Purification - - The Korban Chatat - - Sin Offering (Sacrifices 6)

When I wear perfume, I choose an essential oil made by DoTerra, called Purify.  It is a clean and (to me) intoxicating blend of lemon peel, Siberian fir, citronella, tea tree and cilantro oils.  I love it!  I also love to diffuse the oil throughout our home.  It makes everything smell clean and fresh.   

We are progressing through our learning about the five types of sacrifices (korbanot) in a certain order, and that is the order they are revealed in Leviticus 1-7.  Thus far, we have studied three of the five, the first three revealed by God as He instructed Moses - - the burnt offering, the grain offering and the peace offering.  Next, as we will discover in today's post, comes the purification (also called the sin) offering and then, finally, the guilt offering.

Now, here's a curious thing.  God revealed to (taught) Moses the five offerings in the order mentioned above (starting in Leviticus 1).  But, let me ask you something.  When it came to the establishment of the Aaronic priesthood and their first practice of making these sacrificial offerings, which offering did they offer first?  Both when they were ordained (a lengthy process), in Leviticus 8, and then when they made their first official offerings as priests of the Most High God, they offered the same sacrifice first.  Go look in Leviticus 9 and see what you find.  (Hint: look at verse 8.)

Here is the verse, because I know you won't go look it up, lol.

8So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself.

He offered this offering on behalf of himself, and then which of the five categories of offering did he offer first on behalf of the Israelites? Seven verses later - - - 

15Aaron then presented the people’s offering. He took the male goat for the people’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and offered it for sin like the first one.

Leviticus 9:15

So, by instruction from God, the sin offering was given as the fourth offering; but, in practice, we see it offered first.  Why do you suppose that is?

It is helpful to remember that the entire sacrificial system points toward Jesus Christ, Yeshua haMashiach (in Hebrew).  In short, the first three offerings represent the sinless life Jesus lived, because they are offerings of devotion, offerings made out of a sincere love for God and for one's fellow man.  And, Jesus lived a life of sinless devotion.  He is the only man who has or who ever will.  At the end of His earthly life, He became our atonement, taking away our sin and our guilt.  Hallelujah!

However, in human practice of these offerings in the Old Testament, sin separated the people from God.  As with each Christian's acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior, sin had to be dealt with.  This is why the Aaronic priests of the Tanakh (Old Testamen) offered the sin and the guilt offerings first.  There is no meaning in, or God's acceptance of, "devotion" offerings, if sin separates us from God. 

It would be helpful at this point to define "sin".

If you are part of an evangelical church, you may have heard that "sin" means "to miss the mark", such as when an archer shoots an arrow and fails to hit a bulls-eye or to hit the target at all.  From where did that description come?  The Hebrew word for "sin" is "chattaah", which means (you guessed it) "to miss the mark".  But, WHAT mark?  The word "torah" (is very closely related to the words pictured below.  Look at the Hebrew.  They all have the same root.

 

Evangelicals often call the Torah, the Law, a "schoolmaster" or an "instructor".  In short, God's Law, the Torah, show us what it means to live a perfect life, which Jesus Christ lived.  Sin is what it means to fall short of doing that, because no man except for Jesus has kept the whole Law.  (The "falling short" aspect reminds me of a dean of women in college who once prayed for the Lord to "forgive us our falling shorts", which was a catalyst for many silent chortles and spasms of laughter among the collegiate faithful.  She was thinking of Romans 3:23, I guess.  But, I digress....)

Actually, sin is no laughing matter.  God makes clear in the Bible how He hates it.  And, why?  Because it separates Him from those He loves.  In living the Christian life, our individual process of sanctification, we become more and more discerning of sin, especially our own sin.  We become increasingly aware that we may sin at any time.  Sin is the hallmark of our old nature, ever with us, constantly warring with the new nature we received when we accepted Christ Jesus as Savior, and had all of our sins forgiven, washed away, remembered by God no more.  Sin ever seeks to diminish us, to take the glory from God. The apostle Paul describes the "O Wretched Man That I Am Battle" inside the believer, in Romans 7:14-25.

