Some Other Lessons From the Sacrificial System

Thank you, Mr. McIntire. Good morning, everyone. It's funny, my normal thing is to say good morning, and I force myself not to. Well, I wonder, if you're like me, and some of you are at least a little bit like me, there are some parts of the Bible that you really enjoy reading. You get in, and you study, and you don't mind coming back to it again and again. I have ones like that. I really loved the story of David when he was on the run from Saul, and hiding in the caves, and all that. I come back to that on a regular basis.

But if you're like me, there are also some parts of the Bible that you're not so thrilled about reading and studying. I mean, who here hasn't skipped past the genealogy once or twice? Or you get to the latter part of Ezekiel, and the details of how the temple will be built in the world tomorrow. Or you're making your way through Leviticus and Numbers, and boy, there's an awful lot about how to slaughter an animal and burden this part and wash that part.

Now, we know from 2 Timothy 3, 16, God tells us that all Scripture is breathed by God. It's inspired, it's profitable, it's good for us. So we know it's in there for a reason. Now, we might look at all that stuff about the animal sacrifice and say, well, yeah, the reason for that's pretty clear. We know that was looking forward to the sacrifice by Jesus Christ. And maybe then we can just close the book and say, well, we don't have to look at that anymore.

But then again, God devoted a lot of space to that. There's a lot on the different types of sacrifices, a lot of very specific procedures. And you might guess that I'm leading into saying, well, maybe there's more to that. Maybe there's some things we should study, some lessons we can learn. So that leads me into my title. Mr. Stiver would be proud of me because I actually did write the title to this one before I did much at all of the sermon. So if you like to write this down, it's a little long one, but I call it some other spiritual lessons from the animal sacrificial system.

Actually, I don't have the animal in there, but some other lessons. I want to, matter of fact, emphasize two of the words in that title before I get in. So I make it clear what I'm hoping to do. The first one I want to emphasize is the word some. I'm not going to claim that I've unlocked every detail or nuance of understanding from the sacrificial system. Matter of fact, maybe I'm not even very close because there's a lot there.

Hopefully, though, I might inspire you to give it another look, and you might add several more lessons to the ones that I'm going to explain today. The other word I want to emphasize is other. As I said, we know the great lesson that we can learn from the sacrificial system. I don't want to, by any way, means diminish that. Especially, you might have guessed, I started looking at this thinking in terms of preparing for the Passover and wanting to give a message that would be useful but not trying to hog the whole thing or trying to cover something that I know will be given more than one time.

But I hope this will supplement that. I can't get a drink of this water. I don't think Adam drank any. He did. Well, you left me plenty. If I get really thirsty, I'm going to drink it anyway. I trust where you've been. Anyway, okay. Now, I had thought we could get into a detailed overview of the sacrificial system. Let me just summarize a little bit. We know there are various types of sacrifices given. If you start off with Leviticus, as a matter of fact, I'm not going to say turn there right now, but I am going to spend some time coming back and forth to Leviticus.

So I'm going to warn you, if you've got something you can use to mark a place, you might stick a mark in about Leviticus 3 or 4. There are two main places. If you've got another marker, before long we're going to go to Hebrews 9 and 10, and we're going to come back and forth to those two places a bit. So just to give you fair warning in advance.

But if you make your way through Leviticus, you'll see starting right off. The first chapter talks about burnt offerings. Interesting details there. This has to be a male. It has to be without blemish. And one thing that's interesting, the whole thing gets burnt up. Now, the commentaries have had various interpretations of this.

One of the things I think is interesting is that there's no reference to this being a sacrifice for sin. But I do think it is, and I'll explain that a little bit later. Now, you might work your way past Leviticus 2. It talks about what my new King James calls grain offering. Old King James calls it a meat, which is their way of saying meal or cereal. Now, that's not an animal sacrifice. So I'm not going to talk about that so much. And then chapter 3 gets into what are called peace offerings, sometimes known as free will offerings.

And once again, without the details, it's interesting, though, this is distinguished from the burnt offering or the later ones. This one could be a male or female. A lot of it does get burnt. But interestingly, the sacrifice, or I didn't think out that ahead of time how to say that, the person offering the sacrifice gets to eat a fair bit of it, and so do the priests.

And I think that's one of the reasons they call it a peace offering, and sometimes it's referred to as Thanksgiving. This is sort of building that relationship with God, saying, I'm really happy to know you, God, and you've given me all this. Let's spend time together. Let's have a meal together. So that's a bit different than the sin offering.

