The Significance of Sacrifice: Divine Details

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