The Significance of Sacrifice: Divine Details

Show Notes

Episode 461: 
In this episode, we dove into a serious and enriching discussion about the Bible, specifically focusing on Exodus 29:37-42. We explored the detailed instructions God gave to the Israelites regarding sacrifices and the construction of the tabernacle. Chris and Wesley reflected on the importance of approaching God with reverence and the significance of being specific in our prayers, drawing parallels to how God is detailed in His instructions.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well, welcome everybody to a new episode of The Bible Guys. And we have with us we as an organization, me as an individual. Right here to my right. It is the one the only Wesley was. It is awesome to be here. I'm filling big shoes. Jeff is gone, Yes, he'll be back soon. Don't you have bigger shoes technically than him? I think I do? What size of your feet? Fourteen? Oh yeah, oh, there's no way comes close to fourteen? Do you know what size shoes I have? Eleven? Oh? No, way guess? Well, guests really low? Oh no? Oh yeah? Nine? Eight and a half? Oh me, I'm gonna never guess that. Here's the weird thing. And this is a little bit of trivia for Chris Arba that nobody cares about. I had eight and a half when I was in the eighth grade. Yeah, and it's been eight and a half since eighth grade. You've been the same size as eighth grade. That is something. Yeah. One, I've only got a pedicure twice in my whole life. And my wife recently just excuse me for a pedicure. And I went in, I sat down, you know and pull up my you know, let you know, my pants, and the late lady gets down and she goes, oh no, And I was like, you were not getting a tip, right, thank you? Question Mark? Yeah, no, it's not really a thank you. Hey. Wesley is filling in because Jeff is gone. He's out of pocket, and so we're going to have a fantastic time, are we. And so today we're going to start off with a segment that Desiree has prepared called law or flaw. So these are some of the bizarre state laws that are out there, even if they're not actually enforced. And what I'm gonna do is read off five statements and Wesley's going to decide whether it's a law or whether it's lying. It's kind of like true or false. Right. It's going to be tough because I know there are some crazy ones. I flaw means it's just not true. Okay, are you ready? Here we go. Okay, here's a one in Alaska it is illegal to wake a bear for photo opportunities. That's got to be a flaw that it's real, that's an actual law. That's an actual law. No, I'm thinking, like, there's no way that one's real. Hey, there's a polar bear. Don't go wake it up? No, no, no, no, no, no, you wake it up right now. I would exceptance against the law as if somebody would do that. Yeah. I can't believe that one was so wild. Wow. Okay. Number two, Okay, struck out on that one. I know in Oklahoma it is illegal to make faces at a dog. I want to say, that's a flaw, believe it or not, that's that's a law. No. So you know what I think they do sometimes. I think what they do is they create absurd laws to prevent tragedies because in both of these cases, you're antagonizing a bear and you're antagonizing a dog. Yeah, so they're like, they're like, hey, listen, let's just make it a law. How do you want to word it? Don't antagonize? Well, what's the word antagonized? Well let's go ahead and say you're had a dog. Wow, all right, here we go. Number three, an organ is illegal to perform a wedding ceremony at a skating rink. A who It's illegal to perform a wedding ceremony at a skating rink. An organ I'm going to say, that's got to be false. It's a law. Oh man, I am striking out bad. You're over three, baby in number four in Kansas. Okay. So we've had a Laska Oklahoma orgon Kansas. In Kansas, it is illegal to eat cherry pie with a scoop of ice cream. So because I got the other one's wrong, I'm going to go the other way on this one. I'm going to say that's true. It is true. Okay, I had no idea, but just since I was zero in three, I'm like, let's switch it up and go the other direction. Dude, I don't even want to live in Kansas. Yeah, you can't have ice cream with pie. Do you know that my favorite pie is cherry pie? Okay? Yeah? And uh and I always like Ala mode. So if that's illegal, I don't want to be in Kansas. I think there are a lot of people breaking laws in Kansas right now. I think my future son of law lives in Kansas. My daughter is flying to Kansas to go see him Monday, and I'm going to tell her. I'm gonna say don't you dare. Yeah, you're going to gym, you dare have a piece of cherry pie. Put a scoop of ice cream on it. Wow, that is so crazy. Okay, number five here, it is the last one. This is the last one. All right, see if you can get what is it? Forty thirty? Yeah? Doing too good? Right now? All right? In Tennessee, it is illegal to catch a fish with a lasso. Now, I know there are fishing laws in different states on how you can catch fish. I don't know about the lasso, but I'm just going to air on the side it could be true. It's true, yeah, because I know different states have laws. So desire picked five laws. Okay, just to psyche you out. Yeah, right, but in Tennessee it is illegal to catch a fish with a lasso. Okay, I mean, do you have many lassoing people in Tennessee? Probably not today, you don't, right, I mean maybe one hundred years ago everybody was a lasso person. Yeah. I know some states have the net where you can't use a net to catch catch fish. I know some states have that to prevent overfishing and stuff like that. But wow, yeah, I did not know that. I'm not a fisher fishermen, so uh, I would not know that. Wows these are crazy laws. Yeah wow, I have to tell Desi Ration, you really stumped me on that one. