You won’t get free life insurance quotes here at MessianicMusings.com. There are better sites for that. Here, we’re all about Torah and Messiah Yeshua. Here’s my Tazriah-Metsora commentary. Or listen to it! Shalom.
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashahs for today are Tazriah or “She bears seed” and Metsora or “Infected one,” covers Leviticus 12:1 through Leviticus 15:33. Now, this week’s reading covers such topics as pregnancy and childbirth, skin diseases, bodily discharges and the laws surrounding purification from all of these afflictions. I know, I know, it’s fascinating stuff, right?
Well, the point these two readings seem to drive home is this: there are plenty of things that make you unclean. Did you notice that simply touching a mildew-y cloth can make you unclean? Or marital relations between a husband and a wife can make you unclean? Or even sitting on a piece of furniture that has been used by a person with a skin disease, or even a woman who is going through her monthly cycle can also make you unclean?
Now, there are detailed in this week’s readings various ways to restore oneself to a clean state, but there’s an important distinction to be made here, and that is this: clean and unclean are not necessarily the same as sinful and holy.
In fact, what I think this week’s reading makes clear is that uncleanness is the natural state of affairs for life in this world. Let’s take a look at an example of this in:
Leviticus 12:4-5
Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.
So, following childbirth, the mother is considered unclean for thirty-three days if she has a son, and for twice as long – sixty-six days – if she has a daughter. Why should this state of uncleanness last twice as long if she has a boy rather than a girl? For one reason only: it’s what God commanded.
But the point is, childbirth is part of life in the world. Should a husband not even give his wife a kiss on the cheek for a month or two after she gives birth, just to avoid becoming unclean? There might be some unhappy wives if that were the case.
See, a state of uncleanness and a state of sin are not always the same thing. Think about it. Let’s say you’re working in the kitchen and your hand slips and you cut your thumb. Blood seeps out. Guess what? That’s a bodily emission and you’re now ritually unclean! Does this mean you’ve sinned against the L-RD? I hope not! Does this mean you need to repent for cutting yourself? I don’t think so. But do you want to go before the L-RD in the Tent of Meeting – or, to service here – with your hand and clothes covered in blood from dealing with that cut? Probably not, right?
And if someone pats him on the shoulder or sits on a chair he sat on, they’re unclean, too. So what must one do to become clean again? We read this, for example, in:
Leviticus 15:7
“‘Whoever touches the man who has a discharge must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.
Does that sound like a sin issue? Remember, according to the Torah, simple water cannot cleanse sin; forgiveness requires the shedding of blood. So being unclean does not always equal being in a state of sin; the remedy is different.
Let’s be clear here that there is more than one type of uncleanness. In this case, we are talking about ceremonial uncleanness, which is related to the Tent of Meeting, the Temple, and situations in which one is coming into the presence of God. We serve a holy God who can allow nothing that is unclean into His presence.
But there is a type of uncleanness related to sin. So, just to be clear, that’s not the type of uncleanness we’re talking about in this passage. We’re talking about ritual uncleanness.
And the truth is, the whole world is in a state of ritual uncleanness, and you can’t avoid it. We live in an unclean world, and being unclean is not unusual at all – it’s normal. Being ritually unclean is not a sin; it’s part of living in the world.
Does that mean it’s unimportant? Certainly not. You can be ritually unclean in this world, and it’s not a problem – until you want to go into the presence of the L-RD. There is no uncleanness with God – He is eternally pure. So, as we are, as we normally exist in the world, we also are unable to enter into the presence of God because we are unclean.
Yet is this state of ritual uncleanness all that different from other ways in which we are unlike The L-RD? God is eternal; we are mortal. Those who are mortal cannot look on the face of the L-RD and live, and yet in the world to come, we will know him in exactly that way. So can we truly enter into the presence of the L-RD as we are now, or must we undergo a fundamental change? We learn this from:
1 Corinthians 15:48-57
As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
Did you catch that? Flesh and blood is what we are now and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. In the same way, the unclean cannot inherit the clean; the mortal cannot inherit the immortal. But we will all be changed. The cleansings, the rituals, the sacrifices that we see in this week’s Torah portion are all to point us toward that promise, that future reality.
Now, we are like all flesh and blood: unclean and mortal. But in the world to come, that will not be the case. We will be made clean, we will cast off our mortality, so that we may dwell in the presence of the L-RD in a manner that will allow Him to dwell with us.
We do not achieve this on our own; we will be changed by the L-RD. This transformation is what the ceremonies detailed here in this week’s reading point to.
While this week’s portion may seem a bit dry, a bit boring, and about things that simply do not relate to our lives today, the truths that underlie these teachings are lasting and permanent. It tells us about the nature of our humanity, our need for our Messiah, and if we listen to Messiah and obey all that He commands us to do, it hints at our future, our eternity, where we will have the ability to enter into the eternal Tent of Meeting to dwell in the house of the L-RD forever.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: commentary, get free life insurance quotes, Metsora, Tazriah
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Torah.
