#DailyDevotion Getting Saved Is A Messy Job

Easter Week 4 Monday

Read Lev 9:1–24

Lev 9:8-9  So Aaron drew near to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.  (9)  And the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar…12 Then he killed the burnt offering, and Aaron’s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar…18 Then he killed the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings for the people. And Aaron’s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar…22 Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings…24 And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Approaching the Lord, the Creator of the Cosmos is a bloody business. It isn’t neat and clean. Look at what Moses and Aaron had to do to have the Lord’s glory come near unto them. The animals of course were sacrificed and the majority of them were burnt whole with various and sundry parts removed first, the fatty parts of the entrails and kidneys. I understand these were considered to be some of the best parts. Well the best belongs to the Lord.

But then the blood of the animals was cast against the sides of the altar, from each and every one of the offerings. When the temple was later built there was a ditch that carried all the blood out of the temple grounds, that’s how much blood was required for the priests and for the people to approach their Lord and God.

All these sacrifices were a type, an icon of the sacrifice that ultimately would bring God and man together. The blood of bulls, goats, lambs and the like could never truly reconciled man to God. But these were a picture to give an idea of what would be necessary to make peace between God and men. It would take the blood of one who is both God and Man, a whole burnt offering, whose scourging is seen in the way the sacrifices of the Mosaic covenant were prepared, which would truly bring peace. That one would be Jesus of Nazareth. Only his sacrifice, only the spilling of his blood upon the cross, only his scourging could ever allow us to approach the Father of lights as we do today. Even as the Lord set fire to the sacrifice before Moses and the people, the Lord exacted his price from Jesus as he cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” Yet for the sake of his sacrifice, our Father no longer counts our trespasses against us and our relationship is restored. But not without a price and not without a sacrifice, that which is made by our Savior Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus Christ, we hardly begin to understand the sacrifice you have made for us by your passion and death. Always put before us your cross that we may always be grateful and that we may not treat your grace cheaply but hold it in highest esteem. In your name we pray. Amen.