Ultimate Atonement

Leviticus 1:1-5 -  The LORD called Moses, and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, When any man of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of cattle from the herd or from the flock.  "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD;  he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.  Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD; and Aaron's sons the priests shall present the blood, and throw the blood round about against the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting. 

The lord called Moses…he needed to share the important details of how they needed to offer their sacrifice…so that God would be pleased with it. The sacrifice had to be a male …ox… ram…or young birds.  They had to be from the herds of the Israelites.  They had to be without blemish.   They had to lay their hands on it…to show that it was a sacrifice for just them….then they had to kill it ..so the priests could sprinkle the blood that paid the price of their sins all around the altar.

Such a gory…ugly thing for me to think about…I just can’t fathom having to do this….can’t really justify in my heart the killing of these innocent animals. It makes me all the more thankful that God saw that this method needed some tweaking. So God sent his son…to be my ox…my ram…my young birds.

It is still gory…and ugly…and very humbling to think that Jesus was willing to be my sacrifice….to pay for everyone’s sin. It is still so very hard for me to actually imagine the pain and suffering he endured to complete his father’s plan. I did not deserve his love….but I can have it anyway…because he is merciful and loving…and simply asks for me to ask him to live in my heart.

Thank you God for loving me so much…that before I was ever created..you had a plan to save my life. I will never understand how you can forgive my selfishness…my lack of willpower to stay connected to you …and I will never be able to find human words to express my gratitude….so I will just settle for the knowledge that you can see my heart right now….and you can see my tears of gratitude welling up in my eyes.  I simply thank you…that you placed your hands on your sons head…and allowed the human race to be a part of the ultimate plan to sacrifice a perfect male…a young man…and let him bear my sins…and scatter his blood around that cross…that became the altar that saved a sinner like me. Amen.