I recently found myself googling \u201chow to get Sharpie off fingernails,\u201d \u201dhow to get Sharpie off skin,\u201d and \u201chow to get Sharpie off a Pack \u2018n Play.\u201d I don\u2019t really need to explain more than that\u2014your imagination will fill in all the blanks. Well, in the imagination\u2014or worldview\u2014of the Old Testament people of God, sin was like a rogue Sharpie during naptime; it contaminated everything. When people sinned within the community, everything was affected: the people, their relationships, and even the environment. Whatever sin touched was marked by death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this inescapable problem of sin, God provided a way for His people to be reconciled to Him without compromising His holiness. And although animal sacrifice seems outside the bounds of our norm, ancient Israelites understood that their sin brought death to everything, and in His mercy, God accepted the lifeblood of a flawless lamb in place of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we saw in our reading, the high priest was required to go through a series of sacrifices and offerings and wear special clothes to humbly approach God for the sake of the community. All this preparation was to be able to come to God with the sins of His people\u2014seeking peace and forgiveness asking Him to remain in their midst. But it wasn\u2019t permanent. One goat a year could never carry the sins of the community far enough away. The offering of different animal\u2019s blood was never the right blood to truly make things whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most sadistic tools of the enemy is to convince us that our sin isn\u2019t that damaging. We easily become numb to its nasty nature, so even the act of sacrificing an innocent animal reminded the people that their sin brought devastation. As they watched it die, they were enacting the consequences of their sin before a holy God. This is what people would have had in mind as they heard John proclaim, \u201cLook, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d (John 1:29). He was announcing Jesus as the Messiah, foreshadowing what awaited Him as the once for all time sacrifice for sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hebrews reminds us that the Old Testament provision of God\u2019s grace always pointed toward the climax of the story\u2014the sacrifice of His Son, who by submitting to death actually conquered it. The former sacrifices were a symbolic payment toward the chaos of our sin, but Jesus paid in full, bringing us peace with Him for all time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advent is all about anticipation. But all of our best efforts for sweet memories, perfect meals, and joyful gift-giving are really only a shadow of the glory that awaits us at Jesus\u2019s second advent. Whenever the peace we long for during this season seems just out of reach, may we be reminded that because of Christ\u2019s sacrifice, true peace is already ours in Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently found myself googling \u201chow to get Sharpie off fingernails,\u201d \u201dhow to get Sharpie off skin,\u201d and \u201chow to get Sharpie off a Pack \u2018n Play.\u201d I don\u2019t really need to explain more than that\u2014your imagination will fill in all the blanks. Well, in the imagination\u2014or worldview\u2014of the Old Testament people of God, sin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":71561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent2024"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71574],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"PEACE THROUGH HIS SACRIFICE<\/b>
\r\nby Becca Owens<\/i>
\r\n
I recently found myself googling \u201chow to get Sharpie off fingernails,\u201d \u201dhow to get Sharpie off skin,\u201d and \u201chow to get Sharpie off a Pack \u2018n Play.\u201d I don\u2019t really need to explain more than that\u2014your imagination will fill in all the blanks. Well, in the imagination\u2014or worldview\u2014of the Old Testament people of God, sin was like a rogue Sharpie during naptime; it contaminated everything. When people sinned within the community, everything was affected: the people, their relationships, and even the environment. Whatever sin touched was marked by death.<\/p>
\r\n
For this inescapable problem of sin, God provided a way for His people to be reconciled to Him without compromising His holiness. And although animal sacrifice seems outside the bounds of our norm, ancient Israelites understood that their sin brought death to everything, and in His mercy, God accepted the lifeblood of a flawless lamb in place of their own.<\/p>
\r\n
As we saw in our reading, the high priest was required to go through a series of sacrifices and offerings and wear special clothes to humbly approach God for the sake of the community. All this preparation was to be able to come to God with the sins of His people\u2014seeking peace and forgiveness asking Him to remain in their midst. But it wasn\u2019t permanent. One goat a year could never carry the sins of the community far enough away. The offering of different animal\u2019s blood was never the right blood to truly make things whole.<\/p>
\r\n
One of the most sadistic tools of the enemy is to convince us that our sin isn\u2019t that damaging. We easily become numb to its nasty nature, so even the act of sacrificing an innocent animal reminded the people that their sin brought devastation. As they watched it die, they were enacting the consequences of their sin before a holy God. This is what people would have had in mind as they heard John proclaim, \u201cLook, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d (John 1:29). He was announcing Jesus as the Messiah, foreshadowing what awaited Him as the once for all time sacrifice for sin.<\/p>
\r\n
Hebrews reminds us that the Old Testament provision of God\u2019s grace always pointed toward the climax of the story\u2014the sacrifice of His Son, who by submitting to death actually conquered it. The former sacrifices were a symbolic payment toward the chaos of our sin, but Jesus paid in full, bringing us peace with Him for all time.<\/p>
\r\n
Advent is all about anticipation. But all of our best efforts for sweet memories, perfect meals, and joyful gift-giving are really only a shadow of the glory that awaits us at Jesus\u2019s second advent. Whenever the peace we long for during this season seems just out of reach, may we be reminded that because of Christ\u2019s sacrifice, true peace is already ours in Him.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"9","scripture":"Leviticus 4:32-35, Leviticus 16:1-22, John 1:29, Hebrews 10:1-10, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 1:17-21","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}