Subject 11 : The Tabernacle
[11-32] The Sin Offering To Consecrate The High Priest (Exodus 29:1-14)
(Exodus 29:1-14)
“And
this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me
as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and
unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers
anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour). You shall put
them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the
two rams. And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the
tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water. Then you
shall take the garments, put the tunic on Aaron, and the robe of the
ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the intricately
woven band of the ephod. You shall put the turban on his head, and put
the holy crown on the turban. And you shall take the anointing oil, pour
it on his head, and anoint him. Then you shall bring his sons and put
tunics on them. And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons,
and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a
perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons. You shall
also have the bull brought before the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron
and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the bull. Then you
shall kill the bull before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of
meeting. You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the
horns of the altar with your finger, and pour all the blood beside the
base of the altar. And you shall take all the fat that covers the
entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, and the two kidneys and
the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. But the flesh of
the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside
the camp. It is a sin offering.”
Today
we turn our attention to the consecration of the High Priest. Here God
ordered Moses how to consecrate Aaron and his sons in detail. The word
“to consecrate” in verse 9 means to sanctify, to prepare, to dedicate,
to honor, or to treat as sacred. In other words, being consecrated means
being sanctified by and dedicated to God. Therefore, “being consecrated
as the High Priest” means “being set apart to be given the authority
and duties of the High Priest.” God gave Aaron and his sons the right of
the High Priest and the priesthood, which enabled them to render his
people the remission of sins.
God
commanded Moses to clothe Aaron with the garments of the High Priest
and put the turban on his head, and his sons with tunics. Then for Aaron
to be consecrated as the High Priest and his sons as the priests, they
had to take a bull and two unblemished rams for their consecration. The
most important duty of the High Priest was to offer the sin offerings on
the Day of Atonement for the remission of sins of entire Israelites.
And in order to do so, Aaron himself and his sons had to be cleansed of
their own sins first of all, and that was why they had to offer the sin
offering for themselves first on the day of his consecration.
What
we must realize here is that even the High Priest had to lay his hands
on the head of the sacrificial offerings before he killed them to offer
their blood to God, all in accordance to the very sacrificial system He
had established. For seven days, the High Priest had to give such
offerings as the sin offering along with the burnt offerings, the wave
offerings, and the heave offerings for his consecration.
Just
like the offerings that were given for the High Priest himself and his
household, he also had to lay his hands on the heads of the sacrificial
animals to pass the Israelites’ sins onto them before killing them, and
draw its blood. For the duty of ministering to God as the High Priest,
he had to learn in detail how offerings should be given for the
remission of his people’s sins. That the High Priest gave the sin
offering to wash away his own sins first means that he was being trained
on how to give offerings for his people—that is, by also laying his
hands on the heads of the offerings, drawing its blood and putting this
blood on the altar of burnt offering, and pouring the rest out on the
ground.
Here,
the High Priest had to remember that to pass his sins and his people’s
sins on; he had to lay his hands on the head of the offerings. As Exodus
29:10-12 states, “You shall also have the bull brought before the
tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on
the head of the bull. Then you shall kill the bull before the LORD, by
the door of the tabernacle of meeting. You shall take some of the blood
of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and
pour all the blood beside the base of the altar.”
The
High Priest and his sons were commanded that they infallibly had to lay
their hands on the head of the bull, their sacrificial offering.
Because when Aaron the High Priest and his sons put their hands on the
head of the sacrificial animal, all their sins were passed onto it. And
because this sacrificial offering accepted the sins of the High Priest
and his sons by their laying on of hands, it had to bleed and die. After
this, the High Priest then drew its blood, put its blood on the horns
of the altar of burnt offering, and poured the rest out on the ground.
He should take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe
attached to the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that was on them,
and then he burnt them on the altar.
In
case of the sin offering for the atonement for sins of anyone of the
common people who have committed sin unwittingly, he shall bring as his
sin offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin
that he has committed. “And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin
offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering.
Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on
the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining
blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all its fat, as fat is
removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall
burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the LORD. So the priest shall
make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him” (Leviticus
4:29-31).
