Blessings After the Sacrifice

Leviticus 9:22: “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.”

Aaron was told to offer three sacrifices: a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a peace offering. After these sacrifices had been offered in the ways they were suppose to; we read that Aaron blessed the people. Today I would like to show you how this verse points forward to the Gospel.

You see, after the sacrifices were offered, then the blessing was given. It was after the sin offering; after the burnt offering; and after the peace offering; that was when the blessings were given to the people.

Jesus, the reality of all the shadows in the Old Testament, died on the cross. He was and is our sin offering; our burnt offering, and our peace offering. And the last we see of Jesus in scripture (in His physical form), we see His arms raised in blessing:

Luke 24:50-51: “Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. (51) While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” 

In the verse above, we see Jesus blessing the disciples, but all believers also receive a blessing:

Romans 4:7: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;”

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus then your sins have been completely forgiven, and covered in the blood in Christ. And as a result, you are blessed by God because of Jesus’ sacrifice. But if are not a believer in the Lord, then I hope the Lord calls you soon so that we will not be exposed to the wrath of God for much longer, and will receive the blessings of God.

Romans 5:9: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

The point of today’s post is to remind you that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament sacrifices, and after His death and resurrection all believers receive many blessings: such as forgiveness, freedom from sin’s hold on our life, and given eternal life. In short: because Jesus bore our curse on the cross, we have received the blessings of God.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for giving us Your Son to die in our place, so that we might be brought near to You and forgiven of all our sin. And Jesus, I thank You for bearing the curse, so that we might receive the blessings. And Holy Spirit, I ask You to please keep us near the cross, and please help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Sacrifices, and the Sacrifice

Leviticus 8:34: “As has been done today, the LORD has commanded to be done to make atonement for you.”

In the past thirty-three verses, Aaron and his sons were ordained as priests, and offered up the sacrifices that they were to offer. We are then told in verse thirty-four that these sacrifices make atonement for the Israelites people. However, these animal sacrifices could never really remove sin, or save us. It took the blood of one perfect man, the Son of God to do that. It took the death of Jesus Christ to save us, to forgiven us of all our sin, and to make atonement for all mankind.

Hebrews 10:10-12: “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (11) And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. (12) But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,”

As we have covered many times: The Old Testament sacrifices were only a foreshadow of what was to come. They could not really remove sin from the people; they served as a reminder that one day, one would come who could really remove sin. And that is what Jesus did on the cross; He removed all sin from those that had lived, who were living, and who would live. And after He died, rose again, and ascended into Heaven; He sat down at the right hand of the Father, showing us that His work had been finished. Why is this important? If His work is finished, then we do not need to add to it. We do not need to work to be forgiven, saved, made right with God, or blessed; because, in Christ, all these things have been given to us.

Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (2) Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

2nd Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, then let me remind you that Jesus completed everything on the cross; we do not need to work for anything spiritual, because it was been given to us. The reason that we do good works is told to us in James 2:26:

“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

We do gook works to keep our faith alive, and another reason why we do good works is this: By doing good works we can show others God in us. And while we are doing good works, God might open a door for us to share the gospel with others. This is why we do good works.

But if you are not a believer, but wish to become one, then let me show you how to be saved.

Romans 10:9: “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

That’s it, nothing more is required. Jesus has done it all for you, all you must do is what is stated above.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for giving us Your Son to die in our place as the last sacrifice, and the only sacrifice that really removed sin and guilt. And Jesus, I thank You for bearing all of my sin and shame, for making a child of God through Your own death and later resurrection. I thank You for showing Your great love to such a great sinner as me. And Holy Spirit, I ask You to please keep us from forgetting the gospel, or getting sidetracked by small matters, in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Guilt Offering

Leviticus 5:15 – 16: “If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the LORD, he shall bring to the LORD as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. (16) He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.”

Today, we will be taking a closer look at the guilt offering and looking for the foreshadows of the gospel which are sure to be here.

We have now come to the guilt offering in our study of Leviticus; this sacrifice was for those that sinned unintentionally but were later made aware of their sin. Once they were made aware of their sin, they were to bring a ram which would die in the place of the sinner. But this ram could not just be any ram; it had to be without any kind of defect.

The first thing we can learn from this passage is this: The wages of sin is death. We can also see this in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Whenever someone sinned, they had to bring an animal which would die in their place. If they did not bring the animal to point forward to the death of Jesus, then their sin would remain of them; meaning that they would die for their sin.

