Haftarah Shemini
“Right Hand Intercession”
2 Samuel 6:1-7:17 (A); 6:1-19 (S)
excerpted from TorahScope Haftarah Exhortations
Our Torah reading for this week, Shemini (Leviticus 9:1-11:47), commences with the final stages of the consecration of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The eight days of sacrifices were being completed, and as they came to a close, a fire attributed to the Lord fully consumed the available offerings. Upon witnessing this supernatural event, the Israelites first shouted, and then they fell on their faces in the presence of great holiness:
“Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting, and came out, and blessed the people; and the LORD’s glory appeared to all the people. Fire came out from before the LORD, and consumed the burnt offering and the fat upon the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces” (Leviticus 9:23-24, WMB).
At the end of Shemini, after the dramatic description about the fiery deaths of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10), and reviewing some of the specifics of the kosher dietary laws (Leviticus 11), God communicated how He both desired and required a holy people because He is holy:
“For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45, WMB).
Pondering this Torah portion, the overwhelming sense of not only being in the presence of the Holy One, but also striving for personal holiness and cleanliness, should come to our minds.
When the Sages focused on this parashah, it was the apparent lack of holiness via offering strange fire, which triggered the tragic deaths of Nadab and Abihu, which understandably piqued their attention. It was this supernatural event, which became the link for the selected Haftarah meditation, which itself is centered around the unexpected death of Uzzah, as he merely reached out to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant, as it was being transported from the house of Abinidab to Jerusalem. Note in the following two passages from our Torah and Haftarah selections, the parallel between a need for holiness missing in the actions of Nadab and Abihu, and what was termed a lack of reverence in the case of Uzzah:
“Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. Fire came out from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘This is what the LORD spoke of, saying, “I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.”’ Aaron held his peace. Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, ‘Draw near, carry your brothers from before the sanctuary out of the camp.’ So they came near, and carried them in their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said. Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, ‘Don’t let the hair of your heads go loose, and don’t tear your clothes, so that you don’t die, and so that he will not be angry with all the congregation; but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled. You shall not go out from the door of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; for the anointing oil of the LORD is on you.’ They did according to the word of Moses. Then the LORD said to Aaron, ‘You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. You are to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean. You are to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by Moses’” (Leviticus 10:1-11, WMB).
“They set God’s ark on a new cart, and brought it out of Abinadab’s house that was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. They brought it out of Abinadab’s house which was in the hill, with God’s ark; and Ahio went before the ark. David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD with all kinds of instruments made of cypress wood, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with castanets, and with cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached for God’s ark and took hold of it, for the cattle stumbled. The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by God’s ark. David was displeased because the LORD had broken out against Uzzah; and he called that place Perez Uzzah to this day. David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, ‘How could the LORD’s ark come to me?’” (2 Samuel 6:3-9, WMB).
Contemplating these two dramatic episodes in the history of Ancient Israel, some perplexing thoughts might just percolate in your mind. Obviously for some Divine purposes, the Holy One wanted both of these incidents to be recorded in the Bible. He knew that for generations, people were going to have to review these accounts, and deal with the reality of what they communicate. In Leviticus 9:1-11:47, the culmination of the eight-day altar dedication, was observed somewhat frivolously by the sons of the high priest Aaron. For unknown reasons, Nadab and Abihu placed some kind of strange, unauthorized fire, on the recently dedicated altar. Many theories abound as to what actually happened to warrant such a fiery judgment (including, as the passage records, a prohibition against consuming wine or strong drink prior to ministering to the Lord). The passage does not adequately describe what the motives of Nadab and Abihu were, or even elaborate on what the “strange fire” really was. So speculation is diverse. What we know for certain, is that they did something quite unholy.
On the other hand, in the case of Uzzah, the comment that he was “irreverent” (NASU), indicates that he was somehow disrespectful of the Ark of the Covenant, what it represented for Israel, or perhaps its contents. Even though the Ark of the Covenant had been at the home of his father Abinadab prior to this event, Uzzah apparently did not possess a proper level of reverence for the holiness of this vessel. Some might argue that Uzzah was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that his attempt to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant was an instinctual reaction, which should not have been punished with death. But there was obviously something much more condemning, than just participating in the movement of the Ark of the Covenant.
After this tragic death, King David realized that the prescribed methods for transporting the Ark of the Covenant, were specified in commandments detailed in the Torah, which had somehow been overlooked (Numbers 4:15; Deuteronomy 10:8). It was not until three months, after some review of God’s Law, when David discovered how the Ark of the Covenant was to be moved by the Levites, that the relocation of the Ark to Jerusalem could be completed:
“Then David said, ‘No one ought to carry God’s ark but the Levites. For the LORD has chosen them to carry God’s ark, and to minister to him forever.’ David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the LORD’s ark to its place, which he had prepared for it” (1 Chronicles 15:2-3, WMB).