Then as you work your way through the next few chapters, Leviticus 4, 5, and 6, you can group some of these together. You have what's called a sin offering, a guilt offering, a trespass offering. I already plan to group those together, partly because some of the commentaries I look at group them together. One thing that's interesting is all of these have to do with a sin and seeking forgiveness. But different levels.

If you're there now, Leviticus 4, verse 2, it's interesting here. God is speaking to Moses, and he says, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Eternal, and anything he ought not to be done and does them, then he goes on to describe the sacrifice.

Verse 6, verse 2, it says, If a person sins and commits a trespass against the Eternal, by lying to his neighbor about what was delivered to him for safekeeping, then he does not skip down to verse 3.

Or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning it swears falsely, then that he sins, and it goes on and it talks about making restitution to the individual that you sinned against. Some of these sacrifices seem to be saying, You do something bad to another person. There's a sacrifice involved, plus you've got to make it up to him. You've got to return what you took and add so much to it.

This is where I think there is a distinction between these trespass offerings or guilt offerings and the burnt offering. The burnt offering seems to be saying, this is between you and God, and you are asking for forgiveness for just being a sinful person for our nature.

But let's move ahead to chapter 17, because all of these involve one thing very strongly in particular. Leviticus 17, verse 11, God tells us, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the souls. Now, here's where I want to get back to Hebrews, chapter 9.

I told you to be ready to put a marker, and of course, I didn't bring one, but... That's all right. I'm good at getting back and forth. Verse 9, verse 22, combine these together. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood, there is no remission. Now, those two fit together, because, you know, how do you atone for sin with the blood and the life? The life is in the blood. We know that all of us have sinned because of Romans 3.23, and then Romans 6.23 says that the wages of sin is death. We've all earned it. We all deserve it.

How can that be paid? It has to be by blood. And of course, we know, since you're here in Hebrews, if you look at verse 13, verse 13 and 14, well, if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of the heifers sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God? How much more shall that cleanse your conscience from dead works? So what I've done here briefly in looking at overall of the sacrificial system reminded us, again, of that great lesson, that overwhelmingly important point to the sacrifices, and that is, they symbolize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who gave Himself to pay for our sins.

Having reminded us of that, let's look at some of the other lessons. I have an indeterminate number of lessons that I drew from these. Less than seven, and I was going to say, could have been seven, but it's a split sermon. So now it might be a shorter than usual split sermon, so you don't know how many I have, and we'll find out together when we get to the end. What? Somebody chuckled at that. It was meant to be amusing.

Okay. Number one, my first lesson from the sacrificial system is, God decides how we worship Him. He decides, and He explains it to us. Now, this should seem obvious, but think of many who call themselves Christians who are out in the world. How many times have you heard someone say, Well, yeah, I know Christmas wasn't really Christ's birthday, but we're keeping the day now to honor Him, so that's okay. Or as we approach Easter. Yes, yes, Easter might have originated as the worship of Astarte, but now we celebrate it to recognize Christ's resurrection. So what's wrong with that? Now, my answer to any one thing, that might be, well, have you read Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers and Deuteronomy lately? God spent a lot of time telling us how He does want us to worship Him, and He seemed to be pretty specific. Matter of fact, let's go back there. Numbers 28.

Numbers 28, we're going to read verses 1 and 2.

Now, this scripture is going to make my point a little better if you have a New King James. I noticed this yesterday in my office. I was reviewing my notes, and I've got the old, authorized version there, and I read it, and the words I was looking for were translated slightly differently. So I'm going to read from the New King James in 28 verses 1 and 2. Now the eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say to them, My food for my offerings, made by fire, as a sweet aroma to me, you shall be careful to offer to me at their appointed times. Now, He goes on to list a lot of specific sacrifices, but I like the point where He says, Be careful to do it this way. God wanted it done a particular way. Now, let's turn ahead to Deuteronomy 12.

