A Message From Karen: Jesus the Ultimate Sacrifice

Wednesday's Devotion (6-6-07)

Jesus fulfilled the ultimate Passover sacrifice for us when he sacrificed Himself to take our place. We see in Numbers the fourth book of Moses in the Old Testament where the Lord spoke to Moses while the Israelites were in the wilderness of Sinai after the second year of coming out of the land of Egypt. The Lord instructed Moses on keeping all the rites and ceremonies of the Passover, but at that time the sacrifices covered the people's sins. When Jesus sacrificed Himself His sacrifice was not about covering up sins/offenses anymore, but washing away all sin as though it never happened (complete erase-gone-not a trace). We do not have to perform all the old rituals of atonement anymore because it was replaced with Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice because God acknowledges-accepts only those that are covered with salvation through His Son Jesus.

Num 9:1-5 The first Passover in the wilderness.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: "Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time. According to all its rites and ceremonies you shall keep it." So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.

The Lord instructed the children of Israel to keep the Passover at its appointed time: Israel celebrated Passover as they were leaving Egypt (Exodus 12). The Passover here marked the one-year point of their journey out of slavery and into the Promised Land. According to all its rites and ceremonies you shall keep it: Passover was meant to be a reminder of God's "passing over" Israel in the judgment of the firstborn at the Exodus from Egypt.

In Egypt God instructed the children of Israel on the Passover where they were to use the blood of the lamb, apply it to the door posts of their homes, which would be seen by the angel of God's judgment - and by seeing the blood, the angel would "pass over" and spare the home covered by the blood. Passover was meant to be a continual reminder of this occasion of being spared judgment, and of the deliverance that followed in the Exodus.

Jesus fulfilled the Passover sacrifice by His death on the cross (1 Corinthians 5:7); the covering of His blood causes the judgment of God to "pass over" us. We are commanded to continually remember our occasion of being spared judgment and the deliverance that followed, by remembering Jesus' work on the cross through the Lord's Supper. God has instructed us to keep this in remembrance just as He instructed the children of Israel.

God bless