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If you find the truth, will you believe it?

If any man desires to do God's will, he will have the needed illumination to recognize, and can tell for himself whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from myself and on my own accord.  John 7:17 

The Lesson Israel Failed to Learn

Have we learned the lesson?

When Yahuwah Elohim (God) brought the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt, He set up the sanctuary service for them to follow and learn from and from which we can learn invaluable lessons also.  “Thy way, O Elohim, is in the sanctuary” (Ps. 77:13).  Elohim’s plan of salvation for humanity was depicted in the services connected with the sanctuary and in the sanctuary itself.

One of those services was the slaying and offering of the female kid goat for the sins committed by an individual – the sin offering.  “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission [forgiveness]” (Heb. 9:22).  A person, according to the law, after having sinned could purchase a female kid goat, bring it to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation of the sanctuary and slit its throat causing it to die, in order to receive forgiveness.

“And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he does somewhat against any of the commandments of Yahuwah [the LORD] concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge:  then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.  He shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering” (Lev. 4:27-29, emphasis added). 

If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto Yahuwah for a sin offering.  And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before Yahuwah; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before Yahuwah” (Lev. 4:3-4, emphasis added). 

It required a greater sacrifice for the priest than for a common person in Israel.  Sin required the sacrifice of an innocent victim without physical blemish (Lev. 1:10).  It also required the one who had sinned to kill that animal.  Why?  What was Elohim's purpose in this service?

Does Elohim take delight in the killing of beasts for our sins?  “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith Yahuwah: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats” (Isa. 1:11, emphasis added).

In ancient Israel, this practice became so commonplace that people would perform the service required and maybe never give it another thought until the Day of Atonement when Israel was to afflict their souls and examine their hearts to make sure there was no unconfessed sin.  If there was, then supposedly that sinner could be cut down by the judgment of Yahuwah unless confessed.  A very solemn time of heart searching was to take place.  That is what the Feast of Trumpets was to announce ten days prior to the Day of Atonement.  The Day of Atonement was approaching, and it was a time to begin the searching of their hearts.

Unfortunately, Israel failed to learn from this service what Elohim had intended for them and also for us to learn.  It became so commonplace they could slit the little goat’s or young bullock’s throat without even feeling anything for what the animal being sacrificed had to suffer and endure for what that individual had done. 

I want you to think about this for a moment.  Just pause and reflect on the scene.  Stop for a moment!  A little goat of a year old which is so pure and innocent without a care in the world suddenly is required to give up its life for your sin!  Hardly seems fair, does it?  And if it was a goat from your own flock that you had cared for since its birth think of how hard it would have been for you to slit its throat and end its life!  Or at least it should have been a difficult thing to do.  But yet this is what Elohim required in order to teach one of the most important lessons in all of the Scriptures. 

When people can take the life of a little goat or young bullock without any feeling or emotion something is wrong!  It reveals the condition of the heart of the individual performing (maybe that is a good term for what was being done - performing!) that rite or ordinance which was ordained by Elohim.  They were just going through the motions without giving it any serious consideration.

Could our hearts become so hardened we could do this without it touching us emotionally?  Yet it seems like that is what happened to Israel, and they became so insensitive (hardened) to sin and the price to be paid for sin that they just continued to sin and repent (sacrifice a victim in their place).  Yes, you could pay the monetary price for the little goat or in the priest’s case a young bullock, and it would cost you financially, but if it never has an effect on your heart (mind), you failed to learn the lesson.  The people continued to sin and repent and finally, Elohim said, “I am weary of [your] repenting” (Jer. 15:6).

How hardhearted did the nation of Israel become?  They eventually could take the life of their children or their husband or wife and eat them during the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and again by the Romans in AD 70 when the people were experiencing starvation. 

Elohim had foretold they would do this in Leviticus 26:29.  “And you shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat.”  This is what would happen if they walked contrary to Elohim.  “And if you will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me” (Lev. 26:27).  Elohim tried to save them from doing these horrible things, but Israel never learned the lessons Elohim tried and tried to teach them for over one thousand and five hundred years.

“The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that comes out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear:  for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates” (Deut. 28:56-57, emphasis added).  “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden [boiled or roasted] their own children:  they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of My people” (Lam. 4:10, emphasis added).

So how could they have prevented themselves from developing such hard hearts and have a tender compassionate heart like Elohim’s?  If they had learned the lessons Elohim was trying to teach them in the sanctuary service, they would have been saved from committing those horrendous evils.

