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January 16, 2011 |
| Blood of the Lamb | ||
One of the first phrases a new Christian encounters is "you are saved by the blood of the lamb". While the initial reaction to the words could only be "ick", not enough Christians understand it as well as they should.
It was the law of Moses that dictated the sacrifices, including the sacrifice of lambs. But that law was full of symbolism and prophecy which pointed toward the Messiah and savior. Too few Christians understand this and do not fully understand New Testament Scripture. For example, do you realize that the authors of the Old Testament books did not always understand the symbolism in the words they wrote? Do you realize this gives support for the existence of God?
There has always been a law for mankind. In the Garden of Eden we know there was a law not to eat the fruit from one particular tree. After that and until Moses the law was the law of conscience that God had embedded in mankind. Then, for Israel, there was the Law of Moses. Now we can be lead directly by the Holy Spirit.
When this law was broken, it caused a separation between the sinner and God. The steps to correct that sin are:
These steps are not just for our relationship with God but for our relationships with each other as well. If someone you thought was a friend takes $20 from you without permission he has sinned. If he later realizes that he shouldn't have done that, he feels sad from the guilt and from knowing what you now think of him. He determines not to do that again and approaches you to admit to what he has done and to ask for forgiveness. If you decide to forgive him there is still the matter of repairing the damage, in this case returning the money. When that is done to the satisfaction of both persons the relationship can continue on again.
The problem with God is this. What can you do to right a wrong? What can you give God that God doesn't already have? The situation is similar to a child and his mother when the child goes out of the yard when he wasn't supposed to. There is no way to undo what has been done.
But God provided a way for us to make restitution; the death of an innocent. We see evidence that animal sacrifices were performed prior to the Law of Moses but we don't know if there were prescribed sacrifices. But the Law of Moses spelled out a very specific plan for restoration. This plan was also symbolic of a future plan and the elements of it were shadows of that future plan and of the whole redemptive plan for mankind. That needs explaining and we'll cover it as we go along.
When a sin was committed the sinner brought a flawless lamb before the priest as a sacrifice. The sinner placed his hand on the lamb, confessed his sin(s) with remorse, and prayed for forgiveness. The lamb was killed by slitting its throat. Hebrews 9:22 sums it up.
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
This is the basis for the phrase "saved by the blood of the lamb". Most Christians understand this much. But there is much more. The plan does not end there and Paul means everything.
The priest would take some of the lamb's blood into the temple and sprinkle it in front of the curtain of the Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the temple and the place where God's spirit resided. It's important to understand what has happened so far. The sins of the sinner have not vanished. They have been transferred from the sinner to the lamb via touching and repentance and from the lamb to the temple via the blood of the lamb and sprinkling.
The next part of the process needs to be understood in the context of the Jewish Fall Festivals. All the prescribed Jewish festivals, both spring and fall, were a symbolic description of God's plan for salvation. Here at the end of the year we see the end of that plan.
The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar with each month starting on a new moon. The completion of the repentance process becomes serious in the month of Tishri, the seventh month of their year. But for the 6 calendar months prior to that month each month begins with the blowing of the Shofar, a ram's horn trumpet.
The blowing of the Shofar by the priest each month was a call to repentance and served as a warning that the day of judgment was coming. But on the 1st day of Tishri everyone blows their Shofar. This day called Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, New Year, began a 10 day period called the Days of Awe or the Days of Repentance. This was also the most holy time of their year.
Jews could bring their sacrifices for sin anytime during the year, but the Feast of Trumpets announced their last chance to repent and bring sacrifices. This was a serious matter. Those who did not repent of their sins were cut-off from Israel at the end of the Days of Awe.
The 10th of Tishri, called Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, was the holiest day of the year. Yom Teruah, The Feast of Trumpets, was the second holiest. Sacrifices for sin could be made until the late afternoon of that day. After that the priests and especially the High Priest began the annual cleansing rite with additional sacrifices.
The first sacrifice was a young bull to atone for the sins of the High Priest and the priesthood. But there is an important difference here. With the daily sacrifices the blood was sprinkled in front of the veil of the Holy of Holies. Now the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies, and so entered into the presence of the spirit of God. He brought in an incense burner and some of the blood of the bull. The blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat and in front of it. Thus the sins of the priesthood were symbolically transferred to the Holy of Holies.
The next sacrifice was a male goat chosen at random from two identical male goats. This goat was commonly referred to as the Lord's goat, and is said to be for Yahweh. Some of the goat's blood was taken into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled as before. This blood symbolically took the sins from the temple, where they had gathered through the year by the sacrifices for sin, and transferred them to the Holy of Holies.
Now everyone's sin has been transferred to the Holy of Holies. The last step involves the remaining goat, called the goat for Azazel. The High Priest placed his hands on the goat and confessed all the sins of Israel. Then the goat was taken out into the wilderness and released - not sacrificed.
This goat served to take all the sins that were then in the Holy of Holies away from the people of Israel. This is an elimination ritual; the sins are now dispensed with and gone.
There are differences of opinion on who is Azazel. Most modern scholars agree that it is either Satan or his 1st in command. So the symbolism shows us that all of the sins of mankind will be returned to the one or ones that caused them.
