Acharei Mot
After the death
“Blood Life”
Leviticus 16:1-18:30
Ezekiel 22:1-19 (A); 22:1-16 (S)
excerpted from TorahScope, Volume I
Just like the double Torah portions of Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) which are separated for leap year readings, Acharei Mot is usually coupled with the following portion, Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27). Our selection for this week starts out with describing the meticulous requirements the high priest was to perform on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.[1] It is followed by general instruction about sacrificial offerings and blood,[2] and various kinds of inappropriate sexual relations.[3]
The instructions detailing Yom Kippur naturally get your attention in reading Acharei Mot. This observance is stated to be a permanent statute and a special High Sabbath, when God’s people contemplate their humanity by humbling themselves:
“It shall be a statute to you forever [chuqat olam]: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no kind of work, whether native-born or a stranger who lives as a foreigner among you; for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you. You shall be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever” (Leviticus 16:29-31, WMB).
Once a year, the Lord really has wanted His people to think about their sins—both individual and corporate—and what it took to provide restitution for them. While Believers today might not think that this is really necessary, because we each have the blood covering and sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua, there are still things to pray about on Yom Kippur such as those who do not have the blood covering of Messiah Yeshua over their lives. We can also consider how we ourselves have been maturing, or not, in Him. By fasting and humbling ourselves on this solemn day, each of us can reflect on where we stand before the Lord, acknowledging those areas before Him in prayer where we need to improve. We can reflect on how the original sacrifice offered at Yom Kippur has now given way to the supreme sacrifice in what the Son of God has accomplished, as was summarized by the Apostles:
- “being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua, whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance” (Romans 3:24-25, WMB).
- “In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7, WMB).
- “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Yeshua the Messiah and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied” (1 Peter 1:2, WMB).
- “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Yeshua the Messiah his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7, WMB).
If Paul, Peter, and John understood and reflected upon the need for a blood sacrifice to cover sin—with Yeshua’s own blood now permanently covering sin—it is obviously beneficial for the redeemed in Him to reflect on what this all means, and what He endured on the tree. In this week’s Torah portion, the principle of an animal giving of itself and its blood to (temporarily) cover a human transgression, is articulated:
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life” (Leviticus 17:11, WMB).
Here, our Heavenly Father explained how an atonement for sin could only be accomplished by the substitution of life-for-life or blood-for-blood. In the Torah, God originally required various animals (cf. Leviticus 17:2) to provide some kind of covering for human sin. Of course, these sacrifices had to be repeated over and over, because an animal sacrifice is incomplete to cover a human sin. When Yeshua finally came and offered Himself up for fallen humanity, a permanent covering became available. In fact, according to the author of Hebrews, Yeshua’s sacrificial work is tied directly to His priestly work, and the inauguration of the age of New Covenant[4]:
“But Messiah having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance…For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Torah, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you [Exodus 24:8].’ He sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. According to the Torah, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Messiah hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, so Messiah also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:11-15, 19-28, WMB).
In this passage from Hebrews, the author talked about entrance into the Holy of Holies and the blood which was required to cover sin. He used the Levitical priesthood and sacrifices, as a point of comparison and contrast for the Melchizedekian priesthood and sacrifice of Yeshua. Twice within his treatise, he interweaved the reality of the New Covenant now being available by the Messiah’s work (Hebrews 8:7-13; 10:14-18). Yeshua’s obedience to offer Himself up as the sacrificial Lamb, initiated the permanent atonement and forgiveness promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34:
“‘Behold, the days come,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ says the LORD. ‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ says the LORD: ‘I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, “Know the LORD;” for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,’ says the LORD, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more’” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, WMB).
