Last time we talked about Reality A and Reality B, the reality of separation from God and the reality of Israel’s future union with God. The reality of separation is Israel standing outside the tent sanctuary while God’s presence, not God in person, dwells inside behind the tent and behind a veil. The reality of separation is further enhanced by the fact that blood must cleanse the altar morning and evening through the perpetual offering (tamid). The reality of union with God is described in Deuteronomy 30 as a day when all Israel will have circumcised hearts and love God perfectly.
Between Reality A and Reality B there is a great gulf. The separation is explained in the Torah as uncleanness, impurity. The impurity separating man and God is described as coming from sins and certain conditions that cause impurity which are not sin (bleeding, loss of semen, contact with a corpse, etc.). The burnt offering is described as necessary to “make a cleansing on his behalf” (Lev. 1:4). The cleansing is needed because the sins and impurities of the people defiles God’s dwelling place (Lev. 15:31). The blood cleanses not the person but the dwelling place of God from the people’s impurities (Lev. 16:16). In order for God to remain present amongst the people, even behind a tent and a veil and with only his presence, not his actual person, this cleansing must be constant.
But the reality of union with God is much more glorious. At a future time, after Israel has experienced blessing and curse, after Israel has been scattered to the nations, outcast to the uttermost parts of heaven, then Israel will be regathered and experience union. Israel will obey the Torah once again and this will lead God to circumcise the hearts of the people so that they will love perfectly.
It is important to realize that having a circumcised heart is not something man has ever achieved. No one in the Torah or the prophets is said to have a circumcised heart. Moses commands the people to circumcise their hearts in Deuteronomy 10:16 as does Jeremiah in 4:4. Yet the reality is that God does the circumcising at the end of the age and that is the only time when heart circumcision is actually accomplished (Deut. 30:6). Moses and Jeremiah command it in the general sense, like saying “soften your heart.” God accomplishes it in the ultimate sense, with not just softened hearts but hearts that perfectly love HaShem.
So the situation in the Torah is separation and the inability of the people to approach God. But the reality of the Age to Come will be union with God and no separation. In case this implication of Deuteronomy 30 is doubted, the prophets make it abundantly clear. Jeremiah says the whole Torah will be written on the heart and everyone will know God (31:31-34). Ezekiel says Israel will be sprinkled clean, receiving new hearts and the Spirit of God (36:25-26). In the great temple of the Age to Come, God says he will dwell in the midst of Israel forever and Israel will never again defile his presence (Ezekiel 43:7-9).
But how will Israel come to this point where God dwells with the nation and there is no more defilement? Something must happen in between. That something which must happen should be consistent with the way God has worked in the Torah.
The first principle of God’s cleansing and transforming work is that blood, because of life, is required. This principle is stated in Leviticus 17:11, but is also made clear in the entire system of sacrifices and in the history of the patriarchs:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have assigned it to you for making expiation for your lives upon the altar; it is the blood, as life, that effects expiation. (JPS Tanakh)
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’ (New American Standard)
That blood was required for Israel to approach God is undeniable. Sometimes critics of Yeshua look for exceptions, such as the burnt offering of grain. But these approached depend on the Torah-ignorance of the audience to make them believable. Anyone who knows Torah knows that every morning and evening a lamb was offered as a burnt offering–the first and last sacrifice of each day. These lambs, known as the tamid or perpetual offering, have their blood dashed against the altar (Num. 28:1-8; Lev. 1:5). These two lambs and their blood made the entire temple worship possible.
The Torah formula is simple: the people are unclean because of sin and impurity, God is holy and will not allow himself to be defiled, the sins of the people defile the altar and the sanctuary, and the blood of animals cleanses the altar and sanctuary so God’s presence can dwell in the holy tent. No blood, no cleansing. No blood, no presence of God in the midst of Israel. Blood is indispensable. The blood cleanses because of the life, as Leviticus 17:11 declares.
The second Torah principle is substitution. The blood of an animal cleanses because of the life. That life is a substitute for the life of the worshiper. When Abraham was restrained from sacrificing Isaac, he did not simply walk away from the altar. God arranged a miracle–a ram caught in a thicket. The purpose of God’s miracle was to provide a substitute to die in Isaac’s place. When Israel was freed from the tenth plague in Egypt, the price of redemption was a lamb–a lamb in place of the firstborn of Israel.
Blood cleansing and substitutionary sacrifice are the way of the Torah. They are also the way of Yeshua. If we are asking the question, “Is Yeshua the Messiah?” one part of that question is this: is his action to redeem Israel consistent with the Torah? Note that we are not saying by this that Yeshua is thereby proven to be the Messiah. We are merely asking if his action to redeem Israel was consistent with the Torah.
The answer is yes. Yeshua’s act to redeem Israel (and the nations) was a blood sacrifice intended as a substitution. As he himself put it:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45).
A ransom is a payment substituting one thing–Yeshua’s life–for another–the punishment Israel and the nations deserve.
In the principles of blood cleansing and substitution in the Torah, we see that Yeshua’s sacrifice is consistent. We also see that Yeshua’s sacrifice could possibly be the action with takes Israel from Reality A to Reality B. Since Reality B–the reality of Israel’s union with God–is not yet here, this case is not yet proven. There are many more things to consider.
Next time: The root of the Messiah concept and the Davidic King.
Messianic Jewish Musings 
“It is important to realize that having a circumcised heart is not something man has ever achieved. No one in the Torah or the prophets is said to have a circumcised heart.”
Derek,
This is very confusing.
Colossians 2:11a says “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands…”, which says I am already circumcised in the spirit/heart through faith in Christ. Also in Romans 2:29a it says “But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit…”.
So, I would agree that circumcision of the heart is not something man has achieved, now or in the Torah or prophets…but these verses say that God Himself in Christ has acheived this circumcision of my heart. Even the promise of Jeremiah 31 that God will “forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” is what is described if you keep reading in Colossians 2, verse 13 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;”
But my source of confusion is that I can see how the new covenant isn’t complete yet, because we will no longer have to teach our neighbor. Even the spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. 12 include teaching.
Also, Paul refers in Romans 2:15 to Gentiles who have the law written on their hearts, but not in the sense that they aren’t trespassing God’s law, just in the sense that they have a conscience, whether they choose to defile it or not.
Sorry this is long – it’s very important to me to get these things straight in my mind. I’m no scholar, but I’m an intelligent person and these things should make at least semi-sense to me. I have many Christian friends who say the law is written on their heart because they are forgiven for all sins past and future, and because Jesus lives in their heart, and he is the Word (John 1) in their heart
Jeannie:
If I understand your question right you wish to ask two things:
1. Do we have circumcised hearts already through Yeshua even though the New Covenant is not complete?
2. How can Paul speak of Gentiles having the Law written on their hearts (conscience) when that promise would not seem to be complete yet?
Here are my thoughts. The answer to the first is to grasp that now and not yet thing. The New Covenant is now and not yet, started but not complete. It is not just started, it is started and must inevitably come to pass. Thus, Paul can not only say our hearts are circumcised (in spite of our continuing sin) be he can also say we are new creations. Our future reality is already known to God and it is a done deal even if we haven’t attained it yet.
As for the second, this is a matter of scripture using an idiom in two different ways. In Jeremiah 31 the Law written on the heart means more than conscience. It means sinless obedience. In Romans 2, Paul uses the expression a different way. He refers to the conscience, which is God’s imprint of right and wrong on the human heart–it is part of the image of God in which we were created. The terms are the same but are being used with different meanings.
Derek