The last feast day in this month is Sukkot, the Feast of Booths. It was not part of the sacrificial system but it was still strongly connected to it. It was inaugurated as a commemoration of the Israelites 40 years in the desert when they lived in small huts or shelters. But it really celebrates God being with his people at that time and it points forward to the second coming of the Messiah when God will be with them again. Sukkot happens at the same time as Asif, the Feast of Ingathering. This feast celebrates the wheat harvest and points forward to God's harvest.
The entire Jewish plan for restoration is symbolic and the elements are shadows. When we say shadows the allusion is to our own shadows caused by the sun, which are flat, colorless images of ourselves. In the same way the earthly tabernacle was a shadow of the tabernacle in Heaven. And all of the worship items in the tabernacle were shadows of things in Heaven. Remember what God said to Moses when the first covenant began. (Exodus 25:30) "Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain."
When Jesus was sacrificed on the cross by the priests and rose again from the grave he became the perfect sacrifice for sin, removing the need for another sacrifice. But his blood was not presented by the High Priest in the earthly tabernacle; it was presented by Jesus himself, acting as High Priest, in the Heavenly tabernacle. From Hebrews 10 we have these verses.
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
8 First [Jesus] said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them"-though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
From the above we see many things. The sacrifices could not remove sins though that appeared to be their purpose. They were more of a pageant play showing the future plan. But Christ's sacrifice is atonement for both the sins we have committed and the ones we will commit, hopefully rarely.
God did not desire sacrifices. Desiring sacrifices would be the same as desiring that man would sin. But more than that, the sacrificial system was a necessary step in the restoration of man and God, but it was not the final step. Neither is Christianity the final step. As the Jewish plan for restoration shows us, the final step will be the removal of all sin including our sinful nature.
1. In John 1:29 John the Baptist sees Jesus and says "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" But then in Luke 7:20 we see John's disciples come to Jesus and say, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?'" John, a devout Jew who would have attended the Day of Atonement ceremonies many times, seems to have missed the understanding of the destiny of the atoning lamb. How did that happen? Are we in danger of making similar mistakes and what can we do to avoid them?
2. Jesus took a select group of his disciples to be with him when he was transfigured and spoke with Moses and Elijah (Matthew. 17:1-9; Mark 9:1-10 and Luke 9:29). Near the end of that event Peter says "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." What is he talking about?
3. If the Jewish sacrificial system could not remove sins then they all died in their sins. So should we expect to see any Jews in the Kingdom of Heaven?
4. This is a very hard question. Jesus died on Passover as the Pashal (Passover) lamb. The Holy Spirit was given on Pentecost (Feast of Weeks). We can't be certain but there are good reasons to believe that Jesus was born on Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), when he came to be with man. When 100 pound hailstones fall on men and they curse God for it, what will be the month and days?
1. The scriptures available to John depicted two Messiahs, the suffering servant and the conquering king. As far as we know, no Jews understood that the suffering servant would come first and would be slain. Because the Jews at that time felt that being God's people made them better than other people but being under Roman rule at the time, the Jews longed for a conquering king. This desire over-ruled their intellects and they missed what they could have seen.
We too can fall for this. Our desires and aspirations can over-rule the knowledge and guidance the Holy Spirit provides. To combat this we must submit our desires to the will of God, knowing that he knows our desires and needs even better than we do and that his will and guidance will take us to the destiny that is best for us.
2. Peter is talking about the booths that were made and lived in for the week of the Feast of Tabernacles, which celebrated God being with his people. When Peter saw Jesus revealed as God and with Elijah and Moses his thoughts turned to the feast. But he had been near sleep and was then stunned by the vision of Jesus transfigured and his words made no sense. During the feast the booths were made for the people, not for God.
3. The answer comes from Paul in Hebrews 11 (and many other places) but I'll quote only verse 29 from Hebrews 11, "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect". From this we know that faith was always what pleased God. But as we saw in the lesson, we also know that atonement is necessary.
The explanation comes as an example, a person who had lived an ungodly life and found himself on a cross next to Jesus. Jesus, prior to the moment of his sacrificial death and later resurrection, says that this person will be with him in paradise. For this to be possible the person's sins must be atoned for, but they occurred before the new covenant was in place. From this and from Jesus' statement, we know that the one-time atonement travels back into history as well as into the future. Therefore all who had faith but had died received the benefit of that atonement.
4. The reference to 100 pound hailstones and cursing God comes from Revelation 16:21. And Revelation is the key to the question. Revelation 16:21 comes immediately after the seventh trumpet has sounded. If you look back to the diagram in the lesson you will see that the seventh trumpet sounds at the start of the seventh month to announce the last opportunity for repentance, the Days of Awe.
There are good reasons to believe that the trumpet events of Revelation and what follows reflect the end of God's plan for salvation depicted in the Jewish Festivals. No Jew such as John, the author of Revelation, would have missed the parallels.
The reasoning is also based on the major events of Jesus' first coming occurring according to the Spring Festivals. Therefore the thinking is that the second coming will be according to the Fall Festivals. But it's important to note that the 6 trumpets that precede the seventh trumpet do not fall on Fall Festival dates so those 6 months in the plan of salvation many not be months at the second coming.
Aside from this, there is an important observation to be made from that verse in Revelation. The rapture occurs on the seventh trumpet along with the other events we see described but don't fully understand. Therefore the people still on earth during the Days of Awe following the last trumpet will be fully aware that there is a God. But we see that they choose to curse God instead of submitting to him and repenting.
1 Gods Festivals in Scripture and History - Part 2, the Fall Festivals, Samuele Bacchiocchi