THE GOVERNOR'S RETURN IS FOR ALL HUMANITY

Genesis chapter 3













Today we are walking in: The Governor's Return Is For All Humanity







Today we look to- RETURN -H7725 shuv--to turn back, return, to bring back, to be returned, be restored, be brought back








The Torah testifies...............




Genesis 3:19




In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return H7725 unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. H7725










The prophets proclaim..................




Hosea 5:15




I will go and return H7725 to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.










The writings bear witness...........................




2 Chronicles 30:9


For if ye turn again H7725 unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again H7725 into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return H7725 unto him.







The Priesthood and Sacrifices




This is where the priesthood comes in. I don’t believe Yah’s real desire was to have a specific group of people called priests. Remember that he wanted a kingdom or nation of priests. But in order for the Israelites to remain his prototype nation, he provided a way for them to be restored when they rebelled against him and violated his kingdom standards.




Since they had forsaken their calling to be a nation of priests, the King appointed Aaron, Moses’ brother, and Aaron’s sons, who were of the tribe of Levi, to be the nation’s priests. Their descendents would succeed them as priests. He also told Moses to set aside certain other men of the tribe of Levi to assist the priests in their duties. The priests were to keep themselves aligned with the King. They performed rituals of sacrifice prescribed by the King, which served to atone for (cover over) their rebellion and position the nation of Israel in alignment with the heavenly government again.




In this way, the Governor could reveal the will of the King to the people, and his kingdom culture could come on earth through them. The result was that they would bring all other nations back to the King through their example. Therefore, all the sacrifices, the rituals involving the blood, the incense that was burned, the various components of the tabernacle, and later the temple—all these things were for the purpose of realigning the people with Yah so they could be what they were originally called to be.




The rituals that the priests performed involved the sacrifice of animals because the culture of rebellion, murder, and death that human beings had created needed to be paid for. So did individuals’ infractions of the King’s law. The first-century writer of the book of Hebrews wrote, “The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” In the system of sacrifices, therefore, the blood atoned for the violations against the kingdom law that the people had committed.




When we read about all the intricacies of priestly dress and practice, the systems of worship, and the specific details of the animal sacrifices, we tend to be caught up in the particulars and miss their overall meaning. The ultimate goal of the King’s program was not the priests, the robes, the incense, the showbread, the goblets, and the inner and outer courts. Some people almost seem to consider these things as mystical religious icons. Instead, they were a means to an end. They were Yah’s provision (his temporary program) for realigning the people with him so that his Spirit, the absent Governor, could come back to them and intervene on the earth.




The ultimate goal of the entire Old Testament ritualistic program was designed, motivated, and developed for this purpose: when the high priest went into the innermost chamber of the tabernacle (later, the temple), the sacrifices would be accepted on behalf of the people, and the Spirit of Yah would be able to come and dwell between the cherubim on the mercy seat (or atonement cover) there because the requirements for holiness had been fulfilled.




Everything that came in the presence of the Spirit had to be holy because he is a Ruach HaQadesh. The sacrificial blood would cleanse both the people and the high priest who would stand in the immediate presence of the Governor in the inner room of the tabernacle, called the “Holy of Holies.” As a result of these sacrifices, a most beautiful thing occurred. The Spirit came back. The Governor was on earth! All the temporary sacrifices brought the Governor into the people’s presence, but not into them. He could not enter into human beings at that time because the permanent sacrifice had not yet been made.




The animal sacrifices had to be offered again and again because the people were continually rebelling against the authority of heaven, and the sacrifices were a temporary method of atonement that allowed the heavenly government to intervene in their lives, even though it couldn’t change their rebellious nature.




Whenever the people of Israel were aligned with the King and his Spirit was with them, they won every battle, had no sickness among them, and experienced peace. Why? They were living as true human beings again. They were living as they were intended to live—above their environment and circumstances.




Great lengths had to be taken by the priests just to ensure the Governor’s presence in the inner chamber of the tabernacle or temple so the people could be at peace, prosper, and fulfill their role as the prototype nation. When the people disobeyed Yah, the Ruach HaQadesh left them, and their lives became chaotic again. When they received forgiveness through the sacrifices and again obeyed Yah, the Ruach HaQadesh would return, and they would have success.




The sacrificial system served its purpose, even though it was inadequate to fully solve humanity’s dilemma of separation from the heavenly kingdom. It actually emphasized the incompleteness of the temporary cleansing to keep the people aligned with Yah. They were “sprinkled” with the blood because the blood of animals cannot permanently cleanse a person from the inside out. The intent of the hearts of men and women are basically and continually evil. The unholy (nonintegrated, non set apart) state of the human heart and its potential for evil are always under the surface and always emerge in one way or another.




Yet this program was the Creator-King’s temporary provision for working with human beings, whom he couldn’t yet dwell within—because of their unholiness—but still needed to influence. He created his own environment of holiness through the sacrificial system in order to work among his people without violating his purity and integrity. The prophets, priests, and kings of the nation of Israel would receive the Spirit of the King upon them for specific instances where they would speak or act on earth in behalf of the King.




Many people like to study and teach all the intricacies of the Old Testament rituals; some even make quite a bit of money off books and products expounding on such things as the “ten keys to the tabernacle.” I’ve found that many people are (at best) missing the main purpose of these things, and other people are (at worst) exploiting people by overemphasizing them. They were not ends in themselves. We must always remember that their whole purpose was to be a means of bringing the governing influence of heaven back to earth for the benefit of humanity.