Can we do תפילות prayers for:
Mike Clayton and his ministry?
That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?
 | | February 11, 2011 |
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TEACHING THE HEBRAIC PERSPECTIVE OF FAITH IN AND OBEDIENCE TO THE ONE TRUE GOD
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Tetzaveh "You shall command"
Exodus 27:20-30:10
Ezekiel 43:10-27
*Archived teaching from 2010*
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| Torah Commentary |
Tetzaveh "You shall command"
Exodus 27:20-30:10
Ezekiel 43:10-27
A Matter of the Heart
This week we go from the details of the Tabernacle to the details of Aaron's garments. Again, we can become so enamored with the details of the prophetic shadows and types that we forget about the true meaning. We can miss the "heart" of the matter.
Aaron and his sons were chosen to be representatives of the people of Israel unto HaShem. They were to go into the Tabernacle and perform their duties on a daily, weekly and yearly basis. This service was to be a representation of what the children of Israel were doing as they walked out their daily lives. The children of Israel were called to walk each day in repentance, with thanksgiving, praise and worship unto the God they were serving. The Tabernacle services of Aaron were really a tangible manifestation of what was supposed to be lived out in the camp every day. The smoke rising from the altar and the aroma of the sacrifices and the incense were to be reminders to the camp of the responsibilities each person had on a daily basis to be his own priest unto HaShem.
When Aaron put the garments on his body, the last item he was to place was the breastplate. The breastplate held the stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel and the foreigners who had been adopted into the family. The breastplate was to be worn upon his heart as a reminder to himself and to all who saw, that this calling was not about pomp and circumstance, it was not about religious practices and the like. It was not about programs and structure. The calling was about a people whom God always holds close to His heart, a family made up of individuals whom He loves very deeply.
Years ago a man won a presidential election by daily looking to a motto, "It's the economy, stupid!" No matter how the other candidates in debate hammered, he continued to come back to the focus of what he saw as the most important subject of the minds of the people of that day. Though I may disagree with most every word and action this man had then and continues to hold now, a lesson can be learned from his campaign, and that is to find the heart of the issue and never allow anyone to move you from it.
From the beginning of Genesis to the last words of Revelation we see the struggle of focus. Man's desire is to look to the robe and to lose focus of the details of the robe. Man desires to make the position into an end all its own. Man desires to forget that God's plan is not about religious liturgies and practices, but about a people whom He holds close to His heart.
The Pharisees of the time of Yeshua are a prime example of forgetting God's heart. They came time after time to try and trap Yeshua. They were not concerned about the people and in fact they were not concerned about the God they said they served. They had taken the robes of the priesthood, but had forgotten that those were robes of servanthood to God and to His people. They did not see that the instructions of Torah were about the Heart of the Father and not about how to control and enslave people to their own power. This is why toward the end of the chapter Yeshua sums up the Torah by taking them to the heart of the Torah, the Shema.
Yeshua was not telling the Pharisees that the rest of the Torah was done away with as He spoke these words. Instead he was making them come face to face with their attitudes toward the Torah and also the family of God. He was telling them to look back to where Aaron held the breastplate containing the stones of the tribes. He was showing them that their heart was not about serving people, but controlling people.
There are many so-called leaders today that could learn a great lesson from the robes and breastplate of Aaron. In fact, most of us would do well to take a close look at these items ourselves. Where are we carrying His family? Are they being carried simply on our minds as an exercise in intellect? Are they carried on our feet as items to be walked on and used? Are they carried in our back pockets so we can see how much we can get out of them? Or is the family of God carried in the same place Aaron carried them, the same place God carries them? Are they carried on our hearts so we may never forget to love and cherish the family He calls His own, a family we should do the same with!
Shabbat Shalom,
Mike
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