Others tried to, but got lost in Exodus when they came to the part where God is giving commands to Moses about things that are not really our concern in this modern era.
What they do not realise is that the Old Testament has a significant meaning to it, even if it the things there are not what we practise today. For example slaughtering a bull and dipping your fingers into its blood.
Starting from Exodus, it seems like a bunch of weird eww gross things that the Isrealites have to do in order to present themselves to God. But look a little deeper and you will start to get the whole picture.
I admit that I was a bit lost and slightly grossed out by the sacrificing thing.
But today it all changed from what God revealed to me. For the past few weeks, as I read through Leviticus, I came across countless of maticulous and extremely detailed acts that has to be carried out by the Isrealites to make atonement for their sins.
"If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord's commands, he is guilty. When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect. He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering. Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven" Leviticus 5.27-31
Wow, all that in order to rid one of his or her sins.
Everytime I read a passage as such, instead of complaining, "GOD this is so disgusting, what is with all this gorry and boring and unrelated issues that is in the bible?? We don't even do that anymore...", I would be thanking God that we do not have to do such "gorry and disgusting" things to make atonement for our sins.
In the Old Testament days, if you sin, you are unworthy and must make a sacrifice to the Lord that is pleasing to Him so that you will be forgiven. The animal that you are to sacrifice must be without defect, in other words, perfect.
2000 years ago, the perfect sacrifice was made. The sinless and worthy lamb was led willingly to the slaughter so that we might be at one with God again.
So I thank God for the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, who willingly died on the cross to save man kind. Because of what He has done, we do not need to kill anything, neither do we need a medium to repent of our sins and be reconciled with our creator.
God's perfect plan, don't you think so? Hehe
Another thing that I keep running into in the book of Leviticus is that each sacrifice must be perfect and without defect.
"Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf." Leviticus 22.20
Its signifance never occured to me until the Holy Spirit revealed to me this morning. During those times, that rule can be applied to the sinful Isrealites, and even during our contemporary times, it applies to us as well.
Translated, the things that we do, the things that we offer to God must be PERFECT and WITHOUT DEFECT. Going a little deeper, it means that in everything that we do, we must give our all for Him, because that is what He truly deserves.
We must do our very best in everything that we do, and make it as an offering onto Him. Sure, we ourselves are not perfect for we are only human. Flawful and with iniquity. But no matter what, we should always try our utmost best in whatever it is that we are doing for the Lord. It does not matter in which aspect do we serve Him, be it worship lead, bible school, sunday school teacher, and even in our studies. Do the very best you can for Him.
You think that I am making all this up?
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12.30
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, in everything that you do, don't do it for the sake of doing or. Or to gain worldly acknowledgements and fame. But do it for the glory of our Lord, the Maker of heaven and Earth.
God bless :)
1 comment:
did u post that right after u came back from cg?
hehe
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