Our Haftarah reading describes the three-month hiatus, and the relocation of the Ark of the Covenant to its dwelling at the house of Obed-edom the Gittite:
“David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, ‘How could the LORD’s ark come to me?’ So David would not move the LORD’s ark to be with him in David’s city; but David carried it aside into Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house. The LORD’s ark remained in Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house three months; and the LORD blessed Obed-Edom and all his house. King David was told, ‘The LORD has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that belongs to him, because of God’s ark.’ So David went and brought up God’s ark from the house of Obed-Edom into David’s city with joy. When those who bore the LORD’s ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the LORD’s ark with shouting and with the sound of the shofar” (2 Samuel 6:9-15, WMB).
Notice the reverence which is given to God’s Ark, as displayed by King David and his entourage. A sacrifice of an ox and a fatling were being regularly offered—accompanied by exuberant celebration. The joy of adhering to the direction for moving the Ark of the Covenant, and the opportunity to relocate it to God’s designated place on Mount Zion, could finally be accomplished. As a result of the relocation, the Lord, through the Prophet Nathan, communicated to King David some of the everlasting rewards he and his progeny would receive. These wonderful prophecies, compiling much of what is considered to be the Davidic Covenant, are recorded for future generations:
“When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16, WMB).
For Believers in Great David’s Greater Son, the Messiah Yeshua, the fulfillment of these prophecies is complete, as He currently sits at the right hand of God the Father in the Heavenly realm:
- “Who is he who condemns? It is Messiah who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:34, WMB).
- “which he worked in Messiah when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:20, WMB).
- “This is a symbol of immersion, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him” (1 Peter 3:21-22, WMB).
- “but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet” (Hebrews 10:12-13, WMB; cf. Psalm 110:1).
Thankfully, Yeshua is interceding for all of us before His Father, in ways which we cannot possibly or even probably understand as limited mortals on Earth. Contemplating this week’s Haftarah reading, I would ask you to consider these thoughts:
- Have you ever in your ignorance or naiveté, presented an offering or gift to the Lord which might not be appropriate, now that you are more mature in your walk studying the Torah and Haftarah? Could that offering have been construed as “strange fire” regarding the timing, place, or nature of it?
- Have you ever contemplated that such an offering or gift of this manner, could possibly be met with fiery judgment? Or at the very least, some kind of negative consequences?
- What about the times when you might have said something presumptuously, or have instinctively replied to a statement, which provoked you in some kind of inappropriate, provocative fashion?
- Has your heart always been reverent to God and the things of God?
In His Sermon on the Mount, we see how Yeshua elevated human sin from not just a physical act, but to even the thought life of a person (Matthew 5:20-30). Have you ever had murderous, condemning, or lustful thoughts, which according to God’s Torah could warrant a stoning? Have you ever wondered why you have not been judged by the hand of God, bringing instant death? Is it possible that the Lord Yeshua has indeed been interceding for you from His position in Heaven at the right hand of the Father? I sincerely hope He has been doing this for each and every one of us!
We should all know, from the classic case of Ananias and Sapphira recorded in Acts 5, that we have a great example of a couple involved with the company of Believers, who nonetheless experienced dramatic deaths as a result of their sins. In many ways, these two people dropping dead, is not that dissimilar from what happened to Nadab, Abihu, and Uzzah:
“But a certain man named Hananiah, with Shappirah his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, then brought a certain part and laid it at the emissaries’ feet. But Peter said, ‘Hananiah, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.’ Hananiah, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things. The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him. About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in. Peter answered her, ‘Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.’ She said, ‘Yes, for so much.’ But Peter asked her, ‘How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.’ She fell down immediately at his feet and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband. Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who heard these things” (Acts 5:1-11, WMB).
Have you ever wondered why something as dramatic as this, in the early days of our Messianic faith, does not occur more frequently today? Surely, we find those who make personal pledges and vows, and do not fulfill them. Is it possible that the intercession of our Messiah Yeshua in Heaven, is preventing judgment on those who are irreverent or thinking ungodly thoughts—or much worse, actually mocking God and His judgment?
Someday, if the Father so wills, we may know the answer to some of these questions. In the interim, may each of these examples remind us of our need to seek Him and His righteousness. Give thanks for the intercession which has kept each of us alive to this day! Even more so, intercede for those being kept alive who have yet to partake of salvation!
