shall draw near to My table to serve Me, and they shall guard My
charge.
Eze 44:17 “And it shall be, when they enter the
gates of the inner courtyard, that they put on linen garments, and no wool
shall come upon them while they attend within the gates of the inner courtyard
or within the house.
Eze 44:18 “They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies, they shall not gird themselves with sweat.
Rom
8:3 For the Torah being powerless, in that it was weak through the flesh,
Elohim, having sent His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and concerning
sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom
8:4 so that the righteousness of the Torah should be completed in us who
do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Rom
8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the matters
of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the matters
of the Spirit.
Rom
8:6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life
and peace.
Rom
8:7 Because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards Elohim, for it does
not subject itself to the Torah of Elohim, neither indeed is it able,
Rom
8:8 and those who are in the flesh are unable to please Elohim.
Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Elohim dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Messiah, this one is not His.
Amongst believers of Yahshua much misunderstanding has come about
because of a lack of knowledge of the scriptures - Mat
22:29 And יהושע answering,
said to them, “You go astray, not knowing the Scriptures1 nor the
power of Elohim. Footnote: 1Mk. 12:24.
This whole restored temple,
prophesied in Ezekiel, along with its sacrifices has not yet been done away
with. Generally, theologians struggle to come to terms with its reality.
Act 3:20 and that He
sends יהושע Messiah,
pre-appointed for you,
Act 3:21 whom heaven
needs to receive until the times of restoration of all matters, of which
Elohim spoke through the mouth of all His set-apart prophets since of
old.
Act 3:22 “For Mosheh
truly said to the fathers, ‘יהוה your
Elohim shall raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brothers. Him you
shall hear according to all matters, whatever He says to you.
Act 3:23 ‘And it
shall be that every being who does not hear that Prophet shall be utterly
destroyed from among the people.’ Deu_18:15-19.
The same Word Moshe received
from YHVH and taught to Israel from Mount Sinai – is the same Word that Yahshua
will teach all the nations from Mount Tzion in YerusHalayim when He returns.
Isa 2:2 And it shall be
in the latter days that the mountain of the House of יהוה is
established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills.
And all nations shall flow to it.
Isa 2:3 And many peoples
shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of יהוה, to the
House of the Elohim of Ya‛aqoḇ, and let Him teach us His ways, and let us walk
in His paths, for out of Tsiyon comes forth the Torah, and the Word of יהוה from
Yerushalayim.”
Heb 8:1 Now the summary of what we are saying is: We
have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the
Greatness in the heavens,
Heb 8:2
and who serves in the set-apart place and of the true Tent, which יהוה set up, and
not man.
Heb 8:3 For every high priest is appointed to offer
both gifts and slaughters. So it was also necessary for this One to have
somewhat to offer.
Heb 8:4 For if indeed He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are
priests who offer the gifts according to the Torah,
Heb 8:5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly,
as Mosheh was warned when he was about to make the Tent. For He said, “See that
you make all according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Heb 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent
service, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better (Gk - strengthened)) covenant, which was
constituted on better promises. (one has visitation rights the other permanent
residence rights – the covenant was not inferior, our disobedience to the
ancient has always been the problem, so YHVH did not change His covenant, He is
enabling us through Messiah.)
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant (the word
covenant has been added) had been faultless, then no place would have been
sought for a second – (see verses chapter 9 , first and second refer to the
different sections in the temple – the set apart place and the most set apart
place)
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, He says, “See,
the days are coming,” says יהוה, “when I shall
conclude with the house of Yisra’ĕl and with the house of Yehuḏah a
renewed covenant, (not a changed covenant - Num 23:19 "Ěl is not a man, to lie; nor
a son of man, to repent! Has He said, and would He not do it; or spoken, and
would not confirm it? )
What is this ancient covenant?
- Hos 2:19 “And I shall
take you as a bride (Heb – betroth) unto Me forever, and take you as a bride unto Me
in righteousness, and in right-ruling, and loving-commitment and
compassion.
Hos 2:20 “And I shall
take you as a bride unto Me in trustworthiness, and you shall know יהוה.’’ Heb ‘’aras’’ or ‘’erusin also ‘’kedushin’’’’ to be
engaged. The Hebrew word for marriage is ‘’nisuin’’ – the two were separate and the ‘’ketubah was read under chuppah when bride
was married)
Heb 8:9 not according to the covenant that I made
with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of
the land of Mitsrayim, because they did not continue in My covenant, and I
disregarded them,” says יהוה.
