Tetzaveh
Torah: Tetzaveh (You shall command), Sh’mot (Exodus) 27.20-30.10
Haftorah: Yekhezk’el (Ezekiel) 43.10-27
Suggested Messianic Writings: Heb 13.10-16
Shalom,
Sh’mot 27.20: “You are to order the people of Isra’el to bring you pure oil of pounded olives for the light, and to keep a lamp burning continually.” Pure oil – oil prepared from olives that had been cleaned of leaves and dust, and then beaten in a mortar. This oil, which flows out by itself from the beaten olive, is of the finest quality and a white color, according to Keil & Delitzsch. The pure oil was to be put into the menorah in the Tabernacle, which was to be lit and kept burning from evening to morning, every day.
As a young child in Sunday School, we sang the little song, “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burnin’ for the Lord….” The Jesus movement (affectionately known by Messianics as “the Yeshua movement” – after all, the Messianic Jewish revival began at that time) came up with more illuminating verses as, “Give me oil in my Ford, keep me chuggin’ for the Lord…” and so on. Some of you may remember other such enlightening lines.
Oil. The substance that has come to represent the Ruakh HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit). The substance that Yeshua warns us in parable form in Mattityahu (Matthew) 25 to be wise and have our lamps full of. Without the oil in the menorah in the Tabernacle, it would have been dark and the priests would not have been able to fulfill their duties. Having the menorah, the lamp, by itself was not enough. It needed oil to be able to provide light. The five foolish virgins of Mattityahu 25 had their lamps, but no oil. The lamps represent the work without the power.
The Ruakh HaKodesh is no doubt the most misunderstood member of the triune G-dhead. The Hebraic terminology concerning the Ruakh is in the feminine form, although the “Ekhad G-d” is not expressly either male or female. Yeshua became a man and is thus a male, but the spirit forms of Elohim are neither man nor woman. The Ruakh is the power available to believers today to aid us in our walk, but the Ruakh is also a personality. We should to never refer to the Ruakh as “it”. The Ruakh is not a mysterious floating mist, “the force,” or any other such nomenclature. The Ruakh is G-d, just as much as the Father and the Son are G-d. None of us can ever expect to fully understand or explain the tri-unity of the one G-d.
As believers today, globally, we understand so little of what the Ruakh is trying to tell us. We are more in tune to what our own wills want. Yeshua said that the Ruakh “will guide you into all the truth” (Yokhanan/John 16.13). With around some 38,000 different church denominations in the world, that makes for a lot of differences in hearing the “truth”. Possibly the missing key overall may be found in Yokhanan 16.14: “He will glorify Me”. All too often our programs, our ways, our prejudices overrule glorifying Yeshua. And yet, on the other hand, we are the bride that is being prepared; perhaps we are all pieces of the puzzle. But only the pieces that fit properly are used to form the puzzle. “Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?” Our only goal should be to glorify Yeshua and let the Ruakh show us what else to do. That is holiness.
Oswald Chambers noted that, “The New Testament example of the believer’s experience is that of a personal, passionate devotion to the person of [Yeshua the Messiah]. Every other kind of so-called Christian experience is detached from the person of [Yeshua].” We should note that in this parashah, the oil is called for first, before the Priests were set apart. 1 Kefa (Peter) 2.9 tells us that we as believers are a royal priesthood (or as Stern reads, “the King’s cohanim”). The Priests of the Tabernacle and Temple were to be set apart as ministers unto G-d. Set apart – that is holiness. As priests of Yeshua today, our lives are to be set apart. Why? Continuing with 1 Kefa 2.9, so that “you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”. How do we do that? The first step (after that of accepting Yeshua as Messiah, Savior, and Lord) is to be filled with oil, or the Ruakh HaKodesh. Then we can be placed into His service as a Priest. Dare not go forward in His service without oil, or you will be as one of the foolish virgins.
Holiness. Glorifying Yeshua, that is obedience, and that is holiness. First published in 1853, Stephen Charnock wrote this regarding holiness, in his magnificent book The Existence and Attributes of God: “The holiness of His Spirit doth sparkle in His ordinances; the holiness of our spirits ought also to sparkle in our observance of them… All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as He is holy… How can any person sanctify G0d’s name that hath not a holy resemblance to His nature? If he be not holy as He is holy, he cannot worship Him according to His excellency in spirit and in truth; no worship is spiritual wherein we have not a communion with God.”
In a Biblical paradox, we can only receive the oil through the shed blood of the Messiah. The Messianic Writings portion this week deals with that thought, stating that “Yeshua suffered death… in order to make the people holy through his own blood. Therefore, let us go out to Him… and share His disgrace… Through him, therefore, let us offer God a sacrifice of praise continually. For this is the natural product of lips that acknowledge his name. But don’t forget doing good and sharing with others, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13.12-16).
Purim is upon us, and the words of Mordekhi to Queen Ester (Ester 4.14) are applicable in our day to all who serve the Master Yeshua, who are covered by His blood, filled with the Holy Oil of the Ruakh HaKodesh, and are operating as a Royal Priest: “For if you fail to speak up now, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from a different direction; but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows whether you didn’t come into your royal position precisely for such a time as this.”
שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם – Sha’alu shalom Yerushalayim – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!