Before the Messiah was sent to us, we were given the Torah to identify what sin was, and we had the sacrificial system and the temple in Jerusalem to provide us the means for being forgiven when we did sin.
But after the temple was destroyed, things changed.
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The Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, was always available to us; God gave it when needed, such as with Samson when he needed strength, and Elijah after he defeated the prophets of Ba’al (1 Kings 18), and it came upon King Shaul a few times, as well as many other times with many other people. But that gift of the spirit was a temporary loan- it fell on them, then was retrieved. Except maybe for Moses, no one had an indwelling spirit.
Then God sent Yeshua, the Messiah: after he did his thing, he sent the Ruach to his disciples, but this time it was indwelling- they got it, and they kept it. Even better, they were able to baptize (in Hebrew it is called a Tevilah) people in the name of Yeshua and have others also receive the indwelling Ruach.
Now we had a permanent counselor, sort of like Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, to help us stay on the path of righteousness.
Of course, being humans, we often ignore that small, still voce in the back of our head because we not only have a spirit of righteousness, but our own spirit of sinfulness, called iniquity, which is (sadly) part of our DNA (in Judaism, we call iniquity the Yetzer Hara, and the righteous spirit the Yetzer Tov).
You know what I mean- that little imp in the red suit with the pitchfork on one shoulder, arguing with the little angel on the other shoulder.
After the temple was destroyed, there was no way for us to receive forgiveness of sin, according to the Torah, because God told us a sacrifice is only acceptable if we do it where he places his name (Deuteronomy 12:5-6), which was the temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 9:3).
So, nu? Now what can we do to be forgiven?
This is where Yeshua comes in: when we faithfully accept him as the Messiah God promised to send and believe in his resurrection as proof that his sacrifice was acceptable to God as a sin sacrifice, then we can ask forgiveness by means of Yeshua’s blood being spilt on our behalf. We don’t need to sacrifice an animal at the temple, or even be in Israel!
And more than that, when we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, we can then ask for, and be given, the Ruach HaKodesh, which will guide us in many ways: it will advise us when sin rises in our heart, it will give us supernatural understanding of God’s word, and it will convict us when we stray off the path of righteousness.
Before Yeshua we had the Torah, and – for the record- we STILL have the Torah to identify sin from righteousness, and we STILL are subject to obedience to the Torah, which are the instructions we have directly from God telling us how to worship him and how to treat each other, but now we also have the Ruach HaKodesh to guide us from committing sin, and Yeshua to provide the means of forgiveness for when we fail to listen to the Ruach.
Which, if we are honest with ourselves, is more often than I think any of us would like to admit.
If you ask me, I think it is better to have Yeshua and the Ruach than it was to have animal sacrifice at the temple, if for no other reason, I don’t have to buy round-trip tickets to Israel every time I screw up.
I would be bankrupt within a week.
Thank you, again, for being here and until next time, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
