I think I'd be a little remiss if I didn't mention that today is Christmas Day. :)
No, it's not the day Christ was born, but it is the day we choose to celebrate His birth by giving to others.
Christ's entire life is about sacrificing self and giving to others. Celebrating Christmas is recognition of giving.
Yes, people might say it's all commercialized and it's about getting not giving, but you can't get unless someone is giving, right? So it's about both really. It's giving in the spirit of such and being able to receive graciously as reward to the gift giver.
To have a day that helps remind us that giving is a good thing can't be all that bad. Even if you don't have *things* to give you can give of your spirit, give your happiness, your well wishing, give the things that cost nothing at all to give, sometimes they can be the best gifts of all.
May we all remember to give selflessly, to love one another, to do as Jesus would have us do through His power, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by the Grace of God now and always. May this coming year be filled with each of us growing closer and closer to Christ until we are known by Him fully, to be of Him.
We will pick up with the study on the Sanctuary now, because there is never a day we should miss studying whenever we can.
With God guiding us let us continue now, taking our Bibles and looking up everything so we can see for ourselves.
Light From the Throne (William Grotheer) -- Part 2 --
The most important service performed in the daily ministration of the sanctuary rituals was that performed in behalf of individuals the sin offerings.
The sin offering did not relate to sin or sinfulness in general, but to a particular manifestation.
"If a soul should sin through ignorance" (in error), prefaced the explanation of the law of sin offerings (Lev. 4:2)
These were sins which arose out of the weaknesses of the flesh.
Those committed with a high hand, that is, "presumptiously," were to be punished by extermination.
The offender was to be"utterly cut off." (Num. 15:28-31)
Lev. {4:2}Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sinthrough ignorance against any of the commandments of theLORD [concerning things] which ought not to be done, andshall do against any of them
Num. {15:28} And the priest shall make an atonement for the soulthat sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorancebefore the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and itshall be forgiven him. {15:29} Ye shall have one law forhim that sinneth through ignorance, [both for] him that isborn among the children of Israel, and for the stranger thatsojourneth among them.{15:30} But the soul that doeth [ought] presumptuously,[whether he be] born in the land, or a stranger, the samereproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off fromamong his people. {15:31} Because he hath despised theword of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, thatsoul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity [shall be] upon him.
The appeal of the Gospel was based upon the superior ministration of Jesus Christ because "through this Man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39) Jesus Himself declared that there was only one sin which could not and would not be forgiven "in this world" nor "in the world to come" and that was the sin of "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit." (Matt. 12:31-32)
While the law of the sin and trespass offerings are one (Lev. 7:7), the steps of the ritual are given only for the sin offerings. (Lev. 4) It is through this outline that we catch glimpses of the reality of the provision made for man to receive victory over the sin problem. The sin offerings pertained to two categories of sin - corporate and individual - and to two groups in each category; namely, the high priest in his official capacity and the entire congregation; the rulers and the ordinary individuals. It was under the category of "ruler" that the priests as individuals were covered. In Numbers 3:32, the word translated, "chief" (nasi) is the same as translated "ruler" in Lev. 4:22.
In the sin offerings, the kind of animal sacrificed, the disposition of the blood, and the status of the priest who ministered, differed depending whether the sin was corporate or individual. Being a burnt offering, rules governing the basic burnt offering as first outlined in Leviticus applied. It was to be offered "at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." (Lev. 1:3; 4:4) The offerer was to place his hand upon the head of the sacrifice. (Lev. 1:4; 4:24) The sacrificial animal was to be "accepted for him to make atonement for him." (Lev. 1:4; 4:26) In each instance, the one bringing the sacrifice, slew the animal. (Lev. 1:5; 4:29)
The first category of corporate guilt concerned the High Priest, the spiritual leader of the people. The instruction was that "if the annointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people" (Lev. 4:3 NKJV), he was to bring a bullock, the largest of all the sacrificial animals, and equal to that required for the whole congregation. (Lev. 4:3,14) While the priest brought the offering as a corporate individual, he ministered the sacrifice in his office as high priest. (4:4-5) The blood was brought into the sanctuary and sprinkled seven times before "the vail of the sanctuary." It was fingerprinted "upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord," and the remainder of the blood was poured at the base of the altar of the court. (4:6-7) The fat was removed from the inwards, the kidneys and the folds above the liver. The fat and the kidneys were burned upon the Altar of Burnt Offering. (4:8-10) The rest - "the whole bullock" - was carried "without the camp" and there burned." (4:12)
The same procedure was to be followed when the whole congregation sinned. (4:13-21)
Note again - it was the high priest who ministered the sacrifice, and the blood was brought into the sanctuary. It is important to note these two basics in the law of the sin offering.
