Day 14 - Sacrifice and Atonement

Day 14 – Sacrifice and Atonement

• Reading: Leviticus 16 and Leviticus 17:11
• Watch  –  the Bible Project – Atonement

Over days 11-13, we read how God has always had a plan from the time humanity sinned to win back his children and defeat death.  Now we jump into the important concept of the old and new covenant.  Today we dive into Sacrifice, Atonement and Purification.

• Sacrifice – symbol of justice and grace
• Atonement – to cover over someone’s sin
• Purification – through the blood of an animal.  Blood represents life.

These are hard concepts to understand and actually odd to us and the way we live.  However, I feel the Bible Project explains these concepts beautifully. 

Watch below:

Day 13 - Veil Torn In Two

Day 13 - Veil Torn In Two

• Reading: Exodus 26:31-33, Exodus 30:10,  Hebrews 10:19-22, Hebrews 8:1-2, Hebrews 9:11-12

First let’s talk about what’s inside this veil.  In the temple, the place of worship, you have The Holy Place. The Holy Place was where priests performed their rituals. And in the Holy Place was the Holy of Holies and it was separated by a beautiful veil that we read about in Exodus 26:31-33.  In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat.  The Ark of the Covenant symbolized the presence of God among His people.  On the lid of the Ark of the Covenant was the Mercy Seat. Once a year the High Priest would enter the The Most Holy Place and sprinkle blood from a sacrificed animal to atone for the sins of Israel. (Exodus 30:10)   And before the High Priest could enter into The Holy of Holies or God’s presence, he had to go through a whole bunch of rituals and prepare himself.  Part of preparing himself was by sprinkling the blood of the lamb in his garments.

Kind of crazy huh?

But it’s a super important concept. The only way a guilty sinner could pass to the other side of the Veil into the Holy of Holies and live was by the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificial lamb. It was by the blood of atonement (which will read about tomorrow) that opened the throne room of God.

But here is the beautiful part for us.  When Jesus died on the cross and declared “It is Finished” the Temple Veil tore in two from top to bottom! (Matthew 27:51) And we no longer have this barrier before God.

This is no small feat.  So let’s picture this.  Jump into my visual side of my brain:

Jesus is hanging on the cross, it is dark and dreary and evil loams in the air. Satan thinks he has won. Maybe he even brought out the Champaign glasses. He sees Jesus in so much pain but Jesus knows when he declares “it is finished” and takes his last breath that sin and evil will be conquered for all time.  And with that last breath, the earth shakes and the ground trembles.  The hairs on the Israelites stand up.  Power is in the air.  Satan starts to freak out and cries “Noooo!” as he witnesses the temple veil tear in two and he realizes at that moment what the death of Jesus truly signifies.  He has been crushed.  Evil has lost and Jesus reigns.  And he not only reigns he tears the separation between man and God.  He brings us into His presence.  He gives us direct access. 

Jesus was the ultimate and final perfect sacrifice.  His blood was shed and we now are made righteous to be in God’s presence. There are no more rituals to be performed. Jesus fulfilled those once and for all time on the cross.  Verse 9:12 “He entered once for all into the Holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Can I get an Amen?!

And there is more greatness for us.  Verse 8:1-2. Jesus is now our High Priest and he sits at the right hand of his Father on the throne. He sits because his work is finished and he takes his rightful place on the Heavenly Realms next to His Father.

Go ahead.  Breathe in that goodness. Because, oh… it is so good.

Day 12: It Is Finished

It Is Finished

Reading:  John 19:28-30,  Hebrews 2:10-15, 2 Timothy 1:10, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

It is finished.

Jesus had accomplished what he came down to earth to do.  To successfully offer himself up as a substitute sin offering for humanity.

These three words, “it is finished” is no small phrase.  There is so much power and meaning packed into these words.  Yesterday we read the curse on Satan, the Messiah crushing his head.  Well, here we have it folks!  Satan, sin, evil has been conquered.  Sin no long has a hold on us.  Death no longer has a stronghold.  With these three words, Christ gave us Victory once and for all.  We are no longer under the condemnation of the law.  The law has no power over us.  Jesus set us free by fulfilling the law.  He came to destroy the one, Satan, who had power over death.  And that Jesus did. 

