“Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, LET US DRAW NEAR with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith …” Hebrews 10:19-22a (NASB)
“And He-called to Moses, and YHVH spoke to him from the tent of meeting (tent of appointment) to say, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, “A man (adam) which brings-near, from you, an ‘offering-of-drawing-near’ to YHVH … ” ‘ “ Leviticus 1:1-2a
Opening up to Leviticus 1 in the Hebrew text I had barely read the first two verses when I was shocked to see the Hebrew for “bring/present an offering” (v2), because it reveals the very heartbeat of Almighty God towards mankind, most especially pointing forward to the moment of Jesus’s final breath on the cross.
Each book of the Bible, by their opening verses, reveal the intent of the Holy Spirit for that book. So it is with Leviticus. This book, however, is not called “Leviticus” (“book of the Levites”) in Hebrew, rather, “VaYikra”, that is, “And-He-Called”, the opening verse saying, “VaYikra el Moshe”, “And He called to [the one] drawn out, …”.
“Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, “A man (‘adam’ in Heb.) which brings-near, from you, an ‘offering-of-drawing-near’ to YHVH from (the) herd – from oxen or from flock – you-shall-bring-near/draw-near with your drawing-near-offering.” ‘ “
While most translations say, “present an offering”, “offer an oblation”, or, “offer a sacrifice”, there is an aspect to this word denoting “drawing-near”, showing the intent of this word. It is a single word, used both as a noun and a verb in Hebrew, specifically relating to a sacrifice, yet still very intentionally rooted in the denotation of “approaching”, having to do with coming into the midst. I knew its root word by recognition from Joshua 3 in the Hebrew text.
“And Joshua said to the people, ” Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow, YHVH will do, IN-THE-MIDST of you, wonders.” “ (v3)
Several verses later, Joshua, having commanded the priests to walk the Ark of the covenant through the camp before (literally “in the face of”) the people, which they do right away, immediately thereafter calls the people to draw near to hear the word of the LORD to them:
“and Joshua saith, ‘By this ye know that the living God [is] in your midst …” (v10) Young’s Literal Translation (YLT 1898)
Hence, what becomes obvious is the reason for the book of Leviticus: It is God’s call to us, His focused desire for us, to draw near to Him, to make an appointment, as it were – and doing thus through the blood of sacrifice – that we might hear, personally, from the God of the universe without obscurity, without a blocking veil because of sin or sin consciousness. This “drawing-near-sacrifice” is how Abel had first gotten God’s focused attention (Gen. 4:4). Moreover, this is how revelation kept coming to Abraham pertaining to the continued unveiling of the Divine promise of inheritance throughout his life.
Beloved, there is an acceleration presently by God’s Holy Spirit concerning this. His heart is to get us to intentionally meet with Him, yet even more, that we might grow in this, that our hearing might increase – in volume AND accuracy. He has a world to woo to Jesus, Beloved, because of the costly price of love that Jesus paid to gain them … and multitudes are crying in their hearts for the revelation of the real God.
There is, in Leviticus 1:2, a concealed word pointing to Jesus, yes, in sacrifice, but also in the issue of Him being the door, the door opener, even the very Trailblazer, to getting us through the veil to stand before God, before His Face, complete. (See Gen. 17:1b, Col.3:10).
“…an ‘offering-of-drawing-near’ to YHVH from (the) herd – from oxen …”
The first draw-near offering declared by the LORD in Leviticus is the offering of a bullock, a young male ox. The Hebrew word for ox is “בקר – (bqr)- Baqar“. (I’m showng the Hebrew with its English equivalent intentionally, to make known to you how I’m seeing the similarities to virtual identical words; for this is how I’m stumbling upon other non-definition-identical words that actually are connected to each other; we just can’t see it in English, so we don’t find the treasure). “Baqar’s” identical was so obvious to me because it had spoken so loudly to me many months ago in its distinct mention with Abraham, Moses, and Joshua. When I saw it here in Leviticus as another word, I looked up its root to find the link and thus the treasure.
