In the past several weeks we have seen how after Israel was saved from slavery in Egypt, and entered into a covenant with God at Mount Sinai, and promised to obey God’s laws, the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was built.

The word Mishkan comes from the Hebrew root Shachan, which means “to dwell, to abide.” We get other Hebrew words like neighbor and neighborhood from this same root. You see, in spite of the Fall of man, and our sinfulness, and the whole human race being alienated from a holy God, He still wanted to dwell among us, and be a close and good neighbor to us! And, that’s the kind of God He still is; but now He is dwelling among us, not in a tent, or in a Temple made of wood and stones, but in Messiah!

The Mishkan, and later the Temple in Jerusalem which replaced it, and the various items in it, no longer exist. But they always were intended to point to and be fulfilled in a greater way in the Messiah. The Son of God is the Substance to which the Shadows pointed, and remains. He is our Temple, where God most fully dwells and manifests His presence among human beings. And He enables us to become the Temple of God! He is our Ark, the place where God and man meet. He is like the Veil: He opens the way to God for all mankind. He is like the Table: He provides us with the Bread of Life, and the Wine of Joy. He is our Golden Altar, making our prayers rise up and ascend into the presence of God, and be accepted by Him. He is our Golden Menorah, who gives us blazing light, total victory and the fullness of salvation, and the knowledge of God. Messiah is like the Bronze Wash Basin who cleanses us. He is our Bronze Altar, the place where the various sacrifices were offered.

At the Mishkan, and on the Bronze Altar, different types of sacrifices were offered up. Last week’s parasha and this week’s parasha describe them. We can’t go into all the details, which are complicated, but we can cover the basics of the sacrifices and their significance.

In Hebrew, “Korbanot” is usually translated as “sacrifices” or “offerings.” The word korbanot comes from the root which means “to draw near,” and indicates the primary purpose of these offerings: to draw us near to a holy God from whom the whole world is estranged. Drawing close to God comes through God appointed sacrifices.

The second aspect is that of sacrificial giving. A korban requires the giving of something valuable: bulls, sheep, goats, pigeons, grain. The rich were to bring their bulls, the middle class were to offer sheep and goats from their flocks, and the poor could bring their offerings of birds or grain. But the rich and middle class were not to present offerings below their ability. They were not to present pigeons. That would have been an affront to God. We are to give God the best, not the least that we can get by with. To have an attitude that asks “what is the least I can give to God?” reveals a heart that really hasn’t come to know and love the Lord.

All offerings were to be without any defects of any kind. They were to be conformed to God’s holy character. To offer an animal with defect demonstrated that the person who would do such a thing despised God and their heart was evil.

The sacrifices, as we will see, point us to Messiah Yeshua, so perfection was necessary in the type. Offering an animal without defect was necessary to demonstrate the perfect character and the perfect sacrifice of the fulfillment – Messiah Yeshua, the Ultimate Sacrifice. Imperfect animals could not portray His sacrifice, which was perfect and without any blemish. By obeying God’s instructions the people would ultimately learn of the beautiful connection between the animal, and the fulfillment, Messiah Yeshua.

Another important concept are the principles of identification and substitution. The idea is that the thing being offered is a substitute for the person making the offering, and the things that are done to the offering are things that should have been done to the person offering. Before the animal was killed, the offerer laid his hands on the head of the sacrifice. This ceremony depicted identification. The offerer became identified with the animal, and the animal became a substitute for the offerer. Whatever happened to the animal from this point forward should be seen as having actually been experienced by the offerer. Substitution is an important element in every sacrifice offered to God.

The Olah The Burnt Offering 1:1-17

Let’s start with the burnt offering. The Hebrew word for burnt offering is Olah, meaning ascension. It is the same root as the word aliyah, which is used to describe moving to Israel or ascending to the podium to say a blessing over the Torah. An Olah is completely burnt on the altar; no part of it is eaten by anyone. Because the offering represents complete submission to God’s will, the entire offering is given to God. An Olah could be made from cattle, sheep, goats, or even birds, depending on the offerer’s means.

The Burnt Offering represents dedication to God. Just as the animal is entirely burnt up and consumed and ascends heavenward, so the worshiper offered a sacrifice declaring to God that his life was not his own. Out of gratitude for being redeemed, bought back, forgiven, atoned for, his desire was to be completely consumed in the service of God.

The burnt offering finds its fulfillment in the life and death of Messiah. In every action that He undertook, with every word that He spoke, Yeshua was completely dedicated to the will of God. He always did that which pleased His Father. He never sinned. Then, He gave His life as the final sacrifice for sin. His willingness to lay down His life demonstrates the kind of total dedication spoken of in the burnt offering.

And we, the sons and daughters of God, who have been redeemed, have been bought with a very high price. Our lives are no longer our own. Knowing this, we are to present our lives as living and holy sacrifices, dedicated to God and His service. Such an act of total dedication in the believer’s life is his spiritual and reasonable service.

