part 6 of “Jireh”
God has always made a way for His people. God provided Noah and his family with a way to survive the flood. God made a way for Israel to cross the Red Sea. God provided a way for the people of Israel to defeat Jericho. God provided a way for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to survive the fiery furnace. God provided a way for Daniel to survive the lion’s den. I am sure there is a lot more, but you get the idea. But there is another way that God made for us that I want to look at in this post.
Throughout the Old Testament, God tried many different things to help His people overcome the punishment for their sins. He set up a sacrifice system that was done one day a year. This day was called the Day of Atonement. But God realized that this system was not going to be a long term fix. There needed to be a once and for all sacrifice that would pay the sins of the world - past, present, and future.
The punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23) - something has to die to forgive sins. The Day of Atonement was a new way for Israel to have their sins forgiven because up until this point the punishment for sins was on the people themselves.
We see this in the story of Noah when God flooded the Earth due to the sins of the people (Genesis 6). Fast forward in the Bible a little bit and we see again people having to take the punishment for son when the nation of Israel disobey God. The story is found Exodus 32.*
Moses had gone up Mount Sinai to talk with God. (This is when he was getting the 10 Commandments.) He had been gone for some time and the people of Israel started to grow impatient. So they all went to Aaron and said:
“‘Come on,’ they said, ‘make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’”- Exodus 32:1 NLT
Aaron then makes a golden calf out the people’s jewelry. The people start to worship it and praise the Golden calf that Aaron had made. Meanwhile, on the mountain, God is taking note of the people’s actions and tells Moses that he needs to get down there because they are out of control and have quickly turned away. Moses goes down the mountain and sees the people dancing and praising the golden calf and….
“He took the calf they had made and burned it. Then he ground it into powder, threw it into the water, and forced the people to drink it.” - Exodus 32:20 NLT
But that wasn’t all. They had sinned against God. They had broken one of the 10 commandments - “You must not have any other god but me.”[1] As I said, the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and at this point that punishment was still on the people. The people who worshipped the golden calf were killed. But this way of dealing with the payment of sin wasn’t working out. God had a different way - the Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was the day where Aaron could enter the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies) of the Tabernacle, where God was present, and make a sacrifice for the sins of the people. But it wasn’t that easy. Aaron had to follow strict instructions from God in order to enter the Most Holy Place and make sacrifice for the people. Aaron had to take a bath and put on special clothes, tie them with a sash, and wear a cloth turban on his head. Then Aaron would need to make a sacrifice for his sins and the sins of his family. This was done so that he could stand in the presence of God. He would then take two male goats to the entrance of the Tabernacle and cast lots to determine which goat would be used as the sacrifice and which one would be used for the scapegoat [2].
The goat that was chosen for the sacrifice would be slaughtered and Aaron would sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat (the top of the Ark of the Covenant). This process would purify the Tabernacle. When Aaron had finished purifying the Tabernacle, he would then lay his hands on the scapegoat. This process would allow him to place all of the sins of the people on the scapegoat. The sins of the people would then be carried into the wilderness on the head of the scapegoat. Aaron would then go back into the Tabernacle and leave the clothes he was wearing, take a bath, and put on his own clothes. He would then make another sacrifice for himself and the people making them right in the eyes of God [2].
The Day of Atonement was a process and if Aaron missed a step he would die. However, this process was only temporary. God was preparing a better way - a way that would handle the payment of sins once and for all. Jesus was that way.
Jesus was born to Mary and lived a perfect life. One of the requirements for a sacrifice not mentioned above was that the sacrifice needed to be perfect without any defects and the other was there were to be no broken bones (Exodus 12:5 + 46). Jesus lived the life that no human being before Him or after Him could live. This made Jesus the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus made the payment for sin once and for all when He died on the cross.
God provided a way, through Jesus, for us to come to Him. Jesus took all of the punishment for us [3], so that through the sacrifice Jesus made, we are right in the eyes of God.
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*This post references Exodus 32 in a paraphrase form. For the complete story please read Exodus 32.*
[1] Exodus 20:3 NLT
[2] Please read Leviticus 16 for more details on the Day of Atonement. This was a paraphrased version and does not represent the details and processes of the day’s events.
[3] Isaiah 53:5-6
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