וַיַּשְׁכֵּם אַבְרָהָם בַּבֹּקֶר – “vaYashKem Avraham BaBoqer …” – “And Abraham rose early in the morning …” Genesis 22:3a (NASB)
וַיַּשְׁכֵּם מֹשֶׁה בַּבֹּקֶר – ” vaYashKem Moshe BaBoqer …” – “And Moses rose early in the morning…” Exodus34:4 (NASB)
וַיַּשְׁכֵּם יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בַּבֹּקֶר – ” vaYashKem y’Hoshua BaBoqer …” – “And Joshua rose early in the morning…” Joshua 3:1 (NASB)
“Boqer”- (“morning”) and “Baqar”- (“ox”) are linked by their root action, and it is these that point directly to Jesus for our benefit. Their roots stem from a word meaning, “to plough, to Break forth”; and from this breaking open (of the earth or of the day), comes, “to seek, to enquire“.
This, then, is how both tie to Jesus, … and “coincidentally” in one particular gospel in one verse … Are you ready?
You may remember, in the making of the tabernacle, on the veil between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies (and on the ceiling fabric) there were cherubim, (which are described as being by the Throne, as seen of the two over the ark of the covenant) woven into the fabric, (Ex. 26:1,31). Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:7 describe four living creatures who are immediately around the Throne of God, having four different faces: a Lion, a Man, a Calf, and an Eagle. These may have been woven into the fabric of the veil, as Moses was commanded to make everything according to exactly as God had caused him, up on Sinai, to see it all; (See Ex. 25:40, Heb. 8:5). Each one of these faces describe Jesus respectively in one of each of the four1gospels: *- the Lion being a King, which is how Jesus is presented in Matthew (as seen in how His genealogy is presented through to King David, and to Abraham, who was promised that Kings would descend from him); * – the Calf, being a Servant (the ox was used in putting his shoulder to plow), which is Jesus in Mark’s gospel; * – the Man, as Luke shows (again, by the way His genealogy is presented all the way back through to Adam);aasjaa dd * – the Eagle, showing the One from heaven, as God’s Son, as God, as clearly shown in John’s gospel! (I.e. John 1:1)
It is in Mark’s gospel only that this One presented as the “Baqar”-“ox”, the Servant, the One Who would become the True “draw-near-sacrifice”, as presented by the LORD in Leviticus 1:2, that becomes first for us the Door/Door-Opener/Trailblazer, breaking open the day “Boqer”, the way into the Holy of Holies, Who did in (fulfillment) action literally as Abraham, Moses, and Joshua had done.
” And early in the morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there.” Mark 1:35 (NASB)
Do not servants rise early, even just before the break of day, to do their tasks? What Jesus did alone, as the Alpha, at the beginning of this “Baqar/Boqer” gospel, He completed as the Omega – in the Father breaking open, by Jesus’s sacrifice, the darkness brought on by the law (Mk. 15;33-38{ref. Ex 19, Heb. 12:18}) AND breaking open a New Dawn for mankind just before the Sun’s rising on that glorious ressurection morning – at the end of Mark’s gospel (Mk. 16;2,9).
Jesus was shown however, to be raised from out of the dead in ALL four gospels, thus as King Of kings, as still a Servant, as a Man, and as God (John 20:28, ref. also Rom. 1:4), passing through to the heavens, to God’s throne (See Heb 4:14).
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us …” Hebrews 6:19-20 (NASB)
“Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace…” Hebrews 4:16a (NASB)
While I’ve shown to you Biblically the theology of our Grace-gift entrance into the Holy of Holies by Jesus as our sacrificial Servant, it is imperative in this kairos time that you see together with this the other three faces. Because it is a Fullness of all of these authorities, as One fullness of authority, that Jesus has and is inviting us by GOD’s Grace to draw near to This Throne. Why? It is this Four-faced authority that we need as our covering, AND as our Voice of authority in these last days. For in this is Jesus glorified in His Servant/Sacrifice of what all He broke open for us, of what all He accomplished and gained for us and as us in His cross and in His Exalted-by-God Throne-seated position in heaven, that we might live and walk in Him and He in us, before a world looking for the real Revelation of the True God and in the face of an enemy that would keep this from happening at all costs.
