Christ, the giver of new beginnings

Numbers 28:11-14 (KJV)
And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord ; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot; [12] And three tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, for one bullock; and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, for one ram; [13] And a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil for a meat offering unto one lamb; for a burnt offering of a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord . [14] And their drink offerings shall be half an hin of wine unto a bullock, and the third part of an hin unto a ram, and a fourth part of an hin unto a lamb: this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year.

God demands a large offering for the beginning of months. Have a look at the numbers: 2 young bullocks, 1 ram and 7 lambs. And the corresponding measure of grain and drink offerings. Why is this? Why so much offering for the first day of the month? This is to primarily show us how much grace is needed for God to grant us sinners another month to live.

Why on earth should God grant sinful human beings to live another month? Why give this world time to repent? It is because of the patience of God, which has been bought by what Christ has done for us. God would be just to destroy us all now by His wrath against our sins. But He gives a new month of blessings. We must always be thankful for every day, which Jesus Christ has bought for us! How about then a whole month for us! This is true blessing, that God has let sinners breathe, that some may come to repentance, and faith in Jesus. If it wasn't for Jesus Christ's death, there would have been no days nor months of joy. There would only be the Judgement Day and eternity in Hell. But blessed be God that He loved the world, that He sent His Son to die for our wickedness.

See then, what it cost God to buy us breath. Let us then stop our complaints and thank Him for giving us days:
Psalm 118:24 (KJV)
This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day and this is the month the Lord has made for us, at the expense of His Son's death. Therefore let us rejoice and be glad in it. Let us no more sigh and cry about how horrible life is. God has made this day for us, that we may enjoy the smallest blessings. Let us count our blessings, and give honour to Him for what He has done for us. Our breath is God's gracious gift for us. Let us celebrate every day, that God has had mercy for us on account of His Son. We don't deserve one heartbeat, for we sin every day against the one who gives it, but consider His mercy on us in that He gives us so much more than a heart beat. He gives us His favour, and the grace to believe and even to enjoy His presence. We ought to think it strange that a just God has so much mercy upon us sinners. But our confusion is resolved when we understand what God has done on Calvary, and see God's righteousness vindicated. It is the most beautiful thing to understand why God is so good to us, when we have been so evil. It is because of the cross. The cross is our tree of life.

But why did God go to all this trouble to offer up His own Son as the Lamb? He did it so he would be free to love us. Love was the motive, and love was the purpose. But was that the only reason? No, He did it ultimately for His own glory. When we realize God's great love for such unlovable people, that He would even kill His own Son for His enemies in order to love them, we fall down and worship Him. While we were still sinners, while we were still hostile against Him, Christ died for us. He did it even before we cared. And through the cross, God caused us to repent, and caused us to believe in what He did for us. When we realize this great love of God towards such undeserving creatures, we glorify Him. We say, "NO ONE could love like that!" God did it for His own glory.

The beginnings of your months. God gives new beginnings for us, but they are granted only through the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God always gives us second chances. God gives us fresh start, every time, through faith in what Christ has done. Even when we are totally dead and paralyzed by our indwelling sin, hearing and believing of the Gospel gives us the power to live again. There is no other power for us. To those who are perishing the preaching of the cross is foolishness, but unto us it is the arm of God's strength. What other news do we need to hear? There is only one good news, and it is God's. In all the hopelessness of our conditions, hearing of the Gospel gives us sudden hope through faith. Blessed be God who gives us new beginnings. Let us never forget that it is at the cost of Jesus Christ's perfect blood that God always grants us fresh starts. Let us not take these mercies of God, which are renewed for us everyday, for granted as though it is free. It was expensive, but God paid the price.

Let us also consider why the different animals were required as the monthly sacrifice. Perhaps the different animals signify different people groups of the Israelites: the bull signifying the strong, the leaders; the ram signifying the adults, the lamb signifying the youth. The law shows that ALL deserve death, and thus atonement necessary for all. There are no people groups that deserve not the wrath of God for their sins. The teenager, who knows between right and wrong, is not innocent as we like to believe, but is worthy of Hell for his pure wickedness. In fact, you will find the most evil people in the world are found in schools, of all places. The adult, who has given up the desires of youth and is not as evil as he used to be, still deserves death for hidden, now more clever sins. The king, the strong and the rich do not escape the wrath of God, for they exalt themselves against the King of kings and Lord of lords. All are condemned.

But the problem is that the offering of all these animals cannot atone for our sins. As it is plainly written:
Hebrews 10:4 (KJV)
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
This verse is written with a lot of common sense. Blood of animals CANNOT atone for any man's sins. It is impossible. It is foolishness. Animals are creatures lower and inferior than us. It must be a man, and it must be a sinless man. But we have just seen and know that all men are sinful. Even if there was such a man that has never sins, God would never give such a glorious position to a man, otherwise all mankind would worship the man. And even if it was a man, the man could only atone for one other man. God would need to make sinless clone of each person to atone for each man. But then man would love those who died for them, and not God who has given them to them.

God could have done it this way, but would man cease to sin and glorify themselves? No. It had to be God, so that man will glorify God alone. God the Son, the Creator of the world, had to come down to the earth. He had to die, so all men for whom He died for may love Him and worship Him, that God may get the glory. Blood of bulls and goats can't take away sin, but if it is the blood of the Son of God, the matter is finished. God's justice is satisfied for an eternity, and there is no more condemnation for all who believe. All the offerings in the Old Testament were only types and models, pointing to this great sacrifice of Christ, the offering of His precious and pure body unto the Father. Let us worship Him then, who died for us, whose death was big enough and perfect enough for us. Let us give Him the glory and no more unto mere men, as though they have had anything to do with our redemption. It is Christ. Our focus should be on Him who offered Himself that we may live.

We also learn something from the proportionate giving of the meat and drink offerings. Larger the sacrifice, priests were required to give more in proportion. The more we realize of the greatness of Christ's sacrifice, the more we give ourselves unto Him. The smaller we know about what He has done for us, smaller we are willing to give unto Him. Remember how Jesus said, the same that is forgiven much, loves much?

We need to study the cross. We think it is a small thing that He did for us, and thus our devotions are superficial and unmotivated. It is blasphemy to think of the cross as an accessory. It was the main thing, the centerpiece of what Christ did. No wonder we don't love God, because we don't know how much we have been forgiven, because the cross is so small to us. It is the understanding of the cross that gives us the true fire for God. How much false fire do we have in the church today, because we have traded the Gospel for other things. There is no true zeal, but only smoke, because we think so little or so superficial of God's sacrifice. God, send your fire upon the altar, and slay the prophets of Baal in our hearts that take our attention away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Give Your church the grace to know more of Your work on the cross. Amen.