Heaven's Royal Sacrifice--It's Jesus!!!--Day 10 (Finale!!!)

 

I have been dying for 9 days to mention Jesus's name.  It didn't feel right, skirting around Him, and Jesus Himself agrees. ("You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" John 5:39) But we have been talking about Him the whole time.  Jesus is Heaven's Royal Sacrifice.  The tabernacle, the priestly garments, the veil--all have been pointing to the coming Perfect Sacrifice, given once for all.  

Jesus came from heaven--"Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' Jesus said to them, 'Truly I tell you, Moses didn't give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' Then they said, 'Sir, give us this bread always.'  'I am the bread of life,' Jesus told them. 'No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.  But as I told you, you've seen me, and yet you do not believe.  Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.'" John 6:31-38

Jesus is royalty--"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left.  Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'" Matthew 25:31-34

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice--"Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come.  In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?" Hebrews 9:11-14

I have been hard on the priests through this study, possibly putting thoughts and words that they never thought or spoke.  Maybe they didn't wonder at what they saw, maybe they knew what the colors woven into the veil were foreshadowing.  But surely they got tired of sacrifice, tired of sins that had to be covered again and again.  They lacked the ability to save completely, and I believe the colors made them long for Heaven's Royal Sacrifice, once for all time. 

"Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year.  Otherwise wouldn't they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?  But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. .  For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Hebrews 10:1-4

"Year after year." "Impossible." Frustrating words for men whose life work was being priests.  They didn't choose to be servants in the tabernacle--they were born into the tribe of Levi, and therefore called by God to be priests.  The high priest carried the weight of the peoples' sins differently because he had to present a worthy sacrifice, in the Holy of Holies, behind the veil.  He was able to do so with empathy for those who are ignorant and prone to wander, because he too struggled with the weight of sin.  The tabernacle, the furnishings, the clothing, the veil, the mercy seat--all were given as a pattern by God to Moses on the mountain, and they were meant to follow it.   It was to be followed perfectly because it was a picture of Jesus--High Priest forever, Perfect, the mediatator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises.  Jesus is better. Praise Him.  

  One of the most well-known events of the crucifixion and Resurrection Sunday (especially for Christians) was "Jesus tore the veil, so we have access to God." And that is so beautifully true.  But in those events, the eyewitnesses saw the story (and so faithfully shared it with us) that the tapestry, the veil, had been telling all along.  

"And a soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council.  And they bound Jesus and led Him away and delivered Him over to Pilate." Mark 15:1  ("The word for morning is "dawn".  In Jewish culture, morning prayers and sacrifices were an integral part of religious life, and the early morning was a time to seek God's presence and guidance." From Biblehub.com-- Lexicon)

Blue sky/morning/Heaven

"What shall I do with the man you call King of the Jews?  And they cried out again, 'Crucify Him.' The soldiers led Him away inside the palace, and they called together the whole battalion.  And they clothed  Him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on Him.  And they began to               salute Him, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'" Mark 15:12-13, 16-18                                             Purple/robe and crown/royal

"And when they had crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots."                                                                                  Matthew 27:35                                                                                                          "When they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water." John 19:33-34

Red/blood/sacrifice

"Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed His last. Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Mark 15:37-38

The veil is no longer needed/The picture is finished/The sacrifice is complete

"Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent memeber of the sanhedrin who was himself looking forward to the kingdom of God, came and boldly went to Pilate and asked for Jesus's body....he gave the corpse to Joseph.  After he bought some linen cloth, Joseph took him down and wrapped him in the linen.  Then he laid him in a tomb cut out of the rock and rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb." 

Mark 15:43-46

Linen/pure, holy, righteous

"Make a mercy seat of pure gold, forty-five inches long and twenty-seven inches wide.  Make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.  Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end...I will meet with you there." Exodus 25:17-22

"On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark.  She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb....Mary stood outside the tomb, crying.  As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb.  She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus's body had been, one at the head and the other at the feet."

Cherubim/Eden's guards/Speaking from what has always been hidden behind the veil!

"The Word became flesh and TABERNACLED among us.  We observed His glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

The woven veil has been pushed aside so we can observe His (actual) glory.  He will meet us there on the mercy seat.  The sacrifice is worthy.  The bells are ringing because He---The High Priest AND the Royal Sacrifice--Is Alive!!!