When you read the Messianic Scriptures, you realize how the Apostles were very much aware of the serious, salvation-historical impact of Yeshua’s death. They understood how His shed blood was critical for the salvation of human beings and the inauguration of the New Covenant, and the permanent atonement and forgiveness it entailed. By reading their epistles and knowing what parts of the Tanakh they either were quoting from or alluding to, you can conclude that they definitely knew how the New Covenant also involved the Lord writing His Law onto the hearts of the redeemed in Messiah.
While thinking through this in light of Acharei Mot, it dawned on me that the principles discussed in our Torah portion, were also referenced at a crucial and important juncture in the development of the early Body of Messiah. In the early years after the ascension of Yeshua into Heaven, the good news or gospel was going forth in power, and people from a diverse array of backgrounds and cultures were coming to a knowledge and acceptance of Him. A contention arose among the early Believers, because in certain areas as the good news went forth, some of the Jewish Believers demanded that the new, non-Jewish Believers become circumcised as proselytes in order to be considered “saved” (Acts 15:1).
When was the last time you read through Acts 15? From the testimonies we see recorded by Luke, if the controversy over the inclusion of non-Jewish Believers as equals into the fledgling ekklēsia was not resolved—it would erupt into a divided Body of Messiah. The non-Jewish Believers were saved the same way as Jewish Believers, by the grace of the Lord Yeshua (Acts 15:11), but not all agreed. The mixed assembly at Antioch, Paul and Barnabas’ hub of operation, seemed to not really have any problems until some highly conservative Jewish Believers from Judea came to make a visit. They insisted that without the non-Jewish Believers being circumcised as proselytes, they could not be saved (Acts 15:1-2). Knowing how the good news was spreading out into the Mediterranean, a fair-minded solution to a potential crisis would have to be found. Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to determine what should be done (Acts 15:3-4). The Jerusalem Council which was convened, was presided over by James, the half-brother of Yeshua, and Peter, who was the first Jewish Believer to share the good news with a non-Jew (cf. Acts chs. 10-11; 15:7-11).
If you follow the proceedings which are described in Acts 15, you will note how James seemed to sit back and listen to the different testimonies and arguments which were presented (Acts 15:7-12), before he issued his ruling. There is no doubt that James understood—as well as many of his contemporaries—that Yeshua had inaugurated the New Covenant with His sacrificial death. James would have certainly known that the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 was to be made with a restored people of Israel, and that God’s salvation was to go forth to the nations. He agreed with the testimony of Peter, and confirmed “how God…visited the nations to take out of them a people for his name” and “This agrees with the words of the prophets” (Acts 15:14-15, WMB).
James recognized the Biblical reality that the salvation of the nations was a part of the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel (cf. Acts 1:7). A specific Tanakh passage he appealed to was Amos 9:11-12, from this week’s Haftarah selection. This appeared within a larger prophecy detailing the restoration of Israel:
“‘After these things I will return. I will again build the tabernacle of David, which has fallen. I will again build its ruins. I will set it up that the rest of men may seek after the Lord: all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things [Amos 9:11-12, LXX].’ All of God’s works are known to him from eternity” (cf. Acts 15:16-18, WMB).
There was a noticeable difference with what James said in Acts 15, as Luke narrated his quote with, “SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME” (Acts 15:17, NASU). James did not follow the Hebrew text in Amos which read with sh’eirit Edom, but the Septuagint which read with hoi kataloipoi tōn anthrōpōn. The Septuagint’s Jewish translators understood Edom to be connected to adam, the Hebrew word for “mankind, people” (HALOT),[5] and they rendered it into Greek as “the remnant of the people” (Lexham English Septuagint), referring to God’s faithful remnant which would come forth out of humanity’s masses.
James recognized that by the work of the Messiah, the Tabernacle of David was being rebuilt—representative of the prophetic/charismatic worship ministry which King David had once established (cf. 1 Chronicles 25). Such a ministry was now manifested in the good news going forth and changing lives, and was going to affect far more than just First Century Jewish community. People from the world at large were going to be impacted with the salvation of Israel’s Messiah. And, not only would they come to welcome the gospel, but the Prophets of Israel recognized how they would seek being taught from God’s Torah (Micah 4:1-3; Isaiah 2:2-4). Even though there were more details to be considered in the wider selection of Amos 9:7-15—and James himself made a specific appeal to “the words of the prophets” (Acts 15:15), meaning that there were many more Tanakh passages he could have affirmed—Amos 9:11-12 itself is quite loaded.