Wouldn't it have been wonderful if, after becoming one with Christ, our old nature was forever banished from us?  However, that is not "real life here below Heaven".  Sin is like a cancer, a silent enemy, always looking for opportunities to derail, up-end, marginalize and, if we let it, destroy us in this life.  Thank God our eternity in Heaven with our Savior is assured! 

Ok, now to examine the Korban Chatat.  This offering worked in concert with the fifth category of offerings, the guilt offering.  Together, these two picture the confession of both the sins of the heart AND the sinful actions which follow inward sins.  The major focus of the Chatat offering is purification, cleansing while a key element of the Asham offering is restitution/reconciliation.  But, lest we get confused, let's focus only on the Korban Chatat for now.

This offering was, yes, offered for unintentional sins committed.  However, it was broader than that.  (That is the reason I titled this post "Purification".)  A sin offering was also offered on occasions such as when a person defiled himself by touching a corpse (Numbers 6:14), or for after a woman gave birth (Leviticus 12:16), or for ritual impurities such as coming into contact with a leprous person (Leviticus 14:19.) Purification cleanses away defilement.  The Purification Offering removed the defilement which occurred when the people broke God's Torah. 

This type of sacrifice was also offered in the fulfillment of Nazarite vows.  I'm not going to launch into an exposition of what a Nazarite vow was, although I will point out that the apostle Paul, after the ascension of Christ back to Heaven, made a Nazarite vow and kept it, ending the vow period by going to the Temple and making a sin offering, a Korban Chatat.  This is recorded in Acts 18 and also in Acts 21.  To many Christians this story is quite troublesome, because it seems to not jive with the all-sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice. In other words, WHY would Paul, who seemed to understand the gospel quite well, go offer a Temple sacrifice, after his conversion?  I will attempt to deal with that question in a future post.  But, let's not digress.

What types of items were featured in the sin offering?  The requirement varied, based on who committed the sin.  The more authority the person carried, the greater the offering.  So, for example, when a member of the priesthood sinned, the offering was of a bull, a very expensive offering.  Or, when a king sinned, the offering requirement was a male goat.  When an "everyday Israelite" sinned, the requirement varied according to that person's wealth (or lack thereof): a lamb, one or two doves, grain/flour.

Sin offerings were also offered on the most holy day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. This occurred from Leviticus 9 and on through until the last Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem in 70 C.E.  It is the Korban Chatat and the Passover Lamb sacrifice (a peace offering) which are most closely associated with the work of Jesus Christ, during Passion Week, the week of His death, burial and resurrection.   

We read in Leviticus 4 that the animal offered for a sin offering had to be the most perfect specimen available, one "without blemish".  The animal would be brought to the altar and the sinner would put his hands on its head, which symbolized transferring his sins onto the animal.  Then, the animal would be killed, which would take place on the north side of the altar.  The blood would be handled in a specific way, as well as the fat of the animal.  Then, usually, the carcass of the animal would be burned up away from the Temple, "outside the camp".  (Compare Hebrews 13:12.)

Have you thought about how the sinner must have felt, to see a beautiful, innocent animal pay the ultimate price, for his sins?  How much more should our hearts be stricken, when we contemplate how Jesus Christ died, bearing the wrath of a holy God, for us?  "...and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

As I am about to wind up this post, you may have noticed I underlined the word "unintentional" several paragraphs back.  Did you wonder about this?  I'll have more to say about that in the next post.

Sources:

"Making Sense of Sacrifices, Part 4", by Dr. Jennifer Scrivner, Beth HaShomer Ministries

http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13764-sin-offering

https://www.gotquestions.org/sin-offering.html

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/sin-offering/

True Freedom

Image by Wynn Pointaux, from Pixabay

Happy Independence Day 2019!

Today, in America, we celebrate the political freedom we have as Americans, to live out the guaranteed freedoms granted to us by the founding documents of our country, the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution (pictured above).  America is, no doubt, a wonderful country.  It is a joy to celebrate her today, on her 243rd birthday!  And, my family and I plan to!  YAY!

However, being an American, as wonderful as that is, is not TRUE freedom, the subject of this post.

As I sat down to blog this morning, I searched the 915 posts in my blog archives to see what I had previously said about freedom.  Turns out, not much - - - which is a shame.  Why?  Because freedom is at the heart of the Christian faith.  True freedom in only found in the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ.

