Leviticus 17:14a because the life of every creature is its blood
When I ask myself the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" or "Why did Jesus have to suffer such a gruesome death?" the above versus give the answer. The blood that ripples through us with each heartbeat carries our very life, our very existence. The blood brings life and sustains life.
When someones heart fails, they die. Not just because the organ quit working but because blood could not flow through the veins. In this era of medicine people are often placed on by-pass to maintain life. By-pass acts like the heart and pumps the blood. Sacrifices had to cost the person something and the ritual had to be carried out to specifics, but ultimately the shedding of the blood atoned for sin.
Why does God need blood shed? I'm not completely sure. It's another one of those questions I'm looking forward to seeking God face to face when I pass to the next life. (For now my eyes see dimly...) If I want to teach my child an important lesson through discipline, I find something that has deep value to them, associated to their offemse, and take it away for a period of time. It is a costly sacrifice to the child as they give up something meaningful to them in order to redirect their willfulness to my will as their parent. I imagine God wanted people to feel the sting of following their own will instead of submitting to His will. He desperately needed to convey that staying in this pattern brings absolute death; i.e. not physical death but a complete separation from Him as creator. By people taking the life of something precious and costly they could maintain absolute life; i.e. being wholly with God.
Why did the sacrificial system lead to Jesus' sacrifice? Again this is one of those questions I need a face to face to completely understand. However, my dim eyes see it this way... The sacrificial system:
- was difficult to maintain,
- did not atone for the sins of non-Jewish believers,
- and it did not provide an avenue for mankind to live IN God but only atoned for sin.
God's desire to be WITH man could only be accomplished if God himself became the sacrifice. What we cannot do for ourselves through uber obedience to the law or through participation in the sacrificial system Jesus accomplished for us. He lived a pure, holy life in this world to redeem man for the Kingdom of God.
I don't understand, in my dimness, why we just didn't skip to the Jesus part of history rather than living through the flawed system of sacrifices. We humans must be slow learners and need to have a foundation and a historical story in order to shape our faith. I guess I need a face to face on this one. I don't know; but this one thing I do know I once was blind but now I see. ...if only dimly.
I don't understand, in my dimness, why we just didn't skip to the Jesus part of history rather than living through the flawed system of sacrifices. We humans must be slow learners and need to have a foundation and a historical story in order to shape our faith. I guess I need a face to face on this one. I don't know; but this one thing I do know I once was blind but now I see. ...if only dimly.
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