What should have happened to them when they came to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation to slay that little goat or young bullock?  It should have broken their hearts with grief for what they were about to do!  How would I feel if I were to have to slay my dog, Bella, which I have had for eight years?  Think of people who have had to put down their pets after they have lived a lifetime with you in order to prevent them from suffering any longer.  I had an Aussie by the name of Mocha who died in my arms from a reaction to her immunizations after having her only three months.  It was hard!  Very hard!

That is what Elohim wanted to bring His people to experience when they were required to bring a little goat without a blemish of a year old and slit its throat.  I am memorizing Psalm fifty-one at the present time.  A little background of this Psalm is that it was written by King David after he had had an affair with Bathsheba.  Knowing the background to this Psalm helps us understand what David is saying at the end of the Psalm.  “For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else I would give it:  Thou delightest not in burnt offering.  The sacrifices of Elohim [that are acceptable to Him] are a broken spirit:  a broken and a contrite heart, O Elohim, Thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:16-17, emphasis added).

David’s heart was eventually broken because his sin with Bathsheba did not just cost him a little goat, but it cost him the death of his son whom Bathsheba had conceived because of David’s sin.  As the sin of the priest required a greater sacrifice than that of a common man so the king’s sin would require an even greater sacrifice.  The Prophet Nathan had told David the son Bathsheba would bear “shall surely die” (2 Sam. 12:14). That child was stricken and “was very sick.”  For the entire time, the child suffered David “besought Elohim for the [life of the] child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.”  Seven days later the child died.  See 2 Samuel 12:15-23. 

But David’s heart was not yet fully broken.  Nathan in pronouncing judgment upon David for his sin told him Yahuwah would “raise evil against thee out of thine own house” (2 Sam. 12:11).

In 2 Samuel chapter eighteen another of David’s sons, Absalom was slain.  Absalom had done great evil against his father and yet when David received news that Absalom had been killed, we find this response by King David.  “And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept:  and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would Elohim I [had] died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam. 18:33).  David’s heart had been broken, and he knew whereof he spoke in Psalm 51:16-17.

If our hearts are affected, broken, and contrite, then only Elohim can be pleased with our sacrifices.  When our hearts are affected, we will stop sinning because we know at what great cost it will bring to that little goat who must give up her life for my sins.  That was the lesson Israel should have learned. 

What is the lesson we are to learn from this sanctuary service?  “For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith Yahuwah: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word” (Isa. 66:2).  There is no pride in a heart that is contrite.

What has it cost for our redemption?  Not the death of a little goat, but the death of the Lamb of Elohim!  Yahuwah Elohim’s only-begotten Son!  Has what was done for us at Gethsemane and Calvary affected our hearts?  Are our hearts “broken and contrite?”  What repentance is supposed to do? 

This is what Wikipedia says about Biblical repentance:  “The repentance (metanoia) called for throughout the Bible is a summons to a personal, absolute and ultimate unconditional surrender to Elohim as Sovereign. Though it includes sorrow and regret, it is more than that . . . In repenting one makes a complete change of direction (180° turn) towards Elohim.” 

Has it become so commonplace to sin and repent expecting [presuming - presumption] Elohim to forgive us because He has promised, that we do not stop and contemplate what took place at Gethsemane and Calvary?  Have we read Isaiah chapter fifty-three and have seen what took place for our sins?  Has what is pictured there touched (broken) our hearts?  Have we seen what the Father and His Son did for you and me?  Have our hearts been touched – “broken and contrite?”  Do we see what sin does to the heart of Elohim and His Son when we continue to sin even today?

I pray as you read Isaiah chapter fifty-three, stop often and contemplate what is being described so that Elohim’s Spirit may touch your heart.

“Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of Yahuwah revealed?  For He [Yahushua] shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground:  He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.  [Only the beauty of heavenly truth was to draw the people to Yahushua.]  He is despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:  and we hid as it were our faces from Him:  He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. [He Who was the adored of heaven.]  Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows:  yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of Elohim, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities:  the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray:  we have turned everyone to his own way; and Yahuwah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  [What actually caused His death!]  He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth:  He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.  He was taken from prison and from judgment:  and who shall declare His generation?  For He was cut off out of the land of the living:  for the transgression of My people was He stricken.  And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. [He was completely innocent just like that little goat or young bullock.]  Yet it pleased Yahuwah to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief:  when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Yahuwah shall prosper in His hand.  He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied:  by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many: for He shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death:  and He was numbered with the transgressors; and bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:1-12, emphasis added).  HalleluYah!