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what you You did not come out of the gate, Well, West I did not. If we could have had like ABCD, I could have just done the aba kadaba. Yeah, you just pick that way, so Bundy. Wow, oh my goodness, curcious. Okay. Our scripture for today is Exodus chapter twenty nine versus thirty seven through forty two. Yeah, so let me let me remind a little bit of a review viewers, right, body. So basically, the children of Israel, they just get delivered out of slavery. After four hundred years. Moses brings them across the Red Sea. They're finally free. They go to Mount Sinai. That's where they're at, and and God is establishing all kinds of rules and says, hey, you'll be my people, you'll be my special people. I'll be your God, and these are the things that I want you to obey. And so the first thing that he says is he says, here's a bunch of laws he iss in the Ten Commandments, and he's about to give them more commandments later, but as of right now, they have the Big ten. And then he says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to build a taberna. And this tabernacle would be very specific. It's not made out of stone like Solomon's Temple or Herritage temple. It was made out of a very fine fabric, but it was woven with gold, silver and colors, and it was very very thick, and it was durable. And inside the tabernacle he described the Holy of Holies, and again Solomon's temple would have it later on. But and here he goes through, and here's the section that we're in. Now he's going through and he says, the first thing I want you to do is build the ark of the Covenant. That I want you to build the table of showbread. I want you to place a lamp stand. Here's my plans for the tabernacle, for the altars, for the burnt offerings. He says, okay, here's my plans for the courtyard. And you know, outsiders can come in only so far, and then insiders can come even further, and only the priests can come all the way and then he says, there's light for the tabernacle, and so there's going to be like candlestick with a candle ober. And then there's clothing, and here's I want you to dress for the clothing of the priests, and then the designs of them, and oh my goodness, gracious, they are so specific. But Chris, here's the thing. I love the fact that God is a specific God, that he's into the details. And the part that I love about that is as it relates to us in our interaction with God, the fact that He is detailed, oriented with us, with every aspect of our lives. So I just love that part about God, how he's not this generalized being where he just looks at everything from a general perspective. No, he's literally into how things should be woven and built and put a covering over this. And yeah, so I love that you got we already have a sermon just in the review, Yeah, right, which is excellent. I preach that Sunday. So and by the way, I'm only mentioning these things because we've skipped over some of them. So he gives specific designs and the chess piece, additional clothing for priests and then the dedication of the priests, excuse me, And then today we're going to pick up with the sacrifice. Yeah. Right, And so we're reading Actuallyus chapter twenty nine, verses thirty seven through forty two. Right, yes, and Chris, can I toss one thing in? Yeah, just with our prayer life. The thing that I get out of this even before we begin reading the fact that God is a detailed God. When we pray to God, we should be detailed, you know, stop going to God with these generalized prayers where you just pray God, I want to I want a job that sounds great. But if you get a job that has great benefits where you're working in a sewage plant, nothing against people that work in sewage plants, right, but you work in a sewage plant, you can't complain because your prayer was for a good job and God gave you a good job with benefits. So be detailed and specific about what you want from the Father God. I want that job, yeah, right. And so because sometimes you'll get a job that maybe can conflict with your morals, yeah, or a job that I'll work you on Sundays, yeah, or too many hours in general, and so yeah, I do believe that God wants us to pray specific and he wants us to pray big and all. Throughout the scripture, Jesus reminds us of that it's like praying for a spouse. If you're looking for a spouse, God just give me any old person. Well, don't complain, if you know, if you want to be happy for any rest of your life, ever, make a pretty