God Provides Hope in the Midst of Despair

Over the last several posts, we have been talking about four strange verses of hope. In case you missed the beginning of this series of posts, you can access it here: Strange Verses of Hope. We then mentioned that Adam rebelled in the Garden and lost out by inadvertently turning his kingdom over to the Adversary, Satan. Despite this, God gave Adam’s descendants hope. Today, I want us to look at this hope.

So, what then was their hope?

The Sacrifices and the Law were given for the hope of what was to come. I know that may sound the opposite of hope because the sacrifices were burdensome and the Law restrictive. But God is not about convenience, but of truth. Let’s look at the five types of sacrifices:

1. Burnt Offerings (Lv 1) – dedication of oneself to God

2. Grain Offering (Lv 2) – offering one’s best to God and recognize God as sustainer

3. Fellowship Offering (Lv 3) – God wants a relationship with his people

4. Sin Offering (Lv 4) – Atonement for one’s sin against God

5. Guilt Offering (Lv 5) – Atonement for one’s sins against one’s fellow man

These had to be repeated continuously and thereby pointed to the One who was to come who would fulfill them all. How do we know they recognized these offerings as the need for one to come?

We find this verse in the Gospel of John: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). Not only John, but many Jews understood the purpose of the sacrifices and their prophetic meaning. The nation and the people had been waiting for this moment. John the Baptist was announcing that their wait was over!

Not only the people, but the Jewish leaders were waiting as well. But if they were waiting, then why did they reject Jesus as their coming Messiah? For one, he did not fit their preconceived idea of their coming Messiah. They believe their messiah could come and free them from all oppression, especially Roman oppression, set up a kingdom, and make Israel the pinnacle of kingdoms on this earth. But instead of doing this, Jesus criticized the Pharisees and Sadducees for their teachings which were leading Israel astray from the intension and purpose of the Law God had given. Rather than asking questions to clarify, they dug deep into their resistance. Sometimes, it is easier to believe in something knowing it will not come true in your lifetime. When it is fulfilled in your lifetime, you may have to make changes and realize that the way God is working is not how you thought he would work. These Jewish leaders fell into this trap. Unfortunately, they were not willing so realize God may be working differently than they had thought.

Now, let’s concentrate on what John meant when he said, “Lamb of God.” It means Christ became the ultimate sacrifice for their atonement. We need to understand the Hebrew and Greek words for atonement and what these words meant:

Old Testament: kipur (to cover)—This means the sacrifices did not take away their sin but just covered their sin for a time until they could be dealt with properly. They were taken out of view, but not taken away. These sacrifices and duties of the priests were symbolic of how their sins would be taken away sometime in the future, but these activities did not do that for them then and was the reason they had to be repeatedly performed.

As an example, I can give an incident from my childhood. Growing up, I hated green peas. While I love them now, I certainly did not then. One evening at dinner, my mother insisted that I had to finish eating my peas before I could get up from the dining table. Such a conundrum. What do I do? Well, it so happened that we also had mash potatoes that evening as well. I’m not sure why I didn’t eat all of them, as I loved mash potatoes, but it proved fortuitous for me that evening. I decided I would hide my peas under the mash potatoes. When my mother wasn’t looking, I would push a few peas under the potatoes. I couldn’t do them all at once, right? Can’t afford a suspicious mother. LOL. Well, when they were all under the mash potatoes, Mother let me get up from the table. Now, I had not complied with my mother’s demand, but they were no longer visible and thereby I was allowed to get up from the table. Now, I’m sure she discovered them when she cleaned the plate. But that is how kipur worked. The sins were just hidden but not taken away.

Now, sometimes, my father would eat my peas. This took care of the situation completely. They were not on my plate. They were gone. Not that I took care of them myself, but the problem was taken care of by my father. This is similar to the word used for atonement in the New Testament.

New Testament: katallage (to reconcile)

The writer of Hebrews gives us more information about this: He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption (Hb 9:12, NIV). And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hb 10:10, NIV).

As my father did for me, Jesus did for all of us. His actions solved the sin debt for us—not just hiding the problem, but reconciling the problem—making it no longer a problem at all.

But do we fully understand this sacrifice Christ made for us?

This is what I would like for us to explore further next time. It may amaze you to know the extent and length Jesus did for us so that we don’t have to face the judgment and consequence of our sin debt. It was truly not an act of cover up, but an act of reconciliation for which we should all be entirely grateful.

Come join me next time. Until then. God bless.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens