Parsha 📜 Week 20
Week 20 - "Tetzaveh" (תְּצַוֶּה, Hebrew for "you command")
[Torah Portion]
Exodus 27:20-30:10
Comments about this week's Torah Portion
This week's Torah portion was really interesting. To me, it shows 2 main things. One being that God really wants to be with us. What I mean by that is he wants to physically dwell among us, which presents a serious problem! There's an amazing video of what this looks like from The Bible Project:
The other thing I noticed is that God is extremely specific in how he gives instructions. What I mean by that is, there is always a reason why God says what he says.
Whenever you see the Bible say "The Lord spoke and said" or, "Thus saith the lord..." or, "God gave these Instructions..." or anything like that, that should remind us to slow down and pay especially close attention to whatever God is saying. We should also try to understand why God said what he said. Some people are content to obey exactly as written (and that’s wonderful when done with proper hermeneutics). For many of us, though, it’s also helpful to ask why God gave such specific instructions.
However, it's good to seek out the truth for the reasons as to why God specified the thing he said in such a way. Just to preface, I might be wrong about this, but as I understand it; the colors of the thread God instructed them to use for the Levite Priestly garments were blue, purple and scarlet (and gold in a couple of special cases). Blue=the sky (or heavens where he dwelt), Purple=roalty (they were representatives of his kingdom), Scarlet=blood (the life force). Each of them has a symbolically significant meaning, and that's why he gave them such specific instructions. From how they are to be assembled, right down to the color of what the materials should be.
[Prophets - Haftarah]
1 Samuel 15:2-34;
Isaiah 9:6,7; 60:19,20;
Ezekiel 28:11-19; 43:10-27; 44:9-18
Comments about this week's Haftarah Portion
There is a huge precedence set for the instructions that God give his Priests. In each of the portions of the Haftarah, there are again, really specific details given to the Preists and the Prophets he chose and the reasons for why he chose them.
The portion makes it clear that God has specific ways He wants to be approached, honored, and obeyed—just as any king would have protocols for his kingdom. He is God, and we are not. Like any sovereign ruler or King, there are Laws for how His people, who say that are (or that want to be) a part of His Kingdom, are expected to behave. Again, there are specific details given directly from the LORD.
To be entirely honest, I'm not sure if I really understand the significance of what the details given in Ezekiel mean exactly. They were sort of the same as what was given to his Priests in Exodus but slightly differnt. Which I'm not entirely sure if I'm ready to recieve just yet but, I will continue to Study and when the time comes for me to understand, I am certain that the holy spirit will give revalation.
[New Testament - Brit Hadasha]
Romans 12:1-13:14;
Philippians 4:4-20;
Revelation 21:16-27
Comments about this week's portion from the Brit Hadasha
This portion was an excellent way to close out the teaching. Showing us such beautiful imagery of what lies in store for us, in His Kingdom to come. After Jesus Messiah resurrects us from the dead.
Go deeper
A helpful resource I found while studying Parsha Week 17 is a Torah commentary by Ardelle B. from Living Waters Fellowship. If you want to dig deeper, you can read it here: