Thurs.’s Devo - Our Atonement

Read: Leviticus 15:1-16:28; Mark 7:1-23; Psalm 40:11-17; Proverbs 10:13-14 Today we read about discharges of a man and a woman. Both have to do with eggs that won’t be fertilized to bring life. Both make the person unclean. A discharge is when something on the inside comes out in the open. Spiritually this could be a manifestation of the heart that leads to death instead of life. Our words are that powerful - they either lead to life or death. “Life and death is in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21. Once again, I am reminded of the woman with the issue of blood that we read about Tuesday. She had not been allowed in the Temple for 12 years because of her uncleanness. She was a picture of all of them. They were all unclean because of their sin, they just weren’t aware of theirs as much as she was. In Chapter 16, Aaron got the instructions about the Day of Atonement even though it doesn’t label it here. This was the one day of the year when the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies and atone for himself and the sins of the people. He was to offer his sacrifice first for himself and his family and then for the people. Two similar goats were chosen and lots were chosen to decide which would die for the sins of the people and which would go free. A counterfeit of this was done as Jesus and Barabbas stood before the crowd and the crowd chose the one to die and the scapegoat. Jesus was chosen to die and Barabbas was chosen to go free. Barabbas didn’t carry our sins from us. Jesus was both the lamb that was slain and the one who took our sins away. Aaron was to go through a whole day of rituals and if he did it right he would live and the sin of the nation would be atoned for for the year. Aaron was to sacrifice the first goat as a sin offering then sprinkle its blood over the atonement cover. He would do this throughout the entire Tabernacle. Then he would come out and sprinkle blood on the burnt altar and its horns. Next he would put his hands on the head of the scapegoat transferring all their sins to this goat and it would be taken into the wilderness. Everyone officiating must wash and be clean. In Mark, the Pharisees were upset that Jesus’ disciples weren’t obeying their man-made laws. When they asked Jesus about it he called them out for being hypocrites. They worried so much about traditional rituals but cared nothing about the heart. They ignored God’s laws and substituted their own. Jesus went on to show them another way they did this. God’s commandment says to honor your father and mother but they were teaching the people that it was more honorable to give their money to the Temple than to care for their elderly parents. He told them that this was only one example of a whole list of abuses. Then Jesus said, “it is not what goes into your body that defiles you: you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” It isn’t food that defiles us it is our thoughts and what we do with them. Lord, may our hearts be clean. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that makes us righteous.