Excellent

All the rules. Over 600 of them.
All the punishment that must be enacted because of infractions on those rules.
All the bloodshed required for forgiveness of sin.

But all pointed forward.

In the Old Testament, God set up a covenant with Israel to clearly mark out what holiness looked like, and what failing that holiness also looked like.
Spoiler alert: everyone failed.

So, sacrifices were required and bloodshed was required in order to pay for the crime against a holy God.
Sin had a price, that price was death.

In order to spare Israel so they all didn’t end up dying for their sin within days, God allowed animals to be sacrificed in place of people. For hundreds of years, the system continued.
Sin, and sacrifice for that sin, was the rhythm for all Jewish people.

The fact that they were indeed sinners in need of a blood sacrifice to atone for their sin was a blatantly known fact.
Every Jew was keenly aware of three things:
1) they were in a covenant relationship with God
2) they constantly failed to keep their end of the covenant
3) God was rich in mercy to allow another’s blood to cover their own payment

And this is where we often misstep in our culture today.
We like to forget we are sinners.

It’s just a white lie.
She will never know I was talking about her behind her back.
Who doesn’t think he’s hot, so what if I think about him when I’m with my husband?
Girl, I had every right to be rude!
Sisters, we are experts at justifying our sin.

No matter how long we’ve walked with Jesus or if we’ve never actually crossed the line of faith, we are still experts at covering up our sin, categorizing it as anything else but sin.

So, here we are stuck in sin, just like ancient Israel.

The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.

A new covenant, where one sacrifice would atone for all sin, across all time.
Sin still has a price, and it’s still death.

But Christ Jesus, God the Son, took that punishment Himself.
No more animal sacrifice were needed because He, being fully God and fully man, which meant He lived our life for us in all the righteousness of God, took our rightly deserved punishment as He poured out His innocent blood.

This is the blood of the new covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sin.

The old way of forgiveness swallowed up by the most excellent covenant where sin is atoned for by perfect righteousness.

Sisters, this covenant is for our everyday living!
When we surrender to Jesus, we enter into this covenant, paid for by Christ!
Walk forward in forgiveness!