SCRIPTURE: Numbers 29
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
The seventh month was a bloody festival month – the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, most solemn of Jewish holy days) and the Feast of Tabernacles. In addition to the regular daily offerings, special sacrifices were made. And the Feast of Tabernacles (‘tents’, remembering God’s provision and protection in wilderness) had extra offerings of bulls, rams, lambs, plus grain and drink offerings. Through the week 70 bulls were sacrificed, plus all the other animals. It raises the question, how much blood is enough?
But what if we are looking at the human side of the sacrifice, instead of the divine side. These sacrifices do involve human repentance, but they also express divine grace and forgiveness. Again and again, day after day, the message comes through – ‘I forgive you. I do not demand Your blood, I provide a substitute. You are forgiven.’ From this angle, the question is raised, how many times will God forgive us? “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’” [Matthew 18:21-22]
The purpose of all these festivals and sacrifices was to communicate the “seventy-seven” times (in others, ongoing) grace of God. Every day, every month, every festival, every year – forgiveness, grace love. Yes, these came at a price, a high price – much blood! And whose blood? Not ours, but God’s provided substitute, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Sound the trumpet, spend time in serious and sincere repentance and reflection, recall the amazing grace of God as He has led us through the wilderness of sin and death (in ‘tents’ provided and protected by Him) to the realm of promised blessing, grace. We too should celebrate, remember, stand amazed, worship. Consider what the Lord has done. He has not treated us as our sins deserve (if He had, we would not be here!).
How many times will the Lord forgive us? Seventy-seven times? His grace goes beyond that! We have until the last day to receive His amazing grace. The only thing that can prevent us from enjoying His grace and love and peace is our refusal to accept it.
PRAYER:
Lord, we need more reminders of Your amazing grace. Keep the vision of the crucified and resurrected lamb of God before our eyes and hearts!
The sacrifices every day reminded me of the great sacrifice Jesus Christ made – a sin offering of Himself for us. It was once and for all, yet I am reminded also that I need His grace and forgiveness time and time again since I fall so short of how I live in His presence.
Between the seasons, the people lived in His presence doing all these sacrifices, reminding themselves and others what the Lord God had done for them. How often do I have days of rejoicing in a row, time set aside just for that purpose? There are even times when the Sabbath day is not really a day of rejoicing.
The Lord God is my strength. I need to set times aside to fully celebrate His presence continually rather than do my own thing in my free time and have no time for God.
Help me Lord, to celebrate the life I have in You, not only on Sondays, but focus on you each day for in You I have life, and joy and happiness and peace and . . . I need a vacation in the Lord, spending days focusing on my life in Him.
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
I appreciate the insight into the perspective that we need to look at the Old Testament sacrifices. Not from our perspective of “How much will be enough,” but on God’s perspective that He has offered His grace and forgiveness to us! Too often we think it is all about us and forget that it is all about Him! He gave us this life! He gave us a choice!
Something that came up in a study this week here was about God in the beginning. First of all that all of creation was good but not until after the process of becoming what God had told it to become! God said let there be light, darkness and so forth. The process of becoming as well as the outcome was good! The process of obedience is important was a concept discussed. Secondly about the Fall. God cursed satan, God cursed the ground, but God did not curse man. He waged war on sin not on man!
Looking at this meditation in terms of these two facts I am excited about the fact that God’s grace is divine! He is not at war with us but the sin within that seeks to be a part of our daily lives. He desires that we seek to obey Him in all that we do and the process of obedience itself it good! He is a good and gracious God! I am thankful for His forgiveness and that He is the God of second chances!