Exodus 29

There’s a lot of blood shed in this atonement ceremony: I probably wouldn’t watch this if it was on TV, yet it was what God instructed his people to do. it calls to mind the final sacrifice where blood was shed for mankind’s sin. I watched the depiction of this in “Passion of the Christ” with a thankful heart. Today I found myself tearing up as I read an account of Jesus trial as portrayed in some ancient paintings in Hexham Abbey: grateful again for His willingness to suffer and shed his blood for me.

Now there is no longer need for this kind of animal sacrifice, it was a foreshadowing of what was to be the REAL sacrifice: Jesus of Nazareth dying for the sin of all the world so that we all can come before God. I think reading Exodus afresh has made me ponder again the great cataclysmic change that came when Jesus died. The curtain in the Temple in Jerusalem was torn, a dramatic, visual sign that the way was now clear for us to come freely into God’s Presence.

Just as God met the people of Israel in the Tent of Meeting, the place “made holy” by His glorious presence so He meets us where He has chosen to dwell: in us, His people. He meets us individually and also collectively. We are the living stones being built into the meeting place/temple of God! No special building needed, just open hearts.

Let us not neglect meeting together but rather, when we meet together, come with eager anticipation to encounter our great God and Saviour, the LORD Jesus.