This
laying on of hands and the bloodshed of the offering constituted the
essential elements of the sacrificial system set by God. Even before the
foundation of the world, God set this plan in Jesus Christ to remit all
our sins with the truth hidden in the blue, purple, and scarlet thread
and the fine woven linen. God promised the people of Israel that He
would meet them whenever they give Him the burnt offering. Exodus 29:42
states, “This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your
generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD,
where I will meet you to speak with you.” The burnt offering that the
priests gave every morning and evening is the offering to be given
throughout generations even by us, the spiritual people of Israel who
have received the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. God is telling us that He would meet us through
these offerings.
What Is the Meaning of the Burnt Offering Given by the High Priest?
Because
the sacrificial offering accepted all the iniquities of the sinners who
laid their hands on its head, it had to die in their place and be
condemned by being burnt. What God wants from us through the sin
offering of the sacrificial system is for us to confess, “Because I have
committed such and such sins before God, I must receive such
condemnation of sin.” For us to wash away our sins, in accordance with
God’s law of salvation, we must lay our hands on the head of our
sacrificial offering, draw its blood, put this blood on the horns of the
altar of burnt offering, pour the rest of the blood out on the ground,
burn its flesh on the altar of burnt offering, and thereby receive the
remission of sins according to the grace in the righteousness of God.
First,
we must acknowledge before God all the sins that we have committed with
both our hearts and acts. And we must recognize that we cannot avoid
being condemned of these sins. But we cannot thank God enough for His
perfect salvation. God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son.
Jesus Christ took all our sins through His baptism and atoned for all
those sins with His death on the Cross in order that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The
sacrificial system requires that the offerings should be given through
the laying on of hands and their bloodshed. This denotes the evidence of
the faith that remits all our sins, and we must therefore believe in
it. That every sinner laid his hands on the head of the sacrificial
offering means the passing of his sins onto it. Even the High Priest
also had to confess, “I have such sins before God, and I must be
therefore put to death,” when he offered a sin offering. But by
believing that God has given us the offering of atonement to deliver us
from sin, and that God has enabled us to receive the remission of sin by
believing in this offering, we can be saved.
God
said, “I will meet you there.” He said this not only to the High
Priest, but also to every common people, meaning that God would give the
remission of sins to all of us and thereby make us His own people. How
then does God meet us? Because God has the plan of salvation for us, He
surely meets only those who give their sin offerings according to the
sacrificial system which was established by Him. Because God knew very
well that human beings are born sinners and that they are bound to sin
as well, He wanted to wash away all our sins according to His mercy
which is manifested in His sacrificial system of salvation, and thereby
make us His own children. This was why God had established the
sacrificial system through which countless people of Israel could pass
their sins onto their offering of sacrifice as they laid their hands on
its head.
The
method by which the people of Israel passed their sins onto the
sacrificial offerings was through the “laying on of hands” like this.
The people of Israel broke the law of God countless times and committed
all kinds of sins. But because they could pass all their iniquities onto
their sacrificial offerings through this method of the “laying on of
hands,” they were able to wash away all their sins. It was through this
that God could dwell with those Israelites who believed in Him, become
their God, make them His own people, lead them, and give them the
blessings of Heaven as well as the blessings of the fatness of this
earth. All these things could come true through their faith in the
sacrificial system of the Tabernacle.
All
such facets of the sacrificial system of the Tabernacle were set by God
beforehand, and the people of Israel could be washed from all their
sins by laying their hands on the head of their sacrifice and thereby
pass all their sins onto it according to the method set by God. Because
God enabled all those who came to Him by believing in the power of the
laying on of hands and the bloodshed established by Him to be washed
from their sins, those who believed in this Truth could walk with the
holy God. Without the offering that was given with both the laying on of
hands and bloodshed, God could not dwell with the people of Israel.
Regardless of how insufficient the Israelites were and how many sins
they had committed, God could however dwell with them because of this
God-given law of salvation constituted by the lawful sacrifice—the
laying on of hands on the head of the sin offering and its bloodshed.
