MONDAY, July 27, 2009                                                       READ: Leviticus 4: 13 – 21; Hebrews 9: 11 - 28                                                                                                        

GOD PROVIDED A COVERING FOR SIN

MEMORIZE: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings …. Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”         Genesis 3: 7, 21

Adam’s single act of disobedience brought sin into the world and into the human family. Unlike the devil and the angels, who having committed sin, could not change, God made mankind to be able to change and be restored to bring honor and glory to Him again. We are told that after Adam sinned, after he and his wife had eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they experienced significant changes and felt the need for covering. They recognized that they were naked and exposed to each other and to God. They immediately attempted to provide a covering for themselves. They covered themselves with fig leaves. We are able to see how God used the skin of animals which He killed, and “… made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”

God wants us to learn how, in mercy, He was beginning to prepare the world to receive the One whose blood would provide that adequate covering for us. He would deliver us and protect us from the wrath that is to come. He would die and pay the price, the ransom for Adam and his descendants’ sin once and for all. He wants us to learn that, by killing the animals whose skins He used to provide clothing for Adam and Eve, He had demonstrated the method by which He would provide redemption and salvation for Adam and his descendants – vicarious, substitutionary atonement. It was one thing to judge the sinners, but it was something completely different to cover, to remove their sins from His sight (cf. Habbakkuk 1: 13). Atonement, the covering, the removal of sin, is spoken of in the Old Testament of the Bible approximately one hundred times. The first time it occurs is in Genesis 6: 14, where God instructed Noah, with reference the preparation of the ark, to “cover it inside and outside with pitch.” The majority use of the term is in the book of Leviticus. There, it deals with the ritual of offering blood sacrifice, for the “atoning” for sin. The blood of the sacrifice was to be used to “cover over” so that the sin was hidden from God’s sight, with the implication that the sin is wiped away in the process.

In Leviticus 4: 13 – 21, we are able to see how God instructed that the ritual of blood sacrifice for the remission of sin is to take place. After the elders laid their hands on the bull, evidently to transfer the sins of the people to the bull, the bull is killed. The priest was then to take some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting with some sprinkled seven times before the veil, some put on the horns of the altar, and the rest poured at the base of the altar of burnt offering. The fat of the bull was to be burnt on the altar. The bull was taken outside the camp and burned. In v. 20, we are told that through this ritual “… the priest shall make atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them” (cf. Hebrews 9: 22). It is fair to surmise that, following Genesis 3: 21, God would have been teaching Adam about the remission of sin through the shedding of blood. Adam would therefore have taught his sons how to approach God (cf. Genesis 4: 2-5). Does that help us to understand why God did not accept Cain’s offering (cf. Romans 14: 17b)? In Hebrews 9: 11-28, we are given information which should help us to understand how, the sacrificial ritual prescribed by the LORD, and practiced by His people Israel, was intended to serve as the means of preparing, was intended to be an object lesson, setting the stage, for His Son, who had been promised, and who was to be apprehended by faith (cf. vv.13, 14; Genesis 22: 8; John 1: 29; Revelation 13: 8b).

PRAY: LORD, God Almighty, You are holy and You do not associate with sin. Thank You for providing Your adequate covering through Your Son. I believe, You! Help me to trust You and to live in confidence of Your faithfulness. I ask this in Jesus' strong name. Amen.