On the Eighth Day, God...

One of the ten commandments was to keep the Sabbath.  The commandment was given once to the Israelites of the exodus and once to their grown children some 37 years later.  To the earlier group, the reason for keeping the Sabbath, was because God rested from His work of creation on the seventh day (Exo. 20:11).  The reason given to the later group was that it serves as a reminder that they were slaves in Egypt and that Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence with a powerful hand and with a stretched-out arm (Deut 5:15).  Certain groups of believers today think that believers should observe the Sabbath today.  I, personally do not because:

• The Sabbath was a type (Col 2:16)
• The antitype to the Sabbath is the Christ (Col 2:17, Heb. 3-4)
• The commandment to keep the Sabbath was to Israel (Deut 5:15)
• The commandment to keep the Sabbath is the only one of the ten commandments that is not repeated in the New Testament

Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week (Mark 16:9). After Jesus ascended into Heaven, the disciples met on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7).   The first day of the week is also the eighth day of the previous week.

On the eighth day of the first week, God went back to work.  Creation took the first six days, on the 7th God rested. As best I can tell, this is the only record of God resting, so on the eighth day, He must have returned to work.

On the eighth day, God commanded that baby boys be circumcised and their moms were no longer  ‘unclean’ (Lev 12:1).

On the eighth day, God commanded that the cleansed leper offer a series of sacrifices (Lev 14:8-10).

On the eighth day, God commanded that the first born (both animal and people) be present to Him (Exd 22:29-30).

So, it looks like the eighth day was a day of resurrection, regeneration and restoration.

On the eighth day, God killed Nadab and Abihu.

After Aaron and his sons were selected to be priests, God prescribed an eight day consecration before they could actually serve as priests.  This was a preparation time.  The eight days went something like this:

On the first day, with a crowd gathered, Aaron approached the newly constructed tabernacle with a series of offerings and bread.  Moses bathes Aaron and his four sons then dressed Aaron in his high priestly garments for the very first time. Moses then anointed and hallowed the the tabernacle and everything in it, anointed Aaron and then dressed Aaron’s sons.  A sin offering was offered then an offering of consecration offered. A series of rituals was performed and they were commanded to dwell in the tabernacle for seven days (Lev. 8).   

On the eighth day, a series of offerings were offered for the atonement of the sins of the priests.  Each of the offerings were burned on the altar.  The offerings were burning as the burning of incense. Once the offerings were all smoldering on the altar, there went out fire from before Jehovah, and consumed on the altar the burnt-offering, and the pieces of fat; and all the people saw it, and they shouted, and fell on their face (Lev. 9:24). Offering accepted.

By this point of the eighth day, the separated priestly family was cleansed, and sins atoned for.  Aaron’s two oldest sons took their censers and offered strange fire...and fire went out from Jehovah and consumed them. I don’t know about you, but to me, the punishment does not seem to fit the offense.

Most commentators and folks that post sermons on sermonaudio.com just say the flame of God slain them just because they did something that God did not command.  There has to be more because later that day, Aaron’s two surviving sons disobeyed God, and lived.

The two younger sons had to keep the eighth day going.  The show must go on!  The 2 younger sons got so wrapped up in the events of the day, that they inadvertently left the priest’s portion of the sacrifices on the altar fire a little too long.  Their portion burnt to a crisp and there was nothing for the them to eat.

On the eighth day, all four sons of Aaron sinned, two were saved and two were lost.  Reminds me of the thieves on the crosses with Jesus, one was saved the other lost  .  Which also reminds me of the cupbearer and the baker, one saved the other lost.  So why was one sin deserving of instant incineration and the other not?  Lets look at the two:

The sin of Nadab and Abihu was intentional, the sin of Eleazar and Ithamar was not.  But more important, the sin of Nadab and Abihu ruined the type.  Every offering ever offered (including those offered on the eighth day) represents the death of Jesus on the cross.  The offering represents Jesus, the fact that it was burned by God represents God’s acceptance of the offering, just like God was satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus.  

With the death of Jesus, the work is complete.  There is nothing more that can be done.  Redemption is done. The price paid. There is nothing we can add to the work.  Offering strange fire is adding works to the work of Jesus.

Eating the priest portion of the offering, on the other hand represents fellowship.  The priest shared fellowship between them, the High Priest and God.  We, believers today, are priests and share fellowship with our High Priest (Jesus) and God the Father.  Is fellowship a requirement for redemption? Fellowship between believers, between a believer and Jesus and between a believer and God the Father is optional, it not a requirement of salvation.  Look at it this way, you can be saved and not have fellowship, but you cannot be saved without the death of Jesus.  The death of Jesus was necessary and there is nothing you or I can do to what Jesus has done.  His sacrificial offering satisfies the Father...nothing can be added.

So, what about you?  Is Jesus’s death on the cross enough for you?  It is enough for God...

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me. - Eli­za E. Hew­itt

BAM! Gone...


Did I mention that the Levitical offerings can be divided into two groups?  the ones that involve blood shed and the one that does not.  The continual burnt offering, the peace offering, and the sin and trespass offerings all involve the slaughter of animals.  The meat offering was the only meat-less offering.  This used to really humor me...The only meatless offering was called the meat offering.  Those of you not using a King James probably have no idea what I am taking about.  In the days of King James, when people shared a meal, they didn’t come for dinner, they came to meat. John Nelson D. simply calls the meat offering an oblation, which is an offering to be used as food.

