Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Altar

When the children of Israel had just come out of Egypt God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle.  This tent was supposed to be a place where God's presence could come and live among his people.  God told Moses, "let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8).  This tabernacle was called "the tent of the congregation" because here God would live among and meet with the congregation of Israel; God called the tabernacle the place "where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee" (29:42).

In front of the door of this tabernacle, this sanctuary tent, was an altar made of brass.   The Lord ordered Moses, "thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation" (Exodus 40:6).  When a person wanted to sacrifice something to God, they were supposed to bring that offering to this brasen altar at the tabernacle's door (Leviticus 17:5). When a person had sinned, they would bring a lamb, bull, or goat to this altar to take away their sins (4:1-4, 5:6, 9).  The altar speaks of death; when a man brought an animal to offer it, the animal died and was offered on the altar.

 The altar is a symbol for the death of Jesus on the cross.  In the Old Testament men would bring an animal to take away their sins; but Jesus is "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).  Scripture says that the blood of bulls and goats purified the flesh, but the blood of Jesus purifies our conscience from sin so that we can serve God (Hebrews 9:13-14)!  All of the blood spilled at the tabernacle's brasen altar was a foreshadow of the blood that Jesus, our perfect sacrifice, would shed at Calvary.  The brasen altar is a symbol of Jesus' atoning death.

This brasen altar (as I said before) was in front of the tabernacle, the tent that the children of Israel worshiped at while they were traveling from Egypt to Canaan.  The Bible calls this sanctuary "the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness" (Acts 7:44).  As Jews would travel through the wilderness, they would set up the tabernacle tent when they set up camp and they would take the tent down and pack it up when they would travel to the next place.

In Numbers 4 God gave the Israelites very specific instructions on how to disassemble and carry the tabernacle; and these included instructions about how to carry the brasen altar.  When the Hebrews were packing up the brasen altar they were commanded to empty the altar of all its ashes; then they would spread a purple cloth over the altar and cover the purple cloth with badger skins (Numbers 4:13-14) so that the altar could be transported.

It is interesting that the brasen altar was covered with a purple cloth.  When the tabernacle was moved, five pieces of furniture were supposed to be covered with colored cloth.  The brasen altar is the only piece of furniture that was not covered in blue; and it was the only piece of furniture that was covered in purple.  This break in the pattern should catch our attention.

Remember, the altar is a symbol of Jesus' sufferings to take away our sins.  The Bible says that when Jesus was about to be crucified, that Pilate delivered him over to the soldiers to beat him.  When the soldiers were beating Jesus, they "plated a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe" (John 19:2).  

Just like the altar where so many sacrifices had died before, our sacrifice--Jesus--was covered with a purple cloth!  Jesus' suffering fulfilled the purpose of the brasen altar.  Under the new testament we have Jesus' blood to take away our sins; we do not have to come to the brasen altar with sacrifices any more.  By God's grace I no longer have to come to an altar draped in purple; now I can come to a Savior draped in purple, and to the cross where he died for me!       ~CJK

Thursday, January 7, 2016

New Year's Musings--Passover

A new year has come; and it is common for us to look forward into the new year with expectancy.  Many of us see the new year as a time to make a fresh start of things, to better ourselves, and to get rid of bad habits that we may have in our life.  This is a perfectly natural response, and I believe it is a Biblical response.

As I think about the year ahead, my mind goes to the story of Israel's deliverance from Egypt in the book of Exodus.  The Israelites had lived happily in Egypt for many years; but eventually the Egyptians made the Hebrews into slaves.  Scripture says that the Egyptians "did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens....and the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor: and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage" (Exodus 1:11, 13-14).  The Jews were no longer free, but were slaves to Egypt.

Israel was God's chosen nation, and so he sent Moses to deliver the Hebrews from servitude in Egypt: God said to Moses, "behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.  Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people out of Egypt" (Exodus 3:9-10).

When Moses arrived at Egypt the Lord Jehovah poured out many plagues upon the nation of Egypt because Pharaoh would not let the Hebrews go.  Finally God told Moses, "Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go" (Exodus 11:1).  This final plague would be the death of every firstborn child: "all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh...unto the firstborn of the maidservant" (11:5).

To protect the children of Israel from this horrific plague, God gave them specific instructions; instructions on performing the first Passover.  Through Moses, God instructed each household to take a lamb (Exodus 12:3), a lamb that did not have any blemishes or imperfections (12:5).  The people would take the lamb and kill it, and put the blood of the lamb upon the doorposts and lintel of their house (12:6-7).  They would then cook the lamb and eat it as a feast.

The Bible calls this feast "the LORD's passover" (Exodus 12:11).  God even gave them the reason why they were supposed to complete these instructions: God said, "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt....And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt" (12:12-13).  As a celebration of God's deliverance and protection, God told the children of Israel to keep the feast of Passover yearly; "this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever" (12:14).

 So we see that God used the blood of the lamb to protect his people from death and to deliver them from bondage in Egypt.  Interestingly enough, when God gave Moses the instructions about Passover, he told Moses, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you" (Exodus 12:2).  In Israel's first New Year, God saved them by the blood of a lamb and delivered them from slavery.  Every new year after that God commanded them to celebrate Passover and remember his salvation.

This whole story of Passover---God delivering his people from slavery with the blood of a lamb---is a grand analogy of what Jesus has done for us.  1 Corinthians 5:7 says that "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us".  Jesus is the lamb; because scripture calls him "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).  Jesus is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).  God delivers us from the bondage of sin through the blood of Jesus.  Because the lamb died for the Jews, they were protected from death; and because the Lamb has died for us, our names can be "written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 21:27).  The plague on Egypt was the death of the firstborn; I find it interesting that Jesus, God's firstborn, died in our place.

The New Year is a time of new beginnings; by making Passover part of the first month God teaches us that new beginnings start with the blood of the Lamb!  

I find it interesting that the scriptures say "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you" (Exodus 12:2, emphasis added).  For those of us who have been saved through the blood of Jesus, I feel like it would be appropriate to spend the first part of this new year remembering is death on the cross.  We Christians know best of all how the Lamb's blood saved us from death and liberated us from sin and gave us a new start.  For us, our new life started with "Christ our passover"; and at the beginning of this year we ought to remember these things and think on them.

To my readers who may not yet know the saving power of Jesus' blood: A new start is possible!  Just as Jehovah saved Israel from death by the blood of a lamb, and delivered them from slavery; so he can save YOU from death by the blood of his Son and deliver YOU from the slavery of sin.  In this New Year, know and understand that a new start through Jesus' blood is possible. 

Happy New Year!  I hope that in this next year we all start a new beginning through the blood of the Lamb!!       ~CJK