For What Have You Been Consecrated?

0:00 What we're going to do today is actually twofold. We're going to take a look at your Torah portion. And also we're going to continue our series on Luke. Because this week's portion and Luke comes straight from the store portion, Leviticus 12. So we're going to be taking a look, at Luke 2 verses 21 through 24, and then also Leviticus 12. And then we're going to talk just for a few minutes about what makes us unclean. I mean, aside from Sports and then you have to come home and take a shower because you stink. We're going to start. Let's start here in Luke Chapter 2

0:46 verses 21 through 24 when eight days had passed for his Brittany lie, let me pause here for just a moment, actually. And give some context just for everyone's sake, we are in Luke to Luke 2 talks about the birth of Yeshua. We spent the last two and a half months. Is that right covering the previous chapter and a half. And so now we're looking at Luke 2 verses 21 through 24. Miriam and Joseph are already in Bethlehem. They've already given birth. And now it says the text says when eight days had passed so we're given some time period. Yeshua is eight days old when eight days, excuse me, the baby boy is eight days old when

1:34 eight days had passed for his for his Brittany law. He was named Yeshua the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb and when the days of Vacation were fulfilled. According to the Torah of Moses. They brought him to Jerusalem to present to the Lord as it is written in the Torah of a deny. Every firstborn male that opens the womb Shall be Called, holy to the Lord. So they offered a sacrifice. According to what was said, in the Torah of Aden, I a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. So what we see here is eight days have passed for Brittany law. So let's pause for just a moment and talk about Brittany La, you know, if bodily emissions aren't awkward enough. Now, let's

2:20 talk about circumcision. Circumcision comes from Genesis chapter 17 when God comes to Abraham, has given him. His Covenant and Abraham. The sign of Abraham's obedience is circumcision in that sign is to Abraham and his sons forever. It's the physical sign of the Covenant between God and Abraham. All of the male's had to be circumcised in Abraham's house in the circumcision - Abraham in his house at that time. From that point forward had to be performed on The Eighth Day circumcisions. Also mentioned in your Torah portion in Leviticus chapter 12. It says in the Eighth Day the Flesh of

3:07 his foreskin is to be circumcised. So this is talking about baby boy after delivery. And it's here that we recognize because the passage continues and says and the baby, let's see. Let me just want to make sure here. When eight days had passed for his Brittany law. He was named Yeshua. So this is a Jewish tradition, that's even in effect today, so we can presume now. We're reading backward into the text, which is not always safe to do, but we can kind of safely. I presume that the Jewish Tradition at that time, was the same that it is today, which is you don't get a name, a baby boy, doesn't get his name until the Eighth Day.

3:53 It's what the text says about your shoe up until this point. He was a baby. They had a baby. And then, on the eighth day, he had his Brittany law, and he was named Yeshua. On the eighth day. This name was provided by the angel Gabriel as we see in Luke 1:31 before she conceived Yeshua. And we see the name a, the reason for the name of Yeshua. See I'm going to come to this in a few minutes Zack, but names have meaning. Almost every name has meaning and especially in Jewish tradition. Names are calling forth something within the child. They have a special meaning for

4:39 the, for the person, and their Destiny. So, what we see in, in Matthew chapter 121, it says, she will give birth to a son talking about Miriam and you shall call him Yeshua. For he will save his people from their sins. In English, it doesn't make sense to us. Why does it mean? Of course you she was going to save the people from the sense because we know now that Yeshua is our sin offering and and was presented before the Lord and so on and so forth. So, of course, he he's taken our sins away from us. But there's a deeper meaning than just the statement the to tie together because in Hebrew the word, this is from from David Stern's, commentary in

5:26 the in Hebrew. The word for he will save is yoshiya, which means it has the same Hebrew word as, as the name Yeshua, which is a contraction of yahushua. Thus, the messiah's name is explained on the basis of what he will do. Etymologically the name. Yeshua is a contraction of the Hebrew name. Yahushua which means the Lord saves, you would have of Jesus saves. It is also, the masculine form of the Hebrew word, Yeshua, which means salvation. So Zach, what is your full name? Zachariah. Do you know what Zachariah means?

