Leviticus 1-3; Psalm 27; Hebrews 2

I like looking at the Old Testament sacrifices – they symbolise thanksgiving, loyal fulfillment of covenant engagements to God, and that loving trust which will call on Him in the day of trouble. This is what God looks for from me. God is love and desires my love and delights in seeing expressions of self -forgetting and self-sacrificing service in which love reveals itself. This is to God even as food is to me. Love cannot be satisfied except with love returned.

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When any of you brings an offering to the Lord from the livestock, you^[a] may bring your offering from the herd or the flock.

“If his gift is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to bring an unblemished male. He must bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting so that he^[b] may be accepted by the Lord. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering so it can be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. – Leviticus 1:2-4 HCSB

My need for the infinitie love of God cannot be met by me alone. The sacrificial offering illustrated that I am a sinful person who has fallen away from perfect love. The self offering of love of Jesus, from the Father, on behalf of sinners like me, became a reality. It was a Divine love because it was the supreme expression of the perfect love of Jesus to His Father in total obiedience to die on the cross.

I have asked one thing from the Lord;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord
and seeking Him in His temple. – Psalm 27:4 HCSB

And so the law is full of love and the duties of the law is love and love fulfills the law. Sin is now designed and employed for the maintenance of love and therefore obedience to the law and the reign of love in my life are different but the same. One of the most sublime lessons of the law is the fact that God is love.

But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death.

For in bringing many sons to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—all things exist for Him and through Him—should make the source^[d] of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.^[e] That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. – Hebrews 2:9-11 HSCB

The love and grace of God – the supreme proof of those are furnished at the cross. Love is not me loving God but rather God loving me and sending His Son to take my punishment for turning my back on God.

Father, thank You for loving me. Help me reveal Your love to others by loving them. Amen

Erwin (evanlaar1922)

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