Animal sacrifice in the old testament.
A lot has gone on in our world today.
A lot of things have changed.
Should I say we have forgotten a lot...or that we have not known a lot from the beginning?
I never knew this or understood it the way I do now.
I'm here to talk about sin and its real meaning.
Sin is not just any act that makes God mad and sad.
It is far more than that.
The real meaning of sin is embedded in its spiritual significance.
Just as every other idea 's real meaning is embedded in its spiritual significance, one can only discover the real meaning of sin in its spiritual sense.
This discovery of mine was made accidentally.
I was doing my regular Bible study when the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to something I've been missing ever since I started reading the scriptures.
We all know about the old testament.
The sin offerings and other sacrifices carried out by priests and high priests on behalf of themselves and the people they were interceeding for...but what surprises me most is that I have missed this new discovery all this while.
Have you ever heard of the Holy of holies?
It is the innermost part of the temple of God , deep inner, way past the outer sanctuary.
It is called the Holy of holies for a reason.
God is holy.
His being holy is a form of divine authority that does not tolerate sin in any form.
Holiness is sacred , divine power.
So pure, so untouchable, not to be toyed with.
God is holy.
In His holiness is power, authority, justice and great might.
Sin is a reproach to God himself.
Sin is an act that defies God's authority as God.
Sin is a personal insult to God and as God is holy, the only way to reply an insult given to His holiness is the total elimination of that which defied His authority and holiness.
Since sin can only be committed by a human being under the prompting of a force that is not of God.
The total elimination of he who defies God would mean death in this context.
There were cases in the old testament where people lost their lives because of the sin they had committed or were committing.
God is holy.
He cannot stand sin.
He removes it from His holy sight immediately it is committed or the offenders face terrible consequences.
Either way, sin never goes without being confronted by God.
In the Bible, people have died for sins as seemingly simple as lying e.g Sapphira and Ananias.
This goes to show that everything we do happens before the very eyes of a Most Holy God.
Everything is in display before Him and He takes every act of disobedience as an insult on His divine royal majesty.
God is holy.
God is spirit.
Most powerful.
Most High.
He is great and mighty.
Pure and holy.
Worthy of everlasting praise , worship and adoration.
He is God.
He is power in every sense of the word.
He is the personification of authority.
In fact, the word 'authority' derives its meaning from His capacity to execute His say on everything in the universe.
Sin is the only thing that has attempted to poke Him in the eye and God won't watch that happen.
He will maintain His face as God by putting anything that tries to defy His authority in its place.
The true gravity of sin has been lessened by the devil but originally, sin was and always will be as good as committing murder.
No matter which sin it is.
Whether it is lying, thinking evil thoughts about someone, saying something bad about someone or taking something that does not belong to you.
I sound outrageous, right?
Yes, I know.
It also sounded outrageous to me too when the Holy Spirit whispered these truths into my ears but why does it sound outrageous to us?
This is because the set of sins that give us reason to worry is suchlike murder, adultery, fornication, masturbation, lesbianism, homosexuality and the rest of it.
Who makes us think this way and makes us believe that these are the sins we should ever worry about?
The enemy of our soul, the devil.
He is the one who reduces the gravity of sin in our minds by ensuring that it becomes a common practice.
By succeeding in making some sins a common practice, gradually, it becomes a norm and is accepted with wide arms by the society.
Glory be to God.
Today, I discovered that sin, whichever one it is , is as grave as committing murder.
Why do I say so?
I say so because in the old testament , sin can only be removed with blood.
Before sin is removed from a person who committed a particular sin, blood must be spilt.
Remember the saying,' an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'.
If a life must be taken before sin can be removed from the offender, if the blood of an innocent must be shed before a sinner can be set free, then sin can be seen as 'blood for blood'.
The first shedding of blood being the act of committing the sin in the first place.
The second shedding of blood is the killing of an innocent (someone needs to take the blame so that the offender can be vindicated).
Blood for blood.
God is holy.
He demands holiness because He takes the act of committing sin as if it were a personal insult to Him.
It actually is because anything that tries to exalt itself above the authority of God is a sin.
Anything that refuses to acknowledge Him as God is indirectly throwing out an unannounced challenge to Him and God will surely reply that confrontation..
Jesus Christ is a perfect proof of this , the blood of animals could only make reparation for sins committed at one time.
If the person goes on to commit another sin again, another animal or set of acceptable animals have to be sacrificed again.
The person who is supposed to die is the sinner because he or she is the original offender but to save him or her from the consequences of sin, the blame is put on another, it must be a living thing, in this case, an animal.
The animal takes the blame and suffers the consequences of the sinner's offence.
It is killed and its blood is shed so that the original offender is exonerated of the consequences of sin.
However, when the consequences of sin is placed on another and the original offender gets to roam free, he or she still has the ability to sin.
The person will mostly likely commit another sin and another blood is shed in his stead.
God had it with all manner of blood on His holy altar.
He wanted to deal with sin for good.
So, He gave His own Son, Jesus Christ.
A sacrifice pleasing and perfect to Him, to not only take away sin but also to eliminate the ability to sin.
We key in into what God has done when we believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior.
His blood was shed in our stead once and for all.
When we reckon ourselves dead in His crucified body but alive in His glorified body, the disability of committing sin is activated in us.
When we reckon ourselves in Him as He sits on the right hand of the Father in heaven, we manifest dominion among men here on Earth.
Now I know, how God feels when we go on committing sin even after all He has done.
We still commit sin because we are blindened by the evil one to the truth.
We are made to see sin as less grave, far less grave than it really is and incur the wrath of God on ourselves.
We live peacefully, still alive, roaming free because the blood of Jesus Christ is ever before God.
Jesus Christ, the Everlasting High priest and the Everlasting sacrifice.
One and the same person.
Forever before God interceeding for us, for God's mercy, grace and forgiveness.
Now, you see how sin is entirely different from how we have downplayed it.
Sin is grave, really grave.
Maybe we should think again next time we want to commit any act of sin.
May God have mercy on all men and forgive us all of our sins, in Jesus name, amen
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