Wrap-Up

I suppose we’ve given you a lot to think about on the use and meaning of incense in worship. And we’ve probably given you a lot of mixed feelings about the central role of blood in God’s worship system. It’s been one thing to talk about food and worship, but eating together was only made possible by the slaughter of animals—lots of them. Do you think this lesson might change what you think of when you sing songs about the blood of the Lamb? It really should be difficult to sing about slaughter, even though the Lamb of God came back to life and now reigns in heaven.

Just before you leave, consider how thoughtful God was in putting these various offerings and sacrifices into place … the regular ones we studied last lesson and the special ones like the Day of Atonement and the Red Heifer that we studied just now. A whole system was preparing people to recognize the ultimate sacrifice when He came. Atonement was always grounded in concrete realities, and it will cost dearly for Christ to offer reconciliation to the world.