When Things are too Easy

Christ died for our sins. It's a simple statement really. That one line from 1st Corinthians 15:3 is enough to ensure us that we are forgiven, that atonement has been made on our behalf. Now, this isn't to say that the 66 books of the Bible are really just there for decoration and all we need is one catch phrase. Certainly not. But perhaps we think that. Perhaps the power of this verse has been lost on us.

I am currently reading the book of Numbers. Numbers sometimes gets passed over because so much of the book is just what the name says it is, numbers. Did you know that the tribe of Reuben had 46,500 warriors? (That's in chapter 2). Amongst these numbers though, there are some passages that deal with division of the people in armies and various laws etc. It was in reading these passages, particularly chapters 4 through 6 that I began to think about how real God must have been to the Israelites. What originally spurred this thought was when Moses counts the firstborn children of all the tribes. Firstborns are significant remember. Not only do they have certain rights in their society, but there is also the history of the passover where God's people sacrificed a lamb and painted theirs door frames with its blood so that the angel of death would not kill the firstborns in their houses. Anyway, at the end of Chapter 3, God is telling Moses that the Levites will be given to Him to serve as priests. Because the Levites are being given over to God, they are used to redeem the firstborns of Israel (as there were more firstborns than there were Levites, a redemption in silver is also made).

This is all well and good and something we can easily accept as a part of the Old Testament. Imagine being there though when this was happening. Imagine seeing a whole tribe of your people being set aside to serve God. Imagine being counted amongst the Levites. How real would God seem to you then? How serious would things seem? Imagine just being around back in the Old Testament times and going to the altar to offer sacrifices for your sins. Imagine the smell of blood. How contious would you be of God? How contious would you be of the cost of sin? Christ's sacrifice for us was powerful enough to render all the laws, all the procedures and all the requirements outdated. However, having never witnessed what it was like before Christ, do we really grasp what that means? 2000 years ago the perfect sacrifice was made and the Earth has never been the same Its power remains the same today.