Parshah Pinchas (Phinehas) – My Offering - My Food
Numbers 25:10-30:1
Torah Reading for Week of July 5-11, 2009
|
As I read this week’s Torah portion, which begins with the story of Pinchas who steps in and by his actions ends the plague that God has sent upon Israel because they were defiling themselves with the Midianite women - I found some surprising words. The Parshah goes on to record how another census of the people is taken and ends with Moses appointing Joshua as his successor, and repeating to the children of Israel the prescribed offerings.
I was struck by these words: "Command the people of Israel and say to them, 'My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time.' (Numbers 28:2) They raised for me the whole question of the purpose of the sacrificial system.
Paul, in Galatians 3, clearly tells us that at its simplest the purpose of the Torah (the Law) is that of a teacher – the ASV calls it our tutor – the NIV explains that the law has been put in charge of us. What is clear from Paul though is that the function of the Torah is to lead us to faith in Messiah.
Here in our Parshah we find God declaring that these sacrifices are food to Him. Does God need or simply want food and what does this really mean? The sacrifices offered were ultimately worship - so does God need our worship? Does God, in fact, then, have needs?
Many years ago I was thrilled by the idea of why God created us. John Piper expressed the idea that creation is the fruit of God’s joy in Himself, as Father, Son and Spirit. We see this mirrored in His creation of humanity. By God’s design the creation of life begins with the love between a husband and wife. Their love and joy in one another results in childbirth and this child adds richness to the tapestry of their love and life together. His premise is that God’s joy bursts forth in creativity and the result is the creation of the earth and humanity. This is because His joy cannot be contained and He wants to share His joy with His creation. It is His intent to share His joy with us.
"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. (John 17:13)
“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:10-11)
And joy, by its very nature, impels us to share it. For example, when you receive a wonderful gift, do you hide it in a drawer or are you just itching to show it to someone ... and, of course as you do show it around, you experience the joy and wonder of it all over again.
God didn’t create us because He needed to; He created us so that we could share in His joy. He is complete in Himself; self-sustaining, He lacks nothing: so why does He want our worship and why does He describe the required sacrifices as food?
There is a concept in Judaism that says that “the intent behind blessing anything is to increase that which is being blessed.” The Psalmist calls to us and he invites us to magnify the LORD with him, and to exalt his name together! (Psalm 34:3) But it would be ludicrous to think that our worship of God in any way increases or enlarges Him or in any sense adds to who He is. The truth is that when we worship Him –when we bless Him and consider his greatness, it is our perception, our appreciation and our capacity to experience Him that increases.
It seems that the purpose of our worship is to bring God into focus in our lives so that we can see clearly who He is. Recently at a prayer meeting a wonderful friend of mine prayed an incredibly honest prayer – she cried out saying that her fears had obscured God – they loomed large and He seemed to be small and she prayed, “Lord, as we worship you may You grow larger to us and our problems grow smaller.” She understood that in worshipping God we do indeed magnify Him and He does increase. But it’s our perception that changes, not Him.
Perhaps God is pointing to a deeper truth when He calls His offering food. We are made up of physical and spiritual and both need nourishment – our bodies need food as fuel for the activities of daily living and our souls or our spirits need nourishment too. Yeshua himself said: “I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:48-51)
We know when we are ill, tired or stressed that our spiritual lives often suffer and we know the converse is true; sometimes we feel invigorated by our worship of God. What I mean is, when we encounter joy through our worship we experience an amazing truth: “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” Worship is the spiritual fuel for our lives. Our spiritual lives have an impact us – it affect us in the here and now – it influences how we feel and what we do . How many of us have gone to services feeling tired, feeling as if we have literally dragged ourselves there, wondering if a better use of our precious time off would be a long lie but we leave at the end with a spring in our step because we have met with God in the place of worship.
Recently I came across a website that records a ‘typical’ conversation with God, it went something like this. I hope you won’t be offended as there is no disrespect intended –in fact, in Judaism there are many stories of discussions with God to illustrate some truth.
Here is my slightly shortened and adapted version of the conversation:
Scribe: God, do you eat?
GOD: THE SHORT ANSWER IS THAT, NO I DON’T EAT.
Scribe: You mean, you’ve never tasted a good steak, or had some sushi or even tasted chocolate!
GOD: NO, NEVER!
Scribe: But I thought you ate the sacrifices offered to you in the Temple – You called them your food.
GOD: WELL, IT’S JUST THAT I DON’T EAT THE WAY YOU DO. YOU SEE, I CONSUME EVERYTHING.
Scribe: You consume everything, but don’t eat? That sounds like one of those, “What Am I?” riddles. You know: I have eyes, but don’t see. What am I? A potato.
GOD: VERY HUMOROUS ... I DON’T EAT, BUT I DO EXPERIENCE EVERYTHING – EVERY SPOKEN WORD, EVERY EMOTION FELT, EVERY THOUGHT CONCEIVED. SO WHILE CHOCOLATE HAS NEVER CROSSED MY LIPS, I’VE EXPERIENCED THE EXHILARATION IT BRINGS TO THOSE WHO EAT IT.
Scribe: So you have lips?
GOD: IT’S A FIGURE OF SPEECH.
Scribe: I knew that.
So while God calls the offerings His food, He is not nourished by them in the way that we are nourished by food for our bodies or even food for our souls. Does a parent need the birthday present his or her 5-year-old has painstakingly made? We encourage children to give us gifts that we have no practical use for because we are teaching them the joy of giving as well as receiving; we are teaching them to be generous and to think about others. These gifts bring such joy.
The rabbis point out that God is the source of all creation, therefore, He has no need of it – they say offering Him sacrifices of grain and meat is like fertilising a vine with grapes; so, there is a deeper lesson we must grasp.
As our forefathers brought their offerings to God they were being taught to think beyond the practical day to day needs of life. They were being taught about sin and its consequences – they were learning what holiness meant and how to have a relationship with their Maker.
Perhaps this is part of what God was teaching us. He needs nothing ... yet our gifts and our offerings, while of little practical use to God, bring Him immense joy. He does not need our love or even our worship, but He desires it and He longs for it because He created us for a love relationship with Him. It is as we serve Him that we experience Him and have relationship with Him.
The challenge of this Parshah thought is, what gift will you bring to Him who has loved you and given of Himself to redeem you? What will your offering of love be? And here is a question that, as I ask you, I also ask myself: how much do we want to bring joy to the heart of God?
|
|
|