Good evening y’all. Happy Monday 🙂

Today we are studying Leviticus 16. Reading through the chapter gave me a deeper appreciation for Jesus and the price He came to pay in order for us to have a relationship with the Father.

Be blessed 🙂

I found a few similarities between what God asked of them in today’s chapter and what Jesus did for us.

1) They had to use blood of animals to atone for their sins. The priest first, for himself, and then for the rest of the congregation –  Jesus didn’t have to atone for His own sins as He is the perfect High Priest. His blood brought us a new covenant without limitations 🙂
“He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven. 27 Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins” (Heb 7: 26 -27 NLT)

2) The priests couldn’t go into the tent where God dwelt whenever they wanted. They didn’t have easy/free access to God. Jesus’ death on the cross has made it possible for us to have access to God whenever we want.

“And so, dear brothers, now we may walk right into the very Holy of Holies, where God is, because of the blood of Jesus. This is the fresh, new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us by tearing the curtain—his human body—to let us into the holy presence of God” (Heb 10: 19 -20 TLB)

3) The sacrifice had to be at a set time every year but Jesus paid it once and for all and removed the need for yearly atonement.

“The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship” (Heb 10: 1 NLT)
“But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. (Heb 10:12 NLT)

Hebrews chapter 9 gives us a good summary of this chapter.

“7 But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle[d] and the system it represented were still in use.
9 This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. 10 For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established.
11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
24 For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. 25 And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. 26 If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.” (Heb 9: 7 -15, 24 – 26 NLT)

Prayer:
Dear Lord, we thank You for today. We thank You for loving us enough to send Your only Son to die for us. Thank You for the blood He shed so we can now come boldly before Your throne. Help us to daily live for You and in obedience to Your word.Thank You Lord. In Jesus’ Name we’ve prayed. Amen.

***With God all things are possible***