Backtracking
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd or the flock.’” Leviticus 1:2 NASB
Of you – Many years ago I hiked in the Cascade mountains of Washington State on a regular basis. There’s nothing quite like being in the wilderness. The air is crisp. The sun is warm. The sounds are fresh and the water cold and clean. Once I tried to hike into a small lake near Mount Rainier. I had the right maps and knew where to start at the trail head. What I didn’t anticipate is that the snow still had not melted from the upper part of the trail. So after an hour hiking uphill, I encountered more and more snow on the path until no path could be seen. I thought, “Well, I’ve got a map and I see trail markings on the trees so I’ll just keep going.” Confident in my ability to follow the signs, I was reassured when I came upon another set of boot prints in the snow leading up the mountain. “This will be easy. I’ll just follow the people ahead of me.” After another hour, I noticed that there was another set of boot prints. Then it hit me. I was following my own tracks in a huge circle. I was lost. Without some very careful and quick reconnoitering, I wasn’t likely to find my way out before dark. With a sense of growing panic, there was only one thing to do. Backtrack until I found the place where the circle started.
Bob Gorelik makes this point relevant to Scripture in his lecture on Leviticus 1-5.[1] He notes that the offerings mentioned in Leviticus are typically about circumstances where we wander off the path and get lost. That is to say, we don’t deliberately try to oppose God’s will. Instead, we make choices that we think will get us to our goal, only to discover later that we have taken a wrong turn. We’ve followed the wrong boot prints and suddenly we realize that we are lost somewhere in the woods. The sacrifices of Leviticus are our attempts to backtrack with God, to get back to the place where we made the mistake so that we can once more follow the correct path. They are not sacrifices for salvation. They are sacrifices for people who are already related to God but who have inadvertently wandered away.
Bob makes one other point that is extremely important. We tend to read Yeshua’s comments about finding the lost sheep as though he were an evangelical preacher. But he is speaking to God’s chosen people. They are not outside the Kingdom. They are the Kingdom. Yeshua is not trying to “save” them. He is trying to guide them back to the path they should be on. In other words, “finding the lost sheep” is like rescuing someone who wandered into the woods following his own boot prints. Yeshua is helping Israel backtrack.
Finally, there’s this tiny Hebrew word, mikkem, translated “of you.” The syntax in translation is not the syntax in the original. Instead of “when any one of you brings,” the Hebrew syntax reads “anyone when brings of[2] you.” In other words, the sacrifice is not the animal. It is yourself. “When any of you brings yourself as an offering to the Lord” is the gist of the sentence. The animal is merely are representation of the actual inner repentance. The animal by itself means nothing. The real sacrifice is inside the person who brings the animal.
You can’t backtrack unless you yourself find that way out. You have to retrace your steps. You have to turn around. You have to get back to the place where you went off track. Then you offer God a thanksgiving sacrifice because you aren’t lost anymore.
Topical Index: backtrack, of you, mikkem, sacrifice, lost, Leviticus 1:2
[1] His lecture is well-worth hearing. It can be found as the first part of a series on Leviticus (eshavbooks.org)
[2] The preposition min can be translated “from,” “out of,” “some of,” “even,” “when,” “more than,” “because of,” and other nuances. See TWOT, article 1212.
Of course, this is my opinion…. but yet ANOTHER reason why everyone should jump at the chance to go to Israel with Skip and Bob in October!! The insight and teaching and fellowship and history and tangible blessings…. thank you Skip {and Bob!} for your great efforts to fellowship, educate and love us.
What a cliffhanger! Did you ever make it off the mountain?
Wait for it…
Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.
Thanks Skip, this is exactly the reason I ventured back into the Hebrew and even the paleo Hebrew. I find that these type of “nuances” are fundamentally what makes or breaks a true understanding of what is being conveyed. A landscape is composed of grains of sand. While there’s much discussion in regards to the Hebrew vs. Greek mindset and history and culture is important insofar as it can be truly discovered, The language itself seems to be the final word as it seems to reveal the background of the culture itself. That’s why I often say to others that the “greek” writings are dependent (in their being translated) on the Hebrew writings, and not the other way around. Never the less, I appreciate your efforts in bringing these issues to light and I thank you for your diligence.