Therefore, we must all realize and believe that the salvation from sin
permitted to us by God is made of both the laying of hands on the head
of the sacrificial offering and its bloodshed.
The
priests had to give burnt offerings every morning and evening. They had
to do this because after giving a burnt offering in the morning for
their sins, they went on to commit many more sins during the day, and so
it was necessary to pass their sins and wash them again by giving
another sacrificial offering in the evening. The burnt offerings that
were given everyday reminded the Israelites of the faith that remembers
and believes that Jesus would come to this earth, take upon the sins of
the world by being baptized by John the Baptist, die on the Cross, and
thereby blot out all the sins of the whole world. Likewise, we must all
give the offering of faith every morning and evening, for we continue to
sin ceaselessly throughout the day. This offering of faith that was
given in the time of the Old Testament is the same as being washed of
all the uncleanness of the heart in the New Testament’s time by
believing in the baptism that Jesus received from John the Baptist and
in His bloodshed.
God
the Father meets us when He finds this faith in our hearts that
believes that Jesus our Savior has remitted all our sins away. In
accordance with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, Jesus
Christ came to this earth in His time and accepted all our sins by being
baptized by John the Baptist at the beginning of the New Testament era
(Matthew 3:15). This is why Jesus said, “And from the days of John the
Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the
violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). By believing in this gospel
Truth, we could be freed from all our sins and be cleansed from them
perfectly.
Regardless
of the fact that Jesus Christ came to this earth, people have been
committing countless sins, and we Christians, both before and after
knowing Jesus Christ, have also been committing innumerable sins. But
Jesus Christ came to this earth, and with the baptism that He received
from John the Baptist and His bloodshed on the Cross, He has washed away
all the sins of the world. Hence, when God said that He would meet the
people of Israel through the burnt offering, it means that God would
meet those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God
loves those who thus believe that He has truly eradicated all their sins
with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread. But He certainly does not
love those who reject this Truth.
In
this age of the New Testament, it is by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that we can meet God. In the Old Testament’s time,
it was by believing in the Truth manifested in the blue, purple, and
scarlet thread and the fine woven linen that one could receive the
remission of sins. The laying on of hands and the bloodshed—the union of
these two concepts constitutes one perfect gospel. The Old Testament
prophesied God’s perfect salvation in detail, and the New Testament is
the fulfillment of those prophecies and the completion of the promised
gospel. Therefore, Hebrews 1:1-2 states, “God, who at various times and
in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, as in
these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of
all things, through whom also He made the worlds.”
Jesus
is the King of kings and the Almighty God, but this God came to this
earth incarnated into the flesh of man, was baptized, died on the Cross,
rose again from the dead, and has thereby washed away all our sins and
saved us from all the condemnation of sin. By believing in this gospel
with which God has made us righteous, we can become whole. It has now
become possible for us to receive the remission of our sins, which we
had sought after so earnestly. We have wanted to wash away all our sins
so desperately, and God has remitted them once for all through the
sacrificial system of the laying on of hands and the bloodshed—that is,
through the baptism of Jesus and His bloodshed on the Cross, the actual
substance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit (1 John 5:6-8). It
is when we believe that God has remitted all our sins perfectly that He
makes us His own people and meets us.
The Importance of the Laying on of Hands
Leviticus
1:1-4 say, “Now the LORD called to Moses, and spoke to him from the
tabernacle of meeting, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say
to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall
bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock. If
his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male
without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of
the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD. Then he shall put his hand on
the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf
to make atonement for him.’”
Pay
attention to verse 4 here that says, “Then he shall put his hand on the
head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to
make atonement for him.” In other words, God would accept the offering
in pleasure when a sinner offered his burnt offering after laying his
hands on the head of it. On whose head were the sinner’s hands to be
laid on? It was the head of the sacrificial offering. Only by this
method, God promised to blot out the sins of the people of Israel. So in
the Old Testament it was on the head of the sacrificial offering that
hands were laid, but what about the New Testament? Who is the true
offering of sacrifice in the New Testament’s time? It is none other than
Jesus Christ the Savior of all humankind. Jesus Christ is the one and
only offering of sacrifice for blotting out the sins of the entire
humankind. It is because of one man that all became sinners, and it is
also because of the very Jesus Christ that all human beings can be
cleansed of all their sins and receive eternal life.
