Fri.’s Devo - The Day of Atonement

Read: Leviticus 15:1-16:28; Mark 7:1-23; Psalm 40:11-17; Proverbs 10:13-14 If any man had a bodily discharge he was ceremonially unclean. He and his clothes or any thing that came in contact with him was affected. This bodily discharge represented any outward display of sin. It was an obvious offense that affected those around him and those under his authority. It could be anger, dishonest business dealing, gossip or unholy conduct of any kind. *** This person was to be cleansed by washing his clothes and bathing himself. Anyone affected by him had be be cleansed also. We can’t control the actions of others but when they affect us, we are responsible of cleansing our minds and atmosphere. We can do this by forgiving them and loosing their sin from us. We do this by stating what we are loosing from us. We have been given authority or bind or loose. For example, we can loose unholy anger from our selves and bind love and mercy to our souls. It is our soul that is affected and our soul can easily be cleansed. *** The priest would offer the burnt and sin offering and the person would be clean. The blood of Jesus is our offering making us clean. *** After Aaron’s two sons went into the Holy of Holies and died, God told Moses that only Aaron could enter behind the veil into the Holy Of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement. He was first to offer a bull for his own sins and the sins of his family. He would fill an incense burner with burning coals from the altar cover them with incense and take them into the place of atonement. He would let the incense rise as he lifted the incense burner over the mercy seat of the Ark. Then he was to take some of the blood from the bull and sprinkle it on the east side of the altar in the Holy of Holies and seven times on cover. Then he would come outside and purify the brazen altar in front of the people. In doing this he was purifying the altars of heaven and earth. *** When he and the altars were clean, he could offer atonement for the people. He would do this by taking two male goats and casting lots to determine which goat would be the offering to the Lord and which would carry the sins of the people into the wilderness of Azazel. They both represented Jesus. One was killed and the other took the sins away. The goat that was killed went through the same ritual of the bull. This happened once a year to take away the sins of the nation. *** In Mark, the Pharisees were offended that Jesus’ disciples weren’t following their ritual of hand washing before they ate. Jesus called them hypocrites because they followed their own made-up laws and weaseled out of following God’s laws like “honor your father and your mother.” *** They made it legal to give the money to the synagogue that they would have used to care for their elderly parents. This violated God’s laws, but fattened their pockets. Jesus wanted them to know that God saw this and was not pleased with them. Jesus summed it up with this: it is not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes out of your heart. Jesus had to explain to his disciples that it wasn’t food he was talking about it was sinfulf thoughts and desires that defile you. What happens inside your mind and heart will eventually manifest in your actions. Lord, may you cleanse our souls - our hearts and our minds so that we can produce fruits of righteousness to honor you.