6:12 Okay, let's talk about this. Zachariah comes from two Hebrew words. It comes from the Hebrew words, the car and the word. Yeah, Zach are the root word of dzokhar, the root letters of dzokhar mean. Remember, so when we talk about today, it's we often say is a w**** and wins. A core is said by itself. It's remembering the Holocaust. So you'll see People was a w**** written on different things and what their it has the singular purpose today of causing us to remember. So your name Zach are Remember, yeah, remember God in

6:58 other but when you put them together, it means the Lord remembered. So Zach, I suspect moving forward. It's important for you to remember that because you're going to be going through life and you're going to experience difficulty. Now. I'm not prophesying over you that you're going to have a rough life. I'm telling you what life actually is, life is difficult as actually you've experienced even to this point of coming up to make Aliyah. There are difficulties. There are challenges that standard None of us that we have to persevere and overcome. And in those moments, your name, should remind you that the Lord remembers.

7:45 He'll remember you even in those difficult periods, even those difficult moments. Don't believe anybody. Who tells you that life is easy. I suspect that that person hasn't lived. Let's move onward in this, to the next verse in Luke Chapter 2. And when the days of their purification were fulfilled. Speaking to concerning Miriam according to the Torah of Moses. They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to be for the Lord. So this is where the tort your tour portion in particular ties in because in your Torah portion, Leviticus chapter 12 talks about the days of purification for a mom. After giving birth. You mentioned that in your message,

8:32 in your drache. It mentions seven days plus 33 days, for a male child and upon their completion. The mother is to bring a burnt offering and a sin offering to the Cohan to the priest at the tent of meeting. Let's talk for a few minutes because this passage in Leviticus has been misunderstood for forever. Here in Leviticus 12. We have these terms that are used to May and tahor which are often translated as clean and unclean. Now, let me read you one, Messianic authors.

9:19 Definition here, the Hebrew terms to May until horror are not equivalent to the English terms unclean and clean as some translations have it. Instead. They can note being temporarily disqualified or qualified for contact with holy objects and holy space. Rabbi Stewart Bowerman. In the unclean State or the unqualified if you will, it placed a person in limited communal access now you and I talked about this a little bit in our meaning, it places that person in a limited. Communal access space but in terms of practicality for a new mom. I talked to you and I told you, your mom was probably this

10:06 way as well. I suspect every other mom in here was relatively similar. For a new mom, they don't want anybody near their child. And so what happens here is God gives us in Leviticus 12, some parameters that actually keep people away. Because what happens, especially when you come into a communal space, everybody sees your baby like, oh, but a cute little baby. Let me touch the hands. Let me kiss the face and let me rub my dirty hands all over the child. Let me pass along every germ that I have. And every germ that everybody else in here who I've shaken, their hands now has and let me touch your child's hands and face. So your child

10:52 can then put the hands in the mouth? And pick the nose and, you know, do everything, the little children do. What we see here is by limiting, communal, access for the baby. In the mom. What it does is it actually serves as a protective barrier for them? Protecting them from listen to first. The first month of life is it is difficult. Now, it's difficult today in our modern world with all of the modern medicine and everything that we possibly can have back then, it was even more. So as you know, today we joke that a baby isn't

11:37 Well, maybe that's not inappropriate joke. There is a Jewish joke. I let me rephrase the way I'm going to say it. There is a Jewish joke that a baby boy. Doesn't become a person until he graduates from medical school. But all joking, aside the early time period in a baby's life is very dangerous for the baby. Certainly back then. And even until today. What we see is in your tour portion there seven days in the talks, about the circumcision, which, then Yeshua experiences, and then his, he's given his name Yeshua, and then it says, in the days of their purification.

12:24 When we get the correct quote here. And that, when the days of their purification were fulfilled, they went up to Jerusalem. So what were the what are those days? Well, they're 33 days as you mentioned that follow that. And so they bring Yeshua to present him before the Lord. Why would they present your show up before the Lord? What does it matter? They're coming. They should be coming to offer a sacrifice. That's what Leviticus 12 tells us. But it says, as it is written in the Torah and verse 23, every firstborn male that opens the womb Shall be Called. Holy to the Lord. What this right is in Jewish tradition is opinion have been or a Redemption of the first born. Where do we get it from? We get it from Exodus, chapter 13 from here's 13 to consecrate

13:12 to me is the Lord speaking consecrate to me all of the firstborn from every womb of the children of Israel, both men and animals. This is mine, says the Lord and then in 13 verse 13, but you are to redeem every firstborn male among your son's. The parents are to, this is from November November. That's not a book in the Bible from the from the Book of Numbers, chapter 18, verses 15 16. The parents are to redeem the firstborn male by buying him back from the Lord for the price of five silver shekels. Why is there a need for Redemption? Because this is what Passover is about. Israel is being bought by God.

