It Is Fulfilled

Today is the day.

Today is the day that everything changed.

Today is the day that the mystery is made known.

What God has been doing for thousands of years...  For years we have been asked to lean into the mystery.  To follow the rituals and Words of God, even when we didn't understand.  We have received the promises of God, but He shared only enough of the plan to give us the first step.  He called us to walk upon waters into the unknown, with no clear destination offered or in sight.  Simply the promise.

Along the way an image was given, a picture, an object lesson, signs, a brief insight and words of encouragement to point to the greater tapestry being woven.  But we were called in faith to trust.  To understand that what God was teaching, as the great rabbis say, may not have been for us but for those to come. For we obey because of the One who asked it of us. For thousands of years, the images and signs pointed towards the unknown, but today is the day where the mystery is made known.

Today is the day when everything that was given in the very foundation of the promise makes sense.  Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets.  All they had practiced year after year.  The feasts.  The festivals.  The laws of God.  For God has always been leading us to freedom and redemption.  Pointing to the true Passover Lamb that would take away the sins of the world.  The One that would atone for our sins. All fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.  After this day, life at the temple was radically and fundamentally changed, until its destruction in the year 70 A.D.

1.  Miracle of the Lot - as a part of the Day of Atonement, two goats were involved.  The scapegoat received the sins of the people and was sent out into the dessert.  The other sacrificed.  Lots were drawn to decide which goat was which. In this "heads/tails" coin toss, prior to Good Friday, as the priest preformed the rite, it worked out to be about 50/50.  Half of the time, the white stone was chosen; half of the time, the black stone was chosen.  It is recorded that after Good Friday, until the destruction of the temple, the black stone was always the stone chosen.  The odds of this are astronomical; signaling indeed, a change had happened.  Something was different.

2.  Miracle of the Red Strip - as a part of the Day of Atonement, a piece of cloth was tied to the scape goat.   A portion of this cloth was also tied to the temple door.  The blood of the sacrifice painted the mercy seat.  Then the scape goat was cast out into the dessert (and off a cliff).  When God accepted the sacrifice, then the cloth would turn from red to white.  The sins of the people atoned for.  Instantly our thoughts turn to Rahab's scarlet cord of salvation, the Book of Revelation, and Isaiah 1:18:  "'Come now, let us settle the matter,' says the LORD. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be a white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'" When the red cloth would turn to white, a cheer would erupt, praise and worship - for the sins of the people forgiven.  After Good Friday, until the destruction of the temple in the year 70 A.D., the cloth remained red.  It never changed to white.  The sacrifice was not accepted. For a sacrifice had already been made - a better one, once for all.  For there is no better sacrifice than the Son of God paying for the sins of His people.

3.  Miracle of the Temple Doors - From Good Friday until the year 70 A.D., the doors of the temple would swing themselves open.  Many believed this foretold imminent doom and the ultimate destruction of the temple.  Or after Good Friday, was it also that Jesus had fulfilled all things and the way was now open to God?  For the doorposts had been painted with the blood of the Lamb.

4.  Miracle of the Temple Menorah - From Good Friday until the year 70 A.D., no matter what the priests did, each night the menorah in the temple extinguished itself.  For all things were now fulfilled - Messiah is the light of the world.

After this day, everything changed.  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the author and perfecto of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, designing the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

For on this day when we see the very heart of the universe, when the curtain of the temple is torn in two revealing the mercy seat of God, we now see that the very DNA of our existence and the principle on which all else is based...  "My life for yours."

The mystery revealed - the blood of the Lamb.  May we boast in this foolishness of God, that draws us near.  "For faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  Today is the day.  It is Fulfilled.