Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Yeshua the Son of God, … Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Exodus ends on the great Biblical paradox: God is to live within us but due to the sinful nature we contracted in Eden, He can’t! He must therefore ‘tweak the system’ so to speak, in order to make it happen.
In the first verses in the Book of Leviticus, the Almighty says, “The man who desires to approach Me needs to bring Me a ‘token of approaching’ from his flocks or from his herds” (Leviticus 1:2: Literal translation by me). It is unfortunate that for ‘token of approaching’ most English texts use the word ‘sacrifice’, as it does not convey the idea meant in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew word used here is ‘Corban’, a Hebrew word found non-translated in the text of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 7:11). What is a ‘Corban’?
The Torah teaches that life is in the blood, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement (covering) for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement (covering) by the life (Leviticus 17:11), so the blood of a biblically clean animal is brought forward instead of ours which is corrupted by sin. The Hebrew word ‘Corban’ is actually a derivative from the verb ‘to approach’, making the object brought forward to the altar not a gift to show virtue nor a bribe to gain brownie points with God, but a token that helps us come near to God by proxy.
It seems that the principles of approaching God have remained the same from the times of the establishment of the sacrificial services until now. We only approach the Almighty God Creator of Heaven and earth by proxy, through the agency of a clean creation. In the days of the Tabernacle/Temple it was through the agency of a clean animal, now it is through the agency of a sinless human: Yeshua. The Torah is truly a tutor which teaches us this principle (Galatians 3:24). In a sense this confirms the idea that, I am the LORD, I change not (Malachi 3:6).
May we all grow close to our ‘Agent’, Yeshua HaMashiach, that He may confess us to His Father.