We're going to get to a very familiar Scripture, but I want to work our way up to that. Deuteronomy 12, and I'm going to start in verse 20, because I think it's interesting when it comes to animal sacrifice, you might think that, okay, I've sometimes had the impression that if you want to eat meat, it's part of worshipping God. Well, not now, of course, but back then. But God goes out with a way to dispel that, to show that's not the case. And verse 20 says, When the eternal your God enlarges your border, as He has promised you, and you say, Let me eat meat, because you long to eat meat. It's like, hey, I want a good steak. Well, you may eat meat as much as your heart desires. If the place where the eternal your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, you can slaughter from your herd or from your flock, which the eternal has given you just as I have commanded you, and you can eat it within your gates, all that you want. Just like eating a gazelle or deer or eating, you can eat them. You can clean and the clean alike. Now, that's not saying clean and unclean animals. It means if the person might be clean or might be ceremonial and unclean, because this isn't part of a worship of God, you can slaughter an animal and eat it. Now, of course, Leviticus 11 tells us some of those animals are for eating and some not. Now, look in verse 26, though. Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings you shall take, and go to the place which the eternal chooses. Okay, so this is holy. You've made a vow or you need to make a sacrifice. You go to where God chose. You go to the place He said. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood on the altar of the eternal your God, and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the eternal your God. You shall eat, and you shall eat the meat. Now, that's if it's not a burnt offering. Of course, the burnt offering, you burn it all up. Some of the other offerings you get to eat part of. Verse 28, No, you shall not worship the eternal your God in that way. For every abomination the eternal which He hates, they have done to their gods. They've even burned their sons and daughters in the fire. No, whatsoever I command you, be careful and observe it. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. Now, we've often quoted the last part of that. I wanted to go here and note it that He came to that after talking about the sacrificial system and saying, you know, you can eat meat. I'm not telling you exactly, you know, that you can't eat without being part of the worship. But when it does come to worshiping God and partaking in the sacrifice, do it exactly the way I said. Don't borrow from any other religion. You know, do it in the right place. Pour out the blood to the north side of the altar if I told you to. And burn this particular, you know, He gave a lot of the details and He said, do it this way. Don't take away from it. Don't add to it.

Now, is there a spiritual lesson for us in that? Now, we're not cutting up an animal and burning parts and eating, but I think it is worth us remembering that God has given us particular things we do today. Now, for instance, the holy time that He set apart. He said the seventh day is a Sabbath, you know, from sundown to sundown. He didn't give us the option of just taking some away or adding different parts. You know, and of course, He settled when the holy days are. To tie this back to that one big lesson, of course, we're not going to turn there, but you might want to make a note of Acts 4, verse 12, is where one of the apostles said that there is no other name given under heaven by which we can be saved, but Jesus Christ.

No other way. God gives us one way, and it involves, of course, and centers around Jesus Christ and His ultimate sacrifice.

Let's go to my second lesson.

Second lesson that I've drawn from the examples of the animal sacrifices is that God is holy, and He is the only source of holiness. I think Mr. Sanders was making that point partly beforehand. Now, it might be obvious. Of course, God is holy. But the details of that, the sacrificial system remind us of it, and I think it shows that human beings need to be reminded. And let's look. We're in Deuteronomy. Turn ahead to chapter 17, if you will.

Deuteronomy 17 and verse 1. It's a simple principle here, but there is making the point.

So, you shall not sacrifice through the eternal your God, a bull or sheep, which has any blemish or defect. For that's an abomination to the eternal your God. Don't bring me something that's got some kind of spot or it's defective. No, it has to be something that's pure, as we heard earlier. Matter of fact, if you want to turn, I do want to turn there, to Malachi chapter 1. Malachi, that's the last book of the Old Testament, so it's just before Matthew.

God is making a specific point, but he was correcting the Jews that had returned to the land of Judah for not following through on that. Malachi 1 and verse 8. God says, And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? When you offer the lame and the sick, is that not evil? Offer it to your governor. Would he be pleased with you, or would he accept you favorably, says the eternal of hosts?

And he was accusing them of showing more respect to human leaders than to him. If you turn the page to verse 13, God says to them, You also say, What a weariness! You sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts, and you bring the stolen, the lame and the sick. Thus you bring an offering. This is not bringing the best. This is bringing stolen, lame, sick.

Should I accept this from your hand, says the eternal? But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male, and takes a vow that sacrifices to the eternal what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts. My name is to be feared among the nations.

That's an important lesson for us. God deserves our best, and he expects it from us. Once again, we don't have flocks to go choose the best ones to sacrifice, but I thought, what do we do to worship God? We pray and study His word. Are we giving our best when we do that? And I'm not being accusatory of you. I'm asking myself, am I giving God my best? Am I devoting the time to pray to Him and not being distracted?

When we come to church services, it's interesting today, we've had a little problem with the volume singing out, and I find that happens to me. For some reason, the voice isn't as strong in the morning. But, you know, him singing in services is one of the most direct forms of worship we give to God. We certainly should give Him our best, not something that's, you know, impure or defiled. And I thought of this as always preparing. I thought, what I'm doing now is part of that worship service.

