Parashat Terumah

Parashat Terumah: Ex 25:1 – 27:19 In last week’s Torah portion Moses was communing with God on Mt Sinai and God gave him judgments to give the people. These judgments were more than a legal construct, it defined the behavior and moral compass of the nation. God was instituting holiness through his laws and judgments that were meant to draw the people to him. Even in our lives today, holiness is found in our continual conforming to his image (Rom 8:29-30), our obedience to his word (Ex 19:5, Deut 11:1), and our capacity to love (Jn 15:9).

In today’s portion, Parashat Terumah, we gain an intricate view of the furnishings and make-up of the temple. It was a place of angels with a throne room where God would commune and speak as the sacrificial blood was cast over the mercy seat and the High Priest made intercession for the people. The temple was a physical depiction of a spiritual reality. Our faith, salvation, and approach to God is inseparably based in the significance and makeup of the temple and it has a lot to teach us.

God wanted Israel to build his temple out of their free-will offerings that were given as their heart was “moved”. This teaches us the importance of committing to God those things that move our heart. What moves your heart? What we give to the Kingdom is offered freely and is given out of our passion and love for God. Many people are in services but are not engaged in worship. Some just stand around looking about, bored, or preoccupied. It is easy to get distracted by things on your phone, fidgeting or movement in the pew, or casual conversation in the middle of the worship service. When we are not focused and get distracted, the things of God can lose their sacred value and instead of honoring the Lord’s presence we treat it as common. Have you ever asked why your heart is not moved when it clearly should be? The answer may be unrepented sin, pride, lack of focus, spiritual stagnation, or simple lack of engagement. Understanding the sacredness of our time with God helps us enter into worship with our full man.

The spiritual health of a congregation can be seen in their ability to move with God as he moves. Many times, the moving of God in a worship service comes as people continually engage God in praise and worship. It is not uncommon, when people are focusing on worship, for a service to simply continue past the established stop time. Praying at the altar, worship, and ministry to the saints have yielded great moves of God even outside of the service. Lingering around the altar and attending to the Spirit of God has tremendous power. God is not always finished when the priestly blessing is spoken, and the musicians leave the platform. Have you ever tried staying and praying, just to see what God would do? It may amaze you.

The temple teaches us the value of our covenant. The blood atonement (blood of the sacrifice) was redemptive (Heb 9:22) and was God’s covering for sin until the time of Yeshua (Heb 10:1-18). The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) and through this we see the terrible effect of our sinful actions and the lengths God goes through to redeem us. It also teaches us what the blood covenant is about. It was used in the ancient near east to make strong, unbreakable commitments that mirrored the bond of kindship. Covenants were carried out among those who took in hand to make a family bond via an oath. This is the premise of God’s love. It restores us to fellowship with God and returns us to our family status (Gal 4:4-7, 1 Jn 3:1-2).

It teaches us that God values us enough to ask for a space he can inhabit. We honor God by creating that sacred space just as the temple was created and sanctified. God wants our hearts. The children of Israel gave what they valued to make a golden calf (Ex 32) and sinned. God wants us to give our treasure (those things he has provided and helped us conquer) and use them to build his kingdom. Where our treasure is there our heart will be also (Matt 6:21). We have to be careful to invest ourselves in the right place. We cannot invest in the idol of fear, doubt, and depravity and doom our spiritual walk to serve damaging emotions that limit our spiritual progress. When our hearts are united with God and he defines us he also builds us and the work we are to do.

Rav Calev Lehrer, PhD Apostolic Messianic International-Gulf Coast Locales, Rumble, Parlor, Facebook