{"id":2317,"date":"2013-06-09T11:52:05","date_gmt":"2013-06-09T11:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matsati.com\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2013-06-09T11:52:05","modified_gmt":"2013-06-09T11:52:05","slug":"bits-of-torah-truths-parashat-chukat-looking-to-the-one-who-was-lifted-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/bits-of-torah-truths-parashat-chukat-looking-to-the-one-who-was-lifted-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Bits of Torah Truths, Parashat Chukat, Looking to the One who was lifted up"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weeks reading is from Parashat Chukat (Bamidbar \/ Numbers 16:1-18:32<\/em>), the priest takes the \u201cred heifer\u201d<\/em> outside of the camp, slaughters the heifer, and sprinkles the blood towards the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.\u00a0 The entire heifer is burned to ashes, its hide, flesh, blood, refuse (19:5<\/em>) and cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material are cast into the midst of the burning heifer.\u00a0 A ritually pure man is to gather up the ashes of the heifer.\u00a0 The ashes mixed with water are used for the removal of impurity (19:8-9<\/em>).\u00a0 Next, the mitzvot on touching the dead; if one is in the room with a dead person, he is unclean; if a one touches a dead man he is unclean.\u00a0 In addition to this, if one who is unclean by the dead comes in physical contact with someone else, that person also becomes ritually impure (19:22<\/em>).\u00a0 These Scriptures reveal to us that impurity behaves as a transmittable disease.\u00a0 In addition to this, it is interesting to note that death is connected to ritual purity and right standing with God (i.e. the ashes of the red heifer<\/em>).\u00a0 The scriptures state that Miriam died and was buried in the wilderness of Zin (20:1<\/em>).\u00a0 The people arrived at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin; there is no water and the people complain.\u00a0 The Lord instructs Moshe to take Aaron\u2019s staff and to \u201cspeak to the rock in their eyes.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Moshe and Aaron take the staff, go before the people, they speak harshly to the people and strike the rock two times (20:25-29<\/em>).\u00a0 The people complain because of the long journey and the Lord sends fiery serpents among the people and many die (21:6<\/em>).\u00a0 Moshe sets up a bronze serpent, everyone who looks upon the serpent did not die if they had been bitten.\u00a0 Israel moved from place to place and we read that Sihon refused to allow Israel to pass and so Israel struck him by the edge of the sword and took possession of the land from Armon to the Jabbok as far as the sons of Ammon (21:23-24<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u05db\u05ea\u05d1\u05d9 \u05d4\u05e7\u05d5\u05d3\u05e9 \/ The Holy Scriptures<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u05e1\u05e4\u05e8 \u05d1\u05de\u05d3\u05d1\u05e8 \u05e4\u05e8\u05e7 \u05db\u05d0<\/span><\/strong>
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Bamidbar \/ Numbers 21:5-9<\/em><\/strong>
\n21:5 The people spoke against God and Moses, \u2018Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.\u2019 21:6 The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 21:7 So the people came to Moses and said, \u2018We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.\u2019 And Moses interceded for the people. 21:8 Then the Lord said to Moses, \u2018Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.\u2019 21:9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. (NASB)<\/em><\/p>\n

While Israel is making their way to the Promised Land, we find a very short story of the people complaining again that they had no food saying God brought them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness.\u00a0 The Scriptures say that the Lord sent fiery serpents to bite the people and many died.\u00a0 The Lord then told Moshe to set up a bronze serpent so that whomever was bitten, looking upon the serpent they would not die. (21:5-9<\/em>)\u00a0 In 2 Kings, a few hundred years later, the people are found worshiping the bronze serpent.\u00a0 In 2 Kings 18:1-7<\/em>, Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel 18:3 He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.\u00a0 18:4 He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. (NASB)<\/em>\u00a0 The people did not understand the purpose of the bronze serpent and their sin led to idol worship.\u00a0 In the Apostolic Writings, Nicodemus comes to Yeshua at night and Yeshua tells him that in order to see the kingdom of God one must be born new.\u00a0 Nicodemus wonders whether a man can enter into his mother\u2019s womb again and be born and Yeshua uses the bronze serpent (and a Torah principle) to illustrate what he is saying in John 3:13 \u2018No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.\u00a0 3:14 \u2018As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 3:15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. (NASB)<\/em>\u00a0 Yeshua says \u201cI could give you heavenly explanations, but you can\u2019t receive them.\u201d<\/em> (3:12<\/em>)\u00a0 In Bamidbar \/ Numbers 21:5-9<\/em>, the serpent on the pole is not preventative, it was for a person who was bitten. (21:8<\/em>)\u00a0 The poison from the serpent is already active and without divine intervention a person will die.\u00a0 The snakes were sent from the Lord. (21:6<\/em>).\u00a0 Notice the means by which God chooses to rescue the people from the curse of the serpent, salvation comes by a picture of the curse itself (a serpent).\u00a0 All one had to do in order to be saved from God\u2019s wrath is look at His provision hanging on the pole.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting at the beginning of Parashat Chukat (16:1-18:32<\/em>), we read about the \u201cred heifer,\u201d<\/em> the sprinkling of blood (atonement), the death of the heifer, and the ashes in water making a man ritually pure.\u00a0 The sin or tzaraat making a man unclean and impure before God, following God\u2019s divine intervention, death is required to restore ritual purity and right standing before Him.\u00a0 Considering all of these things in this midrash on Parashat Chukat, in order to be saved from sin that results in death, we look up to the one who was hung on the pole (the execution stake or cross<\/em>) we are presented with the one who bore our sin and with his death.\u00a0 Then, Lord raised Yeshua from the dead.\u00a0 Therefore, salvation comes by looking and believing in the one who was lifted up, Yeshua the Messiah!\u00a0 Praise the Lord for such a wonderful salvation!\u00a0 BTT_Parashat Chukat-2013<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weeks reading is from Parashat Chukat (Bamidbar \/ Numbers 16:1-18:32), the priest takes the \u201cred heifer\u201d outside of the camp, slaughters the heifer, and sprinkles the blood towards the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.\u00a0 The entire heifer is burned to ashes, its hide, flesh, blood, refuse (19:5) and cedar wood, hyssop, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-bits-of-torah-truth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matsati.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}