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My Tazriah-Metsora Commentary
April 28th, 2009 by Craig Hansen
You won’t get free life insurance quotes here at MessianicMusings.com. There are better sites for that. Here, we’re all about Torah and Messiah Yeshua. Here’s my Tazriah-Metsora commentary. Or listen to it! Shalom.
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashahs for today are Tazriah or “She bears seed” and Metsora or “Infected one,” covers Leviticus 12:1 through Leviticus 15:33. Now, this week’s reading covers such topics as pregnancy and childbirth, skin diseases, bodily discharges and the laws surrounding purification from all of these afflictions. I know, I know, it’s fascinating stuff, right?
Well, the point these two readings seem to drive home is this: there are plenty of things that make you unclean. Did you notice that simply touching a mildew-y cloth can make you unclean? Or marital relations between a husband and a wife can make you unclean? Or even sitting on a piece of furniture that has been used by a person with a skin disease, or even a woman who is going through her monthly cycle can also make you unclean?
Now, there are detailed in this week’s readings various ways to restore oneself to a clean state, but there’s an important distinction to be made here, and that is this: clean and unclean are not necessarily the same as sinful and holy.
In fact, what I think this week’s reading makes clear is that uncleanness is the natural state of affairs for life in this world. Let’s take a look at an example of this in:
So, following childbirth, the mother is considered unclean for thirty-three days if she has a son, and for twice as long – sixty-six days – if she has a daughter. Why should this state of uncleanness last twice as long if she has a boy rather than a girl? For one reason only: it’s what God commanded.
But the point is, childbirth is part of life in the world. Should a husband not even give his wife a kiss on the cheek for a month or two after she gives birth, just to avoid becoming unclean? There might be some unhappy wives if that were the case.
See, a state of uncleanness and a state of sin are not always the same thing. Think about it. Let’s say you’re working in the kitchen and your hand slips and you cut your thumb. Blood seeps out. Guess what? That’s a bodily emission and you’re now ritually unclean! Does this mean you’ve sinned against the L-RD? I hope not! Does this mean you need to repent for cutting yourself? I don’t think so. But do you want to go before the L-RD in the Tent of Meeting – or, to service here – with your hand and clothes covered in blood from dealing with that cut? Probably not, right?
And if someone pats him on the shoulder or sits on a chair he sat on, they’re unclean, too. So what must one do to become clean again? We read this, for example, in:
Does that sound like a sin issue? Remember, according to the Torah, simple water cannot cleanse sin; forgiveness requires the shedding of blood. So being unclean does not always equal being in a state of sin; the remedy is different.
Let’s be clear here that there is more than one type of uncleanness. In this case, we are talking about ceremonial uncleanness, which is related to the Tent of Meeting, the Temple, and situations in which one is coming into the presence of God. We serve a holy God who can allow nothing that is unclean into His presence.
But there is a type of uncleanness related to sin. So, just to be clear, that’s not the type of uncleanness we’re talking about in this passage. We’re talking about ritual uncleanness.
And the truth is, the whole world is in a state of ritual uncleanness, and you can’t avoid it. We live in an unclean world, and being unclean is not unusual at all – it’s normal. Being ritually unclean is not a sin; it’s part of living in the world.
Does that mean it’s unimportant? Certainly not. You can be ritually unclean in this world, and it’s not a problem – until you want to go into the presence of the L-RD. There is no uncleanness with God – He is eternally pure. So, as we are, as we normally exist in the world, we also are unable to enter into the presence of God because we are unclean.
Yet is this state of ritual uncleanness all that different from other ways in which we are unlike The L-RD? God is eternal; we are mortal. Those who are mortal cannot look on the face of the L-RD and live, and yet in the world to come, we will know him in exactly that way. So can we truly enter into the presence of the L-RD as we are now, or must we undergo a fundamental change? We learn this from:
Did you catch that? Flesh and blood is what we are now and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. In the same way, the unclean cannot inherit the clean; the mortal cannot inherit the immortal. But we will all be changed. The cleansings, the rituals, the sacrifices that we see in this week’s Torah portion are all to point us toward that promise, that future reality.
Now, we are like all flesh and blood: unclean and mortal. But in the world to come, that will not be the case. We will be made clean, we will cast off our mortality, so that we may dwell in the presence of the L-RD in a manner that will allow Him to dwell with us.
We do not achieve this on our own; we will be changed by the L-RD. This transformation is what the ceremonies detailed here in this week’s reading point to.
While this week’s portion may seem a bit dry, a bit boring, and about things that simply do not relate to our lives today, the truths that underlie these teachings are lasting and permanent. It tells us about the nature of our humanity, our need for our Messiah, and if we listen to Messiah and obey all that He commands us to do, it hints at our future, our eternity, where we will have the ability to enter into the eternal Tent of Meeting to dwell in the house of the L-RD forever.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: commentary, get free life insurance quotes, Metsora, Tazriah
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Torah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.