Today’s Scripture Reading (August 4,
2015): Exodus 30
The name
Cecil has taken onto itself a different meaning since the illegal killing of
what might have been Africa’s favorite lion. The alpha male lion was apparently
shot by a Minnesota dentist. The charge against him and his guides is that he
lured the Lion out of the protected environment of the National Park in which
he lived, and then hunted it with a bow and arrow. He injured Cecil with the
bow, but the arrow did not kill him. So for the next forty hours the dentist
hunted the Lion until he was finally able to shoot him again; this time with
his gun. Then he skinned the lion and decapitated him hoping to use the head as
a trophy for his kill. He paid over $50,000 for the experience. And the outcry
against the dentist has been overwhelming, to the point where the dentist may
have to close his practice. Talk show hosts have been asking their audiences if
there is anything that the dentist can do to earn forgiveness. Maybe not
surprisingly considering the crime, the answer has been a resounding no. There can be no forgiveness for a man who
would dare to undertake this kind of crime.
I get it, I
really do. But there is something depressing not just about the crime, but
about the public’s reaction to the crime. There is no doubt that the crime is
heinous. But the problem is that deep inside of ourselves we know that we are
guilty of crimes. No, we have never tried to kill Cecil the Lion, but we have
done some other bad things. Maybe we didn’t get caught, but all that means is
that we will spend the rest of our lives running away from that part of
ourselves. Sometimes I wonder if we are so zealous to persecute the crimes of
others, like this dentist from Minnesota, because it is part of our journey
away from our own sins. The reality check is simply this, we have all done some
really stupid things. Granted, some people do stupider things than others, but
every one of us has the capacity to be stupid.
God recognized
this talent of ours for trouble. So once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Yom
Kipper) an animal would be sacrificed on the altar of sacrifice for all of the
sins of the people. And a portion of the blood would be removed from that altar
of sacrifice and taken to the altar of incense. The blood was a reminder of
both the sins of the people and the forgiveness of God – and while the Day of
Atonement only happened once a year, incense was lit on a daily basis. And the
blood on the horns of the altar of incense was a continual reminder of the
forgiveness that God had offered to his people. They were forgiven from all of the
stupid things that they had done.
The incense
of the altar has often been connected with the prayer of the believer (May
my prayer be set before you like
incense; may the lifting up of
my hands be like the evening sacrifice – Psalm 141:2.) But just as the
incense rose from an altar whose horns were stained with the blood of the
sacrifice offered on the Day of Atonement, so our prayers rise from the blood
stained cross on which our forgiveness and our atonement is found. No matter
what it is that we have done, there is forgiveness at the foot of the cross.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus
31
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