To most of the world, this sounds counterintuitive, even offensive, because people who do follow a religion generally see it as an added drudgery, an enslavement that prevents them from doing what they want to do.  Additionally, the name of Jesus is highly divisive.  This is because the Evil One, whom the Bible calls "the god of this age",  has veiled people's eyes about the nature of true freedom, what it is, where it comes from, the joy it brings.  The apostle Paul tells us this in 2 Cor. 4:3-5.

3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.

One way that the gospel is veiled by the evil one (Satan) is that people are deceived into believing that they can live "good enough" lives to be reconciled with God.  This prideful deception is at the root of legalistic religions.  Although there are legalists who claim the name of Christ, the root of Christianity is the concept of "grace" - - - that is, "man is utterly sinful and completely incapable of, by his own actions or will, reconciling himself to God."  There was a powerful, little book written a few years ago entitled, How Good is Good Enough?  Answer: there is no one good enough (Rom. 3:23).

Another way that the gospel is hidden is Satan's deception that either
a) God does not exist.
or
b) There is no Heaven or Hell.
or
c) The Bible is just an ancient book.
This is what I call the "fairytale deception", and it is promulgated by academics in America today. The line goes like this:  "Only stupid people believe in Christianity.  You can't be intelligent and believe that." This is an extension of the philosophy of "rationalism".
For the past several years, Hillsdale College has offered to the public a free course on the life of C.S. Lewis, an English professor from Oxford University, England, who was moved to belief in Christ after doing an honest investigation.  No sane person would argue that this man was unintelligent.  99.9% of people who proclaim this lie from the devil have not done an honest investigation of the claims of Jesus Christ, as did Lewis, McDowell, Yuan, Butterfield, Strobel, Limbaugh and many, many others.  It is much more easy and convenient to flow along with certain segments of popular society, even the world of academia, and just .... be carried along with the other lemmings.
Paul, himself, was extremely well-educated.

A third way the gospel is hidden is that other people prevent sinners from coming to salvation in Jesus Christ.  Those who claim the name of Christ (whether that claim is genuine or not) are viewed as representatives of Christ.  Therefore, when one of them offends an unbeliever, their actions often "turn unbelievers off" to the message of the gospel.  Whether the offender is truly saved, a true, sincere follower of Jesus Christ, or not, is not the point.  Even true believers struggle with sin, although they don't practice it.  The point is that unbelievers let their impressions of and experiences with other people define (distort) their view of Jesus Christ.

These veils can be removed, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Paul never says that those whose understandings are veiled can never come to a saving knowledge of the truth.  On the contrary, he states the opposite, later on in this chapter: (2 Cor. 3:16-17)

6 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom. 

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

John 8:32

This is true freedom, a liberation we can celebrate every day, not just on July 4th!

Christ followers, Believers, see things differently.  The reason we do is because we are possessed by Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit.  Accordingly, the Holy Spirit continues to "unveil" to us the beauty and majesty of God.  More and more, we focus on the spiritual, the "unseen".  The reason we do this is because the things easiest to see are only temporary, while spiritual victories (and losses) are forever.  We define "success" in a radically different way from how unbelievers define it.  We collect different "trophies", for different reasons.  The world focuses on how much a person can accumulate, for his or her own glory.  These include: wealth, fame, prestige, pleasure.  The Christian focuses on how much more he or she can know and become like Jesus Christ.  Accordingly, any "trophies" accumulated are for His glory and His alone.  It's a radically different outlook, producing a radically different life.  While the world chases sand, we share the liberating message that frees and feeds the soul.  The late English evangelist, Charles H. Spurgeon, understood this and preached about it nearly 133 years ago.

