...In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work ... For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the LORD. -Leviticus 16:29-30

In the former days when man was to re-establish and hold a relationship with God, there was always something that mankind had to do in order to have their souls in a place of favor. Our original relationship was loss because of one act of disobedience by Adam in Eden. Since that time the LORD always had a people who were willing to build a true altar of sacrifice to Him.

Abraham, who at times was called the friend of God, had also to find a place of atonement and sacrifice to the LORD, even though he was alone without rules of service. When the LORD spoke to him in Exodus 15, he was told to select certain animals of three years of age and to make a sacrifice to the LORD. “I am thy exceeding great reward” the LORD told him, but the covenant must be sealed by an altar of sacrifice. Once the sacrifice was assembled, the LORD himself placed the burning edifices among the sacrifice. There was death and then burning, this was a sacrifice unto the LORD. He was willing to go as far in his consecration to offer his own son to the LORD when he was commanded to do so. In the end, that which he would have sacrificed was restored to him by the angel of the LORD.

For the Jewish people, Atonement which brought reconciliation was just the same. Animal death and burning was the pacifier for the staying of the wrath of God for sin. Though they offered sacrifices continually for their errors, there was one particular day in which only one priest would be allowed to go into the Holy of Holies, a place of the shekinah glory of the LORD. As he entered into the holy of holies, he was to seek God for atonement or payment for the righteousness of God to be imputed to God’s own people.

On this day there was much sacrificial concession by the Jewish people. The personally experienced death by abstaining from certain pleasures or routines. There was no work to be done, and no food or drink to be consumed. There was the offering by the authority of the one singular priest that would push back the sins committed against God’s will for a full year. This offering was made using two goats. One goat, it is said in Leviticus 16, was for the LORD and the other for azazel, the enduring enemy of the LORD and His people. One goat was killed for the sins of the sins of the Congregation. This represents Jesus Christ’s suffering and dying for the sins of all men on the cross. The other represented a carrying away of the sins of the people on the vehicle of stubborn (goat butting) flesh to its original owner, the devil. It could be typed that both goats represented the flesh of Jesus Christ, one in dying and the other in carrying away our sins. In this we see that on that one day, there was death and burning, or a consuming away of flesh.

All descriptions of a way to God include an altar of repentance and sacrifice. As one walked into the tabernacle of the Lord they first encountered the brazen altar and laver, and then afterward the blood was sprinkled in the presence of God. There was the place for the burning of the sacrifice which is typical of a man repenting of the enmity or antagonism against the will of God living within his and every man’s soul. This was the burning up of the sin nature by turning away from self in a prayer of repentance. After this was the brazen laver, or basin of water. In this the priest must wash. Just as we must wash, or be washed having these sins no longer a part of us. There must be a burning away of flesh, and a fiery prayers exposes and sends away sins. This flesh continues to live without the sin that was sent away by the washing in the name of Jesus Christ. One goat was the flesh dying for sin, on the day of Atonement and the other for the fleshly sins being driven away by washing into a place of oblivion, as far as the east is from the west as men go down in a tabernacle laver or baptismal pool in the name of Jesus Christ.

Do we truly have an altar of repentance and sacrifice? This same passionate sacrifice is needed today. As Jesus’ passion was the consuming away of his life, as he died upon a cross of crucifixion, so our natural life must also pass away to give way for life in the Spirit of God. God cannot be reconciled in a sinful life. As Jesus groaned on the cross, we too must groan to bring life. We must groan for cleansing and change as from a people who were in darkness to the great light of God. ( a people who were in darkness) After this the light of the menorah, or lamp stand, which is the spirit of Jesus Christ (Christ in you the hope of Glory) will shine the light of His word into the most holy place in direction for our life’s path. Jesus is the light that lights every man. He is the bread of the tabernacle, which is the bread of life. We can partake of the shew bread of life and understand his word through a deep enduring intensive prayer life from which we can emerge to walk in the newness of life

If God’s people truly have an altar of repentance and sacrifice, their praise and their worship, will be true after the manner that the Lord is hoping to receive. As we uplift the Lord on our scaffolds of praise we can draw the needy hearts to Him. We can only become a true and living sacrifice, holy unto the LORD if our sacrifice is true and pure. Our desire to escape trials of long duration, and sought after gifts will only come after the installation of a true altar of sacrifice in our lives. We have at stake the awe of beautiful reverence at the glory of the invisible God, revealed to and in us. True praise, relationship, grace of God and royal status will be ours with Almighty God, and we raise the true altar of sacrifice.


YadaelroiY