This is a very clear picture of the gospel in this way: We had sinned, and we were fully deserving of death. But Jesus – the perfect sacrifice – came down and died in our place on the cross, even though we were His enemies at the time. We can see this if we look in Romans 5:10:

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

Jesus took all of our sin and all of our guilt so that we might be able to be forgiven of all our sin, and saved from the wrath of God. How great is Jesus!?! He took all the sin and guilt of all mankind, and bore all the wrath of God so that we, His enemies, might be saved and forgiven of all our sin. Thank You Jesus!

What about you? Are you a believer in the Lord; having been completely forgiven of all your sin, and protected from the wrath of God? Or are you still out in the open; your sin still seen by God, and His wrath still on you? If you are the first, then I encourage you to praise and thank Jesus for His great mercy and love which He has shown to you through His own death and resurrection. Hold to the gospel, and pray that you would to not forget it. And if you are the second, then I encourage you to call out to Jesus to be saved from the wrath of God, and forgiven of your sin.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for Giving us Your Son as our guilt offering. And Jesus, I thank You for bearing all my sin, guilt, and the wrath of Your Father so that we might be saved, and forgiven. And Holy Spirit, I ask you to please help us to preach the good news boldly and help us to never forget the power of the gospel, in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Sin Offering

Leviticus 4:3: “if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the LORD for a sin offering.”

Leviticus 4:7: “And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the LORD that is in the tent of meeting, and all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.”

Leviticus 4:12: “all the rest of the bull–he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up.”

Today, we will be looking at the sin offering and how it points forward to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We start with verse three, which tells us what the priest is to do if he sins and so brings guilt on the people. It tells us that the priest was to sacrifice an animal without default as a sin offering. The sin offering would die in the place of the sinner, and so save the life of the sinner. It had to be without default to point us forward to the only perfect sacrifice that truly did remove all our sin and save our lives; Jesus Christ.

Now let’s look at verse 7; in that verse we see that the priest was to put some of the blood of the animal on the horns of the altar. And as we have already seen; horns represent power. And so, since the blood was placed on the horns of the alter; we could say that there is power in the blood.  This is yet another foreshadow of the gospel; Jesus’ blood, which was shed for us on the cross, has redeemed all believers from Satan, and has completely wiped clean all believers of sin. In short, there is great power in the death and resurrection of Christ, in fact we can see in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is the power of God.

Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” 

If the gospel is the power of God, then why aren’t churches preaching it? Shouldn’t we be preaching the power of God every day, reminding others for God’s power, reminding them that they have been saved by grace, and completely forgiven? The gospel is so much more encouraging then being told to do something that you know you can’t do, such as: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and mind at all times. If you are a pastor, then I encourage you to preach the gospel boldly every Sunday, you can still give instruction to your people, but be sure that the instruction is grounded in the gospel.

Now let’s look at verse 12: In this verse we see that the sacrifice was taken outside the camp, to a place where the body was burned. This is the third, and last foreshadow that I saw in the first twelve verse of the passage of the sin offering. Jesus was – like the Old Testament sacrifice – was taken outside the camp, or city; where He was hung on a tree until He died.

Hebrews 13:12: (12) “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.”

If you have not be forgiven, and redeemed by the blood of Christ but want to know how to be saved. Then I encourage you to call out to Jesus, asking Him to save you; if you believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you will be saved.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Your Son to die in our place as a sin offering, so that we might be saved, and forgiven for all the sin we commit. And Jesus, I thank You for saving my life, and for completely forgiving me of all my sin. And Holy Spirit, I ask You to remind us of the gospel every day, and please keep us from preaching anything but the gospel, in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Ark

Exodus 25:10-22: “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. (11) You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. (12) You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. (13) You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. (14) And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. (15) The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. (16) And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you. (17) “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. (18) And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. (19) Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. (20) The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. (21) And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. (22) There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”

These are the instructions given to Moses as to how he was to build the ark; the ark was the place where the Lord’s presence was to dwell. Today, we will be looking at just how the Ark was made and how it is important to us.

A picture of the Ark of the Covenant

This might have been what the Ark of the Covenant looked like.

The verses that we will be looking at the most are verses 17 – 22. First, let’s really look at just how the Ark was to be put together.

The Ark was hollow, and inside of it was placed the law. The mercy seat covered the law, and on either side of the mercy seat an angel was placed. We are also told that the presence of God dwelled between the two angels.

Exodus 25:22: “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”

So if God looked at the Law, He would have had to look through the mercy seat. Knowing this, look with me to Leviticus 16:14:

“And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.”

The priests of God were to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat, meaning that if God looked at the law He would have had to look through the blood. Now look with me to Revelation 7:14:

“I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

All Believers have had their clothes washed in the washed in the blood of the Lamb (spiritually); or to use the Lamb’s more common name: Jesus. Or in other words: We have been covered in the blood of Jesus. And so when God looks at us, we are seen through the blood of Jesus to be clean.