Did I mention that the Levitical offerings can be divided into two groups? the ones that atoned sins, and the one that was primarily for food.  Each of the blood-shedding offerings made atonement for sins.  The meat offering did not include bloodshed and was for food, not atonement.  Atonement is one of those words that I would like to define.  Here again, my definition, may or may not hold true 100% of the time.

Atonement is simply a covering.  With respect to sacrifices, it is a covering of/for sin.  Offering a sacrifice was like picking up the edge of the carpet and sweeping the sin under it.  The sin is still there, just covered.  Sin again, offer another sacrifice, pick up the edge of the carpet to sweep new sin in.  The old sin is still there, and both are covered.  The process was repeated innumerable times. Atonement was an Old Testament thing.

In the beginning of the Gospel of John, John the Baptist ...sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  The people that heard this were accustomed to the tabernacle/temple system of worship.  They knew that a lamb (an innocent animal) could be offered as a sacrifice.  The ritual included the laying on of hands (signifying the transfer of sins from the guilty to the innocent); death by bloodshed; sprinkling of blood; and burning of the carcass.  They knew that there was atonement of sin with the sacrifice.  

But John is introducing two new principals, paradigm shifts (TQM, anyone? anyone?) of the ancient world: a person (not an animal) for a sacrifice and the actual removal of sin.  Peek  under the carpet and BAM!  Those sins are gone!

The author of Hebrews explains this further.  For blood of bulls and goats [is] incapable of taking away sins. Heb. 10:4.  For this reason, offerings were made continually, day by day, year after year (Heb. 10:1-2).  The priests job was never done. But when Jesus offered one himself a sacrifice, once, completed the work, and our sins and iniquities are remembered no more (Heb 10:17).  There is no more need for additional offerings (10:18). There is no need for a covering since BAM! sins are gone!

All my sins are gone,
All because of Calvary;
Life is filled with song,
All because of Calvary;
Christ my Savior lives,
Lives from sin to set me free;
Some day He’s coming,
O wondrous, blessèd day,
All, yes, all because of Calvary. -- Wen­dell P. Love­less

Shirts or Skins?

For an impromptu game of half-court basketball or tag football, this was probably the easiest way to tell teams apart, without uniforms. Looking pass the ball? You can easily tell who is on your team and who is not.

In my brother’s autobiography (of sorts), Reflections of an American Idiot, he talk about trying be more accepting of his peers when in college by wearing fashionable clothing. My sister would tailor shirts for him to wear and he started to be a GQ kind of guy. Clothes made the man, for a while, anyway. The older I get, the more I realize that clothing really does not make the man. The older I get, the more I like to tell stories. Problem is, the older I get the more I forget. So I wind up tell the same story, over and over again, to the same people.

Up until the time that Moses penned the Pentateuch, the primary way to tell history was through oral tradition. Fathers told their children stories orally. In the case of Adam, who lived 930 years, he probably told his story a hundred thousand times. He told the story about the garden, how he met with God, how sin changed their relationship, how he ‘discovered’ his nakedness and made his own clothing from fig leaves. And when Moses wrote these words: And Jehovah Elohim made Adam and his wife coats of skin, and clothed them... (Gen. 3:21), the story was probably well known amongst the Israelites that have heard and told the story over and over.

We are not told in the text, but I believe that God performed the slaughter by blood shed. I also believe that Adam and Eve watched the slaughter of an innocent animal dying for their sin. I also believe that the entire animal, sans skins, were consumed by fire. Then the skins were provided to the man (and his wife) as a covering.

And [as to] the priest that presenteth any man's burnt-offering, the skin of the burnt-offering which he hath presented shall be the priest's for himself. Lev. 7:8

The priests got to keep the skins of the burnt offerings. I think that it was a vivid reminder to Aaron and his sons, of that story that they had heard, about how the skin was provided by God to man as a covering.

The requirements for the animal to be offered as a burnt offering is given in Leviticus chapter 1. It was the one and only voluntary offering. The animal offered was to be examined from the outside in. It had to be without blemish. The animal in its entirety, sans skins, was to be consumed by fire on the altar of burnt offerings. Skins were provided to the priests. When the priest clothed himself with the skins of the burnt offerings (i.e., when he was not on duty), it was a spotless garment.

How are we to be clothed? Paul tells us: But put on the Lord Jesus Christ (like a garment), and do not take forethought for the flesh to [fulfil its] lusts. Romans 13:14. And: For ye, as many as have been baptised unto Christ, have put on Christ (here again, like a garment). There is no Jew nor Greek; there is no bondman nor freeman; there is no male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus: Gal 3:27-8

Well, what about you? Shirts or skins? Are you dressing in fashionable shirts, trying to gain the acceptance of fellow man? Or, are you clothed with skins? The skins of the ultimate burnt offering: Christ, who was examined from the outside in and found to be spotless (1 John 1:1-3), yet voluntarily died to pay the price for the guilty sinner (like me, like you)?

Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy. Ps. 132:9