March 21

Today's reading: Leviticus 16:1-34

The very fact that the Day of Atonement (also known as Yom Kippur) existed is proof that man was incapable of fully carrying out God's Law. Therefore their sin had to be atoned for. The verb "atone" comes from a Hebrew word that means "to cover". In the Old Testament it describes the process by which sin was covered in order to reconcile sinful man to a holy God and to restore that relationship.

Once a year, on the Day of Atonement the High Priest first had to atone for his own sin by means of a sacrifice and then he made atonement for the sins of the entire nation of Israel, also by means of a sacrifice. While there were other sacrifices that were made throughout the year to atone for sin, the obvious shortcoming of this system is that the people of God continued to sin even after all those sacrifices, so the sacrifices had to be made over and over.

As the  book of Hebrews teaches us, that sacrificial system was always intended to point ahead to Jesus who would die once to atone for all the sin of those who would put their faith in Him. If you've done that, aren't you glad that you can know for sure that all your sins have been covered by the one time sacrifice that Jesus made on your behalf? Aren't you glad that you don't have to keep making animal sacrifices over and over? Take some time to thank Jesus for that today!