THE POURING OUT

I was driving home tonight listening to some music from Jeremy Camp, and I heard “you poured out your blood…” and I began to think on the work that Jesus has accomplished for so many.

I am currently taking a class on the first five books of the Old Testament, and this next couple of weeks will be focused on the book of Leviticus. Part of the assignment was to pay attention to words and phrases that are repeated in the book. I have been amazed how this effort in my studies has made me appreciate this book so much more than in the past, when I would listen to it at three times normal speed just to get through it…Not any more!

So again, I hear “you poured out your blood…” and my mind goes back to what I have just read in Leviticus. I am only through the first seven chapters, and so far it has been about the reason for offerings, what would qualify as appropriate offerings and sacrifices to the Lord, how to accomplish them, and who would accomplish them, and where they would be accomplished, which was at the tabernacle, a tent, the place where God would dwell among His people until the temple was built in Jerusalem many years later.

And so these things began to occur to me:

A quick and simple definition of sin – an act of choosing to act in a way that does not demonstrate loving the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and might, or that does not demonstrate that you love your neighbor as yourself.

1) The Lord made provision by way of sacrifice for Israel to present offerings for sins that had occurred without foreknowledge, but had been realized later (sins of omission).

2) The Lord made provisions by way of sacrifice for Israel to present offerings for sins that had occurred on purpose (sins of commission).

3) Both of these types of sins are atoned for and a portion of the process is that the blood of the sacrifice would have been poured out the base of the altar.

Now fast forward to the first coming of Jesus in the flesh. He was to be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. So when Jesus was walking among the Israelites, that was their tabernacle, the place where God dwelled among them!

And then Jesus was broken and battered for our sins, He was hung on the cross where His blood was poured out for us, where He tabernacled with us and for us on the cross. His work on the cross made provision for our sins, our purposeful ones and our unknown ones (sins of commission and omission). His once-for-all sacrifice completes any requirement for work in order for our sins to be forgiven.

The Bible says that as He gave up His spirit (died) the temple curtain was torn. This was the border leading to a place called the Holy of Holies in the Temple, the place where God would visit His people. Not just anyone could enter it, and not very often when they did, but the point I want to make is that this border was split from top to bottom. This allowed direct access to the place where God would dwell among His people, allowing all to approach Him.

Though I have read and believed this for quite some time, it has finally moved in to my heart. Christ says “If anyone loves me, he will obey My word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and take up residence with him.” They will make their dwelling place with us.

The work Jesus accomplished on the cross, not my works, has made the provision that allows me to tabernacle with Him, to dwell with Him, to be in Him and Him in me!

It is an example of how the entire Bible points to Christ. How God has had this plan since before the beginning of time.

He poured out His blood for all mankind. Put your faith in Him. He has accomplished any and all the work required for that to happen.

Write me if you have any questions.