A NEVER-ENDING STORY

When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry out their ministry. But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning, This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper (Heb. 9: 6-9).

Imagine having to live one’s whole life with the burden of sin on one’s conscience!

The gifts and sacrifices of the old covenant could not clear the guilty conscience because there was no assurance of forgiveness. Animal blood can never remove sin, nor can rituals or even washing in the water of a sacred bath or river. The prophet, Micah, asked the question that nothing outside of the blood of Jesus can answer:

With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will God be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  (Micah 6: 6-7).

Men of old who had insight into the things of God knew that animal sacrifices were only symbolic. In their experience of life they knew that God required much more than an endless river of blood. Both Micah and King David had grasped the truth that it was not outward acts but an inner attitude of the heart that God was seeking, which would alter the ways in which His people would treat both Him and His people.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6: 8).

The perpetual offering of animal blood in the old covenant were a reminder, not a remover of sin. Something far more effective was needed to remove sin and assure the sinner of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

David understood the truth that God was far more concerned about heart attitude than He was about animal blood.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise (Psa. 51: 16-17).

Through the prophet Isaiah, God spoke for Himself.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of God, you people of Gomorrah! ‘The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.’ (Isa. 1: 10-11).

But I thought that that was what God wanted? Did He not command the people to offer sacrifices? Sure He did, but for what purpose? So that they had an excuse to carry on living in sin, with their bad attitudes and evil behaviour? No way!

It was God’s gracious provision and a reminder that the cost of sin was death. Innocent animals had to die by the thousands to keep them aware of the terrible penalty of sin. Every time the blood ran, they should have remembered and mourned their corrupt nature that cost the animal its life. Every pang of guilt for what they had been and what they had done should have motivated them to follow God’s instructions because His way was a way of peace.

But for the people who lived under the old system, the massive curtain that shut them out of God’s presence and restricted the high priest to only one entrance a year, was to remind them that sin separated them from a holy God. The smoke of the perpetual burning animal on the sacrificial altar was intended to keep their hearts and their conscience tender before God. Their sin was covered but their guilt remained.

It was all a never-ending story until . . .

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.