VaYiqra: And He Called
Vayiqra (Leviticus) 1:1 – 6:7
YeshaYahu (Isaiah) 43:21 – 44:23
Romans 8:1–13
There is nothing like entering a room where essential oils are being diffused into the air! Aromatherapy is widely used to diffuse scents in the atmosphere that can help soothe the soul, promote health and, induce a sense of relief and well-being while feeling relaxed.
Prayers Like Aromatic Scent
In ancient times, scent was thought to strongly affect desire and the will, more so than sight, hearing, touch, or taste.
Isn’t that the purpose of prayer – to affect the will of the Father to grant our petitions before Him?
YHWH gave instructions for the Altar of Incense to Moses to:
“Take aromatics – stacte and onycha and galbanum; these aromatics with pure frankincense – being equal. and work an incense – a perfume after the art of the perfumer – salted, pure and holy:” (Exodus 30:34-35, Exegesis, ECB)
No other aromatics were allowed for any other purpose:
“Whoever shall make any like it, to use as perfume, shall be cut off from his people.” Exodus 30:38
These instructions on making incense hint at a deeper meaning for our prayer lives. For our prayers to be pleasing and acceptable, our Father in Heaven is wanting to breathe in only certain, sacred characteristics in our prayers.
Our prayers shouldn’t include the stench of self-centeredness, complaints condemning other people, doubting He’d answer, or asking for things to please the flesh, not our Elohim. Don’t expect to receive anything from Him out of that. See James 4:2-3.
Our prayers should come from a heart that honors, cherishes, and blesses our Father’s heart out of selfless love for Him and for one another. Our prayers should follow the examples of prayers from our Messiah, and from His instructions, such as with His model – ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’
Pulverized Incense Like the Crushed Messiah
The Suffering Servant is alluded to when YHWH told Moses to:
“beat some of it very fine…where I will meet with you.” Exodus 30:36
Yeshua was also ‘crushed for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:5). Like grain is pulverized into flour, Yeshua became the Bread of Life, when His flesh was bruised and crushed, suffering and dying for us. We must come to Him with the desires and lusts of the flesh beaten small under the subjection of the Holy Spirit when coming to the Throne of Grace offering up our prayers.
The Aroma of Sacrifices
The Book of Leviticus starts with the not-so-popular subject of burning up bloody sacrifices. YHWH had Moses write a lot of instructions on the subject, yet we don’t hear it taught much. But for the obedient servant of YHWH, the altar is the essential place to start in drawing near the holy and set apart unto YHWH. To draw near is the literal meaning of ‘corban,’ translated as ‘offering’ in English.
How is the altar service to be realized in our relationship with our Elohim today? Certainly, Yeshua fulfilled all sacrifices in His death and resurrection, accomplishing the work Abba sent Him to do in His first coming. Only the Messiah was the perfect sacrifice.
Yeshua taught His disciples the relevance of the altar service with this simple, common thread teaching on a grain of wheat planted in the earth:
Yeshua answers them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified! Amein, amein I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it forever…” John 12:23-25
Sha’ul (Paul) experienced and taught this revelation in His letter to the Romans and other epistles.
But if Messiah is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Ruach (Spirit) is alive because of righteousness. And if the Ruach of the One Who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Ruach Who dwells in you. Romans 8:10-11
The Brit Hadashah part of this Torah portion in Romans Chapter 8 describes what a pleasing sacrifice it is for the believer in Yeshua to offer to His Elohim by the Spirit through crucifying the flesh.
What believers need today is to die to self and to experience His Resurrection Life. That’s what’s pictured in the altar service from the burning flesh to the ascending aroma of Messiah in us.
The Draw of the Sweet Aroma to Something Better
Fresh meat from a clean animal, drained of its blood, and placed on a fire, produces a pleasing aroma that draws a hungry person in close. A carcass stinks repulsively if it lies too long without fire. Our living sacrifices should come with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
A sweet aroma doesn’t satisfy itself but draws a soul to something that promotes life. It draws us into something greater, something even better to experience.
Eating a piece of fresh-baked bread is better than just its aroma emanating from the oven. Eating a clean, well-seasoned steak is a greater experience than just smelling it cooking on the bar-b-que. Smelling essential oils increases the frequency of life to enhance whatever we are doing, doing it better. Aromatics affect the will to go and experience something better in life.
The Sweet Aroma of the Anointed One
Fire-consuming flesh on the altar is a type of the Anointed One, the Messiah, consumed with a passion for His bride. His passion for her motivated Him to lay His life down to be the sacrificial Lamb for us. That’s what was so sweet and pleasing about His sacrifice!
Fire consuming flesh on the altar is a type of the Ruach burning within the soul within whom the Messiah lives. When the passion of the Passover Lamb consumes all lust, pride, and cravings of the carnal man, the Ruach burns bright and produces a sweet aroma in His people. The pleasing aroma of the Messiah draws the soul into a greater experience – that of drawing near to the glory of YHWH in the inner Sanctuary.
Hungry souls are drawn to come and will want to eat of the covenant meal that we enjoy with Him. Yeshua said that His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him (John 4:34). Isn’t that how our desire should be affected – to do our Father’s will?
Where the Sweet Aroma of the Messiah Leads
Thinking of how a sweet aroma draws us into something greater, look into this prophecy by Ezekiel concerning the greater exodus of the last days:
For in My qadosh (holy) mountain, Israel’s high mountain”- it is a declaration of Adonai YHWH –
“There the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land. There I will take pleasure in them. There I will receive your offerings, the first of your gifts, with all your qadosh holy things.
With your sweet aroma, I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered. I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. Ezekiel 20:40-41
We are to produce the sweet aroma of the Messiah comes by dying to self by the consuming fire of the Spirit and then by living by His resurrection power. That is what is pleasing and acceptable to Him. That is what He’ll produce in the exiles that He brings back to the Promised Land. When we no longer live for ourselves but live by the Spirit; and when it’s no longer about self and what the flesh wants, seeking only to give Him glory, then we will be willing and ready to sacrifice everything to be on our way back home…
Blessings be to you from the Anointed One, Yeshua Ha’Mashiyach,
David Klug