The Jewish Apostles and leaders of the early ekklēsia had a great command of the Scriptures. There is every reason to believe that James could have had the entire Torah, and large parts of the Tanakh, memorized. After all, both he and Yeshua grew up in the same home together. Here, Yeshua was instructed, in all truth and righteousness, by His Earthly father Joseph. The other siblings received the same instruction from their Torah obedient parents (cf. Jude 1). As James presided over the Jerusalem Council, listening to all of the arguments made, you will note by his conclusions how three of the four specific things James concluded must be adhered to by the new, non-Jewish Believers, were actually derived from this week’s Torah portion. While circumcision and proselyte conversion were not required of them for inclusion in the faith community, there were some things which the non-Jewish Believers had to do which were non-negotiable. The decree issued by James was,
“Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God, but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood. For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who proclaim him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath” (Acts 15:19-21, WMB).
James listed four sinful activities which he knew needed to be immediately stopped, in order for the new, non-Jewish Believers to be allowed to come in among Jewish Believers. Three of these restrictions are considered in Acharei Mot, and the fourth is mentioned and further discussed in the next Torah portion, Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27). According to the conclusions agreed upon by those at the Jerusalem Council, the four things which had to be adhered to, in order to minimize the possible tension between the Believers, included:
- abstinence from pollutions of idols
- abstinence from fornication
- abstinence from things strangled
- abstinence from blood
As the non-Jewish Believers would follow these four prohibitions, each of which is rooted within the Torah, they would be able to fellowship with Jewish Believers. James’ concluding statement in Acts 15:21, “For from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat” (CJSB), is a controversial one across much of today’s Messianic community. Acts 15:21 certainly does affirm a Torah background for the four prohibitions of the Apostolic Decree (Acts 15:20, 29). Likewise, when the four prohibitions were actually followed by the new Greek and Roman Believers, they would consequently find themselves part of a social and religious environment where Moses was being taught upon every week. These four requirements would help take the pagan culture out of the lives of the new, non-Jewish Believers.
In time, as they would become familiar with the instructions of the Tanakh, these former idol-worshipping pagans would begin to receive further understanding about how His Torah was to guide Messiah followers in holiness (cf. Matthew 5:16). By the power of the New Covenant supernaturally writing God’s commandments onto the heart—and not some demand of Torah-keeping for salvation (Acts 15:1, 5)—would the early, non-Jewish Believers learn to appreciate Moses’ Teaching.
What are some of the things these new Believers would learn from the Torah? Simply consider how three of the prohibitions delivered by James were specific negative commandments seen in Acharei Mot (and the fourth is talked about in Kedoshim).
(1) The first, and most obvious of the prohibitions which James issued, regarded the practice of idolatry. In Acharei Mot, the Torah addressed the problem of sacrifices to goat demons, which God commanded the Israelites to stop. In Kedoshim, the idols of molten gods were mentioned. James’ instruction would have prohibited any of the non-Jewish Believers from participating in social and civic events at the local shrine, where people could have conducted business activities, seeking the favor of the gods, or participated in some kind of festal rites. In this section of Leviticus, the Torah commands,
“They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat idols, after which they play the prostitute. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations” (Leviticus 17:7, WMB).
“Don’t turn to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:4, WMB).
