As we are going through life, sometimes we do not understand the ramifications of all that we do. Our actions are dictated by our decisions. The decisions we make now lead to actions that affect what kind of decisions we make later. For example (some neutral decisions), if I make a decision to buy this house is this neighborhood, my action is to buy this house. In buying this house, my decisions are limited to those that within this area that I live. I can vote on things within the district, city, county, and state where I live. I cannot live in Birmingham, Alabama and make decisions for Tupelo, Mississippi. I cannot live in Dallas and make decisions for Boise. Also, I can’t live in the neighborhood I live in, but send my children to public school in the town west of us. It just doesn’t work that way in the society we have today. These are neutral decisions in many cases.
However, there are negative consequences to decisions that we make. These consequences are negative effects for the person making the decision along with some around them. If I were to move to Clarksville, TN, but my husband works in Kansas City, MO, this would be a negative decisions leading to negative consequences. In order to salvage this relationship, one of us would have to change our actions to positively affect this drift in decision-making and thereby fixing the relational divide.
Spiritually, our decisions affect our relationship with our Perfect Jehovah God. In the beginning, our relationship was perfect. Then, one decision led to another decision that led to an action that negatively impacted all of humanity. The verse of the day lets us know how we can remedy this relational divide.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life (Leviticus 17:11, ESV).”
Atonement means, “reconciliation; reparation for an offense or injury; cleansing.” So, atonement is the word roughly meaning fixing the relationship between us and God. This “atonement for your souls” is righting the wrong decisions and heart postures that we held. It was in the blood of Jesus that this atonement was made permanent as opposed to the animal sacrifices that were done back in the Levitical times.
As an aside, this verse here in the Levitical times is specifically talking about the sacrificial animals and how one must not eat the blood with the meat. The people that reside around the Israelites used to drink the blood of the animals as part of their rituals to idols and false gods. God made everything with a purpose. He foreknew all that was happening. And if we really study His Word as we should, we learn that anything God does in the physical has a spiritual application as well. That is because He made us physical and breathed life (His Spirit) into us to make us a living being. So as we read this particular event in the Israelites history, and in human history altogether, the blood has the creatures’ life in it. The blood that courses through our veins has our life in it. Think about it. If we no longer have blood within us, we are not alive. If blood is not in the animals, they are not alive. So there is purpose, both physically and spiritually, behind the blood that is within created beings, i.e., all of us.
God the Father had sent His Son to be the atonement, and His life in the blood shed at the Cross, representing the altar that Jesus was sacrificed on, became our saving grace and mercy. God’s primary adjective throughout the Word of God points to His steadfast mercy. He is Faithful AND Just. He is Truth and Righteousness. He is Holy, and we are to be holy as His people. In order to fix this great divide in our relationship, we come to the Cross where the perfect sacrifice was made, and we accept His free gift of salvation from the negative consequences of our decisions and actions. We can make a positive decision that affects our actions for ourself and for those around us. Choose life; choose Jesus.
Gotta go fill up my cup…..
Coffee with Candee 