These applied to corporate sin; individual sin was dealt with differently.
When a ruler or a "common" person sinned, the sacrificial animal became a goat instead of a bullock.
Three other distinct differences need to be noted.
For the individual, be he a ruler or a common person, one of the sub-priests ministered the sacrifice.
The blood was not taken into the sanctuary, and the whole animal was not burned without the camp.
Instead, the blood of the sacrifice was placed on the horns of the altar of the court, and the balance of the blood poured at the base of the altar. (4:22-26)
The officiating priest was to eat of the victim in the court, designated in this instance as a"holy place." (Lev. 6:25-26)
This was explained by Moses to mean that by this act these common priests were to "bear the iniquity" of the individual members of the congregation "to make atonement for them before the Lord." (Lev. 10:17-18)
The result to the individual and to the congregation as a whole of the mediation of the sin offering was forgiveness. (4:20, 26, 31)
Only in the case of the high priest, when he sinned in such a way as to cause guilt to come upon the whole congregation, is it omitted that forgiveness resulted.
The significance of this difference in the mediating of forgiveness needs to be pondered long by those who stand as spiritual guardians of the people.
The record of confession was marked on the horns of the altar of incense, but how God related to it in type, and how He will relate in reality is not given.
Christ spoke fearful woes upon the spiritual leaders of His day who caused the people to reject truth. (Matt. 23:13-33)
{23:13} But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven againstmen: for ye neither go in [yourselves,] neither suffer yethem that are entering to go in. {23:14} Woe unto you,scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore yeshall receive the greater damnation. {23:15} Woe unto you,scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea andland to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye makehim twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. {23:16}Woe unto you, [ye] blind guides, which say, Whosoevershall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shallswear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! {23:17}[Ye] fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or thetemple that sanctifieth the gold? {23:18} And, Whosoevershall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoeversweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. {23:19}[Ye] fools and blind: for whether [is] greater, the gift, or thealtar that sanctifieth the gift? {23:20} Whoso therefore shallswear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.{23:21} And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth byit, and by him that dwelleth therein. {23:22} And he thatshall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, andby him that sitteth thereon. {23:23} Woe unto you, scribesand Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and aniseand cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] ofthe law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to havedone, and not to leave the other undone. {23:24} [Ye] blindguides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.{23:25} Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter,but within they are full of extortion and excess. {23:26}[Thou] blind Pharisee, cleanse first that [which is] withinthe cup and platter, that the outside of them may be cleanalso. {23:27} Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, whichindeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead[men’s] bones, and of all uncleanness. {23:28} Even so yealso outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye arefull of hypocrisy and iniquity. {23:29} Woe unto you,scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build thetombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of therighteous, {23:30} And say, If we had been in the days ofour fathers, we would not have been partakers with them inthe blood of the prophets. {23:31} Wherefore ye bewitnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of themwhich killed the prophets. {23:32} Fill ye up then themeasure of your fathers. {23:33} [Ye] serpents, [ye]generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation ofhell?
The lessons and glimpses of the Reality as revealed in the Law of the Sin Offering need to be carefully considered.
***
We're going to stop here for now and consider all this we've just read.
Yes, differences are there for a reason.
Yes, we need to understand as much as we can.
No, we won't be able to fully comprehend not until Christ comes again, but we need to do our best to try and understand, to seek understanding, enlightenment through the Holy Spirit by the Grace of Jesus.
None of us want to be with those classed as hypocites. We need a clean and righteous heart in Jesus. None of us need an outward showing that is false, God sees right through such an outward showing. We need to be thoroughly and wholly God's, inside and out.
In His Name.
Amen.
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