woman your wife. Go man. So all right, so here we go, Here we go. Exodus twenty nine thirty seven through forty two. It says, purify the altar and consecrate it every day for seven days. After that the altar will be absolutely holy, and whatever touches it will become holy. Which, by the way, it's kind of interesting you talk about specifics. Yeah, seven days. I mean that's that's more than my wife sanitizes the kitchen. Yeah right, and that's a lot. And we'll talk about the holiness later. But wow, that is amazing already. Yeah, every day for seven days. Then it goes on. In verse thirty eight, it says, these are the sacrifices you are to offer regularly on the altar. Each day. Offer two lambs that are a year old. One in the morning and the other in the evening, with one of them offer two quarts of choice flour mixed with one quart of pure oil or pressed olives. Also offer one quart of wine as a liquid offering. Verse forty one. Offer the other lamb in the evening, along with the same offerings of flour and wine as in the morning. It will be a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord. These burnt offerings are to be made each day from generation to generation. Offer them in the Lord's presence at the tabernacle entrance. There, I will meet you and speak with you. That is very specific. Yes, and look, look there's a promise that is attached to everything, right and he says, there, I will meet you and speak with you. And h and by the way, that that reminds us that keep in mind, you know how that relates to today is that God has an address right all the way up until Jesus Christ died on the cross, God had an address and and this this was where God was, which is why you couldn't walk into the Holy of Holies, not just anybody a preach can only enter in once a year. He couldn't have any sinful thoughts, which is why they tied a rope to his ankle, because if he were to fall and die, they'd have to drag him out. There was a bell attached to his garments, just to you know, so that they could know that he's alive, and he would ring it every now and then. But anyway, the point is is that so here here we have an invitation. Right, he says, come jump to these hoops. And again I'm I'm sort of saying that tongue in cheek. It's it's really obey these commands, right, Obey these commands and their commands of sacrifice and their commands of repentance. And and he says, and then I will meet you, and I will I will talk with you. Well, isn't it wonderful today that in Hebrews chapter four, I think it's verse number twelve, it says, now, because Jesus died, and because the veil was ripped into that separated the holy holies from everybody else. And the veil was ripped and which was impossible as a very thick veil, and it fell to the ground. God rushed out from that address. And now the Bible tells us that God is in us. We are in Christ. But then Christ is in us. There is no longer that separation between humanity and divinity, right, right, and so now we can talk with God. So this really special moment that God is This is the first time that God is describing these types of moments. And so think about the privilege that you and I have every day. So Hebrews four to twelve says, now, meaning since Jesus died, now we can come boldly before the throne, right, and we can approach the throne with confidence, with grace and confidence. So think about that, like, you know, up to this point, don't you dare, don't you dare? It's forbidden, it's forbidden that all of a sudden, the writer of Hebrew says, no, no, no, no, no. Now, yeah, we can approach the throne of God with confidence, you know, just knowing that because of Jesus Christ covering our sins, we no longer have to be fearful of having a sinful thought and being struck down in God's presence, because our sins are paid for, our sins are forgiven. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, that's absolutely amazing. The thing that's interesting to me years ago, you could have been killed going before a king unannounced, right, That's something that you didn't do. If anyone knows the story of Esther, that kind of plays into it a little bit there where she went unannounced before the king and it turned out good for her. But that's something you did not do. You didn't just show up, Hey, King, how's it going. But the fact that in the New Testament, like you referenced, we can and I love the verbage there. It didn't say we could just go go into the presence of God, we could come before the throne. It said we could go boldly before the throne. And I think, Chris, that's something to remember when we fall short and make mistakes in our life. Sometimes we make mistakes, and the first thing that the enemy will try to do is guilt you into separating yourself from God. Because people don't want to go to church yet, they don't want to pray, they don't want to seek the face of God, they don't want to ask for forgiveness, they don't want to go to church. They don't want to do any of those things. And God is saying in his word, do the reverse of that. Yeah, I want you to run boldly to me when you miss the mark and when you mess up, because I love you, I'll give you grace, I'll forgive you. So I think that's powerful. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And so let's go back to the very beginning here that the verse thirty seven talks about the the fact that God is holy. And there's a note for the Life Application Study Bible, which we always promote, and here's how it says. Notice the overwhelming emphasis on the holiness of God. The priests, the clothes, the tabernacle, and the sacrifices had to be clean and consecrated, prepared to meet God. In contrast, today we tend to take God for granted, rushing into worship and treating him with almost casual disregard. But we worship the almighty creator and sustainer of the universe. Remember that profound truth when you pray or worship and come before Him with reverence and repentance. And you know what, sometimes in the modern church we do lack that, don't we. So you know, it's interesting because we go to a church where you wear jeanes and you know, and we do that because we want to reach those who are far from God. We want to reach those who are the average everyday blue collar worker in our area. And that's why we choose to do what we do. And so we have facilities that aren't necessarily stained glassed and you know, filled with crucifixes and things like that. But there's nothing wrong with that. And I mentioned to Jeff, like I think a couple of podcasts ago that I think that sometimes we can stand to have a little bit more of that, you know what I mean, which is why I like Good Friday. I think that Good Friday is one of my favorite services of the entire year. You know, a lot for that reason, Right, we don't take the time necessarily to really focus on Jesus' death. Buryln resurrection. Here's death, it's crucifixion. Is the price that he paid, right, And there's a lot of reverence to you know, saying God, you're holy, I'm not you are worthy, I'm not you paid the price for me. I'm a wretched sinner. There's a value in that reverence, I think. So that's awesome. Yeah, So here's what's really interesting. I pulled this up from we actually touched on this at the church that we both go to, Heritage Church on Palm Sunday. But in Nextodus twenty nine, this is the first time that he says, these are the sacrifices that you were to offer regularly on the altar every day offered two lambs that are a year old. Now, when the Passover feast is established, there's a tradition there where Jesus had come in. So many fast forward to the New Testament. You know, we all know that Jesus entered in on Palm Sunday, right, And a lot of times I think some of us get confused because we confuse the Passover meal with the Passover week. Right. Jesus came in on Palm Sunday because it was the first day that celebrated the festival of the Passover, and the Passover took place on Thursday, right, So the Passover meal was something that every Jewish boy in the New Testament, and by the way, still do good Jewish boys today once a year observed the Passover meal. It's very specific. Right, We've already covered that in our podcast. But Jesus came in on Sunday on purpose because every day he fulfilled scriptures, he went down the line. Just every day he was doing something fulfilling scriptures, even writing on a donkey fulfilled scriptures. And then when he comes up to Thursday, you know, people are there. There's over a million people in Jerusalem. They've come from all over they're celebrating the Passover meal. Well, the temple was a very busy place, and people would go on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, and they would offer daily sacrifices, right, and they would choose you know, lambs on behalf of their family. And let me just toss this in, Chris, what was the significance of the sacrifice daily? What was that supposed to do well? Daily? Meaning there's a lot of different families that they have to get through. But these families would offer a sacrifice in many cases once a year and they would bring it to the temple and they would offer it to represent the payment for the sins, because you know, Hebrews even tells us, without shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins, there's no remission of sins, right, and so before the cross us, they would have to have a sacrifice as demonstrated you know in the garden when God had to kill an animal to cover up Adam and Eve. That was the first, you know, foreshadowing of Jesus dying on the cross. There had to be the shedding of blood. For the forgiveness of sins. There has to be death. Why because the scripture says for the payment of sin is death right. But then we live under Jesus, so it says, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Who's the lamb of God. Well, anyway, let's go back to Axos twenty nine. So here it tells us, you know, hey, there has to be a lamb, has to be without blemish, without spot. We know that Jesus was without blemish, without sin, and that's where the phrase lamb of God comes from from this Old Testament reference where God says each day offer two lambs, and God was very specific on that it had to be without spot or blemish. So