Hi Harry:
Finally getting grounded since I have been back from my vacation trip. Interesting experience to say the least.
In light of your last post I wish to share some initial background for the Sinner, Blood and the Lamb. I am sure this is all very basic and known by you, but I wanted a starting point for these three words before we got deeper. Then I hope that Richard as well as others and myself will share the deeper aspects of the daily service.
Lamb:
Some history of the Lamb and the application as the sacrifice.
Genesis 4:2
"And she again bare His brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep."
Verse 4: "And Abel, He also brought the FIRSLINGS of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering."
What was it that Abel understood that Cain did not? Was it the understanding of the sacrifice that would be necessary for the salvation of mankind.
Passover
Exodus 12:5 "Your lamb shall be without BLEMISH, a MALE of the FIRST year. These bolded words have great significance in reference to Jesus and the sacrifice he would make thousand of years later. The choice of an animal had, whether it was, a lamb, a bird, or whatever the family could afford to bring, had to meet these three tests for it to be used as a sacrifice for sin."
Jesus
Isaiah 53:7 "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth. He is brought as a LAMB to the slaughter, and as a SHEEP before her shearers, is dumb, so He openeth not his mouth."
John 1:29 "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the LAMB of God, which taketh away the SIN of the world."
John the Baptist understood also as did Abel the principle of the LAMB and the understanding of the sacrifice that was yet to come. The word LAMB was chosen by John for that reason.
Revelation 13:8 "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the LAMB slain from the foundation of the world."
Two points here. Again the choice of the word LAMB and that this sacrifice was not for those that accept Jesus, but for the whole world, even those that reject this sacrifice will acknowledge that this LAMB slain from the foundation of the world, those names that ARE NOT written in the book of life will one day also worship Him. Not in the reverence as the saved will, but none the less will acknowledge that He did die for them.
1 Peter 1:19 "But with the precious BLOOD of Christ, as of a LAMB without BLEMISH and without spot.
Who verily was forordained before the foundation of the world"
We see that the plan of salvation, the type and antitype would be met in the symbols that would be passed onto each generation. FIRSTBORN, WITHOUT BLEMISH, and the concept of BLOOD.
Back to the Old Testament
Genesis 9:4 "But flesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat."
Blood is the life source for every living thing. It is in the BLOOD that Jesus would shed for our sins that would redeem us.
Hebrews 9:22 "And almost all things are by the law purged with BLOOD: and without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins."
1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the BLOOD of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin."
Romans 3:25 "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith, in His BLOOD, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forebearing of God."
It is through the experience of the literal children of Israel that partook of the daily sacrifice, that we of spiritual Israel see Jesus so clearly now. Type meets Antitype. The Bible is not really two different books, but one whole book of the story of Jesus. It is out of these books fused together we come to understand the character of God. The cross stand as the centerpiece of Christ and His righteousness and the Love that came forth from the Godhead in their dealings with sinful mankind. It is with the BLOOD of Jesus Christ that we have and are given eternal life.
What imagery Jesus has given us through the daily Sanctuary service that we will come to understand each and every thing that Jesus did to help us understand the price, the hope and the grace that gives our faith meaning today.
Liane