Heb 8:10 “Because this is the covenant that I shall
make with the house of Yisra’ĕl after those days, says יהוה, giving My laws in their mind, and I shall
write them on their hearts, and I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My
people.
Heb 8:11 “And they shall by no means teach each one
his neighbour, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know יהוה,’ because they all shall know Me, from the
least of them to the greatest of them.
Heb 8:12 “Because I shall forgive their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawlessnesses I shall no longer
remember.”1 Footnote: 1Jer. 31:31-34, Heb. 10:16-17.
Heb 8:13 By saying, ‘renewed,’ He has made the first
old. Now what becomes old and growing aged is near disappearing.
Heb 9:1 Now the first covenant (added)indeed
had regulations of worship and the earthly set-apart place.
Heb 9:2
For a Tent was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, and
the table, and the showbread, which is called the Set-apart Place.
Heb 9:3
And after the second veil, the part of the Tent which is called Most
Set-apart,
Heb 9:4
to which belonged the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant
overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that held the
manna, and the rod of Aharon that budded, and the tablets of the covenant,
Heb 9:5
and above it the keruḇim of esteem were
overshadowing the place of atonement – about which we do not now speak in
detail.
Heb
9:6 And these having been prepared like
this, the priests always went into the first part of the Tent, accomplishing
the services.
Heb
9:7 But into the second part the high
priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself
and for sins of ignorance of the people,1 Footnote: 1Num.
15:15-28.
Heb
9:8 the Set-apart Spirit signifying
this, that the way into the Most Set-apart Place was not yet made manifest
while the first Tent has a standing,
Heb
9:9 which was a parable for the present
time in which both gifts and slaughters are offered which are unable to perfect
the one serving, as to his conscience,
Heb 9:10
only as to foods and drinks, and different washings, and fleshly
regulations imposed until a time of setting matters straight.
Heb 9:11
But Messiah, having become a High Priest of the coming good matters,
through the greater and more perfect Tent not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation,
Heb 9:12
entered into the Most Set-apart Place once for all, not with the blood
of goats and calves, but with His own blood, having obtained everlasting
redemption.
Heb 9:13
For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer,
sprinkling the defiled, sets apart for the cleansing of the flesh,
Heb 9:14
how much more shall the blood of the Messiah, who through the
everlasting Spirit offered Himself unblemished to Elohim, cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living Elohim?
Heb 9:15
And because of this He is the Mediator of a renewed covenant, so that,
death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first
covenant, those who are called might receive the promise of the everlasting
inheritance.
Heb 9:16
For where a covenant is, it is necessary for the death of the covenanted
one to be established.
Heb 9:17
For a covenant over those dead is firm, since it is never valid while
the covenanted one is living.
Heb 9:18
Therefore not even the first covenant was instituted without
blood.
Heb 9:19
For when, according to Torah, every command had been spoken by Mosheh to
all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet
wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
Heb 9:20
saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which Elohim commanded you.”
Heb 9:21
And in the same way he sprinkled with blood both the Tent and all the
vessels of the service.
Heb 9:22
And, according to the Torah, almost all is cleansed with blood, and
without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Heb 9:23
It was necessary, then, that the copies of the heavenly ones should be
cleansed with these, but the heavenly ones themselves with better slaughter offerings
than these.
Heb 9:24
For Messiah has not entered into a Set-apart Place made by hand –
figures of the true – but into the heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of Elohim on our behalf,
Heb 9:25
not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into
the Set-apart Place year by year with blood not his own.
Heb 9:26
For if so, He would have had to suffer often, since the foundation of
the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put
away sin by the offering of Himself.
Heb 9:27
And as it awaits men to die once, and after this the judgment,
Heb 9:28
so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,
shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to those waiting for Him, unto
deliverance.
Heb 10:1 For the Torah, having a shadow of the good matters
to come, and not the image itself of the matters, was never able to make
perfect those who draw near with the same slaughter offerings which they
offer continually year by year.
Heb 10:2
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? Because those who
served, once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
Heb 10:3
But in those offerings is a reminder of sins year by year.