Jesus had to exemplify all of those things, yes, for it to be an acceptable sacrifice before God. So think about this. So the parallel of what we're reading today in Exosus twenty nine is that one day, right, you know, thousands of years later, God was sent his only son and he would be the fulfillment of every single detail. We talked about how God is full of details. Well, Jesus fulfilled prophecy after prophecy and every single thing that he did, you know, just detail after detail. And so here's what's interesting. It says, offer one in the morning, and offer one in the evening. Let me crouse reference a little bit and read from Isaiah chapter fifty three, verses three through seven. Even seven hundred and something years before Jesus came on the scene, the prophet Isaiah basically predicted that he would be the ultimate lamb sacrifice. So he says this, he was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, a man familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and we now held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, and yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us have turned our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us. All. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. And then here it makes the direct correlation. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep is before its shearers, is silent, so he did not open his mouth. So here's the remarkable thing about the specifics is that one of the most remarkable things about the time that Jesus was crucified on Friday or on Friday, is that after the Passover meal was observed in the community the next day on Friday. It was a yearly tradition. It was actually established right here in Exodus twenty nine and also in Numbers twenty eight. On the Friday of Passover, there was a sacrifice that took place in the temple known as the perpetual sacrifice, or known as the tumid Okay, and it was commanded that a lamb with that blemish spot would be sacrificed twice a day, which according to Jewish sources outside of the Bible, took place once in the morning and once in the evening. And there are secular recordings that record that the first sacrifice took place at nine am and the other one at three pm. Now, the reason why those are morning and evening is because the Jewish calendar starts at six am. So we think we think of our days as midnight, right, but the Jewish calendar starts at six am, So at nine am that's really three hours into the morning. And so it says once at nine am in the morning, and then once in the evening at three pm, which is right, three hours just before sundown, which is considered evening. Okay, So and they did that because it was still light out right. They couldn't wait. They couldn't wait until sundown. Now here's why it's so significant. It is because goodness gracious, this goofy thing my phone is so goofy. Is because tad Gummet can't believe it auto rotate. Yes, it says, Mark includes the details of what time of day Jesus was crucified. So did you know that it actually says in Mark fifteen twenty five, it was nine in the morning when they crucified Jesus. So it was at that time that the first sacrificial lamb of the Perpetual sacrifice was being slaughtered in the temple. And so do you realize that the other sacrifices before the Passover feast, those were for individual families. But this one, the perpetual sacrifice or the tow need, was actually given by the priests on Friday, after the Passover feast was done, after all the families were represented. This was the lamb that represented the whole community. So this one lamb represented the sins of the whole nation, which were everybody under God's care. Well, we know now because of Jesus that his sacrifice wasn't just for Jews but for gentiles. Right, So it's like here, what we're reading was a short term fix, yes, for humanity. Yes, Jesus dying on the cross was the permanent God's permanent fix for humanity sin, which is amazing. Now, not only is it amazing that it happens at three in the morning or nine in the morning, but at three in the afternoon. It actually, it says in Mark, at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, eloi, eloi, lamasabahtani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so it was at that time that it says that Jesus gave his final breath and died. So they started crucifying him at the time that was happening right over yonder right, So he's on the cross outside the city walls. Inside the city walls is the temple, and they're sacrificing the sins that represent the nation, and at the same time they're sacrificing the sins of the nation. Jesus was killed exactly at three in the morning, and he gives up the ghost exactly at three pm, nine in the morning, three pm. So if you don't think that God cares about you and he doesn't know the details of your life, yeah, he knows the hairs on your head. Yeah, he is down. He is down to the very minute. And it looks like I rambled on too long. Now, this is good stuff. We could talk about this all day, We really could. So that is definitely our time, and so we'll pick up tomorrow on the Bible. Gos