And I thought, boy, there's no other time that you appreciate the opening prayer where you ask God to be here, as much as when you're going to get up and speak, I found. Because that leads to another part, a sub-point of this, is that, remember, the source of holiness is God. He deserves our best. But even our best isn't good enough without His presence. We need God to participate to make any of this worthwhile.

And I certainly have prayed for God to be here and present in this. I want to look at an interesting story from the sacrificial system that I think brings this out. It's one that I've puzzled over at times, but I think I've got more of a grip on it. So we're going to go back to Leviticus. Leviticus, Chapter 6. If you stuck something in the pages there, you're getting there quicker than me.

But I've been practicing for the past couple of weeks, looking at these verses. So Leviticus 6, we're going to start in verse 12. There it is. Leviticus 6, verse 12, once again, specific commandments about the sacrificial system. He says, The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not be put out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order, and he shall burn on it the fad of the peace offerings.

Okay, so there's going to be a fire on this altar. Don't let it go out. Keep it burning. Now, let's turn ahead a couple chapters to Chapter 9. We're going to see how serious God was about this. Now, we're going to start in the first verse because, like I said, I want to tell the story that sets this up. Leviticus 9, verse 1, came to pass on the eighth day.

Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel and said, and he said to Aaron, Take for yourself a young bull with a sin offering, a ram with a burnt offering without blemish. Offer them before the eternal. Now, skip ahead if you will because, okay, he's telling them you've got to offer a sacrifice. Then in verse 6, then Moses said, This is the thing which the eternal commanded you to do, and the glory of the eternal will appear to you. Okay, I'm giving you instructions. We're going to do this, and the glory of the Lord will appear to you.

Now, if you read through all these, you'll see that Aaron did the particular things of slaughtering the animal and washing parts and putting them in order. Then you get down to verse 24. Here's what happened. So he laid it all in order on the altar, and then it says, And fire came out from before the eternal and consumed the burnt offering and the fat that was on the altar.

And all the people saw it. They shouted and fell on their faces. They all bet they did. You know, they're watching this guy get all this ready and telling me, Fire comes down out from heaven and burns it up. That's the fire that God said, Don't let that one go out. I'm setting the fire. It's from me. Anything that's from God is holy. So he said, Nothing else is going to be holy.

How serious was he about it? We only have to go to the next chapter, continuing on the story. Aaron's sons were in charge of taking care of things. Now, it doesn't say, but I presume this could be likely the next morning. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, put fire on it, put incense on it, but they offered profane fire before the eternal, which he had not commanded them.

This wasn't the holy fire that God had sent. My old King James says it was strange fire. But I like profane because profane, the definition of it is not holy. God gave holy fire. They said, Well, okay. And I wonder if perhaps it went out.

If you have a copy of the old Basil Wolverton Bible stories, he tells the story the fire went out, and they said, Ah, we could just start our own fire. Well, and then what happened next? God sent fire out again. God rekindled the fire, but he burned up Nadab and Abihu in the process. God was not thrilled with them, you know, offering something that was not from him. So God was very serious. He wanted something to be holy. And he showed that the holiness doesn't come from the offering that's offered or even our best intentions, but rather God imparts the holiness. And so he wants us to follow that.

Now, how does that apply to us today? I mean, I mentioned we do want to give our best and realize that it's only God's participation that makes it worthwhile. Are we deficient because we're not sacrificing animals and burning it up in a fire that comes from God?

Well, of course, we don't use physical animals or a physical fire. But it crossed my mind as I was looking at this. There is another type that I think maybe we do fulfill this more than we realize. You'll turn to the book of Acts, chapter 2. Acts, chapter 2, this is the story, of course, of that first great Pentecost. It's not the first Pentecost ever, but the one that fulfilled what the day mentioned. So Acts 2, and we're going to read the first couple of verses. Oh, while you're turning, I'll just mention I had it down on my notes.

Not only did God send that fire when the tabernacle was established, there is a parallel in 2 Chronicles. If you're wanting to look it up, you can go there. I wasn't planning to turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter 7, and verse 1. God did the same exact thing when Solomon's temple was completed, and they went to dedicate it. God actually sent fire from heaven once again to ignite the fire on the altar for the temple.