Now, you might think that this is a bit of a jump; after all, how can the Ark of the Covenant have anything to do with the Cross. Well, here’s how:

Colossians 2:17: “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

Most of the things in the Old Testament are shadows of the cross; they are not perfect, but we can still see the gospel in them. So that is how the Ark is connected to the cross; it points forward to it.

What about you? Have you been covered in the blood of Christ, and so viewed as holy and pure by God? Or are you still exposed to the full wrath of God? If you are the first, then I hope that you have not forgotten the power of God that is the gospel. And I hope that you are praising God for His great mercy that He has shown to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. But if you are the second, longing to be the first; then know that you can be the first. All you must to is trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and call out to Him to save you. If you ask believingly, then it will be given to you.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for reminding us of the gospel as we read through the Old Testament by giving us shadows us the gospel that we can look for. And Jesus, I thank You for taking all of my sin and shame while you were on the cross, so that I might be clean and free from my sin’s power. And Holy Spirit, I ask You to please keep our eyes on Jesus, and please keep us from forgetting the power of God, that is the gospel, in Jesus’ name, amen.

God’s Promise to Noah.

Genesis 8:18-21: “So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. (19) Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. (20) Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. (21) And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.”

Here, we see Noah, his family, and all the animals that were on the Ark, disembarking onto the dry land. And once they are all off, Noah made a sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord smelled the sacrifice, and gave Noah this promise: “(21) and when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.”

Once again we see a shadow of the cross: When God smelled the sacrifice that Noah made to Him after disembarking the Ark, He gave Noah the promise of life for all mankind. Even though Man is fully deserving of death, we have been given life because of the sacrifice that died.

Now that we have seen the shadow, let us now look at the reality: Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, died in our place, so that we, sinful man, might live and have new life in Him.

2nd Timothy 1:10: “and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,”

If you have not found life in Jesus’ death, then run to Him today. If you call out to Jesus, Her will save you, forgive you, and free you from the hold that sin has on your life. All believers in the Lord have received eternal life in Jesus’ death, but all for all those that are not believers in Christ, there is only eternal death. So, if you are not a believer in Jesus, call out to Him today. Ask Him to save you, and He will.

Heavenly Father, I thank You, for giving us Your Son, so that we, sinful man, could be saved through His death. And Jesus, I thank You, for giving us life, freedom, and forgiveness. And Holy Spirit, I ask You, to please remind us of the gospel every day, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Jesus and Melchizedek

Hebrews 7:1-3: “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.”

The writer of Hebrews is now taking about Melchizedek, and how he is like Christ. I’ll name some of the ways that Melchizedek is like Christ:

1. Melchizedek was a king, and a high priest. (Something that became illegal after the law was given.)
2. He was the king of both righteousness and peace and Salem.
3. There is no account of his father, or mother, or his genealogy. So, in a way, he is without beginning or ending of days.

But how is this like Christ, you may ask? I will now try to explain it to you:

1. Jesus was a king, a high priest, and a prophet.
2. Jesus is called the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6 ), and giver of righteousness (Romans 5:17).
3. And although Jesus’ Earthly parents are recorded; it is their genealogy that is recorded, not Jesus’, because He has no beginning or ending.

I hope that this list helps you to understand how Melchizedek is like Christ.

Jesus is called our high priest, He has made atonement of all sins through His own death and resurrection on the cross, for all those that are in Him. For all those that have found peace in Christ, there is forgiveness, righteousness, atonement, and freedom from sin. But for all those that are not in Christ, their is no atonement, and no way to earn atonement for sins. Their is no peace, or freedom. Call out to the Lord, ask Him to come into your life, to change you, and you will receive the many blessings that come in Christ. Consider: Acts 2:38: “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

But what are the instructions for believers in this passage? How about: Remember who Christ is; our high priest, our redeemer, and our savior. Look for the shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament, and remember the gospel.

God has given us so many blessings in Jesus, such as: righteousness, inner peace, freedom from sin, a shelter from Him own wrath, forgiveness, and atonement from sin. Just to name a few. Thank You Lord! See how many blessings you can name if you want an idea of the love God has for you.

Heavenly Father, I thank You, for sending Your Son, and through Him, giving me atonement from all of my sin. And Jesus, I thank You, for being my High Priest while I was still Your enemy, and for the righteousness that You freely gave to me. And Holy Spirit, I ask You, to please remind me of the gospel everyday, and please show me the shadows of Jesus, in the Old Testament. In Jesus’ name, amen.