Let me give you a parable. In the days of Nero there was great shortness of food in the city of Rome, although there was abundance of corn to be purchased at Alexandria. A certain man who owned a vessel went down to the sea coast, and there he noticed many hungry people straining their eyes toward the sea, watching for the vessels that were to come from Egypt with corn. When these vessels came to the shore, one by one, the poor people wrung their hands in bitter disappointment, for on board the galleys there was nothing but sand which the tyrant emperor had compelled them to bring for use in the arena. It was infamous cruelty, when men were dying of hunger to command trading vessels to go to and fro, and bring nothing else but sand for gladiatorial shows, when wheat was so greatly needed. Then the merchant whose vessel was moored by the quay said to his shipmaster, "Take thou good heed that thou bring nothing back with thee from Alexandria but corn; and whereas, aforetime thou hast brought in the vessel a measure or two of sand, bring thou not so much as would lie upon a penny this time. Bring thou nothing else, I say, but wheat: for these people are dying, and now we must keep our vessels for this one business of bringing food for them." Alas! I have seen certain mighty galleys of late loaded with nothing but mere sand of philosophy and speculation, and I have said within myself, "Nay, but I will bear nothing in my ship but the revealed truth of God, the bread of life so greatly needed by the people." God grant us this day that our ship may have nothing on board it that may merely gratify the curiosity, or please the taste; but that there may be necessary truths for the salvation of souls. I would have each one of you say: "Well, it was just the old, old story of Jesus and his love, and nothing else." I have no desire to be famous for anything but preaching of the gospel. There are plenty who can fiddle to you the new music; it is for me to have no music at any time but that which is heard in heaven, -- "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory for ever and ever!"
from A Sermon, (No.1910), Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, July 18th, 1886, by

C. H. SPURGEON, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, England

Are you burdened for someone today who does not know Jesus?   Perhaps, like me, there are those acquaintances, co-workers, friends, loved ones whom you pray for every day.  Preaching to them may be not only ineffective, but actually detrimental.  It depends on where their hearts are at the moment and, frankly, the example you are living before their eyes.  However, a 100%-effective "wheat" that can be sown into their lives is constant persistent prayer.  How should we pray for them, though?  We need to pray that God will open their eyes to the truth of Who Jesus is, and that past experiences don't hinder them to the fact that Jesus is all-sufficient.  We need to pray that our prayer targets' eyes will be opened to the deception of false intellectualism, that the veil will be lifted and that they will see the true freedom that is in Jesus Christ alone.

Happy Independence Day!

Father, to You, the Godhead Three-in-One, be glory, forever and ever!  Open our eyes, whether we are Yours or yet-to-be Yours, so that we can know the Truth, and so that the Truth may set us free!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Sources:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_23?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=how+good+is+good+enough+by+andy+stanley&sprefix=How+good+is+good+enough%2Caps%2C319

http://redeeminggod.com/gospel-is-veiled-2-corinthians_4_3-4/

http://biblehub.com/library/spurgeon/spurgeons_sermons_volume_32_1886/the_heart_of_the_gospel.htm

Who was Cain's wife?

There are some trigger questions people will ask in an attempt to discredit the Bible.  Some sincere believers ask them too, because the questions are true puzzles.  Believers, not understanding, ask even in the face of their faith, because they want to be able to answer skeptics and critics.  It is in that light this morning I tackle the question my father posed to me 50 or so years ago, "Who was Cain's wife?"

Let's review:  Adam and Eve were the first humans, created by the hand of God.  The Bible also reveals they procreated, producing both Cain and then afterwards, Abel.  Were there other children born to Adam and Eve between Cain and Abel?  The Bible does not explicitly say.
Cain went on to murder Abel, both of them having been born with the sin nature, evidenced by Abel performing a blood sacrifice for the atonement of sin.  This lends credence to the fact both were born outside The Garden of Eden, after The Fall.
The Bible does not mention other children born to The First Couple, other than Seth, who is the progenitor of the Messianic line, the ancestral line which would produce Messiah.

But, let's back up a little more:
Remember that when God created all, He repeatedly pronounced it "good".  When He created man, He pronounced it "very good".  We cannot even conceive of (please pardon the procreation pun) life in such perfection!  It is beyond our thinking, because all we have known for thousands of years is life under the sin curse.

When God pronounced His curse on ALL of creation, in the aftermath of the Fall of Man, His splendid creation began to erode.  This statement of biblical fact flies in the face of the theory of evolution, which asserts that all the physical world is "evolving" from one state to a better, higher state.  Acute observation of the natural world reveals this is just not factual, but is instead wishful thinking on the part of those who wish to disregard creationism.