13:58 In redeemed. We're almost to pass over. and in that, in that period, what we see at the end of the time of Israel in the land of Egypt, we see a set of plagues and the final plague is what, you know, what the death anyway, I'll just answer my own question since I just did it. The final plague is the death of the firstborn and the death of the firstborn that happens. What we see is the Salvation of Israel's first born or the Deliverance of Israel's first born. And this is experienced by the application, by

14:43 applying the blood of the sacrifice Lamb on the doorpost to the house. And that is how Israel buys the firstborn child here in Exodus. So from that point onward, the Lord tells us that we have to Buy back our firstborn children. So in this case, yushua is the firstborn of Miriam. It seems more than coincidental to me. Now. I know some people believe in coincidences and some people believe in luck. I tend the older I get, I tend to believe in them less and less, but

15:29 it seems more than coincidental that Joseph and Miriam are adhering to all of these Commandments from the Torah. To me. It indicates actually that they were faithful to follow every word that the Lord had given and especially in the Torah. Because then they go up in verse 24, they offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Torah of Adonai a pair of turtledoves or two, young pigeons. Again, Zack. This is from your Torah portion, Leviticus 12 verse 8, if she cannot afford this time, about the mom. If she cannot afford a lamb, then she has to bring two turtledoves or two, young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Because Miriam and Joseph, bring these offerings.

16:16 It seems to indicate to me that Miriam and Joseph were not wealthy. Because they couldn't afford to purchase the lamb. That was to be offered instead. They had to go with two turtle doves or pigeons. By the way, I don't know if you've ever really considered this. We offer pigeons as sacrifices. For our sins. Like, this is what we're talking about here with your shoe as parents. Have you ever seen a pigeon? Pigeons. Do they remind you of an animal? That's very clean. Now, they're dirty. My grandpa used

17:03 to have used to, I don't know if you call it raised pigeons, but he had a thousand pigeons in his backyard. Like a thousand pigeons. I kid. You not, I saw them all. Those birds were so dirty. But I think about it that this sacrifice God used to bring cleanliness in this, in this case. So what does this mean for you and me and our community here, Zach? I have three primary questions, which will have some secondary questions for both you and for the rest of us. First of all, what role will Jewish customs

17:48 and Customs from the Torah play in your life, moving forward because we see here in this passage that Yeshua is parents. Were continuing to live according to customs from the Torah. My follow-up question. Is this, what is it? That makes you clean before the Lord. You can't dwell on that for a minute. You don't have to answer it. What is it? That makes you makes the rest of us clean before the Lord. Zack, your dad mentioned it, but you are coming of age. That's what the bar mitzvah is. The bar mitzvah is the transition. It's the beginning of the transition. Maybe, you know, we've kind of delayed everything in the western world. It's the beginning of the transition out

18:35 from underneath the covering of your parents and into your own personhood. Well, practically what that means is you'll be held accountable for your own actions. In other words, your parents. Bore all of your sins up until this point. Now you get to Bear them. That's a scary thing. When we talk about entering into the real world and and having wrongs that, we commit because the reality is Zach. I hate to burst your bubble, but you were going to sin sometime after right? This moment. I hate to burst. Everybody's bubble. Zack is not perfect.

19:23 At some point, not only Zack, but actually everybody in here will sin after this moment. Again, I hate to burst your bubble and and to to take away that thought of perfection that you might consider yourself or your spouse or your beloved one or whatever to to just have innately within us, but it's not true. All of us. Continue to sin. But Zach now, as you are coming out underneath the protective covering of your parents. How will you think? And what will you do differently?

20:08 As you grow more independent, you know what the consequences of our actions causes or let me rephrase. It should cause us to change our Behavior. because when we experience the consequences and we don't like them, it should cause us to be like, oh, maybe I shouldn't do it that way and again, As a young person zag, we don't necessarily think about what other people experience as a consequence of our own actions, especially when we're having fun, you know, we have fun often. I remember several instances when I was around your age. Zach. I

20:55 was talking with my study group this week and we were all sharing difference. Experiences that we had when we were right around your age. None of which I'm going to share with you today. I don't listen. I told the guys I said, you know some of these stories like I want to tell my children so that they can learn from my bad behavior. The problem is I think I'm actually going to give them ideas of what to do. So I have to like hold that part back and still try to figure out how to pass on the lesson. There were things that I did when I was your age, Zach even here in a communal moment.

