| (Copyright) by Avram Yehoshua (Flagstaff, Arizona) |
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| The question has been asked by some Jewish (and Gentile) people, ‘How can Yeshua be a sacrifice for sin when God comes against human sacrifice in the Law of Moses?’ This is usually supported by references to Scripture passages like these: “And you must not let any of your sons pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am Yahveh!” (Leviticus 18:21) “Then Yahveh spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Again, you shall say to the Sons of Israel: ‘Whoever of the Sons of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his sons to Molech, he must surely be put to death! The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will set My face against that man and will cut him off from his people because he has given some of his sons to Molech to defile My Sanctuary and profane My holy name. If the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man when he gives some of his sons to Molech and they do not kill him, then I will set My face against that man and against his family and I will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech.’’” (Lev. 20:1-5) The putting of one’s son ‘through the fire’ to Molech is a euphemism for sacrificing a son to the fire god Molech (one of many names for Satan in paganism, who required the sacrifice of infants). It’s very clear that God doesn’t want us sacrificing our sons to Molech, so how can God the Father sacrifice His own Son for us? Wouldn’t He be sinning by going against His very word on the subject? God’s Understanding of Mosaic Law When Yeshua was accosted by the Sadducees, who questioned Him about ‘whose wife will she be in Heaven’ if she had had seven husbands and no children by any of them, Yeshua pointedly told them that they didn’t know the Word of God, nor the power of God because in the new Heavens there will be no marrying like here on Earth (Mt. 22:23-33). Yeshua came against their belief that there was no resurrection by speaking of the Burning Bush and the encounter that Moses had with Yahveh (Ex. 3:1-6f.). Yeshua said that God was the God of the living, not the dead, meaning that all that seem dead to us are alive unto God. When Yeshua was hypocritically questioned by the Pharisees about, ‘if a man could divorce his wife for any’ infraction (of uncleanness; Dt. 24:1-4), Yeshua asked them what it said in Torah (the Law of Moses). They replied that Moses had given them the ability, but Yeshua said it was only given to them because of their hard hearts. Divorce wasn’t ‘in the Beginning’ when God created Adam and Eve (Mt. 19:3-9). Herein lies the reality that all of Torah, not just what we think are the laws and statutes, etc., can be, and are, used by God the Son to show us something that we, just like the Pharisees and Sadducees before us, wouldn’t have seen without Messiah Yeshua pointing it out to us. This concept applies to the Father being able to sacrifice His Son Yeshua. When God tested Father Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his uniquely begotten son Isaac, the sacrifice of Isaac was halted by Yeshua (the so-called Angel of the Lord) and a substitute was made for Isaac with a ram-lamb (a lamb)! This event was a perfect picture of God the Father sacrificing His Son, the Lamb of God, for us. This understanding might not convince a Jewish person who hates Yeshua, but hopefully, it’ll persuade believers as to how God could sacrifice His Son for us, in spite of what is written in Lev. 20 because in this case, Genesis 22, which is also Torah, overrides Lev. 20, just as the prohibition against work on the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8-11; 31:12-17) is overridden when a Jewish baby boy, 8 days old, needs to be circumcised (Gen. 17:10-14), which is work, on the Sabbath day (John 7:21-24). The sacrifice of God’s Son was God’s divine idea from the Beginning, of how the Father could reveal His love for His other Son—Israel. Also, ‘inherent’ in the Passover sacrifice of the lamb(s) in Egypt, because it was a covenantal sacrifice, were all the Mosaic sacrifices, therefore, the two types of sin sacrifice found in Mosaic Law are there (in the Passover sacrifice), as well as the three other major types of sacrifice. Inherent in the New Covenant sacrifice of Yeshua as the Lamb of God are all the concepts of sacrifice that we find in the Mosaic sacrifices, two being, of course, the sacrifices for intentional and unintentional sins. So, yes, the sacrifice of Yeshua does take away our sins and cleanses us so that the Godhead can dwell within us (John 14:23), just as Yahveh could dwell in the midst of Israel in the Tabernacle of Moses. Atonement and the Ark of the Covenant From another perspective, the Mosaic sacrifices picture the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua. Although the animals were offered up on the bronze Altar of Sacrifice, and Yeshua wasn’t, it seems that His place of crucifixion was directly over where the Ark of the Covenant had been hidden in the days before the King of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and took a number of artifacts from the Temple to Babylon. In the list of articles taken the Ark isn’t mentioned (Jer. 52:17-23; Ezra 1:7-11). When Yeshua died it seems that the earthquake (Mt. 27:54) opened a fissure down to the cave where the Ark had been hidden, and when the soldier pierced Yeshua’s side (Jn. 19:34), some of the blood and water found its way to the Ark’s lid. Only on the Day of Atonement was the High Priest of Israel to go into the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was, and sprinkle the lid (commonly called the Mercy Seat) seven times with the blood of the goat, and then the ground before the Ark seven times (Lev. 16:1f.). The blood of the goat is seen as providing atonement between God and Israel, God being represented by the gold lid, and Israel, by the the ground, from which Man was made. No other sacrificial blood was ever brought into the Holy of Holies and placed on the Ark’s lid, except for the blood of the bull that was first sacrificed by Aaron for him and his family, so that their sins could be atoned for so that he could then act as a sinless mediator (Lev. 16:1-6). The blood of Messiah Yeshua actually fell upon the lid of Ark of the Covenant. Conclusion Although God forbids the sacrificing of Israel’s sons to Molech, the sacrifice of the Father’s Son for the eternal atonement and transformation of Israel into the Image of Yeshua is seen in both Father Abraham offering up Isaac, and the Day of Atonement’s goat sacrifice. Sacrifice of the Messiah is truly in the Law of Moses, just as ‘no divorce’ for those in His Kingdom, is seen ‘from the Beginning.’ God telling Father Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac is the perfect picture of the Father sacrificing His Son Yeshua, which is why God told Abraham to take his son of promise (for Sarah was barren and couldn’t conceive; hence, Isaac is likened to The Son of Promise—the Messiah), which conceptually allows for the Father to sacrifice Yeshua for our sins and transformation into Yeshua’s Image and Likeness on Judgement Day. The blood of the goat on the Day of Atonement, brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled seven times upon the Ark of the Covenant’s gold lid, and seven times upon the ground in front of the Ark, way reenacted with the crucifixion of Messiah Yeshua. If Ron Wyatt’s findings are true, and there seems to be no valid reason to deny it, the blood of Messiah Yeshua literally fell on the gold lid of the Ark of the Covenant, and the Earth, thereby completing what Leviticus 16 pictured—the eternal atonement for Israel. —————————————————————————— Reprinted with permission from: The Seed of Abraham https://www.seedofabraham.net/ —————————————————————————— |
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