YHWH bless you and keep you…..
“You can’t backtrack unless YOU YOURSELF find that way out. YOU have to retrace your steps. YOU have to turn around. YOU have to get back to the place where you went off track. Then you offer God a thanksgiving sacrifice because you aren’t lost anymore.”
I believe if I was lost and then not lost anymore, indeed, I should offer God a thanksgiving sacrifice! Because, as Shaul wrote, “For the One working in you is God—both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” [Php 2:13] So, not being lost anymore does involve my will and working. Yet, I would not be willing and I would not be doing the work if it was not He who was at work in me.
So, why would I offer God a thanksgiving sacrifice for not being lost anymore if it is I, MYSELF, and not He, who must find the way out, if it is I, MYSELF, and not He, who must figure out how to retrace my steps, if it is I, MYSELF, and not He, who must turn MYSELF around, and if it is I, MYSELF, and not He, who must get back to the place where I went off track?
If it was I, MYSELF, who got MYSELF lost, which has always been the case for me, I’m not thinking I should trust MYSELF to find the way out, FIGURE OUT how to retrace my steps, turn MYSELF around, and GET BACK to the place I went off track, at least not BY MYSELF, leaning on my own understanding.
I think it was I, MYSELF, who stopped following THE VOICE of the Good Shepherd and so, I probably shouldn’t rely upon MYSELF to find the way out, FIGURE OUT how to retrace my steps, turn MYSELF around, and get MYSELF back to the place I went off track. It is the Good Shepherd’s VOICE I must listen for and hear and who I need to find ME, and who I need to call ME back to following HIM and get ME back on track. Then, when He does, then I will surely offer Him a thanksgiving sacrifice, and it should be ME who is that sacrifice, indeed!
I have been lost a number of times in my life. Maybe I’m somewhat off track even now, as we speak. I really can’t say whether I was or wasn’t, am or am not, intentionally trying to oppose God’s will, or whether I was just ignorant, deceived, misled, stopped listening to His voice, distracted, or what? Who is to judge THAT? ME? Someone ELSE, other than YHWH, Messiah? If I must know how it happened, He will lead me to that insight, knowledge, understanding. To me, it seems, LOST IS LOST IS LOST, no matter how it happens or where I am, whether I’m in the kingdom or out of the kingdom, and regardless of who bears what responsibility and who is innocent and who is guilty and to what degree or not. The only solution is TO BE FOUND, TO BE SAVED, from being LOST, and that takes a Savior, the Messiah, the Good Shepherd. We are always at His mercy. We always need His unmerited favor. It is up to Him what lesson we must learn, and always the greatest lesson must be that we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Father. We must obey His VOICE!
To me, the point is, there is a path, there is a Good Shepherd, His sheep hear His voice, and they follow after Him. No man can save himself or, when lost, find the Good Shepherd apart from the Good Shepherd seeking, finding, and saving that one who is lost. But when we are saved, when we are found by Him, indeed, may we offer even our whole bodies, hearts, soul, mind and strength as a living, thanksgiving sacrifice offering, even loving not our own lives unto death, for once we were lost, and now we are found, no matter HOW, nor how MANY times we get lost, lose our way, get off track!
To Him be all esteem, honor, thanksgiving, and praise, forever and ever, AMEIN!
I don’t think it’s the intention here to place all the emphasis on a mans ability to “find” his own way out. A man finds his way because God directs him and the question here is what does one do when he realizes that. The point is that a man who is thankful for that gives “of himself” as a proper response and it seems to go beyond the one time sacrifice as it’s in the plural. One can certainly be directed and yet chose not to accept it but either way, we have a part. Sometimes what I find most discouraging of all is having to explain to others (this is not directed at you Jerry and Lisa) who are in the faith but have opposing perspectives, is the presumptions that should already be held (ie; our life is not our own, God is sovereign in the affairs of men, etc,) are part of the statement and really aren’t a point of opposition as, they are already assumed. I find that much of what is “bickered” over consists of these things and, more often than not, the real issue at hand is diminished by that activity, if not covered over completely. I only bring this up here because this has been the ground in the past that encourages such activity by many.
