I want to ask you the same question I asked the church congregation as we started our worship service yesterday. Before you entered into worship, how many of you made sure that you offered up your sacrifices before you left the house? I asked the folks to raise their hands showing which ones followed through on that biblical command, but there were no takers.
As you might have determined, I have entered into the land of Leviticus in my readings. For years, I would avoid Old Testament books like this with much fear and trepidation. Partly because it was boring with all the specific details of law and ceremony. But today, although I do not consider myself an authority on the sacrificial system of the Hebrew people, I can take away a couple of vital lessons from this rich book. Firstly, the fact of your likely negative answer to the above mentioned question is incredible. You see, God's requirement for relating to Him was literally a blood bath. Your cleansing to be purified before a holy God came at the expense of laying your hands on an animal (bull, ram, dove, etc.) looking into its eyes and killing this innocent animal, and then splashing its blood everywhere so you could worship God. IF that were not enough it had to be done repeated, because the it was only temporary relief. The New Testament book of Hebrews 9 reaffirms Leviticus that the cost of worshipping God was blood shed. But original my question teetered on the absurd because this prerequisite of worship is completely foreign to us today. The biggest "sacrifice" most folks made to come to worship was getting out of bed "early."
Thankfully, in that same passage of Hebrews, it also describes the permanent washing of all sin came when Christ offered Himself as the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God. He, in Himself, completely satisfied God's requirement of an atonement for sin. We were able to speak the name of God and relate to Him yesterday without the required blood bath because of what Christ did. So, next time you worship, give thanks to God for what we so often take for granted that we no longer have to be repeatedly cleansed in such a violent manner before we enter into His presence.
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)
As you might have determined, I have entered into the land of Leviticus in my readings. For years, I would avoid Old Testament books like this with much fear and trepidation. Partly because it was boring with all the specific details of law and ceremony. But today, although I do not consider myself an authority on the sacrificial system of the Hebrew people, I can take away a couple of vital lessons from this rich book. Firstly, the fact of your likely negative answer to the above mentioned question is incredible. You see, God's requirement for relating to Him was literally a blood bath. Your cleansing to be purified before a holy God came at the expense of laying your hands on an animal (bull, ram, dove, etc.) looking into its eyes and killing this innocent animal, and then splashing its blood everywhere so you could worship God. IF that were not enough it had to be done repeated, because the it was only temporary relief. The New Testament book of Hebrews 9 reaffirms Leviticus that the cost of worshipping God was blood shed. But original my question teetered on the absurd because this prerequisite of worship is completely foreign to us today. The biggest "sacrifice" most folks made to come to worship was getting out of bed "early."
Thankfully, in that same passage of Hebrews, it also describes the permanent washing of all sin came when Christ offered Himself as the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God. He, in Himself, completely satisfied God's requirement of an atonement for sin. We were able to speak the name of God and relate to Him yesterday without the required blood bath because of what Christ did. So, next time you worship, give thanks to God for what we so often take for granted that we no longer have to be repeatedly cleansed in such a violent manner before we enter into His presence.
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool." (Isaiah 1:18)
No comments:
Post a Comment