Parashat Pedukei 2025: Holiness, Love, and Covenant

Torah: Ex 38:21-40:38

Haftarah: Ezekiel 45:16-46:18

Brit Chadashah: 1 Cor 3:16-17, Heb 13:10

In last week’s Torah portion Moses took up an offering from the people so that the Tabernacle could be built. God called the name of two craftsman, Bezalel and Oholiab, to construct the sanctuary and its furniture. The people gave generously, the craftsman built, and the community came together as one people for a spiritual purpose. The Tabernacle was built from hearts that were moved and a people that sought fellowship with God.

Our Torah portion, Pekudei, recalls the accounting of Moses before the people and directions for the clothing for the priests for their sacred service. At the end of the portion, the Shechinah descended on the Tabernacle. When the cloud lifted, the people moved. When the cloud rested, the people stopped.

Throughout the portion the theme of holiness resurfaces consistently. Holiness has been viewed in terms of devotion and in one’s ability reflect the person and heart of God. While the word holy can include these things, its actual definition is to be separate. God calls us to live a separated life (2 Cor 6:17). We are not to pattern our lives after profane things or even common things. God called us to be holy so that we can shine the light of God’s love to the world and be a light to the lost and hurting.

Being holy means regarding the word and person of God above all else. It means seeking to please him in every way we can. Throughout time, this has taken different forms as people of faith have stood against the onslaught of unrighteousness and oppression. God’s holiness means that he will not abide with sin. Sin separates us from the person of God. God requires that we have a love for his word and a desire to live out what his word decrees (Ps 1). He helps us by transforming our hearts and minds so that we are not in bondage to the allurement of sin and are free to choose to love him.

God’s love and holiness are inseparable. He does not violate his word (Numb 23:19) and he calls us to emulate him in this capacity as well. God is faithful and he calls us to be faithful to his word. Yeshua linked love and holiness together when he stated in Jn 14:15, “If you love me keep my commandments”. God was not calling us to ritual perfection or to legalistic bondage. He was calling us to clear all obstructions out of our lives that impede our spiritual progress and eliminate all things that separate us from him. He wants our hearts. He wants to fellowship with us. The only way we can be holy is to continually fellowship with God and seek to please him.

Does God have requirements? Yes, he does. Holiness is not cold conformity, nor is it just about warm happy emotions. Standing up for the oppressed and powerless is always confrontational and makes us a target, but he calls us to do it. Bearing another’s burdens and sharing their pain is uncomfortable, but he just as he does it, he calls us to be there for others as well. He leads us to stand up against a godless culture, to be self-sacrificial, and be at war with those things that separate us from him. Sometimes he calls us to deep waters and our obedience has prophetic significance as it did for the prophets. He convicts us to lay aside things other people can freely do and sometimes calls us into total separation where, in the secret places of prayer and fasting, he is our only focus.

Holiness says that we have forsaken all to follow him. That sacred quality of the Messianic is the mark of a true disciple. Can God call you to be unique, different, and separate from the world? Are we minded to not offend the Spirit of God because we cherish his presence? Separation from the world and the sin it enjoys is what helps us be a sanctified vessel that God lives in and works through to accomplish his purpose. If holiness helps us to walk close with God it is not bondage, but life. Legalistic people can be condescending and punitive. Those who pursue the holiness of God in love are a treasure to their communities, families, and friends.

We were never meant to be the same as the world. We will never fit in. The world will always look at us as being out of place, until the Spirit convicts them and brings them to an altar. God’s love and holiness is like a soft rain covering parched ground. It is alluring, lifegiving, and refreshing. People will always be drawn to it and if the love and holiness of God dwells in us, they will know where to turn when life becomes chaotic.

Rav Calev

Apostolic Messianic International -Gulf Coast

Next Feasts:

Passover begins April 12th at sunset and ends April 20th, 2025 at sunset.

Hebrew words to know:

Tearing of the garment- K'riah

That’s Horrible- Yiddish, Oy Vay

The First Stage of Grief- Aninut (deep sorrow)

Thief or Crook- Gonif- A Yiddish word for a thief, cheat, or crook.

Together- Yichud, a private moment after the wedding ceremony.

Torn or Mangled- Treifah; A Yiddish term that refers to something mangled or torn asunder (like the soul torn apart by strong anger or other emotions). It also refers to things that are “unkosher.”

Traits of the Soul- Middot Ha’Nefesh