December 31, 2023

Passage Read: Numbers 28-31
Meditation Verses: 28:9-11

Thought

There were daily sacrifices, weekly sacrifices, monthly sacrifices and periodic annual sacrifices, all needing to be offered at their proscribed times. It was not a simple thing for the Lord to dwell on earth among men. Indeed, the Lord did not personally dwell on earth. These sacrifices were just so that He could have a meeting place with men on earth. The sinfulness of men, the uncleanness of a community of people was so great as to require all this bloodshed for God to have a meeting place on earth to commune with men. Yet by one sacrifice, the sacrifice of His Own Son, He could do away with all these other sacrifices. This shows how great and how effective was the sacrifice of Christ on behalf of man and God, so that there could be even closer fellowship between the two. It also shows how it was God pursuing us, and greater fellowship with us, not the other way around.

Application

It is hard to understand how repulsive we can be, we are, to the Lord in His perfect holiness. It is hard to comprehend how repulsive we must be to such a holy God, that there would have to be so many regular sacrifices, not counting those which I would be obligated to offer for all the known sins and uncleanness that I found myself in. Now all of these are done away with in Christ. All the deaths required for me to have some degree of communion with God are satisfied through the one death of Jesus Christ. And because of that, I can be a dwelling place of God on earth. No more daily sacrifices to cleanse me, no more monthly sacrifices, no more annual sacrifices, no more sacrifices whenever I uncover sin or uncleanness in myself. I don't appreciate enough what Christ has done for me, not do I understand enough my initial state before His sacrifice cleansed me.