21:41 Did I didn't realize how it would affect? Me people around me the community and even my own future. Yeshua talks about. What it is? The defiles a man. And when he talks about it, he points to that. Which proceeds from within a man or in other words, which comes out of his heart. That is what truly defiles a person. I use man. That's the term that this is we're talking about all people. It's that which comes out of you.

22:26 That is what's truly defiling. When when people begin to see what it is that you believe deep within and it manifests itself in actions or behavior. That's what defiles us. What we need to do is go to your shoe ago to the Lord every day and be like, hmm. What did I do today? Your see? What can I give you something that I did? Because I don't like that part of me. I don't like the fact that I didn't consider this other person's feelings as I was making this Choice today. So, it's always good Zack to think about what it is. That you are doing and how it's going to affect others.

23:16 When you think of our forefathers coming out of Egypt? What is it in your own life? The God has delivered you from Zack because what the scripture says is it says you are to tell every generation your to teach your children that God brought us out of Egypt. In other words, God delivered us from slavery. And what is it in your own life? Zack that you have enslaved yourself, too? Now that can go for anybody because all of this is applies to all of us. What is it that God has delivered you from because when we celebrate Passover,

24:01 maybe it was an actual slavery that you were delivered from but you can make a connection and say I was delivered from this sin and because of that I was enslaved to sin and God delivered me saved me. Pulled me out and allowed me to be today who I am. What is it that you have been consecrated for Zack? What is the purpose that God has for you in your life? We all of humanity were created. Four primary purpose. That primary purpose. We can see when

24:49 God delivers when he saves our people from Egypt. He doesn't just deliver them from slavery. He takes them out for the purpose. He even says it in the scripture for the purpose of worshipping him serving him. So all of humanity, our purpose is to worship God, that's where we derive our meaning. And what we are beginning to see in our society, today is a lack of meaning in people's lives. Why? Because they're not worshiping God. They're not serving him. Now I'm not detracting from what need is your individual purpose, but I want you to know whatever your individual purposes. It has to fit within that umbrella. Does it magnify the name of

25:37 God? We have our larger purpose and it's also important Zac to to delve into and ask the question. What is my unique purpose? What is it that God has me here to do. What, what is that? How can I be a blessing to others? You know what? If you ask the question, God will answer it. He may not answer the way that you want him to answer. Which is unfortunate for many of us. I think I don't mean unfortunate. It's not.

26:22 What many of us dreamed our purpose would be. But Zach, As you move forward. As you are now walking through the doorway, as my dad would put it, put it at my bar. Mitzvah, as you are now walking through the doorway of adulthood. Isaac you said the same thing, you are walking through the doorway, you know? It. Listen. You're not quite an adult. But you're walking through the doorway of adult and you're beginning to test the waters and see what it's like. Remember. Everything that you do is for the purpose of magnifying. God. Magnifying his name. And when you find that sweet spot in your life.

27:11 You'll find your own unique purpose that God has created just for you. Not for your dad. Not for your mom. Not for your brother, just for you. You'll find that spot. And when you find that spot in your magnifying, the name of the Lord. That's it. That's what we're here for. It's, that singular reason that we're here for. So Zach, mazel tov. I'm becoming a bar mitzvah. I'm excited for you. I'm excited for what the Lord has in store for you. You've experienced some trials along the way, but what is done is it's made you stronger for what's to come? Don't let any sort of trial or, or suffering. Hold

27:58 you back or even Or even cause you to forget God. Rather, let it be. Strengthen you for the purpose of serving him and call on him, David King, David. By the way, this is none of his my message. I'm just giving you my final word of encouragement, King, David. If you read the Psalms King, David is in some Dark Places throughout his life. But he always comes back to God. And he calls on the name of the Lord and says, Lord, You're my tower. You're my strong place. You're my refuge. You are my High Rock. You were my salvation.

28:43 In those moments. Find it within you to say the same thing. And the Lord will come and the Lord will be faithful to be with you. May the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to. You. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Yeah. Eva Rectify do night. They should Moran. Yeah, are I don't, I put over like a

29:28 buffoon. Ye sorrow, not a panda, blocka there some light showers. In the name of our Messiah Yeshua. Amen. Mazel Tov. Thank you for everything.