The Grain Offering  The Mincha  2:1-16

Mincha refers to an offering from the produce of the ground. The Mincha was made of fine wheat. Grain in the ancient world was the staff of life. Many of the calories you ate came from grain. 3,500 years ago a farmer first had to break up his ground. Then he sowed the wheat seeds into the ground. Then he waited on God to provide the rains at the proper times. He weeded the soil, then he harvested the crop. Then he separated the grain from the chaff, then he milled the grain into flour. Finally he went up to Jerusalem to the Temple and offered his grain to the Lord. A representative piece of the offering was burnt on the fire of the altar, but the rest was eaten by the priests.

When one offered his grain offering, he was offering something that had been produced through diligence and much hard labor. The Mincha was an acknowledgment that our jobs, our skills, our strength, our energy, our labors, all come from the Lord. It is He who enables us to work and bring home our daily bread.

In offering this fine flour, the offerer poured oil on it. Oil moistened the flour so that it wouldn’t blow away. It helped the flour burn better. Oil also has a symbolic meaning. It was used for anointing, and it almost always symbolizes the presence of God. God needs to be involved in our work.

Frankincense was also put on the grain offering, and its aroma permeated the air when it was burned. Frankincense was symbolic of the prayers of God’s people. The addition of frankincense symbolized that God considered our work like a prayer that was acceptable to Him.

No grain offering which would go up as smoke from the altar could contain leaven. Leaven, a symbol of sin, should never be placed on the altar. No honey, which was also used in fermentation, and was associated with leaven as a symbol of sin, was used.

Instead of leaven or honey, all grain offerings were to contain salt. If any leaven were somehow present, the salt would arrest the leavening action. It would therefore symbolize the nullification of any presence of sin. The salt, which seasoned the sacrifice, symbolized God’s holiness, purity, and the permanence of the principles of sacrifice and covenant between the Lord and His people. That’s why many Jewish people to this day put salt on their meat and bread when they eat.

The Mincha pictured the perfection of Messiah’s life and work. No aspect of Messiah’s nature – His love, His holiness, His righteousness – was lacking. He was perfect in every way. He took on the tough jobs. In His ministry He took the difficult path of hard labor and of unselfish service. He did all His labors perfectly, in total dedication to His Father. After completing everything, He could say, “it is finished.” The great work that God has given Me to do, has been done, and done well!

God’s presence, as symbolized in the oil of the sacrifice, was continually on Messiah Yeshua in His life and ministry.

Messiah’s life was like frankincense, a pleasant aroma, one continuous pleasing prayer to God. He had constant unbroken communication with the Father. Every word He spoke, He heard the Father speak. Ever action He took was because He saw the Father first do it. His entire life was one beautiful prayer.

The absence of leaven in the Mincha symbolizes Messiah’s sinlessness. He is the only man who never sinned. He is truth embodied, righteousness personified.

We too are to serve the Lord diligently and wholeheartedly. Our labor for the Lord is holy, no matter where we are, rabbi or mother or secretary; carpenter or street cleaner. Every legitimate place of employment is like an altar where a child of God can produce work that is holy and blessed by God. All of us are to serve the Lord all the time.

True religion must happen every day of the week, in the work-world, as well as on Shabbat. You are not doing your duty if your work is not dedicated to God – if you don’t see your job as your ministry that God has given to you. We must work hard on the job, and be dedicated, and diligent and honest. We must talk to our co-workers about the Kingdom of God when possible, and let our lights shine in the work place. Those who are dishonest in their work, greedy in business, lazy on the job are not fulfilling the meaning of the Mincha offering.

The Zebach Sh’lamim The Peace Offering 3:1-17

The Hebrew term for the peace offering is Zebach Sh’lamim (or sometimes just sh’lamim), which is related to the word shalom, meaning “peace” or “whole” or “completeness”. A peace offering is an offering thanking God for restoring the worshiper to a state of wholeness with God, for being at peace with God, for having fellowship with God. All is well between this human being and God!

A portion of the offering is burnt on the altar, a portion is given to the priests, and the rest is eaten by the offerer and his family. Everyone gets a part of this offering, and it is eaten and enjoy. This category of offerings includes thanksgiving-offerings (“Todah” in Hebrew), free will-offerings, and offerings made after fulfillment of a vow.

The peace offering is fulfilled in Messiah, who had perfect peace with God. He was always in a right relationship with His Father. Then, He died to bring us peace with God, and restore us to a state of well-being with the Almighty. Do you have that peace with God, that sense that down deep, as is well between you and God?

The Chatat  The Sin Offering  4:1-5:13

Chatah means to sin, to miss the mark. The Chatat took care of chata – sin. A Chatat could only be offered for unintentional sins committed through carelessness, not for intentional, malicious sins, like murder.

The size of the offering varied according to the nature of the sin and the financial means of the sinner. Some sin offerings were for individuals and some were for the whole community. A few special sin offerings could not be eaten, but for the average person’s personal sin, the Chatat was eaten by the priests.

The Chatat offering was basic to all the other offerings. It was the first sacrifice offered. First you dealt with the thing that separated you from God – sin, before you offered the burnt offering of dedicating or the grain offering of sanctified labor, followed by the peace offering of fellowship. First, sin must be atoned for. Then comes dedication and service to God, then genuine fellowship and intimacy with God. You can truly serve God until you have genuine atonement. You can’t have genuine intimacy and fellowship and closeness to God until your sins are atoned for, and you are serving the Lord. Do you understand?

