20060130
    It is easy, while reading about the kinds of sacrifices that God commanded the Israelites to make, to become bored and confused, wondering how such things might possibly apply to us as modern Christians. The answer to such a question is subtle, yet still apparent. In the form of sacrifice, God gave the Israelites a way to acknowledge their sins toward each other and toward God. He gave them away to show, both to the community and to God, that they were sincere in their repentance of their sin.
    In this way, the sacrifices of the Israelites are much the same as our own repentance. Both we and the Israelite acknowledge we have sinned and are in need of restitution. Both we and the Israelite seek that restitution by following God’s commands for us. For the Israelite, that command was to bring a sacrifice to the tabernacle or temple, in faith, knowing that God would accept the sacrifice of a contrite heart and forgive the sin. For the Christian, this command is the command of faith. In faith we confess our sins before God, calling on the sacrifice of Jesus as our own offering to the Father for the sins we have committed.
    Thanks be to God, then, that we have the example of our Israelite fathers, who did sacrifice before God for their sins in anticipation of the greatest of sacrifices that was to come. Let us never forget, as Christians, that Christ sacrificed his life to free us from sin, and in that knowledge let us confess our sins before God and be washed clean by the blood of our sacrificial Lamb.
DLH