Fact:  when God pronounced the sin curse, His perfect creation began to slowly show the effects, over a period of years, decades, millenia.
Case in point:  how old was Adam (and Eve was of a similar age, according to scripture) when Seth was born?  Genesis 5:3 states this:

3When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth.

Eve gave birth to Seth when she was WELL over 100 years old.  Is it reasonable to believe that Adam and Eve had no other offspring between Cain, Abel and Seth?  No.  Instead, it seems more reasonable to conclude that they did, fulfilling God's command to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Genesis 1:28), even though the Bible does not explicitly mention those offspring by name.
"God did not forbid inter-family marriage until much later when there were enough people to make intermarriage unnecessary (Leviticus 18:6-18)."1
Essentially, these two people, created originally sinless by the hand of Almighty God, were, in a sense "superhuman".  Their bodies were originally perfect, with characteristics we cannot fully comprehend.  Furthermore, the newly-created world was vastly different from the one we experience today.

As the slow erosion of the now sin-infected creation progressed, creation, including man's DNA began to show the effects - - the slow, but inevitable, slide toward eventual physical death.  There is no doubt in my mind, in fact it must be so if the Bible is true, that Adam and Eve produced scores of offspring over their nearly 1000-year lifetimes, and those offspring similarly produced an "incredible" number of offspring - - by marrying their siblings and cousins.  Those offspring spread out and started lives on their own over the first centuries, building and populating cities, etc.

Before you think me completely crazy (because marrying close relatives today produces inevitable genetic abnormalities) keep in mind that early man's genetic composition was vastly superior to ours today.  Again, creation continues to deteriorate, to "groan" as the Bible puts it in Isaiah 24:4 and Romans 8:22.

Back in 2006, a theistic evolutionist named Dr. Francis Collins published a book called, The Language of God, in which he claimed that the human race could have been started by no less than 10,000 "founders" - - original humans simultaneously created by God, with Adam and Eve being the Bible's "Exhibit A" in an allegorical story.  This is a problematic theory, not to mention a false one, because if the ENTIRE human race had not been infected with the sin curse which Adam and Eve brought down upon their genetic line, there would have been no reason for Jesus Christ to come and redeem those "ALL" who have sinned (Romans 3:23).

Are two original ancestors (Adam and Eve) enough to eventually produce the entire human race?
I reference for your inspection this article2, under "Sources", by Dr. Elizabeth Purdom, a renowned molecular geneticist, who argues that, yes, two were enough.

The genetic evidence is consistent with human DNA being “young” and the human race beginning with a very small starting population (the Bible tells us the starting population was two people!).

The International HapMap project endeavors to study a select group of DNA similarities and differences between humans known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).5 The SNPs are believed to be representative of the genome (total human DNA) such that what is true for them would be true for the whole genome. These studies and others have shown that the difference in DNA between any two humans is amazingly low . . . only 0.1 percent.6

Reflecting on this very low percentage, some scientists posited, “This proportion is low compared with those of many other species, from fruit flies to chimpanzees, reflecting the recent origins of our species from a small founding population” (emphases mine).7 They also stated, “[Certain genetic estimates] tell us that humans vary only slightly at the DNA level and that only a small proportion of this variation separates continental populations.”8

These findings are consistent with the Bible’s history that humans were created several thousands years ago; in other words, a short amount of time has passed, so there is little genetic variation.

Astounding.  The genetic evidence argues that, not only did the human race originate from only two people, but the lack of genetic diversity argues for a "young earth".
So, according to the Bible and according to true science (science that avoids circular reasoning) Cain must have married either a sister, niece or a cousin.  And, such behavior was common in those days.  What a world it must have been!

Sources:

1
https://www.gotquestions.org/Cains-wife.html

2
https://answersingenesis.org/genetics/did-we-all-come-from-adam-and-eve/?utm_source=facebook-aig&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebook-aig

The Assault and the Struggle

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

Matthew 7:15 (NASB)

One of my friends keeps "backyard chickens".  She has done so for some time.  The other day she got some new hens; she drove a long way to pick them up.  Two nights later they were dead.

I doubt it was a ravenous wolf that killed her chickens; more likely it was a coyote.  Still, seeing the results of such a massacre is hard on the eyes.