The discussion of sin offering begins with these words: When anyone sins unintentionally (4:2). The Chatat offering that covers unintentional sins teaches us that man’s nature is sinful. The reason a man commits evil is found in his nature. Because of his fallen nature, man will err even with the best of intentions. Deliberate or unintentional, sin is still sin, and needs to be atoned for.

The sin offering had the built in lesson of identification and substitution. When the offerer laid his hands upon the head of the animal, the animal took the place of the offerer and became his sin. It became the substitute. The animal took the offerer’s penalty of death, and its life was given in exchange to the offerer. That is the exchange of life principle.

The offerer had to kill the animal, but it was the priest’s responsibility to offer the blood. The blood was sprinkled, not burned on the altar. Throughout the Torah blood is the symbol of life. When he handled the blood of the sacrifice, the priest was symbolically handling the life of the offerer. The blood of the substitute animal was symbolic of the new life to be given to the Israeli if he acted in faith to receive it.

For the Israeli before the coming of Messiah Yeshua, the Chatat gave the Jewish people a visual demonstration of the exchange of life principle. If the Jewish person appropriated this lesson by faith, and really grasped this principle, he was redeemed, he was saved, his sins were forgiven. The people of Israel could know salvation and experience atonement. The redeemed person would continue to bring sacrifices for future sins, but it was as one who knew God and knew what salvation meant.

There was a remnant of Israelis who understood and appropriated this principle, but the majority went through the motions without catching the significance of the relation of the sacrifice to their own sin. In a similar way, many today neither grasp nor desire salvation through the death of another Chatat – Messiah Yeshua.

The sin offering preceded any of the other offerings. It was made before the burnt offering of dedication, before the peace offerings of fellowship with God. There must be forgiveness by God, there must be atonement by sacrifice before there is dedication or fellowship with God.

What the Lord wanted the Jewish people to learn in the Chatat and the exchange of life principle has not changed. It has been enlarged. The object in this exchange is now the Lord Himself. Messiah Yeshua’s main purpose for coming to planet Earth was to die as the final Chatat. When a person asks Messiah Yeshua into his or her life, what they are doing is symbolically laying their hands on the head of Yeshua. The person confessed his sins and the Son of God takes away the sinful life of the person. Then He gives the person His life, making the exchange of life complete.

But His life isn’t like the life of anyone else. Because of who He is, His life has an unmatched quality. It is eternal, and so Believers receive a gift that never ends! After leaving life in this world they will continue to live forever and ever, as Messiah Yeshua does. Messiah’s life is one of power and victory. In this life there is unmatched power that enables us to live triumphantly and victoriously. This power is available to all who receive His life in the exchange of life principle.

If you have never done this, make Him your Chatat. You need to identify with Him. Let Him take your sins, and be your Substitute, and give you His eternal, victorious life!

If you need to keep laying your hands on the head of Messiah by confessing your sins to God, and thanking God for the sacrifice of the Messiah. Then the Lord will wipe away every sin you have committed.

The Asham The Guilt Offering 5:14-6:7

Very similar to the Sin Offering was the Asham, the Guilt Offering. Asham come from the root meaning to fail in one’s duty, to be negligent, to become guilty. A guilt offering is an offering to atone for sins against the Lord’s holy things, like neglecting to pay the tithe, or failing to redeem the first-born son, or sins involving breach of trust against man, like fraud or theft.

In Isaiah 53, Yeshua is specifically said to be an Asham – an offering to atone for sin against the Lord’s holy things. He was guiltless in His relationship to God, and faultless in His relationship to human beings. Then, He died so that we can be forgiven for failing in our duties to God and man. None of us has fulfilled our religious responsibilities toward God, and none of us have met all of our obligations to our fellow human beings, but Messiah’s sacrifice covers them all!

Now, His life and His Spirit residing is us is at work in us, encouraging us to love God with all our heart and soul and strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Do you?

At the heart of the Good News is that Yeshua died to atone for our sins. This sounds strange to the ears of many people, particularly our Jewish people, today. You see, two thousand years ago the Temple was destroyed, and the sacrifices ceased, and over the centuries we stopped understanding their importance and their significance. The New Testament would make much more sense if more people understood the korbanot – the sacrifices!

There is a prophecy in Hosea chapter 3, that the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or ephod (part of the special clothing of the High Priest). My friends, for many days we have been without a king in Israel, and without the sacrifices and without the work of the priests. That leaves us without the exchange of life, and without genuine atonement.

Thank God that we do have Messiah Yeshua, who we know is Israel’s King and Priest, and who fulfills all the sacrifices! But only a remnant within Israel and among the nations know Him. Do you know Him? Do you have Him? Blessed are you if you do!

The prophecy in Hosea concludes with these encourage words for Israel: Afterward, the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king: (probably referring to Yeshua, the Heir of David); and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the Ah-chah-reet HaYa-meem – the Last Days!

I’m indebted to Dr. Louis Goldberg for much of this message, and also Tracey R Rich for part of this message.