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Daily manna from the Torah by Dr Ketriel Blad

Emor 31-2

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Leviticus 21:16 – 22:16

Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God.

Lev. 21:17 NKJV

Why couldn't the priest have any physical defect?

The Eternal demanded that the priests' bodies that ministered in the tabernacle be without defect or blemish, so that the earthly was a more faithful reflection of the heavenly. This shows us that there is a perfect service in heaven, where those who serve are created in the image of a perfect heavenly man (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10).

There are two kinds of men, the earthly man and the heavenly man. Like the first earthly man so are his descendants and like the heavenly man, so are his descendants (1 Cor. 15:47-49). Earthly progeny is obtained through physical birth - heavenly man's progeny is the result of a spiritual new birth.  

Heavenly man was designed before the creation and the first earthly man was created in likeness of that image (Gen. 1:27; Rom. 5:14). Even though the heavenly man was designed from eternity, he didn't manifest until his natural birth in this world, four thousand years after the first man, which is about two thousand years ago (John 6:38, 41). The heavenly man who was hidden for four thousand years, was then revealed to men for a period of a bit more than thirty years (1 John 1:1-3), and then returned to hide in heaven, but this time as an glorified earthly man. During his manifestation on earth, the heavenly man got a physical body which died and rose again and then was invested with immortality and with a glory that is the splendour of the Invisible One. This was the glory that Isaiah saw in chapter 6 and which existed from eternity (cf. John 12:39-41; 17:5).

The Hebrew verb "to create" – bara, ברא – is often understood as making something out of nothing – ex nihilo (Lat.). However, the Scriptures show that that's not the best way of understanding this verb (Heb. 11:3). The root of bara is related to "to cut, to separate, to extract from something preexisting". This teaches us that in the act of creation narrated in Genesis, the Eternal extracted things in this world from what already existed in Him and separated them from Him, in the sense that they were now outside of Him.

For this reason, there is a heavenly man who is the perfect image of the Creator and a perfect man. That man is now serving in the heavenly tabernacle in the perfect service according to the order of Malki-Tzedek.

The Torah text we've highlighted today indicates in a prophetic way that the heavenly High Priest had to be without defect and made perfect (Heb. 5:9; 7:26, 28) and that his sons, his disciples, were going to be perfect in him (Col. 2:10), according to the resurrection life that they would have in the future; and, that after Yeshua's resurrection they already in part received (Heb. 11:40; 12:23).

Blessed be the Eternal for the perfect heavenly service!

Ketriel

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