(Ex 30:10 NLT) ”Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by placing on its horns the blood from the offering made for the atonement of sin. This will be a regular, annual event from generation to generation, for this is the LORD’s supremely holy altar.”
This week I am going to take a pause from the Proverbs series because it is “Passion Week.” This upcoming Sunday we will celebrate what I consider to be the singular most important event in history – the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Christ. So the five messages this week will be designed to help you better understand what happened with the death, burial, and subsequent resurrection of Jesus.
Let’s start in the Old Testament. Exodus 30 opens with God detailing to Moses the altar of incense. The Lord went into great detail about the dimensions, the type of wood, the placement, etc. This would be the first thing you encountered when entering the Tabernacle. Aaron was to burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning and then again in the evening. This was but a ritual of worship, but the true purpose of any altar is always death. Our text outlines the death connected to this altar; the death of the animal killed for the ‘Atonement’ of sin. This annual “Day of Atonement” (Yom Kippur) was the day set apart every year where the High Priest would offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people. The word atonement means ‘to cover.’ It is further explained in Leviticus 23:26-32. Suffice is to say that the blood of the animal was offered as a ‘covering’ for sin. The blood of the animal could never really eradicate the sin problem created by Adam, but it would merely serve as a temporary fix, until the ultimate sacrifice would be offered – Jesus Himself. The Hebrew writer explained it this way: “For Christ has entered into heaven itself to appear now before God as our Advocate. He did not go into the earthly place of worship, for that was merely a copy of the real Temple in heaven. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the earthly high priest who enters the Most Holy Place year after year to offer the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all time, at the end of the age, to remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us” (Heb 9:24-26 NLT).
So what does this mean to you today? A few things:
1. Adam introduced two problems with his disobedience: Death and Sin (the dynamic duo).
2. The blood of the PASSOVER lamb (sacrifice) was a symbol of God’s deliverance from death (not explained today).
3. The blood of the Atonement lamb (sacrifice) was a symbol of God’s deliverance from sins.
4. The blood of the Atonement sacrifice served as a ‘covering’ for sins.
5. The blood of Jesus would serve to ‘cleanse’ us from sin and deliver us from death, once and for all.
6. Jesus was both the PASSOVER and Atonement sacrifices. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God (Jesus) ended the need for any further animal sacrifices. Jesus delivered us from both Death and Sin in one fell swoop. Jesus redeemed us from everything that Adam got us into.
7. In Jesus we graduate from temporary to permanent; from ritual to relationship; from depiction to definite; from Covering to Cleansing!
The greatest peace we can experience is the peace of knowing that we are not covered, but rather cleansed. What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Closing Confession: Father, I do not walk in ritual, but rather in relationship. I do not base my life on a depiction of truth, but on the definite truth itself; the truth that Your Son Jesus died, that I might live. My sins are not covered. No, my sin (all of it) has been cleansed by the Blood of Jesus! I walk in perfect peace, power, protection, and might. I enter into this day with a clear conscience and a rested spirit. I have the confidence that I can accomplish anything set before me today, because I am internally at rest. My rest comes from the saving knowledge of Jesus the Christ, who delivered me from sin and death. Satan’s dynamic duo has no power over me. I am safe and secure in Christ! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper!