(2) The second admonition from James related to sexual immorality, a major theme of Leviticus ch. 18. While temple prostitution could definitely be in view, a whole host of sexual sins from fornication to adultery to homosexuality and bestiality were included. Acharei Mot listed many vile acts of sexual sin. The consequence of these sins for the Ancient Israelites was ejection from the Promised Land. For Believers, James could have considered violation of these commandments as grounds for excommunication from the assembly:[6]
“Don’t defile yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled. The land was defiled. Therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out her inhabitants. You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you (for the men of the land that were before you had done all these abominations, and the land became defiled), that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you” (Leviticus 18:24-28, WMB).
(3) The third prohibition James issued regarded strangled meats, or animals which were killed by either choking or suffocation, with the specific intent of keeping large quantities of blood coagulated within the meat. He knew how serious the warnings were against consuming blood, as seen in the Torah, as animals killed for human food were to be properly respected (cf. Genesis 9:4). The non-Jewish Believers were expected to eat properly butchered meat, and by implication a kosher-style of diet, for fellowship with Jewish Believers. As our parashah this week details,
“Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people…For as to the life of all flesh, its blood is with its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not eat the blood of any kind of flesh; for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.’ Every person that eats what dies of itself, or that which is torn by animals, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. Then he shall be clean” (Leviticus 17:10, 14-15, WMB).
While there were many areas of the Torah where the Jewish Believers recognized that the new, non-Jewish Believers would not change instantly—James’ decree in Acts 15:19-21 listed four prohibitions where the Jewish Believers could not be forbearing. Change was required. With the agreement of the others gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 15:22), the admonitions of James were made a “standard policy” during the early stages of building the Body of Messiah (Acts 21:25). But, the testimony of the Apostolic Scriptures indicates that such a policy, with just four areas requiring mandated change, was not always easy.
We read later about problems which arose in Corinth from eating meat sacrificed to idols. The Apostle Paul, confronting a Corinthian assembly who had people claiming “Everything is permissible for me” (1 Corinthians 6:12, NIV) and committing a wide variety of sins (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:1), noted to them: “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:13, WMB). This was pretty serious, not only because they could have brought meat sacrificed to idols to fellowship meals—but also because many of the Corinthians were still engaged in the social circle of the pagan temple! The Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:19-21 was precisely designed for the non-Jewish Believers to be cut off from the social sphere of the pagan temple, and for them to be associated with their fellow Jewish Messiah followers or at least those who recognized Israel’s One God.
Of all of the things which the new, non-Jewish Believers would have been exposed to, as they began entering to the Body of Messiah, and were doubtlessly exposed to Moses’ Teaching, was the role which blood played as a covering for sin. They would have heard the Torah’s instructions on how animals were to be sacrificed at specific times and in specific ways to provide a temporary atonement for human transgression. This might have been different from the sacrificial offerings made in Greco-Roman temples, often provided to just appease the gods or curry their favor. The non-Jewish Believers, seeing how the Levitical priesthood would have to offer sacrifices over and over again, would hopefully realize how the most important blood shed was that of the Messiah Yeshua. And hopefully, they would understand how His shed blood offered permanent atonement for all humanity.
Today’s Messianic community has attracted many evangelical Christians wanting to embrace their faith heritage in Israel’s Scriptures. They are not like the first non-Jewish Believers, who were originally raised in paganism. They already know Messiah Yeshua, and they have a basic idea about the Bible’s morality. But they do need to learn more about the Torah and the Tanakh, in an effort to appreciate why Yeshua came and died for our sins. We all need to learn to appreciate—non-Jewish and Jewish—why He came and shed His blood for us. For, it is only by His sacrifice, that permanent atonement and forgiveness are truly available! Only by what He has accomplished, can we have eternal life and restored communion with the Father!
NOTES
[1] Leviticus 16:1-34.
[2] Leviticus 17:1-16.
[3] Leviticus 18:1-30.
[4] Cf. Hebrews 8:7-13; 10:14-18; and Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:25-27.
[5] Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, eds., The Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 2001), 1:14.
[6] This is something which the Apostle Paul had to specifically instruct in 1 Corinthians 5.