By
faith, we must lay our hands on Jesus’ head and pass all our sins onto
Him. In other words, we must put our hands on His head in true faith so
that God would accept this offering of sacrifice in pleasure. Jesus said
in Matthew 11:12 that only the violent could take His Kingdom by force.
Because the laying on of hands enables us to pass all our sins onto the
offering of sacrifice, God accepts in pleasure this sacrifice of faith.
Because John the Baptist laid his hands on the head of Jesus Christ and
passed all the sins of humankind onto Him, God has enabled everyone to
be washed from sin and delivered them from the condemnation of sin when
they believe wholeheartedly in both His baptism and His vicarious death
on the Cross. It is by believing in the baptism Jesus Christ received
that we can pass all our sins onto Him.
God
had given the Israelites the sacrificial system, and it foreshadowed
the eternal sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ with His own body. In
other words, Jesus Christ has completed the law of salvation promised in
this sacrificial system with His baptism and His blood of the Cross.
Out of His endless love for us, God has saved us by giving us Jesus
Christ, His only begotten Son. Now is the time for everyone to be saved
by believing in the baptism of Jesus Christ and His bloodshed on the
Cross.
The
Omniscient God planned His perfect salvation for sinners even before
the creation, and fulfilled it correctly according to His timetable. It
was in accordance to this plan of salvation that John the Baptist was
born six months prior to Jesus. John the Baptist was the greatest of all
mankind. As Jesus Himself said, “Among those born of women there has
not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11), John the
Baptist, in other words, was the representative of mankind. John the
Baptist was a servant of God who was greater than even Moses, Elijah,
and the Prophet Isaiah. Many people consider John the Baptist only as
someone who lived an ascetic life in the wilderness. But he was in fact
sent to be the representative of all mankind by God. John the Baptist
was indeed the greatest of all the people of this world. He came from
the household of Aaron the High Priest (Luke 1:5-7). As kings were born
from the royal family, John the Baptist, the last High Priest, was also
born from the household of Aaron the first High Priest, and as the
representative of mankind, he baptized Jesus in the Jordan River to pass
the sins of mankind onto Him. John the Baptist is the greatest of all
on this earth. But there are some people who question this, as if
determining themselves not to believe, asking, “Where in the Bible does
it say that John the Baptist is the High Priest?”
Let
me answer them by demonstrating clearly that John the Baptist is indeed
the representative of all mankind and the High Priest, for this is all
written in the Word of God: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied
until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is
to come” (Matthew 11:13-14). God had promised to send Elijah in Malachi
4:5. And Jesus Himself said that this Elijah who is to come is none
other than John the Baptist. It was because John the Baptist was born as
a descendant of Aaron that he fulfilled the role of the High Priest.
In
the Old Testament, when a sinner passed his sins by laying his hands on
the head of the sacrificial offering, the offering then was put to
death by shedding its blood and burnt by fire. Anyone who sought to be
remitted from his sins had to put his hands on the head of the
sacrificial offering without fail to pass his sins onto it. When people
laid their hands on the head of the sacrificial offering, it meant that
their sins were passed onto it. And, on the Day of Atonement, Aaron the
High Priest had to lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat to pass
all the yearly sins of the Israelites onto it. Here also, the laying on
of hands was indispensible, and it means, spiritually speaking, the
transfer of sin. John the Baptist passed all our sins onto Jesus through
His baptism, and through this baptism Jesus accepted all the sins of
the world and then shed His blood on the Cross. By being baptized by
John the Baptist and thereby taking upon all our sins, and by shedding
His blood on the Cross and rising again from the dead, Jesus Christ has
become our perfect Savior.
The
people of Israel also gave their offering to God by laying their hands
on its head in this way. When the people of Israel sinned against God
and thereby became sinners, they had to pass their sins onto their
offerings by putting their hands on the head of the animals in order to
give their sin offerings to God properly. God accepted in pleasure the
lawful offering that was burnt with fire after hands were laid on its
head and it was killed. It was because the people of Israel had given
Him this lawful offering of sacrifice by passing their sins through the
laying on of their hands on its head and that God met them. It was
because the sacrificial offering had accepted their sins through the
laying on of hands and was vicariously condemned for their sins that God
met those who came to Him by believing in the grace of God implicated
in this offering. That’s why God was so pleased to accept such
sacrificial animals. He is so merciful that He cannot bear anyone to be
sent to hell
Like
this, what cleanse us from all our sins are both the baptism that Jesus
Christ received and His blood of the Cross. It was because Jesus Christ
took upon all our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist in order
to blot out the sins of the world that He could die on the Cross and
bear the righteous condemnation for our sins. It was because Jesus was
baptized to take upon all our sins and bore the righteous punishment of
the Cross that He could deliver and free us from sin. Therefore, by
believing in His baptism and the sacrifice of His bloodshed, we can now
be born again as the righteous and meet Jesus Christ. By believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, through Jesus’ righteous acts,
in short, we can all meet the holy God. Jesus Christ has become the
everlasting Savior of those of us who believe in this Truth.
We
must indeed meet the holy God. By believing in Jesus Christ the Savior
who came by the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, we can meet God by
faith. Those who seek to meet God must hear His Word and believe in the
God-given sacrificial system that consists of both the laying on of
hands and the bloodshed. If they cannot quite understand it fully with
their own carnal thoughts and have even the slightest doubt about this,
they must open the Word of God and confirm it for themselves. And they
must believe what the Word of God says is right.
We
must not believe in God with our own thoughts. Instead, we must stand
firm on God’s Word of truth, and based on this Word, we must discern the
other gospels from this genuine gospel. We must not insist on our
thoughts alone, relying on our own understanding and learning. None of
your own thoughts can ever be right. Human beings are so weak, so
stubborn, and so hardened before God that they are inclined to front
their own righteousness and thoughts first and leave the Word of God
behind. Opening our hearts before God and believing in His Word is the
real way to life and blessings.
When
the High Priest gave a bull as his sin offering for being consecrated,
God told him to take all its fat that covered the entrails, the fatty
lobe attached to the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that was on
them, and burn them on the altar, while the flesh of the bull, with its
skin and its offal, were to be burnt with fire outside the camp. The
High Priest gave the offering just as God had commanded Moses. When the
burnt offering was given, the High Priest also brought a ram without
blemish as the offering of sacrifice and laid his hands on its head. For
himself and his household, morning and evening the High Priest and his
sons laid their hands on the head of such an offering, cut its throat
and drew its blood, and put this blood on the horns of the altar of
burnt offering. They then burnt all its unclean parts such as its offal
and its head outside the camp, but the carved pieces were burnt on the
altar of burnt offering. The burnt offering that was given during the
consecration of the High Priest was also offered in this way.
In
particular, during the consecration of the High Priest, all the fat of
the sacrificial offering had to be burnt to God. That God was pleased
with the aroma of the fat of the sacrificial offering manifests itself
that it certainly is according to His Word and the sacrificial system
set by Him that God makes us be born again. The fat here, in other
words, manifests God the Holy Spirit. God has given us the sacrificial
system, and He has made us, in accordance with this sacrificial system;
by putting our hands on the head of the sacrificial offering, killing
it, and offering it to Him by burning its flesh on the altar of burnt
offering. Only when the sacrificial offering was given according to the
sacrificial system set by God like this and with faith in Him did God
accept it in pleasure.