Hey Robert! It probably isn’t Skip’s intention. However, I’m sure he can clarify that, if he wants. But, also, I am NOT only saying that YHWH is sovereign. I am speaking about HOW we get off track and how we get back ON track. I’m talking about trusting in, waiting upon, being dependent upon Him, and not being self-reliant or not leaning on our own understanding, intellect, etc., as well as inclining our ears to hear His VOICE and obeying Him.
I AM concerned with MY intention, though; to emphasize what I did, because forgetting to trust in and depend upon the VOICE of YHWH, Messiah, the Ruach Ha-Kodesh, and being too self-reliant is so very often the main reason, if not THE reason, we get off track in the first place, and why we are exhorted so many times in Scripture to be mindful of this. So, to me, it is crucial to remember, and the priority to every other thing I MAY need to do if I am off track, including consideration of the list of things Skip said we, ourselves, MUST do. To me, it is the most significant thing to realize in order to get back to the place where we went off track, which actually was not obeying His VOICE in the first place. Yes, maybe about not obeying His voice regarding something in particular, but not obeying His VOICE, just the same. The same thing Israel did in the desert and why they couldn’t enter the land and His rest. It is core, crucial, and essential! And it is not to be presumed upon as either understood, remembered, or being practiced.
That a man who is thankful for getting back on track, gives “of himself” as a proper response, is “A” point, a very important one, and, respectfully, maybe the most important one for you. However, it is not necessarily “THE” point, as you say. It is the emphasis of the Scripture verse Skip used here today and a good bit of what he wrote about, as well as what I actually expressed agreement with more than once. The title, though, suggests that another main point, if not the main point, is about “backtracking”, and I think how we are to do that is also a good bit of the essence of Today’s Word. And yes, we have a part to play in that. That, too, I expressed agreement with.
I hear your grievance, though. I can somewhat relate, and I know Yeshua and the apostles and prophets also felt that way many times. I guess with this matter in Today’s Word, though, I don’t agree one point is necessarily more important than another, nor is one necessarily diminished by another being emphasized, unless one actually out rightly says as much. Plus others may contribute, and prayerfully the Ruach Ha-Kodesh will ultimately determine what is emphasized to each individual, even if it was not even Skip’s intention, necessarily.
Some of us instinctively know that the author of TW isn’t perfect in himself or in his writings. But there are others who take great pains to make us acutely aware of the obvious.
Judge not that ye be not judged? I can’t afford any of that, myself.
Yes, like after 40 years wandering in the wilderness of Xianity and thinking that I had my 3 1/2 point Calvinism all wrapped up in a nice neat little package. Then the bottom fell out of my package. Certainly, NOW I have it all together. I’ve repackaged that box with better wrapping paper of Hebrew manuscripts and a prettier bow of Sabbath. I’ve cut off the frayed edges of Platonism and superglued the corners with Hebrew thought. Yet, I too often find my package ends up being nothing more than an empty box, full of words that are simply that, words. Maybe I need a sacrifice, like a lamb, something living, inside my box. Or maybe I even that Set-Apart, Devoted, Passion/Wind/Breath of God breathing life into that box. Let me backtrack a little. Maybe I need to put the package itself on the alter!
We all to often forget “he is speaking to God’s chosen people. They are not outside the Kingdom. They are the Kingdom. Yeshua is not trying to “save” them. He is trying to guide them back to the path they should be on.” My get Aunt Bernice Haas (who was great btw) said to me once ” if you are missing the voice of the Lord go back to where you last heard him”. Truth is timeless, revealed in the Word, the creation and by the Spirit present always for us to turn too. The saints of old learned and passed along their lessons. It is we who must pay carefull attention, remember or return to where the path was fresh and the message clear. Thanks for the reminder “that he who watches over Isreal neither slumbers nor sleeps” . Skip!