Sun.’s Devo - The Priests and the Passover

Read Ex. 29:1-30:10, Matt. 26:14-46, Ps. 31:19-24, Pr. 8:14-26 God was very specific about the ordination of the priest. Everything about it was to point to holiness. The sacrifice had to be spotless and the bread without yeast. All this spoke of sinlessness. Even his clothes were to be sanctified and passed down to the next generation. The priests were to represent the people to God and atone for the sins of the people through the sacrificial ceremonies. God gave them the instructions for the first piece of furniture that was to go in the Tabernacle. It was the altar of incense and was to be placed right outside the curtain to the Holy of Holies. Here, the priest would burn incense day and night and on the Day of Atonement, they would take this insence into the Holy Of Holies. This incense represented the prayers of the saints according to Rev. 8:3. God put prayer as His first priority. As we read about the process of making the priest holy, we learn that it is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Matthew. That is when they are to get the sin out of your houses. Jesus got the sin out of his house when he nailed the betrayer and gave him a chance to repent. Judas chose not to which cost him dearly. Jesus sent Judas out and ate his last Passover supper with his true disciples then went to the temple and became the Passover Lamb. At the supper he told them one would betray him and all eleven were appalled, but that same eleven couldn’t manage to stay awake to pray for an hour. We tend to be just that fickle sometimes. We really do love Jesus, he’s just not always convenient, and prayer is hard. Lord, cleanse us of our yeast and draw us to your altar to learn how to pray.