O death, where is your victory

O death, where is your sting.

Don’t you want to just praise Jesus when you read 1 Corinthians 15:55?!

It is only through him and by him that we will no longer experience the spiritual pain of death.  It is because of our faith in him and the gospel that we have the glorious privilege to spend everlasting life with our creator in a paradise unlike anything we know.  And it’s all because he decided to fulfill and finish the plan God set before him in Genesis 3.  With those three words, it is finished, he declared the fullfillment of every promise, sacrifice, ceremony and prophesy.  And he did it in perfect obedience to his father.

I could write about this forever.  There is so much power in being able to tell you all who Jesus is and what he did to completely set you free.  You are free! So very free.  Now I pray you live in his freedom he so sacrificially and lovingly gave you.

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Side Note: 

Hyssop branch - the sour wine was for the soldiers to drink as they waited for the crucifixions to be done.  However, with the "thirst"  he fulfilled yet another prophesy.  But the hyssop branch signifies something more.  In Exodus 12:22 God instructs the Israelites in their Exodus to dip a hyssop branch into the lamb’s blood and put it on the doorpost.  This was their first Passover.  The blood of the lamb on the doorpost saved the Israelites from the tenth plague - the death of the first born.  It was a sacrifice. The mention of the hyssop branch would take the Jewish people back to the saving blood of the Passover lamb.

update - we later wrote about the hyssop branch meaning. you can read the post here

Double side note:

 “The verb telew (teleo, ‘to finish’) was used in first and second centuries in the sense of ‘fulfilling’ or ‘paying’ a debt and often appeared in receipts. Jesus’ statement ‘It is finished’ (tetelestai, tetelestai) could be interpreted as ‘Paid in full.’” (Tenney)

Day 11: Curse On Satan

Day 11: Curse On Satan

• Readings: Genesis 3:1-15

The first 10 days we looked at Old Testament scriptures that pointed to the power of the cross and the prophetic words that told us of the coming Messiah and the events around His death.  Our hope is that these passages help solidify your faith.  God had a plan, He told us about the plan and then Jesus fulfilled the plan.

Well, what is this plan?

It all starts in Genesis 3.  The passage you just read.  Particularly  verse 14-15.  Adam and Eve sinned representing the Fall of Man.  We are now no longer holy and are alienated from God.  Since God is perfect and can’t be in the presence of sin, man who sinned, cannot be in His presence. So Adam and Eve are punished and asked to leave the Garden.  But God first doles out His punishments to the serpent, Eve and Adam. I’ll let you dive into Adam and Eve’s punishments on your own.  We are going to focus on the Serpent and the curse put upon Satan.


The Curse:
My eyes were opened into the pre-cursed serpent.  Particularly in what he looked like before the curse from God.

Throughout my life I’ve envisioned a slimy snake slithering down the tree, hanging there, talking to Eve. It kind of creeps me out.  But what I read changed my thinking.  We read about what Satan was like before God created the world in Ezekiel 28. We read that he was an angelic being, so could he have been a different kind of serpent?  Maybe this serpent didn’t start as the snake we know of as today but became one after the curse given to him by God in Genesis 3:14-15.

Whatever he may look like, he was punished for the fall of man. But it’s in this same punishment that our glorious promise is made.

Verse 15:
I will out enmity between you and the woman.
And between your offspring and her offspring.
(Note: the man is not mentioned here.  This is the first prophesy of the virgin birth.  The offspring of Eve.  The woman)

And this offspring... (Jesus)
He will bruise your head (Satan’s head)
And you shall bruise his heel.

Meaning Satan will think he had won when he deceived man to crucify Jesus, their savior.  But God is setting forth a plan and it is on that Cross that Jesus, for all time, will defeat sin.  He will bruise his head.  Or in other translations he will CRUSH his head.