Exodus
29:10 says, “Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of
the bull.” This was God’s command. Moreover, of the garments that the
High Priest wore during his consecration, the ephod had to be woven of
five threads without fail—that is, it had to be woven of gold, blue,
purple, and scarlet thread and fine woven linen. The gold thread here
speaks of faith. The blue thread refers to the baptism that Jesus Christ
received, which is the same as the Old Testament’s laying on of hands;
the purple thread tells us that Jesus is the Son of God, God Himself and
the Savior; and the scarlet thread refers to the sacrifice that Jesus
Christ made; and the fine woven linen refers to the Word of God that has
made us sinless. The golden thread manifests the faith that believes
that God has remitted all our sins and turned our hearts as white as
snow. We must have this faith, believing that God has blotted out our
sins with the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross. We must
believe in Jesus Christ exactly according to what God has told us all,
according to how He has blotted out all our sins. We must believe in God
according to how God set the sacrificial system of salvation, and how
He has blotted out all our sins through Jesus Christ who has completed
the sacrificial system.
Many
people say, “Why don’t you believe in Him just like this? Why are you
so picky? Maybe it’s because you have a detail-oriented personality and
you like to be certain all the time, but my personality is all around,
and so I believe both two conflicting opinions can be right at the same
time. Does God accept only people who believe like you? If I say that I
somehow believe in God, should this faith not be enough in itself?” If
you believe like this, God will not be pleased with you. He is the God
of truth. God has not saved us in such a wobbly and uncertain way. God
is the extremely bright light whose Word is like a sharp, double-edged
sword. He judges with the Urim and the Thummim, which mean that He has
saved us with light and perfection.
God
is more precise than even the most advanced microscope that can
recognize and discern the smallest of all measurements from one another.
He is not someone who approves our salvation when we believe in
whatever way we like to. Because God is the truth, He knows everything,
from our hidden thoughts to our temporary feelings, from the sins that
are in our hearts to our acts, from the sins that we committed before to
the sins that we are committing now and the sins that we will commit in
the future, hidden and revealed alike. This is why God has determined
that He would surely remit all such sins away with both the laying on of
hands and the blood of the sacrifice, and this is why we must certainly
believe in God’s salvation according to the sacrificial system set by
God.
The
Lord said that we should put our hands on the head of the sacrificial
offering, and that He would then accept it in pleasure. When a sinner
lays his hands on the head of the sacrificial offering, he must then
kill this offering and put its blood on the horns of the altar of burnt
offering. Here, putting the blood of the offering on the horns speaks of
the blotting out of the sins that are recorded in the Book of Judgment
(Revelation 20:12-15). After this, the rest of the blood is poured out
on the ground. This means that his heart is washed from sin.
For
you and I, Jesus Christ was baptized, died on the Cross, rose again
from the dead, and has thereby saved us all. The High Priest also had
the same faith as ours. The faith that you and I have in this present
age is absolutely no different from the faith that the High Priest had.
For the High Priest, too, it was by his faith in the truth manifested in
the blue, purple, and scarlet thread that he could fulfill his priestly
duties, and it is by this same faith that you and I have also become
righteous. It is because we have received the remission of sins by this
faith that believes in the salvation given to us by God that we can now
meet Him, ask for His help, lead our lives as His own people, and spread
the gospel to sinners as we fulfill our priestly duties.
Earthly High Priests and the Sacrificial System Were Set by God
The
High Priest and the sacrificial system were set by God. Hence, the
earthly High Priest did what God commanded him to do, and by doing so he
fulfilled his priestly duties to remit the sins of his people. How did
Jesus Christ the Son of God then blot out all our sins as the High
Priest of Heaven? Instead of using an earthly sacrificial offering, He
took His own unblemished body as the sacrificial offering and put all
our sins onto it. Jesus took upon the sins of mankind by being baptized
by John the Baptist, shed His blood and died on the Cross, rose from the
dead again, and has thereby saved us from all the sins of the world.
How amazing is this love, and how marvelous is this salvation!
Can
you do this? For the sake of someone else, can you take upon this
person’s sins and be crucified to death in his place? Impossible!
Moreover, your body cannot be qualified as a lawful offering, for it is
not without blemish. There are, of course, some people who have done
righteous things for a greater cause than themselves—for their nation
for instance. But though there may be some who can do this, everything
done by human beings is all but futile, for they cannot even solve the
problem of their own sins, far less save others from sin. There is no
one else who can save mankind from sin but Jesus Christ the Holy Son of
God. The Bible tells us that there is no other name under Heaven given
to us by which we can be saved but Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).
By
the way, would there be any strong willed person among you who thinks
that, “I am able to do this. I am able to dedicate myself fully to
someone else, and further, am able to sacrifice myself for someone
else”? Such a sacrifice and dedication may be appreciated among the
mortals, but in the passing of time and as things improve, such a
virtuous work will eventually all be forgotten. Hebrews 13:9 tells us,
“It is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which
have not profited those who have been occupied with them.” What
enrichments and benefits do our hearts have come to receive from God? It
is God’s love of salvation that immerses and fills our hearts with His
grace. Being helped physically by another human being is nothing for our
eternal lives. When we are comfortable once again, we are all prone to
forget about such assistance.
Socrates,
Confucius, and Siddhartha have been hailed as the greatest sages of the
world. However, can these sages ever be your Savior? Can Siddhartha
cleanse you from sins? None of them can. Who can then be the Savior of
mankind, when no human being can even solve a single one of his or her
own sins away? Even the High Priest could not blot out the sins of his
people on his own accord. The sins of the people of Israel could be
washed away only when they had faith in the God-given sacrificial system
and received the remission of their sins by giving their offering to
Him according to this sacrificial system—that is, by passing their sins
onto their offering by laying their hands on its head, putting the blood
of this sacrifice on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and
pouring the remnant out on the ground, and burning its fat on the altar
of burnt offering.
To
be remitted of a year’s worth of sins, on the 10th day of the seventh
month, the High Priest had to lay his hands on the head of the
sacrificial offering before God and thereby pass the sins onto it, take
its blood into the Most Holy, and sprinkle it on the east of the mercy
seat—that is, toward the direction from which he had entered. When he
sprinkled the blood for seven times, the golden bells that were hanging
at the hem of his blue robe rang out. (These golden bells were hanging
between the pomegranates woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread.) The
elegant sound of these golden bells was heard whenever he walked or
sprinkled the blood. This is none other than the gospel. This sound
implies the Good News, the powerful gospel that has blotted out all our
sins. Just as the High Priest could bring the remission of sins to his
people not by giving any offering on his own accord but only by giving
it according to the statute God had established, in the age of the New
Testament, Jesus Christ has saved you and me from all our sins by coming
to this earth, being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the
dead again, all according to the same statute. Jesus Christ could also
make us righteous only when He fulfilled his works according to the law
of salvation that He Himself had set.
Whoever
wants to be truly born again can receive the remission of their sins,
only if they are agreeable, pleasant and like to hear the Word of God
with an open-minded disposition, that is, like the ‘Berean’ spirit.
Those who are disagreeable cannot believe in this Truth and cannot
receive the remission of their sin no matter how many times the Word of
God is preached to them; they are the most foolish. How can anyone not
believe in the Word just as it is spoken by God? How far can human
knowledge really reach? It falls far short of the wisdom of the Word of
God. Even so, they continue to boast of their own achievements and
refuse to believe in the Word of God. It would be hard to find someone
as foolish as these people.
Brothers
and sisters, the world is rapidly changing. Technology also develops so
rapidly that human cloning is said to be almost possible technically.
Atheism is also widely prevailing, and the era of religion is now
passing. However, even though this world will become even more confusing
and harsh, we the born-again cannot help but minister faithfully to God
as His royal priests. Now, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is
spreading all over the world more rapidly, regardless of the sweeping
tide of ungodliness. We are the only ones who can go against the current
of the times.
I
believe that the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the salvation
according to the sacrificial system given by God, will blossom and bloom
even more and be spread throughout the whole world in the near future.
We the priests of today will pray for ourselves and all the souls of the
whole world and continue to lead our lives by testifying this gospel. I
believe that when we live by faith, we will become the ones who walk
with God and achieve even greater works of the spreading of the gospel.
When we search for and fulfill such works that please God in these end
times, I believe that the works of the gospel will progress even further
to every nook and corner of this world, as the sweet scent of flowers
spreads along with a gentle breeze.
I give all my thanks to God for consecrating us as the priests to minister to Him and counting us in His ministries.
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