A Price To Pay

Today I was reading the weekly Torah portion titled Achrei Mot-Kedoshim, which means “After the death, the Holy Ones”. The portion includes the stories of the death of Aaron’s two sons, who were the first Levitical priests of God who died because they lit strange fire to Adonai in the Holy Place in the Mishkan. This was against the rules and a very serious offense, God killed them by fire for it.

Reading on, the Torah portion tells us how to observe Yom Kippur with specific sacrifices and the use of a scapegoat to bear the sins of Israel. It also goes on to tell us laws about not eating blood, sexually immoral sins, idolatry, oppressing neighbors, wrongfully offered sacrifices, agricultural sins, and the abomination of using or becoming a psychic or medium. For many of these sins, the punishment is to be cut off from our people and even death by fire.

As I read these rules, I began to reflect on my life and the lives of my ancestors. I could see how I was negligent in my own life in so many areas and I imagined in my heart my ancestors out in the fields of Israel, and in their homes, human nature taking over, and every law I was reading about being broken by them. I could not see how after all the thousands of years we have been a nation, that all of those laws had not been broken. In many places in the Old Testament, the Bible tells us this:

‘”Adonai is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Still, He does not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations.” – Numbers 14:18-19 TLV

This means that there is a price to pay for our sins and also the sins that were committed by those who came before us in our bloodline. The Bible also tells us that the wages, or price of sin, is death:

“but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” – Genesis 2:17

God gave Israel the Levitical priesthood and sacrifices so that we would have the payment for our sins before Him. The payment for sins could only be a blood sacrifice, a life given for our life instead:

“for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the LORD. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.” – Leviticus 17:11 NLT

Many Jewish people today may say things like, “We don’t do this anymore,” or “I’m a reformed Jew, I light candles on Shabbat” but the truth is that these reasonings are all man-made religious traditions that have kept us believing that we are right with God by doing what we want to do in our relationship with Him. The truth is that though we are fully known and greatly loved by God, we have been practicing religion instead of actually following Him. The Jewish people are not a religion but a nation that entered into a Covenant with God when He saved us out of slavery in Egypt. God is a King and we were called to be His people; if we are not obeying Torah to the very letter of the law, there is a serious price to pay for every commandment He gave us that we don’t keep. Much of the punishments for breaking commandments are being cut off from our people and also death.

God knew we would not keep the commandments, and because of His great love for us, He gave us a New Covenant in the Messiah Yeshua, who indeed paid the price for our sins! Israel has not been taught this but the prophecies in Isaiah and elsewhere point to the Messiah, Son of David who would give His life for the sins of Israel, and also for the whole world:

The Sin Bearing Messiah:

“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” – Isaiah 53:5-6 NKJV

The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles

“Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” – Isaiah 49:6 NKJV

This means that not only Israel would be given the forgiveness of sins by His sacrifice but the Gentiles too. God’s plan of salvation from sin and death for all of mankind!

The Good News is that all we have to do to receive forgiveness for sins today is believe in Yeshua; it is only by faith, and not any works of our own can we be forgiven. Because I believe in Yeshua, I know that I am in the New Covenant where every sin, transgression, and iniquity is paid for. I know that He paid the price and that God’s Spirit is living inside of me, which is another promise of the New Covenant given to us. Yeshua is also now my Kohen Gadol in the heavenlies; all I need to do is ask for forgiveness of sins and I would be free of the consequences. I began to pray to God and confess my sins and the sins of my ancestors concerning the laws in the Torah portion I was reading. As I read them out loud, I could sense a shift happening inside of me. I confessed the sins of my ancestors who I imagined might have eaten blood, which we know is grievous because it’s mentioned more than once in the Torah. God opened my heart to see a demon lurking there, it was beginning to cower because I was taking my right as a believer in the Messiah to have my sins paid for. The demon manifested and began to confirm how it was there because of the sins of my ancestors who ate blood! I was able to interrogate it and it told me that it caused people to sin, mostly by getting them to want to eat blood, which is the sin that opened the door for it to be in my bloodline. This may sound outrageous but it is true! Until the sin is paid for, the enemy satan uses his demons to keep us in bondage to it, this is why we must know God and His ways so we can be set free and fulfill our destinies.

I asked God to forgive me and my ancestors on both sides for doing this act, and I pleaded with the Blood of Yeshua as payment for the sins. Immediately, the demon left me because it had no more legal right to stay in my life anymore. The price had been paid for me.

This is a supernatural miracle of God, that He gave as a gift to us to be free of the price of sin and its consequences. Even though the sin most likely happened thousands of years ago, it was still outstanding as a debt I had to pay in the courts of Heaven. It stood as an accusation against the descendants of the one who committed the sin. It needed to be paid for somehow, and God provided the way for us that He ordained through the Messiah and His sacrifice. Without the Blood of Yeshua, there is no other way to pay for our sins.

 “For sin’s payment is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.” – Romans 6:23 TLV

God planned these things long ago, even before the foundations of the earth. He knew what generation He would send you into and He wrote the story of your life, including your return to a relationship with Him to walk with Him and fulfill your destiny., Yeshua loves you. He gave His life for you to be free of sin and be free in Him. He loves you so much, He gave His life for your life, believe in Him today and you will be saved forever from sin and it’s consequences:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16 TLV