Daily Devotional Wednesday 7th October 2020
by William Moody
Numbers 29:7–11
Offerings for the Day of Atonement
7 “On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves.1 You shall do no work, 8 but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old: see that they are without blemish. 9 And their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, 10 a tenth for each of the seven lambs: 11 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings.
Footnotes
[1] 29:7
Or and fast (ESV)
The holy of holies, the part of the temple where the Ark of the Covenant stayed, was only to be entered into by the High Priest once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The high priest had to go through a routine, of washing and putting on special clothes and then entering with the blood of special sacrifices, that were made on that day (see Leviticus 16).
This day, the tenth day of the seventh month, was to be a day of rest and a special day for the holy assembly of God’s people. While daily sacrifices reminded the people of their need of forgiveness through a sacrifice for sin, the Day of Atonement was a special and solemn annual reminder of this. It was a day pointing forward to Jesus, the great High Priest who would enter the holy of holies of heaven, to deal with sin once for all.
We need daily reminders of what Jesus alone could do at the cross, but we also need special times to remember such as at communion. Take some time to consider the cross, how Jesus alone can deal with your sin and pray about this (see Matthew 27 v45-54).
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