It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. – Hebrews 10:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 9, 2018): Hebrews 10

I recently took my computer into a franchise store to get it fixed. It wasn’t working, at least not up to my expectations. When I got it back, I was told that the number of programs I had on my computer exceeded design specifications. The response did not make sense to me. First, I do not run all my programs at the same time. Second, all the programs had been on the computer for the past eighteen months, and I was just now developing the problems, and lastly, I have to admit that I really didn’t believe that I had too many programs on my computer. I know many people who had more programs on their computers without any issues.

I also have a friend who is a computer tech, so I asked him about the “too many programs” response. He smiled and told me that that is usually computer code for “your computer isn’t working, and we don’t have the slightest idea why.” If there is a problem that can’t be diagnosed, then the fallback response is that it must be the fault of the design of the computer. I did remove several programs from the computer, cutting back to just my bare minimum of Word Processing, Web editing, and Video editing software and the computer still didn’t work. I ended up buying a new computer.

Everything that we buy has, at least to some extent, a design intended for the product. The other night I used a fork to cut my sweet and sour beef. It worked, but that was not the intended design for a fork; a knife would have worked better. We can sometimes think outside the box and use what we have for a different purpose. I mean, who hasn’t used a knife in the place of a flat screwdriver or a screwdriver handle in the place of a hammer, but the reality is that we get our best results by using the product that was best designed for the job we have at hand.

So, the author of Hebrews makes this comment; “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” And our response should be “of course it is.” Animal sacrifice was never designed for that purpose. The Hebrew word for “atonement” is “kophar” which literally means “to cover.” Animal sacrifices were designed to cover our sin, not take it away. This is one reason why the sacrifice of Jesus was necessary. Only the sacrifice of Jesus could take away the sins of the world. Which is exactly what John the Baptist cried out to his followers as he watched Jesus coming toward them. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)! Only the Lamb of God could accomplish that task. The sacrifice of animals was only a poor substitute and that sacrifice could only cover our sin. What we really needed was “The Lamb of God.”

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11