The Gory Details

The Gory Details
Words of Faith 2-15-2023
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2023
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Exodus 29
[10] "Bring the bull to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. [11] Slaughter it in the LORD's presence at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. [12] Take some of the bull's blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar. [13] Then take all the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. [14] But burn the bull's flesh and its hide and its offal outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
[15] "Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. [16] Slaughter it and take the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides. [17] Cut the ram into pieces and wash the inner parts and the legs, putting them with the head and the other pieces. [18] Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.

One of the rare and new experiences of walking through the Old City of Jerusalem amid the unique smells of spices and leather. The Old City experience is quite different, especially when you come to a meat market. There are no pristine, cold display cases of meat like in an American market. There are no tightly wrapped packages of beef or poultry carefully marked with expiration dates. In the old city, all sorts of meat can be seen hanging from hooks. A buyer points at what they want to purchase, and the meat is cut and wrapped in front of them. Everything is fresh because it has been very recently slaughtered and cut.
Some parts of the Bible read more like an instruction manual for a meat shop than a manual for prayer. Chapter 29 is one of those portions of the Bible. Three sacrifices took place as part of the consecration of priests: a bull that was a sin offering, a ram as a burnt offering (v.18), and another ram with blood applied in a specific way to the priests and altar (v.20-21).
The first was a sin offering. This was to atone for Aaron and his sons' past sins. They laid their hands on the bull's head and, in effect, transferred their sins to the sin-bearer. The bull was slaughtered in the presence of the Lord as an act of appeasement. Blood from the bull was applied to the horns of the altar and the base of the altar (v.12). The choicest parts of the bull were burned on the altar. The enveloping fat was added as fuel to the fire (v.13). The flesh and hide of the bull were thought to be permeated with sin and thus were burned outside the camp (v.14). These practices would continue on in the future on the Day of Atonement carried out by the priests.
The second sacrifice was one of the two rams. This was a burnt offering, unlike some of the other sacrifices that were consumed by the priests or worshipers. The burnt offering was entirely consumed on the altar.
To be very honest, this was the first stumbling block for me as a young believer coming to faith during high school. The whole "blood sacrifice" thing seemed so ancient, uncivilized, archaic, or even barbaric. I didn't get it. And when we talked about the blood of Jesus being shed for my sins, it was an idea that I struggled with immensely. I am probably not the only one.
One of the people discipling me pointed to a Scripture in Leviticus. "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life" (Leviticus 17:11).
It is a truth so foundational that we cannot escape it. We call blood donation "the gift of life." This gift is necessary for people to survive. Modern medicine studies the amazing details found in human blood. Blood does all kinds of amazing things that give life. Blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports waste products away from cells. The first test in diagnosis is often an analysis of our blood. Blood chemistry is so complex that it requires a specialty within medical studies. And to think… God thought all of that up. No one knows this truth better.
The Lord makes a striking statement in this verse. The life of a creature is in the blood. As blood drains from the body, biological life goes with it. It is a fact that we can witness. The act of sacrificing animals gave a visceral experience to this truth.
We might be tempted to say, "Spare me the gory details." But we are not really given that option. This is not a butcher shop where we can leave the messy stuff in the back room and only visit the display case with shrink-wrapped products. Aaron and his sons needed to place their hands on this bull and witness the great cost of sin in our lives.
The writer of Hebrews brings this message a little differently. "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22). The truth is, we desperately need a covering and atonement for our sin. We might assess ourselves as "not as bad as others," but the Bible disagrees. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "The wages of sin is death..." (Romans6:23). "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way..." (Isaiah 53:6).
We all, every one of us, desperately need to lay our hands upon an animal and then watch that animal's life drain away in our place. But, we don't have to. Not because we don't need covering of our sins. We don't have to because Jesus has already taken our sins.
Yes, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But the Scripture goes on to declare: "and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- (Romans 3:24-35).
The wages of sin is death… Yes. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). "We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way… and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). Through the shedding of blood there is forgiveness of our sentence. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

Father God, it is hard for me to understand, yet with my heart, I receive the great sacrifice that was made for me. Thank you for the gift of life that comes through the blood of Jesus. In His precious Name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2023
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2023 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.