And I presume that the law, according to the commandment, keeps this burning. This is holy. And let's look here. Now, when God is going to inaugurate or dedicate a different type of temple, 2, verse 1, the day of Pentecost had fully come, or when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord, and in one place, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and sat upon each one of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. I referenced a different type of temple. Later on, as a matter of fact, a reference if you want to jot it down, 1 Peter 2, verse 5, Peter referred to us as the temple. We are living stones within the temple. And you could say, symbolically, in this case, God sent fire from heaven, and He wants us to keep that fire burning.

We're commanded at times, stir up the Spirit. Don't let the Spirit die down or go out of us, but keep it burning, because that's what's holy. There's no other Spirit that can motivate us or be active in our lives that's holy, except the Holy Spirit from God.

So that's a lesson I certainly would never want. I don't want to slip. And I couldn't help but wonder. I wanted to avoid doing too much speculating, but I know that there's an obvious parallel of things, keeping that Holy Spirit stirred up within us, like the fire on the altar.

But I also wonder, we know that God commanded us to be baptized, and that an elder would lay hands on us when we received the Holy Spirit. I couldn't help but wondering, is it possible that the elders that were there in Acts 2, later on, they would lay hands on people? Some of them would lay hands on people, and it would go on through the ages. I wonder if one means of keeping that fire going is that there would be an unbroken chain.

The elder that baptized me and laid hands on, I'd like to think some elder laid hands on him, and the chain went all the way back to Acts. And that's speculation. We know that God could relight the fire. He did so the next day, apparently, after he first told them. He relit the fire for the temple. But there's no doubt that as far as the Spirit within us goes, don't let that ever go out. We have an obligation, because it's holy. God gave it to us.

Okay. Next lesson. My third lesson is, and this might be just seem too obvious, but it's something I derive from the sacrificial system, is that a person must take personal responsibility for his or her own sin. We have to take responsibility. I think that goes without saying, but it's nice to be reminded. Back in Leviticus, we're going to go to Chapter 1 here. Leviticus comes before Numbers, last I checked, and so it does.

Interesting how God made this point and made it. And this is a law for every time the sacrifice is being offered. Leviticus 1, and starting in verse 1, Now the eternal called Moses spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the eternal, you shall bring the offering of the livestock, or the herd of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own free will at the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord.

Verse 4, I think that was a symbolic act. Put your hand on the head of that animal. Make a point of saying, This is for my sin, and this animal is making that atonement. God used a similar language. It's just across the page for me in Leviticus 3. It's there in verse 2.

You've got to take responsibility. You don't just send the animal out there. It's there for you.

As a matter of fact, Mr. Sanders pointed out an important point that I had in the back of my mind when David wanted to stay that plague. He pleaded with God, Stop! These people haven't done anything. He went out to the threshing floor of Ornan, and he said, I need to make a sacrifice. And Ornan said, Well, I'm going to give you this stuff. And David said, No, I'm not going to give anything that doesn't cost me something. He wanted to pay for it because he was taking responsibility. And I would presume David probably did lay his hands on the head of that animal.

Now, that's important to us. Now, that principle can also be seen. I'll just quote this in Ezekiel 18, verse 20, is where God said this is an old memory scripture. This soul that sins, it shall die. This shows us, reminds us that there's no immortal soul, but also that the one that sins bears responsibility for that sin. The son shall not be put to death for the father nor the father for the son, but each one must bear his own responsibility. The only exception to that, of course, is that Jesus Christ was willing to step forward and take responsibility for each of us. Christ died for my sins because he was my creator, and he was willing to take that responsibility.

Now, Leviticus also noticed in chapter 5, verse 17 and 18, this is one of those that I mentioned, particular type of sacrifice.

Leviticus 5 and verse 17, If a person sins and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Eternal, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity, and he shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish, and he'll make his sacrifices. This is God's way of saying ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Eventually, you're going to find out, and when you do, you take responsibility. Now, in our modern time, we don't bring an offering or sacrifice, but we do repent. We go to Christ, and we confess our sins and say, please apply the sacrifice that's already been given. And, you know, symbolically, we lay our hands on Jesus' head and say, this is for my sin. And 1 John 1, verse 9, though, says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive.

If we confess, we do have to take responsibility. And, of course, I can make the side point. Just admitting our sin is only the start. Of course, real repentance we know means a thorough, deep change, a change of heart, a change of our action. And now, as in time, it could launch into a whole different sermon on a different subject of repentance. But I'll just make a reference to Psalm 51, a very good study on repentance that also touches on the sacrifice.

