Sat.’s Devo -Jesus, Our Atonement

Read: Leviticus 16:29-18:30; Mark 7:24-8:10; Psalm 41:1-13; Proverbs 10:15-16 The tenth day of the seventh month of the religious calendar was the month of Tishri and this day was known as the Day of Atonement. It was the most holy day of the year when the high priest went before God with the sins of the people and made atonement for them. On that day they were pronounced holy. *** God wanted them to stay holy so gave them instructions how to live. They were to stop sacrificing to the goat idols of Egypt. They were not to eat or drink blood in any form because life is in the blood and they were not to consume another man’s life. Whoever did this would be cut off from the community and no longer be considered God’s chosen people. In the Hebrew “cut off” means “to be cut down or utterly perish, destroy, fail, be freed from a covenant.” *** They were not to drink the blood of any animal whether it died naturally or was torn by wild animals. If they did, they were to wash their clothes and bathe themselves in water. Then they would not be punished but be made clean. That is the picture of repentance. *** God told them not to act like the Egyptians of their past, or the people in the land of Canaan they were going to - their future. They were not to imitate them but they were to imitate God and his decrees. *** In Chapter 18 we have all the people they were not to “uncover their nakedness”. My translation says have sexual relations but it went further than that. It meant to “shamelessly tell or uncover another’s shame; to disgrace them”. This was what Ham did to his father, Noah. It was to tell of someone’s sins to others. To have sex with a person that is not your wife was to bring shame to her, but we know that the law is spiritual and it goes much deeper than that. It was to expose another’s secret sins. *** As you read down the list you see all the people in the Bible that transgressed these things. Reuben had sex with his father, Jacob’s concubines and lost his inheritance. Abraham married his step sister, Sarah. Jacob married sisters Rachel and Leah. *** Gossip would be a definite way you could “uncover someones nakedness”. We are all guilty of doing this which is why we need a Savior. *** In Mark, Jesus went to the region of Tyre - Gentile territory. A Syrian woman came to his with her daughter for him to cast the demon out of her. Jesus tested her by saying that first he had to feed his own children - the Jews. It wasn’t right for him to take food from his children and throw it the dogs. She replied that even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates. Jesus was pleased with her answer and told her that the demon had left her daughter. *** In Matthew15:22, this Syrian woman was called a woman of Canaan. In Leviticus, God told them not to imitate the people of Canaan but here, a woman of Canaan was wanting to imitate them. This story was the picture of salvation to the Jew first then the Gentile. Jesus wouldn’t have gone to them over and over if he didn’t want to heal them also. He was making a point. *** Jesus had fed the crowd of Jews in the first feeding of the multitude and now he feeds the crowd of Gentiles to bless them also and show them his power. Lord, forgive us for uncovering the nakedness of others. May we forgive and forget wrongs done by others as you have forgiven us. You are the Righteous Judge and You declare justice. We trust in your Word and your righteous decisions.