The same holds true of apostasy and apostate preachers/prophets.  Hard to witness.  Hard to watch.

In our local area, one of the notable pastors has taken a deep dive off into apostasy, declaring that the Old Testament is no longer relevant to our lives today, as Christians....that the 1st century church fathers divorced themselves from the Old Testament teachings.1  This false teaching is very similar to 2nd century Marcionism.2

A similar apostasy, revealed in the New Testament was the opposite belief - - that all Christians, Jews and Gentiles, had to conform entirely to Mosaic Law and the rabbinical traditions which grew up around it.  This position was taught by the apostate Judaizers, which I have blogged about in this recent post:

http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2018/04/judaizers-again.html

Today, Judaizers can be seen in certain Messianic Jewish communities, such as the wrong-headed Hebrew Roots movement.3

A third form of apostasy is that belief in a particular church or denomination brings salvation...that saving faith in Jesus Christ is not sufficient, that obedience to a bunch of ecclesiastical practices and regulations is required.  This essentially becomes "works-based salvation" or earning your way into Heaven by following a set of rules/practices not mentioned in Scripture.  Adherents become enslaved to their particular church, trusting in that church for salvation, instead of relying on Jesus Christ alone.

All three of these heresies are just that - - heresies, apostasies.
Behind all three are an insatiable drive for power and prestige - - to gain or increase a religious "following".  At the foundation are selfishness and pride.

In the case of what can be observed happening with the Atlanta pastor referenced in source #1 below, the driving force seems to be a general appeasement of American culture.  There is no doubt that the American culture war seems to be swinging in favor of those who view aberrant sexual behavior to be acceptable, both socially and religiously, despite prohibitions of such in both the Old and New Testaments.  In order to appease these increasingly clamorous voices for both social and ecclesiastical legitimacy, some pastors are veering off into a theological ditch, taking their usually sizable congregations along with them.

The Assault and the Struggle:
On a larger scale, all throughout the days since Jesus was here among us, the assault on grace along with the resulting struggle to define appropriate outworking of grace in the life works of believers have raged hot.

I imagine it will continue to be so, until Jesus returns.

So, where is the balance?
I am not much of a theologian and, frankly, there are times writing this blog scares me to death, for fear that I might fall into the trap of teaching heresy.  Still, by the grace of God and for His glory, I'll take a crack at it.

1.  Salvation begins in the life of a person when he or she realizes that there no way to "earn" salvation by "being good" - - that is, conforming to any set of moral rules, from the Old Testament or otherwise.  (Romans 3:10-12; Romans 3:23) . Since God's standard is total perfection, none of us can achieve it on our own.
2.  Salvation is conferred by the Holy Spirit when the person then puts his or her faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, as Savior and Master/Lord.  Period.  Done.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)
3.  Walking by faith means living one's life as an outflowing of that saving grace, living it according to the words of the New Covenant given to us by Jesus Himself in Luke 22:19-20.  We need to recognize, however, that Jesus' New Covenant is directly derived from (flows from) the rules for moral living typified in the 10 Commandments.4  5
4.  The Old Testament should be honored as co-equal with the New, because it is an indispensable part of God's complete written revelation of Himself to His people, Israel, and the Church of Jesus Christ.  It should be studied, in light of the New, to learn how God fulfilled so much of the Old Testament through Jesus' life and work, revealed in the New.  Remember that when Paul wrote 2 Timothy 3:16-17, he was referring to the Scriptures which we today call the Old Testament!
5.  If redeemed people of faith want to (out of love and gratitude) practice such things as keeping the Jewish feasts with a Messianic view, or using Hebrew in their worship services and so forth, they should follow their own convictions to do so, recognizing that eternal salvation is found in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone.

Dear Lord Jesus, please give us clear eyes and pure, humble hearts, to follow You in grace and truth.  May we fare better than my friend Diana's chickens.  Please protect your flock from ravenous wolves.  In Jesus' name, amen.

Sources:

1   http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/moralistic-therapeutic-marcionism/

2   https://www.gotquestions.org/marcionism.html

3   https://answersingenesis.org/presuppositions/dangers-hebrew-roots-movement/

4   https://www.gotquestions.org/new-covenant.html

5   https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-new-covenant.html