Heb 10:4
For it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Heb 10:5
Therefore, coming into the world, He says, “Slaughtering and meal
offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
Heb 10:6
“In burnt offerings and offerings for sin You did not delight.1
Footnote: 1Ps. 40:6, 7.
Heb 10:7
“Then I said, ‘See, I come – in the roll of the book it has been written
concerning Me – to do Your desire, O Elohim.’ ”
Heb 10:8
Saying above, “Slaughter and meal offering, and burnt offerings, and offerings
for sin You did not desire, nor delighted in,” which are offered according to
the Torah,
Heb 10:9
then He said, “See, I come to do Your desire, O Elohim.” He takes away
the first to establish the second.
Heb 10:10
By that desire we have been set apart through the offering of the body
of יהושע Messiah once
for all.
Heb 10:11 And indeed every priest stands day by day
doing service, and repeatedly offering the same slaughter offerings
which are never able to take away sins.
Heb 10:12 But He, having offered one slaughter offering
for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of Elohim,
Heb 10:13 waiting from that time onward until His
enemies are made a footstool for His feet.
Heb 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all
time those who are being set apart.
Heb 10:15 And the Set-apart Spirit also witnesses to
us, for after having said before,
Heb 10:16 “This is the covenant that I shall make with
them after those days, says יהוה, giving My
laws into their hearts, and in their minds I shall write them,”1
Footnote: 1Jer. 31:33, Heb. 8:8-12.
Heb 10:17 and, “Their sins and their lawlessnesses I
shall remember no more.”
Heb 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these,
there is no longer a slaughter offering for sin.
Heb 10:19 So, brothers, having boldness to enter into
the Set-apart Place by the blood of יהושע,
Heb 10:20 by a new and living way which He instituted
for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
Heb 10:21 and having a High Priest over the
House of Elohim,
Heb 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in
completeness of belief, having our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience
and our bodies washed with clean water.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our
expectation without yielding, for He who promised is trustworthy.
Heb 10:24 And let us be concerned for one another in
order to stir up love and good works,1 Footnote: 1Mt.
16:27.
Heb 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging, and so much more as you see
the Day coming near.
Heb 10:26 For if we sin purposely after we have
received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a slaughter offering
for sins,1 Footnote: 1See also 6:6, Heb. 9:7, Num.
15:15-28.
Heb 10:27 but some fearsome anticipation of judgment,
and a fierce fire which is about to consume the opponents.
Heb 10:28 Anyone who has disregarded the Torah of
Mosheh dies without compassion on the witness of two or three witnesses.
Heb 10:29 How much worse punishment do you think shall
he deserve who has trampled the Son of Elohim underfoot, counted the blood of
the covenant by which he was set apart as common, and insulted the Spirit of
favour?
Heb 10:30 For we know Him who has said, “Vengeance is
Mine, I shall repay, says יהוה.” And again, “יהוה shall judge His people.”
Heb 10:31 It is fearsome to fall into the hands of the
living Elohim.
Heb 10:32 But remember the former days, when, after you
were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings.
Heb 10:33 On the one hand you were exposed to
reproaches and pressures, and on the other hand you became sharers with those
who were so treated,
Heb 10:34 for you sympathised with me in my chains, and
you accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you have a
better and a lasting possession for yourselves in the heavens.
Heb 10:35 Do not, then, lose your boldness, which has
great reward.
Heb 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when
you have done the desire of Elohim, you receive the promise:
Heb 10:37 “For yet a little while – He who is coming
shall come and shall not delay.”
Heb 10:38 “But the righteous shall live by belief, but
if anyone draws back, my being has no pleasure in him.”
Heb 10:39 But we are not of those who draw back to
destruction, but of belief to the preservation of life.
It is impossible that the apostolic scriptures would
negate or replace the teachings of the Torah, the Temple and all the services
of the temple.
Why
does YHVH restore the Temple and the Temple service during the millennium? This
is the ‘’road map’’ back into His Presence.
YHVH
and YHVH alone determines how we shall one day again return and be restored
into His Presence.
Joh
3:36 “He who believes in the Son possesses everlasting life, but he who
does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of Elohim remains on
him.”
Blessed are
you YHVH, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have given us your Torah of
truth, and have planted everlasting life within our midst. Blessed are you,
YHVH giver of the Torah – Ameyn.)