Parashat Tzav: A Holy, Covenantal Space

Torah: Lev 6:8-8:36

Haftarah: Mal 3:4-24

Brit Chadashah: Heb 7:23-8:6, Heb 9:11-28

Main Points:

Priests and the law of offerings.

Aaron and his sons are consecrated.

Consecration ceremony described.

In Parashat Tzav God speaks to Moses concerning the sacrifices and begins to focus on the role of the priest. The Book of Leviticus was not just a book of instructions aimed at the priesthood, it also let Israel know what to expect when they came to the Temple. The Parashat ends with a discussion on consecrating Aaron and the priests to prepare them for service. A consecrated place requires consecrated service from consecrated people. The tabernacle was to be a pattern of spiritual life much like our homes. As we near the end of Pesach, lets focus on our homes as we look to the coming of Shavuot.

When we look at the home and what has been written about it, most literature seems utopian and idealistic. It is easy to say what the home, husband, and wife should be, but removing the roadblocks and living it is a constant effort of faith and patience. Society can be antichristian and anti-God in many places. A lot of what it promotes are cultural trends and social justice causes that take the beauty of scripture and mare it with hate, prejudice, and slander. Issues of privilege, patriarchy, power (equality), and confusing or redefining the roles of man/woman and husband/wife have attempted to make biblical values toxic, outdated, and oppressive.

God’s pattern for the home is not oppressive or toxic. It will always be loving and ultimately a picture of Yeshua and his people. In Ephesians 5:21 and 2 Cor 11:2, God uses marriage language to describe the relationship of Yeshua and the church. He also uses the idea of oneness in relation to spouses and for his people in general (Gal 3:28, 1 Cor 12:13). In Mal 2:14-16 and Matt 19:4-6, God made them one with a portion of his spirit, but also made the church and filled them with his Spirit (Acts 2). God is personally involved in our congregations and homes. Both exist as an agency of God’s mercy, love, and compassion so that in all things our lives point to him.

The biblical view of marriage is a journey of two people (male and female) who wish to pursue the will and righteousness of God in a biblically defined covenant. There is no stronger witness to the world than a strong biblical marriage. The strength of the congregation is found in the strength of its marriages. The strength of marriage has a lot to do with how we understand some basic things.

The Table

In the home, our tables are likened to a small altar where we acknowledge that God gave us everything we have, including those things that had to die to sustain us. We say prayers (before or after eating), sometimes read/talk about the scriptures, and reflect that God owns all things and a holy God has provided for our table.

Biblical Conduct

Divorce is high because biblical values of treatment, honor, respect, decorum, and communication are not esteemed. We live in a time where personal ideals, personal wars, and personal ambition takes the place of responsible biblical conduct. When we lack holy reverence and fear of God in our interactions, we will have problems understanding and applying biblical conduct as a spouse and member of the sacred community. The sacrifices were given because a person transgressed the boundaries that God established. Those transgressions included the idea that when we transgress against people, we also transgress against God. Because the home can be a place of conflict in many ways, we must be careful. When we step over the boundaries God has established for our conduct, teshuvah and heart change should be our response so that our homes and vital covenantal relationships do not stagnate or die.

Shalom Bayit (Peace in the Home)

Shalom bayit needs to be a value in every Messianic home. If we cannot live out biblical conduct in our most important covenant space, we are living a lie. We need to be watchful and understand how our behavior contributes to the edification and strengthening of the home or violates our spouse and God. The most difficult part is the acknowledgment of the places our actions and words contributed to weakening our marriage covenant and/or contributed to spiritual and emotional instability.

Guard covenantal space

Our home is a sacred space, but we treat it as a common one. It is the place we like to unwind. A place where we are out of view of most people and tend to be lax and lazy in the privacy our homes provide. That privacy is also the reason many excesses take place. We are careful to guard how people see us in public, but our homes seldom meet that same scrutiny. Our homes are a place that requires us to be even more single-minded and more aware of our covenant. It is the place where we deal with our humanity, vulnerabilities, faults, and shortcomings. It is the place where we practice the godliness that gives our salt and light relevance in public places and empowers our prayers. The culture and spiritual maturity of a congregation are best seen in the substance of its homes. It does carry over. Sometimes guarding our sacred space is focused on keeping the world out. Sometimes it is focused on limiting our behavior and communication so that its sanctity does not disintegrate into looking like the worst people we can become. An important part of guarding covenantal space is observing covenantal times. The Sabbath and the Feasts bring us in constant contact with God’s will and overarching plan for mankind. They also help us to constantly consecrate our space and the relationships that are maintained in it.

Rav Calev

Apostolic Messianic International

Next Feast:

We are now counting the Omar until Shavuot.

Shavuot begins the night of June 1 and ends the night of June 3.

Hebrew words to know:

Sense of Regret- Charatah

Sense of Shame- Halbanat panim (lit, whitening of the face)

Serenity- Menucha

Service of the Heart- Avodat Chalev

Shabbat- Friday night to Saturday night. Shabbes in Yiddish.

Sleep or Nap- Shlaf; Yiddish