It's been some time since I've made a post, largely due to work schedules
and a large amount of reading and research I've been doing into Trinitarian
doctrine in both the Old and New Testaments.
This morning, however, I've been thinking about the powerful symbolism involved in the
Mosaic law and the old covenant and how it relates to the new covenant.
Of course this is a vast topic, and far too large to do a proper study on in a limited space.
Under the old covenant, the blood of a sacrifice was a requirement for atonement.
We don't really know exactly when God set forth this system, but it appears extremely early
in Scripture as Cain and Abel were engaging in offerings in Genesis 4.
So it would seem that immediately following the fall in the garden of eden, God
made apparent to Adam and Eve that part of the consequences of their sin was that
blood must be shed on their behalf.
(Heb 9:16) For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
(Heb 9:17) For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
(Heb 9:18) Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
(Heb 9:19) For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
(Heb 9:20) Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
(Heb 9:21) Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
(Heb 9:22) And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
In spite of this, the Lord make it extremely evident that what He genuinely desires from
man and appreciates is meekness, an obedient heart, and a heart that loves justice and mercy more than sacrifice.
This information speaks volumes about the nature and the heart of our Creator.
Oh, how awesome He truly is.
David knew this:
(Psa 40:6) Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
(Psa 51:16) For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
(Psa 51:17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Isaiah knew it:
(Isa 1:11) To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
(Isa 1:12) When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
(Isa 1:13) Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
(Isa 1:14) Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
(Isa 1:15) And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
(Isa 1:16) Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
(Isa 1:17) Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
So did Amos:
(Amo 5:21) I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
(Amo 5:22) Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
(Amo 5:23) Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
(Amo 5:24) But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Jeremiah too:
(Jer 6:20) To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.
(Jer 7:21) Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
(Jer 7:22) For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
(Jer 7:23) But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
(Jer 7:24) But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
And Haggai:
(Hag 2:11) Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
(Hag 2:12) If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
(Hag 2:13) Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
(Hag 2:14) Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
Even Moses makes it quite plain exactly what the Law truly entails at its root:
(Deu 10:12) And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
(Deu 10:13) To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
(Deu 10:14) Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD'S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
(Deu 10:15) Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.
(Deu 10:16) Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
And Micah, making it plain yet again:
(Mic 6:6) Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
(Mic 6:7) Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
(Mic 6:8) He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Thus the new covenant comes.
This is of such significance in the daily life of the Christian.
These Scriptures contain so much power to me when I read them.
How can we hope to truly walk according to the Spirit,
if we fail to understand the potence of the new covenant by which we are cleansed?
(Jer 31:31) Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
(Jer 31:32) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
(Jer 31:33) But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
(Jer 31:34) And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The sanctification and the sprinkling clean of the Christian's heart
comes through the blood of Jesus and through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
Of which I noticed a fascinating parallel from Ezekiel 36.
(Eze 36:25) Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
(Eze 36:26) A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
(Eze 36:27) And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
(Eze 36:28) And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
This is the same language used by David in Psalm 51 after his sin with Bathseeba, where he begs the Lord for cleanness of heart:
(Psa 51:7) Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
(Psa 51:8) Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
(Psa 51:9) Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
(Psa 51:10) Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
(Psa 51:11) Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
(Psa 51:12) Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
But now this work is completed in the sacrifice of Christ:
(Heb 9:13) For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
(Heb 9:14) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
(Heb 9:15) And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
(Tit 3:4) But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
(Tit 3:5) Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
(Tit 3:6) Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
(Tit 3:7) That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment