Torah Portion T’tsaveh (Exodus 27:20-30:10).
Dr Clifford Denton.
Our Lord Yeshua, after He had risen from the dead, walked with two disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (verse 27).
The Bible is full of patterns, principles, signs and prophesies pointing to Him. Yeshua fulfilled exactly all that went before, concerning the coming Messiah who is Prophet, High Priest and King. Others, including Aaron, were given precise ministries which would be fulfilled perfectly only in the Son of God.
This is why we study the foundations of Bible teaching in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and prayerfully consider what we find, tracing patterns of truth throughout the Scriptures, from foundation to fulfilment.
This week, in this Torah portion, we continue the study of the exact pattern of the Tabernacle and its ministry which was given to Moses on the mountain. It was a precise pattern because it is the foundation of our study of Yeshua as High Priest. It is wonderful how the Holy Spirit will speak to us as we study these matters faithfully, just as all Bible teachers and learners should. This follows the example of the Apostle Paul, who set the Torah foundations for his later ministry while at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Later, after understanding Yeshua’s fulfilment, his ministry of the Gospel was fully grounded on all Scripture.
A good technique of Torah study is to read the weekly portions in a prayerful listening attitude, and see how the Holy Spirit highlights specific truths that travel, like threads in a tapestry, through all of Scripture. Wonderfully, both understanding and faith grow as one studies in this way.
Exodus 28 contains a perfect example. We see how Aaron, the High Priest, was to carry the burden of the Children of Israel before God, wearing symbols of this ministry on his garments. Two memorial stones were engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, six on one and six on another. They were to be part of the shoulder straps of the ephod so that Aaron was always conscious of carrying, like a burden on his shoulders, a memory of God’s people before the Lord into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle. Likewise, twelve precious stones were engraved with the names of the twelve tribes and incorporated into his breastplate:
So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the Lord continually. (Exodus 28:29)
Aaron’s garments were full of beauty so that the precious names of Israel’s sons were carried, with dignity, before God. Only Aaron, as High Priest, was permitted to go before God in this way. As we study the history of Israel, we know that neither Israel’s sons nor their descendants were perfect, yet God made a way that their imperfections could be atoned for when the High Priest, and all the Levites performed their duties before Him. This ministry of the High Priest is called intercession – standing before God on behalf of His people.
If the ministry of the Levitical priesthood had continued in God’s ordained pattern, and if the Children of Israel had sought to live in God’s ways with all their heart, despite imperfection, God would have covered their imperfections due to the intercession and sacrificial ministry of the priesthood. However, as we search the Scriptures we read how, time and again, human weakness led to failure, especially among the Priests.
The pattern for the ministry of the High Priest, in both offering sacrifice to God and bearing the burden for the people before God, is clearly set before us in the Scriptures. This leads us to more fully understand the wonderful ministry of our Saviour and Intercessor, Yeshua HaMashiach.
The ministry of intercession is not easy. Aaron was given a special place of dignity and honour before God, to be set aside day after day for this ministry but the burden was great . This magnifies the ministry of our Saviour Yeshua, perfect in His sacrifice and perfect in His ministry as High Priest, constant over all time.
The writer to the Hebrews understood how Yeshua fulfilled the intercessory ministry:
He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:24-25)
But how does this apply to God’s people today? Perhaps we do not always perceive our need, but if we look around the Christian Church, we have to admit that we find imperfection, despite all that God has done for us through Yeshua. We are all still maturing in faith and ministry. Our own imperfections are often hidden from us, and we can also be self-condemning when we know we have fallen short. Yet the truth is that our Saviour is constantly, by His very presence with the Father, interceding for those He loves. Yeshua gave Himself as our sacrifice and, as High Priest, He is overcoming through intercession the consequence of our ongoing failures in our journey of faith.
When we stumble, as we do at every stage of our growth as disciples, we can find freedom of condemnation from our Heavenly Father on account of our Saviour’s continuing loving intercession. We have been saved through faith in our Saviour’s sacrifice on the Cross and now we are able to grow in faith as disciples and serve in ministry even in our imperfection. How wonderfully freeing this is, as long as our heart is to humbly do right in all things before God! Paul pointed out the balance of this in his letter to the Romans, that our freedom in the life of faith should also be disciplined: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! (Romans 6:1-2)
How wonderful that every moment including when I am writing this and you are reading it, and in whatever we do today, if we seek to grow in faith as disciples of Yeshua, our Saviour is interceding for us and all His people. What Aaron and his descendants could not do, Yeshua has accomplished (Romans 8:3) and is still accomplishing, so that God our Father accepts us as His children with the fullness of His love. Beginning with His intercessory cry from the Cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, Yeshua’s ministry on our behalf ensures our daily ongoing fellowship with our loving Father in Heaven. What a High Priest! What a Saviour!
As an additional point, we might ask whether we also have a role in the intercessory ministry. Peter made it clear that Yeshua’s disciples from all nations are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 4:9), just as Israel was a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6). Yeshua is likened to Melchizedek and is from the Tribe of Judah, so His priesthood is not Levitical, whilst fulfilling the pattern of the Aaronic priesthood. In our priestly role, there is a call to minister in prayer. Paul calls us to be clothed in the Lord Jesus (Romans 13:14) and we can link this with Yeshua’s call to prayer in Him in John 15: 7-8:
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
There can only ever be one High Priest of the New Covenant but we are, nevertheless, called to share in the intercessory ministry of Yeshua from the place of abiding in Him.