Only there, David makes the point, God doesn't want the animal sacrifice so much as he wants a broken and a contrite heart.

Now, my previous point leads into this one. Last point, whichever lesson number this is. And that is, the fundamental lesson of the sacrificial system is that justice must be done. Mr. Stiver made this point in a sermon sometime in the past. I'm not sure exactly when it was, but the penalty must be paid. God might forgive us, but the penalty doesn't just go away. If it did, then that would mean God was changing. And Malachi 3, verse 6, God says, I don't change. I change not, therefore you're not consumed. The penalty is there, and it has to be satisfied. Because otherwise, if God could just change, then God doesn't matter.

Well, then God is changeable, and we might not be able to trust Him to keep His promises to us as well. But He doesn't change. He keeps His promises. Now, I saw various, various places in the sacrificial system where we could make this point. But I want to turn to one that I don't think is looked at very often. Deuteronomy, Chapter 21. I'm not sure if I've ever heard this discussed in a sermon. I probably have. But, and after this morning, you'll be able to say you've definitely heard this discussed in a sermon.

Deuteronomy 21, we're going to start in verse 1. I might skip over some of the verses along the way, but this is a sacrifice for a very particular type of circumstance. It says, if anyone is found slain, lying in a field in the land which the eternal your God has given you to possess, and it's not known who killed him, your elders and your judges will go out and measure the distance from the slain to the surrounding cities.

This is a detailed procedure here. And it shall be that the elders of the city that's nearest to the slain man will take a heifer, which has not been worked, which has not pulled a yoke. The elders of the city will bring the altar, not the altar, bring a heifer down to a valley, flowing with water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they'll break the heifer's neck. And the Old King James says it'll strike off his neck.

So I wondered about the translation if it meant, flash his neck or break the neck. Either way, the heifer is killed as a sacrifice. And then all the elders of the city, if you go down to verse 7, it says, They shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it. Provide atonement, O Eternal, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed.

Do not lay innocent blood to the charge of your people. And atonement shall be provided on behalf of the blood. So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you do what is right inside of the Eternal. That's interesting. In other words, well, and I don't want to imply that this undoes the lesson I just mentioned about personal responsibility. Somebody killed that innocent person. That somebody is going to have to take responsibility and bear the lesson. But I think God put this into a system to remind people that there's a penalty to be paid.

They might not see the guilty person pay that penalty later, or of course, except that guilty person might later repent and Christ's sacrifice be applied. But God went out of his way to show a penalty must be paid, and the Talon-nearest would sacrifice, and there would be bloodshed to cover that sin. And that brings the point out. Back at Hebrews, Hebrews 9, I feel like I might be quoting Mr. Stiver too much, but he likes to quote the movie of National Treasures. It says, somebody's got to go to jail. As we say, when sin is done, somebody has to die.

The penalty has to be paid. The sacrificial system reminded us very well of that. But we understand the spiritual lesson from the sacrificial system, that somebody doesn't necessarily have to be us if we use the correct sacrifice. Hebrews 9, verse 22, according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Look across the page to chapter 10, verse 4, though it tells us, it's not possible for the blood of bulls and ghosts to take away sin.

But back to chapter 9, I'm sure Paul wrote it this way just so I could jump back and forth. 9, verse 12, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, this is Jesus, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Our sins are not covered by any animal's blood because that's not going to do the trick. It's not going to remove our sinful nature by any means. Jesus Christ's sacrifice can. Jesus Christ's sacrifice fulfilled both of my last two lessons because he was our Creator. He's, you could say, directly responsible for all the sins we created because he made us. And so he took the responsibility for all the sins that resulted and gave himself to pay that penalty.

And the penalty was paid, not waved off. Someone had to die, and Jesus Christ did. So when it comes down to it, I guess I said I wanted to focus on other lessons from the sacrificial system, but you can't get away from the fact that all of those lessons really point to that one great lesson.

Now, Jesus Christ was our Maker. He is holy. And he, along with the Father, determined how we live and how we worship them as God. And in this nature of the universe they created, they set it up so there is individual responsibility. Each one of us has to bear responsibility for what we do. But God is incredibly merciful and loving. He, instead of making us pay the eternal penalty for that sin, stepped in. As Jesus Christ took that penalty, he paid the responsibility and paid the penalty for every one of our sins. And that's what makes it possible for all of us to have this wonderful future ahead that we look forward to very much. I hope you all have a wonderful remainder of the Sabbath.