The Reality of Sin - Lev. 4-7 & Matt. 24b-25a

Leviticus 4,5,6,&7 all talk about different types of offerings the people and the priests were to give to God. Sin offerings, guilt offerings, ordination offerings, and peace offerings. I'm so thankful that we don't have to go through all of these procedures to receive forgiveness and grace from God. It's awesome that God came and offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice for us. But in a weird way it's unfortunate that we don't have any kind of offerings or commandments that we must do when we sin or when we want peace between us and God.

Think about it, I mean I know these chapters are boring to read b/c they don't apply exactly to our lives, but when you imagine all these people had to go through it had to really affect their lives and their thoughts the next time they were tempted to sin. They had to go out in their fields a find a spotless animal (which was worth some decent money to them), they had to put a leash on it and walk it to town, they had to lay their hands on it - symbolically transferring their sin onto the animal, slice it's neck, watch the priests cut it up and drain the blood, burn it, etc. It was a big ordeal! And it was work and it was gross and it was....memorable and costly.

Now we just pray. We sin, we feel a little guilt, and we say a quick 'I'm sorry' to God.....then we just move on in life. So the next time we're tempted to sin it's easy to forget that we just messed up the same way a few hours ago.

Again, I'm so thankful for Jesus and His ultimate and perfect sacrifice for us, but I hate that I take sin so lightly.

Consider with me ways we can take our sin more seriously so we don't continue in it.

Continue to praise God for His unending grace and forgiveness and love in your life.

Never think that you're too far from God, or that you've messed up too much, He loves you as a Father and desperately wants you to return to Him.