Acharei Mot (After The Death)

(Today's Torah Portion is Acharei Mot. I originally wrote and posted this commentary in my previous blog on 04/29/2007.)

TORAH: Vayikra (Leviticus) 16:1-18:30
HAFTARAH: Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 22:1-19
KETUVIM NETZARIM: 1 Corinthians 6:9-20; Ivrim (Hebrews) 9:11-28

After the death of two of Aharon's sons, YHWH gives detailed instructions to Mosheh for how and when Aharon, the high priest, is to come into His presence so that he won't die. He is only to enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and only after he has immersed his body in water and put on the set-apart garments--linen garments only worn on this day:

Lev 16:4 "He should put on the set-apart linen long shirt, with linen trousers on his flesh, and gird himself with a linen girdle, and be dressed with the linen turban – they are set-apart garments. And he shall bathe his body in water, and shall put them on.

Yom Kippur is on the 10th day of the 7th month on the Scriptural calendar, which is in the fall season of the year:

Lev 16:29 "And this shall be for you a law forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you afflict your beings, and do no work, the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.
Lev 16:30 "For on that day he makes atonement for you, to cleanse you, to be clean from all your sins before YHWH.
Lev 16:31 "It is a Sabbath of rest for you, and you shall afflict your beings – a law forever.

Forever means just that--forever. If this was a law only for the Jews to keep forever, then someone is lying:

Eph 4:1 I call upon you therefore, I the prisoner of the Master, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,
Eph 4:2 with all humility and meekness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
Eph 4:3 being eager to guard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace –
Eph 4:4 one body and one Spirit, as you also were called in one expectation of your calling,
Eph 4:5 one Master, one belief, one immersion,
Eph 4:6 one Elohim and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

According to Shaul (Paul), there is one belief, one body, one expectation, so who is lying--YHWH or Shaul? The answer is neither. Both are telling the Truth, and man is the liar. There is one belief, the same as it was then in the wilderness as it is now.

If man says that Yeshua Messiah's atoning sacrifice did away with keeping the appointed time of Yom Kippur, then man is a liar, because YHWH certainly is not a liar:

Num 23:19 "El is not a man, to lie; nor a son of man, to repent! Has He said, and would He not do it; or spoken, and would not confirm it?

When YHWH says forever, He means forever. Why would we ever want to put our trust in a god who doesn't mean what he says?

We have to look to the Word of YHWH for Truth because that is the only place to find it.

Rom 3:4 Let it not be! But let Elohim be true, and every man a liar, as it has been written, "That You should be declared right in Your words, and prevail in Your judging."

We (believers in Yeshua Messiah) are the gentiles YirmeYahu (Jeremiah) is speaking of here:

Jer 16:19 O YHWH, my strength and my stronghold and my refuge, in the day of distress the gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers have inherited only falsehood, futility, and there is no value in them."

Sadly, we have inherited lies, but His Word is Truth, and so as long as we listen to and heed His Word, instead of being stiff-necked and rebellious, we will be able to walk in Truth.

During the time before Yeshua Messiah sojourned on the earth, Yom Kippur and the other appointed times were prophetic of Messiah. During this time after Yeshua Messiah's sojourn on earth, His appointed times are kept in remembrance of Him. They are also still rehearsals as they were then because everything has not yet been fulfulled.

YHWH will be there at His appointed times. But will we? We don't want to be like the foolish maidens and miss him, do we?

Mat 25:10 "And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut.
Mat 25:11 "And later the other maidens also came, saying, 'Master, Master, open up for us!'
Mat 25:12 "But he answering, said, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'
Mat 25:13 "Watch therefore, because you do not know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Adam is coming,

Why does He say to watch if there is no way to know when He's coming?

Those who were listening to Him in the first century knew which appointed time He was referring to, because they had been 'watching' for centuries every year in the fall for this appointed time of which "the day or the hour no one knows" until it is upon them.

There is only one of His appointed times where we do not know when it is until it happens, but we only know it IF we are watching, and that is Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets), which is the 1st day of the 7th month. It is only when those watching towards the end of the 6th month can see the first visible sliver of the New Moon that Yom Teruah begins, and by the time we know it, it is already upon us.

Mat 24:30 "And then the sign of the Son of Adam shall appear in the heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Adam coming on the clouds of the heaven with power and much esteem.
Mat 24:31 "And He shall send His messengers with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Mat 24:32 "And learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that the summer is near.
Mat 24:33 "So you also, when you see all these, know that He is near, at the doors.

He already kept His appointed times in the spring when He became our Passover Lamb and rose as the firstfruits among the dead on the Day of Firstfruits and when He poured out His Spirit on His people on Shavuot (Pentecost), so we know He will be faithful to keep His appointed times in the fall, when He will return with "a great sound of a trumpet" on Yom Teruah, judge the living and the dead on Yom Kippur and then tabernacle among us during Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).

Those not ready and watching may miss that final Yom Teruah, but they will have no choice but to attend to Him on the final Yom Kippur:

Rom 14:10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Messiah.
Rom 14:11 For it has been written, "As I live, says YHWH, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to Elohim."
Rom 14:12 Each one of us, therefore, shall give account of himself to Elohim.

In Vayikra (Leviticus) 17, YHWH gives the instructions for abstaining from blood. The animals which YHWH created to be food for us are to be slaughtered in such a way that the blood is drained out.

Lev 17:12 "Therefore I said to the children of Yisra'el, 'No being among you eats blood, nor does any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.'
Lev 17:13 "And any man from the children of Yisra'el, or from the strangers who sojourn among you, who hunts and catches any beast or bird, which is eaten, shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust,
Lev 17:14 for it is the life of all flesh. Its blood is for its life. And I said to the children of Yisra'el, 'Do not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it is cut off.'

Eating blood (meat from strangled animals as opposed to properly slaughtered animals) is such an abomination that it was included in the 4 initial imperatives given to the gentiles by the Yerushalayim council so that they could enter the assembly on Shabbat to learn the rest of Torah. Ya'acov (James), the brother of Yeshua Messiah, speaking:

Act 15:19 "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the gentiles who are turning to Elohim,
Act 15:20 but that we write to them to abstain from the defilements of idols, and from whoring, and from what is strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 "For from ancient generations Mosheh has, in every city, those proclaiming him – being read in the congregations every Sabbath."

YHWH says that He will set His face against any person who eats blood:

Lev 17:10 'And any man of the house of Yisra'el, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who eats any blood, I shall set My face against that being who eats blood, and shall cut him off from among his people.

In chapter 18, YHWH delineates other things that are abominations to Him that His people are forbidden to do: incest, intercourse during menstruation, adultery, child sacrifice (modern-day equivalent is abortion), sexual relations between men, sexual relations with beasts.

Lev 18:29 'For whoever does any of these abominations, those beings who do them shall be cut off from among their people.
Lev 18:30 'And you shall guard My Charge, so as not to do any of these abominable practices which were done before you, so as not to defile yourselves by them. I am YHWH your Elohim.' "

1Co 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the reign of Elohim? Do not be deceived. Neither those who whore, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
1Co 6:10 nor thieves, nor greedy of gain, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the reign of Elohim.

Those who inherit the reign of Elohim are a nation set apart only unto Him:

1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light,
1Pe 2:10 who once were not a people, but now the people of Elohim; who had not obtained compassion, but now obtained compassion.

Abba YHWH, may all of those You have called turn away from abominations and turn fully to You, to walk only in Your ways. B'Shem Yeshua HaMashiach, Amein.