Last year on Good Friday, I was awakened with the thought that I should look up Hebrews 9:6. So I opened my Bible and read, Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.
I wondered what it meant—and then I saw the relationship to Good Friday.
On the very day that the Son of God was offering Himself as the sacrifice for all people for all time, the priests were still performing their service in the Temple. They didn’t realize that there was a complete change of Temple service and the abolition of sacrifice. It’s almost like they didn’t get the memo. And for about 37 more years, those priests continued to perform their rituals.
This was after all the tremendous miracles that happened on Good Friday. The veil in the Temple was torn in two from the top to bottom. There was a great earthquake, graves opened, and people were raised from the dead. Then on the third day, Jesus Himself rose from the grave and appeared to people numerous times.
Yes, our world is changing, yet God still calls us to preach the Gospel and reach out to the suffering.
Even so, the priests kept up their routines, not realizing everything had changed—until Titus surrounded Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple in A.D. 70, and the daily sacrifices ceased.
Today, as we see the immense changes in our nation and the world, we need to understand the seriousness of the times. Let’s not be like the Temple priests, performing our routines without recognizing what is truly happening.
Yes, our world is changing, yet God still calls us to preach the Gospel and reach out to the suffering. The key is to depend on Him, and He will give us the insights, ideas, and ability to meet new challenges.
It’s interesting to consider that the whole Temple service was to eliminate the sins that were done unwittingly. Yet what justifies people before God is that the righteous live by faith, and this is declared under both the old and new covenants (Habakkuk 2:4 and Romans 1:17). And righteousness by faith is what gets us through.
As Hebrews 11:1 tells us, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
How do we get this faith? Hebrews 12:2 states it simply: Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
So let Jesus be your faith. Don’t try to drum it up or pray it down. Just look to Him—because if you have Jesus, you have all the faith that you need. He is the author and the finisher. God’s Word assures us in 2 Timothy 2:13 that even when we are faithless, He remains faithful, because He cannot deny Himself.
In the middle of any turbulence, we have Jesus. That means we have all we need, and we have the wonderful promise in Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Don’t let your circumstances distract you. When you look at the wind and waves, you start to sink. But when you start looking at Jesus, you start to arise and you can walk on water.
Remember, we have this wonderful new covenant made with the blood of Jesus Christ. When we hold onto Him, we can go through every difficulty knowing that He is with us and His righteous right hand will uphold us. God bless you.
Excerpted from a CBN staff chapel. Scripture is quoted from the NKJV.
