Jesus was the sacrifice for the sins of all men, and the High Priest as well. Speaking of Aaron, Moses wrote,
Exo 29:7 Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.
Aaron was anointed with oil as High Priest to slay bullocks as sin offerings, but Jesus was anointed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit as both our High Priest and sacrificial sin offering:
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Heb 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: . . .
Heb 10:8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Heb 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Heb 10:11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
Heb 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.
I am not too knowledgable of Jewish things, but from what I have read of the bullock sacrifices, they were an offering for the people as a whole, and these verses from Hebrews carry within them the idea that Christ died for all men. Salvation is individual through acceptance of the Lamb slain for our own personal, sinful lives, and that offer of salvation is for all men to accept or reject. In this statement we see Jesus as the bullock slain for all men, but also as the sacrificial Lamb for all who will accept that salvation. This is the sense I get from the bullock offering, that Christ died for all men, and, therefore, all individuals can be saved if they accept God's offer of salvation through Christ.
As Christ was the Lamb slain for our sin, and High Priest as well, so was it He who cast the shadow of the bullock offering. He became sin for us, and offered Himself, not for His own sin, but for all men's sin of ignorance, which was one of the reasons for bullock offering - the sin of ignorance. Scripture says how men were ignorant and God winked at sin, but now calls all men to repent and accept Christ:
Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Acts 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
This is speaking of the bullock offering for sins of ignorance, and that the ignorance of man towards God and His ways and His means of saving them from their condition is shown in the very words of Jesus on the cross as our sacrificial bullock burned outside the gate:
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. . . .
Let's look at this offering of the bullock in Leviticus:
Lev 4:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 4:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:
Lev 4:3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering.
Lev 4:4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the LORD.
Lev 4:5 And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation:
Lev 4:6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the veil of the sanctuary.
Lev 4:7 And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 4:8 And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,
Lev 4:9 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away,
Lev 4:10 As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering.
Lev 4:11 And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung,
Lev 4:12 Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.
Notice another picture of the crucifixion in verse 12, the bullock being burned "without the camp . . . on the wood with fire." In Hebrews, Jesus said upon coming into the world, "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. . . . but a body hast thou prepared me: . . . ."
I want to go back now to Leviticus 4:4 where we are told a bullock was brought and slain before the Tabernacle of the Congregation and before the LORD, by the DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE of the Congregation and its blood put upon the horns of the Bronze Altar. We know where the Bronze Altar is: the cross on Calvary. We know how the blood was applied to the horns of that Altar by our High Priest. We know where and who the "bullock" is: Christ on the cross. But where is the DOOR before which our Bullock was slain? JESUS WAS OUTSIDE THE GATE. HE WASN'T SLAIN AT THE DOOR OF THE EARTHLY SANCTUARY, YET GOD COMMANDED THAT THE BULLOCK BE SLAIN BY THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE. Jesus said,
John 10:9 I am the door:
He Himself is the door, the veil of entrance into the New Testament Tabernacle. But there was no building on Calvary. You can look to the east, to the west, to the north and to the south, but you won't see it. But it is there. Where? By faith, we have all stood before the cross, the door to a greater Tabernacle, before our Altar of Burnt Offering. We know God has accepted Christ as our offering at this Altar, and as we move toward the door of the Greater Tabernacle, we encounter the Bronze Laver. Once we have accepted God's sacrifice for our selves and our sin, He gives us the Holy Spirit to cleanse us again according to His plan, for as Paul says,
1 Cor 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1 Cor 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.Titus 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
Titus 3:4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Titus 3:6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
Titus 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Having come to the door of the Tabernacle, having washed at Bronze Laver (filled and cleansed by the Holy Spirit throught he word), do we now see the rest of the picture, the Tent of Meeting? Where is it? It is there and it is here, and you will have to tilt your head way back and look straight up to "see" it:
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having an high priest over the house of God;
Our High Priest took the blood He shed on the Bronze Altar of Calvary, and entered into the Holy of Holies of a greater Tabernacle, far above the heavens:
Heb 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is PASSED INTO THE HEAVENS, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
We enter into His presence in a Tabernacle made without hands, through the bloodstained Door He has opened for us, a door of entrance foreshadowed in Egypt:
Exo 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
Exo 12:23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he SEETH THE BLOOD UPON THE LINTEL, AND ON THE TWO SIDE POSTS, THE LORD WILL PASS OVER THE DOOR, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
Exo 12:24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.
We have now taken refuge in God's house, with the shed blood on the lintels of its entrance, the Lord Himself, where "the destroyer" cannot "come in unto your house (Christ) to smite you." When will that smiting take place of all who have not taken refuge in the house God has provided? We know the smiter will come in our near future, and here we draw close to the Tabernacle and its implications in the book of Revelation. I am, of course, not referring to nature here in this part of the series, but the spiritual realm, for in Revelation all of creation will most certainly be devastated by the seals, trumpets and bowls. The message: simply that God is everywhere and His sanctuary in the Spirit is shadowed by the physical realm. One day the skies of that creation will be rent and we will see Him as He really is as He descends to save all who are His.
Contributed by Ed...Continued