Verse 15 predicts our ultimate victory through Jesus on the Cross over sin and evil.

Satan is defeated.  We have won.  We have freedom through Christ.  May we now live in this freedom.


Side note: what Satan looks like is a small detail.  I challenge you to bring what I share with you to the Scriptures.  The Holy Spirit through Paul praises the Bereans in doing exactly that. (Acts 17)  They took what Paul taught them and then compared it to the Scriptures to make sure and double check that it aligns with the Gospel. 

You can form your own opinion based on what you read.  Differing opinions is just fine unless it comes to the Gospel.  Nothing should ever contradict the saving grace of Jesus Christ dying on the Cross to save us from our sin.  He rose defeating sin, giving us eternal life and it is by faith alone in the Gospel that we are redeemed and given everlasting life.

Day 10: Fulfilled up to his final breath

Day 10: Fulfilled up to his final breath

• Readings: Matthew 27:45-54, Psalm 22:1, Amos 8:9, Psalm 69:21

“When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

They witnessed.

Were filled with awe.

And declared him the Son of God.

As we finish up this section of the Easter Reading Plan looking at the Old Testament passages that point to the power of the cross and that prophesy the death of the Messiah, I pray you are filled with awe.  I pray even more-so that you are ready to declare him the Son of God.  Your personal Savior.

The best part is we are only on day 10.  We have so much more to share with you.  We have some major key lessons coming up on  God’s redemptive plan that He set into place starting in Genesis 3.

We pray these next few days help explain some of those hard concepts that keep us from fully understanding God’s word.

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If you are just joining us, here is a quick outline of what we’ve covered so far.

Easter Reading Plan

During this Easter Reading, our goal is to bring you through of journey of deepening and solidifying your faith – starting with how all the Old Testament points to Jesus, through some major key lessons of atonement, sacrificial lamb and the new covenant, and ending with the significance of the resurrection and power of the Holy Spirit.

• Fulfillment of Scripture

Day 1: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

 – Meaning, if we want to know who Jesus is, we look to the writing of Moses ( first 5 books of the Bible, the prophetic books and the scriptures.  Essentially the Old Testament. 

 Readings: Luke 24: 13-34

 Bonus Reading: Luke 24:44-48

• Words of Moses:

Upon first glance, these passages are just stories, but when you dive down deep, we find that they are much more.  They point to the power of the Cross. 

Day 2: Power of the Red sea

Reading: Exodus 14:1-31

Bonus Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:2

Day 3: Bitter water at Marah

Reading: Exodus 15: 22-27

Bonus Reading: John 4:1-42

Day 4: Battle over the Amaleks

Reading: Exodus 17: 8-16

Day 5: Bronze Serpent

Reading: Numbers 21:4-9

Bonus Reading -  John 3:1-15, Hebrews 12:2

• The Prophesies and Scriptures

It’s these details that help solidify our faith, these prophesies were given to us hundreds of years before the death of Christ and this is just a small sampling!

Day 6: Full reading to get an overview of Christ’s crucifixion

Reading:  John 19:1-42

Day 7:  details leading up to the crucifixion.

Donkey - Readings:  Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:1-11

30 pieces (price of an ox or slave found in Exodus 21:32) -  Readings: Zechariah 11:12-13, Matthew 26:14-16, Matthew 27:3-10

strike and scatter - Readings: Zechariah 13:7, Matthew 26: 31-35, Matthew 26:55-56

Day 8: Isaiah gave us an extremely detailed account of Christ’s death 700+ years BEFORE it actually happened.  

Readings: Isaiah 53:1-12, Isaiah 50:6,

Day 9: King David wrote this Messianic Psalm 1,000 years before the death of Christ.

Readings: Psalm 22:1-18,  Psalm 34:20

Day 10:  Jesus was still fulfilling scripture until he took his last powerful breath. 

Readings: Matthew 27:45-54, Psalm 22:1, Amos 8:9, Psalm 69:21

Tomorrow we dive into major key lessons.