So then, this is what I heard from Father on two different mornings as I was driving to work, just after I had begun this writing. I asked the Father what was on His heart, and He answered me, “My Son”. And as I asked as to this, immediately He spoke this verse to me:
“But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.” Hebrews 10:12-13 (NASB)
When God made the first Adam He gave to him dominion and authority to rule over the earth (Gen. 1:28). But the first Adam forfeited the authority of the glory of the authority image of God in which he was created. Therefore, Jesus, as a Man, as the last “Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45b), stripped the enemy of our souls, to whom the first Adam had forfeited his God-given authority, doing so at the cross (Col. 2:15), and was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven to sit on the Throne, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion – AND HE SEATED US WITH HIM ON THAT AUTHORITATIVE THRONE (Eph. 1:20-23), and a whole bunch of you are saying, “I know all that” …
When the LORD spoke to me that morning Hebrew 10:13, I asked Him about Jesus waiting till His enemies be put under His feet, if there was something on our part that we are to do in speeding this up or seeing this accomplished, His answer came to me from the story of Esther (chs. 4,5,7) … the king in the throne room waiting, as it were, for Esther to come in, (to draw near) in her royal garments, in the beauty of who she was as queen, to request a royal decision against Haman – for her enemy was the King’s enemy, her LORD’S enemy … (Because of her being of God’s people, the Jews, she would have been subject to the decree by Haman, the destruction of them all … depriving the King … of his first love!). Our drawing-near desire-of-God in this hour is far greater than we have esteemed. I believe we have been coming into the Throne Room, but for requests far lower than all that He has for us as Royal sons and daughters. We have not realized the great weightiness of our Royal endowment as a chosen, drawn-out, bride of Christ, of the Lion King Who sits on the highest, most powerful Throne in all creation. There is more to say on this, but not now.
One more word the LORD put on my heart; and for those of you who have been following this blog from last year, you will see what Holy Spirit is emphasizing, yet increasingly with greater weight to our spiritual understanding.
Look back at the very opening verse, Beloved:
“Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, Hebrews 10:19-22a (NASB)
What do you see, Dear One?
…
Communion!
The LORD’s table! This scares the enemies of Jesus more than anything, because every time you take the bread and the cup, you proclaim the LORD’s death … the enemy’s stripping … the ripped veil by Almighty God and Father, and invitation into THE most powerful Throne-room in the universe. Let me clearly state again as in past blogs, because every single one of us need to be reminded of this over and over pertaining to taking the LORD’s supper: Communion is NOT about remembering sin, even if we blew it 2 minutes ago. Rather it is a reminder that the power of sin was broken, the authority of sin was stripped from off of us in Jesus, made a reality for us the moment we believed into Jesus. Our greatest triumph, Beloved, is the cross of our LORD Jesus. Thus our greatest remembrance of that triumph is when we partake of Communion, the LORD’s body and blood, where that sacrifice became for us and always becomes for us the “draw-near-offering“, making us, by His grace-gifting, to stand Holy and Complete before God in Christ. When Paul, in I Corinthians 11:26ff teaches communion, what follows for us, in Chapters 12, 13, and then 14, is a revelation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of Who God is in Love, and the marriage of these two things … which consummation of these two as living revelations in the Bride of Christ, the Church, will be an unstoppable river of the Revelation of God in giving up His Son to Servant/Sacrifice, Living water to a lost and dying world looking in all the wrong religions for This Love of Heaven.
You are Greatly, Greatly loved, Beloved. Mark Dingemans
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** – Beloved, take the time to go through these scriptures, and let the Holy Spirit write them and bear witness to them in your hearts and minds. Let the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you wash through you and renew your mind. These blogs are meant to be Bible studies, so you are free to print up any newsletter of this blog site for your own study. Let communion be a refreshing of the Blood and the Spirit (Heb. 9:14) to cleanse your conscious from sin consciousness to righteousness consciousness, that you are indeed clean, as a gift of His grace. You are no more, Dearly Beloved, under condemnation; rather, you are under justification – eternally! (Rom. 4:25b, 5:21;b; Heb. 9:11-12).
If you have never believed into Jesus Christ, you can do so now, from your own heart and words. If you wish to help to pray, pray, “LORD Jesus, I believe You died for me and as me because You love me. I ask You for Your Forgiveness for my sin. Thank You for shedding Your blood to cleanse me, for making me clean, for breaking the power of sin in my life. I ask You to live inside of me. I thank You, Jesus, for giving me eternal life, that I might know You and Your Father, as my God, forever. In Your Name, LORD Jesus. Amen!”
kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877 Scripture references not showing a Translation in Brackets are this writer’s translation from the Hebrew Massoretic Text as it appears on the web-site “qbible.com”
Continue reading The Year to Draw Near – The Intentional Invitation Into the Holy of Holies