Lev 8:18-22 What Pleases God?

   .What pleases God?  You might be surprised by the answer

(18)  ויקרב את איל העלה ויסמכו אהרן ובניו את־ידיהם על־ראש האיל

Then he brought forward the ram of burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the ram’s head,

(19) וישחט ויזרק משה את־הדם על־המזבח סביב

and it was slaughtered. Moses dashed the blood against all sides of the altar.

(20) ואת־האיל נתח לנתחיו ויקטר משה את־הראש ואת־הנתחים ואת־הפדר

The ram was cut up into sections and Moses turned the head, the sections, and the suet into smoke on the altar;

 (21) ואת־הקרב ואת־הכרעים רחץ במים ויקטר משה את־כל־האיל המזבחה 

Moses washed the entrails and the legs with water and turned all of the ram into smoke. 

עלה הוא לריח־ניחח אשה הוא ליהוה כאשר צוה יהוה את־משה

That was a burnt offering for a pleasing fragrance, an offering by fire to יהוה —as יהוה (God) had commanded Moses.

This section of scripture is called “tzav” - command.   There are a number of different Hebrew words for “commands” or commandments.   This week we see the word TZAV, (commandment).  It is the core word for MITZVOT, commandments which can mean “commandments”, or “good deeds”, as in Bar Mitzvah, a son of the Law.  

This couple of chapters is about the commandments of how a religious service should look.  Some are gatherings, some are a one on one encounter with God, a sacrifice just between a person and a priest.     You know what our service LOOKS like.  We sing, we read from the Torah, we sing some more, and we hear a message, pray, and of course, after that’s done, we eat celery sticks ;-). 

Here, God lays out HIS pattern for worship in the FIRST religious service in the Bible.   It’s not like our service or any other Judea Christian service on earth, all of which look to the bible for direction.   it’s a system of animal sacrifices.   There’s no mention of music.   No message is being taught.  But prominently featured are these four animal sacrifices.   

• the burnt-offering (olah), 

• the sin-offering (chatat), 

• the guilt-offering (asham), 

• the peace-offering (shelamim).

This portion is about the first type of sacrifice, a ram offered as an OLAH that ascends to God becomes a  REYACH NICHOCHA.   ריה ניחוח … A SOOTHING PLEASANT AROMA.    

Perfumers have a word SILLAGE, which is that fragrance of a woman's perfume that lingers in the air after she departs. 

What is this mysterious thing that pleases God?

Strangely. It is a fragrance. The fragrance of an Olah sacrifice... a sacrifice that goes up. In Hebrew, if you "go to" any place on earth, that is one word. But if in English you are "going to Israel", you GO UP to Israel, the same way you GO UP the stairs.

This REYACH NICHOCHAH of the Olah is such a fragrance, soothing and pleasant to God.    It is mentioned TWENTY times in scripture, that’s how important it is.   And the word Nichochah ניחוח  never means any other type of “pleasant” than about this fragrance of a burnt offering to God.  THATS how important it is to have this fragrance that pleases God as a feature of our coming to Him.  And there is a surprising tie-in that clarifies a much-quoted new testament verse by Paul.  

How can I be sure my prayers reach God like that, to have Him pleased with our prayers.       But the sacrifices ended.  Why?

• and the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, the one place these sacrifices could be made.    

• Yeshua the Messiah came and offered HIMSELF as that blood sacrifice for sin, guilt, and peace, an OLAH, a way to ascend and reach God.  

Rav Shaul, Paul, suggested a new way forward.  

… present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,  well-pleasing*** to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Romans 12:1

Sacrifices… washing with water, ***pleasing to God.   Paul knew all about Temple sacrifices.  Of course he was referring to the reyach nichocha - the olah sacrifice that was pleasing to God.

Surprisingly, the same approach and a new way forward is suggested in the Haftorah portion for today, Ezekiel 36:24-29.   It also intertwines the future of the Land of Israel, to which the Jews of Lev 8 text were headed,  and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Yeshua himself will brings, that washes us

For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will WASH YOU, sprinkling clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:24-29