Today's Passage: Leviticus 1-3
After reading these chapters in Leviticus, I am even more thankful for Jesus. I encourage you to take a minute or two and read Hebrews 10. The author of Hebrews does a great job of comparing the sacrifices of the Israelites and the sacrifice that God gave in His son, Jesus.
These sacrifices by the Israelites are a mere shadow or picture of the true sacrifice that is to come. A picture is great, and it is worth a thousand words, but it is not the same as the real thing. No matter how perfect an animal the Israelites brought to sacrifice it would have never been enough. That must have been a terrible feeling. Continually having to sacrifice animals and grain must have been a constant reminder that nothing that they ever did would ever be enough to bridge the gap that sin had placed between them and the heavenly father. I especially think about someone who may have not had as much as others to give. You give your best animal of a small flock and then it is still not enough to come back into fellowship with God. God must have been pleased to see one of the Israelites be truly obedient and sacrifice an animal for the sole purpose of being obedient. I think the same is true for us today, that when we act in obedience for all the right reasons, God must be pleased.
After reading this section, I really began to wonder why the Israelites were ever asked to sacrifice at all. God is all knowing, and knew that these sacrifices were not going to be enough, and knew that Jesus was going to have to be the ultimate sacrifice to allow man to be forgiven, but the Israelites are still asked to sacrifice. But, it wasn’t the animal that God wanted; it was their heart and obedience that he desired. It was their outward expression of an inward obedience to God and his law. The more I read the Old Testament, the more the sacrifice of Christ means to me. For thousands of years man had tried to get back closer to God. Nothing we can do, and nothing the Israelites ever did could ever atone for our sins completely. It took the pure sacrifice of an unblemished Christ to allow me to gain access back to that fellowship with God. I am so thankful for God’s great sacrifice!
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