Yahushua bore every insult and abuse Satan could inspire men to heap upon Him and yet He never retaliated, but only spoke words of forgiveness for those who were physically and verbally abusing Him (Luke 23:34).  He kept it uppermost in His mind why He was going through all of it.  He knew someday “He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11).  He refused to take a stupefying potion so He could think clearly and not have His mind clouded and confused (Luke 23:36).

Have we become so hardened that what Yahushua did for us and went through for us does not affect our hearts – “broken and contrite?”  Yahushua told Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). 

What happened on the cross of Calvary?  The heart of the “Son of man” was broken (crushed) so we could be healed of the sting of sin, just as the children of Israel were healed when they looked upon the pole with the brazen serpent on it in the wilderness and were healed of the sting of the serpents that had bitten them.  They were dying and would have died if they did not “look” to the “brazen serpent.”  Do you think they looked at it intently, waiting for the promised healing to take place?  I think they did!  They did not just give it a quick glance but stared at it until they were healed.   However, there were probably many that refused to look and perished.  Many still do not look to Calvary and will one day die (eternally) just as those who refused to look to the serpent on the pole.

Was the heart of Yahushua Messiah broken as He hung upon the cross at Calvary?  When they came to break the legs of Yahushua and the two thieves, they did not need to break the legs of Yahushua because He was already dead.  Death from crucifixion could last for days, but Yahushua was dead in just a very short time.  “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation [It was the "preparation [day] for the Passover" not the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath (John 19:14).], that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) [The annual feast days were referred to as High Sabbaths.] besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was with him.  But when they came to Yahushua, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not his legs:  but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:31-34, emphasis added).

“Blood and water.”  It was unheard of for one to die within six hours of being crucified.  When that soldier pierced Messiah’s side with that spear and “blood and water” flowed from the wound, it declared Yahushua had died of a broken heart.  His heart was broken by the mental anguish He was experiencing.  He was slain by the sins of the world being placed upon Him just as that little goat or that young bullock was slain when the sins of the sinner were placed on them as seen in Leviticus chapter four. 

What took place at the cross is a revelation to our dull senses of what sin has done to Elohim and His Son and still does when we continue to sin, ever since sin began in heaven with Lucifer.  Every time we sin we break the heart of Elohim and Yahushua!

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not.  And IF any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Yahushua Messiah the righteous.” “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin” (1 John 2:1, Heb. 4:15, emphasis added). 

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He [Yahushua] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15). 

Yahushua was thinking of us and the deliverance that would be ours if He went through the pain and agony of being the “sin-bearer.”  His was a selfless life of sacrifice for the salvation of humanity.

Yahushua tried to point a most learned Rabbi named Nicodemus to His sacrifice that would be made, during their visit that night.  Nicodemus did not understand, and Yahushua asked him “art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not of these things” (John 3:10).  Yahushua told Nicodemus about being “born again” and how it happens.  “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). 

It is by looking, personally, for yourself, that you can be healed from the contagious disease of sin, just as those in the wilderness looked at the serpent of brass upon the pole were healed from the deadly bite of the serpent (Num. 21:8).  We have all been bitten by that snake, the devil, just as Eve was in the Garden of Eden.  We must be “born again” and have “a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O Elohim, Thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:17). 

When we truly see how we have treated our Savior and His and our Father, our Elohim, it should break our hearts.  Let us look long and intently at the cross.  Not at some wooden image of the cross.  But with our mind’s eye look at what took place in Gethsemane and on Calvary until we are healed and have been broken and are contrite.

And Yahuwah will not leave us in that repentant state for “Yahuwah is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit” (Ps. 34:18).  He desires nothing but our salvation and not our condemnation.  “For Elohim sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). 

We are already under the condemnation of a guilty conscience and when we see to what lengths Elohim and His Son have gone for our salvation, it will break our hearts of our rebellious spirit, and we will gladly invite the Spirit of Elohim to come in and change us back into His likeness (2 Cor. 3:18).

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh [A heart that is humble and contrite].  And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them” (Eze. 36:26-27, emphasis added).

Yahuwah Elohim make Calvary real to me!