NIV Once a Day Easter

Day 6

EXODUS 32:1,7,10,30

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” …

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt … Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.” …

The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

LEVITICUS 9:7

Moses said to Aaron, “Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded.”

READ ALSO LEVITICUS 9:23-24 AND 1 JOHN 2:1-2.

MEDITATION

Even a cursory reading of the Bible shows that no one has ever been truly faithful to God. Everywhere you look you see people sinning, turning away from God and then crying out for mercy when they find themselves in trouble. God knew this would happen and, in his mercy, built a solemn and precious day into the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement. On this day, the high priest would make sacrificial offerings for himself and for all the people. Once these rituals were complete, all the sins of all the Jewish people would be ceremonially transferred to a goat, and the goat would be released into the wilderness.

But what about us? We continue to turn away from God, day in and day out, our sin mounting higher and higher until it becomes too large to ignore. What can we do? Is there some ritual or ceremony that can take our sins away? No, but we have a High Priest, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who lived a sinless life and died a sacrificial death, taking our sin upon himself and in exchange offering his righteousness to us. Because of him, and him only, we are forgiven, free, clean and able to live—for all eternity.

PRAYER

Loving Lord, I thank you that you sent your Son into this world to be my High Priest. Thank you for his sinless life that enabled him to make atonement for my sin and for the sins of the whole world. Thank you for his death, for the shedding of his blood that saves me and makes me holy in your sight. Help me now to enjoy the peace of knowing that my sins are removed from me through the sacrifice on the cross of Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.